Messages

Hi all! Sorry again for the super late response.

@Que Tran

Spoiler

I've figured out how to break the chains but then I go to the apartment, find Angela, turn off tv, go to sleep and I think I've found a bug. The phone flashes red but when I try to check for a new message nothing happens. I leave the apartment and I get taken to the long stairs but I can't walk down the stairs or use the door. How do I finish the game?

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Wow you definitely found a game breaking bug and I'm really sorry your experience ended like that Can't really say much other than I will look into it when I have time away from deadlines.


@KyriakosCH

Sounds interesting - I will give it a try

edit: played a bit. It has a Downfall vibe (i think the female crying sound is the one used there as well ).

I got stuck, though.

Spoiler

trying to find booze for the old man. I completed dressing the mannequin.

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Also, there is a bug-ish thing with

Spoiler

the ability to use the blood on the cup in the manager's room, WAY before you find any notes that make it logical to get the message 'not now'. This, of course, makes the player realize what is going on prior to the point one is intended to).

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You should post a walkthough sometime.

That's interesting! I haven't heard of Downfall before so I did a quick search and it looks pretty dope. Do you recommend it?

Spoiler

Also you're totally right with that 'not now' message when the player uses the blood on the cup. I actually remember that specific conversation I had with myself of whether I wanted to force the player to have an idea of what was going on before opening that possibility in the play space, but ultimately I decided to go with the way it is now because
1. Games which restrict your horizon of action until you hit some sort of flag feel too suffocating to me, especially in a point-and-click adventure. When people get stuck in this genre, they tend to start using random items on the environment, and I wanted people to go through this cycle less.
2. I want to plant the idea that the player character of Tony knows more than the player him/herself.

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And I think you're right about a walkthrough, I'll get on that when I get to bug fixing


@charly

I'm a bit sad, because I wanted to finish the game before I went to bed, but it's already 4pm and I have no patience to run every floor and room again. Hopefully someone can soon give me a hint here.

possible bug:

Spoiler

After I stabbed both ears I got out in front of the house and met the old maid again. When I tried to stab her, Tony automatically goes to the bus station. The old man isn't there anymore, only a desk chair is there (at a bus stop? ).

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Hi charly, thanks for playing the game and letting me know about another bug I'll definitely need to fix that as well.
I hope you haven't completely given up hope yet!

Spoiler

What you're looking for is lying on the ground of room 204.

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Yo yo! Thanks for your kind words Tycho, I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far I hope you'll have the time to see the rest of the game as well.

Que Tran, sorry for the late reply, but:

Spoiler

the eye only triggers when you're in a specific spot in the room. Unless it's a bug?

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Nice guys, loving the feedback

I actually did think of

Spoiler

dropping the player off at the very start of the game again after the credits, but I thought it would be pushing the boundaries of abusiveness after confusing save function. Although now that I think about it, it's the whole point of the game!

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I think I'll revisit Memory Lane at the end of the summer and see what kind of improvements I could make to make it less confusing. Would having a readme/manual file in the game's .zip with a hint to the save function (or outright just telling you) spoil the whole thing? It's not a game that's intended to be a comfortable experience, but it's sounding like I'm pushing the usability of it too far away.

Hey Cassie, thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked the puzzles and the mystery, I really enjoyed working on them. That is, until...

Spoiler

I ran out of time and had to finish the narrative as fast as possible, which is why the ending is unsatisfying. You're pretty spot on with the both interpretations: Although he "got away" from the law, Tony has to face his conscience. 46 Memory is Tony's Silent Hill, which is why the .exe is called "diyu", the Chinese word for hell (which was the working title of the game before I thought about the memory mechanic).
As for the angel, it's sort of a mash-up of ideas. I mean there's the obvious connection between ANGEL and ANGELA, and the point in the story where the angel disappears and shows up randomly is when Tony's world is destabilized. When Tony "descends", the guardian is no longer there to save him from his guilt (his memories).

I don't want to say too much, but I was trying to put layers in the narrative with the mechanics Hopefully some of it is conveyed!

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Mandle, if I could write a bigger emoticon I would

But that is pretty interesting about SPC, I think I'll have to check it out. I really love when people use lampshading creatively.

Hmm, it should be in your Saved Games folder in your Documents. I just saw the option in the General Settings and I wanted to be a little creative, but I guess it actually changes the directory if I set this option.

Thanks Tycho, I'd love to hear your thoughts when you've played it

I totally understand. I wanted to call attention to the game itself, as a system, but it's one of these ideas works better in theory than in practice. I'm glad you got it in the end though, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the game!

@Cassie
Thanks! There isn't too big a difference, but some bugs are ironed out, and some dramatic moments are... enhanced If you're not too far, I would start over with this version, of course.

@Bishy
That's a good question; saving the game is a bit of a puzzle. If you really wanna know, it has to do with

Spoiler

your (or rather Tony's) memories.

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Hi,

This is my first complete game with AGS that I made for my graduation project for university. I would like to present...



Tony comes back home after three years abroad to find that in his absence, things have changed. For one, his wife Angela is nowhere to be found. And what is this he keeps hearing about a new owner of the apartment building? Thus begins his descent into a creepy little dream narrative...

Screenshots:




Download:
AGS Games Database

I hope you'll enjoy it! If you find a bug or want to contact me, my email is: shamang37@gmail.com

@Shadow
Oh I actually didn't know the function keys will quit the game, thanks for the info! But I guess the story was intriguing enough for you to at least try a second time
Anyway, the way you save your game is

Spoiler

when you go through certain doorways, you have a chance of meeting an angel statue (if she's not too busy crying). Use the memories you've found on her to save the game.

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I'll admit that as a puzzle it's kind of cheap, but I was hoping the narrative implications would make up for it!

As for where you're at right now I'll give you a hint:

Spoiler

What you need is a way to access the third floor. It's a bit of pixel hunt but hopefully not too frustrating. Contact me again if you need further help

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Thanks for trying out the game!

@Two Tales
I actually just submitted it to my profs yesterday, so it won't be long until I'll consider it finished. You can keep an eye on the Completed Games board  Btw, Rabbit Hill was pretty inspirational for me; thanks for making that game.

@sthomannch
You made me smile. Thanks for playing!

@Michael2968
Like sthomannch said, it is possible, but I'm curious about your experience with that puzzle...

Spoiler

What did you think of the signposting for the steps in the ritual to animate the mannequin? Was the combination of the note fragments and the black book effective in telling you what to do?

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Whoops, using the 'width=xxx' in the img tag didn't seem to work 
Let's just say it's extra promotional.

This is my first almost-complete AGS Game that I made for my university final project.

46 MEMORY LANE

Tony comes back home after three years abroad to find that in his absence, things have changed. For one, his wife Angela is nowhere to be found. And what is this he keeps hearing about a new owner of the apartment building? Thus begins his descent into a creepy little dream narrative.





Development progress:
As with all my projects I found myself getting too ambitious, and with the final project deadline looming over my head I had to drop a lot of content to submit something "finished". But since it doesn't follow conventional story structure, I think I can safely say that Story is at a solid 90%. The scripting is almost done; I just need to iron out some bugs and do further playtesting (maybe you guys can help me out with that). The graphics could have more animations, but since that's not my forte I'll just say it's at 99%. The Sound/Music department is the most lacking; there's ambience/music in some screens, and some sound effects, but could be more. 60%

DOWNLOAD DEMO HERE: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y2oynkvznlt8qef/46memorylane.zip?dl=0

Oh, that was simple. I guess that should've been the first thing I thought of

Thanks very much!

Hi, there's something I can't figure out.

I really appreciate this new parameter in the player.ChangeRoom function, where I can specify which direction the character will face after the room change. I was wondering if I can store this in a variable, because I'm writing a function that runs every room change in which there's a chance the player character will be sent to a completely different room (in which the game can be saved). Otherwise, the player will go to the usual room like nothing ever happened.

Here's what I mean:

Code: ags

function SaveChanceRoomChange(int targetRoom, int targetx, int targety, String direction)
{
  if (saveRoomActive){ 
    int randomchance = Random(saveRoomChance);
    if (randomchance == 0) {
      targetRoomNumber = targetRoom;
      targetRoomX = targetx;
      targetRoomY = targety;
      player.ChangeRoom(303, 57, 119, eDirectionRight);
    }
    else {
      player.ChangeRoom(targetRoom, targetx, targety, direction);
    }
  }
  else player.ChangeRoom(targetRoom, targetx, targety, direction);
}

In the example I store the direction as a String because I'm not sure what to store it as. Any help is appreciated!

Hi Kumpel! Your way sounds much easier

activated in the "@S area" (checked every time you do return) and starts autmatically if all three other options are off.

I'm not sure how to activate in the @s area though. How do I turn on the option only when all three options are off?

I found a solution. Here's what I did, in case anyone in the future has the same question:

Code: ags

@S
 
cA: I have three things I want to say.
cB: In what order do you want to say them?
 
return
@1:
cA: Option 1.
cB: Okay.
option-off 1
  if ((dThisDialog.GetOptionState(2) != eOptionOn) && (dThisDialog.GetOptionState(3) != eOptionOn)) {
    dNextDialog.Start();
  }
return
 
@2:
cA: Option 2.
cB: I hear you.
option-off 2
  if ((dThisDialog.GetOptionState(1) != eOptionOn) && (dThisDialog.GetOptionState(3) != eOptionOn)) {
    dNextDialog.Start();
  }
return
 
@3:
cA: Option 3.
cB: Gotcha.
option-off 3
  if ((dThisDialog.GetOptionState(2) != eOptionOn) && (dThisDialog.GetOptionState(1) != eOptionOn)) {
    dNextDialog.Start();
  }
return

If anyone has a better solution please share!

In a dialog, I have three options that turn off after the player selects them. After the player selects the last one, AGS "returns" to an empty dialog and crashes.

Is there a way I can continue the dialog after all option states have been turned off?

Here's what I'm trying:

Code: ags

@S

cA: I have three things I want to say.
cB: In what order do you want to say them?

return
@1:
cA: Option 1.
cB: Okay.
option-off 1
return

@2:
cA: Option 2.
cB: I hear you.
option-off 2
return

@3:
cA: Option 3.
cB: Gotcha.
option-off 3
return

goto-dialog 2 // this doesn't work since the script doesn't run past the returns

That did the trick. Thanks, Khris!