Announcement

[mgalekgolo1]

Thank you for taking the time to check out my game!

Story

Spoiler:

One being has lived alone inside it's home of lava and volcanic rock for it's whole life.

It has learned how to make a vessel for traveling across the hostile blue that has previously impeded it's travels.

The books in it's home have taught it all it needs to know about life, from etiquette to reading to speech.

It is now attempting to travel outside it's small island, to see if there is anything beyond...

YOU ARE THIS BEING

Characters

Spoiler:

You[Name selection at startup]
Type:[type selection at startup]
Origin: Unknown
Inhabits: Volcano
"You are an orphan living on your own since before you can remember.
You wish to explore, to know more."
age: Unknown
=============
Name: Quinn Dexter(name subject to change) V
Type: Ghost, Male
Origin: Insula Umbra
Inhabits: Dockhouse
age: XXXXX
"Man who died along with the rest of his people a long time ago.
He chose to stay, to wait for someone, eternally. His specialty is attack."
=============
Name: Keira Salter
Type: Ghost, Female
Origin: Insula Umbra
Inhabits: Dockhouse
age: XXXXX
"Woman who died with her people a long time ago. She chose to stay
behind, despite the pain and suffering of a ghost attaching themselves
to reality for any extended period of time. She has the most health."
=============
Name: Joshua Calvert
Type: Ghost, Male
Origin: Insula Umbra
Inhabits: Dockhouse
age: XXXXX
"Man who died with his people a long time ago. He chose to
stay and wait, wait for you. His specialty is defense."
=============
Name: Louise Kavanaugh:
Type: Human, Princess
Origin: Incendia
Inhabits: Incendia
Age: 14
"The Princess of Incendia."
=============
Name: Katlyn Saunders
Type: Human, Female
Origin: Viltabrum villa(Literally pigskin village)
Inhabits: Homeless
Age: 16
"The lone survivor from Viltabrum Villa. She has some experience
with combat, and she has the determination to use it. She will prove
valuable."

Less Important but still important Characters

Spoiler:

Darren Rights: Male
Aguir Clements: Female
Flaring Hilton: Male
Bob Stellings: Male
Flora Darrington: Female (Hint: She has a special ability if you save her as a male)
Gerald Prior: Human: Male

Credits

Spoiler:

Credits:
KGC:
Limit break (Translation by touchfuzzy)
Difficulty (Translation by Mr. Anonamous)
LargeParty (Translation by Mr. Anonamous and Mr. Bubble)


Enu:
Tankenai SBS
ATB

Wortana:
Recover HP/MP when level up
Battle Result Window
Outline Text
On-Screen Shop
Basic HUD
Muliple Fogs
Credits
Monster Book

Modern Algebra:
Paragraph Formatter
Phantasia-esque CMS

Mr. Bubble:
Critical Effects Add-on

Syvkal:
Menu Bars

Mastrscott:
Mapname

Claimh:
Battle Backgrounds (Translation by Elemental Crisis)

BulletXT:
SwapXT
Autosave

Glitchfinder:
WASD Script

sparkyg13:
KGC_LargeParty Compatibility for Tankentai Sideview

Unknown:
ExtendedDeath
Parrallax (As of yet unused)
Starcraft II for the aliens(Filler)
Peter F. Hamilton for the placeholder ghosts/princess names.
some Celianna textures
Monkeymenace for his battle theme and other music!(Filler)
Kevin macleod(Filler)
Others (Like blood) That I can't remember.

Screenshots

Spoiler:

(I realize how ugly this looks, I'll get around to fixing it sometime)

Different classes means different skills! Definitely not final energy consumption rates, and some are placeholder skills.





Testing out a new style in this city only.


And a new kind of shop!


What is this I don't even...

Cool new toys:

For cool new aliens

My personal quote:

after clicking space or enter or whatever you will show a temporary sprite so you can see where your going:




The food thing is temporary, until I make some signs.

And an all new battle tutorial, teaches you while fighting you. Don't worry, he's weak.

One of the boss battles:

Notes

I want this game to have some multi-linear elements. I already have a few, where if you don't pick up a certain character, the dialog changes, and there are special events for choosing things ect. However unlike most games, this is not a main focus. I am aiming for a seamless integration where you can do something differently in a second playthrough and say "Hey, that's different!".

Demo

128 mb exceeded so I zipped it myself. You need winzip or w/e to open it. The new demo is a SFX, or self-extracting archive! No need for extraction programs with this.

NOTE: Under heavy dev. Do not expect it to be fully balanced. I would coax you into starting as servant.

Spoiler:

http://www.mediafire.com/?lq8ad98yni81onn

About 5 hours of gameplay I believe if you read everything.

Support

CODE

[url="http://www.rpgmakervx.net/index.php?showtopic=51271"][img]http://f.cl.ly/items/1s3q003t3J082F3C1H0Z/The%20Life%20of%20Shadows.png[/img][/url]

Alternate

CODE

[url="http://www.rpgmakervx.net/index.php?showtopic=51271"][img]http://f.cl.ly/items/1L1w2P2l0G3x3M0P2g42/TLOS.png[/img][/url]

This post has been edited by mgalekgolo1: Jul 4 2012, 10:53 PM

[m4uesviecr]

I will admit, your story line is quite intriguing.

Based on your screenshots, I would coax you into submitting some of your maps to the screenshot thread, to ask for advice or tips. (I'm doing that as of right now!)

I would like to play through this story, I only ask if you wouldn't mind putting in a WASD script in your game, mainly because my down arrow is fried, and it keeps me from being able to play practically any RPG maker game.

If it is alright with you, I'll PM you the script!

This post has been edited by m4uesviecr: Nov 20 2011, 05:43 PM

[mgalekgolo1]

The story I wrote there could have been much more interesting, but it was late and I didn't have much time. I'll have to revise it soon. I've added more combat and new areas, but for sake of sanity, I'm not going past the "end of the demo" until it's perfected. Anyway I just found and added a WASD script. Do you want me to upload it?

[P@nda]

Wow! This looks interesting. I'm downloading now and i'll play it sometime this week!
I'll let you know if there are any bugs and what not.

[mgalekgolo1]

Glad to hear it. I accept any constructive criticism and try to implement it as best I can.

[cadrius]

this game really look bad really !

[lightspeed15]

....such an ass. I thought this game is really GOOD. It's got an original storyline. Please stop going around and hating on people's games. Your acting like a effin' asshole.

[mgalekgolo1]

Thanks, I'm planning a restructuring of all my buildings and adding content to my maps because I'm not happy with how they look, and I'm sure I can make them look better. Also the story could use some spicing up.

[cadrius]

map 0/100 - 0%
script -/- -%
graphic 75/100 75%

[mgalekgolo1]

I can tell your just a hard crit, and as I said, i'm restructuring all my maps. And I used many scripts in this game, it shouldn't be null. Also use a better translator, its annoying to read.

[cadrius]

I can tell your just a hard crit, and as I said, i'm restructuring all my maps. And I used many scripts in this game, it shouldn't be null. Also use a better translator, its annoying to read.

i dont use a translator...

[mgalekgolo1]

Then upgrade your damn brain, assuming you have one.

[Faris]

From the screenshoot looks like this is a good game.
sorry for the intrusion....
download it...

[mgalekgolo1]

?
What's with the x2?

This post has been edited by mgalekgolo1: Nov 29 2011, 04:04 AM

[m4uesviecr]

Sorry for the late reply.

Yes! Please do upload it!

I will try and give you as honest and thorough a review as I can!

[mgalekgolo1]

http://www.mediafire.com/?6or1my1wi7t4n37
Notice that this version is currently under heavy development, I didn't want to reupload it with a simple passage fix so I left some of the passages in voltrabrum village messed up. Not very important.

[Kyriaki]

I just want to say the story concept behind this game is pretty interesting, but that the game itself could use a bit of work as far as consistency goes. It was very confusing trying to figure out where to go because the maps were so broad and there were absolutely no cues as to where to go/who to talk to, etc. Maps such as Hell, for example, are way too large and the sheer size of it causes unnecessary lag. Also, after a certain point everything just gets jumbled. A few quick tips: make your maps smaller and a little more detailed, think of introducing either of the two A.) make the narrator more integral to the story and perhaps tell it as you go along or B.) have the main character speak to the player (or itself/out loud) who in turn gets to shape it through decisions or some such.

That's all I could think of off the top of my head, if you'd like any more help/tips feel free to PM me. Good luck with your game otherwise. ^^

Also, you could shave off a good chunk of mb from the size of the game by converting those MP3s to OGGs and getting rid of those stray "thumbs" files in your game folder and should provide an RTPless version for quick download since we all have VX. It will probably get more people to download and give critique.

The music by E.S. Posthumus and Kevin Macleod was nice, but I think you should stay away from the music that is already in commercial games to make your game feel a little more unique, there are a few musical resources noted throughout the forums and some pretty good music artists with shops open at the moment.

[mgalekgolo1]

I know what you mean. I have plans to fix all of that, and i'll look at the dialogue. Hell lags very badly because I put over 1000 fire events, not thinking it would lag. I have to remove some of those, which will take some time. The purpose of this game was to be large, I don't like small things. I can try, but I'm not very good with the fine detail. There are markers in hell that make it easier to navigate, but I should "help the player out" I guess.

[m4uesviecr]

Alright!

So I had a chance to play through part of your game. I haven't gotten far, but I've already seen/heard a couple of things that I could address that I fear will become more prevalent as the game progresses.

For those who prefer to play the game without the unveiling of what is to come, overlook this spoiler.

-------------------------

Spoiler:

Music
Being a composer myself, with high hopes of composing for videogames, I pay close attention to a game's music. That being said, you use many good tracks. Where they are from, I'm unsure, though a couple of them sound like heavy duty professional tracks. (i.e. the track played when you first teleport, and when you are in the abyss). About it, I think you could work on making your songs fit the setting in which they are placed a bit better.

For example; The abyss song is great, but that sounds like something that would play when you are in a decisive boss battle, or introducing the main antagonist in the game. When I think of going to the abyss, I expect music that's a lot less empty and filled with ... fervor, for lack of a better word.

Kind of like this -> Dark

Get rid of the water and birds and such, and then put a dark theme behind it. Based on your story, that is what I could see being played there.


Another thing; consistency. Your choice in music, like I said, is enjoyable. The next foreseeable problem is the inconsistency of the tracks. You have music of high quality (using the teleportation map music as an example), and yet you switch to a midi cover of the battle theme from FFXIII whenever you engage a minor enemy. Try to keep the music, as far as style and quality, as similar as possible.

One other thing - I'm not sure if you mean this, but whenever you switch maps, after going to the alien teleportation map, the abyss music plays no matter what other area you teleport to.

Maps
I'd be lying if I sat here and told you I was an amazing mapper. Or even a little over decent. One thing I do realize, and I'm sure it has been said often, is your style of mapping. It is a bit confusing. Using the maps you have posted for example;

When the player is inside a building, it is hard to differ between what is the wall of the building, and what is the floor. It all kind of meshes into one another. I know that when I was in the dock home, what I assumed to be the wall or room had sacks of grain (or whatever is in the sacs) resting on them.

You could work on this by looking at how other people map, and using that to construct a style all your own. It really doesn't matter if other people don't like your style, as long as the player has no problem navigating your maps. Commenting off of Kyriaki, I had a hard time navigating Hell too because the map is so big! You said you don't like maps that are small, but surely you understand detail is everything. It is very hard to make a map interesting, for one, when it is very large. That is more space you have to work with. One thing you could always do is make the expansive map like you have, and section it off, then copy and paste these small sections of the larger map into separate maps. That way, you have all the elements of your large map, but with far less hassle with lagging.

But again, it is all about how easily the player can navigate the map. Of course you want to make reaching the goal a challenge. What you don't want is for it to become a bore.

Secondly, the presentation and believability of what is going on in your maps. Taking the abyss map for example - You have a lot going on in this map that really don't make sense, and don't coincide well with other elements of the map. For example;

I understand the large black pit. Obviously the abyss. What I am confused about are things like the pyramids scattered throughout the scene. The craters that you have embedded in the earth; one being brown (which goes with majority of the earth/dirt tile you have used for the area), and then the random gray one, which I would see being used on a map that had stone or concrete floor tiles. Or the craters that are actually meant to be used for walls.

In your home - The pail of water, although you live in a volcano.

Yeah, you would think it is the small things that most people would overlook, but that is usually what draws the most attention. When people are able to pay attention to the fine details within their game, they are praised! ... Or otherwise criticized.

Thirdly - In the abyss (I guess an explanation will surface the further I get into the game), but the choice in animals to fight is very random. I am wondering why I am fighting a ghost knight, as well as a snake (that resembles a velociraptor) and random bees, and a jellyfish. That is more on eventing, but has a place within the subject of believability and map presentation. Just making sure everything flows together.

-------------------------
I will post more (editing this post) as I further my progress into the game. Overall, this is what I have for now.

I will probably leave comments about the story once I am done.

This post has been edited by m4uesviecr: Dec 6 2011, 05:13 PM

[mgalekgolo1]

I'm reading your posts and I agree with what you say, i'll have to completely revamp hell, also I don't like that name so i'll make it something in latin. I made those black rocks show people the way through hell, I thought it would be obvious. The abyss was actually a temporary battle testing and farming site, it has nothing to do with the final game. The abyss does not have its own track, the track is when you enter the teleporter. The abyss will probably be trashed, and replaced with a wilderness or something. I just messed with the dockhouse, what do you think?
Past:

Present(volcano time)

Intentionally barren, maybe spooky music.

I'm trying to stop with the new tracks since the size is almost 200 megs. That's not a problem for me but I don't want this to be a huge in filesize project.

Edit: Well, like every time I try to do a quick fix up, I go crazy.
exhibit A:

Spoiler:

I am working on much more. Also note this "hell" is about 4 times smaller. Don't forget to support if you want (userbar made).

This post has been edited by mgalekgolo1: Dec 10 2011, 02:59 AM