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Hi all.

Just in case anyone is interested, the competition has now been judged and my Invincible Island entry came 4th. It's a shame the game is not complete with instructions, intros etc. or it may have done better.

It was one of only two adventure games submitted the other being Surges's entry which the judges could not download and therefore judge.

Once again thanks everone for the bouncing of ideas.

Andy Mason

Hi everyone. I'm dragging this post up to say a big THANK YOU.

I've submitted a one button adventure into the competition and I was motivated by two factors.

1. I took a look at the early entries and I wasn't impressed with what I saw (though I am aware that the big boys don't enter whilst the last minute).

2. More importantly the feedback and bouncing of ideas in this thread made me keep saying to myself 'You can do it, go for it'.

Unfortunately I was only able to submit the game with seconds to spare and as a result it is not complete as such. So there is no instructions, splash screen or credits thanking you lot for ideas. But once my entry has been judged I will upload an updated version correcting this.

To take a look at what I've done look in the completed games forum at this page
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=20826.0

Once again thanks for all your ideas and suggestions.

Andy Mason.

This is a remake of the ZX Spectrum classic INVINCIBLE ISLAND.

The original was a text/graphic adventure which I have wanted to upgrade to a point and click game for some time. However you'll discover that it has not evolved into such a game, instead it is more like a text adventure than a graphical one.

The reason behind this is that a month ago the retro remakes website http://www.retroremakes.com introduced a competition to create games for severely handicapped persons. The way they play games is to use a controller with a presser that maps a button from the keyboard. So the aim was to create a game that uses one key only. I started a discussion on the adventure related chat forum and from the feedback I got some sort of adventure game was feasible. After watching other entries to the competion come flooding in I only saw the usual suspects, Frogger, Darts, Mini Golf and jump over the hole on a scrolling background. So I decided OK lets give those less fortunate than me an adventure game. With only six days to go I compressed this 60 room game into 38 rooms and managed to enter it seconds before the deadline. This means only the game was submitted and there is no introduction, instructions, splash screens or credits. I do mean to address this and an updated release will appear in the future.

My original thread in adventure related talk and chat is here

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=20300.0

The game is available here

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?category=101&action=download&game=561

And a couple of screenshots






UPDATED VERSION 22nd FEBRUARY 2007

I had a lot of feedback for this game, most of which was from people saying they couldn't work out how to play. This has been addressed.

NEW FEATURES IN THIS VERSION

Increased locations from 38 to 60
Replaced some place-holder graphics
Added music
Added Instructions
Created an in-game tutorial
Wrote a walkthru with game map

Andy Mason

Hi Wretched.

My screens look terrible compared to the screenshots so I thought it might just be a case of me changing resolution within setup. But you have supplied the wrong setup program, it says cannot find g3.exe.

I tried wmhm.exe --setup from the command line and setups runs but it does not save or creates a .cfg file.

Is the game meant to be run at 320x200? Is so then I guess that the graphics are meant to look as they do and I won't need to run setup.

Edit: Just had an idea, I renamed wmhm.exe to g3.exe and everything works with setup and now my screens are looking ok.

Andy Mason

Thanks for all the suggestions.

From your feedback I have decided how I am going to approach this. The game will be in the first person, just a screen background with no visible player character ie. like Myst. The backgound will take up the top two-thirds of the screen with the remainder being a text gui. In this gui will be a description of the current location and what objects are visible. I suppose it will look a bit like how text adventures evolved into graphics and text back in the 80's. This will give the player an idea on what can be interacted with, because with my lack of drawing ability the player wouldn't have a clue.

To interact with the game pressing the key I define will bring up a list box with options for that particular location. The options will be cycled through automatically and the player presses the key when the required action is highlighted.

I've been through the manual and everything I need is catered for though I can imagine that I will end up with a lengthy script full of 'If' statements in generating the drop down menu. So now the next step is for me to create a one room test game to see if things work as I imagine.

Once again thanks for your suggestions.

Andy Mason

Has anyone got any ideas on how it could be possible to create an adventure game that only uses one button? By one button I mean literaly that, no mouse, no cursor keys just one button such as 'space' or 'ctrl'.

If you think this is a stupid request (yes, it does sound stupid reading it back before posting), but I have a reason. There are alot of severely disabled persons in this world who would love to play games but their disabilities dictate otherwise. To cater for these wanna-be game players there is a website called 'One Switch' that offers one button games, but as you can imagine there is not alot of choice and none of them are adventure games.

Disabled persons can play games by using a controller that has a large button mapped to a particular button on a computer keyboard. There is even a controller that registers blinks of the eye. Anyhow, 'One Switch' has teamed up with another website, 'Retro Remakes' in an effort to create more disabled friendly games. This has been done in the form of a competition which has a first prize of a PC plus software with more prizes likely to be donated. The main rule for the competition is to create a game that uses only one button.

I have a feeling that all of the games submitted will be simple arcade games and it feels a shame that there are people missing out on adventure games. So, back to the question I asked at the start of this post, does anyone think it would be possible to create a simple adventure game with this heavy constraint? If so could you post some ideas on how it could be done or better still enter a game for yourselves, after all it is for a good cause. The closing date for the competion is May 11th but 'One Switch' will accept donated games anytime.

Here are the links you might want to look at.

To find out what 'One Switch' is all about http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/

'Retro Remakes' who are hosting the competition http://www.retroremakes.com/

The forum that has all the competition rules, details and prizes etc http://www.retroremakes.com/forum/index.php

Thanks for reading this. I am classed as disabled myself, but not to the extent where I can't use a mouse, keyboard or joystick and I cross my fingers that things will never develop to that.

Andy Mason

No, I hadn't found the alley but I have now thanks to you.

I should be able to continue now.

Thanks again.

Andy

Hi.

I don't seem to be able to progress in Robert Redford 2 and its bugging me.

The only item I am carrying is a knife.

I assume I have to get the watermelon but can't think how.

Hope someone can help.

Thanks.

Andy