Rincar is being remade on RPG Maker XP now!

The demo for the RPG maker 1 version, which is already out already will probably remain if you want an idea of what the game is about, but I began working and remaking the game fully on RPG Maker
Full game release date: Sometime in 2012



Bill is a man who would be an average Joe in a normal world. But in a normal world, an average Joe doesn't have one of many possible abilities, like throwing fireballs, teleporting, super vision/speed/strength, morphing, call down lighting, shoot beams of light, talking to animals, summon goblins, talking telephatically, or.. well, you get the idea. He is the only one who can't do any of that.

But in a seemingly random event, Bill enters the realm of one of the four great Rincars, who grants him his powers. Now Bill must find out more about his task (finding three medallions) if he wants to save part of the world of Koralia


Inspiration:
One of my favorite RPGs is Suikoden, and I definitely like how many characters that series have. And I also liked how in Radiata Stories, there was this big town where you could see that each character had their daily routines. And you could also challenge them to a fight and convince them to join you.
I originally planned to make this game in RM 3, where you would HAVE to fight every citizen to advance the story.
And the whole, people with super powers might remind some of Heroes. And while I like that series, I didn't even know what Heroes was about when I start developing this game idea.

More about the game:

• Collect books read about (play as) other citizens as they embark on their own crazy adventures, and get access to new areas.
  
• Level ups only gain you HP and SP (MP)
  
• Rush Mode
  
  Rush mode is not like, an official mode... it's more like a mix of a cut scene interrupted by several battles, ending in a boss fight. Usually there's no break to save and heal after you enter rush mode.
  
• Puzzle solving
  Instead of gaining items that will help you on your puzzle solving, you will have to get help from your neighbors to do so.
  Example, initially, to hit switches from afar, Bill has to throw his wife's cat to hit it, and then find a way to get the cat back. Certain neighbors can break rocks or lift heavy objects, while others can lit torches with their fire abilities.
  
• No random battles:
  You'll be able to see the enemy on each map
  
• Help Center
  Not everyone enjoys going from house to house, NPC from NPC in search of quests, so the Help center will allow you to know who is need of help and perhaps a hint of what they want or need. It'll also point you where you need to go to progress the story.

Other features I would like to add
Emergency Ticket system
This is something I wanted to to implement on the previous version but couldn't. I want to see if I can make it work.
If defeated by a normal enemy battle, you might use tickets to refill your health (or health and mp)and try again or something similar. I need to work on the idea.

Progress:
I had already perfectly set up the scenario data for the "prologue" and the beginning of the "first chapter" (The game isn't actually divided in chapters)
Until I overwrote the scenario data.

But I'm not mad. I believe the newly made prologue is like, 10x cooler than the one I accidentally deleted (and 0.5x shorter)
And I have a backup already.

Small update: I have already remade almost all of my lost scenario data.
Hopefully, everything will move faster after I'm done with it.

Same thing happened to me, except I deleted it on purpose out of frustration. Best thing that could have happened! The whole thing is just so much better for it and that seems to be the case here too

Congrats!

Thanks!
UPDATE
I'm satisfied with what I have so far. I tried to double check everything that had to do with the prologue and first dungeon, and everything seems fine. I can finally move on to the next part!
Most of the upcoming "dungeons" are already built. I'll just have to double check some and expand some others.
I'm already using 3 blocks of scenario data and two blocks of system data.

I'd really love to release upload my very first (and very short) demo, but I'm not sure if I should (or if I want Letting other people see my work makes me nervous.)

Progress
Not much. As I said last time, I'm looking at the dungeons I already built, and expanding them. I'm basically going to redesign the one and only town. In a a BIG WAY.
Hopefully, I'll only take me one day. Or two.

Progress
The town has finally been remodeled and expanded.
It consists of 16 "dungeons" and it took like 4 blocks of the system data
EDIT: Oops, I forgot to delete part of the old town, so the system jumped down to 3 blocks. That's a relief.

Now I have to reset the events so they actually send you to where they are supposed to take you.
But by tomorrow, I should be already starting on working on the rest of the world's locations.

Progress
I just finished the second dungeon... on paper
Now I need to make it on the game, but everything is looking fine.
I decided to incorporate Rush mode, which basically consist of a series of battles without rest. It's like an action sequence.


And here is some info on the world of Koralia and it's citizens:

The citizens of Porico Town
Every citizen has something peculiar, and they can be grouped in certain categories, depending on what they can do.

Elementalists
One of the most common abilities is to control an aspect of nature. Fire elementalists can control fire, tree elementalists can control the growth of trees and so on.

Shifters
People with the ability to change form. Some can turn into a specific creature, while others can turn into many kind of animals

Enhancers
People with a developed function. They can have super speed or strength, a special kind of sight of the ability to jump very high.

Others
There are others with abilities that doesn't seem to fall into any other category, but are usually a mix of abilities. When the 2 abilities can be differentiated, they are called Hybrids.

-----------------------------------
William Bell
Age: 28

The... "hero" of the story, called Bill by everyone. Despite not having any abilities like the rest, he manage to live a good life, even marrying the girl of his dreams, a Fire Elemetalist called Jessica.
Bill was entrusted with the powers of ancient warrior to do something he's not too sure of yet. But he knows it has to do something with a Dragon


Jessica Bell
Age: 26
Jess is the Fire elementalist Bill married. She is usually an overly cheery person and very curious. When something burns down, all fingers point at her, but she claims she is innocent of each incident.

Mintara Trimber
Age: 19

A young shifter who hates her name, so everybody calls her Mint. And like most shifters, she tends to act like the animal she can morph to on occasions. She runs the farm in Porico, until all her animals runs away.

Progress

First chapter is complete!
I spend a nice amount of time linking dungeons, and making every main character, along with their starting stats. I need to start setting up magic and skills, since basically I've been test playing at level 1 to make sure all events are running smoothly. (Going good so far.)

After chapter one, the player will be able to do various side quests before progressing on the story, so now I have to start setting up those too. But I'm already using my fifth block of scenario data, and I fear that if I try to cram too many side quests, I'll have to split the game earlier than I hoped. (But then again, I don't have to worry about other towns, since there is only one.)

Battles: I'm still not sure what to do about them, was thinking of instead of giving exp for beating monsters, they could drop "Exp crystals" which you could then exchange for actual exp The Town. But then I found out that level ups won't register until after the next fight.
So I thought that if you traded a "crystal" worth 50 exp points, you'd have to fight a monster that will net you 50 exp. I don't know how much of a hassle that could be (not for me and coding, but to the actual player)

Yeah the experience crystal sounds like a bit of a hassle. You could however have the crystal be exchanged for food items that permanently raise a specific attribute.

Maybe have a custom shop where the crystal could be exchanged for "Strength Nut" or "Wisdom Berry" I dunno. Thats just a thought

I'm seriously thinking on giving good ol' random battles a chance, with the classic beat them to gain exp.
Now, let's see...
Progress
I just realized I work better than making whatever I have, and think of the little details as I work. For once, putting things in paper first is not working too well for me (unless is a dungeon layout) So I'm just working bit by bit on character development.
I don't want my town to be just a big place with random NPCs repeating things over and over. And maybe that's why I have filled a third of a memory card already and still be in what I call the beginning of chapter 2.

ok, I'm rambling, short progress report: Not much

Progress
Ok, after much thinking, I decided to scrap the use of the Field Maps. That means I'll have to work on "field dungeons" now. But that will give me the chance to expand the whole "Use citizens to solve puzzles and clear paths" thing I want to make.
I'm kinda visualizing a Zelda style field.

Also, updated first post with info on the town

Progress
Once again, I took some time on redesigning the town. The first time, I just moved some houses around and remade the interior of the houses. This time, I let the interiors untouched, but redid completely the town.

And once again, I had to start redirecting the exits, which is kind of a pain when the town has like 7 areas and at least 18 buildings. I also removed the church, since I felt it was too out of the way, and the priest has a much more accessible house in the residence area.

Also, for those that played FF12, you know when you are about to move from one screen to another, you can see the other side before getting there?
I tried my best to emulate that.

Progress

Finished building the third dungeon. Now I need to set up the necessary events to make the puzzles work.

Wow, you're making progress! Keep up the good work on this game.

Thanks!
Progress
I've been working on the story. And can see better where I want everything to go, so I've been modifying a few things so they can reflect the direction I want.
I also added a small, optional tutorial explaining the magic class system, and a mini quiz rewarding those that pay attention to it.

I just wanted to say that I feel slightly horrible after realizing that one of my cut scenes involves a horses ramming kids, massive animal mistreat, and fighting a girl once or twice.
But only slightly.

Progress

System wise: The second main dungeon is already built. I need to make the "field map" that will lead to it, tho.
I need to start thinking on the first optional dungeon (I have the theme for it. I just need to... well built it in an unique way)

Scenario wise: I have already work on almost everything that will (or can) happen before you go to the second dungeon. I need to start setting up the events that will link the rooms of the second dungeon and make the puzzles work.

Changes so far:
Weapons and armor (and accessories) cannot by bought. In order to get stronger weapons, you must meet certain conditions that will allow you to trade (or upgrade) your weapon/armor for a stronger one.

Progress
Had a little problem setting up the events for the second dungeon, but all the switches that will make the puzzles work are properly set up (Also did a test run to verify how would they work if I did things in a way I didn't expect someone to do it)
My "24 switches estimate" for that dungeon was a bit of tho, I ended up using like 55. But I'm happy with the result so far.

Progress
I went back to what I previously had, and decided to add a bit more life to it. Since I want to focus on character interaction, I added more conversation to some dungeon parts, which would also help making clear the objective of the dungeon. Thanks to that I'm already on my tenth block of scenario data.

I also had a big map with, like 9 houses interiors in it, so I ended up giving each house a separate map and my system data usage dropped a couple of thousand bits

Anyway, right now I'm working on Rush mode's battle scene, but I'm not too sure of how to make it and keep it original, since this is the fourth active cut scene in the game. I have an idea of what I want to do, tho.

On another note, I'd like to use a couple of custom sprites for my game. I figure it'd be better that I take care of that now instead of later (Since I'll have to backtrack quite a bit to change some sprites, if I decide to switch now)