A Prelude to an Adventure

[FormosaFalanster]

I played it. The art style is really lovely. It reminds me a bit of what Cocktail Vision was doing in the early to mid nineties (speaking of which, that's an underrated videogame studio).

The little interactions you can have with the environment such as bouncing on the hammock help connecting with the character. Also, it is actually a fantastic idea to explore, having an adventure game with no text but symbols to communicate instead. It helps immersion and communicates through gameplay.

I can't wait to see the fishing game. It seems you intend to have the story revolve around the river, plenty of themes to explore, that sounds very promising.

Are you not afraid the interface will limit you a bit? A single click makes it hard to build lots of puzzles, don't you fear it may become too easy game to complete or getting too similar? Unless you have other gameplay options coming up later? Or you have another plan to keep it exciting?

[Hobo]

Thanks for the comments, heltenjon and FormosaFalanster.

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.

That actually would be rather unique, to make a game or series of short games that revolve around a big adventure, but only depict the preludes, interludes and postludes of that adventure. So that the actual adventure takes place somewhere in the background and the "filler" or slice of life content is pushed forward. Like camping and cooking food in the evening, gathering supplies between trips or recruiting new companions.

Are you not afraid the interface will limit you a bit?

I mean, the two-click interface has been a standard for a long time now, one-click isn't that much different, considering that one of those clicks is usually reserved for looking and inspecting. I do agree that a text parser or multiple verb interface gives more opportunities for devs and creates extra challenge for players, but it's probably still more down to good puzzle design than the interface itself. I can still use inventory or environmental puzzles, play around with time or physics based stuff, utilize teamwork with companions or compliment the gameplay with additional exploration and mini-games. Also, regarding repetitiveness, even if I do decide to resume to this project at some point, I seriously doubt it'll be a long 10+ hour commercial release that requires a fully developed world and tons of variety. It's more likely going to be a freeware hobbyist thing that lasts an hour or two, but as I said, it's very possible that this little prelude is all that it will ever be. And besides, there's nothing wrong with easy and simple games, there's a reasonable audience for it and I don't consider them any worse or lower than the hardcore puzzle ones.


Also, I would like to tone down people's expectations about the fishing mini-game. It's still going to be very simple and basic, because I don't really have the scripting know-how or time to create something more complex and advanced 

Oh, and as a little visual treat, one of the first things I animated were run cycles for the main character, but they didn't make it into the game, because the current walkable areas were too short and small:
[imgzoom]http://tulevik.eu/ags/mags/Prelude/Movement.gif[/imgzoom]

[FormosaFalanster]

Thanks for your answer, it is interesting! I really admire those who can make an interesting game with a minimalist GUI, because I am a chicken who needs plenty of options to make it interesting  so it is really valuable advice for me to see what you can acheive with a single click.

Now that I think of it, I just compared you work to Cocktail Vision's, and in fact they also used single click interfaces in some of their games, so maybe I should play them again.

[heltenjon]

Thanks for the comments, heltenjon and FormosaFalanster.

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.

That actually would be rather unique, to make a game or series of short games that revolve around a big adventure, but only depict the preludes, interludes and postludes of that adventure. So that the actual adventure takes place somewhere in the background and the "filler" or slice of life content is pushed forward. Like camping and cooking food in the evening, gathering supplies between trips or recruiting new companions.

I've always liked this kind of story when it pops up in tv series or comic books. There it usually involves talking and character development/motivation while the action is somewhere else. (And there're always some reader/viewer who comments on the lack of action, so clearly this is not everyone's cup of tea.) But I've never seen a game series about it, only small joke games.

[Hobo]

Finally updated the game. I actually completed the fishing parts already a few months ago, but since I was planning to add some more stuff, it kind of kept dragging on and on. So, I decided to simply draw a line and release what I have and leave it at that, I consider this game completed and done now. The latest 1.0 version has some new interactions and animations, few additional puzzle elements and a very basic fishing mini-game.

[selmiak]

oh, it was fun to revisit this game and see the small changes. The fishing game is even better now!

[Hobo]

Thanks, selmiak! And a huge thanks to everyone who nominated the game for the AGS awards, getting two nominations was certainly a surprise, considering the amout of great and enjoyable games last year.