Chick Chaser

[aussie]

After awhile of inactivity, AussieSoftTM proudly presents...

Andrew Gourdo is... Chick Chaser

You play Andrew Gourdo, a uni student who has just been dumped by his girlfriend. Your task is to get her back.

Chick Chaser is essentially a romantic comedy, intended as a tribute to the Secret of Monkey Island and Leisure Suit Larry series.


In Chick Chaser, you'll get to...


Experience life at college!


Face the challenges of uni life!


Visit Western Thathurst University!


Meet a load of girls!

FEATURING
- A tearful love story.
- Humor and drama in equal amounts.
- Heavily stereotyped female characters.
- A grand total of 39 rooms.
- Over 100 views.
- Over 450 sprites.
- Over 15 interactable characters.
- Over 15 dialog topics.
- Over 10 GUIS.
- Over 20 inventory items.
- A point-based ranking system.
- A classic graphical adventure interface.
- A bunch of copyrighted midis and sound effects.
- One hidden puzzle.

WARNING: There are a couple of situations in the game that could be interpreted as adult-oriented. However, there is nothing you wouldn't have seen in the first six installments of the Leisure Suit Larry series. If you found those offensive Chick Chaser is not for you. Also, just to be on the safe side, you probably shouldn't play the game if you're under 16 years of age.


So there, if you want to download it, the link is HERE, HERE or HERE (thanks Steve McCrea)


And BTW, it's geoshitties, so it'll be down every now and then. If anybody wants to set up a mirror, that'd be very much appreciated.

Thanks a lot magitz and Daniël Brooks for painstakingly beta testing the game.

[Potch]

Looks good.  Downloading. :-)

[prowler]

yep a mirror would be good, geocities has reached the limit for now it seems

[aussie]

New provisional mirror:
HERE

[Kweepa]

I also mirrored it at
http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/games/mirror/Chick.zip
I can keep it there indefinitely if you want.

Haven't had a chance to play it yet. Looks good though!

[aussie]

Thanks Steve!

I'll link to your mirror from the main page for the moment.

[Joyce]

Great game, I really enjoyed playing it. Didn't find the hidden puzzle though, but I did have a happy ending.

[Scummbuddy]

Minor bug reports and such. I admit that I haven't finished the game yet, so things I say may actually be explained later, I dont know.

Spoiler

1. When using the phone in the geology/faculty building, and you try to prank someone, "somerandom" needs a space inbetween.
2. The layout of the geology/faculty building confuses me. After hearing what he had to say about the window on the inside, that there was a ladder out there, I only looked to the left of the building on the outside. My suggestion, which would be a total rework, would be to move the ladder to the left side of the outside of the building. It was quite awhile till I learned that I could walk to the right, and then I found the ladder.
3. On the ledge outside of the Geology building, there is the tree visible, which is close to the ledge, but below, there is no base. Is it just a tree from further away from the building, that only its branches are visible next to the ledge? But to me, the tree at the ledge looks like the very top...
4. I feel that there needs to be more "Go to [off screen/leave]" remarks. There are certain places that don't explicitly state that this is where you click to leave.
5. in the faculty building, there is the first noteboard, but for some reason, it has a space before it, in the hotspot areas... so there is a large gap between look atÃ,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, noteboard... if you understand me.
6. The pool areas don't really look like they have water in it. For the angle we're seeing it in, I would think that it would be more reflecting, then transparent. Maybe add ropes going across, or ripples/small waves that occur in pools.
7. Sometimes, if you are leaving the bar outer scene to go to the road, and you click on "Go to road" you get placed at coordinates that are leathal. A car comes and kills you before you can react. Although its a hilarious addition to the game, the ability to get run over, I think this hotspots newroomex coors, need reworking. I believe if you just click go to, and not on road, but enough to get close enough to the edge, you don't get placed in harms way.
8. mouse cursor isn't reset when you go to the 'youre dead' screens. so you can have "look at" hovering over Restore, quit...Ã,  Ã, It still works, to restore the game and whatever, it just looks odd.
9. Once you first talk to Carmen, and she moves to the other side of the stacks, I didn't realize you could talk to her again. I hovered over her, but there wasnt a very large hotspot area on her, so I didn't realize I could do anymore with her. So, I wandered around for awhile. I just so happened to move the cursor all over her much later.
10. Maybe enlarging the area of the hotspot to retrieve the magazine from under the bed. not the bed side, but the magazine
11. Im surprised there is no funny response to putting the thumbtack/push pin on Cons chair.
12. I don't quite understand why you are calling the main character a midget. He most certainly isnt. I think a better put down would be puny, or weaking.
13. Did you spell "schwarzenegger" correctly? When I first saw it, it looked off, but I dont remember how you spelled it. I could be wrong, but if yours matches what this says, then good job. Maybe all it needed was capitalization?
14. Just another note: I can't believe I thought of using the thumbtack with muscles so fast. I hope everyone doesn't have a problem with that puzzle. And I guess I suspected just his muscles would deflate off of him, but not his whole self. Classic.
15. There is some random blue dot to the right of the stairs going up in the geology dept. Over in the black area.

[close]

Well, that's all for now. Please don't take this as a hit against your game. I am very much enjoying playing it right now, and I can't wait to finish it. Just trying to help.

[aussie]

Hi Scummbuddy!

Thanks for pointing all that stuff out, mate. You're correct all the way. I'll keep it all in mind for the next version of the game.

That's gonna take a little while to implement, though. Steve McCrea is hosting the game and I feel it's unfair to keep asking him to update the mirror for me (I have already asked him once).Ã, 

For the moment just try to enjoy it with its little glitches!Ã, 


Ã, 

[calacver]

great it's finished, now i can download it! I'm gonna go and play it now.

[EKM]

This is a pretty fun game. I was stumped on a few parts throughout, which means that you're doing a good job with the puzzles!

Anyway, good short gameplay, and nice animation with the tongue leaking and tears lol.

[Kweepa]

Steve McCrea is hosting the game and I feel it's unfair to keep asking him to update the mirror for me (I have already asked him once). 

I could probably update the mirror a couple more times. Just ask away!

[aussie]

Righto, if I can get some time in the next couple of days to fix that stuff, I'll PM you about it.

[Wretched]

aussie,
Kudos for a beautiful game, with original, solvable puzzles. I thought the old coin in drain was a bit cliched but at least you didn't have a paper under the door to get a key puzzle.  ;P

[aussie]

aussie,
Kudos for a beautiful game, with original, solvable puzzles (...) at least you didn't have a paper under the door to get a key puzzle.Ã,  ;P

but I did have one of those... 

[mätzyboy]

Liked the game! I got stuck at various points, but the hints forums helped me out. I was also puzzled by

Spoiler

the geometry of the school house, where windows were in comparison to the outside, and the ladder to the right. And that tree is a mystery! I also agree on that punctuating the hunk puzzle seems like the most random one of the puzzles...

[close]

I personally would have worked a little bit more with the legs when the caracters are walking, seems like they're bent as if they were made of rubber, instead of at the knee joint. But apart from that the graphics were sweet. I like that you put an effort into animating a lot of things. It makes the game come alive.

Thanx for a nice game!

[That Guy]

Aussie,

I'm nearly done with CC and think it was a fantastic effort.Ã,  The art's superb and the story is pretty unique, far as adventure games go.

The puzzles, however, drove me a bit batty.Ã,  I had to pretty much use a walkthrough for the first third of the game at least... which spoiled a bit of the fun for me.

More specifically,

1) One of the first and most crucial puzzles (the magazine) was a serious pixel hunt.Ã,  Those are real stumpers and can block a player for quite some time, so to have one right off the bat kept me from advancing the plot at all until I came here for some hints.Ã,  If you're going to do a pixel-hunt puzzle, IMHO, you should bury it in with other stuff the player is doing at the same time to give him a little more help in stumbling over it, since his eyes are open for other things.

2) The Top Ten Books hotspot is right next to a Noteboard hotspot, and visually, the books list is a part of the noteboard.Ã,  I couldn't solve the puzzle related to it because I'd moused over the Noteboard, read it, got nothing related to my quests, and moved on.Ã,  It would have been better to either have Andy read the noteboard and say "hey, there's a list here" or not have the noteboard at all and just have the list.Ã,  Otherwise the player risks missing it entirely.

3) Speaking of not seeing stuff related to your quests, the fact that objects change useability status based on whether you need them or not is, to put it bluntly, infuriating.Ã,  For example;

Spoiler

The ladder outside the Geology building, when you first try to use it.Ã,  The main character says "I'll get in trouble if I try to climb that", so you figure you can't use it.Ã,  So later when Theresa gives you the exam quest, I was saying to myself "well, the ladder is a logical choice but Andy already said he won't use it, so there's gotta be another way."

[close]

It becomes a brute-force method of solving the puzzles by having to re-visit every hotspot you couldn't use before to see if Andy suddenly wants to use it now.

4) Some of the more obscure puzzles have no hints at all.Ã,  I never would have thought to

Spoiler

put the thumbtack on the board to make a harpoon.

[close]

I'm a firm believer in the solutions for puzzles at least somehow being hinted at in-game so I don't have to play mind-reader and guess what the designer was thinking.Ã,  That puzzle was one of those times.  Guessing the alarm code was another.

Anyway, despite these issues I'm enjoying the game a lot.Ã,  Would definitely enjoy seeing more of your work in the future.Ã, 

[aussie]

That Guy,

Thanks for that feedback, it's always appreciated.

I'm going to take issue with a few things because I disagree with you. This does not mean I'm right and you're wrong, it's only my way of justifying certain things that you have seemingly found a bit annoying.

But one thing. I suggest you may use spoiler tags a bit more, like Scummbuddy did a few posts back. There are giveaways all over your post that belong in the hints and tips forum, not here.Ã, 

1) One of the first and most crucial puzzles (the magazine) was a serious pixel hunt.Ã,  Those are real stumpers and can block a player for quite some time, so to have one right off the bat kept me from advancing the plot at all until I came here for some hints.Ã,  If you're going to do a pixel-hunt puzzle, IMHO, you should bury it in with other stuff the player is doing at the same time to give him a little more help in stumbling over it, since his eyes are open for other things.

I disagree. The magazine thingy is by no means a stumper. It does not stop you from doing anything at all and you can get to the end of the game without it.

It is, as you say it should be, buried in a hell of a lot of other stuff you have to do.

Spoiler

In fact, the mag is only needed in the second last dialog option of the very last dialog, during the very last sequence of the game.

[close]

Pixel hunt? I think the hotspot is large enough in comparison with others in the same room (it's larger than the drawers, the coat, the pennant or even the poster). Perhaps the word is "unexpected" or "difficult to find", but I honestly don't think it's a pixelhunt. I fact, I was trying very hard to avoid those in this game.

But maybe, as other people have pointed out, the mag should be sticking out a bit. I agree that would be fairer.

2) The Top Ten Books hotspot is right next to a Noteboard hotspot, and visually, the books list is a part of the noteboard.Ã,  I couldn't solve the puzzle related to it because I'd moused over the Noteboard, read it, got nothing related to my quests, and moved on.Ã,  It would have been better to either have Andy read the noteboard and say "hey, there's a list here" or not have the noteboard at all and just have the list.Ã,  Otherwise the player risks missing it entirely.

But...

Spoiler

The list is not there the first time you go. So you might notice a large (in comparison), bright green poster that takes up half the noticeboard later on. In fact, all other notes were drawn in dim colors (light grey, pink, yellow) so that the poster really stands out.

And Carmen gives you a very explicit comment about the green poster she put up in the faculty. I think that's hinted enough.

[close]

3) Speaking of not seeing stuff related to your quests, the fact that objects change useability status based on whether you need them or not is, to put it bluntly, infuriating.Ã,  For example;

Spoiler

The ladder outside the Geology building, when you first try to use it.Ã,  The main character says "I'll get in trouble if I try to climb that", so you figure you can't use it.Ã,  So later when Theresa gives you the exam quest, I was saying to myself "well, the ladder is a logical choice but Andy already said he won't use it, so there's gotta be another way."

[close]

How many times, playing an adventure game, have you found you had nothing important to say to a particular character until you realised he has something you need?

To me that's a classic adventure game puzzle. At some points in the game, there's no actual reason for the player to do certain stuff. It is not until the player finds out that he has to go to a specific location or that he has to interact with a particular item that he can actually do it. Before that, you usually get a "I can't think what I would do with that / nah, better not / why?" answer.

Spoiler

As you said, the ladder is the logical choice. But is it logical for the player to get into trouble for no reason at all? It's not until the player realises he has to risk it that he'll actually climb it.

On a different note, I believe there are plenty of hints scattered all around the place for that. You have the faculty windows, the examination sign where Theresa is, the examination room where Theresa is, and the message when you look at the ladder itself. As you said, I think it soon becomes pretty obvious that you have to get the paper getting to the window.

[close]

4) Some of the more obscure puzzles have no hints at all.Ã,  I never would have thought to

Spoiler

put the thumbtack on the board to make a harpoon.

[close]

Yeah, I dig that...

Spoiler

...but how many of those wacky solutions to puzzles have you seen in adventure games? I would have never thought of "picking up dog" or using "dodo on valve" (dodo being a monkey - I can't remember his actual name) i.e. using a monkey as a "monkey wrench" in MI2?

Admittedly, I could have done that in some other way. It was just the first thing that came into my head.

[close]

I'm a firm believer in the solutions for puzzles at least somehow being hinted at in-game so I don't have to play mind-reader and guess what the designer was thinking.Ã,  That puzzle was one of those times.Ã,  Guessing the alarm code was another.

To me...

Spoiler

... guessing the alarm code was hinted enough. How many times does the headmaster say the word "moron", "moronic" or "morons" every time you walk past the alarm. In fact, sometimes he yells "MORONS!!!" in capital block letters.

As much as I'd do other things differently if I had to make the game again, I must say I have no regrets about that particular puzzle.

[close]

Anyway, despite these issues I'm enjoying the game a lot.Ã,  Would definitely enjoy seeing more of your work in the future.Ã, 

Cheers to thatÃ, 

[mätzyboy]

Spoiler

About that morons pussle, ther is no clear link between what the principal sais, and the code. There is no reason what so ever as to why he would be sitting in there yelling out the code to an alarm, especially since it seems as if he's on the phone with somebody about the tests. Also, a code is usually numbers. I think a key pad for entering the code would be appropriate, so that we could see that letters were to be used. I have to disagree that is is obvious.

[close]

I do agree with the guy about most of his comments, but since people seems to have figured things out I guess we're a minority?

And as I said before! Excellent game!

[aussie_unplugged]

Spoiler

About that morons pussle, ther is no clear link between what the principal sais, and the code. There is no reason what so ever as to why he would be sitting in there yelling out the code to an alarm, especially since it seems as if he's on the phone with somebody about the tests. Also, a code is usually numbers. I think a key pad for entering the code would be appropriate, so that we could see that letters were to be used. I have to disagree that is is obvious.

[close]

I do agree with the guy about most of his comments, but since people seems to have figured things out I guess we're a minority?

And as I said before! Excellent game!

Ok, in that case the point is taken. I'll try to make the hints more obvious in future games.