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When an office party and a missile attack intersect, Oomla the engineer has less than a second to prevent disaster. Which, fortunately, is all the time he needs.
A short traditional point-and-click, my late submission to AdvXJam 2020. Features:
- Alien invasion!
- Workplace politics
- Time manipulation
- Extraterrestrial nudity
Check it out here: https://hvavra.itch.io/off-the-clock
Looks great! The graphic style reminds me of Machinarium.
It's a shame you didn't finish in time for AdvXJam, but I've seen some entries being added days after the deadline, so maybe they could've added yours too?
Anyway, congratulations on release!
It's really gorgeus even for a 3 weeks deadline!
I hope you'll take your time for a longer game!
_
Quote from: TheFrighter on Sun 06/12/2020 09:56:49
It's really gorgeus even for a 3 weeks deadline!
I hope you'll take your time for a longer game!
_
Thank you! Have certainly been taking my time with this one :): https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58102.msg636620806#msg636620806
Quote from: lorenzo on Sun 06/12/2020 09:33:26
Looks great! The graphic style reminds me of Machinarium.
It's a shame you didn't finish in time for AdvXJam, but I've seen some entries being added days after the deadline, so maybe they could've added yours too?
Anyway, congratulations on release!
You're right, turns out submissions this late are still possible, the game has been added to the jam :).
what a magnificent little gem. I fell in love with it and of course recorded a longplay :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9E3IiHBybI
Downloaded. Looks great! Please also add it to the AGS Database (in the corner down and right on the games page). (nod)
Quote from: selmiak on Mon 07/12/2020 19:27:26
what a magnificent little gem. I fell in love with it and of course recorded a longplay :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9E3IiHBybI
Great, thank you! Watching you smoothly waltz through it made me realize it's even more casual than I thought... gotta put in some challenge next time :). Also sorry for the few glitches, there's a long list of bugfixes on the table right in front of me ;). But glad you liked it overall!
Quote from: heltenjon on Mon 07/12/2020 19:51:40
Downloaded. Looks great! Please also add it to the AGS Database (in the corner down and right on the games page). (nod)
Yessir, added!
my first playthrough took longer of course, this is the longplay I recorded afterwards, as a walkthrough for people stuck on puzzles and for people interested in the story to watch it like a short cartoon.
I like the move plates to get to the inner workings of the elevator puzzle, that was fun to figure out and
Spoiler
switching the horn with the bubble thing to make him toot the horn into her face is ingenious, the puzzles are great! Same for the cork! best use of that timefreeze machanic!
I had glitch, when you are on the rocket and click on the hole in the window instead of the floating glass Oomla gets placed weirdly. I left it out for the longplay of course. Or maybe it glitches on the way to the rocket, the rocket part is very glitchy.
Holy... are you using 3.5.0 camera effects (https://youtu.be/J9E3IiHBybI?t=1028)? :) yours might be the first released game that does that; at least first one I saw.
Quote from: selmiak on Tue 08/12/2020 01:26:48
my first playthrough took longer of course, this is the longplay I recorded afterwards, as a walkthrough for people stuck on puzzles and for people interested in the story to watch it like a short cartoon.
I like the move plates to get to the inner workings of the elevator puzzle, that was fun to figure out and Spoiler
switching the horn with the bubble thing to make him toot the horn into her face is ingenious, the puzzles are great! Same for the cork! best use of that timefreeze machanic!
Yeah, it's because I move both the player and the camera manually frame by frame there, and it does weird things sometimes. Going to fix it eventually, would like to do a bigger overhaul next weekend! Honestly I felt the time freeze mechanic was a bit wasted on a short jam game, it's an adventure puzzle goldmine :).
Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Tue 08/12/2020 02:17:48
Holy... are you using 3.5.0 camera effects (https://youtu.be/J9E3IiHBybI?t=1028)? :) yours might be the first released game that does that; at least first one I saw.
Sure I am! :).
That was amazing! Creating this in just three weeks on top, just incredible.
Somehow I missed the connection of who you were when you released the game on Discord, though I did recognize your user icon yesterday. Congratulations on finishing a game for Adventure X. I will make sure to play it when I have time.
This game was gorgeous and so much fun, do yourself a favor and play it!
Quote from: Khris on Tue 08/12/2020 15:44:05
That was amazing! Creating this in just three weeks on top, just incredible.
Thank you!
Quote from: VampireWombat on Tue 08/12/2020 17:29:53
Somehow I missed the connection of who you were when you released the game on Discord, though I did recognize your user icon yesterday. Congratulations on finishing a game for Adventure X. I will make sure to play it when I have time.
Thanks! Only added the icon yesterday, wasn't really using discord before the jam.
The idea behind the game is absolutely genius. Put in super-smooth graphics and animation, solid and fun puzzles that are the perfect difficulty and a LOT of loud laughs and you deserve a huge congratulations.
I've updated the game - ironed out lots of minor jank, hopefully fixed one majorly glitchy area and added responsiveness. More things in the environment can now be examined and some wrong item combinations should give meaningful responses. Also the transition from the end to the beginning of the game (those who have finished it will understand ;)) is now smooth. If you haven't checked it out yet, now's the time! :)
Quote from: Shadow1000 on Wed 09/12/2020 14:25:48
The idea behind the game is absolutely genius. Put in super-smooth graphics and animation, solid and fun puzzles that are the perfect difficulty and a LOT of loud laughs and you deserve a huge congratulations.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the game.
Hi, I'm trying the game now - it looks great! But I encountered a bug, I was trying to use the rope on the plants and it crashed. Error: prepare_script: error -18 (no such function in script) trying to run 'hRock_UseInv' (Room 1).
I don't know if this has already been fixed because I probably have an older version, but I had to report :)
Quote from: guga2112 on Sun 20/12/2020 10:44:48
Hi, I'm trying the game now - it looks great! But I encountered a bug, I was trying to use the rope on the plants and it crashed. Error: prepare_script: error -18 (no such function in script) trying to run 'hRock_UseInv' (Room 1).
I don't know if this has already been fixed because I probably have an older version, but I had to report :)
Thanks, it wasn't fixed but it is now :)
Looks great! :)
I finished it. I liked it a lot, nice plot, nice humor, great art.
There's only one thing I would have changed, if I may:
Spoiler
the first time you reactivate time, you can do it only when he thinks he's ready. As an adventure gamer I knew I had to take the ring because, you know, it's an adventure game, take everything you have in sight. But in game, the character had no reason to do so. The only goal for him was to wake up the guard. It made then sense later when the missile is closer and you have to cut the glass to reach it, but then you have already solved the ring puzzle.
But that's just nitpicking. Great game!
Thanks, glad you liked it! About that thing:
Spoiler
I actually thought of that when I was making the game, but then I told myself I was overthinking it and it's just an adventure game, the character is not expected to have a reason for picking things up ;). In a way I'm pleasantly surprised that people actually notice these things, both ones I thought were pretty cool but small and ones I would criticize myself, which gives me hope that if I make games I'd like, others will like them too :). The way the game is designed now, there is no way to make picking up the ring logical (you have to work towards picking it up before the first time jump, which is too early for the character to know why he's doing it), but maybe I should at least include some nudge-nudge wink-wink hint about him having a "hunch" or something into the "I'm not ready" line. I'll think about it, thanks for the feedback!
I recently uploaded a Linux version of the game and got this bug report:
QuoteThe Problem is, that the game only occipies the right 50% of my screen and the left 50% are just Black. It looks like this: https://imgur.com/a/5If3Hcw (https://imgur.com/a/5If3Hcw)
I have a Rzyen 5 1600, 16Gb RAM, a Geforce GTX 960 and am running Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon.
Edit: I have two monitors, maybe that is the issue somehow?
Unfortunately I don't have a Linux computer to test it myself, just compiled it in AGS and hoped for the best. Does anyone Linux-savvy have an idea what the issue could be?
Quote from: Honza on Sat 16/01/2021 12:09:05
QuoteThe Problem is, that the game only occipies the right 50% of my screen and the left 50% are just Black. It looks like this: https://imgur.com/a/5If3Hcw (https://imgur.com/a/5If3Hcw)
<...>
Edit: I have two monitors, maybe that is the issue somehow?
Yes, this is because of multiple monitors, AGS linux port currently cannot detect multimonitor system and treats it as one big screen.
The workaround is to play in window scaled as much as fits into one monitor.
We hope this is going to be fixed after we change to using SDL library for rendering & window creations (in the next major update).
I'd also mention this just in case, there was a limited occurance of another problem: when you start the game in window for some reason it creates a very small window with only part of game in it.
This is "fixed" by moving window around a bit.
Thank you, I'll pass it on!
That was brilliant! Had a lot of fun, was cackling at the end. Love the art.
I liked it a lot. Clever idea and great execution. Congratulations, Jan. I wrote some lines about the game (in Spanish): https://indiefence.miguelrfervenza.com/2021/01/que-se-cuece-enero-de-2021/#off. Now, I have even higher expectations for Truth be Trolled.
Quote from: missionjfrog on Sun 24/01/2021 13:36:03
That was brilliant! Had a lot of fun, was cackling at the end. Love the art.
Thanks, glad you found it funny!
Quote from: Miguel R. Fervenza on Mon 25/01/2021 15:01:09
I liked it a lot. Clever idea and great execution. Congratulations, Jan. I wrote some lines about the game (in Spanish): https://indiefence.miguelrfervenza.com/2021/01/que-se-cuece-enero-de-2021/#off. Now, I have even higher expectations for Truth be Trolled.
Great, thank you for the review! I don't speak Spanish, but Google Translate did the job. I wonder what others thought of the slider puzzle - would the game have been better off without it? I often see this kind of minigame mentioned as a negative in reviews, but I personally kinda enjoy them :). It's not a big deal in any case, just curious.
Quote from: Honza on Wed 27/01/2021 12:44:23
Quote from: Miguel R. Fervenza on Mon 25/01/2021 15:01:09
I liked it a lot. Clever idea and great execution. Congratulations, Jan. I wrote some lines about the game (in Spanish): https://indiefence.miguelrfervenza.com/2021/01/que-se-cuece-enero-de-2021/#off. Now, I have even higher expectations for Truth be Trolled.
Great, thank you for the review! I don't speak Spanish, but Google Translate did the job. I wonder what others thought of the slider puzzle - would the game have been better off without it? I often see this kind of minigame mentioned as a negative in reviews, but I personally kinda enjoy them :). It's not a big deal in any case, just curious.
For me any adventure game is better without sliders (or mazes, or Towers of Hanoi, or Simons, or tic-tac-toes...), because a good adventure game puzzle has to take part of the story. But when you have to solved a slider, you are not thinking about the story, the characters, the context, the situation... The narration just stops until you solve it. If you extract the slider from your game, anyone can still solve the slider, they don't need to know anything about the story. The other puzzles in your game don't work out of context, they are integrated into the story, they are good adventure game puzzles. In addition, a slider inside the lift console looks totally artificial for me.
Slider aside, it's one of the best short adventure games I have ever played.
Quote from: Miguel R. Fervenza on Wed 27/01/2021 20:40:07
For me any adventure game is better without sliders (or mazes, or Towers of Hanoi, or Simons, or tic-tac-toes...), because a good adventure game puzzle has to take part of the story. But when you have to solved a slider, you are not thinking about the story, the characters, the context, the situation... The narration just stops until you solve it. If you extract the slider from your game, anyone can still solve the slider, they don't need to know anything about the story. The other puzzles in your game don't work out of context, they are integrated into the story, they are good adventure game puzzles. In addition, a slider inside the lift console looks totally artificial for me.
Slider aside, it's one of the best short adventure games I have ever played.
I see what you mean. In my mind, the puzzle was supposed to represent you being an engineer and fiddling with the elevator's mechanics. It's like lockpicking minigames - they have nothing to do with picking an actual lock, but by having the player do some strategic thinking combined with fine motor skills, they can make them
feel like they are a skilled thief. Or combining diary notes in detective games - you often just click randomly without knowing what the result will be (at least I do ;)), but it simulates making clever deductions.
Really appreciate the kind words otherwise!
My opinion is to use them, but sparingly. Miguel has a good point but you have the opposite extreme where you need to get the bottle for the mechanic so you can get the key to the house, which lets you get the hamburger so you can feed it to the dog in front of the bank so you can get enough money to use at the laundromat to clean the clown suit that you're going to use at the....you get the picture.
Too much of that flowchart-style gameplay eventually gets tedious, so when I rate games, one thing I like to look for is a good variety of puzzles. I really get annoyed by games that just slap you in the face with slider puzzles literally one after the next because of the reasons Miguel explained. So to have a small number of them, in proportion with the length of the game in addition to dialogue puzzles where you gather clues, inventory puzzles like I described in the first paragraph and so on does give a nice balance to the puzzle design.
Just my opinion, anyone is free to trash it :)
I have created a hints thread for this game because I'm stuck:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58797 (https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58797)
I haven't gotten around to playing this before now, but I noticed the hype...and it was well deserved! Great game that shines in characters, plot, setting, graphics, puzzles, humour, frankly just about everything. (nod) *Reaches for nomination button*
I found one logical inconsistency, which didn't bother me one bit:
Spoiler
After stealing clothes, the crystal shard was still inside the defence machinery, but our hero would have had to use the lift in the meantime. (laugh)
Congratulations! Your game is fantastic.
Quote from: heltenjon on Sat 30/01/2021 12:01:48
I haven't gotten around to playing this before now, but I noticed the hype...and it was well deserved! Great game that shines in characters, plot, setting, graphics, puzzles, humour, frankly just about everything. (nod) *Reaches for nomination button*
I found one logical inconsistency, which didn't bother me one bit:
Spoiler
After stealing clothes, the crystal shard was still inside the defence machinery, but our hero would have had to use the lift in the meantime. (laugh)
Congratulations! Your game is fantastic.
Wow, thank you very much!
Spoiler
Great catch with the faulty logic! I'm always genuinely happy when I see people actually care about this kind of details. It's the same as the thing Guga noticed: believe it or not, it actually did occur to me at one point, but I thought "meh, nobody's going to think about that, why waste time coding it". Next time I'll try not to be so lazy :).
A very fun game, Well Done!!!