The Uncertainty Machine

[Jimi]

I think a walkthru is a GREAT idea. I am mainly posting to get this thread to 100 replys!

[AGA]

Don't post anywhere just to increase the post count, Jimi. Bandwidth is a big issue on these forums. Unless you have something worthwhile to say, don't post

[ratracer]

Huh!? I've put a walkthru already at AGA's wt page as Nostradamus said...
it's there since 11-03

[AGA]

ah, sorry :p I thought you were linking to the other walkthroughs site I manage My mistake :p

[Neole]

WHEEEEEE!!! You released it! I thought you were never gonna do it!! Told you everyone was gonna love it! Now if they only introduce a best betatester category at the next AGS awards..

I'm gonna get the final version soon and play it through again, just to see if you've done anything with the music/sounds - the silence was really overwhelming in the betas! Did you make any other major changes besides bug fixing?

[ratracer]

Neole,
If I recall right there are no major changes (I think no changes at all), unfortunately to music or sounds!!! I am still waiting for the new music score...

[Neole]

Who are you waiting the music score for from? (I'm quite sure that's grammatically wrong but have no idea how to correct it)

[ratracer]

A friend of mine - he's not an AGSer....

[Nostradamus]

OK Ratracer, I finished the game and now my opinion.

I want to say that this is an excellent game. It shows that you put a lot of oyur time & effot into it. It's got that professional game feeling that so few other AGS games have, only ones I can think about are Pleurghburgh, KQ1 & KQ2 VGA and Night of the Hermit.
It will definitely win some prizes at the 2003 AGS awards. I will definitely be looking to your next game(s).
I loved our attention to detail, what many AGSers don't do. Detail in backgrouns and items, detail in story & consistency, detail in conversations. You made a really big & twisted story but made sense with a lot of sophisticated stuff. The entire ABOVE THE SKY LIES THE TRUTH thing & the puzzles & story around it was amazing. Real pro stuff. I liked how Susan changed her clothes in the second day. I liked the philosophy around the machine and the multiple endings. Thumbs way waaaaay up. I liked the cool notebook, note s& laptop. As you said the characters weren't deep we didn't get to really know them, there could be more about them but the importnat stuff were there. The rest if just bonus but not essential. My only advice to you is to try and make it more dramatic when surprsiing plot twists happen. It's not easy but think about it.
Kudos for the great game, cheers and I hope to see more games from you. When do you think your next game will be out?

Oh, one question:

Spoiler

In the ending option where you check the device and get the numbers to use in the machine, is there numbers you put instead of the "x" that take you to a different universe or does it always end in the room becoming strange black & white?  If so, what numbers do you put there?

[close]

[Dave Gilbert]

Hello!

So I was sick and home from work today, and finally decided to download this game and give it a go.  I spent the whole day playing it and, having consulted the walkthrough only three times, solved it.  Here are my comments while they are still fresh.

In a word: wonderful! As the other folks said on this thread, the beautiful backgrounds and the major attention to detail showed that a lot of time and effort went into it, something most AGS games lack.  The notebook was a nice touch, the laptop was an even cooler touch.  I was hoping that the laptop would be used more in the game (like that one email Susan received), but that's not a big deal.  It was also cool that Susan changed clothes on the second day.  Her black miniskirt wasn't the most practical adventurer-wear, but it was certainly nice to look at!  

My only real beef with the game was something you mention already: that the characters weren't that developed.  I had no reason to care for Susan,  or Phil or Colin because I knew very little about them.  Also, the background info sort of fell by the wayside.  You started out describing this wonderful political dynamic - that of the "off limits" people, etc... but then it's not mentioned again until the very end of the game when I'd forgotten all about it.  It would have been interesting if you could see the effects of the "Divide" throughout the whole course of the game, which would make the Big Choice at the end that much more meaningful.  

But don't get me wrong, I loved this game.  I'm just a big advocate of characters and atmosphere and tend to be very picky in that area.  Maybe too picky.      As I said, the game was wonderful.  Four thumbs waay up.  

Cheers,

[ratracer]

thanks, nostradamus and dave...

thanks for your positive words and you got the criticism right: I totally agree... the characters weren't well developed, in fact, they weren't developed at all (I though about giving Susan a personality, but I was already in the middle of the development then)... same story for the background plot: the Divide. I introduced it (with the grafitties and some comentaries in the dialogs) pretty near the end of the development - it shows too much that it was forced in...

once again, thanks!

[auhsor]

Just finished downloading. Cant wait to play

[ratracer]

I forgot your question, Nostradamus: yeah, whatever the numbers you substitute the X for it will always give the same black location - a bit of lazyness on my part...

[Timosity]

hey ratracer, I finally got round to playing the game, I've only just started.

Looks pretty good, haven't got very far yet, not even the elevator, and I noticed there is a newer version with less bugs, I d/l it when it first came out but forgot about it until now.

I'm not d/l the newer version until next month cause I've got to spare my precious bandwidth, but is it possible to finish without the new version?

[GarageGothic]

Hi Ratracer. Congratulations on creating a great game. I got it yesterday (would have downloaded it sooner if not for the file size), and played it all through the evening. It's right up there with Pleurgburg (or however you spell that awful name ) only with nicer art.

I have a few thoughts on it though, some of it criticism, some of it... well, just things I noticed while playing. I don't expect you to change anything in the game, but maybe you can keep it in mind for your next game. I'll put them all as spoiler text not to reveal anything during my ramblings:

Spoiler

First of all, the puzzle with the coordinates at the end. A lot of people seem to have trouble with those, and that was also the only time I got really stuck. See, to me coordinates aren't just a series of numbers, there are at least two of them (x and y, longitude and latitude) and perhaps as much as four or five when we're talking other dimensions. Anyway,  I think people get stuck because they don't expect it to be just one long number. Maybe you could just put a "format of entry: XXXXXXXXX" or something similar along with the "enter coordinates" prompt.
And on those lines, here comes the random thoughts: Because I was having trouble with the coordinates, I started thinking that they might be real world coordinates (might as well be real world coordinates as years, couldn't they? neither seems to make too much sense unless the scientist put the museum sign up himself). The Sea Encyclopedia was a real red herring. Especially since you put it in the office as well as the lab, and had the player character comment that she didn't know what to look for, at least not right now. I kept thinking that I should found out were the actual Robinson Crusoe island was and find it on a map, or maybe find the coordinates for the place where the freedom statue was found. But now that Phil was gone and I couldn't find a copy of Robinson Crusoe, I just resorted to entering the numbers in any combination and finally found the straight ahead answer.
Speaking of Phil, I know that you've admitted that there's not much characterization of any of the NPCs. But especially Phil struck me as odd. He was just this know-it-all info-machine of a man, standing around, waiting to help you. I really expected him to turn out to be the master villain, because he was just TOO friendly and helpful, never asking for anything in return. Maybe you could have used your laptop and the books in the office more, like you did in the beginning, instead of letting Phil know so much. And while I remember - the laptop and the notepad carried pretty much the same function - sometimes notes got added to the pad, sometimes they got added to the computer. The notepad wasn't used much either, for the largest part of the game it contained only two pages of notes. If not for the need to draw the symbols by hand, it could have been eliminated.
It would have been nice to actually meet Peter earlier in the game. His cigarette was always there, smoking away, but he was never to be seen. It's a major flaw in many games, that you never get to meet the badguys before your final confrontation with them, but especially seeing as Peter was a mole within the office, he should have been presented as a nice guy first.
The architecture was cool, futuristic in a modernist sort of way. Reminded me of Truffauts Fahrenheit 451. I'm not so sure that Le Corbusier would be happy that you turned his Villa Savoye into a warehouse though

The puzzles were - in one word - GREAT. Very logical, not too easy and not too hard. I got really stuck only two times (first one when I failed to find the cigarette in the vase on 11th floor, second, as I said, with the coordinates). And the vase made sense when I retraced my steps and read her comment about the other cigarettes. I really liked the nailpolish puzzle, but now I'll have to rethink my own game - I had a VERY similar puzzle with a keypad in mind. I thought the whole thing with the symbols on the painting and all that was a bit contrived (maybe there's part of the plot I didn't get, but why would they even think of hiding the filter in the newspaper building?) but I suppose that's the kind of stuff people DO in adventure games. I wouldn't cry if there wasn't a single puzzle with translations of strange symbols ever again though. Maybe because it reminds me of the glory days of copy protections (KQ5, KQ6, Indy3 etc. etc.). Although I supposed it worked quite well in GK1 (if only because of a good interface, and that you actually had to compose a message while filling in the blanks yourself).
What else is there to say? It was a thrilling ride playing it. Just like being back in the good old days. I'm really looking forward to your next project, especially if you spend more time on the characters. The story and the whole philosophical aspect was fascinating. I think I'll replay the game just to make sure that I understood it all.
Finishing off, a single question: You find two keys on Peter, but lose them both after finding Colin. What is the second one for? The P.O. Box?

[close]

Thanks for a great gaming experience!

[ratracer]

GarageGothic:

Thanks for all the praise and criticism. Especially comparing it with Pleurburg, which is one of the all time best...

THe last puzzle was supposed to have a lot more hints, but then I though most of the puzzles were very easy (it's hard to judge since you know the answer beforehand) and took the hints out to make it more taxing... Maybe I'm overreacted.

You got the origin of the warehouse!!! Pete's and the vice-consul's homes were also adaptations...  Ditto the 11th floor access panel puzzle, a toned down version of a puzzle from Runaway.... If you go thru Jessica Blandy's first book will also find some pictures where I got "inspiration" from. Maybe I should have credited Renaud for that.

I am a bit surprised that many of you liked the puzzles, since I hadn't a clue how effective they were...

Timosity:

If you have executable TUMv11.exe then you are fine - they might be some bugs, but none impossible to overcome (some ressorting to a savegame). I've uploaded two days ago, a revised version - it's still called TUMv11.exe -  correcting one or two of those.
If you have a previous version (TUMv1.exe I think) I will have to download the savegame when Susan gets out of place (in a non walkable area) in the last quarter of the game. You can get the savegame from
www.fbc-bettendorf.com/ratracer/savegame.zip

[Timosity]

I haven't played it since i started but I have version TUMv1.exe but I can download the latest version, since it's a new month.

thanks for the info ratracer

[Nellie]

I thought I'd better bump this as the excellent Quandary site recently put up this review.

Congrats, Ratracer.  

[Minimi]

I am pretty late with this reaction, and I already finished the game twice, and im planning on playing it again, because the game is just awesome!! If you'd putted some voices in it, I would have payed for the game for sure!

[Nostrum]

I can't seem to find any way to save my game...