Sacchariine DEMO

[Maximus32]

Check out the Trailer

 
Genres: Adventure and RPG
 
Flavors: Modern, Horror, Fantasy
 
Synopsis:
I was originally inspired to make a horror game with lots of abstract ideas and creepy imagery, but as this project developed, I brought in more "down-to-earth" elements and concepts. In the end, this demo (and the planned rest of the game) feels to me like a mix between OFF (a popular horror RPG by Mortis Ghost) and EarthBound.
 
You play as an 11 year old girl named Sugar who has psychic powers and lives alone with her mother. You wake up from a strange dream to realize it's your 11th birthday. Your mother sends you to the store to get some ingredients for birthday cookies. Your errand takes you surprisingly far, and you suddenly find yourself in a strange and unique adventure battling vacuum cleaners, butchers, and trash monsters. Various strangers and obstacles complicate your quest and the game eventually turns into a fight for the safety of your sanity and your mother's health.

The game is modeled similarly to a traditional RPG: you interact with characters and objects in your environment and attempt to solve puzzles and defeat enemies, leveling up your stats in the process. Although some of the battle elements have been restructured, mainly:
·         Enemies appear off the screen. The screen scrolls to display action accordingly.
·         Enemies have an "Imagination" or "clarity" parameter that increases each time you use a skill on them, changing their appearance.
·         Many of the enemies' actions are complex and some take careful observation to recognize their behavior.
 
Characters:

Sugar – A girl of 11 who wields psychic powers. Very attached to her mother.
 

Mother – The Mother of Sugar. Caring and compassionate towards her daughter.
 
Setting:
The real world... kind of. It parallels the real world in many ways, but has its own touch of fantasy.

 (Somewhat) Known Issues:
Very early on in the game, there is a puzzle relating to the timing of the background music. During this puzzle, you should not click off of the window as this will misalign the counter and break the puzzle. To fix this, simply exit and reenter the room to reset it. I will see about fixing this in the future, although it's not a big deal.

Credits:
Graphics – Created by me using Photoshop and GIMP
Music – Created by me using GarageBand
Sound Effects – Various effects from freesound.org, often edited using Audacity. A detailed list of SFX and their respective owners is contained in the "read me" file
Scripts and Coding – scripts that were used were created by Hime Works, Shaz, Yanfly, and Woratana (thanks guys!)
Resources – A detailed list of resources and their respective owners is contained in the "read me" file
Inspirations - Inspirations for this game have been (as aforementioned) OFF and EarthBound as well as The Klonoa Series, Undertale, Yume Nikki, ib, and .flow. Check some of these out, they're all great games!

NOTES:

• Sacchariine is rated for ages 13+. It contains scenes, images, and some language that may pose as disturbing or offensive to some players, as well as grotesque imagery. Please be open minded...
• In this demo version, the game is playable up to after the second major boss battle. You'll know when you get there.

Hope you enjoy the demo!     : )
 

DOWNLOAD:

Sacchariine (no RTP included)

Sacchariine_rtp (RTP included)

As it is an executable file from DropBox, your browser's security settings may attempt to block the download. You'll have to work around that, I'm afraid.
 

 

[Maximus32]

Update for the demo:

Version 1.0.1

> Made early battles easier and less mundane

> Adjusted some Game Over scripting

 

For any of you that may have found the first battles kind of lame.

 

[OM3GA-Z3RO]

Are you the guy that made Off? I notice the NPC as your avatar from the game Off.

 

[RocketKnight]

I like it a lot, simple and creative Well done.​

 

[Maximus32]

Are you the guy that made Off? I notice the NPC as your avatar from the game Off.

Ah haha! No, I just really like OFF a lot    

I like it a lot, simple and creative Well done.​

And thanks, RocketKnight, I'm happy to hear that!

 

[Maximus32]

New Update!

(Not sure how these version numbers are supposed to work, but I'm just rollin' with it)

Version 1.1.0

> Added Church and Alley areas

> Modified the contents of a few chests in the Tunnels and Hypermall areas, including the     addition of some new notes

> Added some graphical effects to accompany certain status changes

> Modified some of the system graphics schemes, like gauge and text colors

> Added some features to the late Hypermall areas (music, graphics, etc.)

> Redesigned title screen graphics and music

> Lowered volume of boss battle music

> General bug fixes and rewrites of various bits of code

 

The next release should be the full game  

 

[Maximus32]

Alright, I'm going to have a short trailer out by the end of the month. Hopefully that will boost publicity a bit. As for the game itself, progress is a bit on the slow side, what with college stuff and another game I'm working on using up a lot of my time as well as Sacchariine...

 

[Maximus32]

The Trailer is OUT! The link is at the top of the first post, right beneath the title. It was the first time I've made something like this, and editing the video to cut out unnecessary material took a lot of effort, so I apologize for the quality...

Also, new update!

So I know I said that the next release would have been the final version, buuuut I had one of my sister's friends test out the game for me and found a slew of new things that need fixing and adjusting, unfortunately. So for now, you'll have to play 1.1.1, my apologies

Version 1.1.1 (a.k.a. version des groupes de une triples)

> Fixed game over video cutoff

> Added two new enemies to the Hypermall area

> New battle soundtrack for Late Hypermall areas

> Made the Tunnels and Parking Lot areas run much smoother and faster

> Modified notes so that unread notes are colored. Also included a "table of contents" note, colored blue

> Made some skills, namely aptimara and voltmara, have a speed bonus so that they will usually strike first

> Made it so that you regenerate aptitude at the end of a victorious battle

> General bug fixes and rewrites of various bits of code

 

[Maximus32]

Just an update on game progress, since I haven't posted anything in a while:

> Slow going, with college and all. When your majoring in engineering, your schedule gets filled up with tons of challenging courses

> In addition, I'm working on a second game with a friend for one of my clubs, also in RPG Maker, so I'll be posting about that sometime soon

> I'm also working on a THIRD game for a class, but that should be finished by April

> I've almost got the first ending completely finished

> All of the areas but one are fully programmed and just need to be tested and proofed

> I'd say about 75% of the game is playable by now (including previous demos)

Hopefully I'll finish sometime in May, although that's a big maybe...

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

Wow, that looks pretty good so far! I'm a little wigged out by horror games... I'm... not gonna scream too much am I? D:

 

[Maximus32]

Haha! Don't worry Iron Croc: I tried really hard not to put any jump scares in the game, most of the horror is just kind of psychological and ambient or indirect. Also, I try to balance it out with lots of humor and an emotionally driven plot.

 

[literarygoth]

I downloaded your demo to give this a try, but there's no RTP included and I don't own Ace .

 

[Maximus32]

Hrm... I'm not sure why I would need to package the RTP for it to be playable without VX Ace. Is it because the RTP contains RGSS3 stuff that helps run the game?

Sorry, this is my first time uploading a game (ever), so I'm not sure how it works with different versions of RPG Maker.

 

[literarygoth]

The RTP is required for the program to run on computers that don't have the engine installed. Even if you didn't use any RTP in your game. It's fickle, and inflates the file size.

You can do two uploads, one without the RTP for those that own Ace, and one with for those that don't.

 

[Maximus32]

Ah, I see. That makes sense...

Welp! I just uploaded a version with the RTP, so hopefully that will solve the problem.

 

[literarygoth]

Alrighty, I've tried the demo. So far, I've only made it into the tunnels and can't seem to get past them due to a few things. First an error that crashes the game whenever I try to use items (listed under Stuff) in battle. Second, because I keep dieing.

Here's my thorough review:

~ I really enjoy your custom artwork, Sugar's sprite is very cute.

~ the music seems to fit nicely as well.

~ There wasn't much context with the introduction, I kinda got the gist that she was dreaming perhaps, or at least that was my hope, given the lack of context.

~ that puzzle in the red room was really great, maybe a bit tougher for those that have a tough time discerning differences in audio.

~ I have to confess, the battles in the dream introduction were boring and really started to get on my nerves. I appreciate that this is the introduction to the game and you don't want to wipe out the player, but I admit I was a bit miffed when I encountered a random enemy at this point. Either reduce the encounter ratio in the dream world, or give your dream enemies a little bite to help your players learn the combat system.

~ Okay, now Sugar has woken up. She and her mother share a room, and a bed?

~ I'm assuming the line trail that follows you is for...navigating if you get lost? You'll know which way you've gone? I'm sure there's another way to assist players with navigating, rather than leaving a trail (what is it made of?) behind the sprites, it is a bit visually annoying and clutters the maps.

~ There wasn't any explanation at all of Sugar's supposed psychic abilities inside the game. I only knew this was the case from reading your thread. Why does she have psychic powers, where did they come from?

~ I'm confused at this point and I would appreciate some more context to go on, aside from "I'm going to the store to pick up some sugar. Sugar is going to get sugar. For cookies. Because it's her birthday. But beware of dangers???" Why? What's going on in this world that it's so dangerous, but it's entirely safe for her mother to send her now 11 year old, alone to the store, if it's so dangerous?

~ I honestly didn't interact with any of the NPC's, I just want to get to the store and see what happens.

~ A giant red, flashy sign indicating the way I'm supposed to go, but it's conveniently blocked. Why does it have a red sign? Do all people in this world need this giant red, flashy sign in order to avoid the tunnels?
~ Your maps inside the tunnels were pretty bland, are they sewers? At some points they widen and other points they narrow completely, but with the lack of visuals it's hard to understand exactly why or what's going on here. I would love to see what you could do with your art to dress up the tunnels and maps, make the world feel a bit more alive.

~ I didn't make it through the tunnels as I kept dieing, and I can only assume that this is the way I'm supposed to go. Your enemies, especially the groups of 3, hit too hard for Sugar to pass through more than 2 or 3 battles tops, yet it seems the tunnels go on and on.

~ At this point I had to shut down, I received 2 errors that crashed the game completely.

~ The first time I got this error was when I tried to use E-00 in battle from the Stuff menu, the second time I got this error I had tried to use E-06 in battle.

Battle error.

To sum up: you have a really nice art style, and I think your game would benefit by you putting more art into your maps, right now they feel a bit dull and lifeless, especially the tunnels. I enjoyed the music and really enjoyed your first puzzle. I feel that there's some context and general storytelling missing from the beginning of your game, something aside from go get x and bring back here. The enemies in the tunnels need a little bit of refining yet, especially if it's expected that Sugar is to go through the tunnels at this point.

Cheers,

Lit

 

[Maximus32]

Whoa, thanks so much literarygoth! I have seriously been waiting for someone to leave a comment like this. This is my first game ever and so I expected stuff like this to happen, but I didn't really know what to look for...

Concerning the story, I was aiming for it to be somewhat vague and ambiguous and a bit weird. Certain elements (like the trail behind Sugar and her relations with her mom) are supposed to remain obscure, although I guess it appears different for me because I already have the storyline in my head I can understand if the plot gets a little boring or nonsensical at some points, so I'll see what I can do to spice it up a bit.

As for the maps, I stink at making tile and character sprites, so I understand the issues with the visuals in the Tunnels. And yes, you are supposed to progress through the Tunnels, although I did probably go a bit overboard on the maze aspect, making it kind of confusing, hehe...

And I guess I'll have to work on fixing up the battles, both in the dream and in the Tunnels. I thought they'd be the right difficulty, but I guess not.

As for that error, that's a dumb mistake that I can fix in a jiffy.

Wow, thanks again for taking the time to critique my game like this! I'll try to upload a newer version soon...

 

[literarygoth]

No problem! I apologize if my critique sounds pretty harsh I'm not trying to be rude. You've certainly hit on the weird and odd aspect 100%, so if that's your intent, then you've certainly got that going. And yes, the tunnels are one heck of a maze lol. Your enemies just need a slight adjustment to their damage. Just slight.

There's plenty of examples of mapping around the forums, take a browse through the screenshot thread and see if you can pick up on any design elements that will fit the style of your game that you're going for.

You're on your way, don't give up!

Cheers,

~Lit

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

There's a way to ensure that nobody needs the RTP. 

In your game.ini (Open AFTER you've closed the editor!) open that and where it says "RTP=RPGVXACE" delete "RPGVXAce".  

This will literally remove the RTP.  But anything RTP you use you'll have to export into your game. Also you'll need the font VL Gothic.  (Put in a "Fonts" folder you'll create, in the same directory as your game's game file).  And bam. Skinnier download.
Just be sure to UNCHECK "Include RTP" when you compress game data.

 

[Maximus32]

Thanks literarygoth! No worries, I appreciated your comments. In fact, they gave me a mental boost while working on the game the other day, haha

And thanks for that tip, Iron Croc. I'll definitely have to try that to avoid packaging the whole RTP in next time.