Post by DJC on Sept 28, 2009 13:14:07 GMT -5
Sept 27, 2009 19:44:37 GMT -5 @yamata said:
DJC, have you ever thought of just moving on from Everlong?I mean, it was pretty decent from its days as an RPG Maker 2000 game, and recent upgrades have only made it better. But surely there's only so much you can work on a project before it seems to be irredeemably flawed.
I know that you put a lot of work into this and that starting a whole new project would take an enormous amount of time and effort, but maybe starting afresh and using everything you've learned making Everlong to make a game that is better than Everlong in every way would be more rewarding than continuing to tweak Everlong until you've fixed every small problem in the game. Nothing is ever perfect, and I'm afraid that if you add too much stuff on you risk taking away what makes Everlong Everlong (see Shadows of Evil: Wings of Time for a good example of this).
(I haven't actually played the new beta because I am waiting for a bug-free version, so I don't have anything to say about the story or the facesets. Sorry)
I think what I was trying to do with this version was simply make the game less embarrassing. The previous versions were so extremely cliche and horrific in some aspects that I didn't even like sharing it publicly or claiming it as my work. It's still rather awful in many regards, but now I feel it's good enough that I can put it out there and not regret it. There's reasons behind all of the game's shortcomings, but now I don't have to list them like a disclaimer and only mention them if people ask.
There actually was one point during the revision work where I thought about just scrapping my efforts and moving on, maybe to another project (or not). The thing with Everlong is there already exists so much content, if I want to add some new feature I have lots of windows or areas to insert it and it will actually integrate into a complete game. Right now I don't have the time to do anything else except release patches for critical bug fixes for the beta. I wish I could have finished the other additions and features I planned to include with this revision, but now it may never happen. I really would like to close the book on Everlong, and I feel it's nearly at a state (except for bugs and balance issues) where I can do that. You never complete an art project, you just eventually abandon it.
I've tried working with RMXP and would like to make a game with that engine, but it's a pain in the ass to get all the scripts I want to use working together. I'd also have to become familiar with not only the Ruby language but also the default scripts and the third party scripts I want to use so I can change them and integrate them and make new scripts myself.