[2k3 TechDemo] Sozora's Labyrinth

Atlantis is a fantasy land sealed off from the rest of the world. Magical creatures abound, crops grow in abundance and humanity is prospering in the Peaceful Paradise.

But that's when Ghost Mansions, giant man-eating oak trees, transdimensional demons and God knows what else isn't popping out of nowhere.

Jean Sozora, Spell Card user, discovers the Ghost Mansion deep within a dark forest. As she seeks to obtain more knowledge about the Mansion and it's past, she enlists the help of three other girls, all of which have a connection with the mansion in one way or the other.


Jean Sozora is the daughter of the famous philosopher and magician Nessiah Sozora, who mysteriously vanished shortly before Jean was born. He left behind a Golden hairpin in the shape of a moon, which Jean is always seen wearing. The hairpin changes it's form to match the current phase of the moon.


Ulidama Fia Owen is actually from the outer world, that is the world outside of Atlantis. She discovered a portal into Atlantis, albeit unstable, she hurled herself through the portal before it could disappear. However, fortune was not on Ulidama's side, as the portal ended up shutting in on her before she could make it completely through. Her waist down is now hidden by a colorful floating omnidimensional rift.


Mitori Kawashiro was accused of an extremely heinous crime. She was convicted, and as her punishment she was either to be put to death or become an outcast to society as a whole. She chose the latter, and now walks the earth shunned from every being. Her clothing is the symbol of an outcast, warning others not to approach her.


Sasha Sashiromiya is the Princess of the undersea kingdom of Lemuria. She used to wield the heavenly fork Trident, which granted her an immense amount of power. However, one day she dueled a dark stranger who commanded the Trident to backfire on the poor princess, surging a terrible amount of energy through her body. Ever since that day, Sasha has been... different.

FEATURES

• Custom Main Menu
• Custom Message Box (which will probably be overhauled in the near future)
• Eighteen different Spell Cards (Skills) for each heroine, each with their own levels and classes
• Four Over-World Spell Cards, skills which can be used outside of battle to aid you in travel
• Interesting main characters (along with a few NPCs that were kinda cool once)
• Face portraits for every human and enemy in the game
• Mini-Games and puzzles that actually have something to do with the storyline
• Touhou. 'Nuff said.
• Flying Lolis

SPELL CARDS

Jean Sozora obtains the Over-World Spell Card "Dream Clock", an immensely powerful Spell Card which stops the flow of time in the universe. It's useful to interfere with moving objects (such as using it to not get crushed by a falling boulder) or puzzles (moving falling rocks in mid-air to hit switches), even to evade enemies from engaging you in a Spell Duel (can't move if you're frozen, right~?)


Ulidama Fia Owen's Over-World Spell Card is "Sister Stars", a Spell Card which summons one of three UFOs to either burst into flames, freeze the area or send out a shockwave. It can be used to cross still water (Ice can be walked on), burn vines and move large boulders.


Mitori Kawashiro obtains her own Over-World Spell Card "Cutting Edge", a practical Spell Card that fires a razor-sharp disc in front of her. It can be used to slice through vines or ropes, or activate switches from afar. Simple, practical, it's no wonder Mitori wields this one~ Although the activation animation is rather flashy.


Sasha Sashiromiya, the 'Schizophrenic Jellyfish Princess' used to wield a Spell Card involving the use of her Trident. However, since then the Trident has backfired on her, forcing her to use a weaker version of her power, "Ocean Spire". This Spell Card summons a pillar from the earth exactly two spaces in front of you. It can be used as a stepping-stone in gaps, or as a blockade in narrow spaces.

SCREENSHOTS

INCOMPLETE SCRAPS


CREDIT

Graphic Material

• First Seed Material

• CLOSET

• velvetend

• Double Period

• RHETORIC

• Miracle

• GameOverMushroom

Music Material

• TAM Music Factory

• Maoutamsi

• ZUN


Sound Material

• TAM Music Factory

• Neko-San

Program

• Miracle

Other

• MokutonAlchemist

• Tatl0e

Voice Actresses

• S-h-u-d-o-R-a-n-m-a-r-u

• SailorDigiMoon

Publisher

• Travy Web Blog

If you see any of your material in my game that is not credited to you, PM me and I will add you to this list.

A note about the demo

The TechDemo was released a long time ago. I've made so many changes to the game you probably wouldn't recognize it. The TechDemo contains numerous bugs and errors, such as being able to select options that weren't completed or implemented or leaving ideas that weren't supposed to be released in the coding. If you'd like to download it, go ahead, but it's old and outdated and wants to die.

Thank you~

--Miracle

This looks great, pal. I'm going to download tomorrow, but off the back I noticed the battle system shown in one of your screenshots, it looks like the battlers are too big, so they're very close to the enemies, and it looks weird, I think the battlers should be a little smaller.

Hey, thank you ^^
Now normally I would brush off the complaint about the sprites being too big by saying that it was an outdated screenshot (which it is), but the revised sprites are even bigger, so I need to work that stuff out. >>;;

Thank you for thinking about my TechDemo, though. You'll find a lot of errors, but you still may enjoy it a little bit anyways ^^ My update below has some information about a new demo though.

UPDATE -- **

I got fed up with the convoluted way ImageShack works with my screens. I resized them all myself and now they don't have that ugly 320X240 PNG IMAGE!!!1 on the bottom

Also, I may have a new demo later on Maybe Early Summer?

Anyways, it'll be a lot better than that old one. The old one had numerous errors and flaws, like being able to select options that weren't implemented yet, or leaving valuable ideas in the game code. It's pathetic and shameful and wants to die.

BUT the new one will contain gameplay No more techdemo. Probably not any battles, but that's allright because Jean doesn't get SpellCards until about half an hour through the game anyways, and it'd be too hard to try and perfect with what time my schedule allows.

Have a look at one of the opening sequences :



Probably doesn't make too much sense just by looking at it. It's really just a hideous portal (very hideous and hellish) to another dimension.

But like, depending on how things go I may move the demo sooner or later. Still very vague ^^;

*vomits in disbelief*
Why exactly would you get slapped in the face for that?
Brilliant. I direly look forward to this. It looks great.
One iddy-biddy question; can you provide us with script information?

Hmph. I just wasn't sure whether I posted in the wrong forum or violated the rules somehow.
I'm guessing I didn't~? ^^

Aaaanyways, whaddya mean by scripts? Isn't that only VXP? Do you mean features?
I dunno. I don't want to clutter up my game with eighty-million useless features. I think unless it's either really important, or really cool, that I won't be adding any more features into this game. Plus I don't wanna get overwhelmed by a jumble of coding.

Really, all of the features are custom message box, custom fonts and Touhou lolis that fly around hurling lasers at each other. It's not so superficial, though. I already have quite a large story planned out, as this'll be more of a story-driven game than anything.

Hey, thanks for supporting my project. As my above post said, you can play the TechDemo if you want, but keep in mind there'll be a new demo that'll be much much better than the current one. ^^

Whoops. Derp. I didn't read the title well, or look closely at the screenshots. Turns out this is 2k3. Anyway, thanks for that information. I love how amazing things can happen on 2k3. It's beautiful.

Sorry for my ignorance.

I think I'll take that as a compliment, actually~ One reason I'm using 2k3 is because I'm intimidated by the hi-res in VX/XP ==;;

Anybody who likes Majora's Mask is fine by me. >_>b

I spent hours and hours finding out trying to figure out how to get past the Ranch part (where the cows were disappearing) in Majora's Mask.

By the way, I'll be trying out the demo when it completes as I am downloading it right now. I'll be sure to also give you some feedback and what not about it, so expect a double post as edits are barely ever read, 

Wow, now that's how demos should be. (It downloaded faster than I expected) The menus were great and the combat is cool. Your mapping though, is quite amazing. Originally I had said how the battle would look weird, it actually looks very good in game, I guess you shouldn't judge a book (or game) by its cover. The sprites look great and go perfectly with your environments and which, again, happens to look amazing. I love how you had the opening at the start of the game, which fails for many as they forget to allow the player to skip them, (I didn't watch it though, I guess I will eventually XD) you did not forget, and it's a good thing that you hadn't. One thing I'm wondering is how you can switch between characters, but they aren't all in your party? Should I have watched the opening? LOL. But anyway, the game looks and plays great, I'll keep an eye out for this one.

Oh, look! Another bug found! You can open up the menu in the tech-demo!
That shouldn't be there. =_= Just like I said, the demo is very very bad.
I'm working on programming a CMS, which looks like this :



Anyways, the reason they aren't in your party was because of the sprites. Instead of removing Jean and adding the selected party memeber, then adding Jean to your party again, I decided to go sprite-based. If you hack my code you can see that you're always playing as Hero_001 (Jean), but your sprite was of the character you selected. I didn't really see the need to add the other three girls anyways, as you couldn't really do anything in the menu.

Anyways, I'm glad you liked the demo. Although the combat shouldn't have even been in there, I'm glad you liked it ^^ Being able to skip the introduction was hard, and I was worried that nobody realized you could do it. Glad you did ^^ But the intro didn't have much anyways.

Oh, and off topic, the cow-part was my absolute least favorite. Ugh! The aliens! I was like "OMG ITZ BEHIND THE BARN!!".The only thing that even competes with that is when the two brothers try and stab the Lon Lon Milk Tanks and you have to fend them off with arrows in the back of the wagon. ==;;

UPDATE--*******

You know that new demo I was rambling on about? This one? Well, I've been working on it lately. It probably won't be long, like I said, but I'm still putting lots of effort into completing it and making it presentable.

Here's an animated screenie from my locker since RMN doesn't allow .gif screenshots (?_?) :


Jean regains consciousness only to arrive in a dream. Slight waver was not fun to implement.

No, I don't know when this'll be completed. That single map took a freaking long time to make, as well as the introduction. Not only that, but I also have to do the waver effect for every map I build.
That can't be easy. But whatever! After that, all that's left is the puzzles in the dream, her discovering the mansion and then back to reality!

Oh, and I'll have to implement a subtle tutorial along the way. That shouldn't be too hard, as I can just sneak in the standard RPG Maker controls along with the fresh and new features I've implemented, maybe just to balance it a little bit more.

But, like, be on the lookout for fresh info and everything~
I don't want to drag this new demo's production out really far.

--Miracle

woah, you have a blog!? I'll have to check up on that so I can get the lowdown.

EDIT: just noticed you said so in the first post..

Well, it's not really my blog. It just comes with the game profile. I still use it, though.

I'm pretty sure I included everything that's in my blog in this post in one way or another. But still, if you want to know how some of the features in the screenshots work then you should definitely check it out. I'll be posting everything I post in my blog here from now on, I just started here late so some of the information might have escaped this site.

--UPDATE *******

Less talk. MOAR SCREENSHOTS.


Sasha Sashiromiya casting "Albedo the World"

Yup. That should be what my CBS will look like.
It features a ring-style menu which is common for ABSs, but not for turn-based battles. Really, it works perfectly because you can either "Fight, Skill, Item, Flee" or choose from your four selections of Spell-Cards, four heroines, or scroll through your 11 or someodd items.

Aaaaaa??nyways, progress is still going slow. CBSs are pretty hard to program on 2k3, but I believe it'll be well worth it for the player to not have to wait about half an hour before you can actually battle and do something fun.
Sure, puzzles and story is fine, but I really just felt pretty guilty of not including one of the most important part of the plot and gameplay in the first few minutes. Still need to give a good reason to battle in the dream, though~

Stay tuned for more important information!
Eh, who am I kidding. *goes and waits on porch for 3DS*

--Miracle

Here have a screenshot



New demo coming soon <3

UPDATE -- ********

So I've been working on a new demo for Sozora's Labyrinth, except this time it won't be a Tech Demo. It'll contain actual gameplay, along with battles, puzzles and Spell Card-usage. Have a couple of screenies :

Out pops a shadowland inhabitant. Dreams are fun, so Spell-Card it up some~

Now you've got the shadowlander angry! Let's watch her blow up the bridge.

Wake up from your prophetic dream? Fear not, you can return to the same forest in real life.

That last screenshot is the same place as the second one, but it's in real life, rather than the dream. That means... BACKTRACKING :O

The first two screenshots are of the dream, and the cutscenes that are implemented in it. The first shows Jean preparing to use a Spell-Card on the shadowlander, the second is the shadowlander's revenge. After that, there'll be a jump puzzle in order to make the intro more interesting to play (don't worry, it'll be simple) as well as a battle with the shadowlander. Your foe is very deadly, but with the Dream-Exclusive SuperHuman SpellCard she should be no problem~ After that comes the Mansion.

It's been taking a while to do the mapping effects, and even longer to make all of the cutscenes air-tight. It'll be very difficult to program the battle, which may even set me back a week in my plans. But I do hope to have it released by Late Spring/Early Summer ^^

Please enjoy Mitori while you wait warmly.

--Miracle

This is getting pretty epic. I'll be awaiting this demo for sure.

Blah, don't hold your breath =0= progress is going very slowly

Also, not really an update, but please take a look at Mitori's redesigned sprite ^^



Critiques are welcome and appreciated

Wow, that looks amazing, which isn't too surprising based on your other works. I'll be holding my breath as long as it takes.

This looks wonderful! It's hard to believe it's 2k3 Keep up the good work!

:0 thank you

More screenies Dx

--UPDATE **********

So I've pretty much moved on from creating maps to creating the DBS :0 I've not quite coded anything yet, I've been focusing mainly on creating the HUD, sprites and other miscellaneous graphics. Since the deadline is ever-increasing I've shamefully taken to less spriting and more splicing Dx Too bad stealing Tasofro's artwork won't make my spriting any better. Here's a sprite that used to be Reisen


Chaotic Dimension : "Super Moon"

Woooooooo it's swirly~

My absolute worst fear is bumping back the deadline Dx I've worked really hard on creating a playable and enjoyable nontechdemo, and I feel that if I don't complete it by the deadline that it'll slip into nothingness and development hell to chill with Duke Nukem and that gay robot sidekick of his :< This may or may not mean late summer? Dx

eh, stick around, it'll get done eventually >>b

--Miracle

This project looks wonderful. Some of your links were broken since this forum uses a different format for hotlinks, so I fixed them up for you.

The links have been giving me woes on other forums too Dx Thank you for fixing them ^^ I had no idea they were broken here ><

Here's a Dash animation :>

Sozora's Labyrinth has been nominated for Project of the Season: Summer 2011. Place your vote in the voting topic