Into The Light - 8-30-05 Done

[Etcher Squared Games]

Greetings, after a long absense, Etcher Squared Games is proud to present its 2nd game:Ã,  "Into The Light".

Required Description:
You play the part of Tim, a regular average guy.Ã,  You have been locked inside a room and you need to get out before harm comes to you. (Yes this is a "get yourself out of a single room game")Ã,  How did you get there?Ã,  Well, you accidentally witnessed a murder and the thug grabbed you, knocked you out, and you awoke in a strange place.

What's the catch?
Tim is blind.Ã,  You must count on your other senses to help you get your freedom.Ã,  Feel, taste, touch [er..smell I mean], and listen to your surroundings to find a way out.

Required Screenshots and downloadable zip:
http://www.geocities.com/etchersquaredgames/itl/

You will notice some of these screenshots look rather bare.Ã,  That is on purpose.Ã,  One pic is of an empty room.Ã,  Trust me, there is stuff in there.Ã,  That's just how you perceive the room at first until you start to look around.Ã,  The main game part itself is close to being finished.Ã,  I just didn't want to show the room after you discovered everything because that would, I feel, ruin a lot of the game.

I have yet to work on the intro basically going through what I just said above.
There will also be a demo/instruction cutscene to show how things work in the game since I'm doing some things a little bit differently from other games I've played on here (AFAIK).

UPDATE 3-1-05
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Initial posting of game.
Intro - 0%
Demonstration/Instructions - 0%
Main Game - 85%
OVERALL 30%
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UPDATE 3-9-05
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Still working on game...
Main Game - 90%
Just modifying initial post, nothing worth bumping thread yet.
Will post when the game is fully playable.
Hope to have that by monday (3-14-05)
OVERALL 33%
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UPDATE 3-12-05
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DEMO available - click on the link above for the zip file
The main game isn't quite finished. It still needs some refining, but it's "win-able".
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UPDATE 3-16-05
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This project is on hold temporarily.Ã,  I'm still working on it, but it's going to be set aside for about a month.
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UPDATE 4-5-05
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Project resumed.
Redoing all code.
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UPDATE 5-23-05
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It's coming along still.Ã,  Still working on it.Ã,  Still nothing worth bumping thread over.Ã,  Recoding has been a blessing as I am doing things ways better and the game plays a bit differently than stated below.
Made some corrections to drawings that would make items appear when you were NO WHERE close to them.
If I could sit down for aboutÃ,  6 hours I could have a game that you could beat, but wouldn't be 100% done.Ã,  Once I have that, I'll bump this thread.
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UPDATE 5-23-05
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Finally, an update worthy of bumping this thread.Ã,  Details in the latest message.Ã, 
Summary:
The game can be beaten, but it may not be obvious how to do it without the entire game finished, but the path is there.
Changed how "feeling" things worked...details in message.
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UPDATE 07-07-05
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This has got to be the longest making of a 1 room game in history.Ã,  (I'm still currently in the middle of moving and selling my house.Ã,  Anyone want a condo on the NE side of Indianapolis?)
Added a LOT more descriptions to actions happening and now give better descriptions.
"No smell" e.g. is now "I can smell anything strange on the bla bla"

Game Portion: 90%
Intro: 35%
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UPDATE 07-07-05
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Game is in "alpha" mode.Ã,  Need people to test.
Changed the link. There is now a webpage with pics, download, and a walkthrough.

Game Portion: 95%
Intro: 55%
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UPDATE 08-26-05
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Game is 100% done.
Just need some people to BETA test it.
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[Kinoko]

Sounds like a really interesting concept, I like it ^_^ I also love that you didn't make it the old, "How did you get there? You have no idea..."

[jason]

This looks very original and promising. I can't wait!  8)

[Phemar]

Wow, original concept, looks interesting.

[MoodyBlues]

Too cool!  I love the concept; best of luck to you!

My mom might even like this game; she teaches kids with visual impairments, so it'd be interesting to see what she thinks.

Just a thought:  what about the sense of smell?

[Etcher Squared Games]

Wow, wasn't expecting this kinda response. I sure hope I don't disappoint.

In regards to smell.

Spoiler

Sense of smell is in the game, but weak, I'm trying to rework a few things to incorporate that more.Ã,  Otherwise there is no specific puzzle yet that requires smell.

[close]

(edit)Ã,  I just realized in my first post I mentioned touched twice (as touch and feel...oops...
I bet that's why you asked about smell, anyway, I fixed the first post and

Spoiler

I've come up with a few ideas on using smell, but they are NOT required to end the game, but they lead into the 2nd game if I ever make it.

[close]

In regards to the other senses:

Spoiler

Taste, touch, listen are all used at least once in the game to finish a puzzle.

[close]

Do keep in mind this game is short and that I am working by myself again, so graphics aren't 100% (everyone remember Sierra Quest 1?)

But if things go well with this game I can always do a part II.Ã, 

[hedgefield]

Wow, you sure have my vote for originality!

It sounds really interesting, hope you can get it all worked out well.

[simulacra]

I really like the concept of a non-visual game, though I think you should work a bit on the graphics. Perhaps increase the resolution a bit (I have heard that SVGA compatability is pretty common nowadays). It will none the less be exciting to see what you will make of this. The concept reminds me of a game called Terraformers, which is a 3D game developed for people with visual disabilities. (The only game that I have played that featured the "Turn graphics off" option.)

[Etcher Squared Games]

DEMO available.

See the link in my original posting for the zip file.
Main game still needs work.
But it's to a point that if people would like to play and give feedback and find any problems, please do so.

If you play the game and have NO IDEA what to do...

Spoiler

One of the main points of the game is discovery.
Using the "touch" icon, move the mouse around slowly.
If you hover over an item, it will slowly come into view.
Once the outlined item is 100% in view (about 3 seconds), then you can click on it and make it permanently solid.Ã,  Then you are able to further interact with it.

[close]

[Vince Twelve]

I'm really impressed with your concept for the game.  I like the graphical style a lot. And the music rocks.  Did you make the music?

I played just a little bit and found two bugs:

Spoiler

1)  Mousing over the open desk drawer makes the plant appear.
B) When I discovered the body the game crashed, the error pointed to line 270 in the script for Room 2.  Apparently you have a character in there that it is unable to display.  I couldn't get this error to repeat though, so you may have to do some things in certain orders to be unlucky enough for it to happen...

[close]

As far as the interface goes, I like the idea, but it's painfully slow.  I like that things fade in as you mouse around the "touch" cursor, but after you click on them do they have to fade in really slowly AGAIN?  This makes the game take forever.

I have three suggestions:

A) Speed up the initial (black and white) fade in just a tad, and the second (color) fade in a lot.
2) Allow the player to click on the black and white version of the object to "solidify" it before it has finished fading in.  (yeah, that'll have problems with the wait cursor and all, but you can code it)
iii) When you mouse over something with the touch cursor and it starts fading in, don't make it vanish if I mouse out, leave it in the partially faded in state.

I'd say that suggestion number A is needed more than the others, but number iii would definitely be cool (and easy to implement).

ETA:
Also, I'd be careful about the "pixel hunting as a gameplay feature" you've got going.  Pixel hunting is usually not a good mark in my book for any game, but if there is absolutely zero hint as to where you should be pixel hunting... well that's just dangerous.

Without adding an annoyingly labeled list, my suggestions are to make the mouseover areas for the objects large and easy to hit, or add an item that you find early in the game that can help you out.  Like some sort of echo-location device or something... I dunno... you're the designer...

[Etcher Squared Games]

Yeah I was already thinking about the slowness of the fade-in...
I'll work on speeding it up, no problem.Ã,  I guess I've not noticed because I know where everything isÃ, 

I'll change the style work on the bug and provide an update sometime next week.

As for the music, no not me.Ã,  I don't have it in front of me, but I think the guy goes by "Leap Frog Productions"
(my apologies if that isn't right, I'll edit if I find it isn't)

(edit...)
I've posted a new zip file with some changes...
1. You start with a tuning fork....try it out
2. When you aren't near an object, the touch cursor is a hand and a closed eye
3. when you are close but not ON an object, the touch cursor is a hand with a question mark
4. when you are on an object the touch cursor is a hand with an eyeball
5. as you mouse over an object the object comes into view (twice as fast now) and when the outline is 100% solid it automatically becomes color solid (4 times as fast) , no clicking needed

please try this and let me know

[Etcher Squared Games]

Greetings all,

I'm back and this project is still coming along.
I just now finally have an update worthy of bumping this thread.

Anyway, since last posting, I've scrapped ALL the code and started over.Ã,  I'm glad I did this as I've coded things WAY better than I was (not that anyone playing will notice).

The big noticable things are mostly the fading in feature of the main room.

Previously, ONLY when the mouse cursor was ON the object did it slowly solidify.Ã,  Once it did, it become colored and then you could interact with it for the rest of the game.

But, I decided to do something a little different and more true to the "blind" factor of the game.

Right now, objects are only interactable if you've hovered over them for a short amount of time, but it's only like 1.5 seconds for it to be fully colored.Ã, 
What happens is, as you move closer to an object, the "outline/wire frame" version becomes more and more solid.Ã,  The cool part is, it only becomes solid at a certain rate, so if you zipped your cursor over the object, it will still take about 1.5 seconds to become solid.Ã,  Now if you zip over to about 10 pixels away from the object, it will slowly get about 50% solid.
Being RIGHT NEXT to the object will put it at 100% opaque wire mode, then moving on it makes it color and interactable....

(This is probably better understood if you just grab the game and play around, link is on first message of this thread).

There is still no intro or demo available.Ã,  I want to finish the game portion.

Again, as a warning, what to do to beat the game isn't 100% clear as it sits now.Ã,  There will be clues as the demo and intro are finished.Ã,  Ã, 

Anyway, I'm still working on it.Ã,  If you have troubles getting through it feel free to post here or PM me personally.

Thank you

[Vince Twelve]

You know, I was wondering about this game the other day.  Good to see you're still working on it.

Checked the update... Wow, that's way better.  I like that you can see things just by getting close, it's a much better design decision.  I also like that the things fade out afterwards.  It makes it feel more realistic.  Like I'm actually blind and can only touch one thing at a time.  Very cool.

Though I still have no idea what to do, I was able to get a lot farther in this version.

Spoiler

I never saw the sledgehammer, pocketknife, or pipe in the previous version.  I managed to break the pipe with the sledgehammer, cut open the bag with the knife.  Taste the bag to find out that it's flour.  Get it wet.  And then, entirely through trial and error... dip the pocketknife into it.  I have no idea why.

That's as far as I got.

[close]

Once again, I'd like to state that I love the innovation in this game.  It's a nice idea, treat it right.  Don't concentrate too hard on your cool new gamelay element or you might forget to cover the basics.

1. Make sure the puzzles are logical.
2. Use your gameplay to its full potential.  (i.e.  make sure that you don't just use taste or smell once or twice and then ignore them.  if they are important enough to be given a spot on the inventory, they are important enough to be used throughout the game in intuitive ways.
3. Make the game usable.  I hate going into my inventory and having to click the  Arrow button (which by the way has a testy click detecton.).  Default me to the inventory select cursor.  The arrows for turning the lock on the toolbox are covered by the mouse area for the inventory making it very hard to use.  etc. 
4. Help a brotha' out.  Let us examine our inventory items.  Using smell and taste and touch we should be able to surmise more about these things that we're carrying.  This goes for the whole game, not just the inventory.  If I taste an object, give me more than "No taste."  And for the inventory items, I don't even get that...
5. Tell us why certain actions don't work in a descriptive manner.  When I'm randomly trying inventory items on things in the room (which, if you follow #1, won't be necessary), tell me why nothing happens.  For example, using the hand on the window gives me "I can't break it with my hand."  Cool.  Gotcha.  But when I try the sledgehammer on the window nothing happens.  You'd better give me SOME explanation for why my sledge doesn't help me out with my glass problem.

Looking forward to this game.  Keep up the good work.

[Etcher Squared Games]

Ok, as for your hidden text...

Spoiler

For those of you who don't know...Flour + water = glue....

[close]

(edit, ack didn't see all your text in the hidden area...)

Spoiler

The reason you never saw the said items before because I had a "tree" concept going on...Ã,  "what do you mean?"Ã,  good question...Ã,  Ã, Say you had a table in the room, and on the table was a casette tape.Ã,  I forced you to fully discover the table, before you could know about the tape.Ã,  So, you probably didn't notice the knife, because as soon as you discovered the person, you might have thought you were done.Ã,  Same with the shelf, once you found it, you thought perhaps that was all???Ã,  But really, once the shelf was solid, THEN you could see the items on it.Ã,  But now I've thrown that out, and any item at any time can be seen.

[close]

1.Ã,  The puzzles will become more logical (hopefully) once more flavor text, the intro, and the demo become complete.

2.Ã,  Unfortunatly, some of the senses aren't used much, but at least all are used.Ã,  Ã, I'm using this game as sort of "test ground" for the already theorized game "Into the Light II" (coming in November, I don't know what year though).Ã,  But I plan to incorporate the 4 remaining senses MUCH MUCH more in a part II if I do make it.

3.Ã,  Noted, I will do what I can here. I agree.Ã,  As for the testyness of the button, I've noticed it sometimesÃ,  myself, but haven't yet figured out what's going on.Ã,  This is my first time handling inventory clicks so I'm sure I'm messing things up.

4.Ã,  The "flavor text" of the game is simply something I haven't gotten to yet.Ã,  It will be there, trust me.Ã,  I wanted to get the base structure of the game first.Ã,  Now that I do, I can concentrate of the flavor and this will in turn help out your point #1.Ã,  Ã, And speaking of which, with flavor text, this will help you understand what you are doing better instead of, as you said, a bunch of trial and error clicking everything.Ã,  It will be there...eventually.....

5.Ã,  see #4

[Etcher Squared Games]

Yes, I'm still on this game.Ã,  The slowness is due to the fact I've moved within my city and am still doing stuff regarding selling my old house...

Anyway, on with the progress...

I have changed and added a lot of descriptions.Ã,  There are now (better) clues as to how to proceed next.Ã, 

I've also begun the intro scene.Ã,  It doesn't have a concept of "StartCutscene" and currently abruptly ends.Ã,  So, if you click on INTRO, you'll have to force close the game.Ã,  Sorry, just how it is at the moment.


Another major change:Ã,  The game is smaller now.
Hint to newbie game makers:Ã,  DO NOT draw objects the size of the whole screen.Ã,  This takes up a lot of space.Ã,  I initially did this to make anchoring them easy, but the size of my game started to explode so I've been taking the time to shrink the sprites.Ã,  I think I cut the game's size by almost half.

Anyway, a new zip is on my webpage on the link given above where the pics are.Ã,  Have fun.

[Candle]

Looks like fun , I will have to tell my wife about it  .
She is blind .

[IceMan]

Just checked out the demo - I really like the intro!Ã, 
It's VERY moody, especially with the old clock going.Ã,  What could be even cooler, though, is if you got rid of the dialogue just before the classroom stuff.Ã,  Just an idea, but it might be kinda neat if you leave it to the player to realise that the guy is blind.Ã,  I don't know, see what you think

I would also do something about the cursor icons - maybe put an outline around them.Ã,  It's just that because everythings in black and white I can't make out what the cursor is when I'm pointing over something.Ã,  Again, just thoughts.Ã,  This game is looking extremely promising, and its a very original idea.Ã,  Good luck!

[guybrush]

I really really like your game. It's one of the best AGS games I've played. It's very interesting and original. You're, like, a genius .
I only have one problem; I'm stuck.

Spoiler

I've made a glue out of the flour and everything, but i don't know what to do next. I need the combination for the lock on the toolbox, and for the door. But how am I going to find them out if I'm pretty much blind?

[close]

[Etcher Squared Games]

Hmm, something I forgot to mention about this game.

SOUND CARD REQUIRED (*)

I thought heavily about having some kind of speech/text for every sound produced in the game, but decided against it while I made the ITL_beta.Ã,  It, for me, took away from the game.Ã,  So sounds are going to be just that, purely sounds.

Guybrush, I see this was your 14th post at the time, welcome to the boards.Ã,  I don't really care myself on this thread, but others might.Ã,  There's a nice tag: [ h i d e ] (no spaces) that you can use to hide text.Ã,  When asking for hints you may want to use these so others are not spoiled by what you said.Ã,  (again, I don't particularly care on this thread for my game)...

[EDIT] Guybrush, thank you for hiding the text.  Again, you didn't have to, but thank you anyway 

but for example....the tool box and panel....

Spoiler

SOUND CARD REQUIRED (*)
This is your hint...

[close]

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Nice game.  I think one good way to include smell as a useful tool into the game would be:

Spoiler

when you are doing the keycode, you could smell the buttons for traces of blood and find which ones the villain used.

[close]