I've been saving post #1337 for something special, and here she is 8)
(http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/7767/screenshotgs.png)
In the fight against the machines, featherweights play a minor role - scouting, recon and spying. Considered as mere data collectors
rather than true warriors, they're untrained in combat and ill equipped for any encounters with the enemy. However, when Thadd, a young
featherweight, sees a fellow featherweight captured by the enemy and taken to their base, he decides that he will sneak into their
compound and help her escape - even if he has to do it all by himself.
Using your left mouse button (Walk, interact, select items) and your right mouse button (look, deselect items), guide Thadd in his daring
attempt to break his fellow featherweight free!
Get the game here! (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1231)
The following people have as much thanks as I can possibly give for their help:
Sebastian, for being a creative powerhouse of sounds and music and really helping me shape the game.
Ryan Timothy, not only for testing and saying nice things about the game, but also for redoing my OverPlayerTranslucency function to be thrice as nice with that fading effect! (and also for putting up with me spouting rubbish on MSN at all hours of the night/morning)
Abstauber, Arj0n, Bicilotti and Crimson Wizard, who were fine testers indeed, and called me out on tons of little glitches!
Khris, who jumped in and answered one of my questions in the beginner's tech thread when I was frustrated!
monkey_05_06, for being patient and dedicated to getting those right clicks working perfectly in that inventory!
Funkmast, whose credits tune actually forces me to dance, even if I don't want to!!!
Peder Johnsen, who hosts my files without me even having to ask! (but I usually still do! ;))
Chris Jones, for the most incredible engine I've used!
And you, fine people, for playing my other games, saying nice things about them, showing me where I've made mistakes and keeping me encouraged.
I hope you enjoy!
Oooo! I get a game to play before work :D
Fab so far! :) bit stuck though, predictably!
One thing, it is a little hard to see the objects you can pick up. I think I've found everything I should, but sometimes it was by luck.
The backgrounds are very well composed though, I'm enjoying just seeing what the next background is!
Oh my god! Not again!! How many must we still expect from you? Don't you have anything else to do? ;D
Looks as always... downloading now, telling you the typo's later. ;)
Was a nice little game! Congratulations...
Umm, Ben, don't rules state that you must post TWO screenshots? ;)
PS. Sorry for being a bore ;D
Not in the completed games section, only in the production thread.
This was a very enjoyable game :D Lovely characters, and even the androids are adorable yet still menacing!
Also, congratulations on your leetness.
Featherweight
« on: Today at 13:31
You missed the greatest opportunity of your life, boy. You could have been the ruler of GMT+1, blinding all of us old Europeans with your irresistible 1337ness, but no. You messed it up.
Other than that HOORAY HOORAY! IT IS A GOOD GAME AGAIN AND IT IS TOO SHORT!
@kaputtnik:
Can you please upload the awesome score of Featherweight?
Yeah, had a bit of the same trouble as markbilly did, but still great fun and beautiful art as always.
Looks cool, downloading now 8)
Quote from: [ Arj0n ] on Sun 15/11/2009 17:26:36
@kaputtnik:
Can you please upload the awesome score of Featherweight?
Seconded :)
Another awesome game Ben :D I sometimes wish you would take the time to create a longer game, but these are amazing as well.
A great experience, and I will keep on recomending your games to people :)
It's about time you released it! ;D I like the new sound effects, and the light beam addition.
Excellent work, Ben. Keep on making games!
Your background never cease to amaze me. So much atmosphere.
The game itself was cool, too :D I really like the worlds you create.
Very nice little game, awesome graphics and music, some great puzzles packed into a small game! ;D
That was fun. I had a little trouble getting the crowbar but I enjoyed myself.
By the way, Ben, I should say, no matter how I tried to understand two puzzles which involve combolock (prison ones, optional and final one), I couldn't solve them any other way than by "intuitive brute-force" ;) BTW that wasn't really hard thing to do after all.
Really liked it. Probably the most compelling game you've created so far - from the atmosphere and dialogue you can really infer a much larger universe than the rooms you explore.
I liked the way that Thadd would provide extra hints if you'd struggled to achieve a certain objective (and there are a few other occasions where this would have been useful).
The @OVERHOTSPOT@ label font is a good size, though I still find the dialogue font a little on the small side. Other than that it's difficult to think of any criticisms - another polished, good looking and entertaining game.
Now that you mention it, the lower e of the dialogue font was horrible. I kept misunderstanding it as a z. The size could have also been a bit larger.
awsome as usual. i cant even finish one game and you just keep pumping them out
Cool game. :)
I liked the set up, I think a lot more than some of your previous games. I was interested to see the conflict play out between the robots and the featherweights, and intrigued by how the kidnap would take place. However, I think it was a little confusing how the game broke from the relation of the narrators after the introduction. I think I just expected those two characters to play more of a central role in the story.
I liked the gameplay premise in how you could keep failing, but never actually die on the way to your goal. The puzzles were nice and logical, except sometimes I would solve them through recurrent guessing and laziness rather than stopping and trying to figure out what was happening.
What I think I would've really liked from the story is if it expanded or revealed itself more during the rescue of the featherweight. Maybe get into some more insights about the robots, the war, the recon on what the robots are doing--just some information to add more weight to the rescue than just restoring the status quo.
Overall, I enjoyed it a lot as another great game from you. Good job!
Right, the walkthough is finished. I must say, amazing how you manage to get so much atmosphere into one background. Very well done. Also the score of the Pfallers added again to the effect and the enjoyment. And of course well done to the testers to deliver a solid game! Overall again a beauty. There were some things I liked less:
- The puzzles were repetitive. Four almost identical ones with only brute force to solve them, except for the entrance door. I thought the solution to the puzzle next to 'hangman' could be found in the buildings in the background but no. Also getting past the sentries wasn't very creative and repetitive. More variety in puzzles would be nice.
- The font, as said by others, is sometimes difficult to read and goes too fast. A few sentences were unreadable because I didn't make it to the end. Slightly bigger font or adjustable speed settings would be nice.
- Too short.
- I couldn't find any typos ;D Maybe because of the speed, I couldn't read it all. But who cares. I was great to play again.
Indie: Awesome, cool to hear you enjoyed!
Markbilly: Thanks! I tried some new things when making these backgrounds, so I was interested to hear whether they'd go down alright, and it's good to hear that they work well! As for the pixel hunting, I made the items that the testers mentioned were too faint stand out a bit more, so hopefully you don't miss anything.
Leon: Heh, I do have other things to do - so much so that I had to really force myself to focus on this game and not get distracted too much! There were points that I doubted I'd even get it done in November, but it's good to get it released. Thanks for making the walkthrough and your suggestions - finding a font that is perfect is really proving to be quite difficult, but I guess I'll keep looking anyway. And yeah, expect some... different... puzzles next time around. As for the lack of typos, I'm sorry to disappoint :=.
sthomannch: Cheers, great to hear you enjoyed it.
Crimson Wizard: Come on, trying to pick me up on things should stop after the game is released! And nope, one is enough - trust me, I've gotten familiar with making new threads in here ;). Thanks again for testing!
Disco: Thanks :D! It amuses me to make evil robots that are also pink, so it's cool to see I'm not the only one who likes them.
Sebastian: I hang my hat in shame at this missed opportunity of absolute leetness. I suppose I am always destined to be n00by McN00bster :(
Arj0n: Thanks again for testing, bud :)
Anian: Thank you. Glad to hear getting a bit stuck with finding things didn't spoil your enjoyment of the game :)
CaptainD: Thanks, and also for the review on your site!
Bulbapuck: Cheers :D. I'm sure you all know how I feel about making longer games by now, so I'll refrain from commenting ;D
Ryan: Yeah, I know, I spent way more time on this than I was supposed to. Still, I reckon it was worth it. Thanks again for your testing, awesome script and putting up with me talking nonsense.
nihilyst: Heh, I remember seeing a screenshot for Companion back in the day and thinking "I wish I could do backgrounds that good :(", so it's cool to hear you say such a thing! Thanks for commenting :)
Clarvalon: Thanks! I tried my best to get the feeling of the world just right - to the point where Thadd's lines were done from scratch 4 times before I was satisfied with them. I'll try using the hotspot label font as the talking font in the next game and see how it works :) Thanks for playing and commenting!
Da_Elf: Thanks man, great to hear you had fun :)
TheJBurger: It's awesome to hear that the story setup worked better this time around. I'm really keen to try and bring my writing up to a higher standard, so it's encouraging to hear that it is starting to work. It would have been interesting to use Kadar and Eleele more in the game, and I can see how that would have worked... but I guess this is all so much easier to see once the game is done :P
As for the failing without dying, it seemed the most sensible option to do when Sebastian suggested that Thadd should be able to get caught. Getting caught over and over is something that a few people have mentioned as being frustrating, but as I try to avoid death in my games (mainly because I am a wuss and dying in adventure games often irks me if I feel it is unfair) this seemed a good compromise. Thanks for the comment, and it's good to hear you enjoyed it!
Big thanks once more to the Indiegames weblog for being kind enough to mention me, the AGS panel for a super fast rating and everyone who has played so far!
Just finished it, awesome game. Very work friendly ;) i really liked the lengh and the strong BASS style atmosphere.
More please :)
Hi Ben - Is "Featherweight" the other big project you said you were working on before? Or is it another shorter project like "Awakener"?
Thanks :)
Chicky: Heh, I never thought of the game as being 'work friendly' in length :D. Cool to hear the atmosphere worked for you. As for more - it's already under construction (but probably not what anyone is expecting ;)). Thanks for the comment!
Isxek: Featherweight is a bit bigger than Awakener, but it's not the big project, no :)
I wouldn't worry about the length of your games Ben (not that you are) because it means people like me get to finish them. I'd rather play a story split into episodes which each come to their own climax than a long epic i'm not going to have time to finish. I'm thinking more people will play your games this way. ;) Also i just wanted to say that i didn't have any problems with the text or the puzzles, a hint to the pattern for the cell lock wold have been nice but everything else was fairly obvious (and very original!), maybe make the objects a little more pixelated (like the characters) to help them stand out. Sorry for the multiple post, i just really love your style.
Quote from: Chicky on Mon 16/11/2009 16:09:18
I wouldn't worry about the length of your games Ben (not that you are) because it means people like me get to finish them.
Hear, hear! :D
That's a very refreshing change from "Make longer games!" :D
Pixellating the objects is a good idea, I'll keep that in mind.
f'ing top job! (im stuck :P)
well done
Thanks :)
If you need a hint, you can ask here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=39329.0) (someone may have already asked your question, even), or you can refer to Leon's walkthrough (http://gamesolutions.efzeven.nl/featherweight-walkthrough-ben-chandler2009/). Or you know, you can puzzle through by yourself ;).
Glad you've enjoyed it so far, though :D
That was nice. ^^
But too short. :p I understand that people don't want to get involved in 30 hours long epics but isn't there a middle ground between that and 15 minutes long?
Nice work on the backgrounds. I don't think making hotspots more noticeable is really necessary given that a label is displayed on mouseover. If the big orange letters don't tell you there's something of interest there, I don't know what can.
Thanks Lufia, I am glad to hear you enjoyed the game :)
As for this "too short" comment who is basically an old friend of mine, here's how I see it: either I keep making short games which I release regularly and doing what I find fun, or I try to make bigger games (which I've tried, and haven't found fun) and fail and get frustrated and give up.
Apart from the music and sound (and of course lots of good advice and scripting help) most of this junk is done by me. And I have a short attention span.
So, don't think I haven't considered making longer games, and don't think I haven't tried making longer games. I'm still trying. But for the foreseeable future, my games are going to be short.
I hope that people will still continue to enjoy them despite this. (note, this big old whinge isn't directed right at you, of course - I hear this comment loads ;))
Besides, there are loads of other really good freeware adventure games out there that are medium and long in scope :=
Sorry for the rant.
Quote from: Ben304 on Tue 17/11/2009 12:14:55
Besides, there are loads of other really good freeware adventure games out there that are medium and long in scope :=
I have the feeling that good short games attract a lot more attention than good longer games in the last time. Okay, Ben's game get a lot of attention because he already made extraordinary games. But for me it's a bit frustrating to see, that Ben's games or other good short game like 'Star Trek: Newton' have a panel review after a few days and other longer good games have to wait for months.
Quite right. You do what works best for you. I'd hazard that part of the reason these games are popular is because they're short and focused. It's also clear to see the iterative improvement between each release. I played Shifter's Box again recently and, even though it's still a good game, the improvement here is quite marked. The backgrounds and animations maintain (and in some cases surpass) the level of quality in Awakener.
I think Featherweight more than the others lends itself to an episodic model - it definitely feels like there's a lot more backstory and characters to exploit. Also, in contrast to TheJBurger, I liked how the opening two characters were detached from the rest of the game. To have started directly from Callaghan and Thadd would have narrowed the Featherweight universe somewhat.
The escape/peril music is pretty catchy, too.
Quote from: clarvalon on Tue 17/11/2009 12:56:30
The escape/peril music is pretty catchy, too.
You just proved my point that 80s trash movie soundtracks will never fail! Alright!
I was going to join the ranks of everyone who was begging for longer games, but then I realized that Chicky is right. Sometimes having a great 15 minute game is EXACTLY what you want.
Also, I really liked the interface.
Please keep up the great work.
Very nice work again, Ben.
I have to say I like the length of your games, and it´s also good to know your puzzles are never frustrating. So I never hesitate to download.
I forgot to mention this, which I found funny :P
Spoiler
Use bomb on barrel - results in: "it won't make a big enough sound" ;D
...Or maybe it's the fact that it's 2am that is making me find it funny.
Once again, a great game!
Helme: Yeah, lots of good games slip under the radar - I don't think it's the ratings panel so much as it is the players themselves (since this was the case before we had a ratings panel as well).
clarvalon: Heh, it's always amusing to go back and play my older stuff and go "Man, what was I thinking?". I love all those old games, but I'm certainly not oblivious to their flaws.
kaputtnik: Alright! To the action/party minivan!
cogliostro: Thanks :). I finally feel that I'm starting to get the interface I use representing something I'm actually satisfied with, so it's good to hear it works!
DrWhite: Cheers! I always try to make the games that I'd enjoy as a player, not just that I enjoy making, so it's good to hear that my taste in adventure games is not a loner :D
Bulbapuck: Gah! I swear I had an actual reason why he wouldn't do that!
I guess that got lost in one of the many dialog edits. That actually makes my puzzle there look super lame :( haha
Arj0n & Bulbapuck: http://erdbeertelefon.net/en/soundflies
Thank you for insisting, I would have been much too lazy to upload the soundtrack...Now dance! Or something...
Ah, the long await for this, well, I'm going to play this as soon as my device for inventing time works!
*Come on you shi%& plotting device!! Do the time-space spectrum analysis!!*
Whew, I've just finished this. Well done, Ben, another quality game from you. The artwork, story and immersion were all top notch.
I had the same problem as Chicky, namely that I couldn't easily distinguish the objects from the background, and sometimes you I could barely see them, for example,
Spoiler
the charge on top of the crates.
I am keen to know how you got Thadd's walkcycle so perfect... the feet don't glide at all when he walks.
Off to vote now...
Good luck with that 'time inventing device', Jim. Send me one once yet get it perfect 8)
Paul: Thanks! Getting the walkcycles pixel perfect is something I've been doing (or at least trying) since around Annie Android - and I do it by counting the pixels of each frame when animating and making sure they're all perfectly even, then setting the speed setting in AGS accordingly. Takes a bit of work, but I feel it's worth the effort :D
I actually made that item brighter before release, but apparently not enough. Anyhow, we live and learn - good to hear you enjoyed :)
Quote from: Ben304 on Wed 18/11/2009 13:47:49
Good luck with that 'time inventing device', Jim. Send me one once yet get it perfect 8)
Paul: Thanks! Getting the walkcycles pixel perfect is something I've been doing (or at least trying) since around Annie Android - and I do it by counting the pixels of each frame when animating and making sure they're all perfectly even, then setting the speed setting in AGS accordingly. Takes a bit of work, but I feel it's worth the effort :D
I actually made that item brighter before release, but apparently not enough. Anyhow, we live and learn - good to hear you enjoyed :)
I just got what the 304 meant. You'll make 304 games!! That's it. That explains the short length.That explains why I always thought there was something sinister in this world!! :)
Only 297 to go ;D
@ Kaputtnik: Thanx man, dancing my 455 off ;)
About the number 304...
Mystic it is, so what does it mean?
304= EOA = Extremely Often Adventuregames
304= EOA = Extremely Operative AGS-er
304= An mathematical Untouchable Number
(a positive integer that cannot be expressed as the sum of all the proper divisors of any positive integer, including the untouchable number itself)
Anyone has more ideas? :P
Born on the 30th of April?
I really like the idea of pixelising the objects so characters and objects are the same style. It would solve the problem perfectly...
304 is quite a prevalent number, actually (although any number is if you look for it, as Morte almost tells me).
Someone once told me that it is the number of Bruce's (and therefore I guess God's) apartment in Bruce Almighty. I checked. It is.
It's also the one door you don't see in The Matrix right before Neo gets shot (honestly, they have like 306,307,305 and 303, but 304 is hidden) - to which a friend of mine amusingly replied "There is no 304".
It's also the length of the Devin Townsend song "Wild Colonial Boy" from which my personal text is taken (for I am in fact wild, colonial and a boy) - something I didn't actually notice until some time after I changed my personal text to that.
I remember a bunch of people telling me a whole number of other places in popular culture it can be found.
But basically, it was a remnant from high school. By the time I graduated, many of my friends and even my math teacher was referring to me as "304" instead of my actual name.
Too long and dull to explain it any further, but no, I'm not born on the 30th of April :)
And I doubt I'll end up making 304 games somehow!
At various points I've considered changing my forum name to "Ben Chandler" seeing as I was 17 when I joined these forums and the things that seem like a good move to a 17 year old appear slightly less amusing to a 22 year old. But eh... I use this username everywhere else, so why bother?
Just finished it. Nice game as always and I enjoyed the dark sci-fi setting.
Yay, didn't need any hints, it's just that I forgot about the stuck crowbar when I loaded the game after several days and was a little stuck when I encountered the sentry on the tower.
Thanks for yet another game, Ben "Wild Colonial Boy No. 304" Chandler.
Thanks! Coolness to hear you didn't need hints :D
I just put the second last puzzle into my next project (no, not IWWHIIWWHITOMIROTPG), so expect a new insane-experiment-game-thing that'll probably be exactly what you're not expecting from me soon ;D
This time with the most hideous graphics, like, ever.
(and I'm not even lying)
new insane experiment sounds good!
Btw Ben, i went back and completed Heed and Awakener (i've been out of the ags loop for some time). I really loved Awakener and it felt like Heed and featherweight could be part of the same game universe? Combine them for a sequel! :=
... an insane experiment sequel :P
Finally some time to comment too :)
I think, this game has the best color choice of all. This hazy greenish sky and the matched colors of the sprites are eye candy. If one day you manage to sharpen your backgrounds, I swear I will run to a copyshop and get a poster ;D
Enough graphical worshipping. As your beta tester, you already know that I like the gameplay, so I just repeat myself. Very well done!
PS
Go Machines Go! :=
I actually played this a few days ago. But haven't had chance to congratulate you on another fine addition to your game library.
I love your pixel style.
:D
Well done and thanks.
Great game Ben. I dont know how you do it; churning these out so fast but with such quality.
Chicky: Heh, it'd be a pretty twisted scenario ;D
Abstauber: Haha thanks man :D. I do try to sharpen them up - but I guess it'll be a while before I get it right. Thanks for testing!
Revan: Thank you, and thanks for playing![/b]
Mazzymay: Thanks! Despite popular opinion, the answer to that is neither ghosts nor monkeys ;)
You can always tell you're in for a treat, if eyes of the neatly drawn characters have this weird glow. :)
I admire the way you perfect your style with each new game. They all feature interesting, quirky, imaginative worlds with an established backstory, and the one in Featherweight is probably the best one so far.
Art is gorgeous as usual and dark sci-fi ambience works extremely well.
All the puzzles seemed quite logical and clever to me, the only problem is pixel-hunting - it's hard to notice small obejcts on such dimly-lit backgrounds, but the diversity and the way these puzzles seamlessly fit into the game is just great.
What's always a bit disappointing about your short games, is that they feel like a small part of a very long (even longer than "The Longest" one :)) journey, that we'll never hear of again.
Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Thanks for so many wonderful games, keep it up! :)
Found the time. It was fast enough, more short than I expected. Some puzzles were good, one (the one with the bomb) sort of bothered me, but overall nice music(really pawned), nice graphics, nice and fluent interface. Short game (even by your standards), but excellent execution!
Really nice game; short, but maybe the best (IMO) AGS game i ever played.
Ilyich: Hooray for glowing eyes! I appreciate that pixel hunting is a big issue here, and I plan on keeping this point firmly in mind for future releases. Thanks for the nice comments, glad you enjoyed the game and I hope to bring you more games in the future!
Dual: Thanks Jim. Glad to hear you enjoyed, mate, and I agree that the puzzle with the bomb was pretty crappy. Consider my lesson learned!
JpSoft: And thanks to you! Short but good is pretty much always my aim, glad to hear I wasn't too far off the mark :)
And yet another one.. Thanx for putting in hints in the game about opening the triangle door..as always I had to use the hints & tips sadly again for 1 point
Spoiler
hiding behind the vehicle
As always I love the graphix and the atmosphere of the game...
thanx again for this great game, looking forward to playing 'Hope'.
Stupid question time: Is this one of the standard AGS templates?
SuperDre: Heh, one of these days there'll be a game without that one puzzle that gets you stuck. Glad to hear you enjoyed, hope you have fun with Hope :)
Sslaxx: Nope, the game interface was built from the empty game template. Any particular reason?
Quote from: Ben304 on Tue 06/04/2010 14:32:23
SuperDre: Heh, one of these days there'll be a game without that one puzzle that gets you stuck. Glad to hear you enjoyed, hope you have fun with Hope :)
Sslaxx: Nope, the game interface was built from the empty game template. Any particular reason?
Because I like the way the games you make play, and want to replicate it.
I'd happily try and make a template or something out of it, except for the fact that I know that there are others who could build the same thing far more elegantly than me ;)
Featherweight in particular has a few extra functions that just makes the whole thing very messy ;D