can't believe i stuck with it

so, yeah. remember when i said i was going to cancel this because i was going to iraq (probably not)? i actually ended up working on it while i was there and, as a result, the game is much farther along than i ever thought it'd be!



Download (60.6 MB)

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What is Alcarys Complex?

Alcarys Complex is an action-RPG developed in Game Maker 8 Pro. Couch, Ocean's Dream, and I have been working on it since 2007; the game contains completely original graphics, sound, and code.

The game's story follows six characters with different perspectives and experiences as they work at making a name for themselves and interact with forces good and bad. Whether they're in it for themselves, the money (usually the money), glory, political fame, or each other, this group eventually comes together to ward off various threats. Though they often agree on the nature of the threats, they don't come to the same conclusion as to how to resolve those threats, so there's often a lot of conflict between these people.

On the writing: I'm actively working on my characterization and the realism of my dialogue.  Such advice, no matter how critical, is welcome with open arms. The complete story script was written over a six-month period last year, but still sees edits to this day.

Characters

During the game, you will encounter characters in the story. However, depending on how you play, you may not be able to befriend some of the characters. Some of them are lying, thieving bastards who use their position in power for financial gain, and others are incompetent and oblivious to any perspective but their own.

To reiterate: you may not be able to befriend some of the characters.

Corvallis Unruh (bookkeeper, age 23): Corvallis lives with his parents in the town of Prisma in the Principality of Xirdalan, and he works as a bookkeeper at Instrumental Technologies, an area medical company.

Angela Leyline (liaison to the Grand Duke of Lessis, age 29): As the only military liaison to the Grand Duke of the Duchy of Lessis, it’s Lieutenant Colonel Leyline’s job to follow the orders of the grand ruler of the mountain nation.

Attlas Douglass (nobleman, age 36): Attlas lives with his father, metal magnate and billionaire Rio Douglass, in the capital of the Republic of Vodun. The President of Vodun is his step-brother.

Leyt Duckworth (contract hunter, age 24): Leyt lives off contract work, traveling from town to town to make money doing things people need done. He doesn’t appear to have any family.

Alex Kirovabad (linguist, age 25): Like Leyt, Alex is a contractor, but, as a Linguist, she contracts her magical ability to the highest bidder. Right now, she’s making magical explosives for the Lessian insurgency.

Lomah Byron (traveler, age 22): Lomah travels the world helping his father test out prototype mountaineering equipment for his business. However, his skin condition prevents him from being fully invested in the job.

Major Features

The game's main feature is the Sociability system, where stat improvement has been decoupled from combat and tied to cutscenes and NPC conversation instead. It's still a work-in-progress, but the final game will use some variation of this system.

Conversationalists: with certain NPCs you talk to, you can choose which character in the party speaks. As a result, the conversation may twist and turn in various directions based on who you choose.

The Banter system: sometimes your characters will have a real-time conversation, shedding more light on their mannerisms and behavior. You can still do anything you would normally do in real-time, and if you go into the menu or go to another map, the conversation will halt until you come back to the field screen.

The Assault Pack: since your inventory is locked outside of town or a save point, your characters' Assault Packs provide expandable and upgradeable storage space to be used in battle and while exploring.

Exploration: early on, the game's extremely linear, and this demo is representative of that. In the full game, you'll have the opportunity to explore the vast western lands under the survey flag of a nation. I've planned a lot of good areas for this and I have a lot of ideas I want to execute to this end.

Other Information

Download (60.6 MB)

There's an in-game tutorial system, but if you have any questions, please consult the instruction manual included with the game. If you've found bugs, or you're having trouble getting the game to work, you can e-mail the help address at the end of the manual, post here, use the help form on our website, or PM me. If you can't get the game to work, I'll get on that immediately - I know how it is when you want to play something but you can't make it work. :/

Also, I'd put up a trailer/gameplay video, but my computer's terrible, so any kind of footage I capture has loads of dropped frames and I can't get the a/v to sync properly. I've done it before, but I can't remember what configuration I used to get a smooth picture. If you can help me with this, please PM me.

Please let us know what you think!

hey guys, i am downloading this now. just letting you know. and i'm gonna play the heck out of it. i'll let you know what i think.

I played it and it has some very nice ideas Pasty! :3
I found a bug though:

yeah. since i can't get the path to end on bounce for some reason, enough hits will wedge a target into and beyond collision space. still trying to figure that one out.

can you email me the game? The download link is very slow for some reason.

Nevermind, it's actually downloading okay now. Is there any particular parts you would want in a video? I can record some for you.

can your e-mail handle 60 megs? if not, i can give you an ftp link.

edit: if it ends up fudging up on you there's always indiedb

Nevermind, it's actually downloading okay now. Charter internet is just godawful. Is there any particular parts you would want in a video? I can record some for you.

hmm

i'm thinking a cutscene and an extended gameplay segment, both of which i could cut into a trailer if i need to.

everything's a bit rough as far as cutscene actions, but i'm thinking that i could use the scene in the woods where the mercenary kidnaps one of the A.R.M. agents for the cutscene. that's where i recommend you record the gameplay segment, actually - the path from lismore to dendera has the biggest variety of monsters (at a whopping 3).

just let me know if you need a copy that disables rain. it looks cool but it really slows the game down when you're doing something like video capture.

i really appreciate this!

This game was glitching big time on my computer. The alpha rendering on the font was very messed up.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2zszgog.jpg

Also, when I tried to transfer to another map while attacking:

http://i48.tinypic.com/15evdhd.jpg

This game was glitching big time on my computer. The alpha rendering on the font was very messed up.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2zszgog.jpg

it looks like something to do with the surfaces. the text on the menu bar and the description would be doing that otherwise. you probably didn't do this, but did you go to sleep mode at any point while leaving the game running, or did you do anything that might cause the program to lose its videomemory (screensaver, etc.)?

Also, when I tried to transfer to another map while attacking:

http://i48.tinypic.com/15evdhd.jpg

they just get stuck in that frame like that?

i'll see what i can do about these, thanks!

Might it be because this computer is on vista or something? Ah, actually it was probably the video recording software I had opened... ​.

Edit: I tried it without the video recorder, but it didn't change anything. 

okay i fixed your second issue but i'm going to have to run the first one by you because i'm not having that problem on my computer.

replace your .exe with this one, please. you should be able to use whatever save file you were using (if any). this refreshes the main menu flashes completely when they get changed. maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. if it does, i'll probably work on making all the surfaces work like that. there's no point if it doesn't work, though.

p.s. you getting any lag? you can press f9 at the splash screen to open up the debugger if you want to see your fps rate.

edit: haven't forgotten about you, nessiah. i may have some platformer code that could fix that one.

it didn't work for me. Nothing changed. I didn't try the combat thing though. Perhaps if you sent me the GML I could mess with it on my side till I get it working. Does it require the full version of gamemaker?

anything to do with surfaces requires gm full, i think. i can send you the code if you want, but i'm still scouring gmc to see if there's a fix for this issue. as a whole, the game uses so many full features that trying to compile it in gm8 lite would render it completely broken. :/

I don't think it would be of much use, since I don't have full. I'm on an Nvidia Geforce GT 240, if that's of any help.

I don't think it would be of much use, since I don't have full. I'm on an Nvidia Geforce GT 240, if that's of any help.

try this. open up your nvidia control panel with the game running and go to "adjust image settings with preview." if that gets rid of the holes then this next fixed .exe i have will probably work for you.

if not, see if you can get an updated driver. i know that's kind of a phoned-in response but i'm seriously at a loss here!

Hey I tried playing it earlier, and the game was REALLY slow. Buttons took more than a few seconds to be responsive, and I ended up closing the game before getting anywhere. This might be because I am on Vista, I'm not entirely sure.

title screen? aspect ratio select? did you actually get into the game before this happened? if it's across the board, you may have an anti-virus or some other kind of resident program impeding your gameplay. can you play other game maker games fine?

press f9 at the splash screen and tell me what kind of fps you're getting, please.

oh and can i get your video card just in case?