The Garden of Hades - surreal adventure

[elentgirl]

My latest game, The Garden of Hades, is the first game that I have made in collaboration with someone else.  It is based upon an outline game by my Italian friend, built around the garden of her apartment block.  It is another surreal first-person adventure.



You have to save the soul of a woman held by Hades, the ancient god of the dead, by navigating five very different settings:
a little girl's dream...


a young woman's psychedelic trip...


a comic book journey into space...


a pack of Tarot cards in a puppet theatre...


a detective story concerning a China plate...


There are many challenges that you must overcome before the final confrontation with Hades himself.  If you dare, step into The Garden of Hades!
This game is a little shorter than my previous games, and less 'puzzle heavy'.  This the linbk to the AGS database: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2561-the-garden-of-hades/

Here is the video trailer:

 

[heltenjon]

This looks so good! On to the waiting list of games to play soon. 

[Cassiebsg]

Good to see it finally out. 

[Shadow1000]

Congrats on the release! I've been playing since Sunday and enjoying every minute of it.

Until it crashed

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I got a score of 440 in the Space Invaders game and the game shut down and it said that it was a bug

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I hope this can be corrected!

[elentgirl]

Until it crashed
I hope this can be corrected!

I am very sorry that you suffered this crash, Shadow1000 - it occurred once during testing but I was unable to discover the cause (even when the tester sent me the error message details), and niether of us was able to repeat it.
I put in a small check to stop what Ithought might be causing it, but obviously I was wrong.  I shall have to do some more examination and testing of the code to see if I can exterminate this irritating bug. 

I hope this has not put you off continuing with the game.

[Shadow1000]

Until it crashed
I hope this can be corrected!

I am very sorry that you suffered this crash, Shadow1000 - it occurred once during testing but I was unable to discover the cause (even when the tester sent me the error message details), and niether of us was able to repeat it.
I put in a small check to stop what Ithought might be causing it, but obviously I was wrong.  I shall have to do some more examination and testing of the code to see if I can exterminate this irritating bug. 

I hope this has not put you off continuing with the game.

Hi Elen

I definitely want to continue the game. Does that mean that this particular task is not necessary for continuing?

[Cassiebsg]

You only need the prize of one of the machines, but I can't remember which.

My advice is save before playing the arcade, and go for it. It might not happen again. I wasn't able to repeat that crash bug after it crashed the first time I played it. So there's a good chance it won't crash for you again either. And use the cheat, if you don't want/need to do full score in a one run. 

[Shadow1000]

You only need the prize of one of the machines, but I can't remember which.

My advice is save before playing the arcade, and go for it. It might not happen again. I wasn't able to repeat that crash bug after it crashed the first time I played it. So there's a good chance it won't crash for you again either. And use the cheat, if you don't want/need to do full score in a one run. 

Alright. I'll try playing again. The last time I played a good game of Space Invaders was an April 2020 MAGS entry called "Over Roger" so this will be fun....

[Stupot]

Nice looking game. Congrats.

[Shadow1000]

You only need the prize of one of the machines, but I can't remember which.

My advice is save before playing the arcade, and go for it. It might not happen again. I wasn't able to repeat that crash bug after it crashed the first time I played it. So there's a good chance it won't crash for you again either. And use the cheat, if you don't want/need to do full score in a one run. 

I beat the space invader game but I

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can't figure out what to do with the coins

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I really hope it's not the gem collector game because after 40 minutes, I don't see any way to get more than halfway and I've lost interest in trying.

[elentgirl]

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can't figure out what to do with the coins

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I really hope it's not the gem collector game because after 40 minutes, I don't see any way to get more than halfway and I've lost interest in trying.

In answer to your fisrt query:

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You could try offering the coins to Jack

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I'm afraid the answer to your second point is that you will have to complete Gem Collector to continue the game.  It is a logic puzzle rather than a true arcade game - it does not have to be done in a certain time (unlike Alien Invaders).  If you are really stuck and can send me a screenshot of where you are stuck I will give you a hint or two to get you unstuck.  I would hate you to give up on the game. 
elentigrl

[Shadow1000]

In answer to your fisrt query:

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You could try offering the coins to Jack

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Good idea! I actually tried that but he said

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He wants something more rare or unique. So I spent about 30 minutes looking for something to do with the coins (or any hotspots) but no avail

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I'm afraid the answer to your second point is that you will have to complete Gem Collector to continue the game.  It is a logic puzzle rather than a true arcade game - it does not have to be done in a certain time (unlike Alien Invaders).  If you are really stuck and can send me a screenshot of where you are stuck I will give you a hint or two to get you unstuck.  I would hate you to give up on the game. 
elentigrl

I appreciate that kind offer! I might take you up on it. I just have trouble figuring out the logic: Sometimes you can push boulders, sometimes you can't. Sometimes 2 stacked will have the top one fall arbitrarily to the right or left (usually it's direction that will crush the player ) Sometimes you can walk through them and sometimes you can't walk in an empty space.

I'll try to send a screenshot when I have a chance. Thanks again

[elentgirl]

Good idea! I actually tried that but he said

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He wants something more rare or unique. So I spent about 30 minutes looking for something to do with the coins (or any hotspots) but no avail

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You get the rare coin from the same place as the others.  You have to play both games to get the coin that Jack wants

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Sometimes you can walk through them and sometimes you can't walk in an empty space.

This should not happen and, as far as I know, did not happen during testing.  If you can let me have details of exactly where that happened, I shall take a closer look.
Thanks,
elentgirl

[Shadow1000]

Good idea! I actually tried that but he said

Spoiler

He wants something more rare or unique. So I spent about 30 minutes looking for something to do with the coins (or any hotspots) but no avail

[close]

Spoiler

You get the rare coin from the same place as the others.  You have to play both games to get the coin that Jack wants

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This should not happen and, as far as I know, did not happen during testing.  If you can let me have details of exactly where that happened,

Sounds like I am on the right track, then, and I just need to get past this one phase. I'll continue in PM. Thank you

[heltenjon]

I'm playing this. I'm taking my time, just went to Pluto.

First of all, the graphics, sound, voices are so polished! The game looks and sounds better than many commercial titles. Some of the sections must be quite hard to code, as well. But the work done here is very, very good.

The puzzles and storytelling, then. The game is clearly inspired by Myst and the 7th Guest and games of that ilk, however, in this game the order of the puzzles are set in stone. I think I would have preferred to be able to tackle them in any order and piece the story together myself, but it's hard to judge for certain before I'm through the whole game. I guess Elentgirl wants to tell the story of Ruby chronologically, and that makes sense, particularly if

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Ruby would have died if the player doesn't intervene like a guardian angel, thus the future timelines wouldn't exist.

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The story is told in small pieces in each segment, and will probably make up a whole later. But so far, I'm really playing it for the puzzles, not for the story, as was my approach with 7th Guest and Myst as well, back in the day. (But I don't think I finished those. I got stuck somewhere and just put it aside. That's the danger of not "needing" to see how the story turns out.)

I liked the first segment a lot, except that I

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solved the wrong jigsaw puzzle picture, and had to swap to the one with a fairground. I didn't really find any clues as to which picture was the right one, it was all trial and error for me.

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But the first world was very nice, even had a Boulderdash game, which I played a lot on Commodore 64 as a kid.  The execution of the action games was very good! (If you had released them as stand-alone minigames on the ags page, they would rank high in the not-adventure genre on their own.)

The second segment started out okay, with the jumbled words. But then came the maze. Arrgh! I have to admit this section was too hard for me, and I had to resort to the walkthrough to make it through. Some comments on how I played in spoiler tags:

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I have to say first that I generally don't like mazes. I thought this one wouldn't be too hard, as it looked like it was in a three by three grid. But I soon lost my bearings with turning around in the psychedelic landscape, and for some reason I thougt some doors were teleports due to the effect when I went through an unlocked door. In my mind, that was what the blinking colours on the map meant - these aren't normal doors. Anyway, just by stumbling around, I found the central room with the puzzle, and again I misinterpreted a clue. I had read on a wall that three was the magic number, so I set the "clock" to three. The next time, I tried with the "arrow" pointing the other way, as I didn't know what was up or down on it. Further by accident, I found myself holding a jigsaw piece that had appeared in a room. I did not make any connection to the clock turning at all - it could have been there all along, for all I knew. But I did place it in the central room, and set the clock again, getting another piece, which turned out to overlap when I tried to place it. I knew there was a written message about overlapping, and I gathered that I could probably find out which pieces I needed from the piece of paper in my inventory. But as I didn't know how to make a certain piece appear, and had a hard time finding my way, I threw in the towel and resorted to the walkthrough, where I also read by accident which three pieces I had to use.

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Conclusion: I may have stumbled upon the correct solution purely by accident if I had given it enough time, but I think the fun is in understanding, not brute forcing a puzzle. Big kudos to anyone who solved this one without hints!

I said this puzzle was too hard for me. So, how could it be dumbed down to my level? 

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My first problem was finding my way and understanding the colour codes. If I could have always seen the map, and how the colours changed, I would know where I was, that there weren't any teleports, only logical passageways, and the lock system would be easier to understand.

When I set the "clock", there could have been a sound effect or something, or perhaps when the player picks up the jigsaw piece there could be a comment like "this one must have opened up when I did the thing." This may have made me understand that those two things were connected and that I could orchestrate which jigsaw piece appeared next.

I'd also have liked to be able to collect more pieces in my inventory. If the last puzzle was to pick from all available pieces which ones fit together without overlapping, it would be a very good puzzle on its own.

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I'm going to go into space now...I hope the maze segment doesn't stop players from playing the other parts of the game due to being stuck. I know I would have skipped it until later if I could, but that's me and mazes.

[heltenjon]

Space segment cleared. I liked the look of the space ship, and the humour in the names of the crew was very welcome. (It's in her head at this point, so why not.) I'm not entirely sure how fixing the space ship saved her this time, to be honest. Is it about beating the coma?

Three main puzzles this time, and I liked two of them.

Generator door code:

Spoiler

I liked searching the space station for clues, and I found the birthday, the room and the name of the ship fairly easy. However, I couldn't be sure about how to write the date (DDMMYY/MMDDYY/DMYYYY/MDYYYY). I wasn't entirely sure about the room either - it could maybe be another one. But that's okay, I had it right, and I could try different things if necessary...if it hadn't been for the third part about the ship. I tried subtracting the number of letters in the name, and came to the conclusion that the solution could be almost anything. And given that I was uncertain about the first two numbers, I'd have to test each theory 16 times (4x2) to be sure it wasn't right. So I decided that wouldn't be any fun and went to the walkthrough.

I'd have liked some sort of assurance that each part of the solution was correct, like there is in the navigation puzzle.

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Fixing the power:

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I liked this one, although it would have been better if the colours of the batteries/power cells were visible when inside the rotating wheel. I basically solved this one by putting lego pieces in the same colour on the table in front of me, and adjusting the pattern until it worked. Hard puzzle, but doable.

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Fixing the navigation:

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This one was fun and brilliantly designed. Very nice to be able to switch between the two screens mid-process. Also very thoughtful to include a system for showing where the error is, otherwise it would be virtually unsolvable. (I disagree about switch 4 in row B, for instance.) As the screen is cracked, it's not always crystal clear which solution is the right one. One thing: I thought for a while that I had to find a four-digit code in order to unlock the box, not simply pushing the unlock button! 

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Sorry for multiple posts, but I'm posting under the assumption that game authors want a lot of feedback, and the game is so huge that it's easier to comment on one segment at a time, lest I forget something.

[Shadow1000]

Space segment cleared. I liked the look of the space ship, and the humour in the names of the crew was very welcome. (It's in her head at this point, so why not.) I'm not entirely sure how fixing the space ship saved her this time, to be honest. Is it about beating the coma?

Three main puzzles this time, and I liked two of them.

Generator door code:

Spoiler

I liked searching the space station for clues, and I found the birthday, the room and the name of the ship fairly easy. However, I couldn't be sure about how to write the date (DDMMYY/MMDDYY/DMYYYY/MDYYYY). I wasn't entirely sure about the room either - it could maybe be another one. But that's okay, I had it right, and I could try different things if necessary...if it hadn't been for the third part about the ship. I tried subtracting the number of letters in the name, and came to the conclusion that the solution could be almost anything. And given that I was uncertain about the first two numbers, I'd have to test each theory 16 times (4x2) to be sure it wasn't right. So I decided that wouldn't be any fun and went to the walkthrough.

I'd have liked some sort of assurance that each part of the solution was correct, like there is in the navigation puzzle.

[close]

Fixing the power:

Spoiler

I liked this one, although it would have been better if the colours of the batteries/power cells were visible when inside the rotating wheel. I basically solved this one by putting lego pieces in the same colour on the table in front of me, and adjusting the pattern until it worked. Hard puzzle, but doable.

[close]

Fixing the navigation:

Spoiler

This one was fun and brilliantly designed. Very nice to be able to switch between the two screens mid-process. Also very thoughtful to include a system for showing where the error is, otherwise it would be virtually unsolvable. (I disagree about switch 4 in row B, for instance.) As the screen is cracked, it's not always crystal clear which solution is the right one. One thing: I thought for a while that I had to find a four-digit code in order to unlock the box, not simply pushing the unlock button! 

[close]

Sorry for multiple posts, but I'm posting under the assumption that game authors want a lot of feedback, and the game is so huge that it's easier to comment on one segment at a time, lest I forget something.

My own experience:
Fixing the power:

Spoiler

I had to resort to putting the cylinders in and spinning until I got the ones I needed. I had no idea what was going on or how this was to be solved. I didn't get the logic even with  the walkthrough

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Fixing the navigation:

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I got the idea but translating it into a solution was not so clear. The cracked screen did not make it easier. I solved some, got irritated and used the walkthrough for the rest

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[heltenjon]

My own experience:
Fixing the power:

Spoiler

I had to resort to putting the cylinders in and spinning until I got the ones I needed. I had no idea what was going on or how this was to be solved. I didn't get the logic even with  the walkthrough

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I tried that, too!  But eventually,

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I broke out the legos. I guessed from the colours in the schematic where the circuits were, and then tried with different colours to see which made the power output rise or fall on that circuit. Then I was in the process of putting all the yellow cylinders away from each other to get an even flow, when it suddenly worked. When looking at the walkthrough afterwards, I see that the white circuit is three-way, which I didn't guess. So I was a bit lucky. 

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[heltenjon]

And...I finished the game. With some help from the walkthrough.

Tarot segment: I liked this one. It was a nice mix of maths and riddles, using the tarot deck as base. Maybe a tad easier than the former chapters, but that probably depends on the player's familiarity with maths. This must have been tricky to code - some of these problems have multiple solutions. I ran across one correct solution that wasn't implemented in the "maths crossword", but it wasn't hard to change it into one that worked. Personally, I liked the riddles better than the maths puzzles, but there aren't any weak spots in this segment. I liked the puppet show movies a lot!

China segment: I'm divided over this one. I started out by

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solving the jigsaw puzzle of the broken plate upside down,

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but that was easily corrected. Nice with a callback to the player so I knew when I was doing it right!

Entering the pagoda:

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I understood that I had to make a connection between the Chinese symbols and the shapes. What confused me a bit, was that there were two rows of identical shape-formed buttons. There isn't any logical reason to guess the code other than it's the only sequence I had, as far as I can tell.

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The plates:

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Good story and good puzzle. My first attempts weren't correct, and I would have liked a message, like "I'll try it again later" if the player leaves the pagoda before finishing the puzzle. I thought I had solved it and went out to experiment with the map in case it had triggered something somewhere else. Now, when you do solve it, you aren't in any doubt that progress is being made. (I tried to find the teleportation points in the plate pictures and visit them in the correct order, for instance.)

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Feng Shui:

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I accidentally believed the lion was a dragon and couldn't make any sense of this. I teleported from one location to the next in various combinations before giving up and checking the walkthrough. As this said I had to click on the dragon, I went back to the map...and clicked on the lion. Repeatedly. Then I finally discovered there were new hotspots on the map. Unfortunately, I now knew the solution from the walkthrough.  The slider puzzle had a nice twist to it! 

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The China segment is very convoluted. There seems to be story-within-a-story in five layers, so clearly that storytelling technique must be one of the author's favourites. The link to the central story is not too clear, though, and I have difficulties in seeing what the player saved Ruby from in this chapter.

Final Challenge:

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I actually lucked out and won this before I had time to figure out the rules of the game. So I had to reload a saved game to go back and see what happened if Hades won.  I think this boardgame is a good puzzle and a satisfying conclusion to the game.

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Final thoughts: The game is very beautiful and switches seamlessly between styles of graphics and music. If Eric Matyas didn't make the music custom for this game, you sure have made the right choices when picking sounds and tunes! The presentation and atmosphere(s) are top notch, in other words.

The story is

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not in the foreground here, the puzzles are. At times I didn't see the connection between all the quests and Ruby's story. At the end of the game, I still don't know anything about the player character and why he's willing to risk so much for Ruby. Ruby herself is a scientist, but also likes pulp novels, Chinese culture and history, have been into recreational drugs and may be prone to depression. And she's a scientist who believes in Tarot fortune telling? Hades is a good antagonist. It's concistent with the myths to have him be annoyed by Ruby cheating death, even though he's not supposed to be evil, just stern. In the end, the story is very much open to interpretation, but you need to read a lot symbolically to make it work.

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The puzzles are the meat of the game. You have all kinds here, and the players will probably see from the very first puzzle if this is a game for them. (Guessing a word and manipulating a device with buttons to spell that word.) There is little in the vain of inventory or dialogue puzzles, but there are codes, sliders, mazes, jigsaws, contraption manipulation, maths, riddles, sorting and much more. My opinion is that some of the puzzles are excellent, while some are too difficult, at least for this player. I would think very few wouldn't find something they like here, but at the same time, most of us may not like all the puzzles. And chances are we may be stuck along the way.

I'd recommend this game to people who like Myst-style games. If you play for the story, humour or action, this may not be your type of game. But if you are into "pure" puzzle solving, this may be up your alley. Download the walkthrough or enlist some friends - some parts are insanely difficult.

[elentgirl]

Hello heltenjon

I'm glad that, generally, you liked The Garden of Hades - thank you for your review.  I'm sorry that you found some of the puzzles obscure.  Ironically, the psycedelic house puzzle was designed by my co-creator, who loves intricate puzzles - she considers that I have given players too many clues to help them solve the puzzle! 

But the first world was very nice, even had a Boulderdash game, which I played a lot on Commodore 64 as a kid.  The execution of the action games was very good! (If you had released them as stand-alone minigames on the ags page, they would rank high in the not-adventure genre on their own.)

You may be interested to learn that I am currently developing Gem Collector as a stand-alone game with a number of different levels.  Watch this space! 

elentgirl