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Progress Report

A progress report, and a dubium

I'm glad to report that after a month of intensive activity, Act I (of IV) is nearing completion; I'd say it's about 80% complete, with only two more towns and the climax waiting to be written. Each Act represents about 3-4 hours of playing time (or perhaps a little longer if you explore everything), but the game will be available as a single file, not as individual episodes.

A reshuffling of the character roster has also taken place. The three heroes of the original demo still remain, albeit with some changes in their sprites and personality, though their role in the story remains the same. However, they are now joined by Lavinia, a young musician who is more than a little reticent about her origins, and Martin, a soft-spoken gentleman whose gun will probably only be pried from his cold, dead hands. ^_^

The current build of the game also dispenses with EXP points, as they were dragging the original game down. Instead, the entire party levels up at boss fights (think Chrono Cross). All other enemy encounters are optional and can be escaped from (unless you trigger a hidden enemy while exploring), and can either be ignored (if you're a story buff) or fought for the purpose of acquiring trading items, armour, and even items that can permanently increase your stats.

And now, a question for you, loyal players, subscribers and browsers:

How interested would you be in playing a full-length Act I, as a demo?

This demo would represent a substantial (and radical) change from the current download, some parts of which are definitely in need of major improvement. It would include exploring an entire world (each Act takes part in a different location), five playable characters, the beginnings of a complex story, and around 25 boss battles, designed to be won by strategy rather than attrition.

Looking forward to your answers! I'll be putting up some screenshots soon.
Q.

Progress Report

Rewriting is such sweet sorrow, Part Deux: Faith No More

One of the aspects of The Third World that I don't have to tinker much with during this phase of "rebuilding" is the characters.

Perhaps that's because they were the centrepiece of the original concept notes; perhaps it's because the story revolves around them. Nonetheless, after much deliberation, I have found it necessary to make one significant change: the heroine's name, which was "Faith" in the earlier draft, is now "Florence".

As justification for the name change, I offer the following parable or allegory. Read it as you will.

Once upon a time, there was a Jewish gentleman - let's assume he's Conservative but not quite Orthodox - who was designing a fantasy role-playing game using RPG Maker 2000.

One of the central characters of this game was a young woman whom he called Rachel. He chose this name because (a) he liked it, (b) it had a symbolic meaning in the context of the story, and additionally (c) it was an obscure literary reference that probably only he would get.

Unfortunately, one fine day, this gentleman was browsing through his Twitter feed when he received an unpleasant surprise. Apparently, a new "minor celebrity" had emerged on YouTube, who was virulently anti-Semitic, and whose channel featured interviews with so-called "scholars" whose stock-in-trade was the worst form of conspiracy theories; phantasmagorical constructions that would put The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to shame. Worst of all, said "minor celebrity"'s name was Rachel. (Her surname is irrelevant to this story, but if you insist on one being provided, let's say "Steele".)

With a heavy heart, our budding RPG maker decided that he could not, in good conscience, use the same name for the game's protagonist. So he searched high and low for an alternative, and decided that she would now be called not Rachel, but Rebecca.

Sometimes, things just work out that way.

The End

---

So goodbye Faith, and welcome Florence. I hope you enjoy your journey through The Third World.

Progress Report

Rewriting is such sweet sorrow.

So I'm back to work on this game full-time (with full-time defined as "some time every day, ranging from 5 minutes to 3 hours depending on where I can find it" - Ed.), and two daunting tasks stand before me.

1. Pruning the plot tree
This became a particularly acute problem when I replayed the "2/3rds complete alpha version" of The Third World and had no clue where things were headed at times. While I love a complicated plot, I was in danger of making Chrono Cross look like Spot's First Christmas with the amount of intellectual kudzu I was generating. Though a lot of it was interesting, it was also needlessly confusing and convoluted.

So, out come the clippers. Snip, snip, snip.

This is not to say that the plot as it stands now - which is still in line with my original notes to this game (that isn't saying much, considering that said notes are three sheets of scribbled notepaper assembled during a flight - Ed.) - is going to be overly simplistic. There are still depths to be uncovered, plot twists that (hopefully) aren't telegraphically obvious, and characters whose allegiances and motives remain enigmatic for quite a while. However, I do believe that the current version manages to strike a better balance in terms of toning down what one astute reviewer termed "the WTF? gradient". ^_^

2. Reworking the introduction.

The original introduction to The Third World threw the player into the action, in medias res, and gradually allowed things to unfold via exploration and NPC infodumps conversations. However, replaying this sequence left me with a feeling that the entire progression was artificial - there was too much of a "flash! you've gone to a new place!" factor.

The new introduction, which provides some backstory sequences that will eventually tie in to the main plot, is also more interactive and makes the game's initial protagonist more silent, instead of having him come up with "Hollywood one-liners" ("You need to be taught a lesson!", "All lip and no action!") that make him sound bland and stereotyped.

And with these few words, I am back to work. It's time to rework the first dungeon, which really was just a sequence of cryptic quotes and weird maps in the original, and looked embarrassingly like "Middens for Dummies" - and make it more of a world to explore.

Wish me luck!
Q.

Miscellaneous

The Magnificent 29

Howdy everyone!

Professor Q back here, after writing a few reviews and catching up with a few real-life issues. We're (okay, I'll drop the royal "we" - I am) busy working on another important section of the game, featuring a character we've already met, but who's now in a new form! (Avoid spoilers, Q, avoid spoilers!)

So while I keep my nose to the grindstone, I just want to give a shout-out and a hearty "thank you!" to the 29 users who've downloaded my game so far. Whether you liked it, hated it, or added it to a long list of games that you mean to play one day when you get the time (hey, it happens to all of us!), thank you for giving The Third World a try.

To those who actually sat through to the end (hey, it's shorter than the average movie, unless I made some major boo-boos in coding! :D), or even those who rage-quit and said "This is worse than Escape from Lashe City!", I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on what you've seen so far:

1. What do you think of the storyline as it's unfolded so far?
2. Who's your favourite character? ("None of the above" is an acceptable answer, but you wouldn't want to make Faith cry, would you? ^_^)
3. What do think the phrase "the third world" will eventually end up referring to?
4. Are the battles (boss fights) fair? Anyone who really had you throwing controllers or tearing your hair out?
5. If you were working with me on this game, what would you like to add/subtract/delete/cast into the fiery pit, never to be seen again?
6. Is there anything else that specifically stood out and caught your attention, either positively or negatively?

Looking forward to hearing from all of you!

This will likely be my last update here for the year (I'm headed out of town from Thursday until New Year), so wishing you all a merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy New Year! ^_^

Game Design

A question of music...

Hello world! Professor Q here, to assure you that all is well in Third World Land, at least as far as development is concerned. I've broken the 200-map barrier at last, which is something of a psychological milestone for me; I tend to run into fatigue issues at around 70-80 quite often. ^_^

I'm posting this to ask you, the denizens and mavens of RPG Maker World, to advise this wet-behind-the-ears developer on an important issue:

Does hearing well-known game tunes, especially those from classic RPGs, interfere with your enjoyment of the game?

When I started The Third World, most of its music was derived from genre classics, especially the Chrono duology. However, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if this might be a turn-off for some players. In the more recently developed parts of the game, I have tried to keep the use of RPG musical classics to a minimum, and am instead relying on the RMN Music Pack (<3) and the better of the RTP tunes that come with RPG Maker VX.

What's your opinion on this? Your feedback and suggestions would be most welcome. (Custom music, alas, isn't really an option; I can play an instrument after a fashion, but ask me to compose and you'll probably regret it! :D)

Announcement

A Demo Appears! Attack or Flee?

I'm glad to announce that I've been able to upload a playable demo of the first
two hours of The Third World here.

Though the gameplay is fairly simple, it does set up 90% of the rest of the game's plot, and should be give you a reasonable idea of what the game is like.

Hope you enjoy it (a man can always dream, can't he?), and looking forward to your feedback and comments.

Have a great day!
Q.

(Note: this demo requires the RPG Maker VX RTP. If you need to grab a copy of it, it's here: www.rpgmakerweb.com/download/additional/run-time-packages)

Progress Report

And we're out of the woods!

The first part of The Third World is now complete!

By first part, I mean the "first level" or "first chapter", which includes the first 100 or so locations, and the first major quest - the retrieval of our hero's (and heroines') memory and identity.

They now stand at the entrance of Limbo, "the edge of all possible worlds", hoping that a possibility may become a reality.

I'll have some new screenshots up soon, but in the meantime, I'm putting two queries out there:

1. Is anyone interested in playing the (hopefully not too buggy) first chapter as a demo? It would (a) give the player a fairly good feel of what the rest of the game is like, and (b) end on a cliffhanger of sorts (hey, the hook is what brings us back!) ^_^

2. If you'd like to go down in the annals of RPG Maker history for testing, providing helpful suggestions, or otherwise just taking a look at a "Chrono Cross on acid" opus by a fictional Professor, drop me a line. You might actually find it fun!

For now, adios! Things are getting quite sticky for our characters....

Progress Report

Loads and loads of....characters?

I'm happy to report that things are progressing nicely, and that I'm coming close to finishing the first part of the game. (Essentially, our hero(ine)'s adventures take place in four parts: in the first, they complete the basic tasks of finding out who they are, where they are and what they have to do; the next three parts see them actually accomplishing these tasks in whatever manner they see fit.)

However, while the plot and gameplay are (knock wood!) remaining well within my original schema so far, I can't say the same for the characters. The core of three main + four optional characters still stands, but I find that at several points, their story flows more smoothly if they are temporarily joined by a character from the particular world or zone they are in, who helps them (well, most of the time!) to get things done.

What's your take on this? Do you feel that such "temporary helpers" should best be left as NPCs? Or does temporarily playing as someone other than the main triad / tetrad add to the experience, provide a feeling of companionship, and so forth? Of course, there's always a danger inherent in tossing too many characters into the mix: I revere Chrono Cross, but even I recognize that that game's roster could easily have been trimmed by over half, leaving behind a stronger story and more room for character development. I'm not looking at anywhere near 40 characters (after all, apart from the branching paths, The Third World is more about story, background and discovery than about picking the best team for battles) but I'm certainly looking at 4-5 more, who will join temporarily during particular story arcs, leaving a total of 3 main + 1 out of 4 optional + 4-5 temporary.

Does this sound good, or am I already falling down a slippery slope that leads to psychic luchadores, mushroom men, bunny girls and turnips that speak in Ye Olde Englishe? Your suggestions are most welcome. ^_^
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