Escape From Evergreen Forest. Completed Version now Released!

[Barbarian]

Greetings Adventurers.

After about 5 months worth of my spare time in production, I'm proud to announce that the Ready-for-Public Completed Version of my "Escape From Evergreen Forest" game is now ready for action!



This is my first made-with-AGS game, so it may be a bit rough in some parts.
However, overall, I'm mostly happy with the way it turned out, and I'm hoping that you will all enjoy it greatly as well.

I think overall this game would be most likely be classed as a "Full Sized" Adventure Game.

For more info about my game and to find the download link, go to here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=450

It's a fairly large download however, so those with dial-up may consider getting a download manager/accelerator to help you with your downloading, or even if you have high-speed connection a download manager is always nice to use anyways (a good download manager/accelerator utility, and without any spy ware/ad ware crap, you can get a free version of StarDownloader at: http://www.stardownloader.com/ , just trying to offer some friendly suggestion for help with downloading large files if you need it).

The game files is in a "zip" format of 19.2 MB, which then uncompresses to take up to 38.5 MB, so you can see I put a lot of work into my game.

Remember to give me a vote and/or some comments there after playing my game, I would like to know what people think of my game, if they enjoy it and if I should try and make more similar style Adventure Games.

Also feel welcome to post some of your comments here, or if you need some help / hints, just ask. In a little while, if there seems to be a need for it, I may write a "walkthrough" and put up on my "Amazing Adventures!" site.

Keep in mind that if you can complete the game with a Perfect Score of 65 points, that you unlock a "Bonus Adventure" in which you can play as a certain famous ""Archeologist", yes, isn't that right Dr. Jones
So, what are you waiting for (Hand me the whip Indy) *Crack* get going now and see if you can Escape From Evergreen Forest!Ã, 

[Pft!]

WOW! I love this game!Ã,  8)

GOOD WORK!

Be sure to leave comments on the main AGS page.

[Barbarian]

Thanks. Glad you're enjoying it so far.

Well, it didn't take long for someone to notice a little "bug" that doing a certain action in my game repeatedly (getting something for "Tree Thing") could keep giving you extra points and items (that's not the way it was intended, it was just supposed to give you points and item the first time). Somehow it snuck by me and the Beta-TestersÃ, 

So, a new version has been uploaded with the fix.Ã,  I apologise that I needed to remove the first upload, as I needed to delete it to make room for the new file.

Ã,  Ã, Haven't gotten back much response yet, which I hope is a good sign that some of you are busy playing and hopefully enjoying my game so farÃ, 

When you guys 'n gals get a chance, post some comments of your thoughts on the game. And of course, any other bad bugs, feel welcome to report to me as well. Thanks.

[Phemar]

Aaargh! I really so badly wanted to play this game, but 19 megs is a bit steep... yaargh!

EDIT: Well, I downloaded it, and I think it's great so far.

Help:

Spoiler

I need to get some water for the tree, and a lantern for the cave, I need to open the strange door... all I have is a blue mushroom, what to do?

[close]

[Barbarian]

Aaargh! I really so badly wanted to play this game, but 19 megs is a bit steep... yaargh!

EDIT: Well, I downloaded it, and I think it's great so far.

Help:

Spoiler

I need to get some water for the tree, and a lantern for the cave, I need to open the strange door... all I have is a blue mushroom, what to do?

[close]

Hiya Zor... good to know you're enjoying the game so far. You're stuck early in the game by the sounds of it. There's much more to do.

Spoiler

You'll need to get the water for Tree Thing to progress more. Go East twice from where Tree Thing is untill you find a large clearing. Then look for something you can use in that area (look carefully on the ground)... then go East again untill you find the brook area. Use the item you found on the ground with a certain spot in the brook-room area. Be sure to use your status-bar when moving your pointer around so you can see if you're over top of any possibly important hotspots that may be of use. If you needed a stronger hints, you can ask.

[close]

Ã,  Ã,  How's the rest of you enjoying my game so far?Ã, 
Anyone manage to get all the points and play the "Bonus Adventure" yet?

[SnakeVirgo]

WOW!!! It's really amazing i love this game. I played couple times coz i just can't get enough of it. Guys you better go download it and play and enjoy the excitement that you never had before. Ã, 

[spooky_cookie]

wot is it with that wizard guy and i am stuck and have gone to brook and everything u said about tree and he wont take it

[Gregjazz]

Wow, Big Don's Adventure is finished! Whoo!

[Iv4n]

I want to say that I complete this awesome game! I don't know what exactly makes this game so great, but I like it very much. Thanx Barbarian!! But I finished it with 54 points. It's a good idea to make a complete solution.

[Barbarian]

Hey, thanks so much for the positive feedback everyone.
I really appreciate that people are actually downloading and enjoying my game that I worked so hard on for so long. I really learned so much in making this game, improved many of my skills, so I feel any of my future projects will be that much more improved as well.

After a little while if people are really stuck, I might make up a little walkthrough, but for now as the game is still newly released, I'll let you all have fun exploring it for a little while before I give too much hints/solution awayÃ,  Ã, 

However, if you're really desperately stuck on something, or if you already finished the game and really can't figure out how to get a perfect score so you can unlock the "Bonus Adventure" game, you can feel welcome to send me a message and I may throw a few hints your way.Ã, 

And if enough people enjoy this game, it may inspire me to work on another projects I have in mind.
Okay, get back to trying to Escape From Evergreen Forest, and post some of your comments here when you get a chance.

PS: There's also a lot of in-game nostalgic references to other classic games and/or movies and such, and a few "easter egg" surprises. I may post some more about that stuff later, but for now I'll just let you curious Adventurers soak up my game for a while.

[Pft!]

I love the water effects, are these all photos? Or did you draw it?  8)

Im stuck BTW:

Spoiler

I've got the tree bark & the blue muchroom. How do I get the tree the water? Whats that bird just sitting there doing? I've also pissed off the wizard and he has taken away the bridge. I also cant get into the cave because I cant find a light source. Where do I find all of these things?

[close]

Thanks. great game, BTW!

[Problem]

I finished it (not with the perfect score), and liked it a lot. This is a great first game. To give you some more feedback, here are some ideas how it could be improved:

- I would have liked more consistency in your background graphics. You mixed up cartoon graphics with photos and that doesn't go together very well. The quality of the Backgrounds is also very different from screen to screen. Some look strange, others look really beautiful.

- The game was a little quiet, more sound would have improved the athmosphere of the game

- The story could be more detailed, with more characters involved.

These are just some ideas how you could improve your next games. Al in all, I really liked your game, so I hope to see more games from you soon 

[Barbarian]

Problem: Thanks for the comments, and I do agree with you.
Yes, the art-style was a bit inconsistant for a few reasons, mainly being as this was my first AGS made game.

At first making this game was a way for me to experiment and learn how to actually make a game with AGS and get familiar with the various features, and many of the graphics were "borrowed" from various other resouces I found on the internet more as "place holders" just as "something suitable to use", so at the time I wasn't quite going for "consistancy" in graphics so much. But after a while, my game took more shape and began to grow into a fairly large project... and by that time I already invested a lot of time/work into making my game, and I didn't feel like spending many-more-months to re-draw everything. I figured, as this was my first AGS game, that most people would be willing to understand and forgive the fact that I "borrowed" many of the game art/graphics you see.Ã,  Another reason, I'm a real "amateur" when it comes to all this making-an-Adventure-game and drawing art / sprites / animations, etc... Yes, I did draw a few backgrounds myself, along with many of the in-game objects and sprites, but the bigger majority of what you see in this game was "borrowed" from other sources I found ( though most times edited to fit in with the game)Ã,  Ã, This project was a real learning experience for me in many ways, and I've improved many skills, so I think any of my future projects should show good improvement, consistancy and playability overall.

SQ4.5: Thanks. Good to know you're enjoying the game so far. You're still stuck early in the game and there's much more to accomplish yet.

Spoiler

In order to progress furthur, you'll need to find some water for "Tree Thing". Okay, remember the clearing where you found the tree-branch in? From there go East(right) one room, and you'll be in the "brook room". Look around carefully in there. You'll see the roots and trunk of a large tree, one with a "Hole" in it. See if you can do anything with that hole then something may be revealed to you that will help you to progress more into the game in which using properly many of the other things you need will be revealed as well.Ã,  ;DÃ, 

[close]

Ã,  The water effects, I added using Paint Shop Pro for some, and in other effect it was just playing around with "sharpening" and or "blurring" parts of the water. Somewhat simple actually, and just put the pictures into an animated-cycle to give illustion of the water moving a bit.

[Pft!]

I've found the place but...

Spoiler

How do I get the water to the tree?

[close]

[Barbarian]

I've found the place but...

Spoiler

How do I get the water to the tree?

[close]

*Beats SQ4.5 with the Tree Branch*Ã, 

Spoiler

Use the Tree Branch on the hole. You'll get an item you will need. Use that item with water, then give that item to Tree-Thing.

[close]

Heheh...Ã, 

[Pft!]

DAM! I cant find the...

Spoiler

HOLE!!!

[close]

[Barbarian]

DAM! I cant find the...

Spoiler

HOLE!!!

[close]

Okay, here's a link to an early screen-shot that clearly shows you where it is:
"Click Here" But, as this screen-shot was taken during an earlier stage of production, ignore the "100 points" in the Status bar (I just had that as a place-holder score at the time). Total "Perfect Score" for my game is now 65 points.Ã, 

[Pft!]

AHA! Thanks ever so much! 

[UP]

What a great game. I say, jolly good there ol' chap!

But umm...

Spoiler

Hiker+Breeblebrox? Hitchicker's Guide to the Galaxy, anyone?

[close]

[InCreator]

This isn't critics lounge here, but two things sucked...

* why didn't you use anti-glide mode? characters have really nice walkcycles - and letting them "slide" just wastes it.

* Argh! my eyes! Backgrounds really hurt eyes. Not bg's, but colors. there's too weird mixture of them. Too contrasty. Even some photshop saturation filter could do make it better.

Otherwise, it's a full game, so it rocks. I find story pretty intersting too.

** starts game again to finish it

[Barbarian]

Hi guys. Just to let you all know (if interested) that I've uploaded my game with a few small fixes, so it's now EFEF Version 1.2 . Most of the fixes include some corrections of a few spelling mistakes that snuck in during the creation of the game, some minor adjustments to a couple of descriptions when looking at certain things, and a fix of a small bug in which it was possible to get a "duplicate lantern" during a certain part of the game. Also, as many people were having a hard time to find the "hole" in the tree, I've added a "glint / glimmer" animation that will now appear there every so often to help draw attention to the spot.

It's nice to know that people are actually downloading and enjoying my game, and thank you everyone for the positive feedback and constructive critisism. I will take it all into consideration when working on future projects, and of course your positive comments give me much inspiration to work on creating more games.

InCreator:
Thanks for comments. Well, I did try the game in anti-glide mode, but for the released version I decided to go with "glide mode" for a couple of reasons. In anti-glide mode, the character movements appeared a bit "choppy". Also, I seen my game run on an older/slower computer, and when the setting was in anti-glide mode (even with all other options set for maximum performance), the character speed was painfully slow. Once I switched over to "glide mode", the character speed was much improved on the slower system.

Also, yes, I'm a real "nOOb" when it comes to drawing/editing art, I'm nowheres near as skillful as someone such as you when it comes to that (I've seen some of your wonderful art, and you have much talent *salutes*), and also as this was my first Adventure Game project, I figured people would be a bit forgiving that the art in the game was a bit "inconsistant" or "not professional looking" at times. I will try to do a better job with future projects, or perhaps sometimes I can teamup with someone who is better in art skills than me.Ã, 

Still I hope that beyond a few of those problems with my first game that, overall, people that play the game will enjoy the experience and have fun with exploring my game.

[Phemar]

Lovely game so far...

Spoiler

How to get rid of medusa? I tried using mirror on here and all...
I have the crystal, Lantern, Potion thing... and flute. Help?

[close]

[SnakeVirgo]

Hi Zor, maybe the hints and tips posts on this game will help you some:

http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?PHPSESSID=ec1d5b06ad6bbdea4168c19e7400012eopic=16901.0

[Barbarian]

Greetings once again Adventurers.
A couple of more things to mention about my Escape From Evergreen Forest game.

*Note: It was brought to my attention of a problem in the game that I missed that can "crash / lock-up" the game. If you open the Inventory window (your Back-Pack), and if you try to interact with the main playing area again before clicking the "OK" button of the Inventory window to close it first, the game may "crash / lock-up" on you. I'm sorry for this error, so for now, please keep in mind while playing to always click the "OK" button of the Inventory window to close it first before trying to interact with the main playing area again. Thanks for understanding.Ã,  ( If the game does ever "lock-up" on you, you can always use the "Alt" with "X" key combination to force an exit from the game. )

*Walkthrough and Fun Fact Guide now online.
If you get desperately stuck, and have tried everything you can think of but can't continue, or perhaps you've already completed the game, but you can't figure out how to get a perfect score (which would then unlock the Bonus Adventure with Indy), and you can't figure out where the missing points are, then you can now check out the EFEF Walkthrough over at my site: www.adventure.easyurl.org , From the "Games" page there, you will see a link for the "Walkthrough".

Ã,  Ã, Okay, I hope that everyone has been enjoying my game so far. I've gotten back lots of positive feedback and some good constructive critisism too that I will keep in mind when I work on future projects. If you've given my game a play-through and if you have not done so yet, of course it would be nice if you gave me a vote on the AGS Games page where my game info is at:
http://www.agsforums.com/games.php?action=detail&id=450

and/or post up a few comments here and let me know what you thought as well. Many thanks, and I'll soon be working on more projects.Ã, 

PS: In just 1 week of my game being up, I've already had over 600 downloads of it :oÃ, 
Thanks for the interest everyone.

[Krazy]

There is some quality about this game which I find great but I can't quite put my finger on it. I can't wait for your next game 

[Alla]

Its my favorit Game! Absolutely awsome!!!!!
Download it fast and enjoy...So ,so nice ...Thanks for giving me pleasure to play this fantastic Game..

[Barbarian]

Thanks for such positive comments everyone. It's nice to know that people seemed to really enjoy my first adventure game.

I've got some good ideas I've been kicking around for my next project, and I'm getting some things planned out for it now. It will be a different story / settings / characters than my first game, but I think it will be interesting and enjoyable for fans of Adventure games.

I will strive to make my next project to the best quality that I'm able to (keep in mind, I'm still much an "amateur" at all of this making-adventure-games stuff)Ã, 

[jen]

Hi! Ã, I like your game, but everytime I get to the part at the bridge, and the wizard tries to show his power, I get the following error....

---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x10001D91 ; program pointer is +1099, ACI version 2.62.758, gtags (0,0)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.

(Global script line 167)


Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.
---------------------------
OK Ã, 
---------------------------

Please help!!

[Barbarian]

Hi Jen. That's a strange bug that I think only occurs rarely and only on some systems. I think it's an incompatibility with the "rain plugin" that is used at that part in the game when the Wizard wants to show off his power, then he makes it rain, then some Lightning bolts destroy the bridge. I thought that problem was fixed, but you're the first to report that the problem still can occur. I really don't know how to fix the problem, but I can offer a couple of suggestions.

Try to start a new game, and then try going to the bridge before anything else and see if you can get through that scene.

If not, then here is a link to a save game file that is immediately after the scene where the Wizard detroys the bridge. Put the file in the same folder where the EFEF game is stored on your computer:
Right-Click Here and Save Target/File As... to download the savegame file that is immediately past the bridge-destroy scene.

This savegame file, the only thing that is done really is talking with the Wizard and choosing the right dialog option that gives you one point, then the Wizard destroys the bridge, says a few more mean words how he plans to un-leash his wrath on the near-by towns (one of them being your hometown), then he walks away.Ã,  Anything else in the game you'll need to go back and do it from this point on.

Let me know what solution works for you (Either restarting a new game and trying to go through the bridge-scene right away, or using the savegame file I've provided).

[Jen]

Thanks!  I went back and restarted and went to the bridge first, and it worked!

[lakerz]

Just finished up playing the game.  I was a bit worried as I also encountered the crash at the bridge scene.  However starting over and doing it first worked for me too.

Escape From Evergreen Forest is very fun!  I'm posting at 1:30AM as the game was addictive, I didn't want to sleep before getting to the end.  I didn't score perfect though, so I will have to go back and see where I missed points.    I thought the graphic style was pretty unique, although during some of the effects some of the objects had some strange looking pixel effect.  Hard to explain exactly what happened. 

Anyways, excellent job!

[Doctor Oakroot]

Great game. I'm part way through - a little more than half way based on the score - and stuck. But I'll get it eventually.

Finished, but only 58 points. Gotta go back and try again.