Group: Revolutionary
Posts: 940
Type: Artist
RM Skill: Intermediate
Made in less than a month for RPG Revolution's apocalypse-themed game-making competition, Finding Eden is an action/adventure game set after the end of the world.
Being the two of the last survivors of the collapse of society, you and your friend must struggle to make ends meet while your remaining lifespan ticks away - and the only way to recover it is to scavenge life-giving mana from pockets of vitality that haven't already been picked clean.
Action-Based Battle System: Switch between two characters on the fly with the AI controlling your partner.
Open World: Explore the crumbling remains of a once-thriving world
Unique Powers: Each character has a unique power which they can use to turn the tide of battle.
Titles System: There are a total of 7 titles to be found, awarded at the end of the game based on your performance.
Click to View
Original Concept : Sailerius and Hirei
Mapping and Writing : Sailerius
Character Art and Design : Hirei
Programming : Sailerius
Scripts By : Sailerius, Blizzard, ccoa, and winkio
Music : Yusaku Kishigami
Event CG and Sprites : Hirei
GFX and UI Design : Hirei
Miscellaneous Art Assets : Lucas Kich, Erk, NeoRTP, Etolier
FAQ: Q: How long is the game? A: One of the requirements of the contest was that the game had to be beatable in under a half hour.
Q: Is there more to the story? Will there be a sequel or a full game? A: Currently, there are no plans for a full game. However, Hirei recently submitted a small cutscene detailing a little more about events that happened in Finding Eden. You may download the Crossroad cutscene here.
Group: Director
Posts: 6,347
Type: None
RM Skill: Undisclosed
I was quite proud of this entry to the game competition, and was also happy to see it get the ranking that it did. It was, and remains, a very cool game with various features that I did not expect to see in the competition.
I was curious as to whether you've made any changes to this version of the game or if you've not edited it since the competition. If you've made changes, I think I'll download it again and check out any changes made. =]
It depends on if you're the exploratory type, but either way, it's a short game. From the playtest reports I got, the average time spent on the game ranged from 20-60 minutes.
QUOTE
I was curious as to whether you've made any changes to this version of the game or if you've not edited it since the competition.
Yes, some significant changes were made. For example, some harvesters now drop mana and a lot of bugs were fixed.
Hope you enjoy it! Not *too* much has changed, but the simple fact that you gain something from defeating enemies has a large impact on how the game is played.
In other news, I'm putting together a postmortem on the game and hope to have it ready tonight.
Warning: This write-up contains spoilers. It's advised that you don't read it until after you've completed the game.
Finding Eden was a fun experiment. Normally when I work on games for public release, they're huge multi-year productions which take a dozen teammates to put together. In this case, however, I had only one month and only one teammate.
The Contest Before I start with this wrap-up, I'll describe the context in which it was made. RPG Revolution held a contest over the summer with the theme of "apocalypse." There was one month to make a game from start to finish with the following restrictions: * Submitted games must have between 10 and 30 minutes of play-time. * Up to 10 (ten) non-RTP Audio Resources (this includes any added audio, such as BGM and/or SFX). * You may only use Scripts that are available on RRR.
On the day that the contest began, Hirei and I decided to enter. We came up with the concept, the gameplay, the plot, and the world map on the first night and immediately dove into work on it.
What Went Right The big thing we did right was deciding upon everything immediately. We put together a simple, unified vision of what the game would be about. Since both of us knew exactly what we were doing, we were able to dive in independently and just start making the game without needing to consult the other. Not needing to stop and ask for a clarification or to work out what happens next in the plot meant that we could work at our leisure without wasting time making sure we were on the same page.
I can't imagine having attempted this by myself. Even putting aside Hirei's amazing art contributions, the benefits of having a partner to brainstorm with and toss ideas against are innumerable. Sometimes, I had an idea that made perfect sense to me, but when I pitched it to her, I found that I had trouble explaining it. If you can't explain your idea to someone else, then it's probably not a good idea. Not only that, but having someone available whom you can get feedback from instantly is extremely valuable, especially where gameplay is concerned.
As a game designer, it's very easy to assume that your players know everything you do. Every time I finished a new segment of the game, I sent it over to Hirei to play through and check. Sometimes, I was told "I'm not sure where to go from here" even though to me, it made perfect sense. You need a fresh eye to look at everything you make, because there will always be mistakes that you don't notice yourself.
On the topic of game design, the design process for Finding Eden was pretty weird, although it worked out fairly well (maybe it was a fluke). We had a story that we wanted to tell, but we had to be ever-conscious of the 30 minute deadline and we also didn't want to make it a linear trek from one plot point to the next.
We decided early on that we didn't want to make a game about stopping the apocalypse, since that seemed like the obvious approach that everyone would go for (although one of our early ideas was a game involving a time loop in which you try to find a way to avert the apocalypse, only to eventually find that it was impossible and that the story would instead be about accepting the end). Instead, we decided to make a story about life after the end and the strong bonds between fellow survivors of the end of the world, as well as how it affected people differently.
Because we wanted to illustrate the sense of isolation that an apocalypse survivor would feel, we decided to make the game based around exploration. We designed a variety of environments to showcase the sad state of the world, where the main characters would be the sole living things left. In order to break up the monotony of exploring desolate, lifeless environments, we decided to put in a few vivid environments where life was still barely clinging on. The hope was that these areas, which were filled with color, would be a pleasant surprise to discover. One of the joys of watching playtesters try out the game was examining their expressions as they found one of the oases.
We vaguely blocked out what the oases would be and placed them in the corners of the world map. Originally, we planned for a garden, a church, a lake, a cave, a battlefield, and a volcano. The idea was to put a plot event in each one to convey the story. As I started mapping the game out and implementing the first few scenes, I quickly noticed that we were planning for way too much. The opening and tutorial took an average of 5-10 minutes to complete, which was already occupying a substantial portion of our 30 minute allotment. We decided to cut out the volcano (it was hard) and to combine the lake and cave into one area.
In order to further drive home the point that these areas were "alive," I decided not to play music while exploring the majority of the game, with only the sound of rain as ambiance. When you enter an area, however, music begins to play, increasing in volume as you enter it. I designed the oasis areas to transition from monochrome to color by staggering the introduction of colored tiles, the increasing frequency of which was matched up with the fading in of the music's volume. Overall, I think the atmosphere turned out to be the strongest point of the game.
Anyways, this is turning out pretty long, so I'm going to cut off here and write the rest as a follow-up.
ok i played it. and i died ten minuted in and decided not to keep going.
the atmosphere and stuff is all passable, but in a game that brags about an action battle system i didn't pay much attention to that stuff.
major problems: the battle system is horrible. it's ridiculously clunky, notably that i can't tell when i'm attacking or when the enemies are attacking. everybody uses the same animation and sound effect and it's impossible to tell who is hitting who. there's no way to tell when i take damage unless i keep an eye on the HUD—there needs to be a sound or something to let me know that i'm getting hit (something beyond the "bite" sound effect because only now when i watch the video do i see that). the characters all just stand around while battle animations fly around without signifying who is doing what.. really you need to completely rebuild this part of the battle system. i didn't even get far enough to play with your promised skills because this was such a mess. i died and i had no desire to keep playing.
also apparently i needed to collect a certain amount of mana to open a door and continue, but there's no way for me to see how much mana i have or know how much i need. it makes me feel very lost and not in a good way. when i died this was probably the biggest reason for not coming back because i didn't feel like wandering around smashing the space bar near bad guys and checking that crystal over and over until it finally worked.
overall this is a cute game and i get what you're doing with the atmosphere but the gameplay flaws in the beginning are too big to be ignored. you can do a lot better than this man.
edit:
so the guys in irc tell me that aparently i had to go fight some bosses before openingt he door and now i;m just even more confused: the door says give me mana and i'll open which tells me that i should be fighting bad guys (for the "mana get"s) and harvesting mana from the bushes. this is really bad design.
i think that you like the word mana way too much because you're using it for EVERYTHING in ways that are really confusing to the player. if i need to go fight bosses before the door opens don't tell me that i need to collect mana to open the door.
This post has been edited by noise: Oct 21 2011, 05:28 AM
the battle system is horrible. it's ridiculously clunky, notably that i can't tell when i'm attacking or when the enemies are attacking. everybody uses the same animation and sound effect and it's impossible to tell who is hitting who. there's no way to tell when i take damage unless i keep an eye on the HUD—there needs to be a sound or something to let me know that i'm getting hit (something beyond the "bite" sound effect because only now when i watch the video do i see that). the characters all just stand around while battle animations fly around without signifying who is doing what.. really you need to completely rebuild this part of the battle system. i didn't even get far enough to play with your promised skills because this was such a mess. i died and i had no desire to keep playing.
Yeah, pretty much. It took me a solid week to get the battle system in place, and at the end of it, I actually started playing and was like "god dammit, this is awful" but by that point, I had invested way too much time into it to be able to redo it. Although just having attack animations on the sprites would probably help a bit.
QUOTE (noise @ Oct 21 2011, 05:11 AM)
also apparently i needed to collect a certain amount of mana to open a door and continue, but there's no way for me to see how much mana i have or know how much i need. it makes me feel very lost and not in a good way. when i died this was probably the biggest reason for not coming back because i didn't feel like wandering around smashing the space bar near bad guys and checking that crystal over and over until it finally worked.
That's a good point that I never thought of. I should've just called the items you get from the bosses something else.
Group: Local Mod
Posts: 904
Type: Scripter
RM Skill: Skilled
Rev Points: 120
I'm playing that game, and I'm finding it truly interesting and amazing... Only a bug report: In front of the church, before the cutscene sometimes an error occurs
Blizz Abs line 1735 Stack error Stack level too deep
This happens everytime the blue haired girl is the party leader.
There's a FAQ/walktrough somewhere?
Spoiler risk
Need help!
Actually, after having defeated the yellow-haired guy and having given his mana to the crystal, I cannot figure out where should I go, since I cannot enter the church ("I feel our presence isn't wanted") and the north door doesn't open... There's anothere boss? If so, where? I've just explored all the maps I could (hotel, city, the cave...) but didn't find anything...
I'd be glad if you can help me:)
Thanks in advance
EDIT: I've found the very same error just after the intro, before I could take control of the main character... Maybe an alias problem? Data are encrypted, so I cannot produce better hypotesis...
Jens
This post has been edited by Jens of Zanicuud: Jan 6 2012, 11:55 AM
__________________________
"Thorns are the rose's sweetest essence..." -Jens of Zanicuud
That's really weird! I haven't had that problem reported before. What are your system specs? Are you able to reproduce the error consistently, and if so, what triggers it? Or does it happen randomly?
As for where to go next, look around in the cave more closely. There are some stairs leading down.
Group: Local Mod
Posts: 904
Type: Scripter
RM Skill: Skilled
Rev Points: 120
Windows XP service pack 3, dual core processor 1,44 GHz, 512 MB RAM... I found that bug like three times so on... Only when the blue-haired-girl is the party leader, always before a cutscene.
Thanks for help, I've just finished it (Heaven damn energy save mode! I couldn't see the stairs because my screen was too dark in order to save battery!)
Only a last question:
Question about the game
Is there a way to enter the Church? Or is it only there for aesthetic/symbolic purpose?
The game was awesome, the endl is astoundishing As regards plot, I have some more questions to ask...
Questions with HIGH spoiler risk...
1. Is there some hint about the relationship between the two girls? 2. Why the red one feels she's in debt with Blue? ("Stupid. It's me who has to thank you.") 3. Are Harvesters human beings? 4. What led the world to that catastrophe? Are there any hidden hints which can let you comprehend the whole plot better? 5. The garden which is found at the end... is the Eden of the title, right?
Thanks again... and compliments:)
Jens
This post has been edited by Jens of Zanicuud: Jan 10 2012, 12:07 PM
__________________________
"Thorns are the rose's sweetest essence..." -Jens of Zanicuud
Group: Local Mod
Posts: 904
Type: Scripter
RM Skill: Skilled
Rev Points: 120
I made a mistake... My computer runs at 1,73 GHz... Sorry! Previous topic was actually wrong... However, this error has occurred even after the starting video... I've no idea of what could have caused it...
Jens
__________________________
"Thorns are the rose's sweetest essence..." -Jens of Zanicuud
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you were able to beat it.
With regards to the church, there's no way to enter it. Unfortunately, I have to decline to answer the rest of your questions, since they were intentionally left ambiguous. However, Hirei recently made a short called Crossroads which takes place before Finding Eden and will provide some clues. I'll post a link once it's available.
Group: Local Mod
Posts: 904
Type: Scripter
RM Skill: Skilled
Rev Points: 120
Ok, thanks I will faithfully wait for the link
Jens
P.S. I think this game was a masterpiece... in just 30 minutes of play, you guys succeeded in creating a great plot with deep thougths and reflections (e.g. the difference between live and exist, and so on...). Keep on this way!
P.P.S I have experimented a huge lag in some battles... commands I input activated after almost thirty seconds... I think it could just be a computer speed issue...
This post has been edited by Jens of Zanicuud: Jan 11 2012, 12:10 AM
__________________________
"Thorns are the rose's sweetest essence..." -Jens of Zanicuud
I'm glad you think so. Thanks for the compliments!
As for the lag, I'm well aware. It's because of how awful BlizzABS is and there's little I can do to optimize it more than I have already, unfortunately.
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Finding Eden (Winner of the 2011 "Apocalypse" competition), A microgame about friendship after the end of the world
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Oct 15 2011, 12:50 PM
