I have played the demo of Lawmage Academy and enjoyed it, I haven't encountered any difficulties with the battles except for maybe the Golem and the final battle in Aura Breaks class which is impossible to win (interestingly, you'd still get a Game Over if you lose that battle). I like the game's tileset/graphics which stands out to other RPG Maker MV games using mostly the default assets, and I also like the idea of a magic school.
I was introduced to Sylvia in the Combat Basics class and she reminds me of Merula Snyde from Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery due to the way she views the students particularly Syle and Alyssa as weak and unworthy of being a Lawmage. Notable comparisons between Sylvia and Merula is that they have sabotaged their first classes (Combat Basics/Potions) and they want the main character (Syle & Alyssa/the player) to quit/drop out of their respective schools (Lawmage Academy/Hogwarts).
I noticed when I was doing battles is how confusing the characters' commands can be. In Lawmage Academy, the commands are issued by the order of the characters being able to act (similar to Final Fantasy X), not by the order of the party like in most RPG Maker MV games which could lead to you attacking with the "wrong" character if used to the default system. However, anyone who's played a game with a different battle system like MZ's Time Progress system will get used to the system in LA or any game using that plugin. Also for some reason, the mouse can select commands and use items/skills that target allies but it can't be used to select which enemy to attack.
Though people pointed it, I noticed there seems to be a flaw with the autosave where it can overwrite the current slot meaning you'd need to save in two slots. To be fair, RPG Maker MV doesn't have autosave out of the box and I think most autosave plugins including Yanfly's autosave plugin save in the same slot for manual saves. RPG Maker MZ does provide autosave which uses its own slot but it only autosaves on map changes and end of battles, and while MZ does allow enabling/disabling the autosave feature in the database, it doesn't (at least without plugins) provide options to enable/disable within the game similar to the Dash feature which can be disabled on maps but there's no way to disable/enable it through Events.
I also wonder if you plan on releasing Lawmage Academy on Linux because RPG Maker MV allows exporting to Linux as well as Windows and macOS, and both itch.io and Steam support Linux.
Thanks for the comments! I appreciate it. The autosave issue is duly noted. One of my next tasks is to find a compatible autosave plugin that uses a separate save slot. As for the mouse selection, I didn't know it couldn't select enemies. I'll have to test it and see why that is so. I'm open to a Linux port but for now I'm focusing on Mac and Windows.
Btw, v0.7 is available now if you wish to see an extended story, new illustrations, more refined mechanics and systems. The official announcement will be made soon. ^-^
I just noticed my concept of a mage (at least from Alexandria) defending the country from monsters and criminals is similar to a Lawmage. I guess Lawmages would arrest criminals but I haven't seen it happen in the game.
I got the FSM materials and I noticed when looking around that some maps in Lawmage Academy are reused from Woods and Cave Tiles although they're edited to suit the game. The FSM tiles are more complicated than the default MV tiles but I made my attempt to make a simple map with the tileset which is the Alexandria Academy (a magic school) which is somewhat similar to the Academy Entrance in Lawmage Academy.
Maybe I might join the Discord server since it'll be more ideal than using Itch. I could discuss Lawmage Academy and share my things since I also use RPG Maker MV which I could learn some examples from Lawmage Academy specifically the character/enemy stats and battles.
Thanks for the interest! Nothing is final yet, so my answers to your questions are definitely subject to change:
1. Early access on Steam? Maybe. I really have to think about this. I see a lot of a sandbox and roguelite games go on early access, but I rarely see RPGs do it. If I do decide to go for early access, I'll make sure the main story is finished at the very least and future updates would just be additional content/quests.
2. Preorders and early builds? That's also a good option. Maybe a patreon? I'm not sure at the moment. I'm not comfortable taking money from people unless I am very confident that the project will be finished by a specific date. Though you can donate via Itch if you'd like!
3. Pricing? Tentatively, I'm thinking of $15. In Steam I can change this based on the region so it's cheaper in other countries. I think it's a reasonable price, but I'm not sure if it's too low.
1. I know a farming sim game, Village Monsters is doing early access and they generally update within a specific time frame and basically post on twitter/ game's discord when they update or having something new to show the players what's in store for the new update in case that's stuff not working properly code wise. Not sure if that you're willing to do but it's an option to make money and produce the game without having to worry about paying the bills or something.
2. Glitched, a rpg didn't really do early access except allow certain players to buy stuff during a Kickstarter to have exclusive access to early builds/demos if they paid extra for it while offering steam keys too from what I remember And I think they made longer demos for the rest of the player base after a few months or so while ironing out the kinks and stuff. You could do something like that if you're up for it but it's up to you.
Don't view it as taking money from people but us paying you extra to have you be able to work on the game without having to worry about juggling stuff or stressing out. And having the player base offering suggestions to make the game better as you make the game. Or view it as getting paid extra while being given more work to do on your game if you view that way.
3. I say a bit more because of multiple routes and stuff but I have no idea how long you're making the game. Twenty bucks or twenty five if the game is longer than thirty hours or so.
Thanks for the suggestions and input. You pointed out stuff that never crossed my mind. I'll consider your suggestions when planning on my next steps. For now, I'll park this while working on the updated demo and get more feedback after releasing the update. ^-^
Hello, I just downloaded Lawmage Academy, and so far its great and I love it! But whenever I stop the game and come back to it after a while, when I press the Continue button on the home page, it doesn't work. Is there a way to fix it or not?
I was in a group of 3 (Alissa, Ein and me) when suddenly I noticed i didn't have the hability to choose my target when healing and using items in combat. There was a pre-selected character (Ein, switched to allisa near the end) and I could only heal them. Outside of combat, I could use items and heal normally. Also no problem with offensive moves. I repeated the mission and this hasn't happened again. This happened during the "Aura Breaks" class, day 14.
Anyway it's still a great game, would love to see a complete version.
Thanks for bringing this up! My guess is that your mouse was probably in the way, so that might be messing with the selected character. You can choose people to target with the mouse button as well and it takes priority over the keyboard selection.
I'm glad you enjoyed it~ Stay tuned for the update in a couple of months!
I talked to the cat in the 2nd day and my game froze ;-; ( the music still is on, forever, but i can't move after he does the water drop emote, and i don't think the girl helps me out )
Ah, thanks for finding this bug! Yes you are right, it's because the girl is blocking you when you are supposed to be pushed backwards. I can fix this in the next update easily. My apologies!
it's great with neat story writing.It feels like i'm back to first time at high school and learn everything about the environtment and people.i look forward for the final release.
Thanks! Honestly, I haven't shown the amount of content I originally wanted to showcase in this version. That's why there will be an update in a few months to showcase more of the game. I hope you try that out too!
By the end of the demo, I was really hoping that I could wreck Sylvia and her goons' day... So overall, pretty good character writing and I can't wait to see more! :D
I'm open to suggestions! There is a feedback channel in Lawmage Academy's Discord so feel free to send it there any time so I can have a look whenever. :D
During the battle against the golem monster, Jin told me to use an aura skill, but I didn't learn it during the battle or after the battle. Is this a glitch? I took the aura skill class after getting Alyssa and Ein to learn their aura skills, so that may have messed things up. On the other hand, considering what happened at the end of the demo, maybe the player character's aura is meant to unlock later, like during a rematch against a certain unbeatable boss.
Again congratulations on your game. As a Filipino myself, you inspire me to improve my game deving even more. You deserve all the success in this field. Looking forward for the final release of Lawmage Academy and to your other future games. 💛
Whenever I start up the game again, it doesn't remember any of the settings I picked before, such as auto-dash.
Edit: Is there a way to disable auto-save? It's bad design to have this feature save over a slot the player can manually save over, since they can lose their manual saves this way. You should instead have auto-save only affect a slot that the player is never allowed to manually save to.
It has been a while since i play tested it, will start again soon. Can already tell it has gotten a lot more prettier and polished though. Looking forward for full release
Thank you for the feedback, the comments, and suggestions that you gave early on! I appreciate the support and I will do my best to make it the best game it can be! :D
Hi HinaAsh! The testing phase for v0.5 demo finished and is no longer available. However, v0.6 is coming soon! I hope you stick around and stay tuned for updates. :D
This is looking really good and fun to play, but I'm going to be that guy and ask: do you plan on updating the battle UI (queue, stat placement/layout, etc) to not be something ripped straight from Octopath Traveler? Is this currently a placeholder while other tasks (arguably more important) are being implemented? Sorry if this sounds brash, but it was the first thing I noticed and now that's the impression I'm left with.
Thanks for asking this! The plugin I'm using for the battle system gives me limited options on how to customize it. I can edit the size of the windows, the colors of the gauges, icons of the shields, and adjust the positions of the characters. With the use of the Luna Engine, I was able to edit the menu of the battle system as well.
For the layout of the hp bars, I intend to keep them at the side to give space for the virtual buttons at the bottom for a future mobile port.
The turn queue at the top though I have very little control on how to edit it due to the nature of the plugin and the parameters it allows me to edit.
Thanks for asking this and I hope I answered your question!
I think the game is really easy now that I have played it so much. I have even beat it in one sitting once. What do you think about speedrunning? I think it may be possible to get a sub 1.5 hour run. I'm not revealing any secrets yet, but the other speedrunner I saw can improve in various locations. I need to test some stuff first though, such as how much I should grind for grades to make future battles easier.
Been eyeing on this game ever since ESGS2019. I couldn't play then because we also had a booth. But now I was finally able to play till the end.
Story: The story was pretty immersive, ever since the beginning of the game, I was drawn in. The writing was pretty decent, and the world building was on point. I could see the potter books we're references, which was great. Although it was off to a slow start, but I became really invested after the first dungeon. I love that they literally teach you the mechanics of the game through lessons in class. It was a good touch. For the world building, everything definitely fits together. I heard that the developer is an actual Lawyer (or studied law, correct me if I'm wrong), but he definitely found a way to mix Law and Fantasy in a very cool way. I won't spoil anything, but I was really frustrated about the outcome of the first trial. But definitely, the story and world building was one of the strong points of the game.
Characters: The characters we're really great and memorable. Each magister have their own personality fit with the classes that they teach. My favorite being Zelka and Uni. There were also those bully brats that I wanted to tear down with my magic. Each of them are really believable and have their own roles to fulfill in the world.
Combat: As an RPG Maker game, most games don't like to change the formula and innovate that much. But this game added a twist to the boring old turned based formula by adding Aura Skills/Counters. I think it added a bit of strategical factor to the battles. The basics - attack, magic, guard, item are still there but I think the battles are well balanced.
Audio: Like in any other game in this genre, I think the audio makes or breaks the game. In this case, the audio for this game was on point. I love the little jingles used for sound effects and most things have some sounds. The music really fit in with the theme of the world, and are used well on proper scenarios. I did they really did a good job on the audio for this game.
Student Life Simulator: One of the main features of the game is to let you live your life as a Lawmage Student. You are free to do things at your own pace at a cost of days. Each action you take takes the whole day to do. I was really amazed how much potential this game has. But I think they could add more things to do, it'll be more fun.
Final Thoughts: Overall, Lawmage Academy has the potential to be something really great. It has the foundations of a great game and a great story. It's something that I want to play till the end and have a great time. I hope the dev team get all the support they need to finish the game because they indeed deserve it. There are still some improvements that can be done here and there but overall I had a really pleasant experience with the game. I recommend it to anyone who likes RPGs/jrpgs. Thank you for making the game.
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. ^-^
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I have played the demo of Lawmage Academy and enjoyed it, I haven't encountered any difficulties with the battles except for maybe the Golem and the final battle in Aura Breaks class which is impossible to win (interestingly, you'd still get a Game Over if you lose that battle). I like the game's tileset/graphics which stands out to other RPG Maker MV games using mostly the default assets, and I also like the idea of a magic school.
I was introduced to Sylvia in the Combat Basics class and she reminds me of Merula Snyde from Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery due to the way she views the students particularly Syle and Alyssa as weak and unworthy of being a Lawmage. Notable comparisons between Sylvia and Merula is that they have sabotaged their first classes (Combat Basics/Potions) and they want the main character (Syle & Alyssa/the player) to quit/drop out of their respective schools (Lawmage Academy/Hogwarts).
I noticed when I was doing battles is how confusing the characters' commands can be. In Lawmage Academy, the commands are issued by the order of the characters being able to act (similar to Final Fantasy X), not by the order of the party like in most RPG Maker MV games which could lead to you attacking with the "wrong" character if used to the default system. However, anyone who's played a game with a different battle system like MZ's Time Progress system will get used to the system in LA or any game using that plugin. Also for some reason, the mouse can select commands and use items/skills that target allies but it can't be used to select which enemy to attack.
Though people pointed it, I noticed there seems to be a flaw with the autosave where it can overwrite the current slot meaning you'd need to save in two slots. To be fair, RPG Maker MV doesn't have autosave out of the box and I think most autosave plugins including Yanfly's autosave plugin save in the same slot for manual saves. RPG Maker MZ does provide autosave which uses its own slot but it only autosaves on map changes and end of battles, and while MZ does allow enabling/disabling the autosave feature in the database, it doesn't (at least without plugins) provide options to enable/disable within the game similar to the Dash feature which can be disabled on maps but there's no way to disable/enable it through Events.
I also wonder if you plan on releasing Lawmage Academy on Linux because RPG Maker MV allows exporting to Linux as well as Windows and macOS, and both itch.io and Steam support Linux.
Thanks for the comments! I appreciate it. The autosave issue is duly noted. One of my next tasks is to find a compatible autosave plugin that uses a separate save slot. As for the mouse selection, I didn't know it couldn't select enemies. I'll have to test it and see why that is so. I'm open to a Linux port but for now I'm focusing on Mac and Windows.
Btw, v0.7 is available now if you wish to see an extended story, new illustrations, more refined mechanics and systems. The official announcement will be made soon. ^-^
I just noticed my concept of a mage (at least from Alexandria) defending the country from monsters and criminals is similar to a Lawmage. I guess Lawmages would arrest criminals but I haven't seen it happen in the game.
I got the FSM materials and I noticed when looking around that some maps in Lawmage Academy are reused from Woods and Cave Tiles although they're edited to suit the game. The FSM tiles are more complicated than the default MV tiles but I made my attempt to make a simple map with the tileset which is the Alexandria Academy (a magic school) which is somewhat similar to the Academy Entrance in Lawmage Academy.
Maybe I might join the Discord server since it'll be more ideal than using Itch. I could discuss Lawmage Academy and share my things since I also use RPG Maker MV which I could learn some examples from Lawmage Academy specifically the character/enemy stats and battles.
Very interesting!
Yes, I would love to see you in Discord for more discussion, not just with me but also other Lawmages~
Would you be willing to put the game in early access on steam? I like to be able to buy the game without having to wait for it and support you as dev.
Or are you taking preorders that will allow users to have acces to the early builds as you make it then full game access?
Do you know what you're pricing the game as? Like twenty or thirty bucks or so?
Thanks for the interest! Nothing is final yet, so my answers to your questions are definitely subject to change:
1. Early access on Steam? Maybe. I really have to think about this. I see a lot of a sandbox and roguelite games go on early access, but I rarely see RPGs do it. If I do decide to go for early access, I'll make sure the main story is finished at the very least and future updates would just be additional content/quests.
2. Preorders and early builds? That's also a good option. Maybe a patreon? I'm not sure at the moment. I'm not comfortable taking money from people unless I am very confident that the project will be finished by a specific date. Though you can donate via Itch if you'd like!
3. Pricing? Tentatively, I'm thinking of $15. In Steam I can change this based on the region so it's cheaper in other countries. I think it's a reasonable price, but I'm not sure if it's too low.
1. I know a farming sim game, Village Monsters is doing early access and they generally update within a specific time frame and basically post on twitter/ game's discord when they update or having something new to show the players what's in store for the new update in case that's stuff not working properly code wise. Not sure if that you're willing to do but it's an option to make money and produce the game without having to worry about paying the bills or something.
2. Glitched, a rpg didn't really do early access except allow certain players to buy stuff during a Kickstarter to have exclusive access to early builds/demos if they paid extra for it while offering steam keys too from what I remember And I think they made longer demos for the rest of the player base after a few months or so while ironing out the kinks and stuff. You could do something like that if you're up for it but it's up to you.
Don't view it as taking money from people but us paying you extra to have you be able to work on the game without having to worry about juggling stuff or stressing out. And having the player base offering suggestions to make the game better as you make the game. Or view it as getting paid extra while being given more work to do on your game if you view that way.
3. I say a bit more because of multiple routes and stuff but I have no idea how long you're making the game. Twenty bucks or twenty five if the game is longer than thirty hours or so.
Thanks for the suggestions and input. You pointed out stuff that never crossed my mind. I'll consider your suggestions when planning on my next steps. For now, I'll park this while working on the updated demo and get more feedback after releasing the update. ^-^
I have finished the demo, and it was great! I even trying to be in each different dorms at different playthrough
I can't wait for the full game!
Yaaaay! Glad you like it. The updated demo will be finished by the end of this month. I hope you try it out too! <3
I love how the game is coming along keep up the great work!
Thank you very much!
I solved the problem-done worry about it! Plus I simply LOVE this game-its the best game I've ever played!
Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you were able to solve the problem as well. <3
Hello, I just downloaded Lawmage Academy, and so far its great and I love it! But whenever I stop the game and come back to it after a while, when I press the Continue button on the home page, it doesn't work. Is there a way to fix it or not?
I enjoyed every minute of this game! Keep up the good work!!
Thank you, Mochi!!
This is the first time playing this kind of game and let me tell you-
I loved every minute of it! I just finished the demo. Can't wait for the full version :)
Thank u for your hard work!!
Thank you very much for the kind words. This is really motivating for me. <3
Really enjoying the game. I'm only on day 10 but curious, will you be able to customize your dorm room at all?
At the moment no, but it's something that I can probably implement in the future.
I was in a group of 3 (Alissa, Ein and me) when suddenly I noticed i didn't have the hability to choose my target when healing and using items in combat. There was a pre-selected character (Ein, switched to allisa near the end) and I could only heal them. Outside of combat, I could use items and heal normally. Also no problem with offensive moves. I repeated the mission and this hasn't happened again. This happened during the "Aura Breaks" class, day 14.
Anyway it's still a great game, would love to see a complete version.
Thanks for bringing this up! My guess is that your mouse was probably in the way, so that might be messing with the selected character. You can choose people to target with the mouse button as well and it takes priority over the keyboard selection.
I'm glad you enjoyed it~ Stay tuned for the update in a couple of months!
That makes sense. I checked and that seems to be what happened. Thanks for answering.
Anytime. Thanks!!
I talked to the cat in the 2nd day and my game froze ;-; ( the music still is on, forever, but i can't move after he does the water drop emote, and i don't think the girl helps me out )
maybe it's cuz the cat would push me backwards,but because the girl is there i just keep triggering the event over and over and i can't move
Ah, thanks for finding this bug! Yes you are right, it's because the girl is blocking you when you are supposed to be pushed backwards. I can fix this in the next update easily. My apologies!
Really enjoyed it and can't wait for the full game to be released !!!
Thank you very much~ I'm glad to hear that!
One of my top games on my list, the story is really good and the gameplay too.Hope this game will one day go BOOMING, they really deserve it.:)
Thank you very much! I'm glad you loved it! Stay tuned for an extended demo version early next year. ^-^
it's great with neat story writing.It feels like i'm back to first time at high school and learn everything about the environtment and people.i look forward for the final release.
Thanks! Honestly, I haven't shown the amount of content I originally wanted to showcase in this version. That's why there will be an update in a few months to showcase more of the game. I hope you try that out too!
Kirito is Vissage because he has 2 swords. 1 sword in each hand. = Balance. LOL
By the end of the demo, I was really hoping that I could wreck Sylvia and her goons' day... So overall, pretty good character writing and I can't wait to see more! :D
Hahaha yaaay thanks~ Glad you enjoyed it!
This was an interesting demo. Congratulations and I look forward to your progress and final release.
Thank you very much! I appreciate the well wishes~
Oh, and I forgot to mention, if you would like some suggestions on spells, give me a shout here on Discord if you'd like.
I'm open to suggestions! There is a feedback channel in Lawmage Academy's Discord so feel free to send it there any time so I can have a look whenever. :D
During the battle against the golem monster, Jin told me to use an aura skill, but I didn't learn it during the battle or after the battle. Is this a glitch? I took the aura skill class after getting Alyssa and Ein to learn their aura skills, so that may have messed things up. On the other hand, considering what happened at the end of the demo, maybe the player character's aura is meant to unlock later, like during a rematch against a certain unbeatable boss.
Don't worry it's not a glitch. The player character's Aura skill will be unlocked later. :D
Again congratulations on your game. As a Filipino myself, you inspire me to improve my game deving even more. You deserve all the success in this field. Looking forward for the final release of Lawmage Academy and to your other future games. 💛
I appreciate the kind words, Carl! I'm glad I could inspire you and help motivate you to finish your game. <3
Whenever I start up the game again, it doesn't remember any of the settings I picked before, such as auto-dash.
Edit: Is there a way to disable auto-save? It's bad design to have this feature save over a slot the player can manually save over, since they can lose their manual saves this way. You should instead have auto-save only affect a slot that the player is never allowed to manually save to.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll look for better plugins to to address those issues in the extended demo. ^-^
Amazing start so far! I need more!!!! I will definitely be purchasing the final release.
Wonderful~ I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for making such a great game.
Awww ; ~ ;
Great demo, looking forward to the final release! :)
I appreciate the kind words, Angel!
When id the . exe file coming?
The public demo will be released on the first week of November. ^ - ^
I cannot wait XD
It has been a while since i play tested it, will start again soon. Can already tell it has gotten a lot more prettier and polished though. Looking forward for full release
The updated demo will come real soon! I'm so excited for you to try it out. :D
Woah, now it's keep improving! Looking forward for the full release~
Thank you for the feedback, the comments, and suggestions that you gave early on! I appreciate the support and I will do my best to make it the best game it can be! :D
Am i just blind or there isn't really a download button?
Hi HinaAsh! The testing phase for v0.5 demo finished and is no longer available. However, v0.6 is coming soon! I hope you stick around and stay tuned for updates. :D
I really am looking forward to this
It has gotten better! Keep it up!
Thank you so much~! <3
Deserve the love it gets ❤️🙏
This is looking really good and fun to play, but I'm going to be that guy and ask: do you plan on updating the battle UI (queue, stat placement/layout, etc) to not be something ripped straight from Octopath Traveler? Is this currently a placeholder while other tasks (arguably more important) are being implemented? Sorry if this sounds brash, but it was the first thing I noticed and now that's the impression I'm left with.
Thanks for asking this! The plugin I'm using for the battle system gives me limited options on how to customize it. I can edit the size of the windows, the colors of the gauges, icons of the shields, and adjust the positions of the characters. With the use of the Luna Engine, I was able to edit the menu of the battle system as well.
For the layout of the hp bars, I intend to keep them at the side to give space for the virtual buttons at the bottom for a future mobile port.
The turn queue at the top though I have very little control on how to edit it due to the nature of the plugin and the parameters it allows me to edit.
Thanks for asking this and I hope I answered your question!
I think the game is really easy now that I have played it so much. I have even beat it in one sitting once. What do you think about speedrunning? I think it may be possible to get a sub 1.5 hour run. I'm not revealing any secrets yet, but the other speedrunner I saw can improve in various locations. I need to test some stuff first though, such as how much I should grind for grades to make future battles easier.
You can definitely do it faster I think. The dev room has enough exploits to ensure that everything goes fast.
Been eyeing on this game ever since ESGS2019. I couldn't play then because we also had a booth. But now I was finally able to play till the end.
Story:
The story was pretty immersive, ever since the beginning of the game, I was drawn in. The writing was pretty decent, and the world building was on point. I could see the potter books we're references, which was great. Although it was off to a slow start, but I became really invested after the first dungeon. I love that they literally teach you the mechanics of the game through lessons in class. It was a good touch. For the world building, everything definitely fits together. I heard that the developer is an actual Lawyer (or studied law, correct me if I'm wrong), but he definitely found a way to mix Law and Fantasy in a very cool way. I won't spoil anything, but I was really frustrated about the outcome of the first trial. But definitely, the story and world building was one of the strong points of the game.
Characters:
The characters we're really great and memorable. Each magister have their own personality fit with the classes that they teach. My favorite being Zelka and Uni. There were also those bully brats that I wanted to tear down with my magic. Each of them are really believable and have their own roles to fulfill in the world.
Combat:
As an RPG Maker game, most games don't like to change the formula and innovate that much. But this game added a twist to the boring old turned based formula by adding Aura Skills/Counters. I think it added a bit of strategical factor to the battles. The basics - attack, magic, guard, item are still there but I think the battles are well balanced.
Audio:
Like in any other game in this genre, I think the audio makes or breaks the game. In this case, the audio for this game was on point. I love the little jingles used for sound effects and most things have some sounds. The music really fit in with the theme of the world, and are used well on proper scenarios. I did they really did a good job on the audio for this game.
Student Life Simulator:
One of the main features of the game is to let you live your life as a Lawmage Student. You are free to do things at your own pace at a cost of days. Each action you take takes the whole day to do. I was really amazed how much potential this game has. But I think they could add more things to do, it'll be more fun.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, Lawmage Academy has the potential to be something really great. It has the foundations of a great game and a great story. It's something that I want to play till the end and have a great time. I hope the dev team get all the support they need to finish the game because they indeed deserve it. There are still some improvements that can be done here and there but overall I had a really pleasant experience with the game. I recommend it to anyone who likes RPGs/jrpgs. Thank you for making the game.
Thank you so much for the detailed review. I appreciate the kind words and the suggestions. I hope to meet you as well in the next ESGS! 😊
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. ^-^