I Can't Sleep in Silence - It's Always Darkest Prologue - Updated 01/04/2016

Started by Blue Bee, Sat 26/03/2016 05:12:09

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Blue Bee

Presenting...


A Supernatural Noir Horror

AGS Page: HERE

September 30th 2008.
It's been three months since 'The Abacus Killer' claimed his first victim. The only clue, the figure 8 painted by the body.

Since then he's claimed a further two victims, each time a number left at the scene, counting down - but to what?

DCI Warren Blake, over worked and under pressure is called to the scene of a further murder - has Abacus claimed a fourth victim?

This horror themed point and click adventure game, set in modern day England and with Noir overtones acts as the prologue to the 'I Can't Sleep In Silence' series currently in production HERE

Screenshots:






Mehrdad

My official site: http://www.pershaland.com/

Danvzare


Shadow1000

#3
I completed this short introductory game. It is excellent in every way. However, there are several technical glitches that should be cleaned up as they detracted from the game:

- Save/Restore is hit and miss. Most of the games I saved could not be restored. It just crashed when I tried to restore.
- There is this blue icon on the top left that seems to flash during the game which I found annoying. The inventory bar also did a bit of flashing.
- I got into some sort of loop while using the phone where upon exiting the phone I'd end up in the newspaper and then exiting the newspaper takes me back to the phone. I could not get back into the game so I had to quit. As mentioned above, restoring from a save usually does not work.

The story, graphics and interface are really good. My only comment is that although the graphics and colours work well for this horror/mystery, a bit more detail in the graphics might be a good idea so the player can see items that are supposed to be interacted with better.

Overall, great work.

SHADOW

Mandle

Neato!!! I've been looking forward to this game!!! Just downloaded!

EDIT:

I just finished the game and it was really something special!

Especially: (SPOILER ALERT)
Spoiler
The big double-shock at the end! That was incredibly well set up!

I also loved the gap in outlook of the young cop hoping it would turn out to be the work of the Abacus (for his stated reason) and the main character's dread that it would (for his personal reason), and their inability to fully understand each other's viewpoint...That was a lovely piece of characterization!
[close]

One slight nag or two though: (SPOILER ALERT)
Spoiler
When you click on the door to the back room the game tells you you'll need to find the numbers if you want to get through the door. Then: when you get the numbers and try them on the door the game tells you "You have no reason to go back there." This is poor signposting of goals I believe. I think the solution is for the game to just tell you you have no reason to go back there until you do have a reason and only mention the combination lock and the numbers at this point.

Another slight nag about having no reason to go back there is also the fact that you are trying to find the victim's missing ID, so why wouldn't you want to search for it in the back room? Perhaps change the reason to "I should leave the crime scene as in until forensics arrives unless I have a damn good reason not to..."

Another point is Rose: The dialogue option to ask her about the murder should be removed after you have already gotten the confession out of her that she was in the warehouse otherwise her response makes no sense and, in fact, I think it glitches the game into thinking that you have not yet busted her with the "female witness" note. This is a game-breaking bug as by this point the "female witness" note has vanished so there is no way to bust her: Game over.
[close]

I also ran into the bugs Shadow1000 reported:

The newspaper/phone loop bug happens if you open the phone from the newpaper screen or vice versa I believe...So: An easy fix would be to just deny access to the inventory items when either on the phone or newspaper screen.

I also found that multiple clicking on the phone inv item makes it impossible to leave the phone screen: The game just sends you back there after the fadeout...

Oh, that reminds me: The fadeout on the phone and newspaper screens is a bit too slow I feel. It takes about 3 seconds when it should be more like 1 second. The game is quite hard in places and players are probably going to be trying the phone/newspaper a lot and the slow fade gets frustrating pretty quickly.

Save/Reload worked for me only once but it caused the rain sound effect to stop and the fuzzy/grainy effect disappeared to be replaced with a flashing semi-transparent GUI at the top of the screen. Looping sound effects not playing when games are reloaded is a known issue with AGS. I think it is fixed by having the game repeatedly check if that audio is playing and, if not, to start it playing.

Apart from these technical issues though the game was awesome: Challenging puzzles and a nice noir mood (are you a Sin City fan by any chance? :P )

The investigating interface works nicely and adds depth to the game and more of the feeling that you are actively solving the mystery instead of the game just telling you that you are (a major flaw in a lot of "detective" games, but not this one!).

I can't wait for the next chapter!

sthomannch

Congratulations!
Well done, I could really dive into the story. Graphics were matching perfectly and it was also good that you used only the necessary amount of sound effects (raindrops, door)
Hope t see more like this

Blue Bee

Hi guys, and thank you for your really kind comments - despite playing around with AGS for some time this effort represents the first time I've had the confidence in my ability to actually put something 'out there' so to read such complementary comments is really really encouraging.

@mandle & @shadow - thanks for spotting those bugs, I'll look into & fix those. again, limited experience in actually getting to this point means I probably didn't put enough time into the testing - we'll call it a learning curve.

I'm hoping to have the first full episode entitled 'It Never Rains' (which is set 8 years after It's Always Darkest) out by October time. so thanks again for the encouragement.

Aaron




shaun9991

Support Cloak and Dagger Games on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=460039

Two Tales

I really liked this. A good story and atmosphere. I loved the grainy effect. I don't think I've seen that done before. I did notice a few of the glitches that mandle & shadow have already covered but they didn't detract from the overall experience. Great!

adipson

Congratulations ! i like the atmosphere of this game ! thanks
POINT AND CLICK
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Official website : https://adipson-studio.com/

Blue Bee

Hi all & thanks again for all the kind comments and support.

I've fixed all reported bugs and the game can now be downloaded via the original link: Here!

The only stumbling block I encountered was the issues with the saving/restoring of games... It's not an easy fix given the noise effect etc. so, given the relatively short length of the game (it is after all a playable 'trailer' of sorts) I've elected to remove the option of save/restore.

In addition to bug fixes I've also added:

*A new scene with an important new character
*a couple of new puzzles (Including one that resolves Mandle's pet hate!!!)
*Additional dialogue to flesh the characters out a little

Please, download, (or re-download) and let me know what you think...

remember, this game acts as a prologue to a planned series of games - updates on the first full episode (including screenshots can be found here... http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=53313.0

Thanks again for all of your ongoing support (especially Mandle & Shadow1000 for their keen eyes and comprehensive bug reporting!)

Aaron

Shadow1000

I just played again. The game ended with the game abruptly turning off and I got the message:

In room91 line17
Error: EndCutscene: not in a cutscene.

What was supposed to happen? Is there an ending scene or just credits or something?

SHADOW

Creamy

I've finished the demo recently. Even if it starts a little cliche (femme fatale, beaten-up cop, serial killer...), I got hooked by the story pretty soon and I'll be glad to see the rest.
Kudos on the graphics (especially the characters). I didn't encounter any game breaking bug. Just a few hiccups on my mind :
- there's a problem with the walkbehind of vitcim's room. If you're low enough, you can see your feet through the crate.
- I'd like to have more personalized replies for wrong actions, instead of just "no" or "not relevant".
Spoiler
For instance, he could try to enter "8765" on the padlock when you combine "Abacus killer" with it, or he could ask questions to the NPC with his notes.
[close]

Keep up the good work.
 

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