Keptosh I: The Search for Junc

[juncmodule]

It is the year 2084.

You live in ServaCor city. The city is ruled by the massive corporation called ServaCor. Humans have come to rely on electricity and data to sustain their lives. The slang term of "junc and flow" has been given to these two vices. ServaCor supplies junc to the entire city, while flow is gathered from a Lunar based computer network.
Most citizens of ServaCor and the millions of other cities just like it hate their rulers. The corporations provide the citizens with free food, beer, shelter, junc, and flow in exchange for what is almost slave labor in huge robot factories. Most people are not happy with their situation, they see these "free" provisions as thinly masked ways to keep the citizens in line.

Welcome to the future.

You are Adis Keptosh.



Download Keptosh I:The Search for junc HERE
(The game is 2.96MB)

Special thanks go to Timosity for relentlessly Beta testing this without even being asked. Thanks to Scorpiorus for the amazing CCS plug-in. Most importantly thanks to Chris for creating an engine to allow me to create this.

This game was started on 10-30-02 and completed on 1-28-03.

Hope everyone enjoys it!

later,
-junc

[Timosity]

Cool to see this released junc, looking forward to seeing what you've done with the inventory.

not a problem with the testing, just happy to be of help.

edit: I just played this 1st release version, I've gotta say I love the music, it fits in perfectly to the style of the game, and the situations, looks like you got everything wrapped up in a neat little package.

[Quickstrike]

Just finished playing it!  Great!  Can't wait for the next game!  

Spoiler

I was stuck on the Purr Disk, but I ranomly clicked.

[close]

[Scorpiorus]

heh, finished and got 135 of 150. is it possible to get 150?
Love all: grafics, animations, story.
Yeah and very nice style music.
Thanks for this game, junc.

-Cheers

[juncmodule]

Thanks everyone.

Yep, it is possible to get all 150. There are a few things that are optional.

Thanks for playing!

later,
-junc

[MillsJROSS]

I haven't finished it yet, for lack of time, but I must say...this is a very well done game. I love your graphics, you're music, and the storyline. It reminds me of sierra. The only problem I have with it is the dialog. If you do something along the lines of using the normal narrator box for speech, then you should give us the names of who is saying what. There was a moment I got confused. It's nothing major...just thought I'd mention it. Good job!

-MillsJROSS

[TheSponge]

I really liked your game I just wished there was a walk icon on the bar instead of having the right click to get to it, I also prefer the other text type like the other dude said. Other then all of that, it was great . I really liked the graphics and music too .

ps: Does anyone know where I can find an ags chat room?

[juncmodule]

Yeah, I thought the dialog was a bit weak, but, I'm not a big fan of speech above the head or speech options thing. At least not for this game. Giving the character speaking name would have been a good idea, perhaps at some point I will go through and add that.

As far as the walk icon, I was going to completely eliminate the walking cursor, but, opted to keep it on the right click for the fans of the mouse. You can walk with the keyboard. I must say I got used to the mouse and I didn't like any of the code I found for keyboard control.

AGS Chat room: I am pretty sure that there is a channel on IRC, check out the general forum and ask about it there or search for a topic about it. I know there have been several started.

thanks for the input and what-not

later,
-junc

[Flippy_D]

I've always liked you, junc, and it's good to see yet another person who joined after me beating me to making a game.

It's all very Blade Runner isn't it. Well done on thinking up slang terms, that's very realistic. Downloading now, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

[Boise_Gal]

Hi!  Cool game... but have you written a walkthough?  I'm stuck!

[c.leksutin]

Well I just started it, and all I can say thus far is WOW!  the graphics look like something off of the NES (which is gooood) and the story-line sounds like something William Gibson would write (which is even better).  I'll definately be spending some time with this one.  Good work man, really good work!


C.

[juncmodule]

Boise_Gal: Where are you stuck? Post and let me know. If I don't answer you right away I'm sure someone else will. If enough people start asking questions I will put one up. I do have one written, I just didn't want to put it up so early.

c.leksutin: Thanks!

Flippy_D: Hope you enjoy it. As far as the release of a game: I spent several months working with SCI Studio, learning, drawing, ripping my hair out....then I just gave up on trying to be all "authentic" Sierra and came here. So, it's not like I just showed up one day and said, hey, AGS, I'll try that, and then put out a game. After wasting so much time with SCI Studio I had to make sure that AGS would be worth putting the effort into. Keptosh is my first game ever and more or less just a test game to see how flexible AGS is. Needless to say AGS exceeded my expectations greatly.

Oh yeah, if you want some tips on how to make your first game in three months:

1. quit your job
2. ignore your girlfriend
3. ignore your friends
4. avoid general forums like the plague
5. take the quarter off from school
6. save enough money to pay bills and eat (but only enough money to do that...any more money could   lead to......TEMPTATION!! Or something horrible like socialising)
7. pretend that AGS and the technical forums are the only things on the planet that exist.

I think that about covers it.

later,
-junc

[Flippy_D]

Oh, wow. I just noticed that the robots/mutants/assorted aliens carry on walking, so like they go off your screen to the right, and then if you go to the riht, they're on that screen in the right position. Interesting.

[juncmodule]

http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=3258

Scorpiorus made an amazing Character Control plugin. It was a lot of scripting...but, in the end well worth it.

later,
-junc

[Boise_Gal]

Spoiler

How do I but stuff in the store?  The robot just keeps telling me what's for sale, but I can't do anything else. I've got the credit chip thingy.

[close]

[juncmodule]

Spoiler

Just click with the finger at what you would like to buy. It is kind of tricky, you will have to make sure you click right on the item, but, it should work.

[close]

[Boise_Gal]

 Ok.. duh.. now I feel dumb... but now what do I do?  I've wandered around and I can't fugure out where to go next!

[juncmodule]

Don't feel dumb...it's my quirky interactions that make things like that confusing.

Anyway, well, what all do you have? Have you been to the front of ServaCor headquarters yet? (Save your game before you go there!) Your mission is to get inside of ServaCor headquarters. If you have everything you need then you can go in. If you are missing something then it won't let you (I tried to eliminate any and all dead ends).  

Here is the Hint/Walkthrough guide:

I will hide this in parts:

Where to first?

Spoiler

The bar is the big social location of ServaCor, check it out!

[close]

Ready to start!

Spoiler

Talk to Irim, the prophet, he will start you on your way.

[close]

Purr-what!?

Spoiler

You need to find the purr-disk. Be sure you examine everything you find.

[close]

junc-packets

Spoiler

You can trade the Portable Terminal for some junc-packets at the Black Market. Talk to Joe the bartender once you have them. The rest...well...that's up to you.

[close]

The tool shop

Spoiler

You need to pick up the levitator and cloaker from here...

[close]

Not in ServaCor yet?

Spoiler

You need the cloaker, levitator, and the broken data chip (the one with numbers on it)

[close]

Once in ServaCor:

Spoiler

Look around and head to the room to your left. The door on the right is closed and you need to find a way in.

[close]

Still stuck in ServaCor?

Spoiler

check out the computer in the room to the right of the entrance room. There is a control panel that you need to enter a special code into. Check out the data disk with numbers on it for the code!

[close]

Okay, what about these wires!?

Spoiler

Not much help I can provide here. Just save your game before you attempt to navigate!

[close]

Books, books, books everywhere! (The library)

Spoiler

Just think King's Quest 3. Look at all of the books and bookshelves.

[close]

The mainframe:

Spoiler

Check your inventory...only one thing left that you haven't used yet...

[close]

[Boise_Gal]

Thanks Junc!  That was fun.  

[Pet Terry]

Great game, I finished it yesterday and got 145 / 150.. It has pretty much same feeling as in Fallout 2. Very good work.

[2ma2]

Really really kickass. The soundtrack was awe. It had some lesser exciting tunes, but the rest added tremendous to the cyberpunk feeling!!

The graphics are sweet-o, like a mixture of Manhunter and SQ3, and all the wandering characters are even greater. But the main character is greatest of them ALL! It IS Goldmund!!! In the Flesh!!!!

A bit short, and the puzzles we're the weakest part. That sq2 deathtrap was very annoying since, apart from being highly malplaced, just were there to stall further advancement. Oh, and please allow one to speed up the game even more, it was hell to watch him go from one side of the screen to another sometimes

For a first production, very very good. A bit unpolished, but nevertheless among the more entertaining games I've played for a while. Three tumbs up!

[Goldmund]

Yes, 2ma2, I have noticed this terryfying resemblance. I think it's a masterstroke on the part of Juncmodule, to put me in shoes of a person who gives Junc to people and is generally a hero, maybe because I'm a hero.
As for the game itself:
- soundtrack - sweat, great, etc!!! although there was one small melody when walking the streets that seemed strangely misplaced, as if Hal 2000 started to sing "Home, Sweet Home"
- graphics and wandering NPCs - veery good, veery good, but it would be even better when following (spying on) a NPC added something to the plot;
- yeah, puzzles were too easy, and where they weren't easy it was only for some weakness of the GUI. I don't like it how you explicitly tell the player what to do next, and also I think that it would be more fun if you refrained from taking the control from the player so often (the bar scene, the levitator scene). Generally it's more fun to do such things yourself than to have the game do it for you. Also the WIRE puzzle - yeah, a bit misplaced, because suddenly you broke the realistic style of the game and added a slightly absurd element to the corp's HQ; not to mention the death scene, which was too funny for the game, IMO.
- some unhandled event interactions would make the game better as well.
Keep in mind that I'm so picky because you delivered a polished, quality product (thanks!!!) and in such cases I can only think what could be done in order to make it even better. Great job, generally, you worked with atmosphere still unique to amateur games!

[juncmodule]

Wow, thanks guys. My biggest fault in this game was that I planned it out before I knew much of anything about AGS. I went for simple because I wasn't sure of my limitations. I was thinking King's Quest 1 depth, just to keep my goals realistic. Regardless, I do see some major parts which I could have improved at later stages of development. This was more of a technical test and it's amazing to see just how much people like the graphics and music. Perhaps in the future I will return to this game and update it and fix these shortcomings. For the time being...I'm on to other, much less glorious projects.

later,
-junc

[Flippy_D]

Junc, what projects are you working on now? I'd be very interested in you helping me with DROID.....

[Esseb]

I generally agree with the others: Great game, great graphics, great plot, but too short and simple.

Looking forward to whatever you may create next .

(did you ever create anything with SCI Studio btw, or is this your first game ever?)

[juncmodule]

I got all of the graphics drawn for a game in SCI Studio and spent a massive amount of time trying to program. In the end I just grew to hate it.

There just isn't a community. I would get stuck, post a question on the forum and either get the good ol' "read the help file" or just some fairly useless answer. Half the time the engine crashed. It was just a big nightmare. In the end I left SCI Studio and came here. I sent Brian (the creator of SCI Studio) $50 after leaving in hopes that he will continue to work on things. He is getting a spot on Tech TV in March, so that community might grow some.

At first I thought I just didn't have the game making thing in me. Then I did Keptosh is such a short period of time and it just blew me away. Everything I know how to do in AGS I can do through scripting which just amazes me that I can do that after having only used the program for a few months.

Currently I am working on a Space trading/pirate game...maybe. I'm not sure if I will have the time to help you out Flippy_D. I really appreciate the offer but, school and work are sucking away my time again.

later,
-junc

[Flippy_D]

No worries Junc, I'd hate to impede on you

[Barcik]

Just finished and I like it! My few comments:
1. Atmosphere! Ther atmosphere of the game is, imo, the best thing about it. You can FEEL Keptosh!
2. Soundtrack, mostly fits the game perfectly, with only 1 or 2 annoying tunes.
3. Graphics. Everything is so very well animated, a whole bunch of NPCs, all in great 256 colors! Rock on!
4. Plot. Decent 'grim future' plot, not too good but ain't bad either.
5. Puzzles. As everyone else says, too darn easy. But hey, this is your first game. You are sure to get better.  

[Helm]

Great work. The music was very fitting, the graphics old skool kewlness. I dug everything. The puzzles were to easy, but I considered this a plus, because it seemed to me, like the story flowed without any stumping. Great work. I loved your game. Even if you do not make anything else, this is enough for me to consider you one of the better members of the "I have made a game!" club.

Better than SOL

[earwigz]

I really enjoyed playing this game, and it has a very professional feel to it.  It reminded me of cyberpunk games like Beneath a Steel Sky.  Great work Junc!  

[jannar85]

It doesn't work:(

[juncmodule]

Sorry, my website is dead for about another week or two. Then it will be back up.

EDIT: Nevermind download it here:

http://www.juncmodule.com/downloads/keptosh.zip

later,
-junc

[Soft, Gooey, Delicious.]

That game was cool.

[juncmodule]

Rabbit with Fangs: Thanks!

jannar85: Have you been able to download it? I put up a post that it would be gone for a few weeks and then about half an hour later found a solution.

earwigz: Thanks!

Helm: WooHoo! I'm a member of the "I have made a game!" club! Thanks Helm. This won't be my last one though. I'm working on a super dooper piece of crap right now! I promise it will even be crappier than Keptosh!

Barcik: Thanks for the input. The music thing in one of the rooms was actually a mistake. I realized after going back through things that I should have kept the same "type" of song throughout. That lended to the atmosphere a lot. I'm big on those "grim future" plots. Hah, puzzles are one of my weak points, next to graphics and scripting. My next game won't even have puzzles. Heh. That will solve that problem.

later,
-junc