Welcome to Dark Lake - DEMO available

[thewalrus]

     I'm having a problem d/ling the demo, can't get it started.... Any ideas why???

[FrancoFranchi]

Nice looking game!  But I'm having a little bit of trouble, which could just be me being an idiot. 

I've gotten the room key, looked at it so I know which room it is.  So I'd expect I should be able to use the elevator to go to that floor (or at least be able to ask the receptionist which floor it's on) but that's not possible. 

So instead I go outside and do the hat-rack puzzle to get into the room and end up talking to a disembodied voice about something I've never heard about. 

Other Improvements I would suggest:
- Change the in-game font!  (it especially hurts the ambience on the title screen when the 'start a new game' text appears over the stylised font of the main menu)
- Left clicking meaning to look and right clicking to exit isn't the most intuitive way to play, given I'm used to doing the reverse
- Having an open door in the hotel that leads nowhere is fairly annoying - just adding a "closed for the evening" or "employees only" sign helps.

[Milo87]

I'm having a problem d/ling the demo, can't get it started.... Any ideas why???

Other people seem to have been able to download it... What exactly was the trouble you were having?

So instead I go outside and do the hat-rack puzzle to get into the room and end up talking to a disembodied voice about something I've never heard about.

Did you talk to the detective so he lets you into the room? It shouldn't be possible to get into the room before talking to him.

As for the open door, it will lead somewhere, but it wasn't relevent to the demo. I guess a simple way of stopping the player going in there would have been a good idea, hehe.

I'll reverse the mouse commands

The player's room/corridor is what I'm working on next, so you'll be able to go there in the same way you can get to the other floors.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Ashen]

I'm having a problem d/ling the demo, can't get it started.... Any ideas why???

Other people seem to have been able to download it... What exactly was the trouble you were having?

If it's the same as the trouble I'm having, the download just won't start. When i click the 'Download' link on the Games page it just reloads the same page over again. The 'downloaded XX times' counter goes up, but the download doesn't start. It looks like the link is a bit weird (if I search for the game, action=search&sterm=Welcome+to+Dark+Lake is included in the link). Browsing the Demos section didn't work either, until I'd tried this link.

I don't know enough about php or how the game pages are generated to know why it's happening, but that link seems to work. Perhaps you could but it into the first post, so others don't have to mess around with the games pages?

Right, now I've managed to download it, I'm off to play the demo...

EDIT: And now I've played it.

- Very short, but then it IS a demo.
- From the Intro (and the 'Story' bit in the first post), shouldn't it be 'my sister and I', not 'I and my sister'?
- Am I just being dense, or is it not currently possible to get into YOUR room once you've booked in? The only options on the Lift are 'Lobby' and (eventually) 'Rachel's Floor'. (Part of the same issue as FrancoFranchi had, I think.)
- For the SECOND part of Franco's comment:

Spoiler

It's possble to use just the Hat Rack (not the Hat Rack / Powercord grapple) on the open window, and Ethan still throws the grapple. Meaning Franco could've gotten into Rachel's room WITHOUT having spoken to the Detective, or even knowing that it was Rachel's room, not the one Ethan booked into.

On a related note, the 'Open Window' hotspot is too near the top of the screen, I keep opening the Inventory when trying to interact with it.

[close]

Left clicking meaning to look and right clicking to exit isn't the most intuitive way to play, given I'm used to doing the reverse

For the Exit to the alley behind the hotel, I agree. Left-Click should be Walk, not Look at (i.e. it shouldn't be treated as a hotspot). Everywhere else though (e.g. Hotel Doors), Left-click Look, Right-click Use works fine, once I figured out that's what it was.

Other than that, a good (if short) start. Get it finished!

[FrancoFranchi]

Did you talk to the detective so he lets you into the room? It shouldn't be possible to get into the room before talking to him.

I couldn't get up to see the detective - I was expecting to run into him when I went to my room, so not being able to visit it, despite having the key, threw me!

(I actually went into the ally, found the hat rack, clicked on the window and climbed up in my very first play without even entering the hotel.Ã,  Maybe you should make the hotspot only appear after you know which room it is - or have all the windows originally highlighted then have 'Rachel's window' appear when you know what room she's in).

Very interested to play more, though.

[Milo87]

Right, I've read all of your comments, and have fixed the following issues:

> The hotspot for the window now extends a bit further down the screen, so as not to conflict with the inventory Ypos.
> You can now only use the correct inventory item on the window to climb up (stupid me forgot to put a "if inventory item was used" conditional in :)
> Modified the mouse commands i.e.: Left click is now interact/talk, right click is look.
> There's now an explanation for the go-nowhere corridor.
> And one for your floor.

I will also try uploading the demo files to a different server (I was using a freewebs site I had, and it's file manager to upload, then linking to that). I'll peruse the server thread on this forum, and put a new demo up.

I hope this fixes everyone's qualms

[TheCheese33]

I'm still stuck:

Spoiler

What do you do after you get your roomcard, hatrack, and try the button to your room?

[close]

[Milo87]

Speak to the Receptionist about everything
He gives you more clues.

[TheCheese33]

Thanks! All in all, a good experience. I might download the full thing when it's released.

[Milo87]

A new screenshot!
(This is where that mysterious corridor goes from the Hotel lobby)


The hotel bar

Also:

-Progress continues on the storyline
-Fixed a few more bugs

[Sinister]

Very nice work Milo87.

The yatzhee influence is notable, but thats not bad at all. Infact between the two of you and these horror/mystery games your on your way to start a STYLE/GENRE of game.

I wish you the best of luck on this, everything is looking great. Loved the demo.

Sinister.

[Jdinky]

Damn i love that fish! 8D

[splat44]

Hey, everybody

Just thought you'd like to know, the DEMO is available over in the demos section (of course ).

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

I just completed the demo and I like it.

I recommend adding demo's link to your original post for the benefit of new members. Not all members would know about actual game site.

Good luck in finishing it!

[auriond]

I downloaded the demo, and I was enjoying it thoroughly... till I got stuck.

Spoiler

I got the hat rack and discovered that I couldn't get to my room. I figured that the demo ends there. Then I came back and read all the posts here and discovered that I seem to be missing out on quite a bit. I went back and spoke to the receptionist repeatedly about everything, but all I got was a repeated history of Dark Lake and its places of interest.

[close]

I also couldn't figure out how to save the game...

Hope this is useful when you're refining your game. Otherwise, it was very good and quite professional-looking.

[Ashen]

auriond:

Spoiler

Talk to the receptionist about Rachel - he says you need ID.
Go outside and Look at your car.
Use the Drivers License on the receptionist.

[close]

Also, pressing Escape brings up the Save/Load/Quit menu. I expect the full game will come with documentation

[auriond]

Thanks muchly Ashen! I actually pressed every button from F1 to F12 and A-Z, but I never ever thought of pressing Esc to bring up the S/L/Q menu. Hehe... I feel dumb now. 

[Snake]

Milo!
This game's sounding pretty good, my friend! I love the sound of the story.
I may have missed it, but is it a horror type game, or?

I'll go find the demo and play. Afterwords I'll edit this post with some feedback
The screenshots are great, btw!
Could you make a link in the first post directly to the demo? Either I'm too lazy or it'll be more convenient for people Anyhoo, I'll get back to you.

Rhyme not intended.

--EDIT--
Hey, great game so far, I'm liking it! Where does the demo end, does it say?
--END OF EDIT--


--Snake

[Milo87]

Hey, great game so far, I'm liking it! Where does the demo end, does it say?

It ends after you get back into the hotel room and take a look around
Thanks for the great feedback!

[Snake]

No problem, Milo, Dark Lake looks pretty good so far. Keep it up!


--Snake

[thewalrus]

     Very nice demo, the game seems like it is going to be most enjoyable. Will the completed game have music(I hope)