Dagger's video game - Division Blade

[Dagger Dias]

So I've mentioned in many threads that I've been developing my own RPG video game, called "Division Blade". The time is here, I am giving all of you the opportunity to play a free version of it. The full version has not been released yet, as it is receiving some final touch ups. Want to check out the free version? Post in this thread or send me a message. I'll need your email, as I am distributing it via email. I'm waiting until the final official release to post it at file sharing sites.

[YOUTUBE]Gf62r0Vsy3c[/YOUTUBE]

12 main playable characters (32 in the full version)
Over 1,000 maps to explore
Hundreds of monsters that you can fight
90 hours of playable material


I spent 3+ years on the programming and over 10 years writing the story. The game is done and is in the beta testing phase. At first I only had people here in my town testing it. Today that changed. There is a free version of it called "Division Blade RED". It has some limitations (you cannot play on any difficulty but normal, you cannot play as the secret characters, you cannot use stat boosting items, and you cannot buy the ultimate weapons) but there is a plus side to this free version despite its limitations.... It has a special soundtrack taken from games that inspired me such as Final Fantasy and Zelda. The full version will not have the special soundtrack (obviously) but it will not have the limitations either.





Also, for those who didn't already know.... I handpicked a dozen of my buddies from our forum to participate in a secret tribute to our forum within the game. They are in an optional room that isn't too hard to find and if you talk to them they will each level up one of the 12 main heroes:


DAVE
Dave levels up Dagger the swordsman.


LEE
Lee levels up Clinic the mechanic.


DOC
Doc levels up Marsh the sorceror.


IC
IC levels up Kay the arbiter.


D-MAN
D-Man levels up Fay the anticlone.


NORCAL
NorCal levels up Roy the warrior.


BECCA
Becca levels up Lara the blade maiden.


JWGUNSLINGER
JWGunslinger levels up Gunslinger the ranger.


NOTORIOUS718
Notorious levels up Roger the monk.


THEO
Theo levels up Zero the ninja summoner.


STINGER
Stinger levels up Rosa the healer.


LSN80
LSN levels up Trish the amazon.


Now here's the room they are in.

Next to the equipment in the top left corner is NorCal, Lee is on the bottom by the book, above Lee is Kay (a playable character), above Kay is Doc, to the right of Doc is Dave, D-Man's in the upper right corner, and IC is in the bottom right corner.

Theo is by the wine bottle, Stinger is at the desk, Becca is in the top left corner, JWGunslinger and Notorious are next to the piano (left of it and right of it respectively) and LSN is by the candle.

Anyways, so if you want a copy then post in this thread and/or message me what your email is so I can send you one. This thread can also be used as a discussion about the game if you guys want to discuss it as you play.

 

[The Crock]

That looks pretty cool, man.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

+Points for using the greatest score in video game history.

 

[The Doctor]

I'll PM you my email.

 

[Dave]

One thing I should warn people about it not to unzip this to your desktop. Simply because it unpacks everything as seperate files and my CPU is having a hard time coming to terms with hundreds of new icons on my Desktop. Maybe you should look into that Dagger.

 

[The Holy One]

I got some free time to spare. I'll send you a PM.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

By the way, I repped you with my e-mail address.

 

[GenMe]

Damn I'm glad that you're done with your game man, It looks awesome.

 

[ScreaminNormanSmiley]

The graphics are terrible.

 

[Dagger Dias]

One thing I should warn people about it not to unzip this to your desktop. Simply because it unpacks everything as seperate files and my CPU is having a hard time coming to terms with hundreds of new icons on my Desktop. Maybe you should look into that Dagger.

Noted. I edited the instructions to tell people to NOT unzip it to the desktop. There's over a thousand files in there. Each of the maps, graphics, songs, etc has its own file in the zipped file.

The graphics are terrible.

There's more to games than graphics. The best software I could find for free was RPG Maker 2003. I'm aware that this is playstation 1 quality, but the oldschool look doesn't bother me one bit and even for those that it does bother, this is a beta. The ultimate goal is to get it remade someday for Wii/360/PS3 with modernized graphics and music.

 

[ThUnDeRpHoEnIx]

Sweet as.Looks pretty cool.I'll rep you with my email.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

Alright, I have a bunch of rough notes:

-Having to choose the menu color right at the beginning, when you're choosing the character, and stuff like that, is unnecessary. That should be left for the settings menu when the game actually starts. Having to choose the colors to see what they look like, only to have it explain to you in detail why you should hurry the fuck up and pick a color, just seems unnecessary. That part should be for the essentials, the character, the nickname, etc.

-"Dubbel" slash? Is that intentional? Why is it "Dubbel" Slash when it should just be "Double" Slash?

-Good and Evil are represented by Red and Black, two colors traditionally attributed to evil. Not really an issue, but lol anyway.

-This game SCREAMS for a morality choice system, but I guess that's not possible with RPG maker.

-In all of the districts, there are way too many NPCs walking around outside, doing absolutely nothing, in circles. NPCs should look like they have a purpose for being there, and there shouldn't be like 30 of them hanging out outside. For the kind of player looking for actual information about the game, talking to every single one of them can get tedious.

-The city is described as the biggest city in the continent, but all the districts I've seen are just large patches of grass and bushes, with three randomly placed buildings, no foot paths, and nothing else that would make them aesthetically pleasing, all surrounded by colored bricks. That's silly.

-"Most animals can not talk. I am unable to communicate with you unless you can read minds. These are thought bubbles." -- I guess I CAN read minds.

-Unless the numbers in this game get unmanagably huge, or if the leveling system is painfully slow (and it's not, I gained two levels in two fights), characters are WAY too strong right in the beginning.

-So I'm in a building, and all three floors are visible right off the bat. So how come, when I take the stairs to another floor, a screen transition comes up? That's annoying.

-The story of the Division Blade was told to the player before any of the characters even knew what was going on. The mystery of the hooded character right by the movie theater had vanished, so the player was left knowing the next move, while the character was completely confused.

-So Lara comes into the bar, saying a monster had mutated outside. So I go outside, and... no monster. Is that the end of the beta?

I'm going to play again to get some more specific notes roughed out.

 

[The Doctor]

Played up to the first save point, which I only found out of trial-and-error. You should definitely make them more obvious, or better yet make it so you can save anywhere, if that's possible.

Also, Windowed Mode would be great.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Doc, i'm pretty sure you can just -w it

 

[Dave]

Another thing I noticed, is that you get to rename your character whatever you like in the beginning but the characters in the game persist in calling you Dagger from then on...

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

"Please make up your mind. You cannot play "Division Blade" without a main character. That's not how this game works. Just pick one. It's not that hard"

The completely nameless narrator really shouldn't be being a dick to the player...

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

By the way, I figured out what to do. You're supposed to talk to a tree...

 

[Dagger Dias]

Another thing I noticed, is that you get to rename your character whatever you like in the beginning but the characters in the game persist in calling you Dagger from then on...

The game states an explanation on nicknames, they are just nicknames. They show up in the menu and battle, but that's it. They still say Dagger in the talking scenes. Say if someone wanted to name Dagger "Sh*t" just to be funny. The talking scenes can't be full of people saying "Sh*t" due to it being Dagger's new name. Thus they only appear in battle or the menu. It's a system similar to nicknames in real life, where in many cases the person is still called by their first name. The renaming was originally not going to be in there at all, I threw it in for those who want to rename. It's also possible after the intro ends to rename again if you get sick of the name you gave someone.

-------------------------

Played up to the first save point, which I only found out of trial-and-error. You should definitely make them more obvious, or better yet make it so you can save anywhere, if that's possible.

Also, Windowed Mode would be great.

The save points are currently a blue dog who appears in several locations. I could change it to where her graphic animates to be shiny or change colors or other things like that to make save points stand out more. As for windowed mode, haven't figured that out yet.

---------------------------------

"Please make up your mind. You cannot play "Division Blade" without a main character. That's not how this game works. Just pick one. It's not that hard"

The completely nameless narrator really shouldn't be being a dick to the player...

A little sarcasm never hurt anyone now did it?

-Having to choose the menu color right at the beginning, when you're choosing the character, and stuff like that, is unnecessary. That should be left for the settings menu when the game actually starts. Having to choose the colors to see what they look like, only to have it explain to you in detail why you should hurry the fuck up and pick a color, just seems unnecessary. That part should be for the essentials, the character, the nickname, etc.

Makes sense.... I just put that there so people could pick one from the get go instead of having to wait until the second event when you meet a group of dogs (the blue save dog is one of them) who are basically the same as an options menu. Changing the menu color, changing party members, renaming people, are among the services they offer. I could take the sarcastic lines out and replace them with generic lines if they come off as mean, I was just trying to be funny with those.

-"Dubbel" slash? Is that intentional? Why is it "Dubbel" Slash when it should just be "Double" Slash?

Nope that's not a typo. Nearly all of the abilities have strange names. You're welcome to suggest ideas for new names. Gunslinger's gun skills need them more than anyone else's skills do, I like most of the names currently in place for the Swordplay skills, but I'm open to listening to any suggestion.

-Good and Evil are represented by Red and Black, two colors traditionally attributed to evil. Not really an issue, but lol anyway.

Red can symbolize courage or love (which conquers all, cheesy but true) although I see what you mean here. Red is my favorite color, so I chose to have my focal character be represented by it. Her red robe is holy and the game reveals this during a spoiler later on, so it's not evil. Thanks for pointing out that potential issue though.

-This game SCREAMS for a morality choice system, but I guess that's not possible with RPG maker.

I could come up with something like that. I'd just have to mess around with the triggers. It would take years to throw in one as detailed as games like Fable or Dragonage where being evil is an entirely different game. It can be done, but that update wouldn't be done for a very long time. This game is huge and there's thousands of event sequences I'd have to rewrite.

-In all of the districts, there are way too many NPCs walking around outside, doing absolutely nothing, in circles. NPCs should look like they have a purpose for being there, and there shouldn't be like 30 of them hanging out outside. For the kind of player looking for actual information about the game, talking to every single one of them can get tedious.

I could make more houses/things in the districts to place them inside or copy/paste them into other towns. Lubow is the most populated town in the world though, so having twice as many NPC's would make sense given that fact. I dunno, there's a number of things I could do about that.

-The city is described as the biggest city in the continent, but all the districts I've seen are just large patches of grass and bushes, with three randomly placed buildings, no foot paths, and nothing else that would make them aesthetically pleasing, all surrounded by colored bricks. That's silly.

There's different terrains I could play around with, and different types of material graphics that houses can be built out of, not to mention different obstacles I can place in them. That can be fixed. Here we have a great example of the "final touch ups" that the main file still needs. Thanks for pointing that out, and I'll add that to my notes of things to update.

-"Most animals can not talk. I am unable to communicate with you unless you can read minds. These are thought bubbles." -- I guess I CAN read minds.

You the player can. Dagger can't. All he hears is a bark/meow/etc.

-Unless the numbers in this game get unmanagably huge, or if the leveling system is painfully slow (and it's not, I gained two levels in two fights), characters are WAY too strong right in the beginning.

It's meant to be easier at first. Eventually the enemies will gradually get tougher and by the end of the game it's impossible without being above level 90 in this version because you don't have access to the ultimate weapons or any of the items that boost your base stats.

-So I'm in a building, and all three floors are visible right off the bat. So how come, when I take the stairs to another floor, a screen transition comes up? That's annoying.

Bob's house? I've had many people report that same complaint. I am looking into just making it have a map for each floor. I'll have to double check the triggers and make sure it doesn't mess anything up to take the upstairs and downstairs out of the main map there. Won't be hard to fix if it works the way I'm thinking of.

-The story of the Division Blade was told to the player before any of the characters even knew what was going on. The mystery of the hooded character right by the movie theater had vanished, so the player was left knowing the next move, while the character was completely confused.

Not exactly. Kay's division and inevitable battle with Evil Kay is what the real story centers around. That is not even the tip of the iceberg. It gets explained more and more throughout the game as more things happen.

-So Lara comes into the bar, saying a monster had mutated outside. So I go outside, and... no monster. Is that the end of the beta?

No, not even close. The entire 90+ hour quest is included in that file. You're meant to go find out which tree is the monster. It also opens up a chance to go outside or talk to people. You're going to find yourself in situations when you are highly encouraged to explore. Play the field screen events as you would a Zelda game (try to find as much as you can and meet as many people as you can) only it has FF style turn based combat too.

Keep the feedback coming, you guys are already off to a great start.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

Makes sense.... I just put that there so people could pick one from the get go instead of having to wait until the second event when you meet a group of dogs (the blue save dog is one of them) who are basically the same as an options menu. Changing the menu color, changing party members, renaming people, are among the services they offer. I could take the sarcastic lines out and replace them with generic lines if they come off as mean, I was just trying to be funny with those.

Is there a way to just add these options to the regular menu?

Nope that's not a typo. Nearly all of the abilities have strange names. You're welcome to suggest ideas for new names. Gunslinger's gun skills need them more than anyone else's skills do, I like most of the names currently in place for the Swordplay skills, but I'm open to listening to any suggestion.

But "Dubbel" as opposed to "Double" isn't really clever. It's just silly. Your best bet is to just come up with a completely different name for it, if you're willing to part with "double slash" all together.

I could come up with something like that. I'd just have to mess around with the triggers. It would take years to throw in one as detailed as games like Fable or Dragonage where being evil is an entirely different game. It can be done, but that update wouldn't be done for a very long time. This game is huge and there's thousands of event sequences I'd have to rewrite.

Well yeah, it could be just as simple as the kind of spells you can use, or even simply what some of the spells are called (if you can't just flat out change them). But I understand the limitations that come with using RPG maker.

I could make more houses/things in the districts to place them inside or copy/paste them into other towns. Lubow is the most populated town in the world though, so having twice as many NPC's would make sense given that fact. I dunno, there's a number of things I could do about that.

Well the issue was that, there are so many of them, and the bare minimum of houses/buildings in each district. No offense, but it just seems like the minimal amount of work was put into the city's design. It's more understandable if you can't make the NPCs have a central focus, but there's no reason why a district should have something like 3 houses and 15 NPCs wandering about outside.

It also brings up the issue that the player is doing more talking and reading than actual exploring.

You the player can. Dagger can't. All he hears is a bark/meow/etc.

The player should be Dagger. It's a Role Playing Game, so the player should take on the role of the main character. If the player and the character are treated as two separate people, then it's no longer a Role Playing Game.

It's meant to be easier at first. Eventually the enemies will gradually get tougher and by the end of the game it's impossible without being above level 90 in this version because you don't have access to the ultimate weapons or any of the items that boost your base stats.

Makes sense. How big do the numbers get toward the end of the game, if I'm doing something like ~350 damage at level 5?

Bob's house? I've had many people report that same complaint. I am looking into just making it have a map for each floor. I'll have to double check the triggers and make sure it doesn't mess anything up to take the upstairs and downstairs out of the main map there. Won't be hard to fix if it works the way I'm thinking of.

It's not messing up or anything, but the transitions just seem unnecessary if every floor is in plain view all in one screen.

Not exactly. Kay's division and inevitable battle with Evil Kay is what the real story centers around. That is not even the tip of the iceberg. It gets explained more and more throughout the game as more things happen.

These things should be narrated through dialogue, rather than a woman explaining it to you over a black screen. You could do wonders narrating the story through gameplay and dialogue.

No, not even close. The entire 90+ hour quest is included in that file. You're meant to go find out which tree is the monster. It also opens up a chance to go outside or talk to people. You're going to find yourself in situations when you are highly encouraged to explore. Play the field screen events as you would a Zelda game (try to find as much as you can and meet as many people as you can) only it has FF style turn based combat too.

Yeah, I ended up figuring it out. The game, as a whole, suffers from the player not knowing what to do next. I get that you're trying to encourage exploration, and it makes a lot of sense, but there aren't even hints. For instance, I got to the part in the blue district with the abandoned house. I ran into Zero, and he killed off the trees, then I left the area, fought the blond haired "familiar" woman, killed her with one shot, and that was it. There was nothing more to do in the abandoned house, and I was left exploring a city I already explored fully, trying to figure out what to do.

The entire city doesn't take long at all to explore, so the time to encourage exploration has long passed at this point. I ended up deciding that I just needed to talk to everybody and everything throughout the city, and it's just not something I am willing to do as a player (but I WILL do, considering I'm a beta tester).

Keep the feedback coming, you guys are already off to a great start.

Absolutely. I have a second comprehensive list of notes coming in a few minutes.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

Dagger, this is an issue that is such a gamebreaker that it needs to be addressed in its own post:

I understand that you want to encourage exploration. That is an admirable trait of this video game. Really. But needing to re-explore the entire city, and talk to EVERYBODY for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th times is bad design. I can't be more polite than that. It's tedious as all hell, and it's easily fixed.

Another gamebreaking problem is the storytelling. The player needs to take on the role of the character. Otherwise, we're running into problems like having to listen to the Divison Blade story twice, or meeting people 2-3 times. That is a major annoyance, and it needs to be addressed.

Otherwise, I'm still compiling the comprehensive list of notes.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

PM me, and I'll give you details.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

If you give a nickname, then choose a different difficulty than normal, you have to renickname

relentless

 

[Lee]

If you press ALT + ENTER it goes to window mode

 

[Merwin]

If you press ALT + ENTER it goes to window mode

Thats just your mad Hacking skills....

 

[The Doctor]

F4 goes to Windowed Mode too. I found that out shortly after posting that.