Echoes of the Past

[amanta4ray]

Hello again...it's been many, many years since I finished The Treasured Medallion, but I have been lurking around the forums while I slowly worked on other games.  I am pleased to announce that my second game, Echoes of the Past, is now completed and available for downloading pleasure....enjoy!!

Allyson Tremonte loves the world of antiques, but when she restores an old brooch, something more intriguing catches her eye....a letter from the famous explorer Gerard DuPontneuf. And when the temptation is just too great to ignore, she goes on a hunt to locate a journal that could lead to some of the greatest archaeological finds in history. Little did she know that this adventure would take her and her partner to Egypt on a quest to find the fabled Book of Thoth... a book that will give the possessor unbelievable powers. But will Allyson be able to recover one of Egypt's long lost relics or will there be others that will stop at nothing to get it? Find out in...Echoes of the Past

                                   Point and Click
                                   Non-linear puzzles
                                   10 Hours of gameplay
                                   150+ Rooms to explore                 
                                   Over 60 Characters to interact with
                                   Collect and combine inventory items
                                   Captivating music and sound effects


Download Links:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/7o9b6f1q70c28ra/Echoes_of_the_Past.zip

http://amanta4ray.itch.io/echoes-of-the-past


Walk-through:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/eo2hjc685ewp8dy/Echoes_of_the_Past_Walk_through.pdf

[AnasAbdin]

Congrats on the release
where can we find screenshots or teasers?

Edit: Thanks

[AprilSkies]

150+ Rooms ... 

[amanta4ray]

I also have it listed in the games section under full-length games....

[AnasAbdin]

I just started playing...
Very well done. Time travel is real. I was in the 90s. I felt at anytime the game would ask me to insert CD 2...
Thanks a lot for this! I can literally feel the amount of effort and time put into this game (and I'm still in the beginning)

Now if you excuse me, I need to go back in time and play more

[NickyNyce]

Looks great. Congrats on the release. Looks like I'll be staying up late this week.

[Mandle]

This looks amazing!!! Looks like I got a busy weekend coming up: Two proofreading/editing jobs to finish and then I get to play this as my personal reward!!!

[blur]

This combination of rendered objects with digitised images is executed in a manner that is the best I have seen in a free game so far.
The puzzles are a bit hard in the beginning due to technical omissions but later on they are fun to solve (piece of cake if you won Zak McKracken!). Beware of spelling errors and and bad grammar!

[amanta4ray]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments....I really appreciate it.  As far as any spelling errors and such, I tried to get them all, but you know how that goes.

[Shadow1000]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments....I really appreciate it.  As far as any spelling errors and such, I tried to get them all, but you know how that goes.

I encountered a spelling error that can interfere with game play.

Spoiler

In the book "DuPontneuf" is spelled "DuPontnuef". Since doing the search is sensitive to exact spelling, I had to guess that it was just a typo and I was able to continue that way. But this should really be corrected

[close]

Also: it's "toilet", not "toliet"

SHADOW

[amanta4ray]

I encountered a spelling error that can interfere with game play.

SHADOW

Good catch...even my three beta-testers didn't notice that one!!!

I did fix that and uploaded new...many thanks!!

[Shadow1000]

I encountered a spelling error that can interfere with game play.

SHADOW

Good catch...even my three beta-testers didn't notice that one!!!

I did fix that and uploaded new...many thanks!!

Most welcome, maybe you can do with a fourth for your next game

I do want to say that I'm enjoying it so far. I love the graphics (although the high heels look like they hurt as she walks!) and although I'm near the beginning, it's looking really good. I'll post comments once completed.

Cheers

SHADOW

[Tinytim]

Wow what a game!!! Just finished. Thank you amanta4ray

[amanta4ray]

Wow what a game!!! Just finished. Thank you amanta4ray

You are very welcome...I'm glad you liked it!!

[josiah1221]

This was quite an unexpected treat! Thank you for a wonderful adventure! Great story, fun characters, good puzzles! I loved all the little references and funny comments I think I might have even found a few easter eggs Can't wait to get started on The Treasured Medallion! I don't know how I never came across it before, but it was a wonderful surprise when I noticed you had made a previous game. My weekend is booked!

P.S. I suggested/recommended Echoes of the Past to a friend (chrissie) that is currently doing the Adventure Game Scene of the Day thread over at www.adventuregamers.com She loved it! and will be posting about it Monday! 

[Shadow1000]

I finished the game and I really enjoyed it. Here are my thoughts:

OVERVIEW

Follow two antique dealers on a modern-day adventure that follows the steps of a 19th century adventurer on the quest for the legendary Book of Thoth. This game features attractive 3D graphics, a good variety of puzzles and a compelling plot. The game is approximately a medium-length game

STRONG POINTS OF THE GAME

-The strongest areas of this game are the plot and length of plot and the graphics. I found the plot to be captivating and compelling. It had some good twists, there was conflict and urgency and of course a happy ending Remember, a plot unfolding is what makes a player want to get through the puzzles. Too slow or too simple or too complicated will disengage the player. The graphics were pleasing to look at and attract me to the game. They made the game immersive and they fit perfectly.

- The puzzles were good. I liked the balance and variety between inventory, dialogue and object puzzles. Most of the puzzles were clever and original and at a difficulty that is just right.

- I liked the personalities of the playable characters. Some of their quips made me laugh but in general this is not a game where I found myself laughing most of the time. It's just not that type of adventure.

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR NEXT GAME

- Although the puzzles were mostly done well, some of them expected the user to perform certain actions in literally every room hoping to figure out where to use a certain item without any clue as to why. While a certain amount of guesswork or "try everything" is expected while playing a game, I'd recommend limiting those or at least limiting the options to the user when faced with that kind of puzzle.

- Another criticism I have is that although I said that the puzzles were a good balance in types of puzzle, I feel that there were too many object puzzles. I have to admit that I happen not to be a fan of object puzzles. The first three were actually fun to solve so I didn't mind. But somewhere between number eight and ten I felt it was just too much for my taste.

- The game would have a bit more polish if the grammar and spelling would be proofread. Someone pointed out that the conditional perfect is "would have", not "would of".

- Lastly, a number of puzzles assume that the player has good colour vision and that different monitors will show colours similarly. Like many, I can't discern many colours and found several puzzles to be impossible as a result. As the author, you have the right to limit your audience to people with excellent colour vision but in a future game you may want to consider providing other ways to solve those puzzles to include the minority of players who will struggle.

CONCLUSION

Echoes of the Past scores very highly in the areas that make a good adventure game. It's clear that a lot of work went into this game and Amanta4ray's talent really shows. I recommend this game to anyone looking for the next hot AGS thriller!

Congrats to the author and I think we're all waiting for the sequel!

SHADOW

[amanta4ray]

This was quite an unexpected treat! Thank you for a wonderful adventure! Great story, fun characters, good puzzles! I loved all the little references and funny comments I think I might have even found a few easter eggs Can't wait to get started on The Treasured Medallion! I don't know how I never came across it before, but it was a wonderful surprise when I noticed you had made a previous game. My weekend is booked!

P.S. I suggested/recommended Echoes of the Past to a friend (chrissie) that is currently doing the Adventure Game Scene of the Day thread over at www.adventuregamers.com She loved it! and will be posting about it Monday! 

Thank-you very much for that!!  When you put so much time and effort into a project, it's nice to hear that others enjoyed it.  I looked up the website you gave and here is a link to the page that mentions my game...

http://www.adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/5404

Echoes of the Past scores very highly in the areas that make a good adventure game. It's clear that a lot of work went into this game and Amanta4ray's talent really shows. I recommend this game to anyone looking for the next hot AGS thriller!

Congrats to the author and I think we're all waiting for the sequel!

SHADOW

Thank-you shadow for the critique...I appreciate everything you have mentioned.  As far as a sequel goes...we'll just have to wait and see.

[Mandle]

Great game so far!!!

I noticed a rather fun bug though which will crash the game (but is also entertaining):

Spoiler

At the construction site when you meet the bad guy and hand off the "statues":

During the cutscene where yourself and the bad dude are walking off to the right the cursor returns walk control to the player:

If you click the walk cursor you now have control of the bad guy as the player character!!!

You can look in his inventory (it's empty), walk around on the scene. But now the game is broken and the only way out is to click the right exit which crashes the game with the error: "StartCutScene blah blah blah Already in a cutscene" or something like that...

EDIT: This same problem also occurs in every room after the first where the bad guy is present with Kyle...

[close]

Oh, and by the way:

You don't have to include the "setup" and "USER" icons in the compiled folder for the customisation of "winsetup" and the Game icon...

These only have to be in the game project folder when you compile. I think this is also why the Game icon doesn't have a custom icon...

It's very confusing to have 3 icons all the same in the compiled folder for the player. You might want to remedy this at the same time you fix the bug I mentioned above for convienience...

EDIT: I just finished the game and I have to say that it WAS AWESOME!!!


I love the Gabriel Knight (with gender roles reversed) feel of the game and also the thrill of the whole mystery you have conveyed to the player....I just HAD to keep playing no matter what just to find out what happened next!

And that brings me to...

My hardest puzzle of the game!!!

Spoiler

The fusebox slider puzzle...This puzzle alone took me over an hour to solve. I personally HATE slider puzzles even if the final picture needed is obvious...but YOU went a step further and combined it with a maze puzzle, where you have to figure out the maze and the slider at the same time...GRRRRRRRRR!!!! What I'm trying to say is that if the game had not been as good as it was I would have just deleted it from my hard-drive after about 30 minutes trying to solve this slider....BUT I NEEDED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!!!...And I'll admit a great feeling of accomplishment when I finally solved the puzzle....But still: GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

[close]

One slight thing that bugged me through the game though also was that I always wished that when you go to the inventory the cursor default was set to "pick up" instead of "use/examine"...The game requires a lot of using stuff on stuff and having to do that extra click on the "pick up" button kinda cramps the hand after a while...

But yeah....A great game....A new AGS instant classic!!!

[amanta4ray]

Thank-you Mandle for noticing that...I fixed it and uploaded new.  Also, I didn't realize that you could take those icon files out and it would be alright.  I just took whatever was in the complied folder and zipped it up.

Am glad that you enjoyed the game!!  I know what you mean about those types of puzzles...I actually hate them too(even though I put it in the game). And since it was one of the last puzzles, I wanted it to be a little tougher.
Sometimes it's a matter of...can I do that. Challenges me to create different types of puzzles. 

I know it's after the fact, but I actually put in a fail-safe for that puzzle(because many of my friends and family couldn't do it)...it's listed in my walk-through.  I did want to put in an actual solve button, but could not figure out to incorporate it without at least giving the player a chance to try for it. 

I love the Gabriel Knight (with gender roles reversed) feel of the game and also the thrill of the whole mystery you have conveyed to the player....I just HAD to keep playing no matter what just to find out what happened next!

I love those as well as the Tex Murphy series!!

[amanta4ray]

Is it possible to make this available somewhere other than MediaFire? (GameJoly or Itct.io maybe?) I think that may be putting people off downloading your game, which looks like it's had a lot of work put into it.

I tried to download it yesterday but gave up after the site, after insisting I filled in a Captcha, presented me with a fake malware alert scam.

Also I'm curiously as to why the game is quite as large a download as it is (I know it's big, but even so, it seems oddly large especially as it doesn't - I think? - contain voice acting.)

Anyway I hope you can put it somewhere better than Mediafire, I'm sure it would reach more people if you did.

I will look into other places to upload my game, but since MediaFire was recommended on here, I thought it was a safe bet.  Also, the game is large due to the graphics I use, it being a 32 bit game and the amount of rooms, characters etc.

[CaptainD]

Thanks for the answers!

MediaFire never used to be this bad but they clearly don't check their advertisers very carefully from my recent experience.

Anyway great to see it up on itch.io now, hope you get loads of downloads as it looks like you put enormous effort into this game!

http://amanta4ray.itch.io/echoes-of-the-past

I'm downloading now, look forward to playing it.

(GAH... scratch some of what I said about MediaFire, I just realised another game I was going to download was on it, and had not problems whatsoever with the download.   Still happy to see this game on itch.io though, completely hassle-free to download!)

[CaptainD]

I've started playing this and... seriously, one person did all this?  Incredible!

Anyway, haven't got very far yet but looks very interesting.  If anyone likes archaeological mysteries and the like, please don't be put off by the download size - give it a try!

[Mandle]

seriously, one person did all this?  Incredible!

I know right?! I really felt like I was playing an undiscovered Broken Sword game sometimes! How did one person possibly pull this off???

Coffee???

[amanta4ray]

seriously, one person did all this?  Incredible!

I know right?! I really felt like I was playing an undiscovered Broken Sword game sometimes! How did one person possibly pull this off???

Coffee???

Thank-you for that!!  To be compared to a game of that caliber is an AWESOME achievement!!!  And you are right....there was lots of coffee involved as well as bugging my husband constantly for input.

[BarbWire]

Wow! What a brilliant game. Egyptology has always held a fascination for me, so I loved this.
I will heap more praise on your masterpiece when I write in the comments section and give a
rating.