VXA Pantomime: FFVI

Just a quicky post:

Have finished the Pantomime project I mentioned in my last post!

It’s mostly reading/watching as the dress-up characters run around acting out their lines in an only token effort to really convince you, and the set pieces are all cardboard cutouts (based on FFVI maps), but with ripped MIDIs from FFVI playing constantly (and relevantly) in the background and at least one audience-themed interactive section, the project really is intended to feel like it’s a real Pantomime, like you’re a part of the audience.

Whole performance clocks around half an hour with minimal action required on your part.  Just try to sit back and have fun with it!

Also, since the filesize is so small (<3MB) due to short runtime and few resources being used (and each MIDI being like only 3kb each) I made a duplicate version of the project that contains all relevant RTP files, so you don’t need to have the VXA RTP installed to run it!

Links regarding the project, complete with screenies and downloads:

http://rpgmaker.net/games/4937/

http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,47775.msg543381.html#msg543381

Colonist Alpha Success!

(just realised how daft some of this all might sound, but I’ve taken a double dose of my painkillers today and I’m a bit spacey, so forgive this post for sounding totally stupid, if it does)

So, putting the Colonist Alpha out nice and early turned out to be a smashing success, despite its many flaws.  A lot of people have given substantial feedback, both covering known issues and things that I’ve utterly just overlooked with the ole’ tunnel vision.  Some of these problems will be tricky to fix or have some fundamental problems (such as a problem with getting the ABS to refresh upon stamina depletion) but fortunately most of the problems so far will be easy to fix and should lead to a far improved game.  By the time the game is polished up enough to have a “proper” demo released it should be a much sharper and more flowing game.

One thing that will be getting largely improved is the dialogue, as right now it’s dead basic (as we punched it in just so we could get all the eventing done) and with that, the instructions and story to the game suffered greatly, leaving a large tutorial gap for players, with much of it expecting the player to already know what to do.  The instructions, at least, will be redone completely to allow players to know completely how to play; the game itself is quite simple, but at a first glance it’s a bit complicated and requires some better tutorials.  Hopefully the caves will be improved with this as well.

Also, on top of this we have a new team member, Levi W, who is drawing up some music for us (damn good music at that) and is firing down the right path very fast, so the demo should also sound vastly improved as well, with getting rid of the RTP in favour of some pretty ideal new soundtracks!