Let's Play (With Draygone)

[Xisthruos]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep50 - Shattered Lives

I can't remember if I tried going back in later, but I know I missed it.

I must have removed access early on in this version. I think that was a good move, because that whole sidequest just would have made things even more complicated, and it offers very little in the way of plot development and rewards. Not to mention, the monsters in the police department are even tougher and more numerous than all others so far.

where the mummies reside

You haven't gotten to this point in the LPs, so I won't say much, but when I made that area I wanted to use the darkness as a game mechanic. It's intentionally that dark. A long time later when I played the game on a different screen, I realized this was a bad choice. This mistake was the result of my inexperience and lack of having others playtest the game for me.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

For those interested, here's the full-sized version of the poster shown in the last LPisode.



Based on this image:
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowln...ane_poster.jpg

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep50 - Shattered Lives

Let's Play "The Spiteful Dead" Ep9 - Shattered Lives, part II

It would seem that the zombie invasion has had quite the unfortunate effect on the city's survivors, and in more ways than one.



Download Game Here

[Xisthruos]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep51 - Shattered Lives, part II

-like I've mentioned before, a lot of this dialogue is needlessly wordy. However, it may not have been too out of character for old man Max to ramble on the way he does.

-200 million is definitely too high a number for the size of the city I had imagined, probably by almost a hundredfold. 5-8 million would have been more appropriate. It was my best estimate at the time, not having done any research.

-I don't think I organized the game in a predictable way--at least one that would have made it more clear when one major scene\dungeon crawl begins and another ends. It's more pronounced in this part of the game, where there is somewhat less of a linear path to follow. A bit of uncertainty isn't a bad thing in a game like this, but I could have designed the levels a little better, and come up with creative ways of warning the player.

The result is that the game is a little bewildering, and full of moments where the player isn't sure where to go, or when they'll be bombarded with another long cutscene or difficult boss battle. I did take pains to make sure objectives weren't impossible to fulfill if you screwed up or forgot something, however. At the game's worst moments, you may simply have to put up with a bit of trial and error. Many players may not have the patience to put up with this.

-you missed a number of strange optional scenes right before Everik. Most aren't anything special, but they are strange. I might have instead found a way that the player had to encounter them on their way to Everik.

-Some of the strong language in the game seems a bit unnecessary to me now. It's mostly the casual swearing. Used too often, these words can lose impact.

-Parts of Everik's speech about human nature don't sound quite as impressive to me as when I first wrote it. Later on, Robert makes a little speech in a different context where he says basically some of the same things. So here, it almost seems as though Everik is preaching to the choir. I may have wanted to make all of my characters too much like myself, instead of individual people. I was even aware of this problem back in 2002, but I didn't do anything about it. I think I was hoping no one would really notice.

Edit: Analyzing the scene again, Robert doesn't seem especially won over by Everik's speech, and he's only really in awe of Everik once he is physically restrained by Everik's strange psychic power. I don't feel as though Robert ought to have let Everik go on for so long without interruption, though.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep51 - Shattered Lives, part II

Some of the strong language in the game seems a bit unnecessary to me now. It's mostly the casual swearing. Used too often, these words can lose impact.

The sad thing is I know people that swear that much in real life.

[Leish]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep51 - Shattered Lives, part II

I think it's funny that at the end of the video, the music is chilling, the dialogue is chilling, then bam, boss fight - a goofy looking man with a big smile on his face. It made me laugh. Sorta threw off the atmosphere, but what can you do?

[Xisthruos]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep51 - Shattered Lives, part II

I think it's funny that at the end of the video, the music is chilling, the dialogue is chilling, then bam, boss fight - a goofy looking man with a big smile on his face. It made me laugh. Sorta threw off the atmosphere, but what can you do?

Definitely see your point there. If I had somehow had the capability/time/talent to draw all the art in the game myself, his appearance may not have broken the atmosphere as much, as everything would have had that quirky quality. It sounds weird, but I was comfortable with that cartoony style, as opposed to a more realistic approach.

I still have that kind of goofiness in the way I draw things now. I don't know why, but I like it when something can be silly, yet still somehow unsettling. Throughout the game, there are numerous moments where you can tell I didn't take myself too seriously.

There's a little bit more custom monsters ahead--some good, some not so much.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep51 - Shattered Lives, part II

Let's Play "The Spiteful Dead" Ep10 - Shattered Lives, part III

Our heroes finally manage to reach the little girl locked in the storage building. However, it may be that the rescuers have become the ones in need of rescuing.

This is the epitome of the entire Let's Play. If you were only willing to watch one LPisode, this is the one. It features a little of everything that makes this game good. Both the humorous and serious natures of the plot, a mini-game and puzzle, a couple boss battles, and we throw in a couple regular encounters for good measure.

Also featured: How to make poison a useful status effect.



EDIT:

Hey, Xisthruos, someone at the Mag got inspired to play this game while watching this LP (well, I sorta helped coax him), and he's provided some feedback:
http://www.rpgmmag.com/forums/viewto...122445#p122445

[Xisthruos]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep52 - Shattered Lives, part III

-I still think that must be the best damn bordello ever conceived. I want to go there.

-As I mentioned before, the constant re-use of the zombie graphic is problematic, which is an unfortunate byproduct of the zombie motif. The tedium of fighting battles is magnified greatly by this, despite the fact that there are some differences between the different zombies you fight, and that the game is well-balanced throughout. I should have kept the volume of battles the same, but found a way to add more a variety of monster types so that nearly every battle would feel a little different. There's a bit of variation already, but not enough.

-The random objects strewn about in the ice area are traps intended for the sequence after you finish the "capture the flag" game. From what I remember, I think the pink 'button' at the top is the only one you want to interact with. The switch must be pointing up, or else the flame trap won't work. You should never activate the boulder trap below. Used properly, you can actually get through all the assassins without a single battle. Your reward for getting through perfectly is a "Ribbon," which, (again, going from memory) I think is an accessory that makes you immune to all status effects. Aedana gives this to you. All that said, I doubt anyone's ever accomplished this.

-Interesting poison exploit. I actually hadn't thought of that, but it doesn't really break the game much. I'm curious if using the petrify ability would have made the battle too easy. (can't remember what it does in RPGM. Hopefully, it's not like an instant KO?)

-A few years ago, Robert Miguel did a one-man broadway rendition of 'The Spiteful Dead.' It consisted of him sitting on a stool onstage, delivering a long, moody, drawn-out monologue to himself while he was surrounded by silence and a screen of the deepest darkness you can imagine. For about 17 hours. Better than the musical version.

Edit:
Just saw your edit in the last post, Draygone. I was unaware of that topic's existence. I give you many thanks.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep52 - Shattered Lives, part III

-Interesting poison exploit. I actually hadn't thought of that, but it doesn't really break the game much. I'm curious if using the petrify ability would have made the battle too easy. (can't remember what it does in RPGM. Hopefully, it's not like an instant KO?)

It's an instant KO. However, it has a 50% success rate, at best. Poison and stat drainers are the only status attacks in RPGM with a 100% success rate. Assuming M DEF is either off or at 0.

I had tinkered with RPGM's M DEF stat in the past, and discovered the stuff I posted here:
http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/...ad.php?t=22457

EVERYONE!
I still need feedback on my LPing. I just recently tried joining a site made for LPs, and a common complaint was video length. I know one of you here did say something about it a couple weeks ago. I need to know what you guys think would be a better episode length to shoot for.

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. I'd really like to expand the audience beyond the RPG Maker community, and the best way to do that is to make it interesting enough that people will actually want to talk about what they're seeing. So let's go with that. What would I have to do to make you more interested in watching and commenting on these?

[Xisthruos]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep52 - Shattered Lives, part III

I'm kind of unfamiliar with how most LPs are structured, or how most people use them, but personally I have sometimes used them for reference. When I look at an LP or video for a commercial game, for example, I don't often watch the video to completion, and skip around until I've found the scene I was looking for. Normally I'm trying to find something in the game like animation, music, or gameplay--stuff that I wouldn't see in plain screenshots. When I look up videos for a game, it will usually be for a game I don't currently have access to, or a game I don't have the time to play through. Whether I pay attention to commentary or ignore it depends on how well the LP-er is informing me of what he's doing in-game, or if he has something interesting to say about the game he's playing. I might ignore him if he talks about something way off-topic.

I can see an issue with the length, like you mentioned, but you should mostly try to cut epsiodes to fit with the game you're covering--like how you cut Kirby's Adventure into seperate stages. For a long game, I guess you could try cutting hour-long episodes into 10-20 min pieces and find out if viewers could stomach that better.

I think the 'previously on' segments at the start of each episode are a great idea, especially for a long game with a complicated storyline, since they help summarize information the viewer might have skipped or not caught the first time.

Not sure how much it would help, but maybe you could do a quick review or summary of an entire game before you send out any LP videos. You could try to give as much info about the game as possible in 5-10 minutes without spoiling anything. Basically just telling viewers what the hell the game is and why they should care. I'm not sure if you haven't already done something like this, as I haven't looked at all your videos.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep52 - Shattered Lives, part III

For a long game, I guess you could try cutting hour-long episodes into 10-20 min pieces and find out if viewers could stomach that better.

Yup, doing that with the next episode. We'll see how well it works.

I think the 'previously on' segments at the start of each episode are a great idea, especially for a long game with a complicated storyline, since they help summarize information the viewer might have skipped or not caught the first time.

As you can imagine, though, that takes a whole lot of effort to make. If I had the time, I'd do that with every episode I could.

Not sure how much it would help, but maybe you could do a quick review or summary of an entire game before you send out any LP videos. You could try to give as much info about the game as possible in 5-10 minutes without spoiling anything. Basically just telling viewers what the hell the game is and why they should care. I'm not sure if you haven't already done something like this, as I haven't looked at all your videos.

Say, that's not a bad idea. I might consider that for the next LP. Of course, there's going to be a few games I might have to "handle", whose quality might be "open" to interpretation.


NOTICE: Due to technical difficulties and me having a lousy week (partly due to those technical difficulties), as well as the holidays coming up, Episode 11 of Let's Play "The Spiteful Dead" has been delayed until January.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep52 - Shattered Lives, part III

I'm thinking I'll resume airing the LP next week. I had hoped to wait until we had a front page, again, but I gotta get this finished so I can finally move on to the next game (best-case scenario, March). Not like this hasn't been not front-paged before.

Wonder if there'd be any point to making Main Forum posts regardless.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep52 - Shattered Lives, part III

Let's Play "The Spiteful Dead" Ep11 - Picking Up the Pieces

Benjamin has been taken away, Robert is seriously injured, and Alicia has collapsed. But thanks to a couple of friends, our heroes are able to recover.

Introduced in this episode: RPG Maker's trading system. Takes a bit of figuring out at first, but it is a welcome feature.

Also note that this episode has been split into four "mini-sodes". The idea is experimental, and in hopes that some folks might be more willing to watch and comment on these LPs if they weren't looking in the face of a single massive video. No need to watch it all in one sitting, and you have a few places where you can take a break if you need to. Does it work? Let me know what you think!

Here's Mini-Sode A, with the rest linked below it:


The Rest
[B] - [C] - [D]

[Xisthruos]

Re: Let's Play (With Draygone) Ep53 - Picking Up the Pieces

-that scene at the sewers is an example of me making "creative" use of the way art is laid out, with mixed results. It is assumed that Robert is in the blind spot between the floor and the wall closest to the player. There are numerous areas where I tended to leave scenes up to the player's interpretation, or chose not to show anything at all. Just think of the game as a low-budget radio show.

-Try as I might, I just can't hear that lawnmower you're talking about. It must be your inner lawnmower you're hearing.

-Nasagi has a peculiar ability to heal people suffering from mortal wounds, which I only hinted at in the game, and was intended to be important to the story in a sequel which was never made. I could have made Nasagi's healing ability into a gameplay mechanic (ie:, battle ability) but decided not to, as I felt Nasagi would consider this a personal part of herself that she would rather keep secret. I also decided not to since she's quite powerful to begin with. Somehow, I think things might have been more interesting if I experimented with this idea.

-All the extra information regarding the characters is interesting, however now I would prefer to keep this information someplace where the player wouldn't be required to sit through it.

-Alicia was a character I struggled giving a voice to. If there were more sequences like this where she took the lead, she might have developed a more distinct personality.

-You've only got the one character, and there's a chance she might not be equipped properly, so the battles are fairly easy. If I wanted to make the battles harder, I might have given the player access to some powerful equipment at some point.

Alicia's slightly akward monologue is related to another plot point I didn't develop, where the "end times plague" also destroys the reproductive system, causing human population to begin a slow decline. I don't feel like this particular scene was necessary, given how little this is explained.

-Instead of 'labyrinthic,' I should have said 'labyrinthine.' Then again, old man Max isn't known for his grasp over language.

-"That's a huge gun! I wouldn't have any idea how to use this... maybe Rob would know?" This is a hint that you can pick up a hidden weapon if you return here with Robert. Did you eventually get it?

-the "Decimator" is a multi-use attack item. There's a small chance it will break when you use it, but you can always return to the weapon shop and get another for free.

-"You've used the trade system in RPG Maker! Achievement unlocked!"