I liked this a lot. Great atmosphere, and the graphic style works wonders in the "Further in" location especially. But...I suspect there should be two endings? There's only one in the version that's up now.
Glad you did! Now, how can I convince you to add your earlier AGS games, too? ;-) As you now know, it's not a separate upload, but simply another way of directing players to your Itch page.
Oh, there is actually enough adventuring, by which I mean dialogue, items, characters and story progression. What I mean is that by having one or none interactable item/character in each location, the ratio tips in favour of walking around. Explorers and maze lovers may disagree, but I think the main drawback about your game is that I spent more time walking from place to place than solving puzzles or talking to characters. (Which are the fun parts, IMO.)
I asked about Twine (or any other text adventure engine) because it had that graphic text adventure feel that I grew up with, like Magnetic Scrolls, or even Infocom's plain text adventures. (And in those, movement could be very fast, and one item per place was no problem.) I myself like to use Twine as a planning tool, so I was just curious.
You ought to make it clear on the game page that the game is unfinished. I played to room three, where I was walking inside the walls and things were very clearly not done, but I had to see your reply to a question to get a confirmation that that was it. Anyway, a demo is acceptable as a jam entry, it's just nice to know what it is.
If you want a lot of banter, Monkey Island style, then you need to let the players click the text away, otherwise, waiting gets old fast. There also seems to be some glitching when you use some verbs, because they may stay on screen after an action, making mouseover useless until you have performed another action. That said, I like the initial idea of Gareth and the talking sword, and there are some funny lines in their dialogue. And, being an old git, I second umeboshilover's request for a larger font. Nothing worse than missing out on jokes, you know.
Please also add this to the AGS database over on the AGS forums.
You have made the right decision, IMO, on focusing on the content instead of spending time on walkcycles. Yep, Felix is just standing there, and it's an in-joke at times how lazy the art is. (I don't think it's lazy, just to have mentioned it.) But there are at least three funny descriptions of everything, and the game is full to the brim with dialogue, puzzles and jokes. It's a funny and long story. Well done!
I played this through to the end. Are there more than one ending?
What I liked: The story was interesting, and it felt like an introduction to a larger story. The tech involved could open up many storytelling opportunites. I also liked the art piece by piece, and the music was cool and laidback and a good fit for the story.
What I didn't like: The art styles doesn't match each other, somewhat breaking the immersion. This has to do with taste, and ok, I see the point of including both 2d and 3d. The main gripe for me was the controls. When walking, items and people are not highlighted, making me walking straight past people without stopping to talk to them. Also, breaking free from the handcuffs was a pixel hunt, with me clicking all over the screen when I couldn't see where the screwdriver had ended up. That scene is probably dark to set a mood, but for me, it just turned the game harder in the wrong way - not because of the puzzle, but because of not easily being able to do what I wanted to.
Conclusion: Fun game, delivers on story, more than puzzles. Could be expanded to a long story or sequels, which I would be happy to play. Keep creating!
I enjoyed playing this, despite the footsteps sounding like farts. It's one fetch quest after another, but it's okay to play easy games once in a while and just follow the story.
Some bugs: I accidentally won the game the first time I played by simply using the bed. I guess there should have been a trigger preventing me from doing that. The inventory items may stay in the inventory after giving them away.
Like Durinde said, the description box gives off the feeling of old-school text adventures. Perhaps you made a draft in Twine or similar before coding this? I don't mind the fetch quests, but I wish there could be a bit less walking and more adventuring. Don't be afraid to put more than one item or character in each location! This game absolutely has potential.
I encountered some buggy behavour when exiting screens in the wrong position. I could enter the temple instead of going to the temple entrance, for instance. And when walking south from my "ex", I ended up trapped to the left of the intended walkable area, with no way out.
I liked this a lot. The music and clothes in the opening scene gave me vibes of Asia (China or Japan?), but other things later felt more European. Anyway, the feel of a folk tale.
Others may well be able to commandeer the vehicle better than I did! :-) But I took the wrong turn and had to back up to turn around. I didn't have very good visibility for that, so I preferred to run around on foot until I knew where the passenger was, avoiding any more driving in reverse. Driving on the main road was easier, but I wasn't really sure I was going the right way until I found the stop site.
You can see the entire game map on the third screenshot on this page. The game is short, but fun to play. I can easily see the dev making this a series of short games using the same map.
I played the game through to the end. The bus was a bit hard to steer, so I jumped out and ran around until I found the passenger and knew where to drive. Pressing F teleported me back in the driver's seat! Because of the fast intro, I didn't know what the story was or who my passengers were. Inside the building it basically became a treasure hunt game. Luckily, I was not soft locked for finding items out of order, well done to you! When escaping the facility, I was told to find a passenger, but I found the ending of the game instead.
So, the atmosphere was recognizable, but I didn't understand the story. It's not really my type of game - I prefer puzzles to be solved instead of instructions to be followed - but it looks to me like you succeeded in making a treasure hunt in spooky surroundings.
I played the game through to the end. The bus was a bit hard to steer, so I jumped out and ran around until I found the passenger and knew where to drive. Pressing F teleported me back in the driver's seat! Because of the fast intro, I didn't know what the story was or who my passengers were. Inside the building it basically became a treasure hunt game. Luckily, I was not soft locked for finding items out of order, well done to you! When escaping the facility, I was told to find a passenger, but I found the ending of the game instead.
So, the atmosphere was recognizable, but I didn't understand the story. It's not really my type of game - I prefer puzzles to be solved instead of instructions to be followed - but it looks to me like you succeeded in making a treasure hunt in spooky surroundings.
I like the use of gray tones. It makes the hospital seem really creepy. The game froze during one conversation, otherwise I experienced no major problems. I cannot say too much about the story without spoiling, but it was fun to investigate and trick my way through the game. The 3d works well enough, but for me it just adds the trouble of where to click to make my character walk. I'm a story first kind of guy, but I guess 3d may help for immersion, especially for younger players.
I always look forward to playing your games. Polished to a beauty, with nothing to distract from the funny writing. The puzzles tend to always come in threes, but I don't mind, they are varied enough anyway. Great game! Let's see if this is the winner - it certainly could be!
I always look forward to playing your games. Polished to a beauty, with nothing to distract from the funny writing. The puzzles tend to always come in threes, but I don't mind, they are varied enough anyway. Great game!
This played like a classic game of "bring the correct item to the character in need of it", except everyone is running off all the time! Fun concept. I found that the best way to track down someone was to stand in the stairway, zoomed out, then "order" the interaction with the correct character. There are still a few bugs, like moonwalking or dialogue that indicates that you may repeat an already solved puzzle, but nothing major.
This played like a classic game of "bring the correct item to the character in need of it", except everyone is running off all the time! Fun concept. I found that the best way to track down someone was to stand in the stairway, zoomed out, then "order" the interaction with the correct character. There are still a few bugs, like moonwalking or dialogue that indicates that you may repeat an already solved puzzle, but nothing major.
This plays really smoothly! Congratulations on making an excellent platform game with Adventure Game Studio. Truly a feat!
The other side of the coin is that I suck at these games, so I will probably never see the end unless there is a secret cheat mode. (Or if I let my son play it.)
I played and finished the game, but there were so many items I didn't use that I worry that I may have taken some unintended shortcuts. Anyway, fun game, channeling Charlie Chaplin in The Dictator somewhat.
