Topic: A Night At Camp Ravenwood

[Darth Mandarb]

I'm getting confused here...

m0ds are you working on this game?  Or did you just dig up a 7 month old thread?

arjon are you working on this game or did you just link to the facebook images?

secret fawful are you still out there somewhere?

Thanks for the clarity!  All around good-i-ness.

[m0ds]

Yep, composer and publisher sir and in frequent contact with Fawful, who is working on the game on a daily basis, but does not really frequent these boards at the moment. I can see how it's not very clear (the info is somewhere in the middle of this thread), so I've updated the first post a little!

[Secret Fawful]

Hey, I am still alive. I haven't been murdered by maniacs yet.

I haven't been updating the thread or the website because I have been working non-stop on the game, and I just don't take the time to do that. I literally work every day on it, so do know it's going to be finished. The game is under Screen 7 for the forseeable future, so Mark has my permission to post anything for it. I have a specific post in mind when the time comes to talk about the mechanics of the game, because I've been extremely silent about what the game really is. You guys haven't even begun to see what the game is to offer, but I'm not ready to talk about that yet.

Hopefully I'll have more information for you guys soon.

[SarahLiz]

Looking forward to hearing more...this is definitely on my top 5 most highly anticipated games of this year.  Very, very excited to see the final product!


Sarah

[Secret Fawful]

From Screen 7 and moi: A Night At Camp Ravenwood: The Tech Demo




Link

Made in a month, it'll either be your dreams come true, or your worst nightmare.

Any issues with scenarios in the demo will be fixed in the full game. Scenarios may be rearranged in the full game.

I just want to apologize for the game taking so long. It's really down to my own ineptitude, and I appreciate any patience people have had. I'm trying really hard to make something good and memorable here, and I run into a problem at every step it seems. Bear with me. The game may not be out this year, but I'm trying really hard to make that happen.

Bonus points if you are able to pick out references to horror movies and games I've thrown in. Points that don't matter, but hey, FREE POINTS!

EDIT: Fixed.

[arj0n]

From Screen 7 and moi: A Night At Camp Ravenwood: The Tech Demo

This one never left my attention, glad to see there's a demo out now

[cianty]

Oooh! Nice to see some progress here. *downloading*

Update: Played for a bit. I love the atmosphere. Very creepy. Especially inside inside the house later...
I know know this isn't the critique corner. Still here's some quick feedback:
- I find it confusing to have different wordings between the action buttons and the actual written text at the top. Like "Walk to" becomes "Go to". This is kind of confusing. Also it may just be me being use to LucasArts interfaces but clicking a verb at the bottom of the screen and then having to move the eyes to the very top of the screen to finish the full action (i.e. completing the "action sentence" by selecting an object) isn't really improving in terms of usability. It's much more relaxed to have the verb actions and the results close to each other.
- Is there a way to switch to "default" walk to? The LA interface is much easier and quicker to use as it allows right-clicking to "deslect" the current action so that I can walk around easily even if I just clicked "checked". Also the LA interface offers default right-click actions for frequent tasks such as openeing doors, using switches, etc or just looking at things. The absence of these convenience functions makes the overal experience feel less smooth that I would expect from the Graphics and other production values.
- The first time I used "Run to" had me run to the very right end of the room. From there I couldn't move away, though. Maybe the run speed/mode got me to reach a spot outside the walkable area?

This will probably sound much worse that it is. This still is one of the most highly anticipated AGS games I see. Keep it up!

[Secret Fawful]

Nope, that's what the demo is for. I need to know how people need to/want to play, and any difficulties in the design. I appreciate the feedback!

[Armageddon]

I was also very disappointed in how the verbs work, it was confusing and frustrating and I couldn't finish the demo. It should be much easier and simpler.

Also fix the conflicting pixel resolutions.

[m0ds]

^ Or YOU could just switch it to DirectDraw mode (admit I prefer it that way myself).

My playing preferences - I felt having to "close" the inventory rather than just move the mouse away from it and it closes was a bit cumbersome, and that it didn't revert back to "walk to" each time was an issue. That was all

I certainly spotted a reference to a couple of other games in there haha!

[kaput]

Also fix the conflicting pixel resolutions.

You and your conflicting pixel resolutions  . I can just see you one day in a padded cell screaming to the nurses "conflicting pixel resolutions! GAH!!!". It's going to drive you crazy, man.

As far as the game goes - I felt it had a really nice 'old school' atmosphere with great graphics to boot. My only criticisms are that yes, the verbs did take a bit getting used to and I found the swearing a little out place - it just seemed like something that didn't really need to be there.

Good game, though. I'll keep an eye out for it.

[Trapezoid]

Seconding what's been said so far.
Also:
-The status bar font is kind of hard to read. Go with a pixel font designed for that resolution.
-A clickable/interactable player character always seems like a fun idea, but usually ends up being not worth it. It just gets in the way of more important hotspots.
-I feel like the normal walk speed is a little too slow-- people will just end up running everywhere.
-Use AGS's skippable cutscene features.

Awesome graphics and AMAZING ADLIB MUSIC omg

I'm already stuck at the axe murderer trying to bust the door down, but I'm not sure if I'm missing something, there's a bug, or if that's just where the demo ends.

[selmiak]

1) add the demo link to the first post, I searched for it way too long
2) looking very good and promising
3) that's why some things just caught my attention:
having the inventory over the screen while the character speaks (to describe what he sees in that inventory item) is just annoying
some strange slipping effect (walk to canoe (over the wrapped one), also happening when running sometimes)
running looks cool, but the frames for running are obviously bigger (longer, higher) than the normal frames, so when switching from running to standing still it looks like something is cut off.
I want to use that damned hapoon!
the verbline changes only to 'run to' when using keyboard controls, not on clicking run to on the verb list
no keyboard shortcut for pick up?
clickable character can get annoying when he stands in front of a hotspot
the inventory items have no indication of where the click happens
rightclicking open inventory, so it should also close the inventory on rightclick
clicking outside of the inventory should also close it to make it easier for the player
and last but not least, from all the screens you already posted and how far the game is (supposed to be) completed, this demo is rather lame *MORE!* screw that, I also got stuck in the first scene already, and thought this is a demo to demonstrate the gamemechanics...

[Secret Fawful]

Seconding what's been said so far.
Also:
-The status bar font is kind of hard to read. Go with a pixel font designed for that resolution.
-A clickable/interactable player character always seems like a fun idea, but usually ends up being not worth it. It just gets in the way of more important hotspots.
-I feel like the normal walk speed is a little too slow-- people will just end up running everywhere.
-Use AGS's skippable cutscene features.

Awesome graphics and AMAZING ADLIB MUSIC omg

I'm already stuck at the axe murderer trying to bust the door down, but I'm not sure if I'm missing something, there's a bug, or if that's just where the demo ends.

Spoiler: ShowHide

I need to add a hint somewhere for this probably, and whenever the puzzle shows up in the full game, there'll be one so it's not so cruel, but try opening the door while he's running.

Thanks, guys. I'm taking all of the feedback into account and I'm working on a more professional interface. Keep in mind, I don't want to go over eight verbs. I've streamlined it to six and I'm working on movement outside of the verb bar. I'm also working on getting an inventory put down in the bottom bar, or as a popup. Move is Push/Pull, and Check is Look at, in, under, behind, etc. Next time I put together a demo, I'll also put in a README for a short summary of controls and such.

Thing is, the demo was me taking a gamble on two puzzles that were pretty hard for me to code. I'll cut down the swearing, or at least use censors.

[Armageddon]

I couldn't even figure out how to open the inventory window... I'd just have no walk verbs, have him auto-walk when you click on empty non-hotspot space. And if you want sneaking and running stealth areas just have regions in the room automatically change that.

[Secret Fawful]

In this demo, the inventory was a right-click to open. I'm actually really surprised, but you aren't the only one to have trouble with that. Also, what specific verbs did you have the most trouble with? I'm guessing Check and Move.

[Armageddon]

Just all the verbs. I had the same problem with movement, I used run and the guy kept running to the right. Also I'd change Check to Look At, no need to be slightly different, better to do what people know. It is a very pretty game though.

[frenzykitty]

Can't wait to give this a stab later!!!

[Tabata]

I like the graphics and animations very much but had a hard time to get used to the commands.
Always inventory showing up (because I tend to look at everything by right-click) and then it stays in front of the descriptions so that you need to close it first to be able to read.

Also the „mixed up verbs“ were strange because at last I used the mouse-wheel to scroll through and change them.
The prob is that if you are lazy like me and do it this way, the original verbs show up.
So I had 10 verbs and „go to“ makes him run, sneak is missing (well, it works if you click it directly at the faaaar away bottom of the window, of course) but you can check and look at … all in all a bit „confuddeling“

Since this was called a tech-demo I didn't expect it to be polished like it will be in the very end, but it seems to me that there was no testing before 

All in all I am sure, this will be all sorted at the end and hopefully my message doesn't come along too negative because I had fun, like it and I am still eager to play the game. 
(btw. I wasn't able to make it through the door until now  )

Now I want to wish you good luck for all the work that still needs to be done on that nice game to become complete.
I can't await it to be ready

[Secret Fawful]

Testing was me sending the 'demo' to three of my friends, and M0ds. I was rushing for the Release Something thread, so I decided not to worry too hard about it, but I was also continually tweaking it up until the very last second. I won't let the final game go through without some form of serious beta testing. I've been working on assets and areas mostly up til now, and now I'm working on puzzles and plugging them in.

I completely missed the mouse wheel problems because my mouse has had a broken middle wheel for months. Might be time to invest in a new one. Thanks, though. Positive feedback is great, but negative feedback helps me improve. I knew going into this tech demo that it would be faced with some problems, but that's just due to my own inexperience. I'm pretty happy with the feedback so far. I don't like making mistakes, but I like knowing they're there. Thanks for the well wishes.

Now I'm going to drink some booze and relax, while my brain processes my next steps.