March Lord

● ARCHIVED · READ-ONLY
Started by warpshadow 4 posts View original ↗
  1. Story
     
    Several years ago the Kingdom of Fieras made war on the Kingdom of Norland. Although they were able to make some gains they were driven back by a rising incursion of monsters which made the land ungovernable. Norland suffered though and several towns and castles such as Dolstone castle were destroyed. Several years later the last scion of the Clesslor family who ruled over Dolstone castle came of age and returned to his ancestral lands hoping to reclaim his birthright as the lord of the lands between the mountains and the river. Between him and his goal lie monsters, resentful citizens, a demanding capital and a resurgent Fieras.
     
    Characters
     
    Conrad Clesslor
    The son of the previous Marquis of the province and one of the few survivors of the massacre of Dolstone.

    Elise

    A wtich who lives in the forests surrounding Dolstone. 
     
    Features
    non linear gameplay
    crafting
    a town where you can recruit villagers and manage the economy

    side quests 

    monsters visible from the map like in Chrono Trigger or Lunar

    updates

    12/12 I have a new version of the game out for people to hopefully try and give feedback on. Additions include the inclusion of some basic crafting and a new dungeon in the form of the first level of the mines. 

    12/22 Another new update for the game. 

    screencaps

      marchlord4.png

    marchlord5.png

    marchlord6.png
    download link
    https://www.mediafire.com/?6ka2awtqntq57w7

    marchlord1.png
  2. It has been well over three days plus I have a new update for the game in the download link so I hope someone wants to try this game.
  3. I tried your game, and really like the idea, but... thats all for now. Sorry, but your game need a lot of polishing... It looks like unfinished on every aspect of it.
  4. Actually 3 days is not a long time; people can only give feedback in their free time, and will have lots of other demands on it.  This is particularly true as you are totally unknown on the forums, as this was your first post, so it's not surprising that it didn't particularly register.

    However, I have tried your game, and here is my feedback.  I'm going to list all the issues I've found because I think the more details you have, the more you can see what needs to be worked on.  These notes were written as I went along, and I will give an overall assessment at the end.

    Opening map.

    What is the bridge going over?  It appears to be completely flat ground, so a bridge seems to be unnecessary.

    A general stylistic point.  At the moment the player can walk to the edge of the maps and there meets an invisible wall which prevents any further movement.  It is usually considered better to provide a visible reason why the player cannot proceed in any particular direction e.g. bushes, rocks, trees, plants, buildings, rivers, cliffs, anything at all which could reasonably not be walked through/over.  If you get into the habit of doing that from the beginning you will find it much easier to plan out more complicated maps e.g. in forests, caves, and so on, where it is important that players know where they can go.  I'm going to put a number of points about mapping at the end.

    I like the way that right at the beginning there is something slightly different in the story i.e. the village elder telling our hero to get lost, and for good reasons.  This gives a believable reason for him to go to a ruined, and otherwise useless, castle.

    However, at the end of the dialogue afterwards, when the 2 of them are outside, Conrad can walk all over the other man.  He cannot interact with him, you’ve probably set the event to ‘below character’.  When I come back out onto that map from inside a building he’s gone.

    There is something wrong with the transfer event into the church, there is a long pause instead of it running smoothly.  (Actually I notice that this is true of all your transfer events.)  The table on the raised dais is too far forward, its front feet are resting on a slightly lower level, and so would topple over.  All the priest says is ‘Welcome’.  I think there should have been some dialogue between them.  Is Conrad really going to say nothing to him when he’s anxious to give a good impression to the people there?

    When I am offered magic that I can learn, I think it would be a good idea to give the player some sort of idea of what ‘herbology’ is, otherwise how do I know if I want it or not?  Well, obviously I’m going to want it, but at the beginning when money is short, should it be a priority?  I have no information to guide my decision.  Similarly when I am offered a Basic Meal.  There is no description to tell me what it does.  This means that you did not put a description for that item in your database.  I strongly recommend that you go through your database and fill in any missing descriptions.  The player needs to know what things do.  The pub, like the church, has a lot of stools to sit on, but there are no people around.  This town needs people, perhaps a dog or two, something to make me believe that people live here.

    The transfer event into the house on the right of the magic shop actually takes me to the pub.  When I left the pub, I thought at first I was in a different place.  When I go into the place where the village elder was, once more I’m in the pub.

    In the building to the right of the pub the response by the woman to the request for a job is a good one – but why is Conrad asking for a job when we’ve just heard that he’s going to go to his ruined castle?  Who is this woman?  What sort of business/guild is she running?

    In the item shop when I select ‘Special Orders’ nothing happens.  If Special Orders aren’t available until later in the game, the player needs to be told that, not just left with no response at all.  Why has the sewing woman got all those sleeping mats on the floor?  I thought when I first went in there that she would be offering a simple Inn, but no.  As far as I can see there is no where anywhere to heal up.

    Dolstone Village

    Once again, I can walk all over the man’s sprite (do we ever get to know his name?)

    You have written ‘rat’ for the enemy’s name in the database instead of ‘Rat’.  (Also I notice in the mine that it's ‘bat’ instead of ‘Bat.’)

    Houses – you have used wall tiles as ceiling tiles, and have no ceiling tiles at all.  Perspective is, therefore, all wrong.

    I have the pelts that I could give to the sewing woman, but I’ve earned no money, so I can’t get anything.

    I go to what must be the ruined castle of Dolstone, but there is no working transfer event into it.

    Went to the mines, and did a quick hurtle round in the hope of finding a chest with some money in it, as the bats also don’t drop any.  How am I to earn any to buy the healing item (which I assume is what a Basic Meal is) or the bits of gear from the sewing woman?  The transfer event down to the lower level of the mines is not working.

    Nowhere else is accessible, so I assume that is the end of the demo.

    Typos etc.

    Second map,

    First dialogue runs off the right hand side of the text box.

    Probably a missing word (when) in the text beginning “The rule of the Clesslors…”

    Punctuation and capitalization in the dialogue beginning “Anyways, if you intend…”

    Third map

    Again dialogue runs off the right hand edge of the text boxes in several instances.

    Haha, irony: the phrase “just a repeat of what” is repeated!  Other errors in that text box.

    Dolstone Village

    Man’s first dialogue “The place looks desterted” (deserted)

    Overall assessment.

    I do not think you have done enough play testing before putting your demo out.  If you had I’m sure you would have spotted things like the incorrect transfer events in Rinde, the problem with the other man’s sprite, the way text runs off the edge of the text boxes and so on.  It gives the impression that you have rushed this demo out before it's really ready to be tried by other people.  I think it's important to respect the time and effort of people you are asking to try out your game, and therefore you need to ensure that what you give them is in the best state that you can manage.  That can only be done by repeated play testing.  

    You need to pay attention to every detail of a game when developing it.  There should not be items without descriptions, the names of enemies should be written correctly, you need to be sure that you have provided ways for your player to heal up - one potion is not going to last very long, and without either money for items or a place to heal up, life is going to get difficult.

    Mapping

    It is so rudimentary, I am assuming that these are your very first maps.  I think you would benefit by studying the sample maps that are in the editor.  Look to see how towns are arranged, how terrain is suggested, what sorts of tiles are used for different parts of buildings and so on.  Then start to think logically about what goes into a house or other building, how big does it really have to be?  You might also look at the thread Game and Map screen shots and get ideas and inspiration from what you see there.

    Story

    There are indications here of a potentially decent story in the making, one which is going to take a slightly different tack.  Dialogue is a bit stilted at the moment, but should become more fluent with practice.  However, you need to do a lot more proof reading.  But there are plot holes - who is the other man?  Why is he with Conrad?  Is he some ancient adviser or what?  Why is he the Man-with-no-name?  Why is Conrad looking for jobs?  Why has Conrad nothing with him, despite the fact that he has presumably come some distance?  The journey there must have been totally uneventful if the other man is only producing his potion at this stage.

    This is an exceedingly rough first draft.  I suggest that you spend some time just practicing your mapping skills; spend some time going over all your events for errors, think about what the player needs to have and to know to play this game successfully.  That way version 2 will be much better.