The Secret of Hutton Church of England Grammar School

Privateer Puddin' · Wed 01/07/2009 20:17:57

Hello!

Last week, I took part in the very first University of Portsmouth Game Jam competition, where staff and students from the University of Portsmouth were challenged to make a game in five days.

Everyone who took part, plus organisers and judges, in our snazzy t-shirts!

The Secret of Hutton Church of England Grammar School is an AGI style adventure game.

On the first day, we were given three random wikipedia articles to choose from, we picked: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutton_Grammar_School

The team consisted of myself and another student who had never touched AGS before. Since it was developed on a short time scale, beware of bad dialogue and spelling, bugs and other delights! Still, it's playable to the end! At some point, I plan to go back and tidy it up, add more animations etc in a special, not made in 5 days, edition.

Good luck and I hope someone out there enjoys it!

Download Here!

Leon · Wed 01/07/2009 20:29:09

This looks like fun. The graphics bring back some good old (Larry) memories. Having a go now, telling later.

Galen · Wed 01/07/2009 20:41:29

Hutton Grammar... I know that place

Privateer Puddin' · Wed 01/07/2009 20:45:50

Quote from: Crazy on Wed 01/07/2009 20:41:29
Hutton Grammar... I know that place

Oh dear.. I was waiting for someone to tell me how wrong we got it

arj0n · Wed 01/07/2009 21:23:50

Wow! Oldskool times like LSL1.
This is going to be funny, long time ago that I've played an adventure game with text parser

Cool!

(error.log was created during gameplay, debug mode=on?)

Leon · Wed 01/07/2009 21:28:12

Quote from: [ Arj0n ] on Wed 01/07/2009 21:23:50
(error.log was created during gameplay, debug mode=on?)

Yes it is..

Privateer Puddin' · Wed 01/07/2009 21:38:16

Keep in mind that we were working up until the very last minute on this, and this version is untouched from then, so debug has been left on.

error.log is actually just the file that every parser input is recorded in for testing, not that we had time to test it!

I was unsure what to do, if I opened AGS to fix little things like this, I could see myself going back to change a lot of little things, and then the game isn't the version that was made with the deadline in mind.

arj0n · Wed 01/07/2009 21:48:12

It was just a tiny note.
I understand the deadline rush and I think it's a great job you guys
did with making a retro AGI one in such a short amount of time.
Congrats!

Igor Hardy · Wed 01/07/2009 22:01:39

Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Wed 01/07/2009 20:17:57
beware of bad dialogue and spelling...

Bad spelling?!!! In a grammar school?!

The school's reputation is ruined in my eyes then.

Leon · Wed 01/07/2009 22:22:20

Quote from: Ascovel on Wed 01/07/2009 22:01:39
Bad spelling?!!! In a grammar school?!

The school's reputation is ruined in my eyes then.

Bummer... now you've already discovered The Secret of Hutton Church of England Grammar School..

Galen · Wed 01/07/2009 22:27:43

Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Wed 01/07/2009 20:45:50
Oh dear.. I was waiting for someone to tell me how wrong we got it

Fear not, I didn't attend it and haven't got a clue what it's like inside. I just recognised the name and though "Hey, that's in Preston :O".

Leon · Fri 03/07/2009 00:35:51

Finished it. I must say, nice job for 5 days work. Spend another month and we'll have a new Larry Graham Wilco. I did miss the humor though... It is kinda synonym for these games. But great puzzels.

Like you said, some bugs now and then, typo's, walkbehinds etc. Confusing that objects sometimes can't be accessed by interpreter but only by mouse or tab ('read/look paper' for instance doesn't work, but you can see it in your inventory). Nevertheless, very enjoyable.

I found a lot in the game that was planned originally but never implemented (the hatches?) and because debug was still on, I found the dock. Can we expect that in the 'full version'? I never got there from the game itself. Also, I wasn't able to collect more than 181 points. Is that correct?

Looking forward to the completed, debugged and humorised version.

Privateer Puddin' · Fri 03/07/2009 10:02:43

Glad you managed to finish it Leon.

Quote from: Leon on Fri 03/07/2009 00:35:51I found a lot in the game that was planned originally but never implemented (the hatches?) and because debug was still on, I found the dock. Can we expect that in the 'full version'? I never got there from the game itself. Also, I wasn't able to collect more than 181 points. Is that correct?

oops on the dock! The dock is actually a room from Comfort Quest, my 'proper' AGI game, I used it as an example room for my team mate, just so he could get used to AGS. The point count is correct, we only had time to put in points in for things we know the player will do to complete, and no points for exploring etc.

Can I ask something?

Spoiler

Did you go all over the place trying to make a fire, or did you listen outside each room to find the right one?

[close]

Thanks for playing

Leon · Fri 03/07/2009 10:22:27

Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Fri 03/07/2009 10:02:43
Spoiler
Did you go all over the place trying to make a fire, or did you listen outside each room to find the right one?
[close]

What I did was:

Spoiler

I listened to every door to discover where the leader was. I think you shouldv'e made it more clear by responding to "listen door" instead of just "listen" because that is too general and can apply to the whole room. Once I figured out that the common "listen" was related to the position you were standing, I was on my way. The painting and the newspaper (difficult to read) were my other clues.

What I didn't know was that I had to set the plant on fire. The trouble was that you actually don't set the plant on fire deliberately but it only happens by accident when standing next to it (major flaw in my opinion). So I think is should have either been --> use rag with patrol / use soaked rag with plant / use matches with plant or soaked rag or just use matches with plant or painting (but then the petrol becomes red herring). So I have been on fire many times and have seen the fountain up close just as many (or a bit less because I died a few times for not being quick enough :-) ).

So I cheated a bit and read the source. Once I learned I had to set the plant on fire (I tried to burn just about everything else but like said, deliberately), I already knew which one because that made the most sense.

[close]

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Fri 10/07/2009 19:55:37

Looking good, custard! You know I can't turn down a good EGA-style game.

neon · Fri 10/07/2009 22:46:20

Hey, really nice.

It reminded me of King's Quest and the first Space Quest Parts, that I was playing on my old 286, nearly 20 years ago. The old Sierra AGI style might not be perfect, but had a very special style.

FruitTree · Mon 13/07/2009 17:28:54

sweet! I love this style!
it was kinda buggy but I didn't really mind
puzzles were hard from time to time, specially considering the lack of information about what to do.
but it had good BGs! nice humor! (Leon!

)

considering the short time spent making this game I'd say well done sirs!

keep up the good work!

Iliya · Mon 13/07/2009 19:57:48

Good old memories! Great job!

arj0n · Wed 19/08/2009 20:37:00

Great to see that they are working on a fixed version.

NsMn · Wed 19/08/2009 20:52:57

Well, I hope the font will be changed - it doesn't look really C64-like with the one used now.