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My entry: The Solstice Sovereigns of the North

A topic by Natrium729 created Dec 19, 2020 Views: 139 Replies: 7
Viewing posts 1 to 3
Submitted (1 edit)

Picture from the game.

I just published my entry!

I think it could have been better (it can always be better, right?), but I’m happy I could finish it in time, and the illustrations turned out quite well for a non-artist like me!

If you find issues before the opening of the votes, I’ll try to correct them. (I don’t know if we’re allowed to update the game after that, though.)

Hope you’ll enjoy it!

Host

Congratulations. Finishing is a great achievement in itself.

I had a quick look at this and I feel it is very charming indeed. I really like the palette, and the aesthetic, and the weirdness,

Two small comments based on a very short play.

In the intro this sentence is very confusing:

"If you don't do what they won't by tomorrow, each night of the year will become the longest night of the year."

Secondly, I loved opening the trunk and the graphic changing, but after opening the trunk I felt like I wanted to close it again. It's really nothing, but I love interactivity where the graphic changes in front of the player, if it's not much work, maybe make it so the trunk can be closed again?

Submitted

Thanks!

For your first point: I guess it’s the “they” that’s confusing? The Sovereigns aren’t gendered (hence “sovereign” and not “king” or “queen”), so it’s a singular “they”, referring to the Summer Solstice Sovereign (that don’t want to awake the Winter one). But I understand how it can be confusing, especially since the sentence is quite vague (“do what they won’t”). I’ll try to reformulate.

For your second point: I thought about it, but Adventuron doesn’t seem to have containers, or at least they are not documented, so I would have to track everything myself (and a topic on intfiction.org implies it’s a pain) and I’m lazy.

What if the player closes the trunk without taking what’s inside? I’d have to destroy the contents a recreate it when the trunk is reopened.

What if the player takes the contents, drops it right away, then closes the trunk? I’d have to track if the contents were taken to know if I should destroy it.

And then if the player can open and close the trunk, then it’s possible they’ll try to put things inside it, and so on.

So I just decided to say “hey, no need to close it anymore, move along”, so that the player knows they’re done with the trunk and can now leave it alone.

Submitted

On the first point, I haven't played the game, so I don't know the context, but I think it should be either:

"If you don't do what they want by tomorrow, each night of the year will become the longest night of the year."

OR

"If you don't do what they won't do themselves by tomorrow, each night of the year will become the longest night of the year."

On the second point, there are various ways to handle this. For example, see the tin box in 'Seeker of Magic' for the simple approach. This is similar to what you are trying to achieve. (You will see some more sophisticated containers in 'Santa's Trainee Elf' once it's published.) Chris' point was that you should be able to close the trunk and update the graphic. For examples of this, see the various doors in 'The Witch's Apprentice'.

Submitted

The second sentence is what I mean. I’ll see how it goes in context. Thanks!

Chris’ point was that you should be able to close the trunk and update the graphic.

Yes, but as I said, I create a object when the trunk is opened, and if the player don’t take it and close the trunk, I’ll have to destroy the object I created when the trunk was opened (and recreate it when it’s opened again). And since players are players, one of them will assume that if you can freely close and open the trunk, you can also have other logical interactions, such as putting things inside, and so on.

However, if I say “You don’t need to close the trunk”, then I signal that the player is done with the trunk and can move to something else. It saves me some trouble. (Really, I don’t think now is the time to mess with containers.)

I agree it would be better if you could close the trunk and the graphic was updated (and that’s what I would’ve done with Inform), but I’ll just let it be.

Submitted (1 edit)

Congrats on finishing! I hope to get a chance to do a transcript today! ^_^


Edit: And my play-thru was pretty straightforward! If you want, I can give you a transcript.

Thank you for that game!

Submitted

Since you edited your message instead of writing a new one, I didn’t get notified, so I’m just noticing now that you have a transcript.

By the time I’ll have your answer, the voting period will likely have begun, but I’m still interested.

Thanks!

Submitted

ah! Sorry about that. I can still send you my transcripts. You can email me at errol@elumir.com