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[Edrobot]

So... yeah. I'm new here. I thought this competition looked pretty cool, so I think I'm going to give it a try. No harm in that, right?

Cover

The Pitch

An 8-bit genre blending pastiche of JRPG's with purposely poor localization.
The best way to describe the gameplay I want is "Persona meets Zelda meets Baten Kaitos".

Story

(Yes, I copied this from a Google's Translation of the cartridge's description. That being said, it wasn't all that different from what I had in mind when I first saw it.)

One day in 1987 was killed by someone Metropolitan SF Kashiwagi Yuki in the school for three years. Yuki has left behind the last breath, "820 characters" blood. These three points and handing out numbers ...! ?

SF School Detectives club you belong to (He likes meat), the child's classmates Yamaguti Maki (15 favorite Strawberry) and their baby niece psychic J.J. (He likes milk powder) , Hayato Yoshioka club members detective (He likes 86 (Ham)) the help of these, Devil Sticks to solve this.

Screenshots

DEMO 1

Features basic gameplay, plus the ability to activate your supermove (though it doesn't do anything yet. Yes, it's rough around the edges (for instance, it can't tell the difference between a Full House and Two Pair), but I say it's pretty decent for two days worth of work.

DEMO 2

Features basic gameplay, new enemies, plus the addition of functioning super moves. Next up: More enemies, The Dungeon Boss, and the Random Map Generator.

DEMO 3

Features a randomly generated dungeon (1 floor only so far), some gameplay tweaks, and more new enemies. Next up: tweaking the dungeon exploration, and the Dungeon Boss.

DEMO 4

More rooms, better balance, plus the ability to go up multiple floors. Still haven't gotten the final boss done yet, though. I still need to make 30 more rooms for the Random Dungeon Generator, for more variety. After that, I can get to work on the Date Sim portion of the game.

DEMO 5

More rooms, more enemies, more bosses. Now to work on the final boss...

Comments Please?

[Edrobot]

Hey! I, um, actually posted some screenshots and an early demo. So come check it out. 

[Joaquim]

(just played)I liked it!

[bluej774]

Look very closely at the guy on the box art and tell me that's not Morgan Freeman.   

[Lurk]

Controls seem a bit stiff with the kind of action you're going for. Maybe allowing for some diagonal movement for the player at least would help.

Code:

if shooting=false
{
if keyboard_check(vk_left)
{
direction_facing=180
if !place_meeting(x-maxspeed,y,obj_wallparent) && runable=true
{
image_speed=0.2
sprite_index=sprPlayerRunLeft
x-=maxspeed}}   

if keyboard_check(vk_right) 
{
direction_facing=0
if !place_meeting(x+maxspeed,y,obj_wallparent) && runable=true
{
image_speed=0.2
sprite_index=sprPlayerRunRight
x+=maxspeed}}
if keyboard_check(vk_up) {

if !place_meeting(x,y-maxspeed,obj_wallparent) && runable=true
{
image_speed=0.2
direction_facing=90
sprite_index=sprPlayerRunUp
y-=maxspeed}}
if keyboard_check(vk_down)
{
if !place_meeting(x,y+maxspeed,obj_wallparent) && runable=true
{
image_speed=0.2
direction_facing=270
sprite_index=sprPlayerRunDown
y+=maxspeed}
}}

try this in your step event, instead of your control scheme. You need to declare a runable variable in your create event(this is to prevent the player from moving when dead or paralyzed or hit in your case). Replace the obj_wallparent with the name of your wall parent. You also need to declare the direction_facing variable in your create event, but I'm not sure you need it(I use it for strafing). Shooting is also a variable in the create event. I'm not the best coder, but this gives pretty smooth moving around with a maxspeed of 1 at 60 fps.

[yokomeshi]

Look very closely at the guy on the box art and tell me that's not Morgan Freeman.   

He's literally labeled "Morgan."

Having Morgan Freeman show up out of nowhere in a Japanese detective/dating-sim kind of game would be beyond amazing.

[reetva]

Morgan Freeman should be the father figure of the game.  Kind of like Dojima but with more Morgan Freeman.

[JMickle]

i think you have no choice but to put morgan freeman in this game.

[Edrobot]

Allright, a new demo is out, and this time super-moves actually work!

Now, to respond to your comments:

To everyone that said the old guy on the cover looks like Morgan Freeman, yes, I am well aware of that. I'm probably going to end up calling him "M. Freeman" or "Moreman Freegan" or something like that.

As for Lurk's concerns, the stiff control scheme is a result of me trying to emulate the original "Legend of Zelda"'s controls. You will, however, be able to unlock Diagonal Movement as a powerup, so I'll see if I can use your code at some point.

EDIT: Sorry folks, looks like the demo doesn't work. My bad. I'll get a new one up in a few hours, hopefully.

[Edrobot]

Okay, the new demo is fixed. I also added a new enemy too; the Oni.

[bluej774]

What's the deal with the "devil sticks"?  Looks like some kind of crazy divining rods to me.

[Edrobot]

They're called "Devil Sticks" beacuse they're divining rods once owned by the devil. Or something. I dunno, the marketing department insisted that the title be more "Edgy".

Seriously though, there's a new demo up! And this time it actually has good graphics! Woooo!

[Edrobot]

You know how double posters suck?

WELL TOO BAD!!!

Oh, and another demo is out.

I'd say the "Dungeon" part is 90% complete at this point, once I get the final boss done and make some more rooms, I'll get to work on the Date Sim part of the game. If anyone knows a good script for displaying text one character at a time, or choosing dialogue options that would be a great help. Oh, and finding some good royalty-free music for the game would be useful too.

[senselesslydeep]

They're called "Devil Sticks" beacuse they're divining rods once owned by the devil. Or something. I dunno, the marketing department insisted that the title be more "Edgy".

I'm going to furiously chime in that devil-owned diving rods should totally be called "damning rods."

[Inanimate]

They're called "Devil Sticks" beacuse they're divining rods once owned by the devil. Or something. I dunno, the marketing department insisted that the title be more "Edgy".

I'm going to furiously chime in that devil-owned diving rods should totally be called "damning rods."

But divining rods don't bless or make divine someone. They just find things.