Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

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sendo
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Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#1 Post by sendo »

Diamond Rose is a short fantasy RPG developed for the NaNoRenO game jam.

STORY
The story follows Van, a promising young craftsman. Fueled only by his passion for crafting, he left his hometown and set out to make it big in the bustling city of Azalea.

He soon realized that passion alone was not enough to survive in the big city. Without fame to his name, no decent customer looked at his wares. Without a decent workshop, he was treated as a common merchant. A month passed and he became just another in the long line of failures.

This all changed when he met a swordswoman who gave him the chance to turn his life around.


FEATURES
  • RPG Battle System
  • Crafting
  • Exploration
TEAM
  • Sendo - Art and Programming
  • Zetsubou - Writer (also the writer and creator of another NaNoRenO 2016 entry: Wander No More)
  • Special thanks Sam and Abet!
MISCELLANY
  • Aria was originally named Aira, but Zetsubou kept calling her Aria and it grew on me and ended up using it.
  • A lot of the planned gameplay elements were dropped to meet the deadline (weapon upgrades, limited dungeon inventory, experience points, character map sprite, shop and trading, money system, bestiary and more). Even then, we still missed the deadline lol.
  • Hundreds of bugs were born and killed during development.
LIST OF KNOWN BUGS
  • Character Side Images (the dialogue image when they speak) are cut off or disappear when rolling back (using PageUp/Down or MouseScroll) and continuing.
  • CTC not working in fullscreen
​CHANGELOG(v1.1/5-8-2016)
  • Added Story Mode. Not a fan of RPGs? Play in this mode!
  • Reworked Casual Mode: Players deal 2x damage, have permanent +20 speed bonus, and 100% monster loot drop rate. Breeze through the game in this mode!
  • Added Run command. Escape battles!
  • Added Scrollbars to the Status Screen; no more screen overflow!
  • Added Skill Descriptions in battle
  • Added Status Effect icons
  • Increased 'Fine String' and 'Premium String' drop rate; it's now very easy to get them.
  • Removed unused assets and compressed images, reducing the overall filesize by around 20 MB
  • And various small fixes and improvements
QUESTIONS
  1. What aspect(s) of the game do you feel can be improved?
  2. Do you have any feedback on the gameplay? Was it too hard, too easy, uninteresting?
  3. Would you be interested in a follow-up game featuring a larger cast and more gameplay (and possibly romance?)
Feedback, critique and bug reports are all welcome and appreciated. When reporting bugs, please make sure they're not listed in the KNOWN BUGS list above. Thanks and we hope you enjoyed the game!
Last edited by sendo on Sun May 08, 2016 1:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#2 Post by MimirollCookie »

This looks really cool!
I'll download ASAP!
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#3 Post by Amy_oai »

First, congrats on the release! :D
Downloaded and played this as soon as I saw the announcement on Twitter.

I really enjoyed this game and the RPG and exploration system are just amazing!

What aspect(s) of the game do you feel can be improved?
I feel the characters were great, but the story was just a little bit lacking. I understand with nano there isn't much time at all, but yeah, it felt more like a prologue to some amazing RPG and I wanted to play more, y'know? xD

Do you have any feedback on the gameplay? Was it too hard, too easy, uninteresting?
It was fairly easy to play, it was just a matter of saving up the right materials for the best equipment. The end boss was pretty easy to defeat, especially with the equipment and skills that could be used. I did really like the battle system though.

Would you be interested in a follow-up game featuring a larger cast and more gameplay (and possibly romance?)

Absolutely! Sign me up! Would play! Yessir!
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#4 Post by sendo »

MimirollCookie - Thank you!

Amy_oai
Amy_oai wrote:I feel the characters were great, but the story was just a little bit lacking. I understand with nano there isn't much time at all, but yeah, it felt more like a prologue to some amazing RPG and I wanted to play more, y'know? xD
I'm glad you like the characters. I think Zetsubou really did a great job making the characters come to life.

It is a prologue by design. As you've said, this is pretty much the extent of what we could do in a tight deadline. However, Diamond Rose is my labor of love and I have big plans for it! This is definitely not the end, in fact I've already started planning for the sequel(see my avatar)! I'll leave it at that before my excitement gets the better of me. I'll make a post/announcement sometime in the next few weeks :D
Amy_oai wrote:It was fairly easy to play, it was just a matter of saving up the right materials for the best equipment. The end boss was pretty easy to defeat, especially with the equipment and skills that could be used. I did really like the battle system though.
This is very good feedback, thanks! The idea was that if you didn't have the best equipment you'd stand no chance against the final boss. I do agree that we may have made it a little easy if you did have the best gears though. We'll definitely take a better approach on balancing difficulty. On a separate note, some people complained about my nano game last year being too hard, so I guess I was predisposed to make this game easier hehe.
Amy_oai wrote:Absolutely! Sign me up! Would play! Yessir!
Thank you. I am really happy to hear that!



Thanks to everyone who checked out the game and played so far!
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#5 Post by MimirollCookie »

What aspect(s) of the game do you feel can be improved?
-Um.... The battle system is pretty laggy. And the movement is laggy too.
Do you have any feedback on the gameplay? Was it too hard, too easy, uninteresting?
- It was a fun experience. But the boss (On the left side of the forest) was too hard. :? I'm still on that part. xD
Would you be interested in a follow-up game featuring a larger cast and more gameplay (and possibly romance?)
- Ooh! Yes please! (Please consider romance. :3)

My comment:
I had a fun experience! This is the first time I played RPGs for NaNo. :D
Maya's so pretty! (Hence the personality)
BTW, why did Van had an outburst at Maya? :3
The GUI looks so professional!

It felt like I was playing a HD game that is commercial! (But thank God it's free! :D)
Good job sendo! :D
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#6 Post by sendo »

MimirollCookie wrote:-Um.... The battle system is pretty laggy. And the movement is laggy too.
Understood. This is probably because of the resolution of the game and the amount of art assets shown on the screen at the same time, so it's possible that if you have a slower machine or modest RAM it may become too laggy. Try playing in fullscreen if it helps. Nonetheless, this is an issue I definitely need to address.
MimirollCookie wrote:- It was a fun experience. But the boss (On the left side of the forest) was too hard. I'm still on that part. xD
Don't forget to pack up healing items, or craft a tunic if it's still giving you trouble.
also if you haven't noticed yet, items you can pick in the map are respawned when you go back to the city
MimirollCookie wrote:- Ooh! Yes please! (Please consider romance. :3)
Happy to hear that. (And yes, it's something I'll strive to add ;))
MimirollCookie wrote:BTW, why did Van had an outburst at Maya? :3
Put it simply, Van is desperate ;)
MimirollCookie wrote:The GUI looks so professional!

It felt like I was playing a HD game that is commercial! (But thank God it's free! )
Good job sendo!
Such high praise, thank you very much! I tore my hair out making the GUI, so it's nice to hear you find it good ^-^
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#7 Post by MimirollCookie »

sendo wrote:
MimirollCookie wrote:-Um.... The battle system is pretty laggy. And the movement is laggy too.
Understood. This is probably because of the resolution of the game and the amount of art assets shown on the screen at the same time, so it's possible that if you have a slower machine or modest RAM it may become too laggy. Try playing in fullscreen if it helps. Nonetheless, this is an issue I definitely need to address.
MimirollCookie wrote:- It was a fun experience. But the boss (On the left side of the forest) was too hard. I'm still on that part. xD
Don't forget to pack up healing items, or craft a tunic if it's still giving you trouble.
also if you haven't noticed yet, items you can pick in the map are respawned when you go back to the city
MimirollCookie wrote:- Ooh! Yes please! (Please consider romance. :3)
Happy to hear that. (And yes, it's something I'll strive to add ;))
MimirollCookie wrote:BTW, why did Van had an outburst at Maya? :3
Put it simply, Van is desperate ;)
MimirollCookie wrote:The GUI looks so professional!

It felt like I was playing a HD game that is commercial! (But thank God it's free! )
Good job sendo!
Such high praise, thank you very much! I tore my hair out making the GUI, so it's nice to hear you find it good ^-^
Of course. You pour your heart into it. X)
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#8 Post by Alte »

1. What aspect(s) of the game do you feel can be improved?
An indication of how long the status effects last in battle.

2. Do you have any feedback on the gameplay? Was it too hard, too easy, uninteresting?
It was a bit of a grind fest for collecting 4 Fine Strings. After playing through the end, I think it's balanced.
The first time, I chose Normal Mode and got mauled after a few battles. I'm not aware that Van didn't equip with anything. ^^;

3. Would you be interested in a follow-up game featuring a larger cast and more gameplay (and possibly romance?)
Can't say. : D

Feedback, critique and bug reports are all welcome and appreciated. We hope you enjoyed the game!
- The subtitle texts from introduction & ending was neat, it shows how the creator/artist are proud of their works without anything to hide. (imo)
- I'm surprised that characters are not equipped from the start.
- Graphics are wonderful including the intricate interface.

Bug Reports
- Certain background music doesn't loop during conversation scenes.
- CTC on dialogue not from a character wasn't shown.
- CTC icon stutter on the first outburst.
- Character portrait seems to cut off if the previous text goes forward.
- Character portrait seems to disappear if the previous text goes forward.
- Victory bgm clashes with the overworld bgm.
- Healing items nearly exceeds the graphical limit.
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#9 Post by sendo »

Alte wrote:An indication of how long the status effects last in battle.
Noted. My plan is to have status effect icons over the afflicted battlers. Or maybe a listing of how many turns the status effect will last in the skill selection screen.
Alte wrote:It was a bit of a grind fest for collecting 4 Fine Strings. After playing through the end, I think it's balanced.
The first time, I chose Normal Mode and got mauled after a few battles. I'm not aware that Van didn't equip with anything. ^^;
This is my fault. Apparently, I dropped the loot drop rate values too hard ><. Will rebalance, thanks. Also, I was under the impression that players would check out the various menus when the game starts, but I agree I should have made a notification for that - especially since the Weapons tab is the 3rd tab. It's very easy to miss!
Alte wrote:Can't say. : D
Eeeeh, why not? :o

Thank you for the bug reports, some of them (items exceeding inventory GUI are known bugs, I couldn't make the viewport work with variable items so I simply just dropped it haha I know bad practice). The side images cutting off and disappearing is also a known bug, but again no time fix everything. I use Renpy 6.99.10's new side image transform feature for the side images and I think it may have something to do with that, I didn't have enough time to look into it though. I'll make a proper bug report to PyTom if it turns out that's the case.

I hope you enjoyed playing! :3

--------------

Also an announcement, I'll push an update out on the weekend which will fix some bugs and introduce the Story Mode - basically skip the whole RPG part. It's for people who simply want to read the story. I've heard from some people that they couldn't finish the game because they simply weren't into RPGs and I understand that. Please look forward to it! :)
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#10 Post by MimirollCookie »

I saw your announcement. Yehey! I already want to play the Story Mode. :D
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#11 Post by sendo »

Took a while because of big life changes in the past few weeks. But I'm very pleased to present to you Version 1.1(https://sendo.itch.io/diamond-rose)! Here's the changelog:
  • Added Story Mode. Not a fan of RPGs? Play in this mode!
  • Reworked Casual Mode: Players deal 2x damage, have permanent +20 speed bonus, and 100% monster loot drop rate. Breeze through the game in this mode!
  • Added Run command. Escape battles!
  • Added Scrollbars to the Status Screen; no more screen overflow!
  • Added Skill Descriptions in battle
  • Added Status Effect icons
  • Increased 'Fine String' and 'Premium String' drop rate; it's now very easy to get them.
  • Removed unused assets and compressed images, reducing the overall filesize by around 20 MB
  • And various small fixes and improvements
Important! Save files from version 1.0 are incompatible with this version due to internal changes. However, the game will save in a different location so the old save files won't be affected.


This will probably the final version for Diamond Rose, unless something big breaks. The reason is production for the sequel will start very soon. I've learned a lot by making this game, and I'd like to put all that experience on making a bigger and better sequel. I'm pretty excited to lose myself in its world once again :D

Thanks a lot for all the support so far!
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#12 Post by Alte »

3. Would you be interested in a follow-up game featuring a larger cast and more gameplay (and possibly romance?)
Of course I'm interested in playing the expanded storyline and gameplay. : D
There are not many genuine RPGs made in Ren'Py. The story sort of captured of what I enjoy in games, speaking of subtle twists.
-
My apologies for repeating bugs that are known. Once I started listing, I might end up forgetting..
I did the same with the developers of the previous community although it won't happen again.
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#13 Post by sendo »

Alte wrote:Of course I'm interested in playing the expanded storyline and gameplay. : D
There are not many genuine RPGs made in Ren'Py. The story sort of captured of what I enjoy in games, speaking of subtle twists.
I'm very happy to hear that! :D Our team will definitely do the best we can to deliver a great sequel!
Alte wrote:My apologies for repeating bugs that are known. Once I started listing, I might end up forgetting..
I did the same with the developers of the previous community although it won't happen again.
Not a problem at all! I think I didn't actually list the Known Bugs at first (I only kept it on my notes). Don't worry about it :)

---
Oh also, someone made a guide for the game! So if you're having problems beating the game, check it out! I uploaded it onto itch.io as always.
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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#14 Post by Zelan »

Aaaaaaah I really like this game! :D I went into it not entirely certain what to expect outside of an RPG. Figured I'd go with Normal Mode because, hey, it's summer break, I've got time to kill now. And holy eff I loved it.

A couple people have said that the final boss was easy, but I actually thought that it was pretty much perfect in terms of difficulty - it forced me to use skills and items wisely (especially Aria's skills - she didn't do an awful lot of damage when attacking but her skills were invaluable). I actually had lost Van and Aria and was pretty close to losing Maya as well - but, since there wasn't a health bar, I was surprised when all of a sudden Maya's final hit took the boss down. ^_^

Also sequel? Yes please. Can you reveal whether Van will still be the main character in the sequel? I've grown fond of him, but at the same time I would be interested in seeing other perspectives as well.

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Re: Diamond Rose [Kinetic][RPG][Fantasy][NaNoRenO2016]

#15 Post by sendo »

Thanks for your comment Zelan. I'm glad you enjoyed the game ^_^

Van will still be the primary protagonist and point-of-view but I'm definitely toying with a few side quests where you take on another character's perspective.

A small update for the interested, there's not a whole lot to show in terms of art because the story is under heavy development. But speaking of progress, the overall plot has gone over a lot of changes, but I have written a pretty decent outline (and entertaining, if I may say so myself) for the first several scenes! Hopefully, I can commission Zetsubou this month so he can start working his magic on the script :D

For my part, I've made progress with the gameplay aspect. The crafting for example has improved a lot with new features (weapon upgrades, weapon type bonuses/penalties, natural ore properties). I've also added a progression system in the form of Level/Experience and tiered, unlockable skills. I also implemented a simple rock-paper-scissor system (Slash, Crush, Pierce in my case) to promote more strategies in battle, and it also ties-in well with the crafting system.

Item management in particular will play a bigger role in the game. I've decided to re-introduce a dungeon-backpack, that is, you'll have a limited amount of items you can carry when you go to a dungeon/quest. It's a feature I had to cut out from this game, but I see it as a nice way to add depth when dungeoning. For example, should you pick those crafting materials to craft a better weapon/armor? Or should you pack up healing items instead so you can survive the dungeon?

Nothing is set in stone though, right now I'm just adding gameplay elements that I personally enjoy and which connect well with the game's backdrop, but I expect things to change a lot as we go forward.

But let me back up a little bit here because I'm getting carried away haha. I'll go more in-depth on all of these once we finalize a few key story elements and have enough assets to put up a WIP. That will be on July, hopefully, because that's when I'll have a lot of time to work on the game (or anything really ;_;) Hope you guys will keep an eye out for that!
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