Behind the Rose (Turn-Based RPG) - False 3D elements

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Peyton Burnham

Guest
YO! This is a big update after a very long time! So if you thought this looked like kind of okay back then, then here you go!

Best place for updates is my Twitter!: https://twitter.com/peydinburnham

Hi! My name is Peyton Burnham and this is my dumb game!

Behind the Rose is a turn-based RPG! (freakin crazy right??) It focuses on exploring and using magics in conjunction with a pseudo 3D design. It also features a turn-based battle system where you time attacks, block enemy attacks, and use magic based on mini-games.


Kinda cool gameplay features:

Pseudo 3D -
The exploring and puzzle solving work in a simulated 3D space sorta thing. You can jump, ride wind currents, launch yourself out of leaves for high speed movement, bounce on stuff, etc! It's got a little bit of Mario to it which I think is pretty neat-o! This was a big reason I haven't updated in a long time, I had to figure out a way to do this that worked for me and it changed the way I'm fundamentally designing the game so this was a big chunk of work.





Mini-game based magics -
The magics in the game each have a specific corresponding mini-game for battle, as you level up the mini-games evolve and get harder as well, but they stay fundamentally the same!




Directional blocking/critical attacks (GREATLY IMPROVED) -
Every enemy can attack from left, right, or above. Some enemies telegraph what direction they're attacking from but might have tricky timing, some enemies trick you into thinking they're attacking from a different direction, some enemies attack a few times in a row, etc! A successful block will also completely reduce your damage to 0, so the better you get to know the enemies, the more likely you are to get through the whole game without dying!




Leveling up based on exploration vs grinding (a couple examples are above) -
You can find "Stars" that function like Heart Containers from the Zelda series! You can level up yourself (max HP up and your first ATK damage up), or you can level the Spirit of the Sword (max MP up and the Spirit's ATK damage up), or you can spend Stars to level up your Rings (the perk system in the game).


Sandbox level design -
Each area is a sandbox (not huge - just non-linear) for exploring and finding baby-dungeons, not many required puzzles/fights going from town to town/dungeon to dungeon but tons of optional baby
dungeons/side-quests to discover on your own.

Story -
For you story/narrative folks - Behind the Rose is based on a pretty gosh dang simple story. You don't know who you are, you set off on a journey to open the door locked behind the rose (OH DANG) and save the Heavenly Queen from her imprisonment at the hands of the Dark Beast for whatever reason! SUPER simple. The narrative is mostly based on exploring, discovering the world, and getting to know it's characters really well. For those of you that are into this stuff: there's plenty of lore, weird jrpg stuff, a healthy dose of darkness, tons of secrets, and all that other stuff! There's going to be tons of game and big story elements left over after your initial play through so there are a lot of secrets to be found.



Current progress: Not crazy far! Like I said I unfortunately had to change everything about this game fundamentally, definitely for the better, but all of the systems are now in place. There are a lot of things done that don't fit together yet. About half of the first of the four main areas is finished. I'm currently working on the tutorial area (Doing it out of order for a lot of reasons). A few self-contained baby-dungeons are finished, a sidequest or two are finished. When the tutorial area is finished and I optimize the game a bit more I'll definitely have a demo out. I'll also be doing another Kickstarter this year with a re-assessed goal to cover some specific expenses, so if you really want to stay updated/engaged regularly and get more screenshots and whatever definitely go to my Twitter! Lastly, I'll leave you with a couple misc screenshots! Thanks so much!




 
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Lockwork

Guest
i like the use of color in your art. that sword in the hill looks a lot like the master sword from legend of zelda.
 
The first of the random screenshots reminds me of Secret of Mana, the best game of all time.

I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this.

And if you tell me you've played Secret of Mana too... well then...
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
The first of the random screenshots reminds me of Secret of Mana, the best game of all time.

I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this.

And if you tell me you've played Secret of Mana too... well then...
Honestly I never got the chance to log more than an hour into Secret of Mana, but it's been high on my to-do list for a loooooong time!
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
Yo! There's a pre-demo up now for anyone who wants to help me tell how broken it is currently!
 
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dj_midknight

Guest
The battle UI elements do not line up right in full screen mode.

fullscreen.png
A few suggestions,

Make the run faster on the world map. You have to look very closely to see any difference at all.
The subterranean holes/portals should spawn the player to the side or top of the hole. Its super annoying when you are holding up on the stick to climb the ladder and before you can do anything on the new room you go back into the hole.
The holes are super hard to see. Maybe put a bit of dirt around them so they stand out a little bit more.

A bit of idea on where to go next would be helpful. The woman tells you to go to the first room and then you are left to wander around and attempt to figure out where she meant.

MP gauge on the world screen also helpful.

Last one and I think this is a big one. The game relies heavily on blocking, but it is extremely difficult to tell which direction you are being attacked from and often I would get killed just before I would have won the fight, and have to go WAYYY back to the last save point. Same goes for the attack function.. It almost feels like its better to hit the attack key as soon as the attack starts rather than try to time it closer to when you make contact. Something else to help assist with the timing would be nice.

Also maybe add a few more save points.

You might consider making the inventory larger also. 12 items is very small when they do not stack.

I plan to play it a bit more later on. I am lvl 6 right now still trying to figure out where to go after getting the first crystal.
 
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JaJ

Guest
I wish that was the case, but having two RPGs launching on KS at the same time is going to be rough. Let's just avoid each other's launch weeks at least, haha. Don't want to canabalize each other. Good luck with the campaign! =)
I wouldn't launch at the exact same time, but I think this is actually an opportunity to help each other out. That actually happens a lot! I know kickstarter has become more of a selling platform but for projects like these it's still used to actually get the game funded, and I think fans of the genre on kickstarter understand that and won't mind backing two games in the same time period if they like both.

Anyway I'm following this project on twitter. Let me know when the kickstarter goes live so I can retweet. Also consider thunderclap. You want to get the ball rolling the moment you go live ;)
It also doesn't hurt to start tweeting a good while before the kickstarter starts, let people know it's coming!
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
The battle UI elements do not line up right in full screen mode.

View attachment 6853
A few suggestions,

Make the run faster on the world map. You have to look very closely to see any difference at all.
The subterranean holes/portals should spawn the player to the side or top of the hole. Its super annoying when you are holding up on the stick to climb the ladder and before you can do anything on the new room you go back into the hole.
The holes are super hard to see. Maybe put a bit of dirt around them so they stand out a little bit more.

A bit of idea on where to go next would be helpful. The woman tells you to go to the first room and then you are left to wander around and attempt to figure out where she meant.

MP gauge on the world screen also helpful.

Last one and I think this is a big one. The game relies heavily on blocking, but it is extremely difficult to tell which direction you are being attacked from and often I would get killed just before I would have won the fight, and have to go WAYYY back to the last save point. Same goes for the attack function.. It almost feels like its better to hit the attack key as soon as the attack starts rather than try to time it closer to when you make contact. Something else to help assist with the timing would be nice.

Also maybe add a few more save points.

You might consider making the inventory larger also. 12 items is very small when they do not stack.

I plan to play it a bit more later on. I am lvl 6 right now still trying to figure out where to go after getting the first crystal.
Thanks for the suggestions and feedback and sorry I didn't get back to you sooner! Some of these issues have been addressed already and a lot of the systems are are being tweeked and reworked in GMS:2. The Final version of the PROTOTYPE is out now on the Kickstarter page if you want to check out that version and I'll keep all of your suggestions in mind now that I'm working on the full release.
 
Heck yeah. Good luck dude!
Edit: Ugh, rough first day, though. ):
I would get to emailing everyone you possibly can, if I were you. It's important to save the campaign super early if you're going to do it at all. Good luck. :x
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
Heck yeah. Good luck dude!
Edit: Ugh, rough first day, though. ):
I would get to emailing everyone you possibly can, if I were you. It's important to save the campaign super early if you're going to do it at all. Good luck. :x
Thanks, man and I am! I've also already made 20% of my goal so I think It'll be fine!
 
Just a small heads up...
I scrolled past the demo button a few times because it looked like title art, and didn't read "DOWNLOAD" or "DEMO" on it. Might be hurting demo downloads, I dunno.
Edit: And played the demo. Unfortunately, it didn't sell me. My controller didn't work, which was a bummer (but not a huge deal), but I think the main problem was the pacing...I'm not sure it was a good idea to start the demo off with block pushing puzzles. Without a strong reason to continue up until that point, I just quit. It'd be better to get the player more invested in the world and characters before having them do mundane tasks like pushing pillars around - if you should keep them in at all, that is! Link to the past did block pushing puzzles correctly; they were tightly made, so you only had to push each block a tile or two, and they made you think ahead a few moves, so they felt like puzzles instead of busy work. That's a good example to follow, I think. Another easy to fix problem was the run speed - someone already said it a long time ago, but you never fixed it, which is surprising to me when you're asking for $10,000. That's a thirty-second fix.

Anyway, yeah. My advice for the demo. You should be front-loading your characters and writing, which seems to be what this game's main focus is, not the busy-work puzzles. The project is at 35% with only a week left, so it might be too late now, but I'd really start pushing out updates and making a lot of noise, unless you're resigned to not hitting your goal this time. Which is fine, too, obviously. You can always relaunch in a month with a more exciting demo with the new fans you've gotten from this KS campaign to help you out to try again.

Anyway, good luck to you guys. If you do try again, I'd look around for KS pledge statistics - I've heard some months are much easier than others to get funded during, so you might have just picked a bad time, too. The Switch and Breath of the Wild came out - competing with a new Nintendo system and one of the best games ever made probably didn't do you any favors. Looking forward to updates!

Edit: yeah, better luck next time. ):
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
Yo I'm back for any of you cool cats that thought this game didn't look terrible!
 
Oh, nice! Welcome back, fellow RPG warrior!
Glad your project is still alive!

Looks like you've been busy, too! Some big improvements to the art, and much more game world, it seems! =D
 
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Tayoyo

Guest
Oh I really like the art. The colours all really compliment eachother really well. It seems like you're doing a really good job and it's good to see that you're back to posting. I read some of your earlier posts and saw that you did a Kickstarter. Did you reach your goal? I've been thinking about maybe starting up one sometime soon so I was wondering if you have any tips.
Thanks :D
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
Oh I really like the art. The colours all really compliment eachother really well. It seems like you're doing a really good job and it's good to see that you're back to posting. I read some of your earlier posts and saw that you did a Kickstarter. Did you reach your goal? I've been thinking about maybe starting up one sometime soon so I was wondering if you have any tips.
Thanks :D
Thank you! And yes I did a Kickstarter a while back and I did NOT make my goal! I had set a goal I wasn't SUPER comfortable with, but where I was in life, it was what I needed. I had a goal of $10,000 and a little over $4,000 was pledged, so nothing absolutely pride-crushing! A lot of this was because I hadn't done ANY advertising before the Kickstarter (I started really advertising my game literally like a week or so before I launched the KS). This was also because of the situation I was put in during that time of my life.

So my advice is to just make sure people know about it, which it seems like you've been doing! Also be reasonable with your goal, figure out what's really essential. For example, my first kickstarter was because I really needed it to pay the bills while I was working as much as possible every day! Now I'm in a different place and I have that taken care of, so my next Kickstarter will probably only have a goal of around $2000-$3000 for a couple necessary expenses for my project specifically.

Be reasonable, show it off for a while before the KS (there are some good crowdfunding social media helpers like Thunderclap that you can look into too), with a game like yours you should also try and contact some smaller lets-players/streamers and give them a free download! Also, try not to FIND a reason to do a Kickstarter asap, if you have a good work flow and everything is going pretty well as it is, take your time and wait until you realize that there might be something you NEED funding for!

Also, your game looks pretty rad! I'm a HLD fan like most folks out there so I'm definitely going to try it out when I get the chance!
 
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Tayoyo

Guest
Thank you! And yes I did a Kickstarter a while back and I did NOT make my goal! I had set a goal I wasn't SUPER comfortable with, but where I was in life, it was what I needed. I had a goal of $10,000 and a little over $4,000 was pledged, so nothing absolutely pride-crushing! A lot of this was because I hadn't done ANY advertising before the Kickstarter (I started really advertising my game literally like a week or so before I launched the KS). This was also because of the situation I was put in during that time of my life.

So my advice is to just make sure people know about it, which it seems like you've been doing! Also be reasonable with your goal, figure out what's really essential. For example, my first kickstarter was because I really needed it to pay the bills while I was working as much as possible every day! Now I'm in a different place and I have that taken care of, so my next Kickstarter will probably only have a goal of around $2000-$3000 for a couple necessary expenses for my project specifically.

Be reasonable, show it off for a while before the KS (there are some good crowdfunding social media helpers like Thunderclap that you can look into too), with a game like yours you should also try and contact some smaller lets-players/streamers and give them a free download! Also, try not to FIND a reason to do a Kickstarter asap, if you have a good work flow and everything is going pretty well as it is, take your time and wait until you realize that there might be something you NEED funding for!

Also, your game looks pretty rad! I'm a HLD fan like most folks out there so I'm definitely going to try it out when I get the chance!
Thanks for the advice. I see your point with waiting for a kickstarter. The only reason I have to do one right now is to get attention for my game, as I'm able to every part of my game by myself or from free help from friends, so I'll wait until it actually makes sense. I just took a look at Thunderclap, and I think that I'll try doing something for it when school starts again in the fall and I'll try and raise attention around school with posters and stuff. Thanks again for responding and all the advice :D
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
Thanks for the advice. I see your point with waiting for a kickstarter. The only reason I have to do one right now is to get attention for my game, as I'm able to every part of my game by myself or from free help from friends, so I'll wait until it actually makes sense. I just took a look at Thunderclap, and I think that I'll try doing something for it when school starts again in the fall and I'll try and raise attention around school with posters and stuff. Thanks again for responding and all the advice :D
Absolutely, man! I'm looking forward to seeing where your game goes!
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
Here's a little snippet of a puzzle from the tutorial area! You get your first 3 magics in the first dungeon of the game, so this isn't really a puzzle, more a get-to-know-you with the magic utilities. I have tons of ideas for arrow-based puzzles and platforming that I'm pretty stoked to eventually get to, but for now, this!
 
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Ankokushin

Guest
Wow, looking forward to it, man.

What I liked:
- your "3d" dynamics are awesome. You managed to simulate depth and height very effectively by what I see in the vids.
- exploration seems really fun: there is jumping, plataforms and little puzzles, which is unusual for a JRPG style game
- the art has a lot of personality. Those COLORS.

What I meh:
- sprites for battle scenes lack detail and look a little weird.

Good luck with the project!
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
Wow, looking forward to it, man.

What I liked:
- your "3d" dynamics are awesome. You managed to simulate depth and height very effectively by what I see in the vids.
- exploration seems really fun: there is jumping, plataforms and little puzzles, which is unusual for a JRPG style game
- the art has a lot of personality. Those COLORS.

What I meh:
- sprites for battle scenes lack detail and look a little weird.

Good luck with the project!
Thanks so much! And yeah, definitely some goofiness in the battle animations (the ghost in particular is hot garbage right now, I'm either gonna re-animate him completely or just scrap him). I'm just super lazy and not at a stopping point for animation right now, but that's one of my biggest to-dos down the line.
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest


Another little bit from the tutorial dungeon! Almost done with all of the level designing for this dungeon, then I'll be on to adding in some NPCs, then the cutscenes, then a whoooole lot of polish to everything. As for this water hopping ability gif thing, this is sort of one of the abilities you get in the first dungeon. The main ability of the game is environmental, depending on where you use it (designated pads), it will temporarily give you special abilities in that specific room. I don't have visuals for the specific effects yet but there will be clear identifiers where you can use your ability and what effects you currently have (such as water bouncing, floating, super jumps, etc).

This dungeon's a little tough considering it has to set a lot of precedences for the rest of the game, obviously like overall design, structure, difficulty, how exploration works, how the abilities work individually and in conjunction with each other, how enemy encounters work, etc. So I'm trying do it in a smart enough way, but we'll see! So obviously once I have this first dungeon polished up I'll have a demo ready to gauge what's up.

Also soon I'll show off how I want to do the encounter system! It's an idea I like a lot, it'll definitely evolve over time as the game progresses but I think I've got something cool.
 
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Peyton Burnham

Guest
Oh neat, I saw this on Twitter a bit ago, didn't know you posted dev logs here. Happy to follow this one
Thanks! I'm not the most consistent guy in the world with updates but I'm definitely trying to keep it interesting
 
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