Castle Paradox

[msw188]

Well, it took me about six years or so, but I've finally completed my first OHR game. Some of you might remember it starting out as Hero's Journey back when, but it has been retitled as "Tales of the New World I", since the world it takes place in is called the New World, and I believe that I may begin working on a second game in the same world (I haven't decided if it will take place before or after this one, probably I will eventually do both). The game does start out kind of slow, I'll admit, but I really believe that it gets better as it goes along, and there ends up being quite a bit to do. I'm going to copy the game 'attractions' here:

* - 12 main heroes, and places where they must all be used via multiple parties
* - First third of the game plays similarly to Dragon Warrior IV (each of the first five parts of the game involve different characters trying to accomplish different things)
* - A coliseum where combatants battle one-on-one for prizes
* - A fully functional casino including slot machines and poker
* - All original graphics (done entirely within the OHR, with the exception of the title screen done with a text box in mspaint)
* - All original music (except for the town theme, which is an ear rendition of "A Whiter Shade of Pale", by Procol Harum)

As far as I can tell it is bug free (not counting OHR bugs, most of which shouldn't have much impact, if any), but if any problems are found I would be much obliged to a reporter. And as always, I beg for a review, or at least some comments after a few hours of gameplay.

I will put the link to the game in my signature as quickly as I can after posting this.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Bob the Hamster]

For those of us who keep signatures disabled: http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

Looks interesting...

[Blue Pixel]

well i no i have no right to pass judgement due to the bad qualitiy of most of my games, but unless i missed some kinda joke, you could have done better. i do like the graphics for the trees. i have also experianced a large number of glitches, mostly death scripts. you might wanna check that.
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[msw188]

What sort of glitches? The way it should happen is that any time you die you are returned to the last place you saved with your heroes revived but at half strength. All of the things you have done should be remembered (thus your experience, treasures, etc is kept) but you should have half of your GP lost. Can you explain what goes wrong, and where you die?

What part of the game displeases you? The game was originally an attempt at making Dragon Warrior V (back when I was in high school, and it didn't look like they were going to release the game in America, which they never did). Over time it evolved to become sort of a tribute to my favorite RPGs (thus the inclusion of moogles early on, the Mirror of Ra, the blue pyramid Bis Nalarn, most of the skill sets given to the heroes, etc), and finally more of an original game. But the game's originality grew out of this tribute feel, and I chose to leave be a great number of the details, so that the end result should feel like a new game comprised of familiar particulars.

That said, if there was any part of the game that I would scrap and redo, it would probably be Part 1. And I would not be ashamed to say that my graphics only range from okay to bad, with a couple of good ones achieved seemingly by luck (like the trees).
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Blue Pixel]

well frist off most of your peaple are umm... star shaped...

as you can see here the walk about graphics should have there arms by there sides as well as feet. there foot should be cut by half on on leg then switch to the other to create a walking effect. also eyes should be more than 1 pixle. 2 usually does the job but 4 can also get the job done.
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[TwinHamster]

Well, um...not everyone wears pajamas around. There's nothing wrong with the design of your character sprites, it's just that the animation is a little lacking. Just as much as people don't swing their right arms as their right foot is taking a step *Kaff* *Dude* *Kaff*, they don't walk with their hands in front of them. If you want to follow Teh_Dude's advice to make the oh-so-sought-for FF-modeled sprite, then go for it. But I think it would be much better to just polish your own style.
Those smilies could also use a little work, though.
This game looks very promising, and I'll be sure to check it out. Eventually.

[edit: Good Lord! Everything (excluding the title screen) was drawn with the OHR's Paint Tool? I honestly don't understand why, or how you guys can manage to create everything with a keyboard. I commend you on your effort.]

[Blue Pixel]

umm... thanks? i think? not sure. stull hes right its probably best to come up with your own style. just make sure it works.
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[msw188]

If graphics are the main source of concern here, all I can say is that I am not a visual artist. I make everything in the OHR graphics editor because I find it fairly easy to maneuver, and I very much doubt I could make anything better with more options at my command.

As an aside here to the_dude, I don't think you should be so rigid in your measurements. What is visually pleasing may vary slightly between different people. Making sprites look realistic is a means, but not really an end. Otherwise it would be difficult to justify your two-pixel eyes in many cases.

Anyway, besides all of that, I do want to thank everyone for the comments. I am still very interested in what death glitches are being encountered. I consider myself a decent scripter, but I've certainly made mistakes before and it is not easy to try to playtest every possible dying situation.

The smilies are sort of an in-joke for me, as they were the very first things I drew when I first downloaded the OHR. Then I figured, 'well, they're not supposed to be visually resemble anything real, so...' and then I never changed them. There are some variations of them later in the game (actually, just palette swaps).

What do you mean by pajamas? That would be pretty funny if it looked that way, but I'm really not seeing it. Maybe just my clothing design...?
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Blue Pixel]

they do look like pajamas due to the fact that the torso and the legging are the same color but it dosnt seem like anything that cant be edited simply. all and all its a faily good game with solid gameplay.
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[Me]

Aside from the graphics, it's pretty solid. Could use more variance in the battle themes - hearing the same one over and over and over again (and the fact that you only hear a bit of it, since normal battles don't last that long) gets tiresome. Write a couple of variations - change the instrumentation, change the scale used, etc.

The graphics are, however, quite bad. Really the only sticking point. The red floor tiles in particular.
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UP DOWN UP DOWN LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT A B START

[msw188]

Alright, I can see the pajama thing now. Ha ha. Colin is the only hero who is so singularly colored, I'm pretty sure. When I made these sprites, I sort of envisioned singular color portaying singular head-to-foot armor, but that obviously didn't come off too well.

I remember when I released the first demo of this back in 2002 or so (I really can't remember when it was), the main graphical complaint was about the red floor tiles. I changed them a bit since then, but really I can't see what the problem is. They never bother me.

The battle theme is pretty short, there's only one tricky bit right before the repeat that might catch the ear. Any comments on the other songs? These were mostly done in notate.exe back in the BAM days, and then ported over to MIDI. Once I had them there, I tried to touch them up a bit and even added some new parts, like the string part that comes in during the outside map. I wish the OHR had a function to remember where in a song you were; I have the feeling that plenty of people go through the game without ever hearing this 'bridge', so to speak.

In any case, thanks again to so many people replying here. I really hope that some of you get to some of the further parts of the game, where the various bits of story begin to be tied together. There are some other gameplay aspects that come in later as well, including heroes who have practically no regular attack (introduced in Part 5; when Iblis reviewed my game a while ago, he seemed to find this a high point), puzzle-oriented dungeons, and a war where the Hero's company splits up and various parties must do their part to bring the war to its conclusion.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Rinku]

Six years and the graphics are um like that? I would have spared a month or two out of those years to read a few pixel tutorials and tried to rework the graphics so that they aren't so jarring to the eyes. Even basic things like anti-aliasing or making the tiles more saturated than the sprites would take only a few hours and would help a lot.

Still, it's good to see long complete games being released still. I'll check it out.
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Tower Defense Game

[beau_rl]

I am enjoying the game! I am only in the first dungeon though.

[TwinHamster]

[Blue Pixel]

o lol those were suppose to be robes.... meh.
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