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[MaloEspada]

I know the place but haven't been there. I'll try it tomorrow or whenever I get the chance to. (btw, the talking signs is really a cool idea, kinda unexpected)

Well, when I used RPG Maker I was pretty much a brat, I was 12 or 13, something along those lines. So you can conclude that I didn't make anything good or distinct. Just non-polished crappy cliché games,
The best I tried was to make a platformer engine or an action game, but I utterly failed, haha.

If I had the willpower I'd really like to make a game like the Chrono series. I love everything about those games, specially the characters, the music, the art, the story.. erm, ok. But the music stands out for me. Specially in Cross.

I hope you make some deep tunes that can reach the hearts of the players, like Chrono Cross did with me.

(enough with all this emotional and backstory-y stuff that's got NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR THREAD.)

[supershigi]

Oh cool!  Yeah, let me know if that doesn't work out.  Going to that little town should set you back on the right track... just look for a guy named Cedar in the Inn  

Oh man, I totally loved Chrono Trigger!  That's my favorite video game.  I loved how the story seemed simple and light-hearted in the beginning, but became more complex later on.  The twists were so cool, too... Like when I found out who Magus really was, I was like, "oh my gosh!" (I didn't pick up on the "Black wind howls" comment earlier on) I couldn't bring myself to fight him, even though I really wanted to be able to turn Frog back into a human again >_<  And the music was so lovely... Chrono Cross' soundtrack is my favorite video game soundtrack, even though I didn't enjoy the gameplay as much as CT. 

Have you been to one of the "Play! Concerts?"  When I need inspiration, I like to watch their Chrono Medley.  I went to one of those concerts and it moved me so much.  I seriously almost stood up and started clapping when they played Frog's theme.
 

[MaloEspada]

  you've been to a PLAY! concert... I envy you. One of my biggest dreams is to watch that performance live... Where I live we have a similar show (Videogames Live) but I haven't got the opportunity to go, sadly. I think if I had been to one of these concerts I would have a heart attack or something like that. Cross' soundtrack is my favorite OST of all time. Mitsuda's genius, IMO.

I'm not sure if I like CT or CC more. I cried a lot more in CC, it really moved me in so many moments. It is an art masterpiece to me, trancendenting video games. But that must be because of my love for Trigger. I always replay Trigger yearly, to remember of the SNES era and have the epic nostalgia. About Magus, I NEVER KILLED HIM. Something tells me I can't do that. The story and the characters really get into your mind, but that's expected from the called "Dream Team", haha.

I see you like a lot the Chrono series and Mega Man, haha. Cool tastes Mega Man's tracks are also a favorite of mine, there are so many good songs.

On a side note, thanks for the comment on my game I really appreciate it.

[PsySal]

@PsySal: Thank-you for taking the time to play the whole demo and leave so much feedback, that was really nice of you!  That's good advice about trying it out on the non-standard crowd... I would like to see how other groups react to it.  I teach piano to a few children, and I had them try out the game last week.  I was afraid that they wouldn't be able to handle the dialogue, but perhaps because they read a lot of novels for leisure, they didn't seem phased by it.  The girl wanted to be able to play as "the pink Aero" because she only likes girl characters, hehe.  I think you're right about the overworld map as well... I think when I complete the linear gameplay and sidequests I'm going to go back and try to tackle some of the non-matching graphics.  I also wanted to say that I checked out your game, and I totally got a kick out of the video you made on the topic of deer animation.  I hope you add a spring-noise ^_^  Where did you get the music for that video?  (The Lompakko one)... I really liked it for some reason.

That's awesome. I taught piano as a substitute teacher for awhile, silly me didn't think to really get the kids to playtest though. In my experience, people don't mind reading nearly as much as they say they do. I think there is something that sometimes goes on with the internet, where people have a very short attention span. With that mindset, a player might expect a game that they can just sort of click and go BANG BANG BANG with, if that makes sense. But if somebody sits down to engage with something, they will enjoy a good story. I rewrite and rewrite and rewrite my dialog until it feels just big enough to convey what I want, and has enough humor to keep it going. I felt a similar sense of polish with the dialog, playing Melolune.

It's interesting how many people picked up the strong CT vibe! =) It seems like a strong influence to me although your game is quite different than CT. A lot of people (myself included) hold CT very, very dear!

Lompakko is by Dizzy, a finish guy who ended up as a band teacher. Back in the day (90's?) he wrote a lot of music for Amiga, and was in a demogroup "CNCD". He is amazingly talented. The reason you like the music is because, in spite of it being really silly it's good music! I didn't ask him permission for the video, but maybe I should have (his music isn't in the game or anything...) I'm not sure how I'd contact him though.

Anyhow here's some more of his stuff:

http://www.mpoli.fi/files/music/DIZZY/index.html#D

Just click where it says Modules: 86 online. These are GOOD.

[supershigi]

@R.D. Ein: It was a really wonderful experience, if you ever get the chance you should totally go!  I think they've been trying to expand the number of places around the world that they perform at, so maybe in the future they'll have a concert near you.  I have to say, I was really thankful to be able to speak Japanese at the concert, because we got to meet some of the composers afterwards.  I told Mitsuda that he was a great inspiration to me (at the time, I was just starting out as a game composer) and that his music was really beautiful.  Uematsu was sitting next to him, and he made the joke, "aww, all I got from her was an I like your music," >_< Hehehe... but I really like his music, too. 

Oh, I love Megaman!  After watching the part in your video where the girl flips and lands on the ceiling I was like, "that's so cool, it reminds me of Gravity Man!"  Now I totally want to try out your game.  I agree that the music from the Megaman series was great... actually, it was probably my first inspiration in terms of learning how to arrange music, as strange as that sounds.  This one in particular.  Which Megaman games are your favorite? 

@PsySal: Thank-you for saying that   I taught piano yesterday, and right as I walked in my students were like, "we finished the demo!  It was awesome!" *^_^*  The younger one kept asking questions about the plot, and I'd be like, "Well, do you really want me to spoil it for you?"  And the older one would say, "No no, don't listen to him, don't spoil it!"  I was very humbled by their reaction.  That's cool that you've taught piano also.

Yeah, I thought that was interesting too that so many people picked up on the CT-vibe given that the story and characters are very different.  But I'm glad, because I really love that game   I think I must've gotten at least 10 people to play it.  Last year I got DS-versions for my mom and sisters since they never played it back when it was on SNES (they only recently started getting into video games... my mom plays World of Warcraft now!).  I think the guy at Gamestop got a kick out of how I had ordered so many copies. 

Thank-you for the link to Dizzy's music... that stuff is great!  It's amazing how small the files are too... that demoscene stuff is crazy.  

[MaloEspada]

I've read about you on one of your websites, and read about how you recorded Hard Man's music I like that track (along with snakeman's, my favorites from MM3).

My mind is blown into thousands of pieces. First you go to a Play! Concert then you talk to my favorite composer of all time, in japanese? Ha. Gotta be kidding me >_>
Nobuo too, damn! You lucky 

I need to say that Mega Man 2, 7 and 9 are my favorites. That and the ZERO series, which I like a lot too. I wonder what are yours?

Also, the sunflower in the Plants vs Zombies music video has the cutest voice ever. <3

[supershigi]

Yes, I did that   I tried to show my parents, and I told them that the music was "so complex," but I think they thought I was crazy, hahaha.  I liked Megaman 2-5 and 7.  I also liked the first X-game, and ZX on the DS.  It's cool to know there are other people out there who have actually heard of MM7... I think when it came out, it didn't get a lot of attention since it was sort of overshadowed by the X-series.  But it was a really good game, very polished.  I actually didn't get to play it until a while after it was released... and I was so hooked that I pulled my first all-nighter in college as a result of (this is so stupid) insisting that I couldn't study for my midterm until I had passed MM7.  Of course I didn't pass it until like midnight.  So I stayed up all night reading >_<  My friends totally made fun of me for that, haha.

And thank-you ^_^  It was really fun to voice the sunflower! 

On a slightly different note, does anyone have any tips about making a gameplay video?  I realized that my game is one of the few IGF entries that doesn't have a video to go along with it, and I'd really like to make one.  I'm using Windows XP, so if anyone knows of good simple software for capturing gameplay footage and editing videos, I'd appreciate a recommendation

[allen]

CamStudio(.org) is an easy to use piece of software to record video and sound.

I have an old version of Adobe Premiere I use to edit video, but it costs too much for what you want to do. Google showed me this: http://www.debugmode.com/wax/ and it looks easy to use.

[PsySal]

@supershigi: Aha, I can't believe you met Mitsuda and Uematsu! They are both awesome, I really actually think FF8 soundtrack was amazing although a lot of folks didn't like it that much. Anyhow, wow. I am now officially in awe of you! =)

My friend once sent an email to Kikuta, and got a reply. Then he found out Kikuta had a daughter and emailed asking if he could marry her, but didn't get a reply. Hahaha! Wrong approach to internet stalking, I guess. =)

For movie editing, I think Microsoft Movie Maker is actually really good. It's minimal but it works well and it comes with XP. Sometimes you might feel like, "gee, I wish I could do such-and-such an effect" but actually with MMM you sort of realize, it's mostly in the cuts. So the lack of features can be good. It does support transitions and certain effects, though.

[supershigi]

Thank-you guys for the suggestions ^_^  I ended up trying out CamStudio and Microsoft Movie Maker tonight (somehow I had managed to overlook the fact that the latter was on my computer), and I think they will work fine for the gameplay video.  Hopefully I'll be able to post something soon.  In the interim, I thought I should share a bit about what I've been working on lately with the game: the musical dungeon mechanic. 

I have most of the dungeons in the game completed in terms of layout and puzzles... but I still have to finish the music for the last few areas.  Normally I can do this fairly quickly, but it's a lot more challenging for me when I have to compose for the musical dungeons.  Basically, I have to come up with a piece that can be broken down into 3 separate pieces that all sound decent enough on their own to be used as looping BGMs.  They also have to sound decent for all 7 possible combinations the player can make (1 alone, 2 alone, 3 alone, 1 + 2, 2 + 3, 1 + 3, and all 3 together) by placing Melolune on the pedestals in different orders.

The Upperlands dungeon for example (which is the cave you fall into after encountering the soldiers who are trying to poison the water) is broken into 3 sections:
1.) piano and oboe "conversation," euphonium, harp, flute, and viola
2.) cello (which compliments the euphonium) and strings (which compliment the flute and viola)
3.) percussion 

#1 by itself sounds like this.

#1 and 2 together sound like this.

And when you combine all 3, you get this.

There are 4 other combinations, but you get the idea... Right now I'm working on music for a dungeon set beneath the Orderian Engineer's Guild.  

My friend once sent an email to Kikuta, and got a reply. Then he found out Kikuta had a daughter and emailed asking if he could marry her, but didn't get a reply. Hahaha! Wrong approach to internet stalking, I guess. =)

Hahaha... oh my goodness, he must really have been a big fan!

[JackNeil]

Thank you for the tips, Laura. I think the one with reading the dialogs loud is a very good one.

What is your story about so far? 

The plot of the story is very generic right now, not very interesting. I've to invest a lot more time in this.
I've started writing down strong emotional scenes with the side-kick and will probably build everything around this.

With the next Grappling Hook update, there will be a lot more story and text.

[MaloEspada]

Finished the demo. I liked it a lot.
And Hawk is awesome. Really cool character you've created.
Some points, though:

-Andy looks like a girl. Really.
-When you meet the scientist guy in his hideout he mispells Achaius name once. I think I just mispelled it now too haha.
-I hate you forever for making that yellow melon on the Mola bossfight. Ok, I don't hate you. But that was unforgiving. 

[supershigi]

Hi everyone... just wanted to let you know that I spent the weekend putting together a video with some gameplay footage of Melolune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3sxtQE4g1w

Yes, that's me talking at the beginning (although I don't normally sound that young... I was trying to talk like a kid because the voice is supposed to be Achaius as a child)

[supershigi]

If it's not too much trouble... for those who have finished the demo, do you think you might be able to post a little information for me about your party members' status at the end of the demo?  I'm trying to balance the equipment and monster levels for the next parts in the game because right now I think they might be off.  If you could post things like: what level your party members were at at the end of the demo, what equipment they were wearing, and how much gold you had... I'd really appreciate it... thank-you very much! 

[MaloEspada]

I'd say the game is fairly easy to the end of the demo. If you want a silly joke, as easy as CT

I didn't need to GRIND at all. The only boss who gave me a headache was Mola. At that point I almost went grinding but after a few tries he went down.
Stats below:
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4563/merorune.png