As I draw closer to finally adding my demo to the mix I thought I would give a shout out to a few projects that are made by super awesome people and you should check out!
I also drew cute chibi versions of characters from them!
(●´ω｀●)
Toby’s island –
A wonderful RPG in development with a great visual style and sense of exploration. Toby’s island is a 2D RPG adventure game centred on monster raising, puzzles, turn based combat and town building. As the name of the title might suggest, you wind up on an island where you must learn to survive, such as cultivating your own food, developing tools to traverse the landscape and raise creatures from eggs to defend yourself. In beta testing the game it has come a long way from what it once was!
For more info on the project look no further than here!
https://www.mvisioning.com/
Black crystals RPG –
A cute hand drawn styled RPG with a big emphasis on character interaction and handcrafted elements. It has a customised battle system with plenty of interaction and intuition. It is a visually pleasing and loving game to look at that you can tell has had a lot of heart put into it as it really shows. The skills, move sets and animations of the character bring across plenty of personality.
The dev log of black crystals can be found here!
@blackcrystalsrpg
https://blackcrystalsrpg.tumblr.com/
Roji’s room –
Roji;s room is another RPG with a pleasing and interesting aesthetic to it! You play as Roji and travel through the collective dreams of the earth, making choices and effecting the out come of things. Made by a friendly and lovely developer, this is another game I look forward to for the hand drawn and a bit comic-like aesthetic and characterful combat.
You can found out more here!
https://rojisroomrpg.tumblr.com/
@rojisroomrpg
Cursed marionette is an rpg horror game based around dark fairy tales and more. Centred around a mysterious maiden and featuring a cast of other characters, the mystery and writing of it seems intriguing. The developer is another wonderful person who has given plenty of feedback on my own project also! A demo is planned for release of this project but if you’d like to see more check out the link below!
https://projectcursedmarionette.tumblr.com/
@projectcursedmarionette
Folkloria is another pleasing RPG which is reminiscent of paper Mario in combatbual style with a cartoony and vibrant cast of cute and fiendish characters. Influenced by folklore as evidenced in the title, many of its characters and enemies are drawn from mythology such as a griffin main character Weaver, a cactus cat, a kitsune and more.
DEVELOPER(S): folkloriarpg
ENGINE: RPGMaker MV
GENRE: Adventure, RPG
SUMMARY: Folkloria is a lighthearthed turn-based RPG set on a floating island inhabited by mythological creatures. You play as Weaver, a young and unassuming griffin determined to rescue his family from the clutches of Dr. Zeralidius, a shady businessperson from the world below the clouds who plans to modernize the peaceful island.
Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!
Introduce yourself!
*Oi! I'm Domino, a wannabe artist. I've been drawing all my life, a passion I inherited from my father, but only recently I decided to publish my work online. Through the years I have tinkered with basically all iterations of RPG Maker, making silly short games with my friends before attempting to develop something full-fledged.
What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially?
*Domino: Folkloria is a very simple, cartoony turn-based RPG which spices things up with timed hits, counters and a variety of partners. The game takes place on a floating island inhabited by anthropomorphized mythological creatures. The protagonist of the story is Weaver, a child griffin determined to rescue his family from the clutches of Dr. Zeralidius, a shady businessperson from the civilized world who wants to forcefully modernize the island. Along the way he will meet new allies like Lauper, a thousand-year old phoenix who needs his help to drive Zeralidius out of the island, and Akinai, a kitsune merchant who will supply them with the best items she has to offer. I still haven't shown all the party members, but among them are a buff minotaur lady, a shy but frightening wendigo and a sculptor gorgon.
What inspired me to make a game was the indie scene in general. I have always dreamt of being a game developer since I was a kid, and when indie games first started becoming really popular I thought to myself "Hey, I could probably do that!". The folklore theme of the game was decided completely at random. When I first created the character of Weaver with my friends years ago, we wanted to make a traditional 2D platformer. We came up with a griffin character since being part lion and part bird he could fly, run fast and use its claws to attack. That decision alone basically shaped up the rest of the setting, and I started populating the game's world with different mythological creatures.
How long have you been working on your project?
*Domino: The game in its actual state was started at the end of 2015, but the basic setting and characters (specifically Weaver, the protagonist and Zeralidius, the villain) were conceived as far back as 2012. I didn't pay much attention to it during the following years since I was working on another unrelated project with some friends, but after things fell out with them I decided to revisit the concept and flesh it out.
Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project?
*Domino: Of course! If it wasn't obvious enough, the game is heavily influenced by Nintendo RPGs, especially the Paper Mario series. I always loved the simplistic approach towards the RPG formula those games have, and I also adore turn based combat with timed button presses. I think it keeps the player engaged. Graphically, Mother 3 was a big inspiration. The art style of that game just resonates so well with me, with that colorful palette and the black outlines that make the sprites stand out so much.
Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?
*Domino: The biggest challenge was overcoming the limitations of the engine itself. I chose RPG Maker because it's very easy to pick up, as I'm mainly an artist and I don't know anything about coding. But as time passed, I noticed that even when using countless scripts I couldn't achieve the battle system I had in mind for my game, which required timed button presses and numerous character animations. So one day I decided to try making the battle system from scratch, using only common events and script calls, and it worked smoothly. In the end it felt extremely satisfying to see something like that work as intended, and by experimenting with script calls and variables I at least learned something about coding.
Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept?
*Domino: Like I said before, the game was initially conceived as a 2D platformer. Then, when I picked up the project again years later, I envisioned it as a bare-bones boss rush RPG with Weaver as the sole playable character. As I started adding more features like partners and equipment, I felt those would be wasted in a boss-only game and I finally decided to include random enemies. Since then the game hasn't changed much, but to this day I always find myself revisiting minor stuff like the design of some NPCs (and I should seriously stop doing that!).
What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone?
*Domino: I prefer to work alone, as I am very picky about how characters and gameplay aspects are handled, but I still enjoy receiving feedback. I have a very close friend who doesn't actively work on the game, but always tell me what I'm doing right or wrong, and I find his help invaluable. So far I'm doing well one-man-armying the project, I will have to find a composer sooner or later though, since making music is the only thing I can't realistically do by myself.
What is the best part of developing the game?
*Domino: Animating the character sprites and seeing them interact in battles is incredibly satisfying to me. Being an artist at heart I'd say spriting in general is my favorite aspect of game development. Another thing I absolutely adore is worldbuilding, researching the mythical beasts from all around the world and trying to incorporate them in the game by giving them my own spin.
Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing?
*Domino: I haven't played many RPG Maker games, but I did enjoy LISA the Painful and OneShot immensely. I was impressed by how far these two games in particular pushed the RPG Maker engine to its limit.
Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?)
*Domino: Self-inserting isn't something I like to do in games, so this is a hard question for me, but I think I can relate with Weaver, he mostly keeps to himself but he's always willing to help his friends and family.
Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently?
*Domino: Yes, I regret not having started working on this project earlier and wasting too much time during the planning phase.
Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is?
*Domino: Absolutely! I would definitely love to expand the game's lore further through comics and other side projects.
What do you look most forward to upon/after release?
*Domino: The sense of accomplishment of having completed and released a game! But deep down, the thing I'd love the most is having fans of my work and seeing my characters drawn by other artists.
Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?
*Domino: The whole marketing part scares me. I really don't know how to promote my game, so getting it noticed is going to be pretty tough for me.
Do you have any advice for upcoming devs?
*Domino: Oh man I am bad at this. I'd say... when starting, keep the scope of your game small. Make something that you, as a player, would enjoy playing. Don't try to follow trends and, most importantly, value every bit of constructive criticism, but remember that you can't always please everyone!
Question from last month’s featured dev @plueschkatzeart: How do you keep yourself motivated?
*Domino: Sharing my progress on the blog for everyone to see is what keeps me motivated. Since I set myself the goal of posting at least once a week I've become more productive than ever. Of course, the positive response I receive from my followers also help. Another thing that encourages me to keep working on my game is seeing other developers succeed; that gives me hope and drives me to do my best!
We mods would like to thank Domino for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!
Remember to check out Folkloria if you haven’t already! See you next month!
So my first Argentinean Pena and what can I say, my favourite night out on the contient so far. I was gutted that I forgot to take my camera but I hope this tacky You Tube video can show off at least a little of what I experienced. Penas Folklorias are traditional folklore parties, but really it's a night out with a lot of wine, a lot of dancing wherever you can find space, be it on chairs or tables, some napkin throwing, a lot of singing, men on guitars and whole lot of fun. I was in my element and didn't stop until the police came in and kicked us all out. My new friends and I couldn't stop raving about our night at La Casona del Molina and I hope I can find other Penas that are just as exciting in other parts of the country
