Island Sky
Island Sky is an old RM2k3 game I made, released in 2005, started in 2002. I had made an old version, remade the game, then lost all the RM2k3 projects I had except for that old version of Island Sky. I then decided to remake it again, which is the version I released in 2005. I had little experience with doing custom graphics then, but I did try to compose the soundtrack for it.
I want to point out the flaws in the game, and what I think worked well or could work well with some fixing up. It could be something to consider in a future game. And Azure Ocean is partly an Island Sky remake, so it would be good to think on it.
I’ll start out on the original reason why I made the game. The overworld was the first thing designed and was the main feature at first. You start out with very limited choices of where to go, and as the game progresses, you would have the freedom to go where you want to and do things in the order you want until you get to the last area. Black star means that you haven’t unlocked enough areas to be able to choose that to be unlocked. Red star means that it’s locked but you can unlock it once you complete a stage. Purple star means that you haven’t yet completed the area. And finally, blue star means it’s completed.
Map system
I realized this system was similar to Legend of Manas artifact system. That one is more complex as it involves elemental levels on areas, and proximity to the home and when you place the land down affect the level and items you get there. But otherwise, it’s similar in concept. You need some areas to complete the game, but you can visit some areas and not others, and revisit an area if you have a new quest. In Island Sky, you can alter the order you visit some areas, but since you need all but 1 area unlocked, you’ll do most of the areas anyway. I expect most players to play through all the areas anyway, meaning that it doesn’t affect much except the order which you play some of the middle areas. What could have been done to improve it? Well, perhaps different requirements to unlock areas, and more optional areas. Or that the time you unlock an area affects it somehow. If the game is short enough, you can probably have more choices that the player can’t unlock all of them, so the 2nd playthrough of the game can be different. In a longer game, a player might not necessarily want to replay it that soon, but then it may be better in this case to use it for optional areas. Perhaps talking with NPCs can unlock an area, or doing a short questline can unlock an area.
NPCs
Speaking about NPCs. I put in some townspeople and other people at places, but you can’t talk with any of them. I figured at that time, NPCs don’t really say much useful things anyway and I didn’t have anything to have them say. Plus, in big cities, it’s not like you would go up and talk to random strangers anyway. But being a game, that approach wasn’t quite effective. People are used to talking to NPCs in the game, and I could have put at least something amusing for them to say. I could have made a choice of who would talk to an NPC, to bring out their personality that way. This problem has been remedied a bit in Paradise Blue at least, and I don’t plan to ever repeat this mistake.
Story
On to the story for Island Sky. There isn’t much of one so this should be short. Rather than a full story, it’s basically just short quests. You can go into each area, and have a cutscene and boss to fight there, and that is pretty much the extent of the story. You have a boss who’s a character with a particular quirk (For example, Eva Lanche, who is a young girl with a loud voice that causes earthquakes), and you fight against them. It doesn’t even solve anything really, none of them die. The whole setting is a tropical island vacation sort of feel and it goes along with it as it all ends up lighthearted. I thought some of the dialogue was amusing enough, but of course that depends on the persons taste.