Adventure Gamers - Forums

Izlimak - 11 May 2015 05:07 AM

From an old photograph, I can see the key hanging above a vase with rings on it.

Ah, the vase puzzle. Probably the most infamous and divisive puzzle in the whole game—it’s a love/hate affair.

Thing is, I come from a strong background in text adventures and I’ve always decried the simplification of interfaces in the genre. A part of me died a little when Sierra left behind the parser to go icon-based, and I hated, hated, hated Myst for its offending single-action interface.

But, eventually I had to surrender to this new standard. Problem is, the more you simplify the interface, the less complex the adventure becomes—there’s no way around this: you may add complexity by time-based events, non-linearity, intelligent characters, etc., but your means of communicating with the game world are seriously limited the more simplified the interface is.

Nowadays when you see a bed in an adventure game you may only do one of the following: sleep on it or probably get some feedback. In a text adventure, you could try making/unmaking the bed, moving it, looking under it, and other crazy things (provided those interactions were implemented, of course). This is why the parser remains the most complex interface in games: it offers seemingly infinite possibilities of interaction.

ANYWAY. My core idea with the damned vase puzzle was that you had two ways of interacting with it. Spoiler:

[spoiler]Clicking on the body of the vase will give you some feedback, but if you click on its opening, you’re telling the game to look inside the vase. For added complexity, the curtain had to be opened in order to see the key that fell inside. However, a problem with the puzzle was that you had to had seen the photograph in the maid’s room first before the “look inside” action was enabled—my reasoning was that no one could tell there was a key inside the vase without first having seen that photograph. Unfortunately, many missed it and found the key by pure chance, wrongfully accusing the game of pixel hunting. Still, the photograph-based trigger was a bad design decision.[/spoiler]

TimovieMan - 11 May 2015 06:23 AM

Straying far from the house outside does a good job at making you feel alone and vulnerable. It’s like any minute something could jump out from behind a tree or something…

I’m glad you brought this up this as we want to achieve a similar effect in Asylum. For all its shadowy corners and strange noises, Blackwood Manor provided some degree of comfort. Being outside and roaming those grounds made you feel exposed somehow. I think it’s a combination of that eerie quietness and the vast openness of the sky above with those slowly animated clouds. It’s quite foreboding.

It’s no coincidence that the first line Michael utters when you start playing is almost lifted directly from Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space

“The cloudy sky above me seemed rather unsettling and almost made me lose my balance. I felt a curious urge to run for shelter, and my new home in the distance seemed very inviting.”

vs.

“I vaguely wished some clouds would gather, for an odd timidity about the deep skyey voids above had crept into my soul.”

(aka Painfully Amateurish vs. Complete & Utter Mastery of the English Prose)

In the case of Asylum, things will be different: you can’t stray far from the Hanwell Mental Institute, but the sheer size and height of the building should provoke the same feeling of loneliness and vulnerability. Following hours of exploration, you find yourself at the very top of the mazey structure and barely remembering your way out. That’s when it hits you: “If anything happens now, I’m screwed”.

Agustín Cordes - 11 May 2015 05:10 PM

That’s when it hits you: “If anything happens now, I’m screwed”.

Terror is indeed more effective than horror, imo. And nothing is scarier...

Finally I am underway. Hope to catch up soon. Will happen faster once the CCPT is underway. I should be able to devote a good two hours straight to the game tomorrow.

Sefir - 11 May 2015 06:17 PM

Many people and developers claim that the only “true” sound is the sound effects and any kind of soundtrack, while adding to the atmosphere (in the case of Scratches, even more than usual) is very unrealistic.

I used to think the same—at least when it comes to horror games—but Cellar of Rats proved me wrong. Like I said, the first incarnation of Scratches was going to be very minimalistic with sparse soundscapes, but CoR’s soundtrack added a whole new dimension to the game: from melancholic remembrances of the past to a majestic exploration of the Manor and gut-wrenching moments of dissonant terror (I’m looking at you, basement), every musical cue sounds spot on. It really took Scratches to a whole new level. I’ve always thought that, if done right, music can turn a decent game into a timeless classic. I mean, many times I’ve found myself playing something just to hear its music.

So, I think atmosphere is hard to define but it’s always a combination of things: graphics, music, narration, pacing, and some mysterious ingredient. Of course it depends on the game and what you want to communicate to players, but I’ve come to consider music a mandatory aspect for cinematic experiences

I have finished the first day now.

Agustín Cordes - 09 May 2015 05:38 PM

The pacing of the first day is excruciatingly slow, so I’m glad you’re through with it. It was a make or break thing for many players—the first day is so boring, many folks just stopped playing.

I actually think that the slow pace here on the first day is a good thing!
If you want to make a good scary game/film/book/anything then you need time to build up the suspense, you cant just haver skeletons jumping out of the closets immediately when we open the front door - Or as Timothy said:

TimovieMan - 11 May 2015 05:27 PM

And nothing is scarier...

Give us the feeling that something is not quite right, that everything is just a little bit off without knowing exactly what it is, and we will start imagining things far scarier than anything you can actually show or tell in the game.

If anything then I thought that we got too much information of what is going on too early in the game, in the form of the newspaper article and the diary from Africa. I think those would have been better left for day 2, leaving us totally oblivious to what is going on all through day 1, until we hear the noises at night.

Duck of Doom - 10 May 2015 05:53 AM

I think the only design-problem for me was that I already explored the place to much before calling Jerry, so I had to call him two times in a row. But I see your point about the illusion of freedom falling a bit short.

Yeah that also happened to me, not really a huge problem though, and I think it is still better then simply having the phone calls trigger automatically at the right time.

I quite liked that the old trick with a newspaper under the door, didn’t actually work. A little comment on a standard AG puzzle?

Sefir - 11 May 2015 06:38 AM

Come on people!! Stop torturing the poor fellow!! Put down the luggage when you find the approptiate place!!

I also felt very tempted to not actually do that, because .. well! But in the end, I didn’t really wanted to carry all my luggage around, also I might actually need something from my luggage.

I can see why the 1st day would loose people - to me it was a “quest for candles” And you get tired of James saying “keep searching”

I like the phone however, very cute - love the conversations.

So far, runs OK, don’t know why.

Agustín Cordes - 11 May 2015 04:46 PM

ANYWAY. My core idea with the damned vase puzzle was that you had two ways of interacting with it. Spoiler:

[spoiler]Clicking on the body of the vase will give you some feedback, but if you click on its opening, you’re telling the game to look inside the vase. For added complexity, the curtain had to be opened in order to see the key that fell inside. However, a problem with the puzzle was that you had to had seen the photograph in the maid’s room first before the “look inside” action was enabled—my reasoning was that no one could tell there was a key inside the vase without first having seen that photograph. Unfortunately, many missed it and found the key by pure chance, wrongfully accusing the game of pixel hunting. Still, the photograph-based trigger was a bad design decision.[/spoiler]

Meh, it’s not that the “puzzle” doesn’t have any clues (I figured it out easily enough after seeing that picture). It’s just that we’re accustomed to just do/solve things in AGs without having to trigger them first.
It wouldn’t have been so glaring if by naturally exploring you would have [spoiler]encountered the picture before you encountered the vase[/spoiler]. That’s not the case now. You can interact with the vase before heading into the kitchen (and noticing the empty key rack), and you only find the tell-tale picture after you’ve gone through the kitchen.
It may not be the best puzzle design, but it still works. The player just needs to pay attention to *everything*.

Good thing I’m taking it slow. Still exploring the house (upper levels), but at least I put down the luggage this time.

I fully expected the basement to look scarier, but THAT DAMNED SCARE CHORD MUSIC MADE IT NIGHTMARISH!!!
I absolutely dreaded opening that furnace, not knowing what to find.
Not finding anything didn’t help…

Bonus points for atmosphere!

I just checked the fuses.  Despite the fact that I had played it before, I found myself trying to run up the basement steps 2 at a time.  What a relief to open the door at the top of the stairs!  Good stuff, that.

I did quite a bit of exploring before I went to my room, so now I have to backtrack to see if I can move the day along and get Jerry to stop telling me to keep looking. 

Ah, I finally made it to Sunday morning.  (I missed a cabinet in the kitchen in my search.)  Although the weather is bad, it’s still much better than stumbling around in the dark.