RMMV Starshard: Riverlord

[l8rose]

Starshard: Riverlords
Very tentative title

If you could have any wish granted, any wish at all, what would you wish for?
Would you wish to return home, a place you left long ago?
Would you wish for wealth? For Fame? For Family?
Any wish granted without knowing the consequences.
Would you still make that wish?



The game features the traditional RPG questing, attempting to keep it close to the early SNES FF games. The Main Character begins life as a caster type but can progress to suit the desires of the player. Additional characters can be recruited but will have their own motivations that possibly clash with the main characters.
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Spoiler: SYNOPSIS

Play as either Koi or Althea, two young individuals with the gift of magic, on their quest to find the Starshard. Along the way, they’ll meet a variety of different people. Some who intend to help them while others will do anything to keep them from reaching their goals. No matter who is chosen, their choices will take them on a path to the edge of the world where they must make a choice. What would you wish for?

• Main Character Choice
• Party System with multiple characters
• Actions with consequences
• Friendship/Romance system
• Diverging story
• Multiple endings [Some good, some bad]

Spoiler: MAIN CHARACTERS

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Spoiler: OTHER CHARACTERS

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Sorcha: Sorcha resides in Rivertown with her brothers and their parents. A skilled hand to hand fighter, she wants to see the world outside but remains home out of a sense of duty. She gets into plenty of trouble with her twin Nial.

Nial: The younger brother of Sorcha by two minutes, Nial is a bit more quiet then his sister but yet there is that same sense of duty instilled in them by thier parents. He's always viewed Koi as a bit of a younger brother.

Sol: A bit of a vagabond, Althea's first meeting with the half Luthan is through the walls of her Galdania prison cell. He joins Althea's journey for the Starshard early on and does little to hide the fact that he seeks the object to sell it to the highest bidder.

Inera: A mysterious woman who works for the even more mysterious Clockmaker in Galdania city. She longs for the day when she can open up her own shop of technological wonders. She has joined the journey simply to learn of the mythical Crysallis technology.

Lyra: A young Ossian who has lived her entire life in the priesthood. Possessing a sheltered view of the world, she has no idea what lies in store for her in the wide world in her quest to sort out the corruption.

Sathena: A Luthan archer who joins the party for the sole intention of stealing the Starshard to help restore her people to their former glory.

Killian: A "Northerner" who ventures the islands for his own reasons. While he is first encountered on the quest for the starshard, he is perhaps one of the few people who does not want the object.
Other characters are to be added later.​

Spoiler: ”STORYLINE/PLOT”

The world is beset by something known as the corruption. It seeps into everything. Animals, plants, people; nothing is exempt from the creeping malignancy yet no one knows the cause or the cure. Some believe the only way to stop the corruption is the legendary Starshard. A gem that is said to glow with the light of the heavens and is blessed with the ability of granting a wish to whomever holds it. No one has ever found it but the King of Galdania believes it will be the way to save the world.

Two young people set out in search of the Starshard. One seeks it for the reason of saving his home while the other believes it will guide her back home. As their quest moves on, they will discover secrets about their past and learn the truth about the future of their world. Along the way, they will meet a variety of people who have their own opinions and desires. Their choices will bring them all the way from Galdania to the edge of the world where they will learn the source of the corruption that pollutes the islands on which they live.

The story will change depending on which character is played and how they choose to interact with the world around them. Some places that might be available earlier to one character won’t be available until later for the other.

Spoiler: SETTING

Starshard takes place in a world that once knew magic but is just getting to the "Steampunk" era. Some places are more technologically advanced but not to a heavy degree. Mythology wise, the Gods mostly abandoned the various nations (which took magic from the world) but some still worship and pray. The game starts off in Aldar Village or in Rivertown, small hamlets with only a few residents before moving on to Galdania, which is the main "hub" for the game.
As the game progresses, the player will explore several different places in the different nations as they quest for the Starstone. Along the way, the main character learns more about themselves and the mystery that plagues their world.

Spoiler: TO DO LIST

• Update Sprites for all characters.​
• Finish Images/Facesets.​
• Find a sound I actually like for discovering items.​
• Remove the TP entirely as it's not used.​
• Tweaking battles, enemies and items.​
• Finish other Maps​
• Finish other sprites​
• Finish combining everything from both games​

Spoiler: THINGS THAT ARE NOT BUGS

• New version of game not fully tested so this is unfinished section.
• Rip is still more powerful then rats.

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Spoiler: THINGS THAT ARE DEFINITELY BUGS

Currently no bugs as Demo isn't in a playable state.

Spoiler: ARTWORK

Spoiler: SCREENSHOTS

Please note that the screenshots, and other imagery, listed at the bottom of this thread are all from the previous version which did not contain the second storyline from Riverlord and as such may not be found in the demos or completed game.

Spoiler: VIDEOS

Spoiler: DEMO

Starshard --- Kept for posterity's sake. This is an old demo. Starshard v.02 if you'd like.
River Lord's itch.io page --- Kept for posterity's sake. This is the IGMC demo which has it's own issues. I do not recommend downloading as it's buggy (at least one known game breaking bug) and did not properly delete the extra unused files so it's a little huge.

Spoiler: CREDITS

Art - Avery, Pandamaru, Hiddenone, Sythian Bard, Indrah, Whtdragon, HiddenOne, Volpi, Tonbi, Wayward, FSM Forest and Town
Plugins - Huddel, Yanfly, Galv, FeelZoR, SumRndmDde, Hime, Schlangen, TMN
Music - Murray Atkinson, Jukebox, Wonderland Music Pack, Fantasy Music

 

[hiddenone]

I gave your demo a go, it's short but seems like it will be interesting. Can't say much about the story at this point, but the little bits you gave me did leave me curious to see what happens next.

The Good (What I liked)
- Offering a tutorial mode option in the beginning is a nice touch.
- The maps look nice, maybe a touch too big inside the houses but the details are nice to look at.
The Bad (What I think needs work)
- I'd prefer if ???? just started talking to me when I'm in his room since there's really not much else to do there (I know there's a starshard in it, but since I can save via the menu it's not really important).
- Rip just ditches Althea after getting the ring? Seems kinda rude, maybe give the player the option to head back to town with him. That way the player can skip having to fight the rats on the way back (especially since the rats do zero damage if you're level 2).
The Ugly (Mapping mistakes & other presentation issues)
- This mostly just entertained me, but if you say 'no' when asked if Althea is your name and then just say 'ok' on the name input screen they'll talk like 'Althea' is a totally different name. You could erase Althea's name before going to name input so that's less likely to happen.
- The old man says 'adventerer' instead of 'adventurer' when mentioning what he used to do.
- There are a lot of passability issues. I could walk up onto the cliff corner next to the old man from in front of the steps to the rich man's house, and I also walked all over the top of the rich man's desk and plant.
- Rip's dialogue when walking to their secret spot goes by way too quickly. Let the player control when it changes.

 

[l8rose]

I gave your demo a go, it's short but seems like it will be interesting. Can't say much about the story at this point, but the little bits you gave me did leave me curious to see what happens next.

The Good (What I liked)
- Offering a tutorial mode option in the beginning is a nice touch.
- The maps look nice, maybe a touch too big inside the houses but the details are nice to look at.
The Bad (What I think needs work)
- I'd prefer if ???? just started talking to me when I'm in his room since there's really not much else to do there (I know there's a starshard in it, but since I can save via the menu it's not really important).
- Rip just ditches Althea after getting the ring? Seems kinda rude, maybe give the player the option to head back to town with him. That way the player can skip having to fight the rats on the way back (especially since the rats do zero damage if you're level 2).

Never thought about either of those but added those in as it makes sense.

The Ugly(Mapping mistakes & other presentation issues)
- This mostly just entertained me, but if you say 'no' when asked if Althea is your name and then just say 'ok' on the name input screen they'll talk like 'Althea' is a totally different name. You could erase Althea's name before going to name input so that's less likely to happen.
- The old man says 'adventerer' instead of 'adventurer' when mentioning what he used to do.
- There are a lot of passability issues. I could walk up onto the cliff corner next to the old man from in front of the steps to the rich man's house, and I also walked all over the top of the rich man's desk and plant.
- Rip's dialogue when walking to their secret spot goes by way too quickly. Let the player control when it changes.

I changed that over to being blank before you get the option to change it but yeah, I didn't quite think that bit of text through. lol
Fixed the spelling and passability issues.
And changed the flow of text, I'm terrible for forgetting that people don't read as quickly as I do.

Thank you for the feedback!

 

[hiddenone]

Glad you found the feedback useful. As I said, the name thing was pretty funny so I don't think it's something to worry too much about (though if you made it so that if you said no and then still put in Althea and had ???? notice that I'd be quite amused). I read quickly too, so I try reading lines out loud to see if I can do it before the words disappear. If I can't, then it may be going too fast for some people.

 

[l8rose]

It's much appreciated cause I tend to miss things when I hyper click for testing other things. Of course, my luck with random is terrible, I didn't even get the Adventurer comment from the old man so I kept forgetting to check my spelling. lol
That would be pretty funny. His original comments were a bit snarky if you kept asking him to repeat the information about Starshards but I decided to change it out.
That's actually pretty good advice. I'll keep that in mind for any scenes I do later.

 

[l8rose]

Updated with several WIP sketches of additional characters.
An updated Demo featuring chapter 1 should be up within the coming week, perhaps later.

 

[l8rose]

Well the Demo has been delayed for a while and will continue to be delayed until I update the sprites for the soldiers and another Main NPC.

Most of the main city map is completed along with several dungeons and "midway" map.
Updated the MC's sprite as well as completed a preliminary bust for her.

Spoiler: Screenshots

 

[l8rose]

Updated thread with the preliminary bust WIPs for three of the party characters. Complete infographic for them will be up some time after the updated demo.

 

[l8rose]

Fixing a problem with one of the story routes (Otherwise known as I forgot to actually put it in) so demo is delayed again.

Here's some screenshots for monsters I'm working on. I need to make the color of the things with teeth to be a little more uniform but rather pleased with them as is.

Spoiler: Monsters

 

[samkfj]

I hope you're still working on this title, I like what you're doing here.

 

[Finnuval]

I second that. Like your monsters design too... Wish I could do that style...sigh

 

[l8rose]

I hope you're still working on this title, I like what you're doing here.

I am still working on this although a little on the slow side. I plan on having a longer demo up after I'm finished IGMC this year.

I second that. Like your monsters design too... Wish I could do that style...sigh

Thank you. =] The monsters are available on my general resources thread as well. =] And it's really all about practice.

 

[Finnuval]

Ok Ill check that out.

I will have to disagree on the practice though as it's also A matter of style and not all styles can be mastered by one person

My style as shown on my concept thread is A bit too far removed from this I fear haha but I do appreciate the thought

 

[l8rose]

Ok Ill check that out.
I will have to disagree on the practice though as it's also A matter of style and not all styles can be mastered by one person
My style as shown on my concept thread is A bit too far removed from this I fear haha but I do appreciate the thought

Well that may be true but with practice (and time) you can mimic the style of another. That aside, your own style is good too. Having a unique style does make things stand out as clearly yours. =]

 

[Finnuval]

True again... Maybe Im Just to old to learn New stuff haha well youre never to old to learn really but Yeah haha. Still awesome enemies

 

[l8rose]

Quite a long time since I updated on either portion of the game but both games have been combined into one to better make one complete game (that and I realized if I break the stories down to the core points, the games were too similar to really be separate games).
To reflect this, this has become the main thread for the game going forward.

So here's an update on what's been done.

• Created a butt ton more larger sprites for villagers as well as soldiers and Generals.
• Redesigned the Dream Maps
• Redesigned the interior Temples Maps
• Remade Koi's hometown map to include more rivers as well as renamed it to Rivertown (ctrl+F is my friend).
• Began adjusting old maps to be less parallax and more modified tileset to ease up on game size and deal with lag issues as discovered on a few plays of the third Riverlord Demo.
• Finished about 80% of enemy battler images
• Added in several new plugins (such as Hime's Hidden Choice and Mr. Trivel's Empty Menu).

Still a lot to do but that's been the summer's progress. Most of October was dedicated to working on a different game but planning on spending some time in November on this.

I'm still debating whether to use my traditional method of character choice (as seen in a temple screenshot) or to set it up in a cut scene sort of way like some of the Secret of Mana games.

Here are some screenshots of two new temples and a portion of Rivertown.

Spoiler: SCREENSHOTS

 

[l8rose]

Mid November Update: Art and Time

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Art Portion​

Updated the sprites for Sorcha, Nial, Sathena and Killian. The shorter sprites will still remain for the other party members (and some NPCs) to reflect the Luthan people being slightly different.
Finished the actual in game image for Althea.


"Time" Portion​

Adjusting a time plugin to better reflect some events that were meant to happen at specific times of the day (to make certain characters walk out of view and then return as opposed to just vanishing). Possibly may decide to stop time while inside the villages to prevent said issue.
Also adjusted a few events to respawn after a few minutes of game time.


Other Stuff
Currently working on the opening or at least a bit of an Epilogue instead of just dropping people into the game without so much as a warning.​

 

[l8rose]

Midweek Update​

Got a lot done since Saturday so we have a Midweek Update this week.

New Plugins were added to the list for a variety of reasons but mainly Moghunter's Map HUD for the names of important places. You can see it in the Aldar Village spoiler below for the current location before it darts off to the side. I did want to use Moghunter's Time HUD as well for a nice clock but having the two timing Plugins felt a little redundant and I was already heavily using the LMN plugins.

I've frankensprited an updated version of Rip's Nephew and the Little Girl from Aldar village (and renamed both). Sprites have now been updated for the majority of the starting characters with just a couple from Koi's start needing to be updated.

Some of the random new places around Rivertown (formerly known as Kelos but I kept thinking Kellogs so it got changed). These also reflect the change in the world to reflect the combination as the Temple/Mausoleum in Kelos/Rivertown was off to the side and more square but now has a passageway into older tunnels and spooky lights that activate on approach. Irgaz also moved out of the forest and into the caves, poor guy has a bed and some stuff now.​

Spoiler

I also redid the Aldar Village to be closer to the same style as the rest of the maps. While I do like my own trees, they didn't fit well with the rest of the graphics I was using. I also scrapped the old house as having it for one item alone seemed like a waste (when I can just pop that into one of the other houses in a basement or something). The Village still looks as quaint and slightly strange as intended so that section of the game is ready to go.

Spoiler

I finally got off my butt and designed a logo and something of a "start" screen that's more unique. Unfortunately, I can't color landscapes very well so this is from modified RTP. I'm still working out the blue swirls for the edges (may make them darker or more rounded, not sure yet) but over all, I'm pretty content with it.

Spoiler

And final part of this midweek update, almost done getting the Prologue quests in. I decided to change the initial quest in Koi's start to be more of the Elder telling him to do something instead of asking if people need help. That starting chain of quests was meant as a sort of tutorial mode but I think it'll be better with a more direct route.

Next update will possibly contain the demo, depends on how much time I get to mess around on this in the rest of the week.

 

[l8rose]

Looking like December for the new demo but this is the opening as it stands right now. Probably going to switch back to Bandicam's recording as well due to Xsplit corrupting way too much content on my computer (even with a pro license, it does weird things).

Spoiler: Opening Video