Castle Paradox

msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

Hey, just wanted to announce the new update for Hero's Journey. It may seem strange that the file is smaller than it used to be, but that is because I took out game.exe from the zip file. Is this a bad idea? Should I put it back in next time?

I just wanted to say that this time around I have not managed to seriously playtest through the entire thing. I know that there are no serious bugs in the demo, but there may be some balancing problems near the end. Of course, that's a good fifteen hours or so in, so hopefully I will get there before any of you (I'm about five hours in now with my playtest) and be able to update this again if I find that the enemies during the war are too easy or too hard, or whatever.

I'd also like to ask for a review, maybe I will again on the Review Wars board once I re-update this guy. It does already have one by Iblis, which I am eternally thankful for, but that was some time ago and there is probably a good two to three hours more gameplay than what he saw, including my first forays into what I consider more complex plotscripting. Anyways, thanks for playing!

Chaos Nyte · Reviewer Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 511 Location: Hirakata

"I just wanted to say that this time around I have not managed to seriously playtest through the entire thing."

"I'd also like to ask for a review..."

Excuse me? So you want some poor reviewer to play through 15+ hours of a game that may or may not need serious tweaking, which would completely ruin their review, because you're too impatient to play through your own game yourself first? Do you even realize how arrogant and self-centered you sound when you posted that? You NEED to finish playtesting your game before even thinking of requesting a review, much less asking for one twice.

msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

I am sorry, I did not mean it to sound that way. What I meant is the following:

The game is absolutely bugfree up until the end of the last update (or at least, I have not been able to find any). That is to say, the first 13 hours or so are complete and done. Thus, it makes sense to download this version and begin playing it with an eye out for a review. However, I will be posting a new update in about a week or two if I feel that the last couple of hours are poorly balanced. These last hours HAVE been preliminarily playtested, by which I mean that there are no game-hampering bugs that I could find. However, I accidentally saved over my 'balance'-testing playtest log, so I have to reach the end again starting from the beginning. But unless you guys devote many hours a day to playing my game, I do believe that I will get there before you and be able to update the last couple hours before you reach them.

Okay that was a bit long-winded. I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my post, and I personally apologize to Chaos Nyte, who seemed to take offense. I posted this post because I feel that a possible reviewer would be able to start the game tonight, and since thier .sav file would carry over to my soon-to-come (if necessary) update, they would be able to play the demo in a 'completed' form and be able to review it.

Oh, and going back to the old post, I realized that there I said I "would" ask for a review again in the 'Review Wars' board. I had meant to say I might, and then only if this post had sunk beyond a scrolling or two of the screen in the 'Announcements' board. Yes, that part of that post did sound very arrogant and self-centered, and I apologize once more.

The Drizzle · **Who is the Drizzle?** Joined: 12 Nov 2003 Posts: 432

Chaos Nyte · Reviewer Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 511 Location: Hirakata

Gee Drizzle, thanks for agreeing with my points but not agreeing with how I said them. I get upset when people request reviews for games that aren't fully ready because I've had many unpleasant experiences reviewing incomplete games. Playing through very bad, very long, games only to find out that my review work isn't taken seriously because the game's creator viewed the review as some sort of advanced playtest is not only depressing for the reviewer, it's wasting their time. Especially when we're talking about a matter of a week or two for MSW to finish playtesting the game himself. I'd much rather write a review for a fully completed game/demo then one where my scores in music or graphics is blown off because the creator of the game was planning to fix that in the next/final release...which he wants another review for.

And Drizzle, your little attitude of, "Try being polite about things, it's not difficult and it makes the community a lot more bearable than it is." and then turning around in the next line and saying "That guy takes offense to everything, don't let him get to you" is really hypocritical. I'm fine if you don't like how I handled the situation, but geez man, don't say one thing and then do another.

Anyway, good luck with your game MSW, I hope you took Ilbis' review to heart and made the improvements she suggested to your game.

Moogle1 · Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 7:33 am Post subject:

...

Iblis is a she?

msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

Hey, I just wanted to admit that I really did think of my request for a review as a request for help and suggestions for an incomplete game. I must also admit that I did not think about it much, but now I can easily see how frustrating that may be to someone who takes their reviewing very seriously, as I am sure many here including Chaos Nyte do. When I ask for a review for a demo, as I have done here, I'm really just looking to see if the reviewer has any suggestions for the game, and whether or not they had fun playing it as far as it has gone. However, as Chaos Nyte warned against, there are some things that I do plan on changing eventually (especially graphically), especially according to some of Iblis' suggestions. But if there are people who enjoying reviewing in this light, than I'd love their input.

The Drizzle · **Who is the Drizzle?** Joined: 12 Nov 2003 Posts: 432

Uncommon · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 1:56 pm Post subject:

Iblis · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 2:59 pm Post subject:

Ha. This gave me a good idea for a new avatar.

Feel free to refer to me as whichever pronoun you prefer. It makes no difference to me.

LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:24 pm Post subject:

It?
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

Moogle1 · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 6:09 am Post subject:

msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

Hi. If anyone's interested, I posted the first 'update to the update' today. It fixes one previously unseen bug near the beginning of Part 6, and a couple of rare case bugs involving dying about midway through what there is of Part 6. As always, I've ended up working a bit slower than expected, but the final release of this update should be up next week when I get to an internet-connected computer again. I'll just put a reply on this thread again for that, and then that'll be it for a bit, I'm thinking.

msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

Alright, just uploaded the final version of the update, so to speak. It is a couple days late, but it's done now. There were a couple of small bugs to clean up near the end of the demo, and I also updated a bit of the documentation. Not much else.
Now that I have graduated, I have more time to work on the game, so updates should come more often, and I hope to have the game entirely finished within a year or so. I have thus far resisted the temptation to begin working on the sequel or any of the prequels (all planned since the beginning), but I might give in as this one approaches completion.