Adventure Game Studio

Well, at long last I'm proud to release:

I have added some sound effects, which isn't my strongest area, but I think it turned out well.  If you find any errors/bugs/etc.  Please let me know and I'll fix them!

[color=550000]
You play as JP ... an ordinary, everyday kind of guy.

You're about to be thrown into an extraordinary adventure.

Just sittin' about one day, you hear on the news that an asteroid is on a collision course with the Earth. And all life will be wiped off the planet when it hits!

You head over to your friend Cosmo's house in hopes that his bomb shelter will provide some protection.

But after you find your way into the bomb shelter, that's when the adventure really begins ... [/color]

Download Game (~2.5MB) (http://www.twin-design.com/friendindeed/friendindeed.zip)
Visit Website (http://www.twin-design.com/friendindeed)

Website contains a detailed walkthrough.

I hope you enjoy the game!

~ d

Whooo! *holds crouch and awaits the download*
:D :D :D

Somebody give this guy a prize please.

Teh Yay, just finished :)
Excellent, well detailed graphics... Just wow.
Some room music would be well appreciated, otherwise it's a crisp and well polished peice of work indeed :)
I want to see Huge and epic sequel!
Well done mate :D
- nix

EDIT **
Minor bug -
SPOILER

Spoiler

If you walk out of the teleporter to fast after appearing, JP continues to glitter and dissapear untill you put the space suit on

[close]

MORE Ezine material to cover?!?!?
/me sighs and goes to write the ezine.

Downloading, btw.

Excellent DM, I've been waiting for this too

seems like there's been a little productive period for people over the last few months.

I'll get back to you...

Damn, this game rocks! I offered to do sound and music for this earlier, in a PM, but you never replied.

Good stuff, DM!  I just finished, and I have to say it's very well-produced, and very consistently professional.  I look forward to seeing more from you.

I loved it Darth, excellent at all levels.

Spoiler

I liked the fact that there was a timer going, on my first attempt I took so long exploring the house, that the earth kept exploding before I could take off. But once I knew what to get, It was easy to restart and do it quicker. - great idea.

As far as bugs go, it was pretty good although I did find a couple, at the end, If you interact with the chair up the top of the spaceship while standing at the level below it, It gives you points (or you get the points sound) at the same time it says "climb up there first"

There was also a baseline issue downstairs in the house as below
(http://www.agsforums.com/hostimg/jpcos1.gif)

I noticed that I couldn't get my score cause the end was all blocking, so
I just went and tested this for the points, I got 290/300 but I found that out after it went back to the start screen. Then I tested whether the points carried over if you then start again, and I was at the start with 290 pts

Ah, I know the 10 pts I missed, the paper towel, I got it the first time, but when I started over to be quicker I forgot it.

[close]

Thanks for this wondereful game, and I look forward to some more chapters, the story seems very interesting.

Congrats on completion

~Tim

ROCK ON!

And I got credited, too, you old ego-stroker!  ;D

I second that glittery bug. Also, I couldn't access my inventory the first time I entered the, um, large vehicle (spoiler? Surely not).

MORE! MORE!

been waiting for this for a long time. :D great job darth

Alright Darth!
The full version :)
I'm downloading it right now. Stoked to hear that you finished it. Now I'm looking forward to your next project!
Nice job!

Daniel
Winebarger

Bah, there's times when no new games are released and then a whole bunch of cool games are released at the same time. And I haven't even downloaded Pirate Fry 2 yet ::)

Soo... downloading as soon as possible :P

Finished it. Awesome little game. Great graphics, with plenty of details. Enjoyable plot. The puzzles were a little easy, but the atmosphere more than made up for it. The lack of hotspots was a pity though, with such lovely detailed graphics it would have been nice to have been able to click on everything in sight. Overall though, as I said, awesome little game. I take it from the ending that there's a sequel planned?

I managed to finish it.

Excellent. One of the best I've played in a long time.  ;D

Nice atmosphere and graphics too.

Spoiler

I came across a little bug.

When you get to the astronaut suit room, there's something slightly wrong with your character's views. I think you forgot to release JP's "blinking" view from the teleporter.

Also, a suggestion which may help you with the sequel (because I really hope there is a sequel):  ;)

I think the puzzles should be slightly harder, people enjoy games like this, with such nice graphics and stuff, so the game should maybe last a bit longer. I'm refering to the car puzzle for example. The bar was lying just there. It would have been more challenging to find it elsewhere, pehaps inside a cupboard. ::)

[close]

Anyway, the fact is that although it took me no longer than 15 minutes to finish the game, I replayed it a couple of times just to enjoy the feel of it (and find ways to get killed).

Keep it up.

Excellent game !
Although I think there's maybe a bit too much pace in it for such an epic story...felt like I could just click my way to the end scene...but apart from that I enjoyed this game big time...really proffesional feel to it! Looking forward to the sequel...

like playing with LEGO all over again  :)

Just played alittle bit, but Woaw! It's already one of my favorite games of AGS!! REALLY GREAT JOB! It's such a good drawing style(as I told you in pm), and I think I want to live in such a big house, as Cosmo has!

Absolutely fantastic.  The graphic style of this game is awesome.  More. More. More.

Wow -excellent game.  Top rate graphics.  

Spoiler

I'm glad idiots like me could still finish the game without figuring out the coolant puzzle!

[close]

8)

Too bad there wasn't a countdown status bar -that would really make the time factor more...intense.  

    Looking forward to many sequels!

This is a sweet game.  The isometricism (is this a word?) really gives it a uniquely magnificent flavor.  Great job on this!

I loved this game during betatesting, so I think I'll check it out and see all the "new stuff"

Woo-hoo!

just finished.
one word. awesome.  8)
makes me smile.

Spoiler

i experienced the same view blinking bug in the room with the spacesuit, but it got fixed when i reloaded.

[close]

I'm glad you all liked it!

About the character view thing after leaving the teleporter.  I pulled my hair out trying to fix this problem (it was noticed by a few in Beta Testing) but no matter what I did I couldn't fix the bug.  I'm not really sure why that happens.  I'll dig deeper ...

I made the puzzles a little on the easy side because this wasn't originally supposed to turn into this big of a game/project.  Once it started developing I just kind of went with it!  Don't worry ... my next project won't be so easy :)

Thanks for all the kind words!

I'm definately planning a sequel to this ... though it's not my next project.  But worry not, you haven't seen the last of JP & Cosmo!

~ d

Really enjoyed this game, especially as there was plenty to explore.

Will there be a part two?

Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Wed 10/03/2004 07:30:57I'm definately planning a sequel to this ... though it's not my next project.  But worry not, you haven't seen the last of JP & Cosmo!
~ d

I really liked your game! I could have spent hours and hours exploring that house.

I'm eager to see more...  :D

Hey, I really enjoyed your game, especially the art and game engine. Very slick. In particular, the ship was awesome-looking. Also, that little cut-out corner of the overlapping wall when you stand in Cosmo's secure room. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, that was cool.

Not sure if anybody reported this already, but I had a bug where the description of something (from looking at it) stayed on the screen throughout the entire end cutscene. I'm assuming you're using a GUI for that, so I guess it didn't get turned off before launching into the cutscene. Anyway, great work.

Yeah! I am going to play the final version! downloading...

Edit: I've seen in the web that the news girls is called Sylvia St.Claire... a mix of Sylvia Saint and Jasmine St. Claire? COOL!!!  :D

very good game!!!!

However, something turned wrong with the end cutscene: I open the inventory gui after the engine problem...and I couldn't close it to see the cutsecene  :(

Quote from: Migs on Wed 10/03/2004 00:22:27
This is a sweet game.  The isometricism (is this a word?) really gives it a uniquely magnificent flavor.  Great job on this!

No offense, Migs... but the whole thing about the game being isometric was figured out when Darth started promoting the game.  Isometric is at an angle (some of the graphics are isometric, but in when it all comes down to it, the game appears to be planometric.

I don't know... just throwing in my two cents...

Anyways, I just downloaded the game and I'm about to try it out...

EDIT:
I found a  few bugs...

Spoiler

For one, you can get the keycard out of the jeep more than once.

Two, I've had some problems with text sticking on screen after they should have faded out (namely in the rocket ship... moving the pointer over the ladder, and when the ship is about to explode) I don't know if this is something you can fix, but I had a hard time reading the sequence where Cosmo is talking to JP afterwards.  The text stayed on screen even through the credits.

Lastly, once you teleport to the moon base, if you click on anything in any mode except for walk, the walkview will stick as the view where he's teleporting (you know, with the little lens flares all around him, etc).

[close]

I don't know if these are things you can fix, but just little minor details like that.

...Then again... my computer itself has a few bugs... so it could just be me.

Excellent job, Darth!  Are you planning on making a sequel?

Spoiler

...or was all of that "to be continued..." stuff just bullshit?  I'm kinda curious to see what happens with both JP and Cosmo.

[close]

Just out of interest, I mentioned 3 bugs no one else mentioned in my hidden text, not sure if you got them, although I guess the picture must have stood out, any way just helping out.

~Tim

Timosity - Sorry about that.  There were a lot of replies quickly :)

If you interact with the chair up the top...
Thanks for the heads up!  I'll fix that!

There was also a baseline issue downstairs in the house as below
I noticed that before and forgot to fix it!  I'll take care of it!

I noticed that I couldn't get my score cause the end was all blocking
Yeah ... I'm going to have to add something in there to show you your final score.

... and I was at the start with 290 pts
Oops!  I'll fix this as well!

---

Sully - thanks for the bugs!

Keycard issue ...
It was doing that before and I added in some code to prevent that from happening ... apparently it didn't work!  Thanks for the heads up.

Text sticking on screen ...
I really tried to stop this from happening.  I think what I'm going to do is go into the 'before fadin' of each room and just add script that shuts off ALL GUIs.  I did something similar, but it just isn't working.

Sticking character view
I'm going to revisit that ... EVERYbody is having that problem and I tried and tried and tried to solve it before realease but just couldn't make it work right.

---

Thanks for the help and pointing out the mistakes!

It's actually funny because a lot of the problems people are having stem from the fact that this game was never intended to be released!

Stuff like the score was just kind of thrown in there so I could learn how it works.  Same with the fading walls, the objects moving, switching character views.

This was really my learning project that just blossomed into a game.

Thanks everybody!  I'll fix the bugs, add some stuff, and release a 'Special Edition' down the road sometime!

~ d

Now that was a cute and entertaining little game, congratulations for making a game really different from all I have played so far.
The only thing I was a bit disappointed of was that it was really short and that there was actually no puzzles in it, so it just took me 10 minutes or so to play it, but I enjoyed these very much and the "to be continued" in the end seems like a very good promise :)

I just downloaded the game. Since i am the biggest Phil Collins & Genesis fan, you get an A++++ for using In the Air Tonight as the opening music to your game.

Now, i am off to play it.

Shawn  :)

I must be an idiot or something, but what do you do in the room with the teleporter and the elevator?

Spoiler

Is it still dark?  Have you gotten the ticket from the ticket machine?

[close]

Also, there's a walkthrough available at the official A Friend Indeed website (http://www.twin-design.com/friendindeed) if you get stuck again!

~ d

Whoa!
You could make entire game using just first room, It's detailed enough, I felt a little sorry, just because all this beauty and hard work is actually not needed to finish the game. Using existing room(s) as basis, you could make even 10 sequels. Everthing looks damn good and point-of-view you're using gives much... freshness(?), comparing to other AGS games.

Then again, I got miserably stuck. And I think that It's even not a bug, but a thing to complain about in tech forum. Just before getting out of rocket (or blasting out?) I opened inventory window using left-edge menu (which presence I just discovered). Inventory opened and just at this time something happened in a game, so rocket broke or something (Really couldn't see with inventory gui covering most of screen). So - game text went on UNDER Inventory gui and inventory itsself was "greyed" out so I couldn't close it, too.

No keys were responding and everything just froze.
Well, oldschool AGSers know combination of Alt+X, so It worked, ensuring me that it wasn't my computer that froze.

For the teleporter bug, it only happens if you manually move your character onto the hotspot. Interactions work fine.

Hey Darth, cute game and nice scripting, as everyone said

i only have one request if you should want to add it...

Spoiler

Since there are no walking deads then i don't NEED to fill the jar with slime, so can't i save the fishes? I see Cosmo has a fish tank in the last room but there are no fish in it, wouldn't he be happy to have his fish? [and in a hitchhiker's guide kinda way they could become more than fish, a species that looks like a fish but actually isn't]

either way I just wanted to save those fish, know what I'm saying?

[close]

also, about the hotspot GUI messing with clicks, can't you just make it nonclickable?

personally i'd get rid of the arrows that change to "climb to such and such level" in the rocket because they messed with me something fierce, even when i had the inv gui open they would change and i had to click around to find the hotspot, i'd just change it to normal old interacting with the ladders

anywhoo, woop woop rock on and keep up the good work

MrColossal - Kudos on spotting the 'Easter Egg' in A Friend Indeed  (read his spoiler text to see what it is!)

Spoiler

I had some dialogue in the game where Cosmo tells JP that he 'beamed' up the fish tank at the last minute before Earth go Boom.  He decided to break the rules and went to save you.  When he got there he realized that you had already escaped so he saved the fish instead.

I decided to take that bit of dialog out because it stretched out the scene a little too much and made it a bit too chatty.  I left the the tank in the room as a 'sort of' easter egg.

But worry not!  They do in fact play a role in the sequel ...

[close]

~ d

I just finished it, and I enjoyed it very much. It seems you put a lot of hard work into it.
I does feel like a sort of 'guided tour' though. There weren't many different interactions with the backgrounds. JP would usually end up saying something along the lines of "No" whenever I clicked on something interesting.

With all that said, I am loooking forward to a sequel.

P.S. I got a kick out of your use of Dust In the Wind in the credits.

Hi Darth !

There is not much things left to say, you already received all praises you deserved for this beautiful little game !
It's about time I post a comment, but you know, I was kind of busy lately. I wanted to give you some more bugs report, but eh... Forgot to do so  ::)

Anyway, I just want to say that I loved to play A Friend Indeed, the main character is so cute  ;D ! I totally love your backgrounds style, full of details... And the story was quite surprising too.

yeah, well, all I can say is: congratulations ! this game rocks !  ;D

HappyHobo - I'm glad you liked it!  I realize it's kind of easy, but it started out as a three room demo I never meant to release.  Then it just kind of expanded.  I was only doing it to learn how to use AGS better ... scripting especially.  The sequel (down the road) will have much harder *but logical* puzzles and better interactivity.  It wasn't until the end that I learned some scripting tricks which make it better!  Just wait ...

Dorcan - Thanks for the praise!  I'm very much looking forward to your game (the one with that kick ASS character walking animation and that amazing background!)

Glad to know people are still playing it!

~ d

Very nice .. wish I could do as good ..

it would be alot more fun playing the game if i could download it. i mean it comes up with:

Gateway Timeout
The following error occurred:
Server unreachable


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please contact the administrator.


Now, if u ask me, theres something wrong ther. could be me...

I know everyone already said everything good about the game, but I'm just gonna repeat it.
I just played it, and i love the phil collins intro, it makes the accent on drama and hoplesness (???).
I really loved the graphic, but there is one thing you didnt have, and that is music through the game. I really missed that.

Tho it is buggy, i really love it. [half-a-spoiler ahead]
I dont know if someone mentioned, but at the end (with teh whiskey) I didnt manage to cool the engines, and after all the credits it started on the last scene (cause of the bug, I had the In the air tonight playing :) )
and then I managed to do it. Thats one (cute) bug.

And the other I think you know about - the teleport thing, and the double space suit bug.

Cheers ~ Cz

I'm (VERY slowly but surely) making small improvements to the game!  Fixing more bugs, etc.

LucasFan has done a German Translation for me which is just so cool seeing the game in German!

I'm going to release a 'Special Edition' version eventually.  Which will, hopefully, have all the kinks worked out.

Questions:
1) What double space suit bug?
2) During the END you heard the Phil Collins song?  (That should ONLY play at the beginning - the ending is Dust in the Wind (another appropriate song huh?))

~ d

PS
Glad you liked it!

Yeah, but the Collins song only comes on THE 2nd (by bug provoced) ending. Not even the credits are right on the 2nd. There is the title and to be continued on the same place. But i like the whole mixup.

And about the space suit. After you get one, and wear it, you can pick another.  8)

If you want a Croatian translation, just let me know :))

Cz

I remember first messing around with this when it was just the demo of the house and I thought "Man this is going to be an awesome game" and I was totally right! I love your art style, it's so clean. I can't wait to play the next one.

In this game, if we mess around in the house for half an hour, do we get exploded? That'd be fun! Like Guybrush drowning after 10 minutes of being under water.

Fricken awesome game Darth. I can't wait to see the next installment. :)

dude, the game rocked...i know you know it was a bit easy, but besides that, i enjoyed it!  played it twice.... :P

I cant find the basement. The computer said to go there but i cant find the basement

IIRC, the stairs to the basement are at the front of the house, in the dining room area. I think they're hidden by the front wall initially.