The Winter Rose

[Baron]

Announcing the long anticipated completion of....



The game can be downloaded from here:
http://www.vanwijst.com/games/winter_rose.zip

TWR is the adventure of Rose, a young archer who must go questing through a magical wintery realm in order to stop a fiendish ice-dragon.Ã,  The game features hand-painted backgrounds and over a hundred animations.Ã,  Anyone following the TWR Games in Production Thread will recall how very long I've been at this game (off and on, of course, but it's been on the go for about a year and a half) -congratulate me on finally finishing!

Oh, here's a screenie:


Enjoy!

BaRoN

[AlbinoPanther]

congratulate and downloading....

[Stefano]

Looking good! Downloading it now...

[i k a r i]

You have very good animations!! (The snow is amazing), and the story is great....The only thing I didn't like so far is the fact that the main character doesn't have a face, but you already knew someone was going to say this, so I'll leave it there...but why?? 

EDIT: The music is also VERY well made..And I like the footsteps stuff:

[Stefano]

Hahahaha! Going bananas with the footprints feature, heh?

Uh! Found a bug...

Spoiler

right after you give the comb to the mole in the cave, the game start looping the "pull-the-arrow-and-fall" sprite. Walking becomes a hard task. Even if you leave the screen, the loop continues.

[close]

Nice game!!!! I'm loving it. My feet are cold just to watch all that snow...

[i k a r i]

That didn't happen with me Stefano.. :o

Anyway, this is one of those games where you get a different comment from almost every action you do, that's why I enjoy trying stupid things  ... at the house for example

Spoiler

talk to the welcome mat or use something in the floor

[close]

so this stuff makes the game even more enjoyable..I'm gonna have to stop for a while or I will not study 

[Stefano]

Yes, I agree! I'm trying weird stuff too... 
I couldn't get the loop again... the second time I've did it, all went right. Maybe it was a specific girl-mole dialogue that triggered it... 

[Baron]

Gahhhhh!!!!Ã,  I'm pretty sure I know what the bug is.Ã,  I mistakenly threw some ChangeCharacterView commands in when I should have used SetCharacterView -I thought I had fixed all of them.Ã,  The conversation just triggered the bug, since after conversations the playing sprite resets to the default view.Ã,  I'm thinking it's something minor you did beforehand, since the game's been pretty extensively tested with no problems, but it should be fixed anyway.Ã,  Thanks for finding it!
And thanks everyone for the positive feedback -I'm glad you're enjoying the game.

[Josh R]

I've been playing for about 20 minutes. Great game so far. It's challenging and it seems like the puzzles are pretty complex, because I haven't accomplished much yet. I will keep at it though.

Anyhow, great game.

[dronon]

Hi!  I enjoyed this game a lot, but I encountered two bugs and two major puzzle frustrations.

Spoiler

Bug 1: I noticed that whenever I created a snowball, I stepped slightly to the left.  If I happened to be standing against something on my left - the edge of a path, a person - then I'd get stuck and would be unable to walk anywhere.

Bug 2: Somehow I managed to kill the vulture without using the water. I'm not sure how I did this and I was unable to repeat the problem. Basically I scared the vulture off various screens a couple of times with the bow. Even after I found the dead vulture body, the live vulture was still sitting in the family tree.

Puzzle frustration 1: It didn't occur to me to use the tinderbox on the ground to start a fire, because whenever I tried using the tinderbox on the candle, I got the message "The benefit of light is not worth the risk in this location.".  Of course, there is one safe location - but I never thought it was worth the trouble to use the tinderbox elsewhere, ever, under any circumstances, even with the hermit's vague risk, because creating a fire on the ground would create light, and wouldn't be worth the risk. Also, I wasn't carrying any tinder, so I didn't think I could spontaneously light a fire on the snow. (Modification - oops, you mention this in the file that comes with the game, I hadn't looked at that. Sorry!)

Puzzle frustration 2: Using the snowball on the tree. I gave up trying to re-set the trap because the message I kept getting was that I didn't want to kill anyone, like when I tried to use the knife on the tree. I understand why you worded it the way you did, though.

Also: When the sasquatch is in the pool and the gnome is still around, if you keep to the top edge of the screen it's possible to walk up to the sasquatch without activating the gnome's "push into the pond" death. And when I use the apple at that point or try to speak to him, nothing happens. Using the bucket on the water makes nothing happen at all either, which might make the player think that's not a possible action later on.

[close]

Other than that, I had a lot of fun - I love the detail you've put into this, all the funny little messages from trying to interactr with, well, everything, the snow effect, etc.! I don't find the minimal face of the character distracting at all.

[Josh R]

I've had an hour or so to play now, and I just wanted to say that I am really enjoying the game. Your puzzles are a lot of fun, the plot is enjoyable, the animations are nice, and I really like the painted backgrounds. Excellent game.

[Josh R]

Ok, I beat the game, and I just have one question...

Spoiler

WHy do you need the long johns? I understand that the fur of the snowman would shield you from heat/cold. But when you face the dragon, he never attempts to burn or freeze you anyways. Couldn't you defeat him with just the horn and wand? Unless, of course, he does attack you if you arent wearing them, but all he did was squash me before I had the wand anyways.

[close]

[Stefano]

Beat it too.

Spoiler

Starting a fire on the snow? That one kept me from finishing it yesterday... And I've read the "readme" file before I started to play the game! 

[close]

Nice one, though. It's definetly going to my "best AGS games" personal colection.

[Ben Jordan Fan]

Nice game BaRoN

[ida]

Really enjoying the game. Love the wee animations. The small touches really make the game come alive. Thanks!

[Fisher]

AH.......Finished!

Thanks, BaRoN!

That was fun.....looking forward to many more from you!

[ggp]

Finished the game, and really enjoyed it. Loved the snow and footprints, very atmospheric. However, found a few bugs;

Spoiler

When making the coldron mix to free the sourcerer, i put in a worm, and then 'two' black feathers, and she was free. Is this right ? Looking at the book, it looks like i should of needed some blood ?
Also; At the end of the game, i went to the dragon and used by wand on him to get rid of his wings, but he then turned me to black fire. However, when i then carried on playing and created myself some longjohns, (not needed to kill the dragon,) and got a bucket of water that turned to ice (not needed to kill the dragon,) this time when i used my wand on the dragon, he didn't use black fire on me and allowed me to blow the horn and finish the game! Very good game though.

[close]

[Ubel]

I played this a bit. And so far it's awesome work! The animations are great, and all the graphics are just the way I like them. Simple (in a good way), yet still very awesome! All in all it's very King's Quest -ish because of all the sudden deaths and many locations. Me likey very much! I hope you will make more games in the future!

[Mr. Mozzarella]

Spoiler

Bug 2: Somehow I managed to kill the vulture without using the water. I'm not sure how I did this and I was unable to repeat the problem. Basically I scared the vulture off various screens a couple of times with the bow. Even after I found the dead vulture body, the live vulture was still sitting in the family tree.

[close]

Spoiler

I remember that bug from the beta testing. The first time I tested, I didn't even know that you had to kill the vulture because suddenly it was lying there, dead, and I could get as many feathers as I wanted ...

[close]

[Wretched]

 Finished, and got the blood this time round, it's a beautiful little game, best played with the heating off. But I wish you had gone the extra mile and put a final cut scene in, that would have made it into a gem.

[Baron]

Greetings Gamers,
Ã,  Ã,  Effective 9:15pm EST on November 7 2005 I've posted an updated version of TWR on my webpage (same file name so the link from the forums will still work).Ã,  I'm pretty sure I've fixed all the little bugs identified so far (including that annoyingly elusive Vulture problem -turns out I had mixed up the Vulture's speech variable with the...other one). ::)Ã,  I've also tried to make some of the conversational advice a little more clear.
Ã,  Ã, Please continue to post bug reports as necessary.
Ã,  Ã, Now, to address a few comments:

Ã,  Ã, -The snow effect is Scorpiorus' from his Snow/Rain Pluggin.Ã,  Come to think of it, I think I might have forgotten that in my documentation -I'll have to fix that next time.

Ã,  Ã, -The coding for the footprints is based directly on that from the AGS Demo game in the desert text-parser room.

Ã,  Ã, -The main character doesn't have a face because I'm bad with faces, except for cartoony faces, but I didn't want a cartoony character.

Ã,  Ã, -The music is from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons".Ã,  It's funny since the tracks are from his "Summer", but I thought they suited a wintery mood better...

BaRoNÃ, 

[Rosie]

I am one of those people who after I finish a game, I go and post my votes for it............ Your game is not listed where we go to vote..................  I was going to give this game an excellent score.  Thank you for your good clean work.

[Mr. Mozzarella]

Ã,  Ã, -The music is from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons".Ã,  It's funny since the tracks are from his "Summer", but I thought they suited a wintery mood better...

Ah,  I was already wondering why it didn't sound like the Winter   :

[ManicMatt]

Well, I've just finished playing the curse of monkey island (Oh I waited so long to play that!) so now is a good time to download your game!

Yeah know what you mean about drawing serious faces, I'm far better at cartoon ones too, but I tried serious anyway.. (Look at my icon)

..any good?

[Khris]

The download doesn't work for me, the server seems to be down
Any chance of somebody mirroring it?

Edit: nm, server's back up.

[Baron]

Many appologies to those of you who like to vote for games -I've now posted the game up there.Ã,  It's under Medium Length Games on the 9th page.

BaRoN

EDIT FOR MANICMATT: That's still kind of cartoony....Good, but still cartoony.Ã,  Even if I was really good at drawing 'realistic' faces I would have a hard time with the facial expression.Ã,  Should the main character be grave?Ã,  Bemused?Ã,  Intense?Ã,  Probably all of the above, at different times in the game...and that really complicates the animation process.Ã,  So why not empower the gamer to imagine their own facial expressions?Ã,  It's a fantasy, afterall....

[Rosie]

Great Game... BRAVO.....clap, clap, clap.

[2ma2]

Exactly what Rosie said..

Standing applauses!

[Anarcho]

Great game Baron!  I love the atmosphere...and I like that she doesn't have a face.  It makes the game a little more surreal, in a good way. 

[ManicMatt]

To BaRoN:

Thanks! I'm downloading your game as I write this! (It's at 59% download)

I see your point. Indeed, in my first game that got scrapped, my character was smiling permenantly!

Downloaded it!

I must play it before Simon the sorceror 2 comes through the post!

Will come back with feedback.

I haven't announced my own game in the making because I don't want any pressure!

When I do proper cartoony it's akin to Garfield or Ren and Stimpy.

Laters!

[Mordalles]

great game! great animation. especially where she takesthe arrow out of the stump.

[ManicMatt]

I like the art style, quite cosy!

that stupid gnome with his annoying laughter!

I'll KILL HIM!!!

(I hope you can do that)

[ness]

great game. can't add much to other comments as it's all been said really, but i just wanted to let you know someone else had played it and enjoyed it.

[Dexter]

AWESOME, I had a great time with this one.  Good job.

any chance of a sequel?

[Baron]

UPDATED VERSION -Tues Nov. 15 8pm EST

I've finally had a spare moment to look at the game again and I think I've solved that pesky no-flame game freeze bug that some people were getting.  Most people didn't notice it since it only occurred under special circumstances after you already died at least once and used the "Retry" function instead of restoring.  I've also altered the Hermit's dialogue so it cycles rather than being random, and I fixed a spelling error or two.  Thanks again to everyone who found these pesky little mistakes!  And thanks again (again!) for all the positive feedback from everybody!

DEXTER- Nope, I'm not currently considering a sequel.  I'm enjoying working on a short MAGS game at the moment, and then after November I'm interested in making a Sci-Fi type game.  I think my sense of humour would be well suited to a zany space adventure, and I'm looking forward to focussing more on silly and outrageous drawings rather than trying to render things "realistically".  But this is just whimsy speaking -nothing in the works at the moment. 

BaRoN

[grandma]

i loved the game and voted for it as a great one. i'm sorry you are not doing sequels.  anyway, thanks for the time you spent creating it.  btw - i had none of the troubles everyone seemed to have so it played very smooth for me.   good luck in all you future efforts.

[froggler]

Just wanted to let you know that I truly enjoyed this game. It was really nice to play as a girl, too. I love the extra details, like the footprints and the contect-specific death messages. I also found the difficulty level to be just about right for me.

Thanks!

[calacver]

This game deserves more attention. It has excellent animation and excellent feel to it!

[Jhumjhum]

Hi!

Just finished it. Very nice "wintry" atmosphere created. Especially liked the startup screen where you can see the entire prologue( how the dragon came and ruined the village) in a small animation.

Wish it was longer with some spells & stuff.
Waiting for a sequel.

[Ali]

I really enjoyed this game, it's atmosphere was absorbing and appealing. I normally hate sierra-like deaths, but the game was just short enough for the deaths to be amusing, and just long enough for the story to be enjoyable. There are a few small areas that I felt could be improved.

A brief epilogue, perhaps in the style of the intro, would really have made the narrative more satisfying.

The writing was usually enjoyable but occasionally awkward. I think there were a few malapropisms too, the word 'recede' may have been misused at some point.

Spoiler

I was also stumped by the beat-the-goblin-at-his-own-game puzzle. The main reason I didn't think to use anything with the catapult tree was that its look-at/interact response remained the same after it had been sprung. That suggested to me that I wasn't going to use it again, as is often the case in games when responses fail to keep up with the story.

[close]

I hope these observations are helpful, and I hope to see more games like this!

[Sparky]

Thank you very much for making The Winter Rose. Its unmatched mood and clean style really inspired me! I liked the large number of hotspots with custom descriptions. The writing is great. It seemed like you sometimes wanted to go over the top, but the nice subdued humor really fit the game. Many of the puzzles and types of inventory items also fit the mood very well.

What a great demonstration of how a single person can effectively make a solid game. I'll definitely recommend this title to all my friends.

[lo_res_man]

I liked the game itself, but I think the payoff at the end could have been better.

[EdLoen]

Awesome game man. You got me stumped for a while with some of the things ^_^!

Maybe your next game could tell the story of Moiler Mole =P kinda get a world mythos anthology going  .