All The Way Down (MAGS December)

Calin Leafshade · Fri 02/01/2015 00:11:02

All The Way Down

A horror adventure set in rural Yorkshire, England.

How to play

Left Click to Interact
Right Click to Look
Move your mouse to the top of the screen to access the inventory and save.

Credits

Programmed and Written by Steve Poulton (Calin Leafshade @CalinLeafshade)
Background Art By Hayley Griffiths (Sookiesock @Sookiesock)
Character Art By Matt Frith (Tier @MatthewJFrith)
Portraits By Victor Pflug (Pinback @modredcastleton)
Lead Voice By Drew Wellman (ddq @ddq5)
Shopkeeper By Rebecca McCarthy (Azure @azuresama)
Other Voices By Steven Poulton (Calin Leafshade @CalinLeafshade)

Screenshots

Download

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1872/

KodiakBehr · Fri 02/01/2015 00:30:43

Looks great! Trying it out now!

[delete} · Fri 02/01/2015 00:42:27

Being wrapped in a warming winter blanket, I'm feeling all chilly and little scared while playing.

The Sanctuary Interactive team really knows their adventuremaking craft! Well done, Sookiesock, Azure, CalinLeafshade and Tier!

Mandle · Fri 02/01/2015 02:15:28

I just finishing playing and...I'm speechless!!!

Beautiful graphics! Eerie music! Interesting and ominous characters! A compelling, and truly Lovecraftian, story where you actually start to dread what's awaiting you...

BUT! What amazed me the most:

THE INCREDIBLE VOICE ACTING!!!

I haven't heard voice acting this good in a game since...ummmm...Actually, I'm not sure if I've ever heard voice acting this good in a game to be honest! Only in a few commercial titles, but even then: not many, and it would be a tie!

Also, on a connected note: The dialog is also all spot-on for both American and British characters, without any of the fake British "Blimey me old chappy" you get in a lot of "professional" games and even major films...

Not really spoilers but concerning the ending:

Spoiler

As with a lot of MAGs games the ending does feel slightly rushed, probably because it was I'd imagine. I've done some MAGs games and so know very well about the all-night marathons towards the end trying to meet the deadline. Nevertheless, the ending was perfect story-wise. I hope to see an extended ending in a non-MAGs release sometime in the future.

[close]

So, not only one of the best MAGs games I've ever played, but also one of my new all-time favorite AGS games.

Amazing job and hopefully an indication of great things to come from this studio!!!

willoneill · Fri 02/01/2015 02:33:11

This is great! I'm really enjoying it so far.

Only thing is that I was totally stuck.

But then I wasn't!

And life went on.

willoneill · Fri 02/01/2015 02:38:22

Just wanted to say again that this was a great game, thought all of the elements were well done.

That is all.

LostTrainDude · Fri 02/01/2015 02:49:24

Great stuff

Most of all I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the kind of "editing" that the dialogues (both in writing and in voice acting) have.

Bavolis · Fri 02/01/2015 06:34:47

This is a fantastic little Innsmouthian thing. You definitely nailed the atmosphere. Any chance of a full game?

shaun9991 · Fri 02/01/2015 10:04:32

Just finished it. Really nice, slick and professional feel, great story, amazing graphics - this is a must play!!! Thanks for making it

AprilSkies · Fri 02/01/2015 10:32:50

It's incredible it was made only in a month, especially the GFX!!
Considering the menu one, it has at least 10 AMAZING backgrounds. This is stunning!
and the whole artwork is perfect: characers sprites, animations, portrits...

Dropped Monocle Games · Fri 02/01/2015 12:31:46

I loved every second of this! I'm not normally the kinda guy that enjoys scary/dark themed adventure games, but this was really well done and gripped me from the start!

Cassiebsg · Fri 02/01/2015 13:10:50

Finished, loved it.

like Mandle would have loved a finish finish, but game wise all is very well done...

Only one little "grip"

Spoiler

Kind of annoying that I could only get the electric cable after I walked upstairs (btw it's possible to walk upstairs without triggering the hotspot)... As it got me stuck in there for a few minutes more than needed. :p

[close]

miguel · Fri 02/01/2015 15:59:27

I really enjoyed this game, the quality level is pretty high, it's well written and well produced. I didn't mind the "click-to-find-stuff" approach because it was intuitive. Well done.

arj0n · Fri 02/01/2015 22:38:29

Awesome little adventure and great voice-acting everyone. Very well done!

Crimson Wizard · Fri 02/01/2015 22:50:42

Well, aside from numerous minor roughness it's a pretty little game.

I also note the fact that this is the first AGS game with resolution lower than 320x200

(its 320x180).

My biggest issue was that portraits did not fully match the rest of artwork. Perhaps some borders around them would improve things.

Hobo · Sat 03/01/2015 00:33:49

Some parts did feel a bit unpolished and rushed, but that's absolutely normal for a MAGS game. In overall, it's a pretty good game and I'm amazed that you managed to pull it off in just a month. Graphics and voice acting defenitely stand out and it really does have this professional commercial quality vibe to it.

If you have no save games and click on the empty space next to the Begin button, a "unable to load a game" text pops up. I know that a continue button appears there later, but it just seemed odd that it was invisible rather than disabled. Also, the debugger is still turned on. And is there a way to quit the game besides the abort key?

Thanks for making this game and keep up the good work!

Fitz · Sat 03/01/2015 18:10:17

I only know little bits of the mythos in question, or the writer's prose in general -- but all of it seemed eerily familiar. Has anyone else read Dean Koontz's "Invasion"? One of my favorite books of his.
The game itself was very effective in evoking the mood of hopelessness and being trapped, and I could FEEL the cold. The character portraits kept reminding me just how unwelcoming a place it was. The graphics were a bit TOO dark at times, though -- especially in his hotel room, I could barely make out any detail, except for the window, and one or two instances of pixel hunting (I accidentally moused over the tin can and then couldn't find it again). Otherwise, it was fun. The puzzles were pretty intuitive. The ending felt a bit rushed, as others have mentioned, a little too easy -- but the feeling of victory was brief (which, again, reminded me of that particular Koontz novel, which ended on a grim note, too, which is more typical of his earlier works).

edmundito · Sat 03/01/2015 18:31:41

I have a boring technical question: I noticed that there was some Lua-related files in there. How did you take advantage of the Lua scripting? Which parts were created in Lua and which in AGS Script?

arj0n · Sat 03/01/2015 18:55:22

Warnings.log:

Spoiler

(in room 6): Character.RemoveTint called but character was not tinted

[close]

Calin Leafshade · Sat 03/01/2015 20:03:44

Thanks for the comments everyone, yes it was rushed since we didnt start work until about the 10th so it was a bit mad near the end and we had to cut corners.

Quote from: Edmundito on Sat 03/01/2015 18:31:41
I have a boring technical question: I noticed that there was some Lua-related files in there. How did you take advantage of the Lua scripting? Which parts were created in Lua and which in AGS Script?

you might find this thread interesting: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50413.msg636496669#msg636496669

For this game i was going to use lua for real time multiplicative tinting. AGS Script is not fast enough to process pixel by pixel in real time. The lua script is orders of magnitude faster.
In the end I disabled the feature because i ran out of time to create all the tint masks for the all the rooms. Maybe in a future version in a few days.

Quote from: Arj0n on Sat 03/01/2015 18:55:22
Warnings.log:
Spoiler

(in room 6): Character.RemoveTint called but character was not tinted
[close]

That's a useless warning. I have no idea why AGS feels it necessary to warn about that.

Mandle · Sun 04/01/2015 03:35:14

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Sat 03/01/2015 20:03:44
That's a useless warning. I have no idea why AGS feels it necessary to warn about that.

I know right?! I solved this "issue" for a guy in Beginners questions by basically telling him to solve it just make sure debug mode is turned off when he releases the game, otherwise don't worry about changing anything.

Crimson Wizard · Sun 04/01/2015 13:09:15

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Sat 03/01/2015 20:03:44

Quote from: Arj0n on Sat 03/01/2015 18:55:22
Warnings.log:
Spoiler

(in room 6): Character.RemoveTint called but character was not tinted
[close]

That's a useless warning. I have no idea why AGS feels it necessary to warn about that.

It's not useless; warnings like that bring developer attention to what could be logic error in their games.

faerieevenstar · Sun 04/01/2015 16:24:10

Wonderful game! Did make me think of this though (but that's a good thing)

This is a local place for local people! We'll have no trouble here!

Crimson Wizard · Sun 04/01/2015 16:56:08

Calin, can you please re-release the game using one of the latest AGS 3.3.1 / 3.4.0 ?
The version you were using is not compatible with official AGS engine, and I have already got a bug report from Linux port user

.

E: I think there is some minor difference in compiled format.

(It also has that terrible scaling selector in winsetup)

Anian · Tue 06/01/2015 17:54:15

I have question about an item:

Spoiler

what's the rope for? I haven't used it for anything

[close]

To be honest, the voice acting sounded a bit flat, but not really bad, but otherwise great little game.

ddq · Wed 07/01/2015 17:28:56

Now featured on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PC Gamer.

IndieRetroNews · Wed 07/01/2015 21:34:27

Quote from: ddq on Wed 07/01/2015 17:28:56
Now featured on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PC Gamer.

So they caught up with us then

Mandle · Fri 09/01/2015 05:19:10

Quote from: ddq on Wed 07/01/2015 17:28:56
Now featured on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PC Gamer.

Wow: Congratulations!!! It's a shame though that they didn't mention that the game was made in under one month, and that a more complete/polished version might be coming out in the future...

Chicky · Mon 12/01/2015 20:28:42

Really fun! I loved the cold eerie British atmosphere, it's something that we missed this festive season (still holding out hope for snow...).

The voice acting was pretty good, my favorite was the creepy old guy in the pub.

Crimson Wizard · Thu 26/05/2016 12:25:28

Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sun 04/01/2015 16:56:08
Calin, can you please re-release the game using one of the latest AGS 3.3.1 / 3.4.0 ?
The version you were using is not compatible with official AGS engine, and I have already got a bug report from Linux port user .

E: I think there is some minor difference in compiled format.

IDK if that matters for anyone, but I made a fix to 3.4.0 branch to make it read and run this game, luckily the experimental custom resolutions version game was created with had a distinct format tag in it.
So, in theory, other ports should be able to run it too.

Haggis · Thu 26/05/2016 21:55:31

On the back of the update above I played through this, and wow the atmosphere is fantastic.

Interested in how you achieved the snowfall effect at the start - it's incredible! Is it video based? Anyway, very well made, real professional feel to it - especially the voice acting.

Calin Leafshade · Fri 27/05/2016 10:06:14

The snow is a fullscreen animation made in after effects. It's only really possible at low resolutions because of AGS's restrictive sprite cache.

selmiak · Tue 25/09/2018 16:23:30

Great games need a Solution, here, have a longplay and get interested in this game now by me pushing up the topic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBUVe3oIIMk