If anybody recalls, the RPG Maker Pavilion had a Complete Garbage Contest around this time last year, to which I created and entered an RPGM3 game for, called EVIL: THE RECICULOUSLY LONG-NAMED GAME CREATED BY DRAYGONE OF GREAT DRAGON GAMING IN AN ATTEMPT TO WIN THE RPG MAKER PAVILION'S COMLETE GARBAGE CONTEST. Well, I decided that it was time to relieve it of its Pavilion-exclusive status, and have just uploaded it here. But that's not what I'm wanting to talk about.

As I speak I am preparing to upload a game demo. No, it's not [game which shall not be mentioned by name]. The game is Elements of Darkness, a game I tried making back in 2002. I am uploading it for "historical" purposes. 'Cause it's fun seeing how some super-talented RPGMers started out. End modesty.
(Note: Spoilers ahead, so don't read if you intend to play the EoD demo.)

But this wasn't my first RPGM game, no. [game which shall not be mentioned by name] was and always will be my big RPGM game. The reason I created Elements of Darkness was because I decided it best to make a practice game before moving on to my big project. 'Cause [game which shall not be mentioned by name] was boring and not very well-made. Elements of Darkness isn't much better, though, and my standards are much higher than they used to be.

The game's description:

And really, that's about all you find out in the demo. It's only a half-hour in length, and it ends just as you enter the king's throne room. In an oh-so-subtle way:

But I'm jumping ahead a little. Let's start at the beginning of the demo. We get the mandatory "Great Dragon Gaming" presenting "[insert game title here]", and a scrolling intro. And then a battle immediately starts, and we're introduced to Anthony in a manner similar to how characters in Final Fantasy 6 are introduced. Except you can't rename them in this game. The goal is to get to the end of the plain-looking field with black borders, whilst dealing with random battle encounters. Before reaching the end, you find a stream where there's supposed to be a bridge. Somewhere in the field are a couple piles of logs with which to rebuild the bridge. It's awefully similar to the bridge-building puzzle near the start of [game which shall not be mentioned by name]. That would be because, after this game's cancellation, I moved a few of the better ideas over. Whether rebuilding a bridge is a good idea in the first place is another discussion, but whatever, it works (and is a basic introduction to key item usage in SR).

We now enter a circle of pillars where the Evil Lord is summoning evil spirits. Some insults are thrown, and the screen wipes to a battle arena for the boss fight, another idea carried over to [game which shall not be mentioned by name]. Whether you win or lose isn't important (odds are, you'll lose), because the game will continue on regardless, introducing you to Jeff, Anthony's brother. You head home, and are met by a guard from Merrimack Castle with a message to see the king. Then you'll go through the aptly named Misty Grove, fight another boss (a boss planned for every level, most being pointless to the main quest), and come to the castle town of Merrimack. Inside the castle, you'll walk into the king's throne room, and the demo ends.

But what else is there? Well, not much. The Misty Grove has a single puzzle where you have to go through exits of a room in a certain order in order to find your way out (typical forest puzzle). That's it for puzzles, though I had planned on having at least one puzzle per dungeon. In fact, that's about it in general. There aren't any treasure chests anywhere, a huge difference compared to [game which shall not be mentioned by name], which has at least ten chests per dungeon. The castle town and castle consists of random people that say nothing about what's going on in the world (one even quoting Super Mario RPG), a shop, and a glitched inn where you spend 5 Zels (which will be a town name in [game which shall not be mentioned by name]) to heal a grand total of nothing.

There is one special feature in the castle town, though: the horse rental. For a mere 20 tals, you can rent a horse with which to ride across the countryside, avoiding enemy encounters which would make finding hidden treasures easier. Or at least, that was the plan. While you don't encounter monsters while riding the horse, there were never any treasures planted anywhere. It's not completely worthless, though. There's an easter egg you can only access with the horse, hidden in the Vast Fields. Not too hard to find if you know where to go. Though if I recall, I had meant to take it back out before uploading the demo. Of interesting note is how the horse trainer threatened that if you came back without the horse, you'd replace it. I have no idea how it'd be possible to lose the horse, but I'm pretty sure that, if I made it possible, I would be silly and have him turn you into a horse.

Another potential unfinished subquest in the castle town, you can buy a special drink in the bar for 2000 Zels, if you're a member. There probably would've been some way to gain such a membership later on.

And now the rest of the quest. The king obviously would send you out to find out what's going on with the Elements. And you'd have to fight their spirits, which are under control by an evil force called...Ronlork? I never was good at names. Along the way, you'd meet four more party members (and make use of a basic member-swapping menu).

Sarah - A Ninja from the Mt. Sol training facilty. The facility naturally training ninjas. Personality-wise, I can't remember what she was supposed to be like. Or if she had any real purpose.

Abbie - An eccentric alchemist in a mansion near the dragon caves. She can use alchemy for anything, including changing people into dragons. In fact, she captures the heroes and turns them into dragons so they can retrieve a special item from the dragon caves. Lucky folks.

Drakan - A black dragon friend of Abbie's. Or was he a man-turned-dragon? Either way, he is the one who captured the heroes for Abbie. I'm pretty sure this character was mute. A pretty tough mute.

Arthur - The best soldier of Merrimack. While you first hear of him from an NPC in Merrimack (his wife), you weren't supposed to meet him until 3/4 through the game, in the sky city of...Paradise?

Wait a minute.
*looks at location names*
Vast Fields, Home, Misty Grove, Merrimack, Mt. Volvaga, Summit, Sol, Frozen Falls, Desert Dunes, Mick Mansion-- Mick Mansion? Did I think I was gonna cancel [game which shall not be mentioned by name] or something? Dragon Cave, Trap Tower, which I'm sure would be full of traps... Paradise, Cumulus (cirrus, stratosphere, supercell), and the final dungeons of De'Monic (a castle) and Frag Nebula.

Lameness. But the lameness was planned out. I had all the monsters made (no stats or attack patterns, though), and the world map was finished, assuming I wasn't planning on adding more areas for extra subquests. In fact, of interesting note, I see that I had three classes labled Slime, Fairy, and Demon. All items and equipment were made, including "Fruit" and "Veggies", yet another [game which shall not be mentioned by name] carryover (like it or not, the grocery list is sticking around). I just wasn't as experienced with game-making at the time. Hmm, there may yet be hope for [insert name of not-so-great RPGMer here].

So basically, that's pretty much it. I attempted a practice game in 2002, uploaded a demo, and cancelled it. And now it's available once more.

(BTW, my apologies for not having any screenshots to go along with this. I wanted to have some, but I don't have a way to grab any. Maybe some other day.)

Nice

Instead of making another new topic for it, I'd like to mention here that I just last night uploaded Something Stupid IX, another game that will likely never be finished. It's for RMXP.

Link to game/info:
http://www.rpgmmag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3778

i knew you were writing about this dray...

Speaking about old games, I have a game I made before Survival called "Return to Exia". It was cliche as hell, but I had loads of fun with it.

I'll upload it sometime.