Messages

I think this is the first game I've really enjoyed in a long time. It left me wanting more, and in a good way! How long did it take you to make this game?

The majority of the development time took about 2 months. Scripting the sniper sequence and making the animations took the most time out of anything. Then I polished it, added music, and had it beta-tested.

I tried, but I failed at DOTT style. I started drawing in a realistic style, then I realized it wasn't cartoony enough, but then later I switched back to realistic, so here's the result.


18 Colors + Transparency
Reference: http://www.edandmari.com/starwars/images/BobaFett.jpg

Hmm, I if I may make a small suggestion:

Spoiler

When pressing spacebar to pause the game, you may want it to fade to a black screen.  Because the cursor still moves when the game is paused, but characters do not, you can pause the game and take aim without worrying about being hit.  Of course, I suppose you could just freeze the cursor...

[close]

[edit]

I forgot to mention, this was a great first game.

Yes, I'll have to consider that if I update.

This was an awesome game, fantastic work!!!

My only minor suggestion is, that it would be nice to see the enemys move when not using zoom, atleast I think they are not showing now?

Actually, you can see the enemies when not using zoom, at least until you fire at them!

Great game, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I really admire the patience that must have flown into producing all these animation frames; they push the atmosphere incredibly.

Thanks, it was fun making them.

Storygamer:
Interesting points you make. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

Really nice game. Impressively consistant graphic style and nice use of colours. A proper example of the right way to make a first game.

And, if it's not my imagination, does the sniper sight become steadier for a moment between him inhaling and exhaling? If I'm right, it's an inspired design mechanic.

You are correct, it steadies out between breathing. Though I can't take all the credit for the design mechanic. It was kind of *cough* borrowed from a first person shooter.

And now, because I'm a picky bastard, some niggles:

The choice of sound-effects could have been stronger. The sniper's gunshots might benefit from a little more kick, as could the various richocets.

Can't really defend this one too much, since I ripped the sound effects from a game.

The reload time, although probably realistic, is a little slow for me.

Yes, that's understandable. Although I hate it in games when the player takes out his clip and magically brings up another one in record time that happens to be full.

Of course, these are very minor aspects.

Overall I was genuinely impressed. A very enjoyable game. More please.

Thanks for playing. 

[EDIT:]

The best AGS game in a while. So pretty and so well made! I really had fun playing it. Good job!

Thanks! That's quite a compliment!

Looks ace! Downloading now!

Hope you enjoy it.

Really nice short game. Well done!

Thanks for playing!

Awesome! Very much enjoying this

Thanks!

Well done soldier!

And a hooah to you too!

Good game. I liked the graphics and the quiet but menacing atmosphere. The enemy's machine (or submachine) gun fire sounded a bit tame to me though; something I really disliked was that

Spoiler

the German soldier waiting for you calmly stands by while you come down the ladder, orders you to put down the gun - and then shoots you. He'd have riddled you with bullets while you were coming down. I can see, of course, that the fact that he waits is for gameplay purposes (so you have something to do before you victoriously ride off into the sunset), but that doesn't really make it better in my eyes.

[close]

Haha, yeah. Just hold your suspension of disbelief for that scene.

Now that you have all those animation loops, JBurger, I'd find it really cool if you made another short game with the same setting.

I don't have any plans for that, but I'll always consider it. Thanks for playing!

Yippee! A most excellent game! Good work!

Thanks!

I haven't played AGS games for awhile (I've been a bit busy lately), but I'm giving this one a run. It looks pretty good...

* * * * * *

EDIT:

The game is great. Short and sweet. Quality over quantity. I love the atmosphere and all those little animations.

The only thing that bugs me a bit is how the player character moves so slow. Like somebody suggested, it'd be good to make him walk quicker.

I'll consider speeding him up a bit. Thanks for playing!

That was a really good game. The creepy/dramatic music fit right in with the drabness of the abandoned town. I loved how you made it so we could hear our character breathing while he's aiming his rifle from the tower. Once again, the graphics were beautifully done. I envy your artistic talent.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Really awesome game. Great atmosphere and good gameplay. Keep up the good work!

Thanks.

The first AGS game I've played in a while, and what a treat it was to play, too!  An impressive first effort.  I'm looking forward to seeing more from you in the future.

Thanks for playing.

Just a final note to clarify something: Some people have complained that you can only kill the soldiers with a headshot, and that shooting at the body does nothing. But headshots just gurantee instant kills, while body/arm/leg shots require 2 or more to kill.

Bug alert:

Spoiler

When you go down the hatch and you kick the guard, I assume you have to pick up your weapon and fire at him right? I did that, and my guy went to a kneel and aimed, but never shot. I just walked past everything to the end.

[close]

Hmm... I can't reproduce this bug. Could you PM me perhaps with more specific details?

Awesome game man!

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

My only suggestion would be to speed up some animations but I enjoyed the kick option and I used it liberally. [maybe this guy is an ancestor of the Automation scientist?]

I agree that some of the animations are a bit slow (going up the ladder?). I guess I was trying to make it seem that he was using some effort to push himself up.

By the way, Automation was one of the main sources of inspiration for this game (you can probably tell!). Without it, I might not've made this game!

Thanks for playing!

June 7th, 1944

A lone American sniper enters the small town of La Croix Pan with the task of defending it by himself. He must face off a group of enemy soldiers, or die trying.

(Current Version: 1.10)

Download Now! 8.8 MB (Thanks to Vince Twelve for the hosting!)
Mirror 1 - note: old version without translation.


Game's database page


The game is short and can probably be beaten in under 30 minutes, so don't expect something too long.

[Zyndikate]

Okay, voting is closed.

Results:

1st place: Zyndikate with 20 votes.
2nd place: Andail with 9 votes.
And a three way tie for 3rd place: Cobra, Bohnito, and Simb, each with 5 votes.

Congratulations to the winners.

Idea - Bohnito
Atmosphere - Andail
Design - SimB
Composition - Zyndikate
Functionality - Cobra
Technique - Zyndikate

I really loved all of them in their own unique way. Each background has it's strengths.

Awesome backgrounds people.

Voting will start now and last 24 hours, or until enough votes are in.

Voting categories:

Idea - The underlying idea to the background. Doesn't
necessarily have to coincide perfectly with the theme of the
week, just strike you as interesting/amusing/inspiring; a place
you'd really enjoy visiting within a game.

Atmosphere - How well the image manages to evoke a certain feeling or mood.

Design - How well the elements in the image are designed,
such as landscapes, buildings, decorations, clouds, doorknobs,
etc.

Composition - How well the elements in the image work
together/are positioned in relation to each other.

Functionality - How well it would work when adding sprites, i
ncluding appropriate walking distances, a good angle for
character sprites, clever walkway solutions, easily understood
exits, etc.

Technique - How well the ideas are executed in form of
rendering.

Anyone is welcome to vote, and it would be
great if all participants could provide their own.
You don't have to vote in all categories, and
if you provide multiple names in a category,
then please be clear about which one is your pick.

Me too, but don't let that stop you.

[RULES]

The next topic is:

Seasons

RULES

Create a background that is a clear representation of one of the four seasons of the year, Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter. For example, you could create a scene of flowers blooming [spring], a hot sunny evening at a park [summer], a colorful street filled with fallen leaves [autumn], or a snowy cottage [winter].

The background can be outdoors, or indoors, but it should be recognizable which season it takes place in.
The rules won't be too strict, so don't get worried if the scene might be mistaken for summer/spring.

You can use any size/colors you want, but keep it managable.

Voting will begin at the end of June 8 and last 24 hours, or until enough votes are in.

If you have any questions, ask away.

Okay, I'll start the next one soon.

Great backgrounds everyone! 

[Idea]

Idea - Meat
I think this would make for an interesting scene in a game.

Atmosphere - Meat
I love the way the light and the shadows work on the floor of the room.

Design - Vertigoaddict
I particularly like the curtains and the floor.

Composition - Meat
Simple and effective viewpoint.

Functionality - Cobra
I think this one would work well in a game.

Technique - Meat
I just love the pixely and clean style.

You might say that this background was inspired by a certain show about these certain people who wander in an uninhabited jungle and happen to find some tunnels that lead to uninhabited underground bunkers.

[Good intros:]

In my opinion, an intro should establish the setting, the main character, and your goal.
I hate it when adventure games start me out and they expect me to walk around aimlessly to figure out what to do.
This works some of the time, but I'd much rather be told what I'm expected to do instead of trying to figure out myself. (There are probably some exceptions, but I won't go into them here.)

Good intros:
In Automation:
You are told that you are a scientist in a lab. You know that you have to rescue the robot. That's all you need to know, so then you are given control of the character, and you go out to solve this problem.

In Reactor 09:
You are presented the case of the prisoner and the guard. Your first goal in the game is just to revive the guard, and once you do that, you are presented with more goals until the end. Simple and effective.

In Trilby's Notes:
Your first goal to achieve is find Simone (was that her name?). Once you do that, you are sent to the hotel where you are ordered to find your contact.

In all of these games, you are given the setting, main character, and then a goal to achieve. Simple and effective.

Before AGS I used a text-adventure toolkit called ADRIFT. It was decent, and I made some adventures with that. (No links - they're too embarrasing to show the rest of the world)

After that I tinkered around with something called Indiana Java, which was too hard for me at the time.

I also made some text adventures in BASIC that were parodies of the dungeon man 3000 parody on homestarrunner.

And then I found AGS and I don't even think about using other engines. 

One of my favorites is in Trilby's Notes.

The whole starting up to the point where you reach the hotel is just so atmospheric and amazing (particularly the hotel room scene).

I'm actually pretty pleased no-one has completed it yet...that just goes to show its not as easy as it seems  Anyway, here's a breakdown of all your questions...

Actually... I beat it when I first posted, but I forgot to mention it. Once you crank out 3 games and advertise the life out of them, it's pretty easy.

What was with the tiny button that gave you 1000 copies of all your games?  It didn't cost me any money either.

?! Didn't realise I'd made one, but perhaps I did :p That'll have been for testing purposes. Which GUI is that in??

When you click on each game, there is a tiny white letter in that GUI that gives you 1000 copies of that game for no charge.

Buying music, publishing your website, including stuff in your game boxes, all didn't seem to work for me. If they do work, I don't know what I did wrong.

Yep! Released to shut Dan_N up so I didn't bother finishing these sections off The soundtrack one does work, but it's not really needed in the demo, as its mostly an appeal thing. Four of the soundtracks can be bought (see my above post), and as with ALL the scroll boxes, you have to highlight the one you want.

Ah, I forgot to highlight it.

Many thanks agaaaain! Yaya Still no-one with code-words, lol

Spoiler

Fair play?!?!

[close]

Some other things I forgot to mention:
- It would be nice if you could have more than 3 ideas. After that, it seems like your writers are pointless, and you should fire them.
- Once you have 3 games, I guess you should just fire your whole staff, since they can't make anything else. I didn't do it, but it makes sense to.
- What's the point of giving yourself a salary? :O
- It might be a good idea to have 2 different bulletin boards. One for comments, and one for gameplay notifiers.

m0ds, I love it. I really think you have a winner on your hands.

Critique:

- The clickfest for the recycle bin was alright, because that was kind of optional. But the clickfest for the coffee was just tedious, in my opinion. I was developing a bunch of games, and I constantly ran out of coffee over and over, and it didn't help that the coffee was being drained at almost the same rate I was clicking.
- Once you fire people, you can never hire them again. This might be semi-realistic for what you were going for, but you might want to be able to hire them back.
- I found it odd that you had to highlight certain aspects of the game, and it got me confused several times.
- What was with the tiny button that gave you 1000 copies of all your games? It didn't cost me any money either.
- I think it would be better if some games got less popular over time. If they already do, I didn't notice it. I just kept advertising my oldest games and it kept selling just as much as the newer games.
- I think selling your ideas should generate a little more profit than just a couple hundred bucks.
- The advertising button is basically a magic button that makes you much more money. I always clicked it over and over. Perhaps there should be a bigger drawback or a chance factor involved to how much publicity you get.
- Buying music, publishing your website, including stuff in your game boxes, all didn't seem to work for me. If they do work, I don't know what I did wrong.

Bugs? --
- At a certain point in the game I could "re-introduce" my company by clicking on the games/inc/software/company buttons. I was like, "woah, free publicity, alright!" But then I realized that I was just draining my money. Is this a bug?


But I love the game. Just the feeling I got from releasing my "idea-games" and putting their titles on the games I was selling was an awesome feeling. Good work!