Topic: A Prelude to an Adventure

[Hobo]

Hey! If you got about 5-10 minutes, then come and help an adventurer to prepare for a mysterious trip to the Land of the White Elephants.
A Prelude to an Adventure is a little interactive experience with light puzzle elements, tons of animations and catchy music.

You can jump in and out of the hammock!



Catch some fish!



And of course pet the fox!



The original version of A Prelude to an Adventure was made during the first two weeks of August for the Lowrezjam 2020, where it got the first place in the graphics category and finished 13th overall. It can still be downloaded from here.

This is a slightly updated version fitted to the August 2020 MAGS theme and has a bigger native resolution, some additional animations and interactions and a new credits scene. It's still missing a planned fishing mini-game and a few puzzles, so I might update it in the future, we'll see.

DOWNLOAD HERE

[Pogwizd]

I think this goes without saying - your game is absolutely beautiful.
I really enjoyed your other game, Don't Ice Your Cool, so I'm really looking forward to playing this one when I've got a moment.

[Laura Hunt]

What a lovely little game! The art style caught my eye immediately, so I just had to give it a spin and I'm glad I did. Beautiful visuals, fitting music, and a fox! That you can pet! What more could I want?

(Interestingly, I thought it looked better at 4x than the default 8x. The text was definitely easier to read!)

My only gripe is, of course, that it's too short. Hope you give us the whole adventure some day

[Matti]

Yes, it really is a lovely game, nice work (as usual).

I played the original version yesterday and this one today, and I like how you made the game fit the MAGS theme . It's also nice to have a slightly larger resolution.

I gotta say, I really like all of your games, Hobo, and I'm always glad to hear you made a new one 

[Hobo]

Thank you, Pogwizd, Laura Hunt and Matti!

@Laura Hunt:
I can totally understand about the size and scaling, zooming anything more that 4-5 times often makes it extremely pixelated and hard to read and getting a more or less readable font working was pretty challenging, especially in it's original 64x64 size.

And yeah, I would really like to get a longer AGS game done at some point, but it still feels like such an intimidating task. I have a couple of projects that have been dragging on for years and I think I can finally keep the artstyle consistent enough for the whole duration, but designing a good variety of solid puzzles that combine well with the narrative and world, that's just so hard to do.

@Matti:
Always glad to hear, that people are having a good time when playing my games. It's been two years since the last one, so I'm pretty happy to get another game released again. Hopefully it won't that long for the next one.

[Laura Hunt]

And yeah, I would really like to get a longer AGS game done at some point, but it still feels like such an intimidating task. I have a couple of projects that have been dragging on for years and I think I can finally keep the artstyle consistent enough for the whole duration, but designing a good variety of solid puzzles that combine well with the narrative and world, that's just so hard to do.

It is hard indeed! But let me remind you of the comment you left on my own game (a comment I agree with 200%, btw):

A well crafted narrative that worked perfectly with the visual style and music to create an immersive experience. I'm personally a bit unsure about that one central puzzle, didn't really seem to fit with the rest of it and I probably would have preferred to play this simply as interactive fiction.

Sometimes it's worse to shoehorn a puzzle where it doesn't fit than to not have a puzzle at all, and if you don't think you can pull it off (or it's simply not what you're most interested in), why not play to your own strengths and go for a more narrative/story focused game with light puzzle/task elements instead? It might not be the most popular approach in these forums, but there's definitely an audience out there for this kind of experiences

[Hobo]

It is hard indeed! But let me remind you of the comment you left on my own game

Ah, an insightful lesson from past Hobo, love it 
But yes, this is probably a direction that I'll explore in the future as it allows me to focus on the things I enjoy most about game development: drawing, writing and world creation.

[selmiak]

of course a longplay of this great game exists! Really well done Hobo!

However, for everyone watching this, I would like to point out that this video features the older version of the game, the current MAGS version has some updates and a whole new resolution.

[milkanannan]

Awesome work, Hobo! I really loved this little game. The whole thought bubble approach was very creative.

[Slasher]

The video graphics looks a lot better than when I played the game on my pc using various settings...

[Hobo]

of course a longplay of this great game exists! Really well done Hobo!

Hey! Thanks for the play, selmiak, watched it already when you posted it after the Lowrezjam. There seems to be very few youtube channels that play free AGS games, so I do try keep my eye on yours to get my dose of future vintage AGS playthroughs.

However, for everyone watching this, I would like to point out that this video features the older version of the game, the current MAGS version has some updates and a whole new resolution.

Awesome work, Hobo! I really loved this little game. The whole thought bubble approach was very creative.

Thanks! I had very little space to work with, so the bubbles were pretty much the only way to depict conversations, but it seemed to work well enough.

The video graphics looks a lot better than when I played the game on my pc using various settings...

That's a bummer to hear. Could you specify? Was the scaling blurry or the screen stretched?

[selmiak]

oh, nice, there is even a new version. Is this the final version or are there more updates to expect?

[Hobo]

oh, nice, there is even a new version. Is this the final version or are there more updates to expect?

I do want to add a fishing mini-game for sure, mainly to see if it's something that I can even script and design in AGS. The current idea is to have fishopedia page in the diary that fills up when you catch different fish and I'll probably add some weird easter eggs as well that you can pull out. But other than that, I think it's pretty much done.

[newwaveburritos]

Holy smokes, those animations look really good.  And so many!

[Hobo]

Holy smokes, those animations look really good.  And so many!

Thanks, newwaveburritos! Animating pixel art is totally my zen activity, always so enjoyable and fun to do, so I tend to go overboard with them 

[KyriakosCH]

Great gfx and animation. Very aesthetically pleasing game!!!

[Hobo]

Great gfx and animation. Very aesthetically pleasing game!!!

Thanks, KyriakosCH!

Meanwhile, I've been working on the extra fishing stuff:

Spoiler: ShowHide

x1 x2 x4 x8

I'll probably release the update some time after the MAGS voting, so late September or early October.

[PlayPretend]

Aw, super cute! Rif is so expressive for low-res animations, very well done!  I got so excited at the end, then remembered the title and wished there was more!

[Hobo]

Aw, super cute! Rif is so expressive for low-res animations, very well done!  I got so excited at the end, then remembered the title and wished there was more!

Thanks, PlayPretend! Well, there'll be a little bit more content soon, I'm still on schedule to release the planned update in a couple of weeks. I am however doubtful that I'll have the time or ideas to expand it into something bigger than a prelude in the foreseeable future, but I might return to this project in a year or two, so we'll see.

The voting for the August MAGS has also ended, huge thanks to everyone who played the games and voted for their favourites, hopefully all of you find the time to support and enjoy the upcoming MAGS competitions as well.

[heltenjon]

Aw, super cute! Rif is so expressive for low-res animations, very well done!  I got so excited at the end, then remembered the title and wished there was more!

Thanks, PlayPretend! Well, there'll be a little bit more content soon, I'm still on schedule to release the planned update in a couple of weeks.

The fishing mini game looks very good! My son was very interested in the fishing part, so I guess we'll be revisiting this little world together.

I am however doubtful that I'll have the time or ideas to expand it into something bigger than a prelude in the foreseeable future, but I might return to this project in a year or two, so we'll see.

The (not?) obvious way to follow up this great title probably would be to make "Interlude and/or Postlude to an adventure". I think the idea of making a game out of the preparations is very good, making the game stand on its own quite nicely.