Crystals of Time [Desura release]
Monkey Archive Forums/Digital Discussion/Crystals of Time [Desura release]
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| December Update: Guys, I need once again your help. The game will be out on Desura too in the next days. I need your help to vote for it here: http://www.desura.com/games/crystals-of-time I also have plenty of Gift Keys. Do not hesitate to ask for it here in this post. Just give leave an email and I will sent you the key. Thanks, Original Post Hello all, I need your help with this big project of mine. Since September last year I am working at this Adventure Hidden Object game. I am making it with BlitzMax for windows and mac and Monkey for ipads and tablets, of course. I have a dead line on this September and it is very close. I still have a lot to do, but for now I am interested in how long will it take to a normal player to advance in the game. I sent this build to some casual game players (former clients of my previous games) but I would like to also receive some feedbacks from you. This is the download link: http://rvlgames.com/ahogbuild.zip The game has a checking method at the start, so you will have to wait a few seconds, depending of your Internet speed. NO DATA is collected by me. Just check on my server if the build is stil playable :) The game itself is far to be polished, but I tried to make a test version good enought to be playable. You will encoutner a few bugs but nothing annoying.. I hope. So, if you like to have a look and help me will be great. Also if you have friends, girlfriends, mothers, wifes, etc. who likes to play this type of game send it to them. I am interested in how long did you take to find the "Blue Crystal". Any questions or feedback, write it here. Thank you |
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| Hi, Download and start, no problems. Just one thing: the play-window is strange. I cant' see all the image, the 'inventory bar' is a little bit 'cut-down'. I found a problem in the hidden game phase: some terms are 'out of view' :P On my dad computer the screen resolutions is 1366x768... sure this is the reason. |
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| Post2: Inside house, when you can find 'the rope' and the requester will pop up. Well... the mouse diseappears... cant click on 'ok'. Need to 'imagine' the pointer position |
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| @degac: the game resolution is 1280 x 768 on widescreens and on 4:3 monitors will be 1024 x 768. On full screen there will no issues on a computer like your dad has, but on window mode you will lose some data, yes. that issue with the rope I though I fixed it but seems you reproduce it. thanks. |
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| My wife is an avid HOG player, I will have her test. |
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| Thank you, Why0Why I appreciate it! |
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| To overcome the window size issue, you should use virtual resolutions, and use the largest window you can within the desktop resolution, i.e. if the user has a 1280x1024 desktop, use a 1024x768 window. if they have a 1024x768 desktop, use an 800x600 window, and so on. There are some weird-ass resolutions out there, especially with all these super-widescreen monitors that seem to be appearing, and of course, netbooks. |
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| Looks really good! How were the graphics created? Drawn, photo or rendered via a 3D program? Is this test version written in Monkey or BMax? Also I spotted a possible grammar error: In the book: I am here at "least": 'The Three Oak Mansion'. Should be: I am here at last... Inside house, when you can find 'the rope' and the requester will pop up. Well... the mouse diseappears... cant click on 'ok'. Need to 'imagine' the pointer position Yep I got that too... |
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| Playing it now. The graphics and presentation seem up to scratch for the genre. I got the rope cursor bug too. I'm also seeing a lot of English errors, e.g. cheisel instead of chisel, hearth instead of heart. The spelling and grammar errors aren't so much of an issue but getting entirely the wrong word or using an questionable/unusual term (describing what looks like a chopping board as a trencher, for example) is problematic in a HOG. Edit: Is the game actually completable? I spent ages fiddling with the sea-horse puzzle and failing to solve it. I then skipped it but it didn't unlock anything or give me an item. I can't tell if the puzzle is bugged or I'm just missing something. Edit2: It definitely seems as if there are blocking bugs. The hotspots in the greenhouse don't seem to be working. I got a "you need something thinner" message from clicking on the crack in the fountain once, tried using the knife and tweezers on it and then stopped getting any response from clicking. There's also a supposed HO hotspot in there that I'm not getting (apart from no particle effect when clicking on the area) although I can't be sure if that unlocks later. Edit3: I got the greenhouse gear after exiting and entering the greenhouse a few times and using the knife on the crack. I only knew to try it because I peeked at the xml though. I was getting no notification of the hotspot. I've got the blue crystal. Is there more to do or is that as much as is in the game now? |
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| @GfK: I will try to address the resolution problems until the release. my strategy was to make the whole game on 1280 x 768 (widescreen). So if the user has a widescreen monitor, the game will be played at that resolution. If cannot be played, then I switch to 1024 x 767. In my game I also remove the margins of every scene. All the objects are designed to be drawn in that 1024 pixels anyway. BFG has a request, that the game should be playable at 1024 x 768, so that was my target.. @therevills: - the scene is rendered in blender and then we painted over it for details. - the desktop version it's written in BlitzMax - thank your for that spelling error. @muddy_shoes: - the sea horse puzzle cannot be played for now. - "I got a "you need something thinner" message from clicking on the crack" I will make this hotspot bigger. You must use the knife but the click must be very precise. The Blue Crystal it's almost at the end of the playable version. How long did this take you to reach this? |
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| The problem wasn't the size of the hotspot. The hotspot stopped registering at all. I could click all over it and never get the message again. I guess it took a couple of hours to get the crystal, but considering that involved a restart at one point, twenty minutes or so trying to work out what was going on with the greenhouse and a similar amount of time pointlessly messing with the sea horse puzzle it's not an accurate play time. If you want people to test these sorts of games you really need to explain what is and isn't meant to be working. It's probably best to provide a walkthrough too. I enjoyed what I played of the game. I was surprised at how few hidden object sections there were though. Also I did feel a bit direction-less at times. I'm not a big fan of having to run around checking to see if a HO section or a puzzle have mysteriously become active either, perhaps simple hints can be given, e.g. "Maybe I should look in the car again to see if there's something useful". You might also want to think about giving notification on mouseover that things can be picked up as it's frustrating to find you've missed something. |
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| I don't personally like the mechancic you have in place for finding items, I like many others grew up on games like Monkey Islands, Loom, and countless others, and I always found that having a dynamic pointer a far better experiance, have the pointer change to a pickup hand when you hover over something you can collect and a cog or eye when its something you can look at and possibly a cog when its something you can interact with. I also found the interface a little buggy, I collected things that would not appear in my inventory which bugged the game out and forced a restart. Polish wise this is looking really really good, and think you have the makings of a very cool game on your hands, you just need to fine tune the gameplay a little more. |
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| My wife was enjoying it but couldn't get past the rope bug and stopped playing. |
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| @muddy_shoes and @Taiphoz: I will implement a game mecahnic similar with old quest games: - mouseover an object you can pick = hand - mouseover an area you can interact = cog gears (already used in some locations) - mouseover a generic object or area which will show you a text = magnifying glass @Why0Why: I think I fixed it now. Only this bug and some texts. If you are still interested please redownload it from the same location: http://rvlgames.com/ahogbuild.zip EDIT: the minigame on the beach is not ye playable that's true. also you will never be able to start the boat.. yet. this is done in the second part of the game, after you find clues about the second crystal. |
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| I reuploaded it. The current version has now some interaction icons with objects. it is more playable now: http://rvlgames.com/ahogbuild.zip |
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| I will put it on my wife's computer tonight. She liked the graphics and was disappointed that she couldn't continue. Will post more when she has played ad bit. |
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| thanks man! I appreciate this. |
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| I will put it on my wife's computer tonight. She liked the graphics and was disappointed that she couldn't continue. Ha, same here. I didn't explain well enough that it was in beta. == cranky wife when she couldn't continue. On the upside, no major bugs found. |
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| Hi again, I will not make another topic so I continue posting updates here. Just added this post on indiedb: http://www.indiedb.com/news/characters-bio Here you can learn a little about the characters from the game. The game should be ready to send to publishers later this week. |
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| Hi all, We made this 1 minute trailer which also contain in-game footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cstglUnsLwU |
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| Really professional Raul, it looks very nice indeed!:) What program did you use to create your trailer BTW? |
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| @Sammy: thanks man. the trailer was made in After Effects |
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| Looks awesome! I wish you much success with the sales! |
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| @Raul -> Great work! Any chance of working on a horror title in the future? |
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| Looks great Raul, well done! :) Quick question, what technique was used for the realistic looking the characters in the game, are they based off photographs/scans or some other similar technique? |
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| @rIKmAN: we used some real photos which we edited: changed hair style, color, eyes and the cloths :) |
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| Hello there, Guys, I need once again your help. The game will be out on Desura too in the next days. I need your help to vote for it here: http://www.desura.com/games/crystals-of-time I also have plenty of Gift Keys. Do not hesitate to ask for it here in this post. Just give leave an email and I will sent you the key. Thanks, |
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