The World of Shidel

[Espon]

The World of Shidel

​

General

RPG Maker VX Ace is out! Lets see how quickly I can make a game from scratch!

This is a solo project I’ve been working on. I mainly did this project to get back into the RPG Making groove and to discover any neat tricks. However instead of keeping it to myself, I decided to share it (unlike my other projects). Feel free to look around at the events and in the database if you’re curious how anything works. Veterans probably won’t get much use out of it.

Started from scratch, it took me a couple weeks to make. Since this was a non-serious project I did just to play with the program, don't expect much in way of custom graphics or scripts. I'm not much of a scripter either, so I try to handle things via events and such. It was originally supposed to be about 1-2 hours long but I started to get a little carried away the further I developed the game. The game is mostly done, but I'm posting in Development for now incase other people find any major issues that need fixing.

I probably won’t be coming back to this game to make any major changes unless it’s to fix a serious bug. Rather start working on another project.

Story

Shidel is a small and mysterious world. It can easily take a person only a few minutes to walk around it. In the center stands a crumbling tall tower surrounded by mountains and rushing waters.

You wake up in a bed in the Last Stop Inn after apparently taking a 4.5 year long nap. Much like yourself, others have also gotten stuck in this strange world. With their aid, you seek out to discover the mysteries of Shidel and to try to find a way home.

Features

• Marvelous RTP graphics and music (you know you like this stuff)
  
• VX Ace battle system
  
• Seven playable characters, none from the RTP
  
• No random battles while in dungeons
  
• Slightly varying endings based on choices throughout game
  
• Spider enemies!
  

Characters

Spoiler

The Hero (default Mina)

This is you, a trained hunter. You've been sleeping for the past 4.5 years after being punched in the head.

Bear - Lazy Drunk

A knight that spends most of his time in taverns. Always drunk, it's very unlikely you'll ever find him sober. Doesn't remember how ended up in Shidel, was passed out at the time. He's built like a tank, able to force enemies into attacking him and then endure the blows.

Natalie - Obligatory Catgirl

An annoying feraline caster. She tends to butter up her speech with cat noises and frequently makes jokes. She ended up in Shidel after taking a portal while searching for a mysterious artifact that may help cure her sick sister.

Al - Vampire Priest

He's not a vampire, or so he says. While looking for something he ended up taking a portal into Shidel. He specializes in healing spells and supporting others. Also, he's not a vampire.

Socks - Dance Master

This guy loves to dance. He thinks almost every situation can be solved with dancing. It's just too bad most of his dance routines end in disaster, which is how he ended up in Shidel. He can do a bit of everything: Tank, damage, and heal.

Sugar - Party Queen

Always pepped up on sugar, her mind is always racing and she frequently loses track what's going on around her. She's the one responsible for knocking you out for the past 4-5 years. She prefers to fight on the front lines using dual weapons.

Azure - Schizophrenic Elf

An unfortunate mage that dabbled in some dark magic and after a failed ritual, he now shares his body with a demon. The demon isn't very happy about this situation either and frequently belittles him and those around him. His attempts at trying to purge the demon failed and he accidently warped himself to Shidel. He prefers to fight with magic.

Screenshots

Spoiler

Download - v1.1

http://www.mediafire.com/?4ehjab2bf2l7aqr

Requires RTP to run

Known Issues

• Enemies sometimes trigger an extra battle if you get mobbed.
  

Credits

• Espon: Development, sprite edits, script, etc
  
• Enterbrain: RPG Maker Ace
  
• Mana Khemia - Gust: Treasure theme
  
• Other resources: http://www.geocities...ra/vxchara.html
  

 

[vociferocity]

"features: spider enemies!"

lmao brilliant. seriously though, this sounds fun! dling it now, will have more to say after I've played it haha

 

[Physeter]

Well, I'm through until the Green Emerald and I must say - WANT to say - that I like your game! Although the battles are a bit boring

Spoiler

Once entered a dungeon, there are always the same 2,3 enemies. And somehow these "random" battles are all the like. That is until one can reach the boss. But I guess exactly this point is the hardest to make and balance in a game.

, but I definitely like your characters! You have funny ideas (best scene so far is Socks dancing on the tables!! *LMAO*) and your chars are nuts, but in an funny, interesting way!

 

[Espon]

Yeah, the random battles can get a little monotonous at times. I could of probably added more types per dungeon, although there's only so much you can do with the default battle system since it's fairly basic. I tried to make the bosses more interesting though by scripting out their battles somewhat. I'm trying to incorporate a more interactive battle system with the next game I'm working on, so that it's more than just selecting some attacks then watching....still working out the details though.

Glad you're enjoying it though. Socks was definitely one of the more fun characters I wrote for.

 

[Dactrius]

I downloaded and put about an hour or so into your game before I got a little bit too frustrated with the difficulty and gave up. The most noticeable thing I'll say is that it's not a very well-balanced game as far as the battles are concerned. It starts out overly easy (The earliest thing I wrote down was that the combat was just too effortless) and eventually the battles became the polar opposite and I lost the momentum I had going. I got to the battle with Samson and Samantha and after they creamed me I stopped playing. I will offer my thoughts though, because aside from the difficulty, this game is fantastic.

+ The music is very fitting. It's a bright, jolly game and the earlier music especially reflects it.

+ Almost everything in the town is interactible. I love that attention to detail.

+ The humour is absolutely perfect. This is probably the funniest RPG Maker game I've ever played. It's not 'in-your-face, try-too-hard' humour, it's very subtle yet direct. Socks' table dancing and Samson punching the clown out of the window were definite highlights.

+ Your characters are really well done. You're obviously a very talented writer. Every one of them felt unique and different and oddly for an RPG Maker game I became quite attached to them as if I was playing a professional title. Azure stood out quite a bit due to his dual-personality and shifts in his expression.

+ I assume you used a script for the repeating world map. That blew my mind at first.

+ The first boss, Queen Dinh'Cara was very well balanced.

+ I didn't finish the storyline but it's very curious. I had a couple of theories about what was going on, although I think I was thinking too much into it. Are they all dead? The world seemed like Limbo.

- Natalie had a couple of colour errors in her messages. When you talk to her originally and tell her you're a funny person and then later in the field after you've cleared the first tomb and she's telling jokes.

- I wrote down that Al could do with some kind of offensive ability as he does next to no melee damage and can only heal. I later realised he gets Smite, but this might come a little too late? I don't think this is really important in hindsight, but it's something to consider. When battles are easy early on and you're not taking much damage, he feels kind of useless.

- The combat is criminally unbalanced and in the later stages very monotonous. While early battles were easy and fast (Perhaps boringly so) they very quickly shifted into becoming frustrating and tedious. Your range of skills and characters are excellent, but sometimes there are too many enemies or they're too powerful. I also don't like that one enemy on the map screen can wait until you're done with a fight and then tag you immediately after you've finished fighting his buddy. I'll happily concede that perhaps I just didn't level enough and it's my own fault (You did warn us early in the game), but even so the sharp curve in difficulty felt very unnatural.

Overall this is a strong title even though it looks and feels deceptively simple. I was entertained throughout the whole thing and had a good few laughs. It was definitely time well spent. I realise this is a complete game and you've moved on to another project but if you ever felt the need to go back and adjust the difficulty I feel it could be much stronger. If there's anything you feel I should see after the part I stopped playing, I'll put in some time and effort to go and grind out some levels and finish the game. But it's not something I would do autonomously, I'm not really into overly difficult games if I'm too honest.

I look forward to seeing more stuff from you, you've left a good impression.

 

[Physeter]

Alright, I went on. And maybe I came up with what made the battles a bit boring: It is, that every party member has its strongest attacks only after the first round. I guess it would be ok for some of them, but with ALL of them this way the random battles are all alike.

And to the dragon: This is a role playing game, a GAME, it lives from interaction. I abso-fu§$%-lutely hate it, to not be able to DO something. CMON! A spell which can bound EVERY party member to not be able to DO something, and that Socks-guy with his Chakra-power is not even able to unbound the party! CMON! Give me a chance to DO something!

I know, this game is settled and that's ok, but maybe for the next time. Its absolutely frustrating to always spend your honey on two or three party members, not being able to hit that dragon for several rounds because there is no item that heals the whole group. During battle you're kind of wasting time for staying alive and IF you're going back to business that ****ty dragon cast that ****ty spell AGAIN! And AGAIN!

I'm sorry if I'm going overboard here a bit, but that is really frustrating!

 

[Espon]

Nah, feedback is good. It's my first game and it helps me know what I need to do and avoid in the future. I rather people tell me exactly what is it they like and what is wrong with the game.

Unfortunately my trial of RPG Maker VX Ace has expired and I haven't gotten around to purchasing it quite yet, but perhaps I'll release an updated version with some of these fixes in mind when I do get around to buying it.

 

[Physeter]

So! I went through and I must say: I definitely like your little game!

The best features are of course your unique characters! You seem to care about them AND -more important- you made me think that you seem to care about them.

Your game has funny dialogues and I was enjoying to read them.

Both ingredients are mixed into some remarkable cut scenes. You're really making a big effort to build them up.

I did wrote about your battle balancing, you know that already. I changed the party members, that Al is a more capable healer. I went without him, too, into the last battle against Shidel and regretted it dearly. Yes, maybe there were too many enemies on every floor, or maybe the floors were too small for such a number, I don't know.

You made a good use of the new ACE features, especially with the Assessoires equipment.

Overall its a good game and I would be proud if my next game would be somehow like yours!

Edit: Oh yeah, how did you change the face of Azure in the same text box?

 

[Espon]

Coming up with the characters is definitely one of the more enjoyable things I like doing when making a game. I thought I was being weird chuckling to myself when writing some of the dialog though. <.<

I was going to give Socks an AoE heal but I completely forgot about it (among a couple other things). I did beat the game without using Al at all on my first play through it so it is possible. It does help if you give Natalie or Azure the medical license though.

I'll probably release an update for the enemies, as well as a few other fixes when I finally get around to buying the program (been too busy working on sprites for my next project). Got some ideas on what to fix from the feedback that was given.

For changing Azure's face, it's just a little trick of skipping to the next message and making the text instantly appear (\^ and \> commands I think they are).

 

[Des]

]Seven playable characters, none from the RTP

character generator is RTP

 

[Espon]

I meant none from the premade characters. Some of the character creator's sprites were also edited though, ranging from very subtle changes (Al, Azure) to redrawing large portions of the sprite (Natalie, Sugar v2). Portraits are a different story since I'm not as good when it comes to editing them.

 

[Espon]

Oh hey an update!

Finally got around to buying RMVXAce and decided to do a few quick changes based on feedback.

Not a full list but some of the more important changes:

• You now start the game with some money and healing items.
  
• Al starts with Smite.
  
• Socks learns Healing Song and can target Chakra on allies.
  
• Reduced the number of enemies on the map and weakened certain enemies in combat.
  
• Experience, money, and droprates from enemies boosted.
  
• Poison damage reduced.
  
• Certain mass status effect skills hit only 1-3 targets now (such as from Lunch Bandits and Tjalgara).
  

Hopefully the reduced enemy count and power makes things not as repetitive and frustrating. Not much else I can do that doesn't involve overhauling abilities and adding a bunch of more enemy types..

Can download it here

http://www.mediafire...4ehjab2bf2l7aqr

 

[TheSakox]

Pretty good game ! The music was awesome.

 

[Dalph]

This deserves for sure more attention, it's mostly RTP, but still much better than a lot of games out there, I loved particularly the well written (and original) characters, the funny dialogues and the cutscenes.

Overall it's a great, fun and enjoyable game, took me around 3 hours to do everything.

 

[Artificer]

Hello, i review your game and this is the review i made:



Start with the things you do well are the way you use the default rpg maker resources, they are well used, and I must tell that the structure of the maps are well designed, I check how many object you can interact with and everyone has a well thinking answer, the way you implement the start is cool, I can feel the free to talk with everyone and after decide who put into my party, the shop menu is awesome I wonder if is an engine or a script, I want to do that in my game.

The history that the game tells, likes me a lot; the mystery mixed in this case with particular humor of the characters make it pretty memorable, this is a history that makes me remind LOST or similar, by the way my mind explode with a lot of possibilities and things to do in your world maybe more than I should have haha.

I can tolerate well playing as a female character in the game but the most of the time I get not involved too much with the game unless like in your case you create this atmosphere of “make want a male player take care of her”, that is what works with me in this game.

And I think the most valuable thing of your game, is the hard work, I have seen a lot of games well rated that does not have this particular focus on the speaking and character details and more important and awesome thing of you, the fact of making optional dialogues, that makes me feel so good about the hard work you should pass there, I really enjoy all the characters to select a party with.

Ok, I particularly does not like the big map walking because the map size logic does not fit for me, I was like expecting a road to cross or something affecting a little the game flow, I get it that it can save time and all and is good for the demo but could be better adding more maps in the finished game for upgrade the experience but is not necessary at all as long the main flow continues as you start.

There is a bug at the beginning on the game, I was wondering how can you hide the character for making her sleep and then I just walk under the bed and see the trick I think you should put something to block that path like in the other room, the dirty one.

If you can use original music or less listened ones and one than another original resources, pic, icon image or something your game will have more than 9,for a demo is pretty good, your game is an example of how do a good demo start.

Well I will save your game in the recommended ones and if you like to do a playtrought just tell me.