Absurdistan - Demo available

[Pogwizd]

Demo: https://lazy-squirrel.itch.io/absurdistan-demo

Dear Comrade,
The Party needs you! You must come to Absurdistan immediately and join Leszek on his little quest to save his father's name's day! A trifle you say? Oh, Comrade, how wrong of you! Don't you forget that Absurdistan is a place where logic is nowhere to be found and that Absurdanis are reluctant to help each other out. Where keeping your profile low and showing your devotion to the Party is your bread and butter. Hope now you understand that in this place even a simple task becomes an adventure in its own right.
There is no time to lose, so get your passport ready and hop on the first train to Absurdistan!
Glory to the Party!

About the game:
Absurdistan is a partially text-based, side-scrolling adventure game featuring simplistic graphics.
You play as Leszek, a young Absurdani, who, just like his family, is fed up with the regime imposed by the Party. But, dear Adventure Gamer, fear nothing! Despite the seemingly gloomy setting, the game doesn't intend to get you down, as its main goal is to poke fun at many absurdities of the daily life in a totalitarian-communist state. 
The game will feature a whole variety of puzzles, which, unlike the state of Absurdistan, do make sense. Some of them may even require you to grab something to write and figure them out in real life.
The goal is to provide at least 1,5 hrs of gameplay.

Manual:
-You control Leszek with the mouse and occasionally with the keyboard.
-Left mouse click is used to BOTH inspect and interact with objects/hotspots/characters.
-Right mouse click is used only to click out of GUIs, interfaces or deselect active inventory items.


Progress:
Writing: 20%
Puzzles/Story: 95%
Scripting:40%
Graphcs: 20%
Sound: 15%
When: It's a hobby project, so in a very distant future. But a demo is just around the corner.

The screen shots come from a version before proofreading, so they may contain some typos etc.

     

[heltenjon]

This sounds like a great premise for a game!

[Jack]

Super cool.

I thought I could already download it, but then was disappointed.

[KyriakosCH]

This looks cool ^_^

Glory to Absurdotska.

[Pogwizd]

Right

May I present you the demo of Absurdistan. I had a great time making it, so I hope it will be the same for you when playing it. Any feedback is welcome, so feel free to comment on anything you like.

Many thanks to heltenjon and newwaveburritos for their interest and help, as well as to Eric Matyas for making his SFX resources available.

Link: https://lazy-squirrel.itch.io/absurdistan-demo

Manual:
-You control Leszek with the mouse and occasionally with the keyboard.
-Left mouse click is used to BOTH inspect and interact with objects/hotspots/characters.
-Right mouse click is used only to click out of GUIs, interfaces or deselect active inventory items.

Also, it's a demo, so some puzzles can't be solved yet.

[milkanannan]

This looks so cool! Going to try it soon...

[Pogwizd]

Thanks milkanannan, hope you'll enjoy it

Are you going by any chance to play it with your son? There is one line of dialogue that contains a swear word. I mean, I doubt you are going to play it together due to the game's subject and text-based nature but seeing the Kid-friendly thread I thought I would let you know. (I've also updated the content info on the AGS game db). 

[milkanannan]

Thanks milkanannan, hope you'll enjoy it

Are you going by any chance to play it with your son? There is one line of dialogue that contains a swear word. I mean, I doubt you are going to play it together due to the game's subject and text-based nature but seeing the Kid-friendly thread I thought I would let you know. (I've also updated the content info on the AGS game db). 

Cheers! I'll keep an eye out for it...

This game is definitely on the roster for this weekend. Found a recipe for Orwellian Victory Gin to go along with it (minus the juniper berries, in my case):

Victory Gin Martini
• Some Dry Juniper Berries
• 2 oz. -or- 60 ml. Vodka
• .5 oz. -or- 15 ml. Kaoliang Baijiu
• 2 Dashes Orange BItters
• Muddle and shake
• Serve in Martini Glass
• Garnish with olives

[Jack]

Nice work.

I have downloaded and will inspect it for wrongthink.

[Pogwizd]

I have downloaded and will inspect it for wrongthink.

But remember to report anything you notice, otherwise you shall be found guilty of it yourself

Cheers! I'll keep an eye out for it...

Actually, if you want to omit that one dialogue...

Spoiler

...don't interact with the shoe rack. It's not necessary to finish the demo anyway.

[close]

Found a recipe for Orwellian Victory Gin to go along with it

Good idea, that should help you with solving the puzzles

[Stupot]

This looks great. Best of luck.

[milkanannan]

Hmm trying to unzip the rar but I am getting an error. Is this happening to anyone else?

[Pogwizd]

I've just tested the download file on two different machines and it unzipped fine. What error are you getting? Anyway, I'm sending you a PM with a link to unzipped files.

Thanks Stupot, given that I have less and less time, I will need all luck there is to finish it.

[milkanannan]

Sweet - the link in your PM worked.

Here's the error I was getting. I tried downloading the files a few times, but it didn't help.

[morganw]

The rar file is fine, it is just a newer version rar format and rar doesn't guarantee backwards compatibility. Because of this, and because Windows has no support for rar files at all by default, I don't know why anyone would distribute something in a rar archive if they wanted everyone to be able to open it.

[Pogwizd]

Both I and people I know have been using .rar files most of the time and no one every had any issues, so my guess is it can't be that unpopular. Anyway, added .zip files, too.

[milkanannan]

I got around to playing it a couple days ago. Firstly - I love the premise and the drab colour palette and general dreariness of the environment (i.e. living with mom, food stamps, no one trusts each other, everyone stealing everything they can, state propaganda everywhere - brilliant~ sets the scene well in just three screens), plus I'm also a sucker for anything CGA (or seemingly CGA as in this case).

I got stuck here:

Spoiler

I've got the screwdriver, card with sewing holes, food stamps and shopping list. I can tell I need to steal the light switch from the old lady, and I'm assuming I need to fix her TV to be able to do this but I can't seem to figure it out from here! If mom's phone call would come in, I'd call that single guy advert that seems to be looking for a lover of any age and introduce him to the old lady, but...

What should I do here?

[close]

I think the dialogue works very well, although there is something finnicky about clicking through the text that pops up. I can click once to get the whole message to display quickly, but then clicking is irresponsive (for a few seconds) to progress to the next message. Some items have several pages of text, so it is a bit frustrating to have these click delays as you try to escape a messaging thread you've already been through. Also, there is a 'room' that can be seen to the far right of ego's home (with mom). Is this accessible? It's confusing because ego walks through some black 'walls' but not this one.

It's otherwise a really cool premise and a very fun game. I don't know why, but I get the feeling this game would work really well on mobile. I could totally see myself killing a subway ride while playing this.

Is the music original? It is really excellent!

[heltenjon]

I got stuck here:

Spoiler

I've got the screwdriver, card with sewing holes, food stamps and shopping list. I can tell I need to steal the light switch from the old lady,(...)

What should I do here?

[close]

Spoiler

You need to time it right!

[close]

Also, there is a 'room' that can be seen to the far right of ego's home (with mom). Is this accessible? It's confusing because ego walks through some black 'walls' but not this one.

Nope. It's the comrade next door.

Is the music original? It is really excellent!

It is, isn't it! It's Eric Matyas's piece. In my opinion it fits the game so perfectly, it's a mystery it's not composed specifically with this setting in mind.

[Pogwizd]

Many thanks for your feedback milkanannan, it's very much appreciated! I'm glad you enjoyed the setting and the overall atmosphere of the game. I must say that initially I wasn't sure it would come across due to the extremlly low-res graphics...

The issue with skipping is caused by the fact that I prevented clicking through the dialogue if it's... too short. When I played the game I tended to click straight away to display the whole dialogue line rather than wait for it to be typed out. However, when the line was a bit short and I clicked the mouse button, instead of showing the whole line, I would skip to the following one missing what was being said. I might need to look into it and adjust it a bit better.

Is the music original? It is really excellent!

Nope, as heltenjon said, all tracks are by Eric Matyas : )
Here is the list of them:

Spoiler

Whimsical Popsicle,
Windles Whimsical Street,
Cat Mischief,
My Fat Cat

[close]

Also, there is a 'room' that can be seen to the far right of ego's home (with mom). Is this accessible? It's confusing because ego walks through some black 'walls' but not this one.

I made a last minute change and disabled the entire kitchen in Leszek's flat, as it didn't bring much to the demo imo. I'm guessing you could see only a bit of it with the fridge and not the entire kitchen? Also, thanks for pointing out that the walls are somewhat confusing.

I don't know why, but I get the feeling this game would work really well on mobile. I could totally see myself killing a subway ride while playing this.

If I only knew how to do it...

[Pogwizd]

I've fixed the issue with skipping through the dialogues that milkanannan and Tampere pointed out.

Here's a short video demonstrating it. At first, I let the dialogue lines be displayed normally, but then I skip them through (both with typewriter effect on and off).

[ukz530]

It looks great.! 

It is interesting because there is a culture or setting that cannot be seen in our country.

Spoiler

Blocked in the number puzzle after the elevator.

It looks like it's related to math,   

I'm not good at math, so puzzles are a little difficult. 

but I'll keep trying.

[close]

[Pogwizd]

I'm really glad you like it. My goal was to show something that isn't particularly popular in the mainstream

The puzzle is indeed mathematical. Here is a hint on one of the solutions to put you on the right track:

Spoiler

You must start by incrementing the initial value by 2. Also, remember you don't need to use all the buttons!

I'm being a bit enigmatic on purpose, as I don't want to spoil the fun too much

[close]

However, if you are still stuck, here's the full solution:

Spoiler

Press 4,6 and 2. Then press the button to the right.

[close]

[SarahLiz]

Very nice!  It’s on my playlist to try out today!  Can’t wait...it looks great. 

[Pogwizd]

Thanks SarahLiz, hope you will enjoy it Feel free to share your opinion - any feedback is welcome

[FireFlower]

Looks fun! Like the simplistic style.

[Pogwizd]

Hi all,

Here is a short update on the situation with my game:

Absurdistan is far from being dead After finishing the demo I had to take a short break due to new family commitments, but since late January I have been slowly getting momentum again.

Nevertheless, it's still a long way before the game is finished, but I believe that thanks to the following it should be much easier now:

- after having come back to the game, I was surprised how robust and reusable the interface seemed to be, so I hope I will be able to focus more on making the further content and not on core functionalities;

- most of (well, all but one) gui/panel puzzles have been successfully coded and now are ready to be ported over;

- the whole game is planned out, so unless I come up with one of those turning everything upside-down ideas, it should be a matter of following my notes;

- all rooms, objects, and characters are drawn (some characters need additional animations, though);

So yeah... probably I am making it sound a little bit easier than it is, but I want to believe it will be a pretty straight-forward process (I know it won't...).

I am not going to lie: the biggest mistake I made is going solo for such a long game, but having gone this far I don't want to give up.

When working on post-demo parts of the game, I've been thinking about breaking the game into chapters, but due to its nature that won't be possible. So, what I may do instead is release at some point an extended version of the demo (for those who played the original demo I may add a cheatcode of some sort to skip to the new parts) and then take another break.

Edit: I've removed concept art, because due to lack of time I had to cut them out from the game.

[newwaveburritos]

Happy to hear that progress is still being made!  I look forward to the extended demo.

[Pogwizd]

Hi all,

Not sure how but I think I've managed to finish Absurdistan. Sadly, due to time limitations I had to cut out a few (brilliant) ideas I had, but the game still offers 40 min (or so) of gameplay.

However, it would be great to to have it proofread and   tested by a few people before I roll it out. If you think you could/would like to help me here's a link to the recruitment post: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=59099.0

Also, the game has a poster now (I added it to the first post in this thread)

[Kastchey]

Congratulations! Looking forward to the final release

[Pogwizd]

Thanks Kastchey, I find it very encouraging to know someone is looking forward to it

[Michael2968]

I enjoyed the demo and I look forward to the full game when you release it.

[Pogwizd]

Thanks for playing the demo : ) As it happens, I've just rolled out the full version of the game and you can find it at https://lazy-squirrel.itch.io/absurdistan