Fate Act I Release!

[deadlychicken22]

Ok, i just uploaded the latest version of my VNS game Fate to ED's archive, you can download it here:
http://www.gp32x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,26,940

It includes a few minor updates along with a totally new scene (scene 4). I had hoped to add a lot more to scene 4, but I just didn't have time to finish it and decided that this would be a good ending for the first act anyways. So, scene 4 is about as long as scene 1 (actually, its shorter ) but it adds quite a bit to the story (fills in half of the gap between scene 1 and 2, expect the second half to appear in act 2 if i ever finish it).

Please tell me what you think! (its always depressing when i only get a couple responses, i know its not as good as DrMD, but I'm trying my best )

Thanks,
-ben

 

[Alex.]

I'll definitely try it out and leave you feedback just as soon as I get out of my vicious cycle of school work

 

[Alpha2]

Cool I'll have to give it a try...hmmm... as soon as i figure out where I put my GP32....


...the hell?

 

[Hanz™]

Here have some feeback. I will tell you what it is like in a week or so, too much work!!! GAH!

 

[aapje89]

I'll try it tomorrow

 

[deadlychicken22]

PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK!!!!

this is worse than my last update, at least i got a couple responses from people who had actually tried it out...

i think i'm going to stop work on this, it doesn't look like anyone actually plays it

 

[EvilDragon]

Please wait a few days more - I definately want to try it and give you some feedback, I'm just currently busy sorting all the gp2x stuff out

I promise I'll try this weekend

 

[deadlychicken22]

Please wait a few days more - I definately want to try it and give you some feedback, I'm just currently busy sorting all the gp2x stuff out

I promise I'll try this weekend

​

ok, thank you

I don't mean to bitch, its just a little depressing.....

I hope virtualeech ports vns to the gp2x, but it doesn't look like he will (i've e-mailed and PMed him, no reply)

 

[Tobriand]

I'll try it at some point; it's a pity VNS doesn't look likely to come out for the 2x, since it's one of those nice languages that could be so good across systems.

Is the homepage down atm, idd? Can't get it to load.

 

[EvilDragon]

Okay, as promised, took my time to look at it.

I like the graphics. They have their very own style which is quite cool.

The story:
Well, all I know yet is that someone did shoot my mom and I stumbled into a cave where I found a monster.
Can't say if the story will be cool or not, but it's a good start.

The game:
I liked the beginning. I liked asking questions at the village (BTW: some one said "this is not yet implemented in the game", is that okay or did you miss that?).
I didn't like the cave, because I don't like running around a labyrinth where not much happens.

The fight with the monster (dodge and fight) is a pretty cool idea - however, too much in my opinion. I died five or six times, always had to start again running away from the monster... and then I gave up.
I was able to dodge three times and slash the monster, but I have no idea whether or not I hit it.
So: Idea pretty cool, but 2x dodging and slashing should be enough

Found some minor spelling errors (like "their" instead of "there", but that's not a major deal )

I was missing some music, as music can always add some atmosphere to games.
You might try some of the large MOD archives out there on the net to find some mods.
A lot of mods can be used freely as long as you give credits for them.

So, all in all:
Pretty good start, I do like the graphics, I don't like the dying (never liked adventures where you could die), though it's no major deal here as you start at the beginning of the chapter which isn't that bad.
I don't know much about the story - have you finished it yet? Or do you develop the story while writing the game?
Would be cool to know if it has some nice surprises or twists in the plot.

I hope I could be of help

 

[deadlychicken22]

Thanks ED! I was afraid everyone had forgotten about this with all of the gp2x stuff going on.

About the "this is not yet implemented" screens, I made those where I planned to have you be able to do something but never got around to it. I might get around to it sometime, but there's no guarantee. The game is playable without them, they would just make it seem more complete. I am also aware of the spelling mistakes, if you can tell me the scene number they're in (check it in the debug screen) then I will fix them, but otherwise I think that it is understandable even with the spelling errors and i'm too lazy to carefully replay it and then correct it everytime i find one, sorry.

About the story, i have a rough idea of what will happen, but I don't have any concrete plan written out, its all in my head.

I agree that I made the fight with the monster too long. It was actually LONGER when I first made it, but I shortened it because I knew it was too long. If I ever get around to working on this again, I will try to remember to shorten it some more. I don't have any music implemented because I'm terrible at picking out music and even if I did I wouldn't know where to get the music in the formats that VNS supports (they weren't formats I'd heard much about). If you could get some music for it that's in SEF or MOD format, I will put it into the game.

Thanks for the long response, its the best feedback I've gotten yet. I don't plan on working on this much anymore unless VNS is ported to the gp2x or I get around to learning c++ (and then I can rewrite it in c++). I e-mailed and PMed virtuaLeech but he hasn't responded, and it looks like hes left the scene.

 

[Tobriand]

What about porting it to nscript? Ok, it's a LOT more complex than VNS, but presumably you get beneficial extras from that extra layer of complexity... it's just a matter of learning another scripting language of course (but hopefully one that's fairly suited to e.g. just yanking a big block of text from one and dumping it in the other).

There's a fair few resources and links on the Narcissu English homepage to nScript resource pages...

 

[deadlychicken22]

What about porting it to nscript? Ok, it's a LOT more complex than VNS, but presumably you get beneficial extras from that extra layer of complexity... it's just a matter of learning another scripting language of course (but hopefully one that's fairly suited to e.g. just yanking a big block of text from one and dumping it in the other).

There's a fair few resources and links on the Narcissu English homepage to nScript resource pages...

​

If I get some free time from school and homework I think i'll look into that. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Alpha2]

I looked into Nscript hoping Waffle could be the replacement for VNS on the GP2x but the code looks ridiculously incomprehensible to me in comparison.

DC22, sorry to hear you're stopping work on your story, but I'd say you should definatly write it all in advance with space for branching points then you can go back after you've completed the path of it and enter the extra story for the branches...

From what I've played so far I'd say you're doing a good job, I havent tried the battle much yet so I honestly can't make any comments on it yet but my suggestion is to tell a story first because those "choose your destiny" scenes every few seconds can really sap your writting stamina and maybe even a little of the player's stamina too!

 

[deadlychicken22]

I looked into Nscript hoping Waffle could be the replacement for VNS on the GP2x but the code looks ridiculously incomprehensible to me in comparison.

DC22, sorry to hear you're stopping work on your story, but I'd say you should definatly write it all in advance with space for branching points then you can go back after you've completed the path of it and enter the extra story for the branches...

From what I've played so far I'd say you're doing a good job, I havent tried the battle much yet so I honestly can't make any comments on it yet but my suggestion is to tell a story first because those "choose your destiny" scenes every few seconds can really sap your writting stamina and maybe even a little of the player's stamina too!

​

Well, I know visual basic so as long as Nscript isn't more complicated than that I should be alright. That is, if I ever get time to learn it. I have to write a spanish diary entry and a speech tonight to be presented tomorrow. Tomorrow after school I am leading the middle school teach team until 4:45 or so, then I'm going to do some homework (write a spanish diary entry and math assignment) and eat. At 6:00 I have to go up to my church and control the sound board for the praise team practice until about 10:30 and then I just want to go to bed. I'm pretty busy, but i'll try to look at it over christmas break.

 

[Alpha2]

Ouch, good luck. You have a seriously busy schedual!

 

[deadlychicken22]

Well, just to keep you guys updated, i currently looking into creating a totally new visual novel using ONscripter. I have all of the tools I need to make a visual novel with it and am now using my spare time to try to learn it. There is a very good commands archive available, and between that and looking at narcissu's code I think I can figure it out.... I've figured out how to display text (yay!) and some other simple things but am having trouble creating a menu.... it would be nice if narcissu was commented in english because its difficult to understand what they're doing and all comments are in japenese (at least i think they are....). It is much more complicated than VNS, but that makes it much more fun! (that is, once you get off the ground with it....). Once I am confident with my coding skills (probably sometime this summer....) I will probably start a thread on these boards looking for artists, musicians, and writers (i'll be the coder ) to create a brand new visual novel specifically made for the gp2x (although it should run fine on anything ONscripter or Nscripter have been ported to).

To practice my skills with ONscripter I am considering remaking Fate in ONscripter, but i don't plan to complete anymore than I have in the VNS version because I would rather code and have someone else write the script and draw. I have a very creative mind, but I don't have good motor skills (basically, I can't draw) and while my writing isn't bad, it definitely isn't my strong subject (that would be math ).

Just thought i should give you guys an update,
-ben

EDIT: just noticed something interesting..... on http://www.insani.org/narcissu.html it says that the localization scripting was done by "Seung "gp32" Park"..... I signed up on the forums there and plan to ask if this is more than a coincidence after my registration is accepted (a mod must accept it before I can post, kinda sucks.....).

EDIT 2: changed some stuff above. If anyone is interested in writing a script or beginning some drawings now that would be great! Please post here if you are interested.

 

[Tobriand]

If you can give me a concept outline, I might take a look at attacking a script. But I doubt I'll actually succeed, so anyone else who might be interested feel free to do the same thing (seeing as I have a tendency to start such things then put them down, unfortunately).

Really cool to hear you're getting on with ONScripter - once you've got the hang of it, it might be sensible to release a couple of tutorials with the first chapter of whatever ends up being made simply because there's bound to be people who are daunted by its complexity but needn't be .

 

[deadlychicken22]

Well, i don't really have a concept outline I have a very rough idea for a virtual novel (look at my post on THIS thread.....) but i'm more worried about figuring out ONscripter first. I was hoping that someone else could come up with the concept and the script.....

And about ONscripter:
I really haven't gotten anywhere with it yet.... I have everything setup to make things for it but I'm finding it difficult to figure out.... it's not that it's that complicated of a coding system, it's just that I don't know where to start and the only tutorials available are all commented in japenese. I know how to display text, but for some reason it lumps all of the words togethor (ignores spaces). I hope to figure it out in the next week and a half as I don't have any school, but I won't promise anything. I think i'll PM evildragon and see if he could explain the basics to me, i'm pretty sure he knows more about it than I do as he is the one who modified the visual novels so that they are legible on the gp2x.

 

[Tobriand]

Ok, should be enough to get my creative juices flowing... next one more question: dark or whacky? I could quite conceivably come up with either a script that feels a bit like, say, Monkey Island (or at least, the encounters with Murray from it), or equally something really rather dark.

Or possibly metaphorical, but I'd have more trouble with that, I think. Being stuck between a rock and a hard place psychologically or something. That'd probably end up with a similar style to Narcissu itself, but might end up too similar, seeing as that'd be very hard to do.

Edit: Right, got a bit of writing done as a start. Here's the concept I've gone with for now. The result ought, with any luck, to be incredibly dark, but it needs some research, particularly into Chile under pinochet, who was said to maroon political oponents on rocks, according to my brother, as punishment:

"A man on a rock, slowly goes insane whilst recalling some of his past decisions. The rest of his family challenge him as the tide rises, and hypothermia slowly kills him as his visions become more and more fantastic."