Contest Entry: Christmas Carolyn

Time's up for the contest.  I didn't get as far as I'd like.  I really overestimated how much free time I would have.

That said, it's short and incomplete and available for play.
Christmas Carolyn (Incomplete 2)
TFGS Thread

I guess the main problem was when I did have some free time, friends and family were around.  So working on the game during that time proved very difficult.  After it was clear, I can't finish on time, I just tried to clear it up as best I could and find somewhere to stop.

Anyways, enjoy it.  I need to caught up on sleep and get back working on SJ.

Update 12/18

Update on the progress so far on the contest game.

Had a block for a while.  I didn't like the gameplay and the options presented to the player.  It felt interesting to me but didn't feel very interesting to the player.

I changed up a few things and I like where the game's at and the direction it's taking.  I have a very clear view of how to proceed with the game.

Some bad news

Got some bad news.  I found out there's a tfgamessite contest going on.  Normally, I'm well aware of any contests on the site, but somehow it slipped past me.

In case it wasn't obvious, I love contests.  Deadlines give me something to go for, otherwise, I become too much of a perfectionist.  I have yet to release a non-contest game.  Even SJ started as a contest game.

What this means is I'll be focusing whatever little free time during the holiday season on getting a contest game done (hopefully) and not much so on SJ.

SJ puzzle plan

For the Seraphim Javelin puzzle I mentioned earlier, I'm going to make it open ended.  I'll check to see how it goes when I release the next version.  I might have to do a limited release to see how people deal with it.  If enough people struggle on it, I'll change it.  Hopefully, that won't happen.

Quick Update 12/5

Quick update.  Just 2 things.

First, one of my ideas is panning out well.  It's going to be a Twine game since the concept doesn't lend itself well in Rags.  This does run me into problems with css and how I want the game to look.  I'll need to browse around and find a scheme I like.  Not a big fan of the default look, but I seem to lack the skills to come up with something better.

Second, I know how I want Seraphim Javelin to continue, but ...  There's a little puzzle between missions.  I'm a bit stuck on how to present the puzzle.  I worry if I do multiple choice it'll become too obvious.  But if I open ended ("type a word"), I'm certain a lot of people will get it wrong.

I think I might have to come up with a few red herrings and make it multiple choice.

Another thought I had was to actually test it.  See how many people can figure it out without any hand-holding.  (This will spoil the puzzle for the testers though)

New Ideas

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  Despite my sickness, I still ate lots of food and overstuffed myself.  Not sure if it was the food or my illness, but I slept for over 12 hours.

Just wanted to mention how easy it seems to get new ideas.  From just reading, playing, and tv, I keep thinking of ideas that might make a great game.  I remember reading somewhere someone saying game ideas are a dime a dozen.  Makes total sense to me.

I experimented around with a few of them.  Some haven't panned out yet.  A couple, I think, needs more tweaking.  I'll see what an hour or two might do for them.

Sick part 2

Quick update: Sickness got worse.  Didn't get anything done.  If anything, took a few steps back.  Had to remember how I wanted to continue at the end of the last mission.  Had a plan, forgot it, then had to rework it out.

SJ: Ford update

Completed an intro for Allison Ford.  Need to work on adding some content for her.

Sick

Out sick :(

SJ update: Did some work on Dr. Allison Ford.  Map layout for her office: quick and easy.  Had an idea on the magazine rack.  I tried a quick implementation of my idea which proved to be more difficult than expected.  My photoshop skills are grossly lacking.  Might need to spend some time tweaking the idea to my ps skill level.

SJ: Dr Allison Ford

After yet another failed attempt at a Halloween game, I'm re-focusing my attention back to SJ.  I'm sure many will be happy about this.

Anyways, details of the psychiatrist, Dr. Allison Ford and her role in SJ, after the jump.  To be safe, spoiler warning.

Bleh!

About 30% done with the Halloween game.  In other words, I'm not going to make it.  Sigh.  I like the design, but it's taking longer than expected to debug all the code and making sure the inner workings are correct.  I'll revisit this for next year's Halloween.

On some plus side, while doing some inner work on the Halloween game, I figured out how to implement something I wanted in Seraphim's Javelin for the very beginning.  Some details after the jump.

Halloween Update

Sigh.  I grossly underestimated how much I need to do.  Drastically behind schedule.  I thought it was going to be close but I could put in the time to finish it all.  Turns out I was completely wrong.

Progress: I completed 1 part of 4 in 1 part of 3 before the end of the game.  At the same time, I worry it isn't very compelling gameplay.  As such, I decided to scrap my current design and go back to an earlier design that's more scalable.

I do want to keep the schedule so I'll see how much I can get done by then and then scale up or down accordingly.

Getting better at coding Rags

While I'm working on the Halloween game, I can't help but notice how I'm doing things a bit more effectively than in SJ.  This is usually due to me exploring parts of Rags I was too scared to mess with previously.  Or me mixing ideas with other areas.

This made me realize, it's been a while since I did any Rags Tips and Tricks.  Are people interested in those?  And if you're interested, what would you like to hear about?

I have a few ideas about what I can do: Clothing, Equipment, Combat, In-game Debugger (easily change any variable you want when using the Player client, not Designer), why you might want a Text variable holding "True", ...

A bit more about Victoria

While Victoria is the skeptic in the group, she's actually a Mystic.  She has the ability to interact with the supernatural.  Victoria stays with the group to find out sources of spirit activity and to keep the rest of the group safe (and blissfully unaware).

Halloween Update 10/14

Think I'm about settled on the gameplay.  Finally found something that gives a decent balance between player choices and enough info to make informed choices without giving away the answer.

Previous iterations either railroaded the player or is a crap shoot for the player.

Halloween Schedule

Gonna try to commit myself to a schedule... Aiming for Open Beta around 28th or 29th-ish and Release 1 on Halloween.

I have some stretch goals for this game.  Though, at this point, I don't think I'll get to it in time... we'll see.  Stretch goal involves some music/sfx.  I know for some (like myself) am not a fan of music or sound in Rags games.  Honestly, there's very little engine support on it.  BUT!  I think it'll add a level of ambiance this game warrants and I have a few ideas on how to make it more player friendly.

In the meanwhile, don't worry too much about it.  It is a stretch goal.  If I have the free time to mess around on it, that's a good thing for you (in terms of game completion).

Character Intro

I'm back.

While I was away, I've been a bit busy.  Not as busy as I'd like, didn't have as much free time as I hoped.  But nonetheless, I made some leeway.

One thing I try for nearly every year is make a game for Halloween.  This year is no different.

I played around on the gameplay and it definitely evolved over time.  It started as an action game which changed to a more strategic style game.  Gameplay still seems to change with a few tweaks here and there to more major changes.  I plan to keep working on it until I get something that I'm happy with.

Something that hasn't changed much are the characters involved.  Names might change but personality and their role look very set.  Something very major would need to come up for me to change it now.  Without further ado, character intros inside

Gone Fishing

Won't be able to update in 2 weeks.  Hopefully I'll have something worth mentioning then.

OMG!

I really can't express how happy and grateful I am right now.  Someone donated to pay for a new Rags license for me.  While the cost wasn't the main problem, I am amazed someone will do that for me.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!

Even after several hours, I'm surprisingly quite giddy about it.

That being said, two things are in order.  First, of course, I'm updating to 2.4.16.  I don't have to investigate the differences, so that's fantastic.

Second, I feel I need to reward the donator with something.  I'm sure the donator will read this, so you get a choice: a side quest of your choice in Seraphim's Javelin or an automatic win when I'm polling people.  On second thought, you get both.

Just email me whenever you're cashing in your reward (or if you want something else) and I'll see what I can do.

SJ plans

Writing some of my plans for Seraphim Javelin for those interested and so I can easily remember them.

Find out more about the used condom in the trash can (spoilers) after the break.

Wow an update!

Apologies for not posting.  I have no real excuse for not posting.

But here's what's happening.  Computer problems.  Should be fixed now, hopefully.  Wasn't a big deal, just very annoying and could've been a lot worse.  Thankfully it wasn't.

Also new rags is out.  The new stable version is 2.4.16.  I'm on the fence about updating SJ to 2.4.16 or not.  I know a lot of people complained about earlier versions of SJ using 2.4.14 (since 2.4.0 was the stable version).  However, 2.4.16 is the new stable version.  To add to the consideration, my license had expired.  So if I want the full version of 2.4.16, I will need to buy a new one.  So the question is if updating SJ to 2.4.16 is worth the cost.

Lastly and honestly, I was burnt out.  I wanted to get some steady progress going so I treated it like a job.  Unfortunately, it started affecting me like a job.  It wasn't relaxing.  It wasn't clearing my mind.  I desperately needed a refresh and this wasn't providing.

So I took a break.  I said no more until I feel the urge to start working and designing again.  And lately, ideas have been flowing... I'm quite interested in how they turn out.

Not dead, surprisingly

An Update!

FYI, I'm not dead.  My free time was spent looking at a bunch of games.  Apparently I've been slacking and I missed a bunch of updates and "new" games.  Need to keep myself up to date.

Included in the games I recently played through were a couple ren'py games.  I dismissed the engine in the past due to me not knowing anything about python.  But there were some mods and modding was fairly simple enough.  So I'm going to run through the tutorial and see how I feel about it.

There's a couple advantages in ren'py that I can see and where used quite well in other games.  This could potentially free up a bunch of drudge work inherent in Rags and Twine.

I'm considering doing a quick game as a test, much like I did with Twine.  But I'll need to get some experience with the engine first.  I'll run through the tutorial first and then mess around a bit to see how I feel about it.

Update 6/4

It's been a while since my last update.  I had been busy in real life and being sick didn't help.  But all that aside, I'm feeling much better and eager to get back to working on SJ.

I'm happy overall on the bug list.  Only one bug bothers me and it's that people weren't certain where the content ended.  That's a big problem because there should've been a game over and a message from me saying end of content.  Since that's not happening, something broke around the end of the mission.  On a plus side, people found some hooks that I was planning on changing/removing but completely forgot about.

People noted the VHS wasn't showing anything.  That's because I didn't add in those images yet.  Already fixed.

Seraphim's Javelin (0.1.13 - Bug Search)

An update and a bug release (?) for Seraphim's Javelin.

Version 0.1.13 - Bug Search

Biggest change is the Rags downgrade.  It requires Rags 2.4.0+ (previous version required Rags 2.4.14+).  This meant a complete rewrite, so there could potentially have a lot of bugs.
Other changes are more pics and redesigned clothing system (hopefully will be more interesting later on).

Primary purpose of releasing it in this state is to test if there's any major bugs in build right now.  I would like to know if anything is broken.  In other words, I need testers.  So here's a build, please post anything you find in the comments.

Thanks!

Oh, one last thing.  I was going to mess around with the pics of the streets in Chapter 1 (the main mission before the game ends).  But I forgot before uploading.  Not that big of a deal, just expect them to change later on.

5/17 Update

Going through to find pictures for the last few things.  Then need to double check to see if I'm missing anything.  Not too worried though if I miss something.  That's the purpose of a debug build.

With any luck, it'll be ready soon.

5/8 Update

I hate looking for pictures.  Been searching around for hallway and corridor pictures and decent pictures for items.  Take so long to find an acceptable picture.  I did some experimenting with photoshop to fix up the close ones, but it hasn't resulted in anything I like.

As of now, my goal is to finish up chapter 1 and hopefully release a beta build to stomp out any bugs.

SJ Status Update: 5/1

Picture hunting for rooms and items for chapter 1 (the chapter where you find Dr. Smirnov).  About half way through, gonna have to revise some descriptions to match the images better.

Started adding the dialog / hooks for chapter 2.  I already had some stuff in but I had to throw that out for something more aligned to what I've been doing before.

Beth: Release 2

Now that the contest is over, I can publish the latest version of Beth.


Release 2.2
(Missed a case with Tim.  Book was still being dropped to the ground.  Should be fixed)

Changes:

• Fixed bugged items in the shop
• Missing ending: Wait option when you're locked up.
• Missing Lisa.  Lisa was talking but wasn't in the room.  Made an ending impossible to get.
• Fixed Mental Picture.  It wasn't activating correctly in a specific order
• Books, Notes, and Laptop SHOULD automatically be placed into backpack when you complete the major task.  Except from Tonya.
• True Ending now requires 12 Integrity, just because I said so.

SJ: Photoshop skills

Sometimes finding pictures for SJ is hard.  So I've been watching some photoshop tutorials in hopes of shopping some images to get what I want.

I am by no means an expert but I would still like "professional" level images or at least can make changes where you can't tell they were shopped.

Below are two images (after break).  I made one change in one of them.  Which image did I change?  What did I change?  How long did it take you to find it?

Back to SJ

Been busy with personal life.  Managed to write up two dream scenes for Seraphim's Javelin.  One already added to the game without pictures.  The other... I think I'll revise the idea.  Felt a bit awkward.

Twine Experiment Results

Here's the latest build of Primordial Escape (hopefully this works).  It's very short and I have no intentions of continuing it.  So if anyone's interested, have at it.

Now let's talk about it (very lengthy post about Twine!  You've been warned).

Twine Experiment Update #2

Looked ahead in my schedule.  For the next week-ish, I'll be away from my computer with Rags.  So I can't do any work with Seraphim.  I do plan on putting some time into the Twine Experiment.  Not sure how much I can get done (free time is limited) but I will post the results when I get back no matter how incomplete.

Twine Experiment Update

I should've checked my schedule before deciding on the Twine Experiment.  Had a lot less time than I thought.

Twine Experiment Words

Interesting list of words.

Random.org picked 3 words for me from the list:

1. floccinaucinihilipilification - the action or habit of estimating something as worthless. (The word is used chiefly as a curiosity.)
2. blennophile - love of slime
3. thong - an item of clothing fastened by or including a narrow strip of leather or cloth, in particular.

One note: don't put in words that mean the same thing.  I'll just disregard the extras.

Twine Experiment

Gonna try something fun.  I want to experiment a bit with Twine.  Nothing too in-depth.  Just want a full game with Twine done.  So I'm will spend a day working on a quick game.  It will be short of course, but hopefully enjoyable nonetheless.

To get me started, I will use 3 keywords, selected randomly from comments.  Just add a single word or "Keyword: <keyword>" or something like that.  Feel free to post more than once.

I'll pick the keywords on 12:01 am, Saturday, 4/4.

SJ: Redoing clothes

Apparently, Beth was long enough to make me forget where I was in Seraphim's Javelin development.

I loaded it up and started a little bit of work for Chapter 2.  I couldn't remember how I did dialog, so I did a quick run through until I had to get dressed.  I was in the middle of re-working the clothing system.  Silly me.

I was implementing an interesting idea and I think a number of people will enjoy it.  However I might have to scrap it for the time being.  I'd rather spend the time working on Chapter 2 so I can release it sooner.

Some good news

While I'm away from a computer with Rags, I can still get some stuff done.  I finished a general outline for the next chapter of Seraphim's Javelin.  It still needs some fine-tuning but I definitely have a direction that I'm happy with.

Beth: Release 2 To Do List

Once I get back to my personal computer that has Rags on it, I'll start going through the reported bugs and list them here.  This will be an official To-Do List for Release 2.

Feel free to list new bugs or any suggestions here.

Release Build

Release 1: http://www.mediafire.com/download/dgaowf4c6hvbd5b/Beth_(Release_1).rag

Hopefully fixed up a lot of problems people are reporting.  Particularly being unable to get good clears on some people.

Beta Release

Beta release:

Beta 1: http://www.mediafire.com/download/342s3pfbv4hpgna/Beth_(Beta_1).rag
Beta 2: http://www.mediafire.com/download/cmgo5wxq851gagh/Beth_(Beta_2).rag
Beta 3: http://www.mediafire.com/download/9vii12iml5bdbl7/Beth_(Beta_3).rag

Beta 3 fixes the locked in closet and stuck in Storage.

Alpha Release!

Okay.  I rushed through everything and got together an alpha release.  Endings are completely untested and the entire game is missing a lot of descriptions and examines, pictures of people. etc.  Fortunately none of that should stop gameplay.

So I'm releasing it as alpha.  I'm hoping to get a list of actual bugs to work on while I fix up on the previously mentioned problems.

The two questions:
1. How long did it take for you to figure out the disability?
2. Did you understand what was happening at the ending (if you can get to it)?

Alpha Release 1: http://www.mediafire.com/download/mdophoj69ron1ao/Beth_(Alpha_Release_1).rag
Alpha Release 2: http://www.mediafire.com/download/waj4mgz43s89faj/Beth_(Alpha_Release_2).rag
Alpha 3: http://www.mediafire.com/download/zpn8ai1sfhwvh40/Beth_(Alpha_Release_3).rag

Please post any and all bugs in comments.

Thanks!

3/20 Status Update

Finishing a lot of things.  Putting a lot of time for this.  Even had someone ask me what I'm working on so late at night, awkward.

I'm at the state I wanted to be at last week.  Rapidly running out of time.  Ending section is taking longer than I thought.

I think my lack of sleep is making the game turn weird.  I seriously worry people won't understand what's going on.  If I had more time, I can mess around with the "weirdness" at the ending.

Going to release an alpha build later today hopefully.  Two main questions I want.
1. How long did it take for you to figure out the disability?
2. Did you understand what was happening at the ending?

Extra Credit Question: I'm terrible at naming my games.  What do you think it should be called?  I'm leaning to just "Beth".  Nice and simple, but lacks any intrigue.  It doesn't sound very compelling.

Quick Update!

Still trying to everything done.  Wasn't as effective as I wanted to be over the weekend.

Quick update:

• I think Tim's section is done.  I need to run through it and make sure I'm not missing anything.
• Made a horrifying discovery while coding Tonya's section.  I got to a certain point and I couldn't remember what needed to be done.  Then I realized I never finished designing Tonya's section!  Time to design on the fly.
• Making good progress on Josh and Sharon's sections.
• Got pics for most locations.  Need to do some cropping and compression on them though (low priority).
• Endings are mostly planned.

Quick update!

Quick update: Melanie section is complete.  Not necessarily bug free, but all content with Melanie is done.

3/13 Update

3/13 Update:

• Finalized casting for Melanie and Beth.
• Got pictures for Melanie/Beth scene.
• Got pictures for Tim/Beth scene
• Got pictures for portraits
• Started work on Melanie scene
• Tim section getting closer to finish
• Sharon and Josh sections are basically all planned out.  Need to code them and write the dialog.

I'm hoping to spend a large amount of time to get a completed alpha over the weekend.

My release plans are to release the alpha first and people can submit the bugs they find.  In the meanwhile, I'll work on stretch features.  After that, I'll release the beta and focus on bugs only.

3/7 Update

Holy crap, I don't have much time left.  And so much left to do!  This is gonna be a long update...

Features and sections tend to balloon up.  I'm trying to keep things manageable but I don't have much time and still a long ways to go.  I need to actually finish things up now!

I spent some time looking for pictures.  Finding this part to be difficult since I want the right actors doing the right things in the right setting.  I think I definitely have to cut corners here.

Note to self: get some pictures first, then design the scenes in.  Fitting picture into the game seems a lot easier than finding pictures that fit the game.

2nd note to self: Never use the On Game Start action for player ever again.  Takes too long to run through the starting sections of the game to check on new stuff.

A little character teaser for you:
Josh is the president of a nearby frat.  In the past, you filed a formal complaint about them being too loud late at night and they were placed on probation.  Now you need to get something from Josh, but at what cost?

2/28 Update

Been feeling a bit sick.  Under the weather probably due to the weather.  Didn't get nearly as much as I wanted for the past couple days.  Have a massive headache right now.  Hoping some good sleep will fix everything.

2/25 Update

Contest game:

I named the sections instead of 1-6.  It was a bit misleading, implying one comes after the other.  It's more like 6 different areas I need to work on.  Also as I work on more of them, it'll be difficult to keep track which is which.
So I named them based on the main character interaction: Melanie, Tim, Josh, Sharon, and Tonya.
For those who can count, yes, that's only 5 ;-)

Melanie is as complete as I can do for now.  95%, still incomplete.  I'm missing out on the "special" scenes which need to match pictures.  Pictures will come later... hopefully.

Working on Tim next.

Adding a progress state (after the jump) for prosperity.  I kinda want to see how I'm moving along.

2/22 Update

2/22 Update:

Contest game moving along.  Linear gameplay part is done.  Now working on the actual game part.
1st main section is 50% done.
Started doing some casting, images for characters.
Designed out some more of the quests and stuff that happens.

2/14 Update

Happy Valentine's Day!

Started work on the disability contest game.
Finished the intro.
Did some work with the mapping.
Basic designs for characters.  Five primary characters to interact with.
Added a progress section for my contest game.  Hoping this keeps me on track to finish on time.

2/8 Update

Did some design work and some character design for my Contest game.
Will be using Rags.

Teaser description: You are Beth.  A college student diligently studying for your upcoming exams.  Your friend refuses to let you be and wants only five minutes of your time.  How bad could that be?

1/31 Update

Seraphim's Javelin:
Finished up that one nearly complete scene and added to the game.  Ran through a couple test runs to make sure it works.
Planned out the direction of more scenes.
Planning out some more interactions in the game.

Disability Contest:
Putting more thought into this.  I keep flipping back and forth for the engine.  Lately I've been enjoying HTML games and secretly hoping new games would use Twine instead of Rags.

How do people feel about this?  Rags or Twine?

1/25 Update

Latest progress for Seraphim's Javelin.
Finishing up a scene.  Need to do two or three more text blocks and pick some pics to go along with it.
Started planning out another scene.  Thought of a couple different ideas, haven't found one I really like yet.
Planned out the concept of a new portion of the game.

One last bit of info, I plan on putting a lot more scenes into SJ.  For the amount of game, there's very few scenes.  So I want to add in a bunch to give the game more substance and content.

1/17 Status Update

Status Update!

Did more planning for Seraphim's Javelin.  Got some images and a rough outline for the next dream sequence.  Also worked on the coding for dreams.  Need to write out some scenes now.

New Years Resolution!

Quick update.  My side project is taking longer than expected.  But nonetheless, one of my resolution for 2015 is to spend more time working on games that I can share here.

So far, I got some planning stuff done for Seraphim's Javelin.  My goal with SJ is to get weekly updates to at least talk about SJ and some of my plans for it.

Another goal is to get a game submitted to Sweet Little Sister's Disability Contest.  I have a concept in the works for some time.  Just need to work out the details and build the game.  My goal is to submit a completed and mostly bug-free game to that contest ON TIME.

Wish me luck.