Isekai: Budget

"Ara, ara... It looks like you died. How tragic..." These were the words a wandering spirit  heard before being thrust into another world: Budget.

In the distant, far reaches beyond that of the known universe, the world of Budget is in serious trouble. An alien lands on the world, declaring itself the Demon Lord. It wreaks havoc across the world; destroying bridges, flooding the world with monsters and being an all-around nuisance that keeps everyone from enjoying their lives.

The Goddess of Budget, limited by what she can do to intervene (Mainly because she only spent 131,072 god points on the planet, which seems like a miniscule amount to spend), has enshrined the towns with protection, but that will only last for so long. She is searching for a hero powerful enough to slay the Demon Lord, and after enough hardship, she finally found one.

Enter the player, a brave soul that was reincarnated and transferred to the world with Budget with a single goal in mind: Destroy the demon lord and save it.

Introduction

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The goal of this project / challenege was to create a game no larger than 128kb in size.  Originally, the challenge was set for 64kb, but that proved to be an unrealistic goal, so it was increased to help make such a project possible.  The demo (Link) and full game are complete. This page is for the full version of the game.

This project showcases the potential of this low-filesize RPG engine and the resource editor that was built and used to create all the game's resources: Palettes, tiles, sprites, maps and objects, music and sound effects, dialogue, effects, inventory, monster details and arrangements, the list goes on. The project uses no external resources and was built entirely from scratch; no external image files or music files, which keeps the filesize of the game incredibly small.

How did I keep it so small?

A resource editor was built to compact all the data into a resource file. Compressing everything to make each byte count did wonders for the filesize of this project. For instance, the raw graphics for the demo and final version is 12kb, as it uses 3 128x128 sheets for the source, plus a couple more kb for setting up the sprite sheets. Even the music takes advantage of the browser's native web oscillator support, making the largest music tracks for the game smaller than 2kb, each. These small amounts do add up, which can put pressure on the size of the dialogue, source code and other setups, like enemies and inventory.  Ultimately, the final project is a few hundred bytes shy of the target.

Why is there a silly "Press Action" at the start?

You can thank chrome browsers for that. An update made some time ago prevents anything like web oscillator from auto-playing and it confirms that someone is on the recieving end before starting anything up.

Features

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• Play and complete the full version of game. The world contains plenty of towns and dungeons to explore.
• Choose from one of two character classes, each with their advantages and drawbacks.
• Explore a world loaded with monsters that want you for dinner and towns that want you to save them.
• Mobile support added through the use of touch buttons along the sides of the screen (Hold it horinzontally for the buttons to properly appear)
• Graphics, music and sound effects are all generated by the browser.

How to Play

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Keyboard Set1	Keyboard Set2	Touch Controls	Description
Arrow Keys	WASD	Directional Pad	* Move the player around * Select options on the menu
Spacebar		O	Action Key * Execute command on a menu * Interact with obejcts/NPCs on the world map
Escape		X	Cancel Key * Return to the world map on the menu * Cancel option/action

• Please refer to the "How to Play" manual for details on the playing the game, inventory and enemy details.
• Changes to the keyboard set will not take place until after the player leaves the OPTIONS page.

Latest Updates

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Version 1.01 / Build 50a (May 20th, 2024) -- ...Oops?

• Thank you to the great MedicineStorm for noting that saving a game was broken (Fortunately loading was not). This happened because the itch version of Isekai Budget relies on local storage for handling save files, while my original build of the game uses cookies. A couple function names were not updated when I adjusted the code again for local storage, thus saving a game was broken.
• WASD key support has been added, by request.

We're all good, now!

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Version 1.01 / Build 50 (May 19th, 2024) -- Nice, big one.

Fixed

• The debug that is normally turned on for the developer end was in the wrong place on the page. Re-locating it to the top allowed me to track a number of variable problems that 'could' have caused memory issues with the browser. What was found was corrected and updated, even though it bloated the code a little. Ended up having to track down anytime a variable issue cropped up and patch it as the game was replayed through until no more errors appeared.
• An issue cropped up where entering another room while Repel was wearing off would prevent the player from entering. Priority was given back to entering another room.
• Most of the Slime-class were missing the expected strengths and weaknesses.
• Combat damage scale was fixed. The multiplier/reducer was looking at the wrong values for an enemy.
• An endgame glitch that would play the wrong music after defeating the demon lord should the music be turned on (following the battle).
• An endgame glitch where the swamp would disappear after loading a saved game where the demon lord had not been defeated.
• Some casual dialogue updates (mainly fixing grammar and spelling errors).
• Changed the menu bars a little bit, including fixing some text alignment issues.
• Reset the battle item/spell list position after loading a new player save.
• Found a minor tile error for the dragon (overworld) sprites.
• Found a (possible) glitch with the # of plays counter when setting up a new game.(Also, increased the amount of gold per replay to +5, up from +2).
• Non-useable items in inventory would leave gaps on the inventory page while selected.
• Title screen arrow would disappear if the player cancelled starting a new game after having entered in a name.

Project

• Music player has improved track looping capability. Since looping requires precise timing that javascript cannot 100% guarantee/handle, depending on circumstances, I setup an alternate method that could cause shifts in the how the track loops when the browser is minimized or while other activity is being performed on the system, but it auto-adjusts much better than it used to and in the long run will no longer clip tracks.
• Minor updates to starting a new game; instead of a new background when selecting difficulty, I went with the existing one used for the title screen.
• Added a dedicated tracker for scrolling save files. This holds onto the position while the game is played.
• Equip page now includes what elements and statuses the player will resist.
• Items page now includes an option to examine items for additional information.
• Player's palette is based on the game difficulty selected. This equates to 6 different outfits based on class and difficulty. This also applies to the large sprite used in the menu.
• For the end credits, the default warrior hero sprite is replaced with the class and difficulty the player played through.
• Cancel sound plays when the player tries to start a game without a name.
• Spells page now includes an option to examine items for additional information.
• Added cancel sounds to spells when the player cannot cast them (like using a cure when the player already has full HP)
• Added a sound effect for a when a switch if flipped (to better signify that 'something' happened).
• Bumped up the "Cannot Sell" panel by one step. Rather than have the player go through the amount of money offered, it will skip straight to 'Cannot Sell' if the item is a keeper (Hero equipment, key items, etc.).
• Lowered the volume of the 'heal' sound effect.
• All elemental wands are set to 35 base damage and cost 2500 golds.
• Minor EXP updates to all enemies; should help reduce the grinding a little, especailly near the end of the game.
• Changed the level progression structure from 38 to 40.
• Minor tweaks to base stats for both classes.

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Version 1.00 / Build 48 (August 14th, 2023)

• Game has been launched on itch.io

Screenshots

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