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Thanks for letting me know about that bug, I've patched it and have re-uploaded it to Itch.io

Spoiler

There's a wooden shuttle buried in the planter box in the Greenhouse room. Combine it with the twine and you will have the correct tool.

[close]

I did a "Developer Commentary" play-through/post-mortem  for anyone interested in the design.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xikW1vts2Go

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm looking at this game as a learning experience, so it's helpful.

Seriously, how did I not figure "Pull Light Chain"?

Typos are the bane of my existence. No matter how much I comb through text, I always seem to miss them. Might have to pull in an editor for my next project.

I think I will be moving away from the 9-Verb style interface in the future. There's a ton of possible combinations and I just didn't have time to implement them all.

Also, you can talk to the blanket, but only the blanket that's in your inventory. Can't say why I made it that way

I'll have to look into the music issue as well.

Again, thanks for trying it out!

Hey Folks,

After months of procrastination, I've finally finished my first 5-room game.

Synopsis: Some crazy kook has locked you up and is forcing you to do adventure game puzzles for his entertainment! Can you navigate his dungeon and escape?

The Game:

The Dollhouse is my first ever game project with AGS. In many ways it's "Baby's first game" and was used mainly as a jumping board to teach myself about the engine.

I'm adding the subtitle - Chapter 1, since I may return to the Dungeon in the future with a new set of puzzles.

Features:
Point-and-click interface just like Ron used to make it.
Several minutes of gameplay!
Programmer art and questionable use of colour!
3 Frames of exciting background animation!
BEES!

Music By:
Eric Matyas
www.soundimage.org





Link to download

I'm closing in on having a releasable demo!

Added some music by Eric Matyas... just to make things a little more atmospheric

The walking animation is still pretty rough, but it's getting there. I've probably topped out on what I can produce.

Credits screen added at the end

More dialogue and item descriptions added.

Polish, polish, polish... still a lot I COULD do. Not sure how much more time I'm going to put into it though.

Have to start thinking about what's next. I've been calling it a demo because I'd like to eventually expand things past the initial 5 rooms. Now that I'm a lot more comfortable with AGS, I might noodle on a couple of different projects before coming back.

Allright I've been shamed into working on it . It's pretty janky, but at least it is a start.

Things were crazy at work for a while, and I've been busy with other things.

However,

I've managed a couple of good solid days of development. The puzzles for the demo have been completely wired, so you can technically play it until it's "End".

Still to do:

Character walking animation (still avoiding this)
Music (I do have a little background in music, not sure how if I will try composing something myself)
Additional Dialogue and Interactions with the "Man behind the camera." (Not needed for puzzles, but gives a better overview of the story)
Art cleanup (There is some inconstancy between some of the items. Some background work still needs to be done so some of the puzzles physically make sense)
A final "Thank you for playing" screen 

I've timed myself "speed-running" the demo. It takes me about 5 minutes knowing all puzzle solutions and skipping dialogue. I guess we are looking at about 10-15 minutes of play time.

Time for another update. To keep myself accountable if nothing else.

Things were kind of slow over the past week. Things have been busy at work and I've been working some overtime, so I haven't had the same chances as previous weeks to do some work. Also daylight savings time wrecked my sleep schedule for a few nights and I was going to bed at odd hours.

Anyway working on the final room of the demo. Just getting all the essential elements for the room puzzles wired up. Still have a lot to do to make it even look like a complete room.

After this room gets done, I have to bring in the story elements in the form of the man behind the camera who mocks you as you make your way through the game. Need to add dialog as you solve things and the ability to ask some questions.

Still need to animate the main character. I may ask for help on this since every time I've tried it, it has come out horribly broken.

On the upside, it's a long weekend, so hopefully I can hammer out the few mechanical elements that I have left. Maybe investigate adding some music.

Here's a preview of the very unpolished final puzzle room.

I've decided to try and do weekly updates, so here goes.

Some work done this week with adding some elements to rooms, as well as putting together one of the larger puzzles in the demo. Nothing too exciting. Also gave animating the character a shot.... and it's not quite working so far.

Added some animations to my the main hallway hub.



I've also added some details to my "Greenhouse" room

I'm sure many people have forgotten about this project by now, but it's not dead!

I had some unfortunate major life events happen over the summer, so I'm just getting back into a somewhat sensible routine.

Over the past week, I've gone through what I have done so far and made some tweaks and changes.  There's still so much work to do, and when you are working solo, everything cascades.

Inserting an item? I have to do the art, write descriptions, and script possible interactions. It takes time, but I'm sure most of you here know that!

Right now I'm just aiming to get a 5-room "demo" completed... or just getting your character to escape from the first area. I still have to do the art for the final room, and wire up all the puzzles inside.

I also STILL need to make some character animations. Right now you still stiffly glide around the screen... so that needs to change at some point.

Also there's still no sound or music.... of any kind.

Anyway, progress is being made and I've been hanging out on the AGS discord for inspiration

Screen shot so you folks have something to look at:

Finally got back to working on this again.

Thanks Durinde, I'm glad to hear from someone else who is making a mini/simple project  Do you have a Game in Progress thread yet or still working towards that phase? Took me a little more than a week just to get those two rooms together 

Yep, look for "The Dollhouse" thread. I'm on week 3 and still working on my 3rd room. It takes time especially if you are crafting everything yourself.

Neat, I'm doing a similar thing for my first project.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out for you, I think you are further ahead in development than I.

This week has been kind of slow Gamedev wise. Room 3 is starting to come together.

Great concept!

Couldn't quite figure out the "final" solution, but still had fun.

Looks pretty cool dude!

Looks like you recently played Thimbleweed?

Haven't had a chance to play it yet, but I was following it's development for a while. Would be lying if it wasn't an influence to me getting back into AGS.

[The Dollhouse]

Well it's been... like 2 years since I've done anything with AGS, but I've decided to get cracking at again. This all started as a weekend project and has grown from there. It's a small project, which will only consist of a few rooms. I just wanted to get a "completed" idea under my belt.

The Dollhouse

Unbeknownst to the pubic, a madman called the collector has been abducting people for the past several months and putting them through trials in his underground dungeon. So far, nobody has escaped.

You are his latest victim. He watches your every move and mocks you as you make your way through his dungeon. Escape the dungeon and unravel the mystery behind the trials set before you by the collector.

Development
Story: 60%
Scripting: 40%
Graphics: 60%
Sound/Music: 0%

Screenshots (UPDATED MAY 27th, 2017)



Expected Completion:
June/July 2017

Update Notes: I've just got back from vacation and can finally start to work on this in earnest again.

Some really interesting submissions!

Thanks Misj' Although I'm not the greatest, I enjoy having a project to work towards.