Dimension SpiritLens

[Bruce Michez]

In which the VVVVVV-erse reaches the next level.  It's an RPG starring the Souleye crew - for once isn't on his own and can actually fight back.  Download for Windows and Mac here.



It's very much in the spirit of the Bracketed Trilogy, in that I set out to tell a story in a meaningful world, rather than to frustrate the player.  (This meant making some enemies less tanky at the last minute.)  In fact the story is based on what I originally had in mind to follow [II] back in the day, though with the addition of a new character who wouldn't really have been possible in VVVVVV itself.  That said, if anyone wants to retell this story as an actual VVVVVV level, they'd be most welcome...

Changelog:
V1.0: Original release
V1.1: Fixed a bug in the Windows version that prevented saving! Turns out, you should NEVER USE ENIGMA VIRTUAL BOX ON AN RPG MAKER MV GAME, despite what the latter's manual says.

[Trinket9]

uh oh



this occurs if you press escape on the 'options' screen

[Bruce Michez]

Cruuuudddd!!  It seems Enigma Virtual Box doesn't actually work the way RPGMMV's manual says it will - as it has the side-effect of PREVENTING YOU FROM SAVING!  About to build a new version right now.  edit: Just done exactly that.

[Info Teddy]

i was a bit skeptical of playing something completely different from a vvvvvv level, and let me say that what i experienced was lower than my not-that-good expectations. nicholas said something on the vvvvvv discord server about vvvvvv: community edition being inaccessible due to having to download an alternate version of vvvvvv. this is far worse than that.

i dont know why you felt the need to tinyurl the mega link. i know it might feel a bit esoteric, but you really shouldn't use link shorteners, something something not good for archivability, higher chance of link rot, etc. what's wrong with pasting https://mega.nz/#!UMRF1Q5J!IxbYsfiDPUBPM6SzRPFzg2Y2S75noQubBtuVUnsPaRg? you put the link behind some text like this anyways! it's not like it changes how people get the link, they're still going to get the link from someone else copy-pasting it, e.g. instead of pasting a bunch of gibberish into a chatbox, now you paste a random name into the chatbox. it's no different.

then, the entire zip file is 500 megabytes. i had to wait 15 minutes to download it. it's a touch annoying, and i wish it could be smaller and take less time to download. i think a good start would be separating the mac and windows versions into their own files?

and only then do i find out that there's no linux version. great. just great. there's nothing in the thread stating it's mac and windows only, and i feel like a fool for assuming that i could run it on linux.

now i have to either take the extra steps of installing wine, a thing that runs windows apps on linux (and if you know anything about wine, that's not just one extra step, but a lot depending on how much it wants to torture you), or somehow get it onto my windows computer, either by downloading it again or putting it on my usb. i don't want to spend 15 minutes again, and cutting that in half by downloading only the windows version still means 7 minutes of waiting.

as for the usb option, even when just the windows version is compressed, it's 227 megabytes, and i dont know about usb transfer rates but i assume it's not that great.

and at this point, i just don't want to play this thing anymore. i've sunk enough time into even attempting to get the thing. i'll take the hint.

[Bruce Michez]

The reason why I tinyurl'd the mega link is simple: Glorious Trainwrecks does not allow Mega links, so it's a workaround.

I could have created a Linux version, but running RPG Maker MV games in Linux is, according to the manual, very complicated.  I would have had to include instructions; in fact, I simply do not understand the process myself.  We've already seen the disastrous results of my use of Enigma Virtual Box on the Windows version - and I could have sworn I followed the manual to the letter there.

Out of curiosity, I tried putting the Windows version - uncompressed, no less - on my flash drive to see how long it would take: a little over 1 minute.  For comparison, I've been known to listen to an entire Bruckner symphony while waiting for my computer to do something.

[moth ✨]

i'm not the biggest fan of RTP asset games, but i thought this was pretty good! the story was touching and i like the oc characters! my main gripe is that there was this one enemy that both reflected skills and had an instakill attack which was kind of ridiculous??

either way, i had fun, great game

[Balneor]

I'm really not experienced with RPG games in general. But so far it has been a great time ! How long did you work on this ?

[Bruce Michez]

I'm really not experienced with RPG games in general. But so far it has been a great time ! How long did you work on this ?

About 3 weeks, although some gameplay ideas and most of the story had existed in my head for far longer.  I ended up pulling an all-nighter at the end to get it done, which really took the wind out of my sail now that I'm nearly 30...

[Balneor]

I see. Just finished it now, big props to you 

Is there post-content after the credits, or can I end the playthrough there ?

[Bruce Michez]

Is there post-content after the credits?

Not really, it's just a chance to round up any remaining trinkets.  has slightly different dialogue if you get all 10, but... you're basically done.  There's certainly no superboss or anything like that!

[Valso22]

i never though of an rpg vvvvvv game, nice

[Bruce Michez]

I'm thinking of composing an original soundtrack for a revised version of this!  I think I can do better than those stock RPG Maker tunes.