PROJECT VIRAL, Full Game Version 1.5! Options

[obsorber]

I just want to say thank you so much. It means a lot to me that you played my game, completed it and gave me feedback. I appreciate the complements and the time you took on it. Makes me feel like all the work paid off.

You're right about the puzzles, I didn't make them difficult because I know how annoying it can be for some players. The game is more focused on exploration rather than difficult puzzles. Melee weapons was a major focus in this game compared to ranged. That scene you were talking about, I put a lot of thought into it. It was probably the best of the shock factor effects in the game. Sorry about the language, the dialogue emphasizes the way people speak around the area I live and they use a lot of bad language. About the axe, you're right about that, I know it was pretty pointless, however once you complete the game you get cheats provided in the credits where you gain access to every weapon upon using the weapon cheat. I kind of wanted to add all the weapons in because I created sprites for them so why not. The game gets straight to the point because I didn't see the point in dragging out the plot. Project Viral 2 will explain more about the background of Project Viral. The next part takes off after the virus leaves the school which you'll see from the Project Viral 2 intro. I already have demo available for it and the game should be a bigger improvement than the original probably lasting 2 or 3 times as long. This game has one true ending, exiting the sewers and zombies spread into city like you saw. However, an alternative ending or game over sequence is provided if you decide to leave the school entrance using the Master Key. You'll see what happens there. It's just part of the extras that were chucked into the game non relative to the plot.

[Milonar]

Sorry for the late reply, I ­was too busy ­with my study.
I see that you are going to make Project Viral 2. Yeah, I'm really looking for­ward to it. I hope you can fix/improve the quality of Project Viral (images, maps, other system and even dialogs). Thanks for taking time to explain clearly for me .

[obsorber]

Don't mention it. Project Viral 2: Outbreak is in development. I can't say when I will complete it but I have a demo up. Currently it's on hiatus while I'm developing my other games but I should get back to it sometime next year.

[kqurmiz]

Nice work obsober. Going to try this out.

[obsorber]

Thanks, hope you enjoy it.

[Ghos7Soldier]

Thanks, hope you enjoy it.

Not gonna lie, your game literally caused me to register and say that so far I'm enjoying it pretty well. I like how you implemented the melee attacks and different stances into this. I have yet to finish it but I'm looking forward to finishing it.

Also, I read earlier you were wanting to add voice? Are you still looking? I'm interested in short.

[xmuffin]

Downloading this game but I play it not because of the battle game itself( I get tired of repeated rpgbattles) but rather looking how your story unfolds... looks kinda interesting and good work dude.

[obsorber]

Thanks guys. Pleased you like it. You should try out Project Viral 2 demo release.

[rewells]

Project Viral Review
7/10

Game Title: Project Viral
Developers: obsorber
Game Engine: RPG Maker XP
Reviewer: rewells
Approximate Completion Time: 1-1.5 hours
Topic URL:
http://www.rpgrevolution.com/forums/index....showtopic=41608
Download Link: 69MB

*Disclaimer: This game contains "strong" language and excessive blood and violence. Player and reader discretion is advised.*




General Comments: Project Viral is part of the growing genre of survival-horror-RPGs, and by far the best I have played for RPG Maker. Its very professional, slick presentation and classic survival-horror gameplay are hindered only by awkward controls which may frustrate some players.

Pros:
-Detailed maps and music create a genuinely creepy atmosphere. Although some of the graphics are modifications of the XP RTP, everything has the same art style and the game looks very polished.
-Short and sweet. It took me a little over an hour to beat, although it left me wanting more.
-Decent writing and dialogue.
-Classic survival-horror elements, such as high interactivity with maps and objects (i.e. "It's a desk...", "It's a sink...", etc.), a focus on exploration and a battle system more focused on surviving and running away than succeeding in combat made me feel immersed in the environment.

Cons:
-The plot is very unoriginal, but the dialogue and characters at least add a different spin to the tired old story of a zombie-virus outbreak.
-There were a few elements of this game I did not understand, the biggest of which is the energy bar below your health bar. I do not recall an in-game explanation, nor do I have the slightest clue as to what it is for, though there are several items that restore energy. Also, there is an option for AI control, but you have no helping AI...so I have no idea what this feature does either.
- I found the controls to be very obtuse. Though there is a brief tutorial on the controls, a lot of the game's challenge for me came from navigating menus (which is usually acceptable for an RPG, but really slows down a more action-oriented game like Project Viral).

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-While each map is unique and for the most part adds to the game's tension, I found myself getting lost because there are so many empty rooms that give no reward for discovering them - only the boon of having to backtrack.

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-I love the save-anywhere feature, but usually I forget to save. Save points would be great and actually more fitting for a survival horror game, I think.


Story:
You control Comrad, a teenage boy at a military academy. An outbreak of an experimental virus occurs, turning all of the students and teachers into zombies, and the military decides to destroy it and any survivors to prevent a pandemic (sound familiar?). Project Viral is obviously heavily inspired by Resident Evil, from its combat, tone, basic design and levels (

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: a big building, a courtyard, a secret underground research facility and a sewer

). It even uses Resident Evil's music. Being told from the eyes of a kid adds a nice spin to the story, and Comrad is a likeable character with fairly realistic dialogue. The story had a lot of tension and it made me want to keep playing.

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There are two other characters, a military defector who decides to help Comrad escape and a female student. This makes the game more interesting, but oddly the other characters only appear during cutscenes and do not engage in battle. So someone will say "Let's go to the elevator!" and then walk away and you won't see them until you get here. Story-wise, I found myself asking, "How did they get there? Why don't we all stick together?" It would have been nice to either have them as playable characters which the player can switch between (like in Finding Eden) or have them be AI controlled, like in Resident Evil. Perhaps the military guy could assist with combat and you both have to protect the girl (like Leon has to protect Ashley is Resident Evil 4).

Presentation:
Project Viral is beautiful, from the opening title screen to the end credits. The soundtrack, mist effect, growling zombies, and lots of dead, blood-stained, bodies make this game actually spooky. The ambient background music is taken straight from Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and there are many subtle touches that make the game feel like a classic survival-horror game. For instance, the echoing sound of footsteps when characters walk, creaking effect when doors open, slick map titles and high interactivity with maps. Virtually every object on the screen will display a text message if you talk to it. This creates an effect of anxiety and watchfulness. One neat thing I noticed is that this does not apply to blood on the floor; I think this effect shows that Comrad (and the player) has quickly become desensitized to seeing blood everywhere and is completely drawn into the weird world he has woken into. The zombies a very beat-up looking and blood-covered, and they growl when they come on screen, and humans scream when they die. Comrad is the good-ole generic Ralph sprite in a school uniform, which looks ok except for that silly red bandana he's wearing. I wish it had been edited out because it doesn't fit the uniform. Most importantly, the level design flows very well and feels like a unique, complete world.

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Gameplay:
True to the survival-horror genre, Project Viral places the goals of exploration and simply staying alive over actually fighting enemies. You have weapons, and you do have to kill things, and you do gain experience and level up, but you must pick your battles if you want to beat the game. Death is always imminent, as you cannot buy healing items. I was really worried that I would not be able to beat the game at a couple of points, only to breathe a sigh of relief when I found a first aid kit. I think this anxiety could be increased by eliminating the save-anywhere feature and instead require the player seek out items that enable them to save (like the type writer/ink ribbon system in Resident Evil). Battles do not follow the traditional JRPG turn-battle system (which I never thought fit survival-horror games); instead, battle is more like The Legend of Zelda where you walk up to enemies and whack 'em or shoot 'em.

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Most of the exploration involves finding keys or combinations to locks. There are no real puzzles to speak of, except for one rather unintuitive one involving running back and forth and hitting random switches to open doors in the last dungeon (PM me if you need help with that puzzle- I only figured it out by trial and error). Fortunately, exploration is usually a joy because of how good the maps look; however, there were a lot of rooms that seem to have no purpose. Empty rooms with dead bodies serve a tone-setting purpose in survival-horror games, but sometimes it's a little ridiculous: Near the end of the game, you receive a master key that opens all previous locked doors. Naturally, I wanted to go back to the school and check everything I missed, but all I got were two floors of the school containing a row of rooms with nothing in them. A little reward for my curiosity and effort would have been nice!

As I mentioned at the beginning, there were several features in the game I did not understand, such as the energy bar. I cannot really talk about them since I do not know their use, but I still beat and enjoyed the game without that knowledge, so I guess it's not that important.
The only serious flaw with the game is unfortunately huge: very awkward controls. You hold R to run, T to attack, ENTER to interact with objects and ESC to open the menu, which has several sub-menus. You can also assign healing items and ammo to the number keys, but not weapons, which would be much more useful.

As an example, let me explain what I had to go through to fight the final boss:

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When the battle starts, I had to run and grab a bazooka laying on a table by pressing enter, hit ESC, select the main menu, equip the bazooka, press ESC to exit out of the main menu, select "set hotkeys" which opens up yet another windows, set my ammo to 1, press ESC twice, hit 1, turn and face the boss, press T to fire and pray that the single bullet in the gun actually connects.

Excessive menu digging is to be expected of most RPGs, but most RPGs don't have you running from zombies. In this case it really slows down the pacing and makes combat harder than it should be.

Also, to open locked doors you must have the appropriate key equipped. Countless times I'd press ENTER in front of a door, get told I need to equip the dormitory key, press ESC, go into the main menu, change my equipment, exit out and press ENTER again. Why do I have to go through all that? Now that I think about it, most older survival horror games had very odd controls (as anyone who has played the original Resident Evil can tell you). Maybe this is supposed to simulate the awkwardness an lack-of-grace you would actually display if you were trying to escape a zombie apocalypse? Hmm...

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Summarized Version: Project Viral is well designed despite suffering from awkward controls, with its strength lying in the maps, music and the overall tone they create. I recommend this game to any fan of classic survival-horror games and newcomers to the resurgence of the genre.
7/10

This post has been edited by rewells: Feb 17 2012, 06:49 PM

[rewells]

I read an interesting article about controls in the new Zelda game. I think it makes some good points. Gamasutra

This post has been edited by rewells: Feb 14 2012, 08:42 PM

[obsorber]

Wow, you reviewed my game. Thanks a lot man, it was a great review. I totally agree with you about not adding rewards to the rooms you could enter using the master key. I think I originally intended to add some unique Items but forgot to. I guess that's something I could resolve in the future updates. I just read that article to, however I've never played Skyward sword but everything you mentioned will be noted. Thanks a bunch, I now know what I need to look at when I do further work on the sequels.

This post has been edited by obsorber: Feb 16 2012, 11:22 AM

[rewells]

It was a pleasure! I look forward to the sequel.

Wow, you reviewed my game. Thanks a lot man, it was a great review. I totally agree with you about not adding rewards to the rooms you could enter using the master key. I think I originally intended to add some unique Items but forgot to. I guess that's something I could resolve in the future updates. I just read that article to, however I've never played Skyward sword but everything you mentioned will be noted. Thanks a bunch, I now know what I need to look at when I do further work on the sequels.

[Rosary]

Ive played Res evil and Silent hill. the aqward controlls were always very hard to get used to but once you did switching out of it was like pulling off glasses to fast.

I remember once I was playing silent hill And I went and beat a few puzzles Sluaghter all the demons and then switched to playing spyro,.
I ran his ass into enemies and walls alot. lol

[rewells]

Haha, that's funny. Sometimes after playing too much RE I find myself walking like the characters irl.

Ive played Res evil and Silent hill. the aqward controlls were always very hard to get used to but once you did switching out of it was like pulling off glasses to fast.

I remember once I was playing silent hill And I went and beat a few puzzles Sluaghter all the demons and then switched to playing spyro,.
I ran his ass into enemies and walls alot. lol

[obsorber]

I just wanted to say that there will be a version 1.6 which aims to resolve some of the problems spotted by revells. The grammar at the ending sequences. I'm also thinking about possibly adding a short side-story within the final update. This might include the player taking the role of Gan's or something. Haven't really put much thought into it yet...

[obsorber]

I was thinking about the revamped version of Project Viral and voice actors?
What do people think about taking part in voice acting for the game?
If anyone would like to participate, the Final Release of Project Viral which will be 1.6 will
have all of you in the credits as contributors to it's cause. If you feel like taking part then
please contact me here or on www.rpgmaker.net

There's more improvements I'm thinking of adding to the game. PM me if you would like
to be part of the next and final release.

[amerk]

Voice acting for an indie game is fine, by all means, but I'd also encourage you to also keep the written dialogue as well while the verbiage is being read. There are plenty of times when I'm playing a game and have to keep the volume down, so reading is the only option. Anyways, that's just my two cents.

Also, since a lot of people don't follow the posts, or start by looking at the main one, you may want to edit and include a segment in the initial post as well about recruiting for voice actors. It's preferable that they contact you via PM so you can discuss in private the requirements, as well as any samples you may need.

Good luck, as always.

[obsorber]

Thanks Amerk, I'm going to make voice acting in the game optional so the player can choose whether they want it on at the start or not. Also this depends on if I can gather a voice acting team for the game...

This post has been edited by obsorber: Aug 2 2012, 03:52 PM