RPG Maker Contest - Xi and Crooked Bee win!

[Crooked Bee]

Crooked Bee

Spoiler

Oh cool, didn't get the reference. I had a feeling I was missing something from the riddles. Good that you had mercy and made sure they were solvable anyway.
I still can't leave the room. The southern exit "has disappeared", and "an invisible barrier pushes me back" from the norther one. A bug?
I've got "lost to Brenda" and "using a teleporter" endings so far.

Spoiler

That's weird. Basically, once you've got the nyin and solved all the 5 riddles, you should be able to proceed. Check if you have the nyin in your inventory (among the key items) maybe? I think at least felipepepe, cboyardee and Mastermind completed that part without problems/bugs. I'm looking at the code now and can't see anything that'd cause the bug either...
You sure you got the nyin? If so, the barrier shouldn't push you back. That never happened in all the testing I did. Can you upload your save file?

I guess you could also edit the RPG Maker project to proceed, if all else fails. Just edit the door event in the "Brenda's Lair Transformed" map.

Sorry about that if it's a bug. I thought I tested that part.

 

[Niektory]

Spoiler

That's weird. Basically, once you've got the nyin and solved all the 5 riddles, you should be able to proceed. Check if you have the nyin in your inventory (among the key items) maybe? I think at least felipepepe, cboyardee and Mastermind completed that part without problems/bugs. I'm looking at the code now and can't see anything that'd cause the bug either...
You sure you got the nyin? If so, the barrier shouldn't push you back. That never happened in all the testing I did. Can you upload your save file?

I guess you could also edit the RPG Maker project to proceed, if all else fails. Just edit the door event in the "Brenda's Lair Transformed" map.

Sorry about that if it's a bug. I thought I tested that part.

Spoiler

I loaded an earlier save and managed to get past.
Turns out that if you first answer "no" when inspecting the hole, and "yes" when inspecting again, you don't get the item even though the message says you do.
If you answer "yes" the first time it works correctly.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Hmm, thanks, I'll see if I can fix that.

EDIT: Okay, I think I got it. My first bug report, yay

 

[Niektory]

I don't have enough HP left to get that easter egg.
I guess I'll restart since there's something I wanted to check earlier anyway.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I don't have enough HP left to get that easter egg.
I guess I'll restart since there's something I wanted to check earlier anyway.

Spoiler

That easter egg is just another death anyway, so you aren't really missing much. I call it "easter egg" because it isn't something you'd get normally, unless you're obsessive about trying everything out.

I just thought it would be a nice thing to add since, again, it ties into the entire Sirotek-Neanderthal plot and Sirotek having extreme anti-Neanderthal defenses in place.

 

[J1M]

Most of these projects suffer from the same problem: the combat encounters take WAY too long and are WAY too deadly for initial encounters.

Three of them did not upload a standalone version, which means anyone who hasnt purchased+downloaded RPG Maker won't be able to play them. Should look to correct that quickly...

I think it's a shame that these two big stumbling blocks are there, because the starting areas and non-combat content of a lot of these projects is actually worth seeing.

 

[felipepepe]

I'm working on uploading the 200mb standalone version of mine, but my upload speed is so bad that sending a floppy disk by mail might be faster...

 

[Drowed]

I can relate. Not sure why the upload speeds of brazilian connections are so terrible. (Not that the downloads are fast, of course.)

 

[Niektory]

I'm working on uploading the 200mb standalone version of mine, but my upload speed is so bad that sending a floppy disk by mail might be faster...

Want me to do it? After all I downloaded your project and can repackage it. My upload speed isn't amazing either but it'll be up in an hour.

 

[Niektory]

Here. Standalone version of felipepepe's game.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/7s51gir94u8zsr6/Muramasa.exe

 

[felipepepe]

You're a massive bro, mine was still like 80%.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Added felipe's standalone game to the OP as well as the front page.

I'm still to finish my playthrough of Mastermind's and Zed's games. Will write my impressions once I'm done. Even now, however, I can say I am surprised nobody has voted for Niektory or Mastermind.

 

[felipepepe]

Even now, however, I can say I am surprised nobody has voted for Niektory or Mastermind.

Niektory's game is easily the best one mechanics and innovation-wise, and in a serious competition he would definitely win...

 

[Zed]

Even now, however, I can say I am surprised nobody has voted for Niektory or Mastermind.

Niektory's game is easily the best one mechanics and innovation-wise, and in a serious competition he would definitely win...

motherfucker, are you saying this competition isn't serious? people poured sweat and cum blood into their work!

I propose felipepepe to host the next competition, "Serious RPG Maker Contest" with 2 week minimum production time and a required minimum of 20 min game time. also no pleb vote, just jury.

 

[Tzaero]

I propose felipepepe to host the next competition, "Serious RPG Maker Contest" with 2 week minimum production time and a required minimum of 20 min game time. also no pleb vote, just jury.

Competitions like this are incline over all others.

 

[Jagged Appliance]

Hey guys, maybe the next competition should use the IceBlink engine for some Gold Box fun.

 

[Xu Fugui]

So... I noticed that I messed up the ending C&C in best interplay fashion, the flower stomp slide and text are in but the flags to activate it just never made it so whatever you do that's the same.

Now for some reviewing/thoughts on another entry..

Xi's Dark Path

Great first impressions, tons of classes, cool visuals and good music.

This just looks awesome.

Hmm, you awaken on a beach at the start without memories eh?

This turned out to be very expoloitable since you can do it as many times you like without repercussions.

Let's do this some more and sell them in the general store.

I'm the very big slayer, reborn on wings of mead.

After cleaning up the mine and stealing some stuff I am ready to challenge this dragon here.

:ded:
Turns out it was all for nothing since this area is unfinished and he doesn't drop unique loot.

I'm here to kick ass and join you but that option wasn't available to I guess I just kick your ass instead. The guards that ambushed and killed me in my first try were too terrified of me to even come out from the bushes this time.

I killed him so hard that the game broke after this and couldn't move any more, I guess that means that I win?

It was fun, and would be even better if the storyline was more fleshed out with more direction and quest related stuff. I loved how you could hide a guard you murdered in a barrel and very often had the option to beat the snot out of someone if they stood in your way. In some ways it was very reminicent of classic WRPGS, it even had a reputation system but I'm not sure what effect it had on the game if any.

All in all it was enjoyable, tho the unfinished state of it drags it down somewhat, I'd loved to been able to follow trough the storyline and stuff. The combat was pretty balanced until I broke it, I know how hard combat balance is to get right. When I tried to make the encounters feel right in the ten minutes I had to implement combat it was a lot like this:

Here it is actually pretty fun, good job with that.

 

[Drowed]

I propose felipepepe to host the next competition, "Serious RPG Maker Contest" with 2 week minimum production time and a required minimum of 20 min game time.

This. The games don't need to be super large, but I belive some cool things can come from it, judging by this competition.

 

[Xi]

So... I noticed that I messed up the ending C&C in best interplay fashion, the flower stomp slide and text are in but the flags to activate it just never made it so whatever you do that's the same.

Now for some reviewing/thoughts on another entry..

Xi's Dark Path

Great first impressions, tons of classes, cool visuals and good music.

This just looks awesome.

Hmm, you awaken on a beach at the start without memories eh?

This turned out to be very expoloitable since you can do it as many times you like without repercussions.

Let's do this some more and sell them in the general store.

I'm the very big slayer, reborn on wings of mead.

After cleaning up the mine and stealing some stuff I am ready to challenge this dragon here.

:ded:
Turns out it was all for nothing since this area is unfinished and he doesn't drop unique loot.

I'm here to kick ass and join you but that option wasn't available to I guess I just kick your ass instead. The guards that ambushed and killed me in my first try were too terrified of me to even come out from the bushes this time.

I killed him so hard that the game broke after this and couldn't move any more, I guess that means that I win?

It was fun, and would be even better if the storyline was more fleshed out with more direction and quest related stuff. I loved how you could hide a guard you murdered in a barrel and very often had the option to beat the snot out of someone if they stood in your way. In some ways it was very reminicent of classic WRPGS, it even had a reputation system but I'm not sure what effect it had on the game if any.

All in all it was enjoyable, tho the unfinished state of it drags it down somewhat, I'd loved to been able to follow trough the storyline and stuff. The combat was pretty balanced until I broke it, I know how hard combat balance is to get right. When I tried to make the encounters feel right in the ten minutes I had to implement combat it was a lot like this:

Here it is actually pretty fun, good job with that.

Yeah I just didn't have the time to complete the story arc, and wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to implement the story. I see you found a bug that gives you unlimited beer. Life must be good ;P (I'll have to fix that) I still need to implement a way to side with the mayor and a way to interact with and explore the merchants plight a bit more. As for the freeze at the end, that's a bug I need to fix, I think I already know the issue (rushed to add it at the very end). Not to mention, I need to complete the crypt, add in non-violent ways to resolve most of the conflicts, and make the world react to player choices a bit more.

I'm glad you enjoyed it ;P I spent a lot of time doing balance, and more or less decided to go with a low numbers type of system. If starting stat is 1, the player is weak, 2 is average, and 3 is strong. I then setup the classes to scale with these numbers to level 20 with a strong character having about 6-8 more in a stat compared to a class that was weak in a stat. The weapons/armor also scale similarly and only add slight boosts. I was aiming to make the game balance more about being able to use abilities/spells more often over time forcing the player to make decisions on what abilities to use based on the encounters. Plus, I haven't added any special (what I'm going to call historical) loot yet. It will be the same base items with special modifiers (such as changing damage type, increasing Power Regen, Health Regen, Magic Regen, Evade, Crit, applying a damage spell on hit, etc) Just slightly better versions that have some historical reason for existing and are guarded/hidden in the world.

As for the Dragon, he was a rushed final addition. I'm going to add a story element that revolves around the people of the town versus the Denizens of the world. You will be able to side with the Dragon, kill the dragon, or find some alternative mutual way to help that situation. (I kind of wished I would have added a historical item to the dragon, I just figured no one would defeat it! lol. It was able to kill my level 10 Warrior, even when he had on all the best gear. Though, I suppose with all party members decently equipped/geared it could probably be done.

Did you ever find that combat, even with weaker creatures, eventually takes its toll on the characters? (Kind of like you can't grind on them forever because they eventually wear down your health and deplete your healing resources)

 

[felipepepe]

motherfucker, are you saying this competition isn't serious? people poured sweat and cum blood into their work!

Let's be honest, the moment that we had a game about Cleve fighting Brenda Romero (with Black Cat and Commie cameos), it was hard for other games to top that in impact.

Seriously, we should have various categories, or a rating system. Bee's game is the funniest, niektory's is the most innovative and Xi's is the most complete and balanced experience. Taking just one of those and saying "you're the best" is just lame.

I propose felipepepe to host the next competition, "Serious RPG Maker Contest" with 2 week minimum production time and a required minimum of 20 min game time. also no pleb vote, just jury.

I think 2 weeks is a great deadline, more than that and the games become too ambitious for their own good, or too demanding for people to casually join for some fun. And minimum game time is also debatable... people will just raise the random encounter rate.

 

[Alchemist]

I would welcome another contest as I'd love to join in. I couldn't this time because it was on too short notice and I was really busy with work and other stuff at the time.

If another contest is set up some forewarning about it would be good. Then I can plan my time accordingly. And 2 weeks is better than a few days, but I'd be fine with a longer deadline too.

 

[Zed]

this was an impromptu contest just because the thingy was on sale.

felipepepe when will you host the next contest? :D

 

[Crooked Bee]

Just beat Mastermind's game. It was highly enjoyable; so far it's the second most enjoyable game of this contest for me after Niektory's. This doesn't mean it's worse than Niektory's - I actually enjoyed them both a lot - just that it's less unorthodox and has a lot more rough edges/unbalanced stuffies, which is understandable.

I really liked the blobber combat that's supposed to utilize many different/varied abilities (some TP-based, some MP-based, some both, and others that can be used at any time). It's still unbalanced (some skills are a no-brainer and should be used every encounter or even every turn, like Rally, and some I haven't felt the need to use at all) and I dunno if there's an internal logic behind which skill belongs to which of these different categories, but it definitely feels like it could be very fun to play around with when finished and properly balanced.

I didn't like the characters (and my god, those faces!), but that doesn't matter much in a dungeon crawler for me.

Anyway, some more random notes in no particular order:

Spoiler

- Oh my god the Faeries! Any way you can defeat/avoid them? I did manage to kill the plant and quickly run away, but the encounter rate didn't let me do the same with the treasure chest.
- I think that you should be able to run away from filler encounters. Once you're high-level enough, there's mostly no point to them apart from the stronger ones. Thanks to Rally and Bone Armor (both recover some HP), they don't deplete your HP/MP in any significant way either.
- Any point to the piercing resistance?
- Sylvia has Prey so why give her an ability that improves her evasion? She isn't going to get hit anyway. And isn't Lure useless for her too, for the same reason?
- Also I mostly just spammed Needling Array with Sylvia, although I must admit Pinning Shot also came in handy against Spectral Stalkers (who'd consistently evade Needling Array) and the final boss - that's good.
- Is Amber's Fireside Dance (which shows the TP cost of 20 or so) also supposed to use MP? Because that was the impression I had. About 15 MP or so, iirc. It is also VERY strong against undead and spiders alike, to the point of almost being overpowered. Not by much, but maybe a little. Gwen's Meteor Hammer is also very powerful compared to other abilities that cost more or the same amount of TP/MP.
- Why does "Mass Vampirism" only seem to target one character?
- If Seth is poisoned and you use Sin Eater, he dies.
- I almost exclusively used Seth as a buffer - I'd have him use Rally every turn, with almost no exception. It's just too useful and lets you avoid almost any need for healing over the course of several encounters. Only very rarely (when the party was at almost full health/MP and enough TP) did I have him use Pendulum Strike. Rally helped me a lot in getting through the encounters without any trouble - perhaps too much so.
- Vlad's Bone Armor is also so helpful that he only occasionally had the chance to use his other abilities.
- Constantine's Tactical Arrangement is a must-have no-brainer too.
- Constantine's Cautious Assault remains active after the battle is over and may even carry over to the next one - is it supposed to be that way?
- All enemies, be it spiders or undead, poison you. I wish the status effects were more varied, though I suspect that's probably in the works.
- Sylvia has the best damage AND she can hide in the shadows. That's one pretty overpowered fighter/rogue! Her Pinning Shot and Amber's Flaming Strike (or whatever it's called, I forget) allowed me to bring the final boss down in a few turns.
- What's the Flying status that Constantine receives when using Dive-By (iirc)?
- The rest point on the 1st floor was kinda pointless for me, since I had my HP almost at the max when I arrived there.

Overall, I think the game has the potential to end up being a very enjoyable dungeon crawler, if you manage to balance it so that the skills are all useful and different, and don't require to be spammed every turn/on every occasion.

On to the next games I go.

 

[Niektory]

I could kill the fairies consistently with

Spoiler

Pinning Shot. I was level 10 by then, might not be possible at lower levels.

 

[felipepepe]

this was an impromptu contest just because the thingy was on sale.

Yes, and I thank you for that, was really fun.

felipepepe when will you host the next contest? :D

I think we could do something like this every 6 months, at the end of every school semester, when people are done with their papers, exams and stuff like that...