Violent Whispers [Beta Version 0.4] [VXA]

Your maps look neat and cozy, like I just want to run around in circles in them. I am liking the features you're planning but, won't the decision-making feature overwhelm you in the long run? So many events to do and look out for... But hey it looks like you know what you're doing, so I'm not too worried.

Yeah, I was thinking this too.
I've been putting some choices with different outcomes, including one big choice that branches off into 3 different paths. Takes a crazy amount of time doing this with this just one branch-off choice, and my game isn't even that big. Basically you put two or three (or however many branch-offs you make for 1 choice) times the amount of work into a single part of the game.
After finally finishing up most of my branched off paths I'll say I don't regret making them, but I realise it cuts into the total gameplay: could've made 1 long path, instead of 3 smaller paths. Players who'll play my game only once miss out on two other unique and interesting parts of my game as well, so your time and energy just go wasted there.
Anyway... as I was saying, I'd advice not to go crazy with the whole decision-making stuff, and try to keep it somewhat small, or you'll quickly overwhelm yourself. UNLESS - you totally know what you're doing, then just ignore my post.

Your maps look neat and cozy, like I just want to run around in circles in them. I am liking the features you're planning but, won't the decision-making feature overwhelm you in the long run? So many events to do and look out for... But hey it looks like you know what you're doing, so I'm not too worried. Also did you edit the battle sprites? They look really nice.

Thanks alot! Gives me tons of motivation, hearing stuff like that
But like I have said before, the maps were in a pretty early stage when I posted them on here, so I think they look a bit better now (hopefully ). I will put up screenshots for the completed maps when the demo is ready for realease. Yes you are absolutely right, but I will try keep it to a minimum really, and I have come up with an idea that might make it a bit easier for me to work it out. But I will still try and keep it to a minimum, because like you said, It will be overwhelming pretty fast. If you want to get a grasp of my idea, you can read my answer to Millenin further down in this post. Yes, the battle sprites are edited. They are called Holders animated battlers, so I give him all the credits

Your maps look neat and cozy, like I just want to run around in circles in them. I am liking the features you're planning but, won't the decision-making feature overwhelm you in the long run? So many events to do and look out for... But hey it looks like you know what you're doing, so I'm not too worried.

Yeah, I was thinking this too.
I've been putting some choices with different outcomes, including one big choice that branches off into 3 different paths. Takes a crazy amount of time doing this with this just one branch-off choice, and my game isn't even that big. Basically you put two or three (or however many branch-offs you make for 1 choice) times the amount of work into a single part of the game.
After finally finishing up most of my branched off paths I'll say I don't regret making them, but I realise it cuts into the total gameplay: could've made 1 long path, instead of 3 smaller paths. Players who'll play my game only once miss out on two other unique and interesting parts of my game as well, so your time and energy just go wasted there.
Anyway... as I was saying, I'd advice not to go crazy with the whole decision-making stuff, and try to keep it somewhat small, or you'll quickly overwhelm yourself. UNLESS - you totally know what you're doing, then just ignore my post.

Yes, your advice is very welcome and I know that Its alot of work behind it Those features I have there is first of all just what I got in mind to add into the game, Im pretty sure that there are some features that I wont have the knowledge or motivation to implement into the game, but I will do my best to get as much in there as possible. Onto the 'decision'-making though, I came up with an idea that might work pretty well according to what I have in mind. The system will work like this: On specific quests you will get key items that adds a variable to the game. I will then put in events inside the Npcs of my game, with conditional branches, and depending on which of the 2 keyitems you decide to get, and how many of them you have, the Npcs will act and say different things.

The more of a 'game breaking' choice that you will have, indicates which of the two key items that you will be given from these quests. At 1 part of the game you will have 3 pieces of each keyitem (lets call them black key item and white keyitem to make it easier for me to explain). And at the choise you will be presented with 1 piece of each key item (1 black, and 1 white), but you may only get the option to pick up one. The varaibles of the game will then calculate if you have +4 of 'x' key item, or +4 of the other. I will then event different storylines depending on what value you get out of those 2. So once you have decided which key item you want to pick up at that sort of 'game breaking' choice, you will only get that specific key item, ex.(black ones).

The game will then follow the variable for the black key items, and by storing that value different dialouges and events will happen, in comparison to if you made the choice to pick up the white key-item.

I hope you get my point, Its pretty complicated to explain but I think this should be pretty viable if it will work like I intend it do.. before going into the whole system, I will test it out in a smaller event and see if I can work it out But yes, you are absolutely right, I will surely keep my limits about this and I have only meant it to be a minor sidethingy as it is.

Ohhh! I think I see what you mean. xD Nah, it's my fault that I'm easily confused. :p Anyways, I think you can literally just copy and paste from the demo's script editor to your own. Just pull up both game files at the same time.

Ye, I was looking for a project inside the master demo, but the file was encrypted so I couldnt open it. I guess that the projects wont be encrypted if I decide to download the demos for the scripts 1 by 1. I was just a bit confused since the file was encrypted, and I didnt know howelse to get the codes for the scripts! xD
Anyway Im gonna try download the demos 1 by 1 later on, and see if those arent encrypted

2013-01-12
New Updates added.

I hope you get my point, Its pretty complicated to explain but I think this should be pretty viable if it will work like I intend it do.. before going into the whole system, I will test it out in a smaller event and see if I can work it out  But yes, you are absolutely right, I will surely keep my limits about this and I have only meant it to be a minor sidethingy as it is.

Mmm I see! Don't worry about it too much, as long as you know what you're doing it should be fine.

As for the demo, I think you should go ahead and include the town so you can improve it early. Or you could save it for later if it's going to take awhile to event it properly.
Either way it's really up to you

Mmm I see! Don't worry about it too much, as long as you know what you're doing it should be fine.

As for the demo, I think you should go ahead and include the town so you can improve it early. Or you could save it for later if it's going to take awhile to event it properly.
Either way it's really up to you

Hopefully I know what I'm doing haha! But like I said I will test it out and see how it goes, and if I can make it work with a smaller event it should be possible to implement it like I want it too

The first town of the game needs a bit of eventing. All the maps are done, but I will need to add all the npc events and a quest or 2 (Including the main quest). I think the playtime of the demo should be around 25-30 minutes if you play it for the first time, and before reaching the first town of the game. First of all I will fix everything up to reaching the first town, and then I'll see if I decide to include it in the demo aswell

2013-01-18
New Updates added.

2013-01-18
New Updates added.

It would be nice if you could tell us what exactly you added to the game in your new post.=P

2013-01-18
New Updates added.

It would be nice if you could tell us what exactly you added to the game in your new post.=P

I'm sorry, I guess I have been a bit unclear about the updates. But below the mainthread is the 'Update section' where I put the comments for the changes I have done. When I post a update like the one in your quote I just write down the date of the update, since you can read about it under the mainthread, and under 'Most recent update'. The date there will tell you what updates I have done, sorry for being unclear about that 

I'm sorry, I guess I have been a bit unclear about the updates. But below the mainthread is the 'Update section' where I put the comments for the changes I have done. When I post a update like the one in your quote I just write down the date of the update, since you can read about it under the mainthread, and under 'Most recent update'. The date there will tell you what updates I have done, sorry for being unclear about that 

Oh, lol. That's where you put them.
So, when do you think you have the demo up? Should be soon, right? Considering you're at 90% now?

I'm sorry, I guess I have been a bit unclear about the updates. But below the mainthread is the 'Update section' where I put the comments for the changes I have done. When I post a update like the one in your quote I just write down the date of the update, since you can read about it under the mainthread, and under 'Most recent update'. The date there will tell you what updates I have done, sorry for being unclear about that 

Oh, lol. That's where you put them.
So, when do you think you have the demo up? Should be soon, right? Considering you're at 90% now?

Ye, shouldnt be much longer now. I will have tons of time this weekend to work on the project aswell, so I hope I will be able to put the demo up sometimes next week. Im trying to figure out how to distribute the game without the need of the RTP folder though, so I hope I will get around that aswell 

2013-01-22
New Updates added.

*Release Date for Demo added.

*Most recent update added.

*New Title-screen commands.

Spoiler for New titlescreen commands:

Looking good... Finish it quickly, please.........

Looking good... Finish it quickly, please.........

Will surely take awhile before the complete game is done.. sadly 
But I hope that my progress in learning the maker will speed up alot, and I'm pretty sure it will. I am making events and everything alot faster now than when I just started out. My cousin played the full demo yesterday, and It's about an hour of playtime if you don't skip anything. The release of the first chapter of the game shouldnt take too long though, but I'm not really sure how much playtime the first chapter will include yet

2013-01-27
Major Update added.

Demo Version now available for Download.

Sweet! I'll try it out sometime and give you some feedback~

I'm playing the demo right now, going to write this post as I play through it.
First typo I found was on the instruction screen where it shows the controls. It says "press space to Continute" (continue). I noticed several other typos during the intro along with a few random capitals, nothing big, though.

In the first map in the forest, I seem to be able to walk over regular bushes and yellow or pink flower bushes, but red flower bushes block my path.
The white flowers show over the hero.
Another small thing, since it's raining and thundering, it would be nice to darken the map a little more, or lower the brightness.
At Beatrice's shrine it's possible to walk up on the cliff if you go right.
Queen Slith stopped attacking me after a few turns (this happened with only 1 of them, it just sat there for like 5+ turns until I finally killed it).
There's a somewhat hidden path in the south east corner that leads to the edge of the screen, but doesn't teleport to the next map? There's also no text or something if I interact while standing on it.

I activated 3 statues with the teleport orb, not sure on where to go to now, and I have to leave soon. I noticed there's another statue in the south west corner of the map, but the only way to get there is through another map?
I also found Beatrice's shrine that didn't seem to do anything besides giving me some text. There was also this blue flame, my character said it's probably useful, but didn't do anything with it, or explain what it could be used for.
I found a crack in the wall, but couldn't do anything with it.
The save point was nice, I like how it rewarded exploring a bit.

The battle system is nice. I like the character's sprite, if you made that, that's pretty sweet. Enemy strength was just right, not too weak, not too strong either. The forest map looks nice. I like the choice of music throughout the intro and the part of the game I've played so far. I'll play more if the demo is supposed to go beyond this, and if I find out where to go next.=P
Anyway, the game has a ton of potential to be really good.

EDIT: I'm back, time to play some more.
On one of the signs that tells you of the Oracle of Salvation, it says "May her guide you...", but should be "May she guide you..."
One of the signs has no text on it.

LOL, I'm so stupid. Use the activated statues to teleport. That happens when I play in early mornings. Anyways, back to the game.

In the Secret Cave I can walk over the sand-coloured pile of rocks, but not over the white pile of rocks.
As a convenience thing it would be nice to add some spots to the walls that the player can jump down from. I kind of walked the whole way over the wall, but there's no quick way to get down again.
Lol, Battle Cry = Guild Wars Warrior skill icon. (in fact, all the skills are from Guild Wars, I just noticed xD)

Oh, wow. I tried walking over the gaps in the floor in the basement in the Secret Cave, and it made me go instant Game Over... Don't feel like going through that again, would be nice to have a Save Point/Check Point somewhere in the Secret Cave.

Spoiler for Quote from Milennin:

I'm playing the demo right now, going to write this post as I play through it.
First typo I found was on the instruction screen where it shows the controls. It says "press space to Continute" (continue). I noticed several other typos during the intro along with a few random capitals, nothing big, though.

In the first map in the forest, I seem to be able to walk over regular bushes and yellow or pink flower bushes, but red flower bushes block my path.
The white flowers show over the hero.
Another small thing, since it's raining and thundering, it would be nice to darken the map a little more, or lower the brightness.
At Beatrice's shrine it's possible to walk up on the cliff if you go right.
Queen Slith stopped attacking me after a few turns (this happened with only 1 of them, it just sat there for like 5+ turns until I finally killed it).
There's a somewhat hidden path in the south east corner that leads to the edge of the screen, but doesn't teleport to the next map? There's also no text or something if I interact while standing on it.

I activated 3 statues with the teleport orb, not sure on where to go to now, and I have to leave soon. I noticed there's another statue in the south west corner of the map, but the only way to get there is through another map?
I also found Beatrice's shrine that didn't seem to do anything besides giving me some text. There was also this blue flame, my character said it's probably useful, but didn't do anything with it, or explain what it could be used for.
I found a crack in the wall, but couldn't do anything with it.
The save point was nice, I like how it rewarded exploring a bit.

The battle system is nice. I like the character's sprite, if you made that, that's pretty sweet. Enemy strength was just right, not too weak, not too strong either. The forest map looks nice. I like the choice of music throughout the intro and the part of the game I've played so far. I'll play more if the demo is supposed to go beyond this, and if I find out where to go next.=P
Anyway, the game has a ton of potential to be really good.

EDIT: I'm back, time to play some more.
On one of the signs that tells you of the Oracle of Salvation, it says "May her guide you...", but should be "May she guide you..."
One of the signs has no text on it.

LOL, I'm so stupid. Use the activated statues to teleport. That happens when I play in early mornings. Anyways, back to the game.

In the Secret Cave I can walk over the sand-coloured pile of rocks, but not over the white pile of rocks.
As a convenience thing it would be nice to add some spots to the walls that the player can jump down from. I kind of walked the whole way over the wall, but there's no quick way to get down again.
Lol, Battle Cry = Guild Wars Warrior skill icon. (in fact, all the skills are from Guild Wars, I just noticed xD)

Oh, wow. I tried walking over the gaps in the floor in the basement in the Secret Cave, and it made me go instant Game Over... Don't feel like going through that again, would be nice to have a Save Point/Check Point somewhere in the Secret Cave.

Spoiler for:

First off, thanks alot for your post Milennin!

I will add everything you have found in the bugreports section and fix them for a new demo release. The thing with the bushes is also something I need to check, I think I decided that you will be able to walk over all the bushes with the 'bush' passage setting active. About the brightness on the forest map, I have to agree on that one. I'm not really sure how to adjust the brightness of a map though, and I'm planning to have the Secret cave totally dark and add light effects on the torches along with a lantern that you can equip. But, I'm pretty Inexperienced when it comes to shadows, lightning effects and brightness reduction etc.

I'm not sure what's up with the Queen Slith not attacking you, that's nothing that have heppened before when I have playtested the game. I'm gonna look into it though, but I'm not really sure why that happened.
I'm not sure what you mean with the hidden path in the south east corner?, is it possible to walk between the trees or something?, if so that's something I need to fix aswell.

Seems like the teleporters might confuse a bit perhaps? Do you think I should make it more clear on what to do with them (especially the blue one?), I put in some hints on the item notes though. Beatrice's shrine is supposed to only deliver the text, It's supposed to resemble a shrine or a grave for a little dog
I'm happy you enjoyed the save-points, and the battle system so far.. the sprites is not made by me though. They are made by a guy that calls himself Holder, and the sprites are called Holders Animated Battlers, so all credits goes to him

About the 'jumping points', I would say that's a really nice idea! I didn't think about that, and I agree that it can be a bit frustrating having to walk all the way back. That's something I definetely will keep in mind when I release the fixed demo! Haha! oh, really? I had no idea that the skill icons were from Guild wars haha! I just thought they looked sweet!

Ye.. I'm sorry about that little incident. I have actually thought about those gaps a bit, do you think I should make the player more aware of them, and warn them before hand? There is actually a savepoint on the base floor of the cave, in the northern part where the spikes are. Do you think it would be better for me to add a savepoint on the first floor aswell perhaps? There's also a savepoint after you have climbed down the crack in the floor.

Thanks alot for your post, and all the reports! I'm very happy that you think that the game has potential!,
and I hope you get the energy to pick it up again sometimes, so you can check out the rest of the demo.

Spoiler for:

First off, thanks alot for your post Milennin!

I will add everything you have found in the bugreports section and fix them for a new demo release. The thing with the bushes is also something I need to check, I think I decided that you will be able to walk over all the bushes with the 'bush' passage setting active. About the brightness on the forest map, I have to agree on that one. I'm not really sure how to adjust the brightness of a map though, and I'm planning to have the Secret cave totally dark and add light effects on the torches along with a lantern that you can equip. But, I'm pretty Inexperienced when it comes to shadows, lightning effects and brightness reduction etc.

I'm not sure what's up with the Queen Slith not attacking you, that's nothing that have heppened before when I have playtested the game. I'm gonna look into it though, but I'm not really sure why that happened.
I'm not sure what you mean with the hidden path in the south east corner?, is it possible to walk between the trees or something?, if so that's something I need to fix aswell.

Seems like the teleporters might confuse a bit perhaps? Do you think I should make it more clear on what to do with them (especially the blue one?), I put in some hints on the item notes though. Beatrice's shrine is supposed to only deliver the text, It's supposed to resemble a shrine or a grave for a little dog
I'm happy you enjoyed the save-points, and the battle system so far.. the sprites is not made by me though. They are made by a guy that calls himself Holder, and the sprites are called Holders Animated Battlers, so all credits goes to him

About the 'jumping points', I would say that's a really nice idea! I didn't think about that, and I agree that it can be a bit frustrating having to walk all the way back. That's something I definetely will keep in mind when I release the fixed demo! Haha! oh, really? I had no idea that the skill icons were from Guild wars haha! I just thought they looked sweet!

Ye.. I'm sorry about that little incident. I have actually thought about those gaps a bit, do you think I should make the player more aware of them, and warn them before hand? There is actually a savepoint on the base floor of the cave, in the northern part where the spikes are. Do you think it would be better for me to add a savepoint on the first floor aswell perhaps? There's also a savepoint after you have climbed down the crack in the floor.

Thanks alot for your post, and all the reports! I'm very happy that you think that the game has potential!,
and I hope you get the energy to pick it up again sometimes, so you can check out the rest of the demo.

I don't know about VXA, but in RM2K there's a simple event to set Screen Tone, which lets you change the colours and brightness. You could look for that?
About the Queen Slith, it might have been a crazy long stun-lock by my lightning skill (I think she stopped attacking me after I used that skill), but I don't know if that's supposed to be possible to happen.

About the teleporters, it was probably just me being still sleepy (I first thought I was supposed to find and activate all statues in the area to be able to move on, lol) Although it might not hurt to make the character say something like "OK, let's try out this teleporter thingy." the first time you activate a statue.

About the gaps, I knew they were bad to step on, but I just wanted to see what happened (sort of a testing thing). In most games with something like that it teleports you back and lowers your HP, I didn't expect to go Game Over there.
As for a saving point, I understand why you didn't put one at the cave's entrance, because then the player could just battle monsters and heal back up right from the start and it would take away some of the challenge and danger from the new area. But maybe have regular save points (they let you save your game, but not heal your stats). I did like how the area felt more dangerous for not having a healing save point nearby, and also how I was required to keep using my potions to stay alive. It gives somewhat of a survival feel to it.

Anyways, I really liked the demo, the bit I've played so far.
I'll go back to it some time later, maybe this weekend.

Spoiler for Quote from Milennin:

I don't know about VXA, but in RM2K there's a simple event to set Screen Tone, which lets you change the colours and brightness. You could look for that?
About the Queen Slith, it might have been a crazy long stun-lock by my lightning skill (I think she stopped attacking me after I used that skill), but I don't know if that's supposed to be possible to happen.

About the teleporters, it was probably just me being still sleepy (I first thought I was supposed to find and activate all statues in the area to be able to move on, lol) Although it might not hurt to make the character say something like "OK, let's try out this teleporter thingy." the first time you activate a statue.

About the gaps, I knew they were bad to step on, but I just wanted to see what happened (sort of a testing thing). In most games with something like that it teleports you back and lowers your HP, I didn't expect to go Game Over there.
As for a saving point, I understand why you didn't put one at the cave's entrance, because then the player could just battle monsters and heal back up right from the start and it would take away some of the challenge and danger from the new area. But maybe have regular save points (they let you save your game, but not heal your stats). I did like how the area felt more dangerous for not having a healing save point nearby, and also how I was required to keep using my potions to stay alive. It gives somewhat of a survival feel to it.

Anyways, I really liked the demo, the bit I've played so far.
I'll go back to it some time later, maybe this weekend.

Spoiler for:

Ah, might have missed that one actually. Gonna see if I can find something like that
Hmm.. It shouldn't be possible to have the enemy stunned for 5+ turns that's for sure. The skill is set to stun the target between 2-3 turns, and when I have playtested the game I have never experienced that It stuns for more than 3 turns. I'm not sure if I have to do something with the skill, but the parameter is set to be 2 ~ 3 turns on the state tabs.

That's also a good suggestion, I will see what I can do with the event.

Ye, like I said in my previous post.. I have thought alot about those gaps.. and maybe It's a bit overkill to send the player to the Game Over screen for falling down the gap. But I guess I just kept thinking that if you fall down a big hole, you sure can die from the fall xD. I might change that though, cause I agree that It's a bit frustrating to end up at the Game Over screen, especially if you havn't saved in awhile. I have a similar event with some sharp spikes, that lowers your hp when you step on them. I might implement what you said though, as to work in similar ways like in Zelda: A Link to the past.

Ye, that was my intention from the get-go. I didn't want the player to just fight some mobs and then safely just go and fill up the hp again. So I thought they had to check out the area some first, before they can feel safe again. I'm thinking about adding a pop up screen when entering the cave for the first time, asking if the player wants to save.

I'm really glad you enjoyed it so far! And if you happen to play some more later on, you are more than welcome to add some of your feedback for the rest of it. It sure has helped me alot already, so Thanks!

Edit: Oops, forgot to ask! Did the fonts work without having to install them to your windows directory?

Edit: Oops, forgot to ask! Did the fonts work without having to install them to your windows directory?

Yup, everything was working.

Went back to it, to play some more:
-Enemies were able to engage me while I was on the walls in the Secret Cave. Not a huge deal to me, and not likely to happen much anyway, but it's a thing you could look into fixing (maybe have a toggle switch when entering the wall that turns off enemy aggro?)
-Took me a while to find the rope. I searched all over the place, but I didn't dare to step on the spikes (after my experience with the gaps). Eventually I did anyway, and found out they didn't really kill me. The lack of consistency with the environmental traps makes it confusing. In my case I was afraid for another Game Over from the spikes. In the case of a player going over the spikes first might think the gaps that instant Game Over you won't be that bad to at least try out.
-The Black Coat item confuses me. According to its description the black coat is commonly worn by soldiers. It seems a bit weird to me that soldiers wear black coats. Not to mention its stats are only -3 defence compared to the Heavy Plate, which looks like pretty strong metal armour. (I know, I'm going into the very little details here xD)
-The save point in the magma cave seems a bit unnecessary as it's follows up the previous save point so soon, and has no random battles nearby after clearing everything upstairs. I'm not complaining, though, I like my save points.=P
-On a random note/suggestion: Maybe add hidden items, like an extra potion or something, to some objects like barrels. Like reward players for going out of their way to check on stuff (Pokémon games like to do this).
The thought came up to me when checking on the barrel in this small unused corner:

Spoiler for:

-LOL, you used the same riddle in your game as I have in mine. I'm lucky there, cause I suck at riddles. Would've been stuck there for life otherwise.
-Misspelled entirely and exactly in Zetya's dialogue.
-Misspelled tired in Vincent's dialogue to Zetya.
-It would be nice to be able to examine Zetya's grave for additional background about the character.
-The vine in that room is climbable for no reason. Also let's you enter the staircase from up the wall.
-Using the staircase back teleports me in the middle of the room, instead of the gate.
-The room behind the door of 3 levers has one stack of gold that I can't pick up.
-Oh, hidden items in the wardrobes.=O
-Woah! Woman says urself instead of yourself.
-Having to speak to her again to make her leave seems a bit unnecessary (unless you plan on having different things happen, depending on whether you speak to her again or not).
-Finding Hi-Potions that heal for 2.500HP seems like bit of an overkill, considering I only have 750HP at this point or so.
-In the battle vs. the soldiers, one of the soldiers doesn't seem to be doing anything?
-Misspelled weren't as wasn't in the dialogue with Wiola.
-Retrieving cloth and stuff after waking up in the burning house has a long pause (like 3 seconds of nothing).
-I'm in a testing mood, so I left Wiola in the burning house. To prevent the player from leaving her you should place some invisible barriers or an event that keeps the player in the area of action.
-Also, maybe keep player move speed up while not carrying the bucket with water to show he is really trying to hurry to save her.
-Misspelled hometown in the dialogue after they exit the burning house.
-I can enter the burning house after I saved her. Not intended to I think?

Going to take a break at this point. Will continue some time later.
I like the pacing of the story. There's not too much at once, but I get enough to get a feeling for where the story is heading to and learn some about the main character. I really liked the dialogues with Wiola. It shows Vincent's personality in a nice and also funny way. The underwear sprite made me laugh. It was kinda sad when the house burned down. I felt at home in the basement, it looked nice and the music made it feel cozy (lol).

The boss battle against Zetya was good too. He was pretty tough, had to take some potions, and use special skills to survive against him.
I felt the soldiers were a tad easy, but maybe it's because I never saw the 3rd soldier attacking me. I didn't mind them being a bit easy since I was still low on potions after the fight against Zetya anyway.

Anyway, besides running into some issues that I listed above I'm enjoying the game so far.

Spoiler for quote from Milennin:

Yup, everything was working.

Went back to it, to play some more:
-Enemies were able to engage me while I was on the walls in the Secret Cave. Not a huge deal to me, and not likely to happen much anyway, but it's a thing you could look into fixing (maybe have a toggle switch when entering the wall that turns off enemy aggro?)
-Took me a while to find the rope. I searched all over the place, but I didn't dare to step on the spikes (after my experience with the gaps). Eventually I did anyway, and found out they didn't really kill me. The lack of consistency with the environmental traps makes it confusing. In my case I was afraid for another Game Over from the spikes. In the case of a player going over the spikes first might think the gaps that instant Game Over you won't be that bad to at least try out.
-The Black Coat item confuses me. According to its description the black coat is commonly worn by soldiers. It seems a bit weird to me that soldiers wear black coats. Not to mention its stats are only -3 defence compared to the Heavy Plate, which looks like pretty strong metal armour. (I know, I'm going into the very little details here xD)
-The save point in the magma cave seems a bit unnecessary as it's follows up the previous save point so soon, and has no random battles nearby after clearing everything upstairs. I'm not complaining, though, I like my save points.=P
-On a random note/suggestion: Maybe add hidden items, like an extra potion or something, to some objects like barrels. Like reward players for going out of their way to check on stuff (Pokémon games like to do this).
The thought came up to me when checking on the barrel in this small unused corner:

Spoiler for:

-LOL, you used the same riddle in your game as I have in mine. I'm lucky there, cause I suck at riddles. Would've been stuck there for life otherwise.
-Misspelled entirely and exactly in Zetya's dialogue.
-Misspelled tired in Vincent's dialogue to Zetya.
-It would be nice to be able to examine Zetya's grave for additional background about the character.
-The vine in that room is climbable for no reason. Also let's you enter the staircase from up the wall.
-Using the staircase back teleports me in the middle of the room, instead of the gate.
-The room behind the door of 3 levers has one stack of gold that I can't pick up.
-Oh, hidden items in the wardrobes.=O
-Woah! Woman says urself instead of yourself.
-Having to speak to her again to make her leave seems a bit unnecessary (unless you plan on having different things happen, depending on whether you speak to her again or not).
-Finding Hi-Potions that heal for 2.500HP seems like bit of an overkill, considering I only have 750HP at this point or so.
-In the battle vs. the soldiers, one of the soldiers doesn't seem to be doing anything?
-Misspelled weren't as wasn't in the dialogue with Wiola.
-Retrieving cloth and stuff after waking up in the burning house has a long pause (like 3 seconds of nothing).
-I'm in a testing mood, so I left Wiola in the burning house. To prevent the player from leaving her you should place some invisible barriers or an event that keeps the player in the area of action.
-Also, maybe keep player move speed up while not carrying the bucket with water to show he is really trying to hurry to save her.
-Misspelled hometown in the dialogue after they exit the burning house.
-I can enter the burning house after I saved her. Not intended to I think?

Going to take a break at this point. Will continue some time later.
I like the pacing of the story. There's not too much at once, but I get enough to get a feeling for where the story is heading to and learn some about the main character. I really liked the dialogues with Wiola. It shows Vincent's personality in a nice and also funny way. The underwear sprite made me laugh. It was kinda sad when the house burned down. I felt at home in the basement, it looked nice and the music made it feel cozy (lol).

The boss battle against Zetya was good too. He was pretty tough, had to take some potions, and use special skills to survive against him.
I felt the soldiers were a tad easy, but maybe it's because I never saw the 3rd soldier attacking me. I didn't mind them being a bit easy since I was still low on potions after the fight against Zetya anyway.

Anyway, besides running into some issues that I listed above I'm enjoying the game so far.

Spoiler for:

That's good to hear

I can't stress enough on how glad I am for your posts! There are alot of things that I'm not thinking about, so having another angle from someone else is really welcome! Will help me tons when I will release my new
'fixed' demo for sure!

Once again, I will put up everything in the report section of the post so I can keep track on everything, thanks alot like always 

About the spikes and the gaps, I agree that it is kind of bad game-design on my part. I have fixed the gaps now though, and instead of bringing the player to the Game Over screen, it will transfer you to the start of the floor and reduce your HP. The Black coat is first of all a typo from my part  It's supposed to be a Black Cloak, worn commonly among soldiers (As in wearing it ontop of their armor or clothes, on the back). So in other words It's not a typical armor, more of a cloak. I do agree on the armor difference, and I'm planning on reducing the cloaks armor to +1 or something, I hope that wont break the difficulty too much though.
I have reworked the map a bit (Secret Cave), for the next demo. Including more debris and barrels etc, so adding more hidden items is something I plan to do.

Hehe, wow same riddle? I guess good minds think alike? haha!
Though, I have a event going to prevent the player from getting stuck on the riddle. If you happen to answer the riddle wrong 3 times in a row. Vincent will find another inscription on the statue that will inform the player that a hint to the riddle is hidden inside the Workers Journal on the first floor. (Needs a bit of backtracking but that should solve the player from getting stuck).

Everything else that you covered is something I will look into. Alot of what you find and have opinions about, are really good points! 

I'm happy you think the pace is good, and that the information that is given isn't to much to take in.
I'm also really happy that you think my presentation of the characters are noticable in some way, I tried to make the scene a bit humorous, while still being pretty serious. Wiola on the other hand should resemble a slightly dimwitted, 'close to nature' and caring person. Her personality also resembles a person that doesn't care to much about small things (like seeing people naked, or spilling coffe on the new carpet etc.) A person that live life to the fullest, and wont waste energy on small things or so.

My intention was to build up some sort of 'feel like home'- feeling after everything that has happened to Vincent, and then turn it around and drop him (or them), off in the same situation as before. So I'm happy you could resemble that a bit 

It's great to hear that the bossbattles were fairly challanging (but not over the edge), I'm not sure about the 3d soldier not attacking you though? The thing I tried to make with that battle is to start it off very defensive, stunning one of the soldiers to prevent them healing themself up, and buff themselves (and the commander). Once one of them is gone It's pretty much just going to the offense and take the other one down. I wanted the fight to be some kind of 'If you dont kill the soldiers fast, the battle will be very challenging). I actually playtested the fight without killing the soldiers, and it ended up with them healing themselves up constantly and buffing the commander to hit me for over 300 damage. So, in that aspect I think I have succeded in what I wanted with the fight. Might be that your strategy was flawless though, and that's why you didnt experience any trouble whatsoever 

I will start working on the issues in question, and I'm happy the game was enjoyable for you, thus far!

Spoiler for:

Spoiler for quote from Milennin:

Yup, everything was working.

Went back to it, to play some more:
-Enemies were able to engage me while I was on the walls in the Secret Cave. Not a huge deal to me, and not likely to happen much anyway, but it's a thing you could look into fixing (maybe have a toggle switch when entering the wall that turns off enemy aggro?)
-Took me a while to find the rope. I searched all over the place, but I didn't dare to step on the spikes (after my experience with the gaps). Eventually I did anyway, and found out they didn't really kill me. The lack of consistency with the environmental traps makes it confusing. In my case I was afraid for another Game Over from the spikes. In the case of a player going over the spikes first might think the gaps that instant Game Over you won't be that bad to at least try out.
-The Black Coat item confuses me. According to its description the black coat is commonly worn by soldiers. It seems a bit weird to me that soldiers wear black coats. Not to mention its stats are only -3 defence compared to the Heavy Plate, which looks like pretty strong metal armour. (I know, I'm going into the very little details here xD)
-The save point in the magma cave seems a bit unnecessary as it's follows up the previous save point so soon, and has no random battles nearby after clearing everything upstairs. I'm not complaining, though, I like my save points.=P
-On a random note/suggestion: Maybe add hidden items, like an extra potion or something, to some objects like barrels. Like reward players for going out of their way to check on stuff (Pokémon games like to do this).
The thought came up to me when checking on the barrel in this small unused corner:

Spoiler for:

-LOL, you used the same riddle in your game as I have in mine. I'm lucky there, cause I suck at riddles. Would've been stuck there for life otherwise.
-Misspelled entirely and exactly in Zetya's dialogue.
-Misspelled tired in Vincent's dialogue to Zetya.
-It would be nice to be able to examine Zetya's grave for additional background about the character.
-The vine in that room is climbable for no reason. Also let's you enter the staircase from up the wall.
-Using the staircase back teleports me in the middle of the room, instead of the gate.
-The room behind the door of 3 levers has one stack of gold that I can't pick up.
-Oh, hidden items in the wardrobes.=O
-Woah! Woman says urself instead of yourself.
-Having to speak to her again to make her leave seems a bit unnecessary (unless you plan on having different things happen, depending on whether you speak to her again or not).
-Finding Hi-Potions that heal for 2.500HP seems like bit of an overkill, considering I only have 750HP at this point or so.
-In the battle vs. the soldiers, one of the soldiers doesn't seem to be doing anything?
-Misspelled weren't as wasn't in the dialogue with Wiola.
-Retrieving cloth and stuff after waking up in the burning house has a long pause (like 3 seconds of nothing).
-I'm in a testing mood, so I left Wiola in the burning house. To prevent the player from leaving her you should place some invisible barriers or an event that keeps the player in the area of action.
-Also, maybe keep player move speed up while not carrying the bucket with water to show he is really trying to hurry to save her.
-Misspelled hometown in the dialogue after they exit the burning house.
-I can enter the burning house after I saved her. Not intended to I think?

Going to take a break at this point. Will continue some time later.
I like the pacing of the story. There's not too much at once, but I get enough to get a feeling for where the story is heading to and learn some about the main character. I really liked the dialogues with Wiola. It shows Vincent's personality in a nice and also funny way. The underwear sprite made me laugh. It was kinda sad when the house burned down. I felt at home in the basement, it looked nice and the music made it feel cozy (lol).

The boss battle against Zetya was good too. He was pretty tough, had to take some potions, and use special skills to survive against him.
I felt the soldiers were a tad easy, but maybe it's because I never saw the 3rd soldier attacking me. I didn't mind them being a bit easy since I was still low on potions after the fight against Zetya anyway.

Anyway, besides running into some issues that I listed above I'm enjoying the game so far.

That's good to hear

I can't stress enough on how glad I am for your posts! There are alot of things that I'm not thinking about, so having another angle from someone else is really welcome! Will help me tons when I will release my new
'fixed' demo for sure!

Once again, I will put up everything in the report section of the post so I can keep track on everything, thanks alot like always 

About the spikes and the gaps, I agree that it is kind of bad game-design on my part. I have fixed the gaps now though, and instead of bringing the player to the Game Over screen, it will transfer you to the start of the floor and reduce your HP. The Black coat is first of all a typo from my part  It's supposed to be a Black Cloak, worn commonly among soldiers (As in wearing it ontop of their armor or clothes, on the back). So in other words is not a typical armor, more of a cloak. I do agree on the armor difference, and I'm planning on reducing the cloaks armor to +1 or something, I hope that wont break the difficulty too much though.
I have reworked the map a bit (Secret Cave), for the next demo. Including more debris and barrels etc, so adding more hidden items is something I plan to do.

Hehe, wow same riddle? I guess good minds think alike? haha!
Though, I have a event going to prevent the player from getting stuck on the riddle. If you happen to answer the riddle wrong 3 times in a row. Vincent will find another inscription on the statue that will inform the player that a hint to the riddle is hidden inside the Workers Journal on the first floor. (Needs a bit of backtracking but that should solve the player for getting stuck).

Everything else that you covered is something I will look into. Alot of what you find and have opinions about, are really good points! 

I'm happy you think the pace is good, and that the information that is given isn't to much to take in.
I'm also really happy that you think my presentation of the characters are noticable in some way, I tried to make the scene a bit humorous, while still being pretty serious. Wiola on the other hand should resemble a slightly dimwitted, 'close to nature' and caring person. Her personality also resembles a person that doesn't care to much about small things (like seeing people naked, or spilling coffe on the new carpet etc.) A person that live life to the fullest, and wont waste energy on small things or so.

My intention was to build up some sort of 'feel like home'- feeling after everything that has happened to Vincent, and then turn it around and drop him (or them), off in the same situation as before. So I'm happy you could resemble that a bit 

It's great to hear that the bossbattles were fairly challanging (but not over the edge), I'm not sure about the 3d soldier not attacking you though? The thing I tried to make with that battle is to start it off very defensive, stunning one of the soldiers to prevent them healing themself up, and buff themselves (and the commander). Once one of them is gone It's pretty much just going to the offense and take the other one down. I wanted the fight to be some kind of 'If you dont kill the soldiers fast, the battle will be very challenging). I actually playtested the fight without killing the soldiers, and it ended up with them healing themselves up constantly and buffing the commander to hit me for over 300 damage. So, in that aspect I think I have succeded in what I wanted with the fight. Might be that your strategy was flawless though, and that's why you didnt experience any trouble whatsoever 

I will start working on the issues in question, and I'm happy the game was enjoyable for you, thus far!

Lol, you're welcome. I really do like testing, but I didn't want to get too much into it before finishing my own stuff, or else I get jealous of other people's things or may be tempted to steal good ideas.

About the black cloak vs heavy plate, instead of changing the stats on the cloak, maybe turn the heavy plate into a light leather armour instead? And keep heavy plate for further into the game, as it would support the higher stats that would make it more realistic to what it is.

Good to hear about the riddle. I like how you don't handhold players throughout the game, but give just enough to keep going with. For example, I wasn't sure what to use the pickaxe for, until I checked its description in the items menu. I'm really not a fan of handholding, but lack of directions is a bad thing too. Finding the sweet spot in between those two is pretty tough, but you hit it.=P

I feel Wiola is a nice character to have added to the party. She complements pretty well with the main character, as she's very open and not afraid to say things, while the main character is a bit more on the quiet side. I could definitely see her spicing things up in some situations, and looking forward to it. (if you couldn't tell by now, I like seeing fun or interesting characters in games)

About the soldier battle. I'm quite sure I hadn't seen the 3rd soldier attacking me once. If he used support skills they didn't have an animation, or text went too fast for me to notice. I killed that guy first. The second one I killed was the captain, since the other soldier kept healing itself and boosting its attack, but still pose less of a problem (more of a matter of stalling). I'll be honest, I can't remember too well what the captain was hitting me for - I think it was around 150s per hit, but I don't remember him to be a major problem. It was just that the combined consistent hits of captain + soldier kept bringing down my HP.

Good to hear you're looking into some of things I wrote down. Do I still have a significant part of the demo to go, or should I wait for the next version to come out, so I can play more at once?

Spoiler for:

Lol, you're welcome. I really do like testing, but I didn't want to get too much into it before finishing my own stuff, or else I get jealous of other people's things or may be tempted to steal good ideas.

About the black cloak vs heavy plate, instead of changing the stats on the cloak, maybe turn the heavy plate into a light leather armour instead? And keep heavy plate for further into the game, as it would support the higher stats that would make it more realistic to what it is.

Good to hear about the riddle. I like how you don't handhold players throughout the game, but give just enough to keep going with. For example, I wasn't sure what to use the pickaxe for, until I checked its description in the items menu. I'm really not a fan of handholding, but lack of directions is a bad thing too. Finding the sweet spot in between those two is pretty tough, but you hit it.=P

I feel Wiola is a nice character to have added to the party. She complements pretty well with the main character, as she's very open and not afraid to say things, while the main character is a bit more on the quiet side. I could definitely see her spicing things up in some situations, and looking forward to it. (if you couldn't tell by now, I like seeing fun or interesting characters in games)

About the soldier battle. I'm quite sure I hadn't seen the 3rd soldier attacking me once. If he used support skills they didn't have an animation, or text went too fast for me to notice. I killed that guy first. The second one I killed was the captain, since the other soldier kept healing itself and boosting its attack, but still pose less of a problem (more of a matter of stalling). I'll be honest, I can't remember too well what the captain was hitting me for - I think it was around 150s per hit, but I don't remember him to be a major problem. It was just that the combined consistent hits of captain + soldier kept bringing down my HP.

Good to hear you're looking into some of things I wrote down. Do I still have a significant part of the demo to go, or should I wait for the next version to come out, so I can play more at once?

Spoiler for:

Ye, I feel the same way. I'm not a fan of handholding either, and that might be the reason why I wont spam the player with important information or hints on what to do. In my opinion I think It's more fun if you have to think for a bit, or keep things in mind without having a text telling you what to do every 2 minutes. (Like the thing with the woodcutter axe, It's not really explained why you would need a woodcutter axe.. but if you think for a minute it should come pretty natural that you need it to escape the forest etc.)

I will playtest the battle with the soldiers a bit more, and see how it turns out.. I might have to do something with it, but I was pretty sure it worked the way I wanted it too. But according to your experience I might have to look it up again

If you are outside of the burning house, there's not much left of the demo. You can play it if you want to try out Wiola a bit and see how she works in battle, but the demo will end after you have left the forest, and out into the world map. After that, the only place you can enter so far is Town of Duke, and that's where the credits will roll so It's up to you though, but you are very close to finishing the demo.

2013-02-02
New Updates added
*Check 'Most recent update' for further Information.

Spoiler for:

Ye, I feel the same way. I'm not a fan of handholding either, and that might be the reason why I wont spam the player with important information or hints on what to do. In my opinion I think It's more fun if you have to think for a bit, or keep things in mind without having a text telling you what to do every 2 minutes. (Like the thing with the woodcutter axe, It's not really explained why you would need a woodcutter axe.. but if you think for a minute it should come pretty natural that you need it to escape the forest etc.)

I will playtest the battle with the soldiers a bit more, and see how it turns out.. I might have to do something with it, but I was pretty sure it worked the way I wanted it too. But according to your experience I might have to look it up again

If you are outside of the burning house, there's not much left of the demo. You can play it if you want to try out Wiola a bit and see how she works in battle, but the demo will end after you have left the forest, and out into the world map. After that, the only place you can enter so far is Town of Duke, and that's where the credits will roll so It's up to you though, but you are very close to finishing the demo.

Heh, about the woodcutting axe, I was almost thinking the demo was ended there, because it didn't give me a sign of there being more to do. Then I remembered the blocked passage at the start of the game.=P

Alright, I can finish the demo, see what happens. I didn't know credits were included, is that a normal thing to do with a demo?

-LOL, Armageddon spell.xD
-A random battle while not walking on the path on the worldmap made the game pause for like 2 seconds before starting the battle.
-Wiola isn't gaining any MP. Is this intended?
-Monsters on the world map drop way too many items. I'm swimming in potions after a few battles. Also, they hardly deal any damage to my characters (70's / 80's). Considering I have a healer in my team now, it's way too easy here.
-Walking on the path to the Town of Duke gave me 2 battles, having to kill a total of 8 monsters. Walking to the Town of Duke not following the path gave me 2 battles, having to kill a total of 3 monsters. Either ramp up the encounter rate outside the paths on the overworld, or remove the battles while staying on the path. I do like having the choice to avoid random battles, or drastically lower the chances for them appearing. Random battles tend to annoy the hell out of me after a while of playing a game.=P