RMMV Valley of Challenge (first attempt at RM)

[Lynx Cat]

Hello there! This is my first attempt at an RPG Maker game, so please be forgiving I'm using only standard RTP material, not just resources but even heroes (renamed and reskinned though) and enemies, as well as "standard" gameplay, just to get myself acquainted with game design. My goal here is to get a hang of game balance and flow and such.

Play online (itch.io website) - REVISED

Synopsis: Explore the five dungeons of the Valley of Challenge, battling monsters and acquiring treasure along the way, while aiming to fulfill the quests you will be given at the Adventurer’s Hall. Valley of Challenge is a classic turn-based fantasy RPG where you take the role of Laurasia the elven mystic fencer, Guthred the warrior, Alberic the mage and Ellania the archer-priestess, who find themselves drawn to a mysterious world where their abilities will be put to the test. Featuring five regions, each with its own Adventurer’s Hall where characters can rest, buy equipment and acquire quests; a wilderness area with custom encounters; a dungeon, with treasure and monsters; a boss guarding each dungeon; and a final boss in the end of the game. Help the four heroes defeat the ultimate evil to uncover the secret purpose of the Valley!

This game is rather simple in plot and structure, as it’s meant mostly as a test to get myself acquainted with game design. Therefore, feedback is greatly appreciated, especially in regard to things such as map and dungeon design, difficulty, monster/treasure/etc. balancing, and so on.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

[padr81]

One bit of advice I can give you is your maps are too square and too empty.

The first map "hall of adventurers" is pretty good, just a bit square and a little bare in the middle.
The overworld map is again ok
The first issue is your dungeon map is way too square and looks like you used random generator to create it. Even when that is used the maps need to be tweaked to avoid looking big square and empty.

Encounters happen way too often and the combat being very default and straight forward gets kind of old.

For a first attempt with the software though its very good in general and far superior to mine. I haven't played too far but I liked the intro. Not too long, no wall of text and straight to the game with just enough story. The cutscene is very well done.

I'd suggest building on this now its here. Get to know working with plugins and watch some mapping tutorials to get a feel for what I'm on about.
For example heres my take on your opening room in the dungeon. Its far from what I'd consider a good map but it should point you in the right direction.


Keep working on improving it and congrats on getting a demo done and dusted. Its more than 90% of people who own and rpg maker ever do.

 

[GoodSelf]

Keeping it short and simple - a great way to begin developing with RPG Maker.
Although the story doesn't particularly interest me, I am interested in meeting these characters you've created.
Perhaps there is something I don't yet know, like the secret of the Valley.

I wish you the best of luck on your project, and if you're looking for any advice/feedback/playtester, just let me know!

 

[Lynx Cat]

Wow, thanks a lot for the replies! Wasn't expecting such a quick response... and thanks for the feedback!

The maps are done by hand (I tried the dungeon generator, but the one in RMMV only generates completely linear dungeons), but I see your point. Yes, it's very simple and bare, both in mapping and story, but after fooling around for far too long without really doing anything I thought I'd whip up something quick, just so I can have at least one game that can actually be played, even a very simple one Will begin work again on a project that never got beyond drawing maps for the first village and first dungeon floor (it doesn't have classes or enemies so it isn't playable). Thanks again!

 

[Edgre]

Neat. I only had enough time to get through the first dungeon and move on to the next area.

What I liked: how you handled the interactions with the people was great. So was the intro.

I also felt like there were a LOT of encounters. Also, got frustrating that all the encounters were "invisible" which I think means random encounters? IE, you could never avoid them, only try to run away. Big boss fight in the first dungeon was interestingly different from the others and challenging enough. Was surprised with how good you were with having events for interacting with things in the Inn but then I didn't get much of that in the dungeon. The dungeon felt very much samey-samey all the time. A small variety of monsters, but very blocky and straight forward. Very linear in the approach to the adventure, not much in the way of options. (That is, one and only one path in and out.)

I did feel a lot of times where things just slowed down on my screen. I assume that's just my PC/browser, not the game itself, because it didn't seem to me like you were straining the system to its limits or anything.

Overall, though, that seems like a solid foundation to build on. I hope my first game holds up to that standard.

-Edgre

 

[Lynx Cat]

Thanks! Yes, I think I spent relatively too little in the dungeons, especially compared to the Adventurer's Hall Got in a bit of a rush to finish the game soon. But who knows, I might come back to it and spruce them up a bit... I'll have to think about how to handle encounters as well, so they're not such a pain to go through.

As for the slowdown, I think it comes from the hosting website. It hung up a bit for me too when I tested it at the site, but it runs smoothly locally. Well, that's just a matter of finding a better place to host things when I get more serious about it, I guess.

Thanks a lot for the playtesting!

 

[Arithmetician]

Well, the hosting website worked smoothly enough for me, though there was no sound.

Yeah, the encounter rate is a bit high, and there seemed to be an awful lot of rats until I started encountering some of the other enemy types.

Still, for what it is, a rudimentary RPG, something compact like the adventurer's halls work.

I agree that the dungeon design could use some work.

 

[Lynx Cat]

The lack of sound is probably because it hasn't finished downloading from the site. The music at least tends to take a while to come in the first time the game is played in any given computer, but comes in at the right time afterwards, so I think it's that.

 

[JMsoup]

Cool game! Just started trying it and noticed in the 'control tutorial' and I think you meant the X to be a Z in the sentence "Press Enter, Space or X to interact..."?

Spoiler

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[Lynx Cat]

Good catch! I keep mixing the two (Z and X) up. Thanks!

 

[Lynx Cat]

Revised version is up! It's on itch.io now. I've revamped combats and random encounters a bit to make the game less tiresome (hopefully) without affecting progression. Haven't had time to revamp the dungeon maps though. I'd appreciate it if you could give it a try