Just like to give you guys a heads up. Act I is in production and is slated for a July 1 release.

A couple new tracks from the original soundtrack:

http://www.mediafire.com/?mpjmk0e0mia
Act I Overture - "To Banivia"

http://www.mediafire.com/?mdtx39dzkty
Theme of Meraiden - "Into Memory"

An absolutely beautiful new piece of fanart:



Also, Act I is progressing wonderfully and should be ready in a few weeks.

It's been awhile. I've been busy, but I have finished the demo.
It was pretty good. I'm, of course, more confused than ever about what's going on, but that's to be expected.
As always, the game looks beautiful and the effects are awesome. However, I did notice two things.
In the town you start off in, the house with three doors on it in the area where you live, the spaces in the fences
aren't wide enough to allow you to go through. You probably don't need anything there, but I thought I'd
mention it.
The other is a bigger error. In, er..., that town you wake up in Alibaas (I'm not good with names), if you go back into
the house you woke up in before you go meet Seri, the scene that played when you woke up and Zaqris introduced himself
replays, and then you get sent back outside, except now you're invisible. Everything else still works normally, you're just
invisible.

Just letting you all know that this project hasn't been trashed. We're working hard to have a January release. Since most of what's left to be done is art-related, there hasn't been much to show off at this point. So this isn't just an empty post, I'll include a treat.

Here's the first released track from the Vacant Sky soundtrack. This song plays at the new evening segment of East Naven.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wRyz8FsGC8

After being in production for two years, it's finally here!!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BYMILSM7
http://rapidshare.com/files/210166152/Vaca..._Contention.zip

I hope you all enjoy! My spring break was spent almost sleeplessly working out all the many, many bugs in the game before it could finally be released. I look forward to hearing your feedback.

If you're having a runtime error 58 when sound effects play, then download this .dll and replace it with the one in the game: http://www.dll-files-download.com/F/2008-01-13/5810.html

Moving!

Heh, looking good. I havn't played much of it yet, due to some computer issues, but with my testing skills I did stumble upon a small mapping bug. Inside the cell phone shop in the first town, there is a wall that you can walk upon. Don't worry though, it's rather small, and anyone could miss it. From what I have seen so far, the mapping is good, and the battle system is nice. I should have my computer issues resolved soon, and then I can give your game a more...thorough playthrough. One thing you will notice when I comment more, is that I explore...alot. Oh yea, and during the first part, I loved how weapon screwed over that guard, made for a good laugh.

Looks great! Downloading now! Btw, how long is it?

Yeah, there are a few passability errors that slipped through the cracks. I hope you enjoy the rest of the game!


Roughly 3-4 hours, depending on how much time you spend exploring and doing sidequests.

For those that haven't played yet, "Lie Your Way" (the ending song and theme of Auria) have been put on Youtube. Take a listen; it features the lovely vocals of Melanie Ehrlich.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6V4ZBvi-WI

Gasp!

Oh no! Sailerius, you've just given away the only remaining vocal piece on the soundtrack to people who haven't even played the game, yet! But I hope hearing it will motivate even more people to play Vacant Sky- perhaps those who had been inclined to pass it over at first glance. So to all of you in that category, I say: "Give it a try. Who knows? you may just like it!"

But that is not the main reason for this post: let me first say that a lot of people put countless hours into this project- a true labor of love for everyone involved; and although I am only a recent member of the team, I'm very proud of the part I had to play in seeing this game to its completion. But it wouldn't have been possible without Sailerius' endless patience and graciousness toward me, and for that he has my sincerest thanks- and again for giving me the opportunity in the first place; there were others, perhaps better than me, who auditioned as well, but now that I'm here, I look forward to working with everyone at ProjectBC for a long time to come, and I promise to do the best that I can, always.

With that said, I would now like to ask you, dear readers, for feedback about the soundtrack in Vacant Sky: what were the things you liked? I imagine there were also some things that you didn't like! Which song/s were your favorite? What kinds of songs would you like to see in later releases?

All of these things help me (and the team) to produce a game that I can be truly proud of, and that fans all over enjoy playing and always want to come back to for more! Help me realize this goal by requesting you take a moment of your time to give me your thoughts.
Again, thanks to everyone who made this possible: the producers, the fans, and everyone in between!

I keep getting script errors in this version. I can't get past the first scene in the jail.

Okay, I took some time to play a bit of this game and so far I think it is awesome. The only problem imo is the steep decline in activity for a while after the action packed first scenes. Mapping is great, Music is decent (if not slow a bit at times), and the story is interesting. I would say more about the game but I have yet to play through much and this is just a first impression.

I apologize for that- a solution has already been made available for this error, but the producer seems to have not posted it on these forums yet. I'll let him know right away. Meantime, please follow this link: http://www.dll-files-download.com/F/2008-01-13/5810.html

After you download the .dll, replace it with the one in the game folder. This has fixed the error for nearly all of the players who have encountered the problem; however, if it persists, please let us know so that we can look into the matter for you and fix it promptly.

Good luck!

Yay! Thank you!

Best game I've seen in a long while. Now I'm wondering if those animated side-view battles could be done in RPG Maker VX. I have yet to see anything like that. Pretty awesome.

I've just met up with Zaqris and Seri, and I've got to say, things are looking really good man.

I absolutely LOVED the intro! Music is well selected, and the story is quite intriguing. Looking forward to the rest.

This project looks very promising. I would love to join your team if you need some assistance in it.

I'm glad you're enjoying the game! By the way--the music wasn't 'selected'; it was written specifically for the game. I look forward to hearing your opinion of the rest of the game.


Sure thing. What's your area of expertise?

Well i've been working with RPG maker for well over nine years, starting with rpg maker 2000. I'm an expert mapper, I can event veyr well, problem solving is my extertise, I'm a fluint storywriter so I can help you with that also if you need it (although it doesn't look like you do.) If you need to know anything else, just ask me.

A fluent storywriter with less than fluent English...

Anyway!

I had this game on my DeviantART and I am kinda surprised to see it's actually gotten somewhere. It looked like a very aesthetic project that wasn't going to get anywhere because it would collapse under its own weight, and because of that I congratulate the team on getting this out. When I have released Sore Losers, I will definately have to play this.

hey great game!
i love the story and characters!!!
i got to the point where auria turns into a virad and the others start fighting her... it is really hard because
there is no chance to buy healing potions or armor anywhere before that (well only waaay befor that but i only had money to buy like 5 or so)... so im kinda stuck there!
or did i miss an item shop?

This part proves to be either the most difficult or fairly easy, depending on who you ask. The nature of her AI is such that she could (theoretically) cast her most powerful spell consecutively, in which case there is very little you can do- eg, you will probably die. So long as one or more of your characters have a healing spell of some sort, healing items shouldn't be necessary. The best solution I can offer is that you keep trying until you get a run where she either uses the spell once or, if you're very lucky, not at all.
Another thing to be sure and do is debuff her with Serijala's spell. It won't eliminate the Regen buff, but all of the others will be erased, which should help.
If, on the other hand, you focused all of your skill points into a few stats for Auria, the solution becomes a bit more complex. All of her stats carry over (I think), so if you put all of the points in, say, Agility, then your characters will have a hard time hitting her. Assuming that's not the case, she is beatable if you try enough times.
I realize it's in poor taste to suggest you start the game over and stockpile your healing items when there was no indication that you might have needed them for the end, but that is always another option. The game is fairly short, so it's certainly doable.
Oh, and you did not miss an item shop. There are only two that I'm aware of, so chances are you found them both. Armor is also, I believe, not an option at all. The only new piece of armor you get is from a sidequest, but it isn't necessary for beating the game.

ok thanks alot for your help! ill just try again and hope ill be able to beat her so is this the final fight of volume 1?

edit: ugh i tried again and again and she always uses her strong attacks i dont get very far with her...

I have to say, I am in love with this game. You can clearly see the attention to detail in terms of the mapping, characters and the battle system. It feels so complete, unlike a few other games that I have played.

I loved the beginning. I could easily tell that Sandarga is a bit of a b***h after inspecting the numerous dead characters laying on the floor. And meeting up with Weapon was cool too. I have to say, I think his character image is sublime. I adore his hair haha!

Like I mentioned earlier, the battle system feels whole and intuitive. There is much to do, and I especially enjoyed the customisation with it (in terms of choosing techniques upon leveling up and reaction commands.) The music was amazing too, reminding me a little of the battle theme from Lost Odyssey.

Which brings me onto the next point of music collectively. It's great, each song fits the scene and there isn't a mess of them all at different times. It's as if the music is specifically associated with certain events or characters.

Character designs are nice and pleasing to the eye. My favourite being Vastale. Immediately, I could sense his ethereal aura and actually was a rather creepy character in my opinion. The plot is interesting yet simple enough to understand, and I am thoroughly enjoying all of your efforts so far!

Sorry this review is short and quick, I'm just eager to get back to playing! Thanks a lot for providing some fun for a few hours in my life and I hope to see more from you again!

Keep up the great work!

I feel at this point it might be appropriate to point out something. The first time someone referenced that the music was "well selected", I thought it was quite humorous. It seemed only natural for this assumption to be somewhat prevalent, considering how many indie RPGs pick music from different soundtracks and whatnot.

However, while I don't consider myself to be any musician of note, I do have some manner of pride, which forces me to state quite unequivocally that the music was neither selected nor randomly placed. Each song was associated with and composed (by me!) for a specific event or town, based upon a short description of what was required. Not a small number of hours went into making the best songs I could, let me assure you! Regardless, I am glad you liked the music! And look forward to the next release, because II think it's safe to say that you'll like the soundtrack for the next game even more.

And LoveHinaX, I offer my condolences. It is the final boss fight of Act I, but I don't think I can offer any solutions other than what I already gave. The best solution I can think of is that you spread out the character's stats, if you hadn't already. As I said before, I think they all carry over, so if you have all of your skill points focused on one area (say, INT for example), then her spells could do more damage than they might otherwise.

And one other thing- side quests seem to be crucial. I'm not sure how many you did, but the extra money/exp/items you get certainly come in handy. It's possible for most or all of the characters to be around level 4 by the end, and while I'm told it is possible to beat it at level 3, I don't imagine it would be very easy. If worse comes to worse (though, again, I hate to even say this), you can always restart the game. It's fairly short, so it may not be a bother for you. Aside from that...well, it could also be that you've had a series of unlucky streaks. The very first time I beat the game, she only used the spell once. The second time, she used it quite a bit, and I died. It took about three retries, but I did eventually beat her.

Thanks for playing! Let me know your thoughts once you've finished!


Yes, that's the final battle of Act I. A few things to double check:
Is Rayonne on Counter?
Does Seri use Disenchant after the boss casts Angel?
Make sure that Zaqris is constantly using First Aid--don't waste valuable SP on combat casting. If you keep that up, you should be able to win.

nice mapping and your battle system and your art work looks cool.

Just a heads up. I'm working on a rerelease of Act I that'll include the new dll file out of the box as well as a few graphical and music fixes. Not much in the area of new content, but there might be one or two new sidequests.

When I start it, when the intro gets to the gate thing, it crashes. It says something about something called "Fmod" or something. But what I did see was fucking kick-ass mother-fucking awesomeness.

Okay, I downloaded your game, pressed new game, and when I saw the heroine's face and just Michael name. I thought okay, it's meant to be a black screen, but after a while. They say they want to look for somebody, but then it turned all black. Is that normal?

That's the sound crash bug. Download the new dll here and replace it with the one in the folder:
http://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?h..._Contention.zip


Um... I'm not sure what you mean. Did the intro play?

Yeah it played, and afterwards I pressed new game and it did not show anything. However, when I watched the intro, then I pressed new game, I could see everything.

I'm sorry, but I don't follow what you mean. What do you mean by "it did not show anything" and "I could see everything"?

Oh the maps, sorry for not making that clear. Don't worry, I took care of it. Anyway, are you going to make a walkthrough for this game?

I wasn't intending to, but I suppose I could.

It would be cool, anyway, would you like a review on this wonderful game?

Sure, I would appreciate that.

I'm a harsh marker, if you get anything beyond 1-3 bad, so 4-6 excellent 7-9-almost perfect 10 godlike

Story 4/10

It was good, but it had a few flaws like what happened to the leader of the organisation? I like the idea of playing with the bad guys for a bit, but are they really bad? It was alright.

Gameplay 6/10

I have never given this mark, but you made loads of sidequests, lots of things to do,which is a good sign you're doing the right stuff, but it could be in the high 7-9 mark,if you could make people do retries for the strength, stealth and picklocking, also decreasing the difficulties a bit and if you could give like points to get techniques for the heroine.

Music 3/10

It was alright

Graphics 5/10

I liked the graphics, the art was superb. Well done.

Overall 18/40

Well done, it's quite good score from me.

Anyway, just focus on the gameplay also I had completed this game a week ago, so its still quite fuzzy and can't wait for the sequel.

I appreciate the review, but I can't help being confused by your scale. Art was "superb", which is a 5/10?

I reuploaded the sound crash fix because the old download link expired.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GGR9MWI6

It's been a while since I've posted! Act II is still due out January 1st. Here's the first new song from the soundtrack, "City of Faith."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8vcYXYA_VU

Oh, this is lovely. The music really is one of this game's best elements! I can't wait for Act II!

(I still have to decide which support userbar I want to use . . . )

do you have a support bar cause i love this game -charlie fleed is like my god every script of his is so usefull

Yup, here are all the support bars I've got:

Second of the weekly Act II updates!

Vel is a half-Orkan thief that will be joining the party in Act II. She's a Sky-affinity Speed/Accuracy build.

Ooh! I think I'm going to like her!

Next of the Act II updates! This is a screenshot from one of the new cities accessible in Act II, Viadahn.