Framed!

[Jhumjhum]

Hi everybody! Ã, 

I'd like to share my first game which is a full length game(22 playable rooms, 8 NPC characters).

Please have a look at it.

The story goes something like:
You play Jamie: a typical unemployed youth who's charged of murdering his girlfriend. You have to help Jamie escape from jail & prove his innocence. (I know it's not really original)

As far as I know there aren't any bugs.

The flipside
-----------
Since, this is my first game, don't expect much and please tell me how to improve. The BG music you may not like as I dinno where to get a better one. The player character walks awkwardly sometimes (like he's lame!) and also the drawings aren't very symmetrical. But please give it a try. I hope you find it enjoyable(at least a little bit).

Hope its not too difficult or too easy (I cant decide the level)
Download it from:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/cloveslave/Framed.zip

(Hope the download's not slow) It's 5.37 mb.
I hope I haven't violated any copyright thingy.
Dying to hear from you


EDIT:
For anyone who's still interested: The above link's outdated. (Sorry for sleeping so long)The updated one is: http://jhumjhum2004.tripod.com/Framed.zip

Home Page: http://jhumjhum2004.tripod.com

The walkthrough's available at:
http://jhumjhum2004.tripod.com/Solution.txt

Have a good day!


---
Dear friends who have taken part in my survey to rate "Framed"

I'm thankful to all of you who have participated in the survey. I will try to follow your opinions as guidelines for future games. The survey will be available at the following link till the time my next game is ready.

http://www.geocities.com/jhum90

[Peter Thomas]

For a first game, it's darn good effort!!

22 screens is longer than a lot of third-or-fourth-effort games, and (imho) it makes the game more.... diverse (that's not quite the right word...I've got a mental blank).

My ONE comment (simply for the fact that it's unfair to critisize a first attempt too much) would be to spend more time on the Quality of each room, as opposed to the Number of rooms.  I know it's hard to try and condense a game with a plot you've already planned out etc, but people will nearly ALWAYS care more about graphics as opposed to the DIVERSITY of graphics. Maybe 12 screens with some kick-ass graphics would get a better response...

But then we're not all Rembrant are we... (like I can talk )

[Jhumjhum]

Hi!

Thaknks for trying out my game!

To tell you the truth, even I wasn't really happy the drawings I did. The lines kept getting non-symmetrical , non-straight & stuff. Then, there's this area where there shouldn't be a slope, but it looks like there is.
I'll try to improve on 'em. Hope you'll like the graphics of my next game better.
Thanks again for trying out and replying to my post!  

[Larien]

You've got a really good game here.  
Don't worry about your artwork.  I've seen much worse, believe me.  As a fellow AGSer (I believe this was Dmitri) once said, "We're not art critics, we're game players."  Your drawings will improve with time but the point is they will improve.  Just keep drawing.
I think the reason you haven't had a huge response is that most people want to play the whole game before saying anything--and this is a longer game.  So don't worry about it.  
This is a very good first game and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do in the future.  Just have fun with whatever that is.  

[Nostradamus]

OK I need some help:

Spoiler

Can't get the note off the tree.. I've been in the gf's building - talked to the neighbour but both the landlord's and the gf's doors are locked

[close]

[Larien]

Nostradamus:

Spoiler

Go to the park and use the fishing rod on Jamie.

[close]

There's also an ever-growing help thread over in hints if you get further along and need it.  

[Jhumjhum]

Larien, thanks for your encouraging words so much.

Thank u Nostradamus for trying my game! You know, when I was thinking of the puzzles of the game, I thought it had become too easy, so I added a few extra things you have to do to make it more difficult.  

A few may even be illogical. Please play on! And vote for the game in the Games section.

[HillBilly]

Why couldn't jamie reach the key if he could reach the guard's string?
[/picky bastard]

Oh yeah, nice game too. I can't actully say something that hasn't been said.

[Jhumjhum]

Why couldn't jamie reach the key if he could reach the guard's string?

To make things difficult for the player!  

[InCreator]

Actually, background music is the thing I like most. Did you compose it by yourself?
Graphics-- er-- isn't bad for a first game, and is way ahead of many other "my-mspaint-drawn-first-game"s.
Of course, never-ever use standard GUIs and cursors-sprites, this was the worst thing about game at all.

There's a long way to go and since you were able to finish *This* game, I'm sure there'll be lots of them coming. Keep up the good work!  

[IntentInsane]

I like the graphics they're really stylised and totally old-skool, really vibrant colours! But, I can't get out of the cell! :'(

[Jhumjhum]

InCreator :

Umm...no I didn't compose the music myself.
I (ahem) 'borrowed' it from a Hindi TV series.

Did you find my graphics unsymmetrical? I was having a really hard time drawing the lines & worse was placing a furniture like a cabinet inside.

I was trying to avoid a bit of scripting by keeping the cursors & icons same. Though I made them reddish.

Thanks for all your comments. I guess I'll have to do something about the inventory in my next game.  

IntentInsane:

In which point are you stuck? I mean, what items have you got?

Spoiler

Did you talk to the opened panel? There is a loose brick in the back wall, which opens when you use something on it.

[close]

[IntentInsane]

I've got the

Spoiler

Long rope, is that what you use?

[close]

[Jhumjhum]

First you:

Spoiler

Use the iron bar with the loose brick to open a panel

[close]

Second:

Spoiler

Talk & interact with the panel.

[close]

Third:

Spoiler

Drug the cop's coffee with the sleeping powder

[close]

Fourth:

Spoiler

you combine the long rope thingy with the magnet, then with the bar. Get a magnetic fishing rod.

[close]

To leave the cell after the door is unlocked:

Spoiler

Interact with cop to get his ID

[close]

[IntentInsane]

Where do you get the

Spoiler

Iron bar?

[close]

[Jhumjhum]

In the extreme left wall, there's a shelf, interact with it.

[IntentInsane]

THNKU

[jannar85]

Okay, first thing that grabbed me was the music. Nice.
The intro was great, and I liked the dialogue, and what happened.

Now I'm in the prison... *plays more*
About the loose brick, don't let it be a part of the wall. Let it stand out from the rest of the wall, so the player can notice it. (I had hard time finding it)

The new score sound was annoying btw..

Ok... I'm stumped.. How can I make the magnet be stronger?
Anyway... This game sure would be nice to be remaked...

[Jhumjhum]

I got the score sound from ICQ I think.  

You need to do 2 things:

Spoiler

Did you talk to the panel

[close]

And

Spoiler

Did you interact with the cop? Make a fishing rod thingy

[close]

[miryoku_81]

I"m enjoying this game so far although I think it's a little bit picky with the pixel hunting.  I need help, as well.

Spoiler

How do I get the trolley from the chef?  I have the rod, lizard, ID, charcoal, glue, picture, knife, house key, and I don't remember what other inventory items.  I also have not been able to enter Eleena's apartment yet.  Am I supposed to do that first?

[close]

[Jhumjhum]

Spoiler

Use the lizard with the handle of the fridge.

[close]

[miryoku_81]

I need some more help...

Spoiler

I don't have anything valuable to give to the beggar outside the theatre.  Also, I still haven't been able to get into Eleena's apartment although i have a key from the hotel room but I don't know what it opens yet.

[close]

[Jhumjhum]

That's the most difficult part in the game in my opinion.
What you should do is:

Spoiler

Go outside Eleena's apartment. Use the glue on Jamie. Then interact with the neighbor.

[close]

[Queen Kara]

So far...Pretty funny yet frustrating at the same time.
Despite the words showing up , sometimes it's a pixel hunt before you realize anything else is in a certain spot.
I'm stuck already ,

Spoiler

I tried to drug the coffee but Jamie just says that he thinks I'm going to a dead end fast and won't drug the coffee.
He won't let me take the other cup , I would've liked to have been able to so I can switch cups or something...like...you could've put an optional way to solve the problem of getting out of the jail by allowing the player to switch cups for a time or some thing ....that way either they could drug the coffee after switching cups or have the cop pick up the wrong cup and notice that it's empty or different...says something to Jamie and leaves momentarily...allowing just enough time for Jamie to do something else to try and get away...like say because the guard is dumb..he leaves behind the key...so Jamie can use the magnet to get the key and the rest should be pretty obvious...lol ...but nooo..I'm still in this stupid cell! ARGG! *sighs*

[close]

[help]

The download link does not seem to work for me? Is there another, I'll keep trying.

[Jhumjhum]

Queen kara:
---------------

Here's the link to the complete walkthrough

http://members.lycos.co.uk/jhumjhum2004/Solution.txt

Help
-----

Sometimes lycos disables the site & the download for some hrs due to "excess bandwidth". It is enabled after some hrs

Cheers!

[Occult]

link doesn't work

[Artphreak555]

Link still not working

[MoodyBlues]

Gragh, I can't download the game!  I wanna play this so much...

[Occult]

Is this link ever gonna be fixed is someone working on it?

[crazyman]

Right click,save as on the link

[UP]

Doesn't work!  :'( The page doesn't exist or something 

[Jhumjhum]

I Just Updated the webpage, Link to the zip file and solution. Check the original post.

[Jhumjhum]

Dear friends,

Please take part in the survey of my game"Framed"

I really need and value your comments and criticizm. Just go to the following page:
http://www.geocities.com/jhum90 and take part in my survey. It will only take a few minutes but will mean a lot to me.

I know my game is not in league with Pleurghburgh, King's Quest or the recent Ben Jordan series But I really want to improve and only you guys can help.

[Nikolas]

I tried filling in the survey but couldn't(?) So I'll say what I have to say here.

For your first game this is impressive.

Of course the graphics, bot of the BGs and the Characters are a bit poor, but it seems that you do have the talent to do much more.

The plot was flowing, and although a bit cliche it was fine.

A couple of puzzles were a bit bizzare like for example

Spoiler

a bit odd to use the dead lizard on the firdge handle

[close]

Other than that the music was wonderfull, but repeated again and again...

Overall a great first try.

And actually about the graphics, which seems to be your major concern, you did try to do your best (or so it seems) and even better there was a lot of deatil (the textures on the walls), the trees etc...

Good job!

[Mordalles]

im still stuck in the jail, believe it or not. that alkthrough is going to save my life. thanks. enjoying the game, the bit ive seen, and looking forward to more of ure work. 

[ManicMatt]

I'm as far as being stuck from an illogical puzzle (From just looking at walkthrough)

I submitted a survey, but it was limited so let me make some points here:

(Sorry if I repeat what others said. I only read them all yesterday and can't remember!)

The first thing that grabbed me and shocked me was the intro. In the game I'm making, the ego comes home to find an answering machine message. His bro is in danger. Ego goes to his place. he is all bloody on the floor. Copper bangs on door.... sound familiar?

Have I gone for a cliche or is it just a coincidence?

The graphics were workable. The puzzles were the worst element because they were mostly inconceivable to solve.

oh and it's annoying in any AGS game when the main ego is clickable. I heard "YEOWCH!!" about twenty times in half an hour.

The music was nice until I realised it follows me everywhere!

Sorry am I being too critical?

But all these things are solvable for your next game!

I think you're too worried about the graphics. I've seen worse, and it was vibrant and colourful where my game might have too much grey in it.

And although I've put in your survey the cop animated badly, it looked very funny regardless!