The Legend of Iya WIP indie game

The music reminds me of the new NiGHTS game...

Wow this is very well done.
I came across this by accident today and now I'm really looking forword to it.

In the case of the latter, it wasn't so much the layout of the levels, as much that I encountered too much of the same palette-swap enemies and remixed tile sets. If the designers had included a greater variety of mini puzzles, Indiana-Jones-ish traps and escape sequences, things of that nature, it would broken up the monotony. While ambiance isn't a bad thing (and, from what I've seen you do have incredible artistic skills) it alone shouldn't be the selling point of a game.

Personally, I'd avoid anything 'Metroid-esque' as that game series turned out to be a glorified scavenger hunt.) I'd also avoid the recent Castlevania trend, wherein the levels are SO expansive that anyone other than a die-hard fan would quickly get bored of simply running around looking for what to do next. By the same token, keep the story loose and none-linear, similar to 'mad-libs' where the theme is outlined, but the player can customize parts of it to sort of create their own story.

Thank you for the suggestion, but I'm afraid it's just not what this game was designed to be. It was originally intended as an action-RPG - kind of like Popful Mail or Ys3, but has evolved into a more labyrinthine experience. From your comment I assume you don't enjoy maze-like world layouts of Metroid and Castlevania, but there are plenty who do, including me.

How are you doing sound effects?
And how long does it take you to get a good fluid anumation going enemies?

Unfortunately whenever I try writing the story down, I start getting carried away, and making it "epic", requiring heavily scripted events and exposition. I don't like that - I like subtle storytelling, and plots that go beyond the simple "save world from evil" variety.

Another World is one of my most beloved games of all time since I beat it on my 286. You might be surprised, but I was totally planning on "borrowing" some elements of that game in LOI - especially things happening near the end.

Subtle storytelling must be very hard though :/. I'd never be able to do that. Not all games are focused on save the world. For example, in Another world, Lester's goal is survival, while Buddy's is revenge. I do enjoy a good plot that is anything but a stereotypical FF game though ;)

Heh, my art style is a tribute to AW in itself. Shucks that it's the first time I've worked in photoshop though, not very easy!

Good to hear! I might have gotten things on your blog mixed up, sorry :(.
I feel you on the work too, it's hard for me to cram my game into my schedule.

Anyways, I'm glad we could chat! Good luck on your game!