Prodigal INTERVIEW on reloaded.org! 3/13/06 update!

[splat44]

Hi InCreator,

Yes, I was part of beta testing team and I do agree you it may be the best AGS game released in 2005.

That game is well done with least bugs.

For trisk to work on sequel, depends on how this game was received.

Be sure to vote on this game. Voting link is found on original post.

Regards

[Trisk]

InCreator

Hey, I'm glad you enjoyed the game! Yeah, I was calling it a thriller more than horror for a while, but when the end got to being the way it was, I started billing it as a horror/thriller. I hate games where the end LAMES out and stops being scary, so I worked hard to make the end the crecendo to the chills. :b

As for the technology...I recognize some of my rough spots. Keep in mind this game was 95% done by just ME, and that made a tremendous work load for one person. Edgar Rocha did all the inking for the character closups, but I was still coloring them all. He also did most of the monster animations, which look fantastic, but that was late in the game, so I didn't utilize his tallents as much as I could have, had I known how good he was at animating.  :

I was doing ALL the storyboarding, most of the dialogue, 3D rendering, programming, sound, many of the music bits, FMV, puzzles...by myself, which started to get overwhelming. It is for this reason that I say I'll only do a sequel if this one gets popular. If this one does well enough, I should have enough respect in the AGS community to be able to put together a tallented TEAM to help me.

Also note I started this game as an homage to Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, and it grew into what it is. Some of the backwards tech was to remain true to the era of Sierra games.

Here's a short list of improvements I would want for the next game:

-High res 16bit color all the way. 640x480 mandatory. This may not include FMV, however, for space reasons. FMV would prolly still be captured at 320x200.

-A team to help with programming and puzzles so I can focus more on 3D rendering to give each scene the TLC I wanted to.

-High res detailed character sprites. Edgar (En Guarde!) has already said he wants to work on the sequel and will probably become the lead animator for it.


So spread the word! And get some of those AGS vets to play the game! 

laters,
Trisk

[Kweepa]

I liked it a lot!
Thanks!
Probably the most effective facet for me was the sound. Great stuff. Congrats also to Peter Thomas for the music.
Great ending too.
Have you been playing Eternal Darkness at all?

I wouldn't do a "sequel" but I'd love to see another game with the same attention to detail. I wouldn't go with 640x480 - the resolution of this game about matched the detail. 16 bit colour, sure. That just makes your life easier.

Thanks for the walkthrough. I don't think I'd have gotten through the game at all without it. I noticed a few places where repeated actions produced a hint, but there were too many leaps of logic for me to solve it on my own.

Cheers,
Steve

P.S. The game locked up during the FMV credits... I haven't tried to repro it yet but just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else had the same problem.

[scourge]

hey man, i completed your game. Without the walkthrough i think it would have been impossible. Sometimes things just doesn't make sense even after i read the walkthrough.

I must say that this game has probably one of the best endings i've seen in all the ags games i've played, which is a few. Very good ending!!!

Your graphics are very good.

I feel you tried to fill in gaps too much in terms of story and items to use, as though you didn't sometimes know 'what i could put in here '...

I found a range of bugs which really puts a down the game a bit. You should have your betatesters payed betterÃ, 

Great game.

[passer-by]

Nice game, thanks.

Spoiler

I liked the random cutscenes that happenned in the characters' imagination. I was repeatedly fooled.

[close]

If you ever make a sequel, please don't change the ending of this one, it was a success.

[Pumaman]

This game looks good, however I just exited the bathroom and went to do save number 4 and the game crashed.........I guess the 4th save is a bug? I even tried resaving over save 1, but that caused a crash also.
Hope this can be corrected. I just went to an earier save (3) and continued on and got into cave where I decided to try a save again. When I click on a save, it goes blank and then the game crashes.

Interesting .. can you save at all now? If you restore save 2 and then try to save again, does it work? Is it just if you restore from save 3 that you can't save again?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Oh boy, where to begin...
   ...well, at the beginning, I guess. Presentantion - 5 stars. Sure, at first the character art bugged me a bit, but it was all a matter of getting used to it. Anyway, after seeing that intro - beautiful work, great atmosphere, even story-telling-wise it's great - I knew I was in for a treat.
   I didn't have any trouble with the game, not needing the walkthrough once. Puzzles were simple and straightforward, and still challenging enough to be stimulating. Great gameplay balance, in other words - good show!
   The best part was definitely the music. It reminded me of Phantasmagoria 2, for some reason... and it added so much. Especially in the first few rooms (the ones on the cabin especially).
   The random effects, the images, those things... damn, they're great! And that's all I have to say about that.
   The ending is among the best, and is easily the best part of the game, hands down. I didn't catch all the background story, but I caught enough of the plot.
   My advice would be not to make a sequel, actually. At least not one that follows the obvious direction suggested by the ending. This particular bit of story is nicely wrapped up.
   And an interesting thing I found was how we didn't really understand how Prodigal 0 fit in until the end. Clever.

Spoiler

Incidently, is "Prodigal" an ironic reference to the Prodigal Son, the son being Jacob?

[close]

   All in all, a wonderful game that I just wish was longer.

[Mordalles]

yeah, i really liked the game. the ending was really good, i did not expect that. one of the best ags endings (or any other game for that matter).

although, the walking around got me a bit after a while. good thing you put that "middle button" thing in. personally, i had trouble with the puzzles, but then again, i always have trouble with puzzles. im probably the worst adventure gamer that exist.

some of the things im still trying to figure out how you did it, for instance, at the end when  the background moves, while the 2d sprite of the your character in the prison moves at a different pace. that was really well done, and could you please tell me how you did it! really impressive.

enjoyed it! thanks, and you should make a sequal.

[Trisk]

SteveMcCrea- Yes, I've played Eternal Darkness! ^_^ An awesome game, it was my favorite Survival Horror game ever...until Resident Evil 4 came out and was one of the best GAMES ever, never mind best Survival Horror. :b Although I never actively thought about making the horror beats like the ones in E.D., they were rolling around in my brain and prolly came out subconsciously.Ã, 

buloght- Well, don't keep 'em to yourself, tell me about 'em so I can fix 'em!Ã, 

cp- The next game would, if I make it, pick up RIGHT after where this one ended, and yes, it wouldn't change a THING of this game's story. We gots BIG plans for this story, and this game is only hinting at the depths it will go...there were multiple plot twists that didn't make it into the game because they just didn't have relevance to the story at hand. For instance, what was the real story behind their parent's death? It all ties into the story later on.

Rui "Brisby" Pires- Thanks so much for all the kind words! My favorite part of this game was doing sound and music design, and is the part I'm MOST proud of. Standing in the ditch along a busy highway next to a swamp, arm outstretched with mic in hand, smelling the stink of swamp while waiting for a break in the cars to record the sound of swamp frogs for the forest at the beginning...just one of dozens of fond memories I have designing the audio portion of this game.

And thank you for the vote of confidence in my puzzles! I'm also really glad you figured out how Prodigal 0 tied in. I hope people that play both will "get it."

Has anybody else who's played both understood Prodigal 0?

-Mordalles too much to talk about here...I PMed you about it.

Thanks for the kind words all! Spread the word about Prodigal! 

[SHE DEVIL]

This has to be the BEST game I've played in a long time!!! I really loved the ending!!PLEASE MAKE ANOTHER GAME!!!Ã,  J. 8)

[Vince Twelve]

I'm getting the same bug Stefano was reporting:

Spoiler

As Stephano described: "When you're in the upper room, coming down from the watch tower in the ruins, if you use "walk" on stairs and then "interact" with stairs, the character vanishes and you get only the screen showing the base of the stairs... tried to use everything, walk, talk, etc. and the character doesn't come back. Maybe he liked hanging out with the depressed guard, Linus.  "

[close]

I think part of the problem is in using the middle mouse button.  I think somehow, by trying to move very fast through the game (because damn that's a slow moving character) using the middle mouse button can skip the character over some walkable areas that have codes associated with them... maybe... I don't know.  At some points early in the game (in the cabin) I was able to get the character to break the black bars on the sides of the screen by using the middle mouse button. 

[EDIT] You're totally right.  There's no reason the middle mouse button should cause this.  Regardless, the bug is still there. [/EDIT]

Regardless of why, I'm stuck in that same place Stefano was with no character to be seen, and though I was enjoying the game thus far, I don't know if I was enjoying it enough to start over (I wasn't keeping up with saves).

[EDIT]Apparently I was enjoying it enough, because I started over.  And starting over made my P.S. (to follow) just that much more annoying.[/EDIT]

PS. Please let players skip cutscenes.  Please?

[Hammerite]

Er... how DID Prodigal 0 fit in to this?
I STILL dont understand!

[Mordalles]

Spoiler

hmm, in prodigal 0 i think we play with jacob's brother,when he went through the portal. just like jacob was searching for his brother, his brother was searching for his girlfriend, who tricked him in the same way as jacob's brother tricked jacob.

trisk, correct me if I'm wrong.

[close]

[Rosie]

Thank you........Game is working ok now, I downloaded it again and the saves are working fine.   I talked to soon.....Happening again........saves are crashing I am as far as getting the prison door open and trying to get to the digs, but my saves are crashing and I cant get any further.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Mordalles, hide that with the spoiler tag!

[peter]

When i use the USE the Aegis on the prison cell door
I get a error

in room script (line 8 ) and game stopt ?

[Trisk]

SHE DEVIL- Thanks! Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

Vince Twelve- I tested the game extensively with the middle button and never had a problem. If I understand the theory of the "middle mouse button code" correctly, (Pumaman, tell me if I'm wrong) The game just skips forward, moving Jacob along his path until he enters an area that would initiate code. So no, in theory, clicking the mouse button to skip ahead shouldn't do anything that wouldn't happen otherwise.

That said, and being that I am CONFIDENT that these problems are NOT with my code, I'm working hard to get a new version of Prodigal out on the latest AGS version, 2.71 RC3. This may go a long way towards removing some of these problems.

Hammerite and Mordalles

Spoiler

Yes, that is correct. You were playing as MIKE in Prodigal 0. I flip flopped ALOT on whether or not I should change his shirt color, but I decided if I DIDN'T, you'd get the connection right away during the opening cutscene. I didn't want that, so I changed his shirt from red to green. But that is Mike, a slightly more SANE Mike.

[close]

Rosie-

I'm sorry this is happening! I say again, when the new version is out, I'd be glad to make a save for you and send it so you can keep playing! It really wouldn't be a big deal, either...I can beat the entire game in about a half hour. :b

Peter-

I PMed you for more info.

[ida]

Hi, BRILLANT game. Spooked me out in places.

Though without checking the walkthrough twice I would have been stuck, as I missed out on a few inventory items for the disguise initially.

[Trisk]

Quick update on the new version, which I hope to have out tomorrow, 11/16/05.

I ported the game up to AGS 2.71 RC3. I'm hoping this will fix some of the strange bugs that certain people have been experiencing.

The most common bug is crashing in the save/load gui. Because of this, I'm going to initialize the STOCK save and load GUIs. If SSH's GUI won't work for you, you can try using the stock AGS GUIs to see if that helps.

You'll access them with:

CTRL-S -this will open the stock save GUI
CTRL-X -this will open the stock load GUI

I'm going to go test the game now. Let me know if this sounds like a plan!

[SSH]

Please post if you do get ANY crashes with this new version, as I'd love to find out if there's anything I can fix in the saveload GUI. I think it was an AGS problem though. Can I ask players to try saving with the stock GUI first, to make sure they don't lose anything and then try saving again with the screenshot GUI? Thanks!