Trance-Pacific

[paolo]

Thanks for your comments, Lucifel. It's interesting to see another point of view.

I don't want to repeat what Ben has said, but it's worth pointing out that this was a MAGS game, and the first time either of us had ever written a game using AGS, so there were bound to be one or two things that weren't quite as good as they could have been.

Some of the hotpoints (such as light switches) are small, but it's always clear where they are. They all cover the full extent of the relevant objects.

Regarding the red herrings... sometimes the obvious answer doesn't work, and you have to find another, just like in real life.

We had a few items in the game to give some variety. If every puzzle could be solved by hypnotising someone, it would have made it too easy and a bit boring, I think.

I think all the puzzles require wit to solve, and all of them are logical, I believe. If you're finding you're using every item on every hotspot, then it's likely you've overlooked something that's happened or been said. It's worth remembering that there are a lot of spoken clues in this game.

Thanks again for the feedback. It will help us make our next game even better!

[JimmyShelter]

Congrats on being the pick of the month for November!

[Iliya]

It's a really good game! Nice graphics! Good work Paolo.

[Stupot]

Just started playing.
Love the Memo feature.  Excellent idea.

[paolo]

Thanks, guys. Ben304 did the graphics - if I'd done them the game would have looked terrible

It's an honour to be Pick of the Month. Whew, there have been about 250 downloads in the past couple of days - I hope the server can take it!

It would be nice if you could vote on the game when you've finished playing it and maybe write a short review to let us know what you thought of it.

[Lucifiel]

Wow, Lucifiel, thanks for the comments. I'll try and reply to everything as I see it:


Graphics were kinda rushed as they were a product of me trying to get used to a new way of doing backgrounds and putting lighting etc in, so I sometimes had more shadow than highlight and therefore not enough contrast. Thanks for noticing it anyway.

Ooh well, given that time was a limiting factor, it's definite that you'd be rushing. I just recalled that it was an MAGS game and thus, had a deadline.

The perspective was also me experimenting with a two point perspective as I was totally sick of limiting myself to the one point cube rooms I'd seen everywhere. The plan is to hopefully eliminate the black edgy bits eventually.

Hmm? What's "one point cube"?

Well, cool! May you succeed at doing away with the black edgy bits. I assume they refer to the "black areas" surrounding the pictures?

About smallness of hotspots.... which bits exactly did you find a pixel hunt? We tried to ensure we avoided all annoying little "omg I can click on the rabbit!?" moments...

Hmm, I think it's more 'cos the objects were really small and I seemed to have problems finding the right spot so I could click on them. :p

The way I saw it, we only really had two red herrings:

Spoiler

The pen, obviously, and the ladder/light/switch hint to frustrate people a bit

[close]

Aha, I see. :p

We didn't think those were over the top... just enough to add a little bit more difficulty into the game. We were worried people would finish the game in like 10 minutes.

Hmmm... I guess I haven't played adventure games in a while, so my skills must be sore.

Finally, well... I had originally hoped to make the game without any items whatsoever, and just use the memory device but it was more sensible to have some items. I didn't think 6 items was really too many and had hoped that the main point of the game would be the memo... I worried that if we had heaps of object puzzles and one or 2 memory puzzles that the memo would get passed of as a useless gimmick. Feedback seems to indicate people wished we'd used it more than we did... are you saying you wanted more object based puzzles, or less of them?

Hmmm... just using the memory device, huh? That'd mean the device might need a few more functions and capabilities as well as technical restrictions. :p

Yeah, I can see why you'd think the memo would be dismissed, although, I wished it had more airtime.

Ah well, at the time I wrote that post, I was thinking more of a balanced sorta thing: equal amount of puzzles based on the memory device and object puzzles and other objects. But then again, come to think of it, fitting the puzzles into the game and balancing the game design are just as important too. 

Thanks for playing!

Edit - Thanks CosmoQueen ....

Yeah, sure thing.

[Lucifiel]

Thanks for your comments, Lucifel. It's interesting to see another point of view.

I don't want to repeat what Ben has said, but it's worth pointing out that this was a MAGS game, and the first time either of us had ever written a game using AGS, so there were bound to be one or two things that weren't quite as good as they could have been.

Ah well, you always improve with time, so just keep up the good work!

Some of the hotpoints (such as light switches) are small, but it's always clear where they are. They all cover the full extent of the relevant objects.

Oh, I knew that, though, I think that 'cos they're kinda small, it can be difficult to locate the hotspot.

Regarding the red herrings... sometimes the obvious answer doesn't work, and you have to find another, just like in real life.

Yep, figured that out far too late.

We had a few items in the game to give some variety. If every puzzle could be solved by hypnotising someone, it would have made it too easy and a bit boring, I think.

That's totally true.

I think all the puzzles require wit to solve, and all of them are logical, I believe. If you're finding you're using every item on every hotspot, then it's likely you've overlooked something that's happened or been said. It's worth remembering that there are a lot of spoken clues in this game.

Ya know, now that you mentioned "clues", I think some of them might have flown over my head. :p Ah well, it'd been quite some time since I played an adventure game before touching this game. Guess my skills are kinda lacking in practise.

Thanks again for the feedback. It will help us make our next game even better!

Aww, sure. ^^;; Though, I wonder if my feedback was even any useful. :p

[Afflict]

Enjoyable game, I hope you guys do a game not limiting you to anything, so you can spend more time on the animations etc. All in all I enjoyed it

[ThreeOhFour]

Glad you enjoyed it. Next game will (of course) be bigger better and shinier.

Thanks for playing!

[Dualnames]

Still haven't checked it...

[Monsieur OUXX]

Little error in the dialogs.

Missing word : "We don't anyone to know about, especially not the Aboriginal community"
--> "We don't WANT anyone to know about, especially not the Aboriginal community" ?

[ThreeOhFour]

Ah!

Thankyou for that. And we thought we did so well. 

[Stupot]

Little error in the dialogs.

Missing word : "We don't anyone to know about, especially not the Aboriginal community"
--> "We don't WANT anyone to know about, especially not the Aboriginal community" ?

If one was to be really pedantic they could also add:
"We don't WANT anyone to know about 'IT', especially not the Aboriginal community"
But we all know what is meant.

[Smiffy]

I can't even get past the first room all i have is the pen someone help

[ThreeOhFour]

Hey Smiffy,

First of all, please make sure you ask these questions here in future, but to help you with your problem make sure you've done the following

Spoiler

- Talked to both doors in the right order
- Talked to your friends at every step of the way - this is essential throughout the game
- Used the memo on one of the people you've talked to

[close]

Cheers

Ben

[paolo]

Little error in the dialogs.

Missing word : "We don't anyone to know about, especially not the Aboriginal community"
--> "We don't WANT anyone to know about, especially not the Aboriginal community" ?

If one was to be really pedantic they could also add:
"We don't WANT anyone to know about 'IT', especially not the Aboriginal community"
But we all know what is meant.

Yes, you're right, it was meant to be "We don't want anyone to know about it, ..." Well spotted, and thanks for pointing it out.

[paolo]

OK, for anyone who might be interested, there is now an Italian translation of the game (version 1.06).

Oh, and the typo that Monsieur OUXX found should now be fixed too.

[Leon]

G'day,

Playing the game as I write. Crikey what a ripper game mates!

Must have been some hard yakka given the amount of (development)time. Love the interaction between the three main chars. 

If 1.06 is the most current I think there's a bung sentence: When visiting Grace the second time she replies:
There's certainly there's some funny business going on.

Or is this also Also aussie-talk and am I going berko?

Can't wait to play the next one.

Hooroo



Another few things I noticed:

Spoiler

- While looking at the boxes, looking at the one below the black box produces a text that's very briefly visible. Then I see: No nothing. Trying it again will tell you that you've already looked.

[close]

and

Spoiler

- After hypnotising Nick in the same location, trying to talk to him first produces the text: What do you think we should do now, then he replies: So, did you find out.....?

[close]

Seems to me the first line shouldn't be there?

For the ones interested: I've made a walkthrough here

[Julius Dangerous]

I played a little, i notice it's translated in Italian too...
a professional product!
Very Nice Game, congrats!