RMMV Spellzone

[Soulrender]

​

SECTION A: SYNOPSIS

Spoiler

• Spellzone is an RPG where the player controls a team of heroes who explore Tulneau Island. While this game uses a standard turn-based battle system, some tactical approaches may be required in order to defeat enemies.

IMAGES/SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler

SECTION B: CHARACTERS

Spoiler

Tallanar - The main protagonist of the game. He specializes in wind and thunder magic.


Telthos - Tallanar's best friend and the finest of swordsmen. He specializes in defensive combat, focusing on the mental aspects of swordsmanship.


Soulrender - A wandering priest with great healing abilities and even more powerful offensive holy spells.




Maia - A beauty from the east. She is a strong cryomancer with the knowledge of using fans during battles.




Carla - A skilled archer with very efficient and effective fire spells.



Ayanna - A young and inexperienced Polynesian shamaness who uses the strength of spirits. She is great with spears.

SECTION C: STORYLINE/PLOT

Spoiler

Tulneau Island is a land where people travel to with the goal of becoming rich and famous; signing up to various guilds and forming them is a common custom for such ideals. One of such people was Acretia, a very skilled and cold-hearted sorceress, who signed up for a guild managed by Tehrin. She wished to attain greatness beyond human comprehension from doing so.

Tehrin allied with other top-rated guild leaders. They sent her to complete one of the most difficult missions no one has ever completed... However, many years passed since that day without Acretia returning to the guild's headquarters.

Years after that, a highly-praised sorceress, Arvena, noticed a very violent mana flow disturbance; almost every magician on the island is losing their powers and lives from it. Tallanar, the protagonist, however, is unaffected...

He was called to Tehrin's office to discuss the matter. Tehrin asked him to investigate the issue and help save people from death. Tallanar agrees to take this job, but in return asked for the release of his friend, Telthos, from prison. Both heroes travel through the land of Tulneau searching for the person responsible for such mayhem...

SECTION D: SETTING AND/OR WORLD DEVELOPMENT

Spoiler

Most action takes place in forest areas of island, but you will also travel through deep underground passages, mines, rural areas and cities*.

* The cities and rural areas were not available in the initial release (Version 1.0). They were added in Version 1.1.

DOWNLOAD LINK
You can download the demo from the game's page on the itch.io Web site.

Some necessary technical information:
- This game has an auto-saving feature; it will autosave the game every 2 minutes.
- When you close the game, you can continue the session from the point where you quit. It may be a little buggy, but still works.
- HP, MP, and TP regenerate on a real-time basis!
- Every offensive skill has a 3% probability to instantly kill the enemy. (However, it does not work with both bosses and demi-bosses.)
- If you think that the experience points received per battle are too low, then try to do more exploring; there are treasure chests on the map containing experience points!
- This game is still in the phase of development, so it is likely not all of the things would work or function as intended. I hope to learn what needs to be fixed through replies here and feedback.
- Save files from the demo versions will be compatible with future updates and the full-version release.

NOTE: This forum post by @Soulrender was completely rewritten and cleaned up by Kiyasu Oka (kiyasu) of www.kiyasugreen.com on January 16th, 2022 (Sunday).

***** Game Preview *****

 

[ShadowDragon]

I dont read the text wall, but the images looks promising to try.
the 3rd image was funny, though I thought it was an error popup

but im definitly going to try it as the maps looks great, maybe I can
improve my future maps, because I need inspiration of making them.

I give feedback/suggestion after playing a bit.

Maybe first typo of "i" which should be captalized to "I"
which is also on the few text dialogues after this one.


also, I am NO fan of full screen which blocks my view from my apps and chats
and constantly switch between them every few seconds or minutes to see if
they respond.

So I hope you add a option for full screen and window mode, and I prefer
window mode over full screen.

you can enter the menu and save during a cutscene (if this is a autorun)
otherwise parallel event. but can come in handy.

in options, the "controls" are empty, so no idea why there is any with no
options in them?

I might play it later a bit, but I wish I could play it in window mode, the start looks
nice, so I go on adventure of my first task.

 

[Soulrender]

Shadow Dragon, capitalized I would mean that I, real person speak to you as now, So its not that typo
Thats what me thaught in School on English class. About toggling full Screen or window Mode, that will be implenented today and if responses reach satysfying number. Then i declare regular updates every saturday

And about 3rd image. Its not popup error, its actual dialog between heroes because they riding wagon and regular message window would break level So i used galvs timed message popup

Sorry for typos, im on mobile at work

 

[ShadowDragon]

it's okey. I use the portable version, I love the launch button though,
but when you end the game by menu, you get "to Title, cancel", wouldn't
you able to make a shutdown button there too? so it will be title, exit game
and cancel? (which I did) so they can chooce to directly close the game
instead to go to first title screen, than close the game.

this is only a suggestion, but I knew it wasn't an error on the 3rd image,
first look alone, but timed message can be tricky too, but I got some ways
to make it always trigger on the same spot if required

but I play later today for a bit for the adventure and let you know what I think.
but will do a full test run with bug/glitch play through once window mode is
avaialable so I can easy save the issues more directly than toggle on/off/on/off
etc in order to do that.

I have no idea how you did the launcher part though, but nice job
keep up the nice work.

feedback when im might be half way or my guess

EDIT:
tiny update from attic and basement issues.

Spoiler: issues and typo's

at the attick, the candel on the wall when interact flicker, so it took a bit
of time to get it showable.


in the basement, from this side, the clock is broken, should be in front of it.


a Typo here is buisness instead of business.


this is optional, but most book have the text under "Effect"


title and description has the same typo here "Intelligence" (double L)

the lantern on the table dissapear after the dialogue instead of before it was taken?
or did he took it after the dialogue?

I dont do grammar much, but those are noticable, not sure if "wich", should be "which" that was
on one on the books, because that is a bit confusing when searching for it.
so I you need to check if that is correct or not .

EDIT 2:
I'm not sure, but the battle is a bit insane while I cant kill any troop of enemies if I need
to keep defending them, so leveling by beating them is impossible.

specially if both player and enemy heal, and enemy can keep attacking, and the
player cannot not because of to low TP, and once you can attack, the enenmy is full HP
again.

so any tips how to do the battles, because it's kinda impossible, while I'm level 2 at this point.

 

[Soulrender]

@ShadowDragon regarding to your post edit:
- I added ability to switch between full screen and window mode

Spoiler

- About that candle on the wall in attic - fixed! (It's surprising I missed that detail).
- About that broken clock on closet... While I was making that map I thought about it, but I assumed it won't matter, since it's hanged in visible spot so... Ahh, look at these pictures:

Spoiler

It's just like in real life - lean a little to see it from clock's side.

- That typos with "Business" and "Intelligence" - both fixed
- and bout lantern, yes. Tallanar picks it after dialouge, because Tallanar has nothing else to use as source of light and Telthos complains that this kind of lantern barely gives any light (which is not true).

And finally - "wich" or "which". I checked dictionary and turns out both forms are valid, but wich is used as noun and which is used in pronoun. (Perhaps I did grammar in that text... I need to call my english teacher - now she's teaching my daughter )

In overall. I'll try to upload update ASAP. (Max in 1 hour)

Edit: Some items have their effect written in the same line as green word "effect" because description has more lines than window can display. Natively game runs with resolution 1024x576 (pretty low), so to arrange windows I had use some creative approach. So I limited Window_Help to display 8 lines:

Item header (line 1)
empty line for better look (line 2)
line 3 - line 6 are actuall item description (1 sentence)
line 7 - empty line for better look
line 8 - item effect.

In full version where resolution will be raised to native HD (1920x1080) I will have more space to manipulate ingame windows, thus i will have more space to resize windows and show more text (in reasonable amount).

Edit 2: If you like my launcher then go ahead and PM me and I'll explain it to you how it works and if you are making your own game, then gladly make one for you (it's pretty easy and small piece of code )

Edit 3: Updated version is available - https://soulrender.itch.io/spellzone

 

[ShadowDragon]

they look at the clock, but on the side, you cannot see if it's broken,
but it's your call on that part.

I still dont know how to get the battle part yet.
but while I dont know C++ or other language (tiny bit of php and html/css
because of an earlier webshop for my parents, but those are very limited.

but im still curious on the launcher part, because it seems interesting.
my main game is far from a demo because of slow mapping

the side project that is also currently on hold is the chaotic in RL that stops me.
but I play from start, while I wasn't far ahead, 7/14 on the first map by walking
through it.

ty for adding the window mode, makes me very happy .

full screen can be good in some or most games, but specially if you can
have 2 screens so you still have insight.

 

[Soulrender]

It's written in Pascal - Lazarus IDE and I simply use WinAPI procedure CreateProcess() and whole game is packed, I can't tell more for obvious reasons

About full screen / window mode, while you can switch between them and close game when it's in window mode, the next time again will be in full screen, because I forgot to turn off my full screen plugin, wich forces game to be in full screen. Sorry about that. In update 1.2 on 21.08.2021 I'll remove it from project.

 

[ShadowDragon]

I dont know pascal, lazerus IDE, but I want to test it out on my side project,
which require maps only mostly but those maps are a bit easier than my
main, so I might PM you how to make it

I continue on your game, I love the maps too, nicely down.

EDIT: I play from the start, but the candle issue is stille there, but I got passage this
time which was not before.


you might need to click the image to see it.

Also I forgot to mention, if you are in the kitchen, top left furniture, you can loot
the items when facing left and or down not sure why.

Title was fixed, but not the description like I said ,
(typo is also in the status of the heroes when checking it)


als the candle in the basement right from the entrance flickers as well at interaction.

another tpo after battle, "aquired" and its double q in game.


but also the skill of "lightning " tells it targets single enemy, but its 2 or more?

EDIT3:
@Soulrender , at the amaranth groove (3/14) the first time you entered, the back
part was a kind of rock, after entering the cabin and out, there was a tree, is this
correct? or should be there always a tree the first time you enter it?

EDIT 4:
is this an issue with mapping? probably what happend with the tree at
amaranth groove (8/14): (bottom right corrner).

similair is happend at the entrance in 10/14 top side.

EDIT 5: More issues along the way (and on my way to get 2 more, a great cook.
in spoiler with some explanation:

Spoiler: issues and typo's p2

at the amararanth grooove 12/14, a passable tree part, facing up when pressing right to the ladder.


this little tree wrong? or missing a truck on the ground?


when meeting you (Soulrender), comming = coming I believe?


this one and a 1-2 dialogue further and around the last part are words cut off,
here is though and the s is missing, from powers, the s barely visible, but also one with "he"
which I presume is help?

I continue tomorrow for the other 2 party members , and more bugs to find.
also a side question.

I got around 20+ dimes from battles, but I could not find Dimes in my inventory or the exact amount I have for it.
what are those and where can I find it back in the inventory?

PS:
I love the game, and is really nicely made, well done.

 

[Soulrender]

@ShadowDragon About tilesets from first. I have no idea what may causing this bug, I started two topics about that and no one could help me out with this. My guess it's because of to much tiles overlaps on each other
wich leaves me to remove trees from there and put a pond. (And there are more places like that...)

I'm fast keyboard typer, so typos were, they are and will be (to fix in future updates - thank god i keep dialouges in txt files, I don't need to edit events )

Cutting letters... Yup - just need to edit size in YEP_MessageCore.

Ok... Now about currencies. Yes - my mistake, i forgot to draw them in HUD's (wich will be slightly rebuild anyway). There are five currencies in game:
Dimes - lowest value
Copper coins - low value
Silver coins - mid value
Gold coins - high value
Magic crystals - used by magicians mostly in guilds shops (don;t worry, my daughter is making in generator npc's for that )


In designated NPC you can exchange one currency for another:
Dimes:
100 gives you 1 copper coin
10 copper coins you can exchange for 1 silver coin
100 copper coins will give you 1 gold coin
10 silver coins you can exchange for 1 gold coin

Magic crystals can be obtained by mining them from ores (I'm in a middle of writing mining script for that)

I don't have much time to spend on this game and no one really wants to help, regular work and raising daughter is very time consuming, but everything is moving forward. I started with very basics and develop it further and further. Like KillerGin.

Most of thing you recently mentioned I fixed, it leaves Just hud and mining. On saturday as promissed i patch things, but one Player (wich i sincerly thank you for playing) worries me, maybe i'll try tommorow asking for game play when things will be polished

 

[ShadowDragon]

copper was showed in the bag, dimes are not, but copper part was explained.
magic crystals, was on it, but I figured as much that it could be found/mined or
traded (all 2 or all 3), but that is probably also much later in the game, which
I think it would be 1/3 of the entire full game release?

but I just found out that later on, while I need to the gold mine I believe?
but it's a mine where I need to head.

more eyes, more reviews. more bugs can be found.
my games take it slow too, and scripting isn't my strong suite but you can do
much by eventing, so take your time.

raising a daughter can be a pain, but if she like the help, why not
so farther so daughter.

RL goes first by all means, but so far I played and ended, it's really nice.
to bad you cannot figure out the tile issue if it's more common over all the maps,
because I found another spot, so I got no idea either.

the only thing you could do, is create those as parallax, but that leaves with tons
of images.

I try to combine parallax with editor, parallax as base ground, and overlay
by editor, so it's also a bit precises, so it can take 1 tile as 2, or 1 tile as 4.
not that I mind that, but a good thing, I can use 4 sheets, but so far, its on 1

take your time, and I hope more players test it for you too, so more yes of view
can squash the bugs for you.

I do some hard glitching later on

EDIT:
Here is another issue on the save scene:

possibilities:
Load: Load a saved data
Save: Save the current progress
Delete: Delete this save data

or something similair, but at least shorten it somehow.

EDIT 2: (some pointers (not all) explanation in spoiler + image)

Spoiler: Issues

when first meeting Acretia, it says, Angelsins mountain, a bit after,
it is Agnelsins, so idk which one is correct here.


This issue is be brighten up, the red arrow at the crystal is the way you can
walk to the right or up, and go on the wall, the green arrow transfer you to
a new map, backtrack to the left of transfer a different map, when going up there,
on the map on the bottom of this map!

also, there are more walls passabilties, around 3 found on this speculair map.
so you need to go through it where you can walk or use a templ plugin to speed
this up for you. (can be found [here])

I wont point out all the passabilities, but the one map below has one where
the enemy went up the wall, so I think you can climb the wall there as well.

 

[Soulrender]

Ok... I make coffe and start fixing things, thank you for suggesting and pointing out where are bugs.
I think what I will do with those buggy tilesets - remove them (and simply place in their place water or other things from B - tiles (instead E). I thought about using photoshop and merge those tiles, but it will take more time to do it.

That passability in mines... Yup, that is my mistake - forgot to put block there (please note I have YEP_RegionRestrictions plugin - shame on me, having such plugin and not using well... ).

And those hints in save/load - already fixed.

Today if I'm gonna be in condition - despite my real age sometimes I feel like old gramp I release a bestiary app, where there will be shown all monsters to fight with their advantages and weaknesses, along with heroes (A small hint, there will be 6th hero in party, a woman and I'm already developing plot how she will get involved with main protagonists). Now then, back to tiles... I decided to remove them completly and spots left by them I fill with water - last week I merged all Amaranth Groove sections in one big map and I noticed there is not enough water. When I take walks in my local forest there are tons of brooks and tiny rivers and ponds. On my maps, actaully you can see just 5 and 3 of them are in size of regular puddle. Ehh, that's too bad, because PandaMaru made those tiles really beautiful and belive me, it's hard to me find something really nice, even Avery's and whtDragon's art don't impress me that much, just like that some pixel art assests.

 

[ShadowDragon]

I got interupted, so I couldn't play to much., but you need to look through the mines.
but it was weird that there was a transfer on top of the wall and skip 2 maps

there are many tilesets, but fitting is time consuming.
so dont rush it either, the games looks beautifull.

but when I enter the mine, I noticed 2 things.

1) you enter from below, and start from the left side (no worries, some games has that.
but the issue here is, I didn't saw the party members/actors.

2) it might be a bit to dark, so maybe fine tune it a tiny bit more lighter by
5-10%? but I try to continue and see where I end last time.

(I might dm you for the other thing for a few questions).

 

[Soulrender]

I'm online to midnight, so go ahead - I will refresh this board every 5 mins for your message

 

[Soulrender]

Still not convinced? I've fixed all things @ShadowDragon listed. ALL THINGS! Except typos...
And I added pseudo mining system.

 

[Lady_JJ]

Amanaranth Grove 7/14 treasure chest returns to unopened position when you reenter map
Battle menu 'Forfit' should be 'Forfeit'

Many spelling and grammatical errors, but not that bad considering you're not a native English speaker. Certainly not enough to detract from the storyline and gameplay. How long is this demo?

It took me a little bit to figure out walking around was restorative. That realization has definitely made battling more manageable. I'm enjoying the game thus far.

BTW, I am unaware that there is ever a time when the single word 'I' would not be capitalized. And unless you're talking about a sandwich or an enchanting witch, I think 'which' would always be more correct. As in 'Which heroes did you mean?' and 'The heroes which were casted into the flames.'

 

[ShadowDragon]

@Lady_JJ so far I know, if not further, at the INN you come first entered
after the gold mine.

but I found alot of spelling mistakes and grammatical, but I skip most
of those, because i'm bad at it as well.

I beat the game once, and he fixed 3 game breaking points, and he even
fixed 1 of them because I couldn't continue, so I'm happy on that part.

as for the "witch", that is intensional, I asked him that too

 

[Lady_JJ]

@Lady_JJ so far I know, if not further, at the INN you come first entered
after the gold mine.

but I found alot of spelling mistakes and grammatical, but I skip most
of those, because i'm bad at it as well.

I beat the game once, and he fixed 3 game breaking points, and he even
fixed 1 of them because I couldn't continue, so I'm happy on that part.

as for the "witch", that is intensional, I asked him that too

I'll leave the hard glitching to you, @ShadowDragon I'll offer some spelling/grammatical corrections if requested.

 

[Soulrender]

@Lady_JJ really you could do the grammar correction? That would be huge help for me. I'll be at home in 1h and 30 min then I'll tell more, right now I'm at work. Yes grammar is weak side because i tend to mix UK English with US English. It's been quite a while since I had need to use English language... Over 15 years...

About session lenght of demo, for me it takes almost 2 hours to complete game, So for casual Player should take around 3 hours

 

[Lady_JJ]

Sure, it's not a huge deal at all. I've already looked at the menu contents.

Spoiler: Suggestions for Edits

=======================================
Menu Items (Bagpack)
----------------------------------------
Potions
Tiny Healing Potion
more faster ?should be? faster (without the more)
Tiny Energy Potion
ok
Tiny Mana Potion
ok
Medium Healing Potion
adventurers item ?should be? adventurer's item
more faster ?should be? faster (without the more)
Medium Mana Potion
ok
Potion of Brightness
blidnesses ?should be? blindness
--------------------------------------
Foods
Raw Meat, Basil, Oil, Bread, Honey
all ok
--------------------------------------
Artefacts vs Artifacts
I was going to correct Artefact as Artifact, but it turns out Artefact is the correct British spelling whereas Artifact is the American spelling. I think I've withdrawn all my Artefact suggested edits. If you come across one, just ignore it.

Book of Life
powerfull ?should be? powerful
that where read ?should be? that were read (or even better, that are read)

Book of Strength+1
portraiting ?should be? portraying
more stronger ?should be? stronger (without more)
attacs ?should be? attacks
lancers etc. ?should be? lancers, etc.

Book of Intelligence+1
Inteligence misspelled in description and effect, ?should be? Intelligence

Book of Resistance+1
ok

Book of Luck+1
ok

Book of Magic
powerfull ?should be? powerful

Book of Defense+1
portraiting ?should be? portraying
lancers etc. ?should be? lancers, etc.

Book of Intelligence+2
same as +1

Book of Agility+2
in wich order ?should be? in which

Tome of Experience
raises it's reader global ?should be? raises its reader's global
tasks can handle and earn gold ?should be? tasks can be handled and gold earned
Increases Hero Exp by 100 ?? none of the other books use abbreviations, so maybe use the full word Experience

Potion of Speed
Description sentences separated by line feed. To keep consistent formating with other items, maybe not force that line feed?
--------------------------------------
Misc
Lantern-[Misc]
wick in oil. to make it easier ?should be? oil, to make

Pouch-[Misc]
journey. it is ?should be? journey. It is

Keen Herb-[Misc]
ok

Copper Coins
Tuleau island ?should be? Tuleau Island

Potion of Speed
Listed here, same as the one listed under Artifacts. Which one is it? Is effect permanent? Then it would be an Artifact I think. If temporary, then a misc item.

Pickaxe
Select item from list to display it's properties
it's ?should be? its but I think this description is a placeholder and not the true intent?
=======================================
Equipment
Cane
who just become ?should be? who just became
comming ?should be? coming
Regular Clothing
cheapiest ?should be? cheapest
Common Shield
cheapiest ?should be? cheapest
Common Bracelet
ok
Leather Boots
ok
Sword
ok
Rhinoceros Armor
ok
Common Earrings
quiality ?should be? quality
White Staff
ok
Silver Earrings
who want's to ?should be? who want to
Arcane Clothing
It's design ?should be? Its design
who wears it ?should be? who wear it
============================================

I really like the chattiness of the cutscenes and I find the informal structure, even though sometimes English-speaking grammatically incorrect, engages me even more. I'm wary that offering too many grammatical suggestions will result in those conversations being stiff and formal, even boring.

 

[Soulrender]

@Lady_JJ
Thank god I did all text not in events directly, but they loaded from text files, it will be much easier and faster to correct. I have some strenght left after work in unfriendly conditions, so I'm getting to work right away.

Edit: About that talk where Tallanar misspelled (on purpose)

Spoiler

A *****, oh sorry, witch we are trying to capture...
My name is Tallanar, and this is my friend Telthos, you
already know Soulrender. And you are?

Acretia is main antagonist, based on my ex-girlfriend, she left me with daughter so I did this writting on purpose. Yes, my ex is a witch.

Just small game of words.

Maybe more proper sentence would be... Hmmm...

Spoiler

A *****, oh sorry, a witch. we are trying to stop her evil schemings (...)

Similar game of words was in Bruce Allmighty movie, at niagara waterfall: