Adventure Game Studio

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 Matthew Pike has gotten himself into quite the predicament this time; He's managed to inadvertently create a zombie apocolypse on Christmas Eve!
 To make things worse, Matt gets bitten and is slowly turning into a zombie himself. Being the only one who can save Christmas, and the demise of human kind, Matt must travel back in time and prevent himself from making this horrible mistake... before time runs out!

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This is the Christmas gift I made for my stepson. I planned on a full game but since I only thought of this after Thanksgiving, a demo is all I could handle completing.

I posted the demo here in the Announcements forum because I'm not sure this game will ever be a full game. It all really depends on what he thinks. He played it last night and completed it with my help. He's not really into adventure games and I pretty much walked him through it, but he loved it anyway (which is the only thing I was really looking for). It is infact a COMPLETE experience though, it's not just a demo with one room and no ending. It's an actual completed piece of work, so I'm hoping it's not a big deal if it stays here in this forum? The game includes the intro and initial puzzle.

Beware, it's got a few minor bugs here and there - time was running out VERY quickly - but they are nothing that will deter or stop progress completely.

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SCREENSHOTS
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CREDITS:
Everything was done by me (story help from my wife) except for the MIDI music and SFX.

Check the Music credits text file for the info.

The MTTF title theme was created by me.

Thanks Chris for AGS!

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DOWNLOADS
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• Games Page (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1264)
  
• Matt to the Future DEMO (http://spentertainment.webs.com/mattfuturedemo.rar) (RAR 2.2mb)
  
• And 3 cool wallpapers! (http://spentertainment.webs.com/wallpapers.rar) (RAR 421kb)
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  WALKTHROUGH
  A walkthrough is now available on Leon's site, Ultimate Game Solutions (http://gamesolutions.efzeven.nl/matt-to-the-future-walkthrough-snake-pit-entertainment2009/)
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  Thank you for downloading and playing :=
  PLEASE ENJOY!

Care to play through the game with me too? I can't figure it out! Cool intro though. ;)

I can't download the game at all...
Please don't ask me in a couple of months if I've found a copy somewhere... ;-)
Wasn't the game interesting enough or is the full version already finished?  ;D

I've just finished it.

I like the graphics, story and the humor, but some puzzles did annoy the hell out of me :P

@Dualnames, where are you stuck?

Quote from: MrCheminee on Tue 05/01/2010 20:19:01
I've just finished it.

I like the graphics, story and the humor, but some puzzles did annoy the hell out of me :P

@Dualnames, where are you stuck?

Right after the intro.

Well, try to look at things more than once, that's how  I solved most of the puzzles.

Quote from: Leon on Tue 05/01/2010 20:16:49
I can't download the game at all...
Please don't ask me in a couple of months if I've found a copy somewhere... ;-)
Wasn't the game interesting enough or is the full version already finished?  ;D

If left-clicking doesn't work, try right-clicking, and 'Save Target As...'   :)

Sorry, Leon, I left DEBUG mode on and had to reupload. It should be fine now.

Quote from: Snake on Tue 05/01/2010 22:08:18
Sorry, Leon, I left DEBUG mode on and had to reupload. It should be fine now.

That's how I beat the game! Pwned it!

Quote from: Dualnames on Tue 05/01/2010 23:36:33

Quote from: Snake on Tue 05/01/2010 22:08:18
Sorry, Leon, I left DEBUG mode on and had to reupload. It should be fine now.

That's how I beat the game! Pwned it!

Heh, damn you, Dualy!

After playing through with Matt there were things that I should have included. Same as Duals, the first thing Matt said after the intro ended was, "What do I do?". I should have had the text pop up and say something like:

Display("After jumping into the chair, one of the wheels broke and bounced across the floor.");
Display("Without touching the floor, Matt must somehow fix the chair so he can move around...");


I guess I just figured it was self explainatory when the wheel "popped" and bounced across the floor. Damn myself for thinking the goal was obvious enough.

Quote...but some puzzles did annoy the hell out of me :P

Yeah, I guess the puzzles weren't a big hit. Thank you, Mr Cheminee, for the good words on the story and humor though :)

Puzzles:
Now, being the creator of these puzzles, I found them to be perfectly logical and not too hard (at one point I was worried they might be a little too easy) but I guess that is expected when YOU are making the puzzles - since you know the solution.

From your point of view (everyone who played), can you tell me what I did wrong? I obviously need improvement and I would love to hear pointers from the people you count the most: the people PLAYING them.

I wonder, if it wasn't so much the puzzles themselves, but maybe the descriptions/hints given? Lack of explaination could hurt a game pretty bad. I've read two poeple, at least so far, complain that they didn't know what they were doing. It certainly SHOULD have been clearer that the main objective was to get the porcupine OUT of the lab.

I would love to hear your responces. Like I said above, I obviously could use some advice on puzzle design. I can't help but be disappointed in myself. I really thought they were pretty good. When Matt played I figured, hell, he barely knows what an adventure game is, I'll post this on the forums tomorrow, I'll have people saying they finished it within 5 minutes of posting telling me it was too short and the puzzles were too easy. Shows what I know ;)

\\--EDIT--\\
The game is now on the Games Page, btw.

Since I beat the game in an hour or so, I think it was not really that difficult, and pretty decent for a game this size. The fact that the wheel broke was very clear to me after clicking on a lot of things, but I guess explaning that  right after it happened wouldn't hurt.
The trick that I had to click on certain items more than once was something I had to discover and after that, I had not problem with finding the rest of the objects. To me, getting that straight was a puzzle, and actually I like it if I get what there is to get at the first click, but that's just me. The intended puzzles were pretty logical and the clicking around was entertaining enough because of the jokes and references to other games/movies/cartoons. The only thing that bothered me on the ending was the last puzzle that forced me to do something within a few seconds, since I'm not that much into timelimits, but then I mastered it pretty quick and I wasn't bothered anymore. It was more my expectations that tricked me in small moments of unhappiness, I think I'm just easy to frustrate. All in all I think your puzzles were very suitable for this game, so I wouldn't worry about that.
After I got what I had to get on the desk I wasn't able to go on the desk again, that was kind of restricting. I know I didn't need anything from there anymore, but it would have made my area a bit bigger. That would have been nice.
I liked the pretty long cutscenes and I even could appriciate the predictability of the story and found myself talking to it like I do when I'm watching a movie that follows a wellknown plot. For a game, that is a good sign!
I can't wait for the next episode!

Edit:
The animations, music, effects, etc. looked really professional to me, except for the small acts you didn't make an animation for. But you solved those situations pretty clever with the messagedisplay so I almost didn't notice it. If you'd make these animations, to me you would have reached the quality of DOTT, but even without, you're pretty close.

Is there a walkthough for this game?  Hints even?   ???  I have all the items from the bottom drawer & the crime scene tape, but can't use any of them together to pick up stuff (i.e. the wheel) from the ground.  This game is so cute, nice graphics, interesting storyline, etc.  I'm too much of a duntz to be able to rate the difficulty level of "hard vs. easy"...because I have a bad, bad habit of using walkthroughs to get through my fave adventure games.   That's how I like to play them tho.  ;D

Either way, love the game so far.  I don't really have any constructive criticism for ya b/c I am too stumped to get past the first scene...!  Help??

Edited to add:  I have to say, I actually had no problem figuring out that the point was to get past the porcupine & fix the chair so you can move around...to me at least, THAT much was obvious...beyond that though...???  I'm currently a bit frustrated (which is a GOOD thing, that means your game is interesting enough for people to CARE to solve it & not just give up & quit!)

~Sarah  :)

Try looking at the stuff in you inventory ;)

Yeah, I did that, I got the string from the lint but wasn't much successful with anything else, nor was able to combine objects together...??

The game is pretty much event driven so you must do one thing first before you can do another. Things become available after certain events, so:

Spoiler

When you have the crime scene tape, try it on the wheel and it fails, you realizing it's too light. Then take the mouse from the computer and attach it to the tape. Try again on the wheel and succeed this time.

[close]

If you can't take items or do things, try again after progressing, maybe you'll have more luck then.  :)

Ahh yes, I did manage to get the wheel after combining a couple objects like you said...but nothing else combines.  I'm basically throwing the liver pieces to the little varmint all over the room but can't manage to trap him, kill him, pick him up, whatever the goal is...gggrrr!  Frustrating!  Is this one room the whole demo?  Please, I know this isn't the hints/tips section, but I am dying to know what to do next.  (pretty please?)   :-\

Spoiler

You might want to send him outside... A hint you get when you try to go futher into you lab.

[close]

A good demo! Thank you, Snake

I think the puzzle are logical. And sometimes you have to be very fast. Takes a bit to switch from arrow to hair cross (this was the hardest bit for me :-)

Mr. Cheminee:

Spoiler

open the lift door

[close]

Spoiler

move to the right place and throw the liver into the lift

[close]

Spoiler

do you have a replacement for this broken latch?

[close]

The puzzles were kinda tricky but I didn't need hints. I think if I played a full length game which had puzzles like this the whole way through I'd get frustrated, but for a game of this length I thought it was alright. A couple of things that I found a bit frustrating, seeing as you asked for comments on puzzles:

Spoiler

Giving us 3 drawers to look through but only putting items in one and then making us look through it multiple times seemed a bit of an odd choice to me. Maybe I'm just lazy, but it might have been nicer to put 1 item in each of the drawers?

Also, I spent ages clicking on that crime scene tape, saying "I know I need you, why can't I take you!?" - it seems like I couldn't take it until I looked at the wheel? I would have preferred to be able to take it from the start, but never mind.

[close]

I thought the idea about using the chair was cool, and I cracked up at the intro because I wasn't expecting such a peaceful scene to turn into that haha.

Nice one, Snake :D

Quote from: sthomannch on Fri 08/01/2010 10:47:39
A good demo! Thank you, Snake

I think the puzzle are logical. And sometimes you have to be very fast. Takes a bit to switch from arrow to hair cross (this was the hardest bit for me :-)

Mr. Cheminee:

Spoiler

open the lift door

[close]

Spoiler

move to the right place and throw the liver into the lift

[close]

Spoiler

do you have a replacement for this broken latch?

[close]

Hey I got it, I just didn't want to give the whole puzzle away for SarahLiz... ;)

Quote from: MrChemineeThe only thing that bothered me on the ending was the last puzzle that forced me to do something within a few seconds...

Although this particular puzzle could have benefitted from a couple extra seconds, the method to my madness there was the simple fact that once you knew what you were doing, while flubbing up the first couple/few times, getting back and forth and executing wouldn't be as trying as it seemed on the first try.

Spoiler

I figured that after a couple times the player would figure out that it was much easier to throw the chicken liver on to the lift from the fridge, shut the door, get back to the sink and secure the door - rather than throwing the liver on the lift from the sink, getting to the fridge, closing the door and getting back to the sink in time (which is possible, but only by the skin of your ass).

[close]

Quote from: MrChemineeAfter I got what I had to get on the desk I wasn't able to go on the desk again, that was kind of restricting. I know I didn't need anything from there anymore, but it would have made my area a bit bigger.

I only did that at the last minute since time was running out and I didn't want to have to script everything else on the other side of the room to detect whether or not he was on the desk or not. Otherwise it would have stayed the same. I actually wanted to do more with him on the desk (like jumping over to the fridge area) but like I said, I did not have enough time to think of anything that would fit AND script it all (not to mention animations and other graphics that would be included). I was lucky enough to get the few extra days that I got because of a storm we got slammed with.
Heh, the whole chair breaking thing was actually a last minute idea I threw in there. Without it the whole lab scene would have been VERY short. What I should have done was started work on the lab scene first and did the intro last - spent too much time on it as time ticked away.

Thanks for the huge responce MrCheminee!
And a double thanks for comparing to DOTT!

Quote from: SarahI have to say, I actually had no problem figuring out that the point was to get past the porcupine & fix the chair so you can move around...to me at least, THAT much was obvious...

Hurray! Thank you for saying that :) But I agree that something could have been said to at least make it clear that the thing bouncing across the room was the wheel to the chair he just jumped in.

Quote from: sthomannchTakes a bit to switch from arrow to hair cross (this was the hardest bit for me :-) )

I agree. Time and pressure restricted me from thinking of a suitable "interface" for that part.

Quote from: BenjaminThreeHundredandFour!

Spoiler

Maybe I'm just lazy, but it might have been nicer to put 1 item in each of the drawers?

[close]

Spoiler

Yes, I agree. The main idea I think I was going for was to throw the player off thinking that there was only one or two items in the same drawer... I don't know. Not too sure why I threw them all in one.

[close]

Quote from: Benji

Spoiler

Also, I spent ages clicking on that crime scene tape, saying "I know I need you, why can't I take you!?" - it seems like I couldn't take it until I looked at the wheel? I would have preferred to be able to take it from the start, but never mind.

Spoiler

[close]

[close]

Spoiler

My whole idea for these puzzles, or any other adventure game, is that I really don't like the character being able to take something without actually knowing why they are taking it. Like the mouse for example. There are three different responces triggered by certain events when you try to take it. The second responce hints that he COULD take it, but doesn't know what he would use it for. You can only take the mouse when it is hinted that something else is needed to reach the wheel.
You can only take the crime scene tape when MATT realizes that it could be used to nab the wheel, which happens when you try to take the wheel from sittin gin the chair. Eventhough it's obvious to YOU that the crime scene tape could help, but Matt does not. Matt needs to know why he is taking something.
Do you saee what I'm getting at with this?

It's funny, I thought the very first thing most people would do would be to try to pick up the wheel.

[close]

Quote from: And again with Ben
I thought the idea about using the chair was cool, and I cracked up at the intro because I wasn't expecting such a peaceful scene to turn into that haha.

Thank you very much! I thought the chair idea was cool too.
lol, I'm glad you liked the intro bit with the porcupine ;D Peaceful is exactly what I was going for, with a little bit of cutsie in there too. I'm glad you laughed. Did you get right away that the porcupine had been living in his fort? The clue was the hole that he comes out of and the hole in the door. I had originally planned for him to come out from behind the fort, but I later changed it to him coming OUT of it, just waking up, lol.

I'm happy you guys liked it. I was dreading this game was turning into another Castle of Fire...

Quote from: Snake on Fri 08/01/2010 16:55:14

Spoiler

My whole idea for these puzzles, or any other adventure game, is that I really don't like the character being able to take something without actually knowing why they are taking it. Like the mouse for example. There are three different responces triggered by certain events when you try to take it. The second responce hints that he COULD take it, but doesn't know what he would use it for. You can only take the mouse when it is hinted that something else is needed to reach the wheel.
You can only take the crime scene tape when MATT realizes that it could be used to nab the wheel, which happens when you try to take the wheel from sittin gin the chair. Eventhough it's obvious to YOU that the crime scene tape could help, but Matt does not. Matt needs to know why he is taking something.
Do you saee what I'm getting at with this?

[close]

Yeah, of course! It's your game, and just coz I whine about the points where I got stuck doesn't mean you did it wrong :D.

I totally understand your reasoning for doing it how you did it, but because I got stuck there for a number of minutes, I thought I'd bring it up. It certainly didn't ruin the game, seeing as I managed to get past it. I think for me the thing was "Oh awesome, I have to fix this chair, now how am I gonna do this?". I basically expected not to be able to pick the wheel up, which is why I didn't click on it until after trying to get the tape through various means.

As for knowing where the porcupine came from in the intro, I wasn't really paying attention to that :P. It was kinda "Oh, look, a widdle porcupine, oh hey cool a closeup! He's so... BAHAHAHAHA"

I haven't played it yet but I'm definitely intrigued, and will try it soon. Lengthy replies at this point generally mean wait for the next version, but I guess its more an issue of personal taste towards the puzzles. Will feed you back soon :)

I got the wheel, but still have no clue how to get the bolt. Also, I can't find a hotspot for the chair.

Quote from: Ascovel on Sun 10/01/2010 01:38:47
I got the wheel, but still have no clue how to get the bolt. Also, I can't find a hotspot for the chair.

Nut and Bolt:

Spoiler

Check the drawers under the "microwave".

[close]

As for the chair's hotspot:

Spoiler

I'm assuming you are trying to use the wheel on the chair? You need the nut and bolt first. Otherwise, how's the wheel going to stay on? ;)

[close]

I hope you are enjoying the game so far, Ascovel.

Wow, an adventure game by Snake...that much alone is hard for me to register at the moment. o_o
Gonna play ASAP.

Quote from: EKM on Sun 10/01/2010 02:41:51
Wow, an adventure game by Snake...that much alone is hard for me to register at the moment. o_o
Gonna play ASAP.

Hey. And what in the hell is that supposed to mean?
;D

So far I'm enjoying it. I like the visuals a lot - both backgrounds and sprites. Also, I find the game intriguing and the zombie porcupine situation is exciting. However, I really don't like that you are making the player do things in an extremely specific order. I think it kills the puzzles which would otherwise work and frustrates the player unnecessarily.

Quote from: Ascovel on Sun 10/01/2010 20:09:49
However, I really don't like that you are making the player do things in an extremely specific order. I think it kills the puzzles which would otherwise work frustrating the player unnecessarily.

Yes, I agree with that.  What I like about some games is the fact that if you're stuck on one puzzle, you can temporarily turn your attention elsewhere, complete that and then start afresh on the tricky one... Whereas when it's linear once you're stuck you're stuck, and can go no further.

It's still a very good game/demo though, don't get me wrong, and more to do with personal preference :)

QuoteWhat I like about some games is the fact that if you're stuck on one puzzle, you can temporarily turn your attention elsewhere, complete that and then start afresh on the tricky one...

You can do that in this game:

Spoiler

Yes, the game is very linear, but there are two puzzles going on in the beginning at the same time;
Getting the wheel and getting the nut and bolt. Eventhough getting the wheel is completely linear, since you can't take the crime scene tape without trying to take the wheel and you can't take the computer mouse without using the crime tape on the wheel, getting the nut and bolt is solvable without doing anything with the wheel at all.
(Very long winded, I know)

[close]

And I do agree with the both of you (Peanut Monkey and Ascovel) though. My whole idea, having to to do something specific in order to be able to take something, was more a test of how it would have been accepted by players. And since it got more thumbs down than up, it'll definately change when I revisit it.

Thanks for playing. Did any of you finish it?


\\--EDIT--\\
By the way, a walkthrough is now available on Leon's site, Ultimate Game Solutions (http://gamesolutions.efzeven.nl/matt-to-the-future-walkthrough-snake-pit-entertainment2009/)

Actually I played and finished this the day you released it. I'm just now getting around to complimenting you on a job well done.   ;D

Quote from: The Suitor on Thu 14/01/2010 06:58:50
Actually I played and finished this the day you released it. I'm just now getting around to complimenting you on a job well done.   ;D

Heh, you're an arse! Thanks for the compliment, though, Suitor ::) I wonder how many more people played it but haven't said anything.

M0ds said he was going to "try it soon".
So, M0ds, "soon" is OVER a week? After all these years you'd think we'd be used to his empty promises.

Hey, Snake,

I finished the demo. Though there was quite a lot of solution peeking involved.

I still liked the aspects that I mentioned. Also, the setting of the house and Matt's family felt very real and atmospheric (in a humorous adventure sort of way). I'd love to have a version of the game where I could at least explore the whole house.

Nevertheless, many puzzles were problematic. Besides the one issue I already told about, it was a big problem for me to look 2 times at everything and I didn't see any hints when I should do so (I don't think this double-checking adds anything to the puzzles, so maybe the traditional one-good-revealing-look would be better?). Also, there should be a bit more time given to do all the actions required for the final puzzle. It was rather extreme, frantic clicking. The other aspects of the puzzles were ok.

So that's basically what I thought. I hope you'll have a go with my Frantic Franko and give some feedback for it as well.

Needz to continue making this game, best animations ever!

Thank you for posting, Roll, it was a big suprise! I'm glad you liked the animations ;)
I am going to continue, but it will be cut down into episodes instead of one big game.

Great game, i liked the characters, they were charismatic. To bad it is only one room long.
I agree that having  order to solve the puzzles kinda annoyed me, i mean, having to look at stuff twice, also, the character saying "i dont need this" in most games means that hell never need it, but i guess thats just me that am used to the rest of the games, it wasnt a bad thing really, it makes sense.

So when will some more come out? I want to kill some neighbor-zombie-porcupines-things :P

Only thing that tripped me up was

Spoiler

having to look at items in the inventory MORE THAN ONCE to get a new item or information on the item. I really wish I would only have to look once, for when I see the generic 'this is what that is' message, I assume there will be nothing new following it. This is a matter of personal taste though, I'm sure some thought to do it without any trouble.

[close]

But absolutely superb animations, graphics, music, and even the puzzles, though challenging, were all great. I'm interested to see where it goes.

I may try a LP on this tomorrow if I'm not dying from the flu :(

Thanks, guys, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I'm going to remake this demo first and make it the official episode 1, or part 1 or however I decide to name it, before any other parts are made.

And to all of you who did not like the need of checking things twice and having to do the chair puzzle in a specific order, piss off.

Just kidding. I'm going to fix the puzzles up for the official release and get rid of that. Like I had stated in a previous post, it was more of a test as to see how that way of puzzle solving would be excepted.

Thanks for playing and I'm looking forward to seeing a Let's Play! at some point ;)

\\--EDIT--\\
In the mean time, why not work on your hand-eye coordination and play CASTLE OF FIRE?

I found there was nothing wrong with checking twice on objects...

The 'Double Look' took some getting used to, but because it's used consistently, I didn't find it to be a problem.
Looking forward to this one Snake.  :)

Quote from: Snake on Fri 26/02/2010 15:41:55
In the mean time, why not work on your hand-eye coordination and play CASTLE OF FIRE?

Waaaaaay ahead of you buddy  ;)

Here's Part 1 of LP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLObZJcQrrY

I just want to confirm that this game will not be continued. Matt has decided to move in with his father and so there is no relevance in completing this series when he doesn't live with us in this house where the inspiration and entire story takes place.

I hope all of you that played the demo, which was going to be remade into the first episode, enjoyed it while it lasted.

Thank you for playing.

Gah. Sorry to hear that, Snake.
It was a good bit of fun :<

Thanks, Dom. Unlike anything else I've started (with the exception of CoF), this would have been completed at one point in the near future. I was excited about the story and was looking forward to completing it. The story has quite a few humorous moments in it. He had asked me about it a few times before to see if I had continued it yet, so he really did want to see it finished himself, but now...

I did think of just finishing it anyway, but that wouldn't make any sense.

Also,  thanks again for doing the Let's Play. I've just noticed a couple days ago that you had completed it. I haven't had a chance to watch, but I will soon.

Can't you just let him move somewhere else in the story as well and let a friend or so pick up the leading roll? :S

Snake, this really doesn't deserve the 'demo' title. I would consider MttF as a full game in it's own right, the TBC ending rounds it off perfectly. Don't sell yourself short and don't think of it as an unfinished project, think of it as a potentially amazing sequel.

@MrCheminee
Sounds like a lot of work to try and patch something that already had a complete story. I would have to change so many things that made the story what it was. I might as well make a completely different game. Sorry, man, but this is going no further ;)

@Chicky
Thanks for the kind words. Naming it a demo was prior to deciding that this would turn into the actual first episode after fixing it up. I'm glad you liked it.

I would have replied sooner, but I just noticed this now.

//--EDIT--//
And just for the record, I recently dismantled the infamous fort, and to my surprise, there really wasn't a secret laboratory undernieth ;)