[POTM] Nora's Dragon Stories (download available: Battle Demo)

Hey there, this is my game: Nora's Dragon Stories. It's under construction for about 3 years now, with lots of breaks and all that stuff. Here's the info.

Spoiler for Story:

Once upon a time, a girl was born. Her name was Nora. Everyone knew when she was born that she was someone special, because she wrote lots of Stories about Dragons. Nobody believed her and her Stories, but she said she got visions about them and wrote that visions down. For a long time she had no friends or whatsoever, 'cause she was considered as a fool. But then there was Devo, a boy who lived in the same village and had a great fantasy. They became really good friends, and Devo was the only one who believed her. But about 13 years later, when Devo was 14 years old, Nora became really sick. Different recording doctors came by to see what was wrong, but they had no clue. Apparently she had a disease nobody had seen before. But then there was a mysterious doctor, named Japur. He and only he knew what was wrong, because this was happened to him before. He knew how to solve this. The only way to cure her, was to make the people believe in her Stories.

You will be playing Devo, the young and brave soul, and crawl into the books of Nora to get a piece of evidence of all of the Dragons in her books. Will you succeed?

Spoiler for Characters:

First of all, there's Devo. You'll play him in the game, and nobody else (except some recruits). Devo's a Dragon Empathic, which is someone who can understand Dragons. To get a piece of evidence of all of the Dragons, you'll have to understand their problems or just fight with them. For example: After getting your way through a dungeon, there's a dragon. Then you'll have to find out what's wrong, or you'll just have to think of a way to get a piece of evidence. So you can find out that the Dragon has a broken foot or something.
The girl it's all about; She's the sick one over here. :'(
The mysterious doctor/wizard. He's helping you in your journey to cure Nora.

Spoiler for Screenshots:

The title screen


The Collateral Caverns

The Collateral Woods, next to the Collateral Caverns


Farmer Brody's, to be found at the end of the Collateral Caverns


A shot of the Intro Scene


The Marsha Family, a crazy family in Meclador Ville


The Meclador Cave


The entrance to the Meclador Cave


The Dragon Platform in the Meclador Cave


A little passage between the entrance of the cave and the city


Meclador Ville - 1


]Meclador Ville - 2


Meclador Ville - 3


The Meclador Woods - 1


The Meclador Woods - 2


A little sidequest in which you'll have to find grapes


The lake, a part of the expansion of the Meclador Woods

The screens could be changed anytime, by placing fog, tiles or pictures.

Spoiler for Features:

O The Actor can dash, sneak, evade and wink
O You can pause the game whenever you want:

O The game uses Savepoints
O There are a lot of puzzles in Nora's Dragon Stories
O The game is decorated with lots of animations

Spoiler for Scripts:

Here are the scripts I'm using.
Mr. Mo's SBABS-Addon for NeoABS

3D Ringmenu

AMS
                                 
Inventory Limit

Mining Script {Maybe}

Fishing Script

Rare Item

The Mappausescript

Dynamic Sound Emmision {maybe}

Spoiler for Downloads:

1. Nora's Dragon Stories Battle Demo

Spoiler for:

Download now! - Version 2.21

===ReadMe!===
1. Install fonts that are included in the encryption
2. Close as much processes as you can, because for some computers it's kind of a heavy map
3. Play by clicking on 'Game', with the icon of the little guy on the red background

Spoiler for Credits:

~ I want to thank SolarSoft for everything.
~ I want to thank RPGflag.nl for everything.
~ I want to thank Mr. Mo for the Battlesystem
~ I want to thank Jaromir for Devo's Sprite
~ I want to thank Me™ for the Inventory Limit script and the Rare Item script
~ I want to thank hbgames.org for some of the scripts
~ I want to thank 9sages for almost alle resources
~ I want to thank Modern Algebra for the Dynamic Sound Emmision script.
~ I want to thank Wazakindjes for a lot of things, a great support for my game.
~ I want to thank Mark en Davey as well for all the help.

Well, that's my game, I will update this as soon as I got a lot of stuff, and I'll upload Chapter 1 when ready.

Matthijs/Japur (Netherlands)

Gotta say, the mapping is looking great. Graphic wise it looks like you know what to do.

Not too sure if I like the story though, but it's probably just me personally.

Also, you have enough screenshots, and it's clear you put a lot of work into this, so I'm moving this to projects.

Welk, I think it's the way I pronounce it, because in the Dutch forums they say that the story is one of the best parts..

Thanks anyway!

I think the story souns pretty neat actually. Definitely original. And yeah, the screens look good. Good luck!

Thanks.

The screens are changed a lot, but when I have a lot of new changes, I'll reupload them and post them here. Not for every change, you know.

I'm working on it every day.

As I was reading your story I kept thinking,"Wow this is weird." But I realize that it was just my own misunderstanding of how you wrote it and as I got to the end, it made perfect sense. As MA had said, it is very original. I'm glad to see something that has to do with dragons and is actually original. haha. Also, you're an excellent mapper. I absolutely love your last screenshot. The fact that the actor can dash, sneak, evade and wink sounds like you have some pretty interesting things planned for this. Also, I just noticed your wrote, "To get a piece of evidence of all of the Dragons, you'll have to understand their problems or just fight with them" under characters for Devo. I think that this multi-decision idea is absolutely excellent and sounds like a really good addition. I would love to see this game finished sometime or at the least, a demo. I wish you good luck on this.

I really like the plot, it's very original. I'm looking forward to the awesome gameplay to go with it. ^^

Only one minor note though:

But then there was Devo, a boy who lived in the same village and had a great fantasy. They became really good friends, and Devo was the only one who believed her. But about 13 years later, when Devo was 14 years old, Nora became really sick.

This implies that Devo was 1 year old when he became really good friends with Nora. Also the great fantasy thing, just how much fantasy would he have at such an age. It's possible ofcourse, but it stands out a little.

mapping is pure gold

Hey, this project has been nominated as a candidate for Project of the Month for June. Please vote here: http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,33296.0.html

Best of luck; I really like the look and feel of this game. I can't wait to see a demo.

I really like the plot, it's very original. I'm looking forward to the awesome gameplay to go with it. ^^

Only one minor note though:

But then there was Devo, a boy who lived in the same village and had a great fantasy. They became really good friends, and Devo was the only one who believed her. But about 13 years later, when Devo was 14 years old, Nora became really sick.

This implies that Devo was 1 year old when he became really good friends with Nora. Also the great fantasy thing, just how much fantasy would he have at such an age. It's possible ofcourse, but it stands out a little.

Hmm, true. That's a good thought.

But when parents meet, like Devo's parents and Nora's parents, they like automatically become friends, 'cause they are neighbours. So Nora's parents get a child. After a year, Devo's parents think of children as well, because Nora's parents are so happy with theirs. Then you've got this effect: N.'s parents got a child, D's parents got a child, they're friends wich each other, so they assume that their children are automatically friends. They only let their children play wich each other, wich means they're 'good friends'.

It's a kind of strange way I say it, but that's because I don't know how to explain it better to you.

mapping is pure gold

Haha thanks.

Hey, this project has been nominated as a candidate for Project of the Month for June. Please vote here: http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,33296.0.html

Best of luck; I really like the look and feel of this game. I can't wait to see a demo.

That's unbelievable! Didn't see that one coming!

sswave has joined 'the team'! He's making the soundtrack of Nora's Dragon Stories now!

We got in contact a while ago, and sswave has been busy making some sounds. Here's the main theme:
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=7682639&cache=3&q=hi&shuffle=false

And here's the Meclador Ville theme:
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=7737286&q=hi

Tell us what you think, so that sswave can improve his works.

I think my only complaint about this is that the game's name (horrible name imo). Other than that, the game looks great. I may give it a try once Chapter 1 is out.

I love that smith screenshot. Looks great. I like trying to make very appealing indoor maps and I think you have just out-done me. I must study lighting more!
Think I'll keep an eye on this project. Not sure if I like the title either, but I personally think it's quite difficult to come up with a catchy title. Especially when you look at the titles of most other peoples projects. They areall typical fantasy style, trying to be creative, names.
I like everything else so far.

Update in the music department:
Meclador Cave -
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=7764721&cache=3&q=hi&shuffle=false                                                                                             

Congratulations! Nora's Dragon Stories has won Project of the Month for August This means you get to have your project stickied for the month and that your project will be featured on Crankeye.com. If you object to that, we can take it down.

You may be wondering why the PotM for August is only chosen on August 15; we were changing the selection process for the PotM and so the decision process sort of took a while. We'll leave it up a little into September so that you're not totally gyped out of time

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Congrats! 

Congratulations on POTM

What I'm really looking forward to see in this project is all the animations you claim to have. <3_<3

Hey all!

Tjeez, this works as a drug or something. I read this before I went to bed, and I totally lost my mind. I got an inspiration burst and started to write things down on the wall with my fingers.

What I want to say is: Thank you. This is motivating me só much. I will go further and further to make this an epic RMXP game, no matter how long it takes. I will get one of those banners to my dutch forum as well, so that everyone can see it.

Well, I've got a game to make. See you later!

PS: I've started mapping for chapter two: Here's two screens (the ambient lightning and other pictures aren't there yet, have to make them first):




Theeeeerrrrre you go.

I am really impressed by what I saw. The mapping especially looks very well done, and the story is very original. I sure wish you luck with this and congratulations on the POTM.

Commenting something on the second map of Chapter 2 maps. I think the floors are somewhat a little cluttered. Also, that fire-stand (?) where the light comes from, I think should be better if it comes down one tile.

Best of luck. ^^

Tjeez, this works as a drug or something. I read this before I went to bed, and I totally lost my mind. I got an inspiration burst and started to write things down on the wall with my fingers.

Intense   

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that! Good luck with the project. Those two new screens look great, though I hope that first one is a cutscene since I think the lighting is too dim for gameplay

I am really impressed by what I saw. The mapping especially looks very well done, and the story is very original. I sure wish you luck with this and congratulations on the POTM.

Commenting something on the second map of Chapter 2 maps. I think the floors are somewhat a little cluttered. Also, that fire-stand (?) where the light comes from, I think should be better if it comes down one tile.

Best of luck. ^^

Yeah, I see what you mean with that. Thanks, didn't notice that.

And thanks again.

Tjeez, this works as a drug or something. I read this before I went to bed, and I totally lost my mind. I got an inspiration burst and started to write things down on the wall with my fingers.

Intense   

Yes it was, actually. 

Tjeez, this works as a drug or something. I read this before I went to bed, and I totally lost my mind. I got an inspiration burst and started to write things down on the wall with my fingers.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that! Good luck with the project. Those two new screens look great, though I hope that first one is a cutscene since I think the lighting is too dim for gameplay

Yes, it's a cutscene. I started to map on chapter two just because I had no inspiration for my chapter one. But now I do, because of your giant motivation. So thanks for that.

It wasn't so much me - it was RMRK+. I just get to announce things

I'm glad it had that effect though

Hey man, congrats on Project of the Month. Keep doing what you're doing and never give up on yourself.

Irock is available for any motivational speaker gigs that might be coming up at your school.

awesome

This looks absolutely spectacular, you've created a unique and interesting story, given an outline for characters and events which given proper depth could be stellar, and your mapping and use of lighting therein leaves nothing to be desired! I aspire to create what you have here in a work of my own; I commend you in your efforts, and pray you have the mettle to see it through to it's end!

now, I'm not going to jump down your throat or anything robo, but try not to post in older threads if they are dead. not really a big deal, just a rule of thumb. i suggest subscribing to the thread if you want to keep an eye on it for updates if it interested you, but the last post here was august of last year. just keep an eye on that.

Hello everyone!

Well, it's been a VERY long time... but I'm back! Not that I've ever been gone, because all this time I've been working on Nora's Dragon Stories, but I just didn't find the motivation to post all of my development on rmrk.net.

But on this very day (happy newyear, btw!) I wanted to tell all of you what I've been doing and what I've got so far. The creation of Nora's Dragon Stories hasn't been the fastest one, because I'm a busy little guy; school, girlfriend, Cambridge Advanced Certificate English Module, little job... all that stuff. But still, every single minute of my spare time, I spend on Nora's Dragon Stories.

Introduction

In the past few weeks I've been working on a little demo of my battle system, just to show you what I've got and to get comments on the system. I wanted to know if everybody would be content with this battle system, so I opened up a new project and started editting everything I wanted to make, so that I would have the battle system in a seperate project.

Screenshots

Also, I've mapped a lot. A very lot. The screenshots in the opening post are outdated, so I've uploaded the new ones. I've put them in the opening post, but here they are once more. I've updated Meclador Ville; it's a little bit darker now, I've fixed some mapping errors and I've put some more NPC's in it.
As for the Meclador Cave; I've changed the color of the grass, added some of Kipes addons (great addons!), got a lot of new enemies... Also, I've added a new area: the Collateral Woods and Collateral Caverns, an 'expansion set' of the Meclador Woods. I made this to make the gameplay a little bit longer, because I had the idea that Chapter 1 could be too short.

So, here are the new screenshots!

Spoiler for:

The title screen


The Collateral Caverns

The Collateral Woods, next to the Collateral Caverns


Farmer Brody's, to be found at the end of the Collateral Caverns


A shot of the Intro Scene


The Marsha Family, a crazy family in Meclador Ville


The Meclador Cave


The entrance to the Meclador Cave


The Dragon Platform in the Meclador Cave


A little passage between the entrance of the cave and the city


Meclador Ville - 1


]Meclador Ville - 2


Meclador Ville - 3


The Meclador Woods - 1


The Meclador Woods - 2


A little sidequest in which you'll have to find grapes


The lake, a part of the expansion of the Meclador Woods

Music

Another big change in the project, is the music. Sswave stopped making music because of personal reasons, so it was time to find a new composer. But that didn't work out quite well; I didn't find anyone. But hey, that's a keyboard over there! And that's a beautiful piece of software to record the keyboard!

So there I was, composing my own soundtrack. I love composing and I've been doing it for a couple of months now. I've created like 10 songs now, which are all made for the concerned scene in my game. Here is the theme song for example, composed by me.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzUkdk9IlyU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzUkdk9IlyU</a>

Also, the demo contains a bit of my own music, particularly made for the demo.

Battle Demo

Time to show you guys the battle system of my game. I've updated it a lot of times and I think there's only ONE error left: you should be able to play without RTP, but Module Alworks doesn't let you. Well, on some computers it does, on some it does not. So I'm still figuring that out.

The demo is not so very long, you can only try the battle system on a lot of monsters, a very tiny puzzle and a little cutscene. But the demo also shows you the ambience that's going to live throughout Chapter 1, the full chapter. So please download and tell me what you think, what I did good and more important what is wrong.
It also shows you what I got. There's only one RTP graphic, and thats the locked door which you'll have to pass. All of the other graphics are selfmade or at least custom. The music is custom and the battle system is drastically changed. It's Mr. Mo's SBABS addon for NeoABS, but I've changed a lot in it, so that it would be more spectacular. More sounds, more moves, other graphics.

Download now! - Version 2.21

===ReadMe!===
1. Install fonts that are included in the encryption
2. Close as much processes as you can, because for some computers it's kind of a heavy map
3. Play by clicking on 'Game', with the icon of the little guy on the red background

So...

So, I'll update the opening post in a sec. I hope you guys don't hate me for being inactive here, haha. :') And I also hope you guys see how much work I've put in this project. I really hope that someday I can show you the whole game. And for now I think the battle demo and thus the fact that my battle system is finished, will really make the process of making this game go faster.

From now on, I'll try to post updates on my game now and then, to keep in touch with this forum as well. Because as I said to my mom: I can post on my dutch homeforum everyday and get comments and all that stuff, but I think that there are some real experts on rmrk.net from who I hope to get some real criticism.

Oh, and a big, crunchy cookie for everyone who reads the whole text.

Nora's Dragon Stories has been nominated for Project of the Season for Winter 2011. Vote here if you wish to support this project: http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,41338.0.html

Wow, thanks! Again, didn't see that one coming!

Why did you pick Nora's Dragon Stories all of a sudden, if I may ask?

It looks cool, and now we know it's not dead. since you're actively working on it, it qualifies.

Hi all again,

I wanted to give you an update on some stuff I've been doing lately.


There's always been one comment that has been in my head for about 2 years. It's modern algebra's comment about my menu and the fact that it wasn't great. I've always thought the same. So now I decided to do something about that, because I felt like I had a temporary menu instead of a real one.

So I'd come up with a mock-up of a menu I would love to see in my game: simple, easy to use and of course a little bit original. So I've asked a friend of mine, a really great scripter, who will undoubtedly show up some day over here, if he could create that menu for me.

A couple of days later I got my new menu. I've edited some things, and now I wanted to show you guys and girls what the new menu of Nora's Dragon Stories looks like. I feel like it's a huge improvement and that it suits my game's atmosphere.

I might change the icons though. Also, there will probably be an icon grid as an inventory menu and it features stuff like the fact that when you're having one player in your party, you don't get a selection screen of all the actors in your party, but with 2 or more players, you will get a screen like that.


I've also been doing balancing. I considered that my balancing wasn't all good, so I decided to do it differently. Where Devo initially had like 543 HP on level 1, which is quite the standard, he now has 21: that of course goes with major decreases on every stat of all monsters as well. So now, with such low numbers, it's far more easy for me to just adjust the monsters's strenght to Devo's stats.

That looks pretty gorgeous there Japur

Thank you very much! Means a lot coming from such a great scripter, hehe.

Also, has anyone tried the battle demo yet? I did get some feedback from the Dutch forums, but I'm dying to get some from rmrk.

To remind everyone, the download can be found here.

I would love to. Tho the game started, the first map appeared and for a second then the error popped up

Script 'AMS' line 686: RGSSError occurred.
failed to create bitmap

Happens all the time I tried to run the game >.< Dunnu why :/ I have RMXP and everything all right, just fyi

You have to install the given fonts. Then everything should work just fine.


Still nobody who tried the demo? Again, the download can be found here.

Updated the opening post a little bit (including the art at the top), more will follow soon; I've got chapter 3 and 4 written down in dutch, it's only a matter of translating: I will update it soon.

Also, Chapter 1 is bound to be done this holiday, which means that you should be playing it in 3 weeks! I'm very glad it's all coming to an end now, and to be honest, I think I've created something worth playing.

I love this game already because of two things. Great mapping and an ABS.
I'm not going to read the story. I actually want it to be a surprise to me.
Trying now.