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[TheGrandHero]

My game. Let me show it to you.

Another Star is a console-style RPG like none you've ever played before! Which is really just marketing-speak for "it's like every other RPG you've ever played, except it has a few things that make it feel new, different, and exciting".

The game features a fast-paced battle system and a world that encourages players to explore and discover hidden areas as they lead their party on a journey across a fantasy world. While clearly influenced by the style and gameplay of the past, the game also implements innovations and ideas from the present. Random battles are less intrusive than classic console RPGs, alerting the player when enemies have been encountered, but giving them the choice to accept and fight, or ignore and continue exploring.

Our story begins with Tachi, the prince of Clan Minas. Sent by his father to retrieve a falling star that promises to upset the balance of the clans, the young warrior gets caught up in a sudden chain of events that will affect the entire planet. The fledgling warrior will journey across entire continents, slowly unraveling the mysteries of the world around him and encountering countless new people and places.

While some retro games focus on parody and humor, Another Star lets its plot play out on its own weight to evoke the atmosphere of storytelling in an age when storage space was tight even for simple text and every word had to count.

OBLIGATORY FEATURE LIST:

• An entire game packed into just 256 eight by eight pixel tiles!
• Optional CRT filter that can be enabled and disabled at any time.
• Over 30 original music tracks composed using actual samples from the Yamaha YM2413 FM chip.
• Approximately 20 hours of gameplay for the main storyline.
• Secret areas are hidden everywhere. Those who explore are sure to be well rewarded.
• Over a dozen dungeons to delve into and conquer, some hidden off the beaten path.
• Five difficulty levels, giving each player a chance to beat the game on their own terms.
• Four levels of character growth speed, including an "Old School" setting for those who love to grind for EXP.
• Both the game difficulty and character growth can be customized at any time from the options menu!

The game is available now for $10 from the game's website:
www.visionriders.com/anotherstar

There's also a demo version:
www.visionriders.com/anotherstar/demo.html

(The current build of the game is Windows-only, but I'm planning to add Linux and Mac support in the near future.)

[F8_Sean]

Nice visual style, the 128x128 tileset idea is pretty inspiring.

[TheGrandHero]

Nice visual style, the 128x128 tileset idea is pretty inspiring.

Yeah, though it was a bit of a pain for a project this size. Everytime I wanted to add something I had to grit my teeth and figure out if I had enough tiles left to pull it off. At times this meant sacrificing one thing for another.

It was an interesting exercise in getting a feel for what early programmers went through, that's for sure. It'd be neat to do another genre of game using this same tile limit, but if I did I'd definitely pick a smaller project.

[rgbisdestructive]

Seems like a pretty cool idea I dig the CRT filter haha I might give this a download soon.

[TheGrandHero]

Seems like a pretty cool idea I dig the CRT filter haha I might give this a download soon.

I always kinda feel bad that the CRT filter is usually the first thing that really gets people's attention about the game--because it's pretty much the one thing in the game I didn't do myself! XD

Credit where it's due: the two CRT filters included with the game are primarily the work of cgwg, Themaister, and DOLLS, and are only slightly modified (mostly to fit in easier with my engine, though I did add some very minor tweaks to get the effect I was looking for). I originally added a slight red bleed to simulate NTSC tube sets, but it didn't survive to the final version for one reason or another.

[F8_Sean]

I still haven't had a chance to check it out, but what engine/tech did you write it in?

[poe]

Looks nice, will probably pick this one up at some point!

[TheGrandHero]

I still haven't had a chance to check it out, but what engine/tech did you write it in?

The game is programmed in C# using a custom engine that interfaces with OpenGL and OpenAL by way of OpenTK. NVorbis is used to decode .ogg files for the music.

[Zeusington]

The game crashes on startup for me. I extracted everything to a desktop folder on Windows 7. Running a NVidia GTX650, 8gb RAM, six core AMD.

Just curious, but why is the game 115MB extracted?

[TheGrandHero]

The game crashes on startup for me. I extracted everything to a desktop folder on Windows 7. Running a NVidia GTX650, 8gb RAM, six core AMD.

Does it give any sort of error message?

Just curious, but why is the game 115MB extracted?

The game itself is about 66.1MB, about 40MB of which is the sound and music data. The rest of the 115MB is taken up by installers for .NET 4 (48.1MB) and OpenAL (1.17MB), provided for convenience (or, in OpenAL's case, necessity, as Creative took down the website and abandoned it).

[F8_Sean]

Have you thought about porting it to MonoGame and putting it on Vita or something?

[TheGrandHero]

Have you thought about porting it to MonoGame and putting it on Vita or something?

I have thought about non-PC platforms, though not the Vita specifically. Supposing the Vita supports OpenTK by itself without MonoGame, it probably wouldn't even take too much work. I can't say I even have any experience with the platform, though, so I wouldn't know for sure. The most modern handhelds I have access to are my DS and my brother's PSP.

I also have no idea what Sony's process for publishing is (or really, any of the big three post-XNA). They'd probably be worried about sales numbers and pass on it.

[F8_Sean]

PlayStation Mobile is really open and it looks like someone was working on an OpenTK port. I've got a Vita and I've been itching for a project if you need someone to help debug.

[TheGrandHero]

PlayStation Mobile is really open and it looks like someone was working on an OpenTK port. I've got a Vita and I've been itching for a project if you need someone to help debug.

MonoGame is built on top of OpenTK, so wouldn't think there would be too much work involved in porting it. I'm focusing on the Mac and Linux ports for the moment, but I'll certainly look into what would be required for a Vita version if there's interest in it.

[Zeusington]

I jumped the gun, didn't install the audio that came with it. Game works now. May want to make it a little more apparent in the readme that installing packaged drivers will help.

I got up to the Seeker fight in one go with a few deaths along the way. I like the quickness of combat encounters once you've acclimated to the system, the careful balance of offensive options (Such as gambling HP on spells or going in for normal attacks), and brevity of dialogue in general. I especially commend your press-confirm-to-initiate combat features, which is a real stroke of genius. I wish I could have thought of it first!

I feel HP recovery when you defend only serves to draw out encounters. I used it when I was very weak to get by, but the game became much more fun when I chose to forgo cheesing defense. Perhaps some enemies would emote one turn, spike damage the next, then blow the next turn. Defending could then reduce + cap damage to capitalize rather than blow a turn healing. I also feel a little more emphasis on out-speeding powerful opponents would make gearing more significant, and gear in general could use more variety.

Finally, though I realize you're deliberately limiting your image usage, I do not care for the font and greatly desire the option to change it to something less stylized and more readable.

Overall, I like the game and it has some pretty cool design choices up front, but there's not much I feel it'll do to build upon them. I feel like I'm going to spend the entire game walking around, mashing confirm unless I need to use magic, and... That's it.

Now, if the game just TOTALLY CHANGES EVERY WHOA CRAP sometime within two hours of starting, tip me off and I'll give it a fairer shot.

[TheGrandHero]

I jumped the gun, didn't install the audio that came with it. Game works now. May want to make it a little more apparent in the readme that installing packaged drivers will help.

The readme mentions it in the requirements section, but I can see how that would be overlooked. I'll probably mention it again in the support section of the readme (and maybe even on the website) when the next version comes out.

I especially commend your press-confirm-to-initiate combat features, which is a real stroke of genius. I wish I could have thought of it first!

This was an encounter system I've been wanting to do for years. I've long wanted to make an RPG that uses it, because I was afraid someone else would beat me to it. XD

(Cue someone pointing out a game that already does that I didn't know about or somehow managed to overlook.)

Finally, though I realize you're deliberately limiting your image usage, I do not care for the font and greatly desire the option to change it to something less stylized and more readable.

I personally have an affinity for the font as it is, although I'll admit that the lowercase version of it I played around with for awhile was more readable. I might consider doing an alternate, more vanilla font that can optionally be used if there's enough demand for it.

Overall, I like the game and it has some pretty cool design choices up front, but there's not much I feel it'll do to build upon them. I feel like I'm going to spend the entire game walking around, mashing confirm unless I need to use magic, and... That's it.

Now, if the game just TOTALLY CHANGES EVERY WHOA CRAP sometime within two hours of starting, tip me off and I'll give it a fairer shot.

Starting around the third dungeon, when the game starts to kick into gear, the battles--especially the boss battles--do start to require a bit more strategy as you get more spells to work with, and item management becomes a large focus of the combat system. However, exploring the world and looking for hidden areas to get the best stuff remain the game's forte.

That said, I do feel that the demo adequately represents the rest of the game. If you're beginning to feel that the game is wearing thin as you reach the end of the first dungeon, I would understand if you skipped on it. Chrono Trigger this is not (sadly). Your enjoyment of the full game is probably going to depend on how much you like the game's exploration aspect, as every couple dungeons or so you're going to get a new chunk of the world map to explore and search.

I guess that's not the best sales pitch, but I don't want people to feel ripped-off for buying the game.

[Zeusington]

Oh, I'm not the type who needs something sold at me, and acknowledging the intended audience + their likely expectations gives you points for sure. There's nothing worse than being told it's for "everybody" and then everybody finds out you're a big fat liar, so kudos for that.

I don't know if I was supposed to find invisible items in various corners of the maps, but I didn't find any. I feel like throwing some (more) of those in would excite things in two ways: Finding sweet hidden loot is always good, and the risk of mashing confirm and finding an enemy instead. The former is a proven mechanic that isn't tired by any stretch, and the latter is a totally different consideration that builds upon both your sweet encounter system and your focus on exploration. Oh, and having a point to some "dead ends" (With tougher enemies to punish poor timing!) would be cool as well.

Perhaps that's the real potential I see here. Adding in a relatively simple feature resonates so well conceptually, and this speaks well for the solid design of your game.

(I still think defense is boring though.)