RMMV Sin Tax - Welcome to the U.S.B. [June 15th 2019]

[AdamSakuru]

Developer Note:
What you see here is a work in progress!
Anything lacking "polish" will be polished eventually.​

Presents:

It's Cyberpunk, but with less punk?

​

The year is 802-11a...

In the United Serial Baud, Node and his girlfriend Lady are Drivers. As Drivers, they take on various kinds of jobs for the citizens of CPUcity to get by and pay their rent.

When Node is duped by a supposedly high-paying client into installing a virus—created by a Cyberian terrorist group and disguised as a security update—into the U.S.B's core system, he is framed for capital treason and backed into a corner.

As the virus begins to spread, Node is wanted for termination by the BIOS Justice Force and thrust into the fight of his life! Now Node, with the help of Lady and his long-time friend Krysto, must deal with the creator of the virus and save the U.S.B. from certain destruction...

​

●Six playable characters. That's ONE more than five! (...Do the math)
●Unique presentation and feel! This ain't just another 'standard RPG Maker' game.
●Animated cut-scenes made in Toon Boom Harmony. (The same software that's used to animate shows like Rick & Morty!)
●Link up! Hitting enemy weaknesses or landing critical blows on them gives you a chance of hosting special combination techniques.
●Feel the prices of a certain business are too high? Take a play out of the Definitive Hustler's Fundamentals and hustle those pesky shop keepers into giving you some temporary lower prices! But don't abuse the hustle or you'll piss off the shopkeeper...
●Channel your inner Psion! Find MODS and MOD chips to customize which Psionic abilities party members bring to the fight.
●An original soundtrack composed by Chris Austman from the band AM Static. [Currently in progress]
●(Pending) Mini-games?

​

Spoiler

...The heroes! I think they're pretty cool. I'm kinda biased, though...

(From left to right) Node Ad-Hoc, Lady Nawalt, Krysto Brzozowski, EN-Crypt VARS, Detective Schot Eckstein and Captcha' VARS.

Spoiler

...The Screens of Death! A terrorist group from Cyberia led by Jeifar Fizadeh. For some reason, they have a strong hatred of the U.S.B. and—in an attempt to bring about its destruction—created the virus that Node gets tricked into installing.

(From left to right) Ludwig Turiyag "Black Screen of Death", Richter Scale "Green Screen of Death", Jeifar Fizadeh "Blue Screen of Death", Pareese Yaskow "Yellow Screen of Death", Aleksander Rodiks "Red Screen of Death", Kyma Chaykuk "Grey Screen of Death".

Spoiler

The battle system in Sin Tax uses Yanfly's Battle Engine Core for its base, with additional elements added to make things interesting.

Node and up to two additional party members will fight against enemy targets in quick, turn-based side-view battles! Party members and enemy targets can change their row positions on the field, which alter their stats as well as which of their actions and skills can be used.

Skills may need to warm up, cool down, have limited uses per battle, or require a certain combination of party members present and skills learned. Enemies can also have dynamic A.I, being able to respond accordingly to the tide of battle. This can make for some challenging encounters!

Spoiler

Spoiler

[To be updated.]

Spoiler

A very rough demo of the game's first chapter.
The game starts in full-screen, but if you hit F4, it'll change to windowed mode.
Sin Tax (Rough Chapter 1+2 Demo)
Most of the soundtrack is placeholder, but a few of the tracks are from Chris Austman.
The title screen track, dream sequence/past reflection, battle theme and event battle theme are made by him.


KNOWN BUGS:
A) None.

Spoiler

Hey, neat! A modified slice of this project tied for 1st place in Driftwood Gaming's "5 Minute Game Jam"!

 

[The Stranger]

Are you still working on this? It looks damn interesting.

 

[AdamSakuru]

Are you still working on this? It looks dayum interesting.

Thank you, I appreciate that!

I'm definitely still working on this, it's going to be a full fledged project! I really want this to be an example of RPG Maker done right.

I'm planning to release this on Steam when it's all done. Part of the reason I made this thread is because it's a very early basis for what will later be the Kick-starter page. I'd like to see if I can raise money to put towards the soundtrack! And a little towards technical support. I'm going to keep the Kick-starter short and to the point with some stretch goals for very do-able things. (your name in the credits, design a ____ that appears in the game, etc.)

Development some days goes smoothly, others not so much. Right now, without polish, I'd say I'm close to 10% done the project?
If all goes well, I'll have a public demo up in a month or so.

 

[The Stranger]

Awesome! Good to hear you're still working on this, I really like what I see. I also love the play on computer\programming terminology.

How much are you looking for from crowdfunding?

 

[AdamSakuru]

Awesome! Good to hear you're still working on this, I really like what I see. I also love the play on computer\programming terminology.

How much are you looking for from crowdfunding?

Currently my plan is to ask for how much I would've been paying entirely out of my pocket for the game's soundtrack. So about 4000$ or so.

If I made that goal, I'd allocate most to the soundtrack, the rest to technical support (commissioning custom plug-ins, etc.) and I could cover anything additional without having to use most of my savings. But in the worst case scenario (i.e no interest, failed Kick-starter campaign) I'll still be able to make my game.

 

[AdamSakuru]

Hey, everyone. I've had some personal stuff going on and was making less progress recently but I also wanted to show something at this point. I've made a very rough demo of the game's first chapter. Link is in the post!

 

[Kemsyn]

I finally got around to finishing the demo and I think the game has a lot of potential. The cutscenes are really cool and I can tell you must have put a lot of work into them. I think the art style is unique and it reminds me a bit of Futurama, but I think the images could do with some work, some of them are a bit rough around the edges and have weird outlines. I'm guessing you planned on fixing that eventually though.

I really think you need music for the demo. When I first started up the game I thought there was something wrong with my sound and spent a while trying to fix my settings until I gave up and just started the game. I know you planned to raise money for the music with a Kickstarter, but I think it's important to have a polished demo before you attempt that as it could put off potential backers who try your demo. Same goes for the unfinished art.

I didn't find any more bugs in my play through, thankfully. When I was escaping the System32 building there were some treasure chests that I couldn't loot, they seemed a bit out of place. Also Tedward's model doesn't match his colour in the cut scene which I thought was strange. The writing is solid and the story and world is great so far, I also really like the detail and design of the menus. The battle system is pretty nice but the demo could do with a couple more skills I reckon.

I think you just need to get the demo as polished as possible before the Kickstarter and you could have a great game here!

 

[AdamSakuru]

I finally got around to finishing the demo and I think the game has a lot of potential. The cutscenes are really cool and I can tell you must have put a lot of work into them. I think the art style is unique and it reminds me a bit of Futurama, but I think the images could do with some work, some of them are a bit rough around the edges and have weird outlines. I'm guessing you planned on fixing that eventually though.

I really think you need music for the demo. When I first started up the game I thought there was something wrong with my sound and spent a while trying to fix my settings until I gave up and just started the game. I know you planned to raise money for the music with a Kickstarter, but I think it's important to have a polished demo before you attempt that as it could put off potential backers who try your demo. Same goes for the unfinished art.

I didn't find any more bugs in my play through, thankfully. When I was escaping the System32 building there were some treasure chests that I couldn't loot, they seemed a bit out of place. Also Tedward's model doesn't match his colour in the cut scene which I thought was strange. The writing is solid and the story and world is great so far, I also really like the detail and design of the menus. The battle system is pretty nice but the demo could do with a couple more skills I reckon.

I think you just need to get the demo as polished as possible before the Kickstarter and you could have a great game here!

For sure, anything I show on the Kickstarter (and in the Kickstarter trailer) is going to be nearly finished in terms of polish. The Kick-starter won't be a thing until I'm about 25-30% of the way through development or so? Since at that point more of the assets will be done and the demo can have some additional content to it. This thread's also an early basis for the layout of the Kickstarter.

Chris Austman is in the process of making scratch tracks for the project, so I'll have the demo updated to include them when he has some ready. I mostly wanted to have something that was playable up (even though it's very unpolished) so people could see some of my project in action. For the time being I'll put a notice before the demo link so that nobody else ends up thinking the audio isn't working for them.

Thanks for your feedback! Much appreciated. I'll be fixing everything you've pointed out at some point, those were just things I hadn't finished yet.

 

[AdamSakuru]

Updated!
Added temporary music tracks.

 

[KingKraken]

I really want this to be an example of RPG Maker done right.

With all the work put into so far, you're definitely living up to that expectation! The whole computer window effect is a really nice touch as well! Is there a goal for how long the game is going to be?

 

[AdamSakuru]

With all the work put into so far, you're definitely living up to that expectation! The whole computer window effect is a really nice touch as well!

Thanks! There's another project thread you should check out for the same reason. I think it's called Green's Dream? He framed his whole project as essentially taking place inside a game-boy screen. Pretty good stuff!

Is there a goal for how long the game is going to be?

The game is going to be 7 chapters. Chapters 3-5 are the main meat and potatoes of the game's story bosses. Chapter seven is the end game and I'm planning to have a longer final dungeon.

I'm structuring the game's plot like a Mega Man Zero/Mega Man X game. So this will also carry out into the game's length. I'd say no more than 20 hours and no fewer than 10? This is just an estimation, but it'll definitely be on the shorter side (especially if you already know how to proceed through the game.) I'll be throwing in some side-quests and if possible other ways to extend play time that are enjoyable instead of artificial.

 

[greensdream]

WOW! Those character designs are great... And I'm so intrigued by your completely custom aesthetic! Excellent work.

 

[AdamSakuru]

WOW! Those character designs are great... And I'm so intrigued by your completely custom aesthetic! Excellent work.

Thanks, man! Really liking what I see with your project too.
I'm definitely trying it when you have a demo up!

 

[AdamSakuru]

Updated!

I had to re-tool the map screens as there was a random game crashing bug that would occur with my original method.
I've discovered a bug that occurs if you save your game and then load a different file. Sometimes it happens right away,
other times it comes up after loading a few different files. I'll be looking into trying to fix this, but for now stick with one save file.

Edit: Well, that was quick. I found a fix! It'll be included in the next update.

 

[greensdream]

What a great world you've got building here! Unfortunately the demo crashes for me after my first battle with the bees in the forest, but I felt really optimistic about everything to that point! Does Yanfly know that they're a character in your game? I appreciated the storyboard animation included, that's much better than just having nothing. I might question your use of comic sans as a font in your game?

 

[AdamSakuru]

What a great world you've got building here! Unfortunately the demo crashes for me after my first battle with the bees in the forest, but I felt really optimistic about everything to that point!

This is a bit concerning as you're the second person to tell me this exact thing happened. Not sure what the actual cause of this issue would be and it's never occurred when I've tested it on my computer. I think most people who've played my project haven't encountered this either. When my friend first brought this up with me I thought it was possibly her PC but she has a a decent computer and plays games like Team Fortress 2 so that couldn't have been the case.

The only thing I could think of that might make some sense is that it may be some sort of inefficiency with RPG Maker MV itself, or the way Javascript handles visuals oln different computers? Or something along that line. I'm gonna have to figure out a way to fix this but it's an odd issue. Maybe I'll message a moderator about it and see if they might have any information!

I might question your use of comic sans as a font in your game?

That's it, GET OUT!!! B-b-but, Comic Sans MS is, like, the greatest font out there.

Does Yanfly know that they're a character in your game?

I messaged Yanfly letting him know I was gonna have him as a cameo in my project, I didn't hear back from him so I'm not sure if he knows or not. Part of the reason I did it was as a way of saying thanks and paying homage to someone who's continually provided good resources for this community. It's also allowed me to pursue this project.

 

[AdamSakuru]

Updated!

 

[AdamSakuru]

Updated with more tune ups, the demo was slightly extended and I've redrawn over the current character busts so they are more in line with how they'll look in the finished product.

 

[AdamSakuru]

Updated again, fixed a few more bugs/mistakes and extended the demo slightly.

 

[AdamSakuru]

...Updated!

I've been kinda busy and I haven't progressed the demo's length much, but I've fixed various things in the game project and I implemented a timed hits system for the basic attack commands (courtesy of SRDude.) I've also added a ton of common Psionic skills to the game, but most don't show in the demo. I also made the database more efficient, using skills shared between enemies and party members instead of having duplicates of skills. It's much more organized with little clutter compared to before. A lot of the action sequences have been fixed up too.

I've implemented the "spell language" used for common Psionic abilities.
Took me awhile to find something I wanted to stick with. Here's an example:

Vio [Light VOLT, singular]
Viola [Medium VOLT, singular]
Violatè [Heavy VOLT, singular]

Sudo-Vio [Light VOLT, All]
Ran-Vio [Light VOLT, Random]

This demo also has an animated Game Over screen/Game Over menu, which was lacking from before.