[MAGS November 2015] Scylla and Charybdis: A Grecian Ship From Olympus U

Eggie · Tue 01/12/2015 05:32:17

Hey guys?!! What do you do if you've got a promising but woefully unpolished game under your belt?
A) Fix that shit up
B) Release an EVEN MORE UNPOLISHED SEQUEL!!

Presenting THIS DANG GAME!! It's a sequel to THIS DANG GAME! And this time you get to play as Aergia who it's much more in character to write dumb Lookat jokes for!

Scylla and Charybdis: A Grecian Ship From Olympus U has many fine features including

Over 900 frames of character animation Woah, slow down! That's a whole 75 seconds worth of cartoon goodness stretched over, what, 20 minutes of gameplay. What a treat!

JOKES! I wrote a really good joke about pole-dancing and a really good joke about a fig tree and some other jokes that aren't as good! Jokes!

Coding???????? Or something that very much resembles it but don't look too closely! Haha! Your brain will die! Goodbye, brain!

Basically one puzzle! It's kind of a bullshit puzzle! It's kind of exactly the kind of vague puzzle I always hated in 90s Adventure Games. It's also I realized today, basically unsolvable if you're red-green colourblind. Last year I released a game unplayable by deaf people. What minority group am I going to screw over next? Maybe I'll do something that gives seizures to epileptic people?? Who knows???

Really good title art! It's by my friend Eliot, he put it on his blog here. Here you go, you don't have to download this game now.

I'm tired I wrote 'a really good joke about pole dancing' as 'a really joke and pole' and could very easily have not caught that. Boy I should not have been making last minute, untested code changes with this tired brain let me tell you!

Bye guys??!!?

Mandle · Tue 01/12/2015 06:28:37

Wow....you must have been coding so fast that you went back in time... (**wink** I think you mean "MAGS November 2015"**)

Anyways: Congratz on the release!!! Glad to see the games pouring in for this awesome theme!!!

Stupot · Tue 01/12/2015 08:00:28

Looks lovely, mate. Now get some sleep!

Eggie · Tue 01/12/2015 10:47:45

Mandle: I don't know what you're talking about I've never seen an October in my life :|

Stupot: Done! Now to play me some entries

MiteWiseacreLives! · Tue 01/12/2015 17:47:30

Very nice game, having a little trouble though..
I can open my inventory, but not sure how to actually use any item

Eggie · Tue 01/12/2015 18:17:49

It works like the CMI verb coin, you click and hold on the item you're using your inventory on then release over the item you want to use.

sergiocornaga · Wed 02/12/2015 13:32:49

Yay! I'm so glad to see to story continue. You weren't kidding about this being even more unpolished, though! I prepared a long and obnoxious list of bugs, notes and suggestions for if you ever find time. I left it rough:

Spoiler

Cyclops skull described with 'create' instead of 'creature'

skeleton on right of room called Hotspot 5

walked left from the universal charger (having gone through the pipe but without sliding down the pole) and was transported to the top of it

Font runs together so ellipsis looks like underscores

No mouseover text for bucket (of seamen) to indicate it can be clicked on

If I go back to the starting cave, it's flashing grey and blue for some reason

Gia looks the wrong way when looking at the dripping pipe

Gia's sprite clips through the pipe opening / bottom of the pipe in mildly unattractive ways

I thought I'd be able to fill the jug/horn at the dripping pipe, but no response

Vaguely related to the above, I really thought I'd be able to rhyme drink with think.

You can re-bash Charybdis' body with the jug and it replays that scene

It would be nice if the shadow of Nyx's cage didn't initiate conversation when you click on it.

The bird broke on me, invisible, perpetually registered as being in the same room as Scylla luckily.

Looking at the photograph, text seems off- between lines it reads "my mom who is also my mom".

Cabinet description says 'locked tight' even when unlocked.

Mouseover text for silhouetted Charybdis is 'New Character'

"Game created by Alex Whitington" appears in credits twice in a row at the end, seemingly? And the October typo is in the credits as well!

How is this game over 1GB but compresses to 20MB? That's kind of amazing.

[close]

But hey! Even if this never gets updated, no big deal really... The meat of the game is all there, start to finish. I don't feel like any of the little things I mentioned really impeded my experience/enjoyment, and there's a charm to roughness anyway. Plus, there's so much extremely high quality stuff to balance it out. I love the smooth animation, and little touches like alpha transparency for Charybdis' fins, big touches like individually animated body parts for Scylla, and that whole super cute water drip interaction.

When you inevitably reply (I hope? I'm not being too presumptuous, right?) let me know if you think you might update this, like, in the next few days. I run a small game curation blog and I'd like to post this there, regardless of whether it gets updated (but on the off-chance you were planning to do it already really soon, I'll wait). I wanted to post Somnamulizer there too, but thought 'maybe it'll get a bugfix and I can post it then' which was silly and I regret that thinking.

P.S. I was the one who'd never seen Cats Don't Dance. It was me.

Eggie · Wed 02/12/2015 16:03:45

I was going to say if you watched Cats Don't Dance I'd fix them both but then I remembered how many times I've let you down before :|

I'd love to see your bug report list! I forgot to mention that Krazy was a giant help to me in the last few hours before the deadline playing the game and pointing out stuff I coukd fix over skype. Without him it would be even more broken oh maaaan!

EDIT: Oh cool the bug list is right there! It didn't show up on my phone. Awesome, thanks!

EDIT2: Go watch Cats Don't Dance oh my God dude, it's so great!

sergiocornaga · Wed 02/12/2015 16:26:57

I haven't seen it yet. I'd prefer to watch it with ludicrously high picture quality, which is tough because maybe such a thing doesn't even exist. If only I had it on LaserDisc. And had a LaserDisc player.

I don't feel like you've ever let me down.

My bug report list is all in the spoiler box above that maybe you missed?

Eggie · Wed 02/12/2015 16:39:21

Cat's Don't Dance is maybe the only movie I would buy on Blu-Ray no question.
Just watch it it DVD-quality guuy, that's the only way I've seen it. AND with the edges cropped too. It's okay though, the quality of the work involved will shine through!!

EDIT: Read the bug report. That was less brutal than I thought it would be. Sad to hear that you got the same invisible bird bug as Krazy though, I thought I'd figured that one out D:

sergiocornaga · Wed 02/12/2015 17:16:21

The bird bug seemed to get worse over time. I was really confused about what to do for a while, and that bird ending up going back and forth about 10 times. For the first 5 I'm sure everything was fine!

Cassiebsg · Thu 03/12/2015 18:58:44

Is there's a non-Gamejolt mirror?

Eggie · Thu 03/12/2015 20:55:14

Quote from: Cassiebsg on Thu 03/12/2015 18:58:44
Is there's a non-Gamejolt mirror?

Just stuck it on itch.io for you, hope that works better!

MiteWiseacreLives! · Fri 04/12/2015 03:51:20

Eggie!!!
I'm soo stuck on the first rhyme

Spoiler

Ive got the Charger Cable, the Jug, the Bone, the Horn and the Leftover Cigarette...

[close]

sergiocornaga · Fri 04/12/2015 08:13:42

Quote from: MiteWiseacreLives! on Fri 04/12/2015 03:51:20I'm soo stuck on the first rhyme

You're missing an item!

Spoiler

Chalk!

Also, can you really pick up a bone? I don't remember being able to do that.

[close]

Eggie · Fri 04/12/2015 09:05:49

Oh boy my beta tester had the same problem but I thought it was just because I prompted him too much. D: Add pixel hunting to my list of accidental crimes.

Ahh, and I was also told just before I uploaded that rhyme doesn't work in every dialect. I've made a monkey wrench puzzle D: D:

(EDIT: There's definitely no bone inventory item. My advice to maybe try rhyming 'bone' with 'chalk')

MiteWiseacreLives! · Fri 04/12/2015 14:58:12

No, no bone... Mixed up with Chic

sorry

Cassiebsg · Fri 04/12/2015 20:12:45

yup, itch.io works fine, many thanks.

Now to go play some games, before the voting ballots close...

Mandle · Sat 05/12/2015 07:36:10

ALERT ALERT ALERT!!!

Your innocent enough looking 28 MB download suddenly turns into over a 1 GB install when unzipped...

I have seen this before...I think you forgot to compress your sprites before compiling the game...

I have a crappy computer with limited storage so I cannot install a game of such size...

Eggie · Sat 05/12/2015 07:41:56

Aaa I was aware of this. There was a day or so where the game was refusing to run and disabling sprite compression was one of the things I did that seemed to make it work again :/ I didn't want to mess with stuff again after that.
I will build a sprite compressed version right now for you, though. I'm sure I was just being superstitious.

Here you go. It looks like the issue I was having was with my virus scanner, I had to disable it for this version to run so if you're using Avast you might have to do the same

Mandle · Sat 05/12/2015 08:21:59

Working fine now

Mandle · Sat 05/12/2015 13:40:54

I've been trying to play the game for over an hour now...

I might just be an idiot but I cannot for the life of me figure out how the inventoty interface works:

I think if I click on the main character some icons come up...

The game keeps telling me to LEFT CLICK and HOLD...I have tried...I really have...But I don't know what I'm supposed to left-click on...I'm not sure what I'm supposed to hold...I think it means I should drag items onto stuff but that doesn't work...

There is a brown circle that pops up here and there....I've tried clicking it, dragging stuff onto it...But nothing!

I must be missing something really obvious...Tunnel vision and all that...

I'm pretty sure that:

Spoiler

I need to bash the sea monster over the head with the heavy pot...but I have not discovered how to do so...

[close]

HEEEEELP!!!

Chicky · Sat 05/12/2015 13:43:19

Wow Eggie... This is freakin' awesome, the animations are so dang lovely I don't even... Did you ever leave the house last month?

I'm totally hitting you up for personal message secret animation talks.

---

Mandle: Left click interacts, this does pretty much everything. If you have an item it will show when you hold left click on a hotspot, keep holding and release your click when hovering over one of the inventory items you have picked up (these will show alongside the brown circle).

Mandle · Sat 05/12/2015 14:02:01

Quote from: Chicky on Sat 05/12/2015 13:43:19
Mandle: Left click interacts, this does pretty much everything. If you have an item it will show when you hold left click on a hotspot, keep holding and release your click when hovering over one of the inventory items you have picked up (these will show alongside the brown circle).

You have saved my life!!!

I now know how to use the interface...kinda...

Nice inovative interface (inovative for me at least)...I'm gonna go back and start from the beginning.

And I agree that the animations are AMAZING!!!

It's a bit of a pity though that my attention is constantly dragged down to the bottom of the screen to read the text and I rarely get to appreciate the animation of the main character's emotions at the same time that they are saying stuff in a tiny font.

Anyways: Back to restart and play the game properly...

EDIT: I just spent some time thinking I was talking to a pink monster when I was actually talking to:

Spoiler

The guy in the cage right next to me...Having to read the text at the bottom of the screen is really breaking immersion for me, and I'm only saying so because I'm getting frustrated that I cannot seem to get immersed in such a great game...I would suggest text closer to the characters' onscreen location in future builds...

[close]

I will try again tomorrow and see if I can follow the story a little better...I really want to as I think this might be my pick of the bunch...

Eggie · Sat 05/12/2015 15:53:29

Thanks so much for the kind words guys.
I am so sorry about that inventory, it seemed like such a smart idea at the time but it obviously needs a shit-tonne more clarity. Also the game needs a readme at least, I'd say about 50% of people who play this end up coming to me saying they can't figure out how items work D:

That criticism about the subtitle-style speech text is interesting. That's something I really wanted in the first game because my weird sprite dimensions were making the text appear all over the place. I guess it wouldn't be too hard to put the Gui with the text back over characters heads I'd be able have control over how far above them it appeared which was my main problem in game 1.

Quote from: Chicky on Sat 05/12/2015 13:43:19
I'm totally hitting you up for personal message secret animation talks.

Y'know it diiiid occur to me as I was playing yours that we might have a certain compatibility there! We should swapped notes about motion-tweened monster limb articulation!

Creamy · Sat 05/12/2015 18:18:20

Finished it and enjoyed it as much as Somnamulizer.
The animations are stunning and the story follows on seamlessly from where you left it off.
The characters are lovely despite their monstrosity.
It's an amazing achievement given the time / subject constraints.
Bravo!

QuoteIt's a bit of a pity though that my attention is constantly dragged down to the bottom of the screen to read the text and I rarely get to appreciate the animation of the main character's emotions at the same time that they are saying stuff in a tiny font.

+1

QuoteI just spent some time thinking I was talking to a pink monster when I was actually talking to Nyx

At first, I thought I was talking to the puppy too

Eggie, why did you choose this version of Paint it black?

Eggie · Sat 05/12/2015 18:58:04

@Creamy :
Uhhhhh, cos it's rad

Thanks for all the input guuuys!

cat · Sat 05/12/2015 20:33:14

Is there a save function? I'm tired and would like to continue playing tomorrow.

Quote from: Eggie on Sat 05/12/2015 15:53:29
Also the game needs a readme at least, I'd say about 50% of people who play this end up coming to me saying they can't figure out how items work D:

Yes, add me to the 50%. If it wasn't for this thread, I would not have been able to solve even the first puzzle.

Cassiebsg · Sat 05/12/2015 20:49:47

I also had some trouble figuring out how to use the inventory items, but once I saw the "click and hold" message wasn't a problem anymore. Rather like it even.

I managed to save it, but think it does it automatically.... I was hitting keys looking for the save when I ended up on the Menu and there was this "continue"... hope it saved. Would hate for have to start over.

cat · Sat 05/12/2015 20:53:08

Ah, yes, it worked, thanks!

Eggie · Sat 05/12/2015 23:57:40

Been working on addressing some of the big issues that have come up this evening.

New look for the inventory plus a feature I've wanted since the first game but kept having to prioritise other stuff over: highighting inventory cursors. I'm hoping this makes it a bit more intuative.

Somewhat ugly looking new GUI for when you ESC out of the game which should help with the ambiguity about this game autosaving

New optional way of displaying speech

New settings menu for enabling said option now with added pipe-dream voice acting options just in case

What do you guys think? Once the voting period's over I'll upload whatever changes get figured out and Future Generations Will Not Suffer As You Fine People Have

Mandle · Sun 06/12/2015 07:44:05

LOVIN' THIS GAME!!!

I have found a bug though:

Spoiler

I've gotten the bird into the 3-headed-monster's lair and distracted the dogs. Then I tried talking to the monster and the bird flew away. Now the bird is nowhere to be found, but when I go back to the cave the game still thinks the bird is there: The monster comments on it distracting the dogs, but when I talk to middle-head about the rhyme the dogs start eating again...I'm not sure yet if this is game-breaking or not...

[close]

Cassiebsg · Sun 06/12/2015 08:13:17

Eggie, that looks awesome improving features!

I was thinking just that, that the inventory would be better around the mouse cursor.

Uhm... you have an item I don't have (yet didn't I picked that up at the start? Was actually thinking where it went).

Uhm... if Mandle has stumble into a a bug, then so did I. I started experiencing all sort of weird bugs after that (like the text disappearing right after showing up, so just "flashing"). And then I quit cause it was bed time. $:-\$ Hope the save didn't save the bugs along.

Mandle · Sun 06/12/2015 12:32:45

The bird thing has fixed itself after a reload but:

Spoiler

I found that I can bash the sea monster on the head with the jug all over again even after she is out cold and the game wakes her back up and replays the bashing...

[close]

EDIT:

I just finished the game and I will just say this: I KNOW MY VOTE HANDS DOWN FOR THIS MAGS...Incredible game! And to be produced in just a month...Mind-boggling!

Without knowing it I saved the best for last, out of a slew of great entries!

Thanks for the fun and the unforgettable characters...

(Now I have to play the first DANG GAME!)

sergiocornaga · Sun 06/12/2015 13:48:13

It's great to know an update is planned, Eggie! I'll hold off on bloggin' until around the 15th, unless you feel like putting an updated version up somewhere before then... I guess you might prefer to just use that extra time to work on it, though. I'm overly proud of the GIF I made already, so feel free to check that out now if you want.

Also Mandle, I'm afraid all the bugs you've mentioned so far were part of my giganto-list from back on page one. But definitely play the first game too, it's super good!

Cassiebsg · Sun 06/12/2015 13:54:30

Uhm, seems like I need to start over, my save game is still full of bugs that I can't play it any more.

Eggie · Sun 06/12/2015 16:21:16

That really sucks to hear, I'm so sorry

Cassiebsg · Sun 06/12/2015 16:44:38

I've now backed up the the savegame files, let me know if you want the files to try and look for the errors.

Eggie · Sun 06/12/2015 16:46:09

Thanks yeah! Maybe if I see it in action I'll have a flash of inspiration about what might have caused it

Cassiebsg · Sun 06/12/2015 22:05:51

Finished it now!

Nice one, but the end... when can we expect the sequel?

Eggie · Mon 07/12/2015 16:57:28

Guys! I recreated the invisible bird bug! It might involve some frustration while I tear my own confusingly-written code apart but I think I can finally slay this dragon.

Quote from: Cassiebsg on Sun 06/12/2015 22:05:51
Nice one, but the end... when can we expect the sequel?

I am so gratified people finished the game feeling okay despite what a technical mess it was. I'M SO HAPPY PEOPLE FINISHED AT ALL.
Uhh I think I might start working on one around Mmmarch? Maybe? I definitely want to have scrubbed-up versions of the first two out there before then. Aaaaand maybe add voice-acting to 'em. I always wanted these things to have voice-acting. It's probably a roundabout reason why I thought that problematic subtitle-style text was a good idea

sergiocornaga · Tue 08/12/2015 15:22:30

Quote from: Eggie on Mon 07/12/2015 16:57:28It's probably a roundabout reason why I thought that problematic subtitle-style text was a good idea

For the record, this is something I never had any problem with, but voice acting would obviously still be great.

Creamy · Tue 15/12/2015 13:23:17

QuoteI just finished the game and I will just say this: I KNOW MY VOTE HANDS DOWN FOR THIS MAGS...

This game was my choice for the MAGS competition too.

Eggie, I'd be glad to translate the Olympus U series in french.
Let me know if you're interested.

Eggie · Tue 15/12/2015 15:09:55

That would be amazing! I'm...uh... not exactly happy with the dialogue for the first one as it stands but once I finally get around to cleaning that up it would be great ti get in touch about that.

Speaking of clean-up, a new version got uploaded today so for anyone new to this thread: Hopefully the issues we've been discussing for the last three pages won't be issues any more.
Thanks to everyone who played this game and helped identify problems

sergiocornaga · Wed 16/12/2015 22:21:41

I'm glad to see this get an extra coat of polish! I mentioned a few more less severe bugs over Twitter and just wanted to check if you saw 'em, I thought it might have done that thing where it stops sending notifications for a conversation in progress.