FoY demo for all

[Babar]

The other issue I had with it that, for lack of a better word, Indy behaves like a pussy. I don't mean any offense by this, but Indy isn't the type of guy to sit and give excuses like 'what, and throw my back out!?' for not picking up a shovel. It just somehow demeans his cool factor to have him consistently say un-Indyish things just because you don't want this item to be in the inventory. Another example is pushing the gas can. "That would be DANGEROUS!" Indy LIVES danger, he BREATHES it. This is not a statement Indy would make, it's more like something you'd see in Smokey the Bear's Adventures. I really and truly think you need to think about who Indy is and reframe the situations around him.

Speaking of which, WHY DID YOU REMOVE INDY'S STUBBLE? I realise that Indy staying at a hotel wouldn't sport stubble (I wouldn't have thought he'd sport the Indy Suit(TM) either, but I realise you've got time constraints), but I don't care about the logic. Indy needs stubble. I was also disappointed that you couldn't pick up the shovel. It's an adventure game! Shovel's are necessary !

About the final puzzle, can someone explain the logic to me?

Spoiler

I figured out the 'YOUTH' from the journal and 'MAY' and 'ENTER' from the notes, but I had to click all the other buttons one by one to find 'THE', which ended up being the last.

[close]

Another thing, just a suggestion, but it was kinda annoying to have to retype the savegame name everytime you saved. Usually the old name remains there, and you have the option of editting it, or just pressing ENTER to save it under the same name.

Also, I do not think you need voices for the demo. Save it up for the real game! We don't need more demo versions, WORK ON THE ACTUAL GAME!

[Greyarea]

@Barber

Spoiler

If you take another look at Shelly's homework you will find the glyph for "the".

[close]

Bugs:

I  found some wired bugs, like Indy being able to stand right behind (i.e. his view being blocked by) the drunk Nazi when the later is working on the truck. Also the savegames behave really wired, when I start the demo from the desktop shortcut I cant see any savegames but when I start the game from its directory I get my saved states -also a savegame file is saved to my desktop.

Besides that it was great, nice little "easter egg" by the way.

[m0ds]

Theres also another graphical error in there - see if you can spot it!!

Regarding shovels, stubbles & what not - I think those are all "perfectionist" elements that I've already said will be looked into in the full-game.

[Pumaman]

It can't be ... the FoY demo is out there?!

Great stuff m0ds, glad to finally see it released

[Ubel]

Well, what can I say? Good stuff. Really nice visuals. Congratulations on releasing it at last!

[magintz]

Hey Mark, Just got round to playing it and it is looking super-mega impressive. Everything is perfect Indy down to a T. This should keep fans sated for at least another 4 years, and I'm sure all the feedback is a lot of enthusiasm to keep you motivated.

All I have left to say now is keep up the good work and I look forward to the real game and would love to see more tutorials on your site.

If you need a mirror for the downloads I can help with that, not sure how miez.com is responding to all the downloading.

So we can expect the full game at mittens this year right

[Mats Berglinn]

Pretty nice demo so far. I've stumbled upon a couple of mistakes.

First mistake: Indy and some other characters say "Rubbish" and other Brittish expressions. Indy is American, he doesn't say Brittish things.

Second mistake:

Spoiler

When looking at the stoneplate at the digstie (the symobls that are similiar to those in the homework), there's no "exit" area

[close]

Third mistake: If you try to use some items with hotspots or whatever, Indy doesn't comment on them. Also, some of the discriptions doesn't make sense, like: Use knife on dog, Indy says "I can't use these objects together" That should be "I've got no reason to stab a dog" or "I don't kill animals for no reason".

Otherwise it's great but I agree with Steve McCrea with not attack the drunken nazi. I mean, even if he has a gun he couldn't hit Indy because his accuracy is lowered because of being drunk. Also, he doesn't look strong, so why not just whip him or throw the knife or whatever. It would make more sense if the guard is NOT drunk and looks less weak. Why not switch the alchohol with some other beverage (I think the Nazi's never drank coffee, at least I think one of Nazi's in Last Crusade said so).

Let's hope the game take less than two years to be completed. Keep on it!

[Timosity]

Great stuff guys, looks and sounds excellent, top quality stuff (apart from the bugs)

didn't find any new ones excpet maybe some of the text says Use this with that, or look here etc but you can still walk to somewhere else with this text being displayed (no specifics but it pretty much happens anywhere [not a serious issue but a bit of scripting polish])

I also agree about the lack responses from clicking on objects, at least have a random unhandled event response.

Spoiler

quite a few places where you click to walk somewhere and it takes you to the wrong place eg. at the tents, click the tower thing and end up in left tent, click to go between tents to the guard and end up in the command tent etc

[close]

And when it comes towards the final release, I'd suggest quite a few more beta testers, cause we all know that people round here like to pick stuff to death, and they are the prime candidates for the jobs (and I'm not putting my hand up)

[The Scorposer]

Wow, that was awesome! It really has the Lucasart Indy Feel ^(tm) in every department.

My compliments to the FoY team! It was worth the wait

[Mr Flibble]

My only beef was with the dialogue in general. It was out of character, for Indiana at least. Also, I think the name gags were ladled on too fast and thick. This is Indiana Jones, but Guybrush Threepwood.

Having said that, I loved the travelling scene - spot on! And the midi sound effects, the birds for example, very impressive.

[InCreator]

Hurrah! Finished it. Graphical and musical sides simply rock!

But with my usual criticsloungeism...
Warning: long ramble ahead

* There's a painful collision with Sierra (loads of hotspots) and LucasArts'(hell of details on backgrounds) styles!

Original Indy games had loads of backgrounds with little to do on them. Hotspot was always something you actually do need to use to progress (especially in Last Crusade!!!). But details were many.

Sierra games, especially ancient text-parser AGI games had very little of noticeable detail on backgrounds, but almost everything was lookable and interactable.

In FOY, you have both... and that makes puzzles extremely difficult. Especially if game demo lacks any not-puzzle-critical and hinting responses. For example, simple math --

10 inventory items
+
4 rooms with around 15 hotspots in both
+
9 possible interactions
+
no idea what to do
=
helluva lot of choices & one really confused player

So, I hope that in next 25 years or so while you finish full FOY  , there will be enough hints added, pointless hotspots removed (not really desirable option, It reduces exploration value) or straight logic applied to puzzles to make it all enjoyable and not too easy at same time. Alternate solutions? Nah, I know how much time it takes...

* Fighting system has much more quick action, but wastes choices. I found no difference in where I hit or why to block - it's just one big and quick mess. I somethat prefer more tactical and slower fighting from original Indy games. Where I can decide, hit and see result! Also, it was quite hard to understand what did indicators show while boxing - and why did they have so weird(?) colors!

* Even though Indy was somewhat pacifistic in LucasArts games, in movies, he was the fearless hero! What I mean is unless drunk solider wasn't carrying a big gun (and pointing it at Indy), there's no way this character would simply back up. It just... doesn't feel right. Other soliders sleeping nearby maybe? To make Indy be afraid of causing too much noise? Something like that would be more reasonable. And believeable. In TLC, Indy had an option to attack even if it led to guaranteed death!

But best approach would be still to give player a choice between wit and brawn in situations like this, IMO. And option to flee from fight wouldn't hurt neither! "Nasty trick" was very cool (and surprising) addition, I think.

* sideways walking needs a little polish. The steps Indy takes feel a bit too long? Though it's adjustable, I think that default should be perfected since I people tend to leave it unchanged.

I could analyze further, but I doubt that this is neccessary, It's an amazing and loooong-waited demo, after all!

My personal admiration belongs to miez and m0ds, though rest of the team made great job aswell. Good luck on making the full game, I'm sure that this is the gem that gives the genre and AGS some strong reputation boost and will be talked about for a long time.

[auhsor]

Strange bug you may be aware of: Ok this is to do with save games so it might fall under the bug listed in the readme. When I first had a look at the demo, I saved 2 save games. This is all well and good, but then I went back to play the demo again, but the saves wern't there. I tried the shortcut on the desktop and the actual exe file in FoY\demo and they didn't show up in them... I then tried the shortcut in the start menu and the save games were there... It doesn't make any sense to me. The save games also appear to be in the FoY\demo folder and no where else.

[Wretched]

Right click the desktop icon and select properties, Set the "Start In:" Box to the games directory path.

[auhsor]

Ah cool, thanks.

[Kweepa]

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/28/indy-returns-in-indie-adventure-game-fountain-of-youth/

It's a few days old, but you might not have seen it.

[aussie]

I just finished the demo. I loved it.

Only one suggestion for the final thing: I found lots of interactions to be missing (notably those related to the "use" command"). It's a bit puzzling for the player when you do something that makes sense (sort of) and you get no reply for it.

Take for instance the volleyball net. I thought I could cut it down with the knife instead of finidng the pin, but I got no reaction from the game.

Aside from that, two thumbs up. Excellent stuff.

[Hollister Man]

My buddy, his wife and I all gathered round the XPS and played Indy for the first time any of us had played since FOA.  That's just good old fashioned fun.    When one of us would get stuck, another of us would get the answer! 

Other than the already-mentioned nits, I picked one more...the round rock-ish thing at El Boca de Diablo.  It says 'the writing is covered with dirt and I can't make it out'...the knife would work to scrape dirt off, and the tin cup would work to get some water and wash it off.    I couldn't figure that part out.

All around great game, but I look forward to a good unhandled_event handler! 

[m0ds]

The demo features on this month's PC Gamer disc, and there's a write up on page 104... nice!!

[Scummbuddy]

Did you make a cruddy scan with another page layering over your own write up just because at the bottom of the page it says "Essential Mods"? 

[AGA]

FoY demo is also in PC ZONE UK this month too, m0ds. I'll scan it in when I get the chance.

EDIT: here you go. It's a pretty huge resolution, but at least it's readable