Castle Paradox

[satyrisci]

Download the demo here: http://www.castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=820

The game is set in NZ, where I live. It draws on maori folklore, noir, horror (especially Ramsey Cambell, CA Smith), survival horror games. It has a "kiwi" feel to it.

The graphics are all original and mostly drawn in the OHR, touched up in photoshop. The exception being backdrops, which are drawn from some photographs & paintings and loads of texture editing in Photoshop.

Emphasis will be on exploration, descriptive text and I have been working hard on having interactive conversations with different choices affecting how characters will react with you.

Demo is now uploaded, I'd like to know what people think of it. What works? What doesn't? What could I improve?

-Peace

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[satyrisci]

I put a lot of effort into this, no one is interested?
I would very much welcome some critique, I have decided that I will mostly redo the intro, especially the embarassing driving sequence..

I aim to have this as a mix of a survival horror and a roguelike (minus the random mapping).

[Moogle1]

You'll be pleased to know this is being discussed as a subject for a review in the next Hamsterspeak.

Then again, maybe you don't want to wait that long.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[satyrisci]

Oh, cheers. I was just hoping for a bit more criticism so that I can address such areas. So be it!

[Ysoft_Entertainment]

Well what can I say, the tiles look nice, the walkabouts are ok. The music is kinda good, the intro music is very annoying as it has a weird beep until it changes to a different song. I suspect its due to the bug with midi though. What ohrrpgce version are you using?

The portraits are how should I say, not to my taste, but they are good for this type of game I suppose. The backdrops are really well done though so keep it up.

I should mention that I don't like horror titles, but its just me though. Don't let it stop you.

One more thing that I found to be confusing is the choice selection, what do those symbols mean? Perhaps it would good idea to do some in-game explanation of their meaning.

On the portraits, perhaps it would be best if you draw the portraits from scratch instead of taking them from photos. From the impression I get from the backgrounds and tilesets, you are a good artist, so try to do some original portraits.

Edit: I took a look at the enemy graphics and what can I say, they need more work. The one I found to be interesting is the rat-scorpion chimera, the rest are not that good.
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[Artimus Bena]

Hey, the screens look pretty good. I like the trees a lot. When I have some more time today I'll give it a shot. Play my eldardeen demo, we'll compare notes.
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[satyrisci]

Cheers for the advice. What was it about the enemies you didn't like? There were only some police officers and Satyrisci based on the walkabouts, they are indeed meant to look small so that I can have some -really- big bosses. I'm trying to stay away from an anime-ish look, mostly inspired by cannon fodder/cdogs style sprites.

The chimera type beastie I actually made about 6 years ago for a different game, just touched it up for this one.

As for portraits, yea I am a bit dubious about using photos. They're more like placeholders for now. I might scrap the whole intro and just do it with textboxes and backgrounds. The title music works fine for me, I'm using hasta la qb+.

The symbols in conversation were meant to represent order(friendly) and chaotic(direct) conversation choices. I should have clarified, I'll most likely change them to actual dialogue choices to avoid confusion.

[TwinHamster]

The graphics look quite well done;however, the trees, shrubs, and car in the final screenshot look oddly out of place.

They look like they were made in photoshop and then imported straight into the OHR. To fix this up, you may want to clean up the thick outlines, and turn that Dark Red+Murky Yellow combo into actual shades of brown.
The car's problem is that it's perspective is out of whack. Every other tile is shown from a bird's eye view, which would make the car seem like its lying on its side.

Other than that, this looks like a game that I might want to eventually play.

[satyrisci]

Thanks for the comments, the car was done in photoshop... but the plants I scratchdrew (with the exception of one of the trees) in the OHR.
I wish someone would release hasta-la-qb with layering, just in the meantime It would make things alot easier
I think I will attempt to redraw the car using the OHR editor because it seems some of the graphics aren't consistent, ie my scratchdrawn graphics vs photoshopped. I'll take these comments to heart and do something about them tonight.

Some progress however: I've devised and drawn some fiendish creatures which are looking rather cool, am currently setting up attacks and routines for them. I'll post some screenies when I get home from my animation class.

A few more things I'd like to know: What should I cut from the intro? I feel it's a bit "busy", and I would rather reveal the plot more gradually, to build suspense. The car sequence will need to be redone, I like the dashboard interior I made but the animation looks godawful. Any suggestions?
I'm also trying to keep this a single hero game with NPCs providing support occasionally, and I'll use tags to determine whether an ally has perished post-battle.
Also, exploding barrels and falling objects in battle, plus a cannon

Thanks again for the comments.

[beau_rl]

I had fun playing this. It had original style too. Does the demo end when you leave the house? I couldn' enter any forest.

[satyrisci]

Yes, it ends when you leave the house. The forest is in development, I'm doing something a little different with random encounters.
I'm glad you had fun playing, any other comments?

[satyrisci]

If this game is indeed getting a write up for the next hamsterspeak, could the individual in question send me a PM? I have a newer version that I would prefer to be reviewed.

Thanks.

[Moogle1]

The reviewer is Aethereal, who doesn't really show up on these boards much. I can let him know, though.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[satyrisci]

Cheers

[Aethereal]

Oh, hey, my account does still work.

E-mail it to aethereall@gmail.com.
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