I finally got around to playing this and think you nailed your first jam submission. I could believe you were intentionally teasing about with the 9-verb interface with the extra cell padding, or no? Personally, the verb jokes never get old for me. I also picked up on that Stan reference as one of my all time favorites. I like the classic interface over the drop down or verb coin if you're going to go for it. The secretary response for Open for example was really witty. Btw, PowerQuest includes some built in logic for unhandled verbs (maybe a nice feature here). The puzzles were clever if maybe too obvious because of the limited inventory. Overall, I loved the playful/yet polite mood of the game. Great work!!!
The game was put together using a pre-alpha version of Escoria 4.0 (I'm working on the development team), and so there are various features that hadn't been added in/polished up enough yet, so things like the UI are a bit sparse mainly because I didn't have time to pretty them up. Unhandled verbs are also a feature we're looking to add in before long! :)
I'm so glad you picked up on the references and enjoyed the humour! That really makes it all worthwhile. As for the puzzles, no worries! Some people found them easy while others struggled--standard fare for any adventure game--but the feedback on puzzles is ALWAYS appreciated.
Again, thank you so, so much for the feedback! I'm humbled by everything you've said (as is the rest of my team, I'm sure!). You've made my day. :)
Great jam entry. Simple, but effective pixel art, lots of absurdist humor, the game and puzzles had a nice flow to them.
However, I'm not completely sold on the 9-verb interface for shorter jam games, because it ends up being somewhat underused. There were some verbs that I didn't need at all and a lot of the combinations gave random generic responses, because there wasn't enough time to implement all sorts of unique and fun interactions for most things. All this kind of makes it a slightly cumbersome interaction experience with few rewards.
But hey, I did enjoy it and had lots of fun playing the game. Well done!
Totally understandable re the 9-verb interface. As it was my first adventure game (jam or otherwise), I wanted to recreate the 9-verb interface that I loved so much as a kid. I knew it wouldn't be for everyone for the reasons you gave (and more), but I decided to do it anyway, if only to try to pack in a greater number of (hopefully) funny quips. And in all honesty I could've saved a good amount of time if I'd not used the 9-verb interface, too. But oh well--it was still fun to work with for me!
Thank you again for playing the game and for your feedback! You made my day!
I thought I'd shipped this with the volume levels set reasonably, but that might not necessarily be the case, so take care when you start it up for the first time! The volume might be too high!
Windows - Download and unzip the file, then run the .exe!
Linux - Just run the binary! You may need to make it executable if it doesn't start up.
MacOS: Download and unzip the file, at which point you'll likely have to un-quarantine the .app by using the command: xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine "Emergency Telemarketer Force.app"
Comments
I finally got around to playing this and think you nailed your first jam submission. I could believe you were intentionally teasing about with the 9-verb interface with the extra cell padding, or no? Personally, the verb jokes never get old for me. I also picked up on that Stan reference as one of my all time favorites. I like the classic interface over the drop down or verb coin if you're going to go for it. The secretary response for Open for example was really witty. Btw, PowerQuest includes some built in logic for unhandled verbs (maybe a nice feature here). The puzzles were clever if maybe too obvious because of the limited inventory. Overall, I loved the playful/yet polite mood of the game. Great work!!!
Seriously: Thank you so much!
The game was put together using a pre-alpha version of Escoria 4.0 (I'm working on the development team), and so there are various features that hadn't been added in/polished up enough yet, so things like the UI are a bit sparse mainly because I didn't have time to pretty them up. Unhandled verbs are also a feature we're looking to add in before long! :)
I'm so glad you picked up on the references and enjoyed the humour! That really makes it all worthwhile. As for the puzzles, no worries! Some people found them easy while others struggled--standard fare for any adventure game--but the feedback on puzzles is ALWAYS appreciated.
Again, thank you so, so much for the feedback! I'm humbled by everything you've said (as is the rest of my team, I'm sure!). You've made my day. :)
yeah I figured and hoped you’d read that as being funny how everyone always teases at 9 verbs for taking up too much screen, etc. I’m a fan.
Got it! I’m a fan too, though I’m learning that it seems to have fallen out of favour in recent times. I wonder if it’ll ever make a comeback?
Thanks again for the feedback!!
Great jam entry. Simple, but effective pixel art, lots of absurdist humor, the game and puzzles had a nice flow to them.
However, I'm not completely sold on the 9-verb interface for shorter jam games, because it ends up being somewhat underused. There were some verbs that I didn't need at all and a lot of the combinations gave random generic responses, because there wasn't enough time to implement all sorts of unique and fun interactions for most things. All this kind of makes it a slightly cumbersome interaction experience with few rewards.
But hey, I did enjoy it and had lots of fun playing the game. Well done!
Thank you! I really appreciate your feedback!
Totally understandable re the 9-verb interface. As it was my first adventure game (jam or otherwise), I wanted to recreate the 9-verb interface that I loved so much as a kid. I knew it wouldn't be for everyone for the reasons you gave (and more), but I decided to do it anyway, if only to try to pack in a greater number of (hopefully) funny quips. And in all honesty I could've saved a good amount of time if I'd not used the 9-verb interface, too. But oh well--it was still fun to work with for me!
Thank you again for playing the game and for your feedback! You made my day!
Quick Warning!
I thought I'd shipped this with the volume levels set reasonably, but that might not necessarily be the case, so take care when you start it up for the first time! The volume might be too high!
(Since this doesn't carry over.)
Install instructions
Windows - Download and unzip the file, then run the .exe!
Linux - Just run the binary! You may need to make it executable if it doesn't start up.
MacOS: Download and unzip the file, at which point you'll likely have to un-quarantine the .app by using the command: xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine "Emergency Telemarketer Force.app"