Bloodstained Hands [Full VX Project v1.4]

[Strak]

Story

The Xian Empire. A land of thieves, assassins, and deception... and home of the greatest magical academy in the world. The academy is where all magical research is conducted. Within its walls, many secrets are held, as are those who would abuse them. The academy resides within the capital, Sapphane. The Royal Guard defends the palace from invaders, but nothing can prevent the Empire from rotting on the inside. Within the walls of Sapphane, a plot begins to unfold. A plot to unravel the greatest of all secrets, and bring the Empire to its knees. There is but one hope. One chance to purge the rot that has swept through Xian... and stop the coming nightmare.

Rating and Controls

M (17+) - Strong Language, Blood and Gore

Move: Arrow Keys
Action key (talking, reading signs, etc.): Z or Space
Cancel key: X or esc
Menu key: D
Dash: Press and hold C
Scroll (in menu): Q and W

Characters

Good

Rain/Fang
(Self Named Protagonist)

Age: 18
Class: Assassin
Weapon: Knives/Katanas
A young boy who lived with his brother Matthew until the Empire comes to take them away. He escaped capture and is now an assassin working against the empire to save his family.

Marisa

Age: 18
Class: Assassin
Weapon: Knives/Katanas
A girl working for the Hidden Blades. She is serious about her work, but kind in nature. She has a soft spot for Rain, but doesn't show it much.

Grey

Age: 20
Class: Mage
Weapon: Staves/Elemental Magic
A childhood friend of Rain and Matthew. He has a talent for magic, although he hasn't practiced much. He dislikes the Hidden Blades, but follows Rain.

Remainder of characters to be revealed in gameplay.

The Known World

<> Cyana - Northwestern corner of the Xian Empire. Home of Rain.
<> Emerdala - South of Cyana. A village hidden in the Mist Forest. Very peaceful.
<> Amethyne - A large bustling city across the ocean, on the Eastern side of the Empire. Home of King Rello.
<> Five Islands - South of Amethyne, East of Sapphane. Home of two small villages, three other islands, and General Gareth.
<> Diamo - A village in the far Northeast. Very cold and snowy. Home of the Diamo Training Facility.
<> Goldare - A city in the desert to the Southwest. Very hot, and located above a network of magma tunnels. Home of General Dawn.
<> Silvein - A city South of Goldare. Home to the world's only Silver Mine. Home of General Snow.
<> Sapphane - The capital of the Xian Empire. Located in a circle of mountains in the centre of the continent. Home of the Imperial Palace, the Royal Guard, and Emperor Kilano.

Credits

Credits are in the Credits folder, in the download.

Screenshots

[spoiler=SANCTUARY][/spoiler]
[spoiler=BATTLE SCENE][/spoiler]

Special Thanks to Kitten for Layout.

Download
Approx. Game Time - 20 Hours
Notice: This game requires the RPG Maker VX RTP to run.
Download Game
Download RTP
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[Strak]

I've received one complaint saying that the game does not load properly. Anyone else who has tried this demo, would you please either comment or PM me to let me know if this game loads or not. I don't know if it's that one persons computer or the game itself. If there is a problem I will fix it right away if notified.

[tSwitch]

I've been able to get your game running, later today I will post a "First Look at [game] with NAMKCOR" video to the RMRK YouuuuuuuTube, and to this post.  Please Note: the first look video will concern the demo in its current state and will contain possibly more criticism than anything else.  Take it constructively.

[Strak]

Will do. Thanks NAMKCOR.

[tSwitch]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGlM1N3Ggcc[/yt]

youtube fixed itself
quality is nice now

[cozziekuns]

I'll have to agree with Nam here, as the mapping could use a lot of work. The battle backgrounds look nicely thought out, the pixilation giving it the feel of an old-school RPG. The main enemy being the empire is also a nice thought, instead of being just a single villian. However, the hero being a rebel fighter hoping to overthrow an evil empire is pretty cliche.

Also, I think that Esc and Num-pad 0 can be used in the same way as X.

[Strak]

All I can say is THANK YOU!!! Whenever I get people to test my games, they never give full criticism because they think they might hurt my feelings or something. I don't know, it's stupid, but THANK YOU FOR THAT REVIEW! Now I know what I need to work on!

[Zylos]

*noticed the video and has come to investigate*

[tSwitch]

All I can say is THANK YOU!!! Whenever I get people to test my games, they never give full criticism because they think they might hurt my feelings or something. I don't know, it's stupid, but THANK YOU FOR THAT REVIEW! Now I know what I need to work on!

no problem, I hope you take the critique to heart.

A couple somewhat minor things I didn't mention:
- Music styles clash, I know it might be hard to find matching music resources, just try to do what you can.
- Message Boxes jump around way too much for my liking.

[DarkGamer]

Love the battle system. The maps could be beauty thought. Still, very nice, a project that shows alot of work already

[Strak]

I just finished re-creating a lot of the maps that needed work, and I even went on some mapping tutorials (going back to RMVX school) to get a better idea of what a good map is. I'm also working on the dialogue, a lot of the cliches, and I fixed that weird face aura thing. I've taken notes on everything mentioned in the review and it's really starting to get better. I'll post an updated demo within three weeks time.
(Also, yes NAMKCOR, you were right. The forest dungeon was in fact created by a Random Dungeon Generator. I just slightly edited it so that instead of walls, there were trees)

[Ecowolfsteen]

What FaceMaker are you using? My friend would like to know...Or are you just drawing them yourself?

[Acolyte]

What FaceMaker are you using? My friend would like to know...Or are you just drawing them yourself?

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Flovelymoro.web.fc2.com%2Fmoromagalabo.html&sl=auto&tl=en

[Strak]

The game has been updated. The update includes improvements of nearly everything mentioned in the video, but I realized very quickly that one problem couldn't be fixed without bringing up another. As such, cliches are still a factor, and my mapping is still not the greatest, but it is a large improvement over the previous demo. Feedback/CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is welcome, enjoy the demo, I'm gonna get back to work now.



I've been switching up the tilesets and fixing up the maps, so now they look a lot better (and more original). I'm posting a few preview screenshots that may or may not be in the next release of the demo.
Here they are:
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler]
Okay, I love this one. Just sayin.[/spoiler]
Admittedly, the maps still need work, but I find that front-view roof-tops are much nicer, and the forge isn't nearly as empty as it used to be. Also, the trees are now actually leafy, airy, trees, rather than a giant blob of green leaf pillar that the RTP includes as their "trees." Comments? Advice? Death threats? Constructive criticism?



Hey, posting to remind everyone that yes, I'm still working on this project, and I'll be posting a HUGE update on the game in the new year! hope you're all excited, and I hope to hear back from some of you when the new demo is released!

EDIT: Well that worked. :|



Ok, no guarantees on a new demo being release THIS year, but here's hoping. I'm still re-working a lot of the resources, mostly characters, music, and face sets. But I am still working on this. Weird to think I've been working on this for over three years now. Released the project two years ago, but it's still a work in progress. I hope this project is really worth the years of time spent on it, and I hope you all get just as excited about it's final release as I am. (FYI, really excited)



Demo Released once more!



So I've been SUPER hard. At work on this project.

*Tee Hee*

Honestly though, it's coming along great, and I can't wait for you all to see this project reach completion. With the recent changes I've made, the magic system has been completely changed, making it much more versatile, much more interesting, much more customizable, and much more personal to the person playing. I've also switched a few things around for a more visually stimulating game experience. I've already completed my editing of the storyline up to the next three cities, all the way up to the assassination of the first General. More importantly, I've reworked the story to make more sense from a logistical standpoint, making the hierarchy of the separate armies in the game much clearer, much more pronounced. All this and more will be included in the next demo, expected to be released soon. Stay tuned for that, and thank you all for your support! Peace!

EDIT: Also changed the Hidden Blades Sanctuary, so it's way more detailed, and has more assassins than before. It's also one large map, not two separate maps.



Adding some finishing touches on the next release of the demo, so that should be out in the next week or so. More screenshots will be released along with that. Also, this project isn't exactly new... and I am still working on it...

Substantial Project? Possibly?

[Strak]

Ok, combined all those old posts into one. Saves a lot of space.

ANYWHO!

I have done it. I have successfully created an event-based endless mission system, much like the one found in Skyrim. It is now possible to continuously do different missions (up to 45 different mission combinations), thus never running out of money (which was a huge dead end in the recent changes I made, i.e. monsters don't drop money). Worked on it for days, but the game will now grant missions endlessly! I'll update the demo soon.

And seriously. Substantial Project? I'm just saying, it would be a nice gesture, or Christmas gift, or something...

[tSwitch]

I'd work on the logo a bit more.  The colors are so close that the busy design in the background makes it difficult to read the nonstandard font.

[Strak]

I'll see what I can do. I didn't make the logo, but I'm not terrible at image editing. The main problem I encountered before was that the blood in the background didn't really look like blood. I just cranked up the saturation to give it more of a glow.

EDIT: Ok, here's some samples. Just some colour changes, and I played around with the inversion feature as well.

[spoiler=SAMPLE 1]This is the one I was using before. Just massive saturation.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=SAMPLE 2]For this one, I inverted the image, shifted the hue back to red, then cranked up the saturation. I kinda like the black blood.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=SAMPLE 3]I shifted the hue on this one to make it orange, then turned up the saturation to give the blood the red glow.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=SAMPLE 4]For this one, I inverted the image, shifted the hue to orange, then cranked up the saturation.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=ORIGINAL]This is the original logo, created by Bunny.
[/spoiler]



It's time. The new demo... is released. This is a final release of the intro to the game, aside from some text editing. The main ideas are down, but the dialogue itself... I could do better. Any writers wanna take a crack at it, go right ahead.

Enjoy!

[tSwitch]

Don't use that last one, there...

all I can really advise is to use contrast.

[Strak]

Contrast... I'll do that.

And yeah, meow you see why I didn't want to use the original.



This is what I've got, after fussing over it for several hours. Not much different. I don't have the greatest image editor.

[Acolyte]

I liked your second sample the best.
I think the white definitely needs to not be white.
I gave it a shot, but it's hard to work with without the original layers, and there's a weird transparency on the letters.



It looks a lot better on a light background.

Do you have the original file? I could do pretty much whatever you wanted to do to it with the original layers intact.

[Strak]

I didn't make the original file but I'll link you to where I got it.

Here's the exact post.

Just as a heads up, I would use the second sample, except for two reasons. First, there's a white glow around the logo that stands out against the black background of my title screen. Second, even if that glow weren't a problem, the glow cuts off. It looks funny.



Ok! Did this by accident. What do you think?

[spoiler=LOGO ONLY][/spoiler]
[spoiler=TITLE SCREEN][/spoiler]



Updated the demo! Also, follow the project on Facebook! I've got a page ready there where I'll be posting all updates made to the game.

https://www.facebook.com/bloodstainedhandsrmvx

[Fanatik007]

Can u fix a game link pls?

[&&&&&&&&&&&&&]

ya updat ur gam lol

[Strak]

Heh, oops. Fixed.

Note: The RTP is not included with the game. If you want to play the game, and don't have the RMVX RTP, you'll have to download that as well.

Also, seriously. Everything can be found on the facebook page here.

[&&&&&&&&&&&&&]

there is not reasons to be getting agnry