Treasure Quest!!

Notes from 2025:

I was getting nostalgic thoughts and I decided to revisit this project I sealed away. I gave it a little play last night and thought, "hey, why don't I unseal it like Dreaming of Shadow?"

This was actually a game I was working on before I ended up working on Slimes that I ditched because my vision for it wasn't solid and I wasn't as experienced with RPG game dev as I am now. You can kinda see that this was a proto I Hate You, Please Suffer, as playing this back I could see themes and ideas that'd be used in IHYPS. Sincerely, there was a lot of things I forgot that originated from this game, like the central country being a place called Engel (though here being named Enngel) and the landlord from IHYPS clearly being recycled from Whittaker. In fact, I guess you could say that the dungeon here is a cousin of the concept of the Grand Dungeons, and the mouse people are kind of a cousin of the lupine wolf people. BUT OH MAN, I wish I remembered the concept of walking jellyfish people, those would have been fun NPCs like the Illumina (a note here: the Air Slimes are mimics of Illumina, much like how the Wrath Slimes more closely resemble humans).

Will I ever revisit this specific project? Probably not. I sincerely lost the source files because they were on an old laptop I don't have, and I'll be honest, like A Gang of Weirdos, I made this on a pirated version of MV before I bought it properly, way after I lost that laptop. Maybe I'll recycle Quiddity for something, though I'd change his clothes because I didn't realize he had Joker colors.

And like usual, soundtrack is a selection of stuff from Loyalty Freak Music, though it's clearly less focused here than other games.

Notes from 2020:

Quick Credits Edit: The font used in the game is the Larua font by Jupiter Hadley!!

FAQ

Q: Why are you putting out the demo now even though you acknowledge it's not finished?

A: It's mainly my disillusionment with RPG Maker MV. The thing is, the engine's just not very well optimized. My computer has trouble running it properly it without the occasional lag spike. Every game made in MV has run badly on my computer and it's been a general issue that I've seen with people. It's a completely subjective problem, since it can run perfectly fine for some people (like that Driftwood Gaming person). And so I asked myself: "why bother to keep working on something that only a few people could properly enjoy?"

And so, I've decided to say "fuck it" and put up what I already have. If RPG Maker MV improves in the future, I would consider going back to this, however....

A second reason why I'm stopping work for now is my poor sense of scope. Initially, the game started out as an odd guy hopping into these caves while being chased by his rival and it was originally intended to be a Space Funeral-like. I ended up taking it more seriously as I went along and as I went on I began thinking of expanding on the concept of an adventuring economy/culture and putting subplots revolving around it and I ended up thinking up of adventuring NPCs that show up to travel alongside Quiddity with their own plots and -

Basically, Treasure Quest!! is starting to suffer a bad case of feature creep, and as a solo dev, it's become something unreasonable, even if RPG Maker MV worked perfectly. Honestly, if I'm going to revisit this, it's going to have to be massively scaled back. And if I do that, it may as well be in a different engine entirely.

So yeah, here's what people will be getting of Treasure Quest!!. Consider its flaws my punishment for my hubris.

Q: What did you have planned for the future?

A: I'll only say what I had planned for the second town and information based on the first, in case I ever actually do revisit this game:

• Quiddity finds himself inside a coral reef house, rescued by this walking jellyfish named Ludo. They live on the outskirts of their fellows' small settlement, which is very steeped in tradition. Ludo becomes the second party member, with dreams of breaking out of their circle of society and seeing the world beyond - but they also have other reasons for wanting to leave their town.
  • Ludo's main weapon is books and their list of skills that they learn are far more varied than Quiddity's. They would also use MP instead of Quiddity's TP.
• To get back on the proper path, Quiddity and Ludo have to start climbing Babel, a mysterious tower that runs through the underground that connects the various civilizations that's believed to have been built by the same people that made the mysterious statues. But they have to deal with bureaucracy first, so they register as a team with the Adventuring Association (player can name it whatever).
  • The sidequests and later optional goals in the game would factor into this reputation system that gives the team more clout in the adventuring world. How exactly would I do that and to what extent? See, this is feature creep in the work, fellas.
• Whittaker recruits Steve as a bodyguard along with Salem as a magic expert; as she'd be classified as a research assistant, she'd bypass the regulations preventing her from going deeper. The research group will pop up around the game, investigating the statues like the one you find Whittaker at. For specific stuff at the point you meet them together:
  • Steve will have abandoned his persona as "The Dude," realizing that it's kinda lame and tasks Quiddity to find him some different gear again. He admits to Quiddity his insecurities about his identity and that he went into the caves to prove himself to others; his initial claw weapon is also cosplay based on a show he watched - Quiddity encourages him to stick by it. He can also be challenged to a spar.
  • Salem drags the magic plant from her house around, requiring the party to look for materials to feed it. She continues to get maniacal about it as her magic plant continues to grow as you go through the game...
  • Whittaker is hesitant about keeping the group around, but is excited about investigating the statues. He tasks you with finding an artifact from the dungeon, and doing his quest leads to him not paying Quiddity again.
• You can rematch a stronger, fully awake Ms. Sunshine to get reputation.

Q: Why cards?

A: [thinking about that Triple Triad]

Q: What was supposed to be in the rest of the display cases at the beginning?

A: More foreshadowing stuff that will no longer happen I guess