[Roots]

Greetings. A couple of days ago, our team released the second playable demo for our game: Hero of Allacrost. I wanted to share this with you all and collect your thoughts on it. The demo is available for Windows, OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD so chances are good that it will run on your machine. :) Visit our website and click the "Download" tab to find instructions on where to download the game and how to install it.


About Hero of Allacrost -- Website: http://www.allacrost.org

Hero of Allacrost is a single player 2D role-playing game that shares similar appearance and gameplay as classical console RPGs. In Hero of Allacrost, the player will explore rich environments, solve challenging dungeon puzzles, and fight strategic battles in an active-time based system. The game is free open-source software and is available across several platforms including Windows, OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD.


Screenshots

Below are some (slightly out-dated) screenshots from various portions in this release. Click the thumbnails to view the full version.






Thanks!
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Hero of Allacrost, a 2D RPG in development

[Terry]

I actually checked this out a few days ago when it was posted on the indygamer blogspot. It's really quite nice to see how far you've come with it - I remember when you posted the last version. There are obviously some very nice things about the game, but I also think there are some basic problems that you should think about addressing...

Well, number one : the characters moves frustratingly slowly. Perhaps it just feels that way because of the zoom level, I'm not sure. I think the game would play an awful lot better if he moved about three times as fast, and not as a run option, as default. Alternatively if the screen was closer to those lovely sprites it wouldn't be such a big deal :)

I'm not sure about the choice of controls. Using "F" as confirm seems particularly odd, but I guess it's not a big deal.

I don't think the multiple targets per enemy thing is such a good idea. I have a feeling it could end up being over complicated, and I don't really see what it adds to the game. All it seems to do at the moment is slow down the battles. On the other hand, maybe it'll make more sense, strategically, once you've got multiple characters in play. (I'm guessing you've got one guy going for the legs to slow down the enemies, another guy damaging arms to reduce the impact of their attacks, and the strongest guy doing blanket damage to everyone.)

Having said all that bad stuff, there are a few things I really like:

I love all the non-standard RPG additions, in particular the balloon speech bubbles to indicate that you haven't talked to an individual before. That was pretty clever :) Also, the turn indicator in battle was pretty cool, though at the moment it's in danger of being a little cluttered. FFX did something cool here, but I suppose if you want activetime battles then the FFX route isn't an option.

Doing battles left to right is actually a really good idea. The first time I saw it it was kinda jarring, but I gotta used to very quickly and I actually think it makes a lot more sense. Kudos on that one :)

Hope I've been helpful, heh. Keep up the good work!
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http://www.distractionware.com

[Roots]