11-11-11 v1.1

m0ds · Mon 26/12/2011 01:48:26

It's teh Christmas, this is what I've been working on for the last few months since my PC crashed and this game became temporarily inaccessable. 11-11-11 is a slightly more serious game after my other release this year of Testicles but still uses the same slap-dash methods I've been using to get games actually completely finished. There are still plenty of "nice" things to do with this game in terms of holding off a release - but what the hey, I know the majority of people will be able to complete version 1 without fuss, and it's Christmas!

I wanted this out the way for a fresh start in 2012! More info below.

And for the title to make any sense I was supposed to release this almost two months ago

Drunken christmas adventurex-ey times I guess :

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAXWGGHpDyI
PC Gamer review (of the first version): http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/01/08/this-weeks-best-free-pc-games-30/

At 147mb it's here (Version 1.1):
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=1510

Thanks to those who helped! Have fun, merry christmas, and let me know where to improve it for a later version

which I assure you will happen because there are quite a few things I'd add if I could just keep making it and never release it

Mods

developer notes

Spoiler

I made this game up as I went along. It was inspired by classic sci-fi movies and recently playing The Visitor. I also kept in mind what I wanted to achieve 10 years ago, but with things like QBasic it was very hard to create something with even the most clichéd plot and simplest puzzles. So this is retribution for me for those days.

This game was started when the Bake Sale was announced on the AGS forums, around mid-October 2011. I have been struggling for a while to find ways to make art quickly or at least source it in a short amount of time, enough to create my own game without the computer breaking inbetween. I originally wanted to make some kind of simulation game where you would walk from buildings solving little puzzles (and the chapter screen shows you this first attempt) but decided to give it a story and make the mechanics simpler by being an adventure game..

The original release date was 11-11-11, just for fun really - as there had been a lot of stupid internet hype about what might happen on that date. I used Poser for the backgrounds and characters, and AGS for the engine. The music is from Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable and The Dark Knight, all composed by James Newton Howard.

I am basically trying two things here, 1) A RELEASE and 2) What cool features can there be? You may notice James' module which doesn't make the 3D graphics I'm afraid, but it adds those little cutscene bars at top and bottom. I used to love that in older games (like LBA2) so you knew you were in an un-interactive moment or something. The games design is crude, nothing was planned, everything was done on the spot and fixed after it became a problem not before. It's an example of rushed AGS game making, but should also show whats capable by one person who wants to make something with AGS. It took 3 months at the most.

You won't learn anything from it, especially the first version - but please have fun and let me know what you did and do not like about it. It's been made as I can't access Lost In Paradise files now but this is actually an improvement on that game in some respects, but the switching from LEC to Sierra style speech I can assure you - is a nightmare. However, a module could fix that....Dualnames!!11 Thanks for reading, and maybe even playing! If you have any comments about this game or ideas for future games do get in touch: mark@screen7.co.uk

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LimpingFish · Mon 26/12/2011 02:22:14

Wooo! Downloading now! \o/

NickyNyce · Mon 26/12/2011 02:59:43

Congrats on the release m0ds, I enjoyed it a lot, everything comes together very nicely. There was some very cool moments in the game that gave it that movie type feel.

I know you were very short on time, but the game still delivers. Well done

m0ds · Mon 26/12/2011 03:08:20

Thanks faithful tester! And Fish, re-download from now - there was a dumbass bug

Thanks though. Will leave it to the people to find other glaring errors now, but there shouldn't be many...maybe a few sierra/lucasart speech errors (which is what I just fixed), but hopefully nothing too dodgy. Kind of went with the no polish method...just want to move on from this now! 8)

sthomannch · Mon 26/12/2011 10:34:12

Looks very good! You set the mood right. Congratulations.

Reported one little bug (@screen7)

m0ds · Mon 26/12/2011 11:44:57

Quote from: sthomannch on Mon 26/12/2011 10:34:12
Looks very good! You set the mood right. Congratulations.

Reported one little bug (@screen7)

Thanks for reporting that. Goddamn mixing sierra & lucasart style speeches didn't work too well :p Will make an update of the zip at midnight tonight.

miguel · Mon 26/12/2011 13:12:58

Congrats on releasing this!
I'll wait for the new upload then.

m0ds · Mon 26/12/2011 21:15:32

Quote from: miguel on Mon 26/12/2011 13:12:58
Congrats on releasing this!
I'll wait for the new upload then.

Thanks miguel, and thanks sthomannch - the error will happen all over the game whenever you talk to Jess, I got a number wrong...I will re-upload around midnight/1 because my net is capped til then. Removed the link for now til it's sorted a bit later - apologies to anyone who's been playing and ran into an error so far.

Secret Fawful · Mon 26/12/2011 21:19:13

Damn that damnity damn damn ladder. This game's gonna drive me bald, what with all the hair it's making me tear out. Really enjoying the atmosphere, though.

NickyNyce · Mon 26/12/2011 21:48:06

@Secret Fawful ... Here's a clue so you don't go bald

Spoiler

The ladder is there, somewhere in the room with the boy

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Hint 2

Spoiler

Its in the bottom left hand corner of the screen, you need to bump in to it in the darkness, it's tough, but it's there

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m0ds · Tue 27/12/2011 00:20:48

Fixed the error. You may want to re-download and hit "restore" as it works in the earlier parts of the game

Grim · Tue 27/12/2011 20:37:47

I have mixed feelings so far. On one hand, I like the graphics, though couldn't help feeling the game would contribute by having higher resolution visuals, but that I can easily get used to. On the other hand, the sense of mystery ahd terror has been slightly ruined for me by

Spoiler

discovery that there are giant, laser- shooting, Doctor Who-like robots involved. I guess that'd be fine with people who like robots, though....

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So I was just getting into it, solved few puzzles, talked to some characters ( the writing's pretty good ) when suddenly

Spoiler

my character's view has been changed to his talking portrait and from then on I moved around as a square head, and needless to say, that usually spoils the atmosphere in games;) I thought, screw it, at some point it will sure get back to normal walking view, so I carried on, sliding towards the dark area to look for a ladder, but it was nowhere to be found...

[close]

I decided to save and try later, maybe look for a walkthrough, but clicking on MENU button on top of the screen catapulted me to the main menu. I guess I've lost all my progress so far... :'(

So maybe I'll get back to it at some point and finish it, as I really liked the atmosphere , with few exceptions, especially now, Christmas time, when walking to work through the empty streets of Exeter had made me feel like the last remnant of the human race, the city so quiet it felt almost abandoned... Your game has a similar feel to it, and I like this kind of apocalyptic scenarios. There's a lot you managed to get right, but the version I played suffered from quite a few fun-spoiling bugs. It's a shame, because I feel I have missed out on a lot of stuff that was still to come, even though it involved

Spoiler

giant, laser- shooting, Doctor Who-like robots

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.

m0ds · Tue 27/12/2011 23:05:43

Hey man, F5 to save, re-download and load your game again with F7. Should be fixed

Thanks for the feedback! Now you know what it's like to play James Spanos in Exeter. Alternatively, just re-download - you have not lost your progress, hit "restore"once you've replaced APOCA.exe.

New users should have no problems.

Early versioners: Don't talk to Jess after the rooftop. She has nothing interesting to tell you anyway.

Please let me know if you complete it so I can put it on my site, as I only know of one person so far!

agentbauer · Thu 29/12/2011 12:00:20

Great little game, bit dark in some areas but it fits...
Will there be a sequel, the end is a bit short.

All in all awesome work

m0ds · Thu 29/12/2011 18:19:35

Thank you agent Bauer, glad to know you are on hand to save the day...

No desire to sequel it, but probably flesh out this edition a bit more with a few extra puzzles and trimmings (ie massive scaling issues). Thanks for your comment!

Shadow1000 · Fri 30/12/2011 05:00:10

Finished the game. That was AWESOME!

It took me just under 2 hours to complete the game

My comments:

- The objectives were pretty clear (perhaps a bit too linear at times) which meant no wandering and the game kept moving.

- The puzzles were a bit simplistic and obvious but still fun. There could have been more inventory items.

- The graphics and music were very immersive. The 3D feel really added to the game

In the 2 hours of gameplay, I spent about 40 minutes at the end getting past the robots over and over. I think that it's ok to have a "shift" from adventure game to arcade style play but the proportion of gameplay is just unbalanced as a result.

My last point for consideration is that considering the exceptional graphics, I'm surprised that the look/use/walk icons were the default AGS icons rather than something that fit the game a bit better. For the extensive effort that clearly went into this game, this point may help bring some more polish to the overall feel.

In all, I had a WONDERFUL experience playing this game. THANK YOU to all those involved!

SHADOW

m0ds · Fri 30/12/2011 19:10:41

Thanks shadow! I appreciate your roundup. Noted stuff... I agree it needs a little more balance and I'm hoping to add that sort of thing in an update. I appreciate you playing this early version of it though and glad you found some (simplistic) enjoyment

Amazed at how long it took you but really pleased you kept on going! So you know I had tried other walk/look cursors, but after trying various types, only one really seemed to work....default AGS

Interesting that you mention that.

Better puzzle structure is coming in Passage of Saints (tomorrow!) but you're right it could be a little more inventive in this game. I mostly wanted to prove to myself that something that was impossible for me to make 10 years ago was possible to make in the space of a few months nowadays. So it's a bodge-job game

But it's great it has been played by yourself and others. TEH THANKS!

Tabata · Sat 31/12/2011 15:53:10

A cool game with cineastic scenes!

The jump was awesome â€" loved it!

m0ds · Sat 31/12/2011 16:32:44

Thanks Tabata, and thanks for the error report! That 'section' has been a plague throughout... I will look into it

Shadow1000 · Sun 01/01/2012 00:18:59

Quote from: m0ds on Fri 30/12/2011 19:10:41
Thanks shadow! I appreciate your roundup. Noted stuff... I agree it needs a little more balance and I'm hoping to add that sort of thing in an update. I appreciate you playing this early version of it though and glad you found some (simplistic) enjoyment

I think that a lot of the fun came from the experience. There's a lot of potential here to really push the envelope on Adventure games.

Quote
Amazed at how long it took you but really pleased you kept on going!

Most attempts to get "there" (i.e. from bottom right to top left) took only a few minutes. But I got stuck getting "back" (i.e. top left to bottom right) each time. I still don't know

Spoiler

what the definition of being "caught" by a robot is. I know that you don't have to physically contact a robot to be caught, but it seems that sometimes being on the same row or column as a robot will get you out and sometimes not, and sometimes if you are on the same row/column as a robot, you won't get out if the robot is facing away from you and sometimes you will. This inconsistency made it very very time consuming to get through this section, and you have to do it around 4 times

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Just to repeat, no problem mixing in other game styles into the adventure game. I like the variety it provides. I just don't like when one part of a game takes such a huge proportion of the game play time.

Quote
So you know I had tried other walk/look cursors, but after trying various types, only one really seemed to work....default AGS Interesting that you mention that.

What do you mean by "seemed to work"? Do you mean technically or visually?

QuoteBetter puzzle structure is coming in Passage of Saints (tomorrow!)

Can't wait

QuoteBut it's great it has been played by yourself and others. TEH THANKS!

I hope no one felt I was being critical. I was very positive on the game because despite the few things I raised, I had a great time playing it. My feedback was just ways that (to me, at least) you can get a more polished game.

Good luck on future games

SHADOW