Newbie friendly? Not. 20 hour 'filler' epics? Nope.
Going through the current 'alpha' demo of LoTL, I realise that the game probably isn't very, let's say, newbie friendly. This is apparent when it comes to some of the puzzles that need to be solved in the game and they lack audio cues (
i.o.w, no sound will play when you've moved an object onto the correct pressure plate, let alone a message pop-up ).
Or the controls for solving such puzzles (
like holding down the Shift key and Z ) to pull something towards you. Or for the stealth system that the player could actually break those little red bottles to distract the guards ( when you first control Darcy ). The battle music is a bit slow paced as well, but I found a better track (
sourcing battle music is one of the hardest things to do ).
I'm relatively new to the whole puzzle-solving aspect of RM games, but I'm getting my head around them, slowly but surely. I want to do an extended demo release ( 3 hours is still pretty long for a demo, given the game's eventual ( hopefully ) 20+ hour 'epic' length RM game aim, but at the same time, I don't want to do too many demo releases either. Given that the game has only been on this site for three months (
but I'm fairly happy with the number of downloads for a 'lull season').
For the extended 'beta demo', I was thinking of adding in the first major story line dungeon, Silo Eight (
a five floor fortress.. Heh, alliteration ), a major boss fight and another Darcy chapter. It will be called Intertwining Fate (
because that's where her path and Tristian's cross ), but I also want to do the story-branching path as well, where the player can choose either Tristian's route or Darcy's. Given that I love both main characters so far, I won't mind doing this at all, and it adds to game replayability as well. Mind you, the game will be approaching 4.5 hours with
no fillers at all (
sidequests, extra dungeons, hidden bosses/chars etc. The kind of thing that 90% of devs rely on to make their games longer ). My aim is to make a decent length RPG ( 10 - 15 hours ) without all of that junk. Only after the main story is done, will I look to that. Yes, I don't exactly hold filler content in high regard.
What I have planned for the beta is ( apart from the stuff mentioned on top ):
- Visual/audio cues so the player knows when they've solved a particular puzzle.
Pressure plate system with movable statues. The doors to this area are controlled by pressure plates. Coloured orbs above the doors will indicate whether the door is unlocked or not.
- May include an in-game guide listing status effects, character profiles and their battling styles.
- Better balancing for some status effects.
- May reduce the MP cost of some skills
- Traps that may give game overs if the player isn't careful. An ! sign will appear over the char's head if there is danger in the area. However,
the player can disarm them.
Lady of the Lion is my most ambitious undertaking, but it's far too early to say whether it will reach the same level of success as Enelysion. Of course, I need feedback as to how
crappy/good/great/godly I'm doing at the moment, otherwise, I'm left with even more stuff to test on top of the new stuff I add to the game. ><
Anyone who is interested as a tester may PM me.
