Demo The Grand Battle Tower [8-bit Inspired]

[Bynary Fission]

Inspired, because the game doesn't rigidly adhere to the NES's color limitations.

So this is my first-ever project! I've never touched GameMaker prior to the creation of this game, and I taught myself to animate and code as I progressed towards completing this demo. As such, I'm eager to hear what you have to say, especially regarding the gameplay. The art is nothing special or spectacular (I'm not much of an artist), but I'm pretty pleased with how the game itself has turned out - especially the boss fight.

Here are a few example screenshots. I didn't want to show too much, but hopefully it gives you a feel for what to expect. I've added some captions to each screenshot. https://imgur.com/a/CLry8

Here's the game itself: http://www.mediafire.com/file/3vwe6xcq3fsdttt/Battle Tower Demo.zip

All controls are given to you in the game. Not shown here is the ability to cast spells, although there aren't many of them at this point. I estimate that the game will take around an hour to complete, assuming you talk to all of the NPCs. They're a surprisingly diverse bunch - why should humans have all the fun?

Just a few notes:

- I haven't yet decided on how I want the title screen to look. I've been using a placeholder for some time, but I blanked it out - I think it looks a little too cheap at the moment.

-I might be revising some of the music, and maybe a few visuals as well. I'm keenly interested on whether you think the player animations look fine or not - it's a big part of why I haven't included the other characters yet. Their models are based on his, so I want to get it right before I make them a part of the game!

Let me know if the dialogue or item descriptions feel "off." I'm not particularly experienced with writing characters and flavor text, so if you think there's a way to improve what you see, I'd love to hear it.

Most importantly, let me know if the game is actually fun or not! It's not particularly strategic right now, but future levels will demand more creative approaches to winning fights.

-----------------

Thank you for taking the time to play, and I look forward to any feedback you give!

 

[onjai_x3]

Honestly, I didn't know what to expect going into this, but I enjoyed this demo. The world has personality, and I even chuckled at some of the dialogue. But in the combat sections, enemies shouldn't do any damage to you if they collide with the top half of the player's sprite. They should just be behind the player because of the perspective.

 

[DyingSilence]

Nice dialogue, I see a big Undertale influence all over the place. You need to work on your collisions, because you can't move sideways when near a wall, and sometimes attacks connect without visual contact.

 

[Turgon]

Like onjai_x3 said, this world has fun personality and potential. Nice work with that! A few suggestions that I'm sure you're already working on:

1. Make dialog skippable/fast forward-able. The dialog is funny and has good flavor, but it is also slow and especially if I just want to buy something at a shop, I want to skip all the waiting while the character repeats themselves
2. Collisions need improvement both in combat and in walking around the world
3. Combat is really hard in its current state - any chance of having the player auto-heal after each level? I was spending all of my money on health potions which gets to be a bit boring when there are so many other cool looking things

The overall game seems like it will be really fun once you finish it! The story is pretty interesting too imo.