Messages

Wonderful game with wonderful graphics, in my opinon. Got a bit tedious watching Gilbert walking across the map all the time, but the music helped.

My medallion seems to have been upgraded, since it informs me that I can use it once more, even after I used it the third time! However, I also encountered a game crash described below.

Spoiler

Error statement: (ACI version 3.10.1050) in "room9.asc", line 300 Error: AnimateCharacter: invalid loop number specified

This occurs after having used the medallion on the code of the safe, when I use the hand cursor on the code display to see what the number was. This was also the third time I used the medallion (cemetary gate, safe keyhole, safe code) and the medallion informs me that I can still use it one more time. I haven't recharged it, but I have restored the game a couple of times.

[close]

EDIT: About the medallion, I may have restored back to a time when I had used it only once, so I'm not sure about my being able to use it frice (or whatever four times should be called).

Like you said, it's a nice 2D cartoon look, which will look good in a suitable environment. No need for shading in my opinion.

As for the walking cycle, I think the side view looks just fine. There are a few things about the front view, though. His right hand seems to be swinging from a forward position, to a straight down position back to a forward position. It is never behind the doctor's coat or behind him as it is in the side view. You will probably have to make part of the hand be obscured by the coat or the arm itself. Neither the left or the right upper arms seem to be moving in the front view.

The legs are much better, though maybe a little too far apart from eachother, in my vew. One detail: The front view suggests he lifts his toes so much only the soles of the shoes are visible in the beginning of each step. In the side view he does not lift them as much, and that looks much more natural to me.

Keep up the good work

Additional comments to the 5th hour, not included in Beta test report in previous post, though graded in the same way.


Comments
--------
Hour 5

0
Comment about cupboard is great! (OMIGOD! A gateway...)

3
Astrid talking to injured guy. At the end of dialogue it says "hosital" instead of "hospital"

3
In bedroom upstairs
"Well, might as let the actress earn her pay." A word or two are missing.

3
In bedroom, showing the girl the scrapbook
She reads and comments "Then when I tried to scare you aware..." Should be away, right?

[without spoilers]

This is a copy of the original beta test report
« Sent to: Cogliostro on: 30 Oct 2010, 11:50 »
Several issues have since been discussed and addressed, why Cogliostro asked me to post the report here aswell, even though it's a long post.

By now, I trust everyone reading this thread has completed the game up til hour 4, why I make this post without spoilers, to make it more easily readable.

----


Beta test report
================

This is a game beta test of Nine Hours to Dawn, as downloaded from http://www.kengott.com/9Hours2Dawn.zip on GMT 29 Oct 2010 22:47:52. This report covers the first part of the game until hour 4.

Each comment starts with a problem graded from 0 to 7, as explained below. The next row refers to a certain room, cut scene or other screen, suitably named for easy reference.

Please bare in mind that I don't intend to be a know-it-all, but when I go into test mode I tend to pay attention to the details and turn to looking for problems. Most comments can be disregarded, and you will still have a nice game. What makes a great game, however, is when all the details are there aswell.

If there are comments graded 6 or 7 I suggest you address them first, as they involve game freeze or game crash.

Limbo


Grading
-------
0 - Encouragement
1 - Suggestion for improving
2 - Minor flaw or bug, not noticeable to most users
3 - Minor spelling, language or interpunctuation issue
4 - Issue noticeable to most users
5 - Loss of coherence or continuity or other story related issue
6 - Severe problem, not involving game freeze, crash or player getting stuck
7 - Problem causing game freeze, crash or player getting stuck

Summary
-------
Overall, the first part of this game contains very nice foto graphics, great computer graphics and great animation graphics. Also, the language builds the story to make it interesting, giving characters character. At this point I cannot make an assessment of the plot. That would have to wait until I have played more of the game. I haven't really thought about the music, which usually means that it is suitable for the scenes. This is a good sign.

In the first three chapters, intro and splash screen the following number of the various issues occured.

Grading   number of comments

   1       2
   2       6
   3      18
   4       1
   5       3
   6
   7       1 - game crash issue

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS POST


Comments
--------
2
Intro screen
drop-down menu active and cursor displayed as "waiting"

0
Good that there actually is a Read-me with instructions

0
Really nice graphics!

1
In contrast to the very nice graphics, the dialogue-boxes look a bit dull. I think the impression would increase significantly with a layout of your own, and it's easy to do, too.

3
Intro dialogue (box number 18)
"... I saw the car on the side of..." should be "... I saw a car on the side of..." Nothing suggests, even after playing into chapter 4, that there should be anything special about this car.

3 and 5
Intro dialogue
(box number 22, also 24)
"perky blond" should be "blonde" ? But she looks like a red-head

5
Dialogue after car crash
Too controlled reactions to be beleivable. Need something more before either in dialogue or some explaining text box so you understand that some minutes has passed with shocked people. Also seems strange that people already seem to have assumed their roles, pointing out who's the know-it-all etc. For all we know the people of the different cars have only just met eachother.

3
Forest path after accident
-(First dialogue box): Missing interpunctuation. "You this is all your fault!" Should have a comma or exclamation mark after "You"
-(Third dialogue box): "rear end" should be "rear-end" since it's a verb [e.g. http://www.yourdictionary.com/rear-end]. Also sentence should end in question mark.
-(later, same dialogue): "taillights" should be "tail lights"
-(...): "Hey, guys, remember me, the guy with the broken leg?" Suggested new interpunctuation

2
Arriving at house
The last couple of persons just vanish simultaneously. You don't see them enter the house.

3
On veranda
"Like I said, a real dump." Missing finishing period.

1
On veranda
"... part of nature!"  Capital N?

2
Generator site
-Baseline issue when walking left of the small red house

3
Car crash site
-Get car: "carjack" should be "car jack". Otherwise it refers to carjacking.
-Also in anouncement box for addition to inventory it says "CARJACK".

2
Forest path
I find it a bit annoying when you leave a room in two, as seen in the scene, totally different directions, and end up on the same spot in the same room. For instance
-Forest path after accident: South->Car crash site, West-> ditto


3
To exit rooms to the south you need to click awfully close to the edge of the screen. This time I played in a window, so I could write these comments, and I often clicked off window going south (no pun intended).

7
Outside shed
When trying to use the jack on the dark window of the shed the game terminates giving the following message "Error: prepare_script: error -18 (no such function in script) trying to run '280,210' (Room 9)" This error could be repeated after restoring, suggesting it happens every time someone tries to use the jack on the shed window.

4 and 0
All rooms
Very limited output from the game engine when you try to interact with the background or objects. Some generic answers like "I don't want to do that" or "It looks nice" are adviced. Some more specific answers, too, would increase game appreciation, but it's tedious to do, I know. Comments in the tool shed is great, for instance.

3
Car crash site
After siphoning gas to the can, if you click with the hand tool on the car you still get the message "According to the gauge, there's still gas in the tank, but I need someway to get it out."

3
Generator site
After getting part of the hose, the same message about not being able to get it with your bare hands applies.

3
Great hall (First dialogue after generator on)
Missing period in the box where Baldy says: "Like hell, I found it I'm going to keep it."

3
Great hall (First dialogue after generator on)
An "I" too many in the box "You have been pissing me off since I we met. Do NOT push it!"

3 Great hall (night vision movie)
Interaction with eye tool on telescope: Replace "if" for "is" in the box starting "What is he saw one of those..." Same mistake in the big box for interaction with hand tool.

0
Great hall (night vision movie)
Hilarious cut-in about pop corn!

3
Kitchen (night vision movie)
Misspelled "everything" when interacting with cupboard: "There's an ancient package of coffee [...] when everythign else ..."

0
Dining room (movie)
Great scare effect!

2
Dining room (movie)
A few boxes down there's a box containg just three periods. I first thought it was an object. This could be solved by customizing dialogue boxes.

3
Dining room (movie)
Look picture: "...Harmonic Covergence..." Should be convergence?

0
Bathroom (movie)
Great scare effect!

3
Great hall (dialogue after movie)
Player says "predictated" should be "predicted"

0
Baldy in kitchen
Points for the blue coffee cup in the cupboard!

5
Baldy in kitchen
Cannot seem to find the blue cup and the coffe after the coffe machine has  mysteriously turned up on the desk.

2
Baldy in dining room
Mild walk-behind issue: In walk mode, place the cursor as if its legs were standing on the picture with the woman. Move the cursor right along the wall and click on various spots. You'll briefly see small parts of the character protruding from the wall.


===== END OF BETA TEST REPORT

Incidently, have you talked to the people behind sarien.net? They have somehow brought the old Sierra games, like Space Quest, Police Quest and King's Quest to the web. These games are not built in AGS, of course, but the functionality requested is almost the same. Unfortunately the games are still buggy, I haven't been able to access the inventory, for example, but it's there. As far as I can tell (http://sarien.net/about), there is still a lot of manual work to do to convert a game, but maybe they have some ideas about what not to do.

One neat thing is game save, which is solved by asking the user to bookmark the saved page, the url of which has a special hash added to it when requesting a save, like "http://sarien.net/spacequest2#fDExNCw1MiwwLDAsMHwwLDUsMSw... "

Another thing is the multiplayer functionality, however limited to online chat with the other players in the room at the time.

Not a lot has been covered concerning that project over here, but a search for "sarien" on the forums givs this hit: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=37556.0