RMMV Project Discovery

[Rhino]

Updating the demo every time you add a small change would be a bit ridiculous. I think it would be a time consuming and wasted effort.

Why are you releasing demos? Do you need bug testers or plot feedback? You might be better recruiting some play testers, or just asking your friends to try. The demo I tried was really too short to be valuable to a player, (as in, someone just trying your game for fun and not to pick it apart and give feedback.) Even if the systems are all relatively similar to how the final game will be, I think they'd still want to see something more about the plot and characters.

So my advice is, if you're posting demos for a player, wait until the game is finished. Have friends and other people iron out bugs and give comments, so when you put it out to the big wide world it's ready as is, and people who are interested don't have to wait for you to add a new map and continue the story etc. You might continue to polish and refine it after the release, but if should be mostly final.

If you're posting demos to up the hype for the game/for your own motivation, you might just want to consider having a devblog instead. There you can show off new maps and monsters, without people having to spend the time to download and waddle through the random encounters to take a look. I follow a few on tumblr, and have grown really attached to the games even though I haven't tried playing any of them yet. You might not get detailed feedback and comments, but sometimes just a like on a post says all you need it to.

If you're doing it for detailed feedback and testing, and can't seem to recruit any interest, then sure, post an updated demo on here. Just make sure it's enough new content for someone whose played a previous version to be able to comment on. (Not just some new maps to walk around, but more scenes and story revealed.)

So yeah, there's my two cents on the poll.

(P.s. How did you manage to change the poll? When I try to edit mine I can't even rewrite or change any options..)

 

[Nutty171]

@Rhino Thank you for the input! My plan now is to release one more demo that's about halfway through the game, for feedback, because, as you said, the current demo is only a very small portion of the game, so there are more things that I'd want "mass" feedback on. A devblog sounds like a good idea, I just don't know how I would carry it out.

(p.s. I had a mod delete it so I could make a new one. )

 

[fizzly]

I think you should keep perspective on maps standardized, why Zelda/Tibia-style view outside and normal 2d/3d view in caves? Does not stick together.

 

[Nutty171]

@fizzly Give me some decent cliff tiles for outdoors or some ledge tiles that suit the style of the outdoors and I'll consider changing it. Because I absolutely refuse to use the RTP outdoor tiles. I'm not sure how my ledge edits would work indoors though... Hmm...

 

[fizzly]

@fizzly Give me some decent cliff tiles for outdoors or some ledge tiles that suit the style of the outdoors and I'll consider changing it. Because I absolutely refuse to use the RTP outdoor tiles. I'm not sure how my ledge edits would work indoors though... Hmm...

Don't really get your decision, cause you've use the same tile outside and inside, but from other view/angle. If you don't like standard cliffs just use wall from the cave, but don't mix point of view together, it does not look good.

Edit: or make cave tibia-like view too

 

[bgillisp]

I say for the poll you should release the demo only when you think you have a full demo ready to be played, and then from there only update it with major changes to the demo part of the game. So I'd focus on finishing the part you want to be in the demo, and once that is done, release it. Then, only update with major fixes and/or if you have to fix a bug or two or ten.

 

[Nutty171]

cause you've use the same tile outside and inside, but from other view/angle.

Durr... Eh? I can't think of tiles that I use both inside and outside, so I don't understand what you're trying to say. :/ However, as I implied in my previous post, I might try the outdoor ledge tiles in the cave when I get the chance.

 

[Jeremiah Eastman]

Hey there I just ran through your demo a couple times and thought I would post some of my thoughts for you. First off the maps. When I first saw them I thought it looked a little cluttered but that changed very quickly for me, once playing I really liked the maps. Aslo I love how you did the map name drop downs, that looks great. Also love all the mobs, it's a nice unique look.

There's a small typo if you try to walk up the stairs in the cave before going to the statue thing where the gem glows. Alice says Cpme on, I have a job to do. Pretty sure you meant "come" on. Also in the cave near the exit there is that final set of stairs you go up with a crystal ledge next to it with various crystals on it. There's a crystal at the tops of the mound that has no collision so you can walk right onto the crystal ledge. I said crystal there a lot I hope you know what I was talking about. And one last thing, I'm not sure what triggers it, I think maybe a chest looting, but in the cave when I would go through and loot chests, and then go back to the entrance the first set of stairs had become blocked. This is probably intentional but being there was no explanation it makes it seem like it's a bug so if intended you may want to put a little dialog there about being blocked.

Well that's about it being that it's a short demo, overall I liked it and look forward to seeing how it develops. Best of luck to ya.

 

[Nutty171]

@Jeremiah Eastman First of all, thank you for the feedback!

There's a small typo if you try to walk up the stairs in the cave before going to the statue thing where the gem glows. Alice says Cpme on, I have a job to do. Pretty sure you meant "come" on. Also in the cave near the exit there is that final set of stairs you go up with a crystal ledge next to it with various crystals on it. There's a crystal at the tops of the mound that has no collision so you can walk right onto the crystal ledge. I said crystal there a lot I hope you know what I was talking about.

These I already fixed.

And one last thing, I'm not sure what triggers it, I think maybe a chest looting, but in the cave when I would go through and loot chests, and then go back to the entrance the first set of stairs had become blocked. This is probably intentional but being there was no explanation it makes it seem like it's a bug so if intended you may want to put a little dialog there about being blocked.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention! At first I had no idea what you were talking about, but then I tested it and sure enough, it was blocked! It has something to do with the system I use to prevent the crystal problem you were talking about earlier.

 

[Jeremiah Eastman]

Np, I'm happy I was able to help in some way there. It's good to hear you've already fixed some of that stuff, you're actively developing the game, I'll definitely keep an eye on this one. I like how it all starts out, keep up the good work.

 

[Nutty171]

you're actively developing the game

Lol, I'm actually not making much "progress" per se, I just realized soon after making this demo that I didn't do NEAR enough planning and setting up resources, so that's what I've been doing mostly. Plus real life is a thing. (To clarify, I'm still into developing this game, but in terms of gameplay time, I've made very little progress.)

 

[Gallia]

@Nutty171 ,

I finished your demo and here is my feedback.

What did i like ?

• Fully playable with mouse.
• Its a very basic game.
• The Ap system is nice, no ability to spam "Attack or Magic".
• Battles are basic but balanced.

What i didn't like ?

• There is not much to interact with.
• There is almost no story.
• There is not much to discover.

What did i notice ?

• The title screen is the default title screen of RPG Maker MV.
• I opened all chests, but there was no percentage at the end how much you have discovered.

What can be improved ?

• Actually a lot, but its a demo.

What can i suggest ?

• Add a "digging minigame" and leave the battles out, i mean i want to discover and explore

My final words.
The demo was not bad, but not good either, i breezed through the game without the need of using found potions, it lacked "discovery", but i'm not going to be annoyed about it , there is room for improvement and there are many ways to go.

When you updated your game, I like to do another test / review.

 

[Nutty171]

There is almost no story.

It's an early demo, mainly just to catch any glaring mistakes before I go any further with it.

There is not much to discover.

I decided on the title before I had a clear vision for the game. I'll very likely change it later, as it doesn't fit the game very well anymore.

The title screen is the default title screen of RPG Maker MV.

It's an early demo, but honestly I didn't expect it to really matter.

Add a "digging minigame" and leave the battles out, i mean i want to discover and explore

I don't really want to add minigames. (not because I'm lazy, but because if I want to make minigames, I'd just make separate small games and not include them in this one. )

i breezed through the game without the need of using found potions

Yeah, I need to do more balancing ._. I'll certainly make level-ups harder to get, since you get healed at each level-up and then never really need to heal yourself otherwise.

 

[Nutty171]

Update: Since I'll end up changing the title of this game, I've temporarily renamed it to "Project Discovery."