Post by seeker69 in Introduce Yourself Here

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Hi just joined the jam - really late :(

I'm remastering a game I wrote using the Quill and Illustrator back in 1984 - The Sorceror of Soromere - I wrote on my ZX Spectrum when I was 15 years old (now 50). I recently found the original hand draw game map between the pages of a book which prompted me to re-develop the game as a remastered version for my 50 th year.
I had just finished a version using Quest but then I came across Adventuron and the CaveJam and I had to enter - there are over 30 locations across 7 main areas each with mini objectives. I haven't got time to recreate the graphics as 8bit so I'm using my pen an ink style illustrations resized to (240x120) - the quality is still pretty good. I hope I still qualify :) fingers crossed I make it for the deadline - if not, it will be available to play on itch.io soon after.

8bitAG4 years ago(+1)

Do you still have a copy of the original Quilled version? I presume it was never released?

seeker694 years ago

No lost the copy many years ago.

8bitAG4 years ago

Ah, that's a shame. I'm very interested in homegrown games from the 80s and 90s, particularly Quilled and PAWed ones.

seeker694 years ago

I hear you. I still have some mate that talk about the original game. Back in the days when it was very impressive to have made your own game. I even had a hand drawn cassette cover photo copied to give tapes out to my friends haha

8bitAG4 years ago

Well, maybe a copy will turn up one day, then, if you handed out a few. I love homegrown text adventures, their amateur packaging, and the stories behind them. I'm hoping to get a second book written about them at some point.

seeker694 years ago

Sounds great. I share your passion. Happy to contribute to your next book. I have a story of two about the old days. I still have a zx81 and speccy... both dead I'm afraid... plus The quill and illustrator.

8bitAG4 years ago

Well, there are plenty of people out there that can help you coax those back to life. :)

seeker694 years ago

my home office display cabinet...

seeker694 years ago

I'm looking for an ace adventuron game creator to build and launch the game with me. I have all illustrations, mission soundtracks, game walkthrough of all puzzles, etc. Forgive me for being cheeky but would you be interested in breathing life into this with me?

Garry Francis4 years ago

I'm not an Adventuron ace, but learning more every day. I might be interested, but probably not until after the Halloween jam.

seeker694 years ago

sounds good Garry. Msg me when the Halloween jam is over mate and we can get on a Skype call or something. Good luck

Garry Francis4 years ago

As we both live in Sydney, we might be able to meet up. I work at Strawberry Hills (about 10 minutes from Central Station). Where abouts are you?

seeker694 years ago

I'm out south west in Camden Gary. However I work in the CBD around Martin Place. Let's meet up after the jam for defo. Works for me as I have friends from overseas until end of October anyway. Is there a way to PM me with your contact details?

Garry Francis4 years ago

There doesn't seem to be a way to do that on itch.io. I'm on CASA and Facebook, but perhaps send an email to warrigal 24 at gmail dot com. We can meet up somewhere in the ciy after work one day.

8bitAG4 years ago

I have too many adventure game projects of my own to finish without starting one for somebody else. I've programmed three games for other people this past year and I really need to stop using that as an excuse. :)

seeker694 years ago

no worries... I understand how taking on too many projects can be overwhelming.

8bitAG4 years ago

Oh, it's not overwhelming. It's just too easy to do. :) I just want to get a couple more of my own projects finished.

seeker694 years ago

Got it. Manage your work in progress limits :)

Adventuron4 years ago

The hand-drawn art is seriously excellent. I absolutely love the map. Are you a professional illustrator/artist by trade?

Also, do you have the original illustrator screenshots at hand. And has the game evolved since 1984, or it's a straight port (with updated presentation)?

seeker694 years ago

the game has evolved... a bit more of a storyline and slightly different and better puzzles... not to mention the new illustrations which have come a long way from the original illustrator pixel line art haha

Garry Francis4 years ago

Very nice graphics, but isn't this way outside the scope of the rules? Room graphics must by 256 by 80 pixels or 128 by 40 pixels. The lake shore, forest path, cave entrance and treasure room must be included. I don't think you can just enter any old game. It must be based on the skeleton provided.

Adventuron4 years ago

The rules are:

"Each location requires a graphic, even a bad graphic. Location graphics are suggested to be 128 x 40 pixels, or 256 x 80 pixels, or whatever resolution you prefer if not using pixel art style graphics. Pixel art style is strongly recommended for this jam but this style suggestion is optional. The original graphic assets should not be used. The game requires a loading screen. The loading screen resolution is up to the author (256 x 192 is recommended if using pixel art style)."
"The game must contain the forest, outside cave, the lake, and the treasure room locations. Location descriptions can be altered."

There is no rule for not re-using existing material.

Any entry that doesn't adhere to the rules is technically not eligible to enter the competition, but looking at the map, there appears to be a forest, a lake, outside of a cave, not sure about a treasure room.

It may be that you are devaluing buzz for your own game by entering it in such a competition, but feel free to use the forum of this jam, even if you decide not to enter it in the jam, and instead just release it separately?

You are super welcome though, and really excited to see what you can do with Adventuron, and your experiences / frustration with it too.

seeker694 years ago (1 edit)

I hear you Gary. I thought the same. So I resized the images. The location images I attached to my post are 240x180... I could make them smaller. The game has a forest, a cave, a lake and a place you must bring all of your treasure... plus a little more.

Maybe I should just release it instead of entering the jam. Thoughts everyone?

Garry Francis4 years ago

On re-reading the rules, it does now say "or whatever resolution you prefer if not using pixel art style graphics", so I think you'll be okay. Mind you, the compiled html file will be huge after the images are converted to base64.

Adventuron4 years ago

You don't necessarily need to base64 graphics. You can reference an external file. I'll put this in the cookbook tonight ...

Essentially it's like this

graphics {
  // The png file will be read from the same path as the game html file
   blah : png "mypngfile.png";
}

The catch is that it's not possible to test it (currently) using relative paths in the web based editor. You need to compile it and run it from the same base folder as the assets to see the images in-game. When you upload to itch, you can upload a zipfile containing your html and all assets, and it will just work. This can be a nice approach for games with larger files, or with a lot of mp3 sound files.

Garry Francis4 years ago

Ooh, that's good to know. I was thinking about including an original Adventuron adventure as an Easter egg in a chm file. Having the images as separate files is more efficient for that.

seeker694 years ago

You're right about the file size and editor response - however, I was in contact with Chris and it looks like I can use a relative URL to point to a file location so I don't have to ember the Base64 :-)