Sane Shack
===========

Sane Shack is a simple adventure game, with only a few rooms to explore and a simple puzzle. When you get to the last room, you can explore it, but nothing more happens, that's basically the end.

The last room graphics are also mostly just 'template', they will be changed in the future, and could be utilized in the actual, BIG game that I want to create.

Try to look and manipulate everything in various ways, Sane Shack rewards the adventurer for being curious and exploratory.


How to play:
------------

Unzip the SaneShack.zip somewhere - for example, d:\\Games\\

A directory "SaneShac…k" will be created.

Enter that directory - for example, d:\\Games\\SaneShack\\

You can launch the game two ways:

1) Doubleclick the file SaneShack_Intro.exe or launch it from DOS prompt

This will take you to the title screen, and you should hear some music and
see instructions on the screen as to how to get to play the game.

The intro consists of just title screen and music.

2) Doubleclick SaneShack.exe - this will take you immediately straight
to the game, and there will be no intro or music.

Press F5 or click the small button between the text and object inventory to get to the menu that allows for changing of various game options and exiting the game.

There's a puzzle to be solved, you need to figure out what to do, and how to do it. There are also some red herrings, so you need to use your intelligence to figure it all out.

Project Background:
-------------------

This project started actually in the year 1988 AD. Ever since I completed a certain mansion-style adventure game, I wanted 'more of the same'.

There were sequels, and similar games created by the same company and even some other companies. I enjoyed them all, but there was always the nagging thought; 'something is missing'. The experience was never the same, and I never got to continue where I left off.

Most games happened in very different settings and in an expanded area, that consisted of multiple different locations, most of which were outside.

There was never another mansion to explore in identical, or at least 'similar enough' way. I guess people wanted to create 'epic' and 'large' things rather than confining things into a single house again.

The official sequel to the original game had distorted, cartoony graphics, and although I loved it, it didn't fulfill my need to 'continue' the original mansion adventure, it was just too different a game, almost like playing a saturday morning cartoon.

This meant that I always wanted to create my own version of 'continuing that adventure', but life got in the way. Now, so many decades later, I finally was able to construct at least something.

Sane Shack is the beginning of that something - and I sincerely hope there is at least ONE other individual that longs for a nice adventure game that happens purely inside an exciting mansion.

There was nothing better than wondering what's behind that door, and how to get it open, and then figuring out how to get it open, and entering an exciting room that brought more intrique and a rewarding sense of mystery and accomplishment, which allowed the adventurer to continue the exploration and go ever deeper into the strange mansion during an autumny night with stars visible.

I want to bring that feeling, wonder, excitement and sense of a mysterious mansion to explore back, even if just once more.


Purpose of Sane Shack:
----------------------

This game is just a preview, just a small taste of what's to come. The real purpose of making it like this is so that I could possibly 'lure' some scripting talent to help me with the ACTUAL project, which will have around 50 rooms and way more puzzles of course.

The style will remain pretty much the same, but I think the graphics will be a bit more low-resolution, so it's easier to draw more of them (160x200 or so should be good enough. I would love to do 160x240, but I don't know if AGS supports that (I mean, it would technically, of course, be 320x240 or even 640x480)).

As I am bad at scripting and programming and such things (I am more of the 'absent-minded artistic type'), I need a lot of help with this stuff.

So basically I would like to have someone (or someones) script the BIG game for me, with this same (or as similar as possible) GUI, similar graphics (the main sprite can be changed of course), similar style, which is a mixture of my own expression combined with trying to mimic a certain adventure game's style a little bit (or even quite a lot).

The mimicking will be the 'core', around and through which my own self-expression (when it comes to visual and sound) will be allowed, hopefully resulting in something beautiful, wonderful, exciting, and a good game that adventure-minded people will like to play.

I am open to ideas and suggestions of course, the BIG game would be a collaboration of sorts, but I would like to keep the boss role in that I would have the last say as to whether something will be implemented or not. After all, this is my vision and my project, so I would be like a director for it.

But if the ideas are good, I will definitely want them implemented, the BIG game should have enough room (no pun intended) to implement all sorts of wacky ideas and still have all my own ideas implemented.

So anyone wanting to help in any way, but especially 'committing' (I hate this word, though) themselves to scripting a 50-room puzzle-based mansion adventure game, will be appreciated.



Known bugs and problems:
------------------------

There are quite many - the GUI, for example, doesn't QUITE work as I intended, but I don't know how to fix it. The cursor sometimes needs to be in a bit weird position for the command to be able to be activated, and many things are a bit 'off'.

There were a lot of compromises that I had to make just to get it this far - and there's of course the 'text problem', because AGS doesn't allow the text to go as high as I would like, so I had to put it a bit lower, which means the graphics had to be compromized, I had to squeeze it to be a much smaller picture to fit everything in.

The character can't also speak and walk simultaneously.

I hope the scripter can fix these problems, or at least correct them a little bit, but even if it's not possible, perhaps the game could still be fun to play, the player would just have to adjust to these problems somehow.

The puzzle might be a bit difficult at first, but once you solve the first part, the rest is almost self-explanatory, and probably too easy. But I am sure that together with some help, we can make things more balanced in the BIG game.

There's also a bug that produces an 'error text' even though the action is successful, and I have no idea how to fix it (I tried all kinds of things).

The walking sound should have about 8 different wavs, and randomize between them, to make it more appealing to the ear, but I couldn't figure out how to do this.

Some of the sound effects are pretty simple, they're 'ripped off' in a way, but I recorded them from a real Commodore 64. I plan to of course make my own sound effects for everything, as I indeed did for the most part. I even used a real Commodore VIC-20 for some sounds (try to guess, which part).

I originally planned to create a song for the certain part (I don't want to give out spoilers, so I am being vague), but there was a problem with the song I was creating, so I just did this other thing, which is not very good, but maybe I will change it in the future, sort of polishing this 'preview' thing a bit more, but I'd much rather start already working on the actual, BIG game.

Some of the hotspots and masks and such are a bit wonky and as the result, the char can walk where he shouldn't be able to, and it can require clicking at a very specific spot to get something to react, etc. I hope this won't be a problem for the BIG game.




Features and miscellaneous info:
--------------------------------

I made a small Freebasic intro, but right now, it only consists of a hastily-drawn title picture (not even close to 'finished', but I just wanted to release this instead of dedicating a week to polishing a title picture) and some old music that utilizes two real SID chips (Commodore 64's synth chip).

Of course I plan to compose a better song for the big game, a much longer song with more channels (and real OPL3, possibly together with a real C64 or at least real SID chips and such).

There are also original sound effects in this game, together with the 'ripped off'-versions. I created the original ones mostly with SID chips and Commodore 64, but some utilize Commodore VIC-20 and such.

I have many older computers with interesting waveforms (noise wave sounds different with each 8-bit computer, for example, that I have), and I plan to heavily utilize them for the actual, BIG game.

Most of the graphics have been created on a real Amiga, for maximum 'feel', although the graphics started out on an old DOS PC with Deluxe Paint II.

The Actual, BIG game, would of course continue this tradition, if possible, and all the graphics would be created with a real Amiga (unless I absolutely need to use something else for them, and sometimes, just to fix some small problem, it's just easier to use a PC program quickly, so pragmatic reasons might dictate some impurity). I have it connected to a TFT monitor (among other things), so I can use real 160x240 (and 160x200) resolutions, so the workflow is smooth and easy.


The end speech:
---------------

So, if you have any questions, any critique (hopefully constructive), any suggestions or help ideas, or just want to contact me for any reason whatsoever, please do so, I am friendly and although a bit quirky, gladly respond to your messages (as long as you also remain friendly).

Also, if you have any kind (hopefully truly KIND) comments, you can of course freely leave them here.

If the first puzzle is too difficult, I can give hints after a week or so, but after that, it's going to be too easy.
EDIT: I have noticed that people become obsessed with the spear and stick, I may have to remove them.
Also, the fourth room is the 'reward', this game really consists of only three rooms, so there's nothing more after you get to the fourth room, except the room itself. You can quit at that point, as that's the end.