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I have now created a database entry for The Cradle, in case anyone wants to rate the game and/or comment =]

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2497-the-cradle

It's the patched version Creamy provided earlier.

Phew... It's uploaded.

The Cradle

You are nobody.
It has given you a task.
The task is your purpose of existence.
Fulfill the task, or die miserably.




The game is more of a prototype, but it is playable through to the ending.
It was meant to be a mix of a survival and alchemy subgenres.

Main idea for the story and core mechanics, coding and supplementary graphics by Creamy, puzzles and the amazing background art by Julia, cheerleading supplementary coding and graphics by Kastchey.

Edit: I have done a very minor update - I realized that in a hurry, I forgot to disable a debug mode that cycles through the game stages super fast making it unplayable.
I've restored the normal game speed, no other changes have been made.

Just doing some final testing... I'll upload our entry before midnight UK time.
(Promise!)

We are trying to put something playable together too ('us' being mainly Creamy and Julia, an artist friend of mine - I'm cheerleading).

We've been aiming for today midnight but very happy with the extension!

Belated happy birthday, Snarky!

Looks fantastic, congrats on the release!

I think the drone animation was supposed to be a drone rather than Jonathan?

I tested the game pre-release and had the same issue happening on maybe one out of three playthroughs. I haven't been able to find the trigger for the view change, though.

Browser games do save progress via local storage or cookies. It's super easy to delete them by accident but they do nonetheless.

We've all been there

The newest screenshot looks beautiful, as always.

I hadn't been in touch with ProgZ since he stopped frequenting the forums, but I would think of him once in a while. And all of a sudden, this post.

Goodbye, ProgZ. You were a terrific artist, a good forum buddy and had hell of a good taste in movies. You will be missed...

Was Harland trying to alert someone of the incoming disaster?

I don't know if that will help you, but what I do when I attempt a puzzle design is I make a list of all possible objects and background elements that might belong with the location my character is in, along with that character's starting items.

And I mean literally everything that comes to mind, so for an outer wall of a sorcerer's castle it might be a pile of stones, a loose brick, pieces of old mortar, a tree trunk, a body of an adventurer, a barred castle window, a bent rusty climbing hook, odd looking mushrooms, a rodent's nest, foliage, a small sentinel beholder, a human turned into stone, berries, a lost pouch, wall, distant castle tower, the sorcerer's watchful familiar, growing herbs of all kind, etc...

Then I reflect on the list and try to think what kind of challenges and item combinations might fit. When I come up with something I can use, I put it in a flowchart along with prerequisites and results, and attempt to slowly sew everything together.

This usually gives me ideas that would have likely never occurred to me if I was trying to tackle the puzzle sequence working down from the main storyline.

Ian, looking at the hints I'm fairly sure each line contains a part of the solution, probably at the start and end of each sentence. Maybe it needs to be read from bottom to top, maybe backwards, I don't know. I haven't found anything that would make a slightest bit of sense but the awkward wording can't be a coincidence.

You can spell 'climax' using the letters in Smithers Industrial Complex, but that's all I can think of other than what has been proposed already.

I am not old, my bones do not creak.

Perhaps 'creak' is used here as a homophone of 'creek'? As in, Silver Creek?

I tried to think if the oddball wording in the second line means anything, but it seems it's just another easter egg:

Spoiler

cockadoodie
1. A nonsense adverb that is added to the word "brat" by the psychotic fan who keeps the writer hostage in Stephen King's novel "Misery."
"You cockadoodie brat! Don't you ever try to escape again or I'll..."

[close]

Spoiler

(or is it? Perhaps the killer is female and identifies with Annie? That probably wouldn't be necessary knowledge to solve the riddles, so it would not go against 'no googling required' rule)
Edit: Ok, a would-be killer for now as far as we are concerned..

[close]

But wait, it gets better.

This is how I completed my quest:

Spoiler

> You blow up the world.
You blow up the world. The sky is now black, a fire burning through the atmosphere. You stand on a floating rock, staring at the millions of other rocks. Allison stands next to you.

[close]

The best thing is, I have no idea who Allison was. She would just trail behind my character for no apparent reason.

I'll just quote this bit from mine:

Spoiler

> You blow up the city.
You blow up the city. Buildings collapse on themselves. Fire rips through the streets. Sirens blare in the distance. Cars have been destroyed, leaving flames to run rampant. Debris is strewn everywhere. Bodies lay on the road. You stand in the middle of it all.
Allison stands next to you.
"This is just like the TV said it would be."
You stare at Allison.
"Where are the zombies?"
Allison stares at you.

[close]

If it wasn't intentional it wouldn't have been the first time, either :>

This I get, it's easy to make a typo. But... why would someone misspell your nickname on purpose? Just to be annoying?

*Looks in Mandle's general direction* 

This keeps getting better and better! Good luck with the rest!