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[sbethune81]

MANIFEST

There exists a most curious and powerful race in the world of Ospes, able to manipulate and alter matter itself.

Their numbers are few, and from the beginning they have lived as outcasts, perceived as a threat to the world and every living thing in it.

They are called Theolar.

Thymetians, the most dominant race on Ospes, have done all that they can to suppress the Theolar. For they, more than any, are afraid of them.

Most Theolar are content to live in hiding and have abandoned the use of their abilities in hopes they would be forgotten. But among them there is a small group, known as the
Andurim, who are unwilling to give up that part of themselves.

Their sole purpose is to provide the Thymetians and the rest of the world with a glimpse of their greatness, now long overshadowed by what else they are capable of�...





Thank you for taking enough interest in this project to view the thread. This project is a fulfillment of a childhood dream and it is very dear to me. I do hope you enjoy it.
If you play it through to completion, I promise you that you will see a few things that have never been done before in Rpg Maker Vx.

In the interest of quality, I encourage everyone who plays the game to leave feedback, comments, advice, or any questions if you have them.


File size: 133 Mb (remember...30 hours of gameplay)



World and Story:

Spoiler:

Manifest is a story-driven fantasy game that takes place in a fictional world. The world is made up of several large islands and what is commonly referred to as the mainland.

There are several different intelligent races that live in various parts of the world…

Thymetians: The dominant and most populous race, they live in all regions of the world save for one. Their government consists of a High Lord and a council who make decisions that affect most of the world. Because of their widespread influence, most other races can understand and speak the Thymetian language.

Orzrak: A reclusive race who have lived in the mountains for thousands of years. They are generally avoided by most other races due to their foul tempers and grotesque appearance.

Rulwook: A peaceful tribe who live on a small island southeast of the mainland. They are known for their skilled artisans and craftsmen.

Graymarg: A proud people who were forced from their homes by the Thymetians several decades ago. They now live in the northern mountains, just south of the Thymetian capital city.

Theolar: The final race is the sparsest and the most feared. They have been scattered and forced into hiding because of their unique abilities. There are some Theolar who are able to manipulate and alter matter. In an attempt to make peace and live together with the rest of the world, most Theolar abandoned the use of their abilities long ago. It didn’t help. There is a small organization among the Theolar, known as the Andurim, that is unwilling to give up their abilities, and seeks to prove to the rest of the world that great things can come from them.
It is on this group of Theolar that the main story is focused. It begins shortly after the coronation of a new Thymetian High Lord, and so the Andurim has a new chance to reach an understanding between Theolar and Thymetians, and prove that they are not as dangerous as every other living creature believes. Their numbers are few enough now that failure this time…means extinction.

Characters (A sampling):

Spoiler:

Armegmus
Age: 28
Armegmus is a Theolar and a member of the Andurim. He is impulsive though he lacks confidence in many areas of his life. This causes him to rationalize the decisions he makes. He often feels a great deal of pressure to be more mature than he feels.

Syndarion
Age: 60
A Theolar and the leader of the Andurim. He is extremely proficient in the use of his abilities and guides the younger members, such as Armegmus, in their training. He believes more than anyone that great things can come from their talents, and hopes the rest of the world will soon realize this before they are gone. He is always searching for Theolar who lack the knowledge to use their abilities so he can recruit and train them among the ranks of the Andurim. He knows a lot more about the circumstances of Theolar than he lets on.

Vellamik
Age: 44
Vellamik is a jovial and loving Thymetian. He works as a blacksmith in the village of Relna, where the Andurim is currently hiding. He met Syndarion a long time ago when Syndarion first visited Relna in search of other Theolar to recruit to the Andurim.

FEATURES:

- In-depth story, both serious and humorous

- ATB Tankentai Battle System

- Customize battle difficulty from the menu

- Hundreds of unique skills including many with complex common events

- A large, lag-free world map to explore

- Challenging dungeons with varied and original puzzles like you've never seen in RPG Maker VX before

- A huge number of mini-games, including gambling, accuracy, speed, timing, strategy, and more.

- Optional puzzle-filled ruins with plenty of rewards

- 99 hidden relics to find and trade in the world

- Original and addictive lockpicking event system

- Some dungeons involve sneaking past guards and enemies

- Optional Quests/Hunts similar to Phantasy Star 4/Final Fantasy XII

- Fully functional battle arena

- A complex evented world mini-map with 3 different zoom perspectives

Some of the mini-games you will encounter during your travels:

(Screenshots for these are provided below)

- A whack-a-mole type game
- A fishing minigame based off a combination of the Fable 1 fishing system and the Guardian Force Boost system of FF8
- A dodging minigame
- My complex lockpicking system
- A 3-Card Monty style game, but with 10 rabbits instead
- A shooting gallery game, similar to the one found in Alundra
- A blacksmithing minigame involving timing
- A Slide puzzle w/ multiple images (I count it as a puzzle and a minigame). See screenshots below.
- A shooting/defense game where you must keep monsters at bay
- A single player memory card game with a unique twist
- A fast-paced meteor dodging game


Testimonials

Spoiler:

What users from rpgmaker.net have said...

"I've finished the game, and I have to say that I really enjoyed myself. I don't always keep the games, but this one is a must.
Thanks for all your hard work." - littlebro


"All in all, you have certainly set a standard for vx games. I can't think of one that actually gripped me, and especially like this one did.
At any rate, I'm just saying I loved the game. I can tell it had a huge amount of work placed into it." - demonlord5000


What users from rpgmakervx.net have said...

"Whoa. This game is amazing. I can't recall the last time I enjoyed a game, commercial or otherwise, this much. You've managed to create a world that pulls the player in,
makes him identify with teh characters and feel for them. A world that feels alive with lore and history. Every time I found one of the Nayrin relics...
I really felt I was discovering bits and pieces of an ancient civilization, scattered all over the world." - Jeffrey


If anyone wants to play arguably one of the best all around put-together RPGs available to RPG Maker VX, this is hereby on your must-do list.
- goldenguy


"I will say that I liked the message and it was a brilliant adventure while it lasted. The plot was tight, the characters convincing and the puzzles
were the best I've seen aside from Alundra. If you ever manifest another spectacular game, I'll be looking forward to it." - tom11


"Firstly you have a great imagination and a flair for writing, your game really drew me in and was a real "key-presser" right up until the final
scenes. Your game was also very well balanced in terms of available money, EXP, etc. The inclusion of your excellent (occasionally challenging)
puzzles and mini-games help to distract the player along the way. Also quite importantly the game runs practically bug free..." - matt-tribal


"Bloody fantastic RPG. Minigames, optional quests, math puzzles. Love it all." - vitrous


"...there's so much that can be done, and the story and adventure just keep taking new turns and twists...It's been a long time since I've played a
game that I have a hard time "setting down" after 2-3 hours, but this is doing that." - goldenguy


"...a brilliant game, you have clearly put a lot of thought into creating the world of Ospes and especially into its characters. I definitely
appreciate the humorous dialogue too." - matt-tribal

Screenshots:

Spoiler:

More Screenshots: - Mini-games (and some puzzles) :

Spoiler:

Gambling minigames in the various pubs and bars around the world, for those wishing for a break from the main story or who want to make some extra Etherum. The games are as follows:

1) Water, Earth, Lightning - my version of paper, rock, scissors

2) An evented version of blackjack with images, complete with double down functionality

3) A unique version of roulette called "The Great Divide" which allows you to place up to seven different wagers before a number is rolled

4) My own game called "Longshot."



Credits

A big thank you to all of the following people for their wonderful christmas presents:

Spoiler:

Complete credits are at the end of the game

Scripts:
BigEd781
Enu
Kylock
Mr. Bubble
Moon Man
Mr. Anonymous
Modern Algebra
Puppeto4
Enelvon
KGC Library
Yanfly
Synthesize
Diakonos
Woratana
Moghunter
Aranarther
Tomy
Ccoa
Watermelon
Hevendor
Jens009
Mac Malone (Dr. ?)
OriginalWij

Music:
MaestroRage

Sprites and Graphics:
Tatanya
Razavan Sedekiah
Vibrato
Antares
Tentacles
Final Fantasy (Square Enix)
Ragnarok Online

Ashvir and blueperiod for not encrypting their demo christmas presents
And many others who I may have forgotten to credit.(If you see a sprite while playing the game that has not been given due credit, please let me know. Thanks)

I would never presume to compare the quality of my piece to any of Michelangelo's, only the passion with which we worked on them.


LINK TO MANIFEST GAME:

All known bugs/glitches resolved in this current version as of 12/25/11
If you are playing an earlier version, you should download this one and make sure to transfer your save files into the new folder.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/c028461/n/Manifest.rar

(Download button is at the bottom of that page, click the "slow download" button and wait for 15 seconds and click it again)

This post has been edited by sbethune81: Jan 2 2012, 06:13 AM

[silversnake]

I downloaded game and when i go to unzip it says its not a zipfile? Can you make it .exe file or tell me were i can get another unzip program to dl

[sbethune81]

I downloaded game and when i go to unzip it says its not a zipfile? Can you make it .exe file or tell me were i can get another unzip program to dl

I zipped it as a .zipx file rather than the normal .zip file...it makes it a smaller download. The current version of winzip can handle it fine. If you don't have
winzip you can go to the website, winzip.com, and download the free 30 day trial version. Hope this helps, and thank you for the interest. Let me know if it still doesn't
work and I can upload a .zip version.

Steve

[silversnake]

Well my evakuation of winzip expired awhile ago. I use unzip wizard now and it dont work with it.

[silversnake]

Well my evakuation of winzip expired awhile ago. I use unzip wizard now and it dont work with it.

[blueperiod]

Can you upload as a winrar file? That's what most people use these days.

[sbethune81]

Can you upload as a winrar file? That's what most people use these days.

Thank you for letting me know Blueperiod. I am uploading a .rar version right now and will add the link to the thread when it is finished.

[blueperiod]

These are notes i took while playing the game. Contains spoilers.

Spoiler:

- The opening text about how you dedicated the game to your wife was very sweet. Certainly a good way to get on the player's good side (i.e making him want to give the game a chance.)

- The writing is very good. though there's a lot of proper nouns thrown around at first and I couldn't really keep up. I think maybe you should ease up on the exposition a bit. I always think it best to steadily feed information to the player. Not just dump it on them from the outset and expect them to remember everything. It's my opinion though. I'm sure there are people with better attention spans who can memorize most of the stuff in the opening.

- The scene with the village on fire. The tint you used is waaay too pink. It looked more like the poor village was flooded with Pepto Bismol than it being on fire. Just a personal irk.


- The story is picking up. The flashback with that old man was intriguing. I suppose his brother is the bad guy or something. It hints at an interesting dynamic, since they both seemed very amiable towards eachother. Your writing (once again) is very good, although it's a bit stilted. I can understand if the main character and the people he's associating with are very formal and proper, but it makes for a bit of uninteresting conversation. I hope there will be more colourful dialogue as I go on.

- Your mapping needs a lot of work. Especially in the first village. It's a bit weird walking around a uniform green field with houses on it, as it all looks very sterile. You should place in some random patches of dirt or grass to give your village some texture. More random flowers or rocks would be nice. As it stands your mapping is dragging the game down a lot.

Basically i always feel that games with really good storylines/involved plots (like this one) should have at least some good visual accompanyment. Else it should simply be written as a book since the plot will be the only saving grace that the game offers. Right now everything is RTP and looks exactly like every other game. This makes it very hard (for me at least) to differentiate your characters/towns from those in any of the dozens of other VX games I've played.

- In the conversation with the red-headed boy, it's "apothecary" not "apofecary". Unless it's an in-game thing.

- Okay I just met the blacksmith fellow and his engaging wife and dog. That's the kind of stuff that I wanted to see. Very good cutscene and made me care about the old blacksmith guy and his wife. I suppose humour is a better way to get people to initially invest in your characters. More so than super serious exposition. So yeah. I really like the blacksmith guy and his "I met him on my... travels" line really intriuged me. Looking forward to seeing what his deal is.

Anyway, I will play more tomorrow and update this reply with more of my thoughts. Right now it is very late and I need some sleep. All in all I think your story is very intriguing thus far but honestly, i think your intro needs to be redone a bit. Make it more palatable and take it easy with the proper nouns at first.

[sbethune81]

These are notes i took while playing the game. Contains spoilers.

Spoiler:

- The opening text about how you dedicated the game to your wife was very sweet. Certainly a good way to get on the player's good side (i.e making him want to give the game a chance.)

- The writing is very good. though there's a lot of proper nouns thrown around at first and I couldn't really keep up. I think maybe you should ease up on the exposition a bit. I always think it best to steadily feed information to the player. Not just dump it on them from the outset and expect them to remember everything. It's my opinion though. I'm sure there are people with better attention spans who can memorize most of the stuff in the opening.

- The scene with the village on fire. The tint you used is waaay too pink. It looked more like the poor village was flooded with Pepto Bismol than it being on fire. Just a personal irk.


- The story is picking up. The flashback with that old man was intriguing. I suppose his brother is the bad guy or something. It hints at an interesting dynamic, since they both seemed very amiable towards eachother. Your writing (once again) is very good, although it's a bit stilted. I can understand if the main character and the people he's associating with are very formal and proper, but it makes for a bit of uninteresting conversation. I hope there will be more colourful dialogue as I go on.

- Your mapping needs a lot of work. Especially in the first village. It's a bit weird walking around a uniform green field with houses on it, as it all looks very sterile. You should place in some random patches of dirt or grass to give your village some texture. More random flowers or rocks would be nice. As it stands your mapping is dragging the game down a lot.

Basically i always feel that games with really good storylines/involved plots (like this one) should have at least some good visual accompanyment. Else it should simply be written as a book since the plot will be the only saving grace that the game offers. Right now everything is RTP and looks exactly like every other game. This makes it very hard (for me at least) to differentiate your characters/towns from those in any of the dozens of other VX games I've played.

- In the conversation with the red-headed boy, it's "apothecary" not "apofecary". Unless it's an in-game thing.

- Okay I just met the blacksmith fellow and his engaging wife and dog. That's the kind of stuff that I wanted to see. Very good cutscene and made me care about the old blacksmith guy and his wife. I suppose humour is a better way to get people to initially invest in your characters. More so than super serious exposition. So yeah. I really like the blacksmith guy and his "I met him on my... travels" line really intriuged me. Looking forward to seeing what his deal is.

Anyway, I will play more tomorrow and update this reply with more of my thoughts. Right now it is very late and I need some sleep. All in all I think your story is very intriguing thus far but honestly, i think your intro needs to be redone a bit. Make it more palatable and take it easy with the proper nouns at first.

Thank you for the feedback so far blueperiod. I have made some changes accordingly with the mapping and that "pink" tint...I didn't think it looked quite right either, but I've found one that I'm happier with now. It will be updated with the next demo. The name of the shop is "The Apothecary" but the child you are referring to is very young so he has trouble pronouncing it. I hope you enjoy the rest of the demo and I look forward to hearing more from you. Thanks again.

Steve

[silversnake]

K started playing your game. Great intro. Your opening cutscene got some spelling errors. Judgement is one of them you spell it judgment. There is another before that i forget what it was though. I agree with the guy who posted above me with the pink tint. It gotta go. Maybe check out my game and the opening town on fire maybe help your fire scene. The mapping in your first town looks good to me except one major problem. The river in it. The waterfalls look really really weird. Id just take it out if I was you. Will edit when I get further in game. Story seems interesting so far and your really good at telling the story which is one of my problems. Im playing right now so update in like hour or two.

Update 1: Positives = Blacksmith scene funny. Negatives = Were does wife go after scene. She just dissapeared. I dont like your world map at all. Can you speed up the atb its really slow. The wolf looks like he has something in his hand when he attacks which is weird to me since he doesnt have hands.

Update 2: Mine level cool. Boss is crazy hard for first boss of the game man. Tryed like 5 times. ATB seems like it crawls in boss fight. Im done for tonight but maybe tomm Ill run back to town and buy some stuff then try boss again.

This post has been edited by silversnake: Nov 11 2009, 03:58 AM

[sbethune81]

K started playing your game. Great intro. Your opening cutscene got some spelling errors. Judgement is one of them you spell it judgment. There is another before that i forget what it was though. I agree with the guy who posted above me with the pink tint. It gotta go. Maybe check out my game and the opening town on fire maybe help your fire scene. The mapping in your first town looks good to me except one major problem. The river in it. The waterfalls look really really weird. Id just take it out if I was you. Will edit when I get further in game. Story seems interesting so far and your really good at telling the story which is one of my problems. Im playing right now so update in like hour or two.

Update 1: Positives = Blacksmith scene funny. Negatives = Were does wife go after scene. She just dissapeared. I dont like your world map at all. Can you speed up the atb its really slow. The wolf looks like he has something in his hand when he attacks which is weird to me since he doesnt have hands.

Update 2: Mine level cool. Boss is crazy hard for first boss of the game man. Tryed like 5 times. ATB seems like it crawls in boss fight. Im done for tonight but maybe tomm Ill run back to town and buy some stuff then try boss again.

Thank you for the feedback silversnake, I always appreciate it.

I'm glad you liked the first scene...I've actually gone back since posting the demo and added a small part to try and make it a bit less confusing.

"Judgment" is not a spelling error. You are correct, however, in that judgement is also a correct variation of the word.

I have fixed the pink tint, I think =), and the current upload of the demo reflects the change.

As far as the atb goes, I am glad you brought it up, because this has been an area of concern when planning the game. It is similar to the speed of a game such as FF7, and you do/will have abilities that can increase the agility during battle. I find that games with incredibly quick atb bars usually end up with the player sitting with 4 characters always full at the same time, often sacrificing strategy in order to act with the next "full" character. As the number and variety of abilities increase I think you will begin to appreciate the that little bit of extra time you have to plan. If you simply can't stand the speed you are able to adjust it in the scripts section under atb configurations.

I am sorry you feel that way about the world map...I am assuming you looked around it in the editor. If that is the case, you should know that most parts are far from finished. In order to help me improve the parts that are finished you would have to elaborate further on your comment.

The character Trux has natural claws but is fitted with larger supplemental claws for more devastating attacks. That is what you are seeing.

I do hope you will try the boss fight again. There is a lot more story after him, and you seemed to like the first part. What level are your characters? As a last resort you could change the battle difficulty from normal to easy, and then change it right back after the fight. Good luck.

Thank you again for taking the time to give me feedback on the demo.

Steve

This post has been edited by sbethune81: Nov 11 2009, 04:42 AM

[ThiefMagicianPen...]

Looks good. Will download. : )

EDT: The link is not working. It takes me to the basic webpace for the link.(http:\\www.filedropper.com)

This post has been edited by ThiefMagicianPenguin: Nov 11 2009, 04:45 AM

[Tatsh]

Looks good. Will download. : )

EDT: The link is not working. It takes me to the basic webpace for the link.(http:\\www.filedropper.com)

The same thing happens to me.
Aside from that:
It looks like fun. I can't wait for the link to work.

[sbethune81]

The same thing happens to me.
Aside from that:
It looks like fun. I can't wait for the link to work.

Not sure why the link isn't working, but in the meantime I changed the link to the slightly older version of the demo...it is basically the same with a few small changes.
Thanks for the interest.

Steve

[blueperiod]

The link isnt working at all. : |

[sbethune81]

The link isnt working at all. : |

I apologize to anyone who has tried downloading the demo recently. I have been going through filedropper.com and it has been nothing but a headache. I will upload a demo to either megaupload or rapidshare tonight. Does anyone have an opinion about which is better/more reliable? Thank you for your patience.

Steve

[silversnake]

Ok man continued your game and went back to town to buy new equipment. With my characters with new equipment I was able to beat the boss at level 4 with all new equipment. Tower level A+ Loved that level really cool. That boss wasnt to bad beat him pretty easy. I got like 5 relics wonder what there for cant wait to see. I like how you got your chests hidden if the player wants to go find them. Story is good so far.

Now the Big Negative ------ The Forest level is ridicuously hard. The regular enemies are harder then the 2nd boss of the game. The whisps are crazy dealing like 300-400 dmg every attack to me and the only one of my members who can hurt them is the girl with her holy spell and she has to hit them 2 times to kill them. 2 fights in a row with these goodbye gameover. Grim reaper guys are crazy to doing 300 dmg to all my characters and they got like 900 hp were I only do like 100-150 dmg to them. Only reason I beat your forest level was because of a major glitch. The dog and the blacksmith got to 0 heath and they didnt die. Thats the only reason I was able to past the forest. That level needs a major difficulty adjustment. Oh and I saw some more waterfalls in your level they dont look right at all.

Ok got to next town were you meet the girl with blue hair and the boss battle against the 3 guys was way to hard as well but since the glitch were two of my guys cant die I won.
Boat scene I think is a little to long. Once I get to the island there is some mapping errors with the palm trees. Then when I go to the town i get error missing audio file black something and game turns off so I cant go any further.

This post has been edited by silversnake: Nov 11 2009, 09:20 PM

[Tatsh]

I apologize to anyone who has tried downloading the demo recently. I have been going through filedropper.com and it has been nothing but a headache. I will upload a demo to either megaupload or rapidshare tonight. Does anyone have an opinion about which is better/more reliable? Thank you for your patience.

Steve

If I were you I'd put it on Megaupload. That's just my opinion. ^^ I personally like it better.

[sbethune81]

A few things...

First off, thank you for the continued feedback silversnake. I have modified the difficulty of all the enemies in the woods...I willl await further feedback from other users to see if I need to make additional changes.


Second, the link to the demo is up and working...at least for now. The way things have gone the last few days it could break soon - so download now =).

I am aware of a weird problem in the forest when after you fight the first of a certain enemy and a character gives advice, the battle screen becomes much darker. It may or may not persist in future battles, but please don't let it annoy you too much. I have already removed the text which, for some very strange reason, caused it go dark, but I do not feel like uploading the whole demo again. You can also remove the problem yourself before it happens by going into the database under troops...there are 6 different battles with "Wisps". Just delete the event page for each of those 6 troops and problem solved. If you play future versions of the demo it will be fixed.

And finally, there is a certain kind of relic in the game which is hidden in various places around the world. You are able to find 12 by the end of the demo. I am curious as to how many people will find them all. Think of this as a challenge. Please let me know how you do.

I hope everything works out with the downloading of the demo.

Steve

This post has been edited by sbethune81: Nov 12 2009, 01:30 PM

[Tatsh]

The link is working, I'm downloading the demo right now, and I will play it later today when I'm not busy.

Thank you very much for fixing the link.

Edit: Okay so when I go to the Pigswill place after I beat the 3 cloaked guys, after the Dockmaster says I cant get the permit, the game freezes.

This post has been edited by Tatsh: Nov 12 2009, 10:07 PM