Living Nightmare: Freedom

[LRH]

The final game in the Living Nightmare series.





It has been years to James. Thousands of years.

When we last left James, he was trapped in an endless nightmare that had taken place in his old home. Since then, he has been dragged through a never ending abyss of darkness by all kinds of tormentors, and was moved away from his home long ago.

The experience for James has been hell. Yet, things have changed so much in the time that he has been held prisoner. At first he was terrified, and his tormentors enjoyed his fear. Then he became angry, and his tormentors provoked them in any way they could.

And now? Now James is simply broken. Finished. He still becomes scared, angry, and depressed...but it isn't the tormentor's doing anymore. When he can, he rests, but most of his time is spent in an unusual state of mind. He knows very little. He's been handed over to something. Something horrible. It isn't like the other tormentors, though. It keeps him locked away in a cell, occasionally picking on him for entertainment.



This game features two different endings! Yay!
Download:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1531


As a final note, I want to give many thanks to the community for this experience. This is the last game of a series that, while certainly not the most amazing set of games ever, has helped me learn so much about writing, developing, drawing, and more. I couldn't have done it all without the help of many of you. I think that any future games will be all the better for this experience.

[Stupot]

I still need to play the others    I did download the first one once, but don't think I finished it.
I'll have a Living Nighmare marathon one of these days, I promise

[LRH]

I still need to play the others    I did download the first one once, but don't think I finished it.
I'll have a Living Nighmare marathon one of these days, I promise

I look forward to hearing about it.

I do hope by "first" you mean the deluxe one and not my training game...although, this could arguably be called my training series.

[david]

Wow Domithan

another fine piece of yours, I will certainly give it a try
for sure

[LRH]

Wow Domithan

another fine piece of yours, I will certainly give it a try
for sure

Thanks,  David!

Let me know how it goes.

[MMMorshew]

There was a new game in the series? Damn, I had no idea. 
*goes downloading*

[LRH]

Just thought I'd point this out:
http://www.indiegamemag.com/living-nightmare-deluxe-is-finished-and-free-for-your-perusal/

[LRH]

I do hate to bump this so shamelessly, but at the same time, I'd definitely appreciate some feedback regarding this game. I feel like it has kind of vanished since its release. Is there anyone out there who has played it that could tell me more about the experience?

[david]

I've played it, haven't finished yet, though. It is too sensitive for the actions you are typing in, like bookshelf, shelf, bookcase, etc...pretty tough

you have to be really precise to get any small goal.
suggestions:
1. put a list of words (names) that player can stumble on in your game, that would certainly help the game much more IMHO
2. when looking at the current room, give info about the items, or just mention them in the description, you know like in old adventure games, this would also help
Anyway, I would really love to finish this game  
Is there anybody else who experienced the same problem, or is it just me?

[Kastchey]

I don't think it's just you, david, I actually believe that the unresponsiveness of the parser might be what discouraged most people from playing the game. Lack of synonyms and relevant hints in room descriptions makes the game quite frustrating and extremely hard to finish. For example:

Spoiler

I (and probably many other people) had to look for hints to get through the very first puzzle. I'm pretty sure I tried to 'move under water', 'place chains under water', 'move chains under water' or even 'soak chains' and 'get chains wet', while 'put chains under water' eluded me somehow.
Another example: If I can 'slash painting', why can't I 'cut painting', 'use knife on painting' or 'cut painting with knife'? If I can 'take down painting', why 'remove painting' doesn't work? Though the biggest overkill so far was 'hit blinds'. I really like the Living Nightmares series so I even took time to replay the first two games before starting the final part, and I was sure I knew what I should do in the office, but I couldn't phrase it correctly.
And as for the non-sufficient room decriptions, the most notable example of a key hotspot omitted in the room description was the bird bath. You can't progress through the game if you don't look into the bird bath, and to be honest at first I had no idea just what the heck this thing is supposed to be. I guess there's just not enough bird baths where I live for me to instantly realize what I am looking at =) I wouldn't have had any problems though if the bird bath had been mentioned in the description. Another example - the flowers near the end of the game. It's quite obvious that James should touch the flowers if the actions direct the player towards good ending as the most simple 'look' command provides the hint. There is no hint at all in the evil version of the garden though, all James says is that he wants to save the polluted garden somehow, and I still fail to see how touching the flowers would help him do that and how should I have been able to figure it out on my own
Overall I could say that the puzzles were very easy to figure out, but solutions incredibly hard to execute because of the parser.

[close]

Leaving the text parses issues aside, here's a summary of what I liked and what I didn't about the game.
Strong points:
*Descriptions. You have strong narrative skills and your descriptions make a fascinating read. I spent quite some time in the first room looking at everything before I even attempted to solve the first puzzle.
*Overall creepiness. I imagine it's not an easy task to make a scary game after the vast amount of horror titles that have been released already, and I must say that certain parts of the game were really creepy (especially the paintings).
*Music. m0ds did a great job here, the music adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game.

Weak points:
*Lack of descriptions for many key elements of the surroundings, like rain. I was kind of disappointed when 'look rain' triggered a generic response from the parser even though the game had suggested that the weather was important in a way. Same goes for many other things like books, chests, walls, windows, tables etc. A good text parser game should, in my opinion, maintain strong narrative values throughout the game, and in this case good narrative got replaced by generic parser responses as soon as I got out of the first room.
*Plot holes. I know you are aware of them, you mentioned it in the ending. But that does not justify them being there, sir! The list of unexplained (or poorly explained) parts includes, but is not limited to:

Spoiler

the painting in the dining hall, the ghost and her background story, the oversized furniture, James' grandfather and the hereditary illness, the demon itself, the void around the house, time flow inside the mansion, plus some elements from the previous parts of the game that feel kind of left out of the storyline, like the doctor and the librarian looking alike or paying the debt to the demon.

[close]

*Not enough gameplay comparing to the two previous parts. I felt as if I was jumping between the locations, except for the mansion part there was nothing to explore.

I really like the style of your games and I was really looking forward to this one. As you can see, I got mixed feelings about the final part of Living Nightmare, but I got the impression that most, if not all of the weak points of the game could be fixed in a remake or a deluxe version (hint! hint!), which could turn into a really good game and a real crowning part of the Living Nightmare series. But no matter if you're interested in making an improved version or not, thanks for the release! I'm definitely looking forward to your next games.

[LRH]

Well, this is very much appreciated. I was planning on releasing an update with a greater variety of words and actions available, but I never really got any information about what exactly some people were trying to put in. I'll spend some time tonight updating the game with a long list of everyone's suggestions

Edit: In fact, it may be wise to ditch the parser entirely and make this into a point n' click at some point...but for now I'm beginning another project which I am much more enamored with, so...who knows?

[david]

cool news, will definitely look into this after updates