[MikaelS]

Hello friends and non-friends!

I was on a long break from making my game, but I've now picked it again and I'm having a lot of fun. This however, is still my first game under production...so don't expect too much, I'm learning all the time and there will be many improvements in final version. I use Point & click Development kit...( http://www.adventure-creator.com/ ) it's the 1st engine I really tried and I've grown to learn it well, I simply love it and it was very easy to learn eventhough I had zero scripting experience.

First of all, word of warning: Some people might find some scenes on this game verydisturbing and offensive. I don't know how to explain without spoiling anything, but I think some events in game are a little bit sick, but that's because I aim to make this game thriller-horror adventure game, with some different issues. But these scenes don't happen that often. So if you're offended, I'm sorry, it's not my intention at all, and if you feel like it don't download; that's what the warning was for Also you can skip the disturbing cutscene/s by pressing Esc-button It's certain video cutscene, afterwards it's also explained what happened there.


The game name is Revelations and the 1st episode name is "Family secrets" ( again, just a demo version, not full episode ). Naturally this will be freeware. Also I'm not yet sure if I keep this episodic. It begins with story about man, who will later go to search his missing cousin...


screenshot:



more screenies:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/Mikkers/1sc2.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/Mikkers/1sc3.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/Mikkers/1sc4.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/Mikkers/1sc5.png



I don't think anyone needs instructions really...'esc' button is for load/save etc, otherwise game is 100% mouse commanded. You can't die, you solve puzzles etc ( still pretty dull ones on demo, any suggestions appreciated because I've been brainstorming with these ). Also if you happen to play the crappy minigame, just hit "Q" button to exit it. Also it's worth to note, that on demo version you will have to use "use" command on doors and every zone switches always...this will change on final version.

Any feedback on bugs and everything would be much appreciated. I'm not sensitive like that, I can take all kinds of critisism...but keep in mind this is my 1st ever project, so some things probably still are beyond my skills.

The full version should be out within couple months, I feel I'm proceeding fairly quickly at the moment.


This demo version is about 15 MB file, you can download it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B8AWG00Z or http://rapidshare.com/files/11024265...mo1.2.zip.html


edit: Also I wanted to add, if anyone's bored and skilled enough to make some simple animations for certain actions, I could use some help. Only thing I can offer for return is name on credits though...but if anyone's interested, drop me a PM.

[buddi]

I had a look at it, I'm not sure how far the demo goes. I'm at the morning of the second day, no one is home at Uncle Earl's, I've found the spot in the park, but I still need something to dig with. If there's more, I guess I need a hint what to do next.

It's kind of sick, but I guess you know that, LOL. The characters have some personality, even without voices or facial animations you get a kind of sense of their mood and personality, the dialog seems very natural. I'm guessing you aren't a native English speaker, there are a few very minor translation flaws that sound a little stilted. I do some editing, so if you are interested, I would be happy to glance over the script and make some small suggestions. There's a couple of places where you have white subtitles against a white ceiling, kind of hard to read. The phone call with Uncle Earl was a little confusing, maybe you could use a different colour for internal dialog, or have the comments come after the dialog has ended. It would be nice here too to have a split screen image or something, rather than just a black screen while they are talking.

With the inventory, it would be good to be able to "unpack" inventory items such as the envelope so that once you had opened it, you just had the photograph in inventory and didn't have to examine the envelope and go through the comments if you wanted to look at it again. (I got an error message every time I opened the envelope, but I just clicked on it and it went away and the game continued, probably want to fix that though.) It seems kind of odd to be squeamish about opening someone's mail a second time. Same with the flushable toilet, the cat and a few other things in the game world, after the first time you click on them, the comments seem out of place.

Anyways, hope you find these comments helpful, good luck finishing the game.

[MikaelS]

Thanks for your input Buddi, it's much appreciated! It's hard when you develop the game, and it's all clear in your mind and you know exactly what's going on...thus these things might happen when some things might be difficult to understand for others. For example that phonecall things, now I see after your comment it probably is hard to understand which textline is dialogue and which is narrative. I swear I had it on different color though... Also there actually is some facial animations while talking, but it isn't much; just minor movement on mouth which might be hard to spot..I'll make these things better too for final version, though I'd love to find someone do animations. There's so many ideas in my head, but can't really implement them without correct animations as I'm not very good at them and writing this takes so much time as it is.

as for the disturbing/sick scene, I suppose if you're ok with South Park, this shouldn't disturb either...people are different; I know many might find it funny too, instead of disturbing, while others scenes like that can completely put off the game and I can respect that.

as for you being stuck:

Spoiler:

You have to look at the crow in the tree to progress. I know it's shouldn't be an obstacle to continue though, guess I wanted try player to explore the little enviroment there is on demo. I'm aware it's a bad solution and I'll think of something else there for final version. Demo wont continue much longer after that.

Envelope 'index out of bounds' issue is known, I've no idea what is causing it, but it won't crash the game...and yes, I should delete it after examining and add something like just photo ( so player can compare it to actual scene and spot the right position in ground so it wont be actually pixelhunting in blind). It seems I forgot to add different variables on toilet, same with cat ( most cat comments were adjusted, but guess forgot some). It surprisingly hard to test your own game since I don't have any beta testers...thus I posted demo and every feedback is valuable.

My biggest problem atm is creating puzzles, because in somewhat realistic world, I want to keep it realistic and things that make sense...and this can be extremely difficult. For example, why should hero be stuck in getting some item, while he could easily go out there and just buy it? Just one example. I guess I should implement "thought" inventory as well, combining certain thoughts and ideas like some games use ( discworld noir, diamonds in the rough and blackwell games) to add opportunities and variety on puzzles. It would also help the player to understand better what's going on, after combining thoughts etc.

Thank you for your offer, you're right; English isn't my first language, so minor errors are bound to happen and I'd love it if you took a look at and proof-read it ( and make suggestions) before the whole game is finished, Buddi.

[Ascovel]

Megaupload is unavailable to some parts of the world. Not to mention it offers a spyware filled toolbar. So I suggest you provide an alternate link. If you'd like my professional opinion on your game that is .

[buddi]

Does the save function work on the demo? I named and saved after I last played, now nothing shows up in my save menu. I would search my drive, but I can't remember what I named it

[MikaelS]

Ascovel - I try get it uploaded elsewhere too. As for google toolbar, everyone gets option to not choose download it at Megaupload methinks. edit: done http://rapidshare.com/files/11024265...mo1.2.zip.html

Buddi, I haven't really saved and loaded testing; I thought it'd be fine by engine default. I now tried and noticed you just have to click game1 slot, then click load slot...same way when saving. Didn't give me option to type savegame name or anything. Gotta work that out as well. Thanks for pointing out.

I see from your sig you're working on your own AG as well! Good luck with that, it can be a lot of fun. I'll probably give AGS a try myself in my next project as well just for the sake of curiousity and perhaps larger community...

[Ascovel]

Thanks. I downloaded the demo and will check it out soon.

I have the option of not downloading the spyware toolbar without visiting Megaupload, so it's not something for which I should be grateful to them. There's no way for me to download from Megaupload other than through the toolbar.

[Ascovel]

I played through the whole demo. A few quick thoughts:

I think the disturbing issues will be managable for most people, as long you keep treating them seriously later on in the game.

The game's reality is too depressing. I mean the dullness of the main hero's life. I understand you aimed for it to be like that, but maybe you could add just a touch of color to all the "greyness" to hook in the player more. Maybe some humor would do it. Or give the hero some special atribute, like an adventurer's cap or a leisure suit or something.

Some of the musical themes didn't feel adequate to me. For example, the music in the office is too cheerful to fit the everyday boredom vibe of the place.

It would be good to add the missing bathrooms and kitchens to the apartments.

Just an idea. Maybe a short scene of the janitor reacting to the hero stealing the cat could be fun.

[MikaelS]

Thanks Ascovel Yeah I sorta intended to make character's life appear dull, and agreed it starts a bit slow and maybe it's bit over the top dull/depressing at start, but I think things will be a lot more tense after where demo ends when things start to happen. And hopefully we'll see good transition in main character as well and in his attitude. Yeah, I should probably add those missing rooms as well ( only recently added kitchen to hero's apartment), but we'll see...this is still my 1st game afterall and trying to make everything perfect would probably wear me down quick ( though I acknowledge it'd be good to have complete apartments) so I have to make "cuts" somewhere.

Good idea about cat/janitor thing...I write it down, could potentially make short and comical scene there.

[Ascovel]

About the missing rooms, you could just add entrances to them in the existing locations. The hero could say there isn't anything interesting inside when trying to get in, instead of you creating whole new locations to explore.

I also have some puzzles ideas you could add to the part of the game from the demo. I can PM you with them, if you're interested.

[MikaelS]

Yeah you're right, I should probably do the doorframes at least to those. That's ho I had kitchen first ( just the door, no access) so guess it'd give more creditable feeling if player knew they're at least there..

I'd love it if you pm'd me puzzle suggestions on demo areas, right now I'm struggling with them quite a bit and I'm very open for them.

[buddi]

Originally Posted by MikaelS

I see from your sig you're working on your own AG as well! Good luck with that, it can be a lot of fun. I'll probably give AGS a try myself in my next project as well just for the sake of curiosity and perhaps larger community...

You get a little credit for inspiring me. While critiquing your game, I realized I had no idea how easy or hard it would be to implement some of the suggestions, so I decided to see for myself. My game is very crude and amateur but it's really giving me a feel for how a game goes together. I was intimidated by the idea of scripting, ironically, it's very much like the coding I did to analyze data for my MA thesis, so it seems I already know a little what I am doing!

I thought the hero's miserable life was a real hook. It made me want to know who he was and how his life had gotten to that point. I'm hoping there's a story there that we will get to learn more of as the game unfolds.

[MikaelS]

Yeah, better 1st make something smaller to familiarize yourself with the engine! I did utterly nonsense short game first to my friends for this, so this is then my 1st more serious attempt...

Remember to have fun, that's what this all is about and sometimes forgotten.