Dark Assault ($5)

Here is my game, Dark Assault: https://ssunlimited.itch.io/dark-assault

It is released and "finished" but still receives updates. It is currently free but I sell it for a price, usually. Please get it while it is free and tell me how to improve the battle system, which is the CTB by Yanfly.

Synopsis:

The Dark Assault has begun. Monsters are everywhere, humans are panicking, and the princess has been kidnapped. One courageous boy sees this as a chance to finally prove to himself that he's not a boy anymore. Someone has to stop this madness, and that boy is Arnold. This is his destiny, your destiny.

Conquer the monstrous evil through the mind of Arnold in this Fantasy RPG and bring the princess back home. Find allies on your journey and convince them to aid you in your cause, arm them and yourself with epic gear, growing an army to retaliate this dark invasion. Become the hero you always wanted to be!

Why should you buy this RPG Maker-made game? Here are why:

-My story is unique including a plot twist and conspiracy theories. The dialogues are pretty well-made.

-The Battle System stresses more importance on speed than other battle systems. There are many skills for each of the 4 characters which leads to combinations. it's fun using combinations like that. I've put effort into making a good battle system, including years of experience with RPG Games.







Available for Windows PC and Android Phone.

While I have yet to download or play your game (with a newborn child, I don't think I will for a while :p), I can see a couple of issues with your post that may turn some people away from trialing this. Again, please don't take offense as I am trying to provide constructive feedback.

1- All of your screenshots here are extremely default/stock, and so we cannot see any great effort or heart put into your title. Using default assets is NEVER an issue, but using default assets badly can be. I think perhaps change up a few things like your Iconset, Window and even the font. It would help give your game a sense of identity, rather than a clone of the hundreds of other RPG Maker titles out there.

2- Your world map (from the gameplay video) looks extremely empty and does not fulfill a sense of excitement or scope that a world map should. I think your mapping in general may need a bit of work. Perhaps look up some Youtube videos on RMMV mapping. Echo607 and Benderwaffles have some great videos on how to improve your maps, and Driftwood Gaming has awesome first impression videos for a ton of RMMV titles so check them all out.

3- Your battle system doesn't really provide anything innovative or exciting. In fact, I think all of your attack animations are default as well. I would look into Yanfly's Action Sequence plugins. It won't take long to get the hang of it, and breaking away from default combat would be a great start. Nobody is going to try your game if the combat looks like it's come right out of the box. I think there's even a thread on the forums here where people have provided free code for action sequencing, so you could copy/paste some of those to get the hang of it.

Again, I think my point may be to take a step back and perhaps learn more about RPG Maker MV itself before trying to publish a game, especially if you're going to charge people for it. I personally wouldn't pay for this as it feels like there has been no heart put into the game. Definitely check out some of the Youtube channels I suggested and look around at some other projects to see what RMMV is really capable of.
Hopefully some of my rambling has been of help.
Regards,
Will :)

Um, commercial games are supposed to go here
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?forums/commercial-game-releases.63/

I'd be happy to try it and give feedback but I'm not paying even just $1.99 for now.

Hey! Sorry but the game used to be free now it's off free. Here is a key for this forum to download this game for free: https://ssunlimited.itch.io/dark-assault/download/_PFl6qdEmjExC8lJn_NGXCWDijKp6wuUXkE_YoQR . If you like it, buying this for support would be greatly appreciated.

I am using Yanfly's CTB battle system, not the default system. Speed is important in this game. Please help me out.

So I have my RPG Maker MV game, Dark Assault, here: https://a-higher-plane.itch.io/dark-assault . What I want you to notice are those constructive criticisms in the comment section. I don't understand them so well, and I also don't know how to utilize them at all. I have some custom resources such as Japan tiles, Time Fantasy and Beast Man generator. I didn't use a lot of them yet. Also, what do you guys think of me using these dungeon tiles from here: ? They look so good and maybe I should use them instead of, or in addition to, the built-in RMMV ones.

This advice is actually for my future games using this engine.

I didn't play the game, but the comments and the screenshots tell me everything I need to know.

1) you have only two map-screenshots (three if we count the shop background) and they are all too empty and too big. Especially the dungeon-type map that looks as if it is a generated map instead of a planned map.
The maps are what people look at most of the time, and you need to give them a reason to want to look at them. There are map &screenshot topics on this forum where people post their maps to have them discussed. Please take one or two weeks to read through them and look at those maps and what was called good or bad at them.
Because with those maps, you'll need a lot more experience in mapmaking...

2) People complain on too many random battles.
If someone complains about random battles every 30 second then you have a big problem.
I suggest you play through your entire game two or three times - normal playing, not cheating or playtesting. Only you should take care to note two different things:
a) stop the total time you spend in battles and compare it to the total time outside battles. As a general rule you should only spent more time in battle than on the map if your game is focused on tactical battles and battleplays. And that means you'll need a lot of different battles.
b) how often do you fight the same enemies? if you fight the same enemies more than let's say two dozen times in the entire game, that will feel like grinding to the player.
c) can you play it the second or third time without it becoming boring for you?

Okay so one comment talks about making your game full screen, this can be possible but i don't recommend it as it stretches your pixel art. What i did was to change the Screen resolution 1104x624 this gave my game a wider feel without ruining the quality. but note that all your text boxes will have to be moved to the right a little bit to fit in the centre.
If your having random encounters every 30 steps. i would either change this ratio or do what i have done which is placed encounters on specific tiles. so if i have a small map i don't want to find an encounter every 30 steps.. i would have say 3 monster in that total map area.

Make your enemies unique and different, for example a monster that has 2 minions you can't hit the monster unless you kill the minions. If the monster is hit it attacks 50% shared damage to the minions instead.

Another example monster is to have it regen health when enemy gets 50% hurt the music changes and so does the move pool of the monster.

Take some time on your MAPS. look up videos on advanced tips etc. get creative with your maps.

I've checked your screeshots and video.

As Andar mentioned about the maps above, yes, sorry but I have to say, those maps are a little boring, not much to catch my eye. I suggest check these official mapping tutorials. They teach a lot about how to make better or more attractive maps.
Tutorial-Blog - How To Map A Desert Tutorial-Blog - Mapping: Towns Tutorial-Blog - Mapping: Interior
Besides, I think you should change the screenshots. So far they look like some random screen captures only to me. As a player, when I check your game page, I want to see pictures that present your game features and attractions. Maybe a rich world map with a vocalno, abandon mine, forbidden forest, and etc, so I know those are places I can explore in this game. Maybe a picture showing a dark fire sword, a lightning fire sword, and a blessed light fire sowrd in your item page, and then I know you have some kind of crafting or special equipment system. Or a battle scene showing a giant black dragon with a head, two claws, and two legs, so I know in the game there will be an interesting battle to deal with the dragon who can attack five times in a round. With pictures better presenting your game features, people can understand the fun of your game better.

Aslo, you mentioned "The Battle System stresses more importance on speed than other battle systems. There are many skills for each of the 4 characters which leads to combinations. it's fun using combinations like that." However, I didn't see these in your video. You might want to show your battle system more clearly in the video. And, so far I can only see in the battle you pick the command and then the enemy, nothing more. I would like to see a more featured battle system, to have more things to do or more to think about during battles, instead of just repeatingly pick command, enemy, command, enemy.

These are what I can think of. Sorry if I sound rude or not polite. English is not my native language. Hope your game cna evolve into a master piece.

Thanks for the answers to my question here guys. I have been reading and rereading them. Here are some questions:

As for the "world maps (non-battle)", why are they not so good? I have honestly not written them because I have used the ones already existing there.

What about the dungeons? There isn't much that I can put there. There are no resources in the RMMV to give more things. Maybe I should use that Steam dungeon resource that I have written here.

I will try to add more pictures to it.

I agree with you i struggle most with dungeon tilesets it just lacks a little... so i try and use other tilesets provided by artists or i mix the tilesets up so i can have say inside/dungeons together.

Try and fill your dungeons and make it less square, water is a good filler also or cliffs.

You can make good dungeon there is no reason why you can't add layers of flooring higher levels and lower levels, also effects lighting for example.

As for world maps i don't bother with it.. totally left it out of my projects.. but i would google world map designs to get a better idea i noticed in your video you had a cave that you walked into the cave seemed odd to me as it was in the middle of no where and not a mountain area. world maps are huge you need to detail them as much as you can ! even with original RTP from the engine. and make them interesting. for example a large volcano one user on here wanted a large observatory ! for example. somethings of interest. A world one can explore...

there is a lot that can be done in dungeons with the default resources, it just takes some experience.
And it starts with making the dungeons look less like an artificial labyrinth on a carnival.

There is no way to describe the problem in a few sentences, that is why I asked you to take two weeks to read through the map screenshot topics on this board and compare their examples and their answers with your maps.
It is impossible to give you a quick solution to that problem as there is too much to rework.

Okay this seems right, guys. But where can I look at great examples of dungeons using the default tilesets? Can you guys link me there? Or if I have to do a search, what keywords should I use? I have been searching and not finding anything.

@A_Higher_Plane I've moved your project thread to Commercial Games, since you are now charging for it. I've also merged your thread asking about changing the resources with this one, as this is the best place to get specific feedback on your game. Please add the price of the game in the original post, per the rules of the Commercial Game section.