Sydney Finds Employment

Started by iSTVAN, Fri 29/12/2006 01:57:52

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iSTVAN



Sydney Finds Employment

Sydney Claywood wakes in his alley one day to discover a new policy set in place by a joint venture between the political parties, churches and big businesses to rid the streets of homelessness and unemployment. There solution is a ‘final solution,' of sorts.

Sydney decides that the only way to save himself and his friends is to go directly to the heart of the plan, the CBD, and argue his case. However, in the back of Syd's mind is the constant idea that ‘Maybe I could, you know, just find a REAL job.

There is some suggestive and slightly rude content here. I'd only really recommend it for mature audiences.

Credits
--------
Ivan Dixon (aka iSTVAN): Story, graphics, coding
Steve Larabie (aka pixelblink): Music

Testing by Justine, Carl, buloght, bernie, pixel blink and ensellitis.




Download here (10.9 megs)


BEWARE this is my first ever game with adventure game studio.


Original work in progress thread.



Visit my blog here.


Please report any bugs to me directly at:
istvanna@hotmail.com

Secret Fawful

Yeehaw! First post! Downloading now!  ;D Can't wait. Download faster!  :P

EDIT: Now that I've acted like a *heehaw!* I'll play the game and post comments in this post later on tommorow.

deadsuperhero

I've been looking forward to this game for a while!
Congrats on your game, iSTVAN!
The fediverse needs great indie game developers! Find me there!

Serth

#3
Hi, I've been playing for a while. I really like the game, the graphs are really well drawn and the palette is really nice and homogenous across screens. The character is really charming too.

One thing, tough,

Spoiler


After the very begining I started with a very large inventory, with many items that I am also receiving again later, like the BH walkie-talkie. Is that a bug, is that happening to any other? 

Edit later: Yes, it's a bug. I started a new game and now the inventory is reduced to a couple of items. It seem that I'll have to play it again.
[close]

iSTVAN

#4
Thank you to those who've already downloaded the game!

Serth: Cheers! That bug you mention is bizarre. I don't know why that would be happening, but I'm glad you were able to restart the game and fix it. I hope it didn't ruin any of the game's surprises for you. If anyone else experiences similar problems, please let me know. If anyone else has had NO problems, I'd also like to know!

gypsysnail

Excited clap! downloadin now!! ;)
Believe in afterlife! It's true in a metamorphical way ;)
Ken & Roberta - my inspiration!! 20 years.
U are what you love doing and passionate about - keep up what you love most.

Steel Drummer

Downloaded it yesterday and played for a few minutes. It's great! The animations are smooth, the backgrounds are nice and the sprites are LucasArts quality! Look to see more good games from you in the future. This one is definitely worthy of an AGS Award.
I'm composing the music for this game:



Petra

Thank's iSTVAN for this late Christmas gift ;D
Have played your game for about half an hour now and I really love it!

Very good job you have done here!!!

Fisher

FUN game! I've been playing for a bit and I'm really enjoying it.

Thanks, iSTVAN !

vict0r

Awesooome!!! :D I've been waiting for this game! :)
Congratulations with finishing! :)

iSTVAN

Thanks everyone! I appreciate your appreciation.

ManicMatt

Lovely graphics, neat animation, amusing dialogue and challenging puzzles! Although sometimes the puzzles were made harder for the wrong reasons. I'll PM you about it.

You had me up untill 3am trying to finish the game! (Which I did)

Buckethead

ohw noo! found an other bug:

if you interact with the petshop, sydney goes inside but is stuck in the wall or something.

lovely game thought, well done!!  :)

Nostradamus

Nice game. interesting look and plot. Dialogue is interesting too.
One bug that really pisses me off is that out of habit I use TAB to access inventory and in this game pressing TAB makes the game crash and exit. Now can that please be fixed?



juzzy

well done, the soundtrack is the icing on a very large, very smooth chocolate cake, or something.

Barbarian

Congratz on an excellent game! I've only been playing it for a little while so far, but I think the graphics & characters suit the game well and are well drawn. The catchy music-scores for the various locations also help to set the mood nicely. A few parts of the game so far gave me a good chuckle. Some of the responses to trying some things and/or puzzles seem a little odd, but overall it's still fun to play and explore.  Good stuff and thanks for sharing.
Conan: "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!"
Mongol General: "That is good."

Blade of Rage: www.BladeOfRage.com

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

It's a cute game, but there is one very specific reason I stopped playing it:
Spoiler

I happened to eat the curry thinking it would advance the plot very early on and spent a half hour trying to move around at extremely slow speeds (and solving puzzles very slowly) because I thought it would wear off.  Not a really good design choice imo, particularly because you're given no indication that it won't wear off and because you move too slow to really get around.
[close]

Aside from that I think you've done a fine job, and for some reason the wigmaster looks kind of like a Super Punch-Out character!

Bernie

#17
ProgZmax:
Spoiler
You can get normal walking speed back by solving a relatively simple puzzle involving a sharp item. This will give you a, er... 'special' inventory item you'll need later on.
[close]

I believe that Mr. Ivan D. should make many more adventure games in the future!

CosmoQueen

YES!!! Finally!!! *downloads*
KPop and AGS....................that is my life.

buloght

Thanks for letting me test, ivan, awesome game, great work on the music too pixelblink! I hope you consider making more with your talent.

iSTVAN

Thank you everyone. I hope to bring your more adventures of Sydney soon, whether that be in the form of a game or an extended comic.

Cheers.

Sythe

Excellent game. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I also enjoyed the dark satire below the surface of the game.

The receptionist with three jobs.
The pet shop owner who is arguably more useless than the bum.
The owner of business corp. who pulls all the strings; religious, political and otherwise.
The business people walking around in circles not really achieving anything.
The extreme overreaction to terrorism. (super hero guy.)
The bad management of the banks (employment of the superhero guy.)
The limbless homeless man who is registered to drive.
The concept that dignity is solely based in reputation, not on appearance. (the washed up businessman.)
The middle class fisherman who keeps fishing even though he's no good at it and never catches anything.
The very concept of trying to hide the poor when much bigger problems face modern society.


Most enjoyable, I look forward to your future releases.

CosmoQueen

I totally agree with Scythe, I also enjoyed those parts of it too!

Excellent game!! Sooooo.....................when's the next one? ;D
KPop and AGS....................that is my life.

iSTVAN

Hey Sythe. Thanks for noticing some of the less celebrated aspects of the game. You've hit the nail on the head with most of my satirical comments.

CosmoQueen, glad you enjoyed the game as well. I noticed you were a little disappointed by the "To be continued..." in the hints and tips thread. It wasn't really meant to be taken seriously- more of a joke about annoying cliffhangers. This part of the bum's story is complete, but there's always the chance that I might work on another Sydney project. Part of me just wasn't sure if people would even like the game, so I don't want to get ahead of myself!

Some possible titles for future Sydney adventures:
-Sydney Treads the Catwalk (got me an ace idea for this one)
-Sydney and the Quest for Eternal Enlightenment
-Sydney Does Dallas
-Sydney Meets Kitty (from Bernie's 'A Game with a Kitty')

But at the moment I really want to work on a graphic novel for Sydney. Would people read an extended Sydney story in comic book form?

CosmoQueen

Hey I'd read it!!

And my favorite title is: -Sydney and the Quest for Eternal Enlightenment LMAO :D
KPop and AGS....................that is my life.

Steel Drummer

If the graphic novel is a free online thing then yes. But if it's some kind of 14.99 plus 6.99 shipping thing then no. A game seems cooler though. You originally made comics of him, didn't you? Could you post some links to those?
I'm composing the music for this game:



iSTVAN

#26
CosmoQueen that title you chose as your favourite happens to be the working title for the Sydney graphic novel I'm working on writing at the moment :)

Steel Drummer, the adventure would most likely be free on the internet unless I could find any publishers interested. I'd love to make it as a short animated film, but I have neither the money or ability. One day perhaps!

All my cartoons can be found on my blog. I still write the short four panel Sydney strips, but I'd like to do something longer.

iSTVAN

I've updated the download with a newer version with a couple of slight edits.

-TAB now has no affect on the game.
-It should be impossible to get stuck in the wall at the Pet Appreciation store.
-Sydney lets you know that when you start walking slow that you should try to find a way to speed up again.
-A couple of spelling errors have been fixed. If you notice any that I didn't, please tell me!
-Added a line to the note pad that lets you know you can skip the intro.

Thanks to Nostradamus for reminding me to do these things.

Rosie

Very well put together game, thoroughly enjoyed playing it........Hope to see more from you in the future.  Puzzles and story line were excellent.

GreenBoy

Yo great game.

Very original.  Spec the art design.

One thing though the debug is still on.
Maybe why someone had all the inventory at the start.

Keep it up bro the more AGS's the better I say. 8)

Petra

Hi iSTVAN,

I have to post again here.

I have finished this game today and have to modify my first posting.
I did not simply love the game, but I enjoyed it from the beginning to end! ;D

Cute graphics, nice story and sometimes rather challenging puzzles ( I must admit I had to look into the hints and tips thread twice ::)
There were no bugs and I really had a lot fun for some hours.

Thank you again for this game and I'm looking forward to seeing much more of your talents!!!

You got a new fan :P

Kweepa

Great game, with some superb animations. Thanks Ivan!
You really know how to make the most of a few lines.
I got stuck at the pet puzzle. I'm kind of glad I didn't think of the solution though.
Still waiting for Purity of the Surf II

Lucifiel

Cool game.... it'd be nice to see what happens to Sydney when he's become famous. :p

Or even playing him during his younger days would be fun. :p

deadsuperhero

Quote from: iSTVAN on Mon 08/01/2007 05:04:59
CosmoQueen that title you chose as your favourite happens to be the working title for the Sydney graphic novel I'm working on writing at the moment :)
You really should. I can imagine you making quite a terrific webcomic...
The fediverse needs great indie game developers! Find me there!

iSTVAN

Thought I'd just update this thread with info on the official soundtrack release.

All the music PB created for my indie game, Sydney Finds Employment, is now available and uncut for your listening pleasure over at SoundClick. Kudos to PB for writing up this list of songs which will eventually be printed out as a cd envelope to be distributed as promotional offerings, gifts for friends, and whatnot.

[http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=350189]
Check eet!
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Thanks again Pixel Blink.

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