Cute Knight Kingdom (sim/RPG, Win/Mac/Linux, commercial)

[papillon]

It's finally done! I hope. With my luck it will catch fire and explode anyway.

You play a young girl with a mysterious past from the ages of 18 to 21, as she tries to figure out who she is and what she wants to do with her life.
Unlike the original game there are multiple locations to explore all around the "kingdom" of the title, and lots of characters to meet with their own storylines to solve. There are also a number of marriage possibilities, a bunch of magical spells to collect, and cooking/crafting recipes to learn.

Main webpage: http://www.hanakogames.com/ckk.shtml
Screenshots:
http://www.hanakogames.com/ckk_inv.jpg
http://www.hanakogames.com/ckk_fight.jpg
http://www.hanakogames.com/CKKworking.jpg
http://www.hanakogames.com/city_talking.jpg

Demo download: http://www.hanakogames.com/demos/CuteKn ... omDemo.exe or
http://s3.amazonaws.com/hanakodemos/Cut ... omDemo.exe (mirror)

The demo limits you to six months of gameplay and locks all the dungeons and endings. Hopefully without exploding.

[JinzouTamashii]

Your art... looks like it has come from six or eight different people without a standardized style or anyone using modelsheets...

[lunasspecto]

From the screenshots, I don't see any real inconsistency.

[papillon]

Oh, there is some in places. There are five artists including me - if I ever release a game done entirely by one artist, people will be shocked and think it's not my game! But for the most part I try to keep each bit in a particular area of the game so it's not much of an issue, to my eye.

There is only one place where the contrast bothers me, and I've been torn on whether I should get one of the other artists to redo it. JinzouTamashii, if you want to, PM me a guess of what the one spot in the game is where the art inconsistency bothers me. If you get it right I'll try to have it redone.

[p2oshandi]

Looks likes very interesting. Can't wait to play the game.

[MaiMai]

I tried out the demo, and I have to say, it's very fun! I like the concept of earning money. A bit confusing at first, but I got used to it

[JinzouTamashii]

The combat screen, mostly... and the character art wavers between realism and shoujo style and into hard-core anime territory and then the sprites look completely different...

[Guest]

Finally played the game. Yeah, it is really FUN!

[p2oshandi]

Finally played the game. Yeah, it is really FUN!

Sorry, I forgot to log in.

[DaFool]

Have you considered using a 3D engine, at least for an upcoming game (considering the "epic" war that's currently ongoing with Torque, Unity, and Unreal... mostly instigated by Torque, though started by Unity)

I know 3D is mighty hard, but it does reduce the number of 2D character and sprite art needed, as well as reduce file sizes (if the textures are smaller than the backgrounds). Not sure how in tune your target market is with the JRPG scene, but apparently even Gust has made the transition, so maybe their expectations might change as well, even for some diehard old school fans.

Of course, nothing beats the pride in an engine you made yourself.

[papillon]

I hate 3D.

Bad 3D is unthinkably horrible-looking, much worse to my eye than even completely amateurish 2D.

Good 3D tends to be highly expensive.

The casual market really isn't that keen on 3D in general. There are certainly exceptions, and using a small bit of 3d mixed in with 2d is often well-received - check out 'Wandering Willows' for a game that's doing it right. But casual game developers who've thought they could make a killing by pushing the 'move to 3d' have usually been painfully disappointed. Especially because casual gamers tend to have low-end computers and 3d brings more compatibility headaches.

There's a big surge in RPG maker games in the casual market at the moment. I'm not really that into them, but for those who are, the 2D thing is definitely seen as a positive. And they're making very good money.

I've occasionally thought of some game ideas that could really only be done in 3d. But business sense suggests I'd be throwing money down a well - even if I finally managed to get a result I was happy with, my customers probably wouldn't buy it.

I'm much more interested in integrating vector animation than 3D.

[Guest]

Fun game, I like the music too but.
Aaaaaargh! I can't stand the different art styles and those ugly sprites that don't even face to the right direction when talking. UGH!

[jack_norton]

I agree with hanako, at least for VN/adventures I prefer good hand-drawn 2d. The only 3d game I actually liked the art is Farenheit, but anyway doubt any indie can reach such art quality

[JinzouTamashii]

I agree with jack_norton, even down to Fahrenheit.

But I still like 3D-augmented 2D art (or postworked 3DCG, as it's known in the 3D communities.)

Most of you have seen it, liked it, and you might not even know it. Square Enix does it judiciously in their promo art...

[musical74]

Dang that is FUN!! It's very engaging, the characters are pretty fleshed out, the side quests are fun (at least I THINK they are side quests...) the music fits, the artwork is good...I only have a few minor issues, and I think one of those are a fluke...

Load times was the big issue, it's not bad at all, but it seemed to *freeze* for a minute before going on with the game. Minor quibble, but the character faces and the character srpites don't *match* (character has glasses in the sprite but those are nonexistent in the character face, for example) and thre odd glitch...once, when going to the seaside area, she went right off the page and was *invisible*...think that was a glitch (haven't been able to duplicate it) but was frustrating!

It's a very good game, love the whole thing (heck I lost track of time playing it...been a LONG timne since I have been able to say that!) =)