Falling Dark - An adventure game with RPG elements

Started by FransisKransis, Mon 02/12/2019 22:35:18

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FransisKransis

Hello, I just finished yet another indie-y style game. This one not only has some RPG elements, but also features 'Point and Click'-style puzzle solving and combat. Which is good and not bad. Also, this game is not rated by the ESRB, but if it were, it would be a hard M.

It's a love story with political undertones, which are both themes that gamers really like and can relate to.

For marketing purposes I'm also required to inform you that my game, ‘Absin', got the AGS pick of the month back in June. This game isn't as good as that one of course, but that's PR for you.

The box-blurb thing is thus:

“The year is 1999. The underground culture of the nineties is coming to an end. It is being replaced by a corporate-driven growth of technology and a culture of distraction. In the last dark streets of the city, people stand against this change to preserve their own ways of life. However, as entities start to sell it out, it becomes only a matter of time before the underground is divided and conquered.
In the midst of this, is Taylor. A simple person of an older time, struggling to keep their head above water as they're sucked deep into the heart of this conflict, and this division.”

‘Falling Dark' is a point and click adventure game with RPG elements, featuring:
• Several branching narrative paths.
• A blend of 'Point and Click' puzzle solving and combat.
• A variety of hidden side-quests and encounters.
• And an original soundtrack.

So if that sounds interesting to you, please do check it out.

Screenshots straight from the Itch.io page:










And a link to the Itch page:
https://thinking-of-cremation.itch.io/falling-dark

Cheers,
Fransis

Kastchey

Awesome! I really enjoy your narrative.
Congrats on meeting your target release date :)

I'll leave my feedback here when I finish the game.

Jack

Definitely sounds interesting.

Hope to give it a go sometime.

Frodo

Looks interesting.  Need to give this a try.   :smiley:


"point and click adventure game with RPG elements"
So... like Quest For Glory?



FransisKransis

Quote from: Kastchey on Mon 02/12/2019 23:17:23
I'll leave my feedback here when I finish the game.

Sounds good, Kastchey, I look forward to your thoughts.

Quote from: Jack on Tue 03/12/2019 01:34:19
Definitely sounds interesting.

Hope to give it a go sometime.

Thanks, Jack!

Quote from: Frodo on Tue 03/12/2019 12:11:42
"point and click adventure game with RPG elements"
So... like Quest For Glory?

And Frodo, sure, it's definitely in a similar design vein as far as stats go. Though if I recall correctly, I think Quest For Glory had turn-based combat? This game's combat is run live.

Creamy

I've finished chapter 1. Quite gritty.

I'm not sold on the graphics but I'm curious to see where it's going.

I like the blend of different gameplays too.
 

lanchong

This game is brilliant, as far as a free game goes. Don't trust the screenshots and try it for yourself.
With a bit polish,  character portraits and voice acting, it would be a decent commercial game too.

srnickolas

Hello friend, I am really enjoying your game.I encountered a bug in chapter 2 after I spoke to the dude (lady?) with the broken car(he is accesible when you approach the location with the question mark on the map). Game exits and an error pops.It Happens after the dialogue,when my character goes to check the car.At the bottom of my post there's a link of an image of the error.Also may I ask,in the first chapter a couple is requesting if i can eraze their debt in the vhs store.But after I went there and used my seductive skills on the owner,my character auto-exits,the location vanishes  and I didnt have the opportunity to complete the side quest.Is the location accesible later,so i can complete said side-quest? If no can you update the game so you can freely access the place? Thank you and congratulations on your release.

https://imgur.com/CKJFUSZ

FransisKransis

Quote from: srnickolas on Wed 08/01/2020 17:52:01
Hello friend, I am really enjoying your game.I encountered a bug in chapter 2 after I spoke to the dude (lady?) with the broken car(he is accesible when you approach the location with the question mark on the map). Game exits and an error pops.It Happens after the dialogue,when my character goes to check the car.At the bottom of my post there's a link of an image of the error.Also may I ask,in the first chapter a couple is requesting if i can eraze their debt in the vhs store.But after I went there and used my seductive skills on the owner,my character auto-exits,the location vanishes  and I didnt have the opportunity to complete the side quest.Is the location accesible later,so i can complete said side-quest? If no can you update the game so you can freely access the place? Thank you and congratulations on your release.

https://imgur.com/CKJFUSZ

Hey srnickolas,

Thank you for the detailed bug-find, that it made it a very easy patch! The car encounter should work now, and the VHS store should be freely accessible in chapter 1. If you find anything else, you can let me know, otherwise, enjoy the game.





srnickolas

Quote from: FransisKransis on Wed 08/01/2020 20:41:30
Quote from: srnickolas on Wed 08/01/2020 17:52:01
Hello friend, I am really enjoying your game.I encountered a bug in chapter 2 after I spoke to the dude (lady?) with the broken car(he is accesible when you approach the location with the question mark on the map). Game exits and an error pops.It Happens after the dialogue,when my character goes to check the car.At the bottom of my post there's a link of an image of the error.Also may I ask,in the first chapter a couple is requesting if i can eraze their debt in the vhs store.But after I went there and used my seductive skills on the owner,my character auto-exits,the location vanishes  and I didnt have the opportunity to complete the side quest.Is the location accesible later,so i can complete said side-quest? If no can you update the game so you can freely access the place? Thank you and congratulations on your release.

https://imgur.com/CKJFUSZ

Hey srnickolas,

Thank you for the detailed bug-find, that it made it a very easy patch! The car encounter should work now, and the VHS store should be freely accessible in chapter 1. If you find anything else, you can let me know, otherwise, enjoy the game.






Thanks for the quick patch!I'll replay the first chapter to get the side quest.

srnickolas

Hey I found another weird bug while replaying chapter 1,if you finish the first chapter without spending any money(I had 70) you start the second (after the graveyard scene and watching the tape) with 20.Maybe it resets the money? I replayed the graveyard portion just to check and it happened again.Its no biggie though i'll just spend my cash before the end of the chapter at stuff :)

Kastchey

Okay, I've finished it. I always enjoyed your games but you have outdone yourself with this one, this was fantastic. The story took a while to deep dive into but it was worth it. I felt the game world was sort of an alternative reality dystopian 90s, which was pretty awesome. The genre mix was well balanced and fun to play. Writing and dialogues as brilliant as always, great job keeping the balance between the grim, gorey details, the subtle tarantinesque sense of humour and the psychological drama elements. The characters and plot were somewhat eccentric and took a while to get a feel for, but after a while I was hooked. The collectibles are a nice touch, I also loved the fact that there were places you could only (optionally) explore if you had certain skills. What impressed me the most though was the attention to details: the multiple street encounters, the radio news that always reflect the recent events and even the idle animation that would change every time I took the elevator. The soundtrack was fantastic too, I had it stuck in my head for a good while after I finished the game. Really cool!

As for the graphics, I understand why others have said it is somewhat subpar, but I like the visuals. They are simplistic, but consistent and clearly a lot of love has been put into details and animations.

I do have some complaints too, but that's probably just because you set the bar so high it is nearly a commercial quality product. What I felt was lacking was some time to walk around, speak to the NPC and explore the surroundings in between the main storyline parts. Street encounters partially compensated for it but I would have liked more "in between" content that involved the key NPC. The pace at which the story developed was very fast which admittedly contributed to the game's dynamics, but at the same time some of the plot elements felt rushed and lacking proper introduction.

Spoiler

I guess ending A is what you get if you manage to dispose of the army in the ending sequence? This time I wasn't even close (I couldn't afford the best weapon even when I sold out everything I had, my firearms was way too low and I didn't have enough medicine), but I'll try on my second playthrough. Tombstones during the ending sequence were a nice touch, it was fun to calculate the age of the characters in hindsight.
[close]
A minor glitch: the locations tab from the final map does not show when you are actually traveling to the final location, and instead it pops up and stays on top of the cutscenes after the ending sequence.

(Side note, I think I can tell which pen & paper RPG you play :))

FransisKransis

Quote from: srnickolas on Wed 08/01/2020 22:39:51
Hey I found another weird bug while replaying chapter 1,if you finish the first chapter without spending any money(I had 70) you start the second (after the graveyard scene and watching the tape) with 20.Maybe it resets the money? I replayed the graveyard portion just to check and it happened again.Its no biggie though i'll just spend my cash before the end of the chapter at stuff :)

srnickolas, that was a weird bug indeed, but thanks again for the find, it has been patched.

Quote from: Kastchey on Sat 18/01/2020 00:19:01
Okay, I've finished it. I always enjoyed your games but you have outdone yourself with this one, this was fantastic. The story took a while to deep dive into but it was worth it. I felt the game world was sort of an alternative reality dystopian 90s, which was pretty awesome. The genre mix was well balanced and fun to play. Writing and dialogues as brilliant as always, great job keeping the balance between the grim, gorey details, the subtle tarantinesque sense of humour and the psychological drama elements. The characters and plot were somewhat eccentric and took a while to get a feel for, but after a while I was hooked. The collectibles are a nice touch, I also loved the fact that there were places you could only (optionally) explore if you had certain skills. What impressed me the most though was the attention to details: the multiple street encounters, the radio news that always reflect the recent events and even the idle animation that would change every time I took the elevator. The soundtrack was fantastic too, I had it stuck in my head for a good while after I finished the game. Really cool!

As for the graphics, I understand why others have said it is somewhat subpar, but I like the visuals. They are simplistic, but consistent and clearly a lot of love has been put into details and animations.

I do have some complaints too, but that's probably just because you set the bar so high it is nearly a commercial quality product. What I felt was lacking was some time to walk around, speak to the NPC and explore the surroundings in between the main storyline parts. Street encounters partially compensated for it but I would have liked more "in between" content that involved the key NPC. The pace at which the story developed was very fast which admittedly contributed to the game's dynamics, but at the same time some of the plot elements felt rushed and lacking proper introduction.

Spoiler

I guess ending A is what you get if you manage to dispose of the army in the ending sequence? This time I wasn't even close (I couldn't afford the best weapon even when I sold out everything I had, my firearms was way too low and I didn't have enough medicine), but I'll try on my second playthrough. Tombstones during the ending sequence were a nice touch, it was fun to calculate the age of the characters in hindsight.
[close]
A minor glitch: the locations tab from the final map does not show when you are actually traveling to the final location, and instead it pops up and stays on top of the cutscenes after the ending sequence.

(Side note, I think I can tell which pen & paper RPG you play :))

Kastchey, thank you very much! Your write-up evinces much of what I hoped to get across in the game. I think point and click adventures are in a unique position to play with the bounds of RPG elements, because so much of their design lives or dies on narrative as opposed to mechanics. But also I think your point about in-between content is a very good one, definitely something to think about.

Spoiler
As for the endings, to keep it brief, Ending A is actually total prevention ‘of things' at the end via dialogue, Ending B is ducking out via dialogue, Ending C you already know, and Ending D is if you beat the tricky fight. The best way to do that is with all the health upgrades + some of the drugs from the dealer Aldys. Firearms skill is more important than the choice of weapon. (Just like real life, right?)
[close]

That glitch you found was shown to me by a colleague recently and it's an ugly one, but it has now been patched!

(And yeah, I figured someone would notice  ;))

Kastchey

Quote from: FransisKransis on Sat 18/01/2020 20:41:23
Spoiler
As for the endings, to keep it brief, Ending A is actually total prevention %u2018of things%u2019 at the end via dialogue, Ending B is ducking out via dialogue, Ending C you already know, and Ending D is if you beat the tricky fight. The best way to do that is with all the health upgrades + some of the drugs from the dealer Aldys. Firearms skill is more important than the choice of weapon. (Just like real life, right?)
[close]
Spoiler
Oh, nice! I didn't think there was a way to prevent the entire mayhem at the end. I guess I wasn't gentle enough with Crow to even have this option pop up the first time round. On the second playthrough none of my social skills was high enough to convince him, but I'll get there the third time. I did manage to beat the ending sequence though, I wasn't as far behind the first time as I had thought.
Do the rest of the gang always die, or am I just a lousy shooter? They seem to fall at the same moments but perhaps I'm just equally slow each time ;)

A few more observations from the second playthrough:
*In the doctor's house, if you kill the patient you can keep clicking on her body to produce an endless supply of keys, which then you can all sell at the pawn show.

*If your intimidation, lockpicking and seduction are all beyond pathetic when trying to enter the tower there is no way into the room on the 5th floor (that I could find). Items from the pawn shop are no help. The only way in is with the $450 drug, which can only be purchased if you discover the dealer's location at a place that is no longer accessible at that stage. I am unsure if this is a potential dead end or if I'm missing something.

*Aldys' special gave me +8 lockpicking on top of what it said it would do. Is that intended?

*And finally, light machine gun has an incorrect description in the pawn show inventory window (5* firearms instead of 3*)
[close]

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