help me un-suck my game!

so i've seen that as of writing this post, my game, Final Dragon Legacy, has been downloaded 52 times. it has also been rated 3 times, with a crappy rating of 55. blah. i've gotten very little feedback for it so far (only once, from one person) and i'm not about to beg... although, this kinda counts, but SHHH!!!

anyway, i'm creating this thread as sort of a journal for it's development. i'll be taking all questions, comments, and suggestions with much consideration, and also might add teasers for upcoming features and hints (how can you test all the scripts if you can't even find them?).

plans for next update:
~customized alchemy system, like i originally planned. check bookcases for recipes.
~warp spell gained after saving princess "lora".
~kayak also gained after saving princess "lora".
~pirate's cove sidequest dungeon. find, explore, get rich!!
~possibly rewrite some text boxes. the game still doesn't make much sense.

that's all for now, i think.

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?

I'll download and play the game, and let you know what I think needs improving.

Really? Are you, the creator, admitting that the game doesn't make sense to you, the creator?
If this is true, then you've got a simple (but not necessarily easy) goal to fulfill - redo the framework of your game and story so that it makes sense to you.

here's the thing: i started it as a test game for scripts and graphics, so it had no real story. when i decided to take it more seriously as a project, i half-arsed the story to get more ground covered. now i have a game with a lot of gameplay, but no real explanation as to WHY you're doing it. well, it mostly makes sense, enough to play it, but it's not spectacular. blah. plus, i'm STILL not even sure how the game is going to play out. i have somewhat of an idea, but i kinda make it up as i go along. i'm going to have to rewrite the dialouge. like, all of it, so the player knows what the heck is going on. i'm just so lazy, though.

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?

Ah, that reminds me of my first game.
Here's my advice. If you're having trouble coming up with new material for an existing game, you might want to try starting from the beginning and working with a new setting and a new plot.
If you're short on resources (especially graphics), you could still have this new game take place in your first game's world, it could even feature the same characters. The point is that you'd end up starting with a clean slate, with complete creative control over your story.

but, that was the entire point of THIS game. in fact, it was going to be a prequel to my original project. i guess i got lost somewhere along the way?

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?

I think this speaks for itself. Let me adjust my suggestion:
It seems you've already taken to heart the experience you earned while brainstorming your first game. The one before Final Dragon Legacy, whatever it is. Reflect on your plan for your story, revise its weak points, and give your game a solid foundation. I've always believed that story is the very backbone of the RPG genre, and almost everything in the game itself is derived from what occurs in the plot.

The Planning section of this article may be of help - the rest of it is worth a read, too. Beware, though, it's quite long.

OMG that's a beast of an article. i'll look through it later, probably. thanks.

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?

Agreed with Baconlabs about starting over, and personally I would start totally from scratch. If your first game was successful it might have been worth reusing what you had, but since it has issues that even you came out and admitted, it isn't serving you to keep trying to polish something that is inherently broken. Every time you make a new game (in theory) it should be a technical improvement at any rate.

The real key is design, and making sure everything's ready far in advance... Chapter 2 of my current project has been in planning for several months and I'm just now starting to think about working on it in the editor. Personally I think Rinku's article has a lot of misinformation, but it's not a bad place to start reading. Just remember that theory isn't everything and actually making games will teach you more than reading about the process can.

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My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com

thanks for the input, but no thanks. i refuse to start another game over. and it's not that the first game was better, it's that i didn't know anything about plotscripting, so i made a new game (this one) to play around with scripts. i eventually got so far into it that i just decided to keep going with it and make it a game of it's own, meanwhile still learning everything i need to know about plotscripting.

besides, i think that everything that i do (game making or otherwise) is horrible. heck, i could have been the creator of final fantasy 7, or created the first PC in general, and STILL thought they were useless pieces of dung. the point of this thread was to get opinions about the game from other people who are unbiased against myself. like they say, you are you're own worst critic.

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?

thanks. that'd be a big help, especially with balancing. it's hard to adjust the difficulty of a game when you know how to beat it and get everything. a friend of mine can't even beat the first boss, although he's new to RPG's in general, and therefore sucks at them right now.

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?

I've played it a little this week, and I think the battles need to be slowed down a bit, at least in the first section. It's kind of hard to figure out what's going on in battle since things are happening so quick.

Maybe you should turn on the bitset that pauses battle submenus.

I gave you some really good suggestions on how to fix up the game but you seemed to really just ignore or refuse most of them outright.

If you aren't going to listen to good advice makes me wonder why you're asking for it.

And JSH:Restarting the thing or making another game won't change much if he hasn't learned anything.

i have those bitsets off because they would interfere with the Battlemode option in the options menu (which, by the way, seems to be overlooked by everyone, even though it makes the game easier to play, so i may make someone or something bring this to the player's attention in the beginning of the game). it's just like the ATB option in final fantasy games, almost like a dificulty setting. also, you can't tell, but the hero friedrich is equipped with boots that greatly increase his speed. i agree it's very fast, but the end-game characters are also stronger and faster than the player would be at the end of the game (about 10 levels higher, to be exact).

this is probably something i won't change for that reason, as the actual heros are balanced better, and slower and weaker. however, if you still think that it's too fast and confusing when you get to the actual quest with the real heros, i will definitely consider changing this. the beginning is meant to be easy as pie, and speed is always a huge factor in dealing damage, at least in final fantasy-like games.

anyway, i certainly appreciate the feedback. i'll keep the speed factor in mind for now. i hope you'll continue to play and comment back on what you think.

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?

i actually did change the speed in the beginning of the game because you said so (valigarmander is speaking about the "prologue" part of the game, which didn't exist when you played it). i increased the minimum speed by 3 points for the heros, and decreased the monsters speed depending on the monster.

also, the scrolling text was taken out because, again, you suggested against it, and now it's completely player controlled throughout the game. i was just going to adjust the speed at which it scrolled, which was my original plan anyway, but now i don't think it's neccesary for it to scroll at all.

i did refuse to remove the slimes and drackys. but, i started to add more original monsters (original in the sense that they aren't based entirely off of monsters in DQ games) and i have plans and designs for even more monsters of my own creation as well.

so don't worry shizuma, i didn't snub you. i'm taking every suggestion seriously, and i am thankful for your feedback.

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Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy... So here's some lunchmeat... Sandwich, maybe?