Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines

Hey, no need to apologise. I'm just wearing my tester's hat and trying to help you improve your game so that other players (and judges) will enjoy it more .

Re CREDITS, I meant that you could write something a little more user friendly and specific to your game. Don't just rely on the system credits. See mine (ABOUT, CREDITS or INFO) as an example. I used stagger to account for mobile, as this is the only command that provides a long response. (A long response for credits is allowed in the jam rules.)

Re quotes, the natural response is for your eyes to move down to the next line immediately after entering a command. I found it a bit jarring when there was nothing there, but your peripheral vision indicates there's something to the right, so your eyes move to the right. (This is a human factors engineering thing. You might not have noticed it yourself, as you knew what to expect. The staggered display on text messaging is quite different, as the two conversations overlap quite a lot and the eyes don't have to travel as far on the small screen of a mobile phone.) If you want the quoted text to look different, you could use a different colour. Anyway, this was just an observation of something I found quite annoying. It's entirely up to you whether you change it or not.

Re leaves, you're right. That was fixed in 0.1.0. Either I was mistaken or I'd noted it in an earlier version.

Re disambiguation menu, if you have two objects with object IDs of red_key and blue_key and both objects are in scope at the same time and you try to (say) EXAMINE KEY or GET KEY, then Adventuron will automatically provide the disambiguation menu for you. You don't have to do anything special other than ensure that the object IDs include the appropriate adjective. Better disambiguation techniques are now available I believe, but I haven't used them yet. You can avoid the disambiguation menu with two-word input by allowing the player to refer to the adjective, e.g. EXAMINE RED, GET BLUE. You just need to account for this in your tests, especially match statements. The code can get a bit messy, so test thoroughly.

Re the Okapi issue, I think it's the ask_string that's causing the problem. I noticed this in a couple of games. What happens is if you use ask_string, it asks you a question and you are expected to answer that question. If you don't realise you have to answer the question and just play on, it can get in a real mess. I thought it was a rhetorical question and pressed the up arrow to repeat the previous command. (I had got into the habbit of doing this a lot in your game to see whether responses were consistent or random.) When you press the up arrow when Adventuron is expecting an answer to an ask_string question, it does NOT repeat the previous command. A similar thing happens if you don't answer with a number after a disambiguation menu. Adam Sommerfield just demonstrated this quite unknowingly in his review of 'Opposite Edge of Slumber' on YouTube. He had to terminate the playing session because he thought he'd crashed the game.

Thanks for doing all the updates. I'm sure it will be a lot better now. Will I be able to find that last treasure now?

I hear you about the quotes, the original idea included using different colors too, so maybe I'll stick to that if I have time.

For the ask_string thing, is there a way to approach it or there's no better solution?

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the last treasure. I'll give you a hint: have you tried using the fishing rod? 

 

Regarding the Okapi, the first time I played I examined the Okapi and he asked me a question. I thought it was a rhetorical question, meaning it wasn't expecting an answer. I examined the graveyard and got a response that sort of made sense, but I didn't realise it was actually telling me that my answer was wrong. I went round and round in circles for a little while trying to answer the question. Even when I knew the answer, I couldn't get it to accept the answer because I hadn't re-examined the Okapi. If it was me, I would do it something like this:

Talk to the Okapi and he asks you the question. Answer the question by just giving the answer (as though it was a verb) or using SAY <answer>. If the answer is wrong when you haven't used a verb, it will just give the normal "Not understood." response. If you use SAY and the answer is wrong, give the response you're giving now. If the answer is right, do what you do now when the answer is right. You can optionally set a flag when you initially talk to the Okapi so that you know he's asked you the question. For an example of this, see the handling of the magic word in my first Adventuron game, 'Seeker of Magic'.

Regarding the fishing rod, yes, I did try it, but maybe I didn't find the right verb. I'll try again. Thanks.

I have tried every single verb I can think of with the mouth, ivy and rod and I'll be buggered if I can get anything to work in the truth room. This is clearly a read-the-author's-mind problem. You're going to have to give me a verb to use.

Thanks for the feedback on the Okapi question, I'll handle it as soon as I can!

For the rod, it's not a verb issue. Have you encountered a lake among the various places of the past?

I thought of that as soon as I clicked Submit. It was after 1:00 a.m. so I didn't have time to try. I'll give it a try shortly. Thanks for the help. The game is playing much better now.