Wannika: a free 25-minute jrpg created by yours truly; Episode 2 released on June 30!

[Blink]

Wannika, Wannika... now why is that name so familiar?

Roguey weren't you stalking a Wannika? Or was it Benjanun's sister?

He thought Benjanun's name was Wannika. (Of course it turns out Benjanun wasn't her real name either.)

Speaking of whickkle, why did roguey's thread get sent to retardo land? nd roguey ur old writng reads like that bcszsue yah dont have anyking retraint you saw my edit. I can be that retraing order to your brain.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Additionally, both incidents were drawn from real life. That incident with Christine is something a former classmate of mine did to someone (with a friend and his mom watching). He received 8 years for it, the mom copped a plea

I never imagined the riddle of your piss poor internet connection would have such a prosaic solution... that's a story from the wrong side of the tracks.

Those two guys stuck a firecracker with a long fuse in her vagina, lit it, counted down loudly, and then extinguished it shortly before the flame went too far

Even if this is totally fictional, it's rural America all the way. Probably somewhere in Everclear country.

 

[Roguey]

Even if this is totally fictional, it's rural America all the way. Probably somewhere in Everclear country.

I've always lived in suburbia, but one can say the attitudes here lean rural, sure.

 

[Ninjerk]

Even if this is totally fictional, it's rural America all the way. Probably somewhere in Everclear country.

I've always lived in suburbia, but one can say the attitudes here lean rural, sure.

Are you in the Midwest or Appalaicha?

 

[Ninjerk]

Lmao, the Lesi inspired JRPG. Is the magic part inspired by Black Cat?

EDIT: Ofc, that's where I remember "stuffies" from.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Even if this is totally fictional, it's rural America all the way. Probably somewhere in Everclear country.

I've always lived in suburbia, but one can say the attitudes here lean rural, sure.

Are you in the Midwest or Appalaicha?

Firecrackers up the vagina definitely sounds like something that would happen south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Edit: or in China, except in China they’d let the firecrackers go off.

 

[Ninjerk]

Even if this is totally fictional, it's rural America all the way. Probably somewhere in Everclear country.

I've always lived in suburbia, but one can say the attitudes here lean rural, sure.

Are you in the Midwest or Appalaicha?

Firecrackers up the vagina definitely sounds like something that would happen south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

I've heard tales of Michigan and I could see it being just as likely there, and who tf knows what goes in Wisconsin.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

I've heard tales of Michigan and I could see it being just as likely there, and who tf knows what goes in Wisconsin.

Dude, if Roguey was from the same region as Josh Sawyer, I don’t think he’d be able to resist throwing in little tidbits about the Midwest.

 

[aweigh]

Please don't destroy the feminine allure of Roguey by sullying his name with masculinity.

 

[ScrotumBroth]

Here are some thoughts...

Make interaction objects visible, like with the fridge. Players don't need remainders to check objects, let them figure out, or not. Perhaps add a short comment trigger on other objects, such as TV (I don't have time for that...) so players are encouraged to check objects.
I like the sudden difficulty spike with the second fight, but it makes no sense that the chick has more health than the bodyguards. It would be logical to take out weak healer/buffer then deal with the muscle.
The size of maps, particularly indoors, feels too zoomed in (hotel lobby). This is adding to confusion as to what's for show and where can a character go.

I'm not sure what choices were there, apart from slapping the mother? Was beating the maid a choice? Stealing drinks?


If you're serious about making this type of game, I'd recommend playing To the Moon (story and world building, interaction) and Breath of Fire 2 (combat).

Edit: I did like the randomness of hits, I've reloaded the library fight a few times, and different every time.

I reckon you can spike up difficulty a bit more, make people use drinks and buffs. Give the magic chick AoE attack special, as her buff removes the drink buffs (only two slots).

 

[Roguey]

Make interaction objects visible, like with the fridge. Players don't need remainders to check objects, let them figure out, or not. Perhaps add a short comment trigger on other objects, such as TV (I don't have time for that...) so players are encouraged to check objects.

I erred on the side of including "check the fridge please" with a "good job, you checked the fridge!" because you really need those buffs for the next fight, considering I tuned it with the expectation that you'd be using them. It's still possible one can ignore how the mom's facing changed, ignore her, and head straight out the door, but I thought that including an "Are you sure you want to leave?" was a little too hand-holdy. I'll consider adding more object descriptions, but my knee-jerk reaction is that it's a waste of time. Like, I rarely bothered with this feature in Fallout and it also seemed absurdly excessive in the demo for Stygian.

I like the sudden difficulty spike with the second fight, but it makes no sense that the chick has more health than the bodyguards. It would be logical to take out weak healer/buffer then deal with the muscle.

She has ~magical enhancements~ as does the final boss.

As I said earlier, verisimilitude, man. In reality you approach an important woman, lunge at her, and her bodyguards will throw you to the ground and start stomping on you.

The size of maps, particularly indoors, feels too zoomed in (hotel lobby). This is adding to confusion as to what's for show and where can a character go.

Understandable. This was the result of one-part corner-cutting (yet making maps was still the most time-consuming process of production) and one-part "I don't enjoy time-padding traveling times in games so I want to make these walks as short as possible." I rejected the idea of adding "natural" barriers to the levels because it felt too gamey (plus I saw a post where Avellone said he hates that kind of thing).

Hindsight idea: Stepping on a square in the area pops up an "I don't need to go here" message once.

I'm not sure what choices were there, apart from slapping the mother? Was beating the maid a choice? Stealing drinks?

In the middle it's mostly just getting dialogue or not by stepping on the right squares (or trying to interact with the woman at the front desk). When you go to Wannika's place the second time, you have the option of leaving immediately or staying and talking to the companions. If you talk to Sue before Catalina and listen to the entire monologue, Wannika gets to call out Cat on something.

And of course there's the ending.

I reckon you can spike up difficulty a bit more, make people use drinks and buffs. Give the magic chick AoE attack special, as her buff removes the drink buffs (only two slots).

I tested this, and two of each kind of buff stacks, with no limit to the amount of different buffs (or debuffs) you can have. There's just no room to display more than two icons on the battle screen and four on the status screen. They're all there though.

 

[Zombra]

Perhaps add a short comment trigger on other objects, such as TV (I don't have time for that...) so players are encouraged to check objects.

Please god no. I found it very refreshing that I wasn't encouraged to click every piece of furniture in sight. If something is important, make it stand out either visually or by having a character comment on it. If it isn't, don't waste my time. No game anywhere needs more "there's nothing here" messages.

 

[DakaSha V]

So is Wannika GoTY?

 

[baud]

Make interaction objects visible, like with the fridge. Players don't need remainders to check objects, let them figure out, or not. Perhaps add a short comment trigger on other objects, such as TV (I don't have time for that...) so players are encouraged to check objects.

I erred on the side of including "check the fridge please" with a "good job, you checked the fridge!" because you really need those buffs for the next fight, considering I tuned it with the expectation that you'd be using them. It's still possible one can ignore how the mom's facing changed, ignore her, and head straight out the door, but I thought that including an "Are you sure you want to leave?" was a little too hand-holdy. I'll consider adding more object descriptions, but my knee-jerk reaction is that it's a waste of time. Like, I rarely bothered with this feature in Fallout and it also seemed absurdly excessive in the demo for Stygian.

I think the problem is that fridge and mini-bar are not very visible, they are nearly the same color as the background. But I don't think object description would be useful.

 

[Zombra]

I think the problem is that fridge and mini-bar are not very visible, they are nearly the same color as the background. But I don't think object description would be useful.

I would certainly have never checked for them if the characters didn't mention them ... but they did so it was fine. It did seem strange that the fridge was literally only half visible at the edge of the screen.

 

[ScrotumBroth]

I don't agree objects need descriptions or comment prompts, in the first house there is literally just a TV and a fridge, whoever plays this type of game knows to check things and two objects is really a small amount. If someone isn't interested in exploring the map, they deserve to struggle on the next fight xD

"As I said earlier, verisimilitude, man. In reality you approach an important woman, lunge at her, and her bodyguards will throw you to the ground and start stomping on you." Fair enough, I appreciate you having your own logic, to me it was the most fun fight of the game, figuring out how it works.

"Hindsight idea: Stepping on a square in the area pops up an "I don't need to go here" message once." - Perfect.

I liked Wannika's attitude with the reception lady, and with Sue? (rogue), their evil/good banter. The house party banter was good too, although I must admit I didn't read the wall of text by that one person (did find it amusing).

"I tested this, and two of each kind of buff stacks, with no limit to the amount of different buffs (or debuffs) you can have. There's just no room to display more than two icons on the battle screen and four on the status screen. They're all there though." All good then. In such scenarios, I've seen games adding a + at the end, or ..., to indicate there are more buffs, only can't be seen.

The game certainly isn't bad for a first try.

 

[Zombra]

whoever plays this type of game knows to check things

This expectation leads to crap gameplay. The design intention that the player will click on every piece of furniture in sight is absolute cancer, particularly in a JRPG environment which is already defined by tedium.

I was overjoyed when I clicked on the TV and there was no popup. It meant that I wasn't expected to spare change sofa cushions and ransack trash cans.

 

[ScrotumBroth]

Eh Zombra, I gather you don't really enjoy jrpgs/puzzle explorers, if you can't handle clicking on two objects and prefer barren corridors.
Good games insert interesting or humorous interaction to make the trip from a to b less boring.
I'm happy to agree to disagree and leave it at that.

 

[Roguey]

I think the problem is that fridge and mini-bar are not very visible, they are nearly the same color as the background.

That's why I put that blue trash container opposite the first one, hoping that its distinctive color would draw one's eye to check it out (I wouldn't put anything useful among garbage, but people tend to check these things out just in case anyway).

 

[baud]

I think the problem is that fridge and mini-bar are not very visible, they are nearly the same color as the background.

That's why I put that blue trash container opposite the first one, hoping that its distinctive color would draw one's eye to check it out (I wouldn't put anything useful among garbage, but people tend to check these things out just in case anyway).

The problem is more with the fridge being half out the screen and the mini-bar is not very distinctive, compared to other elements in the room, especially when one is trying to avoid the zombie. I'm just trying to articulate why I had difficulties regarding the objects and stillI found them, but if there were no indications from the dialogue, I wouldn't have.

 

[Agame]

Ok just finished it, good job for a nice quick game!

Pacing seemed good, eg. between combat and dialogue, biggest issue with these games is boring combat so just using set combats is a nice way to fix that.

My issues are: combat balance seems a bit out of wack*, some fights way to hard and the rest to easy, though I like the comedy effect of beating up a weak housekeeper. And the minibar trap at the end was funny as I got mauled going into the room and then died very quickly to the end boss.

Level design could use some work here and there, as mentioned the fridge being half off screen is strange.

Story felt rushed, but I assume thats due to you keeping the project very small and short, and also due to the player being dropped into the middle of it. I like that approach as you skip boring people with an intro and we can get straight into the action, and figure out whats happening as we progress. Though maybe if you expand this project you could use "flashback" scenes to cover previous events?

Anyway hope some of that helps, I am currently doing my own Rpgmaker project so its nice to see a respected codex member using the program.

*Oh the irony...

 

[Roguey]

combat balance seems a bit out of wack*, some fights way to hard and the rest to easy

My goal here was to replicate the classic feeling of strategic gameplay within the context of something where every fight has narrative justification. So there's easy fight/hard fight/refresh/easy fight/easy fight (justified by narrative but included there more for pacing reasons)/hard fight/refresh/medium fight/hard fight/refresh/easy fight/slightly less easy fight/optional harder fight/hard fight. The resources to consider are hp and sp (I ticked all the boxes to keep the number you have preserved); though one can certainly beat everything by using strong attack and empower as soon as you're able, there can be times when the more strategically-beneficial decision is to hold off a bit and save one or more for the next fight. With my personal playstyle, the only place where I feel I may have gone too easy would be the last area, but I was concerned about brickwalling people with the two harder ones. Additionally, all those zombies have a small chance to poison you, and once that happens, it puts a lot of pressure on you to end the fight asap.

I don't feel I made anything too hard (I've never experienced a TPK ever, not even when intentionally playing suboptimally, though I've come close and had individual characters die when I did so), though I'm aware that things are easier for me because I know every enemy's exact stats and capabilities. For potential future titles, I'm considering the idea of trying to add a "Get Enemy Info" skill that would tell you the most pertinent stats of all the enemies on screen. A lot of jrpgs are based around feeling your way through, but I dunno, I'm in favor of knowing exactly what I'm facing so my tactical failures are mine alone.

 

[Zed]

congratulations on creating your first game!

 

[Agame]

Ok well I understand what your going for, my problem was I went in expecting standard linear curve difficulty, so I was on cruise control in the second battle and got completely wrecked. For the record I died twice playing this, second fight and then the final boss due to getting badly beaten up in the minibar room and having low health for the boss. I also tend to under use potions in games as I actually hate the whole powerup potion mechanic (but thats just me.) So that would be a factor here.

I do think the combat balance would work well now that I understand what you are doing, in a longer game it would be fine once you get a sense of which fights will be harder. It is quite amusing to have speedbumps like the housekeeper, and then feel mildly bad about killing them afterwards. Maybe rather than using 'enemy skill info' you could use the narrative to warn the player, eg: "hey guys, sounds like a lot of zombies stumbling around the in that next room" etc.

And a quick note I wanted to make on dialogue: at times it felt a bit 'cutesy' given the subject matter, but then Im not sure of the age of the characters and I guess it probably fits if your source material is animu stuffs which is not my area of expertise? I did like that most conversations were short and to the point, juxtaposed with the 'lore dump' longer text in the middle. I think this a great use of text, if most of the writing is succinct and to the point then I actually enjoy reading the occasional big text dump. Pretty much the opposite of say, POE, where once I realize every single NPC dialogue is going to go on and on with irrelevant garbage I just give up and skim everything as fast as possible...

 

[Roguey]

Ok well I understand what your going for, my problem was I went in expecting standard linear curve difficulty, so I was on cruise control in the second battle and got completely wrecked.

Like I mentioned previously, I put in that verbal warning and a recommendation to use those buff items

I suppose it's probably not the best of ideas to make the second fight of a game a boss fight. Originally I did plan to have a more-medium-easy-level difficulty fight at the entrance of the library before the boss, but rejected it because the sensible option would be for everyone to attack all at once. It would make more gameplay sense, but makes Cat look dumber than I thought she should be.

I also tend to under use potions in games as I actually hate the whole powerup potion mechanic (but thats just me.) So that would be a factor here.

I liked potion prebuffing in Swordflight, so I included it here as another resource to manage. However, if you don't want to use potions, might as well just stay out of the room entirely.

It is quite amusing to have speedbumps like the housekeeper, and then feel mildly bad about killing them afterwards.

In Wannika's defense, no one in this thing actually dies (until the final area anyway), they're just beaten until they can't fight anymore. I even changed the default text from "died" to "defeated" to reflect this.

Maybe rather than using 'enemy skill info' you could use the narrative to warn the player, eg: "hey guys, sounds like a lot of zombies stumbling around the in that next room" etc.

I'm not sure how effective a warning would be. It's an additional area to explore, most people are going to want to check it out.

And a quick note I wanted to make on dialogue: at times it felt a bit 'cutesy' given the subject matter, but then Im not sure of the age of the characters and I guess it probably fits if your source material is animu stuffs which is not my area of expertise?

Wannika, Sue, and Cat are roughly 19-20, John is mid-20s, and Emma is late-20s/30. Yeah, the cutesiness is part of the inspirational material, though it's live action, not animated. The western equivalent would be stuff like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! kill! (sampled in a White Zombie's Thunder Kiss '65: "I never try anything, I just do it... Wanna try me?"), Ed Wood's The Violent Years, Switchblade Sisters, Savage Streets, Angel.

I did like that most conversations were short and to the point, juxtaposed with the 'lore dump' longer text in the middle. I think this a great use of text, if most of the writing is succinct and to the point then I actually enjoy reading the occasional big text dump.

Much thanks.