I haven't actually downloaded your game yet, but I wanted to answer a few of the questions you posted... my boyfriend was actually really addicted to Wonderboy in Monsterland a while back (we downloaded it off virtual console), and we were just having a conversation about what type of things made these platform RPGs so fun.  So I guess here are a few things we'd want to see or enjoy in this type of game:

• Different forms that allow you to access new areas (it doesn't have to be forms, it could be mounts, special armor, etc.)
• Good twitch-oriented platforming
• Being able to upgrade your armor and weapon
• Having plenty of areas to explore and a simple leveling-up system

I think I would purchase this type of game in an episodic manner for around that price, especially if there were an interesting story to go along with it.  Wonderboy didn't really have much of a story, so it might be nice to see a game that puts more of a focus on that. 

Haha, this is cute

Given you made this in only 2 days, this is pretty awesome.  It was simple, easy to pick up, and fun... I think the only feedback I could offer would be that since there are only two masks to switch between, having a single button instead of using both Z and X would have been more intuitive.  But yeah, besides that, great job!

Yay!  Demo cleared!  Very fun, clean graphics, and good fast gameplay.  I was also quite thankful for the checkpoints. 

As Sos mentioned, I think the music could use a little mastering work if only for the purpose of being less heavy for those wearing headphones.  I deal with this issue often, so I usually try to test out the music using different speak mediums.  Anyways, besides that this was really fun... I want more

I can imagine this would be pretty fun ^_^  I tend to agree with Stane's comment about giving players a bit of advance warning before each mini-battle.  The element of surprise works pretty well with hardcore gamers who are more willing to experiment with trial and error, but for a more casual audience (which I mention because it seems that Princess Maker/Cute Knight games appeal to them), it's fairly important to have things explained beforehand.  This demographic has the issue of giving up quickly if they die to early or are confused by the battle mechanics... just something to keep in mind.  What are your characters going to be like?

how about expanding the "extreme gardening" concept with other gardening task like mowing or flower planting.

Ooh, I like that idea... I bet you could come up with a bunch of fun little mini-games related to gardening.  Picking weeds, throwing out insects that eat your plants, watering the flowers, etc.

Nice job, that was a lot of fun ^_^ I played both versions and it's difficult to decide which one I like more, although I definitely felt like I had more control over the player when the world moved with me (version 2).  I died a lot less because the controls were more intuitive, although my eyes were kind of sore afterwards due to the all the spinning.  Also I noticed that at some point I stopped being able to hop between planets; I was one hit away from dying so I don't know if that had anything to do with it.  Overall, I liked it!   

This looks pretty cool, I will download it and give it a shot... I hope it will run okay on my machine, my video card is in need of an upgrade

No problem, I'm happy to help ^_^  I hope my feedback made sense; sometimes I have a much easier time verbalizing my feedback as opposed to writing it.  What is the trick to shooting the slimes?  Oh and procedural music generation for the harpsichord sounds awesome to me, haha... more power to you!

So far I like this game a lot!  It's especially impressive given that it's your first game.  The graphics are clean and fairly consistent; I tend to agree with the previous poster that giving some animation to the collectibles would help make the world seem less stiff, and smoothing out the player's running animation would help as well.  I think having more checkpoints would also be beneficial.  Beyond that, great job!

Ahh, I remember these!  I miss Nintendo Power and their strategy guides.  I think I still have the Mario 3 one somewhere.

That's good that you posted some screenshots, I think that's very helpful.  I noticed that you're using rpg maker VX graphics, which is fine, but I think spending some time improving your map layout and content would help them look more unique.  Right now they look very generic, and I wouldn't be able to distinguish your game from another VX game.  They also seem fairly sparce and blocky... I know that's the VX-style, but for certain maps (like the cliff in your trailer) the jagged blocky nature of the tiles just ends up looking distracting when juxtaposed with a realistic looking panorama.       

Also, I can understand that it's difficult to use game footage in your trailer due to your computer speed, but in all honesty your current trailer is really off-putting.  A single screenshot of a really blocky cliff made with generic rpg maker VX graphics and intersperced with overdramatic text just does not make me want to play the game.  At the very least the text could be a bit more descriptive about game.

I didn't ask to be accused of being inactive.

No one is accusing you of being inactive.  People are telling you not to advertise your game so soon after becoming a member.  The idea of "advertise first, join later" is just frowned upon here; people prefer if you wait until you've been here a short while *before* advertising. 

[not]

I just joined though....I've obviously not gone away now have I?  I've got other things to do at the moment, then I get to sleep.  I don't see how joining a forum for less than 3 hours and not posting anything but my games is bad....I again, got it out of the way.

The point is not to post your game until you've made more of an effort to become part of the community

If anyone is telling you this, it's because they're only trying to be helpful... if you truly want feedback, going about it in this manner won't be very fruitful because a lot of folks flat out aren't going to pay attention to your thread when you've just joined and you're already pimping your game.  Being harsh or sarcastic towards us doesn't help either... like I said, tons of games are posted each day, are we really going to be compelled to take time out of our day to play your games and leave you feedback when you're rude to us?  I highly doubt it.

Okiedokie, I haven't finished the game yet, but I've got some fairly comprehensive feedback for you concerning the first hour, and the combat system.  Since I believe that it's absolutely vital that people don't get stuck during the first hour of gameplay, I tried to highlight a couple areas where I got confused or frustrated.  I actually thought the pacing would have been perfect (the right amount of preliminary exploration in the beginning, humorous and enjoyable dialogue, easy to follow quests, etc.) had I not gotten stuck or had trouble with the combat.  So hopefully this feedback can help a bit with that ^_^

The Castle Map:
I think you've included all the necessary navigation tools for the player, but a few changes could make the interface a lot more intuitive.  Early on, as a result of the graphical style (which is charming, but easier to get lost in) I had difficulty navigating my way around the castle.  I'd get lost easily, and when an NPC would tell me to talk to someone in the library or the kitchen I wouldn't know how to get there.  Had I looked at my castle map (rather than the mini-map) I would have had a much easier time getting around, but I had completely forgotten about picking up a castle map until after going through the portal and talking to Carrie.  I said to myself, "Well, I remember picking up the castle map and looking at it... why didn't it occur to me to use it when I was lost inside the castle?"   

I think there were a few reasons: 1.) I picked up a lot of random objects (everything from brochures to poetry books to flower petals), so the map kind of got lost amidst everything else in my inventory, 2.) My natural action was to click on the mini-map expecting to see a more detailed map of the castle rather than going into my inventory to look at the map.  In retrospect it seems obvious that I should have gone into my inventory and used the castle map, but I guess this is one of those things that gets overlooked when a person is trying to get their bearings and is picking up all sorts of things.  I think a simple solution would be to make the castle map really accessible.  Once the map is in your inventory, perhaps clicking on the mini-map can bring up a picture of whichever map corresponds with your current location.  Either that, or the option to open the castle map once you've clicked on the mini-map would have been really helpful and I don't think I would have gotten stuck.

Combat:

• I really liked the WASD + mouse combination for combat.  I felt like I had a good amount of control, and I liked how moving in any direction would cancel aiming.
  
• Although I was shown how to use a gun in Mathilda's cave, the combat from the first area was very frustrating.  I had to die several times before I figured out what I needed to do when one of the green cubes ambushed me (when it tells you to "resist").  Once I learned how to do it, it was easy from then on.  Given that this is the first real combat in the game, I might suggest either making the first enemies as straight forward as the squirrels/gators, or giving a message indicating how to deal with the "resist" mechanic.  Although this might not be an issue for hardcore gamers who will probably keep trying until they figure it out (as was my case), I think a lot of my friends who are more casual gamers might give up after dying a few times.
• Sometimes when you enter a new area, you're immediately ambushed by a green cube which can be frustrating if you don't know how to escape from its death grip.  It might be nice if the enemies in the earlier areas were placed in such a way that you wouldn't get immediately ambushed upon entering the new screen.
• I'm actually still a bit confused about how to defeat the green cubes.  Sometimes it's easy to destroy them, other times I will shoot them a lot and they just do this weird thing where they expand and contract no matter how many times I shoot them.  I still haven't figured out how to consistently kill them, I kind of just shoot them from different angles until they die, so success felt really random.  You might want to increase the area where the green cubes can be successfully destroyed; I think this might make the combat feel more satisfying.  When I had to go back and kill green cubes to earn money for dynamite I would definitely have enjoyed it more had I felt like I knew exactly how to kill them.

Other Stuff:

• Perhaps I just overlooked it (if so, just ignore this one), but perhaps you might consider adding Carrie's house to the map since everything is in reference to it.
• Clicking on the sign to the right of Mathilda's cave causes the game to crash.
• The dialogue was very well-written and I enjoyed reading it.  Xartan's journal was hilarious.
• I really liked a lot of the music; it was catchy and fit the environment quite well.  The castle theme in particular got stuck in my head and I was humming it afterwards.
• The dynamite was fun to use   The way the barricades crumbled was quite satisfying.

Overall, great job PsySal!  I'll let you know if I come across anything else as I continue to play.  Keep up the good work!

Please don't forget to post your feedback for any games I've made here.  Or use the completed game threads as well.  I'm using these games for my portfolio later in life to get me a job in the industry as a writer/developer, that's why feedback is a must.

Welcome to TIGsource... a bit of advice though if you're truly interested in receiving feedback on your projects: People will be a lot more inclined to play your game and take the time to write feedback if they feel you're an active member of the community.  Whether or not your realize it, your post comes off as if you're doing the community a favor by posting your game, and in return we must give you feedback. 

You have to keep in mind that there are a ton of games posted here everyday, and people only have a certain amount of time each day to download and play them, let alone leave feedback... personally I'm a lot more likely to leave feedback if I notice the person is a regular poster and has left feedback for other people... I'm pretty sure others feel the same way; folks rarely check out games when they feel that the poster has just come to the forum to pimp their projects and aren't interested in being a part of the community.

I think it's difficult to do mass emails these days too because of all the anti-spam measures in place by clients like gmail and yahoo.  Whereas 5 years back you could just use your regular email client to do a mailing list (by BCCing everyone), nowadays you'd have to use a specific mailing list program.  I learned this when I tried sending out a newsletter via gmail and almost got my accout banned for having over 50 recipients in the BCC field >_<  Other than that though, I think mailing lists are a good way to keep people updated.  I'm still a bit self-conscious about sending mass emails, but I figure that if folks actually ask to be put on a mailing list then they probably don't mind. 

Actually, does anyone have a good recommendation for a mailing list program out there?  I've gotten a couple recommendations but I haven't started using any yet.

That's a cool idea... it's like turning the act of buying the game, into a game   Good luck with your sale, for those who haven't played yet, it's a really cool game!

No Yoshi is an island.

So overnightprints.com was pretty quick to reply to my mail and they reprinted and shipped a new batch the very next day (why wasnt it that fast to begin with?!).  I imagine they'll be more careful this time but I'll let you guys know if otherwise. 

Customer service seems to be pretty great, they were speedy the first time I called as well when printing was taking so long.  I'd recommend emailing them if printing takes long for you guys.

That's kind of a relief... although now I'm wondering if I should send a preemptive email or something...  I placed the order on the 23rd, giving exactly 2 weeks for them to get before GDC using "Ground with Priority Printing"... I'm in California so hopefully it'll be there by then.  I did notice an option on the status page to change your shipping options, but I don't want to bother with that unless they make the same mistake as they did with you.

@Paul: Ah, that makes sense... so it's sort of like how in Urquan Masters the easier guys are near the Earth, but it gets progressively tougher as you get further out into the galaxy?  I like that, it makes exploration feel more natural.  Melolune is fairly linear (especially the demo), although I'm trying to add a lot of sidequests and random areas in order to give the player more of an exploration-feel.  And yes, you should definitely post a video... I'm especially curious about the whole "friending the enemies" thing.  I've always liked the element of diplomacy in games (even if it's as simple as regular dialogue or giving gifts like in Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing).

@rekchah: Same here, there are a few songs of mine that took me multiple attempts (I kept rewriting the verses or the chorus because they didn't feel right).  Though I must say that my favorite songs (and I think my best ones) are the songs that came out really quickly and naturally.  Ah, if you're on your 4th game then you're probably totally used to the difference by now!  This is only my first game, so I'm still getting used to it, hehe... when I first started out I kept having to tell myself "one step at a time" because I couldn't believe how long it would take me to do one section, and then to imagine that there were going to be hundreds more after that >_< ... you're certainly right about the patience thing.  Do you usually do all the production yourself when it comes to music?