Unlimited Continues

[cHugoDance]

Unlimited Continues is a game that I am working on to hopefully be a springboard for my Indie company, as well as being a submission for the final year of my Games Design University course.

A wee synopsis of the story:

Unlimited Continues follows a man named Hugo Evans.

[embed=425,349][/embed]

He lives in London and the year is 2040. Hugo is a product tester for the MyLife Corporation, his latest task is testing out the latest model of the MyThumb, a small device that's mounted on the thumb, synced to the DNA of the user (it handles monetary transactions, acts as a phone etc). He wakes up one morning in his dull apartment and begins to go about his dull daily routine.


On his way to catch the London TravelCube service, he foolishly steps into the road, and is killed.
[imgzoom]http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9095/cubariffic4copy.png[/imgzoom]
He wakes up back in his bed, and proceeds to have the same conversation with his neighbour. It quickly becomes apparent through iterative days, that Hugo is reliving the same day, over and over again, and even death cannot release him. (Think Groundhog Day or that one episode of the X-files/Buffy/Stargate etc).
He goes about uncovering the mystery of the seemingly divine intervention that has befallen his life and tries to have the 'perfect day' to break the cycle. In which, he must; not get fired from the job he hates, foil a bank robbery and 'get the girl', amongst other things.

Hugo feels out of touch with the world, and has now become a man, literally, out of time. He's always been in love with retro technology, like Blu-ray discs and 2D televisions. As an aside, each night when he goes to sleep, he dreams about about his role aboard the S.S. Explorer, a fictional starship straight from his favourite classic TV show, Solar Quest, complete with Captain Pilchard, and the ships android, INFO. This serves as his guide in unravelling the inner mysteries.
[imgzoom]http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/457/spaceorama3.png[/imgzoom]


The game takes a strong focus on humour, and I am confident in my writing skills to that effect and will release regular updates for your tasting pleasure. My drawing skills are improving as the project progresses, but I'm sure I will need a lot of guidance and gentle nudging throughout this project as far as scripting goes, but I will leave those questions for another time. Thanks for your interest!

Current (realistic) progress towards the final, commerciable product:
Graphics: 10%
Writing: 40%
Scripting: 5%
Sound: 0%

A thirty minute playable demo will be available in June.

So far I've found the forums invaluable as an observer, though I've a few hurdles to jump yet.
This is a big project, especially for one man. If anyone is interested in helping (I'll need voice-actors for sure) in any way possible, please don't hesitate to message me.

Edit: Sorry for the confusion, I've added the apartment location with the gui up for clarity. The other screenshots are gameplay but cherry picked not to contain text. (Was feeling a little embarrased that I've not graduated from the default fonts and inventory UI)  .

- Live for awhile and be moderately wealthy -

[Darth Mandarb]

The idea sounds intriguing!  However I have to be evil moderator guy here...

The first screenshot doesn't appear to be "in game" (as the rules require).  The second seems more likely in-game but I see no GUI/characters/etc so I'm not sure?

Don't worry, I'm not going to lock it now (as I can tell you did read the rules) but please update the screenies to reflect how they look in game!  If you have any questions feel free to PM me anytime.

Thanks and good luck on the game!

[Stupot]

Looks nice.  Good luck bringing this together

[selmiak]

the story sounds interesting already, but are the puzzles gonna be repeating every day?

[cHugoDance]

the story sounds interesting already, but are the puzzles gonna be repeating every day?

Hi selmiak,

The majority of puzzles will not be inventory based and Hugo will learn more and more through each loop meaning that steps can be bypassed, people can be fooled and puzzles can be solved more simply.

In the case of inventory puzzles, his inventory resets at the beginning of each day. So broadly speaking, yes, Hugo will have to gather required objects each day. However, because nobody else remembers that the day has reset, the player is always acquiring new knowledge and learning smarter and faster ways to accomplish goals.

A simple example would be, on one loop Hugo must find an item. To find the item he must do a favour for the person holding said item. If this is accomplished, the player will now know where to look for the item and avoid the person entirely. Eventually, Hugo will have all the information he needs and will no longer need to do the favour or gain the item.

Once a puzzle is completed in the most efficient way, many of these puzzles will happen 'offscreen' allowing the story to flow smoothly.

There will only be one day when the player must accomplish all of the puzzles one after another, which is the final day.

Hope that clears things up.

[Tabata]

That story sounds very interesting but in the same way a challenge to become a game that doesn't repeat everything.
It will be a hard work for you to handle but you seem to be on the track about that 
... and with a main character loving a series including Captain Pilchard and the ships android it might work. 
I'll have an eye on this for sure!
     
Good luck with your project

[cHugoDance]

Hi Guys and Gals of the Interwebs.

There is now a playable demo of this game ready for your consumption. (Please do not take orally or otherwise).


The synopsis of the game and plot is above in the first post. The demo cuts off right before the beginning of Day 2.

The dialog in the game is mostly voiced, missing the occasional line here and there.
Positive criticism is something I want to hear from anyone who can spare the time. Keep in mind a lot of things lack polish at this stage, walk cycles etc. but I don't mind being told what I already know.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/75910931/UnlimitedContinues.zip



Enjoy!