Mercenary: The Tavern - dark fantasy story-oriented adventure

[Aureus]

Hello there!

I'm an RPG Maker beginner and I spent over 80 hours trying to create the foundation of the game I always wanted to play myself, but was never able to have such a chance.

It's gameplay and various ambitious attempts I tried to introduce keep making me unsure - is this something people would like to play? I don't want to invest another 40 hours into making a demo or 400 hours into making a game, which would later on be completely ignored, remembered as mediocre or sold in 10 copies or sth like that.

A couple of ideas I wanted to represent in my game are:

* Focus the game on a story,

* Avoid pointless walking - game may be short, if it does not HAVE TO be longer,

* Avoid pointless battles (every fight has to have an impact on the plot, no grind),

* Make NPC-s important and conversations with them - complicated and requiring sacrifices,

* Provide a lot of choices.

I don't know if I have talent to do all this and I wanted to ask you to watch the video showing both the gameplay and my commentary. I will be more than happy to discuss it's content and I think it will serve you way better than a bunch of screenshots or pointless promises.

It is not a generic RPG Maker game... Or is it? Maybe you will judge better than me.

I really, really need your voices if I am ever going to proceed my attempts.

Thank you so much for reading my topic.

 

[Lyon Media]

So far it looks really unique and pretty well put together. Watching that I would rate it about a 3.5/5 (witch is really high for me just ask my team lol) the only thing that I really saw that was a little off was the plugin control. A lot of people that are new at game design in general use a lot of functions witch isn't a bad thing but it is a hard thing to make flow with each other. Like with Galvs Visual Novel Choice script when ever it popped up it kind of through off the feel of the game. So what I would do is keep that plugin in there it's fantastic I use it as well but make your own choice backgrounds that fit the feel of the text so it feels more natural. Just little things like that is what can make a good game be the next best seller. I hope I didn't offend you by trying to give you advice because you really shouldn't be offended because it is a really great game and I can't wait to play it when it's done.

 

[Jiriki9]

Wow, this looks really great! I love the clue and dialogue system and the fight being done in a storytelling, slightly "choose your adventure"-way is pretty awesome, i think!

 

[Aureus]

Thanks guys! I've made a lot of progress and I'm trying to finish the demo, but making complex dialogues is complicated. Just yestarday I've spent about 7-8 hours trying to make one conversation. And after all there is always possible, that a player will just ignore an NPC or will talk with him for like 30 secs - 1 minute, so it's a little bit more time consuming, than making a basic linear dialogue.

 

[Jiriki9]

Oh yes, I can imagine that must be a load of work! But, in my eyes, the result is incredibly rewarding and it adds something to your game that story-based games often lack: Replayability.

 

[Aureus]

By the way - the first demo was published some time ago and the game is now moving forward after gathering some feedback. : )
https://rpgmakermv.co/threads/the-tavern-first-demo.4164/

 

[Jiriki9]

I actually played the demo yesterday and filled in your questionary. For me, it was really nice to play and I am looking forward to more. The events happening truly intrigued me and I certainly would have loved to play further.

 

[Aureus]

Thank you very much! Yesterday I received one questionary and I fixed all the issues you have described. : ) I'm sorry you had some problems while playing!

 

[Zebestian]

I really like the overall concept of your game. Mostly because that's something that I wanted to make with RM too for the longest time and never did. Ah well, there's so much future left for me to use. XD
Anyway, something I noticed while skipping through your video there: the choice boxes, i.e. the graphics you used to display the choices whenever you have to make one kinda seem out of place to me. They don't fit the style you're going for - they look to... modern I'd say. I'd recommend you try and match those with the style of your game. ^-^

 

[Aureus]

Thank you! I was looking for an alternative but I was unable to find anything reasonable. If the next demo I'm going to make will become popular, I will try to find someone to work with me to make a custom set of option panels. Unfortunatelly, the ones I have now are the best I could find.

You are not the first person to mention that problem.

 

[Zebestian]

Thank you! I was looking for an alternative but I was unable to find anything reasonable. If the next demo I'm going to make will become popular, I will try to find someone to work with me to make a custom set of option panels. Unfortunatelly, the ones I have now are the best I could find.

You are not the first person to mention that problem.

Ah, I see. Yeah being limited to free resources can be difficult sometimes. I know how it is - that's why I'm happy that I'm able to create custom music for myself. And yes, I thought that I wasn't the first to point that out; it's pretty obvious. Best of luck to you and your project though! :)

 

[LTN Games]

I have yet to play this with some dedication but I have made it to the Tavern, unfortunately, I hit a spot of no return and did not get a chance to reply. The problem was after speaking to the guy over by the little shed to the left of the screen, I decided to try and go in the shed because who knows maybe I'll find something important, nope, I was wrong, instead the guy started walking towards me and blocked my path.

This screenshot shows it all, I can't move past the fire and I can't move past the guy and I don't think he wants to move he already tried to ignore me lol

Anyways, the first impression was pretty good, I enjoyed the general plot so far, I like your window skins and I really like the choice window, as @Kaimen has mentioned, different graphics that suit your style will look much better. I'll chime in when I do a full playthrough, cheers :)

 

[Aureus]

Thank you very much for playing. I will take care of this problem. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

I think I found some decent buttons:

There is no yellow version yet, but I'll try to make a recolour.
Do you think these will be better?

 

[Jiriki9]

Thank you very much! Yesterday I received one questionary and I fixed all the issues you have described. : ) I'm sorry you had some problems while playing!

The problems were only very minor in my eyes. After all, it's a demo. By the way I yesterday evening remembered a tiny bug I didn't add to the questionnaire: When intercting with the sleeping girl on the floor of the Tavern middle room from above, her looks changed.

These buttons look quite good, I think, and they'll certainly fit your game well!

@LTN Games: I encountered the same thing with Samson BUT after a while standing left from him he began moving right so I could get out again.

 

[Aureus]

I was hoping the sleeping girl will look as she flickered, but I guess i was wrong. Fixed it, thank you. : )
For this moment I moved the fire one tile to the left.
A screenshot with new buttons example. : )

 

[Jiriki9]

The buttons indeed fit much better. Maybe it could be possible to slightly town down the "brightness" of the writing as well? Just a little...I think that might look even greater.

 

[Zackleaynts]

Hi @Aureus ! Watched the vid, liked the deduction! Is this like a cross between FF and RE? =D

 

[Aureus]

To be honest it is not a direction I have in mind. : )