Silver Heart [VXA][Demo]

Update.

I've made a few changes to the battle system since a few people have recommended using bars instead of text. Also I've removed the old "bumper" in battle which allows the continuous display of damage which in turn allows battles to go faster.



I would like to know if the people who tried the first demo would like to test the new version with bars to tell me whether or not it's an improvement or what could be changed in it. I've also fixed most of the bugs reported such as the saving problem.

Thanks for reading and and have a nice day.

I've updated the demo in the main post with a new one with all reported bugs fixed and new features.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/61337936/Demos/RMRK%20SH%20Demo/Silver%20Heart.exe

I know it might seem lazy to just work on this small part of the demo and replaying it a chore, but I would like to refine it as much as possible before reaching a point where it would just be too hard to do so.

The new features are.

• Title Screen & Ability to load files.
• Encounter Radar changed to remove a single enemy instead of clearing everything.
• Battle Speed changer.
• Some enemies have been toned down a bit.(Rafflesias can still hit Satiel hard, but not as hard as before (Keeping the Sage's HP higher than him should allow you to survive better.))
• Enemy HP Bars instead of text.
• Escape rates have been adjusted and the visual escape bug fixed.

One of the biggest changes is the "Battle speed changer", it allows you to change the speed of battles by pressing the "Left" or "Right" keys in battle. The current speed is shown by a ">" with ">>" being the top speed.



I added this because some people said they wanted battles to be faster, but I do not recommend it's use unless you know how to play well. Otherwise you could die very fast.

I would love to hear the thoughts of the people who tried the first demo and what they think of the new features, and of course the thoughts of everyone too.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

Well just by the screenshot, the hp bars are already a massive improvement (at least to me, as I like bars better than numbers in these cases).

Just finished the demo, and I really enjoyed it! The whole battle system was a bit confusing to me at first, but I got into it pretty fast! (Adding a tutorial about the battle system would be a plus later on though, cause at first glance Its really confusing). I really think Its awesome though, very different but alot of fun at the same time. I really liked the fact that you need to be on your toes aswell, or its pretty much game over. I cant imagine how the battle system would be with skills added aswell, that would be insanely sweet!

Another thing that struck me was your menu! Wow, Its absolutely fantastic!, and Adding the alt+ arrow shortcut was a very neat function. Also enjoyed the "battle map", really well done and works well for the concept!

Think you have tons of intersting mechanics, and I look forward to seeing your progress!

As for the story, I think Its promising.. even though the demo didnt tell much as it is.
Also, forgot the "skip cutscene" option! Thats something I would love to implement in my own game aswell, I have no idea on how Its done though, but Its a really neat feature!

Supporting this, and wish you luck on the project!  

@D&P3:

Thanks, let me know what you think if you try it out.

@Dizturb3d:

Thank you, it's always a great boost to the morale to read posts like yours. Glad you liked it.

As for a tutorial for the battle system, I'll start writing it soon. If there is anything specific you think people should know let me know so I can add it.

For skipping cutscenes I think there are 2 scripts, one made by myself and another one made by Kread-EX.

Here is the one by Kread-EX

http://grimoirecastle.wordpress.com/rgss3-scripts/utility-scripts/cutscene-skipper/

And here is the one I made.

http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,45074.0.html

My script was made way back when VX Ace was released so it's probably not as optimized as newer scripts. I usually update scripts based on how many people use them and when there's no visible interest in them they usually get no updates, but if you do decide to use my version let me know so I can work on it so it's as optimized as possible.

Thanks for trying the demo and sharing your opinions.

I might give the demo a try, but I wanna know how long the demo approximately takes to finish.

I might give the demo a try, but I wanna know how long the demo approximately takes to finish.

Around 10-15 minutes I would say. Depends on how many battle encounters you will get though

Thanks, just gave it a try.
Played up to my very first battle where I got my butt kicked. I didn't know what was going on, lol. Thought it was supposed to have some sort of turn-based system, but my characters were being under continuous attack. Then the game reset itself once my party died. Heheh.[/noob]

I just gotta say that I really enjoyed it up to the part of my first battle (lol). The story's fairly simple (which I like btw, not a fan of overly complex stories), but made up for it with the writing and the overall feel of quality to the game. I liked how you gave everyone an unique line of dialogue, including the castle guards (it's nice how they give you game tips btw), while keeping their texts short. I think I came across a minor typo or two, but overall it looks like you paid good attention to getting the writing done well.
What more can I say... the castle map looked nice, nothing really to comment on besides the fact that I liked it. Spent some seconds on the overworld map, looked alright.
Choice of music felt right.
To be honest I find it hard to come up with any criticism, except maybe the lack of explaining how the battle system works (or I'm just a blind noob for missing the tutorial?)

@Milennin:

Thank you for giving the demo a try, and no you are not a noob because you died in your first battle, the battle system was designed to overwhelm you in many ways and people who die and try again seem to often enjoy the game much more than those who survive their first battle, who often have little interest in the game to start with and don't continue playing.

As for the tutorial, I've been working on it and most of the scripts related to it are almost done. Right now I'm just deciding whether to make it segmented (Allow the player to select what to learn) or just  a long tutorial that explains everything. Also trying to find music that fits the tutorial battle.

Here is an image of how the tutorial works when explaining the party status display:



It's more animated in action, but that's hard to convey in a still image. Also this is just some of the information, in the tutorial there is a bit more.

If there is anything you or anyone else would like explained better in a tutorial please let me know and I'll add it.

@Milennin:

Thank you for giving the demo a try, and no you are not a noob because you died in your first battle, the battle system was designed to overwhelm you in many ways and people who die and try again seem to often enjoy the game much more than those who survive their first battle, who often have little interest in the game to start with and don't continue playing.

Thanks, the tutorial should help.
And yeah, I don't mind a game being difficult - a good challenge from the beginning is nice, actually, and a step up from the usual incredibly long and easy start RPG's tend to have - but not knowing what to do isn't fun. Maybe you could consider warning the player to save his game before going out into the field the first time. Because people generally expect the first some battles into the game to be pretty easy and not die horribly (lol), it's a bit disheartening to be sent right back to the beginning of the game upon getting killed in your first battle.

How about replacing the heart icons by a red cross (+) sign which is (I guess) about pretty much all over the world a sign of help/first aid/...
I just asked my sis what the Red Cross (foundation) is and she just answered "Oh, doesn't that have something to do with doctors??"

I thought I was going to fight something too and when I first encountered it, I was like "Huh? No fighting? Then what is it for? Health maybe? Let's find another one to check it!"

It's more animated in action, but that's hard to convey in a still image. Also this is just some of the information, in the tutorial there is a bit more.

If there is anything you or anyone else would like explained better in a tutorial please let me know and I'll add it.

That tutorial looks awesome! Im sure it will have a big impact when you enter your first battle, and erase any confusion that might pop up without it Fantastic job on your side!

You could always put up a small sample of the tutorial event when you are finished, so we can recall anything that you might want to add.

@Dizturb3d:
For skipping cutscenes I think there are 2 scripts, one made by myself and another one made by Kread-EX.

Here is the one by Kread-EX

http://grimoirecastle.wordpress.com/rgss3-scripts/utility-scripts/cutscene-skipper/

And here is the one I made.

http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,45074.0.html

My script was made way back when VX Ace was released so it's probably not as optimized as newer scripts. I usually update scripts based on how many people use them and when there's no visible interest in them they usually get no updates, but if you do decide to use my version let me know so I can work on it so it's as optimized as possible.

Thanks for trying the demo and sharing your opinions.

I will look into those scripts after my first demo is released, thanks alot for sharing
At a first glance Im a little more interested in your script because it has an option to choose if you want to skip the cutscene with a "yes" or "no" choise. I will download it later on and see if I can make it work as I want it too.

And you are very welcome

@Milennin:

Yeah, I also feel a lot of RPG's start out way too easy and it is true that it's bad game design to not explain things properly. Also I think there is one of the NPC guards in the castle who tells you to save often.

One of the main reasons I decided to add enemies that are capable of killing you easily was because of a recent play-through of Radiant Historia. In many of the games first random battles enemies are very capable of taking you out if you don't know what you're doing or taking advantage of the battle mechanics. As for the lack of explanations I was playing way too much dark souls...

@Amycha19:

I think I will just mention in game what the symbols mean, the pixel artist I was working with had to leave due to personal reasons and may not return for a while, which means I have to work with the sprites I have.

@Dizturb3d:

Thanks, I will post the tutorial once it's done. Meanwhile here is an image of the segmented idea.



And thanks for posting everyone, it helps a lot to see the interest people have in your game when working on it.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGXiS9KjByk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGXiS9KjByk</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGXiS9KjByk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGXiS9KjByk</a>

That font in the title screen... No... Please tell me that is not the font most people saw in their game. I forgot to add the font folder in the last update.

This is what it should look like.



I'm so sorry about forgetting to add the font folder. As for the font it's "Bella_Donna".

I thought it looked weird. I just thought it was trying to resize itself to fit your widescreen game area and managed to screw up.
Didn't think it was a font issue

Here is a battle tutorial demo for those of you may want to try and comment on it.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/61337936/Demos/RMRK%20SH%20Demo/Tutorial%20Demo/TUT%20Silver%20Heart.exe
(It's not a full demo, it's just my debug map with the tutorial and the parts that are finished.)

I'm still very surprised that the battle system requires a tutorial since it's basically bumping, so it's been hard trying to simplify that even more to explain it.

Even though it's not fully finished, I wanted to see if the parts that are done are doing a good job at explaining the battle system before finishing it all.

So, try it out and let me know.

Have a nice day.

Here is a battle tutorial demo for those of you may want to try and comment on it.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/61337936/Demos/RMRK%20SH%20Demo/Tutorial%20Demo/TUT%20Silver%20Heart.exe
(It's not a full demo, it's just my debug map with the tutorial and the parts that are finished.)

At game start up it gives error Unable to find VL Gothic Font.

It's the default font that comes with RPG Maker VX Ace (at the least, VX Ace comes with the font) and will likely require that you have said program installed to get it.

Hopefully, there's no issues with me attaching the font file to this post for those that need it to run this demo.


The tutorial is done very well I think. There's a lot of bars and colours and not enough information as to what those bars actually mean, until you've played the game a little and began to work it out. Whilst it doesn't have a huge learning curve, and I can understand to some degree why you would be surprised people are unsure about it, I think at least explaining Rush Mode and it's benefits (and reasons for why it should saved and not simply burned because it's there) is a good thing to do. Not only that, but it's a considerate thing to do in my books. You shouldn't assume everyone is going to understand it, even if it's a very simple system, and providing some information is always taken well (going overboard is going to bore people - you need a balance between informing someone and treating them like idiots).

I would suggest making sure that the tutorials are an easy to find, but optional, thing so that repeat players don't have to go through it. Although, it's not exactly difficulty to simply exit it so it's hardly a real inconvenience to them.

@Milennin:

Sounds like you're missing the font that comes with RPG Maker VX Ace, I think having the RTP installed should fix that.

@LoganF:

I already know most of what you explained, what surprises me is that a tutorial is needed because a lot of people did not even try to learn. Just like I suspected a lot of the people who tried the tutorial commented that and I quote "Good, theres a tutorial. I didn't bother trying it before because of that lol".

As for Rush mode, It shouldn't take a genius to understand the concept of short lived power boosts. Many old games had them, like bombs in Contra. You know that bombs killed everything because you saw them do it, the game itself does not tell you unless you read a manual or try it out yourself and once you try it you see that you have a limited amount of them and wasting them for no reason would just leave you without them to use when could have needed them.

Rush mode is the same thing, a short burst of power and speed that you can use at your own discretion. You can waste it if you want, but it's better to save it if you want to escape or take out an enemy before it finishes preparing to use a skill.

I don't think it's asking for the moon for players to try and understand such a simple concept on their own without the need for an extended explanation and then allow them to be able to apply what they learn and  device their own strategies.

Also the tutorial is optional, you're prompted at an early part of the game as to whether or not you would like to take it.

To be fair, the game doesn't really leave you with much time to test things out and learn on your own.
The enemies tend to get up on you pretty quickly so you can only really use what you've currently figured out to either win or escape.

Honestly (even though I suggested that a tutorial would be nice) just a battle at the beginning of the game against a dummy enemy would be pleasant; I'm not under the pressure of keeping an eye on 4 different bars and can get the feel for things that way.
That said, I still feel like this is one of the few battle systems where I feel like I'm needed.

To be fair, the game doesn't really leave you with much time to test things out and learn on your own.
The enemies tend to get up on you pretty quickly so you can only really use what you've currently figured out to either win or escape.

Honestly (even though I suggested that a tutorial would be nice) just a battle at the beginning of the game against a dummy enemy would be pleasant; I'm not under the pressure of keeping an eye on 4 different bars and can get the feel for things that way.
That said, I still feel like this is one of the few battle systems where I feel like I'm needed.

I know that the first time I entered the battle, and subsequently ended up being KO'd, I had no idea what was going on. There's bars, there's some controls, and there was some text flying up the log window, and that's about it. My first impression was a little overwhelming, and I can understand why people might be put off.

I do agree that not even giving the game a try, perhaps because the screenshots made it look confusing, isn't really a good thing. I do believe in giving things a try, even if you are thrown in the deep end. But my first death wasn't one I enjoyed, and it didn't make me feel the desire to go play again.

As a gamer, I don't want my games to be too easy, nor do I want things hand fed to me. But I do expect that games give me the tools to at least understand the basics. I love challenges, that's for sure. But I don't have the time or the desire to figure things out from nothing. A simple hint like "Rush Mode boosts your power and speed for the time it's active" is all I'd require to make the conclusion that I should use it carefully.

Perhaps you can try implementing the Rule of threes?

@D&P3:

I think that working on this battle system for a very long period of time has made me unable to gauge the real speed of it against what I'm used to (To me battles are incredibly slow), I might have to consider someone for testing when it comes to speed related issues.

Also I wanted to make the first 10 battles of the game the same for everyone to show the types of enemies and what they could do, but because of the "Encounter Radar" people could just avoid them and miss that completely.

As for the dummy, that is not a bad idea. I might just add it in for people to practice on without the tutorial.


@LoganF:

Overwhelming was my goal and I've recently enjoyed a few RPG that have done that to me, but I think that may not be for everyone since only a few people have enjoyed it so far. The speed and the lack of instructions are a bad design choice if the person playing is approaching the game as a normal RPG and is not expecting to respond that quickly. Hopefully the tutorial helps more people be ready and the dummy battle allows them acclimate to the speed.

@IAMFORTE:

In the tutorial or gameplay?

In a tutorial and in game play, turn off a few features to get the players used to everything, then slowly turn them on, that way they don't feel overwhelmed by it.