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Beta test for "Astronauturon"

A topic by SOSO created Sep 10, 2019 Views: 389 Replies: 20

Viewing posts 1 to 11

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago (2 edits) (+4)

Soon I will need someone to test my game... I really think the game is getting very hard to understand the objectives but I don't know exactly how hard it is... so someone has to play it. Can I post it here?
10 Sep 2019

The testing phase starts today. 8 days left till the end of jam...

Link to the game: Astronauturon || Password: 2209

Dev commentary:

I'm really enjoying do that game, its a huge challenge because I'm completely not an "text adventurous" and Im also not a programmer.

So its going a little hard because I has to learn the language and do a game in genre totally unknown for me. And, because that I simply don't know if I'm doing the right thing or no. For me the game is getting too dificult to find the objectives, but after some adjust(I start to use the red color as a highlight for the important things. ) Im think they get too obvious right now. For this I will need some testers who know the genre and tell me if its okay or its terrible. XD

Important notes for the ones that gonna test*

First, as said above, the RED IS IMPORTANT, all the things that judge important is highlighted with RED color.

In that testing build have just the main "puzzle/objective" in the game more few extras, the end version gonna have some secrets spread over the map in the unused locations.

Im considering put some "pseudo location" after the introduction and before the start location (replacing the start location in the code) to give some hints for the players, but just if really need. (hints like: Pay attention in the RED color.")

I really wants cover the most possibilities for match "which" the players could try to do. Even if is just some unimportant text, so please if let me know if you try something which dont give any response but would be cool if do.

Probably, the players gonna die at the firsts "run" but the death screen has a slight hint about the cause of your death, try pay attention.

AdventuronHost5 years ago(+1)

Yes, it's good to ask for feedback.

Just make the game entry in itch, and mark it as "in development". You can also mark that it requires a password if you wish, and share that with your testers.

8bitAG5 years ago(+1)

I'm always happy to put a game through its paces. Play-testing text adventures was one of the things I used to do... back in the day. :)

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago

I will send the password for test, give me 2 or 3 days ^^

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago

Alright, I will put password till the end of submissions ;) 12 days left...

PixelmanSubmitted5 years ago(+1)

i can help with testing too

And im gonna post my game here too. It's finished and im going to start making graphics

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago(+1)

Me too. I'm just doing some tidying up. Should be finished by the weekend.

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago

Guys, the test version is online. I edit this topic with the link and password. Just scroll up the screen.

Ps* @Garry I'm busy by the rest of the day, but I will test yours tomorrow, be sure ;)

AdventuronHost5 years ago

Had a very brief look.

Firstly, love the art style, and font choice. I can understand that you saved a bit of effort in using the same base template for the forest, but I love that the image changes for each location, so it feels like movement.

Secondly, I LOVE the lake. Excalibur used animated gifs for it's blinking lights, and I love what you did here with the lake. It's subtle but very fun.

Thirdly, I wandered around a bit, found the hole, and tried

ENTER HOLE

JUMP HOLE

with no responses. I'll keep trying other things. Just my initial reactions.

I later found the lake, examined the lake, and it implied that I could JUMP.

I typed JUMP LAKE, and received the message:

"This game does not require use of the word "jump"".

I typed SWIM LAKE, and received the message:

"This game does not require use of the word "swim"".

I type DRINK WATER.

"This game does not require use of the word "drink"".

... just my inputs so far. I'm playing to find issues at the moment, and I'll play it properly later.

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago

Firstly, thanks for the complements ^-^

Secondly, yeah the hole and lake gonna have his own puzzles at the final version, but they gonna be more like secrets (or side quest). So I'm going to start work around they from now. ;)

and it implied that I could JUMP.

What?! XD

HAHA I wanted to mean exactly opposite, you cant jump because you cannot take off the suit because the air is toxic

(my english skill are suck XD i need work on the texts)

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago

Your input list is a great help ;) be sure I will cover them

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago (1 edit)

Just published with:

68 possible matchs.

35 locations

5 endings, 1 true ending when you complete your mission and 4 game overs when you dies.

6 items to take (3 keys items to end the core puzzle)

Extra:

I dont know if the game is too much hard or no. But theres a downloadable document with a guide to finish the game.

And I also publish the entire code of game, I have pretty sure it can be much more optimized but I wanted to keep most simple for me undestand better.

Go play guys ^^ there are 5 days left to fix bugs or add more stuff

AdventuronHost5 years ago (1 edit)

Hi Soso,

I've had a bit of a play with the game, and a few brief comments.

(1) Maybe you need a few less "filler" scenes in the woods.

I looked at the source and there are 28 scenes in the woods, all with the same description, and I assume, nothing to do in these scenes? Maybe think through your map and reduce this number by half? I think it will still be enough to give the impression of a large forest.

One thing that is very clever however is the fact that all woods scenes seem to have a slightly shifted graphic. That gives a very convincing impression of movement. I haven't yet been able to find a location to location transition with exact the same graphic , which does feel very nice.

(2) Because your game does not have much text, and because the font you chose is very low height, maybe better to increase the size of the font, add this to your theme {} section of your game:

         columns             = 40
         columns_mobile      = 28

That should make the font a bit bigger. You already have column snap mode, which guarantees the screen has the number of characters horizontally as specified (at the cost of possible non integer scaling of the image. For your art style, which doesn't depend on pixel perfect dithering, this is a good choice.

(3) The English in the game is a little broken, which is to be expected for a non-native speaker, really you've done very well, and I do hope that someone can help out with that. If I had time I certainly would.

(4) Perhaps the biggest problem with the game is that you are coding get / drop routines manually. There are problems with this, not least that you have to be sure to do a lot of checks before getting and dropping an object (pocket is not useful for getting and dropping). You can see the problem with manually making GET handlers, by going UP at the start, GET CAMERA, then DROP CAMERA -- the camera cannot be dropped because you didn't code a drop handler for the camera.

You don't need to do this for normal objects. I see that you made your object ids capitalized in the object list. Make sure your objects are in lower case, and in the form

camera : object "a camera";

red_key : object "a red key";

If there is an underscore then it will register an adjective and a noun against an object. If there is no underscore, adventuron will register the noun against the object alone. All the get and drop functionality is automatic. You only need to use the : pocket ""; command for when you are giving the player something they can't take (such as in response to a puzzle).

So:

a) Make sure all your objects are made into lower case ids.
b) Make sure that you remove the get command handlers from your game.
c) Test it

... I do hope this has not disheartened you. Your game is coming along, it just needs some polish :-)

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago

(1) This is the actual map of the game, and yeah lets say theres a void at "Northeast". Actually, I DO have plans to put some more content around all the map (lets say, more items to find and not just at house, and more "strange" events like the creature event). But I didnt know if I really was "getting into the genre" (text adventure). I felt little lost and decide to not go further and add more content. Actually I get back and undone some puzzles (like the treasure would have a key inside the hole which would be necessary to open the treasure at the end, ~~thats the reason for have a map in the treasure graphic XD~~).

Thanks for the compliments about the forest, I has to do everything very carefully to not connect two similar backgrounds. The only "fail" is with lake and north and south forest (I made a mistake and the tree at lake doenst "move" when goes north/south... is exactly the same)

(2) & (4) Thanks for the tips be sure I will follow it in the next update.

(3) HAHA SORRY FOR THAT --' I will review and pay more attention on the texts.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

I am playing your game at the moment. It has a really creepy feel to it. I like that. I'll post a lot of comments on the English corrections tomorrow. In the meantime, I think I've done everything I need to do (I've got the t.c. and trapped the you-know-what) and I'm back at the spaceship, but I can't work out how to take off. Can you provide a hint?

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago (2 edits)

You just need use the spaceship to leave the forest man ;)

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

>USE SPACESHIP
You can't do that.

Could this be because I dropped the t.c. in the spaceship? Because of your very buggy DROP and GET routines, I can't get it again, not even with GET ALL. I am also carrying a gun and I can't drop it. You really need to fix this. I'll try playing it over again from the beginning.

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago

Oh, im sorry, actually I put the match for USE SHIP and not USE SPACESHIP.

I will fix the get and drop system on the next update sorry about that

try use LEAVE FOREST inside spaceship for end the game

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago(+1)

Here are the comments that I promised earlier. I hope it's not too late. Most are corrections to the English, but there's some other suggestions, as well.

Try rewording the prologue to:
"In the year 20XX, humans left the Earth and started to live in outer space.

After 100 years of living in space, humans can eventually visit the Earth again, but, unfortunately, they can't live there yet because the air is still infected by a radioactive substance.

You are an astronaut who has been sent to Earth to recover an artifact from the past.

Your spaceship landed to the northwest of the mission location. Recover the artifact and leave the Earth as soon as possible.

Be careful."

General comments:
Getting and dropping of objects is very buggy. See Adventuron's comments on this. It desperately needs to be fixed.
As all your responses are fairly short, you don't need to follow them with :press_any_key; I found this quite annoying.
Instead of allowing N, S, E, W from every location, block off some of the exits so that it is more like a maze and you have to do some serious exploring to find the important locations. You can still keep the routes between the spaceship, house and mine fairly short so that you don't annoy the player.

In Front of Spaceship:
Full stop after "spaceship" should be grey, not red.

Spaceship:
There is no image for this location.
"You enter in the Spaceship.." should be "You are in your spaceship." and delete the red full stop after "spaceship".
There is an exit called "Exit" when you get to the end game, but it doesn't do anything.
"A Pc Computer" should be "A PC" or "A Personal Computer" or "A Computer", as "A Pc Computer" means "A Personal Computer Computer". I think "A Computer" is better.
X PC: "with a huge data" should be "to a huge database"; "Unfortunally the" should be "Unfortunately, the". The second sentence doesn't make sense at all. Try "It can be used to research unknown things by uploading information."
X CAMERA: "Its" should be "It's"; "should be used to upload the travels in the computer and send to data base" should be "can also be used to upload photos to the computer".
GET CAMERA: "on the bag" should be "in the bag." Huh? What bag. You aren't carrying a bag. Its better just to say "You get the camera."
When you DROP CAMERA, it says you don't have it, even though it's in your inventory. Do you have a typo in your :match statement? See Adventuron's comments on this.
UPLOAD PHOTOS: "for your computer" should be "to your computer"; "Now you have acknowledge of the items" should be "Now you know what those objects are".
You can UPLOAD PHOTOS more than once. Set a boolean the first time you do it. If the boolean is set, say "You've already done that."
USE SPACESHIP didn't work for me, as I had somehow dropped the required object and couldn't pick it up again. You should preferably not use USE as a verb.
You need some way of knowing how to take off once you've recovered the important item. The traditional way of doing this is to provide a big red button labelled "Take Off" or "Blast Off" or "Lift Off". When you PRESS BUTTON without the required object, it says something like "Not until you've completed your mission." When you PRESS BUTTON with the required object, it gives you the congratulations message.

Huge Hole:
"I" should be "you" (twice) and add full stop at end of sentence.

Beautiful Lake:
Delete red full stop.
X LAKE: "is just" should be "it's just"; "but looks have" should be "but it looks to have"; "Is a fish?" should be "Is it a fish?"
It doesn't appear that you can do anything with the fish.

Old House:
"Theres a" should be "There's an"; "Looks no one live here" should be "It looks like no one lives here".
"A Couple of Unknown Objects" should be "Some Unknown Objects", as "a couple" means two, but we later find out that there are four.
X HOUSE: "Very dirty and the walls looks like it can go down in your head at any time" should be "It's very dirty and the walls look like they will fall down at any time".
Provide a response for ENTER HOUSE.
TAKE PHOTOS (second time): "You already take a picture" should be "You've already taken photos of the objects".
When you return to the house after uploading the photos, "Now you know what are this things" should be "Now you know what the objects are". However, this isn't really necessary, just omit the press_any_key and list the objects as normal.
"An Pickaxe" should be "A Pickaxe".
You should be able to EXAMINE things without them being in your inventory. Use is_present rather than is_carried.
X TRAP: "caught bears" should be "catch bears".
When you drop the pickaxe, you get two responses. The second one has two full stops.
When you drop the trap, you get two responses. The first one says "trap" and the second one says "bear trap" with two full stops.
When you drop the gun, you get two responses. The second one has two full stops.
When you drop the bomb, you get two responses. The first one says "bomb" and the second one says "kind of bomb" with two full stops.

Cave entrance:
X CAVE: "My mission is take the object that was hide in that cave." should be "Your mission is to take the object that is hidden in that cave.".
X ROCK: "Its" should be "It's"; delete "I can't just take off."; "I destroy" should be "you destroy".
DESTROY ROCK says "How should I do that?" This should work if you've got the pickaxe. Also allow for synonyms like HIT, BREAK, CRUSH, SMASH. This is better than USE PICKAXE.
When you leave the cave, "follow" should be "followed"; "you using the pickaxe for destroy" should be "your pickaxe when you destroyed"; "and cornered" should be "and it cornered".
"H* Be prepare at the next time" should be "Hint: Be prepared next time".
Add an extra space between "GAME" and "OVER".
"click" should be "Click".
When you DROP TRAP, you get two messages. Delete the second one. You're probably missing a :done; after printing the first message or you're using :drop; when it should be :drop quiet="true";.
When you exit the cave after setting the trap, "caught on" should be "caught in"; "violentely" should be "violently"; "loose" should be "free"; "some agonizing" should be "an agonising" (unless you're American); "lose his force... Now him is about to die." should be "loses his energy and is about to die."; "for help him, this" should be "to help him. This"; "certainly" should be "is certainly"; "if is loose" should be "if it is loose".

Inside Cave:
There's no room description.
"Here is, my mission is take that capsule." should be "Here it is. Your mission is to take that capsule.". However, you don't really need to say this, as you said it before entering the cave.
"to try open" should be "to try to open". You don't need to say this, but you should say it if the player tries to OPEN CAPSULE.
"I should" should be "You should"; "Spaceship" should be "spaceship" and there should be a full stop at the end of that sentence.
You automatically take the capsule. It would be better if you had to manually take it.
"A Time Capsule Full Of Memories From The Past" should be "A Time Capsule". Provide the other info when you examine it.
You can't EXAMINE CAPSULE or DROP CAPSULE.
When you enter after setting the trap, "After take" should be "After you take".

End game:
After getting your hint to USE SHIP (I would never have guessed that): "You complete you mission. Recover" should be "You have completed your mission. You have recovered".
"its past ancestors" should be "your ancestors".
The last sentence says "100 years ago", but the intro says "1000 years". I think 100 is a more reasonable number, so change the introduction to 100.
"After open it" should be "After opening it".
"You had some weird feel that book has something with what happens with the earth." should be "You had some weird feeling that the book has something to do with what happened to the Earth."
"the humanity" should be "humanity".
"After read the book you notice how absurd was that theory and start thinks that you are crazy." should be "After reading the book, you notice how absurd that theory is and start thinking that you are crazy."
"thanks letter" should be "thankyou letter"
Adding the credits at the end is a nice touch.
"comunity" should be "community".
"alot" should be "a lot".
"answear all" should be "answers to all".
The end says "1 / 3 secrets found". Did I miss something or is that to be added later?

Overall, it's a great little game. Good luck with your final submission.

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago (1 edit)

Sorry, for late answear.

I has been very busy in this weekend, so I have to hurry with the game.

The last uptade was just 56 minutes before the submission close. XD

I made 90% of the changes that you point, somethings I can't change because it would affect other things. But 100% OF THE TEXTS that you send me was fixed.

There is an exit called "Exit" when you get to the end game, but it doesn't do anything.

I really don't undestand what you mean, here.

The end says "1 / 3 secrets found". Did I miss something or is that to be added later?

Yes, you missed. After the last update, was added a little more fun to the secrets :P

It doesn't appear that you can do anything with the fish.

Before the update you had take a photo of lake to take a secret. Now its something a little more complex.

You automatically take the capsule. It would be better if you had to manually take it.
"A Time Capsule Full Of Memories From The Past" should be "A Time Capsule". Provide the other info when you examine it.

It give me a lot of pain, but now its done ^^ the player has the freedom to do actions with the treasure.

There is no image for this location.

Sorry about that, I can't draw anything that I like to use here T_T

Let me ask something, you sometime was attacked by the creature randomly when are walking around? Because by everything you talk looks you solve everything without pass the 120 commands that you have before be attacked .-.

For last, A HUGE THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION GARRY, I really appreciate your dedication with the jam and with all the games on the jam ^^

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago(+1)

I'm glad you finished it on time, because it's a nice little game. Hmm, maybe not so "little".

Regarding the "Exit", there was a room that said something like: "Exits: North, Exit". When you type EXIT, you don't go anywhere. It's one of the unusual features of Adventuron, where it tries to add exits based on what it found in your match statements. It's not a big deal, so don't worry about it.

Regarding the fish and the secrets, now I have to go and find them all. Fun, fun, fun. :-)

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Adventuron CaveJam

Beta test for "Astronauturon"