Jenn's Journey - Complete

Jenn's Journey is my first game project. My first foray into Game Design. What I wanted is finished for now.

Jenn's Journey Download Links:

Dropbox Links:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

- The Finished Version
Some Background Information
This takes place several years after Cave Story's Good Ending. At this time, the Humans actually live on the Island's surface just for several environmental reasons. That's all I have to say for now.

The Synopsis
Jenn is a young human woman who wakes up to find herself in some damp cave. She comes across an old lady asking her if she can look for her lost daughter. Everything after that just rolls along in her journey.
This is you in fact

Spoiler

 

Looking pretty stylish there. I'm jealous of your mapping skills :3

 

Looking pretty stylish there. I'm jealous of your mapping skills :3

Thanks man, just wanted to make something that actually looks real instead of something that falls flat.

 

There have been some pretty interesting mod idea postings lately. JonSpider, yours here is no exception. I really like the morality-play type premise. Will the plot of this mod be intertwined with that of Cave Story, or will it draw on some of the characters and conventions without being directly related to the original story?

Also, that map looks pretty sweet. I like the branching design. However, the underwater portion seems to have unusually sharp, straight lines. Is that intentional?

 

There have been some pretty interesting mod idea postings lately. JonSpider, yours here is no exception. I really like the morality-play type premise. Will the plot of this mod be intertwined with that of Cave Story, or will it draw on some of the characters and conventions without being directly related to the original story?

Also, that map looks pretty sweet. I like the branching design. However, the underwater portion seems to have unusually sharp, straight lines. Is that intentional?

For the first part, the characters will appear in spirit, literally. They will act a little different than usual, mostly due to the events that transpired before the game actually starts.

For the second question, I couldn't use any ceiling rocks since the tiles are 1 block tall, plus the tileset didn't have any ceiling sprites with water. Unless I'm missing something here. *Shrug*

 

For the second question, I couldn't use any ceiling rocks since the tiles are 1 block tall, plus the tileset didn't have any ceiling sprites with water. Unless I'm missing something here. *Shrug*

It never hurts to do a bit of tileset editing. It's not really that hard.

 

Cool, I totally dig the multiple paths idea, as I've never played a CS mod with that sort of option. I'll be sure to test it as soon as a demo is released.

 

Between those Melons of yours and the premise, you've got me hooked ;D
Keep it up!

Seems like we announced our mods about the same time too... let's keep going till they are finished~!

 

Went ahead and dumped some roughly finished maps. Tell me whatcha think?

 

Well you seem to be doing well for yourself so far. Don't be afraid to playtest once you get to a certian point!

 

Well you seem to be doing well for yourself so far. Don't be afraid to playtest once you get to a certian point!

Oh believe me I am. So far I'm trying to make sure door and pitfall transitions work smoothly both ways. Want to make sure I don't hear the text sound for half a second between transitions.

Still working on a good design for the area between the town on top and the starting point at the bottom (Just hope people can tell every map is pretty much connected).

 

Are you having pit falls? Like, drops that kill you? Those are a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Recommendation, go the fez route, and have them respawn the player nearbye. It's just a good practice, cause dying takes alot of your time away, and put falls make it easy to die. Dying exists to make the player not want to make mistakes, not to happen constantly.

Still wanna see this.

 

Are you having pit falls? Like, drops that kill you? Those are a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Recommendation, go the fez route, and have them respawn the player nearbye. It's just a good practice, cause dying takes alot of your time away, and put falls make it easy to die. Dying exists to make the player not want to make mistakes, not to happen constantly.

Still wanna see this.

There are Pit Falls, but not in the obstacle sense. Look at the newest update picture, notice how the center village has a hole going downward. Under it is a room with a hole from the ceiling. Next to it is Bat's and Buggers, which has 3 seperate pathways, with the top leading to the village and the bottom leading to the start area.

The rest I'm hoping is what you and others can figure out, which is some Fridge Brilliance in design and foreshadowing my next area.


So guys, I am just curious here. From all the content I've shown you so far, would you want me to release a demo of it so far? I have another scene in mind that goes on to the first boss, but if you want to see it now, I'll do it.

Just asking since I'm one of those people who don't want to showcase it until everything has been overly perfected.

 

Might as well. Don't wanna polish something up to end up having someone tell you it's practically broken.

 

Might as well. Don't wanna polish something up to end up having someone tell you it's practically broken.

You've got a good point there. Guess I'll just add some finishing touches and upload it on Mediafire.

*Later* OH GOD IT'S SO SLOW AND IT IS JUST 4KB.

 

your entire mod should not be 4kb >.>

 

Alright, figured out what the heck was happening, and successfully uploaded. Gotta love how technology works without giving you a manual that includes details and specifics.

Updated the OP with the download link, and I guess this has to be moved to Showcase.

 

*First*

Updated the OP with the download link, and I guess this has to be moved to Showcase.

Done

Spoiler

NEW
-Jenn's earrings are very large compared to the rest of her sprite, and considering the base used it's hard not to see them as antennae
-I like the way the player falls through the upcoming area and then loops back around to it, it's a nice way of giving them a preview of what to expect
-I take it the 'harmless stunning' of the Snake is an intended feature for a future build?
END OF NEW
-The health ramps up very quickly relative to the current enemies, so you may want to consider making the watermelons give smaller boosts

Again I must say that that's all I can say so far. You appear to have a strong understanding of all the basics, and I like the attention to detail; it feels like it's worth it to choose a different dialogue option, and there are enough things to interact with to keep the interest up (at least as this stage). Obviously you're approaching this diligently, so I hope you can produce more and get to some juicy bits before this inevitable gets abandoned I'm kidding mostly

 

*First*
Done
-The health ramps up very quickly relative to the current enemies, so you may want to consider making the watermelons give smaller boosts[/spoiler]Again I must say that that's all I can say so far. You appear to have a strong understanding of all the basics, and I like the attention to detail; it feels like it's worth it to choose a different dialogue option, and there are enough things to interact with to keep the interest up (at least as this stage). Obviously you're approaching this diligently, so I hope you can produce more and get to some juicy bits before this inevitable gets abandoned I'm kidding mostly

Aha, thank you! I like exploring the world and plenty of choices, so you will see more of the alternate dialogue, hidden back story and life capsules, and the such.

For the health, I was more-or-less following Cave Story's way of getting Life Capsules, usually at least one in every major area (12-16 HP by the time of Egg Corridor soooo...). I'm also assuming you found all the Life Capsules at this point (should have 14 HP).

Also here's a (revised [Thanks Matt]) preview of what is to come!

Spoiler

 

Alright let's do this.

So I gotta say, this mod has actually surprised me. It's really good for what it is. And because I like it I have ALOT to say about it.

I only decided t take screenshots after the first bit so let me take a second to say that I like how oyu can see the first melon before you can actually grab it, because it makes you curious.

Spoiler

Okay so let's start here. I would say this is a weaker start, as this image is just visually a clusterfuck. Just too much going on in a space. All the background and forground elements, plus the water and path to the left, it's just too much.

In this town I love the attention to detail in scripting. Theres lots of dialogue options, you can investigate things and the game will actually have a thing to say about them, it's just great.

Also, falling through that pit did nothing and I had to restart. It would be neat if faling in brought you back to the spawn point.

Spoiler

This just looks weird. I'd probably just close this little part off entirely. The little part where the rocks go up right here, it would look better if the water actually didn't go up with it. Instead it would just stop.

Spoiler

For the sake of two things I bring this up. Since there is really no reason anyone would go to the left, these two breakable blocks can go and just be solid space. This would also allow you to remove those 2 critters, which would actually make the intro a bit better too.

This would be acceptable though, if falling intot hat pit brought you back to the intro room.

Spoiler

Okay so this is super common in mods. The moment you enter this place, you litterally just see everything. It's alot to take in. The little area with the critter and bat isn't really nessecary either because those breakable blocks make them completely non-threatening. I ended up killig the critter anyway though because him constantly flying and lading and making noise was irritating. I would just space things apart more.

Spoiler

I like how you can see the drop here, it adds alot of continuity. In this pic the enviornment and enemies look much better and are far better placed.

Spoiler

See those enemies to the left? Me neither. This is a framing issue. You gotta keep in mind when putting things high up that stupid health bar and junk.

Also, the melon to the left of here is pretty great, because if you miss the jump for it you just walk back. The walk is short, and has a little jump to make and isn't just totally boring.

Spoiler

Gah! Everything at once again! It would be alot better, if you doubled the size of this room, and put these other guys below so they aren't immeadeatly visable. Basically you can see a ton of challenges at once, but only the one right to the left of you is actually a threat.

I like how the breakable blocks here contatin enemies. It's a neat little gameplay thing that works well within Cave Story.

I also really like how everything kinda sorta resembles Cave Story's layout cause it implies a back story nicely.

Okay I'm done. It's really good.