[VX] Dorian Hunt. The Prelude (Demo v2.0 released)

DORIAN HUNT is an existential steampunk RPG set in a fantasy world vaguely resembling Europe in the early 19th century.
It tells the story of Dorian Hunt, a young man whose ideals of liberty eventually lead the world to a revolution of unprecedented scale.

THE SETTING

The year is 1823. The world is slowly shifting towards an industrial revolution. Never before have natural sciences been on such a high peak, while ethics and religion had never seen such a hopeless downfall.
The prominent metropolitan city of Falknor, run by the Royal Dynasty for centuries, has now been partly occupied by the legions of one Lord Ajani who also happens to be the monarch of a militant eastern nomad empire. As the fractions struggle for power, Lord Ajani issues a pact to close down the Royal Academy of Falknor, the cornerstone of modern education.
It is then when Dorian Hunt forms the Students' Liberation Front, a reactionary union with the goal to liberate education from the leading authority once and for all. He finds out, however, that there is no such thing as the leading authority, only an endless and ever growing chain of command.

THE PRELUDE

Spoiler for:

As far as The Prelude goes, it is an introduction to Mr. Hunt's story. It covers the stretch of time when Dorian and his companion Augustus Ellingsworth are arrested and sent into exile to the desolate isle of Merrow's Eye for an unknown reason.
After surviving several assassination attempts and discovering that they had been banished by their own country, Augustus and Dorian go on a quest to uncover the truth behind their exile and eventually escape, only to become wanted fugitives. This is when their struggle against social injustice and absurdity turns into a full-blown revolution.

CHARACTERS IN THE PRELUDE

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Dorian Hunt

Before Ajani's rule Dorian used to be a drama student at the Royal Academy of Falknor. He was known for possessing considerable theatrical ambitions, yet he never getting the chance to fulfill them. This, and his accentuated secrecy concerning his past and origins, leads many skeptics to believe that his revolutionary pursuits are in fact driven by deeply personal agenda.
In the Students' Liberation Front, however, he comes across as a vigorous and charismatic leader.


Augustus Ellingsworth

Augustus is a sarcastic philology student and an eager academic fencer. He is Dorian's one and only person of trust when it comes to the Liberation Front.
Every now and again he highlights certain details about his past, like the fact that he'd spent his childhood in St. Willem's Orphanage and is now looking forward to uncover his true identity.


Matilda Sherbourne

Matilda is a passionate Arcane Practitioner, a recovering drug addict and somewhat of a failed poet. She was born into the wealthy, prominent and dodgy-dealing Sherbourne family of the Merrow's Eye, and lately her only goal has been that of escaping the island known to be practically inescapable.


Agnus Fabrizzio

Dr. Fabrizzio is a psychopathic scientist exiled to Merrow's Eye as a supposed threat to humanity. In academic society he'd always been a bit of a laughing stock due to his unethical and often intuitive approach. He possesses a dangerously ingenious mind and is driven by an immense interest for the world's structure.

SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler for:

CREDITS

Original music by:

Lovira
Alaric64
Eracilon
Stefano Giardiniere
Eric Satie
Lena Selyanina
Karass
Stefano Targa
Kostas Antonakoglou
Qarla Lucero
Richard Wagner

SFX by:
Hammerklavier
Acclivity
Dobroide
Gregswinford

Additional tiles by:
Lunarea
Celianna

Additional character sprites by:
Avadan
Lyonn

Scripts by:
Modern Algebra
BulletXt
Deity
Yanfly
PHLiM2

Battler graohics from http://lud.sakura.ne.jp.

Demo 2.0

The new demo is out. Hopefully it will give a  more realistic insight into the nature of this project,
especially for those of you who had already tried the previous one. Plenty of things have changed for the good since then, so I hope you will enjoy it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?w41981dwsiv1ct3

Nice. I like this. However, I do suggest this thread to you. It's sure to help you get some more positive feedback.
An interesting story, might I add. Your characters are also nicely put together.
I look forward to more updates.

Nice. I like this. However, I do suggest this thread to you. It's sure to help you get some more positive feedback.
An interesting story, might I add. Your characters are also nicely put together.
I look forward to more updates.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into it

The story is interesting and I enjoy that artwork very much.

A little issue I can't help but point out though - "Pre-Steampunk" is not a thing. Steampunk was not an era, it is a genre of fiction and a few other things but not a historical time period (Steampunk), so how something can be pre-Steampunk is confusing.

If you had some reason for using that term then please tell me - I am honestly curious what you meant by it.


Just...had to get that out. I apologize if that came off as rude. It just stood out and sort of ruined the little blurb about your story for me. =/

If you had some reason for using that term then please tell me - I am honestly curious what you meant by it.

That's a reasonable question.
The thing is, steampunk as a genre of fiction involves only a specific historical era, namely late Victorian 19th century, the industrial revolution and what is often referred to as "the age of steam". The term itself is very time-and-technology related, which is why I've modified it to make it fit nicely with the time frame of the story. Same as a certain kind of impressionism was named post-impressionism at one point.
It is however just a fictional term for a fictional story. Any good ideas for an appropriate definition are more than welcome, btw.

Steampunk is a genre, as Dyre stated. It does often use Victorian-era clothing and sensibilities, but the true heart of Steampunk is in the imagining of steam as an almost godly source of power, capable of running fantastical versions of modern-day objects. Saying "Pre-Steampunk" is like saying "Pre-Cyberpunk", which is really just a meaningless buzzword.

You know what? You're right.
After some more convincing I've changed it, just to clear things out a bit.
So thanks for the advice.

That is much better. Now you've given us a genre so we know what to expect, at least somewhat, from the story and setting. =)

Just Downloaded it, Here's my feedback (in mostly sequential order):
>
Well then, the title screen and music fit perfectly and both look and sound great. The intro is cool, except before it starts you see the two characters in the bottom left corner of the screen, which isn't good. At the docks you start in the boat near you is moving (and rowing) by itself... not cool. Your story telling is good. I found something pretty bad though: there is no music outside of the man's house, it's pretty boring that way. There's a man in the port that says something about an old madman. He says it again after you talk to him, you should add a self switch and give him some more dialogue once you've already asked about what he'd been talking about (He has brown hair and a beard). The battle music and fanfare music don't fit together one bit. When I was sneaking I think after leaving the hotel, I went into the next area then my character disappeared and the game froze. Is that the end?

I went into the next area then my character disappeared and the game froze. Is that the end?

I've noticed the bug with background music myself actually, so that's fixed now. As for the freezing, there's a 3-second event that's supposed to run right before further transfer. I've changed it slightly now for the less patient players

Uploaded the fixed version, updated download link, so feel free to download it again and play to the actual end if you fancy.

And thank you very much for pointing these mistakes out. Cheers!

The project is moving along nicely. Here's something that looks like a report on the progress.

Yesterday I caught myself on having made over 90% of the maps. The writing is all done and dusted, that includes dialog as well as additional material. The gameplay itself is about halfway through at the moment, so I'm assuming that we're looking at 6-7 hours of gameplay (+ side quests, if any).

Some more screenshots are under the spoiler, just to keep the post alive.

Among other things, the game has recently survived a considerable graphic update. For that I say a huge THANK-YOU to Celianna and Lunarea and their outlandishly beautiful steampunk tileset. Thank you! Some of the new tiles, however, are made by myself.

A few screenshots right here:

Spoiler for:

Having said that, I will buff the main post up a little bit shortly, put new screens on and probably bore everybody with a little more textual information.

Thank you for your attention and good night.

That looks great, man. Especially the first new screenshot, I'm gonna finish the demo now since I was much too lazy to do it last time.

@hiromu656:Thanks! I was contemplating releasing a new demo though, just to make a more realistic impression on what the final project will be. But if you feel like finishing what you'd already started, please be my guest.

After some pondering which battle system to go for, I made a decision to Keep It Simple and go for the standard one,
using Modern Algebra's Battlebacks script.

The backgrounds I'm making myself. Here's one of them, the suite at Garbo's Inn in Port Merrow, which is also the first battle sequence in The Prelude.

Spoiler for:

[\Spoiler]

Hey... don't call me simple; I am a complex human being with feelings and other exciting stuff.

The background looks great, though. I am really looking forward to seeing where you go with this project.

@modern algebra: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."  Leonardo DaVinci 

What's that HUD you're using?
It's definitely not mine or Dark Gaia's, and I haven't seen it before.

Remember that to make your game interesting while using the DBS, you'd have to make really interesting battles with the limited engine you have.

@Pacman:Making any game where battles tend to repeat fun is quite a job regardless of the battle system, isn't it?
I've been thinking about this a lot though. The solutions I see so far are:
Diverse and unique character-specific skills,
plenty of collectable battle items,
a massive variety in battler graphics
and a bit of eye candy.

The HUD was found somewhere in the depths of Google and is made by someone who goes by the nick of Lettuce, if I'm not mistaken.

Just wanted to share the joy of finishing the last glorious-victorious map.
If all goes well(which can sometimes be the case), the main quest should be finished in a week or so. That's when testing can begin.
I was kinda contemplating leaving that for the very last moment, but since buffing and polishing can (and most likely will) drag on
forever, it might be a good idea to start any time soon.
I will be looking for testing volunteers eventually, so if you're interested, just let me know. Thank you.

I can test.

I can test.

Nice one, man! I'll let you know as soon as it's testable then

I could offer my testing services as well, if you still want more people to fiddle around with your game.

I could offer my testing services as well, if you still want more people to fiddle around with your game.

Absolutely! Thanks a lot for the offer. As I already said, I'll let y'all know when it's in a state worth testing.

Here's an example of how certain vital quest items may or may not be visualized throughout the game.

Spoiler for:

Not so sure if it's a good idea though. Looks a bit like those good old-fashioned adventure games that we all used click through.