This blog is detailing the point and click adventure game that I am creating for my Applied Game Development class at the University of Advancing Technology.
This week I worked on a few things. I did a little bit more polishing on the game. After playing through the game a few times, I didn't like the new shock sounds we created so I decided to just reuse the two we had before, one for the kitchen and one for the living room.
I also extended one of the puzzles. The ring puzzle was originally just finding the ring in the freezer and taking it. This seemed way too easy so I went ahead and added more to it. Now when the player finds the ring in the freezer it's totally frozen. To thaw it out they have to run water on it from the kitchen sink. This melts the ice, but then the ring falls down the drain. The player then has to find the wrench in the bedroom to get into the pipes and take the ring.
This puzzle took much longer than it should have because there was an issue with the sprites. For some reason when I upload new sprites they turn out really weird. They often have weird blotches of color attached to them that shouldn't be there. This took me an hour to fix and I was only able to partially fix it for the wrench. I'm not even sure what I did, except possibly erase something that I couldn't see to begin with.
The game is now finished. It works from start to finish and I was able to add all the story elements and puzzles that I originally set out to have from the beginning. The music also turned out so much better than I had originally anticipated. I'm pretty proud of what has been accomplished in just 15 short weeks.
So due to some family emergencies, I fell a little behind on this, but I did get an update finally done.
This update I mainly worked on cleaning some stuff up and making the story flow better. I was having issues with the front door puzzle for a while. Whenever you added some of the items the door would jump a little. I'm pretty sure this was because the doors was cut at different sizes the first time I put them in the engine. Basically I just went back through and recreated all of them and placed them all at the exact same coordinates. This totally fixed it so they don't jump anymore.
I also worked to make the story make more sense. Before when the player went downstairs it was just different and the character didn't seem to notice or care about the change. This was mainly due to running out of time in the last update, so I went ahead and fixed that. The character has something to say when he first enters each of the new rooms. I also messed with the bookcase dialog some more. I made it a little more clear why the downstairs was changing. I added a new unnamed book that the player can look at. This book will talk about the powers the demon has to change the environment. I'm hoping this will make the change make a little more sense.
The final thing I added was more sounds. I decided to make new music for when the downstairs changes. I also added different shock noises for when the player first discovers the rooms. I think this helped add to the tension. I was having issues with OBS again, so no video but I'll get one together for the next update.
I worked on several things this week. The main thing was making sure that all the bugs were fixed from when I created the scene change last time. I had a few issues with objects not interacting with other objects properly and my walk behind areas didn't work. This took me going through and comparing the original downstairs scripts to the new creep downstairs script to figure out what was wrong. Mainly it was just some baseline numbers that needed to be changed. I also had an issue that when you went through the kitchen door in the creepy living room, it took you to the right side of the screen still in the living room. I apparently just put the wrong room number for that, so it was a quick fix.
I went through and also added all the descriptions for the new rooms. This was a fairly simple task because it's something I've already done many times. It was really just time consuming because there are so many areas the player could click on.
The biggest thing I did this week was messing with the book shelf. From the beginning of this project I wanted that bookshelf to display a menu of options for the player to click. I wanted them to be able to select the book they wanted to know more about. This was incredibly difficult because most tutorials are set up for actual conversations with other characters. Mine was basically a conversation with a book shelf. I read a few tutorials and forums and also watch a tutorial on dialog to figure it out. I never found anything about objects rather than characters, so I just kind of messed around with it until it worked and eventually that worked!
So now the game is able to be played completely through, with the new downstairs areas. I need to add some sound to the downstairs room and even a reaction for the first time you enter them, but that will be another time. It's 2 in the morning and I have worked on this all day!
I also created another video that shows the progression of the game from the early weeks of development until now!
This week we working on a big scene change. I really don't feel that the game is really quite creepy enough so we added a bit to that this week. In the beginning of the game the living room has a very safe feel to it. My goal has been to slowly bump up the eerie feel as the player progresses. The first indication being the kitchen, then the bedroom, but then it went back to feeling safe in the living room. I didn't like that, so now after the player leaves the bedroom and goes back downstairs, the living room and kitchen change. They look older, like years have passed while the player was upstairs. Each room looks pretty decayed and gross now. There's also a few more messages written by the demon.
This took me a little bit to figure out and it was much more time consuming than originally planned. I basically had to create new rooms in the engine. Previously when the player exited the bedroom it took them back to Room 3 (Hallway) but now it takes them to an identical looking room but it's Room 8 now. I did this so that I could make the new hallway lead into Room 9 (Creep Living). I had to go through and add new walkable areas for each room and make sure the new hallway still lead into the bathroom and bedroom. I haven't create the hotspots for the new rooms yet, but I will be doing that in the next update.
Unfortunately I was having issues recording tonight, so no video today. I should have the video up by tomorrow though and I will update this post when it's ready!
I met with Derric Clark yesterday for my mentor meeting. We discussed one of the main issues I've been having with the game. I cannot get the waypoint function to work. The character should walk to an object before picking it up. I can get the character to walk after the item has already disappeared, but never before. What we believe is happening is the waypoint function begins, but is immediately stopped by the pick up function. We went over a few different options. I could add a new feature that is just made for walking so when the player "interacts" with an object they walk to it, but if they "pick up" an object they'll actually grab it. This might work because it would allow the interact function to run completely before the pick up option starts. I could also add a function that tests to see if the player is close enough to the object. If they are, they will pick it up, if they are not they will then walk to it. I need to look more into the engine to see if there is code already written to determine how far a character is from a specific point. If there isn't this option may be a bit difficult. Another option would be to create a loop. The loop would check to see if the player is close to the object, if they are they would pick it up, if they weren't then nothing would happen and they would need to walk themselves over. This is similar to the second option and requires me to look further into the engine. This was pretty useful because I honestly had no idea where to start on fixing this. I'll be looking into all these options soon. Another game update is coming in the next few days!
It's only been a couple days since the last update, but I'm playing catch up right now. This update was mainly just polishing things up. I fixed the issue with the front door. For some reason when I did the baseline override, after saving it, it would just revert back. I eventually gave up on trying to fix the problem this way. Instead, I changed the walkable area near it. Now the player can't walk as close to the front door, so he isn't able to go behind it. I think it looks better anyway because before he seemed way too close to the door and the walls. I spent some time going through the game a few times by myself and a couple times with David. I realized that there was almost no hint or anything to the player that they should place the items at the door. I decided to use the bedroom to get this point across. I felt that a message written in blood on the walls was obviously the best solution. I'm pretty proud of myself because I did the blood for that room because David was busy making me a new shock sound. So now there is the message that says "Leave offering at gate if you want escape." This worked well because I wanted to make the upstairs a little more creepy, but I wasn't really sure how to do it originally. We also got a new sound for that room as well. I really like the shock sound in this room more than the kitchen. I originally told David I wanted a Psycho type noise, but instead he gave me more of something you would hear in Silent Hill and I love it. I think it really give it that "I need to leave this room now" feel. I did a couple minor touch ups to a couple areas as well. The bathroom was the first. Now if you look at the mirror you can tell something is a little off about it, so I'm hoping it will help players to know they should look at it. Before I felt that unless they were just looking at absolutely everything, they would miss the message explaining what they should grab. I also went in a resized the key so it's not so difficult to grab when it's in the body. The last small thing was the ending. I fixed the text so now it all fits on the screen.
This week I worked on several different things. I was able to finally resize the main character. This was super time consuming and also caused problems with the upstairs. I had to redo all of the upstairs rooms because they weren't as tall as the downstairs. The character basically looked like a giant so I resized everything and redid all the walkable areas and hotspots. We also added music and a couple sound effects. This actually went incredibly smooth. The music plays in every room and the pick up noise is applied every time an item is added to the inventory. There's also a shock noise for the first time you enter the kitchen. I think it really helps with the mood of the game. The game is now beatable. The final puzzle works and when all the items are placed the player will be brought to the end screen dialog. I was able to make it so the player can place the items in any order. This was time consuming but worth it. The intro and end scenes were added. Overall they turned out pretty well, though the end needs a little work. I had a hard time getting the text centered but eventually it worked out. One of the screens needs to be fixed in the ending portion because the first part of the text is cut off. There's also an issue with the front door. The door is its own object as well as the doors that it's replaced with once items are placed. I have changed the properties several times to override the baseline so that the doors always show up behind the character. For some reason they keep reverting back so the player ends up walking behind them. I'll figure it out in the next update hopefully. Next week I'll be polishing it up a bit.
So, due to a family emergency, I'm a little behind schedule. This week I was able to complete all the descriptions for all the rooms in the game. This actually went incredibly smooth, though it was pretty time consuming. All the areas of interest in every room are now clickable and help to give the player an idea of what has happened. I also was able to finish the key puzzle. So now the player has to go upstairs and grab the gloves, before they can shove their hand into a gross dead body to get the key. It's basically the same idea of the locked door as far as coding goes, but it went much much smoother. I also made it so if the player tries to grab the key without the gloves, the character will refuse because it's freaking gross. He does say that he needs to find something which is a hint to the gloves. I wasn't able to get the final puzzle completed this week. There was an issue with the ring in the freezer and due to personal issues, I didn't have the time to work through it this week. It will be fixed and finished by next week though. I went back and looked at what I have scheduled for next week, which is sounds, a pause menu, and a short open and end screen. The pause menu is already done and I have some of the sounds, so next weeks work is fairly light so the puzzle shouldn't have an issue getting done. There were also a few minor tweaks that were done this week. The character speed has FINALLY been increased. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure it out and it really was embarrassingly simple. The player is now faster and so is his animation speed. Another thing is I figured out how to get the character to say something when he enters a room for the first time. This happens when the game starts up, to let the player know kind of why he is there. It also happens when he enters the kitchen. He doesn't appear to be just totally cool with all the blood and everything now, so that's an improvement. That's this weeks update! Hopefully next week's will come a little bit earlier. P.S. I'm really sick this week and also out of town and having to use my laptop instead of my normal pc, so both my voice and the sound in general on the video suck.
The current project is a point and click adventure game. The player takes control of the a man named Ezra as he wanders around his neighbors house after hearing a horrible scream. Once inside the door slams shut and he is trapped inside. The player's goal is to learn what happened in the home and find a way out.
Several weeks ago (May 11-18) I completed the initial basic game document as well as the paper map for the small game. All pre-production, including the milestone schedule was created that week as well.
The game is being created in Adventure Game Studio. This is the first time I've used this engine, so it has taken me a bit to get used to things, especially the scripting/programming areas. I am not a programmer, so this ended up being a bit difficult for me in the later weeks.
I began work on the game starting on May 18th with the help of David Nisly and his fantastic art skills. I wanted the game to be in the 8-16 bit style and we worked really hard to achieve that. The first week we worked on creating the backgrounds for all the downstairs areas, as well as the walk-able and walk-behind areas.
This was the first time creating anything in this style, so we ended up having to make several changes to the original background created, until it finally had the real NES type of feel to it. Having to keep making changes to the background also meant I had to keep redoing the walk areas, because with each new background the walking areas were slightly altered. After several attempts we finally got it down with all the areas finished.
Starting May 25th, we began work on the upstairs. This whole area was a mess for awhile. While working on the project, David and I were actually about 1300 miles apart, with him in Kansas City and me in Phoenix. This ended up being a much larger problem than I had anticipated because it became difficult for me to explain exactly what needed to be changed. He would end up creating a background and then email it to me. I would look at it and try to explain over the phone what needed to be changed, but sometimes that was super difficult because it's much more difficult to explain things that to just show him.
This issue effected the second milestone a bit. The upstairs was at a slightly different view point and the rooms were much more shallow than the downstairs. I tried to fix it myself, but I only had the PNGs, so I couldn't mess with the layers themselves. When I added all the backgrounds and tested the game, the player sprite looked even more tiny than he did originally and the doors all looked super fat. The rooms also looked a lot more empty in comparison to the downstairs. So, the upstairs was temporarily done this week, including the walk areas, but they definitely needed to be improved later.
One thing that was done really well during that second milestone, was the kitchen. The kitchen was downstairs and was originally done in the first milestone, but after some constructive criticism from another professor, we decided to redo it. In the revised version, we changed up the blood stains. Before it looked like they were almost circling around the table, but after the change, it now looks like it's just large pools of blood. David was able to use different shade of red to make the pooling look more convincing. I believe it turned out really well and makes the room even more disturbing than before, which is a good thing! Also because it was just changing the blood, the rest of the room wasn't altered, I didn't have to change the walk areas.
The third milestone started on June 1st, and went much smoother. David moved to Arizona, which has made everything so much easier. We were able to fix the upstairs by fixing the perspective and making the rooms much deeper. Each room was also given more things that the player will be able to examine. It actually looks like people lived here now. We also worked together to create the items the player will be able to pick up throughout the game.
Like I said before, this is the first time I've used this engine, and the first time I've done really any scripting. I was able to create a way for the player to pick up the items pretty easily. He even says a few short lines for each object, something I wasn't going to add until next week, but I figured it out quick so did it this week.
The real problem came when I was trying to figure out how to make it let the player use the key on the door. For all the regular doors I was able to create regions. When a player walks on the region it causes a room change. This worked really well, much better than the edge method I previously used.
For a locked room, I couldn't use a region. I tried using an if statement basically telling the engine that if a player has the item iKey and walks on the region, then create a room change. I messed with this for over an hour and it just would not work. To get around this I had to make a copy of the door and make it an object. I then had to add in that if the player uses item iKey on object oDoor, then create a room change. This finally worked.
This post is super long because I put like 4 weeks worth in it. Future post will be much shorter. I'll be posting one for each milestone, so once a week. This week I am working on creating all the dialog for all the examinable areas. I'm also going to be creating the puzzle to get the key out of the corpse, right now you can just pick it up but that will be fixed. I'm also going to create the ending puzzle, so that there is an actual win condition finally.
