64Digits

Well, I promised this about a week ago, and after some unexpected bugs, the time has come to post it.

First and foremost, the download link:

http://www.shaltix.com/Terminys_RiverPrologue.zip

Once again, I had to host it at my own site, because 64Digits' file manager has trouble with ZIPs at the moment. And Cyrus, if you give me any more mouth about my site that exists solely for keeping my personal data safe, I'll swat you. And then get back to you on it later.

And for God's sake, before you blame me for random errors, extract the thing. On most computers, it'll work fine without extracting, but you won't be able to save your game. You need those saves if you plan on dying in-game (the game loads a quicksave, containing your position, but all other data is kept).

CONTROLS

Thanks for reminding me that I forgot about this important part. Here's a rundown of controls.

Arrow Keys - Movement

Z - Melee attack in combat, menu select on the map

X - Hold to run

A - Hold to recharge your Ether, used when you cast too many spells

S - Cast your selected spell

Q/E - Cycle through your spells (you can cycle through them on the map screen by going to the pause menu and navigating to the skills tab)

I don't think I forgot any.

RIVER'S SPELLS

Ether Spear - A short-ranged but powerful attack

Ether Dart - A fast, weak, but spammable attack

Stoneraze - Summons rocks from the ground. A spell with a long cast time that attacks enemies a moderate distance in front of her. Hits enemies that have burrowed underground.

Energy Strike - Generates energy beams to strike units a moderate distance in front of her. Moderate cast time, moderate power. Hits enemies that have taken to the skies (aim for the shadow).

You'll navigate a small level, fight some enemies, and a boss. The enemies can be annoying, but River doesn't gain experience in her prologue, so there is no need to fight them besides to get used to the combat. The boss used to be a lot harder, but I've toned it down so you can play without too much trouble.

There are also several cutscenes. You can watch them if you want, but I've added a skipping feature for those who want to get to the actual game. If you are interested in what happens later, for some reason, I encourage you to watch the cutscene after the boss fight, and it'll reveal a good part of the plot.

If you watch all the cutscenes, however, please feel free to provide feedback on the story or the cutscene itself. I'd appreciate those people who were patient enough to watch everything.

So, if you're still questioning what the hell this is, here are some screens.

And here's some backstory that might help you understand the character:

This may contain some spoilers, if you care.

This is River's prologue, which occurs about three days after Aidan's prologue, which was in the very first demo (the one with the flower and poison mist, etc). River is a sylph, a half-breed between the powerful Ethereals and humans. Sylphia typically keep to themselves, but are more in tune with ethereal power.

Some sylphia feed on the Ether of other creatures, including humans. It's not an uncommon act to leech a human's life force, but it is addicting, and for some, necessary.

When the two rival forces, Ether and Nether, clash, devastating effects follow. Since this follows the battle between people who held Ether and Nether, there are some effects that River is sent to investigate.

The next part of her prologue, which will probably not be released by itself, will bring the main plot into view, and River will join Aidan following the prologue.

So onto the dirty details.

This is more than a combat demo. It's also a dialog/cutscene/consistency test. If you haven't heard, Game Maker has some major consistency issues between computers. Working on a Mac with Windows isn't the same as working on a PC with Windows. Even between XP, Vista, and 7, there are major visual differences. Here's a quick list of them, so while I encourage you to report what you see, I don't want complaints.

[hide=Things I'm not at Fault For]

- Fonts don't load properly, and are often replaced by default fonts, even when the font is already installed on the computer

- Particularly in the name tab section of the dialog box, some computers will distort the tab, making it look a pixel wider than it should be (doesn't sound big, but you'll notice)

- Screen transition times are drastically different between computers. I've gotten this complaint a lot, and even fast computers will sometimes have slow transitions, and slow computers will have fast transitions.

And here are the known issues so far:

- When dying and returning to the room, the view must be reset (it works fine, but you see the previous view's position for about half a second).

- When dying and returning to the room, enemies are not reset (no grinding for now, unless you want to take the time to restart the game).

So, thanks to those of you who are willing to take the time to play this. Half of it is to test consistency, and the other half is for feedback on the game itself. If you have anything to suggest, feel free. I might bump this a bit, because at the moment, I'm relying on you guys to help me out, so I can complete the engine and finish the game.

And say hi to the Save Ravens for me.

God, I love spoiler tags. Though, they don't like line breaks after.

Terminys Demo 2: River's Prologue Part 1

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