Stranger By Night - download now!

[Snarky]

Hey, fivetrickpony. I just finished your game, and since I enjoyed it, I thought I'd give you the kind of feedback I would like when I release a game.

First of all, it took me two-three hours to play through from beginning to end. I got hints for one puzzle from this thread.

GRAPHICS
Pretty good. I love the cutscenes, both in design and artwork. The Katrina sprites are also very good looking, though at first I did think she looked a bit too cartoony for such a dark game. The backgrounds are atmospheric, but they're also very blurry and indistinct. I often couldn't make out what things were supposed to be, or if a blotch of color was even an object or just a patch of light. I should also mention that the graphics for the GUI were top-notch.

A word on the animation. Because the side walk animation has a different number of frames for each of her legs, it looks (and more importantly sounds) like she is limping.

MUSIC AND SOUND
Nice to have a constant soundtrack, which didn't have time to get on my nerves before I finished the game. The random/situational noises added a lot, too, and were well integrated. The only time there was a problem was in pressing the buttons by the Greek statues, when the music drowned out the sound of the clicks.

STORY
Very efficient storytelling of a fairly basic plot. The intro did a good, no-nonsense job of setting up the game, and the devices used to develop it within the game worked well.

The fact that the first and the second story of the house had completely different floor plans bugged me. Some of the rooms on the second floor must rest on stilts! Also, the lack of a kitchen, a bathroom, or Amber's room (mentioned in the end sequence) required a certain suspension of disbelief.

The ending wasn't as satisfying as it might have been, perhaps.

Spoiler

Although there was some tension at first, it soon became obvious that the killer wouldn't actually attack you as the player (except in one restricted situation), and this rendered the menace later in the game less effective. Also, how could the killer get from room to room without running into you? Of course, you have to make a design decision whether this is something you care about, and it would have led to a quite different game.

[close]

GAMEPLAY
I'll talk about the puzzles separately.

I had some major issues with the interface. Because the cursors didn't mark the active pixel and the objects were so indistinct, I often had to pixel-hunt unnecessarily (especially to make sure that something wasn't a hotspot). Katrina walks slooooooowly, and there's no way to set the gamespeed or her walkspeed. There are walkto points even for Look and actions that don't exist, and there's no way to cancel commands: Katrina will insist on slowly walking over and telling you she can't do that. The inventory interface was cumbersome too, and clicks on objects were only recognized in their upper half. The interact cursor seemed very limited and limiting: I really wanted to play around with the clocks (change the time, take them apart, whatever), but Katrina assumed I was trying to pick them up or open them.

Most of these complaints are issues with the default AGS interface, but they are things I always find frustrating. Besides, my background is in UI design.

Oh, and some doorways you had to Interact with and others you had to Walk to. What's up with that?

PUZZLES
I thought that with one exception, the puzzles were fair and at the right level of difficulty. Some I could solve easily, others stumped me for a while until I thought them through.

I guess when you're designing puzzles, it's difficult to know what players will be able to figure out and what they'll get stuck on. Therefore, I'll try to go through how I solved the game, how I approached each puzzle and what I thought about it. Obviously, this will be 100% spoilers for the game. Also, it's only one person's perspective.

Spoiler

After finding Amber, I went into the moose room, and investigated it. I almost didn't notice the buttons by the statues, but instantly saw that they were some sort of code puzzle. The moose head seemed incongruous, and I wondered if it might open a secret passage (no joke). After talking to Amber, I went upstairs, and having seen the Shakespeare hint, picked up his book with the piece of paper. Since I knew it was a hint for the statues, I instantly guessed that "V" was Venus (knowing that Aphrodite was called Venus by the Romans). I didn't figure out the rest of the puzzle. I looked at the other books, but didn't think to pick up the one on mythology. Therefore, I was stuck, and only got any further when I read in this thread about the "Gods" book. After finding and reading it, I had another look at the statues, and "Diana, Appollo, Mercury, Neptune, Venus" was pretty obvious. Cool puzzle, by the way!

OK, so I got the key and got into the locked room. Locking out the killer before he could open the door was a really frustrating puzzle. It wasn't clear what you were supposed to do (I tried hiding under the bed and in the closet, and escape through the window), especially since the thing by the door wasn't recognizable as a bolt. I thought it was a light switch, and it was only by trying to turn off the light that I discovered what it was for. I probably had to reload this bit five or six times before I managed to survive. Timed sequences, man. Don't do them!

The diary entries didn't seem to have anything to do with the plot, so I already suspected it was something in the dates. However, I couldn't find anything to do after I left the room. I walked all over the house (trying to cut stuff with my shard of glass), and only ended up in the room with all the clocks by exclusion: It was the only room that hadn't been used for anything in the game yet. Having concluded that, cutting the tapestry was relatively straightforward. I didn't have any trouble opening the safe. Wasn't there an article on code puzzles that used the "calculate date of birth" (or wedding day) as an example?

OK, this is where I got thoroughly stuck. I couldn't figure out what those pink lines meant. I had two interpretations: that they showed some sort of connection between the grandfather clock and the red painting (which didn't explain the second line), and that they represented the hands of a watch (set at 10:00), and I would have to set one of the clocks to that time. Of course, neither theory led anywhere. Then I went around the house using the locket and the combined note (the only new objects I had) on everything I could think of, to no better effect. Then I reasoned that the moose head was the only other thing in the house that hadn't been used yet, and I tried everything on that. It was when I tried using the pen to pry the amethyst off the locket that I accidentally used it on the combined note, and found that I was at least in the right room. Now, finally, I was allowed to mess around with the moose head.

It really confused me that the moose eye disappeared when it fell out. I wanted to pick it up. Since prying out the amethyst with the pen hadn't worked, I didn't think to use the glass shard (the pen still makes more sense to me) for a long time. I tried stuffing everything into that eye socket, and even using the shard to cut the head open. Also, the fact that the eye socket itself was a non-hotspot was frustrating. OK, the locket had to be involved somehow, and prying the amethyst off was the only thing that made sense (dammit), so finally I tried the glass shard. Problem solved, game over.

OK, so in summary, I got stuck at these points in the game:

-Picking up the book on mythology
-Cutting the tapestry
-Drawing on the note
-Using the glass shard to pry the amethyst off the locket

These things acted as red herrings for me:

-The clocks
-The red painting (because the one of the pink lines seemed to point to it)
-The moose head (before the final puzzle)
-That white globe thing in the living room. What was that?

[close]

I hope you find this feedback useful. I look forward to your next game!

[fivetrickpony]

Wow, that's a pretty detailed review. Thanks for taking the time to play through the game. I've definately taken down those pointers and will use them to improve the next game I make. Thanks again for writing that, and you've essentially written a walkthrough as well, so that's good

Some points about the story:

Spoiler

I put a timed sequence because I wanted to test the feature in AGS. Sorry And I also thought it would increase the tension abit and break up the gameplay monotony, because otherwise you were just wandering around room to room with an invisible killer that never did anything.

You didn't bump into him at all (except for the room) because I wanted to make it a game where you never get to see your attacker - things get scarier when you let your imagination run wild.

And Amber's room, which was mentioned in the ending, is the same room in which the killer tries to break in.

[close]

As for the bug mentioned earlier:

Spoiler

Doh... I forgot to remove the GUI during the Gods puzzle... that would have solved everything. Will fix that.

[close]

Kosten/Mephisto:

Spoiler

The use of the pink lines might become more apparent when you have the other piece of the map

[close]

[Snarky]

Wow, that's a pretty detailed review. Thanks for taking the time to play through the game. I've definately taken down those pointers and will use them to improve the next game I make. Thanks again for writing that, and you've essentially written a walkthrough as well, so that's good

Some points about the story:

Spoiler

I put a timed sequence because I wanted to test the feature in AGS. Sorry And I also thought it would increase the tension abit and break up the gameplay monotony, because otherwise you were just wandering around room to room with an invisible killer that never did anything.

You didn't bump into him at all (except for the room) because I wanted to make it a game where you never get to see your attacker - things get scarier when you let your imagination run wild.

And Amber's room, which was mentioned in the ending, is the same room in which the killer tries to break in.

[close]

Hey, I'm glad you found it a worthwhile read.

I can understand your reasoning for the timed sequence, and although it's frustrating to play through, I think it does achieve what you were going for. So maybe it does strengthen the game overall. Sometimes you have to sacrifice one part for the good of the whole.

Spoiler

So when exactly did the killer stick Amber's body in the locked room, and where was it in the mean time? OK, so I'm overthinking it. 

[close]

[fivetrickpony]

Snarky:

Spoiler

About where he put Amber's body in the meantime... oops, that's a plot hole... *sheepish* Let's pretend he carried it around with him wherever he went.

[close]

[Elianto]

I still have to download and play the game but I've to say that I liked very much the kind of reply that Snarky gave.
In a thread like this usually I find only request for hints, his post was indeed very usefull for the author and for any other creator 

[fivetrickpony]

Yup, definately, he's great to have done that.  It let's me see what are the shortcomings of the game from a player's perspective (whenever I play my own game it is marred by the fact that I'm usually playing it as a developer), so it gives me more pointers as to make a better game next time. I found his post to be very helpful and so I'm utterly greatful for that.

[Elianto]

Ops... I just downloaded the game but i cannot manage to run it. Strange since it's never happened with any ags game.

Whatever config I choose the game starts only with music then after 10 seconds the intro image appears but i cannot move the mouse cursor....

suggestions???

[fivetrickpony]

Hmmm that's weird... Did you download the windows or the DOS executable? If you downloaded the windows one try the DOS, and vice versa, maybe that'll help. The intro graphic and the music should appear at the same time, I didn't program it for the music to start first, so that's really strange.

PS: "The inventory interface was cumbersome too, and clicks on objects were only recognized in their upper half" - does anybody know how to fix this? I'm not sure why this happened since essentially I didn't change the inventory interface except for its cosmetic appearance and the number of items per row.

[Elianto]

Damn... I just found out that at the moment I cannot run any more ags game... It must be dued to the new omega drivers I installed on the notebook. So it's not related to your game.

i cannot manage to restore the old and working situation!!!!!!

[Barbarian]

Damn... I just found out that at the moment I cannot run any more ags game... It must be dued to the new omega drivers I installed on the notebook. So it's not related to your game.

i cannot manage to restore the old and working situation!!!!!!

Major bummer Elianto. Can readjusting some of the Display Adaptors settings help you?

What version of WIndows you running? More recent Windows versions (XP, ME, 2000, etc)... have a built in "System Restore" feature. Usually found from Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Then you can pick a recent date to before when you installed those new Omega drivers you mentioned.

If not, alternatively you may be able to use a "Rollback Drivers" feature (but the older versions of Windows, I forget if it has that option).

From the main Windows desktop, right-click on the "My Computer" icon, then select Properties. From the Properties box, click on the Hardware tab. Then click on the Device Manager button. Find the Display Adaptors, open up that list, find your current graphic adaptor name, right click and "Properties" again. Then select "Driver" and if you're lucky, you may have a "Rollback Driver" button. Click, then restart computer, and if all goes well, your computer will have re-installed the previous drivers for that Display Adaptor.

If all that still not of help to you, do you know specifically what model your Display Adaptor is? Do you have the original drivers for your Display Adaptor on a disk someplace you can try to reinstall them? Or if not, perhaps we may be able to help you find some better drivers you can install.

*Salutes

[Elianto]

I've already managed to reinstall the old driver but now (and I don't know why since It never happened to me) the system doesn't allow me to modify any parameter of the dislay setting (and I'm administrator on this shitty XP)....

Edit: problem solved after 6 different driver installation (also 1 from microsoft!!!), with one only dx games, with one only videos, one ags... finally found one working, I hope not to find a bug in this too   

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Good game

[fivetrickpony]

Glad you solved your problem (hopefully)  

[Kweepa]

Pretty funny that Elianto praised Snarky for a useful post, then dragged the thread completely off topic...

Interesting game - great use of sound to build the tension, and I personally liked the timed sequence.

Spoiler

A bit of a nod to Mourier en Mer perhaps? "He's coming up the stairs!" Nicely done with the door thumping and the shadow in the doorway.

[close]

The graphics were also interesting - you managed to pull together (I'm guessing) a lot of source material into a semi-coherent style. The main character stood out like a sore thumb though!
Reading through Snarky's walkthrough, I have to agree with most of it.

Spoiler

I particularly disliked that the moose head was non-interactive until the pink lines were joined up. On the other hand, I did like the gods puzzle, but that's probably because I solved it without the book.

[close]

Thanks for the game!
Steve

[fivetrickpony]

Yay, someone liked the timed sequence

Spoiler

Sorry about the moosehead. The reason I had was that since she didn't know the passage was in the dining room, she wouldn't think to be more thorough with her searches. But once she knew that the passage was in that room, she would go out of her way to search everything, and that's why the interaction with the moosehead revealed different results once you joined up the lines.

[close]

[Albert Cuandero]

OK I just finished the game

Spoiler

(after being a real idiot and overseeing the hint of the "6 (six) digit code and entering the safe combination as auggested by the diary: 06161944...)

[close]

So being stuck there is not to blame on the game but on me!

After Snarky's in depth review pretty much gets it all, I will try to keep mine short. (It's just my humble opinion, which I want to share with you - don't take me too seriously!)

++
+ Sound! Good atmospheric tracks with very fitting effects. Fit well the length of the game.
+ Overlay art. I am a fan of horror comics. The style used fits the mood so good!

+
+ Backgrounds. A bit too blurry but still very nice. If the details would have been easier to make out, I would have moved the backgrounds to the ++ category.
+ Puzzles. They are well thought through and balanced. Mostly (as the game as whole) they remind me of Resident Evil. I love puzzles that move way above "use-all-on-all-and-hope"!
+ A lot of "unnecessary" objects, false hints etc. It makes the game feel more "real"

-
- The story and the characters are a bit too thin, even for a short game. Some plot gaps were already pointed out. Many questions for those topics are coming to my mind, but I suppose, i will have to accept the game "as is"... I didn't really like the ending too.

Spoiler

The described ritual destruction of Amber's body sounds a bit like unnecessary violence. If it would be possible to replay the game and try and succeed in saving Amber this would be a good "50:50" alternate ending. So it is just unsatisfying - at least for me

[close]

- Snarky and others already spoke about some other weak sides of the design. Let me just come back to one - the buttons of the god-puzzle. Since I had the volume down (thus didn't hear the clicks, just like the others) I expected the buttons to move or come out or anything visual to happen to give me feedback. For the first five tries on this puzzle, I thought it wasn't activated yet!

All in all I give this game 70% of what I expected, considering all circumstances.

This is actully quite good!

Fivetrickpony , I hope you keep up the game-designing and to hear/see/play from you soon again.

Instead of a "thank you" I offer you to translate this game into german for you. If you are interested PM me and I will give you my E-Mail, so you can send me the translation file...

[Mephistophilis]

Heh... I suck at this game:

Spoiler

I'm in the locked room and I know I have to lock the bolt but it is rusted, I would just try everything but I Inadvertantley save with about ten seconds to go, and I can't be bothered continuially reloading to try one more action again and agian.

[close]

Tis Quite hard, but maybe I just suck.

[Kweepa]

Look around. You'll know when you have the right answer.

[Albert Cuandero]

Heh... I suck at this game:

Spoiler

I'm in the locked room and I know I have to lock the bolt but it is rusted, I would just try everything but I Inadvertantley save with about ten seconds to go, and I can't be bothered continuially reloading to try one more action again and agian.

[close]

Tis Quite hard, but maybe I just suck.

Look around. You'll know when you have the right answer.

If Steve's answer is still too cryptical:

Spoiler

on the left side of the screen, on the cabinet with drawers there is a white object, which is a flask of baby oil. So when you are trapped in the locked room, just walk quickly to left get the flask, use it on the bolt and then push the bolt shut

[close]

[pslocum]

Very nice game. Impressive. The use of sound, especially, is the best I've seen in a while.