[Silent Ellipsis]

The Rise of Magus

Earlier this week I completed a game I've been working on for 10 months. It began as a small exercise but quickly grew into something more ambitious, a platformer featuring Magus from the classic RPG Chrono Trigger. It tells the story of Magus before his appearance in Chrono Trigger, and how he rose to become Lord of the Mystics.



You can learn more about and download the game from the site I set up for it: The Rise of Magus

Or play it here on YoYo Games: http://www.yoyogames...ames/show/81474

Feedback is greatly appreciated - though the game is complete, I might revisit it and add some extra features in the future.


Screenshots:

Magus encounters Melchior


Magus battles Slash (shadow jumps and dodges attack after throwing a fireball)


More screenshots.


Controls:

Left/Right - Move left and right
Up - Jump
Shift - Hold to "glide" while moving
A - Basic attack
Z - Throw a fireball
Esc - Pause
Spacebar - Progress Dialogue
Enter - Accept Selection/Skip Story

This post has been edited by Silent Ellipsis: 03 June 2009 - 06:55 AM

[gamelover110]

Oooo... I like this game! I like the whole feel to it, the leveling up,upgrading, the fighting, and the story. You really did a good job!
5/5!!!

[Silent Ellipsis]

Thanks gamelover110. Feel free to share it with people and let me know if you have any other feedback.

[syth184]

Oh my god this is fantastic. To be honest I really wasn't expecting much. My only real complaint is that its a bit hard to tell what are platforms at times. I'm currently fihting what i think is the last boss in the epilouge. (really hard btw) and i must say, this game is excellent. the screenshots really dont do this any justice. great job.

[Silent Ellipsis]

syth184, on May 23 2009, 06:45 PM, said:

Oh my god this is fantastic. To be honest I really wasn't expecting much. My only real complaint is that its a bit hard to tell what are platforms at times. I'm currently fihting what i think is the last boss in the epilouge. (really hard btw) and i must say, this game is excellent. the screenshots really dont do this any justice. great job.

Yes, I get the impression that a lot of people aren't expecting much (given, for instance, how few replies there are to this thread). Perhaps I should replace one of the images with a story sequence screenshot...

As to the platforms, I'm guilty in the mountain level of making some clumps of leaves into platforms and others into background. The main reason is that the tilesets weren't really designed with a platformer in mind, so there's no element appropriate for small platforms aside from the background pieces I was already using. Still, I wanted to work with what I had to maintain aesthetic consistency. I suppose that I should ideally create some modified tiles (perhaps shift the colors) so that I have slightly different "walkable leaves" and background leaves.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

[syth184]

Yeah the main reason i wasnt expecting much was becasue at first I just assumed, "ok so someone just decided to take a top down game, and turn it into a platformer. its also 10 Megabytes so they probably have somekind of massive sound file taking up everything". It was really jsut the first guy saying he liked the level up system that sparked my initial interest. I think a good screenshot would be one that is more action packed. for example a picture of the ice gaurdian droping the ice chuncks from the ceiling while the player uses the thunder ability.
Also since you dont have a falling sprite you should avoid showing him falling because for a screenshot it makes it look a bit iffy.maybe instead have a gliding screenshot or so.

But anyway shortly after i posted that message, i adjusted my strategy a bit, and foudn that he was actually pretty easy. In addition i forgot a rating, and i give a 9.5/10, simply because i think a bit more work could have been done in terms of making all of the graphics smoothed out. Now i want to play it again, but i already deleted my save, and i should probably stop slacking off and get some work done on my own game.

[Silent Ellipsis]

syth184, on May 25 2009, 12:13 PM, said:

Yeah the main reason i wasnt expecting much was becasue at first I just assumed, "ok so someone just decided to take a top down game, and turn it into a platformer. its also 10 Megabytes so they probably have somekind of massive sound file taking up everything". It was really jsut the first guy saying he liked the level up system that sparked my initial interest. I think a good screenshot would be one that is more action packed. for example a picture of the ice gaurdian droping the ice chuncks from the ceiling while the player uses the thunder ability.
Also since you dont have a falling sprite you should avoid showing him falling because for a screenshot it makes it look a bit iffy.maybe instead have a gliding screenshot or so.

But anyway shortly after i posted that message, i adjusted my strategy a bit, and foudn that he was actually pretty easy. In addition i forgot a rating, and i give a 9.5/10, simply because i think a bit more work could have been done in terms of making all of the graphics smoothed out. Now i want to play it again, but i already deleted my save, and i should probably stop slacking off and get some work done on my own game.

Ok, I may try to get some better screenshots. As to the last boss, yes, the main thing that makes him hard is that he behaves differently from every other boss - rather than keeping distance, he constantly closes distance and tries to melee you.

If you do come back and play more, it may be worth noting that there are a few hidden things that I'm willing to bet you didn't find your first time through, and after beating the game once you can replay any level in Game+ mode so you can explore at your leisure.

[Silent Ellipsis]

Alright, I've changed the screenshots and am adding a couple more here. Let me know if you think they're a bit better. I'm trying to show some of the variety of scenes in the game (story scenes, explorable levels, boss fights, etc):

Magus begins casting a spell (this background took forever to make)


Magus confronts Masamune


Magus confronts his memories

This post has been edited by Silent Ellipsis: 03 June 2009 - 06:54 AM

[Silent Ellipsis]

Apparently my game is in a Cage Match against Constellation Chaos, so if you like it, go vote for it!