The Vacuum

[Makeout Patrol]

After three months of development, roughly eight years of testing, four months of battling with web hosts, two removed minigames, and one tragic beta tester death in the engine room (RIP DazJ), I present The Vacuum to the world!

DOWNLOAD IT HERE OR HERE IF YOU PREFER

NOTE: If you already downloaded the game and are playing using v1.2 or below, the current version will not be compatible with your old savegames! Use v1.2 instead. Otherwise, get the new version, it has a nifty new graphics filter and a French translation for all of your Francophone friends.

Web site
Production thread

The story: In The Vacuum, you play as Leo Wallace, a student at Aberdeen University who is headed back home to Whitefall for summer with his girlfriend, Averie Piper. As a pair of poor, starving college students, they decide to book a cheap room on a cargo ship that has extra room for passengers on this particular trip. It's a short jaunt - only a day and a half - and it seems as though it should be uneventful. But when a pair of explosions tear through the passenger compartment while the ship is still in the middle of deep space, Leo and Averie must determine exactly what happened, fix the problems, and discover what - or who - caused the explosions in the first place.

Leo must search high and low for information, pay attention to the clues that he finds, and carefully weigh every decision he makes. Based on his actions, his relationships will be altered, justice will be realized (or not), and lives will be saved or lost.

The screenshots:




















The features:
A simple, streamlined interface which allows the player to perform almost any action with just one click.
A focus on logic and storytelling rather than abstract puzzles, bizarre solutions, and progression through guesswork.
Branching storyline with heaps of endings! HEAPS! I won't give a single statistic for how many distinct endings there are, because all of the different possibilities in this game make it difficult to decide what is or isn't a distinct ending, but there are four main story paths, and each of them have 3-4 possible outcomes, and each of those outcomes have two basic possible branches, and then there are a bunch of other things that may or may not happen. (Basically, this game was a bitch to test.)

The Team:
Concept, art, programming, and so forth:
  David "Makeout Patrol" Proctor
Music:
  Sebastian "kaputtnik" Pfaller
Beta testing:
  Javier "Alarconte" Alarcon
  CosmoQueen
  dunnoson
  Darren "DazJ" Hall
  Jon
  Sebastian "kaputtnik" Pfaller
  Michael "neon" Stein
  Olaf Moriarty "olafmoriarty" Solstrand
German translation:
  Michael "neon" Stein
Italian translation:
  Paul "Paulo" Giaccone
French translation:
  Patrice "Flyingmandarine" Hermenault

...and a bunch of sound effect people that don't use these forums so nobody will be especially interested in. If you are interested, check out the manual, I guess.

Special thanks go to kaputtnik and neon, both of whom went well beyond what I ever could have even hoped for from anonymous strangers on the Internet. All of the beta testers were extremely helpful, but I want to single out these two people for extra-special thanks because they had such a powerful and incredible positive effect on the final product.

PLEASE ENJOY, AND PLEASE VOTE/COMMENT!

[Stupot]

Looks pretty good, dude. Will play as soon as I finish Jordan.
Space reserved for feedback.

[bicilotti]

Looks pretty good, dude. Will play as soon as I finish Jordan.
Space reserved for feedback.

Same here. So many games to try, so little time 

[bicilotti]

Problem: I have a 12" vaio laptop with an extremely high resolution.

Usually when playing a 320x200 game I select the "640x400" option and check the "play in a window" box.

I can't do it with Vacuum! Was it your choice or is it the latest AGS IDE?

There is an easy workaround (lowering the res and then going back to hi), but it's quite tedious. 

[Makeout Patrol]

Problem: I have a 12" vaio laptop with an extremely high resolution.

Usually when playing a 320x200 game I select the "640x400" option and check the "play in a window" box.

I can't do it with Vacuum! Was it your choice or is it the latest AGS IDE?

There is an easy workaround (lowering the res and then going back to hi), but it's quite tedious. 

It's the latest AGS release, presumably because of the new resolutions. I recommend using the 2x or 3x nearest-neighbor graphic filters (which will also make the game look a lot better in fullscreen).

EDIT: In fact, I highly recommend using the 2x or 3x nearest-neighbor graphic filters whether or not you're playing in windowed mode, because, in my opinion, they look much better than a blown up 320x200. The only reason I didn't make this the default is because the game doesn't run on my computer if the 3x filter is on, and I didn't want this to happen to any users straight out of the box.

[LuciferSam86]

just fantastic! i love this game! 

[kaputtnik]

I have played this game at Beta stage for least 30 hours and am still not getting tired of it. I love the level of social interaction there is, and the fact that this adventure game does not consist of wacky item-fetching and item-using to reach your goal. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I find it a very original approach, and a highly enjoyable one, too.

If you'd want to consider an adventure game "realistic" concerning its game mechanics, by any means The Vaccum would deserve that label, because it does not artificially limit the player or prevent him from doing certain things in an illogical way.

Well, as soon as everybody has played through Ben Jordan, give this a try, it is really different from the average mainstream adventure!

edit: As, of course, is my Midi score, making perverse use of the leitmotif technique invented by good ol' Richard Wagner and creating an abundance of holiday mood in general.

[neon]

100 % agree.

I tested this game for hours and hours and I haven't seen every possible ending yet. And I never was stuck in any situation. That's how gameplay should be. The simple and straight graphics work perfefectly, reminds me of all the old school 90's adventures. For me as someone who plays adventure games for 25 years now, the fun factor is at one level with or even higher than much of today's commercial stuff.

Congratulation, Makeout Patrol, hope you will keep on making good games.

(Basically, this game was a bitch to test.)

I guess a printout of the changelog wouldn't fit on a roll of toilet paper.

[magintz]

Yes, I've been waiting for this for a while now.  I think I might actually play this BEFORE BJ!

[bicilotti]

It's the latest AGS release, presumably because of the new resolutions. I recommend using the 2x or 3x nearest-neighbor graphic filters

Silly me, missed that 

[Buckethead]

Very nice!

This game does everything about right. The graphics are nice. I like how the game is playing so far. It feels like a real live situation. In real live you wouldn't go fiddling with items either. One thing I didn't like were some rather rude comments like "I don't want to fuck around with that". I would have prefered a politer mess around instead.

[olafmoriarty]

I really liked this game. The multiple-ending thing is nice and very realistically done, as it feels as if the choices you make really make a difference.

Also, mostly this game actually makes it pretty clear what choices you have, which is a huge plus in my book. I remember I really liked that Ben Jordan Case 3 had several endings, but it annoyed the heck out of me to try figuring out where in the game I had to do something different to get the other ending, and I'm not sure I would have seen it at all without the "Hints and tips" thread. In this game it's more obvious: You are given the choice to go on or come back. You are given the choice of taking an item or leaving it there. You are given the choice of giving up an item or keeping it. After playing through this one time, you're stuck with the feeling "Wonder what would have happened if I had done that part differently"... And that alone offers tons of replay value. Also, the events that take place in the various endings seem pretty realistic, as whatever would not have been affected by your choices still happens.

And since everybody compares this to 7 Days a Skeptic, a game I really liked, I feel like pointing out that there's one thing in particular that annoyed the heck out of me in 7DaS which I'm very happy that The Vacuum does differently:

Spoiler

In The Vacuum, you can't die. There's no zombie corpse walking around to try and get you: Your choices affects the outcome, but at no point in the game do you have to face a "Game Over" screen and go back to the last time you saved.

[close]

Haven't played it since beta 5, but I'm really looking forward to it.

[Andyw]

I'm enjoying The Vacuum so far, but I've just discovered a game-crashing bug which always gives me the following message:

--
An error has occurred. Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 3.10.1037)

in "room26.asc", line 141

Error: FaceCharacter: characters are in different rooms
--

This happens

Spoiler

in the Engine Room after Chisolm flees, but not before he shoots Leanna and maybe Paulina(?) dead. I'm unable to leave the room without getting the error message.

I have the keychain and the locked box in my inventory.

[close]

[kaputtnik]

I'm enjoying The Vacuum so far, but I've just discovered a game-crashing bug which always gives me the following message:

--
An error has occurred. Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 3.10.1037)

in "room26.asc", line 141

Error: FaceCharacter: characters are in different rooms
--

This happens

Spoiler

in the Engine Room after Chisolm flees, but not before he shoots Leanna and maybe Paulina(?) dead. I'm unable to leave the room without getting the error message.

I have the keychain and the locked box in my inventory.

[close]

Well, that's one of the top five errors we encountered while beta testing, because there are so many different possibilities as to which person can be in which room at a certain time. That one must have escaped our attention - I suggest you try doing things a little different and aim for another ending until David has had the time to fix it, it is really worth it. And you can save the lives of innocent people!

[Makeout Patrol]

I'm enjoying The Vacuum so far, but I've just discovered a game-crashing bug which always gives me the following message:

--
An error has occurred. Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 3.10.1037)

in "room26.asc", line 141

Error: FaceCharacter: characters are in different rooms
--

This happens

Spoiler

in the Engine Room after Chisolm flees, but not before he shoots Leanna and maybe Paulina(?) dead. I'm unable to leave the room without getting the error message.

I have the keychain and the locked box in my inventory.

[close]

You're kidding me, not this again

If you could PM me the savegame before this occurs, that would be a pretty big help in tracking it down

[olafmoriarty]

Congratulations on three cups!

Just a thought... LunaVorax says on the game site that this game should have had a sequel. If you decide to make another game based on the same universe and are short on ideas, I would love to see either a sequel or maybe even preferrably a prequel, where

Spoiler

Leanna

[close]

is the playable character. I think she's one of the most interesting characters in the whole game, and yet we learn so very little about her. I just know that she's bound to have a very interesting backstory... And I really hope to get to know what it is.

(And yes, I'm fully aware that would be more a spin-off than a sequel, but...)

[neon]

Yes, I could imagine some sort of crime story with

Spoiler

Leanna, maybe some trouble with a drug dealer, ending with leaving her planet as stowaway.

[close]

[Makeout Patrol]

I've found the source of the bug and it has been fixed! Andyw, you can download the new version with the links in this thread and continue playing from where you were, and you shouldn't have any problems with savegames not working or anything like that.

All right, thanks for the feedback, folks! Please do let me know about anything that you don't like - I really do want to improve the next game as much as possible. Be mean, be nitpicky, whatever - as long as it's constructive I want to hear your criticism. I'm sure there's something wrong with this game aside from the occasional unnecessary bit of profanity (which is a good suggestion - I'll keep that in mind in the next game).

I have some thoughts about my next game that I figure I might as well do a bit on an interest check on, but I have to go to work so I guess they will have to wait.

[AndyW]

Thanks for the update. On the whole, the different endings were pretty satisfying!

[Jared]

Well, congrats on making your first game (And, er, hopefully that doesn't sound condescending because artwork is all I've done at the moment..) but I have to say that it really wasn't for me. I understand the arguments that a one-click interface works because most interactions are obvious, but at the same time I think it dictates that the level of depth suggested at by a more complicated interface is provided by something else - getting virtually no inventory and barely any conversation options I felt a bit cheated by this and that I was more of a spectator than anything else.

To me this just felt like an interactive 'choose your own adventure' book rather than a game - of course, I didn't get any far because I found the long dialogues with characters I didn't like rather tiresome.

That said - you deliberately didn't commit the gravest sin of amateur adventure gaming, which is of course no direction to the gameplay. For the short time I was playing I always knew what exactly my character was supposed to be doing and where to go to do it - so a triumph there.

Hopefully you've got no problem with a negative response, but my central criticism is that I think a game needs a greater level of interaction to create immersion. That said, it's very good for a first game and others are getting a lot of enjoyment out of it.