Great demo ! I love that we can use the mouse :) can't wait to play more !
Reviews for "Y.A.A.G. 0: The Demo"
Marcgal responds:
Glad you like it :)
Though, again, credit RPG Maker with the mouse. It comes bundled, I'd have to put some effort to disable it rather than to enable it :)
It's difficult to give a review on such a short demo. There are a few important things that a great game in this genre should accomplish. First, the gameplay should be a fun challenge -- either solving puzzles to progress like in a point-and-click game, or if you introduce combat mechanics then finding creative ways to defeat opponents (other than just picking attack until you're low on health and then healing). Second, the game should create an immersive fantasy world and storyline (preferably branching and non-linear) for the player to experience, as if its main job were to tell a story and the player is a participant. Sort of along the lines of Undertale or Ouroboros or Hyptosis games or something.
With a demo this short, it would be impossible to tell an engaging story. And I have to agree with timeattack that getting washed and dressed and eating breakfast seems more like a chore than a fun gameplaying experience; more like a point-and-click game where you just click randomly on things and eventually make the story progress just by trying everything instead of by figuring things out. So I can't honestly say I think it's heading toward being a great game, but at least I hope I explained why I'm thinking that way and what big-picture things you could focus on to try to improve.
Marcgal responds:
Thank you for you opinion & review.
Though, I must say I'm surprised people find it non-obvious how to get dressed and washed and have to resort to click randomly on everything. I thought I've put enough hints in the dialogue? I thought if my mom with little prior experience with games could, for most part, figure it out on her own, then guys on NG should have little problem with this?
I still wonder where exactly was my mistake here...
OOO IS the Hide and Sick game lol.
Marcgal responds:
In all honestly, I’m not sure what you mean
Please upload finished games.
Marcgal responds:
You hate the idea of demos in general…? There are a few of then on NG
Dear Marcgal
Alright friend, its time to tear this game apart and give you the best advice I can. The opening screen is fine but it gives us no real information. Why is he asleep? What does he have to wake up to go do? Why is there no notification or dialog box that comes up signifying we can start moving when the game cuts to the house? My advice there is to add some sort of inner monologue that includes what he is going to do or why he has to get up. Looking at this character he remind me of myself and If I know myself as well as I do I KNOW I do not want to get up and out of bed without something important to do.
Also you missed out on one of the most fun moments in gaming right at the start. An over the top dream sequence explaining who the hero is and what his desires are. As well as giving a cool tutorial where the hero has overpowered stuff and some hot girl or magic thing tells us how to fight. Also the whole getting washed and dressed thing is okay but you have to keep in mind thats just filler, it adds nothing really important to the story and is just a chore and is in no way actually fun or interesting. Realism for the sake of Realism in rpgs is a no go. Did you ever take a shower in pokemon? Also if you are going to make someone do a task like that MAKE SURE you make it clear where everything is. It took me a few good minutes of walking to find out where the bath was. I walked into the room thats the bathroom and thought I clicked on everything but instead I missed something and ended up wasting time going up and down the stairs doing nothing. Thats valuable play time lost.
On a side note I would like to talk about what I like about the game so far. I love the idea of mouse controls, too many rpg's force you to just use keyboard and I can appreciate a change in movement. Its obvious you put some time into designing the characters using rpg maker. If you would like a GREAT example of good music and character design in an rpg, maybe for inspiration you should check out this link http://lisa-rpg.wikia.com/wiki/LISA:_THE_PAINFUL_RPG This will link you to lisa the painful, my personal favorite rpg of all time, which was ALSO made in rpg maker. (note, I just scrolled up while typing this to start playing again and while looking at the blond haired sister character she looks like she has a very manly face)
Now here is something very important that I would like to talk to you about. Your english, this isn't meant to be rude but I can tell that its not the best. If you EVER need help revising and fixing your dialogue just come to me and I will help you the best I can. I can tell your trying.
Ah. Now I am finally in the town. I have to say the music being used right now is very charming and I enjoy it. I'm honestly not quite sure if its your own or whats bundled with rpg maker. If it is not your own I reccomend siting your sources to make sure you don't get in trouble. If you ever want to add different music to the game try talking to some of the great people on new grounds who make audio and ask them if you can use it in your game. I am sure they would love to help you :)
Alright that does it for now. Having played through and looking at the game for a good hour now I can say you have a long way to go but I am sure you can get working on it and make something good :). If you ever need help or idea's of any kind I am always here to offer a hand.
-With love
timeattack
Marcgal responds:
A thorough review worthy of a thorough answer ☺ At least to clarify my intentions ☺
One thing is that actually, I didn’t want to make it a typical FinalFantasy-like battle RPG. Rather, I was inspired by things like the Medieval Cop series ( http://www.kongregate.com/accounts/VasantJ ) or A Knight's Quest ( http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/569460 ) I don’t think I’ll try to put much fighting there, but if I could create a non-linear plot with interesting, evolving characters with interesting interactions between them I’d be proud of myself. For this reason I purposefully categorized this as a Point&Click rather than RPG. And I thought, perhaps wrongly, that this bath tube quest would make a nice Point&Click-ish content. Also including it gave me the opportunity to develop some more dialogue downstairs.
As of now, this ‘hero’ is rather an ordinary man next door and I don’t think I’d like to make him an archetypal Superman-like or demigod-like world savior, even if he finally becomes an important figure in the "big picture" world affairs. Just to attempt to break the cliché if for no other reason, and also because I think Mary Suing protagonists is an example of poor writing.
I’ll certainly check out this Painful RPG though ☺
Mouse controls are not my work, they’re here by default in any RPG Maker’s game. You’d have to put some work to disable them rather than to enable them actually. Too bad they’re also faulty sometimes ☹ but I’m not sure if I’m competent enough to easily fix this yet.
I know my English is far from perfect and I definitely wanted to have someone proofread this before the full release. But I thought it would be an overkill to do this for such a little demo.
All graphic and audio assets were bundled with RPG Maker. BTW that’s the reason I chose RPG Maker over Unity3D: I’d like to challenge myself in writing and I can do some basic coding, but I can’t draw and I can’t compose. And RPG Maker is bundled with a nice set of out-of-box graphic&music assets, as well as a nice character creator (though it doesn’t leave much space for coding ☹ ) As far as I’m aware I can put any content bundled with RPG Maker in my game as long as I credit the game being made with RPG Maker MV which is ⓒ2015 KADOKOWA etc., which I did. So as far as I’m aware I haven’t infringed anyone’s copyright. As required I did credit authors of any third-party plugins I used that were not bundled with RPG Maker.
Again, thank you for your thorough review and pieces of advice ☺