The Lost Prince Of Lorden

RetroJay · Thu 13/09/2012 00:28:44

J-Soft is proud to present.

The Lost Prince Of Lorden - Part 1

You are on your way to Bridgetown, a large and prosperous village on the northern shores of Lorden.
There are four villages in all. One to the north, east, south and west points of the Isle.
You have travelled South, from The Lore Lands across the river Yeatham, to hold council with Good King Aarion in his castle.
He and his daughter, Princess Petal, command the four villages and the Isle of Lorden.

Reaching the castle gate your trusty steed becomes suddenly spooked, obviously by a feeling only it can sense, and throws you, unceremoniously, from its back.
You awake to find that you have no idea as to where you are or how you even ended up in this predicament.

This has been made with AGS 2.72
2 gig of memory required.
(I have used 'Kweepa's' Lake Module within my game and on a 1 gig machine I suffer slowdown when lake is present.)

To visit my site and download please click below:
J-Soft Entertainment..

Or.

Just Click Below to download:
DOWNLOAD - The Lost Prince Of Lorden - Part 1.

I hope that you all enjoy.
Jay.

CaptainD · Thu 13/09/2012 00:40:23

Congrats on the release!

RetroJay · Thu 13/09/2012 00:52:05

Hi CaptainD.

Nice to hear from you.
I do hope that you enjoy my game.

Please let me know what you think of it.

Have fun.

Jay.

Shadow1000 · Fri 14/09/2012 07:04:47

I'm really enjoying this game. What's most remarkable about it is how close it is to the original Adventure genre games back in the Sierra days. The art, puzzles and humour really capture the flavour of the heyday of adventure gaming.

I'll comment more once I finish the game.

Cheers

SHADOW

RetroJay · Fri 14/09/2012 12:42:11

Hi Shadow1000.

Thank you for your favourable comments.
I am glad that you are enjoying it and I look forward to hearing your end thoughts.

Many Thanks.
Jay.

NickyNyce · Fri 14/09/2012 17:17:42

Congrats RetroJay,

Currently playing and stuck at the moment...but I will find a way.

Good stuff so far...will comment later when I'm done too.

RetroJay · Fri 14/09/2012 21:22:08

Hi NickyNyce.

WOW! I feel honoured that the creator of 'The Visitor 1 and 2' (which I thoroughly enjoyed) is playing my game and enjoying it.

I look forward to your thoughts.
Maybe, if you like it enough, you could rate it please.

If you get too stuck I can give you a hint.

Many thanks.
Jay.

Shadow1000 · Fri 14/09/2012 21:48:10

Jay:

I started a thread on the hints and tips section. Can you please respond to my question?

Thanks

SHADOW

AnasAbdin · Sat 15/09/2012 08:49:52

Congrats on the release! I loved the game ever since you posted it in the GiP thread. I really like the graphics and atmosphere. I will give you my complete *ahem* critique once I complete it! Generally the game is AWESOME and I'm enjoying it

RetroJay · Tue 18/09/2012 18:57:45

Hi all good peeps.

I just wanted to thank everybody who gave my game a favorable comment.
Over the weekend I was away from my comp and when I came back, on Monday night, AGS site was down.

A lot of my messages seem to have disappeared from here, and other threads, and my downloads now show 36 instead of the dizzy heights of 47.

I would love to write more here but the messages that require an indepth reply have gone.

Yours.
Jay

AnasAbdin · Tue 18/09/2012 23:06:10

Ok as promised, I completed the game and here are my personal thoughts:

Ever since I discovered AGS, I started to look at adventure games in an object oriented view (backgrounds, sprites, code... etc) The atmosphere and gameplay of The Lost Prince Of Lorden is so captivating I forgot I'm a game developer myself. Later on and after completing the game, I started to collect the things I thought worthy to mention to the developer [RetroJay].

First of all, I didn't like the use of some unnecessary curses. I did laugh when they appeared but not my cup of tea, could have used better alternatives "Drat... etc".

The pixel hunt thing is not a major concern to me, but I didn't like the way it was introduced in the beginning of the game. Fine you want to use that technique at least make the tiny pixels less camouflaged. I had to visit the hints and tips in order to do the first task in the game!

Spoiler

You can't simply make a grass a few pixels taller to tell us it's a knife. Just make a 2-pixels knife and I'd be fine with it specially when there was nothing else to do in the game depending on that knife.

[close]

This is a very personal preference: I don't like a point and click game that simply does not interact with any click a player might use. Meaning, there were many spots in the game when you click the eye cursor nothing happens. On the other hand, other places where "lookable" but had no benefit of any sort.

Spoiler

The flowers for instance were lookable, but everything else in the room weren't. You could add more text to intensify the greatly made atmosphere when the player looks at the sky, trees and so on...

[close]

In the beginning, I felt this game was a platformer! The walkable areas are so thin and narrow. The walk cycle is so beautiful I wanted to see more of the front and back views.
I didn't see any need to use the lake module -with all due respect to the creator- but it could be simply replaced with a 4-sprites loop (a few dots and lines...)

I liked the drawings (simple and beautiful) but some places had inconsistencies, like the side of the tree that seemed "sprayed on".
You made me laugh form my guts when King Graham was mentioned! That was really funny
What I loved the MOST was the different character styles. Changes clothes and appearance every once in a while. I do that in my games as well, I believe it helps realism.

The background music was what made me love the game from first sight! Even though I'm a big fan of midi music, I loved what you did there. I only have one little comment in the room right between the woods and the cemetery (the one with King Graham's dagger) should have it's own music background (or no music at all), something to prepare the mood from going between two different phases. Same thing appeals to the dark cave (woods)...

The puzzles seemed a little bit easy. It was very clear where to use newly obtained items. And whenever you get stuck you could simply go back to the first room... I didn't mind the pixel hunt digging for the pouch. Still, that room needed a lot of lookable hotspots.

I tend to save the best for last: The story is very beautiful and charming. I can't wait to see what happens next.
I think I'll definitely play the rest of your upcoming games no matter what!

I hope my thoughts are understood and taken in the most positive way, I hope this is a good aid for your future games. I did learn from your game and most importantly I spent a very beautiful time playing it

Shadow1000 · Wed 19/09/2012 02:26:31

I posted my thoughts a few days ago but apparently the server lost them. Jay asked me to post again. I found a backup of the draft I wrote before posting so I'm reposting. If you read it already, then don't bother rereading

I finished the game. Here are my thoughts (caution - Spoilers!):

OVERVIEW:
THE LOST PRINCE OF LORDEN is one of the best attempts I've seen to recreate the feel of the Adventure games of the Sierra era. Flawless graphics, animation and attention to detail put the player into an submervise environment for this delightful game. I would consider this to be the first chapter of a full length adventure game.

WHAT I LIKED:

As I said in the introduction, the clear graphics and user interface really makes this game a very enjoyable experience. What's most remarkable is how the fairly low-res graphics do so while giving it the feel of the adventure games of the late 80s and early 90s. Detail such as the glow of the items in the cemetery and how shadows fall on the character's body as he walks do not go unnoticed. The period-perfect humour is also exceptional.
The puzzles, while not necessarily innovative (mainly of the genre of "find item X so you can accomplish task Y") were of a suitable difficulty level. None of them were illogical or frustratingly difficult
The plot and theme have good potential for a good full-length game. I do note that the title of the game is "Chapter 1" so I'm not expecting a full plot.
In the theme of the early adventure games, I enjoyed the cute reference to King Graham. I expect that most adventure fans will recognize this one. However the
Spoiler
mushroom puzzle
[close]
really caught my attention because of its resemblance to the "Little maze of twisting passages"; "Little twisty maze of passages"; "Twisty little maze of passages" in the original Colossal Cave Adventure by Will Crowther (circa 1976). (I'd be curious to know how many of the forum participants played that game and remember that maze)

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
It's really hard to criticize a game that so beautifully captures the feel of the early games for the fact that it has some of what I consider flaws of the early games. That said:

One thing that was common in those games was the old trap where the player enters a room or touches something and just dies. Considering that the nature of the game is such that the adventurer is expected to examine and explore and use items in a creative manner, simply dying for touching something is a real nuisance. Some recreations of older games (like Black Sect) have this element but restart the player from where he died. It goes without saying that the player should be expected to periodically save the game but still...
Pixel hunts galore! Oh boy...almost every puzzle in this game was a pixel hunt. Pixel hunts aren't that bad if either: hotspots have captions when the mouse hovers over the spot OR the art itself makes the spot stand out in a way that the user will intuitively explore the spot. In this game MOST of the pixel hunts were of the latter (at least to a degree) but there are many where you simply had to click blindly around each room to progress.

With all the effort put into this game, it would be worth proofreading and correcting the spelling and punctuation.

(I just remembered some of the suggestions I made for the next release)

- The objects in the game are too obvious as to their use. Perhaps some of the puzzles should require a compound item where you find different objects that are combined to make a needed item.
- There's a lot of dialogue with characters who really play their parts well. How about having some dialogue-based puzzles? Such as having to go back to a previous character to get more information that is unlocked by completing part of the game. It's good to balance the dialogue puzzles with object puzzles (which are a bit too heavy in this game)
- When you've done all 3 chapters (I hope at least 3!) consider releasing them all as one full game.

SHADOW

NickyNyce · Wed 19/09/2012 15:16:13

I agree with most of what AnasAbdin and Shadow1000 mentioned, but I think this game is in need of a hotspot GUI in its current state though. If you aren't going to have one, you need to have the places of interest stand out a bit more, I got stuck in a few places that I thought I had already checked. Shadow1000 mentioned that these points of interest should be more visible if you don't have a hotspot GUI and I agree.

There were a couple of times that the cursing in the game seemed out of place, this game has too nice of a feel to have some curses in it. I did this in my games too, and am starting to realize that these couple of instances do stand out in the end.

The only puzzle that bothered me was the very first one...

Spoiler

Not only was the first item tough to find, I didn't really see how that was used to hack my way through the forest brush, it appeared to be just a long leaf

[close]

Overall this game is enjoyable and fun to play. The spooky music was great and the puzzles were fun to figure out, you should be very proud of what you accomplished in your first game. The graphics were nice and the walkcycle was well done too. There was some good laughs and the story made me march on until I finished the game. Thanks for making this and sharing it with everone and I look forward to part 2.

Congrats again on your first game

RetroJay · Wed 19/09/2012 19:52:13

Hi AnasAbdin, Shadow1000 and NickyNyce (The order of your posts).

Thank you, ever so much, for your thoughts on improving my game.
I agree with all that has been said and the ideas shared.
Two of the main grievances seem to be cursing and pixel hunting.
I did wonder myself if the cursing was necessary, as it does nothing to enhance the humour.
As for pixel hunting, I think I will opt for labelling in the future.

AnasAbdin.
You were right about the moss, on the side of the tree, being sprayed on (Oh sharp eyed one) it was, and made life easier at the time.

Shadow1000
I now know that I have been spelling 'cemetery' incorrectly, all my life. As in school reports, I will try to do better in the future with my punctuations.

NickyNyce.
The Blade of grass, was just a bit of nonsense and a play on words.

All other comments have been taken on board, and will be acted on in due course.
I was thrilled with your positive remarks.
I'm glad you enjoyed playing the game. (King Graham rules!)

I will begin work on part 2 and 3 a.s.a.p, but need to give my little grey cells a well earned rest for a while.

Kind Regards.
Jay.

Shadow1000 · Wed 19/09/2012 20:02:29

@Jay:

Why don't you have someone who is a strong speller or a spell check review the script before loading it into the game? Just some proofreading would make a big difference.

As far as the language, I didn't comment but just to give an example: I liked the game myself and would have given it to my son to play. Because of the language, I didn't want him to play it.

SHADOW

RetroJay · Thu 20/09/2012 22:46:53

Hi All.

Just thought I would let you know.
Within the next few days I will be releasing my amended version of 'The Lost Prince Of Lorden'.

CHANGES:
All profanities are now removed.
A label for mouse over hotspots is now introduced.

If your kids want to play, it will now be child friendly.

Cheers Guys.
Jay.

NickyNyce · Thu 20/09/2012 23:22:16

I'm gonna check it out again. I'm interested to see and feel the difference

RetroJay · Sat 22/09/2012 02:49:03

Hi Peeps.

Just wanted to let you all know.
I have just uploaded my amended version of 'The Lost Prince Of Lorden'.

CHANGES:
1. All profanities are now removed.
2. A label for mouse over hotspots is now introduced.
3. Changed some errors in the spelling and punctuation. (with help).

4. Also just a few minor tweaks here and there, it made me feel better.

Many thanks for all your comments, suggestions and ideas.

I hope that you all enjoy. (again).
Jay.

CaptainD · Sun 23/09/2012 15:10:59

Downloading the new version now! Nice to see developers responding to feedback so positively.

RetroJay · Thu 08/11/2012 02:27:58

Woo Hoo!

I can't believe this. I am on 'Adventure Gamers'.

'The Lost Prince Of Lorden'

Scroll Down and you will find mine!!

My Brother told me it was there, as he has purchased games from them before.

They seem to like it.

Yours.
Jay.