hey buddy boy, a good looking Game (You):, have got Here., love The World, looks like You can kind of crack into It, hope to see Taller buildings, too, as well, such as every floor showing the character, and larger towering shadows, something simple
this game design is..... not too good.... it doesnt feel like anything has limitations because of the open sandbox nature, for example, if you die next to a spider nest, and go back, you will endlessly die to the endless ammount of spiders, it doesnt feel like theres anything i could do at that point, if i grind back all my gear and fail to survive the endless spiders when getting my gear back, i might just die there again. and lets say i just happen to kill a villager, it doesnt feel like theres any way to bring em back, atleast its not in the guide that is supposed to tell me all the vital info about villages, if gaining new members isnt escential enough then ill just take a guess that it isnt possible. with these obvious game oversights out of the way, i really like the game! i like the approach to a top down RPG that is easier to understand, like a minecraft format of RPG but alot more.. stuff! i think it could be less repetitive (adding challenge enemies that have various teirs, dropping early to late game loot, like a king slime that has a 1/70 chance to spawn when a slime spawns after a certain challenge artifact is used, and once killed, will disable the spawn chance until another artifact is used, this would be good for players that would rather battle than mine, and would be a good alternative to it) and it could definitely be less frustrating, i never liked games with this kind of "challenging" design, feels like everything kinda just screws up the flow of the game instead of actually feeling challenging (like the spider nest incident i talked about) , since the combat feels up to luck (whoever randomly lands more hits or does more critical hits) it starts to feel less like cuphead-type challenging and more just like casino game type challenging, its more enforced when you realize that gambling is an escential part to making the game flow better when something like the spider incident happens (the devil).
bottom line: i really like the game but the design feels repetitive, artificially challenging and flawed.
I agree the game is not well designed. it was a very early project and I had a lot less experience with design things like balance, accessibility, intuitive mechanics, and just generally user experience. that’s why it’s up here for free!
if you’d like to see a similar concept being executed in a (hopefully) much better way, check out my project Demon Island
idk if that’s even possible to be honest… Erth was made in good ol GameMaker 8, which may not support linux builds. if you’re up for it you can grab the source code (link in the desc) and gamemaker 8 and give it a shot!
What do ya think about, aside from releasing the source code, also opening a donate link? I know that it's something on itch.io, but, if you do release the source code on a platform like, say, github, it'd be nice to drop a "buy me coffee" or "buy me a beer" link. Hell, maybe that could help ya with your current project.
You probably have very good eyesight or a very small monitor, play a game that takes up a quarter of the screen and does not scale to fit the monitor, as you do not want to, especially considering that it is not at all difficult to do technically, for example, put the camera in front of the main window and change the scale.
while im not continuing development on this project, i am currently working on what you could consider its spiritual successor: Demon Island. Demon Island will take a lot of the ideas i thought worked well in Erth and refine them. check it out!
I have a few enchanted leather backpacks and for some reason all of them seem to be merged so I only get the storage space of one of then, is there any way to de-equip bags so I can try de-equipping and re-equipping them to see if that helps or do you know how to fix the issue
is this game getting updates now? Because if so, would it be possible to add an option to double the size of the window in options? The window is a bit small and hard for me to see and zooming in with computer settings causes an error and you have to abort the game.
hi uh i want to play this game but every time i try to get in its justa a error page containing a error message like the one below please tell me how to fix this
Hey, so I've encountered a few issues. Some have been mentioned before-- chests in dungeons can't be opened, only destroyed. I'm also having this happen sometimes with loot bags---- including, unfortunately, the ones that have all my gear when i respawn, after a tie or win against the devil.
Other than that, the most common thing i'm encountering is crafting/creation errors. I have the ingredients and workplaces for items, then am unable to build them. I have never been able to learn spells from the spell pages, despite having a wand and spellbook equipt. I'm not able to make Divine strings or whatever they're called, which is literally just clouds and either: string, or spider silk (I tried both). I'm also getting deeper into the mines and here's my biggest issue--- I could play without any magic items working (as I have been), but to get the more precious metals, you need a hard enough tool. I have iron, copper, titanium... the list goes on. But the highest level metal tools I am able to craft are made of tin. What's up with that?
Can anybody help me?
(P.S. I have a Crafting Book, Magnifying Glass, and Study Book, so it's not like I'm not trying to up my research stats, if that's a factor in what I can craft. I have 240+ recipes)
Nice idea but geesh, way too complicated, a wall for building a pickaxe? really? And the crafting book is not well made. I have no clue what to search for. Crafting in general is not intuitive.
cant open most sacks, esepcialy in combined structure/towns i could open the first bag but then was ganged up on and died, i cant open my death sack (nothing happens when pressing w a s d from any angle). also you dont drop armor on death?
when dieing death sacks are cut doiwn in size so you leave some items behind not all, also most death sacks cant be opened, making it impossible to re-obtain any items.
Okay, so I am extremely confused about 90% of the crafting system. I don't know how to make a jeweler[found one in a random wizard house], I don't know how to make a mana jewel, when I hit U on items to look at what they craft into, 90% of the time it just shows items I've either already made, or are the starting stuff. The game doesn't even show you the BOW RECIPE, using sticks and string, UNTIL YOU MAKE IT! Studying is literally worthless. I thought it would at the least show items that it crafts into. Nope. Just shows value and all the base stats the player ALREADY KNOWS. There is no way to know what things are without breaking them. I died to lava one time because there was just nothing telling me it WAS LAVA! Honetly the game is too minimalistic and explains absolutely nothing to the player about what the items they have even do
Another issue the game has: you can only open chests that you, the player, have placed. This makes dungeons USELESS except to kill golems for spells. Oh and that's another issue. If you accidentally shoot a chest that you placed with a fireball? It permanently deletes EVERYTHING in the chest. The game is completely chance based, extremely unfair, and ridiculously difficult for no apparent reason other than "Haha, you ded lol git good skrub"
Okay, so I found a recipe page for the Crafting tome, and that makes the game INSANELY easier and more balanced. I'd honestly suggest having that recipe be automatic[also, there should be something that prevents duplicate recipes from base unlocked ones]. And for people who are looking into this game, to make the crafting book, you take a Study Book[8 paper+2 treated leather], 20 paper, and I believe 8 more treated leather. Then, based on level, you can simply right click items and learn connected recipes. It won't always work[dunno why, cause I have material items, and have the level, but it just refuses to work on random items]. Also, a tip to people: HUNT DOWN BAGS AND LOOT THEM!!!!! They can contain EXTREMELY strong and useful items, such as a very powerful pickaxe, good weapons, armor, rare ingredients, etc. They spawn randomly in villages and other areas. Also, best way to find Iron is slime spawners. They are completely random, but they will always have a single iron ore directly up and to the left of the spawner. Also, spider spawners are useful for gathering spidersilk, which is good for bowcarfting
Another helpful tip-- if you dig through enough of the mines, treasure and items get dug up. Spend enough time doing this and you'll indubitably find a map. This gives you a top-down look at each 'room' you're in. Normally $500 from an NPC or $1000 if you find a magical one.
Oh I know. I managed to get lucky wandering on the surface to find a wizard NPC selling both a magic wand and a return jewel. made a book, got mana, and bam. had a wonderful time. started doing dungeon dives after I managed to find an opal rapier[stupidly good weapon btw early game], and after that, well, I managed to find an npc selling an Omnibench 5000. Farmed up money, bought it, and then went demon hunting in dungeons to make demon metal equips[it is STUPIDLY easy to do that btw, like seriously!]. Before I stopped playing, I had started simply wandering aimlessly on the surface, opening map every tile hoping to find more blood crystals in order to make the highest tier drill. already got every spell, max mana, but I can't cast the higher tier time skips, they just crash. Oh, I also got enough shop price lowering acc's to make it so I can infinitely loop for infinite money
dumb question but is there a way to turn off/down the sound effects? it's really loud on my computer and drowns out anything else I try to play in the background
I ended up going into sound settings on my computer and just turning down the whole app. which worked just fine! Just a shame the SFX don't have sound adjustments in the game
Is there any way to move your spawn position? It's a pain to keep walking to the house I made. Also, how exactly do you make a bottle? I assume I need sand, but that's not been easy to find.
im actually not sure, but there might be an item that can teleport you home. for sand, explore a bunch and you'll find a desert area eventually. Good luck!
Thanks for the reply about my issues. I'm back to playing, again! Really a great game you've got fleshed out here. A few improvements to the control/crafting explanations and this will be even better. Have a good one, Benjamin.
thanks! it looks like you have to hold the wasd button down to attack them, pressing it repeatedly doesn't work. If the sound is off it's not clear anything is happening
Just tried to run the game. When I tried to shut it down my mouse cursor disappeared and the game's music kept playing but game screen was gone. After holding down C/A/D for a few seconds I was able to bring up task manager and a High Level Norton Alert had apparently caught a high level virus from the game and uninstalled the file. The virus looked to have the word "hijack" in it's name. Seems a little sketchy. I've occasionally had games from itch be flagged for trying to access input.inf, but nothing where the computer froze up and Norton giving me a high level virus alert. Any idea what would cause it? The game looks like something right up my alley but what happened has left me a bit concerned. Thanks.
Antivirus software, especially when not bundled with your operating system (such as Windows Defender) is notorious for false positives. If you want some assurance that my game isn't a virus, the fact that there are other commenters here, who have apparently enjoyed the game, can probably give you some indication that the game is not, in fact, a virus. If you want more proof than that, I'm afraid I can't help you. Honestly, these days, having extra anti virus software on Windows isn't worth it. Windows Defender does a good enough job. Just my opinion, though.
It happens all the time. I even re-downloaded it and had the same problem on the new download. Thanks for responding! Also, how do you make the game full screen? Alt+Enter doesn't work and there doesn't seem to be an option for full screen. Thanks!
It's actually F5. But, its great to have it in full-screen! How do I break down bushes into sticks? I can sort of read the Guide if I go into the Save file and peruse guide.ini However, I've tried interacting with bushes and trees with everything I can think of and I don't get any sticks. Thanks!
Sorry, I should also add that the crash only happens after I open the guide by hitting 'C'. If I select any topic in the guide it crashes. I can open and close the guide fine. But, when I click on a topic in the guide, it crashes.
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playing control is bad for me.
you might need a pinch of cdda
hey buddy boy, a good looking Game (You):, have got Here., love The World, looks like You can kind of crack into It, hope to see Taller buildings, too, as well, such as every floor showing the character, and larger towering shadows, something simple
this game design is..... not too good.... it doesnt feel like anything has limitations because of the open sandbox nature, for example, if you die next to a spider nest, and go back, you will endlessly die to the endless ammount of spiders, it doesnt feel like theres anything i could do at that point, if i grind back all my gear and fail to survive the endless spiders when getting my gear back, i might just die there again. and lets say i just happen to kill a villager, it doesnt feel like theres any way to bring em back, atleast its not in the guide that is supposed to tell me all the vital info about villages, if gaining new members isnt escential enough then ill just take a guess that it isnt possible. with these obvious game oversights out of the way, i really like the game! i like the approach to a top down RPG that is easier to understand, like a minecraft format of RPG but alot more.. stuff! i think it could be less repetitive (adding challenge enemies that have various teirs, dropping early to late game loot, like a king slime that has a 1/70 chance to spawn when a slime spawns after a certain challenge artifact is used, and once killed, will disable the spawn chance until another artifact is used, this would be good for players that would rather battle than mine, and would be a good alternative to it) and it could definitely be less frustrating, i never liked games with this kind of "challenging" design, feels like everything kinda just screws up the flow of the game instead of actually feeling challenging (like the spider nest incident i talked about) , since the combat feels up to luck (whoever randomly lands more hits or does more critical hits) it starts to feel less like cuphead-type challenging and more just like casino game type challenging, its more enforced when you realize that gambling is an escential part to making the game flow better when something like the spider incident happens (the devil).
bottom line: i really like the game but the design feels repetitive, artificially challenging and flawed.
I agree the game is not well designed. it was a very early project and I had a lot less experience with design things like balance, accessibility, intuitive mechanics, and just generally user experience. that’s why it’s up here for free!
if you’d like to see a similar concept being executed in a (hopefully) much better way, check out my project Demon Island
looks cooler already, cant wait for it to come out!
idk if that’s even possible to be honest… Erth was made in good ol GameMaker 8, which may not support linux builds. if you’re up for it you can grab the source code (link in the desc) and gamemaker 8 and give it a shot!
sweet! good luck! and if you do manage to get it working, feel free to post a link in a comment to the build and i’ll add it to the page.
oh crap. yeah i mustve uploaded my broken gamemaker studio port instead of the original GM8 source. ill try to find the GM8 version
okay, i think i uploaded the right source this time. lmk if u run into any more issues
iirc, the game runs just fine on the Wine compatibility layer
NICE game
This is a pretty fun game! Since it's not in active development, would you be willing to release the source code/files?
that’s a good idea, i’ll probably do that although idk how many people want to comb through terrible gamemaker 8 scripts lol
What do ya think about, aside from releasing the source code, also opening a donate link? I know that it's something on itch.io, but, if you do release the source code on a platform like, say, github, it'd be nice to drop a "buy me coffee" or "buy me a beer" link. Hell, maybe that could help ya with your current project.
hey, that’s a good idea! i’ll make a kofi real quick :)
Sweet!
You probably have very good eyesight or a very small monitor, play a game that takes up a quarter of the screen and does not scale to fit the monitor, as you do not want to, especially considering that it is not at all difficult to do technically, for example, put the camera in front of the main window and change the scale.
In short, think more about the players.
hey dude i made this in gamemaker 8 when i was like 16 yrs old idk what to tell u ¯_(ツ)_/¯
you should continue the game :/ It has a lot of potential
while im not continuing development on this project, i am currently working on what you could consider its spiritual successor: Demon Island. Demon Island will take a lot of the ideas i thought worked well in Erth and refine them. check it out!
I will thank you * - *
"This is an old, abandoned project, so don't expect it to be very polished, balanced, or stable. It will not be receiving any updates or development."
Yeah riiiiiight... "Updated 12 hours ago"
lol it’s been dead for ages, I made this in highschool. finally realized I should probably make that clear
I have a few enchanted leather backpacks and for some reason all of them seem to be merged so I only get the storage space of one of then, is there any way to de-equip bags so I can try de-equipping and re-equipping them to see if that helps or do you know how to fix the issue
never mind, the issue went away and also the items i put in doubled which is nice
what does the active time dial do?
is there a way to de-equip bags/backpacks
is there a wiki for this game?
is this game getting updates now? Because if so, would it be possible to add an option to double the size of the window in options? The window is a bit small and hard for me to see and zooming in with computer settings causes an error and you have to abort the game.
you can fullscreen the game with F5
thank you for the help, it works perfectly
hi uh i want to play this game but every time i try to get in its justa a error page containing a error message like the one below please tell me how to fix this
I was getting into it when suddenly:
ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object Init:
Error directory does not exist when opening ini file - C:\WINDOWS\system32\Save\global.ini
and now it shows a bunch of error messages upon startup
please fix!
Hey, so I've encountered a few issues. Some have been mentioned before-- chests in dungeons can't be opened, only destroyed. I'm also having this happen sometimes with loot bags---- including, unfortunately, the ones that have all my gear when i respawn, after a tie or win against the devil.
Other than that, the most common thing i'm encountering is crafting/creation errors. I have the ingredients and workplaces for items, then am unable to build them. I have never been able to learn spells from the spell pages, despite having a wand and spellbook equipt. I'm not able to make Divine strings or whatever they're called, which is literally just clouds and either: string, or spider silk (I tried both). I'm also getting deeper into the mines and here's my biggest issue--- I could play without any magic items working (as I have been), but to get the more precious metals, you need a hard enough tool. I have iron, copper, titanium... the list goes on. But the highest level metal tools I am able to craft are made of tin. What's up with that?
Can anybody help me?
(P.S. I have a Crafting Book, Magnifying Glass, and Study Book, so it's not like I'm not trying to up my research stats, if that's a factor in what I can craft. I have 240+ recipes)
Nice idea but geesh, way too complicated, a wall for building a pickaxe? really? And the crafting book is not well made. I have no clue what to search for. Crafting in general is not intuitive.
cant open most sacks, esepcialy in combined structure/towns i could open the first bag but then was ganged up on and died, i cant open my death sack (nothing happens when pressing w a s d from any angle). also you dont drop armor on death?
when dieing death sacks are cut doiwn in size so you leave some items behind not all, also most death sacks cant be opened, making it impossible to re-obtain any items.
For me it was unplayable due to different errors and crashes, couldn't get past 5 minutes of playtime.
One of the erros was when trying to create the very first world:
"ERROR in
action number 6
of Step Event
for object Control:
File is not opened for reading.".
I tried ignoring it, the game crashed.
2nd try: Got to create a world succesfully, but when trying to access any of the guides, the game crashes and I have to reload.
Make sure you are running it out of a user directory, like in Downloads or Documents. If that doesn't work, try running it with admin privileges.
No luck, sadly. Earlier it was indeed on the downloads folder, but now I unpacked it to a folder directly on main C drive.
The first screenshot is without admin privileges, and the second one with admin privileges, it didnt seem to make any difference.
I'm on x64, Windows 8, if that helps.
oof yeah windows 8... try compatibility mode? can't really help beyond that, windows 8 is a terrible operating system, good luck
Okay, so I am extremely confused about 90% of the crafting system. I don't know how to make a jeweler[found one in a random wizard house], I don't know how to make a mana jewel, when I hit U on items to look at what they craft into, 90% of the time it just shows items I've either already made, or are the starting stuff. The game doesn't even show you the BOW RECIPE, using sticks and string, UNTIL YOU MAKE IT! Studying is literally worthless. I thought it would at the least show items that it crafts into. Nope. Just shows value and all the base stats the player ALREADY KNOWS. There is no way to know what things are without breaking them. I died to lava one time because there was just nothing telling me it WAS LAVA! Honetly the game is too minimalistic and explains absolutely nothing to the player about what the items they have even do
Another issue the game has: you can only open chests that you, the player, have placed. This makes dungeons USELESS except to kill golems for spells. Oh and that's another issue. If you accidentally shoot a chest that you placed with a fireball? It permanently deletes EVERYTHING in the chest. The game is completely chance based, extremely unfair, and ridiculously difficult for no apparent reason other than "Haha, you ded lol git good skrub"
yeah that's a totally fair critique and i agree with 100% of what you've written
im sorry you had a bad experience, i really have no excuses
Okay, so I found a recipe page for the Crafting tome, and that makes the game INSANELY easier and more balanced. I'd honestly suggest having that recipe be automatic[also, there should be something that prevents duplicate recipes from base unlocked ones]. And for people who are looking into this game, to make the crafting book, you take a Study Book[8 paper+2 treated leather], 20 paper, and I believe 8 more treated leather. Then, based on level, you can simply right click items and learn connected recipes. It won't always work[dunno why, cause I have material items, and have the level, but it just refuses to work on random items]. Also, a tip to people: HUNT DOWN BAGS AND LOOT THEM!!!!! They can contain EXTREMELY strong and useful items, such as a very powerful pickaxe, good weapons, armor, rare ingredients, etc. They spawn randomly in villages and other areas. Also, best way to find Iron is slime spawners. They are completely random, but they will always have a single iron ore directly up and to the left of the spawner. Also, spider spawners are useful for gathering spidersilk, which is good for bowcarfting
Another helpful tip-- if you dig through enough of the mines, treasure and items get dug up. Spend enough time doing this and you'll indubitably find a map. This gives you a top-down look at each 'room' you're in. Normally $500 from an NPC or $1000 if you find a magical one.
Oh I know. I managed to get lucky wandering on the surface to find a wizard NPC selling both a magic wand and a return jewel. made a book, got mana, and bam. had a wonderful time. started doing dungeon dives after I managed to find an opal rapier[stupidly good weapon btw early game], and after that, well, I managed to find an npc selling an Omnibench 5000. Farmed up money, bought it, and then went demon hunting in dungeons to make demon metal equips[it is STUPIDLY easy to do that btw, like seriously!]. Before I stopped playing, I had started simply wandering aimlessly on the surface, opening map every tile hoping to find more blood crystals in order to make the highest tier drill. already got every spell, max mana, but I can't cast the higher tier time skips, they just crash. Oh, I also got enough shop price lowering acc's to make it so I can infinitely loop for infinite money
dumb question but is there a way to turn off/down the sound effects? it's really loud on my computer and drowns out anything else I try to play in the background
I ended up going into sound settings on my computer and just turning down the whole app. which worked just fine! Just a shame the SFX don't have sound adjustments in the game
Cool game! a bit rough around the edges but pretty fun
Hey, I got this error, not sure if it means anything to you or if it's BAD or safe to ignore or not.
___________________________________________
ERROR in
action number 8
of Step Event
for object Control:
Trying to use non-existing surface.
if im gonna be totally honest i have no idea. ignore it and see what happens! i take no responsibility for the safety of your save file, though.
Is there a way to see a zoomed out version of the map?
im pretty sure there is a map item you can find
Ah, thank you, alright!
How exactly do you craft an Axe? I can't craft it with wood nor stone...
You need four wood wall / cobblestone wall to make an axe.
Is there any way to move your spawn position? It's a pain to keep walking to the house I made.
Also, how exactly do you make a bottle? I assume I need sand, but that's not been easy to find.
im actually not sure, but there might be an item that can teleport you home. for sand, explore a bunch and you'll find a desert area eventually. Good luck!
Is there any possibility that a linux version will come out?
probably not, sorry!
How do I pick up objects that I've placed down already? Doesn't seem to be possible to pick them back up...
Also, I'm not finding any crafts to make tools...I've got sticks, logs, and a workbench, but no tool recipes are available.
You need to make wooden walls to make wooden tools. Very intuitive, I know :)
You should be able to break placed items like the workbench with a hammer.
Thanks for the reply about my issues. I'm back to playing, again! Really a great game you've got fleshed out here. A few improvements to the control/crafting explanations and this will be even better. Have a good one, Benjamin.
dumb question, but what to the 'bushes' I'm supposed to hit for sticks look like? I never found any
Definitely not a stupid question! These are bushes:
You have to leave the starting village to break them.
thanks! it looks like you have to hold the wasd button down to attack them, pressing it repeatedly doesn't work. If the sound is off it's not clear anything is happening
Just tried to run the game. When I tried to shut it down my mouse cursor disappeared and the game's music kept playing but game screen was gone. After holding down C/A/D for a few seconds I was able to bring up task manager and a High Level Norton Alert had apparently caught a high level virus from the game and uninstalled the file. The virus looked to have the word "hijack" in it's name. Seems a little sketchy. I've occasionally had games from itch be flagged for trying to access input.inf, but nothing where the computer froze up and Norton giving me a high level virus alert. Any idea what would cause it? The game looks like something right up my alley but what happened has left me a bit concerned. Thanks.
Antivirus software, especially when not bundled with your operating system (such as Windows Defender) is notorious for false positives. If you want some assurance that my game isn't a virus, the fact that there are other commenters here, who have apparently enjoyed the game, can probably give you some indication that the game is not, in fact, a virus. If you want more proof than that, I'm afraid I can't help you. Honestly, these days, having extra anti virus software on Windows isn't worth it. Windows Defender does a good enough job. Just my opinion, though.
Please, make android version.
The game keeps crashing on me. The game errors log reads:
ERROR in
action number 16
of Step Event
for object Control:
Error in code at line 3:
if biome_lighting[area_biome]="normal" then light_daynight()
^
at position 32: Cannot compare arguments.
ERROR in
action number 16
of Step Event
for object Control:
Error in code at line 3:
if biome_lighting[area_biome]="normal" then light_daynight()
^
at position 32: Cannot compare arguments.
does that happen all the time or just for one world save?
It happens all the time. I even re-downloaded it and had the same problem on the new download. Thanks for responding! Also, how do you make the game full screen? Alt+Enter doesn't work and there doesn't seem to be an option for full screen. Thanks!
F11 I believe
It's actually F5. But, its great to have it in full-screen! How do I break down bushes into sticks? I can sort of read the Guide if I go into the Save file and peruse guide.ini However, I've tried interacting with bushes and trees with everything I can think of and I don't get any sticks. Thanks!
did you leave the starting village?
Sorry, I should also add that the crash only happens after I open the guide by hitting 'C'. If I select any topic in the guide it crashes. I can open and close the guide fine. But, when I click on a topic in the guide, it crashes.
How would I put the game in fullscreen? thanks
Hitting F5 worked for me.
I guess you lost the letter :d
Btw, game is looking realy nice, good job
Really obscure and underated game, good work.
Thanks for the comment, Wheat Thins!