Been playing for 6 hours this weekend and I love it so far. I'll send some feedback once I finish the content but it is just suggestions, you are doing great! I'd like nothing more to site for hours and know more about this world and the people there, visit more places and learn all the spells there are. Please keep it up!
Thank you so much! It makes me really happy to know that you had a wonderful experience. Any feedback is appreciated so I can improve it even further! 😊
Seems the popularity of this game is dying down a bit. I played through it again recently, but its getting old. I already know how to do everything, and nothing new happens. Maybe add different scenarios that randomize to spruce things up some?
Watched Jaccb_Beck playing this today and decided to purchase it. I'm going to give it a try myself. Plan on streaming it myself on Sunday at 2pm EST. Will let you know what my viewers and I think of it.
Pretty good build so far from what I can see. only weirdness i saw was a piece of grass in the SW corner of the drakewood area that you can't walk on for some reason..
Positives:
So far I've found the music to be quite good, not what I was expecting in a test build at all. The way of showing in combat weaknesses to remember is nice. Aura shield is a very interesting twist I can't remember seeing in a game before. Save points are at good locations to make sure you don't lose much progress and act as good reminders that 'hey, have you saved lately?'
Negatives: Seems like the days are going by too quickly, like we'll run out of days if we only have 100 before we can explore everything. Some of the options seem a little too obvious which you're supposed to pick.
My viewers seemed quite interested in it as well :) Be continuing it again next Sunday to see how far we can go.
Was pointed out to me by one of my discord users who picked up the game:
Potential bug: Completing the v0.5 storyline allows you to continue the game in sandbox mode in order to continue exploring and trying new things. For whatever reason, I've been locked out by the Record Keeper who claims I still need to see my Mentor, which I've already done. Nothing I've been able to do will get the Record Keeper off of that loop.
Potential cause: I had a mission accepted before going to Ridgethorn (sp?) Village that I never started or completed. Hunting Garuda or something of that extent. That's the only thing I had that involves the Mentor-- perhaps it might be the cause.
QoL: When navigating menus, it would be a huge QoL improvement to return to the character listing after backing out of spells/equip/status menus. As of now, it goes all the way back to the menu order, and you have to select spells/equip/status again to return to the character listing.
Nitpicking: Could be my system, windowed mode, or an optimization issue, but my FPS crashes on a large critical strike, sometimes accompanied by a quick, horizontal black line across the screen. Mostly seen in the Arashiya Forest
I'm guessing that person is in Drakewood House? It happened to one of the streamers I know as well and I have fixed that bug in the version I am working on now. Thank you for the QoL suggestion as well! I will make sure to do that. Thank you for letting me know about the FPS crash as well, I will see what I can do. ^-^
I really like how you had that questionaire segment segment in the beginning to determine what house you go to. It was a nice touch of customization. Also picking customizing, I like how you are able pick what skills you learn. However, if you don't pick any offense magics it somewhat hinders exploration when you go out into the field. I have yet to finish it though.
As for reading the books I think having you learn the skill after 3 days seems sufficient. Four just seems a little too long. I like the overall atmosphere of school and the school theme is catchy. Although, you somewhat made it too obvious the LawMages were the true bad guys. The merchant that illegally sells you books and the Julian's slip of the tongue gave it away for me. As for the merchant have the merchant appear later in the game, when the party is starting to question the school. With Julian have Sylvia cut him off when he says the monsters are not the true enemies instead of mentioning the crystal experiments. That way the thought could linger on who the true bad guy is. The battles also seem to drag because of the slower battle animations and barriers. Maybe, you could have 1 to 2 less barriers on bosses because this where that most apparent.
Anyway, I think this a pretty well put together game, I can understand why it won first place. I was wondering if aren't too busy you wouldn't mind trying out my game. I finished the game, I just need it to be playtested some more. https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/path-of-the-martyrs.116206/
Thank you so much for the feedback and the suggestions! You raised some really good points and I think this will be helpful as I refine and fine tune the game some more.
I would love to try your game and help you test it! I hope it's available for Mac because I only have a Mac laptop unfortunately.
Okay, another day has come with enough boredom to make me think of this game. Are you planning to leave the amount of time spent at Lawmage Academy at 100 days? If so, I wouldn't be too happy. I think it would just be too short considering what's already there. It would make sense to me if the player were able to play through four years (1460 days) of daily activities, or at least four 100-day terms, Possibly with summer breaks or something. Anyway, just an idea.
Oh, do you have a discord server for this game? That would be nice.
The 100 Days isn't final. It will definitely increase! I am not too sure about 4 years though because that might take too long to make. Still, it will definitely be AT LEAST one year.
To those of you who saw this comment before it was edited to this text, I am sorry. I was careless in my wording, and it sounded like I disliked this game. The video I made was taken down due to way too many editing mistakes and caption-commentary that didn't make sense and even made it seem like the game was horrible.
I have a question. When you create a character and get to the naming stage, the default name that appears is "Syle". In the RPG Maker GOTM Jam, I found many games that offered the same thing. As a person who had only known the name RPG Maker until I found this game, is that just a basic default given by a plugin (engine, add-on, whatever its called)? If so, what do you think it should be befitting Lawmage Academy?
Awhile back I was bored during some free time, so I grabbed a pencil and paper and wrote up a short story in the Lawmage Academy setting and was unsure of one of the character names. It's nothing to be proud of.
I am currently trying to get a small streamer to play this. He's already looked at it, but he said turn based RPGs weren't really his thing, so I'm next going to try to convice him that the turn base is only in battle and combat is only smaller part of this game.
Aww thanks for the support! You are right. Most of the mechanics are outside of battle and combat is only one aspect of the game. Still, I don't want anyone who is not interested in JRPGs to feel compelled to play Lawmage Academy either. My target audience in the end are people who like retro style RPGs. ^-^
Um, I broke the crystal in the fairy forest, and the only thing that happened was a fairy who originally did not want to fight attacked me. What's supposed to happen? It literally traps me there every time I do it, so its the farthest I've been able to progress. I'm going to try the other route now, but why can't I break it and I actually gain the ally, the door opens, something?
I found nothing in the game files hinting of this "powerful ally", so I couldn't tell which file was assigned to her. There is an animation for the gate opening, but I cannot tell how to activate it. I know its not the end because I haven't seen even half of the characters and I'm already four hours in on my save file.
Edit: I took the other route, and it works fine. However, both options should be available, and since one seems broken, I cannot do anything with it.
Oh, one issue. With all the grinding I did to get through Arashia forest easily, Xeoclat Hills and the fairly forest was seriously lacking in difficulty. The boss in Xeoclat Hills was faster to beat. Too bad I couldn't do much grinding.
There was no crystal I could pick up. Was it that sparkling thing next to the broken crystal? I couldn't interact with it. I used a different save file the next time I saved, so I can easily go back therer and see what happens. The only things I could interact with was the door, the fairy, and the entrance to the village, where I was only told to complete my objective. I'll load the save again and check later, but I don't think I can do anything.
Also, I originally wanted to keep this exploit discreet for my own benefit, but with the charms I got in the Xeoclat Hills, I no longer maintain status effects outside of battle. All I have to do is equip them as soon as the battle is over, then unequip and equip on my next party member that has it, and it immediately takes away the effect.
Edit: I loaded the save and it seems to work now, however, I think I'll use the save that I chose to wait for Uni because I like tanking better than a large amount of attack power.
Hey, I played through the v0.5 demo. This is a really great game! Really impressed with what you've managed to do with RPG Maker MV. Loved the loop of going to classes, getting new things to do and then prioritizing how I wanted to do them over the next few days.
I have a few notes that can help improve player experience if you were interested in feedback for the next iteration:
Including more character creation options (not just M/F)
Having just Male and Female may alienate some players. Might be better to have a few body types and then let player determine how gendered or not they want their character to be. To not make this too asset heavy on your side, SumRndDude has a plugin that can use the RPGMV character generator parts to generate sprites and battlers based on player selection.
Also referring to Magister Millenia with gender neutral pronouns might help keep it nice and mysterious.
Hold Z/X to speed through Battle Animations
Some of the spell animations take a while and I think a lot of players might like it if they can speed through some of them to get to their next turn in battle. There are already a lot of time saving measures in this game (such as the Keeper Teleporter) so being time conscious seems to have been an intended part of the design and this speeding animations feature would be in line with that. If you are using Yanfly Battle Engine Core, there is a plugin that adds Battle Animation Speed to your Options menu.
Environmental Spell Effects Issue
I really liked the fact that you could use the same spells as in battle to manipulate the environment (like Golden Sun), however, it seemed inconsistent what spells could be used for what environment interactable. Pictured above is the issue I ran into where I was unable to use Frostbolt spell which I got from a crystal to grow the plant. Do spells from crystals not count towards this effect or is this a bug?
Boss Enemies probably shouldn't be Guarding so much
A few of the Boss enemies would Guard at times effectively skipping their turns making those fights a lot less interesting as a result. Due to the way Order Turn Battle works, singular Bosses should probably be doing a lot of things on their turn (damage, healing, buffing) to be action efficient because the player can manipulate when an enemy's turn gets skipped through a Guard Break. If this is an intentional part of the combat design to give players a breather, please disregard this note entirely.
Hope some of those notes were useful. Thanks for putting together a great demo and looking forward to seeing the full game when it comes out :)
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! You made a lot of useful points for improvement. I will definitely consider it for the next update. I'm glad you enjoyed Lawmage Academy!
Okay, I know these aren't gender variants, but they would be interesting to see as character choices. Maybe the character editor can choose gender and a list of species such as the ones I listed?
Nice suggestions! Elf and Cat Person are planned. For beast, it can be done and they can have an innate weakness to Water because beast types are weak to that too!
Ok, I have some issues that need to be addressed. It took some time, but I have mastered the early game and found out pretty much everything mechanicswise
First off, there is absolutely no way to know where your secret money stash is. Because I found out about it too late, it ruined all my progress during my retake of Basic Combat I.
Second, the game doesn't tell you anything about how to do things until you do them. This may not be bad in most cases, but it also played a role in ruining my progress. How was I supposed to know that some items you get are for late game, not early and vice versa. I'll explain a bit more later.
Third, it is too easy to grind in Basic Combat I. By learning the enheal spell, you are able to earn more mana potions then you use, and there is an approximately 3:1 ratio involved (with turn limits taken into consideration) with using spells to regain health during battle over using the potions. You can literally find the enemy that poses the greatest challenge, fight it, leave the area, return, and fight him again to level up to level five before it slows to becoming frustratingly slow. During the retake, there is one added monster that beefs up grinding, and with the addition of a friend(s), it is way too easy to grind all over again to level up insanely high.
Fourth, the boss it too unefficient to beat. It is very easy to beat him, but even with my tactics, you use most of your usable items, which could be very useful later. It is possible to grind to regain them, but you might battle inside the school before you return ouside, which made me delete my first save in favor of making my next playthrough more favorable and learn the mechanics more, in which I ended up employing several strategies for beating the boss more efficiently, which I did eventually.
Fifth, whats the point of adding a loading screen that is rarely ever seen, and if it is, its only for a split second?
Now that I have mastered the early game, I am ready to tackle late game. I might to a VLC stream me showcasing my strategy that probably no one will ever see, so I guess I'll record it.
Suggestion: Check out Elchronicle, specifically the mission featureitis a mobile game that I think was also made using RPG Maker, but I think it uses some of the same soundtracks as Lawmage Academy, specifically the one that plays during a mission. Doing so may prevent copyright issues in the future if this game hits mainstream.
Also just found a more serious issue. When creating your name there is a button that says page. Selecting it will take you to a page with various letters scattered across the box. The empty spaces are selectable, and they count as spaces in the creation of a name. I was able to exploit it to add spaces to the end of my name to fill the slots, which ended up adding a suprisingly large amout of space in dialogue boxes whenever my name was mentioned.
It is also possible to get stuck. At the save point in the Soulstace house (only known location), theres that dark haird npc who usually hangs out near the desk. If she moves in the tile touching the corner of the chair tile at the wall or in front of the chair and you talk to her, there is a possibility that she will stop wandering. Because there is a two tile gap between the desk and the wall, and the chair takes up one as well as the npc, you are trapped by the desk.
Also, the latency when using the WASD keyboard configuration is for some reason occasionally higher, much too high for sufficient maneuvering, such as any sudden turn.
Hey don't worry about it I appreciate all the feedback and bug reports! You've been very helpful. I will work on as much bugs as I can to prepare for the next update!
I converted all the assets to ".ogg" and ".png". You can no longer keep secrets to future updates in the game files, even from people without RPG Maker. LOL.
It's fine! Almost all of it are placeholders that RPG Maker MV provides, which I will replace. Plus, you can't legally use the assets without a license from the creator so the copyright is still protected. 😊
But hey if you want to help promote Lawmage Academy by helping distribute the main menu screen to the public, I'd thank you for it!👍
Ok, I guess I might be able to promote it that way. When I told you about this, I was thinking of the possibilities of changing assets to make the game look different, which could be called different things depending on what you want to do with it. For example, skin, texture pack, etc. Oh! I just thought of something. Are you planning to put a character editor in the game? That would be better than having just four basic characters depending on your class.
Changing assets is highly encouraged to set it apart from other RPG Maker games as you pointed it out. As for character editor, it is possible but not yet a priority at this point.
Only been playing for a bit but this is such a unique game in its school mechanic from all I know. keep up the amazing work I can really see this game becoming popular!
I haven't finished the game yet, but I've enjoyed the concept so far. Especially being in the different houses, I enjoyed Drakewood and Foxhelm the most. Only thing is I wish that there was a difficulty level or someway to grind because I've barely been able to get past the boss levels without using most of my health potions. If it was between someway to train and a difficulty level, I'd rather have somewhere to train.
Thanks for the feedback, Mako! I will certainly do some balance changes for the early boss fights as I have realized they might be a bit too much to handle. I may not necessarily nerf them too much, but I will at least make potions more accessible early game. Thanks!
This such an amazing game. The concept is absolutely amazing. I enjoy how you can pick when to do classes instead of being forced into doing one everyday. The music is great, and the game looks great. I was easily addicted and have already spent several hours in game. My only suggestion would be a difficulty setting so that the battles don't prohibit progression. I did have difficulties getting past the basic combat the first time. Thank you for making such a great game! I'm looking forward to new versions!
Thanks for the feedback Safty! I will consider your comments in improving the future updates. In the meantime, do stay tuned for updates! The devlog has some nice stuff for you to check out to have an idea of what's in store for you in the future! You can also find Lawmage Academy on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for daily updates!
i just started playing the game and it seems quiet interesting , i salute you because i can picture a high potential of imagination and creativity behind this game , but i recommend that you give us access to a bug tracker so we can help you , i've noticed a mistake in the text which naturally can happen , best of luck to you ^^
Thanks for the feedback! As for the bug tracker, I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, may I suggest writing it down in the feedback survey when you are ready to fill it up? I appreciate your help so I can further improve the game. Thank you so much!
i have a deep and intense need for a full version of this. this was amazing... i downloaded and finished it in a day! i got the impression that you could romance members of your party in the future is that correct? again, this was so so much fun!
edit: way too many typos in this because my cat kept trying to sit directly on my laptop
I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed it! The full version will take a while, primarily because of art assets that need to be created. However, you can stay tuned to see the devlogs and follow the Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook pages to keep yourself updated with the progress. In the future, an early access in Steam is planned to get feedback from players like yourself and help make the game better.
As for romance between party members, it is not the priority right now nor is it a core gameplay mechanic. However, I am still open to that possibility if time and resources allow it. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much! Unfortunately it is not yet implemented in v0.5. It is the only major game feature left to be implemented and I plan to implement it on v0.6 along with improvements to the character sprites.
Tried it out. Very good game, I will continue playing it. Its kind of annoying though because I am in that blue intellegence house (I forgot its name) and I am stuck in the basic combat class because I have absolutely no idea where to find that flower. Eh, I've only played the game for about a half hour anyway, so maybe I'm just not poking around enough. This is a very interesting game, especially considering it was made with RPG Maker. It does seem to have some very basic features that are not very unique from other RPGs from RPG maker, perhaps too much unoriginality in that sense,
Oh yeah, really awesome music btw. I have no idea what kind of notation program (except with Finale's addon) could have such a great sound quality. Unless you used a DAW...
Thanks for the feedback! For the Arashiya Flower, I'm sure you will fnd it if you keep exploring further. For the basic features, may I know which features you are referring to so I can improve on them? For the music, most of the music are fron the Magic School pack and Wonderland Music pack in the asset store. 😊
The unoriginal features... You just revealed one. The music. You used features common to most RPG Maker users. If you want the game to actually be unique, you need to use your own stuff. Using your own music and your own battle engine instead of the ones provided is a start. Games with unoriginal content can be described as rip-offs.
I just want to ask, are you going to make a features like dating sim where you can date both boys and girls which gender you are in the future? I really appreciated it if you going to make that. (Sorry for my bad grammar)
I've been really enjoying this game but the game crashes in the second forest when they cross the stones in the river and stop by the large rock. I'd love to get farther though. Just thought to let you know. i only wish there were two time slots for a day other then one to do stuff in. Awesome.
Thank you so much for taking time to play Lawmage Academy and giving feedback! V0.5 is planned for release this July with major bug fixes and lots of new content so stay tuned!
In the meantime, you can get past Xoclat Hills by avoiding that tile. I have fixed it in V0.5 but it really is a game breaking bug in V0.4. I hope you keep playing and see what's in store for you after Xoclat Hills.
Again thank you for your feedback. I will take your suggestions into consideration and think about how to further improve the game in the next versions. Please do try out V0.5 when it comes out this month and let me know what you think!
Thank you so much for testing Lawmage Academy! Your opinion matters, especially this early in the development stage. Any constructive praise or criticism will help.
If you have the time, may I ask you to answer the feedback survey? Let me know what I'm doing right and what I can do to improve.
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I love it! check out my impressions video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSu2uBWKCrs
this games offers so much, i love the combat, beautiful maps and the learning system for spells is unique
Thank you so much! I will check out the video for sure. ☺
Been playing for 6 hours this weekend and I love it so far. I'll send some feedback once I finish the content but it is just suggestions, you are doing great! I'd like nothing more to site for hours and know more about this world and the people there, visit more places and learn all the spells there are. Please keep it up!
Thank you so much! It makes me really happy to know that you had a wonderful experience. Any feedback is appreciated so I can improve it even further! 😊
Seems the popularity of this game is dying down a bit. I played through it again recently, but its getting old. I already know how to do everything, and nothing new happens. Maybe add different scenarios that randomize to spruce things up some?
Yep! Thanks for the suggestion. I will make an update later this year. :D
When you do, I will do a playthrough on YouTube.
Watched Jaccb_Beck playing this today and decided to purchase it. I'm going to give it a try myself. Plan on streaming it myself on Sunday at 2pm EST. Will let you know what my viewers and I think of it.
Oooh awesome! I'll see if I can drop by as well!
Pretty good build so far from what I can see. only weirdness i saw was a piece of grass in the SW corner of the drakewood area that you can't walk on for some reason..
Positives:
So far I've found the music to be quite good, not what I was expecting in a test build at all.
The way of showing in combat weaknesses to remember is nice.
Aura shield is a very interesting twist I can't remember seeing in a game before.
Save points are at good locations to make sure you don't lose much progress and act as good reminders that 'hey, have you saved lately?'
Negatives:
Seems like the days are going by too quickly, like we'll run out of days if we only have 100 before we can explore everything.
Some of the options seem a little too obvious which you're supposed to pick.
My viewers seemed quite interested in it as well :) Be continuing it again next Sunday to see how far we can go.
Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I'll watch the VOD of your stream so I can catch up. ^-^
Just a clarification, 100 Days is a placeholder and will be extended later on.
Was pointed out to me by one of my discord users who picked up the game:
Potential bug: Completing the v0.5 storyline allows you to continue the game in sandbox mode in order to continue exploring and trying new things. For whatever reason, I've been locked out by the Record Keeper who claims I still need to see my Mentor, which I've already done. Nothing I've been able to do will get the Record Keeper off of that loop.
Potential cause: I had a mission accepted before going to Ridgethorn (sp?) Village that I never started or completed. Hunting Garuda or something of that extent. That's the only thing I had that involves the Mentor-- perhaps it might be the cause.
QoL: When navigating menus, it would be a huge QoL improvement to return to the character listing after backing out of spells/equip/status menus. As of now, it goes all the way back to the menu order, and you have to select spells/equip/status again to return to the character listing.
Nitpicking: Could be my system, windowed mode, or an optimization issue, but my FPS crashes on a large critical strike, sometimes accompanied by a quick, horizontal black line across the screen. Mostly seen in the Arashiya Forest
Thanks for pointing out these things!
I'm guessing that person is in Drakewood House? It happened to one of the streamers I know as well and I have fixed that bug in the version I am working on now. Thank you for the QoL suggestion as well! I will make sure to do that. Thank you for letting me know about the FPS crash as well, I will see what I can do. ^-^
I really like how you had that questionaire segment segment in the beginning to determine what house you go to. It was a nice touch of customization. Also picking customizing, I like how you are able pick what skills you learn. However, if you don't pick any offense magics it somewhat hinders exploration when you go out into the field. I have yet to finish it though.
As for reading the books I think having you learn the skill after 3 days seems sufficient. Four just seems a little too long. I like the overall atmosphere of school and the school theme is catchy. Although, you somewhat made it too obvious the LawMages were the true bad guys. The merchant that illegally sells you books and the Julian's slip of the tongue gave it away for me. As for the merchant have the merchant appear later in the game, when the party is starting to question the school. With Julian have Sylvia cut him off when he says the monsters are not the true enemies instead of mentioning the crystal experiments. That way the thought could linger on who the true bad guy is. The battles also seem to drag because of the slower battle animations and barriers. Maybe, you could have 1 to 2 less barriers on bosses because this where that most apparent.
Anyway, I think this a pretty well put together game, I can understand why it won first place. I was wondering if aren't too busy you wouldn't mind trying out my game. I finished the game, I just need it to be playtested some more. https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/path-of-the-martyrs.116206/
Thank you so much for the feedback and the suggestions! You raised some really good points and I think this will be helpful as I refine and fine tune the game some more.
I would love to try your game and help you test it! I hope it's available for Mac because I only have a Mac laptop unfortunately.
Here’s link to the Mac version of the game: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ldtmypz0axknyyv/Path%20of%20the%20Martyrs%201.2%20%28Mac%29.zip?dl=0
Let me know if it works.
hi
Okay, another day has come with enough boredom to make me think of this game. Are you planning to leave the amount of time spent at Lawmage Academy at 100 days? If so, I wouldn't be too happy. I think it would just be too short considering what's already there. It would make sense to me if the player were able to play through four years (1460 days) of daily activities, or at least four 100-day terms, Possibly with summer breaks or something. Anyway, just an idea.
Oh, do you have a discord server for this game? That would be nice.
The 100 Days isn't final. It will definitely increase! I am not too sure about 4 years though because that might take too long to make. Still, it will definitely be AT LEAST one year.
At least one year is fine
Ah also I don't have a Discord server for Lawmage Academy yet. Maybe next year? We'll see. Thanks for your interesr and suggestions!! 😊
To those of you who saw this comment before it was edited to this text, I am sorry. I was careless in my wording, and it sounded like I disliked this game. The video I made was taken down due to way too many editing mistakes and caption-commentary that didn't make sense and even made it seem like the game was horrible.
I haven't watched it yet. I was planning to watch it today but unfortunately you took it down. No worries though!
Very cute character sprites. 🙂
Thank you so much!
I have a question. When you create a character and get to the naming stage, the default name that appears is "Syle". In the RPG Maker GOTM Jam, I found many games that offered the same thing. As a person who had only known the name RPG Maker until I found this game, is that just a basic default given by a plugin (engine, add-on, whatever its called)? If so, what do you think it should be befitting Lawmage Academy?
Some people want a "canon" name for main characters in RPGs so I placed a default name there. Developers can choose not to put a default name though.
Awhile back I was bored during some free time, so I grabbed a pencil and paper and wrote up a short story in the Lawmage Academy setting and was unsure of one of the character names. It's nothing to be proud of.
There's no shame in it either! I am proud of you that you even made a story in the Lawmage Academy setting!
Congrats on your RPG Maker GOTM win!
I am currently trying to get a small streamer to play this. He's already looked at it, but he said turn based RPGs weren't really his thing, so I'm next going to try to convice him that the turn base is only in battle and combat is only smaller part of this game.
Aww thanks for the support! You are right. Most of the mechanics are outside of battle and combat is only one aspect of the game. Still, I don't want anyone who is not interested in JRPGs to feel compelled to play Lawmage Academy either. My target audience in the end are people who like retro style RPGs. ^-^
Um, I broke the crystal in the fairy forest, and the only thing that happened was a fairy who originally did not want to fight attacked me. What's supposed to happen? It literally traps me there every time I do it, so its the farthest I've been able to progress. I'm going to try the other route now, but why can't I break it and I actually gain the ally, the door opens, something?
I found nothing in the game files hinting of this "powerful ally", so I couldn't tell which file was assigned to her. There is an animation for the gate opening, but I cannot tell how to activate it. I know its not the end because I haven't seen even half of the characters and I'm already four hours in on my save file.
Edit: I took the other route, and it works fine. However, both options should be available, and since one seems broken, I cannot do anything with it.
Oh, one issue. With all the grinding I did to get through Arashia forest easily, Xeoclat Hills and the fairly forest was seriously lacking in difficulty. The boss in Xeoclat Hills was faster to beat. Too bad I couldn't do much grinding.
Did you get the Fejora Crystal? After picking up the crystal and beating the fairy, you should be able to go back to the village.
There was no crystal I could pick up. Was it that sparkling thing next to the broken crystal? I couldn't interact with it. I used a different save file the next time I saved, so I can easily go back therer and see what happens. The only things I could interact with was the door, the fairy, and the entrance to the village, where I was only told to complete my objective. I'll load the save again and check later, but I don't think I can do anything.
Also, I originally wanted to keep this exploit discreet for my own benefit, but with the charms I got in the Xeoclat Hills, I no longer maintain status effects outside of battle. All I have to do is equip them as soon as the battle is over, then unequip and equip on my next party member that has it, and it immediately takes away the effect.
Edit: I loaded the save and it seems to work now, however, I think I'll use the save that I chose to wait for Uni because I like tanking better than a large amount of attack power.
Alrighty! The exploit is a nice discovery. I don't mind leaving it there because status effects are really more threatening while in battle.
Hey, I played through the v0.5 demo. This is a really great game! Really impressed with what you've managed to do with RPG Maker MV. Loved the loop of going to classes, getting new things to do and then prioritizing how I wanted to do them over the next few days.
I have a few notes that can help improve player experience if you were interested in feedback for the next iteration:
Having just Male and Female may alienate some players. Might be better to have a few body types and then let player determine how gendered or not they want their character to be. To not make this too asset heavy on your side, SumRndDude has a plugin that can use the RPGMV character generator parts to generate sprites and battlers based on player selection.
Also referring to Magister Millenia with gender neutral pronouns might help keep it nice and mysterious.
Some of the spell animations take a while and I think a lot of players might like it if they can speed through some of them to get to their next turn in battle. There are already a lot of time saving measures in this game (such as the Keeper Teleporter) so being time conscious seems to have been an intended part of the design and this speeding animations feature would be in line with that. If you are using Yanfly Battle Engine Core, there is a plugin that adds Battle Animation Speed to your Options menu.
I really liked the fact that you could use the same spells as in battle to manipulate the environment (like Golden Sun), however, it seemed inconsistent what spells could be used for what environment interactable. Pictured above is the issue I ran into where I was unable to use Frostbolt spell which I got from a crystal to grow the plant. Do spells from crystals not count towards this effect or is this a bug?
A few of the Boss enemies would Guard at times effectively skipping their turns making those fights a lot less interesting as a result. Due to the way Order Turn Battle works, singular Bosses should probably be doing a lot of things on their turn (damage, healing, buffing) to be action efficient because the player can manipulate when an enemy's turn gets skipped through a Guard Break. If this is an intentional part of the combat design to give players a breather, please disregard this note entirely.
Hope some of those notes were useful. Thanks for putting together a great demo and looking forward to seeing the full game when it comes out :)
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! You made a lot of useful points for improvement. I will definitely consider it for the next update. I'm glad you enjoyed Lawmage Academy!
ooh ooh! I have a great idea for gender variants.
1. Human
2. Beast
3. Cat Person
4. Elf
5. Smerf (Lol)
Okay, I know these aren't gender variants, but they would be interesting to see as character choices. Maybe the character editor can choose gender and a list of species such as the ones I listed?
Nice suggestions! Elf and Cat Person are planned. For beast, it can be done and they can have an innate weakness to Water because beast types are weak to that too!
Interesting, but why haven't I seen any bosses or enemies guarding? Weird.
The frostbolt spell is technically ice, so its probably not considered a water spell for that reason.
Most bosses have a small chance to guard on any turn. In the next update I will focus on reworking and balancing enemies.
For frosbolt, I'll see what I can do instead. Your suggestions are all well noted!
Ok, I have some issues that need to be addressed. It took some time, but I have mastered the early game and found out pretty much everything mechanicswise
First off, there is absolutely no way to know where your secret money stash is. Because I found out about it too late, it ruined all my progress during my retake of Basic Combat I.
Second, the game doesn't tell you anything about how to do things until you do them. This may not be bad in most cases, but it also played a role in ruining my progress. How was I supposed to know that some items you get are for late game, not early and vice versa. I'll explain a bit more later.
Third, it is too easy to grind in Basic Combat I. By learning the enheal spell, you are able to earn more mana potions then you use, and there is an approximately 3:1 ratio involved (with turn limits taken into consideration) with using spells to regain health during battle over using the potions. You can literally find the enemy that poses the greatest challenge, fight it, leave the area, return, and fight him again to level up to level five before it slows to becoming frustratingly slow. During the retake, there is one added monster that beefs up grinding, and with the addition of a friend(s), it is way too easy to grind all over again to level up insanely high.
Fourth, the boss it too unefficient to beat. It is very easy to beat him, but even with my tactics, you use most of your usable items, which could be very useful later. It is possible to grind to regain them, but you might battle inside the school before you return ouside, which made me delete my first save in favor of making my next playthrough more favorable and learn the mechanics more, in which I ended up employing several strategies for beating the boss more efficiently, which I did eventually.
Fifth, whats the point of adding a loading screen that is rarely ever seen, and if it is, its only for a split second?
Now that I have mastered the early game, I am ready to tackle late game. I might to a VLC stream me showcasing my strategy that probably no one will ever see, so I guess I'll record it.
Suggestion: Check out Elchronicle, specifically the mission featureitis a mobile game that I think was also made using RPG Maker, but I think it uses some of the same soundtracks as Lawmage Academy, specifically the one that plays during a mission. Doing so may prevent copyright issues in the future if this game hits mainstream.
Thanks for the suggestions on the balancing issues! You made some nice points here. They are well noted!
Also just found a more serious issue. When creating your name there is a button that says page. Selecting it will take you to a page with various letters scattered across the box. The empty spaces are selectable, and they count as spaces in the creation of a name. I was able to exploit it to add spaces to the end of my name to fill the slots, which ended up adding a suprisingly large amout of space in dialogue boxes whenever my name was mentioned.
It is also possible to get stuck. At the save point in the Soulstace house (only known location), theres that dark haird npc who usually hangs out near the desk. If she moves in the tile touching the corner of the chair tile at the wall or in front of the chair and you talk to her, there is a possibility that she will stop wandering. Because there is a two tile gap between the desk and the wall, and the chair takes up one as well as the npc, you are trapped by the desk.
Also, the latency when using the WASD keyboard configuration is for some reason occasionally higher, much too high for sufficient maneuvering, such as any sudden turn.
Sorry if I'm commenting too much.
Hey don't worry about it I appreciate all the feedback and bug reports! You've been very helpful. I will work on as much bugs as I can to prepare for the next update!
I converted all the assets to ".ogg" and ".png". You can no longer keep secrets to future updates in the game files, even from people without RPG Maker. LOL.
It's fine! Almost all of it are placeholders that RPG Maker MV provides, which I will replace. Plus, you can't legally use the assets without a license from the creator so the copyright is still protected. 😊
But hey if you want to help promote Lawmage Academy by helping distribute the main menu screen to the public, I'd thank you for it!👍
Ok, I guess I might be able to promote it that way. When I told you about this, I was thinking of the possibilities of changing assets to make the game look different, which could be called different things depending on what you want to do with it. For example, skin, texture pack, etc. Oh! I just thought of something. Are you planning to put a character editor in the game? That would be better than having just four basic characters depending on your class.
Changing assets is highly encouraged to set it apart from other RPG Maker games as you pointed it out. As for character editor, it is possible but not yet a priority at this point.
Okay, I like that.
Hey do you mind if i record myself playing it for youtube and twitch?
Not at all! I can even help you promote it in my social media accounts! Send me a message in Twitter @LawmageA and I'll share it with everyone! ☺
Ooooh thank you so much! I'll watch it right away!
Only been playing for a bit but this is such a unique game in its school mechanic from all I know. keep up the amazing work I can really see this game becoming popular!
Thank you so much Sortolo!!
I know this doesn't mean much as I don't play many rpg maker style games but this is definitely the best I've seen
Just knowing you enjoyed Lawmage Academy means a lot to me already. Thank you so much memeware!!
- Verinius
Part 2 Yes there is more to come, if you keep coming back <3 <3 <3 Amazing game and I NEED MORE!!
I have an immense desire to see more per episode. The whole demo lasts for about 5 hours by the way. XD
AND OH NO YOU DIDNT SAVE! 😂
Keep up great work you are doing this game going to be hits.
Yes this me Zech from Twitter too.
Thank you for the kind words and encouragement Zech! Glad to see you here! I will keep pushing until I finish this! :D
Awesome to here my friend.
Aww thanks for the kind words, Zech!
Keep it up!! <3 <3 <3 It's a teaser to start ;)
I love your reaction like how you were so excited to start!! Just seeing that made me excited to watch you as well!
Absolutely Amazing and So much to do!! I love it <3 <3 <3 Thank you so much!!!
Aww thanks specialgeek! You are the most special geek in my heart! <3
Hey I like the summary and outline. Downloading now!
Awesome! If retro RPGs and magic schools are your thing, then you will definitely enjoy Lawmage Academy!
I haven't finished the game yet, but I've enjoyed the concept so far. Especially being in the different houses, I enjoyed Drakewood and Foxhelm the most. Only thing is I wish that there was a difficulty level or someway to grind because I've barely been able to get past the boss levels without using most of my health potions. If it was between someway to train and a difficulty level, I'd rather have somewhere to train.
Thanks for the feedback, Mako! I will certainly do some balance changes for the early boss fights as I have realized they might be a bit too much to handle. I may not necessarily nerf them too much, but I will at least make potions more accessible early game. Thanks!
finished the game!! And loved it so so much 😍
It was sad so seeing your playthrough end. I enjoy watching you so much! :(
This game is amazing man love it so far.
I'm glad you love it! It will only get better as you keep playing! :)
Yep.
part 3!!!!! xD!
Well done! Can't wait for the epic finale!!
xD xD xD xD
This such an amazing game. The concept is absolutely amazing. I enjoy how you can pick when to do classes instead of being forced into doing one everyday. The music is great, and the game looks great. I was easily addicted and have already spent several hours in game. My only suggestion would be a difficulty setting so that the battles don't prohibit progression. I did have difficulties getting past the basic combat the first time. Thank you for making such a great game! I'm looking forward to new versions!
Thanks for the feedback Safty! I will consider your comments in improving the future updates. In the meantime, do stay tuned for updates! The devlog has some nice stuff for you to check out to have an idea of what's in store for you in the future! You can also find Lawmage Academy on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for daily updates!
Do you have a twitter or any other social media counts where we could follow the development of this game? im very excited
Yes, thanks for asking! I am most active in Twitter but I will post the others here anyway.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawmageA
FB: https://www.facebook.com/LawmageAcademy
IG: https://www.instagram.com/lawmage_academy/
Great work! I learned a lot watching you play and it gave me ideas on how to improve the game further. Looking forward to Part 3!!
i just started playing the game and it seems quiet interesting , i salute you because i can picture a high potential of imagination and creativity behind this game , but i recommend that you give us access to a bug tracker so we can help you , i've noticed a mistake in the text which naturally can happen , best of luck to you ^^
Thanks for the feedback! As for the bug tracker, I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, may I suggest writing it down in the feedback survey when you are ready to fill it up? I appreciate your help so I can further improve the game. Thank you so much!
- Verinius
For your convenience, here is the link to the feedback survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ShmpveJairLopLy5Q54NnhzvPzOZtACkUuO8jLBmano/edit
i have a deep and intense need for a full version of this. this was amazing... i downloaded and finished it in a day! i got the impression that you could romance members of your party in the future is that correct? again, this was so so much fun!
edit: way too many typos in this because my cat kept trying to sit directly on my laptop
I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed it! The full version will take a while, primarily because of art assets that need to be created. However, you can stay tuned to see the devlogs and follow the Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook pages to keep yourself updated with the progress. In the future, an early access in Steam is planned to get feedback from players like yourself and help make the game better.
As for romance between party members, it is not the priority right now nor is it a core gameplay mechanic. However, I am still open to that possibility if time and resources allow it. Thank you so much!
- Verinius
Answered the feedback survey. Really nice game :D, right now are duels a thing or they are not implemented yet?
Thank you so much! Unfortunately it is not yet implemented in v0.5. It is the only major game feature left to be implemented and I plan to implement it on v0.6 along with improvements to the character sprites.
RPG Maker huh? Interesting.
Yes! This is still a very early version so it uses some placeholders. But please do try it out and see if you enjoy it. Thanks!
Tried it out. Very good game, I will continue playing it. Its kind of annoying though because I am in that blue intellegence house (I forgot its name) and I am stuck in the basic combat class because I have absolutely no idea where to find that flower. Eh, I've only played the game for about a half hour anyway, so maybe I'm just not poking around enough. This is a very interesting game, especially considering it was made with RPG Maker. It does seem to have some very basic features that are not very unique from other RPGs from RPG maker, perhaps too much unoriginality in that sense,
Oh yeah, really awesome music btw. I have no idea what kind of notation program (except with Finale's addon) could have such a great sound quality. Unless you used a DAW...
Thanks for the feedback! For the Arashiya Flower, I'm sure you will fnd it if you keep exploring further. For the basic features, may I know which features you are referring to so I can improve on them? For the music, most of the music are fron the Magic School pack and Wonderland Music pack in the asset store. 😊
The unoriginal features... You just revealed one. The music. You used features common to most RPG Maker users. If you want the game to actually be unique, you need to use your own stuff. Using your own music and your own battle engine instead of the ones provided is a start. Games with unoriginal content can be described as rip-offs.
Your suggestions are well noted! Thanks! I hope you stay tuned for more developments as I improve the game. ^-^
I have been looking for the Arashiya flower for HOURS and I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND IT!!!
From the center map with Lawmage Zelka, go right. Then go up. Just follow the path from there. ^-^
The first official gameplay of lawmage academy! Nice job mate!
Thanks for a fun playthrough!! I enjoyed watching you play and it gave me a lot of insights about player behavior. Thank you so much!
No prob mate its an awesome game!!!!
Nice game, 10/10. Good job
Thank you so much!
the game looks nice will try it out^^
Thank you for your enthusiasm! Stay tuned too for an incoming big announcement in a few hours!
I just want to ask, are you going to make a features like dating sim where you can date both boys and girls which gender you are in the future? I really appreciated it if you going to make that. (Sorry for my bad grammar)
It is not planned yet, but I am open to that possibility. I will have to think about it carefully. I appreciate your suggestion though!
I've been really enjoying this game but the game crashes in the second forest when they cross the stones in the river and stop by the large rock. I'd love to get farther though. Just thought to let you know. i only wish there were two time slots for a day other then one to do stuff in. Awesome.
Thank you so much for taking time to play Lawmage Academy and giving feedback! V0.5 is planned for release this July with major bug fixes and lots of new content so stay tuned!
In the meantime, you can get past Xoclat Hills by avoiding that tile. I have fixed it in V0.5 but it really is a game breaking bug in V0.4. I hope you keep playing and see what's in store for you after Xoclat Hills.
Again thank you for your feedback. I will take your suggestions into consideration and think about how to further improve the game in the next versions. Please do try out V0.5 when it comes out this month and let me know what you think!
Thank you for your reply, I will try the new version when it comes out and just ignore that spot for now.
beautiful little game I appreciate it a lot
Thank you so much for testing Lawmage Academy! Your opinion matters, especially this early in the development stage. Any constructive praise or criticism will help.
If you have the time, may I ask you to answer the feedback survey? Let me know what I'm doing right and what I can do to improve.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScriXalaY02Ef2smLNW_P4Lsih3u0wYTUwIGjpZ...
Thank you!
-Verinius