RMVXA Vermilion - DEMO v1.0 released 28 Jan 2018

[Shaz]

She says right under the map that it was created with Celianna's Map Maker (Photoshop)

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

Yeah, created with Celianna's map maker but I basically drew all over it. Thanks.

 

[AK47]

@A-Moonless-Night: The project is looking great!

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

Belated thank you to AK47 for your praise.

Haven't updated in a while. At the moment I'm churning out some database stuff, sussing out weapons and skills and my battle system. I'm using Yanfly's Weapon Mastery script, where you can gain skills depending on how much you use a weapon. The script describes it better:

"Weapon skills appear when certain weapons are equipped and after having used the said weapon enough times in battle. The weapon skills associated with the weapon are independent of what the user has learned through levelling or other means, but instead are dependent on how proficient the user is. Every single weapon can have different weapon skills even if they are the same weapon type, thus allowing the player a plethora of new options to explore when playing through the game."

I have 7 different weapon types: One-Handed Swords, Two-Handed Swords, Ranged, Polearm, Blunt Melee (which covers staffs and clubs), Knives, and Trauma (which covers hammers and axes). There are four weapons under each type. Each character will be able to use every weapon, but they will be more proficient with certain types and will learn more skills from them. For example, Antheia is highly proficient with a one-handed sword, so she will learn five skills in total over the period of the game (these are separate to the elemental skills the characters will learn from equipping Shards). So, A proficiency = 5 skills, B = 4 skills, C = 3 skills and D = 2 skills. There will be different skills for each weapon and each character ... so a lot of work for me, but hopefully more fun and playability for the player.

The weapon skills will appear under the 'Attack' tab rather than under the 'Skills' tab. I'm getting rid of plain old button-bash attack. All the weapon skills will have special terms of use (can't think of the right phrase); e.g., there may be an attack that strikes all enemies, but the character will need to rest one turn. I'm hoping this will make the battles interesting, but not time-consuming or boring. I appreciate that there are certain situations where you just want to button-bash out of a dungeon, so maybe I'll combat this by having easier battles; let me know what you all think.

I'm also thinking of having just one of each weapon available in the game ... not too sure how this will work when it comes to buying the weapons, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Suggestions are much appreciated!

TL;DR: Databasing, battle system, weapons, skills. I know, I write too much.

 

[B.Ultimus]

Your mapping is absolutely AMAZING. I'm blown away by this!

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

@BrettUltimus: Thanks a lot!

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

Woo, update time! It's been ... like ... a year. But that's okay. I haven't been idle this whole time. I don't really like updating every month or whatever and being like, "hey, I made a map!". I work pretty slowly because I have lots of things that take up my time in real life (like a 40+ hour working week, a dog, a partner, other hobbies ... etc.) but I like to think it'll all be worth it in the end!
 
So what have I been working on? Well, I've made all the forest maps for the first 'dungeon', I've remade Fort Engel (see comparison shots below—yay!) and I made an overworld map. The overworld map is on its sixth incarnation. I kid you not. I made that map SIX times and each time I just couldn't get the size right. But now I'm happy with it so I'm never changing it ever again.
 
I've also been databasing, which is always a treat. I like to do everything in Excel first because I hate changing things in the editor, so I'm trying to get it right first pop.
 
So, some screenshots!
 
Forest Maps

(there's seven different sections of forest, but I've just included a few screenshots because, let's face it, a forest is a forest)

Spoiler

 

 

 

 
Fort Engel

Spoiler

 
Old Version

I could never figure out what was so wrong about it, and it always annoyed me. I always liked the beach (which I've kept, but as a separate map) but hated the castle part.

 
New Version!

Yaaaay, so much nicer. I'm working on the inner part at the moment.
 

Including hot wave on wave action.

 
World Map
(thanks to Sonem for helping with the castle/port!)

Spoiler

The little boat bobs up and down and I think it's the cutest thing.

 

[Quigon]

I love that beach!

I will say though, the world map looks a little jarring compared to the nice parallax action you've got going. I guess it's dependant on whether or not your game's linear enough for it, but you could always draw a more realistic looking one with Cel's map maker and use it as a parallax, and just have some walkable paths between areas (Star Stealing Prince did something like that too - without that map maker mind you - and it was lovely).

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

Thanks, Gorlami! That overworld map will be the death of me, I swear, haha. I've been thinking about mucking around with the saturation and stuff so it looks a little bit more serious, but not sure. The game's pretty linear, but there's opportunities to explore other places throughout the game, which is why I thought this style of map would be the best.

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

I updated my blog (third blog post FTW—see my signature) but I suppose I should update all the things. I made a couple of changes to the OP: updated some features and the characters' weapons. I plan to do an overhaul of the screenshots when I've got some more, especially ones showing gameplay and stuff.

Also, I think I might have an approximate date in mind for the demo. I'm planning to get at least one map done per day in November as a kind of NaNoWriMo thing (NaGaMaMo?) and I'm making good progress on stuff now, so I should hopefully have a demo out by at least Christmas or early in the new year. I'll be on the look-out for beta testers around December before the demo's out, mind you. I'm hesitant to give an exact date right now, since there's still quite a bit to do. For example, I've plotted out the story in Word, so I know how things are going to go down, but I haven't done anything in-game yet, and I also have a bit of pixelling and face-making to do. I've enlisted the help of my cousin for pixel work, so that should lessen the load. Need to get some game music, too ... everything's silent at the moment.

Anywho, I appreciate everyone's continued support, and while the intended release date is some time in December/January, please don't burn me at the stake if that doesn't quite happen. D: I'm on a roll and I'm feeling confident. I want to at least get it out before February, because I've got a big lot of proofreading then that will take up most of my free time.

 

[SomaelCK]

Beautiful mapping skill!!!

I dunno if it's just me but the mappings reminds me of Suikoden II's maps (My fav RPG of all time).
Overall, very interesting looking project. Very ambitious.

Keep up the good work . *hoping to get the demo soon
 

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

I still exist, and so does this game! I remade the faces a couple of months ago and updated above, but here they are below as well.

I've also been churning out maps, but just haven't had a chance to take screenshots of all of them and hosted them somewhere. Y'all know how it is. Here's one, though:

 

[gRaViJa]

Look's really good. Keeping my eye on this one.

 

[CrazyCrab]

Wow, your mapping is amazing. And here I was, thinking that I'm ''pretty good'', huh .

I'll be keeping an eye out of this one, looks promising.

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

Okay, so I have a pretty exciting update. I don't know if everyone else will find it exciting, but I've been busting my ass trying to Event a random-encounter-and-alert system, and it's finally WORKING.

Here, have a picture:

So, to explain the system, a little box (top left) pops up to alert you when a battle is about to start, and you have about three seconds to press the Shift key to skip the battle. Doing so costs 'Battle Tokens' (which I may still rename, although I can't think of anything that makes sense in-universe, if you know what I mean—totally open to suggestions!) I think Battle Tokens will be dropped by some enemies, scattered around the world and purchasable from some shops.

Everything is Evented, which I'm pretty proud of.

Sorry to those of you that prefer on-screen encounters, but I'm not really a fan of them and would find them kinda immersion-breaking for this game and these maps ... I think this is a pretty nice compromise, though. I got the idea from an old RMXP game called Exit Fate, although that one used gold to 'bribe' enemies before the battle started. Same concept, though.

Anywho, hope this was as exciting for everyone as it is for me. I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER.

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

Just over three years of making this game ... Jesus. It will get done eventually, I swear! I'm actually training for a kickboxing fight, so I don't have much free time, but I try to work on this game as much as I can. Generally when I'm home sick from work, haha.

Thought I'd show you guys a couple of screenshots and a new face, because those sorts of things are exciting.

  

These screenshots are from the back of Wendolyn Castle. The building there is the stable, and then the path leads to an archery range (which I'm currently mapping).

This here is Alice; she's one of Brim's cohorts. Brim is the king of thieves in Maeden, the capital city. Alice is a stroppy, arrogant teenager. She's a thief in training but wishes she were an assassin; Brim took her in when she was young, abandoned by her parents. She fancies herself as his successor.

I also updated a couple of old faces. They're closer to how I want them looking now, I think!

Merrin

Toll

Edit: Apparently I never uploaded Brim's face, so here he is:

Brim, King of Thieves

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

Hey friends ... did a big overhaul of the project with some snazzy new maps! I'll also be on the lookout for some beta testers soon, so keep an eye out for that. That's right—it's almost demo time! It's taken me long enough. I could go on about my computer issues (I've gone through one laptop and two desktops in the last three years) that put me out of commission for at least a year and a half ... but that's in the past.

Hope people are still interested in this game ... and I hope that it doesn't bore you.

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

Okay, we got a demo! Edited the original post to include the demo link. *sweats nervously*

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

Decided to make another download for the demo with the RTP included this time, for those that do not have RPG Maker VX Ace. Check the OP. Also, if you downloaded v1.0, please make sure you replace it with v1.1, otherwise you'll get a missing character set error when you try enter Morrowmere.

Also, I made a snazzy title image that is probably waaaaaaay overkill:

 

[Isabella Ava]

My opinions:
- The game is kinda small, maybe because i get used to MV resolution. So I entered FullScreen mode however the game become lagging (about 50-70% normal speed?) at first i thought it was my imagination because the game been zoomed in but not, the game was lag for real.
- Something wrong with the first map. Take a look, it's on the left side of player (Fog? but it look like a bug to me)


- Now this group of doves flying over look very nice, music is nice too, you built the map real nice, love it.
Sometime there are doves peeking on the ground, if player go closely, they will fly away cool


Fire arrow on map/ Push-pull rock is so nice classic puzzle, love it
Though i wish player can move faster 1 level, she move quite slow
- I confirmed that the game run kinda slow even in normal window mode, maybe because there were many parallel events?

But @A-Moonless-Night Map-building skill is awesome, it look very nice
Overall i like this game i rated it 4/5