Echoes of Terra: New game needs playtesters! Game is for class, please help!

[Wolfmage]

Hello, well, like the title says, I'm a game design student and this is my first game.

Its a short 5 room sci-fi adventure; the promotional thread is HERE.

Theres a lot of placeholder art in there still, but he game is playable start to finish; everything *should* be working, but theres always bugs and issues and I need you guys to help me find them!

I will of course owe you all some playtest time later! Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time.

Game can be downloaded  HERE.

I will have a nicer download page up later today and there will be daily builds over the next 10 days as I approach the turn-in date.

Thanks a lot!

UPDATE: Fixed the download Link! 11/9/10: Fixed hotspot issue in last room

[Tenacious Stu]

The link isn't working , you get:

'Sorry, the page you requested was not found.'

[Wolfmage]

Oh snap!

Gah, thats what I get for trying to think without caffeine. Unfortunately I'm stuck away from my computer right now; I think theres something wrong with the html, but the zip file is there. I'll try to link directly... HERE.   Depending on your browser you might have to right-click/save as.

I'll fix the real link in a couple of hours when I get back to my PC. Thanks for giving it a shot.

[Tenacious Stu]

  Now it's working. I'll give it a shot 

[Wolfmage]

Thanks a lot for trying it Stu. Feel free to PM me if you get stuck; one of the things I want to find out is if/when people get stuck so I can make sure its not too easy or too hard.

I just uploaded a minor update to it (same link) with new graphics for the final puzzle, which leaves just one unshaded eyesore as far as the backgrounds are concerned; hopefully I'll be able to tackle it today.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

It seems like a pretty ambitious game so far.  My advice would be to have the game pause before the first combat situation, notify the player of how it works, and then automatically switch to a combat reticule so they can fight without being shot several times before reaching their inventory to get the gun.  Future combat situations should also activate some combat mode automatically.

[Tenacious Stu]

I was a little confused about the psychic command at first. I remember thinking "oh, what's this for?" then when I used it and the scene went black and white for a bit and left me a little confused. It was only later I realized that it was to use your psychic ability which I didn't know I had.

My advice would be to have the game pause before the first combat situation, notify the player of how it works, and then automatically switch to a combat reticule so they can fight without being shot several times before reaching their inventory to get the gun.

I also had trouble with this the first time around. But after dying once, I put the stealth suit on and picked them off from above. I liked this feature a lot. I also enjoyed the story and artwork, but I got stuck on the bit were you have to turn off the force field  .

One last thing is that there is nothing that tells you when an action didn't work. Like when I used an item on a hotpot, the character would walk towards it and then do nothing. I think you need to implement some dialogue along the lines of "That doesn't work" or maybe some clue as to what you are actually meant to do.

[Wolfmage]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'll definitely take them into consideration. Gonna put a lot of time into it today.

Yea, there needs to be an "intructions" thing before the game starts to explain the psychic command. Stu, did you ever get past the forcefield? I don't want to outright say the answer cause I'd like to see if anyone else gets stuck there. PM me if you want me to tell you so you can see the rest of the game.

I will definitely have a substantial update by tonight.

Thanks again, guys.

PS: What I would like to do about the combat is have the game to pause all cycles when menu or inventory screens are active, so you can switch weapons, etc without getting shot at. I'm not sure if pausing the game stops the cycles though. I'll have to dig there today.

[straydogstrut]

The game looks and plays great so far, this is my kind of thing. I didn't get caught out by the combat since I went straight for the stealth suit, but this probably made the game too easy, I think.

Ive gotten to the final puzzle (I assume?) but I haven't gotten past it yet:

Spoiler

I'm at the part where you have to put a combination in the pillar. I tried the symbols from using my psychic view on the gateway symbols but they didn't work (Just like Dr Landri's note said). I also thought it might have something to do with the colours in the control room but I haven't figured it out yet.

[close]

Anyway, i've done some playtesting so here are my notes:

Spoiler

In the opening description (really good by the way!):

On the first page "influence" is misspelt as "influnce" and "prosperity" is misspelt as "prospeity". On the sentence which ends "laid waste" there is both a comma and a full stop. You just need a full stop here.

On the second page of the description, in the line which talks about the imperial knights, institute is misspelt. Also on that page "together" is misspelt as "togeather".

On the third page there's a mismatch with the tense in the line that reads "find what seemed". It should be "seems" because the rest of that paragraph is in present tense.

In the first room:

1) Using the psychic view, the room description has "thought" misspelt and possibly something else that I can't remember right now.

2) After you pick up the datapad, using look on the sleeping bag still says there is something vibrating inside it.

3) Using Look on the computers it says "most of them have failed but a couple of them seem to have stated" - should be "started"

4) In the gun description, stanard should be "standard" and "because its dependable" should be "because it's dependable" since you're saying it is dependable.

5) The description on the door panel and the access tunnel panel is the same. Not a big issue, but it didn't make much sense.

As previously mentioned, it would be good to have a response when you can't do something. There is no response if I try to use any of my equipment on the door or panel, even though this is a logical course of action.

Second room (outpost entrance):

1) Using look on the security door that leads back to the first room, it says "like the security room, his area" when it should be "this area".

Third room (stairwell):

1) Using Look on the pillar it says "made out of the same materialas the.." - there should be a space between "material" and "as"

2) Using Look on the gateway itself, it says "layered curving paterbs" - it should be "patterns"

Fourth room (control room):

On my first play through, Dr Landri said we need to open the forcefield then started shooting over to the right of the screen saying she would distract him. I didn't know who she was talking about because there was no-one there. Then when i attached the wire to the control panel the game crashed with the error

"Unable to render character 1 (Dr Landri) because loop 2 does not exist in view 12"

The second time I played through, she didn't start shooting until after we got past the forcefield which made more sense since I could see the other Erudite. No crash this time.

It took me awhile to get past this point - I can see why Stu got stuck - as anything you use on the cables says you can manage to clear the debris to see the other cable. That made me think I had to reach in and get it or cut it. Some description when you try various tools on it would help.

Fifth room (with the pillar):

I'm not sure if I did it right but I couldn't see how to get past the man shooting so I used different pieces of equipment on different things. When I used my gun on the barrel near Dr Landri she said something like "I cant shoot that, can't you find anything lighter?" which seemed a bit odd. Then when I tried to shoot Dr Landri (why not?lol) she then said she would distract him.

1) When using take on Dr Landri's corpse after you've taken her datapad, it still says you have taken her datapad.

2) Using look on the cables connected to the pillar it says "these cables seem to be connected directly to the strane alien.."
- it should be "strange"

[close]

That's all for now. I'll have another play through tomorrow after work=)

The game itself is great so far, it just needs some sound and animations;-)

[Wolfmage]

straydogstrut, thanks for the awesome playtest!

You are on the right track for that final puzzle.... aaaalmost there.

Those of you who've commented on the art/story, while I don't know if I'll be doing any more straight-up point and click adventures, this adventure is set in a sci-fi universe I'm developing so there'll definitely be more art/story in the same universe, and probably more games in some form. I'm considering a space exploration game in the same vein as the old Starflights and Star Control 2. But first I have to finish this one!

I'm finishing up the last "static" art right now (the equipment chest in the first room) and I will me putting in a ton of minor changes all over the place tonight. I have to show the game tomorrow at our last crit, the final being due a week from now.

[Phemar]

Haha if you say the name of the game out loud it sounds like "et cetera"

I'll download when I get home from college and check it out!

[Wolfmage]

Ok, uploaded a new version with a bit of new art (the equipment box) and corrections for a lot of the typos and some of the issues that straydogsrut found. More fixes coming during the day today, especially more fedback for the point Stu got stuck in and in general for things that don't work.

I also have the game pausing properly when in menu now which will make combat easier; this'll be somewhat counteracted by some other things I'm planning so it won't be >too< easy.

UPDATE: Found a game-breaking (well, almost) bug in the final puzzle; nothing major, just a wrong graphic being displayed. I'll have it fixed tonight. Right now I need some sleep.

[straydogstrut]

Haven't had a chance to play the game again tonight, sorry, but hopefully I caught most of the issues first time around. I forgot to say there's a walk-behind issue with the middle barrel in the room with the pillar. You may have fixed it in the updated version however. Good luck with your presentation.

G'Night.

[Wolfmage]

Hey no sweat, stray. You guys are doing me a huge favor as is.

Updated the download with a few little bug fixes. Still haven't implemented everything but some of the more blatant errors should be gone. 

[Tramponline]

Well done Wolfmage! I really liked it - even with placeholders and the absence of sound (during those shoot out sequences I was literally craving for cool blaster sounds - sometimes I'm just a big kid I suppose )

I liked the stealth mode, multiple solutions during shoot outs and especially the 'final' riddle - very well done - just the right amount of subtle info to solve it!

Spoiler

From what I gather, the changes you made for the shoot out after the force field (tossing guns etc. or shooting barrels) are perfect to grasp the situation and it's solution.
Only...
...the assault rifle should've a similar comment on ammo & effect/ no comment on shooting barrel with rifle

- using archeological tools on pillar's symbol panel crashes the game.

- after solving the pillar riddle you automatically appear in entrance area; if you walk back to the pillar and try to reselect it's control panel, the "something happened" dialog appears again and you are 'teleported' back to entrance area  - only this time round the player character has vanished (only option is to reload game)

[close]

[Wolfmage]

Thanks for the kind comments Trampoline, and thanks for bringing up those errors. I'll look through them soon, probably tonight.

[Wolfmage]

Well, tons of updates! Almost done I think. Same link.

http://www.wolfmage.com/project1.php

Thanks again to everyone who's helped!