Rosemary, an adventure game about remembering
 

I've been a lurker of the AG forums for some time, and this is my first post. Hello all! I'm a researcher at MIT, and I'm writing my dissertation on adventure games.

I just wanted to share our new adventure game, Rosemary, which I worked on with a group of students at MIT. The game is free, and you can watch the intro and download it from here:

http://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/rosemary.php

Remembering is the core mechanic, which will allow you to discover the mystery of the game. The premise is that the protagonist, Rosemary, spent years thinking that her childhood friend Tom was imaginary. After she finds a photo of Tom and herself, she realizes he was a real person, so she goes back to her home town in order to find out what happened to him.

I'd love to hear what you all think, since it's a game we've made for adventure game fans. My goal is to start a conversation with fans and developers, taking this game as a starting point. I'm going to continue making games with students, and your feedback will help me make them better.

This is one of the screenshots of the game. I hope you all like it!

http://gambit.mit.edu/images/loadgame_rosemary_01.jpg

Lovely screenshot!

I'm also a bit intrigued by your description of the game. It sounds interesting. I'll borrow a Windows computer and play it.

Edit: I almost forgot to say welcome! Welcome to the AG forums.

Your premise sounds very interesting. I once saw a book where a kid's "imaginary friend" was actually a ghost, and only the kid could see him. So they helped each other out.

And welcome to the forums!

the art is really beautiful, i'm stuck at this part:

Spoiler:

- I don't know what to do with the rope, i want to try to use it but i'm not sure how ? If i use put on the well/well bar it doesn't work, that's my first guess. I tried it on tree, didn't work too.

Some feedback :

Spoiler:

- Mouse pointer will stuck at the edge of the screen (if my cursor is too close to the edge)
- The button interface is a bit confusing, because when you click on it, it suppose to changed to "pushed" state. Right now it happen after your mouse cursor leaving the button.
- Sometimes couple buttons are disabled, sometimes enabled, overall i'm really not sure if i use all the button correctly.
- Also not really sure what i suppose to do next, maybe i'm just not good enough huhee....

overall it looks great, maybe make the gameplay easier to understand.
(i'm familiar with adventure game, but honestly i'm a bit lost here,
maybe it's just me though, so don't worry too much about it :P)

Your specific problem

Spoiler:

You'll need to combine the rope with another object before you can use it. It will be an object that will combine well with a rope for attaching it to things.

As a general rule, switching between the present and the past will often open up the way ahead when you're stuck.

@Potan (but for everybody's benefit)
Yes, we're aware of the issues that you mention. I'm hoping to be able to do some bug fixes soon, depending on the availability of the students.

The game is supposed to run in windowed mode (as it says in the readme). In full-screen the mouse acts up the way you describe (it gets stuck in the top-left corner, and bounces off the right side). We couldn't save those settings by default :(

Verbs highlight if they're possible option, so that if not, you don't have to waste your time trying to dig up a window, for example.

Thanks everyone for playing!

I downloaded this purely out of love for the graphics. Your art team, particularly one of the lead artists, whose work is apparent throughout, Fabiola Garza - is spectacular. She is a real catch!

Anyone interested in her artwork, check out her website at www.fabiolagarza.com

Keep up the great work! It's very inspiring.

Great graphics and a very interesting story. Downloading it right now.
So i played like 5 minutes. One word. Amazing.

Actually, the three lead artists worked together so well that the managed to work with a unified style. It's difficult to tell who did what, because most assets went through the hands of all three.
You can check out their portfolios here:
Nicholas Kole http://nicholaskole.com/
Brandon Cebenka http://www.brandoncebenka.com/

I was very lucky to work with very talented students in all disciplines, they're all great catches!

Nice story, sad ending. Too short too.
Fine graphics, also liked voice acting.
Put for use is a bit confusing.

Very cool, worth playing despite it being too short and too simple and all that. Definitely makes me want to play a full-fledged game from you guys.

Thanks everyone for your kind responses, I'm glad you liked the game.

My goal is to keep on making games with teams of students, so if anybody would like to contribute more detailed feedback, you can post it here or send me a message. I'd like to hear what you like, and what clicked for you, but I'm even more interested on what you didn't like, and where you had problems.

Thanks everyone again!

I would have liked a slightly more elongated ending. It felt a bit abrupt which could be remedied by a bit more writing and illustration.

I've played this game and certainly looking forward for entire version!

I just finished this game and enjoyed it very much. Kudos to your and your students. Excellent graphics and I loved the pictured diary. If you like you are more than welcome to host this game on my forum. We have an area called Finished Projects you can upload the game there. Click on the address in my sig and it should take you there. If you don't want to join the forum then if you give me permission I will upload it for you. Excellent work and hope to see more from you soon. Good luck with future projects

Is there anyway to watch the ending outside of the game? I accidentally clicked through it (It looked like I needed to click to advance the first part of it, and why can you skip the ending with a mouse click anyway?)

The game itself was pretty, and the idea of having a world of memories to interact with is very cool.
I also like connecting the photgraphs to form a memory.

I think it may have been nice to have the protagonist as a little girl when she is remembering.

EDIT: Nevermind, replayed and saw the ending.

I bookmarked this thread a month ago, when I first saw it because I didn't feel I had time to play this, then, but had I known just how short it was I would have made the time.

It's a very good game, though simple and too easy. The ability to view the areas as she remembered them seemed unnecessary as pretty much everything she needed to solve her mystery was right there.

As soon as she said that she and Tom used to believe that the well might be the entrance to a pirate's cave it seemed like to big a clue as to what had happened.

I do hope that you go on to have a lucrative career in adventure gaming, Telmah, as we need more games like this (but longer and more complex, if possible ;) :P). I'll now check to see if you have any more free adventure games available, but if not then please post to say when and if you make more :D (If you make more, I suppose....).

Also, I played the game completely in maximised mode and noticed no mouse problems or errors of other kinds.

Congratulations to the makers of Rosemary. Rosemary is a brilliant game and the feelings will stay in my mind forever.

<spoiler alert>
The game drew me in from the start - due to the conflicting information about the parents. I found it jarring. Why would parents lie to their child? All evidence showed good, kind parents: photo's of smiling parents, homemade dolls (maybe made by a caring mother?), happy childhood memories, parents who didn't get angry at their child's ways. I wanted to know the answer.

Excellent story telling and character development. Brilliant twist. I found it inspirational how you communicated a complex story so efficiently. Had the author read 'The anatomy of story' by John Truby? I didn't realise that all of the steps for a compelling story could be achieved in a small game. You achieved this with a tight focus on the goal. Good work.

Music and sound effects brilliant. Artwork beautiful. Programming logical.

Thank-you for an enjoyable game. Encore, encore!

Wow, those artists are really something else. Great to see talent like that being used for adventure games. I will admit I downloaded the game a few days ago but I haven't gotten around to playing it. The intro was beautiful though, looking forward to seeing more of the animation in the game :D