The Elevator!

[Barbarian]

You wake up alone in some strange elevator. Not remembering how you got there, you try to get out, but soon find that you are "trapped". It's as if someone, or something, is trying to prevent your escape. Are you a prisoner?

Download link: Here!Ã,  2.26 Mb file in ZIP format.



I present the game here in case some of you may have not already seen it yet.
This game was made for the "One Room, One Week" competition, April 2005.
Enjoy!Ã, 

[Rosie]

Very nicely done....It was a challenging game, short but worth the download.Ã,  Thank you and lots of luck to you in your future games.Ã, 

edited by eric: Please stop quoting the entire first post since you are the only other poster and everyone knows what you're talking about.

[Traveler]

Barbarian, how did you make the character? It looked excellent?

[Rosie]

Very nicely done....It was a challenging game, short but worth the download.  Thank you and lots of luck to you in your future games. 

edited by eric: Please stop quoting the entire first post since you are the only other poster and everyone knows what you're talking about.

Who is Eric. and what do you mean??

[MrColossal]

Sorry to have to post about this in your thread Barbarian:

Rosie, check your Private Messages by clicking here

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?action=pm

Traveler, I believe the character is from Silent Hill.

Barbarian, are you going to make this game longer? And less of a pixel hunt? hehe

[fivetrickpony]

Is this in anyway based on Silent Hill 4 : The Room? Aside from the character being th e same, the background looks similar to the Silent Hill games as well. Not sure how you managed to do that but it's still pretty cool.

[Gord10]

I loved it The graphics are really cool. Giving a terrifing Silent Hill atmosphere. I wonder how you managed using these graphics, too.
But the game would be better if the puzzles weren't so hard, with pixel-hunting. I'd love to see the continuation of The Elevator. 

[Mozesh]

Loved it great game, very nice looking too. I wonder how you got them from silent hill.

To be continued ??

Lets hope so

[Barbarian]

Rosie: Thanks for the compliments on the game. Nice to know you found it challenging and worth playing.

Traveler: I "borrowed" the character art from the Silent Hill 4 computer game. It was a somewhat painstakingly slow process, and requiring lots of patience, to "screen capture" the character in the all of right walking poses I needed. Then carefully editing, cleaning-it-up, resizing as needed, gamma/lighting adjustments, synching all of the required frames to line-up together and in the right order to make a somewhat reasonable walking animation for the Up, Down and Left to Right directions. It was quite a lot of work actually. In all, I probably made a couple of hundred screen-captures and sorted through them all to get the various bits-and-pieces that I needed for this game.

MrColossal : Yep, most of the graphics I “grabbed” from Silent Hill 4. I may continue on extending this game idea into a more full adventure, but I wanted to see if there was enough feedback from people, which would let me know if there's enough interest for me to go ahead and work on an extended adventure project like this. I generally try to avoid “pixel hunting” in any games I make, but for a rushed one-week-game, perhaps I made have “broke that rule” a little? But generally, I thought most things that needed to be found or interacted with in this game was easy enough to find with a little exploring and patience. I guess perhaps one of the most tricky thing in this game may have been the finding and getting the “metal strip” item?

FiveTrickPony: Yep, correct again. Silent Hill 4. I recently got it a few weeks back, played it through, and thought it was an awesome game. It gave me lots of cool ideas of how I might go ahead to include some of those elements into an adventure game. So, when the One Room, One Week competition was announced, I thought it might be fun to try to put together this little game using some of the “Silent Hill” elements and themes which was still so fresh in my mind. The elevator background, well, it's also taken from an elevator that you find at one point in the Silent Hill 4 game (in the Hospital). However, a problem with trying to grab screen-captures from Silent Hill 4, is that as the character moves about, the background graphics (as well as the character) and perspective constantly changes and adjusts to “pan” the view with the character movements, so as you might imagine, it's hard to simply just do a direct “screen capture” to make a room like this elevator. In fact, what you see there in my game is made up of about 25 different screen-shots from various spots and angles from within the elevator, and I “spliced and edited”, re-angled, patched-together, etc…  it all together to try and make it seem like one big elevator room, trying to give it sort of a “overhead view” type of perspective. I also used some special effects to help me blend all of the various edits together, and as you see the end results kind of give it an “old creepy elevator” type of feel, which is what I was trying to achieve.

CoolBlue-Gord: Thanks for the positive comments. As you see from some of my answers above, it was a bit tricky, and a fair amount of work, to get all of the graphics together for this game. It's not always an easy task to “screen capture” character sprites and backgrounds from some games. I may yet continue on with this project, make it a more bigger sized adventure. I got lots of good ideas about it. I'll try to avoid puzzles that may seem too hard (such as pixel hunting).

RedRum89: Thank you as well for the feedback. Well, it's nice to know people have enjoyed my “Elevator” game, and may be interested to see more. I just may do that. Maybe my little game will help give you some new inspiration for working on Horror Hospital?

Once again, thanks to everyone for the comments and positive feedback.

[Candle]

Very nice , very very nice .
I'm stuck but this is a nice looking game.
Must be a bitch to do a full size game with all the work you had to do to make this one .

Candle

[2ma2]

It's quite nice, albeit rather fuzzy. You manage to achieve and maintain a rather spooky atmosphere, but that laugh just took it all away IMO. The puzzles are a bit on the odd side aswell, which can be good to make some kind of dream logic nightmare, but I felt I finished the game more out of coincidence than actual puzzle solving (apart from the brick-picking then..).

But it has promise!

[Potch]

This game is really cool, but I'm stuck.  Can I get a hint?

Spoiler

  I'm assuming I have to pick up the metal strip, but I can't figure out how.  I've tried everything I can think of!

[close]

[DoorKnobHandle]

There are walkthroughs to all those 1 week 1 room games available at aga's page, as far as I know!

[Potch]

Where is that page?  Sorry to be such a pest. 

[Barbarian]

2ma2: Thanks for the comments. I agree with most of what you mention, but then again, keep in mind, the whole game was "slapped together" from concept to completion in just 1 week.Ã,  ;)Ã, 
If I feel inspired, I may (perhaps in the near future) go on to "re-make" the game, to try and make it have a more improved overall playability and quality, as well as to expand on it to make it a bigger adventure.

Potch: Glad to know people are still downloading and enjoying my little adventure game. Regarding the metal-strip:

Spoiler

It became loose when the elevator shook the first time. Perhaps try to find a way to make the elevator "shake" again, and it may further loosen the metal strip enough so that you can pull it free.

[close]

[Potch]

Ah yes, before the hints and tips forum got taken down, I had read that tip before.  Problem is, I can't figure out how to do it! 

[Barbarian]

Ah yes, before the hints and tips forum got taken down, I had read that tip before.Ã,  Problem is, I can't figure out how to do it!Ã, 

Okay, warning, direct hint 

Spoiler

Two ways to "shake" the elevator. One way is to Look at the "Display Panel" twice in a row, when it reads "Ready?" the elevator will shake.  Next way is to try to Interact/Use the elevator doors, then you'll hear a sound, then "Talk" to the doors, and the elevator will shake.

[close]

there ya have it.

[Potch]

Oh thanks! 

Spoiler

  I had made it shake the talking way, but after looking at the display panel once, I didn't bother to look again.   Silly me.  I always have trouble with puzzles where you have to go back and do something you already did. 

[close]

[HillBilly]

Yay I won. Great game Barbarian, but I think the ending could've been slightly better. But, on the other hand, you only had one week and endings is pretty much the harderst part. 

[The Book]

I just finished the game, and found it quite... nightmarish.

If I'll find myself in simmiliar elevator in tonight's dream, it will be YOUR fault!

And seriously - great atmosphere, good gameplay, and promise of continuation - which made me hungry for more. Decent!

[Pelican]

I quite enjoyed the game despite its brevity (you did only have a week after all!). And you definitely seemed to have captured the spooky/scary atmosphere. I was quite literally afraid of trying to open the door because I was expecting a monster or something on the other side! If you can make a longer game in the same fashion, I will be the first to download it. Keep up the good work!

[Raider]

wow niceley done.
I enjoyed the sound effects. Creepy.
Good theme.

[=The=Brat=]

man i cant even find the metal strip

[Andy]

....Well this is just the kind of game ya wanna play at 3am in the dark 

*meep*

I enjoyed the progressive build up of the game, reminds me of the film 'Saw'...which is one of my favourite movies, so I'm not complaining.

Nice visual feel to the game, and considering you only had one room to work with, I think it is an excellent game. 

Oh yeah, like Pelican, I was also afraid of opening the door hehe

man i cant even find the metal strip

Spoiler

Look around the middle square on the right hand side. The metal strip should be the bottom edge of that square. If you can't pick it up, you probably have to do something else first.

[close]

[What a loser.]

Did you render it all?

[magintz]

This reminds me of a game I once owned for my Amiga. Can't remember much as I only had the demo, but you had to somehow find a way out of a lift after waking up in there or something. Once you escaped it was the end of the demo and asked me to pay some ridiculous amount for the full game

[Dragon]

nice game! can't wait for the sequel.

[What a loser.]

Barbarian are you still active? I loved the atmosphere in this game and the graphics are very good. What program did you use to render them?

[Barbarian]

Hey everyone, thanks for the nice comments about the game. I see that it's gotten a lot of downloads already, and most people who play it seem to enjoy it.

Alias: Yep, I'm still around, just I been super busy lately with life, job, and wrapping up a 2-year project of making a book that will very soon be published (so I'm about to be a Published Author)Ã, 
Ã,  Ã, But, as far as the graphics in the game, I think I may have answered that already on the first page of this thread, but, basically I took tons of "screen shots" of the "Silent Hill 4" game, then I did a lot of work to edit and clean up the various graphics I needed for the game, I mostly worked with Paint Shop Pro for doing that.

Ã,  Ã, It seems that most people who played this game have liked it and would like to see it expanded on. So, once I have the time, I may re-do this game into a more full-sized game, or, I may come up with a completely new "Survival Horror" type of adventure game. I already have a bit of work done on another project like this, and kicking around a few more good ideas about some other storylines, etc... that would make a good adventure game.

[Queen Kara]

Even though you used borrowed graphics , it's great because I think it would've been less creepy with drawn / other art like how I and others can draw an elevator , have trouble with walking animations , ect.  I'm not saying we're bad or that we can't make creepy games , it's just easier to get freaked out I think by really good renders / 3D than drawn art. Especially when you have it so the PC is alone or seems alone. Even in games like Silent Hill 2, you mostly are going through creepy and disturbing situations alone. Maybe it's the mix of realism ( the textures and colors of the elevator and the character...ect. ) and surrealism ( being stuck in elevator and having no idea how you got there...no apparent way to get out...ect. ) *shrugs* Lastly , I can understand how hard it is to make "original" 3D because I've kinda tinkered around with stuff like that before and I was totally clueless , even supposedly easy programs like Daz....I played around a bit and quickly got frustrated and bored 'cause I was so clueless , ended up deleting it and have decided just to tell others who actually know how to use these things and stuff where they can find Daz. *laughs* I was disappointed with the ending , I was expecting / hoping that a monster or insane killer / robber was going to attack him or something like that.

[Lionheart]

Great game, the only probs i had with it was a lot of pixel hunting, and somewhat cheezy dialogue.

It didn't seem like he was that freaked out to me.

The Elevator Graphics, and character were beautifully done, and the heartbeat only added to the atmosphere giving that chill up your spine.

Good job for a weeks worth of work though.

[MYKAYEL]

I love strange thriller games (like SILENT HILL) so I probably will like yours. I'm working on a game called DEAD MAN WALKING. It's not mutch but since it's my first game It's ok. Can you or anyone give me a site to post it at?
Great game by the way.

[pinkslipper32]

Came across this game by fluke and wow im loving it, little bit tricky to get the metal bar but somehow managed it (fluke i think) - problem is, im now stuck with the brick wall - ive managed to remove a brick, got the telephone receiver, called someone for help, then the phone went dead and im not sure wot im supposed to do now.

Im pretty thick when it comes to these games but love playing them and want to say a big YAYYYYYYY to the creator but an even bigger yayyyy if somone will please point me in the right direction.

Thanks

[Barbarian]

Hey Pinkslipper, glad you liked my little "Elevator" game. Thanks for your nice comments. 
It was made for the first "One Room, One Week" competition, so I didn't have much time to make the whole thing, so it's a rather short game, and perhaps the puzzles were not as well thought out as they could have been.

Getting the metal bar is not quite a "fluke", but, you have to get the elevator to "shake" two times before the metal bar is loosened enough to get.

Seems like you managed to figure out most of the game already, and if you perhaps look around at some things you may have already looked at before and see if anything changed, or perhaps try playing around with the elevator buttons a bit? Keep at it and I'm sure you'll escape soon.

If you're really stuck, there's a Hint's & Tips thread for this game over at:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=20515.0

You could post any of your questions for help with the game there.
   I may perhaps "re-make" this game into a more longer game, but, currently I'm in the works on a fresh adventure (Survival Horror adventure theme, similar in idea to Resident Evil / Alone in the Dark type of games).

Best wishes.

[pinkslipper]

ooooooh Yayyyyyy thanks for that, i'll give it a try - I was clicking on everything last night for about 2 hours but I was kinda tired so I might have missed something - will let you know.

How is the new game coming along? Is The Elevator the only game that you have got posted up or is there more of yours that we can play until the new one is finished?

[pinkslipper]

ok ok ok its official - I'm dumb! But I got outta the elevator woooo hoooo wicked little game, I thought something was going to attack me when I walked out the elevator and in a way was relieved that nothing did but also sad that it was the end

Anyway enough waffling - brilliant game!

[TheCheese33]

If you need some tips on how to make a good survival horror game, checking out Yazhee Croshaw's 5 Days a Stranger and 7 Days a Skeptic would give you good ideas. The way the monsters lunge at you are good ways to study.

[Barbarian]

How is the new game coming along? Is The Elevator the only game that you have got posted up or is there more of yours that we can play until the new one is finished?

Hiya Pinkslipper. Sorry for the delay of my reply. I got a bit busy, then I forgotÃ, 
Ã,  So, you finally completed "The Elevator" game. Hehehe, I guess I did something right to keep you addicted to playing it for so long.
Anyways, glad to know that people out there are still enjoying my little "Elevator" game.
Ã,  Ã, 
Ã,  Ã, You asked what other games I've worked on.Ã, 
Well, if you want a good laugh, you might want to check out The Great Stroke-Off! adventure game. It's a winner of the last ATC competition, and heavy on the humor side of things.

Ã,  The first made-with-AGS adventure game I completed was Escape From Evergreen Forest, which I admit is rather rough in parts. Still, a lot of people have downloaded and enjoyed it.

Ã,  The current game I'm working on, well I won't give away too much yet, but let's just say that if you liked "The Elevator", then you're gonna love my new project I'm working on.Ã,  It's still in the early stages yet, so I will let people know more about it after I get more done on the project.Ã, 

[Zacmiester220]

  Help Where Is The Display Panel
:)And By The Way Loved The Game Brilliant