Hope, Abandoned [Horror/Puzzle] & Leyke Oolair [Puzzle/Experimental]

[Faelim]

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share two games that my girlfriend and I created during some local game jams that we'd participated in a few months ago. They are our first and second games, respectively, made in RPG Maker MV (and in RPG Maker in general), and we used the game jams as an environment in which to guide our ideas/structure.

Hope, Abandoned

Download link: https://faelim.itch.io/hope-abandoned
The first game we'd made in June 2016. We had taken part in a 48-hour game jam (Friday evening to Sunday evening) with the theme "There Goes The Neighbourhood". The reason we decided to go with a Horror/Puzzle experience is actually due to a compromise between myself and my girlfriend. I really wanted to try using RPG Maker as a development tool, and while she would've preferred to try making a VR game (which I am woefully underskilled in programming for), she was willing to settle with RPG Maker so long as it was a game genre she preferred... hence, Horror. I don't want to get into the core concept just in case I give away spoilers, but please feel free to give it a shot.

Leyke Oolair

Download link: https://faelim.itch.io/leyke-oolair
The second game we'd made in August 2016. For this game (which is a play on the words "the colors" in French: les couleurs), we took part in another 48-hour game jam, where the theme this time was to make a game inspired by a book. My girlfriend and I were having difficulties settling upon a particular book, when one of her art tutorial books caught my eye. Deciding to play with the limitations of the theme, we made a game based around the Red-Yellow-Blue color model, where the player would have the ability to change the tint of the screen in order to uncover clues or solve puzzles. Late into the final day of the jam, I actually wanted to focus more on the concept of emotions, and elected to forego the original "big puzzle" in lieu of a slightly more touching story idea.

Please feel free to try each game out -- they're both short in length, with completion time clocking in about 30 minutes at the maximum per game. Let me know what you like or dislike, and if you have any questions on how or why we did things a certain way, please feel free to ask!

[Marmalade Chainsaw]

Played through the second game (mostly because it was quick to play something embedded lol). It would have benefitted a lot from being able to use the items without going into the menu each time. Maybe something to consider in the future. Sweet little game though. I do appreciate that there're a few custom assets in there on such a short deadline.

[Faelim]

Thanks for giving it a playthrough! I absolutely agree, actually, that was one of my biggest pet peeves with the game during the jam was having to constantly navigate into the menu. At the time, I wasn't aware there was a Yanfly plugin that allowed for mapping common events to button presses, which could've helped (though unsure how I'd want to map it on a controller).

I've started wrapping my head around how to create plugins, and might try to override the existing item menu with one that takes you directly to the item selection... or just make a custom menu.

I appreciate the feedback, thanks again!

[Marmalade Chainsaw]

Honestly, I think your best bet for something like this would be to look into making a simple HUD instead, removing the need to enter a menu to use the items at all. You don't even really need to use plugins for it (though that's an option, of course); it can be done with showing pictures and a parallel common event.

[Faelim]

That's a really good call, actually -- I hadn't considered that! Based on my understanding, I can easily think of a way to implement the HUD for use with cursor/touch, though might need to read up on how to manage it as easily via controller.

Thanks for the input!