MV - Above & Below - Demo v1.3 Active!

Updated the download link with patch 1.1, changes include:

-Fixed spelling and grammar issues
-Added dialogue to properly direct the player to the forest in the beginning scene
-Made the path into the forest more noticable
-Fixed a bug with Colette's sprite disappearing if spoken to from anywhere except the front
-Altered dialogue in the scene with Arietta in Shasla Forest 1. She now seems not as trusting to Colette
-Fixed NPC passability issues
-Added more dialogue to Brinley, now shows a picture of how the Equip Skill screen works, picture is also located in main game folder as tutorial1.png
-Slimes now have less health and deal less damage to allow for a less harsh learning curve.
-Added dialogue to female merchant for the quest, "Missing Stuff". She will now indicate that the player only needs a single unit of Stuff to complete the quest.
-Increased encounter rate for Stuff Slimes
-Increased average amount of steps the player needs to take before an encounter will trigger
-Fixed a passability issue with a rock next to the Twin Pines Inn
-Added dialogue between Arietta and Colette at the end of the scene in the church with Jade
-Animals in pens in Twin Pines now move
-Added more wildlife
-Added missing name plates for the traveling mercenaries in Twin Pines
-Fixed issue on credits page with lines of text being cut off

Is there no Mac demo?

Currently, no there is not. However I am hoping to get a Mac build out soon!

Thankfully the workshop version I can load and play on a mac!

Oh wow! What a wonderful game! The battle system is very confusing at first so basically everyone was super low hp the entire demo, but it was visually amazing and i enjoyed the content.

Both the Gamejolt and Steam Workshop versions of the game have been updated with patch v1.2!

Changes include:

-Fixed certain event restrictions
-Fixed NPC passability issues (again)
-Decreased volume for battle voices
-Tweaked hit-detection to be more accurate
-Added 3 new maps for use in the game trailer and promotional screenshots (the player cannot access these in normal gameplay)
-Added framework for a future guard dodge mechanic for battles

The game looks great! Absolutely loving the art! I just had a quick question, how do you get the edges of rocks so round? Do you use pre-rendered custom backgrounds or just really really good custom tilesets?

It's part of Celianna's Ancient Dungeons Base tilesets. You can find it here.

I haven't posted an update in awhile, was busy with school again. But I'm still working on it! Update 1.3 for the demo should be out sometime in July with a brand new extended intro and Early Access Build 1 will be available in November! Here's a sneak peek at a dungeon I'm working on:

Update v1.3 is now live! The most notable part of this update is the new intro. It adds a new quest and encounter type along with expanded lore and story dialogue. The demo now will take between 50mins-1hr 20mins to explore and complete everything. Other changes include:

-Added readable bookshelves
-Added Adventurer Coins (these have no use in the demo)
-Updated save menu scene
-Fixed a couple of misspelled words
-Certain NPCs and events don't appear in Shasla Village until Colette is in the party
-Fixed hit detection with the Piercing Strike skill
-Changed multiple lines of dialogue to fit the new intro

The first official trailer for Above & Below is now finished! Created by the amazing @Lee Sang, you can check it out here and on the main post:

Really glad to see my trailer on the page. I hope the project will do extremely well and thank you so much for working with me. ( つ ◕◡◕ )つ

We tried to run this game, but it gave us an error: Cannot Run Web Audio"

Let us know if you are able to get that fixed and we'll try it again. Sorry!

@The_Trinity awesome works. The game is very charming :)
The maps are very consistent, she made it connected together.
Fighting system is great

(I'm not dead and neither is this game)

I've been dealing with personal issues which is why the updates to this game ended so abruptly. I have been working on it when I can however, and now I can announce that those of you with Steam can download demo version 1.4 off of the store page! Store page? Why yes! I am releasing Above & Below on Steam Early Access sometime between now and May 2019. It's a large window, but I want to give myself plenty of time to have everything all nice and polished for that version.



Changes include:
-Updated dialogue
-Patch of a game-breaking bug that occurs in Shasla Village once the player has finished the story segment in Twin Pines church.
- The quest, "Missing Stuff" has been updated to require the player to collect 3 Stuff from Stuff Slimes before the quest is able to be completed.
-Fixed a glitch that allowed the player to complete the quest, "Missing Stuff" before even acquiring the quest.
-Tuned up hit detection in the LMBS
-Added a simple overworld tutorial once Arietta awakes from the first dream.
-Added a simple battle tutorial when Arietta initiates the battle with the Dream Slime.

Known Issues:
-When entering a battle with a Stuff Slime encounter, there is about a 2 second delay before the battle will begin. This is due to background code running, and I will be working on a fix to minimize the delay for the early access release.
-Hit detection is still not at the level I want it to be at and thus may still feel a bit clunky in battle. Please note that improvements are being worked on for the early access version.
-Minor overworld collision issues.

So I tried out the demo again and though it's short, it's well made. Your LMBS animations are pretty smooth and fights get more enjoyable once you get the hang of things (which isn't too difficult really). I'm curious to see how you will implement the foreshadowed "guard-dodge" mentioned in a tutorial.

One thing I didn't like is how some paths in the overworld (specifically, the tree bridge and stairs), require a button press to enter, and in the case of the bridge, the player just doesn't walk across. The maps are otherwise quite nice but I found this to be a bit weird.

Anyway, I hope you continue developing this. Good luck!

Well after a long stint of being away because of my mental health, I'm back working on this project.

Goals for January:
-Finish the city of Hastil (including NPCs and storylines)
-Implement weapon & armor upgrading
-Implement the Neko-Neko Skill Shop (purchasable skills)
-Find an artist to do battler sprites
-Hopefully get UI work started

What's been done already:
- Worked on the Adventurer's Guild past the intro quest in the demo, will be able to purchase items with Adventurer Coins dropped from monsters and earned by completing specific Guild-centric job quests.

-Added so far 32 new maps to the game, including the Calindor Crossroads, the Adventurer's Guild Outpost, the beginning of the Cave of 10,000 Depths, and most interior maps of the city of Hastil are already completed.

-Added 'Skits' to the game, similar to the same system seen in later 'Tales Series' games, these are optional conversations of dialogue that give more background information and allow for more character interaction outside of the main story.

Other information:

I've planned not to release the game early access, the Steam page still needs to be updated to reflect that. The one major thing holding back the next stage of the project from being finished is the lack of new battler sprites. I'll need to find someone who I work well with to continue creating new enemies to battle and the sprites and animations for the rest of the characters. Probably expect the sprite style to change once I do.

A couple of screenshots:

This looks real good but I imagine people have told you that already, so, a little constructive criticism: your winged busts take up like half of the screen, which is a bit much. The amount of screen space the unwinged characters occupy is pretty reasonable, but the ones with wings take up excessive screen real estate.