Hey. I've been a huge fan of you for a while, as your tutorials have been my guiding grace in pursuing my own passion project. They have helped me so much in areas where I would've otherwise struggled, and your videos helped me understand how to code efficiently and logically. So I feel like I'm already VERY indebted to you!
However, I do want to leave some constructive criticisms regarding the game. Now, mind you, I've only played for a handful of minutes, and I chose the 'full version' so I haven't really gotten to the meat'n'potatoes of the actual gameplay. But as someone who's making a very story-driven game, I wanted to leave my thoughts on the first few minutes of the game anyway, specifically on its tone, the characters, and the world.
In short, I think the dialogue and NPCs are not so great. My main criticism is that, I think these characters seem to lack a real flair, a sauce, a spice, life, a real wackiness to them.. they don't feel real, they don't feel genuine, these 'jokes', or 'humorous little stories' they find themselves in aren't very funny.. and because of that, the world itself does not feel real. It feels plastic and fake, like nothing is actually happening in it.
Mind you, I LOVE undertale. I think the npcs are great and the game is very funny. There's also a lot of funny meta jokes, like "warning: dog marriage!" "yes, you read that correctly"
But I'm not even telling you to be funny, my main criticism is that the characters themselves feel like they're lacking any soul. They feel fake.
Some of the jokes don't even sound like you yourself believe in them as you tell them. It's boring!
I see Tonic, this little floating pumpkin guy, and I wonder.. why the heck should I care? What is Tonic even *about*? What is his *idea* of a character, anyway? He's this little guy who's got a tone of voice that's only slightly offset from the author's own that's carried by every single other NPC. Compare him to say, Sans from Undertale. When you think of Sans, you get a VERY clear idea of what he is from the first moment you meet him. He appears menacing, threatening at first.. makes you shake his hand, only to reveal he's just played a big prank. And in the first few lines of dialogue he ever has, and as we hear his character theme for the first time, we can just immediately tell who this guy is and what he's all about. The idea of sans is that he's a very laid back jokester who's too chill to use upper case letters.
You can tell from the get-go what he is, not because Toby was being deliberate, but because he had a clear soul and vision in mind for the character, and so that vision and soul pours through every line he says.
Even random NPC's are like this. A bit after you meet Sans, there's a shop-keep bunny lady in Snowdin. Her lines, too, carry a bit of soul with them, and she almost feels like a real person.
But even eccentric, wacky characters like Papyrus feel real in a sense too. He has motivations and insecurities that drive him.
If you make characters that are eccentric without being 'fake', if you genuinely BELIEVE in them as you dream of them, then you'll likely easily stumble into the humor as you do so, like, the funny things that character might do.
Lastly, the Underground itself in Undertale was clearly imagined by Toby as a kind of real place with a lot of people actually living in it. There are many details that explain this.
So my solution would be: if you haven't already, start imagining your world as if it were a real, living, breathing place, and write the NPC's as people who are a part of it, rather than letting all of them just have one tone of voice.
But putting my personal opinion aside, even if I did enjoy the characters, my other complaint is that the game just drops you into this world and lets you interact with these NPC's without giving you any reason to care about this world or the story, which made me dislike the dialogue even more.
Although I can tell that the story kicks up pretty soon after. But that's just what my reaction was.
Also, I don't like the character portrait of the bar-lady. She scares me...
I do think if the NPC's were actually filled with life, then maybe the intrigue of the world itself would be all that's necessary.
With all that being said, thank you for reading all this! I hate to be a negative nancy, but the only reason why I don't talk about any positives in this review is because I haven't seriously given the game a chance yet. But I will say, the world itself is very pretty and some of the character designs are really cool. My favorite so far is the triangle vaporwave-thing that sits next to the movie theatre that says it only likes watching movies for the music.
Eventually, I'm going to boot it up again in demo mode, and still check out the gameplay which I'm still excited for, considering what I've seen looks really good, and considering what other reviewers have said.
please in the love of god, finish this game, i don't want to die without playing the full version of this game please, give us updates anything please i am following you on every platform just please inform us of what's new
Hey, I just looked in the demo and I really enjoyed it so far. The looks, the gameplay, the humor and the sound. Everything's fitting so good together. Would love to play it on my switch some day.
Is this project still ongoing? Because as I understand, you mainly focus on Starcade at the moment?
PS: Thank you for your YT tutorials. They've been very helpful.
I just finished your first tutorial on youtube and very pleased with it. Allthough you did a tiny timeskip there at the end code and that confused me a bit xD BUT very happy with your tutorials and I have 6 more to go! I did try to join the discord but maybe that doesnt exist anymore?
Sadly I am unable to play this (I'm on a mac), but I've watched many playthroughs, and enjoyed each and every run of it. The music is amazing, the pixel art and sprites are awesome, and the story is interesting, I can't wait to see this game finished, and wish you the best in completing it.
I got stuck at the second level of the waterfall, but I'm enjoying it so far. The pixel art is very pleasant (and I say that as someone who's not too fond of pastel), the animation is nice and smooth and I love the fighting mechanics! Yup, that's looking real good.
It's a cool and atmospheric game, but it's very hard-sciencey, very different in mood from what I see here. (Your game looks great, mind you. Just different. Infocom Starcross is kind of obscure these days anyway.)
I definitely want to try it out, I love really heavy sci-fi stuff. Also, if that's more your thing, the full Rose of Starcross game might be a little bit more to your tastes than the demo!
I enjoy playing your game and it's super cool, but I have a problem. I can't use magic in the overworld, I tried pressing W and E on the dark spot and I just can't. Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks for answering! I feel like a fool asking this, but how do I use the pause menu if I'm using the keyboard controls? I tried using W and E and it didn't appear. (sorry for my bad english)
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Hey. I've been a huge fan of you for a while, as your tutorials have been my guiding grace in pursuing my own passion project. They have helped me so much in areas where I would've otherwise struggled, and your videos helped me understand how to code efficiently and logically. So I feel like I'm already VERY indebted to you!
However, I do want to leave some constructive criticisms regarding the game. Now, mind you, I've only played for a handful of minutes, and I chose the 'full version' so I haven't really gotten to the meat'n'potatoes of the actual gameplay. But as someone who's making a very story-driven game, I wanted to leave my thoughts on the first few minutes of the game anyway, specifically on its tone, the characters, and the world.
In short, I think the dialogue and NPCs are not so great. My main criticism is that, I think these characters seem to lack a real flair, a sauce, a spice, life, a real wackiness to them.. they don't feel real, they don't feel genuine, these 'jokes', or 'humorous little stories' they find themselves in aren't very funny.. and because of that, the world itself does not feel real. It feels plastic and fake, like nothing is actually happening in it.
Mind you, I LOVE undertale. I think the npcs are great and the game is very funny. There's also a lot of funny meta jokes, like "warning: dog marriage!" "yes, you read that correctly"
But I'm not even telling you to be funny, my main criticism is that the characters themselves feel like they're lacking any soul. They feel fake.
Some of the jokes don't even sound like you yourself believe in them as you tell them. It's boring!
I see Tonic, this little floating pumpkin guy, and I wonder.. why the heck should I care? What is Tonic even *about*? What is his *idea* of a character, anyway? He's this little guy who's got a tone of voice that's only slightly offset from the author's own that's carried by every single other NPC. Compare him to say, Sans from Undertale. When you think of Sans, you get a VERY clear idea of what he is from the first moment you meet him. He appears menacing, threatening at first.. makes you shake his hand, only to reveal he's just played a big prank. And in the first few lines of dialogue he ever has, and as we hear his character theme for the first time, we can just immediately tell who this guy is and what he's all about. The idea of sans is that he's a very laid back jokester who's too chill to use upper case letters.
You can tell from the get-go what he is, not because Toby was being deliberate, but because he had a clear soul and vision in mind for the character, and so that vision and soul pours through every line he says.
Even random NPC's are like this. A bit after you meet Sans, there's a shop-keep bunny lady in Snowdin. Her lines, too, carry a bit of soul with them, and she almost feels like a real person.
But even eccentric, wacky characters like Papyrus feel real in a sense too. He has motivations and insecurities that drive him.
If you make characters that are eccentric without being 'fake', if you genuinely BELIEVE in them as you dream of them, then you'll likely easily stumble into the humor as you do so, like, the funny things that character might do.
Lastly, the Underground itself in Undertale was clearly imagined by Toby as a kind of real place with a lot of people actually living in it. There are many details that explain this.
So my solution would be: if you haven't already, start imagining your world as if it were a real, living, breathing place, and write the NPC's as people who are a part of it, rather than letting all of them just have one tone of voice.
But putting my personal opinion aside, even if I did enjoy the characters, my other complaint is that the game just drops you into this world and lets you interact with these NPC's without giving you any reason to care about this world or the story, which made me dislike the dialogue even more.
Although I can tell that the story kicks up pretty soon after. But that's just what my reaction was.
Also, I don't like the character portrait of the bar-lady. She scares me...
I do think if the NPC's were actually filled with life, then maybe the intrigue of the world itself would be all that's necessary.
With all that being said, thank you for reading all this! I hate to be a negative nancy, but the only reason why I don't talk about any positives in this review is because I haven't seriously given the game a chance yet. But I will say, the world itself is very pretty and some of the character designs are really cool. My favorite so far is the triangle vaporwave-thing that sits next to the movie theatre that says it only likes watching movies for the music.
Eventually, I'm going to boot it up again in demo mode, and still check out the gameplay which I'm still excited for, considering what I've seen looks really good, and considering what other reviewers have said.
got this error by spamming my whole ahh keyboard
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Alarm Event for alarm 1
for object obj_grid_magic_menu:
Unable to find any instance for object index '85' name 'obj_pause_menu'
at gml_Object_obj_grid_magic_menu_Alarm_1
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_grid_magic_menu_Alarm_1 (line -1)
please in the love of god, finish this game, i don't want to die without playing the full version of this game please, give us updates anything please i am following you on every platform just please inform us of what's new
amazing
The window size is either too big or too small :(
Hey, I just looked in the demo and I really enjoyed it so far. The looks, the gameplay, the humor and the sound. Everything's fitting so good together. Would love to play it on my switch some day.
Is this project still ongoing? Because as I understand, you mainly focus on Starcade at the moment?
PS: Thank you for your YT tutorials. They've been very helpful.
Nice to see someone else besides me had the idea of incorporating Punch-Out!! mechanics into an RPG, and you make it work great!
Really great game but it lags like crazy when the window size is anything larger than pixel-to-pixel resolution (1x window size). Please fix this!
I also want to play it but my PC is protecting it as if it were some sort of virus
your game hurts my PC. please make it not an application
this happens with most exes you will download, just click "more info" followed by "run anyway". the game doesn't hurt you pc, windows is just dumb
thanks
sorry I couldn't respond quicker
can you make it for mac also your rad
I love this demo!! <33
I follow you on youtube since a few days already and watch your tutorials
: ) that's how i found this game, but sadly i can't play it because it's only for windows and not mac : (
This game lags very much on my pc..
Can someone help me?
I wanna play this game because it looks so good!
I just finished your first tutorial on youtube and very pleased with it. Allthough you did a tiny timeskip there at the end code and that confused me a bit xD BUT very happy with your tutorials and I have 6 more to go! I did try to join the discord but maybe that doesnt exist anymore?
This game is cool! Your tutorials on GMS2 inspired me to check this out! I'm actually working on a video on this game.
Oh that's so cool, thanks!
Gostaria de saber se o jogo esta em portugues Brasil
Sadly I am unable to play this (I'm on a mac), but I've watched many playthroughs, and enjoyed each and every run of it. The music is amazing, the pixel art and sprites are awesome, and the story is interesting, I can't wait to see this game finished, and wish you the best in completing it.
Thank you so much!!
I got stuck at the second level of the waterfall, but I'm enjoying it so far. The pixel art is very pleasant (and I say that as someone who's not too fond of pastel), the animation is nice and smooth and I love the fighting mechanics! Yup, that's looking real good.
Thank you very much!
I really loved it, the graphics and colors and battles are amazing, i cant wait for the full version!
Thank you so much!
Important question: is this related to the classic Infocom text adventure game Starcross? If it is I would be very happy.
Unrelated! I'd actually never heard about it until about a month ago!
It's a cool and atmospheric game, but it's very hard-sciencey, very different in mood from what I see here. (Your game looks great, mind you. Just different. Infocom Starcross is kind of obscure these days anyway.)
I definitely want to try it out, I love really heavy sci-fi stuff. Also, if that's more your thing, the full Rose of Starcross game might be a little bit more to your tastes than the demo!
I am excited for the full game! Backed the Kickstarter, so now the hard part is waiting. :P
Keep up the great work! <3
Thank you! I will!
Hello!
Your game was amazing! I really enjoyed it. It kinda reminded me of undertale.
I havent finished the game yet and i only have the demo, because i cant afford the real game (I will definetly buy when i have enough money!)
The story is awesome so far. And im really looking forward to ports to other consoles (If you can do that)
I cant wait to see how the full game turns out.
Also its very great artwork too, good job on that!
I heavenly recommend people that like story games, or undertale check out this game!
Thank you!! The full game isn't out yet but it'll be coming out on Switch and PS4 too when it does!
I enjoy playing your game and it's super cool, but I have a problem. I can't use magic in the overworld, I tried pressing W and E on the dark spot and I just can't. Am I doing something wrong?
Hi there! Did you equip the magic in the pause menu?
Thanks for answering! I feel like a fool asking this, but how do I use the pause menu if I'm using the keyboard controls? I tried using W and E and it didn't appear. (sorry for my bad english)
No problem! It's the Enter key! There's a schematic when you load up the game, give it a good look over!
It worked! Thank you for answering again, I appreciate your help. I'll look at the schematic more carefully from now on ;)
I enjoyed my time with this game. I had mixed feelings at first but after some thought I am looking forward to the full release!