Where? - An Easter Game

[Mikko]

After two(?) years of randomly taking part in AGS-business I finally got myself down to make a decent, simple, working first release.


Download Where? v.0.1 (1,1Mb)


Features:
- 640x400, hi-color.
- 2 playable rooms
- 3 characters
- sound effects
- something one might call cut-scenes
- about 5-20 minutes of playing time!

Just to warn some of you, game has one quite violent scene.

The game was made from scratch starting last thursday. I had planned to make it over Easter and I had decided that whatever I have ready at Monday that is what I'll release. Of course, since being quite new with the actual editor, I got stuck in places and the result was not as big as planned.

I'd like to gather some pros & cons here:
+ Got the game finished (almost) in time.
+ Yet no bigger bug-reports.
+ I like some of the gfx I've done...
- ...though they could/should be shaded, now everything is flat.
- Got in hurry and could have polished the for at least a week still.

And here is the diary, I promised in "Games in Production"-forum (it doesn't have spoilers, you may read it before playing the game):

Progression Diary of "Where?"
Thursday 17. April 2003

18:00 Got inspiration to make a short game. It was time for me to get something real finished. All games so far had grown too big to be used as first game.

18:15 Thinking through the plot. This one is going to be quite mysterious. I hope it makes sense somehow to everyone who plays, otherwise I've failed.

18:30 I have had this type of plot in my mind for long time. Ok, it could be bigger game, but maybe I'll sacriface it and make it short. I'll use my easter holidays for it and then it should be ready.

19:00 Opening PSP and google. I need a face. At the moment I'm merely setting things up, doing this and that and at same time figuring out the plot.

19:30 Now I have an animated (well, two frames!) blurred face, I wonder if I ever have any use for it.

22:00 I had this character doen earlier, drawn over photo, nice one. But! Animating it quickly - no way. Maybe I'll make something more simpler, a stickman with some thickness and stuff!

23:00 Decided to start writing this diary. Thought that it would be great for me (and maybe others) to read how everything progressed.

23:30 I have the Stickman animation going good. Needs a thing or two, though.

23:48 Stickys head ready. He's bandaged. I think we'll never see his face. Now I'll get myself something to drink.

Friday 18. April 2003

0:03 Getting a little tired, not for the game, but physically.

0:10 Ok, Stickman should be walking in few minutes. I'm somewhat excited, how it will look.

0:13 Well, it walks. Not too pretty sight, but that'll do for this quick one. He needs hands still.

0:15 Opening AGS. I actually know quite little of it. Also, it'll be quite interesting, as I've forgotten all that little.

0:26 Looks still familiar. I got even bg imported!

0:33 WHOA! Got my stickman imported too. It's just that it's many times bigger than it should be. Well, nevermind, I'll look it closer after night. Now I'll make some sketches.

1:08 I'm currently printing AGS tutorial. Thought that it would be good to read it (again) before  sleeping. Sketching lead basically nowhere. I'm still thinking if the comical stickman even fits to the game.

1:22 Off to bed, studying. Tomorrow I know everything! Yeah, right.

10:57 Opened this diary again. I just got an excellent idea. I'm going to make some backgrounds next.

12:13 Story so far: Tried to make BG. Didn't get it right, opened AGS Forum, read AGS Forum. It's raining. Now I'll eat some breakfast.

14:53 I have quite nice scene now. In the game it's basically one scene that changes as time goes by.

15:51 Just downloaded AGS 2.54 and tested my background and that animated stickman. I'll probably after all leave it as it is now. Or maybe not.

16:40 Yeah, maybe not. Instantly after writing that I started to make it better. It isn't much better now, but...

17:05 Working still on it.

17:21 Time to have a break and eat something.

18:28 Continued the work.

19:01 My fat stickman now has a jacket. I also am thinking of naming it "K" or "Kay". I'll work on his trousers next. Then he's quite ready.

19:39 "K" has pants now. He looks pretty good. This probably was the biggest single thing to do in the game. Hopefully.

20:23 Hmm.. I think I bit overused texture effects.

20:46 I hardly ever use textures, just because it look really stupid when you see them being used. Well, I think I'll keep this BG anyway. For next I'm designing title screen and then I'll take a long break.

Saturday 19. April 2003

0:47 Still on break. Or actually now I'm working again. Though, I'll take my work again in bed, because I have early wake-up tomorrow.

20:00 Time to do some characters.

21:05 Ok, one character is now quite finished. I was just wondering if I should make some shading in it. That would mean I'd had to shade "K" too. Maybe later.

Sunday 20. April 2003

0:01 Can't get the wings right. Yeah, she has wings, she's an angel. Black Angel. Ah nevermind, play the game.

1:07 Oh, great just spent about an hour to get an animated background. It looks awfull, not going to use it. I'll animate a object instead. Suits better on my purposes, I think.

1:10 Great! Now I have a bluecup in my game! I didn't mean to, though.

1:12 Okay, so right-click deletes an object, good to know.

2:05 Perkele.

2:25 Yeah! Nighy Nighty...

13:48 Hello again Diary. I've been working hard (yeah!) for hour and a half now. Got another character pixelated. Needs probably some tweaking still. Animation at least. The game is turning to be quite straight-forward. It'll have pretty much dialogue. I probably ask for advice in spelling when I'm nearing finish. I also thought of giving out a screenie or two in Games in production forum. Don't know though. The progress today will be important. I'd like to have the game quite playable by midnight. Then tomorrow I could concentrate on giving finishing touch.

13:56 This game is crap. I still could save it and make it Camp instead of "serious" (heh) horror/thriller. But I wont! Ha! Right...

14:13 Credits background tune selected!

14:33 Grasshopper sounds found! Time for Formula 1 break.

17:24 Currently working on cut-scene stuff.

18:50 Turned owen on. I'm too hungry to concentrate enough.

20:27 "Kathryn" done. I think it's time to work on the GUI now. I also think I'm behind schedule.

21:13 Great! Great! Great! A breakthrough in  making GUI, maybe this scripting thing isn't too hard for Q-Basic "veteran" after all. Okay, I copied some from demo game, but still.

23:28 I'm having some big problems here now... Let's see how late it will take tonight.

Monday 21. April 2003

0:39 I'm a bit unsure if I got things right. Anyway, I'm way behind schedule now. Though I've also read lots of valuable tutorial material.

1:19 Ok, I just was blind. It works fine it seems, I just need some adjusting with my sprites, they're bit too big at the moment.

2:02 Decided to animate Kay again then. His walking looked more like skating. Going to finish it tomorrow.

2:35 Just wrote a post in to "Games in prodution"-forum and I think it's once again time to head to the bed.

13:47 Ah, I re-drew the scene too. This is probably why I never get anything ready, I keep on adjusting everything more and more. Well, I promise, I wont touch it anymore. No one yet answered in the forums. Well this project is mostly a learning process, so it might not be that interesting for others. I'm going to test cut-scenes next.

14:51 Scripting, scripting, scripting... I just wish I could get anything right, but no.

15:09 Yes!

15:32 I have mixed feelings now. The game is way behind schedule, but I still like the way I'm progressing at the moment. It's nice weather outside, so though I'm late, I'll have a break here.

16:06 Got some sounds in my game!

16:34 Intro working!

17:16 First puzzle scripted.

17:54 Added some basic interactions.

19:29 I'm a bit stuck again..

22:07 Oh. Got it working again, so I completely forgot I was writing a diary too. Well, I've mostly done dialogs now.

Tuesday 22. April 2003

0:10 Okay, missed the deadline I set, but I think I need two hours max anymore.

2:13 Just final fixing and it is finally ready.

2:44 Okay, some final testing still.

3:03 Hmm, the credits theme doesn't play.

End of diary

I hope you like the game. For next I concentrate on finishing my part of work in former "Team Challenge".

Thank you Chris for the AGS!

[Quickstrike]

Nice!  I liked it alot!  It had a very grim tone, but it was very enjoyable.

[BerserkerTails]

Just finished, I saw the ending coming a mile away though.

The game had a grim feeling, it'd be sweet to see more. I really started to feel for the character of Kay, and I'd like to see more of his "Adventures".

[Timosity]

very bizzare game,

I guess I should play again for some different dialog choices

[Mikko]

Thank you for you comments so far.

Timosity:
Don't bother. The game is as direct, no matter what you choose.

I'll take the "bizzare" as compliment.

[wOoDz]

bizzare is compliment!

i wish i could achieve so much in just a few days! (all i've done is redrawn then scrapped my main char. 4 times and a tree! )

it goes to prove,,, "its not the size that counts..its how you use it!" apparently 99%  of women disagree tho

[Pet Terry]

Sounds cool, I play it later. That's probably the best designer's diary I've ever read!

[remixor]

Nice game, it will be cool to see what you do in the future  

I agree, that designer's diary was great.  Definitely the most detailed diary I've ever seen for a game, since you did it on such a small schedule.  Quite an interested read.  Makes me wish I could work that hard on my game.

[Mikko]

woodz:
And I think, that I could have done much more in this time-limit.

remixor:
As our game in Team Challenge is finished I probably do another "quickie", though not setting any deadline, but just keeping it small otherwise. I have plenty to practise here still.

Thanks for the comments about the diary. I haven't read it yet myself.

[broken]

the link has borken up

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Are you going through the forum hunting for broken links? Then go ahead. But if you actually want to get the games, don't bother posting like this. Go directly to:

http://aafiles.bicycle-for-slugs.org/