RMXP The History of Hauntly Hall.

[Garryg]

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SECTION A: SYNOPSIS

Spoiler

• 
  The general idea of the game, starting out, is that you are in an old house that is soon to be demolished and has been stripped of the most obviously valuable items, with only some unsold furnishings remaining. You need to search for some rumoured items that were apparently lost in the house by the historic family over the ages, and have not been discovered in the rush to loot and gut the main part of the estate.
  
  This is a side-on exploration game where you must search, collect and use objects in order to solve puzzles and retrieve the ‘treasures.’
  
  This is presented in a black-and-white ‘retro’ graphical style reminiscent of early CGA or Hercules graphics type of PC games, while period music is played in the background in an attempt to evoke a cense of old-world atmosphere in the player.
  
  All graphics are original, by me.
  Sound is a mixture of old recordings that are in the Public Domain.
  sound effects are ether original (mostly made by me creaking or banging things etc.) or clips of stock PD sounds.
  This would be a free game, made with XP and primarily used to test the RPG maker waters!
  
  As you progress with finding more objects strange things start to happen, and it becomes apparent that the house is haunted. It then becomes a game of avoid the ‘monsters’ and find the objects before your final escape, which isn’t really an escape but puts you back in time as the gameplay suddenly becomes more story driven.
  
  Specific questions would be:
  How much, if any, hint that the game changes later on should be in the first stage?
  Does the first stage sound too dry to hold your attention?
  Would the graphics style be interesting, or just put you off?
  Would ‘old’ music, played low in the background, put you off?
  (By old I mean classical to (intentionally) scratchy 1920 and up. Not pre-2000 which a lot of people would now call ‘old’)

IMAGES/SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler

All screen graphics are in very early development yet, and don’t have any dynamic lighting added yet (candle light flicker, sunlight etc.)

SECTION B: CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• 
  You play a, down on your luck, antiques dealer. Who has been hired by the last remaining son of an old aristocratic family to search ‘the old pile,’ his ancestral home, for a list of possibly overlooked treasures. Although your employer appears a bit furtive about the transaction you need the money. And were persuaded by the promise of a 10% commission on anything you find.

SECTION C: STORYLINE/PLOT

Spoiler

• 
  The game starts out with you entering the house with your list of rumoured ‘treasures’ and begins as a find-the-item search/puzzle type game. As you discover more items weird things start happening as ‘monsters’ begin to attempt to hinder you from your task. Once you have the items on you list you make for the front door.
  
  This is where a normal fetch-task game would end, but instead of fleeing the house you find yourself back in the house but in the past.
  The game now becomes more story driven as you see the events play out behind the items you have just collected.
  At this point the game is a bit more ‘interactive novel’ like, with the players ignoring you, and going through their story. With what you find out depending on what you do and where you go.
  Although, you are also followed by the monsters/ghosts previously encountered, which now seem les frightening and more pleading, asking you to do the ‘right’ thing.
  In the end it turns out that these restless spirits want something specific to happen to the collected objects and not for them to be sold at auction. You, the player, have to decide what to do. Help yourself and your family with your cut or do as the spirits want, which invariably means destroying or loosing your loot in some way.
  
  **I’m not sure what style to employ for the second part yet. It can be similar to the first part and only slightly more visual-novel like. Or I can try for an all-out visual novel approach. I would welcome thoughts on this.

SECTION D: SETTING AND/OR WORLD DEVELOPMENT

Spoiler

• 
  The gameplay is all set in an old house...
  The initial setting is in the present day, where the dilapidated and almost stripped bare house is a shadow of it’s former self. This is where the item-search type gameplay is done.
  The second half of the game is set in the same house, but in the past where scenes of the history of the items you have collected are shown. Along with the outcome of your choices.

I know this idea is a bit different from most games on here, but would appreciate your thought on this.

Thank you for looking.

 

[Finnuval]

This seems interesting at the very least. As for your questions ;

How much, if any, hint that the game changes later on should be in the first stage?
Does the first stage sound too dry to hold your attention?
Would the graphics style be interesting, or just put you off?
Would ‘old’ music, played low in the background, put you off?
(By old I mean classical to (intentionally) scratchy 1920 and up. Not pre-2000 which a lot of people would now call ‘old’)

- Very small hints should be given it eluded at but remain a mystery in my opinion.

- no if presented with a good insentive and mystery (hence the small hints) it could be rather fun I think.

- it doesn't put me off however due to the very bright white I wouldn't be able to play it as my eyesight isn't that good and this literally hurts my eyes. Maybe adding a menu choice that allows for a filter (like sepia) could open it up to a larger audience that has the same issues as myself?

- I am pretty fond of old 20's music so that's definitely not a turn off and neither is classical. Beside that I think it fits the setting very well and that's what is most important in my opinion.

Despite not being able to play this due to the earlier mention of the brightness of white I am curious to see where this will go.

Good luck

 

[Garryg]

Thanks Finnuval,

I was thinking about adding a graded sepia filter to make it resemble an old photograph, but the intent is to have filters over the various 'rooms' some will have dynamic lighting for things like candles and fires etc. Some wil be darker than shown now with 'pictures' over them at various opacities.

Thanks, interesting is a good start

​

Ps. I added a link to some test footage on YouTube. The video is a bit janky, but the game plays fine!?

 

[Garryg]

I've done a bit more work to this now. There are 6 'treasure' objects tat can be collected now, and some more of the game-pay elements are beginning to be developed. There is also an inventory that has to be maintained with only five items being carriable at once (I may change this).

The idea is that more untoward things start happening with the increasing amount of treasure objects found. Some of these effects are present just now but not much. The idea is to make small easily overlooked changes at first, escalating until you are being chased around the house.

These are still version one graphics, but hopefully they give an idea for the look of the game.


The second half of the game is set in the past and will use different graphics and be more 'visual novel' in style focusing more on characterisation than on the collectathon of the first part.


I've added a simple walkthrough of some of the object collecting, when playing the game the players will have to work this out by searching for and reading clues, so you arn't getting the 'story' here.

And there's still placeholder stuff and a few loos options text to tidy up as a lot isn't completed yet.

I would appreciate any honest opinions on this.
Sorry, it's a bit long, at around 10 minutes, but I wanted to show more or less what I've got so far (I haven't shown every option etc!




Thanks for looking.

 

[Garryg]

After I add the last four search items I would be looking for a couple of people willing to play-test the first section of the game.
I'm looking for feed back on any glitches you can find/make as well as general feedback on how easy or difficult the items were to find. The first few should be relatively easy, where others may not be findable until later on in the game after certain events have taken place. Also do you think the concept works as a game?
Some story elements are also still to be added.

The is still a fair bit of work to be done on adding and refining in-game effects and graphics, but any comments on these as they are now would also be welcome.

Please let me know if you would be interested in playtesting.

P.S. I know the start and menu sections still need a lot of work, but this will be done later, towards the end.


P.P.S. Do you think the screen is still too white!?



Thank you for reading,

 

[Garryg]

Hello, I've added all the collectable items to part one of this now:
Although some elements are still to be added.

I would really appreciate it if someone could attempt the collection part of this and let me know how difficult or easy they think it is, what instructions 'if any' need to be added, and what there impresion of the game and story is with what's there so far.

It shouldn't take you too long to do this part, I can 'speed run' it in around 6 minutes (if I only do what is strictly necessary, in the best order, and don't even stop to look at the score/stats/menu).
In normal play I'd think someone would be doing good to get the first three objects in six minutes though. One of this things I would like to know is how long it would take someone to do this part.

As I said much of the atmosphere and story elements are still missing. But I would like to get peoples impressions at this stage. If you contact me I will give you a working copy of the game to date.

PS. finishing part 1 and' escaping' just dumps you into the part two game map just now, although this is currently just an empty map. This won't be what happens in the finished game.

Most of all, do you think it's shaping up to be any good?

 

[Garryg]

I havent had the time to work on this for a while, but have just started doing some preliminary work on the second part of the game, which is going to be more story based.
The player is transporte to a strangely empty version of the house where portals appear giving glimpses into events of the past.

I'd appreciate any feedback on this, especialy in relation to how the first part plays.

 

[Garryg]

I've heard on other forums that a lot of RPG Maker games are only played by people that use or are interested in RPG Maker games. Is this true?

If it is do you think this game would be recognisable and interesting enough to be playable by the RPG (player) community. Or would this be shunned as it's not really an RPG game?


PS. I've got most of the framework in place now and mostly only have to write all the 'story' parts for the secong half of the game, which is a bit more 'Visual Novel' like, whare the first part is more Adventure/Puzzle/CollectEmUp.

 

[kyonides]

Well, in my very personal case I wouldn't be eager to play a visual novel heavy episode. Can't you make it more interactive?

Any game could be played by the community if it's interesting enough... and gets rid of bugs. That's something people don't forgive easily as I've noticed by personal experience.

 

[Garryg]

Thanks for replying, Only the second half will be visual-novel ish in that you 'talk' to people and maker a decision to ether keep or use each item you have collected.

This is my first attempt at a trailer for it which shows a small part of the 'talkie' section towards the end...

 

[Garryg]

Added a bit more to this, the health counter is now added for when you get hit, and four of the 'story choices' have been (more-or-les) implemented out of 8 for the second part.
I've also added a few of the transion screens, and updated the possible (standard) end-games screens.

Going to have to get it properly play-tested and start thinking about how to advertise it soon. It's my first propper RPG Maker game so I'm still just thinking about releasing it for free, but that sort of lets Steam out!


PS. I'm working on a better video that shows more, but shorter, clips.