Before I get started, I would just like to say I know, I know. "Hey bulldozer, what's holding up Felix The Cat 2? Are you EVER going to get back to work on it?"

FTC2 will resume active development as soon as possible. SO QUIT SPAMMING MY INBOX ABOUT IT! My goodness...

----- WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS! -----

We know you love Ib, Mad Father, The Witches House, and Misao, but since Bella's Mansion has been rated T 15 for ages 15 and up, be sure to get your parents permission BEFORE you play it!

I know many people have played and loved the RPG Maker survival horror games ( such as Ib, Mad Father, The Witches House, ETC ), much like myself. In fact, I loved them so much, I decided to throw a new game into the mix: Bella's Mansion.

But let me tell you, it was no walk in the park by any means.

Even though I was already very familiar with RPG Maker 2003 ( I had used it pretty much since RPG Maker VX launched ), I had NO IDEA how to go about doing a survival horror game in the same style as Ib. So I had to experiment with many of the software's functions in order to figure out how to do what and when.

One of the most challenging things for me was using the "Common Events". I had never before tried to use them, so this was a learning experience for me. But since I couldn't use the in-game pause menu, I needed some way to display how much health you had left. Common Events play a pretty big role in this game, since they are responsible for displaying your health meter in the upper-left corner ( which was inspired by Resident Evil, GO FIGURE ).

During development, I managed to add two things we probably have NEVER seen before in an RPG Maker survival horror game: A difficulty select feature, and using the faces you see in the file select screen to display various information, rather then just your characters portrait. The first party member slot shows what difficulty mode your on, the second slot shows what floor you last saved on, the third slot shows how many small keys you have, and the last one shows which colored keys you have. I was able to name these three slots accordingly using the database, so I wasn't stuck stumbling around trying to remember which was which and did what.

The difficulty select was actually pretty easy to do. And let me tell you, it DOES get harder depending on which mode you picked. EASY mode is, well, easy, NORMAL mode has almost twice as many monsters running around ( even in places they were never seen before on EASY mode, such as the 2F of the Entrance Hall ), and HARD mode... oh boy... has almost THREE TIMES as many monsters as EASY mode, and REMOVES all the usual save points! The game asks you if you want to save after several of the in-game cut-scenes, but if your playing on HARD mode, these are the only saves you get! And on top of the fact you got more enemies to worry about, this is enough to drive ANYBODY bonkers! At least you get to see something really cool when you finish the game on HARD mode...

The sprites of Bella and Super were a bit difficult. But luckily, I managed to find a base on deviantART which I used to make Bella and Super's sprites, making the job much easier. If ever your in doubt about making sprites, go to deviantART. They got you covered.

Most of the music and sound effects were taking from Freesound, which was alright, since I managed to find an online audio converter to change their file type to meet RPG Maker 2003's requirements.

I had to use an online converter to change the file type of the videos that contained the credits as well. And there being two sets of credits ( one for the EASY and NORMAL mode ending, and one for the HARD mode ending ) didn't help matters at all. But then again, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

In the end, I loved making this great game, and I do hope it will live up to the standards of other games such as Ib, Mad Father, and The Witches House. Although it kind of got on my nerves for a while, I had a lot of fun. And I bet Bella had a lot of fun with it to. And yes, Bella is somebody I know in real life, but since I wanted to make something special for Halloween, and I needed a main character for the game, I decided to have her be the main character ( which made her very happy ). If you would like to speak with her, look up Bella16900 on ROBLOX ( that's her in all her glory ). Just try not to plug her with TO MANY questions. She gets annoyed easily.

The game is now finished, and is ready for download. So if you love RPG Maker games, survival horror games, or, well, BOTH, go download it and enjoy the bulldozer out of it! Links to everything are on my profile.

Well, it's getting late, and I have to get back to work on Felix The Cat 2 ( good gravy, people want that game SO BAD! ). Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the game!

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bulldozerman185 : I don't know much about what you're talking about other than what you pointed out, but these games sound cool enough. Therefore, I feel like you should be congratulated.