One of the things I love about balancing is when I do it way wrong. I was setting up the skills for these two enemies and if the enemies got smart, they could flatten your party in two turns. Definitely not my intent, but I was laughing all the same. So I had to nerf a few of those skills and now they are a bit on the hard side, but definitely won’t kill you in two turns (and probably won’t kill you at all if you utilize stunning effects right). I’m still tweaking everyone’s skills because I want to make it so when you get to the end of the game, most of the skills are still useful. What’s the point of collecting the skills of course, if they become useless by the end, right? So I’ll have to do a few more tweaks here and there and hope my beta-testers can give me some helpful feedback about that.
Right now I have a boss to balance, one more half dungeon with a boss at the end of that, the optional dungeon plus the optional boss, and then the final boss. I also have to break the fourth wall before the final boss. Because of how the events are set up for the optional dungeon, as soon as you get out of it, you’re shuffled off to the final boss. Oops. So I figure players won’t mind if I break the fourth wall with a warning and letting them buy items, heal up, and save before they get thrown into the final boss. Of course and warn people not to save over their save file just in case the final boss is too hard.
I wish I had planned that a bit better, but I think it’ll be okay. I meant to be done by now, but I’ve had a job since the end of September (which is wonderful) so I had to rethink my “if it’s not done by December, something’s wrong”. Haha, clearly it wasn’t. But it’s definitely still on track! Hopefully by February–by then, if I don’t have anything (or at least have it off to my beta-testers by then) something is wrong!
Again, sorry I never have much to show you. Hard to show you just databasing screenshots. I’m sure that’d be a bit on the boring side.
3 comments
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23 December 2011 at 5:03 AM
Kerbie
I just wanted to tell you that I finished your demo, and I cannot WAIT to play the finished game. This is hands down one of the best RPGs I have played in a while (and that’s including commercial games). Just wanted to pop in and say awesome job :)
1 January 2012 at 4:21 AM
gurimu
Just found your game today via rmn! I have to say it’s adorable and really nice on the eyes. I especially like some little details, like the heart that pops up over Snowe’s head when he dusts. I haven’t gotten very far into the demo (only 30 minutes or so) because my computer lags on the big maps, but this things practically five years old so I didn’t expect it to do well.
I like the sprites. You did them yourself? They’re very good! I’m glad you decided not to go with default vx sprites since it seems like the chibiness of the characters wouldn’t fit in… strange, since your chipsets seem to be mostly RTP?
Speaking of the chipsets, I’d love to know where you found the extras you use… RTP doesn’t have things like tubs and toilets, or that pretty torii-looking gate in front of the castle. Did you do them yourself?
1 January 2012 at 11:06 AM
Blackbirds of Rye
Hello! Thank you for the comments! :) I am sorry about the bigger maps lagging. I’ve done my best to reduce that even for old computers! But I can only do it so much. Which sucks because anti-lag scripts screw up my game rather than help it.
And yes, I did the sprites myself. I originally planned this game for use with the default VX sprites, but I found I really didn’t like them too much. And a bunch of other stuff happened, so I restarted this project with my own spritestyle and a new mapping style which you see in this version. And yes, most of the chipsets are RTP or edits of the RTP. This was because despite a few things, I felt the RTP of RMVX was actually really well put together. It would be a shame if I didn’t use what I actually liked.
For the extra chipsets, I mainly use Celianna’s and Lunarea’s edits (which you can find at http://www.rpgmakervx.net/index.php? in the resource forum) and I also use BenBen’s tiles (a french RMer which you can find his tiles here: http://www.rpg-maker.fr/packs-ressources.html – Just scroll all the way to the bottom. It says: “Ressource Benben (pour RPG Maker XP)” and that’ll be it. Yes, they are tiles for XP, but they’re easy to edit for VX or even VXace).
I wish I could do all my own tiles, but I’m not that good at this yet! I am good at editing them to suit my means though so I guess that means something.
Thank you again for the comment! :) I’m glad you like it despite the lag. Have fun RM-ing!