The Man That Only I Can See - MAGS November

Started by Chicky, Tue 01/12/2015 20:21:50

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Chicky





Play as Arrabella, lost and scared in a world not all that different from our own.

My second MAGS game this year, this time i've tried to make something more traditional.

Controls:

Arrow Keys: Move
Space: Interact
Esc: Menu

Due to time constraints I haven't been able to test this as much as I would like, the sound design is pretty rushed to meet the deadline but I hope you'll enjoy it :)

Download from the following link:

AGS Games Database

Please note: Some users are experiencing issues with lag on the first playable screen, I'm not sure where the rules stand on me fixing this before voting is over. Hopefully it doesn't ruin the experience too much!

Mandle

Oh....my...God...

SO PRETTY!!!

I'm so checking this one out next!

Mandle

I've just finished the game:

And I'm soo CHUFFED that I did so...

In a game where you only ever use two keyboard keys (minamilistic gameplay FTW!!!) the author has managed to:

(1) Tell a tragic story
(2) Set an awesome mood
(3) Create a main character I care about
(4) Create a beautiful game world
(5) Rhyme
(6) Disturb me with several scenes
(7) Do an amazing amount of animation given the time
(8) Leave an ending that is so ambiguous you are going to tear hair out

The game reminded me most of:

HIDDEN TO AVOID SPOILERS:
Spoiler

Pan's Labyrinth
The Lovely Bones
Limbo
Grimms' Fairy Tales
[close]

BRILLIANT GAME!!!


Kumpel

Yep loved it also for its amazing atmosphere (even when the walks are bit too long and boring :P).

Found a small bug. If you walk too far left at the family's house
Spoiler
the not anymore visible mother wants you to turn around (laugh)
[close]
.

Stupot

This was gorgeous. Does Arrabela really walk that slowly, though, or was my computer just having trouble processing all the beautiful parallax scrolling?

Anyway, I was to entranced to care. This is one lovely creepy game.

cat

Beautiful graphics, interesting theme, but the walking was soooo painfully slow (especially in the screen with the house), that I was actually hoping that the game would end soon because of that.

Creamy

The gameplay is monotonous, but the atmosphere makes up for it.
Spoiler
You keep going down until near the end. I remember doing so in Silent Hill 2. Like you're going to the bottom of things.
[close]
The guitar part is really nice.
 

Eggie

#8
Quote from: Stupot+ on Wed 02/12/2015 21:39:18
Does Arrabela really walk that slowly, though, or was my computer just having trouble processing all the beautiful parallax scrolling?


Oh jeez I should say I had AWFUL framerate issues running this game on my cruddy laptop. They thankfully abated after the first room and everything became much smoother so I got over it, no idea why that room in particular was an issue.

Chicky

Thanks for all the input :) Happy to see so many people giving it a go. I was pretty rushed on this one and spent every spare minute I had last month trying to get something put together, I had to cut a lot of bits that would have made the lengthy backgrounds a bit more interesting, timed events being something that I wanted but was a bit beyond my coding abilities. I will definitely take the time to make a version 2 with a bit more sparkle :)

The first room suffers because I forgot to update the background images, originally I had long 3000px wide layers with alpha transparency, I ended up having to cut out each tree and add them individually. Looks like I missed the background layer on the first room.


selmiak

It looks really beautiful but I was bored with all the slowwalking back and forth so I quit to play some other mags entries :P

Cassiebsg

To those experiencing slowdown walk... try increasing the sprite cache in winsetup to max (100Mb). I can still notice the slowdown, but not as bad as before with the default of 20Mb... (roll)

Enjoying it so far. (nod)
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

sergiocornaga

Pretty and creepy! But I do feel like the sluggish pace you've chosen really tests the limits of player endurance, and perhaps the ending could have been slightly more elucidating.

Shadow1000

Just to echo what other players said:

- The art is exceptional. The mood that the art, animation and sound create is completely perfect for this game.
- The game was spooky, creepy and parts were disturbing. I am amazed how that was achieved so well.
- However, there is no gameplay to offer. If you want someone to be captivated, you have to give them some puzzles or a plot that unfolds or something more than holding down one keyboard key to watch a very, very slow scene to unfold. I found my patience being tested for most of the game. While technically there is some dialogue and inventory, there's really no player interaction. While I'm glad I stuck it out, I understand why some players quit.
- As others said, the story is mysterious but also abstract. It would be great to leave more hints to the user as to what happened.

Anyway, the game certainly has some very strong points but hopefully some of the player feedback will help give you some ideas to consider for version 2.

Good luck!

SHADOW

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