Aria - Lost in Shadows

Made as part of the One Map Game Challenge on RPG Maker Web Forums. See HERE for more detailed information on how I challenged myself with this project. (You can also find known issues, additional images, changelog info, and more).

This is in-development, and looking for testing and feedback on features and game environment. Plans are being made to develop this into a full concept sequel (still free to play), with estimations that the game will take between 1-3 hours to complete a play through for a single ending. Please post feedback and suggestions in the comments!

CONTAINS REFERENCES TO SPELLS/INCANTATIONS/DEMONS THAT MAY BE CONSIDERED TO BE RELATED TO CERTAIN RELIGIONS. GAME IS NOT DIRECTLY ABOUT ANY RELIGIONS ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH WRITINGS

**IN NEED OF PLAY TESTERS TO BALANCE GAME SYSTEMS**

Aria is close to graduating high school, and often wonders about how her friend Emma is doing. They grew up together and have been friends for a long time, but lately, that has changed. Emma has become more distant, disconnected, and pushes further into a state of self-isolation. Aria does not know what to do and leaves her friend to grow on her own. The truth of the matter is that Emma no longer is interested in what “normal” people want to do, and how they want to progress their lives. Emma is bored and see’s no point in trying to do anything past high school. Her parents have enough money for her to just live at home, and are hardly ever home as is going on business trips. Emma is close to giving up on everything when a friend, Cory, mentions to her that he has a book that he believes would help her as it helped him move past similar issues. Strangely Cory disappears after giving the book to Emma, though Emma is unable to read the book at first because it appears to be written in a different language. Eventually Emma can read the book, as it seems to whisper and speak to her to allow her to understand its secrets. The book wants to be used, and needs Emma to follow its guidance to help it achieve its goals. This does not end well for Emma however, and she finds that she is in desperate need of assistance from someone to help save her. Emma manages to get a letter out to Aria, requesting that she come to her aid. Aria, still caring about Emma, arrives at Emma’s house to help her, and must figure out what happened within Emma’s house to not only save her friend, but to also escape from the new world the house has turned into.

The story and gameplay are based on concepts derived from the Lesser Key of Solomon and the Key of Solomon, books believed to be compiled of spells from the 14th or 15th century Italian Renaissance, with some spells believed to have been written by King Solomon himself. The books are used as inspiration, with some elements being drawn from the books.

Game Time to Beat – 10 minutes to 1 hour depending on attempts to get all endings.

Old Version: Beta 1.0 (Released 04/17/20)

Development Cycle – April 5th - April 17th,~2-7 hours each day, ~24-84 hours total

Current Version: Beta 2.0 (Released 05/02/20)

Development Cycle – April 20th - May 02nd,~1 hour each day, ~12 hours total

This was made as part of the One Map Game Challenge to challenge myself. As such it was completed using only 1 Map, 7 Common Events, 3 Map Events, 10 Switches, and 10 Variables. The game has a complete show picture system setup within these limitations to allow a more interactive experience for the player. Additionally there is a fear system setup that affects how the player progresses through the house, interacts with objects, experiences the sounds of the house, and interacts with creatures that may roam the house. Interactions with objects are set through visual queues, and when a player steps on a particular area of the map.

This game is set in a Thriller/Suspense/Mystery type universe. I guess you could maybe liken it to a Thriller/Mystery Visual Novel, though more on text and immersive visuals, not visuals of the characters (I am not a great artist in terms of making art of people). I mention all of those as this is the first time I have made this style of game, and its difficult to do sound and music design to specifically meet a single category in terms of game design. The entire game takes place inside of Emma’s House, with the player attempting to escape through locating items, conducting research and deduction on sparse clues, an determining what steps are necessary to save Emma, and escape from the house.

The concept of the game can be expanded into a fully fledged game of 1-3 hours with more rooms, puzzles, interactions with the “monster” and “ghost” in addition to story development and other features. At this point it was set to meet the one map challenge to see if I could (1) finish a game (after getting feedback to balance and finalize game systems, and (2) make a complex game within the limitations set by the challenge.

The main difficulties with the game in it’s current state, outside of the issues specifically mentioned in a later spoiler, is that it is a difficult system to balance, and will be heavily dependent upon each individual player. That being said data and testing from players will be necessary to determine how to balance the system going forward. The current goal is balancing with fixing the later mentioned issues but keeping it contained to a singular map design and meeting the one map challenge still as that was the original inception of this creation.

• Fear System that affects environment, lighting, player movement, music, and sound effects.
• No combat, story driven. You are damaged and affected by characters on map in terms of level of Fear and Health.
• Strategically manage fear, health, and stamina levels to survive the map.
• Three endings – 2 bad, 1 good.
• Immersive music and sound effect system to drive involvement in story and setting.
• Research what happened to Emma through the environment and pieces of information left for the player to find.

• Story Development/Writing
  • Chroma Creative Solutions
• Engine
  • Degica
  • Kadokawa
  • Enterbrain
  • RPG Maker MV
• Plugin Programmer
  • Galv
  • SumRndmDde
  • Yanfly
  • Khas
  • HimeWorks
  • Mr. Trivel
  • RPG Maker Irina
  • Moghunter
• Artwork
  • Degica
  • Kadokawa
  • Enterbrain
  • RPG Maker MV
  • Avery
  • PandaMaru
  • Com_Sho
  • SumRndmDde
  • Khas
  • Aekashics
  • SkottyTV
  • Hiddenone
  • RPGMakerXPChris
  • Corleonis
  • Joel Filipe
  • Scottbb
  • Tonbi@Tobishima-Factory
  • Levolpehh
  • Samuel Furr
  • Chocopyro
  • Retiranatis
  • Fraexcel
  • Mark Adriane
  • Ed James
  • Dvanzuijlekom
  • Dbwilldo
  • Jgh_photo
  • Nata Zorzar
  • Joy Marino
  • Spellkaze
• Music/SE (Audio)
  • Scott ARC
  • Harrybates01
  • Mmaruska
  • Danthaiwang
  • InspectorJ
  • Starblazer64
  • Kd_jack
  • Bernie
  • MadamVicious
  • AderuMoro
  • Bigmonmulgrew
  • OwlStorm
  • RobinHood76
  • Cylon8472
  • Vartioh
  • Funkymuskrat
  • Fonts
  • Winty5
  • Adien Gunarta
  • Lionel Pailloncy
• Inspiration
  • Lesser Key of Solomon
  • Key of Solomon
• Support and Assistance
  • TheoAllen
  • Shaz
  • Andar
  • Ace of Spades