Companions - A parody of monster catcher games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WQtxGiv9rU​

DESCRIPTION

Welcome to the world of Companions. In this world, your weirdest dreams will come true. You're capable of collecting... well, companions. If you haven't realized it from this game's title already. In other words: your dream to beat up a grandpa by your zombie dog become true... you weird sicko.

A game that is loosely based on classic Monster Catcher games, featuring a humorous storyline of an average kid who finds himself in trouble as soon as the journey begins. While the game is an homage to some older franchises in this genre, it has some unique twists both in the story, and especially gameplay wise.

Your mission is to visit a mysterious Tower, collect as many companions as possible, while also complete the Tower's ten floors. It won't be that easy, as the floors are frequently changing as soon as you leave or re-enter, and the difficulty between the different stages is perceptible.

Are you ready?

GAME FEATURES

• A story that is both a homage and a parody of the monster catcher/capture genre, and series like Dragon Quest & Pokémon.
• Rougelike elements. For example, the main goal of the game is to beat a dungeon (a tower). However, the tower randomises each time you (re-) enter.
• The tower's featuring 10 completely different floors. Some of them are even puzzle levels, and a few of them has death traps.
• Recruit as many Companions as you can. Each of them has a unique ability, and the more you catched, the better chances you have in beating the game.
• The game's rewarding both "slowly, but surely" and "high risk, high reward" playstyles.
• Lots of hidden content and unlockables.
• Frequent updates and additional content after the game's release.
• Interactivity, not only in the game, but between the players and developers. We do our best to implement features you want to see.
• And more...

DOWNLOAD LINK



CLICK on the sprite to start the download.

Or simply just click HERE.

SCREENSHOTS

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CREDITS

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Directed, Produced, and Written by Benjamin Kuli

Supervised by Greg Forte

A Video Game made by Blue Flame Candle. All Rights Reserved.

Enterbrain - RMVXA Engine

"Yanfly" - Core, Value, Battle and Party Scripts

Cidiomar R. Dias Jr. - Input

"Tsukihime" - Custom Database, Input Maintenance

"Craze" - Element Mash

Jason (from RPGMakerWeb.com) - Old School Modern Pack

 

Thank you so much for the comment! It is really appreciated. Well, our team Blue Flame Candle has been working on several games for a while (since January, 2013), HOWEVER, this specific project has been done only for approx. 2 months.

 

Thank you so much! I'm actually planning to post about our projects, since our main and biggest game we're currently working on, Erah, will have a completely new demo build and I will share it here when it's done obviously. But I also want to open a topic for the discussion for that topic too.

About Companions, it is based on the RPG Maker engine (VX Ace version), however, just as any of our projects that uses licensed engines, it is heavily modified.

Also, if you have any ideas for this project, or if any of you want to see something featured (like, for example, a Fusion System), feel free to suggest these kind of things! The game will be updated frequently for a long time, and I want to add as many features as possible.

 

Thank you so much for the comment, it is actually really appreciated, and I hope aside from those nitpicks, you actually enjoyed the game.

It actually has lots of references and quotes, not only from Pokémon, but from also other franchises. As you've already mentioned, it is also an homage to Mother, but has references to games like Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and even other popculture references, like 90's kids, Pet Shop Boys, War of the Worlds, and so on. It even has one postmodern classical music reference.

If there're any grammar mistakes you actually don't like, feel free to post it. However, as you may have already realized, some of them are intentional. For example, after the intro, it is intentionally breaking the flow by breaking the 4th wall. As if the director itself "spoke" during that scene. Another one is in the town with the really bad grammar, and so on. There are also quotes that I didn't want to change, like the "there's time and space" for everything thingy from Pokémon. Actually, I didn't want perfect grammar here. Unlike Erah, which is a more serious project, here, the grammar mistakes (in my opinion) actually makes the game more... interesting. But as I said, if there's something which really annoys you, feel free to post it, maybe that one wasn't intentional.

The UI of the menu doesn't mention any of the elements, nor will the game has a map. This may be considered as bad design at first, but it is actually one of those rougelike elements I mentioned in the description. The game's hardcore. Actually, even if there's a map, it wouldn't help you much, as the game always randomizes itself as soon as you enter the tower. The floors are always changing their structure. About the elements... well, there's that journal at the beginning of the tower, but if that's not enough, I will post a guide soon, which is actually really detailed and contains everything you need to beat the game easily.

For the music... well, that one I can understand completely. That's actually a problem with chiptune music. During the development, I wanted to create orchestral music for the game, however, the team thought that it would be better if it had 8-bit music, just like any NES games. The problem is, that as many people love this kind of music as many hate it. Because I didn't have the time to do both, I picked chiptune as the style, and while many people enjoyed it, I'm not even as satisfied with the results as with Erah's soundtrack (damn, that thing is just a masterpiece... this one is just average).

If I'm going to do a HUGE update for the game (which'd mean 2.0 version), I'm definitely thinking about adding an option where you can choose from chiptune music or orchestral soundtrack.

Hmm, that thing with the chest is actually interesting,

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especially since as soon as you enter the swamp (where the chest is), you should have died, as it is a death trap.

Thank you so much again for taking your time and commenting on literally everything. Actually, that one comment helped me so much that I see now what kind of direction should the game take during the next big update (not counting small, bugfixing updates).

 

I see. Well, as I said, I actually can understand your concern. If there're any concrete music you actually hated, feel free to point them out, and maybe I will re-do them.

As I said, if there's a grammar mistake that you actually think it is more problematic than funny, just post a screenshot here, so I can which one shall I fix.

The problem with this, is that in most games, like Diablo, Mystery Dungeon, and so on, the floors are randomized during each gameplay. Here, each one is randomized EACH TIME you enter or re-enter the dungeon. In other words, it is also a challenge to find out where to go in the maze. With a mini-map like in Erah, the floors could be solved so easily that it wouldn't be a challenge at all. While in Erah, there aren't any mazes, so it is logical to add such a feature (as the world there is actually REALLY HUGE), here, it is just a small town, and an actually small tower with some floors. Only a few of them are long, there will be floors that are actually really small. With a mini-map, you could just progress forward to the boss battle. As there are only a few floors, I wanted to make all of them challenging, so they are not only floors, but mazes at the same time.

You can actually check the elements by checking the "team". If you check the "class" of the character, you will see a brackets after "Comp.", something like this: [P/V] or [M/K]. The first one is actually the 4 materials (P = Physical, M = Mental, S = Shadow, L = Light), and the second one is the 3 ancient elements (P = Pitha, K = Kapha, V = Vata)

 

The character's aren't able to evolve, at least in this version of the game. I'm planning to implement these features:

1. Fusion. With this, you can combine recruited units to create stronger companions.
2. Expanded map. You can visit new towns with new "buildings". Arena may or may not be featured as one of these buildings.

 

I'm glad you like the idea of an arena being implemented. I actually consider any suggestions during the development. As I said, I want interaction to be the main aspect of the game, not only during the game itself, but outside it too. Which means that I want a strong connection between the developers and the players. We want to develop what you actually want to see in the game.

 

Here's the trailer of the game, which is suggesting more about the atmosphere rather than the gameplay itself. Have fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WQtxGiv9rU

 

I decided to re-do the whole soundtrack, as music is important for me in game making. Thus, I remade the main theme, but not in one, but two variations. The first is the good old 8-bit style, while the second one is "new school" stuff with orchestral elements, similar to new Nintendo stuff.

Feel free to tell me which one do you prefer, and which one do you want to see in the game. If both of them are preferred, I may include an option to choose which soundtrack will be played during the game (that you can obviously switch during the game too).

https://soundcloud.com/benjamin-kuli/companions-theme-redux-two-versions

 

Thanks! Just download it, and it will work without any ROMs or other stuff. It is a standalone game. However, it is only for PC at the moment.

 

Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it. For the next big update, I'm definitely gonna add a tutorial for beginners. Yeah, it is not your usual "press forward to win" game, you indeed need to earn each points for the victory and the progress.