The amount of work you have put in this project over the last month is amazing! Keep doing what you do. Here comes some (hopefully constructive and useful) feedback!
So, first of all I really love the menu - especially the fact, that you decided to use pixel sprites for items. Nothing better that a bit of retro feeling, and I hope to see more! (Maybe for some battle actions, like ability icons?). Altough, it could really use some background. Second of all, the dialogues look really good. The fact that you can see everyone's faces is a very nice touch that indeed does reveal many possibilities to tell a story. Also, I would want to see how interacting with doodads (like doors or markings on the walls) would look like!
However, I'm afraid that stat system might me... A little to simplified. Of course, there were waaaay too many statistics in MARDEK, to the point that you kept on discovering new ones 5 years after completing the game for the first time (like it was with me). However, "mind and body" system that you came up with can be too simple for its own good. The way I personally see it is that it can limit your options for exciting upgrades that player could possibly find along the way. Altough the idea of items providing you with skills is the one that I endorse, I believe that essences can be made a little bit more interesting. I dunno, maybe you could 1-3 "sub-stats" to make them vary more. Or if you don't want to add more stats, you could give those essences some individual quirks. For example, an essence from Courage-Type Sorcerer Monster could grant its wielder, apart from basic mind bonus, additional damage for Courage-Type spells they cast? Maybe it could even deplete body per round, which could make it a risky but also more interesting. Then it could be combined with another essence which regenerates health! Thats just my proposition, though.
When it comes to the field I'm amazed when it comes to how good this looks. When it comes to camera angle, I would say that the ortographic mode looks the best. It just looks more fitting in my opinion. On the other hand, all-surrounding void is still a little bit off-putting. I don't know what are you able to do about it with your current tools, so I will restrain myself from giving any suggestions (although I believe just placing additional, "filler chunks" on the edges would be easier in ortographic mode. Damn! I couldn't restrain myself after all!) Finally, I would like to highlight that dividing all towns and other zones into different areas is immersive enough! Not only it would not cause such issues with optimalisation, but also give you more freedom to add more zones in future chapters, that lore-wise would be next to already existing zones. Also, showing the entire contintent as it really is could make it feel a little bit small.
Okay, thats all from me! I will say it again, but I'm really amazed and passionate about your work. I wish you luck on your development journey.
1
Tobias 1102~4Y
Thanks for your feedback!
I'm planning to have a blurry version of the field behind the menu, like in MARDEK and the Breath of the Wild screenshot here, so that should address the 'needs a background' thing.
I understand your concerns about the simplicity of this system, and if it doesn't play well, I'll definitely try to add more complexity if appropriate. Personally I like simplicity and find overly complex systems irritating - as I've talked about in previous posts - so in my eyes, the simpler, the better. But I don't intend it to be so simple that it's inane and there are no interesting decisions to make. My main aim is just to remove unnecessary clutter so as to streamline things and make them more appealing. Why have two different stats when one will do?
Comparing just the look of the screenshots of other games I included here, do you prefer the Baldur's Gate 2 one, with all its complexity, or the Breath of the Wild one, which is simple without being overly simple? Everything's subjective and we're not all going to like the same things, but personally I consider the Breath of the Wild approach (or compare Skyrim to Morrowind) a huge improvement because it streamlines a lot of things. I'm not drawn to fiddly complex systems at all and tend to just feel frustrated when I play games that use them, like they're obstacles I have to unpleasantly endure if I want to stick with the story until the end.
I am interested in feedback about the mechanics though since I feel like other people care more about that stuff than I do! I think we need to get to the point where there's something to play with before finding out whether it's fun or not, though; it's so hard to judge when just imagining it in the abstract.
So, first of all I really love the menu - especially the fact, that you decided to use pixel sprites for items. Nothing better that a bit of retro feeling, and I hope to see more! (Maybe for some battle actions, like ability icons?). Altough, it could really use some background. Second of all, the dialogues look really good. The fact that you can see everyone's faces is a very nice touch that indeed does reveal many possibilities to tell a story. Also, I would want to see how interacting with doodads (like doors or markings on the walls) would look like!
However, I'm afraid that stat system might me... A little to simplified. Of course, there were waaaay too many statistics in MARDEK, to the point that you kept on discovering new ones 5 years after completing the game for the first time (like it was with me). However, "mind and body" system that you came up with can be too simple for its own good. The way I personally see it is that it can limit your options for exciting upgrades that player could possibly find along the way. Altough the idea of items providing you with skills is the one that I endorse, I believe that essences can be made a little bit more interesting. I dunno, maybe you could 1-3 "sub-stats" to make them vary more. Or if you don't want to add more stats, you could give those essences some individual quirks. For example, an essence from Courage-Type Sorcerer Monster could grant its wielder, apart from basic mind bonus, additional damage for Courage-Type spells they cast? Maybe it could even deplete body per round, which could make it a risky but also more interesting. Then it could be combined with another essence which regenerates health! Thats just my proposition, though.
When it comes to the field I'm amazed when it comes to how good this looks. When it comes to camera angle, I would say that the ortographic mode looks the best. It just looks more fitting in my opinion. On the other hand, all-surrounding void is still a little bit off-putting. I don't know what are you able to do about it with your current tools, so I will restrain myself from giving any suggestions (although I believe just placing additional, "filler chunks" on the edges would be easier in ortographic mode. Damn! I couldn't restrain myself after all!) Finally, I would like to highlight that dividing all towns and other zones into different areas is immersive enough! Not only it would not cause such issues with optimalisation, but also give you more freedom to add more zones in future chapters, that lore-wise would be next to already existing zones. Also, showing the entire contintent as it really is could make it feel a little bit small.
Okay, thats all from me! I will say it again, but I'm really amazed and passionate about your work. I wish you luck on your development journey.
I'm planning to have a blurry version of the field behind the menu, like in MARDEK and the Breath of the Wild screenshot here, so that should address the 'needs a background' thing.
I understand your concerns about the simplicity of this system, and if it doesn't play well, I'll definitely try to add more complexity if appropriate. Personally I like simplicity and find overly complex systems irritating - as I've talked about in previous posts - so in my eyes, the simpler, the better. But I don't intend it to be so simple that it's inane and there are no interesting decisions to make. My main aim is just to remove unnecessary clutter so as to streamline things and make them more appealing. Why have two different stats when one will do?
Comparing just the look of the screenshots of other games I included here, do you prefer the Baldur's Gate 2 one, with all its complexity, or the Breath of the Wild one, which is simple without being overly simple? Everything's subjective and we're not all going to like the same things, but personally I consider the Breath of the Wild approach (or compare Skyrim to Morrowind) a huge improvement because it streamlines a lot of things. I'm not drawn to fiddly complex systems at all and tend to just feel frustrated when I play games that use them, like they're obstacles I have to unpleasantly endure if I want to stick with the story until the end.
I am interested in feedback about the mechanics though since I feel like other people care more about that stuff than I do! I think we need to get to the point where there's something to play with before finding out whether it's fun or not, though; it's so hard to judge when just imagining it in the abstract.