Messages

Here are some hints to help you guys along your way:

Hint level 1:

Spoiler

While this game is humorous, the characters within might not respond well to forumite humor and might indeed take offense at being "sold leather jackets". Act natural and you might get help, information, hell, you might even get a friend!

[close]

Hint level 2:

Spoiler

Don't push your luck! Any luck / skill related event such as combat or the results of commands given in a general context, such as "talk man into helping us" will be resolved by the Magic-8-ball-of-doom

[close]

Hint level 3:

Spoiler

with some lateral thinking, some of the door codes can be easily read

[close]

[> Try to open all other doors in this room]

> Try to open all other doors in this room

You go door to door, trying the handles on each of the doors and tring a few random combinations on the numeric pads attached to the door. No luck, all of the doors are locked and require a numerical code to unlock.

You ponder if you have any way to figure out what the codes might be?

My point is that I never really worry about adding things like DEF, DEX, INT, etc... cause to me leveling up in this game will not be hard but it will take some time. And as long as you have Potions/HI-Potions and the right Command Cards then you should be straight.

I just thought of something! the best way to gain EXP in the game will be to face a opponent with a low ATK # and use low MP ATK # cards to attack it and just keep healing it and keep healing yourself. You just have to have a lot of ether's to restore your MP.

What you describe is not an RPG, it's just a hollow shell of a game that is made to look slightly like an JRPG game. Have fun making it, I don't think anyone will have fun playing it in that form. If there is no character developement and no leveling up and no stats like STR, DEF, DEX, INT etc, you can just as well skip the fighting altogether and just have the characters walk from place to place, talking and doing all the fighting in cutscenes. Why make the plaer bother with the clicking if the game can be automatically beaten by "having enough potions".

I've lost hope in this project of yours. Fare thee well on your journeys!

[>Try to reason with the person behind the door. Tell him "it's a misunderstanding", "I'm on your side", "if we team up we can help each other", etc.> Rolling for success with skill "Bluff": Magic8ball-1D20 = 9]

>Try to reason with the person behind the door. Tell him "it's a misunderstanding", "I'm on your side", "if we team up we can help each other", etc.

> Rolling for success with skill "Bluff": Magic8ball-1D20 = 9

You make several attempts at talking your way out of this one, but to no avail. There isn't even a response. Perhaps if you tried again later?

What Khris said, and what Ghost said.
I've tried developing a small RPG style system for a browser based strategy game with a friend of mine and after 6 months of making plans and forms, it is nowhere near balanced or functional, or even close to its goal of scaling in a balanced manner.

Open up a Final Fantasy game, look at the status screen of a character, make note of how many stats there are and then understand that what you see, every single number, has a meaning and a purpose. In Final Fantasy games that purpose is often obscure and minimal and you can hardly affect it, but it is there and a bunch of people put countless hours of work into making it WORK.

There are no shortcuts here. I think there are guides out there on the internet, but even with them you need to LEARN how to interpert them, how to modify and implement them in a meaningful way so that they create gameplay and excitement. Like, in a game.

EDIT: I do have to admit that Icey's attempts have encouraged me to make an attemp at developing and RPG with AGS some time in the future. so thank you, Icey, for doing at least something good for me.

[> I said "Residental Green security, going door to door." Are you having any security related problems today, sir?]

> I said "Residental Green security, going door to door." Are you having any security related problems today, sir?

You correct your previous statement and identify yourself as a member of the "residential green" security force in a very polite manner. There is a short pause.

Voice: "What the hell... What kind of fucking bastards are you?"



Before you can draw breath to attempt explaining your predicament.

Voice: "You... You sick fucks, I hope you'll burn in hell! I know what happened out there, I SAW you OC fucks shoot both of our security guys cold, and I know nobody has used the tram from the main facility since the power is out! You think I'll fall for that? You think you can do whatever you want? Fuck you! I'll rather drown in here than let you play with any of us anymore!"

You can hear a crashing noise from behind the door, as if a heavy object was thrown against a wall. You feel your introduction didn't go too well.

Icey, since you seem to be willing and able to code anything and everything and have wide ranging support from some major players in the game developing business, I suggest you drop all attempts at using other people's engines, head straight to the below links and build your own engine.

Imagine: complete freedom to develop whatever you want on whichever platform you see fit! Final Fantasy of Oceanspirit Dennis MMXIV on the DS, PSP, XBLA, PSN, PC, C64, A2600 and P&P!

http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/windows/
http://www.codeguru.com/forum/

(I picked links out of preference for C++, but you could try using just C or maybe even Java, like the guy who made Minecraft and made millions of dollars in under a year. Yes, YOU could be running a multi-million dollar operation as a game developer RIGHT NOW!)

[> Knock on door. Say "I'm selling these fine leather jackets door to door"]

> Knock on door. Say "I'm selling these fine leather jackets door to door"

You rap your knuckles on the door's metal surface and shout out the first thing that comes to ming:
"I'm selling these fine leather jackets door to door!"

The noises behind the door subside and a few tense moments of silence ensue. Finally, you can hear a few splashy footfalls behind the door, followed a male voice responding: "Wait, what?"

You feel that your witty humor was not fully understood by the person behind the door. It does not seem like the door is about to open.

I'm so confused...

Aren't we all confused sometimes? Don't worry, Darth, its completely normal.

Ponch-boobies to the rescue!!! Lovely thread.

Thanks Snarky!  This pleases me, I just hope Cinebook will get more ASAP!

@ Ouxx
Yeah, I edited my post later on. It seems most of these comics were never translated to english and it also seems the finnish translations are mostly out of print and sold out. I've found some used copies and am scouring webstores for more copies. It is not going well, though...

[>Go back and examine room after room to find out where that noise comes from but slowly and careful]

>Go back and examine room after room to find out where that noise comes from but slowly and careful

You head back, your feet splashing in the shallow pool of water gathering slowly on the floors. You pick up a new pool que on your and discard the broken half of your old one.

You find yourself in the hub-room and hear some banging and what sounds like muttered curses coming from door B-4.

[>Press red button]

>Press red button

Yeah, what could ever go wrong with YOU pressing unknown buttons, eh?

... eh?

You press the red button, it makes a gentle clicking noise, nothing happens.

[> Read "Safety Instructions"]

> Read "Safety Instructions"

You can read the words from over here just fine, so you do. (What, why would you say WHAM was too lazy to draw a new picture for such a small change?)

The safety instructions read:
"If elevator stops:
1. Wait for 10 seconds, press and hold any of the floor buttons to attempt door open, repeat 5 times
2. If doors do not open and elevator still does not move, press red button to radio for help
3. If nobody responds to your calls-"
The rest of the text has been scratched out, and a small note has been scribbled next to the scratched out words: "Removed due to misuse, not funny!"

EDIT: I've just been informed that most of these comics were never released in english. What the FUCK is up with that!?
I feel sad for you people!

------------------

I have been bitten by the comic-book-nostalgia-bug. I've read some of these comics in the library as a kid and now I want to BUY them. Sad thing is, I've yet to find them on sale on any website as full collections, only some used copies, mostly in french, whereas I need either English of Finnish versions.

Please somebody help me, I am going mad and the librarian tells me some of their copies are either lost or on loan!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Petit_Spirou

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirou_et_Fantasio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_(comics)

[> Examine ceiling of elevator if there is some kind of door]

> Examine ceiling of elevator if there is some kind of door

Nope, no door in the ceiling. Just a set of three narrow light fixtures which appear to be covered with glass. Each of them is too narrow to get a human through.

Thanks for the feedback Cofliostro!

I'll have to tweak the sound effects, that is true. Quite a few people have noted about Sarah's heavy footfalls and I think I will soften them a bit.

The "hide critical information in the readme" is a design choise, as I don't want to do any of that gameplay tutorializing and backstory explanation inside the game proper. I won't be adding a narrator and having Sarah talk to herself so much is just illogical to me. I'll add a "please read the manual" note at the start of the game, though. 

Cutscene graphics are potentially an area of improvement, although my abilities at creating sprites at a higher resolution are quite limited.

The

Spoiler

"Wake up, it was all a dream"

[close]

-ending is not the ending of the game, just the demo. That is when the real game begins, my friend.

Overall I get the impression you liked the demo, despite its shortcomings at this point. I've been gathering feedback for a little while now and aim to keep doing so in the future and so far it seems that people are generally feeling positive, although some people are voicing concern on some aspects.

Anyway, thanks again for the deedback!

Ha! Residential Green is mentioned! Ha!
Now I have to download and try this out, will be my first OSD game ever!

[> Examine elevator]

> Examine elevator

You step into the elevator for a better look. The lights on the ceiling are out, just like everywhere. There is a control panel with four buttons: one unlabelled red button and three metallic buttons labelled 1, 2 and 3. On the wall there is a monitor of some kind, near the ceiling. You think that would normally show you what floor you were on or something.
Stapled to the WEST wall is also a piece pf paper labelled "safety instructions".