Frank the Farmhand Part 1: version 1.03

Started by fovmester, Tue 13/04/2004 10:02:52

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fovmester

Current version: 1.03

Download it here!!

The first part is about 20 rooms big and has handdrawn backgrounds a flash-animated introduction and a lot of puzzles. If you're really good (or lucky) the game'll take about three hours to complete, but hopefully it'll take longer for most of you!

The story goes like this:

"Frank the Farmhand" (which is just a working-title) stars the young farmhand Frank from southern Texas, who one day finds that his physics professor has gone missing, and that some mysterious black-clad agents are looking for the professor. He decides (of course) that he must find him.
What Frank doesn't know is that he's about to unweil a conspiracy more sinister than he could ever imagine. A conspiracy involving the american president, religious fanatics, middle-eastern terrorists and some surfdudes. He will travel around the world trying desperately to save both his neck and the world itself.

There is of course much much more to the story than this, but that is something that is best to be revealed by playing the game.





On my homepage you'll find more screenshots and more info.

Download it here!!!

veryweirdguy

Nice graphical style you got there (I loved the intro), but I didn't get far into the game before I encountered a bug.

On the first screen, I looked in the trash (what? any good adventurer should look in the trash first) & this box came up:



The game crashed as well.

But I'll start again, it looks like a good game!

fovmester

Hi. I looked into the problem you where having and found it to be a rare bug. I've fixed it now and the download is now the new version. Sorry about that. Hope you enjoy the game though, because this bug shouldn't occur very often.

veryweirdguy

I got further this time, & have encountered no more bugs (except the legs spreading open sometimes while he talks, but you mentioned that in the readme).

I like this game a lot. I am (so far) up to the bit with the prof's appartment. But I did notice something which made me laugh that you might want to change.

I tried using the knife on myself (just to see what would happen, if anything) and he said 'I'd look pretty stupid wearing a plain blanket'

Not a major thing, but y'know.

Great game, anyway!

Pet Terry

Got this one too today, I'll play it later tonight. Looks really good!
<SSH> heavy pettering
Screen 7

Inkoddi

umm... when i try to download i get this 403 error:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /~f02mj/Frank1.zip on this server.

fovmester

Oops. Sorry about that.

It's fixed now. It was when I uploaded the new version with some bugfixes that I forgot to change the permissions so that everyone can use the file.

Please try again. It'll work now.

veryweirdguy

Finished it. 'Twas fun, but I have one question:

Spoiler
Why do you get the weenies back? They aren't needed again, are they for a puzzle in part two?
[close]

It was a great game, I look forward to part two.

jane

Great game.............but BTW I got a bug and error pop up and game crashed when I tried to give coke to cleaning lady.

fovmester

Geeze! A lot of stupid bugs i've missed. Sorry about that. But please keep posting any you find and I'll fix them right away. I've tested the game thoroughly but as it seems some bugs I've missed.

The weenies're kept just for fun actually, but maybe they'll be needed in part 2. Who knows, right? ;)

Thanks for the feedback! It's your comments that makes it all worth it, and which will make part 2 even better (hopefully)!

luutje

maybe you will help me. what to do with the cat? i posted it at hints and tips but nobody knows.

cittymom

Spoiler
The ski makes a great catapult.
[close]

fovmester

reply to jane:

QuoteI got a bug and error pop up and game crashed when I tried to give coke to cleaning lady.

I can't seem to get that error when I play the game and give the coke to the cleaning lady. Is there anything else you can say about what you did to get the error?

lordbyrd

I got a error message when i combined the twine and the fishing lure.Is there a fix for this?

fovmester

I checked my code and I don't think that's a scripting error. I myself has never had that problem and many people have played the game to its end now, so they can't have had the error either.

Could you be more specific about the error? Like saying what kind of error it is and give me the error report that pops up when it happens? Have you tried it several times and has it happened more than once?

Stickieee

I tried to use the screwdriver with the cleaning lady, which resulted in the game crashing with

(Global script line 1079)
Error: FaceCharacter: characters are in different rooms

No idea why I tried that, though. The game itself seems rather good, I loved the intro scene. Thus far the characters seem interesting and pleasantly unique. The graphics were better than what the screenshots made me think. Can't say much of the plot at this moment ;D
EXPLOSION

fovmester

Thanks for reporting! It's been fixed now.

Man, I thought I had found all the errors already! Well, this really shows how good it is to have all of you!! Thanks for making Frank the Farmhand even better.

Domino

Wonderful little game you got there. I downloaded and played it for a little bit yesterday.

I love it so far!!

Looking forward to more.

Shawn

Duzz

I finished this last night, and I really enjoyed it, the puzzles were a nice challenge =)
Spoiler
I needed help with that toolbox puzzle, that was tough.
And I laughed out loud when I scared the KKK away heh heh heh.
[close]
Powerhoof - My new indie games company! | Wintermute Studios - My older AGS games: The Historical League of Bouncy Boxing, Grr! Bearly Sane,  Duzz Quest...

Nostradamus

Interesting game. Nice puzzles really.
I need some help:
Spoiler
Can't enter Push's house or find weenies for the customer in the T-Mart. Got the knife from the kid and the lure from his mom.
[close]



fovmester

Hi!I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Here's a tip:

Spoiler
Getting into the professor's apartment will get you going. It's not really complicated to get in. Just use the mailslot to reach in and unlock the door. Now investigate his apartment and you'll be able to go to another location in the city.
[close]

Nostradamus

Spoiler
How do I get the cottonball from the cat?
[close]



jane

This has been answered in the earlier threads -


Posted by: cittymom  Posted on: 15 Apr 2004, 21:16  
Spoiler
The ski makes a great catapult.
[close]

Nostradamus

Spoiler
But I don't have the ski - I need the blanket to look like KKK to take it . I thought I needed to use the cat's ball to make a string, tie it to the hurl and then I could get the blanket. Guess I was wrong. So how do I get the blanket?
[close]



fovmester

How to get the ski:

Hint:
Spoiler
You don't need to get rid of them. They might give it to you if you're somewhat on good footing with them.
[close]

Answer:
Spoiler
Give the steak to fat-KKK-member and he'll let you take the ski.
[close]

anony4434

highlight text below to read my message

Spoiler
ive completed the game, I got the propeller,toolbox and freed ben, then the game exits abruptly after sailing away, it would have looked better if there was a "to be continued" screen after this, but its not neccesary

note: I also found a bug, one you put on your modified sheet and the clansmen run away, you can put it the sheet on again and the voices of the clansmen show up on the screen (even though they arent there) and then the game crashes, might want to check this out "(global script line 1525) Error:Movecharacter: Character not in room

nicely done btw, nice cartoonish graphics and sounds, although the racial overtones &language might put some people off its definately a classic
[close]

rtf

I just finished the game!  Definatly one of my favorites!  I loved the puzzles!  Don't write a walkthrough, I want people to figure it out by themselves.
The use of sound efects was really good too.

I loved the humor, too.  I died of laughter when the KKK guys got scared.   :D
I fail at art.

foz

Not finished yet but what i`ve seen is impressive ....

A good attention to detail and i was impressed with the amount of NPC you had put in and with quite a lot of animations too...

Music was good...

I was surpised you did the intro using FLICs which racked up about 2mb of the overrall file size......I think you could have done the same intro with abit of scripting.....and saved most of the 2 Mb...

That said this is well worth playing and i have enjoyed what i`ve played...

Look forward to seeing more...

MrColossal

am i forgetting something about AGS or is there no antialiasing of the sprites with it checked in winsetup?

can't figure it out
"This must be a good time to live in, since Eric bothers to stay here at all"-CJ also: ACHTUNG FRANZ!

Gilbert

Heh eric I think you know about it now, but I'll post here for clarification. From manual of V2.6SP1 :

Quote
NOTE: Currently, alpha blended sprites cannot be antialiased, so if you have the Anti Alias Sprites option turned on in Setup, it will not be applied to alpha-blended characters.

I think that's it, unless you're not using alpha blended sprites (I haven't played teh game yet, so I'm not sure.)

fovmester

#30
To anony4434:

You're right! That's a bug. I'll fix it right away. Thanks a lot for telling me.

foz:
QuoteI was surpised you did the intro using FLICs which racked up about 2mb of the overrall file size......I think you could have done the same intro with abit of scripting.....and saved most of the 2 Mb...

This is something I considered for a long time. Should I just script it or should I use flic? In the end I used flics for most of the scenes because it just looked better. I scripted some of them but it just didn't look right. But if you look closely at the closeup of when Frank is driving the car you'll see that it's actually a scripted scene and not a flic. I did that because that particular scene was about 2 megs as a flic (have no clue to why, though) and maybe 100K as a script.

Mr Colossal
Quoteam i forgetting something about AGS or is there no antialiasing of the sprites with it checked in winsetup?
No, you're not forgetting anything. I looked in my script and saw that I had game.disable_antialiasing=1 in my game_start script. At this time I don't know why I put it there but I'll look into it. I mean, people should be able to have antialiased sprites if they want to, right?

fovmester

Over 750 people have downloaded Frank the Farmhand now! :D I can't believe it! I never thought so many people would be interested in my game!

THANK YOU ALL FOR PLAYING!

You make it all worth it!


fovmester

I've released a new version of part 1. Now you can use anti-aliasing if you want to. I had disabled that before. Why? I've got no clue.

download it at my homepage or in the full length game- page.

Primus

Fovmester:

You don't need to thank us: we, players, are the ones who MUST thank you for a classic! :-)

Pls release part II ASAP!!!  :D

Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open. (Sir James Dewar)

fovmester

I got a message from Queen Kara that I found so interesting I just have to share it:

Quote
Will Ben be treated nicer in part 2 and will there be a choice of who to play as?
I'm sorry but I didn't enjoy part 1 very much ,
although I know that you did it to show why racism is wrong and stupid.
I love the art and all , I just couldn't get into the story and I
don't like Frank very much , even though he seems to care to a certain extent ,
he did an awful thing to Ben and they're supposed to be friends...
I know games don't always have to be nice ,  but it would be cool if there was a nicer version of the story.

I'm sorry to hear you didn't like part 1 of the game, Kara, but I can understand why you didn't like Frank's behaviour towards Ben. They're friends and I agree that it was an awful thing to do to ones friend. What I meant by putting it in the story was to make Frank more human. He's not supposed to be someone that's a perfect guy with high moral and a hero's feeling for ethics! He's just an ordinary kid that does bad things to friends, take advantage of strangers and so on. It's only when it comes to BIG moral questions that Frank shows his good sides (I'm talking about saving his friends when they're in danger, and standing up against racism). 

This is of course what separates Frank from his enemies, and what will ultimately make him a hero. He's not a hero yet, though. He's just a guy who managed to save his, and his friends' hides. But I can reveal that, later on, his good sides will grow and the bad sides revert. So maybe now you can more appreciate what I'm trying to do with the game. The whole story hasn't been told yet and hopefully it'll all come together nicely in the end.

What do you all think?
Do you like Frank or dispise him?
Does an adventuregame-hero always have to be the perfect human-being?

Queen Kara

"Does a hero always have to be perfect?" :

No , I've played lots of games where the hero wasn't exactly what one would call perfect and liked or loved them ( ie the thief in Quest For Glory , the avatar in Ultima : Pagan , Locke from Final Fantasy , the guy you play as in Grr! , ect. )

Many games require you to steal at some point and for some reason you rarely have to ask permission to go into people's houses. Or , even if you can't get their permission / because you don't have permission , you can still sneak in.
Just think of all the items you get in a game that just seemed to be around for no apparent reason other than furthering the game...alot of times you don't have to ask permission to take things and there's nothing about them belonging to somebody else.

Klaatu Verata Niktu?

Primus

Well, a plain character is always boring. Frank is an ordinary guy, with ups and downs, as everybody and everyone else, and also anti-hero posture and actions. For plain characters, well, even Brother Grimm's tales show main "angel" characters performing not-good-at-all actions. Almost EVERY main character on a game - even the ones I call plain ones -Ã,  have had to perform dubious actions to advance on a game. That's a point of view. But I tossed my lungs off while laughing the effects of Frank's action on Ben..., as I LOVE comedy. Good actions are never comic: only the bad-ridiculous-whatever ones. Watching a few comedies will made anyone understand this point of view.

Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open. (Sir James Dewar)

Arasan Nayamu

A bug!
When on the pier, after the cat is gone, I put twine and lure together and the game crashed and said
"invalid inventory item"

:(
~~ How does one get to Durasia you ask? By not asking how, child. ~~

fovmester

I can't find any such bug. Sorry. Try it again as it might've been some random thing.

n3tgraph

hey I enjoyed your game :)
just wanted to tell you
* N3TGraph airguitars!

fovmester

Thanks a lot!

You just gave me the energy to work one hour more on FtF2 before going to bed.

That's what positive feedback does to you! ;)

n3tgraph

heh, if it'll be released I'll definitly play it  :=
* N3TGraph airguitars!

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