Ben's Adventure Demo

[Konador]

Hi all! This is my very first game. I only downloaded AGS 2 days ago. I've just completed making the demo version and I would love to know what you guys think. Is it worth me carrying on? I have a pretty good plot in my head, much better than what you get to see in the demo. unhandled_event will be used as soon as I figure out how to do it.

Thanks for any comments!

Download:
http://www.konador.com/bensadventure.zip

Screenshot:

[Barbarian]

Congrats on your completed demo.
It looks great so far what you have done.

Art is fairly good. Lots of things to check out. Wish I could punch out the "blonde guy" heheh.Ã, 
One thing you might considered, most everytime there is any kind of interaction with a hotspot, he walks all the way over to it first, even if nothing happens. Maybe have it so he only walks over to it if something interesting or useful would happen.

There may be other ways to accomplish what you want rather than using the "unhandled_event".
I read you other message on it but I didn't fully understand what you were trying to do with it. But, I thought you might accomplish the same thing you want to do, but just use variables or another method instead perhaps.

Overall, I think you did a darn good job on your demo/game, especially considering you've only been using AGS for two days.

I look forwards to seeing more of your work. By all means, please continue. Looks like you have talent and imagination for making an Adventure game.
*Salutes*

PS: If you needed some help figuring out how to do some things with AGS, I'd be glad to help if I can.Ã,  And you've already seen that the AGS community here on the forum is very active and helpful too. AGS has one of the best online communities I've seen.

[kotroftherings]

I believe this is the wrong forum, however, as this is only a demo.  Unless this is the full game?

[wyr3x]

Hi there, konador. i just wanna tell you i found a very litle bug that happens when you enter to the "black gate", .... ¡ ben get small !.
another think, i think its a bug .... i can't punch that guy ! (kinding .. jeje)
by the way liked your web.

[Konador]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll look at the issues you mentioned. Did anyone get round to completing it? If so did you find it too hard? Too easy? I would be interested to know because I can't test that aspect, knowing exactly what to do and everything

kotoftherings: Hmm this might be the wrong forum, but I consider it a full game as it stands. It has a beginning and an end, and isn't a work in progress. I guess any additions I make in the future carrying on my storyline could be considered sequels They will of course be much longer. I have a very long period of free time coming up, so if I can do this, with 6 scenes, in 2 days around school, I should be able to do a fair bit of work during the holidays

[Konador]

Just a quick little note to say I've updated the demo with unhandled events and some cheesey background music, hehe

[Barbarian]

Ok, I d-loaded and played through your new version. I completed the game/demo this time actually 
It's nice little project, and you have some good ideas.  However, a few things I might mention that may need some "tweaking":

Spoiler

The "cheezy music" starts to get annoying after a little while, but as the game is a short demo, no worries.  The "black gate/door" area where you go into enter where the electrical panel is. It seem once you're in that area, it's a little tricky to exit again.

If you look at the tennis ball on the ground, it says that it's a tennis ball, but, then it also follows with a second message to says something like "it's a flower" too.

A lot of the items in the game/demo has no use that I could find, but I guess you had something more in mind if you are planning to make a more full-sized game? When you go to look at the inventory items, there is no description for the different items either.

The dark shed room is really tricky, because you're pixel hunting in the complete dark. I found it almost impossible to find the "screwdriver" on the table in the complete darkness. It was just random luck that I finally found it. Perhaps make some indication of any important items in the dark shed by once in a while making a "glint or gleam" appear where any important items might be hiding? As it is now, that room really adds to the frustration meter.

And what the heck is that "hand shape" walk-behind thingy-shadow in the shed?  It's noticeable when you walk by it, but there's no kind of interactions with it. Also, once in the shed, I found I had to "pixel hunt" to properly find my way back out again.

Oh yeah, and sometimes it gets annoying when you click on to interact with a "hot-spot", and he walks all the way over to it, and nothing happens.

[close]

Whew!  Okay, really, I liked your little demo game, I think you're off to a great start, and I'd like to see more of your projects. Anything I mentioned in my hidden text above is meant as constructive-criticism, so I hope I was not too harsh.   Oh yeah, it would be nice if I could punch-out the blonde-guy too.. heheh!

Best regards! *Salutes*

[Konador]

Thanks Barbarian, that's a really helpful post to me I didn't code it to make him walk to objects even if nothing happens, he just does it anyway. I guess to stop it I would have to remove the "walk-to spots" from each hotspot and use a manual move character command on every item?

Spoiler

Your idea about the glint on the items in the shed is a good one, which I'll try to do. I thought it might frustrate people a bit actually, but I thought that was all part of the genré, heheh.

With the tennis ball I forgot to uncheck the "display next message after this one" box, oops. Sometimes when I'm creating messages, it is just randomly clicked for no reason, and I forget to check.

The hand shaped thing is just a random foreground item. I saw forground items are used a lot in other games, Lucas Arts ones especially, so I thought I'd just throw it in for effect

[close]

Yeh I do have plans for the other items which aren't needed, is it common practice to remove all such items from demo versions and only include them in the full game?

[Barbarian]

Glad I could be of help.
   Well, ultimately it's your project, so you design it the way you see best. Anything I mentioned is mainly just  observations and some friendly suggestions that may help to improve on your work.

   Yes, to have the character stop from walking to every hotspot, you would un-check the "walk-to hotspot" option. If it was something interesting or useful though that would happen, then you could manually set for him to walk there. Otherwise, you could set it to display some message accordingly like: "That has no effect." or "Nothing interesting there." or whatever message you like.

   Having all those extra items in the game, well, whereas it's just a "demo" type of game, I suppose it's fine... But if you're going to have items you can pick up that are of no use in a game, it might be thought of something like a "red herring" type of thing, in which you think "it must have some use?" and you frustratingly continue to try the item in everyway and on everything but never with any useful effect.
   Most "demo games" I've played before, usually only include the items that you really need to finish the demo, but really, it's your choice.

*Salutes*

[wyr3x]

Hey!. i liked it! ... you  have such a big imagination as i can see. I wanna tell you i found an "stupid" bug, when you enter into the "black gate", i can see ben very litle, if the idea was not to see him, you can select the option "room editor/settings/hide player character".
Iliked your game very much, so, (if it doesn't bother you) i'm going to put a link to your page (from mine), to recomend you.
                                                Good luck !  8)

[Konador]

You mean he is really little in the room at the side of the house? That's strange, because I set it up to make him really big, and that's how it looks on mine. Why would it be doing that? If you mean in the room at the front of the house when he walks to the gate he gets small, I wanted to have it look like he was walking in the background.

Thanks for putting a link on your page. I'm glad you liked it

[Pumamam]

This has real tracing goodness, right? 

Anyway, congrats.

[Konador]

Hehe yeh I used photo references. I really suck at drawing so I had to. I would have preferred a more stylised cartoony background and characters but I have to work within the boundries of my own low-level skills

[wyr3x]

yeah, but your references where very cool selected ...