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Errr... is anyone else having trouble downloading a non-corrupt ZIP file for ETERNALLY US?

Cogliostro

Antrules,

Okay, normally I like to give useful feedback.  Encourage people here, point out glaring problems there, and generally help them along with producing better games.  However, because of the huge difference in time when you created the first game and when you created the last game, I'm going to do this a bit different.  If only because some of the problems in the earlier games were cleared up in later games.

Spoiler

#1 - Congrats, you finished your first game.  Nice use of the notebook, but otherwise a typical first game.  Several long boring runs from one end of the game to the other in an attempt to convince the character to actually pick up the item we need.
#2 - Wow!  Big change in the size of the game.  Big change in level of complexity and scenes.  Favorite puzzles: the maze puzzle was good, the cow and the seagull wer both funny, and tailing Guiseppe was nerve wracking and very cool.
#3 - I've only just witnessed the death of the third monk, but I wanted to give my impressions before my memories of the first games were clouded with opinions of #3 & #4.  Switching to black and white add amazingly to the atmosphere.  Use of night scenes, ditto.  And THANK YOU for including the map so we can zip across the town when we need to. 

[close]

My only complaint that runs through games 1-3 is the lack of a tool bar.  Bugs the hell out of me.  (Pun intended.)

Anyhow, I thought a massive game like this deserved a lot more attention and a lot more commentary.  And I will add more after I've finished parts 3&4.

- Cogliostro

Melcadrien,

Congratulations on finishing your first game.  I try to give some useful feedback every time I post a comment on a game, so here goes...

Spoiler

If your intention was just to complete a game because you've had trouble finishing any of them.  Then job well done, but its always possible to do more.

Psycho Flashback owes a lot of its story to the movie "12 Monkeys" =  criminal/killer traveling through time to stop a plague.  And if you're going to steal ideas, steal from the best.  Short games almost always end up working this way.

However, you need to focus your theme/mood.  Did you want to make it a parody?  Then stick to jokes.  If you want to make it serious - tough to do in a short game - then make the situation dire.

You had the player be a serial killer, which should have made it a dark game.  Then you tossed in a few jokes and ended by talking about divergent timelines.

Short games don't have to be meaningless or unimportant.  (i.e. Eternally Us or  The MCCarthy Chronicles) Find a central idea/theme/mood and build the story around it.

Anyhow, this is just my 2 cents.

[close]

- Cogliostro

SIX YEARS?!?!?!?  Normally the idea grows stale and gets dropped after one year.  If the game/idea/story continued to inspire you to keep at it for that long, I'm AMAZED! 

Downloading now.

- Cogliostro

Don't get me wrong, there's no such thing as a game that cannot be pirated.  Technical and legal solutions fail immediately or just quickly. 

However, this is not a technical/software solution.  If American/Candian/British/etc hackers encounter no protection on the game, they'll assume there  is none.  In some sense they'll be blind to the censorship problem.  A technical obstacle would be defeated inside of a week, but take a look at the what's going on in China, and tell me how many hackers will be able to figure out what files need to be renamed:
Censorship in China
Press Freedom Index

So, you name the actual game file FREE_TIBET.EXE  and VIOLA the game simply doesn't exist for China's hackers.  The rest of the planet obviously won't be effected, but the idea of using China's censorship to stop piracy amuses me, and honestly, for that reason alone I'm presenting this idea.

No, it's not foolproof, but there cannot be an easier or cheaper way to subvert some hackers.

- Cogliostro

[EDIT: This Subzero guy has sent me a pm saying he got an illegal version of the game and it's okay to do that in China. I feel like if someone did a shit on my doormat and then knocked on my door to ask for a toilet roll....]

Hello!I'm a Chinese player.I just finish this game and have many questions.My English is not good....
In the end,I haven't use the fish and toast
A friend above says "The fish and toast are the ammo for the second shotgun."
I don't have a fit save file.My gun has been loaded.I try to use the fish and toast  to reload my shotgun.The system shows nothing,but using other things,it shows wrong.
Maybe  "The fish and toast are the ammo for the second shotgun."That's right!!!

Finally someone has worked it out!

EDIT: This Subzero guy has sent me a pm saying he got an illegal version of the game and it's okay to do that in China. I feel like if someone did a shit on my doormat and then knocked on my door to ask for a toilet roll....

Grim,

I just realized the absolute easiest way to prevent it from being okay to illegally download a game in China: use China's extensive internet censorship.  Add a few files to the game folder like:

Tiananmen_Square_protests_of 1989.txt
Tibetan_independence.pdf
Taiwan_independence.doc
Uyghur_Independence.rtf

These file can be empty or not, but any file with a name like that going through a Chinese router will be killed instantly.

That only thing that can stop China from violating copyright laws... is China.

Not going to help you this go around, but for the next commercial game, it just might help.  And besides, it costs nothing to do.

- Cogliostro

I wnet nuts triyng ot track down a program that can create FLIC files

The newer version of this Fast Movie Processor is called :  VideoMach 2.3.3

CNET has it available for download: http://download.cnet.com/VideoMach/3000-2194_4-10379917.html

- Cogliostro

Not sure where to put a problem I'm having with the website, hoping this spot will do.

Is anyone else runing into problems where they are being prompted to enter in an ID & PW for www.2dadventure.com when trying to download files? 

Currently I can't get at MODULE: ParticleSystemManager v1.01
I'm also having trouble searching the forums
When I try to read a forum it will randomly prompt me for the same ID/PW and when I can't provide it, no one's avatar will display.

Help!

- Cogliostro

Grim,

You and Lucas are friends?!?!?

Let me get this straight, you produce a game, use his real name, and make it perfectly clear that his book's only virute is that in a pinch is can be used as a substitute for toilet paper?!

Exactly what would have transpired if you had actively DISLIKED the guy?

- Cogliostro

P.S.  On a completely different note, thanks for introducing me to the word "stroppy".

I guess you could always try using this site http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/  and at the bottom where it says enter url http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/theadventuregames

it worked for me i live in the U.S.A

OOOHHHH!!!!!  Thanks! 

- Cogliostro

I'm replaying the game now and typing in comments as they appear.

Spoiler

HOME: Intro is a NICE setup, however, the wow, I'm 20 years old and my dad got me a present so let me drive across town and break into the office just so I can get a surprise.... is way off.   Especially when he's got a cold and is feeling morose already.  Yeah, I know he's pumped up on cold meds, but that's hardly a great time to be driving in the rain.  Since the present isn't important to the rest of the story, so I'd ditch the present. 

First alternative idea that comes to mind.... He's closer to the office than his dad, and maybe the server went down.  Go into the office and reboot it.  After all he's an intern. 

OFFICE: The puzzles  are logical AND appropriate to the storyline, getting into the building and getting past the guard.  All realistic.  I always hate it when everyone in the game knows you're on a question to save civilization from ultimate evil, but the guy in the bar won't tell you how to stop the zombie horde unless you make him a hat from squirrel pelts or something equally stupid. 

You use the lightning and rain to BEAUTIFUL effect.  Really, just amazing.

Getting thrown out of the office building... you don't want the effect to be too obvious, sublty plays well here, but give a one or two more flashes of darkness so the player can get an extra chance to  see what's wrong might work nicely... but then again it might not.  Just something to consider.

The transition to the car and the next morning was harsh.  A single screen talking about trouble sleeping would have avoided that.  Given how tight everything else is, I'd recommend it.

SHRINK: Staring at the bookshelf this works well, a great way to show how ancious the character is.  Especially when you don't have face shots or voiceovers.  The switch to black/white/red eyes is good, but the music makes this scene amazing!  It all came together perfectly.

LIBRARY: The music on leaving the library is again, excellent.  Puzzles again, they work in the story line.  Perhaps a little too easy.  At this stage it might have been possible to crank up the puzzles to add some challenge, but it certainly wasn't required.

GRANDPA'S HOUSE: Was there a car wreck in the storyline that I forgot about?  Or was the sound effects just a way to unsettle the players?  The music downstairs when you're talking to yourself is top notch.

GRAVEYARD: You're in full swing here, the story is playing itself out with excellent music and creepiness until the ending which leaves the audience begging for the third installment.

[close]

Don't make us wait too long for the third installment... PLEASE!

- Cogliostro

The BBC has had Sumo Digital (The people who gave us Broken Sword: Sleeping Dragon) to create a Doctor Who adventure game.  It wasn't supposed to be available until Saturday, but it looks like its available now and its for FREE!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/theadventuregames

Of course, I said, looks like.  Apparently those of us not living in the UK will need to wait a month and then pay for it?!

Anyhow, posting this here, because I assume that the NEW GAME ACCOUNCEMENTS is reserved for AGS games and not general free stuff.

- Cogliostro

Grim,

Finished!  Once again, you prove you have a truly warped sense of humor.

- Cogliostro

Spoiler

Got the ID photo, have it covered with glue.  Running around looking for somethign that will pass for wine, so I can get the ID and then get into the Bar and then get Grim to take a look at the book, etc...

[close]

EDIT:  Once again I demonstrate the power of breaking down and actually asking for help.  One minute I find the bathroom. 

- Cogliostro

There are 9 spots on the grid, this means there are only 362,880 different combinations for each axis.   Which means if something in the grid doesn't give you a clue, then you have to try more than a million combinations to get the TRANSPUTTER to work?!?!?   :o

I kept looking for a set of red circuits to connect for one axis and then if that worked I'd try the yellow.  But I never got anywhere with that.

- Cogliostro

One more person stuck at the first puzzle!

No matter how I manipulate the circuit board I can't get any of the axises to move/change.

Has anyone been able to get by this?

- Cogliostro

Hmmm....

Spoiler

Was in the bar, couldn't pick the corpse out of my inventory.  Hit tab and caused the game to crash: 
ERROR: Inventory Screen: one or more of the inventory screen graphics have been deleted.   Eventually I realized how to select the corpse.

Also, I had trouble getting out of the bar.  When your main characters are that BIG, its easy to lose details like doors in the background.

[close]

Congrats on another truly BIZARRE game.  Biggles was better, but please keep 'em coming.

- Cogliostro

Art and music were top notch. 

The voice acting left me speechless!  (Pun intended.)  Just amazing.

Puzzles were very different from the standard, which is always good, and they were hard enough for the game.

Several suggestions were made about how to improve the game: more characterization for Amber, a less "spoon-fed" ending, et cetera.  I don't think any of these apply to a game this short.

On that note, when (not *if* but when) are you going to produce a full-length game? 

- Cogliostro

The music and graphics are... meh.  They made it possible for you to complete your game.  Which is more than I can say.

The use of the arrow keys...  Obviously you built a few puzzles around this, so I understand the need.  But it still irked me.  Just something to keep in mind for future development. 

Lack of interaction!!!!  This was the killer for me.  I got as far as the snake and just gave up.  Most of the stuff I looked at had no description, most of the actions I attempted had no description.  For example, I passed a buglight right next to a beehive, at least that's what I think they were, there was no description when I looked at them, and nothing I did had any response.

Venus Flytraps are deadly?! Okay, it's a comedy game.  So, I navigate the maze of flytraps and I pick up the doodad... maybe its a magnifying glass, maybe its a frying pan.  The world may never know, because there is no description.

The Gardener stops me from pulling the levers.  I threaten him with gun - no reaction.  Hit him with frying pan - or is it a magnifying glass? - no reaction.  Talk to him - nothing.

I'm tolerant of mediocre graphics and music, but the lack of interaction was a deal breaker for me.  Put some time in here and it will be an entirely different game.

Just my 2 cents,
Cogliostro

Finished the game yesterday...

Spoiler

1.  I completely believe you with you say you worked the graveyard shift at a mental hospital.  You definitely are using "source material" that most of us are mercifully ignorant of.  [Yes, I try to get into the developers head too.] 

2.  I get it that Ivy/Sophie/Agnes are all the same.  I would have included Reception Girl too, but I just can't see Joe being part of the psychological makeup as well.  The delusion seems to be about Joe and his wife's mental breakdown.  Ergo, every woman Joe meets in the delusion should be Ivy/Sophie/Agnes, but Joe should always be himself.

3.  Endings -- I never tried SURRENDER with PASSION and I'm assuming that will go badly, but the SURRENDER with LOYALTY combo seems weaker than the others.  Do you have trouble believing there is any redemption for Joe?  Why didn't that get a followup scene?

4. BUGS - I encountered some of the same bugs as everyone else.  The only thing new I have to contribute is that during the BOSS FIGHT, reloading the shotgun caused the game play (but not the music) to freeze for 10 seconds, which doesn't sound like much but kinda killed the dramatic moment.

5.  I never once considered listening to the laughing corpses and shooting Agnes, but WOW was that scene disturbed.

6.  Music for the blender... that really broke the mood.  Which I thought was extremely bad, but the atmosphere of the game is so critical.

7.  IF you need a voice actor or a beta tester for THE CAT LADY, I've volunteering!!!

[close]

Out of curiostiy, was anything about DOWNLFALL influenced by DARK FALL.  The name is close and both of them are set in a hotel with horrific guests/ghosts?

- Cogliostro