I am very happy to announce a new version of the demo for Miracle Girl Chiyoko!

This version is a submission for the Magical Girls Forever Continue-It Jam II, hosted by ShibeyFaceGames!  In this game jam, we continue our projects from previous Magical Girl Game Jams.  As this game was originally a submission for the Magical Girl Game Jam 10, everything was still fresh in my mind since that jam had just ended.  So it wasn't hard picking up where I'd left off!

My objective for this version of the demo was to make the game I wanted to make for the first game jam, adding in the features that didn't make it in due to the game-jam's short duration.  This included dungeons, items and equipment, better balance, and a school test event, among other things.  I also did my best to polish the game even more, and to come up with some better systems for formatting the eventing and scripting so that continuing the game would be easier.  I had two months to do all this, twice as much time as it took to make the original version of the game, but I still underestimated just how long this stuff can take!  Still, I am extremely happy with the result!

There are a lot of changes to the game, which I will go through in the order of their impact on the player's experience:

DUNGEONS

Easily the biggest difference is dungeons!  While the original version had a few fights, they were simply scripted into the visual novel scenes, and the player really didn't have many chances to use the abilities they were unlocking.  I wanted dungeons in the game from the beginning, but ran out of time.  I've now added two dungeons to the demo, taking place in the Devourer Queen's attack on the local Laundromat!  The first dungeon is very small and simply designed to introduce the player to it.  The second dungeon contains multiple rooms and a boss fight as well!  It follows roughly the same events as the original demo, but with RPG style cutscenes instead of visual novel scenes.

The dungeon also has its own menu screen, so you can rearrange your formation and swap equipment in the middle of a mission.  You can also save your game anywhere during a dungeon!

SCHOOL TESTS

In the original demo, Chiyoko's grades really didn't matter as the game never tested for them.  I was going to put in a Track Meet, but I ran out of time, so I decided it was rained out.  Now, the forecast has changed, as well as the date of the Track Meet!  Chiyoko will now compete on Saturday, and the results of the meet will be determined by her Grade, which can be increased throughout the week by practicing.  Winning the meet will give her a huge SPIRIT boost, but doing poorly will give her a penalty!  Luckily, there isn't enough time in the demo for her grade to go down from neglect, so the worst she can do is "OK."

NEW MENUS

The first demo made use of the default RPG Maker "Choices" system for a lot of its menu system.  Now, most of that has been removed, and replaced with a graphical menu.  The SKILLS menu has also been redrawn, and looks much more attractive now.

CURRENCY AND ITEMS

The monsters in the dungeons drop a magical substance called "Magia."  Chiyoko's eldritch abomination lovable cat Winston can forge this substance into items!  These items can be used to restore energy in battle, or equipped to increase stats!  This took a lot of work, as the "Character" screens had to be modified to display equipment and to allow it to be exchanged.  A shop screen also had to be created, and I made new shop music, because why not?

STORY SKIP MODE

There is now a Story Skip Mode that can skip over most of the visual novel scenes in the game.  This is a good way to play through the demo if you don't want to watch the story again, or if you want to start the game over and make different choices.  This mode skips over what I consider the game's best content, so if you've never played the game before, I recommend not enabling it.  Still it's there for those who want it, and it made playtesting the game over and over a lot more manageable!

YOU CAN'T LOSE!

If you get defeated in either dungeon, the story is not over!  The dungeon might not have a happy ending, but Chiyoko's fight will go on.  Losing to monsters or the dungeon boss will have things play out a little differently, and the game remembers your triumphs and defeats!  Of course, there will be times later in the game where losing a fight may mean your death, and the end of the world!  But for the demo, you can continue to the end, no matter the outcome.

MORE POLISH!

A few scenes were rewritten, some graphics touched up, there are five new pieces of music in the game and many new 8-bit sound effects.  There are a few new CG style graphics in some scenes as well.  I've added plenty of little touches, some of which may go unnoticed even if you played the old version, leading to a more polished experience overall.

A WORKING BROWSER VERSION!

When I released the original demo, the browser version was DOA.  Basically, the game relied heavily on some eventing I did to allow me to write text on the screen.  It was such a mess that it was amazing that it worked at all in the EXE version, but it was quite bad, and for some reason it didn't work at all in a browser.  Fortunately, I found a workaround that is easier to work with on my end, and also seems to work in a browser!  So the game is now more accessible than ever!  Just make sure to read the FULL SCREEN instructions on the main page for the best experience!

MORE EFFICIENT SCRIPTING AND EVENTING!

This is only exciting for me, but the game's eventing is MUCH easier to work with now.  Having come up with a way to structure each game-day in the same format makes editing a day's events and adding a new day to the game a total breeze.  Menus are also now set up and drawn more effieciently, making it much easier to add new menus.

There are probably other changes that I forgot about!  But I think that about covers it!  I'd like to thank ShibeyFaceGames for hosting this Game-Jam and giving me more time to work on Miracle Girl Chiyoko!  It's been a lot of fun, and I learned a lot making it.  I look forward to hopefully completing it next year!

Thank you for reading this Devlog!  Check out the browser version on the game's main page, or download the Windows or Mac versions to give this game a try!  And let me know what you think, or if you encounter any bugs in the game!

Have a great day!

               ~Ayback