RPGM The Secrets of Salem [Ch.1 Final] [Project Covenant]

[venjester]

Mini unofficial review since it's a pretty new game:

Pretty disappointing. It has animation and voices but most of those are used for an opening video that just dumps a lot of historical information without any context or meaning.

Once you get into the game, the game play is frustrating. The odds are 50/50 as to whether you'll get an indication of what you're supposed to do next or if you'll need to check the in-game guide. Even that isn't great as you'll be told things like "go around the house and collect all your things" without any indication of how many things or what exactly or even a way to open inventory.

The controls are confusing. You can use the mouse on the title menu and the name change screen but, once you get into the game, the mouse lets you move but won't open the menu or interact with objects. So you're using the keyboard to do that until you get magic and then you HAVE to use the mouse to do magic and the game doesn't explain any of this. (Maybe it tries to? the description for the first magical power is cut-off in game.)

The puzzles I've seen so far aren't bad but aren't well-implemented / have confusing descriptions.

Miscellaneous roundup: Changing the character's name is inconsistent, sometimes it will change in game and other times (including the opening video) it won't.
Audio sometimes cuts out when you leave the menu.
The opening screens are outdated: they call the game the demo and talk about releasing Chapters 1 and 2 at the start of March. I had to double-check what I'd downloaded in case the file hadn't been updated.

So tl;dr: it looks nice but isn't very fun to play right now.

Thank you for the detailed review. Incredibly helpful and my apologies on the ch 1 and 2 late release. I had to fly across the country for almost a month, for a family death. I was unable to help DTYM in that time and that is completely my fault. I hate to not release updates when i plan for it. It something I have to work on. I run into bugs when i fix one or a new one pops up when i add content. Its just a big learning curve and completely understand how your worry. The demo part of the game was just the house content. The opening video is old as the main character was supposed to be Amon Belmont. After the demo was released, people asked to change the name. So we did that but I was never able to get the voice actor to come and redo the lines. The demo was a built as we learned rpgmaker. Prologue, we continued to try and improve but bugs happen, glitches happen. English is always the best and my sincere apology for that. Were just trying, thats why the game is free. Why we dont do a tier release on patreon. We just need feedback and want to know whats good and whats not. I will definitely look into a better hint system, focus on explaining better the mechanics of the game and better proofreading. Thank you and sorry. The game isnt fun to play yet. Hopefully we can fix that in futre updates. Thanks

 

[venjester]

Im getting black screen after cutscene when mc leaves university lobby and falling on the ground

My sincere apology for this bug. DTYM is fixing it right now. If you load the game before the screen, it should fix itself. Im sorry for the inconvenience. Everytime I think we have the bugs workout, a new one appears. We will try to fix it asap. thank you for testing the game out. THank you for the post.

 

[venjester]

Tried this a while ago and put it on my watchlist to check back when anal content gets added in.

Can you peeps update me on how that is coming along?

My man, thank you for the post. Spoiler free, Ch 3 is my first anal scene. It's pretty good (in my opnion). After ch 2 gets released, you will see a big animation improvement since ch 1. Longer scenes, more fluid animation, and some scenes being animated at over 900 frames. CH 3 will be a goody. If you want to wait and check it out later down the road. Thank you again.

 

[venjester]

Have walkthrough?

Thank you for the post. I am sorry, I have not got the walkthrough written yet with images. I am working on it and feel free to msg me here or on discord if you have any questions. I am working on making a better hint system thats more accurate and better working on explaining mechanics. Really sorry for that.

 

[syfy88man]

OK got to the school and then walk outside to go my dorm but got this error. now it stuck and I have to force close the game

 

[venjester]

The models look great. Looking forward to the game.

Maybe a small feedback, if you are looking for it:

Try to keep the direction of the movement consistent if you do it on a small scale like a building or a campus. For example, the dorm: If I leave the map towards the bottom, I should not start on the left on the next screen but from the top.

Keeping it consistent (going out bottom, starting out top in the next screen) just makes the world feel more consistent and connected. It feels like one map and not several different maps that are not locally connected.

Also, try to give a bit more information in general where you are. Simple on screen information like "boys dorm", "girls dorm" etc. always help. Especially if you design multiple maps that look basically the same (dorms, toilets in this game for example).

This is great, thank you very much for this information. I apologize for that and I understand the confusion. I just didnt think to display information on each area. The rotating of the maps, just looked more appealing to me. I understand the annoyance it can cause tho. Ill see about maybe fixing that soon. I have an announcement coming sunday on discord/patreon that will explain what content is coming in the future. Part of this announcement will talk about the bugs, technical side of the game, voice actors and gameplay etc. Thank you again.

 

[venjester]

i was here to ask why there are no reviews since the game and characters looked really interesting but after seeing that voting poll and reading some of the comments here i am honestly not sure if i want to play this one, since it kind of look interesting but due to that vp i think i will wait a while before playing it. also if the dev changed his/her mind about ntr and has actually decided to not add it then i think it would be a good idea to take down that voting poll as well because it does not make the game look good for non-ntr/harem fans.

Thank you, and yes there was a huge issue months ago about this poll. A mistake on my part. I just didnt understand that big issue at the time. Being new to these games and visual novels. The poll was a chance to see what people liked, if people would want something. NTR was only an option and last min option because DTYM liked it. I didnt realize how big of problem this would turn out. MY deepest apology, i have apologize a lot for it. But thats all i can do. The game is free, everyone on here is playing for free. I just want feedback and help learning the ropes and creating a game. Thats why its free. I am not NLT, I want to be in a few years. But i got to start somewhere. I know theres bugs in my game, I know the characters may not be everyone cup of tea or the story. But im going to keep at it and keep going. Keep trying to make a good game. I would love feedback as i go. Thanks again for the post. I know it was in feb.

 

[venjester]

OK got to the school and then walk outside to go my dorm but got this error. now it stuck and I have to force close the game

I believe there was an issue with the version DTYM uploaded. its being fixed right now, I just talked to him. A work around right now, is reload and then it works. I am really sorry, I hate to see these game breaking bugs right after an update is made. I tested this so many times in the last week and had outside help run it. Something last min must of have happened to bring this bug back. Because it was temporary there back when prologue was update. Thank you for the post

 

[venjester]

Evening everyone. I just want to say thank you for everyone who gave the game a try, tried the new update and even just checked out the page. I realized there are some bugs right out of the gate. I think DTYM may have accidentally uploaded a test file. I ran this game a dozen time this week, as well as outside help. We thought we fixed the final bugs last night but I guess something went wrong during the upload or that last fix. I am truly sorry, and I can only say so many times that I am still just learning. I want to have a fun game, with lots of cinematics and lots NSFW scenes with better then avg animation. Im working my way there. Ch 1 has a scene ive never done before. CH 2 NSFW animation has improved immensely since ch 1. I know CH 1/2 were to be released together a month ago. There was some unexpected family crises for me and DTYM ran into a lot of issues trying to incorporate better plugins. Ch 2 animation is all complete. Once we worked out these new issues, we can release it. I want to release soon, i just cant promise it and im sorry for that. I have a big announcement coming sunday on discord and patreon. It will talk about these bugs, where we are at in the game, future content and our goals. Again i dont want to try and cover for my mistakes. The game is free for a reason, I need feedback and suggestions on what people like and dont. What do i do right and what do i do wrong. There has been a couple great reviews that have pointed out these pros and cons. I thank you for the posts, they are incredibly helpful to me. If this game is just not up to your standards, buggy, unplayable and your not up for playing. There is nothing wrong with that, but please dont just jump on here and hate on it. Your not paying for it. One last thank you to everyone that has posted bugs and feedback. Thank you for checking it out. Thank you for taking an interest in it. I will do my absolute best to fix and make a better game. I would love to hear what people have to say about CH 1 ending. If its something people want to see more of or not. DTYM will hopefully very soon here resolve a lot of these issues from the patch. Thank you

 

[venjester]

DTYM has confirmed that he has sent an update to f95 admins. It may have been updated already, if not it will be soon. Once again, my sincere apology for these bugs, and thank you for sticking around to give it a try. Please send us feedback if you have a moment. Be it positive or just additional information on bugs/glitches. Also, consider maybe stopping by Discord next week. Sunday I'll be making a post about the game and showing off some examples of plans. I know it a far from being a perfect game, fun game, and NSFW game. But it is all trial and error for us. If we fail now and fix it. Then we can learn to release better and improve overall game performances in future updates to come. We had to start somewhere. Thank you.

 

[Azsouth]

was the fight w/ Jason(?) the last thing in this update? says explore the fantasy room then leave and nothing happens when I leave either the fantasy room or the dorm.

 

[Skybreaker1337]

My man, thank you for the post. Spoiler free, Ch 3 is my first anal scene. It's pretty good (in my opnion). After ch 2 gets released, you will see a big animation improvement since ch 1. Longer scenes, more fluid animation, and some scenes being animated at over 900 frames. CH 3 will be a goody. If you want to wait and check it out later down the road. Thank you again.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I'll check it out then. Since you're active here and seek feedback I'll throw in my 2 cents after that as well. However, gotta preface that with me being an asshole and very negativity based, so don't take to heart whatever I end up writing then.

 

[shamtiiomi]

Hey thank you for question. This is our very first game and first try at rpgmaker. It is currently like a simple NLT game. In the sense of how you move around the areas, gameplay is solving puzzle or finding objects. collectibles hidden around the areas. Nlt has much more complicated puzzles, gameplay mechanics and adventuring. Were starting small and staying free to play. Because were brand new and need to learn the ropes. But one my main focus when we get a little better at the programming is to have combat. Interesting, party focus, lots of skills and lvl system. Just not at a comfortable stage to implement it yet. I do have a big announcement coming up sunday on discord/patreon. That will showcase some of the future content to come. Heres a image of the game so far.

well now that i know i will give a try but for future refernces,i dont do combat in rpgm ,i wait always for someone to do a renpy edition,i prefer the main dev to do that but the true is that rpgm become less and less playable vs the new renpy's engines,i will tell you to change to renpy but is absolutely your preferences ,if u ask me or many others we dont even think to pick some rpgm game over a renpy game,the rpgm engine sometimes is unplayable,the only ones are the NLt games the last ones bcs the olders ones are still the normal rpgm,so if u care about your future too much i will advice to you to change completely to renpy....good luck to you

 

[Ge0rgy]

Hi There,
i like the visuals of the girls in the scenes and normally i pla a lot of RPGM - Games, but this one has me puzzled.
I am still at amys house and she tells me to pack my belongings... hint says to go through the rooms... ok, i got the clothes from the bathroom and the bag from the garden, i even potted the rose-plant while being there, but i cannot find anything else to interact with or to pick up, so what part of "stuff" is left fo me tu search for and where? - The map shows a room to the right side of the bathroom, but this is still locked... so how should i progress? - I have no idea what to do...!?

 

[starkiller88m14]

after the library i just get looping dialog of nope

 

[bearclaw01234]

I encountered the same bug that syfy88man posted about yesterday, but then I saved at the entrance to the university (after refusing to save at the automatic save choice) & it worked (no reloading done). Success chance to proceed past the bug seems to be random.. sometimes it works & sometimes it doesn't. A very irritating bug.

 

[Project Covenant]

Hello everybody

I would like to say that due to some technical difficulties, the first version of chapter 1 did not come out as expected, and the bugfix uploaded just one hour later was not enough either.

So we have worked very hard the last 24 hours to polish as much as possible the final version of chapter 1 for our patreons and for our general public.

We deliver you the final version of chapter 1 as polished and worked as we have been able to.

Currently this final version is already delivered to the moderators to update the page.

thank you very much for appreciating our work and supporting us.

Greetings!

DTYM Studios

 

[venjester]

well now that i know i will give a try but for future refernces,i dont do combat in rpgm ,i wait always for someone to do a renpy edition,i prefer the main dev to do that but the true is that rpgm become less and less playable vs the new renpy's engines,i will tell you to change to renpy but is absolutely your preferences ,if u ask me or many others we dont even think to pick some rpgm game over a renpy game,the rpgm engine sometimes is unplayable,the only ones are the NLt games the last ones bcs the olders ones are still the normal rpgm,so if u care about your future too much i will advice to you to change completely to renpy....good luck to you

Thanks for the reply. We knew we were going to have a hard time selling an rpgmaker game. We started this for fun and working on it because its fun. We both like rpg games and wanted to give it a try. We definitely didn't come into this thinking we were going to compete with nlt team, nor did we think we were going to make huge money off of it. We just wanted to make a game. Alot of people have said a renpy would be better, we might do a renpy down the road. I would love to tell the story both ways. Yea future goals would be to make games full time, thats our ambition. Right now, were just having fun working together and making a game. Hoping people enjoy some of it, or at least offer advice and feedback like you did. Thank you again.

 

[venjester]

Hi There,
i like the visuals of the girls in the scenes and normally i pla a lot of RPGM - Games, but this one has me puzzled.
I am still at amys house and she tells me to pack my belongings... hint says to go through the rooms... ok, i got the clothes from the bathroom and the bag from the garden, i even potted the rose-plant while being there, but i cannot find anything else to interact with or to pick up, so what part of "stuff" is left fo me tu search for and where? - The map shows a room to the right side of the bathroom, but this is still locked... so how should i progress? - I have no idea what to do...!?

Sorry, this is a personal issue I need to resolve. The hint system isnt as helpful as we thought it was. All my fault, I wasnt being clear enough. People have come forward to explain thats its a bad system. We are going to rectify this when we get a chance. With a more clear, better and easier to use hint system. I am very sorry about this. Thank you for trying the game out. The belongings are: headphones (hallway), laptop (MC bedroom), bag (outside), clothes (bathroom).

 

[venjester]

was the fight w/ Jason(?) the last thing in this update? says explore the fantasy room then leave and nothing happens when I leave either the fantasy room or the dorm.

Yes that's the end of ch 1. once you leave the fantasy room. There is collectibles and bonus puzzle that you can go find and complete. If you would like. DTYM did just contact me, saying we need to better clarify the end of a chapter. This is my fault, i overlooked it. I apologize. thank you so much for the trying the game out.