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[Adam27]

Etharnion - 2D RPG (v.1.1)

http://etharnion.tk

Hi all!

I'd like to present to you a game, on which I've been working for over 1,5 a year. It's a free 2D top-down RPG called Etharnion and is my biggest project so far.

You can read the description and download the game for free on:
http://etharnion.cloudserv.tk

The game is actually finished, and now I need some feedback. What do you like, what would you change in the game? Every comment will be very appreciated!

If you like the game, have a nice time playing it and wish to give me more motivation to develop the project, you can also donate something via PayPal.


Have fun!

Best regards,
Adam

[Quicksand-S]

Well, my very first thought was, "Wow. This is surprisingly good"...and that was just about the website.

When I started the game, I was impressed by the music. I really like it, both in the game and on the title screen. The graphics look pretty good and I like the interface for the most part.

It irritated me that I had to use both mouse and keyboard to control my character. I would've preferred one or the other. Holding "W" to move forward, but not being able to turn with "A" and "D" seemed wrong.

I also felt like people moved a little slowly, and the man at the beginning rotates toward you slowly too. That's just a minor thing, though. It's not as if they're moving in slow motion or anything. A sprint would be nice, though.

Asking people what their name is when I already see their name on the dialogue window seemed weird. I'd say either don't show us that until we know their name, or skip the whole "What's your name?" thing like most games do.

Sometimes the dialogue options seem to be written in such a way that if I said "Farewell" and came back later, I would have no idea what that option was about (ex. something like "Why would I do that?" if I returned after a while and had no idea what "that" was).

The quest log could use some more details, in my opinion. I like it when a log shows me, at the very least, what area I got the quest in. It might tell me names, but if I have no idea where the people are located then it's useless.

The game seems to be set up in such a way that the player is forced to go from story mission to story mission, never allowed to explore because the log and characters won't help them get back on track later. That's a little disappointing.

That said, I still kinda like this game and I'll probably play a bit more.

[Adam27]

Thank you for your opinion.

As for controlling the character, I thought that holding one hand on your keyboard and the other on your mouse is a good solution. However, you're right about "A" and "D" keys - those should move the character left and right, what might be useful during fights, but I had some problems implementing this and it is why only "W" and "S" work at the moment.

When you play the game a bit more, you'll notice that a Speed Potion is available instead of sprint. This lets the character move faster for a certain amount of time.

Asking people about names gives you not only the information what their name actually is, but also what they do, which is not so obvious. I'll consider hiding the characters' names before talking to them though.

Quest log most often tells you what you have to do and where, so I believe that it isn't that hard to find the NPC who you should go to. Could you give me an example of situation when you didn't know where to go?

Most of the secondary missions are available in the second village in the game, so you probably didn't play long enough to get there. You can explore the world and get back to the main story at any time - just remember who you last talked to and what quest you were last doing

Hope that you'll enjoy the game more and complete it when you have the time

Best regards,
Adam

[Quicksand-S]

Yeah, adding strafing sounds like a good idea.

Maybe you don't have to hide characters' names, but just reword the dialogue. "What is your name?" doesn't make sense right now, but "Who are you?" or "What do you do here?" might fit better because they are more open questions.

About the quest log, it's not particularly confusing at the beginning of the game. It just seemed like it would cause issues if the player ever wandered off the beaten path, so to speak. You said yourself that the player has to "remember who you last talked to and what quest you were last doing". If I play other games or do some side quests, I'm not always going to remember where a specific character is located or how to find them again.

You're right that I didn't get to the second village. When Hrokus told me to collect some herbs near the road outside the south gate, I went out the south gate and got attacked by a spider that I couldn't fight without a sword. I had no way of knowing that he meant the OTHER south gate, and that I had to offer to help some guy hunt monsters in order to get a sword (I wasn't even expecting that quest to work because I didn't have a weapon yet). Nothing about that quest was really clear.

Also, I was told at some point to talk to someone about fighting, but that wasn't put into my log and I didn't remember the name later on. I thought maybe it was the guy that I helped hunt, but it wasn't. Is talking to people randomly the only way to get a weapon?

Deer really don't look anything like deer from above...but I'm not sure how that could be "fixed". Maybe a different animal would have worked better.

The sword-swinging animation is really slow and weak-looking. It feels like I'm just moving the sword back and forth instead of actually trying to attack. If it was faster, and maybe more horizontal (since vertical doesn't look right from this angle), I think it would be a lot better. If the character actually rotated to put his weight into the swing, that'd be even better.

Bug: If I save while my sword is sheathed, it's unequipped when I load the game.

Just to be clear, I know I'm pointing out a lot of issues I have with the game, but I really think it's good. It plays pretty well, looks good and sounds great.

[Adam27]

I'm sorry for the mistranslation when Hrokus says "southern" gate instead of "southwest" - I didn't notice it before, fixed.

Your first weapon (a stick) you can find in the chest in the house where you wake up at the beginning. In fact, it is possible to slay that one spider using that stick. As for the sword, you obtain it when you accept the quest to help that guy hunt, because it isn't needed earlier. Besides that quest and that one spider, there is no more fighting in the first village.

The guy who told you to talk to someone about fighting was probably Bezemir. And the reason why that wasn't put into your log is that it isn't actually a quest - he only gives you an advice where you should go if you want to learn fighting (to Tiago in the second village). It's a good idea to make it a quest though, it would be easier to find him then.

Things like animations will most likely not be fixed, as I'm not a graphics artist and can't make better animations. These ones were hard enough to make Rotating the character while attacking is a good idea though. Also, you'll attack faster when you learn fighting skills on a higher level.

I'm glad that you still like the game despite so many minor bugs and issues

[Quicksand-S]

A stick? In a chest? Wow. I completely missed that. The message said to talk to the old man so that was the first thing I did. I never thought to search the room before or after that.

This brings up another "issue". As easy as it is to figure out on your own, it's not ideal that the tutorial for equipping weapons only comes when you do the sword quest, not when you pick up that stick.

Too bad about the animations. For future projects, just know that there are a lot of good tutorials online if you feel like learning and there are forums where you can seek out animators who will work for free.

Glad to hear that attack speed can be increased later on.


Update:

I got the "taking trophies" skill and quickly decided that it would be a lot better if I could just right-click or something to leave the item window. Having to press escape every time isn't ideal. A lot of games let you enter AND leave the window with the "use" key, but since that won't work here I think something like the right mouse button would be good.

Being able to scroll through my inventory with the mouse wheel would be great.

Arrows are incredibly expensive for a game. I'm used to them being 1 or 2 gold each. They don't do a ton of damage at this point, so I go through them quickly and properly restock.

Trading was also a bit...dangerous. Is there a reason the game doesn't automatically "equalize"? I accidentally sold all my bear and wolf skins for zero gold because, even though I saw the "equalize" button, I'm used to traders just giving me what the items are worth. I don't see the lack of automation adding anything to the game.

As much as I like not getting killed, it seems like the creature AI should be tweaked so that if I'm hunting with someone the beasts target both of us, not just the AI hunter.

[Adam27]

Thanks for so many great suggestions. Most of them, such as leaving the item window with the RMB, scrolling the inventory with the mouse wheel and automatic equalization will be implemented in the next version.

As for AI, monsters always target who they first notice, so if the NPC are going in front, they are more likely to be attacked first. However, I've got an idea how to improve this.

PS. I'd love to know when you finish the game

[Quicksand-S]

I'm really enjoying this so far. The story is pretty intriguing. I like how (at least at this point) it's about the character rather than some big "save the world by killing evil things" story. I also like how most of the side-quests seem more developed than just "Go collect something", although the Trust quest seemed a little bit...simple. To me, the payment from Rolf's other quest should have been more meaningful than the other guy's package delivery task. I found it really strange that when I showed Rolf the warrant, he didn't even want his 200 gold anymore (until I finished "Trust" later)

Bugs

-A chest southeast of Serenis is on a path blocked by invisible wall.
-With Dorn, I had a dialogue option like "Who was that bandit?" even though I hadn't seen any bandit anywhere near Dorn. Ever.
-Not sure if this was a bug or just a strange design choice, but when I was doing the "Trust" quest, I had to fight someone and their health kept jumping back up to 220 or so, over and over again until it finally stopped and I could beat them. I guess they were using potions or something, but there was no visual effect and having an enemy get health instantly is annoying.
-I automatically told Tiago that I didn't know how to take trophies even though I did.
-The game doesn't remember my volume settings if I quit and return (I didn't check other settings)

Typos:

Rolf's dialogue - "A friend of mine, Bon, lives in the village. I he trusts you..." <- "I" instead of "If"
Tiago's dialogue - "...a sword that possesses our blacksmith, Goran..." <- he is in possession of it, not possessed

What I would like to see:

-Longer shadows - The world just seems far too flat. This would, I'm guessing take a ton of work so I don't expect it to happen. I'm just saying it'd be nice.
-Highlights on items that can be interacted with, just like you have with the NPCs
-The "Stolen Pouch" quest is too obvious because there's only one possible suspect. I like that you get choices once you find him there, but it'd be nice to be able to suspect others even if it doesn't lead anywhere.
-More people who are actually inside their houses/buildings, instead of standing outside for no reason

[Adam27]

As for the bugs:

- that path is blocked by an invisible wall because you can't go there right now, it will be unblocked when you get a certain quest; I know that such solution with an invisible wall isn't very good and may look like a bug, but I didn't have a better idea
- that with Dorn was actually a bug, that dialogue option should appear later, will be fixed in v.1.2
- NPCs drink potions and there is a visual effect of that, though it may be barely visible while fighting; I'll probably add a light to the character when drinking healing or mana potions
- that with Tiago will be fixed
- in fact, the game doesn't remember settings when you press the 'Back' button, but it does when you press 'Esc' instead; will be fixed

Typos will be fixed as well, thanks for pointing them.

The reason why most people are standing outside their houses is that if they were standing inside, the villages would seem very empty

[hapsi]

I am going to report only about one part of the gfx: The trees look excellent. I like the way the trees move by a sin wave(?). I stole that part to my game's trees: http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/8255/sbv1ss3.png

[Joxno]

I must say it is quite a nice game, well done! I haven't played as much as the others in this thread but what I noticed right off the bat would be:
- Perhaps add some way of changing resolution?
- Rebindable Keys?
- Music is very nice but can be a little bit intrusive from time to time.
- As someone mentioned earlier the pace of the character is quite slow but nothing that you don' get used to after a while.
- Regarding the GUI, perhaps instead of filling the whole screen for the Inventory, or Quest log etc. maybe make smaller windows so we can still keep track of the world around us?
- And something that I'd like is to be able to spend my skill points? I might've missed this completely, if this is already in the game, I apologize.

Besides from that I quite enjoyed it, keep up the good work!

[Adam27]

You can play the game in a window in desired resolution by editing the 'Window.txt' file in the game's folder.

Rebindable keys would be a nice feature, but this would require a lot of work and at this point I don't plan to implement this. There are actually not many usable keys in the game, so I think that it's not very hard to remember and get used to them

When you open the inventory, quest log etc., the game freezes, so that you can pay all your attention to browsing your items' or reading quests' descriptions. I see no point in changing that.

You can spend your skill points by talking to a teacher and choosing an appropriate dialogue option. First you have to find a teacher though and sometimes complete a quest for them.

Glad to hear that you like the game, I encourage you to play a bit more if you have the time

[Quicksand-S]

Well, I finished it. Below are my notes. Not all are actual spoilers, but many might alter the way others play the game so I thought it best to hide it all.


-typo in Serenis quest where someone says the bandits are "probably west of Serenis" but they're actually east of it
-trees would look better if they didn't all rotate at the same interval
-shields seem useless because nobody ever pauses their attacks
   -slightly random timing would make combat feel a lot more interesting
   -"knockback" effects from accidentally attacking someone's shield would make shields useful
-being able to see farther ahead would be nice - I suggest placing the camera maybe a third of the way between the player and the cursor
-footstep sounds would help the atmosphere some more
-environmental sounds would be great, like wind blowing through the trees or birds singing. There are sites where you can get this stuff, with the right to freely use it for any project.
-bears are so incredibly slow that I can kill them while running backward - in real life, bears are quite fast
-the final boss was incredibly easy
-the story was a bit of a let-down - After all that time, thinking everything was really interesting, I go from finding out about my past to basically killing the king right away. I really thought there'd be some space between those two events.
-many skills and items don't seem particularly useful (ex. why buy a fancy crossbow when I can so easily beat the king with my magic sword?)
-I was still finding worthless junk in chests in the final city
-invisible walls are annoying - in regard to that path I mentioned before, maybe you could just have someone stop you and say something like "We hear there are bandits in that forest. I can't let you go in there on your own."
-the absence of a map for most of the game felt "wrong", even though it's pretty much impossible to get lost
-some more optional locations would be nice, if just to let the player "hunt" and maybe find a chest or an interesting character out in the middle of nowhere
-adding another river would break up the monotony of walking through trees on and on
-I never did learn to mine gold/coal/whatever and there was never any reason to
-the quests that involve allies all seem "broken" at this point, since they kill everyone and I reap the rewards. I finished the game with over 8000 gold and a ton of items I didn't need
-the king's castle seemed like a tiny little house with a wall around it
-people don't react to me stealing from their chests after entering their homes in the middle of the night...
-some attributes, like thieving, didn't seem to have any purpose whatsoever
-I don't think I ever had to buy anything except arrows (and training)
-shopkeepers should probably get more gold once in a while or they become useless


In the end, it was a pretty impressive game but one that didn't quite live up to its own potential because not every element was fully explored.

I realize that some of what I'm saying may not be useful for this game, but I'm hoping for a bigger, better follow-up game in the future. 

[Adam27]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I would love to add so many things to the game, new locations, characters, more complex plot etc., but it's incredibly hard to develop such a big project, and it takes very much time. However, who knows, maybe one day I will think of a new plot (or find someone to write it) and make a sequel of Etharnion in order to fully use potential of the engine

[Adam27]

Etharnion 1.2 has been released! New version brings some bug fixes and improvements in the game. All the changes are listed in the 'ReadMe' file. Of course, you can download the game completely for free.

http://etharnion.cloudserv.tk

Have fun!
Adam

[Quicksand-S]

I wish more people would give this a try. It's really pretty good.

I thought I'd take a look at the updated version and I found a few issues.

Typo: Old Man - "Well, you have awaken at last. Welcome to mu humble abode."
-"awaken" should be "awakened" and "mu" should be "my"

There are also a bunch of small grammatical errors and some overuse of the word "had" for past-tense anecdotes. I don't know if I'd have time to go through it all anytime soon, but I'm sure you can find someone to proofread your script for you if you feel inclined to look.

The readme says you've added inventory scrolling with the mouse wheel. The thing that seems to require that even more is the trading window, but it's not working there yet.

I could be mistaken, but it seems like you may want to make more changes to your game before each release. Releasing two versions that are so similar doesn't seem worth it (to me, anyway). Just a thought.

[Adam27]

Thanks for pointing the next mistake. You know, English isn't my first language, the game was translated from Polish, and even though I have played it many times before releasing, I must've missed some grammatical errors.

I release new updates when I fix some bugs or make some meaningful changes so that people who download the game could play the newest version. However, I think I'll release new versions less often since now, as I haven't got much time.