What's been going on with me.

Wayfinders / Wayfarers Demo » Devlog
4 years ago by MisguidedGames (@WayfindersRPG)
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I've been pretty silent since publishing the demo of this game and feel it's about time I provided a brief update on what's been going on with me.

Wayfarers was originally a novel I've been working on. While writing the outline of the first book, I kept thinking about how fun Wayfarers would be if I made a game demo version of it which I can also show include in my portfolio as a proof of concept. Once I completed the demo and published it, I moved on to other projects like short story ideas I had in mind while making Wayfarers and taking a course in writing to improve my storytelling while I wait to receive feedback on my game. However I never heard anything about it. There were views and downloads but no comments. I started to assume that those that actually downloaded and played my game were so unimpressed with it that they didn't bother to finish it and simply forgot about it.  Because of that, I thought nobody cared about my game, I decided to just move on from it  and work on other projects. That is until I stumbled upon this video (start at 22:56) :

I'll be honest with you, I was on pins and needles the first time I watched this because this was the first feedback I was receiving for my demo. I'll also be honest and admit that I rewatched that segment of my game being reviewed multiple times. Not to sound mushy but I never really understood the idea of "if you can reach one person, than it's worth it" until I heard what this guy said about my game. All the things he said he liked about my game were parts I put extra attention to and were some of the things I was the most concerned about. I actually reached out to TheGameDawg to actually thank him for the review because it meant that much to me. Over time, I started to receive more feedback; people were talking about how they wanted more and they were looking forward to the full version. 

I've been wanting to make a post on here about my motivation to work on this game being renewed but have been so busy with other projects, and life stuff, that I wasn't sure when I would even have the bandwidth to do so. However, if things go as planned for me, I should be able to get back to working on this game (mostly as a weekend project) by November. Fingers crossed on it being sooner.

Once again, I want to thank TheGameDawg for making this video and the people that left comments and feedback. They're the big reason why I am going to continue working on this game.

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Wayfinders / Wayfarers Demo

Three young adventurers find themselves in the middle of a scheme involving the 7 realms

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Blaezej3 years ago(+1)

Hello!

My name is Jeff, and I must start off by saying that I made an account on itch.io just to make this comment (and to follow up on your progress on this game that I'm really interested in playing!)

I've seen the video you mentioned in this post, and I was looking exactly at something like this: a game made entirely on default assets that could be appealing.

I've been working on my own project (which is actually a book that I'm trying to write, but since I love gaming and this story has the elements for an rpg, I decided to try and do both, and make the book and the game complement each other as I work on them simultaneously).

In any case, I'm actually pleasantly surprised, as I had downloaded this demo a few days ago but never really got into giving it a try (despite the fact that I liked it on the video) since I'm trying to use the quarantine time to study... but today I finally got to it. And I loved it.

Anyways, I hope you do continue to work on your game, as it'd be awesome to learn more about these characters and this story that you have to tell.

Cheers!

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MisguidedGames3 years ago (1 edit)

Thanks so much for leaving a comment! Really appreciate it. I'm really glad you loved the game!

Ah you are working on a similar project. Are you making the book and game the same story or making 2 separate stories in the same world? If it's the same story, have you run into any "works in the book but not in the game" moments? I ran into some of those when first applying my story from my novel to the game. 

Rest assured I'm definitely continuing my work on this game. I haven't been able to provide many updates lately because I've been on the same task of creating the majority of the items in the game. If I'm not working on that, I'm working on story stuff which is hard to really provide updates for without spoiling it -_-. I post more minor updates and general RPG related stuff on my twitter account in case you might be interested in staying up to date. Thanks again for the comment!

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Blaezej3 years ago(+1)

Hey.

To be honest, my work is on it's first drafts yet, so there's not much for me to work with on either the book itself or the pacing of the game.
I'm currently trying to adapt new ideas I had, during the implementation of the story into RPG Maker, to the book itself.

As for the game, I've been building the database and I've been working on the world map, the first town and some key areas of the story, as well as how to best use everything and make it all work out for the game. The database is specially difficult to me, since I tend to elaborate too much on things. As such, I made 2 diagrams specifying the relationships between characters, as well as a visual draft for the characters (like my own avatar here) and now I'm trying to make the ages match up properly between everyone.

I found out that it's sometimes too much work because you're either A) trying to adapt things from the story to the game (and vice-versa), or B) you find yourself scaling things up, and then trying to rework everything to make it fit with either aspect of the storytelling (book-wise or game-wise).
In any case, I'm sure to be following up your progress. It'll serve as both personal inspiration and also because, as I said, I'm really interested in the story you're telling!

By the way, I have a question: Did you write the whole story already or are you, like me, writing as you develop the game and they complement each other?

Before finding your game, I was planning on focusing on the book and just messing with the game, to learn more about RMMV and it's limitations. I even thought about making the game in Unreal Engine 4 (with Octopath Traveler's 2.5 Dimension features I found on YouTube), but to write the whole RPG system coding to the game would take too much time that I could spend doing other things I'd rather do, as well as leave me another goal after both book and game are done: to make a UE4 version of the game, without the restrictions of RMMV... but that's a goal for a pretty distant future, and more of a personal hobby than anything else.

I'm sorry about the long reply. I'm way too excited about both my own story and yours. Hahahah
Cheers!

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MisguidedGames3 years ago

I wrote the first draft years ago but it was incredibly rough. I guess it was more of a proof of concept draft. I came up with the idea to integrate it into a game when starting the 2nd draft of the game. The demo of the game is about where I got with the story. Since I am pursuing a career in game writing and narrative design, I'm focusing on writing for the game only at this time. I'll eventually get back to the novel version after finishing the game.

I really like the 2.5D concept from Octopath Traveler. I've actually been learning how to use UE4 whenever I need to give my creative muscles a break from Wayfarers and exercise my technical muscles (if that makes any sense at all). 

No apology for the long response. It's always good to see someone excited about their own work. It also makes me more excited to work on Wayfarers. 

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Blaezej3 years ago(+1)

I can appreciate your career choice. I've always wanted to do something related to either gaming or writing, and now I found out I could do both with this project, so I'm more like uniting my 2 favorite hobbies into something that I hope will fulfill my own creative desires.


I've got Octopath Traveler myself about a month ago, and I've put 60 hours in it and then decided to take a break from it as I'm nowhere near the ending (I've focused on the stories and on developing my own job combinations). Between Octopath, FFXII (the Zodiac Age version, that I hadn't been able to play in the past) and my next acquisitive goal (FFVII Remake) I plan on learning more about the RPG genre in general as well as having new insights and ideas to apply to my own game.

I really like UE4. I've been learning on and off for a couple of months now. I'll focus on it once I'm finished with some papers for my college.

Keep up with the awesome work. Be seeing ya.

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blue_shayde4 years ago

I'm not surprised this is originally novel material. The writing and characters in this demo were just simply stunning. You really had me invested almost immediately, which says something since most games start slow. If nothing else, I'd play just for Archie. I really enjoyed your demo, I think its just hard for games like this to get recognition because of ppl's tendency to turn a nose at rpg maker games. (their loss, honestly) I hope you will continue to work on this little gem, whether as a full game or just a novel. I would be all for reading it. =)

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MisguidedGames4 years ago

I'm so glad you like it! I'm looking forward to working on this again whenever I have the time.

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fey.earth4 years ago

I just recently played your game for an hour, then wrote a review: https://kourtniemckenzie.tumblr.com/post/188130280952/wayfarers

I'm reviewing 33 games for an hour to choose which ones I want to complete...and I definitely want to finish Wayfarers! So I'm excited you're working on it more. Love your dialogue!

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MisguidedGames4 years ago

That's awesome! Thank you so much! 

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