A Prelude to an Adventure

Started by Hobo, Mon 31/08/2020 22:18:20

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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.

Then it got updated and fitted to the August 2020 MAGS theme. Updates included a bigger native resolution, some additional animations and interactions and a new credits scene. This can be downloaded from here.

And finally, version 1.0 adds more interactions and animations, few additional puzzle elements and a fleshed out fishing mini-game.


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? :-D

(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 :-D. 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

Quote from: Hobo on Tue 01/09/2020 11:07:59
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):

QuoteA 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

Quote from: Laura Hunt on Tue 01/09/2020 12:08:36
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  :-D
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

#7
of course a longplay of this great game exists! Really well done Hobo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGn9trAUlBw

Quote from: Hobo on Tue 01/09/2020 19:46:56
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

#10
Quote from: selmiak on Tue 01/09/2020 17:43:12
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.

Quote from: milkanannan on Tue 01/09/2020 18:01:33
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.

Quote from: Slasher on Tue 01/09/2020 18:41:22
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

Quote from: selmiak on Tue 01/09/2020 20:20:17
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

Quote from: newwaveburritos on Wed 02/09/2020 03:21:34
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!!!
This is the Way - A dark allegory. My Twitter!  My Youtube!

Hobo

Quote from: KyriakosCH on Sat 05/09/2020 21:58:23
Great gfx and animation. Very aesthetically pleasing game!!!
Thanks, KyriakosCH!

Meanwhile, I've been working on the extra fishing stuff:
Spoiler
I'll probably release the update some time after the MAGS voting, so late September or early October.

The Great Underground Empire

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

Quote from: PlayPretend on Mon 07/09/2020 20:08:08
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

Quote from: Hobo on Thu 17/09/2020 16:35:15
Quote from: PlayPretend on Mon 07/09/2020 20:08:08
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.

QuoteI 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.

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