OFFER - Trid's Feedback and Review Thingy

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Started by TRIDIUM 82 posts Page 3 of 5 View original ↗
  1. TRIDIUM said:
    Additionally, I'm not sure if I would understand the game as well if I didn't know the dev and his background.
    That's what game jams are all about; weird sh\t only the dev understands.

    I had fun making the game though; researching Old English and Middle English terms, drawing weird art, and of course the music was a lot of fun - banging on pots and screaming is always a hoot n' holler.
    And of course putting it all together, it was a fun experiment to build the primary logic of the game into a single map event.

    To be honest, those 4 points above...honestly, I feel like a winner regardless.
  2. TheAM-Dol said:
    That's what game jams are all about; weird sh\t only the dev understands.

    I had fun making the game though; researching Old English and Middle English terms, drawing weird art, and of course the music was a lot of fun - banging on pots and screaming is always a hoot n' holler.
    And of course putting it all together, it was a fun experiment to build the primary logic of the game into a single map event.

    To be honest, those 4 points above...honestly, I feel like a winner regardless.
    1000002814.jpg
  3. @TRIDIUM ,
    Thank you for trying out my game. You’re absolutely right—a bit of story between each level would have added more depth to the experience. I’ve wanted to experiment with making a card game in RPG Maker for a while now, but I didn’t want to create something overly complex. The jam gave me the chance to build this experimental prototype.

    I thought a lot about how to connect the jam theme with this experiment, but due to time and creative limitations, I couldn’t find the perfect way to tie them together. To be honest, the ending is also pretty underdeveloped.

    In the future, I plan to rewrite this project from scratch to give the game its own personality (and maybe even add a deck-building mechanic). Thanks again for the feedback! :)
  4. TRIDIUM said:
    This was a very charming game. I think that was its strongest feature.... Unfortuneatly, the gameplay was a bit boring.

    Thank you for playing and for the feedback! I also agree that it's a bit boring :LZScheeze:(particularly having run through what are effectively fetch quests many many times for testing). It's definitely more interactive story than game. But I'm glad you found the other elements enjoyable enough.

    Originally, I had ambitions to do more with it and have a "true" ending (there are a couple relics of that plan still scattered about), but time didn't permit it. These jams are always great reminders of how long things take to make and test. Definitely rushed to get the faces in (which were largely rtp edits rather than from scratch like the rest of the graphics), which maybe would have been better left out entirely.
  5. Thanks for the feedback!

    It was supposed to be story focused, but if you didn’t interact with anything there was a lot less dialogue… About the saving at the end of the game, I’m not exactly sure where I got the idea, but I’ve done it on all my games. I guess it’s to indicate the game is over and there’s nothing else to do.
  6. Izzy_MS said:
    I guess it’s to indicate the game is over and there’s nothing else to do.
    You could call the Game Over scene. :wink:

    You can even customize the image in the system folder, like I did a "game over, thanks for playing!"
  7. Huh, I’d never thought about that. :kaoswt2:
    Thanks! Now I know what to do next time. :kaopride:
  8. Huh, it's been a while.

    Anyhow, I've actually had some time for myself lately, and I was able to play one of the jam entries. Figured I'd post it here.

    Shadow's Gamble
    by TumoL

    Spoiler
    -The SE volume is super high. I had to lower it to 20% for it to be bearable.

    -The writing was a bit flat. Like everything I needed to know was just kinda told to me. Not bad, just meh.

    -I know the dev has said a lot of bugs/issues are unite problems, but the font was really weird, and the text boxes are super hard to read. In general, my impressions of unite are not great.

    -The bust art was nice, but the 3dish models and MZ style rtp did not go well together. I would have honestly just used the MZ rtp for this one, or at least changed the tileset.

    -Title screen music was good. The other music....not so much. In addition to being really loud, it got annoying really fast.

    -The bartender changes appearance after you talk to the queen lady. He also starts his walking animation, like he has the "stepping" box checked.

    -I played up until the barrel puzzle. The torch memory puzzle was okay. It felt kind of like filler, IMO, but maybe it's because I don't like puzzles like that in general.

    -As for the barrel puzzle, I have no words. I'm guessing it's some sort of lost woods (from zelda) type thing? I don't know. Wandered around for quite a while trying to figure it out, and than I got frozen in place for some reason.
  9. sad-bocchi-the-rock.gif
    Feedback time! @Xero-J
    Spoiler
    Short stuff first
    -I'll start by saying that I'm quite fond of the custom character art for the game. It has a very charming style
    -The "credits" option on the title screen is missing an icon
    -The UI sounds are a bit loud and grating. I would choose something a little less shrill
    -The font is extremely hard to read. It could just be me, as I have poor vision in general.
    -The door here is not aligned properly
    Door.JPG
    -Name boxes are in the middle of the textbox, which looks a bit odd. I'd put it closer to the bust art
    -I think this is a yanfly/visustella thing since I've seem it in other games, but sometimes I'm unable to use my keyboard to select a target in battle. The mouse works, but it can get a bit annoying.
    -You can use skills in menus and waste SP
    -I like hub areas, and I'm glad there's one in this game. Please keep it
    -Unsure of the purpose of the row function
    -Lower defense move only applies to one enemy, not all, as the description suggests
    -Also not sure what the star bar is (more on the circle around the empty space in the middle later) wha.JPG
    -All allies that join your party start at LVL 1. This grinds my gears and means they're useless for a while. I could see this being a bigger issue later on in the game. You don't have to have a fancy system to determine the average level of the party, just choose something that feels right
    -Rock starts with a "charge LP" move, but no moves that use LP

    Longer stuff
    -The story and characters. I'll be honest and say that I started zoning out after a while in terms of the story. Lots of telling, almost no showing. I'm not sure how any of the information I was given really related to the world I saw or the characters outside of "I need to find my bros".
    Characters were a bit bland. I didn't really like or dislike any of them. Valiant hero, tough friend, sweet female healer/mage, techy guy...IDK, I'm sure there's more development later on, that's just the vibes I was getting.

    -The window size and maps are way too big. There's so much empty space. It's okay to have black bars on the side of your screen. I think I've yet to play a turn based RPG maker game that needed to be 16:9

    -The gameplay was very flat, especially at the beginning. For a while, all you can do is spam "attack" or "more attack". Even when Rena joins your party, there's not much strategy. I like the idea of comboing elemental attacks, but they don't have any unique properties. I usually just chose a random element and hoped the enemy was weak to it.

    -There's a lot of "anti-fun" mechanics. High miss rate, especially on those cloaked guys, insane encounter rate, low chance of escaping, enemies that have counterattack moves that also counter some character's magic for some reason...
    Also, I really hope there's a reason that you can use items on enemies, because all it caused me was pain from accidentally healing enemies instead of allies.

    -Progression might(?) be broken. After I found all the rabbits, I headed south to do whatever the fairy wanted, and found myself in a storehouse with a bunch of pirates. They seemed really strong, so I went north to try and get back to the forest, but I found myself on a beach with no way back.

    I managed to beat the pirates there (lowered the game's difficulty), and made my way into the dungeon. I got to the one mermaid boss, but quit after getting demolished by the fishmen that use the counterattack move on every move you try and throw at them.

    TL;DR, while most of my points are negative, I don't think it's complete garbage or utterly unsalvageable. I just think it might need a clearer gameplay direction and some work on the story and characters.
  10. TRIDIUM said:
    View attachment 359501
    Feedback time! @Xero-J
    Spoiler
    Short stuff first
    -I'll start by saying that I'm quite fond of the custom character art for the game. It has a very charming style
    -The "credits" option on the title screen is missing an icon
    -The UI sounds are a bit loud and grating. I would choose something a little less shrill
    -The font is extremely hard to read. It could just be me, as I have poor vision in general.
    -The door here is not aligned properly
    View attachment 359502
    -Name boxes are in the middle of the textbox, which looks a bit odd. I'd put it closer to the bust art
    -I think this is a yanfly/visustella thing since I've seem it in other games, but sometimes I'm unable to use my keyboard to select a target in battle. The mouse works, but it can get a bit annoying.
    -You can use skills in menus and waste SP
    -I like hub areas, and I'm glad there's one in this game. Please keep it
    -Unsure of the purpose of the row function
    -Lower defense move only applies to one enemy, not all, as the description suggests
    -Also not sure what the star bar is (more on the circle around the empty space in the middle later) View attachment 359503
    -All allies that join your party start at LVL 1. This grinds my gears and means they're useless for a while. I could see this being a bigger issue later on in the game. You don't have to have a fancy system to determine the average level of the party, just choose something that feels right
    -Rock starts with a "charge LP" move, but no moves that use LP

    Longer stuff
    -The story and characters. I'll be honest and say that I started zoning out after a while in terms of the story. Lots of telling, almost no showing. I'm not sure how any of the information I was given really related to the world I saw or the characters outside of "I need to find my bros".
    Characters were a bit bland. I didn't really like or dislike any of them. Valiant hero, tough friend, sweet female healer/mage, techy guy...IDK, I'm sure there's more development later on, that's just the vibes I was getting.

    -The window size and maps are way too big. There's so much empty space. It's okay to have black bars on the side of your screen. I think I've yet to play a turn based RPG maker game that needed to be 16:9

    -The gameplay was very flat, especially at the beginning. For a while, all you can do is spam "attack" or "more attack". Even when Rena joins your party, there's not much strategy. I like the idea of comboing elemental attacks, but they don't have any unique properties. I usually just chose a random element and hoped the enemy was weak to it.

    -There's a lot of "anti-fun" mechanics. High miss rate, especially on those cloaked guys, insane encounter rate, low chance of escaping, enemies that have counterattack moves that also counter some character's magic for some reason...
    Also, I really hope there's a reason that you can use items on enemies, because all it caused me was pain from accidentally healing enemies instead of allies.

    -Progression might(?) be broken. After I found all the rabbits, I headed south to do whatever the fairy wanted, and found myself in a storehouse with a bunch of pirates. They seemed really strong, so I went north to try and get back to the forest, but I found myself on a beach with no way back.

    I managed to beat the pirates there (lowered the game's difficulty), and made my way into the dungeon. I got to the one mermaid boss, but quit after getting demolished by the fishmen that use the counterattack move on every move you try and throw at them.

    TL;DR, while most of my points are negative, I don't think it's complete garbage or utterly unsalvageable. I just think it might need a clearer gameplay direction and some work on the story and characters.
    I really appreciate the feedback; it's pretty fair, all things considered. For what it's worth, I'm working on an update that clears up some of the stuff I didn't get a chance to fix the first time around:

    -Definitely tweaking the difficulty and levels of enemies, and likely replacing the more BS skills with something less annoying to fight.

    -There ARE attack items in the game like Fire/Ice/Thunder Bombs, which are meant to be used on enemies to exploit weaknesses. I'm not sure how to make them only target enemies or healing items only target allies, so I'm hoping there's a plugin for that.

    -I'd been flipping back and forth whether to make it so that the game just guarantees escape from battle, or to make an item called the Exit Flare that lets you escape from everything except bosses.

    -The level progression definitely broke somewhere; For the sake of clarification, the level order goes: Granta Cave, Verda Forest, Zephyra Coast, the Understream Mermaid Cave, and then finally the Pirate Hideout. It's also part of the reason why the Return Beacon is there to get players out if they get stuck or end up somewhere they shouldn't be yet.

    (I also found out while fixing it that the south exit from Deep Verda Forest back to the first area actually brought you to the original beta version instead, whoops)

    -Since this is the first time I'm introducing Raleno and his friends, I'm figuring out what's a good way to develop them AND the world they came from, while also explaining the lore of the world they were summoned to. Maybe cutscenes, profile pages, or a Granblue-style Fate Episode or something...

    -And of course, fixing the little stuff like graphics, dialogue, and skills and item usage working where they shouldn't and not working where they should!
  11. Xero-J said:
    There ARE attack items in the game like Fire/Ice/Thunder Bombs, which are meant to be used on enemies to exploit weaknesses. I'm not sure how to make them only target enemies or healing items only target allies, so I'm hoping there's a plugin for that.
    Unless you're using a plugin that screws with it, that should be determined by the "scope" option in the database. asdlkjasd.JPG
  12. TRIDIUM said:
    Unless you're using a plugin that screws with it, that should be determined by the "scope" option in the database. View attachment 359543
    Okay, so it WAS a plugin messing things up (YEP_X_SelectionControl); I had to turn off making single target skills affect both allies and enemies.
  13. played some games from the jam.
  14. Thank you for streaming my entry, Tridium. I believe this is the first time I've ever been reviewed and I must say it's a bit humbling, exciting but humbling.

    My thoughts after seeing your video
    Re: Granny's broken window in the intro- that was a mistake on my part. The smashed window is an event that didn't have a proper switch to only display when Granny is revisited late in the game. Careless on my part.

    The correct Bonkers Bunsen Burner code for your playthrough was 8 4 9 5. The code is randomly generated with each playthrough. Most of the time, the numbers can be quickly calculated using just the first 4 clues, however you were (un)lucky enough to generate a code where there were two possible solutions based on those first 4 clues, but then it was narrowed down to just the one when either Dmitri or Wattson gave an additional clue.

    I'm glad you liked the clown puzzle. I will say that the clown, web and portrait puzzles were tedious to event. They would have been much easier had I used arrays, but I misunderstood the rules and thought javascript wasn't allowed, so a ton of variables, switches and conditional branches.

    What I learned most from your playthrough is that I need to make more compact maps. Too much wasted time running from one house to another. BORING! Houses could, and should, have been much closer together.

    Thank you for sticking with the game as long as you did, especially considering you were tired and hungry.

    Thank you again. I really appreciated all your comments.
  15. Didn't have time for a stream, so I just did one as a lets play. I really want to get through all 37 or so.
  16. TRIDIUM said:
    Recorded another video, having internet/obs issues.
    @Crazetex @KV_Kingdom @TeiRaven @Pixelbird14 @Zomp @Spoonshape @Cherubus

    Sorry again for the poor mic quality/my voice being kinda of hard to understand.

    Thank you so much for playing my game :) ! I had a really fun time writing it for this jam and am super happy somebody engaged with it. Appreciate the feedback in the video so can make the next game even better.
  17. TRIDIUM said:
    New video!
    @rafaeljbi @mirrormagic @Sword_of_Dusk @Eliaquim

    Things that I notice from your gameplay:

    - The message is not clear when you need to protect the boy from the shadows. I should tell better that the player need to get to the boy first.
    - Should also tell that the shadows must not touch you and the boy.
    - I should also give the player a hint to where to go after tell you that you need to escort the boy. Escort it to where?
    - Rpg maker grid system is unforgiving haha. I saw a moment that visually the shadow did not touch you or the player, but you got a game over anyway. Probably because their X and Y position are the same, but visually, they are still moving to their positions. It would be nice to put a delay to match their movements with their positions.

    - The climbing mountain part, I think I made it very hard. But it seems you got a way to do it haha! By just being on top only worrying about the rocks, was a good move that I didn't thing of. If the boys falls, you just let him get up by himself and keep moving.

    - On the prision, I should also put a way for the player to see the path again. once you hit "no" there is no way to see it. Bad game design.

    Many thanks for playing and giving feedback!!! I didn't manage to hear you properly on the video, guess your mic audio was to low. But many thanks for playing!! ^^