The long wait is over! Ok so maybe you haven't been waiting and most likely you have no idea who I am. That's fine, let me introduce myself. I'm Liverachi or Livpj11 and this is the first post here for my HUGE project Rise of Aden. This will be a tactical turn based game. Keep in mind that the game is still under lots of development so many things will still change. All the screen shots are actual in game shots with many custom tilesets I designed or resized for use in VX. Also The character facesets are still under development. I will add them as soon as they become available. So let me know what you guys think!

Demo Download!

Seems nice. Story is cliched in a nice way, utilizing a variety of allusions and religious things while making it seemingly still rpg-ish. The maps, mainly the 2nd and 3rd maps, are pretty well done. The character portraits seem a bit off, too realistic or whatever, while the two that are on there didn't seem like they are of the same source. That's only what I see, though.

Hope you can finish it.

This looks like it has lots of potential. The plot isn't depressingly dark yet at the same time it isn't too bright and fuzzy. You've definitely got the right balance in that regard. Certainly, the Tactical Battle system you're using seems interesting and the mapping is of a high standard. Please keep going! I trust a demo will be available for download soon enough?

Glad you like what you've seen so far. I mentioned this in the opening paragraph but the facesets are not complete. The only one that is so far is of Duncan. The one for Kaysha will be available very soon. And yes I do plan on finishing this.



The battle system, combined with the class system, is definitely at the heart of this game. I feel it will be the major thing to set it apart from other games seen more recently. Glad you like the mapping. They've really come a long way since I started back in July. Our team is shooting to have a demo done by Christmas, though the voice acting part may have to come after that.



I want to use something other than Christians but the idea will still be to keep everything simple. I think the most unusual names are going to be the locations. I am trying to throw those at people slowly as I go so as not to confuse anyone.

This looks great. I love the custom graphics. They look extremely good and original! The story is great and original. Good luck with your project.

you say that in every game topic

I have to say I don't

-Love your Titlescreen(?)
-Love your Faces
-Love Some tileset pieces.

But I do:

-Love your sprites
-Love your Project Name
-Love your battle system
-Love Voice acting
-Love Different endings.

Either way it seems not bad.

This is a really nice project, i really like the story line, and your original character designs. Really love the custom graphics, and your battle system reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics

Keep up the good work

Thank you.



That's alright I don't mind. :D



-You must be referring to the banner. Lucky for you that is not my title screen
-I stated above, though it seems to have been missed, only 1 of those faces are what I plan to use. The rest, like the red head, are concept art
-I agree I have a lot of tiles that don't mesh great together. Are there any in particular you noticed that I could work on?

As for the rest that you do love thank you. The battle system is what I think will make or break this game.



Thanks for the comments. I really am going for a FFT feel as far as the battle and class system is concerned. You can have both a main class and a subclass but unlike FFT actors will be restricted to one of 2 class trees. Either the fighter or the mystic tree. Within each tree they will have the choice between 10 classes as they are unlocked.

I love Tactical RPG's. Gonna give it a look for sure when I have the time ;)

Cheers

It really looks great. The story is original.

Religious (Christian in particular.) allegories in fiction are all well and good if you can pull it off, but if you're going to go down that road make sure you're atleast somewhat subtle about it. In other words, don't take the Xenosaga route of "HEY LOOK GUYS ITS A CROSS!!! THAT THING IS NAMED AFTER AN ANGEL OF SOME KIND!! ISNT THAT STUFF SIGNIFICANT AND INTELLECTUAL!!??"

I like Duncan's portrait and the character sets are very cute (Though the cape you use on a few characters looks like it use more colors.), but some of the screenshots look rather inconsistent with the detailed trees placed on the blocky, cartoony VX tiles.

If you're going to do the voice thing, make sure you have the means to do it well. Consistency and quality. Nothing takes me out of a game faster than terrible voice actors or when one actor's lines sound crisp and clear and as they're supposed to, another's has staticky badness going on.

The idea of multiple endings is cool, not enough people do that because they're so afraid of deviating from their "planned outcome". Is the ending you're going to get fairly obvious by the end (I.E. You act a fool in Bioshock, you get the evil ending, you act good you get cookies and milk and halos, etc, etc.), or is it based on a series of vague decisions or actions that the player isn't really aware of?

Sorry if I disappoint but this game will be heavily based on many religions as well as atheism. The overlying theme is about people with different beliefs and ways of life interacting together. However the purpose of the game will not be to preach or teach any particular religion or view on life.

As for voice I totally agree. This is something that if it doesn't work right it won't be in the game. It definitely will not be ready for the demo this Christmas. And in the end I plan to have 2 downloads. One with and one without the voice acting.

Regarding multiple endings there are 3 in the plans. It likely will not be obvious which ending you will get until it gets close to the end game. The first 2 will be the result of several decisions throughout the course of the game. If you score enough points on one side you get that ending. If you somehow manage to avoid scoring enough points to justify either of those endings then you get the 3rd ending. This one will be the most difficult to obtain and will have the ultimate ending that everyone likely will want.

And now, here is this weeks update. These are the 10 classes available to characters within the Fighter tree.

Story: Your story so far sounds somewhat cliche. You have a nice start, but it sort of gets torn up towards the end. You talk about religions and blaming and stuff like that when it seems it is irrelevent to the main story. Honestly, the third paragraph to me seems unneeded and I could just delete it and it would not flaw the story. You dont explain why war was caused and why the 500 years of peace was disrupted. The 500 years of peace is a cliche itself. Again, if you integrated religion more, then yes, you would have a better if you deelply analyzed each religion and showed the faults for each. Though, to me, religion has absolutely nothing to do with the story, at least from reading that. You might as well say, darkness swept over the land and now the main character has to defend his homeland. Thats the vibe I get, only you relaced darkness with religion and that somehow makes it ten times more original. Also, why does the character run away with his fiance during the wedding. You dont explain that. I understand you are trying to keep some things hidden, but you are cutting out important sections that are needed. You cant skip around like that. You need one continual section of event because your story sections looks novice.

Graphics: These need tons of work. First off, you have tons of inconsistancies. Your characters sprite do not match your tilesets. The doors seem small and the sprites look oversized compared to the maps. Your graphics in general have a lot of inconsistancies. You have to many styles and different tilesets going on. You cant have a 3-d rendered looking tree then have a 2-d grass tile. It does not work and makes your game look tacky. Your mapping isnt very good either. Interiors are too big, your maps are boring, your cliffs need more detailing, you use tiles wrong, ect. Its not great mapping overall. And that Breka Village fog is atrocious and honestly looks totally amature and appalling. Also, your battle system screen is a cherry on top of a tedious game. You misuse tons of tiles and the cliffs themselves look awful. I honestly do not know what the hell is going on in that screenshot. I wouldnt know where to go and where I could move. Also, for a tactical system, that map is too small. Your facesets are inconsitent as well. You cant use famous facesets, it looks bad and break the connection between player and game.

Other: First off, your text is hard to read. I suggest changing it to a simplier, less complicated font, so I can actual read it without secong glancing it. Half of your features are not even features, they are to be expected. Also, this looks like your first project. You are way in over your head. 1000+ maps, no. I dont believe that one bit, especailly since this is a tactical game. Your music looks tedious. Dont edit famous songs from other games and make it your own, as people can clearly recognize what it is from.

Conclusion: Your story is cliche, and the whole religion this is just a mawk-up of darkness. Its doesnt look needed and you are not integrating it, therefore, your story isnt original and sounds like a typical, boring, cliche story. You dont expand on your characters, which means you havent developed them. Therefore, I have a hypothesis that your characters will become cliche as well. Also, 15 characters is hard to manage and I bet all the characters will be dragged down because of this. Your graphics are inconsistent and you misuse a lot of tiles. Your overall maping skills needs work. Your text is somewhat hard to read. Half of your features arent features and the other half are fallacies that will not happen. Overall, your game needs work in every direction. You need to fix your graphics and tidy up your story. Also, think realistic.

Bacon thanks for the feedback. Hmm where to begin. First of all please read my entire post before you make so many assumptions. Some you hit spot on, while others you clearly missed.

For example I posted that the faceset for Kaysha was merely concept art. This is of course a work in progress and the images will be changed. Also I have no idea why the doors seem the wrong size for the characters? If we are talking pixel sizes here the doors are larger than they are in XP. As for my story it is novice but it is meant not to give too much away. If I told you everything you wanted to know about why Duncan is escaping it would defeat the 45 minute intro to the game. (Yes tactical battles take a lot longer than ones most are use to) And over 1000 maps is no joke. This type of battle system, combined with the world exploration, requires a lot of maps. Currently I have 100 available for the demo and will likely still have to create 30 or so more. Current game play is around 5 hours. And that will cover the first quarter of this chapter. So if we go with that math over 3 chapters it comes out to roughly 1300 maps, give or take a few hundred. And who said anything about editing famous songs? All I said was that some music would be edited and you may or may not recognize it. Likely you won't recognize anything unless it's the default music. Oh and I don't plan on doing the voice acting until the game is complete. At that point I will have 2 versions available, one with and one without the voice overs.

Now let's talk about things I do agree with you on. Yes the font needs some work. You aren't the first to say it's hard to read. I am currently looking to change that. The tiles graphics are for sure inconsistent and I am constantly working to update them. This is of course not a finished game. My mapping is also not great. I can always use pointers there. The trouble I find with doing desert maps and canyons like the one you mentioned is how do you make it so detailed when it's supposed to be a dry and barren place. So far I've relied heavily on dried up vines, cactus's, small shrubs, different sand tiles, sand dunes, and cracks in the cliffs. I'd appreciate any suggestions you have though to make it better.

All in all Bacon I appreciate your hypothesis on this experiment you were conducting here. I really will take your well merited suggestions to heart. However I'd appreciate it if you didn't assume as much as you do without either asking questions or waiting until a demo is available.

totally my bad, I did not see the upper top part. :o



To me, the arch seems extrely small and would cut it close. While XP does this, your buildings overall look undersized compared to your sprites. Plus anyways, I would imagine an arch to a church or grand builing to be grand or elegant, not small and tiny.



Well then, you are not explaining your story correctly on this thread. You cannot skip around, you have to be conituous. You basically expand on a topic, then when it comes to the next topic, totally skip it and jump to the next section of the story. No, thats bad. You explain things in order and expand on every topic you put on this thread. You cannot expand on one and overshadow the next.



A map is a map that is playable. The map you have shown are not maps, they are bad mapping. I do not count bad mapping maps as maps. I can live with deent mapping, but bad mapping is, well bad. You may have 100 maps, but how many maps ore actually good. Not only that, how long does it take for you to make a map. Honestly, a good 15x20 map takes around 30 to 45 minutes. Thats a super small map.




You did not say this so I assumed that this was the case. You need to say that. IT is my job to assume what you are doing. Ad honestly, the more someone assumes, the more the project thread needs work.



I never siad anything about VA but may I ask, who is doing this voice acting?



Assuming is what I do. Sice you did not expand on certain things, I assumed thats what you were doing. Thats my job. Maybe you should clarify certain points better so that no one else has to assume.

For voice actors so far I have a pretty big cast consisting of myself, Ereth, Kiwibug, OneKnightStand, Turbo23 and goingfishing11. We will need more eventually But I'm not going to worry about that until later.

Bacon, as for my mapping do you have any examples of projects in VX you personally are working on or that are finished that you could refer me towards so I can see what you call good mapping and possibly learn from?

I guess Bacon doesn't have any examples to enlighten me with. :(

Anyway, on to this weeks update. Mystic classes!

My main concern with the mapping is how those trees and the tiles clash. It's quite jarring.

Looking at the "Features" section, you've got some big expectations for your game. Which is fine, just don't get burnt out before you've released a decent demo. I just want to play a tactical RPG. ;)

Yeah I understand your concern with the trees. Those big ones are really only used for cut scenes. You won't see them in normal maps you can wander around in.

Yes I do have some really big expectations to fill in my features section, especially since this is my first game. All of them are more than do able at this point though. It's looking like the demo will have 120 or so maps and is about 5-6 hours long. The one thing I am really considering dropping is the voice acting for every cut scene. It's not so much how to do it but the fact that it's going to make the game ridiculously large. Either way it won't be in the demo. If I still do it there will be 2 versions available in the end. One with and one without the acting.

Thanks for wanting to play this game. I've put a ton of work into it. There should be a demo available by Christmas if things go according to plan. I also will be releasing a trailer with a lot of the in game art and game play here soon, so be sure to check back often!

I take one look at the screenshots, and I'm like holy crap this game is good. I like everything about this game. I especially like the battle system. All the other games are just boring, ABS, Side view, just boring battles. I think I will like this SRPG.

It's nice to see a game that uses something other than the standard turn-based battle system. How many playable characters do you plan to have in the demo? Will their classes be different enough for us to see the variety you ultimately plan to put in this game, or will it be limited for demo purposes?

I'm glad you like the screen shots. It really has been a learning process for me and I feel my maps have gotten better. I've actually redone the first maps I made about 4 times now to make them more interesting.



There will be 8 different playable characters in the demo. Between the 8 there will be 6 of the 20 different classes available.

I love this game.

I dont see too many tactical rpgs around...

But this is very promising. I really enjoy games where one can personally control the skills each unit possesses. Although there are a few cliches in the story and if you have too many they cannot be overlooked. The graphics look fine, except for the pictures maybe, but thats preference.

But other than that keep it up, and dont worry I WILL play this.

Thanks for your support LuX. Those are some of my favorite things in games too. I look forward to hearing how you like it once the demo it out.

And now for this weeks update, new battle screen shots!

Please see this thread for this weeks updates.

So, I played the demo and here is what I thought of everything:
Battle System: Enemies were a little on the weak side so they weren't very much of a challenge in the boss battle, but in the sewer battle the dragoon did die. I figured out too late that I should have kept them together, instead of seperating them (make more battles similar to this and you've got a winner). None of the enemies had any skills so it was rather easy to just rush in and attack; it didn't require too much thought.

Guild Hall: Very nice. Very thorough explanations about the various systems in the game; no problems there.

Class/Job System: I must say I do very much enjoy any type of game with a class system implimented, for it adds that extra degree of control that lets you make characters what you want them to be. And I'll haveyou know that out of respect for your excellent game I've decided not to add a job system to mine. A suggestion for the swordsingers and the like: Wouldn't it be better if they were a seperate category of classes, because when one thinks of a mystic they think more of just priests and mages. A swordsinger brigs to mind a cross between warriors and mages (but that's just my oppinion). Do you get job points after battle as well, or just from potions? Does each class have its own level, o do your stats increase according to class as you gain in levels?

Music: Excellent, just excellent.

Overall: The mapping was solid, mechanics were solid, Music was excellent, but the battles were a little easy. I understand since it was just a demo showcasing battle mechanics and all...

Nice Job so far anyway.

-LuX

I appreciate the feedback Lux. It is most helpful and will play a part in adjusting the gameplay before the demo is officially released.

For this weeks update I thought it would be good to share some in game artwork. Enjoy!

Aden City


Narsoni Village

Who painted the village picture?