I Want Out!

[NicolaGs]

I Want Out! is an escape-the-room game.
It's a short game that should require about one hour of gameplay.



About the game creation...
We imposed ourself the following rules :
- 320x200,
- 9-verb interface, in LucasArt style,
- only one room,
- realistic puzzles (at least, not far fetched ones).

The game exists in 5 languages :
- English
- French
- german
- Russian
- Spanish

It is available for Windows and Linux

This is our first game and we tried to make the best out of it and to learn the most out of it, too...
We tried to modernize the retro style by using 32-bits colors, transparency, maximum smoothness, an inventory interface that doesn't hide the bottom of the screen.
It took us about a year and a half on our spare time...
We started the game using AGS 3.3.5 IIRC and then used AGS 3.4.0 and 3.4.1...




The story
You are called by a kid, asking for help.
He is trapped in a mysterious place.
Can you help him to get out?








The team
Nicolas (me) ... story, coding, some graphics and animations, english translation
Matthieu (my brother) ... story, graphics, animations

We used musics from known composer on this forum : Eric Matyas and Kevin MacLeod and modified sounds from Freesound.org.

I'd like to thanks our beta testers, including the following AGSers (for spotting bugs as well as many errors in english translation):

- Durq (in-depth proofreading)
- arj0n
- ClickClickClick
- HanaIndiana

Their contribution was greatly appreciated.

Thanks to Toxic Tuba for the German translation.
Thanks to Alexander Preymak for the Russian translation.
Thanks to Raul Puro for the Spanish translation.

Thanks also to Crimson Wizard who improved various aspects of the engine which made things easier for us and to the whole community for the quality of the ressources here.




Download :
AGS Game page >here<
Game page on itch.io.
Game page on GameJolt.com.
Game page on FireFlowerGames.com.

Edit :
Updated to version 1.1.5:
- AGS engine updated to version 3.4.1.14 (to prevent a bug with alt-tab combination leading to dialogs quickly skipping by themsleves)

Updated to version 1.1.4:
- Addition : Spanish translation
- minor bug fixes

Updated to version 1.1.3:
- minor bug fixes
- minor changes in some dialogs

Updated to version 1.1.2:
- Addition : Russian translation

Updated to version 1.1.1:
- Addition : German translation
- Addition : Linux version (see usage instructions in Zip file)
- Modifications : some dialogs have been improved to better guide the player.
Warning : savegames made with previous versions won't work with this new one.

Updated to version 1.1.0:
- Some bug fixes (score could be more than 100%
- Gameplay change : one item can now be used with either use or throw action

[Click'd]

Now that it's out I can say that I want this game as next pick of the month.

[selmiak]

This is awesome. The animation of the boy is so smooooooth! Though I'm stuck and feel like I need 3 screwdrivers in 3 different sizes or so...

[Click'd]

This is awesome. The animation of the boy is so smooooooth! Though I'm stuck and feel like I need 3 screwdrivers in 3 different sizes or so...

Ask and ye shall receive help.

[Two Tales]

Congratulations for completing and releasing this project. The screenshots look very inviting. I'm going to have to find the time to play it.

[Khris]

This looks awesome, but please, for the love of god, offer a zip file as alternative download.

[Mandle]

This looks awesome, but please, for the love of god, offer a zip file as alternative download.

+1

[NicolaGs]

This looks awesome, but please, for the love of god, offer a zip file as alternative download.

Done! (both downloads are now available on the itch.io page). I'll add a Linux version too, but I must find a way to test it before...

I hope you'll like playing it...

[Uziel]

Fantastic game and atmosphere! Really well done.

I am stuck right at the end though...

Spoiler

I put the paper under the door, used the screwdriver... also tried dynamite. Can't get into the metal door. Also I've built the raft out of empty soda bottles, sign and rope. But need one more item?

[close]

[NicolaGs]

I am stuck right at the end though...

You're right... you're not far from the end.

Spoiler

I assume you put the raft in the water. But to move it, you need a particular object. Maybe you still need to explore more places...

Spoiler

Search inside the elevator

[close]

[close]

[Mandle]

This looks awesome, but please, for the love of god, offer a zip file as alternative download.

Done! (both downloads are now available on the itch.io page).

Awesome! Thanks!

[Uziel]

You're right... you're not far from the end.

Spoiler

I assume you put the raft in the water. But to move it, you need a particular object. Maybe you still need to explore more places...

Spoiler

Search inside the elevator

[close]

[close]

Been there but...

Spoiler

I've already been inside the elevator and got the shovel. Only thing I need is something to tie the raft together (it's not in the water yet), and the rope is too think. I was trying to work out how to shred it, or if there were wired I could get from somewhere...

[close]

[Kumpel]

Found a bug

Spoiler

using the hatch opening is bringing him down below even before he managed to open the hatch. Just deactivate the "opening" hotspot if the hatch is closed. It's easier than trying to overlap the hatch object perfectly with the hotspot

[close]

Funny is, I am stuck exactly there and I have no idea

Spoiler

how to open that hatch. I guess I am still missing an item.

[close]

[Click'd]

Funny is, I am stuck exactly there and I have no idea

Spoiler

how to open that hatch. I guess I am still missing an item.

[close]

Spoiler

You need a kind of lever

Spoiler

A loose metal bar from the bridge

[close]

[close]

Been there but...

Spoiler

I've already been inside the elevator and got the shovel. Only thing I need is something to tie the raft together (it's not in the water yet), and the rope is too think. I was trying to work out how to shred it, or if there were wired I could get from somewhere...

[close]

Spoiler

The soda machine's power cable

[close]

[CyberUncleCat]

Kumpel:

Spoiler

There are 3 bars upstairs, yo have to pull and then push one to gain means to open hatch in floor.

[close]

Uziel:

Spoiler

push the soda vending machine to reveal a sign on wall, then pull the cable from it.

[close]

So, yeah i've been waiting for this release. Presentation is top notch. Riddles were also very good aside from soda bottles maybe:

Spoiler

got stuck here for a minute - being in some abandoned sunken subway station and trying to get out i could care less WHERE i dispose of soda from bottles

[close]

.

I really enjoyed the game - good work guys!

About ending and our little boy:

Spoiler

i was not suprised. Something smelled fishy when he was introducing himself, yeah, but what made it obvious was his reaction upon seeing holy pentagram on wall, and saying that he would prefer reversed one instead. But i know, i know - for many people pentagram is just pentagram - they dont see a difference

[close]

.

As i said before, very good release.

[CyberUncleCat]

Please delete

[CyberUncleCat]

Please delete

[NicolaGs]

Found a bug

Thanks for the input Kumpel. I knew bugs would emerge but I wouldn't have suspected this one...
It's fixed in the new version.
I hope you found a way to go on in the game...

...aside from soda bottles maybe

Still learning how to create good puzzles...

Spoiler

Yes... we thought about it... but the ground is not a hotspot (technically, it would be complicated if it were) - we could have choosen the water instead... yes... but we had a nice drain which wanted so badly to be used...

[close]

About ending and our little boy

Spoiler

Indeed, we've planted some clues here and there... Glad you got them...

[close]

[KyriakosCH]

This looks very nice, well done!

[henrikes]

Very nice, I really enjoyed the game

[Shadow1000]

I finished playing this game and I feel I really need to comment.

First, I am absolutely amazed at the adaptation of the old "escape the room" theme. The story really draws the player in.

Next is the puzzles themselves. The difficulty is exactly in that sweet spot where the game progresses so long as you keep plugging away at it without the puzzles getting frustrating.  What a wonderful combination of traditional puzzles with a lot of fresh and surprising material.

It goes without saying that the stunning graphics just puts that overall polish on the game that makes the entire experience memorable.

The only thing you might want to add if you have the time is that some actions cause the screen to go dark and then come back and the action is completed. I know that it's a lot easier to imply the action rather than put in the animation but it might be a nice touch if you put in the appropriate animation.

Otherwise, a very impressive job. I look forward to more games from the authors.

[NicolaGs]

Thanks all for the kind words.
I'm really happy that you enjoyed playing it.

The only thing you might want to add...

About the "fade to black" actions : yes... that's exactly what you said... animations are difficult and take so much time to be done that we used this simple "trick". Maybe we'll do a deluxe version with more animations if we have time!

[Loslem]

That looks awesome. Will definitely try this once I find time

[Kumpel]

Hm. I bugged myself to the highscore...

Spoiler

Spoiler

The "key falling out of the keyhole" part can be done repeatedly to achieve this.

[close]

[close]

But apart from that I finally did it. Very cool game! The graphics are superb for an amateur project.

Spoiler

Especially the final escape scene looked amazing!

[close]

Clever puzzles, nice story idea. All in all a job very well done! Now go and make more of this with your brother!

[NicolaGs]

Hm. I bugged myself to the highscore...

You definitely beat the game
Well... got to look at this... (I must have missed some "DoOnceOnly" conditions...)

Now go and make more of this with your brother!

Thanks, that's very encouraging...

Edit : game updated to version 1.1.0 (some bug fix / Gameplay change : one item can now be used with USE and THROW action)

[selmiak]

Finally I made it through this cool and very entertaining game and enjoyed most of it. Damn you verbs, I tried

Spoiler

using the rope instead of throwing it for n times and then never tried throwing it for way too long, thanks Mr click³ for solving this mystery

[close]

and so I also just happend to record a fast playthrough through the game with hopefully all look at explanations and lots of intersting interactions.
!!! ALL SPOILERS IN THIS LONGPLAY VIDEO !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUIQXFRM4ys

!!! THIS VIDEO IS ALL SPOILERS !!!

[Click'd]

thanks Mr click³ for solving this mystery

I made that mistake as well. I even went so far as lassoing from atop the bridge.

[NicolaGs]

I made that mistake as well.

Based on your feedback, I changed this in the last version yersterday : USE and THROW can be both used with this item now.
I didn't want the player to be stuck like this just because of a "bad" choice in the verbs whereas the logic was correct.

Spoiler

I kept the THROW verb-only for the dynamite because it seems more logic with this item.

[close]

I even went so far as lassoing from atop the bridge.

Yes, but there was a bug on my part, back in the beta, allowing you to do it...


Selmiak, thanks for your video. (It's odd to see a video on youtube with your own game... )

[arj0n]

Congrats on the release, team!

[Tabata]

Played it (and got stuck because

Spoiler

of using the lasso, too

[close]

so I am glad you changed that now).
Congrats for releasing such an entertaining and well done little game.
I really like the graphics and gameplay!
Can't wait to see more from you!

[Phemar]

Awesome short game, got me stumped a few times! The art was astounding, and the animations were smooth, even if there weren't many (I did not notice the ol' fade to black trick was used a few times!).

I also noticed one little grammatical error, although it's not a huge deal, just me being nitpicky. Right at the end scene, the boy says "oneself", when it is probably more correct to use "one's self". I could be wrong, but this is what The Grammarist has to say about it:

"The two-word phrase one's self is only justifiable when self is used in a spiritual, philosophical, or psychological sense. In all other cases, one's self can be replaced with the pronoun oneself."

[NicolaGs]

Thank you!

I also noticed one little grammatical error, although it's not a huge deal

Yes, maybe. As my english is quite basic... I couldn't tell. I found this on WordReference :

"Both one's self and oneself are correct. Most people would use oneself, whereas deep thinkers would use one's self."

So I guess I'll leave it like that (and I don't want to offend my proofreaders ). But don't get me wrong, I like nitpicking, thank you

[Cassiebsg]

I finally got to play this one!
Very nice job you guys managed to put in this. I got stuck a few times, but managed to get un-stuck on my own. I managed to get 92% as I never got to open the metal door (I just saw where the paper was on selmiak's video, which I never noticed in the game as I played with the verbs always visible... ). Besides I kept trying to get the wet papers so I could dry them in the sun, using the lighter....

I was more surprised to have reached the end, as I thought that maybe my paper was in the tunnels...

In all, very nice game!

[Click'd]

I managed to get 92% as I never got to open the metal door

Spoiler

You get percents for trying everything, even if it doesn't work out.

Spoiler

The door can not be opened.

[close]

[close]

[Stupot]

I finally got around to finishing this after geting quite stuck.

One thing that impresses me about this game is the use of space and the 3D-like depth of the room. Nearly all AGS games have that basic box-shape (or variants of it). I sometimes think that it's a waste of time to make up and down walking animations (let alone diagonals) when most games pretty much just have the character move left and right 90 percent of the time anyway. But in this game I really felt that I had this big space to explore.

The other thing that impressed me was the ending. I did have one complaint about the game (that the puzzles are a bit mundane) but actually the ending kind of explains why those particular kinds of puzzles were chosen, so it was worth slogging through them to get the finale.

Nice work.

[NicolaGs]

What? The puzzles are mundane?
Yes, I get that... they certainly are... I think it's because it all started as a proof of concept for us. The story came after, in order to create a context for the "mechanics" we would like to test... We didn't aim fo originality, that's true Maybe next time?
But glad to see you like it anyway.

[NicolaGs]

Hi everybody!

I'm happy to announce that I Want Out! is now available in German, in addition to English and French, thanks to ToxicTuba!

[NicolaGs]

Hello!

A small update for those who could be interested :
Thanks to Alexander Preymak and Windows-1251 encoding (sic), the game now exists in Russian!

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/a1kApoJ.png[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/Fjt61GY.png[/imgzoom]

[Mandle]

Awesome game! Just got finished now...

The main thing that got me stuck was

Spoiler

Whenever I tried using the dynamite the game said "throw from a distance". I know now that the game was trying to tell me to "just throw the dynamite instead of using it you idiot!", but the way the hint is phrased suggested more to me that I had to find the right distant point to throw it from rather than that throwing it was the main point. I would suggest changing that hint to something simpler like "You need to throw the dynamite" or just avoid the whole thing the way you did with the rope: "Use" and "Throw" do same thing...

[close]

[NicolaGs]

I know now that the game was trying to tell me (...) you idiot!"

Well, that says it all... I should reconsider this if I don't players to feel like this. There's the same issue with

Spoiler

pick up / pull the rope / the cable

[close]

Difficult puzzles are a thing. Difficult to understand gameplay logic is another thing...
I'll either change the dialogs or merge use/throw actions...
Thanks for your input, Mandle.

[Durq]

Awesome game! Just got finished now...

The main thing that got me stuck was

Spoiler

Whenever I tried using the dynamite the game said "throw from a distance". I know now that the game was trying to tell me to "just throw the dynamite instead of using it you idiot!", but the way the hint is phrased suggested more to me that I had to find the right distant point to throw it from rather than that throwing it was the main point. I would suggest changing that hint to something simpler like "You need to throw the dynamite" or just avoid the whole thing the way you did with the rope: "Use" and "Throw" do same thing...

[close]

Mandle, did you eventually figure it out, or did you have to look up the solution?

[Mandle]

There's the same issue with

Spoiler

pick up / pull the rope / the cable

[close]

Yeah, I must admit that at first I briefly thought

Spoiler

"I must use my strength" meant that I must somehow become stronger like by drinking a Red Bull from the vending machine . Perhaps something like "It's a bit stuck in the debris. It's going to take a little more than just picking it up to heft it free." I chose the word "heft" to make it not quite as obvious but if it's still confusing to people you could use "jerk it free" and it that's still not enough "yank it free". Actually you could even use each term in order each time the player tries to pick up the rope so it's a gradually easier hint. That could work...

[close]

[Mandle]

Mandle, did you eventually figure it out, or did you have to look up the solution?

I eventually figured it out. I did manage to complete the whole game without looking up any hints. I think it took me about 2 hours including "stuck" time.

[NicolaGs]

"I must use my strength" meant that I must somehow become stronger like by drinking a Red Bull from the vending machine

We tried to guess what the player would think... butI must admit we totally missed this one!

I'm curious : did you have the same confusion with the...

Spoiler

electric cable behind the vending machine, which must be pulled as well?

[close]

Anyway, thanks for your ideas!

[Mandle]

I'm curious : did you have the same confusion with the...

Spoiler

electric cable behind the vending machine, which must be pulled as well?

[close]

Anyway, thanks for your ideas!

No, that was pretty clear what to do after the same experience before.

[selmiak]

I liked the

Spoiler

pull the rope instead of just picking it up puzzle and got it in few seconds

[close]

still some hints by Luke could help...

[NicolaGs]

Mandle, I followed your advice and changed a bit the dialogs for

Spoiler

picking up the rope/cable

[close]

Thank you!

[Mandle]

No worries. Glad I could help out.

[NicolaGs]

I'm happy to let you know that I Want Out! is now also translated in Spanish, which now makes 5 avalaible languages.
Thanks to Raul Puro for that!

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/6Kcuib6.png[/imgzoom]
[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/3cVsCkx.png[/imgzoom]

[Matti]

I played the game a few days ago and I really enjoyed it! It was even better than I expected

Nicely done!

[NicolaGs]

It was even better than I expected

Thanks! I prefer it that way rather than the opposite ...

[cianty]

When I start the game, it immediately fails with an error:

in "room 301.asc", line 27



Edit: Ok, got it running by changing the driver to "Software Renderer" via the winsetup.

Edit 2: Just finished the game. It was a great experience. Congrats on a well done short game!

[NicolaGs]

Edit 2: Just finished the game. It was a great experience. Congrats on a well done short game!

Thank you!

When I start the game, it immediately fails with an error:

in "room 301.asc", line 27

Edit: Ok, got it running by changing the driver to "Software Renderer" via the winsetup.

I don't like that...
This line is a simple FadeIn()... Could you try again with OpenGL and DirectX to see if it can be reproduced, please? Maybe there's an incompatibility with your OpenGL version... is it an old PC?

[Crimson Wizard]

When I start the game, it immediately fails with an error:

in "room 301.asc", line 27

Is it full error message or was there anything else?

[NicolaGs]

Hi everybody,

Hopefully here is the final update to this game, in order to prevent a bug reported several times (alt-tab combination leading to dialogs quickly skipping by themsleves).
I updated the game with AGS engine version 3.4.1.14 which fixes this bug.

I considered creating a new game with AGS for a time but I'm just starting a project in another genre for now...
So I'll come back here when I'll have another Point'n'click project.

Cheers!

[Durq]

I considered creating a new game with AGS for a time but I'm just starting a project in another genre for now...
So I'll come back here when I'll have another Point'n'click project.

Cheers!

Hi! Can you tell us what the project is?

[NicolaGs]

Hi! Can you tell us what the project is?

Hey Beau! Yes, sure...
For the past months, I've been learning how to code video games (well... the basis...) to be able to create games from scratch...
I'm making (at least trying to make...) a platform game. I'm currently at a very early stage, coding the engine.
I don't want to spam here because it's not AGS related, but if you're interested, I've just started to publish my WIP >here< some days ago.

Btw, one day, I may need beta testers again ...