"A very special dog" (July MAGS)

Sinitrena · Sun 11/07/2004 22:07:13

"A very special dog" was made for the July MAGS 2004. You are a german shepherd dog called Rex who wants to go for a walk. On this walk his human friend Norah gets hit by a car. It's up to you to save Norah and to find the driver of the car.

You can download it here: http://people.freenet.de/Sinitrena/hund/SpecialDog.zip

Pet Terry · Sun 11/07/2004 22:54:40

Hey, that's pretty nice game! Graphics are very nice and "old schoolish", nice interface and kudos for making your own save and load GUIs instead of using the custom ones. Also, "speech" is nice add, I thought it would get repetitive but it hasn't got so far... I haven't finished the game yet but I'll try to finish it as soon as possible.

Barbarian · Mon 12/07/2004 05:39:05

Hi Sinitrena. I think you've done a wonderful job with your game.
It's an interesting game to play and unique in it's own way.

However, I did encounter some problems during game play (and one nasty bug that locked things up forcing me to do a Ctrl, Alt, Delete to exit the game). I'll put the rest of my comments in hidden text below so as not to reveal too much of the game for others who haven't played it yet. (Please note, the following hidden text is meant as some of my observations and constructive critisism

)

Spoiler

I found it really difficult to walk between some rooms, especially rooms requiring to enter/exit from up or down, such as the kitchen or bathroom. It's also difficult to find you way back out of the area where the man is standing by the building. I had to end up repeatedly pixel-hunting in order to finally enter or exit those rooms.

The "line" is hard to interact with, and also took a fair amount of pixel-hunting to be able to take it.

It's rather confusing about what to do at the button to cross the road. I tried all interactions with the button to no effect. Then, I think I ended up standing off to one side and "barked" then Norah pushed the button?Ã,Â Anyways, no problem, so Norah get's run over by the car, nasty..Ã,Â :PÃ,Â then it tells me I have 4 minutes to save her. Okay, so I'm near the butcher shop, so I figure, maybe I can go in and bark at the butcher or something.. but.. as soon as I go to enter the Butcher's shop, the game gets stuck in an infinate loop message of "You have 4 minutes to save Norah" or something like that. The game won't let me do anything else at this point and is essentially locked up. I had to use Ctrl, Alt, Delete at this point to exit the game.

I managed to find the driver of the car who hit Norah. If I take too long in the garage, he comes back after a minute and will kill me. The end screen that says "Start New" or "Load" or "Quit",Ã,Â the "Load" option does not work from that screen. I have to end up startinng a new game again if I want to load in a previously saved game at that point.

Also, I managed to get the police officer to follow me to the driver's house, at whice time he says "I'll take care of it.", then is that the end of the game? I end up back on the street area close to the crosswalk, and not able to go back to where the driver's house is.Ã,Â And, I've tried giving the man by the building a cake, but he always says "It's too dirty.", then the cake dissapears from my inventory anways.

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Overall, it's a good effort. You have some good talent and imagination.
Some of things I mentioned (above in hidden text) I found makes the playability a bit tricky at times, but with a little tweaking your game's overall enjoyment and playability could be improved.

Best regards.

evilspacefart · Mon 12/07/2004 07:46:39

I'm downloading because it has a "lick" action!

Sinitrena · Mon 12/07/2004 13:31:54

Thanks for the bug report. I will change it as soon as possible.

I don't know how to hide text, so please read the next sentences only if you want to read a hint how to solve the game.

You have to give give the cake to the man, but you shouldn't give it this way. In the house there is a basket and a cloth...

Barbarian · Mon 12/07/2004 13:50:37

Kool. Thanks for the tip Sinitrena.
I look forwards to seeing more projects from you.

By the way, to make text in a hidden format on the forums here, useÃ,Â

[*HIDE] You text you want hidden here.[*/HIDE]

Ã,Â Remove the asteriks "*" from the code to make it work. I just put them there so you could see the code.Ã,Â

Sinitrena · Mon 12/07/2004 15:28:32

OK, fixed the bugs Babarian mentioned. You can download the new version at the link in my first post.

jane · Mon 12/07/2004 17:29:05

HelpppppppppÃ,Â

Spoiler

I've got the cake but he eats it before I can find out what to do with it................you mention giving it to a man - is that Paul?

? If so I've tried that and no matter how quickly I do it, as soon as I get into the house he eats the cake!

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Sinitrena · Mon 12/07/2004 17:46:59

Jane

Spoiler

Did you find the hospital? You have to give the cake to the man in front of the hospital. (It's the street right of the baker's shop.

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wyr3x · Mon 12/07/2004 20:06:54

A VERY GOOD GAME FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEEN EVREYTHING (OR PERPHASPS THE BIG PART) .... I TRIED THE GAME, `CAUSE IT SEEM STRANGE A DOG FOR A HERO .... AND A QUESTION ..... WOULD YOU ACCPET A CAKE FROM A DOG

Tiki · Mon 12/07/2004 21:54:46

Hold on there wyr3x! We can read normal writing, we don't need you to use Caps Lock to help us. Also, cut back on the smilies, please. And I doubt that good grammar is beyond your capabilites.

Blasted trolls...

As for this game, well, what Petteri said matches my feelings exactyl

Quote
Hey, that's pretty nice game! Graphics are very nice and "old schoolish", nice interface and kudos for making your own save and load GUIs instead of using the custom ones. Also, "speech" is nice add, I thought it would get repetitive but it hasn't got so far... I haven't finished the game yet but I'll try to finish it as soon as possible.

Yup...great job!

jane · Mon 12/07/2004 22:28:06

Thanks Sinitrena ...............when you say the street right of the bakers - do you mean the one pointing north....................if so I can't seem to walk any further than top of scene. Have tried walking right as far as I can, e.g past butchers and even left past policeman, but its not allowing me to go any further to find hospital..................is this a bug?

Barbarian · Mon 12/07/2004 23:58:04

Hi Jane.. yes, that little street going up, North, leads to the Hospital (a building with a man in a white shirt standing in front of it).
Try walking along the right side-walk to get to it. It's one of those areas where you may have to pixel-hunt in order to get to it.

You may have to move the dog down then up a few times before you can finally go up into the area. I think the walkable area there may have been made too narrow, and at times, the dog seems to get "stuck" when trying to move up or down from between some rooms. But, with some repeat clicking of pixel-hunting, you should be able to eventually get to it.

I finished the game, and it's a really nice little adventure overall.

afinch · Tue 13/07/2004 01:27:25

After Norah gets hit I cant leave the screen at all to go left or right.Ã,Â When I try the dog says "I have to save Norah" and stops.Ã,Â

I love the game so far. I love dogs :

Drew · Tue 13/07/2004 17:03:59

Ok...blame me...

Spoiler

Where is the line?!

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Drew · Tue 13/07/2004 17:04:55

Oh yeah...by the way...if I bark at Paul twice...the game would crash and say something like "Trying to execute cutscene: Already in cutscene"

Sinitrena · Tue 13/07/2004 18:15:10

afinch

Spoiler

I think you mean the dog says: I must try to wake Norah first. Just try to wake her. (bark at her)

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Drew

Spoiler

Paul is sitting on the line, just lick him twice and he will leave the room

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and thanks for the bug report. I fixed it, new version is online.

Drew · Wed 14/07/2004 02:44:37

Oh...ok...thanks...lazy me

Remco · Wed 14/07/2004 09:43:52

Spoiler

Am i right there are 2 endings? because i here you all talking about going to that driver, but when i gave that cake to that man in front of the hospital, i get a scene and then the gam is finished.

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Sinitrena · Wed 14/07/2004 15:55:09

Remco, actuelly there are not two endings. It's not possible to give the cake to the man if you haven't find the driver. I don't know how it could be possible for you. I tried it and it didn't work. Can you tell me what exactly you were doing? It really shouldn't be possible to finish the game without finding the driver.
Nevertheless, I realised a littel bug when testing what you mentioned. Thank you, I fixed it. New version online.

Remco · Wed 14/07/2004 21:40:58

Spoiler

well, i readed here that you had to give the cake to the man in the front of the hospital. So i picked the mand with the clote and took the cake from the bakery, then i was going to the hospital but when i tried to give the cake nothing happened. But i read here alot about pixelhunting so i clicked like crazy with the cake on the men, behind, under, above, everywhere i clicked with the cake, and suddenly he gave it to him and i was in the hospital with the ending scene, that is what happened.

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Sinitrena · Wed 14/07/2004 22:09:31

I really wasn't able to reproduce it, Remco. I tried it and I checked the script, but there isn't any reason this could happen. Normally, it should display a message "I have other things to do" if you haven't allready finished all other puzzels. (That was the little bug I found after you told me that you could finish the game without doing everything you are supposed to do. I fix this bug. But I don't think it had anything to do with what you mentioned) After one minute the dog eats the cake but nothing else. I'm really confused.
It would be nice if this happens to anybody else to tell me. Perhaps I'll be able to find out what is wrong later.
Sorry

cittymom · Wed 14/07/2004 22:12:06

Quote from: Remco on Wed 14/07/2004 21:40:58
Spoiler
well, i readed here that you had to give the cake to the man in the front of the hospital. So i picked the mand with the clote and took the cake from the bakery, then i was going to the hospital but when i tried to give the cake nothing happened. But i read here alot about pixelhunting so i clicked like crazy with the cake on the men, behind, under, above, everywhere i clicked with the cake, and suddenly he gave it to him and i was in the hospital with the ending scene, that is what happened.
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Remco,

Spoiler

Do you have the cloth and the basket? I think that it is needed before you can give the cake to the man at the hospital.

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afinch · Thu 15/07/2004 03:29:20

Quote from: Sinitrena on Tue 13/07/2004 18:15:10
afinch
Spoiler
I think you mean the dog says: I must try to wake Norah first. Just try to wake her. (bark at her)
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Drew
Spoiler
Paul is sitting on the line, just lick him twice and he will leave the room
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and thanks for the bug report. I fixed it, new version is online.

Thanks for the tip - I was licking her

InCreator · Thu 15/07/2004 10:01:46

Beta testing, Sinitrena, beta testing.

Since It's a MAGS game, you probably didn't have time to get some people to find bugs and test it through, but in the future, always do that. Much easier than uploading game again and again until most of the problems are out of the way.

As for the game, main menu picture made me laugh, and it felt like adventure game parody first.
Then -- yes, really a hero dog... amazing.
Very original and unique concept for an AGS game.

I have strange feeling that it could have HUGE popularity as a series-game, like "Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator", probably at least as much...

Who doesn't like smart dogs?

Your rooms are great, If you decide to make some more games, soon you'll start to pick colors more carefully (not so contrasty ones) and texture things... I guess.

So, what I wanted to say -
More!

Drew · Thu 15/07/2004 14:51:12

Hmm...there's this little bug...or something I missed out...

Spoiler

After getting the basket, I try to get the cloth in the kitchen, but it keeps saying, "I can't take it yet"...is it a bug or did I miss out on something?

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Sinitrena · Thu 15/07/2004 15:06:49

InCreator, I know, beta testing... Next time I will beta test my game.

Drew

Spoiler

It's not a bug. Perhaps it's not told in the game, but you have to put the cloth in the basket, not the other way round. You are a dog... Well, put back the basket where you took it from, take the cloth, use the cloth with the basket

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Remco · Thu 15/07/2004 23:30:30

hmm, i have tried and tried today, but it didn`t happened again. Very strange. If you ever find out what it was, please let me know.

afinch · Fri 16/07/2004 00:23:12

I just finished, what a cute game. i had to try getting out of the garage a few times but found my way to the end. Very creative

Drew · Fri 16/07/2004 06:16:05

I see...

Me = A classic example of someone who takes a large inventory for granted lol

Drew · Fri 16/07/2004 06:20:12

Just finished the game too...the occasional bugs are still there, but it's random, as in, not intentional bugs...very unique game actually...very rarely do you get a dog to be a hero, and with only a 1-item-max inventory

Clairejen · Wed 21/07/2004 12:52:58

Hi, I really enjoyed the game, it makes me realise how frustrating life must be for dogs when people can't understand what they're saying.
I also had trouble with getting into some rooms in the house.
I think there's a couple of small problems:

Spoiler

Ã,Â if you've left via the window but then click to bite the driver again it gets into the 1 minute timer loop again
and also after escaping from the garage I just barged past the man outside the hospital door and the game ended with the final ward scene, I didn't need any other characters or objects.

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Sinitrena · Wed 21/07/2004 16:18:40

OK, I fixed the biting bug and I changed the bug with the hospital. Well, now it works fine but I don't understand what was wrong before I fixed it. Perhaps I will find out later when I have more time to look at the script.
By the way, I changed the speaking thing a littel bit. Even if no-one mentioned it I found it a little bit annoying that there wasn't much time to read what the dog said so I changed this. I hope you all like my little updated version of "A very special dog"

(Download it as always from the link in my first post)

sunshinegold · Tue 14/09/2004 21:20:12

Quote from: Sinitrena on Wed 14/07/2004 15:55:09
Remco, actuelly there are not two endings. It's not possible to give the cake to the man if you haven't find the driver. I don't know how it could be possible for you. I tried it and it didn't work.Ã,Â Can you tell me what exactly you were doing? It really shouldn't be possible to finish the game without finding the driver.
Nevertheless, I realised a littel bug when testing what you mentioned. Thank you, I fixed it.Ã,Â New version online.

Just finished playing your game. Lots of fun. Not always easy but very enjoyable. Thank you

strawberry · Mon 20/09/2004 11:09:32

Im reeeeeally stuck at the beginning, please help!

Spoiler

Where on earth is the line ?!?

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strawberry · Mon 20/09/2004 13:48:58

I've finished your game, and thought that the idea was good, although there were a few annoying points as other people have said. Trying to move through doorways was a big problem and also if i had an item in my inventory i wanted to interact with i had to click 'take' 4 of 5 times everytime to be able to pick it up. All in all though a good game, and as i said, a good idea