Adventure Gamers - Forums

Hi everyone,

good to see how the adventure game scene is still alive   I’m an 80’s kid, grown up with Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island etc.

So it’s not surprising that I ended up making a game myself.

But the game I’m working on is different, I think it’s really innovative. There are no graphics but that doesn’t mean that it’s a game for visually impaired because actually, that’s what we understand as an audio game nowadays.

Just a few short facts:
Title: The Girl Who Sold the World
Genre: story driven, episodic Audio Adventure Game (no graphics, the whole story will probably fit into 7 chapters)
Platform: Android & iOS
Business model: First Chapter FREE (upcoming chapters as in-app purchases)

Release Date: Chapter 1 - “The Loss” Download links
GOOGLE PLAY
http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LyorahStudios.TGWSTW
APPSTORE
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-girl-who-sold-the-world/id1254026947?mt=8

Website: http://www.thegirlwhosoldtheworld.com

Trailer 1 - Focus, Immerse, Enjoy:

Trailer 2 - The Chase:

Features:
* connect with the protagonist Frances through a messenger called Skyler
* make choices and shape the story = different paths = different adventures = different endings
* solve logic puzzle
* combine collected items
* fast-paced action sequences (chapter II)
* creative puzzles (chapter II)
* puzzles will get more challenging throughout the chapters
* all sounds recorded professionally by ourselves to maximize atmosphere (outdoors+indoors, with our special
  recording device which we’ve built for that purpose)
* real acting, not just voice over
* a game about empathy, caring for each other, friendship, curiosity and courage, fear and hope,
  about us humans and what we are willing to sacrifice to survive the future
* Frances can be killed, so please take care of her

In TGWSTW you are pulled into the story by a great canvas of sound. You are in the middle of the adventure, helping Frances to survive, to find her way through a strange world, to find out the truth who she is, where she is and what it’s all about.
All you have to do is to put on your headphones, dive into the fictive world and let your mental cinema do the rest!

The cool thing about audio is that although the story is the same for everyone each of us will build his own world, his own characters. The gaming experience is going to be unique for every player!
It’s kind of like we were playing Manic Mansion and we had to use our imagination to put together those big pixels into beautiful pictures in our heads! But with audio only you are free to let your imagination run wild!

I know for some of you, it may sound scary that there are no graphics at all. But believe me, your imagination has more power than you think. Just turn off the sound while watching one of your favorite movies and no matter how great the pictures are there is a gaping hole in your perception and it feels not right. But if you make it the other way and just close your eyes you can still imagine the pictures when supported by sound and have a great experience.
Of course, an intriguing story is key to a thrilling experience and I think we have it with TGWSTW. 

I would really appreciate it to have some specialists/true adventure fans from this community as game testers on board.
So if I aroused your interest you are more than welcome to apply as a game tester on our website.

I appreciate any feedback and comments. It helps so much through that hard times of development. THANK YOU.

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UPDATE 02-11-2017 : I’ve edited the features to make them a little more clear

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UPDATE 01-15-2018: Additional Trailer added above.
We passed 10k downloads on the AppStore but we need more attention. Please support us if you can.
To give back to the community of adventure fans, we made Chapter 1 free - forever - so any new player can check it out and decide for him/herself if he/she wants to continue this journey with us.

Well, the question im left with: what separates what you described from simply an audio book? Or does it amount to choose your own adventure?

Interesting idea. Will the presentation be along the lines of a text adventure “read aloud”, or will it also feature ambient sounds in a more cinematic mode? And how will player input be done?

@zane, @BitingWit Thank you both for your questions. I think I can answer them at once. It differs from a simple audio book, because it’s interactive. Meaning: the player makes important decision, chooses what to tell the protagonist Frances and what to do.

You will be able to collect stuff and use it in the game. There will be puzzles to solve, and different paths you may go (depending on your decisions) which finally will lead to different endings. 

The only graphics will be the interface itself which is the messenger called Skyler. It allows you to connect to Frances and dive into her world. Choices are made by pressing buttons with the appropriate answers, some puzzles will involve a little more graphics like simple sketches.

The sound includes all ambient sound which we are recording by ourselves. I even built myself a special recording device to allow us to record outdoors while in action (for example running, which you can’t do with a simple studio microphone).
Our female voice artist is really playing her role, so yeah - you can call it “cinematic mode” I think

I apologize, I’m not a native English speaker. So if something is unclear just ask and I’ll try to explain it better. Thank you!

But if you can pick up items, then how do you keep an overview of your inventory? Is that too displayed?

And if so, aren’t you steering away more and more from the whole audio concept?

I like the concept. I’m just trying to get a clearer picture here.

@Bitano Sure, Thanks for your question. There won’t be an inventory per se.

It’s more like a “to do list” which displays at a given time tasks you can do which for instance involve combining things if there is a puzzle to solve at that moment.

Maybe collecting stuff was too much said (sorry), it’s about making decisions if you pick up an item or which one you pick up and that will push you eventually on another path.

We decided to make Chapter I more focused on choices to get you familiar with the world and the story, but the puzzle frequency and difficulty will increase throughout the episodes.

Concept wise you may think of “choose your own adventure books”, remember those? or maybe even text based adventures…

It’s still about making decisions, but the gaming experience is so much more intense because of the sound…the great atmosphere which let you “feel the world” , Frances’ emotions etc. 

Well…Again it sounds very interesting. I’d be happy to help test and provide feedback.

I can see this working as a mobile game for when you’re in the train or something. Are you looking at releasing it for smartphones as well?

[edit]
having been on the road quite a bit (and in many traffic queues) i have gotten quite used to and even fond of audio books.
One i could appreciate in particular was the Lord of the Rings trilogy i had. That was well before the movies came out. So i don’t see an issue myself with a game based on this audio experience.
It’s bold, though
[/edit]

TimeCatcher, you’re more than welcome to post the game’s title, and a link to your website if you have one. We certainly never want to discourage adventure game developers from sharing their games.

Although your gameplay approach sounds very different, if you’re curious you might want to check out BlindSide to see how another developer handled an audio-only presentation.

@Jackal, thank you so much for the nice and friendly welcome. Great! I will just edit the main post and put all the links in there.

Also, thank you for the tip on BlindSide! I didn’t know it. Although very different it seems to be a pretty interesting approach.

Hi TimeCatcher - cool idea for a game! You mentioned Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island as influences. Will your game be able to offer a similar level of challenge for the player? I am finding it hard to see how that might be done in the select-an-option approach you are going for.

Bitano - 10 February 2017 01:24 PM

I can see this working as a mobile game for when you’re in the train or something. Are you looking at releasing it for smartphones as well?

Ah the art of reading… Only after watching the trailer I reread the specs in your initial post and realized how silly this question was. My bad! Good call.

Anyways, I’m intrigued!

@Oscar Hi and thank you very much!
At first glance, it seems to be hard to imagine. But when you think of the inventory as text-buttons with choices rather than icons which have to match different options, it’s a matter of coding only. I think we can achieve that some heads will be smoking

But the main goal for us (and as a fan of MonkeyIsland puzzles I’ll do everything to get there) is to find the right balance between different types of challenges like logic-, action- and creative puzzle so that it’s going to be a great experience for everyone.

@Bitano Thanks! glad to hear that.

@Jabod a simple solution would be one of these nice adapters to plug in two pairs of headphones, and then play together with your friend! After all, it’s about spending time together and having fun, right?

Bah, I hate when a game gets me all intrigued before I notice that it’s not available on PC.

@Detective Moseley, Maybe we’ll think about a port to PC. Although a smartphone it’s just perfect for it. You’ll want a handy sound device for that purpose rather than a big screen