HELP! the game

[FSi++]

Help! the game is an interactive fiction/survival game about man stranded on a desert island. At first, he must find some way to survive, and eventually escape the island.

Features include:
* text-based interface - like in any Interactive Fiction next door
* character statistics to look after - four parameters (Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue and Sanity) on which your life depends
* vast island with various terrain - poke finger on another AGS game with almost 150 rooms!
* a story - don't you think that this game is only about survival? (unavailable in demo) Plot involves alien machinery, engineering puzzles, and, human-sized hamsterballs!
* ROBOT DOG - doesn't everybody love them?

* Website
* Pre-release (MAGS) version
* music.vox file (game works just fine without it)

In the full version (coming soon, I hope):
- manuals
- more music
- brand new first-person view
- less bugs
- more variation in location descriptions

I'm planning to release the source code as well, for young boys and girls to tweak and look with awe .

[Radiant]

It's an interesting concept, but I think you should expand your text parser a bit. For instance, in the first room, I couldn't figure out how to search the wreck.

[pslim]

This is a really cool idea, but I have to agree with Radiant. A lot of things that seemed sensible to me (like being able to "look" at the turtles) weren't among the parser's vocabulary, which makes it sort of frustrating.

I really like that there's a strategy aspect to it, too. I assume that when you release the manual and the final version you will provide some sort of guidance as to what causes death. 

[Nostradamus]

sounds interesting, waiting for full version though

[jkohen]

I started playing, but I found that sometimes the inventory and object system goes out of synch. I.e., dropping an egg causes a rock to appear, or trying to pick up an object by its description fails (even the first time you find it).

For instance,

Spoiler

I was in the room with a rock and the perforator, I tried to "get perforator," but the game answered that there was no such thing there. So I took the rock instead and I got the perforator
The same thing happened after breaking the glass with the rock. The next room contained "an egg," which I had to pick up by writing "get rock" (since obviously that was the rock I had used to break the glass, and "get egg" didn't work).

[close]

Other than that, the premise seems interesting, though in my opinion the island map is way too big and empty. Furthermore, I made some off-by-one mistakes while mapping, so I'm glad that you don't really die when the danger levels max out, since I end up walking around a lot. (I do stop and restore my "energy levels" every now and then, just for the kicks and to see if that would trigger a scripted event.)

Spoiler

Maybe some hints on what material is needed to build the hut would be in order. I think I've covered the whole island already and, except for the two machines, I've gathered a few of everything in the "hut room." However, upon entering "build hut" I get a plain "you don't think you have enough material" response.

[close]

[jkohen]

It's an interesting concept, but I think you should expand your text parser a bit. For instance, in the first room, I couldn't figure out how to search the wreck.

I found that bit misleading, too. I ended up realizing that you just had to search by walking around the area.

[pslim]

It's an interesting concept, but I think you should expand your text parser a bit. For instance, in the first room, I couldn't figure out how to search the wreck.

I found that bit misleading, too. I ended up realizing that you just had to search by walking around the area.

I eventually figured that out as well, but there were a number of parser particulars I never did figure out.

Another thing I would suggest, upon further reflection, is to tweak exactly which actions make the hunger/thirst/etc stats advance. As it is, it seems that you can die simply from examining the same object over and over again. I'm someone who uses look and examine compulsively in text-based games, so I died pretty quickly every time I tried it.

[jkohen]

Just out of curiousity, how did you die? I never did, even after maxing out all stats to 100%.

[pslim]

No idea, to be honest. My stats weren't maxed out at 100, or always at the same numbers.

I just died while I was wandering around, usually on the sea shore. I never could figure out how to eat, though, despite

Spoiler

finding coconuts and trying to knock them down with thrown rocks. I also tried to eat the turtle but couldn't figure out any way to interact with or even examine them.

[close]

[jkohen]

I just died while I was wandering around. I never could figure out how to eat, though, despite

Spoiler

finding coconuts and trying to knock them down with thrown rocks. I also tried to eat the turtle but couldn't figure out any way to interact with or even examine them.

[close]

I didn't think about

Spoiler

doing that to the coconuts... it certainly would have been much easier than GET TURTLE, OPEN TURTLE, DROP WOOD (doesn't work in the forest), LIGHT WOOD, COOK TURTLE, EAT MEAT.

[close]

[Akatosh]

Since I've finished my entry just-in-time, I'll give yours a go now. Let's see what you#ve got. 

[FSi++]

Just a little update for all of you who missed me

I was busy settling things with University (yet again), and will (hopefully) return to improve the game further this weekend.

I'd start it right now but I forgot the sources in another PC (duh).

About some issues (the ones I can see from here):

how did you die? I never did, even after maxing out all stats to 100%

Death is disabled in all debug builds (for making the debug process easier). Try doing Ctrl+A, if it works, then you have a debug version and can't die, if you want to die, try downloading a fresh version (chances are you're using the first beta)

Another thing I would suggest, upon further reflection, is to tweak exactly which actions make the hunger/thirst/etc stats advance.

I'll look into it, I think, I'll disable stats growth from examining things.

the inventory and object system goes out of synch

Does this happen all the time or after you've played for a while? The games uses a custom heap thingie, I think I messed it up somewhere.

the island map is way too big and empty

I'll try to make more descriptions of things in the further versions, but thanks for noticing.

Stay tuned!

[mr.me]

At first I liked this game, but after awhile I just didn't know where to go the places were just: Forest, seashore(I don't remember exactly, but it was something like that) until I would reach a dead end, get lost, and die. I think this would have been a much better game if it were a graphical adventure with a text parser and not so many filler locations.