Lightning Master

[Old Guy]

Lightning Master

About seven years ago I began working on this game in my spare time. At the time, my ambitions were fairly modest... learn the ins and outs of the Adventure Game Studio platform, and learn how to create some simple graphics. I intended to spend only a couple of months in my spare time working on the project.

I guess it’s time to quit fiddling around and call it done…

     


The zip file is 147MB and can be downloaded at http://www.creativeloops.com/master.zip.

Be sure to check out the Readme file.

[Cogliostro]

Downloaded it and playing it now.

The scope is amazing.  I can't believe how many different locations you worked up for the game.  I also suspect that the choice of "Many Happy Returns" was something more than coincidence.  The intro makes it obvious that good old Tesla is the title character. 

So far adding up to an awesome game.

- Cogliostro

[Cogliostro]

When I give feedback I like to comment on what I thought was good and suggest areas that could be improved.  Feel free to ignore ny or all of it if you want.

I just completed the game and one word: WOW!  The game sucked me in and I played it until I finished.

In your INFO page you claim not to be able to draw, but I thought the graphics were quite good.  The scope of the world was amazing!  I couldn't believe you went all out like that.  The sound effects were all right.  Great use of Nikola Tesla.  Too often we (indie game makers) are making it up on the fly and it shows.  Research goes a long way to making it all believable.  The reference to "The Prisoner" helped sell the empty world, but it you didn't really capture the *atmosphere* of the empty world.  I'd prefer to offer up some creative suggestion as to *how* that could have been accomplished, but I got nothing.  The puzzles were about right.  I had to get over the idea that if there was a locked door, then at some point I was going to be able to open it.  Personally, I would have like to see the time travel had been used to do more than deliver messages.

Finally, background music would have added a lot to the game.  I've been using: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/  It's all free and it sounds great.

Be seeing you,
Cogliostro

[ddq]

Great use of Nikola Tesla. 

Wait, what? DOWNLOADING.

[deadsuperhero]

You had me at Tesla. Downloading this; I haven't played an original epic game for the longest time.

[Frodo]

Love that screenshot.   
Downloading now. 

[Old Guy]

Cogliostro,

Thank you for your kind comments and constructive comments. Glad you enjoyed the game!

And you,
Old Guy

[Anian]

You had me at Tesla. Downloading this; I haven't played an original epic game for the longest time.

This summer I went to Tesla's home village and the house where he grew up. Man was a real life mad scientist (as in he was a brilliant inventor and suffered from several mental disorders) plus he had an archnemesis, Mr. Edison, how cool is that.
Btw his father was a priest so their property and house is next to a church...and right next to that was/is a forest with a creepy graveyard. 

In any case, what I was trying to say is, I shall be checking this game out.

[cosmicr]

Great game, I'm stuck already, but really enjoying the atmosphere and everything. The story is intriguing.

Spoiler

I'm stuck, just wondering around, I have a golf ball, soccer and basketball, dunno what to do now...

[close]

[Old Guy]

Great game, I'm stuck already, but really enjoying the atmosphere and everything. The story is intriguing.

You need to wander around some more. There are a number of locations that you obviously haven't visited yet.

[Alun]

Just finished the game... a lot of nice touches.  I liked the fact that the yellow arrows showed where to leave a room; it's always frustrating when you don't know where the exits are and have to randomly stumble around the room's edges to find them.  That being said, though, some of the exits may have been a little too small; even with the yellow arrows, a few exits were hard to find.  In particular, it took me a little while to find my way back out of the silo basement, and I was stuck for quite a while near the end of the game simply because there were two rooms I hadn't seen because the exit to get to them was so easy to miss.

(More specifically:

Spoiler

I knew I had to go to Finger Rock to find the third attractor, but I had no idea where Finger Rock was, and couldn't find it.  Finally, wandering randomly and searching every room again, I figured out that I could go right from the sculpture garden room, and it led to somewhere different than going down.  This wasn't at all obvious to me, and, as I said, left me stuck for a long time before I found it.

[close]

)

There were a few minor bugs and typos I may as well point out, though, in case you want to fix them.  They're not all spoilers, but I'll put them behind spoiler tags just in case.

Spoiler

Probably the biggest bug is that the lever on the lighthouse turbine shows up as being in the "Off" position from the beginning, when it's supposed to be "On".  (Although it does show correctly in the close-up of the lock... and it does still show as being in the "Off" position after it's actually turned off; there's a sound as if the lever moves, but the graphic doesn't change.)  This had me confused for quite a while, because I didn't know why the turbine wasn't turning if the brakes were off.  I figured either there was no wind, and I had to generate wind somehow, or I just didn't have the right code yet and the lever's showing as off was a bug.  Turns out it was the latter, but it was really misleading.

For some reason, the first time I tried the code on the silo turbine it didn't work.  (Maybe because I had tried it on the lighthouse turbine first?  Although then, why should that also set the code on the silo turbine?)  I had to cycle the first symbol all the way back around before it registered.

There's a typo on the sign in the sculpture garden: it says "Sclupture Garden" instead.

When you look at the silo from the beach after the dome is open, the player says it "Look's kind of scary."  There shouldn't be an apostrophe there.

In the basketball court, just left of the hoop, it looks like a small tree was accidentally pasted in front of a large tree in the background, making it look like either the small tree is floating in the air or a small tree-shaped part of the large tree is inexplicably a slightly brighter color.

There are two misuses of "whomever", one in the letter found in the notebook ("To whomever reads this"), and one in the last notebook entry ("whomever he or she is").  Those are both incorrect; they should be "whoever".  "Whomever" is only used in the objective case, and grammatically both of those instances should be in the subjective.

[close]

Anyway, like I said, just wanted to point out those details in case you were interested in fixing them.  (Though I'd imagine some of them -- the Sculpture Garden sign in particular -- might be kind of hard to fix at this stage, and maybe not worth the trouble.)  Overall, though, it's clear you put a lot of work into this game, and it had some very well done puzzles.

[Stumblebum]

I just finished this game as well with a pointer on the very last frikken puzzle from Alun.  Fantastic adventure game, I say.  There are a few minor glitches like the ones previously pointed out in this thread, but overall I think the puzzles and immersion level were top notch.  Great art/music/television/history/science references as well.  Thanks for a great play.

[Old Guy]

There were a few minor bugs and typos I may as well point out, though, in case you want to fix them.

Absolutely I want to fix them! Thanks so much for taking the time to report them all. I was amazed that you spotted that errant tree near the basketball court. I pulled up that room and stared at it for a full minute before I finally saw what you saw. Nice catch!

Good points about the lighthouse turbine, and the difficulty you had finding the exits in a couple of the rooms. I will fix these issues too.

I appreciate your positive comments (and you too Stumblebum). Thank you both for playing!

[Old Guy]

All of the minor glitches and anomalies that were reported in this thread have been fixed, and a new ZIP file has been placed on the download site. Note that previous saved games will not work with this new version.

Thanks again to all of you who took the time to comment!

[lenzery]

Realy reeeeealy nice game. But i had a bug in the lighthouse:

An Error has occured. [...]
(ACI version 3.20.1110)

in "GlobalScript.asc, line 157
from "GlobalScript.asc, line 747

Error: Error running function 'on_mouse_click':
Error: Null pointer referenced

[Beckon]

I'm not a fan of this game because:

Spoiler

It lacks a good story, ambiance and suspense. It is also pretentious and uneducated. The use of Tesla felt more like a gimmick than an inspiration. Moreover, the game's author is obviously misinformed about Soviet Union and Russia when he makes two newspaper-related remarks about an "invasion" of other countries, such as Georgia. It was independently proven that Georgia attacked South Ossetia first. Only then did Russia get involved to help in the fight against Georgia. Western media (CNN, FOX, BBC etc), being as Russophobic as it is, has skewed the truth for their viewers falsely presenting a footage of Georgian attack on South Ossetia as Russia's attack on Georgia, and continues to do so even after the independent findings have been published.

After having uncovered a "Ukrainian Easter Egg" in this game, combined with the limited voice acting in the intro, it appears that the game's author is a Ukrainian American or a Ukrainian living in an English speaking country. Incidentally, Ukraine was one of the countries, along with NATO countries (especially the U.S.) that illegally armed Georgia against South Ossetia (also proven). It is quite ironic then when the game's author complains in the story itself how a newspaper unjustly accused "good people" of conducting illegal genetic experiments, while they were working with electricity. Not to mention the U.S. invasion of Vietnam with falsifying a Vietnamese attack on the U.S. (Gulf of Tonkin incident) or an illegal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. etc. Double standards? "Old guy" then states that "things are always the same" when it comes to Russia and Soviet Union. Indeed, in that there are still many Russophobes in this world who are stuck in a Cold War mentality.

It is quite amazing that this thing took its developer seven years to complete, and no, it isn't a "good first try" at all.

That is all I'm going to say about this. =)

[close]

[cianty]

... and no, it isn't a "good first try" at all.

I see where you're coming from but I think "a good first try" shouldn't really be judged on things like historical accuracy.

[Technocrat]

Long, Long Rant

Chip on shoulder much?

I personally think that *any* use of Tesla improves a game, in whatever context. Plus, as someone who's yet to finish work on an adventure game at all, good job on completing it!

[Tabata]

I am a fan of this game because:

[no hide=I won't hide my oppinion]
It's a game we have been given to have fun and entertaintment and no examination thesist. Maybe there are  some historical errors, but I don't see hidden statements to manipulate youth or hints about insulting members of a specific group.
There are professional writers all over the world, which don't investigate that exactly before publishing their books. And here we have a well made fangame, created with much effort and loving attention to graphics, gameplay, puzzles and a logical sci-fi-story.

It's a pity, if someone believes to have been offended. But please, don't search with a magnifying glass for some aspects to interpret like this. [/no hide=I won't hide my oppinion]

In my oppinion it's an admirable „first attempt“!

[cianty]

[no hide=I won't hide my oppinion]

Ha ha, that was cool.