Graceward (Early Access) + Demo

Started by FransisKransis, Sat 01/01/2022 05:42:32

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FransisKransis

Graceward (Early Access) + Demo

Howdy all. It's about that time of the year again for me to share what I've been up to in AGS, so- I just released an adventure game / shooter hybrid on Itch, called Graceward. It's in Early Access, in an episodic sense, because the first half of the campaign is completed so far, with four out of eight chapters. It's $ 6.00 US, but there is a free demo too which I do at least recommend checking-out to my fellow AGSers, as I've been trying to push the engine with this one... And luckily, I don't think I've broken it yet... Fingers crossed...


The box-blurb stuff is thus:

"Buried in this dark future is something raw. A deep and primal energy that runs like blood under the ground. Is it a rebellion against our fates? A grasp at a second chance? Or is it just the heat of last night’s fires, still clung to the breeze for a short while longer..."


Fusing the styles of Classic Shooting Games with Point and Click Adventure.
Graceward creates a fresh experience, steeped in old school design.

Featuring from the Shooter side of the family:

• Hand-designed levels with dozens of hidden secrets.

• A heavy original score full of industrial sound.

• And gallons of enemy blood.

And from the Adventure Game side:

• Building storylines and relationships.

• Familiar and unfamiliar puzzles and mysteries.

• And decisions which will twist and turn the narrative.


Screenshots straight from the Itch.io page:






A link to the AGS page:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2590/


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

Cheers,
Fransis

Kastchey

Congrats on another release! I can only admire how you continue to spew these quality games in no time.

Some initial feedback on the first part:
Spoiler

- As always, great atmosphere, quick paced action and excellent writing.
- I figured out how to play fairly quickly but it didn't cross my mind initially that I move with WSAD. I started frantically hitting keys I thought may trigger something, got to Tab, clicked help, ah-hah!. Perhaps a quick intro text once Ren is out in the corridor to explain the controls to us dummies?
- I'd love more interactions with the surroundings. I was missing a witty comment on a fire extinguisher or a TV screen ;)
- I think I could use the visibility of the stats while out of combat, so that I know if I should pick up or leave the consumables.
- The stats could probably use some description. You can figure it out eventually but it takes a while.
- I still waste a bullet when I click save with my gun drawn =]
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FransisKransis

Thanks Kastchey, my adventure games are slowly becoming more and more action-oriented every year, lol  :-D

And your feedback is noted on all accounts. Patched some stuff already, got another in the works for later this week. I did kind of want to throw the player to the wolves a bit at the start, but I agree that a basic controls heads-up would probably just be a good idea!

heltenjon

I played this (the demo version) until the game crashed in Abigail's bathroom, while Renee is examining the sink/cupboards.
Error message:

in "room25.asc", line 9
Error: AnimateCharacter: invalid loop number specified

Could be you've already fixed this in the updates. I downloaded 01.01.

I'm not too good at the action thing, wasting my bullets and needing savegames. Still, the action sequences are fun. (I had to destroy the last drone with my fists.) The graphic style is cool, although I have a hard time determining the gender of the characters. I don't know if it matters or not, but as the story is told in short bursts from different viewpoints, it's already quite hard to piece together what's happening. Although that's probably deliberate, and I quite like the storytelling technique. The story and humour is dark, and probably not for everyone.

You released a game on New Year's Eve a year ago, too. That's exactly in time to be eligible for the AGS awards, but for me, at least, it means that I would have a hard time getting to play your game before the nominations. I don't know if that is important to you, but still, there it is.

FransisKransis

Thanks heltonjon, sorry to hear about the crash, that flagging bug has been patched already (though I double-checked now just to be sure), but the good news is that your 1.01 save games should load fine with the most recent version of the demo.

Happy to hear you enjoyed the action gameplay, it's something I'm still working on tightening up even more against the constraints of the engine (and my coding knowledge). The story does hit the ground running but I hope it eventually comes together to make some sense! As for the genders of the characters: Abigail and Mary are both men. Though, as you said, it doesn't really matter too much.

And your point on release timing makes good sense, I may have a bad habit of running up against deadlines! But in this case I'm glad you got a chance to try it out anyway.

heltenjon

Quote from: FransisKransis on Mon 24/01/2022 20:19:14
Thanks heltonjon, sorry to hear about the crash, that flagging bug has been patched already (though I double-checked now just to be sure), but the good news is that your 1.01 save games should load fine with the most recent version of the demo.

Nice! I will try out an updated version.

QuoteAs for the genders of the characters: Abigail and Mary are both men. Though, as you said, it doesn't really matter too much.
Aha! Does that mean
Spoiler
that Mary is the "him" Renee is talking about in the intro? I thought he didn't reach him.
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FransisKransis

Sounds good, feel free to shoot me a message if you run into any other issues! And yep, Mary is who Renee is looking for.

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