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Dead Content The Crimson Rune: Prologue [Updated!]

Dead content awaiting restoration.
That's so wierd since it works fine on my computer at work and home.

try changing the graphic of the event to something you definitely have for now [the event changes the graphic not long after it starts] and I'll try to figure why it's do that.


Is it doing this too anyone else?

What's the error exactly Rataime? This might help me troubleshoot.

Sorry for this... I'll get it fixed, promise.
 
UPDATE:

Just thought I'd post some more screenshots of the game. I'm still working on the problem Rataime... I have no clue why it's giving you that error though. Thanks for trying though.

I'm also working on Chapter One... Hopefully it'll be out soon. I'll post more screens of the new chapter soon.

Chapter One will introduce two new characters. I'll give you all details about them as the release of Chapter One grows near.

Well here they are the screens of the Prologue that I've been holding back:

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa40/Firestalker5/NargethiaDestroyed.png[/IMG]

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa40 ... 5/Cave.png[/IMG]

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa40 ... eTest3.png[/IMG]
 
I just figured it out..... I still have some learning to do though. It's not hard to get it in there. It's just hard to get the look right, and photoshop is pain if you aren't very good at art. ;)
 
Props on the movie/video usage, they were quite refreshing from the usual stuff; I'm guessing you have knowledge in 3D animation of some sort? One thing about them though is that they seem to lag quite a bit and is semi-buggy, messing up the windows at times.

One thing I'd suggest about the gameplay is to incorporate more fogs of some sort to exterior, as many exterior maps are fogless and it could help to make those parts even better. The overall mapping is decent but some parts are a little square-ly or empty.

Anyhow, decent progress so far. Good luck with it!
 
I do knowledge I use a rudimentary form of 3D animation for my job. I taught myself 3D Studio Max over that last five years. I use it to make training video for the oil wellhead suppliers.

The lag in the movies is unavoidable... They don;t lag that much if you have them in windowed mode. Fullscreen is crazy laggy. Sorry it's the script that cause them to lag [unless they lag when not in the game, then it's something else]. I can't really fix it. are you using the high quality Movies pack or the hugely compressed versions that come with the game? The compressed versions are really crappy, but they serve their purpose weell enough.

I can add some fogs to the exterior maps, but I'm having trouble making them work well. I'll keep trying, but any suggestions is greatly appreciated.
 

Cygnea

Sponsor

Finished most of the demo, here my thoughts, already shared with Firestalker5 who said I could post them here.

Menu
Not my favorite design, but my biggest issue is the Location section where the words are so small reading the name can be a pain.

Intro
Not too bad, but there were things you could fix. During the introduction, you have characters moving randomly which makes it look a little amateurish. If they're really needed then try to give them a definite path; they're not there for long so it shouldn't take any time to program.

Right off the bat with the confrontation between Minerva and Aastra I got the feeling of exposition; I felt the conversation was there simply to explain things to me, not to sound like a natural exchange, something that continues for the rest of the introduction. I get the feeling Aastra's supposed to come off as crazy but you're forcing it. Giving a glimpse of his personality and revealing the rest through the story might work better. You have some grammar problems and the text box shaking I could have done without. There was too much of it and I don't feel that it really added anything of value.

The transition from 500 Years Ago to Present Day was too abrupt and could have been smoother by stretching out the fading of music/screen color for a few seconds. Spelling error with the king ("You were sleeping again?" and numbers should generally be spelled out), and using the slider to change the colors of the soldiers doesn't work very well - they come out looking maroon in the face. The throne room doesn't strike me as a throne room; the water feature is odd and there are two many statues, too close together. The king and player are clearly having an argument but I'm not feeling it. Maybe if the music changed (it's too happy) or you somehow showed the sprites getting frustrated - altering the main characters features to look angry isn't too hard, if I remember correctly. Surge's picture also isn't as high quality as the others but I don't know if that's because the site you got it of or something else.

Eternity Castle
From a purely financial standpoint, letting the prince into the treasury probably isn't the best idea. Giving him a set amount of money and supplies would probably be more realistic.

In the prison, carry the wall tiles over the doors. There's also too much decoration; it's a prison and while you're trying to give that feeling with the mice and whatnot, you're also taking away from it by adding suits of armor, random pillars, pictures, and weapons - my sister thinks it's perfectly okay to have them but I question of the wisdom of having them so easily accessible. What if there's riot?

The game crashes when you try to go to the rightmost room; there?s a graphic missing for one of the people on the beds.

First Impression of Battles
For game difficulty, I'm on normal and convinced that you've made your enemies much too strong. It wasn't a matter how me taking to long to plan my moves, it was a matter of each hit from a bee taking one fourth of my health. Everything acted faster than me so by the time I got in one hit every other enemy had already given me two. Giving their skills such a high cost rate wasn't smart either; starting skills are tricky, but generally you give them enough power to be useful and low enough cost that they can be used effectively - not spammed but also not worrying about having to save it because you can only use it once. For the sake of making it through the rest of the demo without having to restart on a lower difficulty level I went into the editor and raised my stats.

Your end of battle screen is also a bit cluttered with the item and experience boxes overlapping.

Earth Shrine
A few gripes about this: I have no idea how long it would take to defeat the Elemental normally because, as I said before, I edited my weapon/armor stats to make the battles more bearable. Having her heal for five hundred, however, while I was normally taking off a very small portion of her health is very annoying. Her dialogue does not strike me as being a powerful being and the reactions of Surge and Player left me lacking. This is obviously a strange, shocking event, shouldn't their conversation reflect this.

After beating her, the following scene went awry - during the flashback with the angels I suggest either changing to the music or shutting it off completely, though temporarily, for impact. Happy, bouncy field music doesn't cut it for that scene or the Shrine itself, which I thought might be more somber and mystical. There are plenty of sources to get more fitting music.

The Player's graphic was wrong when he was getting back up; for a while he was the green-haired thief, but setting 'fixed direction' will take care of that.
Because I can walk through the mushrooms on a log, I am then able to wander around the map at will. This is a mapping error that should be fixed.

Mountain Path
The shadow script really stood out. I considering this a risky thing to use considering all the problems that can come up with it normally, but in this location I noticed them on nearly every map because of how they interfered with passibility.

These take away the illusion of height difference, interfere with normal mapping, and there are errors where I can travel to areas I'm not supposed to.

Harpy Queen
When the Player and Surge are looking around for the Harpy Queen, I suggest actually having them spin around so their actions match their words. There's also a gigantic amount of blood and a severed head, yet the two don't comment or give it a second look. Even a quick mention before entering battle would be better than this.

Ruins
Immediate mapping errors: don't just copy and paste the grass tiles. Square grass doesn't cut it and the tiles you're using are actually made to connect corners.

I'm a little confused as to how Surge knew who was talking, considering the fact that they never saw who was behind the wall. Despite the fact the people they're talking about haven't left the mainland in nearly five hundred years, the king accepts his thoughts without asking any evidence. While I'm sure he trusts Surge, something like that might require more than just "I'm sure"?

Castle Right After Ruins
Remember to use actions to support your words - when Derrick is yelling at the king to rethink his decision, he's still facing the player. Making him turn to the king would add to the scene.

The king could have at least come with an excuse to why his son couldn't go. There are, after all, plenty of good reasons: he's the only heir, he's inexperienced, he needs to be there to support his mother, etc?

Now that I'm able to explore the castle at my leisure, I'm finding some more odd mapping. I assume you're trying use the water autotile as an accent in the rooms, but it just comes off as misplaced. Don't use the thrones too casually since it takes away from their importance. Having them in the dining room is okay since those are their designated spots, but having them in the guest room is odd.

The mess hall kitchen needs some serious work; expanding the middle of the counter doesn't work. Rooms don't have to be perfect squares/rectangles, so maybe change up the design a bit and add some counters.

The princess's dialogue is screwed up - there are marks in the conversation that shouldn't be there. Also, is she a visiting princess or the player's sister? The guests, who are obviously important enough to have rooms in the castle, are never explained.

Watch how you use your text headers; I spoke to the queen before talking to the soldiers at the front entrance and now each other them has her face and name. The same thing happened with the prisoner.

The fact that there's no choice but to let the prisoner out bothers me. If it's really so important that he be released, maybe you could at least give the player two choices (immediately free him or try to pick the lock/something) and have the other lead nowhere. Right now I can't help but think what an irresponsible prince this kid is.

Opening the chest in the ruins, after going through the big room and climbing the stairs, froze my character. The graphics were still working but I couldn't move and had to shut the game down.

There's also a graphic missing when you try to enter the sealed cave. This was doubly annoying because I had transferred all the files onto another computer that didn't have RPG Maker installed and had to go back, fix it on the first computer, and transfer it again to continue working comfortably.

Something really strange happened when I went into the cave - there were two of me. I'm pretty sure you made an event of the player and didn't move the player himself.

That's one unconcerned trader.

When I was trying to enter the second cave room, I once again found a missing file, this time a waterfall sound. Might be my fault - maybe when I transferred everything, I somehow missed it. Either way, I skipped that part and set myself right into the ceremony room so I could finish the demo.

Couldn't find the 'laughing_man' sound either, edited it out to complete the fight. After he killed me, the graphic for both the player and Surge's down positions were wrong.

After that scene the screen went black for so long, I went back into the editor to see what happened next. After not being able to trigger the next scene I finally stopped. I figured you'd be happier getting a partial review than waiting for me to figure my problems out. Personally, I think Surge's and the King's deaths would have been a nice place to stop for the demo.

Overview
The text speed is a little slow, especially in scenes that are supposed to be frantic or urgent.

Personality wise, I find both the Player and Surge to be a little bland, the latter more so. While the Player obviously resents having to carry some much responsibility, Surge is...boring. I'm not sure if that was intentional or if it just came across that way but you might want to try and work on that. Since you're killing him off you want the player to grow fond of him and really show the friendship between the two in order make that scene have more impact.

The story's not bad - sure it looks a cliche at first, but you've said you're trying to take it in a different direction and there's still time for that. Still, most players judge a game by the beginning and might be turned off by the plot they're seen so far.
 
Thank you again for the review Cygnea. I really appreciate it.

Like I told you, the missing files that you speak of is wierd and I had to check it out myself. I found that the error in the castle [the room at the right], is a strange error indeed. The file is not being used by any of the events in that room and even when I erased ALL of the events in that room the error still crashed the game when I tried to enter the room. I ended up having to delete the room and starting over. I believe I'll probably have to do the same with all the maps that have that problem.

I'm actually rewriting a lot of the dialogue. Not to change the story, but to make it flow better. Mapping is another improvement I'm making at the moment as well. I'm going to rescript some of the events and add some new sprites that I'm butchering/making. I even have ideas on how to get past the passability issues you mentioned.

I believe I have fixed the balance issue with the battles. that has been ongoing headache for me, but I think it's finally over. I'll have to try it out a little more but we'll see. Cross your fingers.

I'll posting updates regularly about the porgress of the new Version and Chapter One. Chapter One is close, but Mapping is a pain in the rear and so is going slow. I'm on it though and will hopefully be done with it soon.

C&C is very much appreciated... Good and Bad welcome.

Thanks everyone,
Firestalker
 
Nice game
Great Maps
Exellent Battle system
Heart touching story

what else can i say?

exept... i can't play the demo! Every time i download it and double click on it
adobe reader pops up and says "unexpected file format"....
need help fixing that....
thanks in advance
 
Well the file is a RAR file so maybe you don't have the WinRar program.

You can get it HERE....

Click the first one in the list. It's a trial versiopn but should do the trick.
 
A lot of people don't seem to have WINRAR now days, surprisingly. :| I think it's best to make things .zip for now, I've been getting people asking about it too. Haven't been here for a long time, and it looks like this is going well. :) Love the atmosphere of that last ss you added!
 
Thanks Rieves that means a lot coming from you. About the RAR thing: That is really wierd. I have used RAR for just about everything since I don't like zip all that much. Maybe I'll make both and see which people use the most of.

UPDATE:

I've kinda put Chapter One on hold for a while. After the fiasco that was the bug ridden prologue sent out recently I have decided to rethink my prologue and game a little bit. I since been revamping the lighting [as you can see from the screenshots I posted], I've added a few options [Movies are not needed anymore, The game as alterantives if it can't find the Movies folder], I've changed a lot of the scenes to be more descriptive and I feel they are actually better then before. I've also adjusted the monsters and some of the skills. The game is now a little easier.

I hope to have this newest version out very soon. I'm taking my time in the testing phase. I really don't want a repeat of the last one I put out.

END UPDATE

I can't wait to see what people think of the changes I have made.
 
The downlaod doesn't seem to be working... Is it just me? Or did you remove it while you are making changes?

Anyway it sounds like maybe I should wait for the new version reguardless.
 
Yeah... I removed the download until the changes are done.

UPDATE:

The Game is nowe going through Beta-Testing and hopefully will be nearly 100% in a few days. Then I'll release it again and get back to the next chapter.
 
Another Update:

The revamp will be out on Monday... Then I'll be taking a small break to work on other, non-RMXP, project that I've been neglecting. After that is done I'll back on this with a new head of steam.

Some of the many changes that have taken place during the Beta phase:

  • Included a Lag Reducer [turn on/off shadows option]
  • Included a Battle Speed Option
  • Included an Option screen able to be called with the Shift button
  • Remapped pretty much all the maps in the game so far
  • Added a few more scenes of the story
  • Deleted some mandatory battles that were unnecessary
  • Deleted a few unnecessary scenes from the story
  • Adjusted just about all the scenes in the game to better clarify and tell the story
  • Completely changed the NPC dialogue box [some people might not like it, but I do]
  • Changed the lighting of just about every map
  • As said before I've added an option to not watch the Movies by adding alternatives to game
  • Revamped the Titlescreen and Menu Graphics [thanks to Rep for the Graphics]
  • Added a lot of custom music that I have found online and from members of this community
  • Shortened the beginning intro [The long version will now be in Chapter 1 or 2, not sure yet]
  • Completely changed the EXP system, The EXP now resets when you gain a level[Thanks to Dargor for this script]
  • There are quite a few frankentilesets in the revamp made by me and few in the community


That's a lot of changes and I look forward to seeing how you all like it.
 

Thank you for viewing

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