Messages

Amazing.

Have not completed it yet, and I'm savoring it.  Haven't even looked for hints like I usually do.  All of the dialogue keywords, and the fact that every character has DIFFERENT responses to every keyword makes it feel so much more realistic and engrossing.  Trying to memorize the keywords instead of writing them down makes it feel more like I am integrating into this strange society.  Others have mentioned the walking, that's my single complaint as well.  Both the frames and the movement are really jerky, and it is a bit distracting, especially compared to the quality of everything else.

Thanks for spending so much time to make it!  I actually had some of the music stuck in my head the other day (I think it might have been from Alien, but still.  It made me think of your game instead of Alien!).

Wow, what program are you using to do that?  Looks awesome.

I used Slab6 and Voxed and MSPaint lol to make the wallpaper.

I thought it looked a bit like Voxelstein.  Now I know why!

Montague: I thought the really diluted backgrounds had a nice contrast with the characters, in addition to enhancing the otherworldly/dreamlike/abstract feel of the game.  Put me in the "some like it" category. 

Also, I would much rather see further original work than a sequel to this.  Not that I would complain...

Wow, what program are you using to do that?  Looks awesome.  Although I think the original greyscale is more perfect

Yeah, the layout of the town, the chicken, the workshop etc, it all really reminded me of Wonder Project J for snes.  I think they might also have been channeling miyazaki for that game.  You did really great work on this game!  From interface to animations everything is very professionally done.

The story on the other hand reminded me of a book about an inventor, which is also about a flying machine, and there is a fire at the beginning to boot.  I don't remember what the book was called, Thomas something?  I'm not sure.

My one complaint is, allowing you to buy the same hint more than once.  I assumed that if I bought "another" hint for the same objective that it would give me a better hint.  Instead, it gave me the same hint and charged me anyway.

Anyway, great job with this game!

Short and sweet.  I loved the scrolling screens and the character's bounce animation. 

Wow, really fun game.  Would like to se it extended.  Also it is missing some voice for some of the lines.  It is better to have no voice than only some voice in my opinion.  But complete voice would be best!

Art is great, humor is good, and puzzles are pretty interesting too.  I had to look up the c64 commands, hehe.

But yeah, main complaint is far too short.

I enjoyed this game a lot.  As mentioned, walking around and having to redo certain things (watch cutscenes, use the invitation every time you enter the castle) does get a bit irritating by the end.  I found this game a bit easy, but then I like a game that makes me think a little but not feel like I need to ask for help.  I think the puzzles were a bit too obvious though.  The references to the bad art were a good laugh!  The art was simple but quite endearing.

Except for the last puzzle, which I doubt I would have ever found on purpose, this was a very enjoyable game.  I liked and hated the abstract nature of the puzzles, pretty much for the same reasons.  I thought the thing with the dad was a bug for half the game until I realized it was a joke, lol.  A bad joke at that.  In fact I cant think of any jokes in the game that were any good.  But you knew that already.  This game is well named!

Thanks for the help!  (By the way, I think that hint is only printed once, it's generally nice to have hints be repeated)

The big issue in my opinion is switching game modes so fast and without warning, and bugs in the various systems, not the fact that there are multiple systems. 

Walking with keys - this was not bad at all, and kind of fun

Interaction with parser - as a system, text parsers can be fun.  Without care though, it can be frustrating for players who type things and can't guess the right thing.  In "look around" (which "look" on it's own should do also) make sure to list nouns of all or most items that can be interacted with.  Pretend it's a text game, and the only view of the room the player will have is from the text.  If the player does not know what a graphic item represents, there is no way they can refer to it in text.  Secondly, provide AT LEAST a LOOK response for most of the nouns in the room, especially the ones you list in the look description.  This gives the player a feeling that there is an actual environment that they exist in.

Unexpected mode changes - the main problem with the action sequences, (besides bugs with the shooting itself) is that the player does not really expect it to happen.  A mode change is best if the player knows there will be a mode change, and is the one who determines it.  When the player gets a gun, looking at the gun might give them a description "It is a gun.  You can SHOOT it."  This will let them know that they can type SHOOT to do something with the gun.  Then there would be several rooms with no enemies or just one enemy, for the player to learn the new system.  Tutorials that explain how something works are always worse than just giving the player a safe way to figure it out on their own.  In shoot mode, you would have a button called holster weapon.  Now the player can choose whether they want to shoot or not.  This is better than having something else the player does - like walk into a room - automatically switch modes causing confusion. 

Also, the choose your own adventure section was another unexpected mode change.  All of a sudden, we have to choose something off of a menu, but all of the actions relate to things that we should be able to normally do just by playing the game.  Do we want to play a game, or tell the computer what we want to do?  In certain games or situations, a menu is certainly called for, but in this case it didn't make much sense. 

Try to picture things from the players perspective.  Remember to put the power in the players hands where you can.  When he feels like the computer is taking away his control, he gets frustrated.  He wants to play a game, not watch a movie!  Have you ever played a game and been frustrated because a cutscene was going on for too long, and you wanted to get back to the game?  Just something to keep in mind.

How do I get the morgue key?

(Meant to reply, stupid forum software screwed up)

I struggled through this, I'm sorry to say it is spotty. 

Graphics - Excellent!  You definitely have some skills.  Environments are interesting to look at, the textboxes fit the theme very well, and characters had style too.

Gameplay - parsers are OK if they are either very conventional or very smart.  Since very smart is incredibly hard, conventional is best.  I had to read the manual to find out I had to "look around" rather than just "look".  I expect "look" to look around, and "look [something]" or "look at [something]" to print a description of the item, or tell me that the item is not there.  If there is a door, I want "look door" "look hallway" "look opening" etc to alias to the door.  I want to be able to "look wall" and have it say "on the wall you see a door" or some such.  Make the environment explorable through text.  In this game, the parser absolutely failed.  I think you would have been better off with point and click, honestly.  The action segment I didn't mind, but a way to toggle it on and off so that the shooting could intersperse with regular gameplay, would be better.  If there were a longer and better game to put such a system in of course.  By the way, the shooting was really buggy: I would click and their health wouldnt go down, but then I clicked at other times and it worked ok; and often I found my character was unable to move.  But the system itself, if not buggy could possibly work in a larger better game. 

The part with the choice to fight or escape felt a bit ugly.  Why have a new interface when you can use the old?  It would have been better if earlier you learned the command to take out your saw, and then just use typed commands to handle the situation.  The player types "use saw" and they try to fight the zombies but the zombies win.  The player types "open left door" etc.  Choosing something off of a menu made it feel like a choose your own adventure story.  If the rest of the game had been like that it would be one thing, but having so many different interfaces made things disjointed, especially when it was SO SHORT that things are always switching up on the player.

Story - since the gameplay basically amounts to "type correct sentence to continue story" I really hoped the story would be interesting.  Unfortunately I was disappointed here.  The story made little sense, jumping from one "set piece" to another with no real connection.  The intro makes it seem something significant is going to happen and the main character is going to be a hero; however, he apparently causes the worse of the destruction, and doesn't come across as a hero at all.  The bit at the end made no real sense either (and it didn't make sense in a BAD way, not the good way of trying to figure out what it really meant).  Why does he want to screw the chick and kill her???  That part didn't feel like it fit at all with the previous part with the zombies.  You need to have more connectiveness in your writing in your next game.  Also, you need to build up characters.  Give them a personality instead of just being some anybody with a weird name.  Having a weird name is fine, but think of who they are and how they would react to situations. 

And don't just try and quickly implement or fix everything people are saying as they say them.  You need to take some time to process things.  I think that there is no saving this game (sorry, it's just what I think).  Your best bet would be to either start over, or move on to your next game.  With your art and programming skills, I look forward to it!  What you need is: a more coherent plot, that flows together; a longer game (the plot length would have been OK if there had been puzzles to lengthen the game) - 5 minutes long just feels like a waste; drop the parser, unless you are going to really improve it; give the player choices to make and things to do - even little details like allowing them to examine a painting on a wall can make it feel like they are playing a game rather than being dragged along by the designer; and more effort.

Take some time to really plan out the story and the gameplay before you program it, this will help immensely.  Once you program something, it makes it very hard to change.  Put as much effort or more into the story and designing puzzles as you do the graphics and I'm sure you will get a better response. 

This is a GREAT first effort, and you were really ambitious in trying a lot of new things.  That really says something!  You were able to make new things, and though they didn't all turn out that great, you managed to finish the project.  Many people aren't even able to finish a project, so it's a good thing, even if the results are less than perfect.  Be a little more conservative in your next effort, making sure that you make design choices based on what is good for the game and what you can implement really well, rather than just what might be interesting to program or fun/funny to put in.  I can't wait for the even better second project!

I thought the concept and story were great!  I was a bit disappointed with how linear and easy it was though, and a lot of things were a bit slow for my tastes (mostly the walkspeed, but also storywise it takes a while to get going)

I loved the atmosphere, you managed to combine a lot of memorable backdrops and yet not feel like yet another game with ripped graphics.  I also felt very lonely playing this game, like these characters really exist but it's almost like a game character afterlife.  I don't know if those were the emotions you were going for, but I felt it, and felt it strong.

Really amazing first game!

This game is EPIC.  I love how the goals keep expanding, even without you actually completing the goals you have.  Things keep getting screwed up.  The graphics and dialog also make me want to barf, but I think it's in a good way, hehe.

Very trippy game.  Also pretty challenging.  Great job!

This Game is made of brilliant.  Oh, and this game is made of brilliant also.  It's this game!  I love This Game!  This game is This Game.  Yeah.

Only part that irritated me was at the end,

Spoiler

I used the blender on the broken blender and it gave me a generic response.  Didn't realize I had to click on the socket.

[close]

But yeah, the story works really well, and I love how it's told through gameplay rather than explanation.

I really enjoyed this game!  I also actually laughed out loud, which is pretty rare.  The puzzles, while easy, were also well done.  I felt a little stumped a few times but not too much.  It was short and sweet, and very funny.  The ending twist was great too.  Can't wait to see more.