New Game Release: Rex the Red Episode II

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#1

Hey all,

We have released a new game today, Rex the Red Adventures Episode II. This Zelda clone style game is a real upgrade on the original, and now features hardware acceleration using VolatileImage.

http://www.randomthoughts.net/image/spotlight/rex3.jpg

Check it out here:
http://www.randomthoughts.net/games/rexa2/

And here is a short blurb describing the game:
“The Adventures of Rex the Red: Episode II ~ The Dark Monastery.
Take control of the valiant Rex the Red in this action adventure RPG. Dark times have befallen Ivesdale. Monsters run rampant along the roads, and a sinister presence has arisen at the nearby monestary. Improved game engine over episode I features faster game play, more monsters, more traps and more treasure! Premium Members can enjoy saving and access to Episode I as well. Will Rex prevail? Only your skill will decide the fate of our Hero.”

Any and all feedback is appreciated,
~ Random

#2

Agh ok sorry if I’m going to sound a bit ranty but I ran into a couple of issues in the game that are a bit… ehh “beta”.

The game is fun and all and I was playing it for a while last night; I enjoy rpgs and the pacing of this one is pretty good.

However there are two things that bugged me tremendously while I was playing (the latter of which ended my playing):

One, I bought the really expensive 1500 gold angel sword from the store guy, and then after that point for some reason decided to open the chest of that little kid who’s sitting in the top left of Ivendale (did I say that correctly?). I’m mostly wondering what’s inside it and… oh a sword. Well too bad I already bought this other one that’s significantly better. But then I check my inventory and there it is, the new shining short sword of crap 5 attack, replacing my just-bought sword of 15. Please put in an intelligent replace system, either asking the user or just simply not trading it up if the strength is clearly worse. But oh well, I bought another sword, not the end of the world. Not near as bad as…

…the freeze ability. Ridiiiculously powerful. And I’m referring to being attacked, not attacking with it. I had a level 29 Rex, about 7 toughness, had recently purchased +150 hp armor, giving me about 290 health. I think it was full or near full. I ran into one of the regions with a couple of frost mushrooms and a spider. I get frozen by a mushroom; no big deal, this has happened before, I unfreeze, stabby stabby, all is good. Except this time he freezes me a second time, and within that time another spider runs up and starts wailing on me as well, also providing his lovely freeze effect. In time another mushroom guy seems to catch on, and also goes for my poor rex, aiming to freeze him to death. So I basically just sit there, ridiculous powerful rex, unable to do anything because I’m stuck in “blue” mode, permanently stunned. I go down though all my health, hit 4/290 hp, then hit Esc because I remember that I have a stat point I saved expressly for times like this. I put it into toughness, jump all the way to 310/310 health, and proceed to go through the same process, all the while I’m frantically hitting the left arrow key to run but it does nothing because I’m frozen. I die. Surely this type of death was not intended in the gameplay design? I really think a form of diminishing returns for a short period or at the very least upped resistance for a significant amount of toughness would be in order.

Again, I really like the game, but things like this are very frustrating. Any chance they could get addressed?

#3

Good feedback.

The weak sword is supposed to be a trap, because the guy asks you not to open his chest. An item choice system for swords and armor when you find them in chests isn’t a bad idea though.

The freeze situation is also fixable, and one I’ve been debating for a while. On one hand I like it because it keeps Rex mortal, make a mistake against Ice monsters and you can always die. On the other hand, when playing I go to great lengths to stay far away from any ice monsters, because I hate fighting them.

I specifically put less ice monsters in this game as opposed to the last one, but they are still there. I suppose I could make a freeze resist that is based on your strength… (Strong Rex break ice!)

It is a 5 year old engine, and this game was done for an offline CD almost 3 years ago. It only just now got finished being converted into applet glory. Saving does fix some of the issues. I suppose saying our newer games with newer engines (check the Lab, http://www.randomthoughts.net/games/lab.html ) don’t suffer from the same problems doesn’t help this particular game.

Thanks for the feedback. You’ve given me some thought about some changes to implement.
~ Random

#4

Hmm I guess now that you state it in the form of a “trap”, it makes more sense. However, you need to make it more obvious to the player that they fell for something intentional. I suppose if I had thought about it there would be no other purpose for finding a level 1 sword, but that didn’t occur to me somehow. Something along the lines of saying your sword vanishes and/or that you should not have touched this chest. Would have been funny rather than frustrating.

And I like the idea of strength increasing chance to break prematurely from ice. That would work well, I think. As for now, I think I’m going to try to get by using spark to zap them…

#5

It’s an enjoyable old-school RPG :).

2 things that bothered me somewhat:

  • The movement is quite jerky. I think that should not be necessary anymore in this day and age
  • It seems you’re not keeping track of key states, i.e. I’m seeing key repeat issues. Better to keep track of key states in booleans, and base your movement on that.
#6

OK, based on feedback here I have made a few changes:

  1. I updated the movement code so that holding down the key works the same as tapping it.

  2. I added a SMALL resistance to ice based on how strong Rex is.

Check out the new item here:
http://www.randomthoughts.net/news.html

Thanks for the feedback,
~ Random

#7

Nice game…kinda tough or i havent spent enough time playing it :slight_smile: