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Play testers needed for 'Seeker of Magic'

A topic by Garry Francis created Sep 14, 2019 Views: 313 Replies: 42

Viewing posts 1 to 13

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago(+3)

Hi folks. After two weeks of fun and frustration, I've eventually got something that's ready to be tested. Please play it through and give me comments here or on my itch.io page or any other way that's convenient for you. The link is https://warrigal.itch.io/seeker-of-magic and the password is "bunglewood".

Please play the game through to completion. Let me know if it was too easy or too hard and what things you tried that weren't catered for. Then play it through a second time and see if you can break it. You can be brutal in your comments. I won't be offended. I know the graphics are crap, but, hey, I'm no pixel artist, so I make no apology for that.

I think you'll enjoy it. Try lots of things with the troll, as there's some funny responses tucked away in there.

PixelmanSubmitted5 years ago

well im stuck with the branch and the knife. I thinki have to use the knife to sharpen the branch but due to my incomplete english knowledge i don't know how to do so(lol)

Anyway, graphics are pretty good. I tried pixelator as well but didn't manage to make anything good. The font is good too.

I saw a bug with "talk to troll" that makes the game print 3 lines:

Troll says im hungry

There is no one to talk to

The troll says what do you want

AdventuronHost5 years ago

I tried the same thing with the branch.

Do you have an apple yet?

PixelmanSubmitted5 years ago

no. Because i thought you have to make the branch sharper and smaller so you can throw it up

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago (1 edit)

Regarding sharpening the branch, I've added a response for cut, chop and sharpen to indicate that "You take a nick out of the branch, then have second thoughts. The branch may come in handy later."

Regarding TALK TO TROLL, the first response is correct, the second response is a bug, the third response is background processing. If you hang around the troll for a while, you'll see that he does things randomly from time to time. In case you're really interested, there's currently a 30% chance that he'll do something and there's 10 random things that he'll do. Some are quite funny. (At least I think they are.) If you try enough different things with the troll, you'll see that he's got quite a strong personality.

Regarding the bug, I added a generic response for TALK, but forgot to go back and add a :done; after the existing responses, so it was giving the first response, then falling through to the general response. Fixed now. There might be more of these. I'll check them now.

Thanks for the comments.

8bitAG5 years ago

Yeah... I think you might need to provide an extra hint for the first puzzle...

AdventuronHost5 years ago

I actually got the first puzzle, and I'm rubbish at these things.

8bitAG5 years ago

You are!! :) So now I feel really stupid. :P

AdventuronHost5 years ago(+1)

Don't sugar coat it Gareth.

8bitAG5 years ago

Ah yes... I really should've tried that straight away. Right... got past that first puzzle now.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

For anyone else stuck on the first puzzle at the forest path, it's actually very easy, but make sure you EXAMINE everything. There are plenty of hints, but note that TREE and TREES give different responses and APPLE and APPLES give different responses. It all makes sense once you've tried it.

AdventuronHost5 years ago

I now have the rock and looking for a light source (which I assume the branch will become).

8bitAG5 years ago(+1)

The rock is certainly useful.

AdventuronHost5 years ago(+1)

I now have a parchment and a riddle to solve.

8bitAG5 years ago(+1)

Yay... finished it! :)

AdventuronHost5 years ago

Same here. A very enjoyable mini romp.

Suggested additional responses:

ROW BOAT
PEEL APPLE
SHARPEN BRANCH

8bitAG5 years ago

STRIKE FLINT

8bitAG5 years ago

You can answer the riddle without finding it. So maybe do a has_not_created "scroll" check to prevent that?

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

I can't use has_not_created, as it's possible to read the parchment without removing it from the tin box. Instead, I set a boolean the first time it's read and the magic word only takes effect if the boolean is set (i.e. if the parchment has been read). This is hinted at with an extended message the first time the parchment is read. I had been thinking about doing this anyway, but your suggestion prompted me to implement it. Thank you.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

Yeah, I was thinking about that. It's a bit tricky because there's actually three objects involved, but I'll try and add it, together with a few synonyms for STRIKE.

Thanks for the feedback.

8bitAG5 years ago

I'm as guilty of this as any other author, but my rule of thumb is... if the response to an input includes the EXACT words that a player may have tried then you have to program that input in if possible, otherwise they're going to feel annoyed/cheated. So as the response includes "You strike the flint and...", I think you have to include STRIKE FLINT... even if it's just a response that says "What do you want to light?" or "You create some sparks with the flint. Definitely enough to start a fire."... which lets them know they're proceeding along the right sort of lines.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago(+2)

Fixed now. You can now STRIKE ROCK with flint or STRIKE FLINT with rock. Possible outcomes are a sore hand, a shower of sparks or a lit branch, depending on what's held and what's present. Synonyms include HIT, BASH, CRACK, CRASH and SMASH. I think that pretty well covers it.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago(+1)

I've added ROW/PADDLE BOAT, PEEL APPLE and CUT/CHOP/SHARPEN BRANCH.

Thanks for the comments.

8bitAG5 years ago

As mentioned above, the TALK TROLL routine is probably missing a DONE to stop the computer proceeding further down the on_command table.

SAY NOTHING also gives this response...

Which I presume is also a missing DONE, as it picks up the general SAY response.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

Yep. Same problem as for TALK. I added a generic SAY routine, but didn't think to go back and add the :done; after the specific match. I'll go back and check all those. Silly mistake. How embarrasing.

Thanks for the input.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago(+1)

Now that the :match "say -" {} works properly, I can go back and fix some of the intransitive verbs.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

SAY without a noun nows says "You have nothing to say."

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

I've uploaded a new version of 'Seeker of Magic'. It's the same link and password as given in the first post. It incorporates all the changes suggested by my wonderful testers plus fixes for some other bugs that I found. There were some issues with the standard movement verbs that allowed you to (for example) use GO NORTH rather than N and bypass the obstacles related to the troll and darkness. This used to work, but there must have been some changes to Adventuron that caused it to break. I've had to completely redo this using barriers. I hope it works more reliably this time.

Enjoy. Bug reports and comments are more than welcome.

Now I'm ready to test other people's games. What fun!

8bitAG5 years ago

I hadn't even thought of checking if GO NORTH caused problems! I often manually code barriers with matches like "N _"... Urgh.

AdventuronHost5 years ago

I trap directions and map to go xxxxx, and have done for a while. There is a flaw in it though, in that I didn't map backwards from "go n"

So, as long as you trap directions with either barriers or : match "n _" or : match "north _", you are fine for all versions of north (n, north, go north).

start_at                 = my_location
locations {
   my_location : location "You are in a room" ;
}
on_command {
   
   : match "n _"  {
      : print "Jimmy" ;
   }
   
   : match "north _"  {
      : print "jammy" ;
   }
   
   // DANGER -- Go north does not trap anything
   : match "go north"  {
      : print "jommy" ;
   }
   
}

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

It doesn't work reliably any more. I was using :match "n -" {} and that worked for n, north, go n & go north. This no longer works. I even tried :match "n -;north -;go n;go north" {} and the latter two weren't caught. You can still see this at the forest path in Seeker of Magic. Although it's not listed as a direction, you can use u or up to climb the tree, but go u and go up no longer work. They used to.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

I replaced "u -" with "u _" and directions now work properly. You'd better fix that in future.

AdventuronHost5 years ago

I just fixed it and it will be in the next release (tomorrow).

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

Could this be a difference between "n -" and "n _"? I think I'm using the former.

AdventuronHost5 years ago

n _ works fine. Not sure about n -, but if it doesn't work I'll make it work.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

Oh, crap. After all that work changing everything to barriers, I could have just changed dashes to underscores.

PixelmanSubmitted5 years ago

About the first puzzle, you can type "there must be a nice view up there" (if i wrote that right) so player has a hint of what to do

PixelmanSubmitted5 years ago

Does the troll blocks the path to the cave? Because i can enter the cave without giving the 'meat' to the troll

PixelmanSubmitted5 years ago

nvm. It got fixed and i don't know how. I even could enter the campfire room without a torch

PixelmanSubmitted5 years ago

stuck with the rock and the branch. Probably have to take something from the pouch.

By the way, when you give the worm to troll you can go back and pick another one forever. Using this i earned 25 points

AdventuronHost5 years ago

You need to get the flint from the troll's pouch, perhaps try throwing something at the troll?

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

Do what Adventuron said. If he wants to play, try doing it when he has his back turned to you.

Incidentally, I've fixed that worm and scoring issue, but I haven't uploaded it yet.

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago

That's a bug that I thought about after uploading. I hadn't checked it yet, but you found it, so I'd better fix it.

I only allow you to get one apple, but once you get rid of it (you can eat it), you can go back and get another one so as not to get into an unwinnable situation. Ditto for "meat". I shouldn't allow the latter.

I'll check the ENTER CAVE and darkness issues. I thought I'd fixed them. Are you using the latest version?

Thanks for the fedback.