Yeah, until now, I was using my tumblr account for that purpose, however the way it worked and basically lack of option to comment on stuff like normal human being used to, made me to create this very blog. This doesn't mean that I won't update my tumblr page thought (however I guess I'll be just posting small announcements considering new demos etc there). I just wanted to create a page where I could get eventual suggestions and opinions about game, which would be easily accessible and readable. Taking all this into account, you could consider this blog as somewhat "main page", or "home page" for the game I'm working on.
Now, a few words about blog alone. Besides main page where posts appear, there are few additional sub-pages. You may access them by clicking on the corresponing links below the logo on the top of the page. Also, in Download section you may download not only "Divinity Fatum" demo, but some other games as well.
Anyway, main reason why I'm writing this post is to announce updated demo (yay). This one pretty much covers first two acts of the game completely. There are no actual endings implemented and last entry of Sophia's Diary isn't written yet, but technically all events from second act are in the game already. Content so far should pretty much answer most of the questions that could arise while playing. Also, here's a list of changes made in the game, from last update:
- All events from second act added.
- Changed the way "Intuition" system works. Instead of bubble appearing on the top left corner, various numbers appear on screen, directing player where new available events are.
- Added some kind of title music.
- Changed the way title looks like.
- Changed SE for event when player interacts with Shadow walking around the city. It isn't so earf*cking anymore.
- Map can be found on street nr 1 now, instead of street nr 10.
- Made a little visual change on street 14.
- Temporary endings added. They don't look the way I wanted them to look yet, but for now they should at least tell player which ending is good (if you could call it that), which is bad and which leads to the 3rd act.
-Got rid of few typos that were reported to me.
Well, I guess these should be all the changes made so far (at least all that I can remember).
You can grab the newest demo in download section.
You can also check out screenshot section, to see screens from newly added places. Anyway, next thing for me to do would be probably coming up with script for the last act of the game. I kinda know what I want to do there, what kind of story it should tell etc etc, but it's still to vague. Also, I should seriously consider finishing these endings. I can already tell it's going to be a chore, but what must be done, must be done.
Finally, I'll compose updated walkthrough for the game soon, however I believe that the game is more straight-forward now and using such guide shouldn't be necessary (however further explanation of how map system works would be quite welcome, I believe).
And that'd be all for now, I believe. Cya.
Hello! I am a long time Divinity Fatum fan and I'm really excited to see a new demo out! I've always loved the game's story and atmosphere - maybe it's because I love grey, rainy scenes?
ReplyDeleteEither way, I've been playing the new demo and I wanted to offer some critique. I tried to give a few suggestions too, I hope you don't mind!
- The music is excellent as always, even though it has always been the same. Please don't get rid of the music you've used - it really gives the game that extra bit of atmosphere! I do wonder, though, did you compose the music yourself? Is it downloadable somewhere?
- The new Intuition System annoys me a little since it's hard to ignore. I'd rather explore and have hints in the form of e.g. the walking shadow or the red footsteps since those hints are sporadic and not constantly on the screen. I also don't like how he Intuition System takes me by the hand and doesn't encourage me to explore on my own. It feels more like someone is pulling me by the hand while playing rather than me being lost in an unfamiliar town. The system would be way nicer to have if the player could trigger it themself rather than having it in their face all the time. Maybe assign it to a button or put it as a menu option? It would also be great to have just one hint show at a time - make it random which hint you get if you decide to consult your intuition?
- If you're scared that the player misses the map room, why not relocate the starting position of the player character to a dead end and put the door between the starting point and the exit to the street? I remember reading about this problem once before and my guess is that this would be the most ideal solution.
- It's a bit of a hassle to open the Clues menu every time I want to look at the map. Is it possible to put it as a separate menu item altogether (in the same screen as "Clues", "Save" and "Exit") or to put it on a key press for quick access?
- The storybook's pictures are rather nice to look at, but I think they would work better if they faded towards the bottom with dark text on top of them rather than the prominent black window with white text that the game usually uses. Maybe use the paper colour with more or less 50% transparency or whatever looks good? The text would look nicer if it was dark brown like the lines or a dark grey (pure black is too stark, I think). This also erases the need for an extra key press after each story segment has had all dialogue, since the picture can be seen fully this way.
I've only reached End 1 so far... and I was dumb enough not to save my game while playing. I'll let you know if there's anything else that stands out to me after playing more!
Thank you for still working on DF, I can't wait until the game is completed!
Hm... you're right about that intuition system. I insist on having it there, because many people ragequitted the game as wandering simply drove them mad. I didn't like how it looked like before (bubble in top left corner) and I find this one less invasive and dunno... more suitable to the mood of the game. I've made a mistake though, that I got rid of difficulty option. As idea of leading player by hand is pretty common in games (even older ones, like first Silent Hill), I could've considered that some people enjoy wandering around cluelessly, simply sinking in the mood of the game, getting immersed in it. I'll try doing something with that. I'll also make these clues less visible (I thought they're transparent enough tho), however I personally think that having few clues appearing at the same time actually looks good - it kinda gives that feel of many thoughts scattered around, something like slowly growing insane, I guess. Anyway, this new Intuition system was kinda inspired by game "The Path", where you have many directions scattered around the screen and you simply chase them. Gives kinda different feeling to the game, but it's necessary to be in such form (that all clues available appear) to make it easier for people to actually progress in game without looking for hints on the internet.
DeleteAbout finding a map - I'm not really scared or anything. It is not an item necessary for player. I simply moved it nearer the starting position to make it more likely to get.
For calling up map without opening the menu - it may be kinda tricky to do, but it is possible. Actually I never thought about having some kind of hotkey for map. It's neat idea.
As for storybook, I see what you have in mind however I intentionally decided to make text look like it usually looks. The reason for it is that the story is read by game's Protagonist. I could've also add text on pictures alone, but it would mean that drawings alone would be smaller. You may think "it could still be read by Protagonist, with font color changed etc". However in this game, font color let's you distinguish characters, as every uses it's own color. I also wanted it to look like every other cutscene in the game, which is the reason why I didn't get rid of the dialogue box. To put it simply - storybook isn't an item that player examines, but item that get's examinated by Protagonist.
Either way, thanks for all ideas and stuff. You've spotted these few things, that I'll try to change to make the game more enjoyable. So once again, thanks for this critique/review :D. I always appreciate stuff like that.
Oh, and as for the music, I've been using music made by people from Newgrounds.com . You can check this portal's audio section and find a lot of awesome music :D. Eventually you can always find that peculiar audio files used in game in Audio folder.
Well, the thing that bothered me with the Intuition clues is that it rarely goes away and stays on the screen even when inside buildings and during events, which actually makes it harder to concentrate on what is going on and breaks the immersion I had build up weaken significantly. I get what you're going for with the whole chaotic look, but the problem is that it's obscuring the moment of now with text that keeps telling the player "hey, you should be in this street/following this clue right now!". I get that it resembles thoughts, but I don't think it works very well in it's current format. Maybe you could make the hints smaller and place them just above Protagonist's head? I also still stand by a way to switch the hint system on or off in-game (I'd prefer it in a menu rather than just a pre-game difficulty option, though implementing both would be nice), so it becomes more of a hint system that resembles Protagonist thinking about what to do actively rather than constant more passive thoughts that cloud the current events. Think about it this way: Would you think about where to go next while you are investigating a room you just found full of unfamiliar things? I personally wouldn't be thinking of where to go next in such a situation, at least not until I'm sure I won't be able to reach my goals there.
DeleteTo put it in perspective compared to other games: make the Intuition less Navi-like. (Right now it's like every thought bubble is a Hey! Listen!, even when you already know what you want to do and how to do this. But that's mainly since I can't turn it off and it persists through many things.)
The thing to do for the map would be to make an event (or piece of code in the menu) that checks for whether the map is in possession or not. If it is, allow e.g. showing the map by pressing the M key or one of Ace's default buttons that are usually unused (I don't mean actual keyboard keys! Run your game and press F1 - it'll have tabs on the RM buttons and what keys/gamepad buttons they are assigned to). If you use an RPG Maker encoded button for this, you can even do it using just events and without any RGSS code at all. After all, my guess is that the map item only makes pictures show? If that is done using a common event, just check for the key press using a conditional branch (no Else branch, only If), make another branch inside it (again - no Else) that checks for the map item to be in the player's possession. If you're going for a Menu option, I suggest you make a copy of the menu you want to alter and alter the copy for when the player has the map. Make the original menu show when the player doesn't have the map and make the other show when they do.
Also, the storybook bit makes sense. I wasn't aware that colour was this important during dialog! Still, have you considered putting a 50% transparent image and no windowskin? (Think of the normal Dim Background option for Show Message in RMVXAce, as an example.) It should still make it clear who is talking, but also shows off the pretty pictures better.
I hope you don't mind me shooting ideas, I just get really excited over games I like...
I'll also definitely check out Newgrounds for music! I really dig this type of music myself, so I'm hoping to find some gems... Now just to figure out how to get to the music part on Newgrounds!
Hm... making in-game switch for Intuition may be problematic, so I'll just make it a difficulty setting to made in the beginning of the game (easy for intuition mode on and normal for intuition off). I also considered making it turned off while undergoing events or entering rooms, but it looked kinda strange - dissapearing like that simply because player entered room. Making It appear above player's head... I think it would be even more invasive than it is now. However I'll make these numbers smaller and more transparent. Also idea of making character think about where to go sounds cool, however this intuition system is more like "feeling" where to go. That's what intuition is in my opinion and feelings like that accompany you without need to think about it.
DeleteFor map hotkey, I had an idea how to make it right after I post last reply XD. I'll just assign that to some unused button - not exactly M or Tab or whatever else. I mean, I'd prefer to using one of buttons used by program without additional scripts, to make the game also playable with joypad (which is how I test the game).
And I don't mind shooting ideas. Especially when these are pretty good (like yours, I mean). And once again thanks for support :D
I love you :)
ReplyDeleteGreat.
DeleteI would like to start by saying I love your game. The first time I played it, I was blown away by the messages it gave. It has even influenced me to be a psychologist. So, this might sound a little weird, but... can I write a fanfiction of this game? Granted, you probably don't even care, and with disclaimers I could just do it anyways, but it just feels better if I can get permission when I can, you know?
ReplyDeleteAnd (sorry, I didn't think of this until I posted) for the intuition problem, you could have the numbers appear at random times and in random locations in the physical city, like in windows or falling with the rain, but just be very small and appear briefly.
DeleteHeh, sure. I don't mind if you'd write a fanfiction of this game. I'd gladly read it afterwards. I'm also happy that this game somewhat inspired you in one way or another, and what is most important that it touched your soul, somewhat resonated inside you. That is nice.
DeleteAs for intuition system, this idea sounds pretty cool, but if anything, I'd prefer player to have directions shown to player all the time, or never (which is why I'll probably make an option to pick whenever player wants intuition system to be on, or not). Despite that, there are many different opinions about how invasive this new intuition system is. Some say that it's too visible, while other say that it's seen well enough and looks cool. It's just one of these problems that you can't solve to please everyone.