timeblazer - Old-School Action meets RPG Strategy

[Wavelength]

~ CLICK HERE to download it now at the IGMC Contest Page! ~

I created my IGMC entry timeblazer with one primary focus: create unique gameplay that people will truly enjoy playing.  I feel like I got the 'enjoyment' part right, but so far I've failed spectacularly - and I mean spectacularly - at the 'people' element of that equation.

With so many other entries out there with frankly better marketing than I was able to provide my own game, timeblazer has flown way under the radar since its release on the final day of the contest.  I decided it was time to open up a topic here and shamelessly promote my work to you (yes, you!) and humbly ask that you give it a try if you've got the time.

I know there are nearly a thousand other contest games you could spend that hour with, but if you give timeblazer a chance, I bet you'll find things you didn't think RPG Maker can pull off - and more importantly, I think you'll have a good time doing so.

I'd truly appreciate any feedback about what you liked, what you didn't, and what you'd like to see in future versions of the game.  And I'm willing to pay back the favor - if you're also looking for people to try out your IGMC game and give you an honest opinion about what works and what doesn't, post a link alongside your comments and I'll be happy to give your game a run.

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A few things you'll be able to look forward to if you've got an hour to try out my game:

Action Sequences like you've never seen before in RPG Maker

Shoot down spy probes from atop a high-speed train, slip-slide on icy hills as you dodge giant snowballs, keep track of a shapeshifting impostor as he mingles with unsuspecting townsfolk, and race for the finish line as gelatinous slimes try to bounce you into the abyss - just a few of the dozen-plus experiences waiting for you in timeblazer's action courses.

Spoiler

Each action game is only about a minute long, but I promise you'll find at least a few that will challenge your expectations about RPG Maker.  They're fast, they're fun, and most will put both your reflexes and your tactics to the test.

At the end of each action course, you'll receive a rank based on your performance, from the lowly "D" to the incredible "S".  You'll want to score as high as possible, because your rank determines the bonuses you'll receive in...

Battles that don't suck

When it comes to RPG battles, I firmly believe in quality over quantity.  There are less than half a dozen battles in timeblazer, but each one is a unique experience with its own twists, its own goals, and its own bits of chatter.

Spoiler

Additions to the default battle system such as Skill Cooldowns, an enhanced Critical Hit system, and Rank-based bonuses mean that you'll never, ever find yourself in that stale JRPG pattern of Attack-Attack-Attack-Heal-Attack.  Figure out a winning strategy and make use of unique skills to take down a set of equally-unique foes.

And if things are going well, make things exciting for yourself - try to accomplish the optional "Battle Mission" for a given fight by completing an extra goal or winning in a certain fashion.  Succeed in this challenging task and you'll score some choice loot!

A fun way to spend an hour (or three)

The presentation is simple and the story is just a fun, often playful and occasionally heartfelt romp alongside some (hopefully) likable characters.  With only a few weeks of development and one hour of game time to work with, I focused on creating unique gameplay that you will straight-up have fun playing, and I think timeblazer shows off that focus.

And between the randomized elements in action game setup, the wide variety of ways to play a battle, and the ability to buy different skills and gear to build your characters how you like, each playthrough should present something new and enjoyable to discover.

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Ready to test your skills?

timeblazer's contest page and download link can be found HERE!

* GOOGLE CHROME USERS: Because the official contest file is a .zip (containing both the game and manual), Google Chrome may identify it as a possible threat.  To avoid this happening, you can download the game and manual separately instead: ~ Download the Standalone Game ~ / ~ Download the Standalone Manual ~

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I would have never been able to do it if not for the wonderful playtesting, mapmaking, voicework, and advice from 1ce, Redeye, & TheHonorableRyu.  You guys are the best!

 

[Chiakscare]

It looks very interesting.

Would you mind me playing this game on the stream when the stream is officially ready?

 

[phoenix_rossy]

Chrome blocks the download, claiming it's malicious :/

 

[Wavelength]

It looks very interesting.

Would you mind me playing this game on the stream when the stream is officially ready?

I would LOVE if you did so!  I think it's the kind of game that, just based on the overall variety and quick pace, would play well with the streaming experience.

Chrome blocks the download, claiming it's malicious :/

Thanks for letting me know.  I have no idea why it's showing up as risky - the download is a Dropbox .zip file containing the RPG Maker game and a .doc manual.

I know I've only been here for a few weeks so I totally get that plays into trust too.  If it helps establish that I'm seious about game making and wouldn't try to pull any kind of trick, here's my Game Forum (including the Beta Test thread for this very game) at the RPG Maker Pavilion, where I've been established for several years, and haven't had any complaints about any type of malicious downloads.

Anyone know whether it would help avoid this happening on Chrome if I upload the game's .exe and documentation separately, rather than combining into a zip file?

 

[phoenix_rossy]

No, no, I don't doubt that it's virus-free. I've had the same issue with my own games in the past. I would recommend not zipping it- just distribute through the standard .exe that RM packs it into. 

I was interested in some of the unique 'action' features that you have in place. Did you code it all yourself? I'm always on the looking for a reliable coder, since I myself don't know Ruby. 

 

[Wavelength]

No, no, I don't doubt that it's virus-free. I've had the same issue with my own games in the past. I would recommend not zipping it- just distribute through the standard .exe that RM packs it into. 

I was interested in some of the unique 'action' features that you have in place. Did you code it all yourself? I'm always on the looking for a reliable coder, since I myself don't know Ruby. 

Ah, okay, I'm relieved that you knew I wasn't trying to do anything bad.  I'll upload an unzipped version of the game and manual in the next day or two, to hopefully make things easier for people using Chrome... thanks for pointing this out to me.

Yes, I wrote the code for the action games myself.  Most of them are done with a pretty even mix of Ruby code and creative eventing.  This was my fourth project messing around with Ruby, so I'm starting to get pretty good at it, though there were definitely times where I had to google for an RGSS keyword and found the answer in one of Shaz's posts or something.

I checked out your website and it looks like you've got some really good work going, so yeah, if you'd like for me to work with you to develop some advanced features or content for your game, I think I could go for that.  Feel free to Email or PM me if you're envisioning me joining your team and we can discuss more, or if you think you'll just need with something specific, then just post when the need arrives.

 

[phoenix_rossy]

I look forward to being able to grab a copy of your game then

 

[Wavelength]

Alright, the standalone .exe and .doc files are now available, to get around problems caused by trying to download the full .zip using Chrome.

Here they are: ~ Download the Standalone Game ~ / ~ Download the Standalone Manual ~

PR, please let me know if you have any issue downloading these files, or encounter the same threat warnings.  Thanks a bunch for following my game!

 

[phoenix_rossy]

Chrome is still blocking it, I'm downloading using IE. 

 

[hiddenone]

Thanks to the secret santa, now I get to play your game!  First off, let me be clear about my thoughts on mini games in general:  normally, I don't like them if they're based on speed and reacting quickly.  That's because I pretty much have the slowest reaction times of anyone (seriously, I've been hurt so many times in real life because I don't react quick enough   ).  So when I saw that your game had action sequences, my first thought was "Oh crap, I'm going to hate this..."

However, I actually really enjoyed this game!

The two characters were entertaining and seemed like a real couple.  I really liked the humor of the game, and the fact that it poked fun at itself sometimes and never took itself too seriously.  The mapping was basic, but served its purpose for the different stages.  My only real problem with the graphics were when you used the High Fantasy style characters, but that's because I just don't like seeing such different styles mixed together (I guess I'm just really picky  ).  I enjoyed most of the music, and it all seemed to suit the different levels.  The voice acting seemed well done, but it wasn't used very often which was too bad.

The gameplay was pretty solid.  Most of the mini games worked well (even if I did suck at them) and I enjoyed how different each boss battle was.  I liked the fact that I needed to think ahead in each battle to try to complete the battle missions, and that both characters' skills were so different from each other.  It was very wise of you to make it that if you failed a mini games a few times the game let you skip it (otherwise I doubt I would have finished the game).

I did run into a few problems.  During level 1's race through the holes and slimes, I kept getting trapped by the slimes and was unable to complete it.  The button mashing during level 2 seemed less like a mini game and more like a way to break my spacebar.  Also, shooting down the spaceship things didn't always work (I know I hit some of them but it didn't register!).  The dancing part seemed too fast, but that's probably just me.  Right before the level 2 boss fight, Lyra's sprite magically transformed into Telos, which was weird (I'm assuming it's a mistake).  I had a lot of trouble with the icy floors in level 3, but again that's probably because of my poor reaction speed.

One thing I would have liked was a pause button during the mini games.  I know it kind of goes against the idea of reacting quickly during the mini games, but I had to jump up while I was playing to stop a pet from hurting herself (stupid dog) and the mini games kept going.  It was a minor annoyance, but it's something to think about.

Overall, I liked the game and will probably play it again, after drinking a whole bunch of coffee to hopefully improve my reaction speed!

One last thing: my final score was 1284... Just how bad is that score?  And what's considered an excellent score?

 

[Wavelength]

Thank you so much for your thoughts on timeblazer - I loved reading them!  It is one of the greatest compliments I could get that the game could change your mind about (or at least prove an exception to) your dislike of RPG minigames.  Bgillisp had something similar, and I take a huge sense of pride from that kind of feedback.  And it's an even greater compliment to know that you plan to play it again, that truly makes me feel great to hear.

Two of my core goals when developing timeblazer were to reward strategic thinking, and to make sure the experience was always offering something interesting and a little different.  Things like the battle missions and the decision to not make the player repeat a "failed" action game were done with these goals in mind.

I'm thrilled that you liked the characters and the humor - I don't consider myself a strong narrative writer, but I did my best and crossed my fingers that people wouldn't roll their eyes.  The mapping was split between Redeye (who made the nice-looking maps like the 2nd and 3rd boss areas, the final boss chamber, and Telos/Lyra's home) and myself (who made all the other maps, which don't look as nice).  As unsure as I am about my writing, I am very sure that I am not a good mapper.   If I have the opportunity to take this game commercial, I'll definitely hire someone to improve my mapping!

Redeye and 1ce provided a lot of great voice acting lines and I was in the process of recording my own to add as well, the day before the deadline... when a critical bug was reported (where the game would simply close during battle under certain conditions).  I spent a long time finding the cause of the bug and made it my top priority to fix it, which I managed to do just in time for the contest (I ended up getting the fixed version uploaded 53 minutes before the final deadline!), and I didn't have the time to implement the full set of VA.  To honor their hard work doing the voice acting I found a few places I could include their lines at the last minute, and I'm really glad you liked it; the next version of timeblazer will have a ton more VA.

It means a lot, coming from you, that you felt there was a strong identity for each character's skillset in battle - I remember being pretty impressed at the way you did this in your own contest game.

I like your idea of adding in some way to pause the game during action stages and I'll look into whether it's feasible (based on the way I set up the eventing and scripting in the game) for the next version of the game.  If so, I'll add the feature.  Thank you for your suggestion!

To address specific issues that you had:

I did run into a few problems.  During level 1's race through the holes and slimes, I kept getting trapped by the slimes and was unable to complete it.  The button mashing during level 2 seemed less like a mini game and more like a way to break my spacebar.  Also, shooting down the spaceship things didn't always work (I know I hit some of them but it didn't register!).  The dancing part seemed too fast, but that's probably just me.  Right before the level 2 boss fight, Lyra's sprite magically transformed into Telos, which was weird (I'm assuming it's a mistake).  I had a lot of trouble with the icy floors in level 3, but again that's probably because of my poor reaction speed.

• Getting stuck between slimes during the "Slime Race" game is a legitimate way to lose it (and it's the reason why I have the minigame time out and fail you for that attempt after 30 seconds).  You can avoid having this happen by baiting a few slimes into falling into holes before you get too close to them, or to use your speed advantage to run around them in wide-open areas.
• The button-mashing "Power Up the Train" game has been one of the less-popular ones from the feedback I've received thus far.  I'll consider replacing it in future versions.
• The "Shoot Down the Droids" game appears to have slightly-off hit detection because of the position of the droids' graphics on the tile.  It's a very player-unfriendly element in what's otherwise my favorite minigame.  I plan to adjust the hitboxes in the next version to more accurately reflect what the player sees.
• I had to make the choice between "x2 Faster" (too slow) and "x4 Faster" (too fast) for the arrows in the Dancing game.  It was a tough decision and I ultimately chose to use the faster setting but be lenient in converting hits/misses to game score.  However, I think I've found the place in the code where I can change the movement speed of an event and make it move at a speed somewhere between two default speeds, so I'll slow them down a little in the next version.
• Thanks for reporting the sprite-changing bug; I'll check it out and fix it.  I have a feeling I know what's happening.
• In the first ("Gem Collecting") icy minigame, I will slow down the snowballs and gems a little in the next version.  I had trouble with this one too

1284 strikes me as a decent enough score; you probably earned a B grade or so on most stages?  Sadly I don't have enough players yet to really establish an "average", but my guess is that most people are getting Bs and Cs on their first run through the game.  A theoretical perfect score would be about 2400 (it varies very slightly based on the way the RNG spawns events), and anything over 1800 is spectacular; most games cap at 100 points, some games allow you to score more than 100 with a stellar performance, and bonus points are awarded for completing a battle mission or winning a battle with no KO'ed party members.

Alright!  Sorry for talking your ear off, but I was really excited to hear all this feedback.  Thanks again for playing and I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

 

[Archeia]

I think someone said most of my thoughts about this game. But I wanted you to know I enjoyed your game as well :3

 

[Wavelength]

Thank you, Archeia - that means a lot to me. =)

 

[Underwhale Z]

[SIZE=14pt]Timeblazer – Secret Santa Review[/SIZE]

Sorry about the late review! When I first downloaded the game I had no idea what to expect but found the blurb very enticing!  I feel that title screen music is very important when setting tone and I believe that you chose wisely! Was a combination of light-hearted light-heartings and nostalgic rpg maker tones! Reminded me a bit of sonic and though it was a bit cheesy I found it more likable for that reason.

Narrative Design:  3/5

Though it is a familiar theme, I adore the concept of characters living in the modern day being transported to another world/game etc. So much potential for cool things! How characters may react to this new world and how its denizens react to them is always fun to experience and provides many opportunities for humour. The choice of setting was an excellent decision for a short game.

One of Timeblazer’s greatest strengths lies in the fast-paced, straight to the point nature of the narrative. Scenes never felt overly long and the exposition was clear and concise. Though there was not much character development it did not really matter as I felt that gameplay took the front seat with the narrative mainly providing a setting.

The narrative was simple and straightforward with some foreshadowing which was cool! This wasn’t a bad thing though! I still felt compelled to see it to the end! Timeblazer did not require much brainpower to become invested due to the previous reasons. It is the kind of game that offers instant gratification without the need to work for it! Very satisfying! The fact that the characters become trapped within a video game perfectly ties the narrative with gameplay! Excellent choice!

Due to the nature of the game, there are only a few characters in Timeblazer, which was a good choice and allowed for the player to get a feel for the characters without too much exposition. Speaking of yon, they were all likable apart from one who was a dick (which was necessary!)

I liked the fact that the two lovers were split up and reunited at various points and that they recounted their adventures!

There are also many dialogue choices that allow you to shape the personality of Telos (main dude!) and the responses and opinions of Lyra (leading dudette!). This was an excellent addition which helped strengthen the narrative!

Though dialogue was good not outstanding I think Wavelength is a competent writer and the story flowed well. A scene I was fond of was when Lyra claimed: “If you die yer sleeping on the couch!” (Something close to that!)

Pros:

• Instantly appealing
• Fast-paced
• Likable characters
• Strong world setting and fun concept
• Dialogue choices
• Narrative ties in with gameplay nicely!

Cons:

• Characters don’t receive too much character development
• Some lines felt a bit unnatural

Gameplay:  4.5/5

This is where things get really funky! Given the month development time, Wavelength has managed to make a game filled with a horde of smaller games! So many games! I don’t know if you have played it but there was an awesome PSX game called Incredible Crises that was essentially a story wrapped around loads of unique and deranged mini games! Really good! Timeblazer made me reminisce! Again the concept was well chosen for the competition and perfect for an hour long game!

The game is split into a number of various game worlds that the player plays through in a linear fashion each with their own theme and boss. It’s both simple and effective! Each mini- game flows directly into the next which keeps tension high and the pace pacing! Fast pace is good! Although there were one or two mini-games that were similar (balancing rope) the rest were significantly different and easy to understand quickly! Well thought out! Got my ass kicked In DDR!

Each stage features a mini-game gauntlet concluding with an imaginative boss battle! These battles are very well thought out and stand out from the generic attack command mashing duels prevalent in many other rpg maker games! Each battle takes the form of a puzzle with the difficulty dictated by the performance of the player in previous challenges! Each boss battle contains a mission that will grant the player with extra items come the next battle depending on whether they accomplish the goal that is set. Dodgy sentence wroho! I really liked this feature and it adds greatly to replayabilty meaning the player can play in different ways if so they choose! (Skip missions for a harder challenge!) To make things even more interesting, Wavelength has added a refreshing, concise and incredibly enjoyable system for obtaining skills and new equipment. After a battle players receive one skill and item point to spend for each character! Where skills are concerned players may choose one of 3 choices making for some tough choices and unique character customization! Each level reveals new skills from which to choose from!

Players receive items by using item credits similar to buying skill points in the sense that you have one point to spend per character per level. Players can choose one type of equipment (Sword, Shield, Armour, Headgear etc.) to receive. Their choice is randomized. So a player good receive a “Rusty Spork” if they chose the Sword category or they could obtain a limited edition “Lizard Kill X” ! Kill those lizards!  The system is a stroke of genius and makes me think of ye olde school rpg games! Again it makes for a different play through every time!

Players also receive scores based on their performance of the mini games!  Seeing an ‘S’ rank is very satisfying! To be honest if the game did not give players a score for their efforts it would destroy it! Again an excellent decision that provides motivation and reward when churning through Timeblazer!

There were times however when I felt like I did really badly but ended up getting an ‘S’ rank! Weird!

All in all the gameplay was highly inspired and easily the strongest point of the game! Very impressed! Your battle and levelling system could make for a very interesting coliseum type game!

P.S

Cool way to recharge mana yo!  

Pros:

• Ranking system
• Skill and item system
• Each skill plays its part in defeating a boss
• Rechargeable mana/energy system
• Great customizability
• Fun and varied mini games
• Fast paced
• Scoreboard at the end!
• Inspired!

Cons:

• The method of purchasing skills and items for each character is clunky – need to exit out of the menu for each purchase!

Graphics/Mapping: 3/5

Urk! Running out of writing power! The mapping was nice and consistent! Liked what you did with the main’s humble abode! And the maps when inside the game are fitting and don’t distract the eye with needless details!

Yup!

Music and Sound!: 3/5

The music was well chosen! Some pieces where a bit cheesy, but good cheesy! Added to the charm! I loved the battle theme for the first boss! Reminded me of F-Zero! Neon City had a damn sexy beat too! Most other songs were very listenable and fun!

On the sound effect side, recorded voices were used on occasion. They weren’t amazing but were still good and used wisely so as not to annoy the player! A worthy addition that helped personalize the game!

Difficulty: 2.5/5

I wouldn’t say that the game is hard. If the player fails a mini game they will either move on to the next one or get to retry. This is done very swiftly which keeps up the quick pace which I like!

I never lost a boss battle but I presume it would be a game over? Still the battles were challenging! Would be very difficult if you ignored the missions meaning that the player has control over the difficulty! Mini-game difficulty is also dictated by the player. They can be seen as obstacles to overcome in order to progress the narrative or they can be tackled as you would an arcade game with score as the main priority! The game provides save points after each location meaning players can repeat a stage for a better score.

Overall: 3.5/5

Overall I had a lot of fun with Timeblazer! The competition length kept it fast and fresh while the mini-games and boss battles made for huge variety of play! The challenges were very well thought out! Players may view their final score after the game in the credits! I got 1655 points! Not sure if that’s good or bad hoho! It would be nice if you could pause the credits to better see the breakdown of your score. Or maybe a highscore viewerer for second playthroughs mebbe? Could be cool!

Twas a good game! Impressed! You have my congratulations! Hope that I haven’t come across as to negative in this review!

Wurd!

 

[Wavelength]

Thanks a ton for your thorough and enthusiastic review, Underwhale Z!  I love that you appreciated timeblazer's speed, replayability, and emphasis on making choices - these were my core design goals as I made the game, and the fact that they stand out as highlights of the experience mean that I succeeded with the elements that I really wanted to nail.

You say you hope you don't come across as too negative, but if anything, I'd say maybe you came across as too positive!   There are places you rated an element of the game as an average 3/5 and went on to say almost exclusively good things about it (graphics and sound, for example).  I take that as either meaning that there were parts of these elements that you disliked but are too nice to criticize me for, or that you thought they were kind of bland and unimpressive on the whole but that a few nice touches kind of "saved" the game for that category.

I'm glad you liked the meta elements of the story.  As cliche as the concept of "sucked into a video game world" is, it seemed so appropriate for a game that's kind of an homage to 8/16-bit action games, and it seems that wasn't lost on you, which is cool.  "Wavelength is a competent writer" is probably on the generous side; it's one of my self-admitted weaknesses in making games, though I appreciate the compliment.  If you can remember any lines or segments in the writing that felt weak, I'd love to know what they were so I can improve them.

I'm pleased that you like title screen music... but it was a mistake!!   I had meant to change it to something faster and sleeker, but realized that I had forgotten to do so as my game was uploading.  (Due to my extremely slow upload speeds and the fact that the contest deadline was only a few hours away, I couldn't go back and change it.  In the end, my second version (which fixed a fatal flaw) made the deadline by 55 minutes!)

As far as Neon City's music, it's "Hard Hitter", which I think is part of Joel Steudler's resource pack that came with the Humble Bundle.  "Hearts on Fire", another one of his compositions that I used for Crystal Cavern, was my personal favorite.

What a great feeling it was to see your high praise of the gameplay!  My chief goal in timeblazer was to create a fun and different one-hour game, per se, where the design and the mechanics could shine.  I worked hard on things like the story and visual touches, but they're meant to enhance the game, not to be the core experience.

I never got to play Incredible Crisis, but it sounds very cool.  If there was a commercial game that served as an inspiration... well, I wanted to be "the WarioWare that doesn't suck", I guess.  Originally the plan was to make each level an extensive series of fifteen-second microgames that you could pick up immediately, a la WW, tied together with a plot and RPG battles to make the experience feel meaningful.  Once I started making the microgames, however, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to make 50+ microgames in three weeks, so I went for minute-long action minigames with more strategic depth instead.

Did you have a few action minigames that stood out to you as favorites?  If I replace some of the less-popular games in the next version of timeblazer, I'd love to know what kind of action players have enjoyed so I can hit the mark.

I've also got to give you props on your 1655 score!  As of now I believe that's the highest anyone (player or playtester) has reported on their first run, so I'm not surprised to hear that you received some 'S' ranks even on stages where you thought maybe you weren't doing well.  Most of the games are designed so that they don't expect perfection - saving every single "Freezie" in Crystal Cavern in the fireball-shooting game, for instance, would not only require great reflexes and masterful planning, but also a bit of luck in the way the RNG spawns them - so you only need to save about two-thirds of them to keep up your pace for the S-rank (though the more you save, the higher your score will be).  I like giving the player the ability to challenge themselves and try for near-perfection, but when all is said and done I'd rather be forgiving than punishing.

I really like everything you said about the battle system (and its accompanying Missions and Skill Credits) - looks like I accomplished what I was hoping to there.  I always advise people to include important resources that either "recharge" or slowly build up during RPG battles; it creates an element of timing that you don't get in the standard HP/MP/Items setup, and subsequently adds a lot of strategic engagement.

The "Skill Shop" is a script from Hime Works, and the "Equip Shop" was done with some light scripting.  "A stroke of genius" - what a compliment!!  I'm pleased that you like the system and its potential to change things up with each run - this concept of replayability was one of my core design goals and it pervades the entire game.  Most minigames, even, are set up with random elements so it never gets stale - the number of reindeer to count in Crystal Cavern, the starting setup of lighted platforms in Neon City, and the placement of slalom flags are all examples of things that will change from one playthrough to another.

I agree that it's clunky to have separate Skill/Equip shops for each character.  I had to do it this way because of the way I swapped the Credits variables into the player's "Gold" stat; combining the skills into the same shop would mean that a player could, for example, use both of their credits to buy two skills for one character and ignore the other.  I thought about allowing this, but in the end decided that would be a disservice to the player.

You are correct in your assumption that losing a boss battle is Game Over.  Does the 2.5/5 score for this category mean that you think the difficulty was poorly-done (with a 5/5 meaning it's perfect), or does it simply mean that the difficulty was moderate (with a 5/5 meaning it's too hard)?

All credit goes to Redeye for the mapping of Telos and Lyra's home (and for any other map that looked good - the maps he took care of came out looking much better than the ones I did myself).

Once again, thanks for giving me such detailed and nice feedback - I truly appreciate it.

 

[Underwhale Z]

Will reply when I get time yo!

 

[Underwhale Z]

Okay reply time!
Sorry about the lateness! Just had an intense week of hardcore toil!

I'm writing this in reply to your reply to my review yo!
I'm going to respond in order of the subject of the contents in your reply for a satisfying reply! (okay I'll stop saying reply!)

Haha I'm really glad that the design goals where so evident! Pretty cool!

Ah I'm always worried that I write too negatively and that people will be offended! I guess I should have been stricter with what I meant to say.
I use alot of exclaimation marks (terrible problem!) which makes it seem like I'm shouting everthing! Music and sound wise I'd class a 3/5 as 'Good'. Al
I didn't notice anything bad and there were a few songs I really liked.
To rate something a 4/5, which would be 'Excellent', I feel that the music and sound would have to be consistantly high-standard as well as the placing!

Yeah I love 'Sucked into a videogame world' stories! Yup I felt Timblazer really stood out from other rpg maker games in the sense that gameplay was king! Love how you structured it! Did make it feel like an old game with the loaction introduction screens! Made me think of sonic!
Yup I thought your writing was consistent and characters never betrayed their character (if that makes sense?) I'd have to play again to let you know the
weak areas, really can't remember! I think one of the things (which I'm guilty of too) that weakened the dialogue was the lack of confict between the two central characters. They felt very nicey-nice but then again I'm not really one to judge haha!
I liked them though! They kept me interested in the story. By lack of conflict I mean that they seem to agree with everything the other says/does without
question but then again maybe I am remembering wrong!
Rated 3/5 because I thought it was good!

Haha I found the title music a bit cheesy but also very charming and it had I recognisable tune! Had it playing in the background whilst making a sandwich!
Sandwich music! Sets the tone of the game as a light-hearted one which I think you were going for?

Yup some of the songs were very well chosen! I'll have to listen to the crystal cavern one again!

I'm very impressed with the amount of varied gameplay you managed to add to the game in a month! And the level of polish!
An admirable achievement!

Play Incredible Crisis!!! You won't be disappoint!
I think you made the right choice making the mini-games longer!

It's been a while since I played so I cant remember which was my favorite!
I loved the fast paced nature though! How it rushed from one game to another without giving the player time to rest!

A good gauntlet!

Hoho! May play again for the ultimate score!
I think that approach will give you a wider audience!

Haha your battle system was sublime! So jealous! Would be amazing in any rpg!
Replayability is something that never seems to get enough focus!
You really pulled it off!

The skill/equip shops were clunky but it would have been bad if players could pick two skills!

Ah my mistake, I should have been clearer!
The 2.5 for difficulty has nothing to do with how well it was done but
with how difficult I found the game! So 2.5 would be middling difficulty!

Hoho you're welcome!