Prototypical - New Screens!

[Candall]

The demo still lives here:
Prototypical Demo!

Before I forget, you will need the XviD codec.

Prototypical is the tale of an experimental robot.  A prototype, in point of fact.  This particular robot was blessed by his creators with a highly sophisticated set of problem-solving algorithms.  Meant to be the next step toward hightened artificial intelligence, it was cold-booted in front of many cameras and blank robotic eyes, submitted to a brief series of intelligence examinations, and finally carted off to a trash compactor to be unceremoniously destroyed so as not to be unlawfully lifted by its creators' rivals.

You take on the role of that robot.  Your first task is to escape your imminent doom.  From there, get ready to be tossed headfirst into a bizarre world inhabited by fellow machines who follow only their own logic.  Work your way through the system and team up with a resistance bent on eventually taking down the company that created you.

Surprisingly enough, progress continues on the  Prototypical front.  There are various and sundry rooms in production as well as a character or two.  Or three.

The story is pretty much fleshed out from start to finish, and it turns out that in order to fit everything in that we want to fit in, we're going to have to break it up into chapters.  Five are planned, with the "prologue" which currently exists as the demo tacked to the beginning of the first... and slightly modified.  Augmented, if you will.

Updated Monday, June 11.  Major work on backgrounds, major overhaul to dialogue system.



Chattin' it up at the hotel... Copperwell...

This is a preview of the direction we're taking with dialogue.  I have made the somewhat painful decision to go with the Sierra-style dialogue system in what I believe to be a more LucasArts-style game.  I just think that it looks cleaner and fits the aesthetics of the game better.  Agree?



The lights are much brighter there, of course.  This room is one of two hubs, which are directly connected to one another.  I like to keep my world design simple.



Raiding peoples' garages is a traditional undertaking, the importance of which cannot be understated.  It's like a rite of passage.  You are not a true adventure gamer until you've done it.

[Mordalles]

this looks really great!  i hope you finish this project. 

[Candall]

this looks really great!  i hope you finish this project. 

Thanks

I hope I finish it too.  You guys need to keep kicking my butt if I slack off too long without an update.

[Candall]

Please view the first post for updates.  Thank you!

[vict0r]

This game looks just amazing! Keep up the excellent work!!

[Candle]

Looks really good.

[Nikolas]

Indeed it looks fabulous.

It's a shame that I'm too busy right now and probably for a long tim  , but still with a project like this it's certain that the right composer will appear pretty soon. Have faith

[calacver]

Goodluck, good to see some of these projects emerge!

[Candall]

Thanks, folks!

Production is running hot and heavy, and a demo lurks around the corner.

[thewalrus]

     Glad to hear it.... Keep working... I will be awaiting the demo....

Thewalrus

Goo, goo, ga, joob!!!!!!

[Candall]

Please see the top post!

Also, visit the newly updated Prototypical Website!

[Vince Twelve]

Candall, the demo looks fantastic.  The character animation and the little touches like the camera and the intro video are great.  The art style is interesting and most importantly, consistent.  I love the idea of the console as well.

One comment about the graphics, you probably don't want to do this because it would require redoing a lot of sprite importing, but I think you can get rid of those jaggies around the characters by using .png files with an alpha channel.  I don't use blender, but I'm sure it would be able to export in .png, yeah?  Anyways, this is just a minor point to me and didn't detract at all.

I won't speak about the puzzles, because I couldn't immediately get past the second room even though I thought I knew exactly what needed to be done and I ran out of playing time.  But I will talk about something that did bother me: usability.  I found four little usability niggles while playing:

You made one major mistake that many first time game makers make: unclear inventory cursor hotspots.  When I've selected a peg out of my inventory on the first screen, I have no idea where I'm pointing.  I kept trying to use peg with counter top because of the lack of indication on the inventory item cursor.  Adding a triangle or a crosshair using AGS' built in feature will fix this right up.

Next usability problem: clickable character.  The character you made is attractive, but since he's so big on the screen, he's a bit obstructive.  When on the first screen and fumbling around with the pegs, I'd use peg with countertop on accident and the main character would go and stand in front of the hole.  Then, when I'd try and click on the hole, the main character would be blocking the whole thing.  I'd have to move over to the side and then attempt to click the right place again.  This could be solved by making the character unclickable and changing the walk-to point of the counter top and holes.

Next problem: Non-intuitive inventory opening.  I eventually guessed pressing "i" would do it and then read on your website that the middle button will do it too.  But I tried tab, esc, and F1 first.  Either multiple buttons to open the inventory or, optimally, a little icon in the corner of the screen that I can click so I don't have to go to the keyboard at all would be nice (remember, some people don't have a middle mouse button).

Next usability problem: inconsistent cursor use.  When I finally got the inventory open, and wanted to use the pegs, I tried the interact cursor, because logically that made sense.  The "look at" cursor worked just as I expected it to, so I expected that the interact cursor would pick up the item.  But it actually tries to use the inventory item within the inventory.  It told me that I should use the item with something, which I was trying to do.  Why wouldn't it let me?  I fumbled around for a while, getting frustrated, until I finally figured out that the "walk" cursor lets me pick things up.  That didn't make sense to me.  Why would I even use a walk cursor in the inventory?  Either let the interact cursor do what I expect it to, or use a new cursor to let me pick things up.  Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I like the screw icon for picking things up, it looks like a tool icon.  I'd make a different cursor for walk.  This applies to the other GUIs, like the number pad in the next room.  I don't understand using the "walk" cursor to press buttons.

Sorry for the long post.  I hope you find it helpful.  I hope it didn't sound harsh.  I'm just trying to help you polish up a game that I think looks very promising.  Good luck, and keep us updated on the game's progress.

[Mel_O_Die]

Funny demo! i really like the intro sequence with fake loading things with commands good idea!

so i'm locked at room two  : huhu

and finally i support Vince Twelve for his long post with very good and pertinents comments!

continue like that

[Ubel]

Well, Vince said everything I was going to say. I did like the demo, I think the game is very interesting and I really want to play it when it's done. It all looks so amazing! You've got my attention on this. Good luck!

[Candall]

Vince Twelve:Ã,  Thank you for your quality post.Ã,  It gave me a lot to think about.

Let me start my response off by asking about the alpha channel situation.Ã,  Blender will, in fact, export PNG.Ã,  Would I not, however, be forced to convert to 32-bit color in order to take advantage of said feature?

As for the rest:

I apologize about the cursor hotspots.Ã,  I designed all of the inventory items thus far so that the top-left "point" of the icon could (and does) work as the hotspot.Ã,  My two mistakes there: not telling the gamer about this, and having some icons that don't have distinct "points."Ã,  I'll look into designing a reasonably non-intrusive graphical cue.

The decision to make the character clickable was made in full knowledge that it could cause problems.Ã,  I went ahead with it because there will be some future puzzle that uses it.Ã,  Obviously, I should deal with the fact that the entire game should not be lessened for the sake of one puzzle.Ã,  I'll find a workaround when the time comes to implement that puzzle.

Making the inventory system more intuitive should be pretty easy.Ã,  I'll take care of that.  I'll also include a shortcut to save, load, and console mode while I'm at it.

As for the cursors... well, based on the philosophy that the game was designed on, the cursors actually aren't inconsistent.Ã,  I just described their functions in a way that did not match my actual intentions.

Actually, the cursor that I wrongly refer to as "walk to" is in fact meant to serve as a general pointer.Ã,  It pushes buttons in GUIs and tells the character where to walk.Ã,  I see now, however, that simply calling it something else isn't going to help since this game is being designed for an audience that is used to having those concepts seperated.

Having the "interact" function seperate from the pointer is actually quite important to me... so if I use a new cursor for "walk to" (and I likely will), the screw will remain the cursor of choice for inventory clicks and button presses.

Thanks again for your post.Ã,  It was not harsh at all, it simply pointed out some valid problems.Ã,  That's what an open beta is all about!

[sthomannch]

Candall, this game looks good, nice intro. But even though I read the posts, I cannot make the inventory work (should be accessible with general pointer on top left?). Whatever corner and cursor I use, the only thing I can do is press <Alt>-X to stop the game. The keyboard keys also don't work except for <Alt>-X. Cannot save. I'm looking forward to a new version, and goold luck.

[Candall]

There is no save feature in the demo.  The "save" and "load" GUIs have not yet been implemented, therefore the hotkeys for those functions have been deactivated.

As it stands, the inventory is called via the "I" key or the middle mouse button.  There is no "standard" quit game button as of yet because the game is designed to run in windowed mode, but I'll be sure to build one into the next release.

[sthomannch]

Candall!
I downloaded again, and I could activate the inventory. Finished this nice demo. No problem about the save, for this demo it is really not necessary. I hope to see the full game sometime, great work!

[ciborium]

A couple of work arounds for clickable character problem:

Use inv item on same inv item to use on self.
Make "SELF" icon in inventory window.
Make character not clickable unless in a room where he is clickable. (I think you can change that in-game.)
Use "general pointer" to pickup item from inv, and use "interact cursor" to use item self.

[Candall]

A couple of work arounds for clickable character problem:

Use inv item on same inv item to use on self.
Make "SELF" icon in inventory window.
Make character not clickable unless in a room where he is clickable. (I think you can change that in-game.)
Use "general pointer" to pickup item from inv, and use "interact cursor" to use item self.

Thanks, ciborium!Ã,  I'll probably end up making the character clickable just inside that one room.Ã,  I don't have AGS handy, but I'm sure that there's a "character.clickable" property.

Everyone:Ã,  I'm already overhauling the original GUI pretty deeply to correct my original n00b-ups.Ã,  I'm hoping to have some other resources (graphics, sounds, text) ready pretty soon so that I can release a Beta Demo 2.Ã,  Also, I'm adding a couple of console line commands including one that simply displays the keyboard/mouse controls.