[Feedback] Rage of Magic II - Open Beta Fighter!

[Evanstaul]

Finished Windows bug fixes, please test the new version, thanks!

Rage of Magic II is a fantasy anime-styled side-scrolling beat-em up game with features like full screen super attacks, combo moves, power-ups and lots of enemies. I've finished the changes from the closed beta test. Now I'm releasing an open beta for everyone to try out! It's available on PC, Mac, Linux and Web! Please download it and let me know what you think!

Website: www.rageofmagic.com

Download Now!

• Windows (21MB Exe) - Joystick support, no Java required, NT/XP/2K Only.
• Mac (21MB Zip) - requires Java 1.4
• Linux (21MB Jar) - requires Java 1.4
• Online! (7MB Applet)- requires Java 1.4

Screenshots:

• Splash Screen
• Main Menu
• Player Select
• Gallery (Wren)
• Arena Mode
• Nag Screen
• Arcade Mode: 1 2
• more screenshots and movies ...

Closed Beta Changes (Initials of Tester):

• All spoken dialogs fit in one box (ALL)
• Controls changed back to normal ARROWS and WASD (LJV)
• Player 2 is defaulted to all NUMPAD keys
• Chapter progress shown between levels (LJV)
• Tutorial and Practice improved, shows all keys exactly (ALL)
• Easier to skip movies press ESCAPE (BF)
• All "Buy" changed to "Get" (BF)
• All "Register" changed to "Upgrade" (BF)
• Action-packed final nag screen (BF)
• Level 2 made slightly easier (BF)
• Level 4 made slightly easier (LJV)
• Clerics HP and healing power increased (IM)
• Thomas HP increased, attacks strengthened (IM)
• Thomas protection missions made slightly easier (IM)
• Azrael and Wren super and panic attacks strengthened (IM)
• Fixed Lucette panic attack penalty (IM)
• Fixed trial continue bug (IM)
• Checks to see if more than one instance is running.
• Tutorial always at startup, unless disabled.
• Added new final big-boss character!!

Known Issues:

• Backgrounds too repetitive ($$$)
• Increase resolution of sprites, some sprites ugly ($$$, too late)
• Mouse support (too hard, not yet)
• Voices are not good (my voice!)
• Sprites sometimes jittery when overlapping
• Mac can’t do 512x384, centers on 640x480

Thanks,
T.Suriyathep

[Ricardo C]

Love the artwork! Will download later today

[jeb_]

Aww... I thought it was the classic "Rage of Mages" game, such a disappointment!

[whisperstorm]

You're kidding right? This game is great! Two thumbs up!

[Savant]

The tutorial told me to press [A] to continue. I was unable to figure out what [A] meant so I had to quit out (tried every key/button I could think of). Looked cool though.

[Evanstaul]

[A] means the letter "A" on your keyboard.

If that isn't it let me know if the game has keyboard or control problems.

[Savant]

No, I know, I was being silly. I pressed "A" as that seemed to make sense but it didn't work for me. I mashed every game controller/mouse/keyboard button I could think of after that but couldn't make it go. I'll try again later...

[arcadetown]

Looking better all the time. A few things...

- The action speed feels about perfect now.

- The menu control system was confusing as didn't know what keys to use to activate things. I'd make the arrow keys plus spacebar/enter key in addition to your wasd/jkli work here.

- I tried to skip movie at start by pressing esc key, a menu appeared asking you want to skip movie, selected yes, and movie just continues on.

- Personally think the talking is far to much. I'd look for max 2 or 3 sentences per screen then action instead of 5 - 10 like now.

- Try real hard to get mouse control into the game if at all possible. Player can attract towards mouse position, left/right buttons do different attacks, special attacks can be via keyboard? Mouse control is a huge selling point in downloadable games market.

- When I alt tab two rage of mages icons appear there, one for your startup screen menu, and one for the game. Have only 1 appear if possible.

[Evanstaul]

I'll fix the menu, and movie skipper tonight. Wonder why many people are mixing up the game name, was that game really popular?

[electronicStar]

I have a few bugs:
-At the end of tutorial , computer freezes systematically (dark elf walking to the left)
-at the start of each stage I have a screen saying "mission fialed do you want to restart?" , before I actually play the stage!


Notice that I had the same bug during the closed beta , although I've changed most of my computer hardware in the meantime (mobo+proc+gfx card)

I like the attract mode on the screen preview (with the little chracters fighting) too bad the knights' sprites are still not on par with the rest of the graphics.

[TimS]

It seems the link for the Windows installer links to a bad (too small?) file... When the installer is run it says something about unexpected end of file, and the file is 10.8 MB rather than the 21 that it claims... ?

-Tim

[sgm]

Wonder why many people are mixing up the game name, was that game really popular?

Not really, more of a small following-type game. Mostly because of it being a weird mix of rpg/strategy and characters with lines like "Man, this place smells worse than my armpits."

Don't have time to download right now, but some of your art looks very nice

[vjvj]

Same problem here with the windows installer (file size problem). I'll try the web version.

The game looks great!

[vjvj]

Game feels really good, very similar to Guardian Heroes. Can we have a combo list? I'd like to play around with it some more but don't have a ton of time to experiment. I did find a couple combos that worked, though

[Evanstaul]

@arcadetown: I have just uploaded a new version. SPACE and ENTER are now the equivalent of player 1 pressing button 1. Should work with the menus better. Also fixed the skip movie screen.

@electronicStar: Those are some crazy bugs, I've never seen anything even close to that. If its not too much trouble plz send me "C:\Program Files\Rage of Magic II\rom.log" to evanstaul@rageofmagic.com.

@TimS: Sorry, you caught me in the middle of an FTP.

@vjvj: Look at the main website for some simple combos and hints.

In case anyone didn't notice, in the final "nag" action screen when boss characters die they get replaced by a different one, then loop. You can see 3 bosses and 3 heroes if you wait around. New version with minor bug fixes is up now!

[TimS]

No problem... I'll try downloading again and give feedback later on... does look nice from the website, though.

-Tim

[TimS]

Game (after clicking on the "let me continue with the trial version) flashes white screen, then black... and just hangs there, with a black screen. Alt-tabbing out works, after which I closed the smaller window with the red X.

The err log in the game directory had this to say:

Heap at VM Abort:
Heap
def new generation total 1920K, used 4K [0x10010000, 0x10220000, 0x11d90000)
eden space 1728K, 0% used [0x10010000, 0x100111d0, 0x101c0000)
from space 192K, 0% used [0x101f0000, 0x101f0000, 0x10220000)
to space 192K, 0% used [0x101c0000, 0x101c0000, 0x101f0000)
tenured generation total 24832K, used 8879K [0x11d90000, 0x135d0000, 0x28010000)
the space 24832K, 35% used [0x11d90000, 0x1263bf08, 0x1263c000, 0x135d0000)
compacting perm gen total 6656K, used 6572K [0x28010000, 0x28690000, 0x2c010000)
the space 6656K, 98% used [0x28010000, 0x2867b3f8, 0x2867b400, 0x28690000)

Local Time = Mon Jun 12 00:11:19 2006
Elapsed Time = 74
#
# The exception above was detected in native code outside the VM
#
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (1.4.2_04-b05 mixed mode)
#

Dunno if that helps any...

-Tim

[vjvj]

@vjvj: Look at the main website for some simple combos and hints.

The most interesting combo I could come up with in the 10 min I had to play it was with Azrael (I think that was his name). You can do A, S, then A again to knock him up, then S again followed by another A (although the last A hit misses unless you are in the corner). Pretty cool.

[Evanstaul]

I'm working on the guidebook now. Here is what I have so far for Azrael. Basically you could play the game without knowing this because combos would come even if you mashed the keys. For the keys 1=A, 2=S, 3=D.

Super Attacks

• 1+2+3: Super Repel Barrier
• Run-1+2+3: Super Magic Blast

Combo Attacks

• 1,1,1: Basic Combo
• 2,1: Simple Magic Combo
• 1,1,2,1: Cleave Combo
• 1,2,2,1: Magic Combo
• 1,2,1: Halfmoon Slice
• 1,2,1,1+2: Halfmoon Slice with Armor Breaker
• 1,2,2,1+2+3: Super Magic Blast Combo

Counter Attacks (While In Air)

• 1+2: Mid-Air Armor Breaker
• 1+2+3: Super Repel Barrier
• 3: Mid-Air Repel Barrier

Rising Attack (Getting Up from Fall)

• 1: Halfmoon Slice
• 1+2: Armor Breaker

While Block Advancing (Pressed 1 While Blocking)

• 2: Magic Blast
• 1+2+3: Super Magic Blast

For the Windows version I have increased the heap size by 16 MB, I don't know much about the switches, hopefully it will fix problems similar to what TimS was getting. I have a PPC Mac Mini for testing so hopefully it will always be consistent with Macs.

[electronicStar]

I'm sorry I uninstalled the game already, sorry for the log
I'll reinstall and try it again.

[EDIT] Oh I found the rom.log file again, I'll mail it to you.

[swollen]

I'm experiencing the same two bugs as ElectronicStar. I'll search around for the log file and email it to you.

[Evanstaul]

Thanks! That was a big help. It was because (hopefully) you had just one joystick attached to your computer. When I tested my game I either had none or two joysticks, never one. Ya learn something new everyday. New version is up!

I still haven't seen this error:
-at the start of each stage I have a screen saying "mission fialed do you want to restart?" , before I actually play the stage!

[RohoMech]

I downloaded + played the game, didn't have any of the issues people were listing so far, however, from time to time the game would sorta pause for a moment, then keep going?

I'm pretty sure I wasn't running anything else in the background, I tried again today and the same thing kept happening.

Overall, I liked the game, I was kinda dissapointed that I couldn't grad/throw people, since most other brawlers let you do that. Anyways, good luck with the game, its not often that I see someone making a brawler game.

[Evanstaul]

Ya I really wanted the ability to throw, but I didn't have the time, money and artwork for it. If this game goes well I am certain to add throwing!

I discovered some important Java related problems. I am going to do some more research on how to fix it and re-release a new version. Thanks!

[supagu]

the windows version says java is required....

[Evanstaul]

Yes, thats the problem I'm working on right now

You must have Java 1.5 installed to play, at the moment. When it's fixed I'll post it up again.

[AnthemAudio]

Poop and a half. I've been wanting to play this since I heard about it and it won't start on my machine.

I downloaded the win version, installed nice, seemed to start a little slow. Then the purchase page pops up to say if I want to buy or play for an hour. I click on trial and my screen goes white, then black. Then I wait for a bout 1 minute (eternity) and then I get a gamebrew.com progress bar. It starts at 0% and then to 1% and then nothing.

I Alt-Tab, close all the windows. Restart my machine, run it again, same thing except no gamebrew logo anymore, just black and waiting.

I have a Radeon 9800, WIN XP, AMD with 1G of RAM. Java is current.

Poop.

[AnthemAudio]

I go to try it again today and it says I only have 20 minutes left of the demo. Oh and still no go here.

[Evanstaul]

Wow, after hours of hard research and trial and error, I finally figured all the problems related to Windows and Java. The game only supports Windows 2K/NT/XP not 98/Me. It was bad luck having this issue in open beta, but its ready for another round of testing. I hope its finally resolved. Thanks very much!

Windows (21MB Exe) - Joystick support, no Java required, NT/XP/2K Only.

[AnthemAudio]

Ok....now it works. Great game, already burned through my hour! All I played was Arena. I figured it would be more fun that just the practice mode then I got stuck playing through that.

I didn't mind not being able to grab, though it would have been cool to just do some basic "hip-toss" kind of throws.

Are you intentionally going for retro audio? I think it works well, thought I would consider going with a higher bit-rate for the music. The lo-fidelity of those loops just grates on my ears after a while.

And the attacking dialog needs to be more exciting! Though it did kind of fit with the old Japanese translation technique.

Look me up if you ever want to upgrade your voices. Sounds like a fun project to get in on!

Good luck!

Tony