Death's Door

[Seb]

Hey all,

I'd like to present my first ever game made in AGS, Death's Door.



Heres a quick bit of story for you

You awake. Unfamiliar surroundings and landscapes fill your eyes. Where are you? Why are you there? And why can't you leave? The answer to this mystery lies within the walls of an old mansion, but can you survive long enough to find it?

The games page can be found here     http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?category=&action=detail&id=1076&refresh1220806803/

Download (18.6 MB) http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0E1LFQW6

Resolution 800x600 (16 bit colour)
   
Its not a particularly long game, and should take about 30 - 45 minutes for you to finish.

I hope you enjoy it 

[Hamburglar]

I enjoyed it! Very well done with a nice twist at the end!
For your first game this is excellent work.

The outside of the house could use some graphical work but you only see it for a few seconds I guess.

Overall 9/10

[neon]

Game crashed during save operation in the Cellar:

Error: Save game directory overflow.

Good that there was an autosave directly before this. I just have to go through the cutscenes again.

[robvalue]

I also got this error while trying to save.

Nice game, I enjoyed it, good work.

[Seb]

Sorry, I had not noticed the error caused by saving. I will try and fix it and update the link when it is working properly.

[Buckethead]

I had the same problem with my game. Are you saving your autosave on slot 99? Try saving on slot 1 or something.

[Khris]

I just unzipped it and noticed that three pretty essential files were moved to another directory. Unexperienced players will probably play it at 320x200 and without any music or speech that way.

[Seb]

Unexperienced players will probably play it at 320x200 and without any music or speech that way.

Thanks for pointing that out, I had not realised the music would not play if the file was in a different directory. Sorry all I won't make that mistake again 

I have now re uploaded here the game and it should work properly. (Hopefully the saving issue has also been resolved)

[Lufia]

I had no trouble saving, you fixed that just fine.

This is a pretty sweet game. The graphics are nice, though the game was a bit too dark for my laptop screen, even with the brightness turned up all the way. Then, it seems I'm always the only one complaining about games being too dark, so maybe I should just kick my computer. However, I'm not sure the art style served the atmosphere of the game that well. I was expecting grimy walls, menacing shadows, derelict furniture... not squeaky clean and colourful backgrounds and a cartoony character. Maybe you wanted to do away with codes, good for you, but I don't think it improves your game.

I really liked the random creaking sounds throughout the game, that added quite a bit of atmosphere. On the other hand, I really hated the bit of metal hard rock thingy noise you put for the game ending. I can't see how you thought it would fit with the rest of the game. What's the character going to do? Paint his face Kiss-style, become a goth, and practice headbanging all day long as he tortures puppies and wreaks havoc on the cold, cruel, unfair world? Really, now. Maybe I'm making a big fuss about nothing, but that really annoyed me.

The puzzles were rather easy and straightforward but I did wonder sometimes whether I was missing something, or not doing something correctly, because more often that not when you use the hand icon on something, the character walks up to it and then... does nothing. As small indication of "That's utterly useless" or something would help. That's not a big deal as it doesn't prevent you from completing the game easily enough. It would just make the game feel more complete.

Lastly, I don't think the storytelling lives up to your ambitions for the game. The premise of "I can't go through the front door because I have a headache" seems rather ridiculous, even if the ending makes you understand why that would happen. I'm afraid I read a "Your insane!" somewhere near the end that made me cringe. Overall, the narration isn't bad per se, but I think it lacks the subtlety that would make the game really creepy.

This is still way better than some stuff that can be seen on the site, first game-wise. You definitely have potential and I'll be happy to play any other game that you throw our way. With a bit of practice, I'm sure you'll make some really great games.

[Seb]

Thanks very much for your constructive critisms, I'll be sure to keep them in mind while I'm making my next game.  As for the bit of metal at the end, I wanted it to show the characters anger that everyone he had met in the house had tried to kill him, I did have a few bits of other music I had tried to use for that ending but none of them really fit. I also wanted it to really contrast the music I used in the alternate ending, I can understand what you are saying though. I'll also think on what you said about my story telling and try to improve before my next game is released. Thanks again for telling me your thoughts on the game. Hopefully it'll help me improve 

[guest]

I can't download, file you are trying to access is temporaraly unavailable 

[Seb]

The file download should be working fine, it might just have been temporaraly down.

[Nlogax]

The game kept crashing the same place for me

Spoiler

upstairs, in the room with the trapdoor

[close]

The screen would freeze, I'd still be able to move the mouse but nothing worked. So I was forced to give up. Shame though, as I was quite enjoying it 

[Seb]

Hmm, that issues a new one on me. I'll look into it but it might just be a random glitch.

[Leon]

Congratulations with this release. The graphics and music/effects are certainly adding to the atmosphere. It's a nice story but a bit too linear. This is what I found:

There are a lot of diaries scattered. I didn't like that bit. Why not use the bookcase and hide the text in a book? Who not make more of the scene at the dinner hall and tell your story there? Besides the fact that taking the diaries made me read them, non skippable, made me not wanting to pick up these things again, not even by acciddent. Why not let them being put in the inventory and let the player look at them there. Then it's a deliberate action of the player, not just the click of the mouse that landed on the wrong spot.

Since there's a lot of text, there's also a lot of typos. Some text disappeared rather quickly but these are ones I could pick up so far. Mind you: there are more!

intro: janurary --> january
in the cellar: brandishing a a huge knife --> delete a
at the safe: you try pushing agaisnt it.--> against
near safe: the safe move --> moves/moved
in front of lab: the door is well sealed, pehaps --> perhaps
inside lab:something awful --> awfull
in diary in lab: probably disappear --> disappeared
in diary in lab: leave house altogether --> alltogether
with James: Your insane --> You are insane

Spoiler

Using the axe on the barrel first gives the same dialog as looking at it.

[close]

An advice: don't let your playtesters just play, let them work for you.

The inventory bar on top and at the bottom isn't very pretty to look at.

I'd expected some more interaction with objects. A lot couldn't be looked at, couldn't be talked to etc. Making more objects ineractive makes a better gameplay, certainly when there are already as little objects as there are right now. So more things to dress up the rooms and interact with wouldn't do the puzzle bit any harm.

All the best with your next projects. Looking forward to the next game.

[DoorKnobHandle]

inside lab:something awful --> awfull
in diary in lab: leave house altogether --> alltogether

Both these are actually correct in the game and it's your correction that's wrong.

[Seb]

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll be sure to take them into account whilst making my new game. I'll also correct the spelling mistakes and re upload the file.

[TerranRich]

Yeah, "awful" and "altogether" are already correct. Don't want to seem rude, Leon, but make sure you're absolutely right before correcting others.

[Leon]

Sorry about that. Won't happen again, I'll double-double check next time.
But I'm sure it was an awful correction altogether anyway.... ;-)