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General and Everything Else => The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff => Topic started by: ViolentValence on November 14, 2012, 07:34:50 PM
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Hey Cloudee, I submitted a demo for the SCI fangames section a couple weeks back, but it isn't yet showing among the others--should I make changes to make it better suited for the site?
I think the version I submitted had some audio issues (a channel would occasionally freeze when a new midi kicked in.) I'm resubmitting a version that partly fixes the issue.
Let me know if it needs tweaking (or scrapping.) Thanks!
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He'll get to it - probably the best way to get his attention is to send him a PM.
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Hopefully soon! I am always down for a demo!
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Lol, Doan you should be able to admin the games too! If not let me know and I'll see if I can't figure out why the portal link isn't showing up for you.
It's been a couple of days since I've checked in, sorry. And even longer since I checked for new games to approve. But the good news is that the game is now available for download. If you want, don't hesitate to start a new thread stating that you uploaded a game or like Gumby says, a pm, that will send me out looking and it will get approved much faster.
One thing I noticed, granted I didn't get very far at all before I died, but the timer that you've got set up with some of your print statements... you may want to make some of those last a tad longer. In some cases they timed out before I actually had a chance to read through it.
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ViolentValence.
Love the style of your game and the general idea! The art is cool and so is the music (at least so far!).
I know this is a demo, so let me give you some things to work on a bit. First, it is literally impossible for me to get out of bed. It says I need to be in an upright position to get the contacts. I cannot sit up and anytime I stand up, I die a horrible death on the cold floor.
After typing various commands for 5 min, I opened up the script to see what's up. It seems I must type "stand" to get up without dying, but when I do, the game gives me a "you've left me responsless" message. But maybe I am missing something?
Second thing is that I don't seem to have a cursor, which is really useful when button windows pop up.
Last thing, and this is all only on the first screen (which I haven't gotten out of yet), I would like to see added more things to look at. For instance, the game doesn't know what a pillow is...there seems to be very few things to actually look at.
EDIT - I just now noticed after I changed room 1's print commands to let me not die when I get up that I still die! Rm 1 moves to rm 80 after I awaken, and I am unable to edit that Rm script! So, I'm stuck at the first part of the game with nothing to look at, and no hints to go on. I'll play more when I can.
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it is literally impossible for me to get out of bed. It says I need to be in an upright position to get the contacts. I cannot sit up and anytime I stand up, I die a horrible death on the cold floor.
Sound like it came from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
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Hey! Thanks for the encouragement. I knew, putting it up, that it was skinny on non-essential 'look' commands, and helpful information for the player in general--that was just me trying to get something working.
You throw a clot trying to stand up from bed too quickly, so you need to 'stand up slowly' or 'get up slowly' ('slowly stand up' used to work, also, I think)--would saying that more explicitly in the death message help, do you think?
I had to use the invisible room switch because there's a timing element that works better that way--if you want to make rm80's changes stick you need to compile it individually. Man, I respect you going through the trouble to check the code for a solution.
The hypothermia is another in the long gag that this opening room is ironically the most perilous in the game--you need to do[a]n the slippers you stand up near. ('get, take' then 'wear')
Did you also notice print messages disappearing too soon? I couldn't find where that might be happening, but that may be because I'm running it out of dosBox.
Also, good call on the cursor--I still want it disabled for most of the game, but it does reappear for things like the income tax mini-game, so it should be easy to fix.
I can't wait to hear how frustrating you find the second+ rooms! :)
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Great! Now I can play some more! As far as making it more obvious in the death message I don't know. I have always been terrible at these games (but I just can't help loving them). I'd run it past some other play-testers to see whether or not they will get it. If they die too early in the game like that, they may be demotivated from playing though...just my thought.
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I have to give you credit: nobody ever uses adverbs. I died a couple of times in the demo before giving up and cracking open the source code. Adverbs typically do not work well in parser-based games, but I'm certainly glad to see someone using them. Great job in pushing the envelope!
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Thanks, sir--tho Im not sure it's pushing the envelope in the right direction, since it's such a ghetto rig (making 'slowly' a qualifying adjective in the vocab.) I was wondering if you guys might know why the midi support never worked in any of the games I would start from scratch, even after going through the midi0-->sndbox-->addresource route. I wound up having to butcher JummyBummy2 to get general midi playback. I had all the drivers and the sound resources I was making Im pretty certain were not the problem. Does the SCICompanion vs Studio make the difference (since that's the only thing I could pin down as different in JB2)?
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I'd think that you should be able to keep 'slowly' as an adverb, and use a Said() call like this:
(if(Said('stand<up<slowly'))
// do something
)
// or maybe...
(if(Said('stand<slowly<up'))
// do something
)
Not exactly sure of the order, except that stand should be on the left and the slowly should be somewhere on the right. Hey, but if it works to make it an adjective, then maybe it's best to leave it alone.
There shouldn't be any difference between using Companion vs Studio with regard to sound playback, though I'm not sure if the included sound drivers in each of their template games differ in any way. Which driver did you specify in the RESOURCE.CFG file?
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There is a sound driver in the JB2 game that is not included in either of the template games. The MPUMIDI.drv I think it's called. I would wager that that is the difference, a from scratch game does not include the file and JB2 does. I remember when Eigen posted the game, I was amazed to hear the sound coming out of my speakers. Before that I had already resigned myself to just making music for the internal speaker and thanks to that driver, everything changed.
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Does the SCICompanion vs Studio make the difference (since that's the only thing I could pin down as different in JB2)?
No, since sound editing is done in Soundbox for both. As Gumby indicated, the right sound driver (soundDrv=) needs to be set in the RESOURCE.CFG. The template game is set for just PC speaker (STD.DRV). Jummybummy 2 is set to Ravi's MPUMIDI.DRV. If you have no tracks set for your selected device when you made the SOUND resource in Soundbox, you will have no sound.
When creating the sound resource in Soundbox, you also need to set the new SOUND tracks set to the hardware device you intend. Look up MI's Soundbox tutorial in the Sound Utilities help file for more information on this.
For sound you will want to use GM.DRV (Ravi's General MIDI), ADL.DRV (AdLib), or MPUMIDI.DRV. CMS.DRV (Creative Music System) is not supported by DOSBox. MT32.DRV (Roland MT-32) could deliver the best sound, by far, but you would have to be able to create an MT-32 sound track and the player would have to have a real MT-32 module or the Munt Emulator for it to sound right. GM is probably the easiest one to get to sound right.
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Excellent--that did the trick. Now I won't be having to keep dissecting Eigen's baby to see how she works.
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After dying various times and ways and searching for different options of what to do I have come to some conclusions about your game (which I'm not sure I have gotten any actual puzzle points on yet!).
1. There should be some way for the player to anticipate dying. Opening a drawer and dying isn't quite right unless there is some possible way for the player to know it will happen. I know the game is supposed to be extra dangerous, but at some points it is just trial and error. I walk to a note and die? I try to walk out a room and die? This is too much!
2. There should be some objective for the player. I have no idea what I'm even supposed to be doing/looking for. What's the motivation for me to continue?
3. I continue to like the art style and mood of the game.
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Hey, sorry that I forgot to check back on the thread.
Actually, there's a good chance that the version you have doesn't have any earnable points, or any particular quests, or anything of substance, really.
There definitely needs to be more to jumpstart the plot--you do eventually have a purpose, but only after you've left for the department, and then taken your assignment--maybe it'll help make the hapless dying more tolerable?
btw, the drawer death has one subtle hint, if you're too far away when you type 'open/drawer'.
Hey, is Knight's Quest stalled? I'd love to play anything new that's been added.
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Glad to hear your comments, especially that there are no earnable points...I was beginning to feel very bad at the game! lol.
I am pretty much stuck. I think it has something to do with saying the tattoo word putting me on a timer, but maybe I'm missing something. btw, what is that instument in the corner. I cannot seem to interact with it at all.
As for knight's quest (aka Betrayed Alliance) I have been casually working on it lately and I'm guessing at some point "chapter one" of it will be playable. "Chapter one" sounds a little ambitious like there will be more, but it's longer than a demo, but doesn't follow the story to the end, so what else could I call it. I would say look for it around May (when I have my first child and likely will have very little time to work on it), but we all know by now how projects with dates never pan out... we'll see though
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Sounds pretty ambitious, and congrats on your new addition.
I dont know if youve already tried it, but youre meant to keep staving off the demon by repeating the tattoo periodically--resetting the timer. This was all a gift for my sister, so it's annoying by design.
And that's a cello in the corner, and it does nothing, which is why there probably isn't any response when you try to look/interact with it.