Post by neonblue0 in What Girls Do in the Dark comments

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Okay, I created an account just to comment on this, because I played it through the HQ Residential House Game Jam and thought it was awesome! I got stuck at one point for about fifteen minutes because I knew what I had to do but couldn't figure out the command to do it, and wandered around the house wondering if I'd missed something, but, honestly, that was my only issue.

There was something really spooky about going into the party knowing that everyone was gone and something terrible had happened, but not yet knowing what. The whole thing honestly worked so well, and aside from that one moment, I really didn't run into the kinds of problems I often run into with text adventures with commands!

Awesome game!

olivebranche3 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

Okay, first of all, thank you so much for going through the effort of making an account just for this! What a huge compliment (n˘v˘•)¬

I’m sorry about getting stuck! The classic curse of text adventure games in not knowing which commands the game will and won’t accept—ugh 🙄, amirite?

What was the puzzle and the command? After the game jam is finished being judged, I’m planning on making this compatible with mobile and doing some other touch-ups. I’m sure if you had this issue, other people did too, so if there was a command that you thought *should’ve worked* but didn’t, let me know, and I’ll add it in!

Oh, but I guess add a spoiler tag before it though haha. Seriously though, thanks for your comment!

neonblue03 years ago (1 edit) (+2)

Sorry for the late reply!

SPOILERS

It was actually the step of going into the portal! I'd figured out that I needed to write the portal code on the door using the yellow lipstick, but it took me ages before I figured out I needed to put "write symbols." I did try "write portal code" a few times because that was what the scrap of paper/diary said. I also messed up thinking that I needed to specify what I was doing it with and putting "with lipstick"/"with yellow lipstick" a couple times. Once I got it, it felt kind of obvious, though! I'd say that the main thing you should maybe consider is allowing "portal code" instead of "symbols." Thank you for asking :)

And now I'm also gonna add some unrelated things that I left out of my first comment because I didn't want to spoil anything there! So... still SPOILERS!

I really liked how some of the puzzles made me really go "ohhh!" Like how when I first opened the closet and saw the broom, I was like, uh, okay, but then as soon as I tried to take the necklace and it said I couldn't reach, I was like "Ah! The broom!" And then also with the rag, I kept trying to wipe the smudges off at various points through the game, but then when I reached the moment I was actually supposed to, I was just so excited. PLUS, I was carrying the scissors and the fake protection charm and the garden shears and I wasn't sure what I was going to need any of them for, but as soon as I realised, it felt so cool.

Okay, this comment is getting a little long, but I also wanted to say that the only thing I ran into that felt like a "bug" was that if you try to use the garden shears or curling iron at the sliding door after you've already burnt the flesh, it still goes to the same scene bit as if it were still there. (Found this out because I, for some reason, thought, "Hey, maybe I can smash the glass door with the garden shears?")

Thank you so much for making this cool game! AND for replying to my comment! I really appreciate it. :)

olivebranche3 years ago(+1)

SPOILERS BELOW

Ohhh yeah, that totally makes sense! The thing with Adventuron (the program I used to code WGDITD), or at least with the beginner-style coding that I used, is that the game functions with a VERB-NOUN input only, so full sentences, adjectives, prepositions and the like aren't registered by the game.

So, you 1000% had the right ideas, but it was the overall format of the game that wouldn't let you do them (e.g., WRITE CODE is programmed to work but not WRITE PORTAL CODE). It's clunky for sure—thank you for bringing that up! I think there might be a way to program it in Adventuron to take full phrases/sentences, but I'm honestly not sure. I'll be sure to do some research on it regardless!

And, if nothing else, if I do another text adventure using it, I'll be sure to have a forced explanation of the VERB-NOUN input. A brief mention of it was in the tutorial, but . . . I don't think many people read it. I mean . . . I wouldn't lol.

And thank you for letting me know about the bug—I'll definitely put that on my update list! It's hard to account for all the different paths of action people might take, so that helps a lot! (Also, smashing the door with the shears is a super smart idea! I'll have to steal that for a later game haha (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧)

I feel like I've said thank you WAY too much in this reply, but fr, thanks again for playing my game and being invested enough to actually comment about it! ♡

itch.io

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