Hi. I'm NukeOTron, and I've been working an action-RPG called Rock Beyond Time. It's hard work, but it's worth it. I wish I had a background tile artist for it. Since the beginning of its development, I've been thinking of making it a spiritual successor to both Dragonian and The Other Phalanx.
...but that's not what you're here for, right? You want me to talk about Dragonian: The Imbalance of Sierr.
So, let's talk about it!
Yes, I was proud of it when I made it back then. However, as a game dev, I realize there are many problems with it, and I can't really fix them due to Game Maker (before the "Studio" name) being outmoded. Even if I did port everything, the game would have weird graphical glitches here and there, and I wouldn't know if it could make it to consoles. Most of the problems to me are design decisions created by my limited understanding of Game Maker.
However, it's still a decent game. I put a lot of love into making it. My writing skills weren't so great, so to help me communicate, I kept throwing in cute little jokes. I'd probably still do that today. I just don't know if I'd make this game the same way today.
So, why do you people like it? Well, here's what I do know:
Visual Style
...well, I won't argue here. I intentionally did the 2D sprites in 3D worlds thing to take up less data than Zib the Mutant Fly, and to give it its own style. I experimented with everything I could at the time. Also, I continue to be a character artist and sprite animator.
It's not a Five Nights at Freddy's fan game
You'd have to be there in 2015. GameJolt was flooded with those things.
What was this "Breath of the Wild" thing you speak of?
A legend, but that game was delayed so many times that I felt like I was filling a void at the time I was releasing this. Seriously, go play Breath of the Wild. And Link's Awakening.
The Writing
Everyone noticed the jokey dialogue. EVERYONE. My thought process was how I could never take Cream the helium-pitch Rabbit seriously when she talks about rail-grinding in Sonic Heroes, much less how anyone in a fantasy world would know what a "button" was. Also, people remember silly things better than boring stuff. Of course, it's not all meant to be silly.
It Works... more or less.
The first thing every game designer needs to learn is to make a product that actually works. Having had previous experience in making 2D games, I just wanted to make a Zelda-like game. Now that I have, I don't know if I want to do another. I'd love to write the story of another, but not the code-monkey stuff, despite how necessary it is.
Oh, and if you're wondering about slowdown issues, I'll get into it later.
Of course, there are many other things I learned when making this game, that I used in future games:
Pose-to-pose Puppet-styled Animation
That final boss. 'nuff said.
Bigger Room-Connecting Systems
Every Belgrad game I've made has a room-connecting system like this game's. The real difference is that they don't create whole levels on the fly.
Fix your text menu system!
The big reason behind the slowdown with this game is that every NPC is running their scripts AT THE SAME TIME in the Step event. It doesn't matter if what they're not supposed to be talking at the time. It's hard-coded in the exe file. Thankfully, this lesson is well-learned for both the Belgrad games and Rock Beyond Time.
In mid-development, you are the worst judge of your own creation. You're too close to it. Take a step back, get a good second opinion, take that info, and see if you can use it.
A lesson Yuji Naka needed to learn when directing Balan Wonderworld. It's easy to yell to your fans, "Well, what do YOU know about game design?" It's hard to accept your faults at the time.
Anyway, I'm glad you all like/tolerate this game. I wish it were better. I wish I were interested enough to do a rework or 2D remake, but my loyalties lie with Rock Beyond Time right now.
...and seriously, I may need help on that one with BG/environmental graphics.
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