Battle Test - free download! (UPDATED)

I see what you mean about the dragons - monsters in general are scarier when you can't just ogle them at your leisure. But I really liked the close-up of the wyrm. ^_^ It's not really how I would give that kind of tutorial information in a real game, but since the demo is 90% "Choose a monster to fight" I figured I should give a little info on each monster before you went to do that - which also wouldn't happen in a real game. She's the playable character, and you're her hero/mentor. I thought it would be an interesting perspective to try, sort of a POV thing. I'm not sure I'll stick with it. But... since there are no NPCs, it was the only way for her to give any exposition, without talking to herself like a weirdo. She's talking to you, her companion - so she gets to say stuff about each location. And, she gets to tell you how awesome you are, and who doesn't like that! ^_^ Besides, otherwise I would have had to have multiple characters, and I didn't want to spend that kind of time on a tech-demo. ^_^'''

I'll skip on the critique, seeing you've got a lot of that already! I'll say though that I'm really impressed by the character artwork. The goblins, orcs, etc. are very convincing. I also immediately fell in love with our companion (she's beauftiful). I'm a bit confused on that part though. If she's the playable character, then who am I? A tiny bit of critique then: In Learn about Monsters, it was a bit of an anticlimax to see the dragons depicted in so much detail. Especially since our lovely companion talks about 'hearing of them in legends'.

I just posted an update that fixes and changes a couple of things - and leveling up is faster, so that's fun, since a lot of the classes get new abilities as they level up. You'll have to try it again! Of course in a real SFK game there would be optional sex scenes: -Any time you rest/camp (though I'd probably focus on more of a voyeuristic thing with your companion) -Any time you stop at the city bordello - which was not featured in this release -Any time you want, with NPCs who like the character enough (a little bit of "dating sim" functionality) -When your companion is defeated in battle by certain enemies (like... not animals or rotting zombies or anything like that) -When you defeat certain enemies -Also, sometimes it would be a continuation of the combat - where you could still "win" or "lose", something like how you described. ^_^ For now, it's PG-rated. But it's also not official SFK content, yet. Someday!

I updated it - the new link is in the description. And thanks! I fixed some of the things you pointed out! I'd like to do idle animations for battle - but I didn't want to spend that kind of time on it right now. I'm planning to eventually have an actual population of NPCs in the setting, and I was thinking about having them look animated and alive while you're not talking to them. But I hadn't thought about throwing the companion into that mix though, that's a good idea! ^__^ Her default name is Hazel, by the way - if you hit enter on a blank text entry, it gives her the default name. There's probably a way to make the combat log scrolling text rather than just disappearing... I don't know how, but there's probably a way. ^_^'' Of course, there's a lot more I'd like to do if I was making this a real game! Someday I will though. Maybe between now and then though, I'll occasionally cobble some new content into this one.

I updated it - the post description has the new download. I probably would do idle animations for standing, and keep the other actions' animations as short and simple as possible (though probably more than just two frames). You're right that getting an animation to look good 100 times is harder than getting it to look right once. ^_^' I put the XP and HP listings in the Inventory screen, and touched up a few things. I HOPE it'll put an end to the buggy HP/inn system. Switching between classes is just a demo feature, just like getting to choose which monsters you fight. In a real game, I think I'd have the player choose a class, with a career system... maybe one that lets you delve into other classes also. But maybe something more freeform, like you say, would be interesting. Progressive poison is what makes Hobgoblins bastards! They poison a bunch of times, and sit there and defend, while they wait for you to die (at higher levels they get a rogue jump attack too). And YES I was totally going for Shining Force! I loved that game! ^__^ The monster info was fun to do - I especially like the Hobgoblin and the Wyrm pictures. I'm not sure I'd stick with 100% of that info for the SFK setting, but probably at least most of it.

Pretty cool! I love the main character aspect. And the combat system is pretty straightforward and agile. My only suggestion for the future SFK-RPG is, as it would be a SFK title, to add the "sex" to the battles. Kind of the classic Erotical Night* combats, where you encounter a sexy enemy, you try to strip her (or him or futa... in your case), and try to win through "first to cum loses" :P Cheers! *If anyone doesn't know what's Erotical Night, google it. It's a pretty funny, sexual flashplayer rpg.

This is very very nice for a "homebrew" RPG, you could easily expand it into a "real" game if you had the time. As far as critique goes, I'd love to see you add some "idle" animations for while you're choosing what to do in a battle, and it would be nice to see our beautiful companion strolling around the room while we're choosing what actions to take in a non-combat area - maybe throw in some cute SFK-esque butt-shots while she looks under a rock for potions or in a shelf for a spellbook, and a bit of underboob when she stretches up to look in a high place for something else :-) I'd also like to see something done with that blank space at the bottom that you're using for the combat log - maybe extend the monster's terrain imagery down there but use a shadowed area to keep the combat log readable, and while we're on the subject of the combat log, if you could keep it persistent through the fight it would be marvelous. We definitely need a way to see how much HP and XP we have, simply adding it to the inventory sheet would be fine for the current version of the game, and an XP progress bar would also be nice (knowing you've just earned XP is fine, but we've got no idea how much it is towards our next level). On the inventory front, it's perfectly workable the way it is, but some icons would be nice - I don't particularly think we need to be able to handle inventory management by the icons, but just having some icons (red bottle for potion, big red bottle for Hi-Potions, etc) would be a nice bit of immersion. I found one issue that was a problem - if you choose to use an item, it shows you the list, but there's no way to get out of the list without using something (not good if you look and then decide not to use your second-to-last potion)

The Lapdragon

Impressive, functional, and fun. For the small amount of time you spent, this is quite nice. I would say an RPG is in your future. In fact, once you get done with everything else you have set up, I'd love to see an RPG. As for random comments: Animations and the like are nice, but to be honest I kinda like the limited-frames in that they let you get to the point of the battle a bit faster. Overly long animations can become tiresome in RPGs once you're seeing them for the 10,000 time. A screen listing accumulated XP, in addition to current HP, would be nice. I could swear my HP was moving around between traveling, but until I got in a fight I couldn't tell. Switching classes for each battle is actually quite interesting. I'd recommend a free-form style where the skills you use define what your overall class is as opposed to picking a certain one. I played around with the soldier and the barbarian, and liked the abilities of both. The progressive poison was really neat. At first I thought, meh, I got poisoned but just 1 HP. A few rounds later I wasn't so smug. The perspective was really cool. Do you or did you happen to have a Genesis? I was sensing a Shining Force vibe. Monster info was awesome. I love backstory stuff! In general, very cool. Looking forward to whatever is in store next.

sblgpfan

I'd do animation if it was for real. Of course, I didn't want to spend that kind of time on this. I think "Cantrip" has too strong of a connotation with D&D cantrips, which are miscellaneous 0-level spells that do a variety of minor effects. The Sorceress gets like a dozen spells, so I'm sure there are a few that could be better. The Soldier's "Strength Up" ability is the only name I think is really terrible. If I'd had more time, I would have given the Soldier some more abilities. Really, there could be a lot more abilities, maybe even more classes, more items, equipment, more monsters, and EVERYTHING would need to be balanced better - most monsters get outpaced after a few levels, and some classes are noticeably better than others. But then, if I'd had more time, the world would have NPCs in it. And a story. And it would open with a sex scene, instead of a vague reference to one that could just be talking about a night of drinking. ^_^

the fighting stuff works well, wish there was a bit more animation for idling between hitting/defending. need to come up with a better name for the sidestep spell, like cantrip or something similar... cantrip is a movement enhancing spell that steadies the recipient but also gives some 'foresight' when attacks come. spells also need to be made stronger, at least the attack spell... on the whole a very worthy and successful test.

ill check this out shortly.