Exposed Reality: ready to be tried

[bush_monkey]

Hi guys, I've taken the plunge after years of playing RON games and I've been working on a short RON game starring everyone's favourite photographer Mika.
Now the game is nearer completion, I thought I'd announce it here first.

Exposed Reality
-----------------
Mika is on the hunt for a scoop, any scoop and in the process will uncover more about everyone in the town than she had anticipated.

The game is mostly Dialogue-driven with plenty of banter with all the RON regulars.

The game is pretty much complete (needs music and a couple of extra interactions.)

I would appreciate it if you could have a play and let me know of any RON continuity issues.

The download is:
http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/ron-reality-exposed/download/4207/

[arj0n]

If you need it to be beta-tested, I can help you with that.

[bush_monkey]

Thanks. What I will need is people to play it and tell me whether I've made continuity mistakes 

[Renegade Implementor]

If you want, you can send me a pm and I'll have a look at it.  I'd just need to know where you were placing it.

[bush_monkey]

Thanks, It is meant to be set after III spy. I'm not near my computer until next week now (family xmas  ) but when I get back I'll forward you the game.

[bush_monkey]

Bumping. Please see the first post for the game trial.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I played through it, or I think I did (the game seems to just stop after you give Larry a random story Phil gives you).  Here are some thoughts:

1.  I'm pretty sure Krysis also remade Mika Huy.  If so, it might be better for visual consistency to use that version of the sprite since you are using so many of his other sprites.  If not then no foul.

2.  In spite of many of the cast members (and creators) being British, Mika Huy is supposed to be an American.  I've never heard an American use the terms 'sharpish' or 'whilst' for anything, even though I'm well aware of what they mean.  Just felt really out of place here, especially with a relatively hip art student from the US.

3.  In the many RoN games I've played, Elandra was never so outwardly hostile towards Mika, so this came as somewhat of a refreshing surprise.  I am of the school of thought that way too many of the RoN characters are sterile to the point of being completely boring, so a bit of lively catfighting and hatred brings some needed stakes between the characters.  I also like that you point out how inane the operation of the REALIZER is with only one reporter.  Back when Reality was first starting out it made sense, but looking at the sheer size of the game map now it's just not feasible to have one reporter handling everything. 

4.  While you freely admitted that the game is dialogue-heavy (and it is), I'd heartily recommend going back and injecting some more actual puzzles to reduce the amount of back-and-forth between the characters.  After awhile, bouncing from Bond to Davy to Phil to Bond to Phil (etc) got a bit old and is bound to cause some yawns.

5.  Generally the characterizations are faithful, though with such a diverse cast it would've been nice to be able to visit more locations, particularly since they are already drawn for you.  


Finally, a suggestion I think all newcomers to RoN should take to heart:

Be more daring!  Don't be afraid to add some NEW content, and by content I don't necessarily mean just another empty character.  For instance, Dominatrix Pizza is this long running unfunny joke and someone could seriously just draw the damn place and give it some relevance in the game world at long last.  Don't be afraid to bring something new to the table, whether it's a new area, a RoN-specific holiday, or even a character -- though this last one is a bit of a personal issue for me since I feel RoN already has way too many throwaway characters as it is.  If you're going to put in the personal effort to make the character memorable and important than by all means go for it.  All I'm saying is please, no more Smiley faces or Knoffels ;|.

Why not take your in-game criticism of the REALIZER and build a future game around expanding the offices and bringing in some new talent?  Perhaps a sexy female competitor for Mika that everyone immediately adores, for example, creating some workplace tension and potential game elements.

That said, I think your game has potential, just needs some polish to the rough edges, some sound and music, and a proper end.

[bush_monkey]

Thanks for all the constructive feedback ProgZmax, it's much appreciated.

1 - I thought I was using the latest version of Mika already but I'll double-check.

2 - I didn't realise my britishness was coming out :p I'll fix that.

3 - Thanks, I don't like bland characters either and I tried to give them all a distinct voice.

4 - The game still needs a bit of work, I have a couple of extra puzzles I want to add (I'm currently drawing the new objects). I was just ready to share what I'd done to make sure i was not taking RON characters in the "wrong" direction in any way (maybe Mika had left the Realizer in a game I had not played or Elandra was no longer with Davy etc...).

5 - This was meant to be a small game to dip my feet in the RON waters. As you suggested, I have plans to expand on the whole new Realizer staff idea for my next RON excursion. This will be a bigger game with more characters and play areas.

I thought the ending worked well but a friend of mine thought the same as you about the ending feeling too abrupt. I have a couple of ideas on how to improve this.

Otherwise, I know you thought there was a bit too much dialogue but did you find that dialogue enjoyable or should I try to cut that down a bit?

Also, there will be sound and music by the time I'm finished, my dad is a really good musician and has provided music for my games before. He's currently working on a couple of tunes for this.

[Renegade Implementor]

I have a couple of comments on the in-universe continuity.

The initial conversation with Boyle gives the impression that Mika is the only person working as a reporter.  This seems to contradict the fact that Jhon Steele was hired to work at the Realizer (probably as an investigative reporter or something similar given Mika's dialogue) at the end of "Paranormal Investigations".  There's also Louis Darcy from "Cold Storage" (a stand-alone game) who's either part of the staff or is freelance.

To my recollection, Maria Scotterson isn't the landlord of the Brown apartment building.  The Baron owns the Brown & Red apartment buildings, with Joyce Thomkin acting as manager/superintendent.

Are the list of characters that Mika goes through with Phil supposed to "break the fourth wall" for the player? Otherwise as Emrett Slocombe died in 1923, it's unlikely anyone would think he'd be newsworthy, nor would Foozle's name be common knowledge... (of course I've yet to finish the last game that deals with Foozle.  Hmm, need to get on that).

Drakul is female, not male.

As for the gameplay:

In conversations (particularly with Davy) I noticed multiple cases of sentences not starting with capitalized letters.

Like progZmax I found the ending rather abrupt but as you're working on it I'll wait to see what you come up with.

You are using the Krysis version of Mika, btw.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Is that Krysis' version?  Quality-wise it just looks so inferior to the other sprites that I figured it was one of the earlier iterations...

I think the dialog was fine for the most part.  As I suggested, breaking it up with more puzzles rather than a long puzzle of going from character to character would improve things.  For instance, Bond says he lost his keys in the drain.  Perhaps instead of him just volunteering information you could have him trade it for some kind of item that would help him get his keys.

[bush_monkey]

Thanks for the help guys. RI, I knew it was a good idea to pass it by you guys first, I've never played Paranormal Investigations and I'd totally forgotten Cold Storage's story 

I'll play through these 2 again and rewrite the script accordingly.

[bush_monkey]

quick update: I'm still working on this. I've added some more puzzles and i'm drawing some new backgrounds. Here's a preview of the one I'm drawing right now: