After a new Poll on GameSalad and a tonne of feedback on the TouchArcade thread, there is a game name change, the game now has a more exact storyline planned out, is going to be more psychological horror then blood and gore..
New name (will it change nearer completion.... who knows.)
The Horror or the Dark Asylum, or Dark Asylum, for short...
I'm sure I hit 'the wall' for 2 days, and was struggling to get in the right mood to put the hours in. Started the usual thought of 'is it going to be worth the effort', 'is it a crap idea', 'should I be making a fun puzzle game instead'. etc etc...
I eventually sat down with pen and paper, and reworked the story I'd written which the game is based on. Not reworked much, but got rid of some things that were holding back the dream of making a bigger and better game.
Anyway...back loving the game.. (never physically stopped working on it, it just started feeling like work and not play),... and as they say in 'The Shining',....
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... "
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... "
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... "
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... " ...
anyway...
Need a new title as 'Dark Asylum' is taken....(note to self, check the name is available to be registered even if its not already on the app store).
Also here's a pic for one of the close ups when you manage to unscrew a vent...shows the graphical style i'm aiming for...
I'll email you in a bit, to get your device details, so I can setup an adhoc build. Might get you to test it pretty early on if that's cool, just to see what you think of the user interface. There's a tonne to do on the game still, especially as I've decided to make it a bigger game with more rooms to explore and the lift will just be a nice vehicle for moving from level to level (once you've got the lift working that is).
Another update...for the game again with no official name....
Managed to put about 10 hours into the game this weekend. Lost loads of time trying to solve little bugs, like 'item description text' fading in when not wanted. But still accomplished quite a few things.
New things I've done: Created a quick and simple 'instructions scene' where you skip through 4 slides each showing a basic in game function with a scary image to accompany each one. 'hold touch for 5 secs for main menu', 'swipe to move', 'touch to investigate', 'think to survive'.
Added an animated clock that appears next to where you touch, if you touch the screen for more than 1 second, the clock counts down, when it reaches 0 you are returned to the main menu. I'm doing this instead of cluttering up the screen with another button, which will hardly be used in the game.
Created a new 'STORMYSTUDIO GAME' animated intro/logo/sting to go at the beginning of the game. Looks pretty cool if I say so myself... (need to perfect the timing for the sound, as it works fine in 'PREVIEW' but not right in an ADHOC build of the game.
Created a few more images for in the lift, the lift controls panel, with name plaques detailing whats on each floor of the 5 floor building. All very creep sounding.... e.g. 'Boiler Room', 'Research Lab', 'Private Restricted Access'.. etc etc etc. .... (Planned out the rest of the game very roughly on paper).
Created a new loading screen, for during the long (5 seconds) loading of the lift scene. Each time showing a different optical illusion...
Got a new music track made by Revolting Peasant (From the Forum) to put in... (Many Thanks Jonas for this, its awesome).
Also started putting in images for the descriptive text you click on rather than text generated by GameSalad, as there's more control, and it looks nicer with a little drop shadow and stuff...
Game size is getting quite big, like 35 Mb already...and there are a lot of rooms to do yet...
The final thing could so easily top 200Mb....EEEEeeeeeek!!!,
Though I saw Riven was just released on the app store and is over 1Gb.
can't wait to get to play this! oh, and btw, the export i sent you seems to be waaay better than what i intended to send you with the fader automations - sounds pretty great on my ipad speakers. still, if you want, i'll get you another mix. and if you want the creaking/screams seperately, let me know and i'll send them (plus the music without all the sounds). I'm subscribing to this thread in the hope of seeing mooore vids(!!) soon;)
and 200MB is nothing compared to what is being released atm (though 1 GB really is too much for my tastes..) wouldn't be a hinderence for me to get the game, anyway.
Again thanks for the track its really brilliant, still yet to put it in the game, been tinkering with lots of other bits and I'm saving adding it for when the first scene works perfectly as a sort of mini celebration by adding new music.
Here's the latest video preview of the work so far.
I've now got an incredibly long list of little jobs to do to make the game works as I want before I churn out the remaining parts of the game. Fingers crossed it will be a smash hit.
...back to work...
Cheers again, I'll let you know as soon as I've got a video preview with the music track in.
First of all, the game looks fantastic. The attention to detail is really nice - and I think it is critical to the success of these games. You will find that your motivation comes and goes when you work on such a massive game. Don't sacrifice quality and try to rush it out the door when you get sick of working on it!
The audience. From my experience, the major audience for these types of adventure games, MYST, etc., is slightly older, educated women. This is true of my Desktop games as well, which are mostly word games and Mahjong type games. It is generally not the same crowd that plays Madden 2010, Call of Duty or Infinity Blade. Of course there is some crossover, as adventure games are my favorite too, but generally this is the case.
That being said, I think the violent, horror theme skews it away from women. Which is fine - there are no rules - but it is something to consider. I think that a cold, industrial elevator spattered with blood is definitely targeted more to younger players than it is to my mom!
However, I really enjoy the psychological aspects of it. I like the quotes, and I would love it if a story was woven into the game. Missing diary pages scattered about, corruption at the asylum, some dark secret about the doctors/patients, etc. etc. Shutter Island, Kingdom Hospital, et al. I think that would add a nice depth to the game. And I think that is something that would appeal to women as well. Give the game a more human element, etc.
And I don't mean to go on and on about female players, but I am concerned that you are ignoring 50% of the customers with your current direction, targeting a younger, male audience who are more interested in action games.
Also, the horror element adds a level of (unnecessary?) tension to the usually relaxed, thoughtful puzzle solving.
The hidden menu button. While I totally understand the reasoning: more real estate, more immersive experience, I am concerned that people will not know or forget how to use it. Nobody reads instructions apparently. And once the instructions are gone, I assume they don't come back. I would be worried that people will forget how to get to the main menu to change their settings and become frustrated. If I were you, I would also put a faded little circle with an "M" in it in the top right-hand corner. It can be argued both ways of course, but over the years, I have realized that it behooves me to make the interface as easy (and dumb) as possible. I have gotten so many emails from confused customers over my "clever" interface designs.
True story: I let one of my mother's friends play the game. She has never played games before. She tapped the Menu button and it went to the Menu screen. She was so excited. It was as if she figured out one of the puzzles! I swear!
Difficulty level. I love adventure games, the harder the better, but I purposely made Grisly Manor to be the easiest adventure game that I could think of. Thinking about my audience of older women, many who have never played video games before, I wanted the game to be an easy introduction to the genre. I mean: log goes in the fireplace, matches light the fire, ice pick breaks the ice, wrench turns the bolt, etc., etc. People knew what they needed even before they had the item! And STILL, I have received over 500 emails complaining that the game was too tough!
The difficulty of the game is definitely something that is hard to master. A delicate balancing act for sure. It''s very tough to keep everybody happy! If the game is too easy, people will solve it too quickly. If it is too hard, they will become frustrated and hate the game and give up. I definitely erred on the side of easy - at least it would make people feel smart and be able to complete the game.
I can tell you right now that the first sequence of your game is very easy: toolbox/sponge/coin/panel. Even though I am well aware that that took you weeks to construct, people will solve that in 30 seconds, trust me. They are trapped in the elevator, so nowhere to go. They will tap on everything and quickly solve it. But that is a great introduction to the mechanics of the game, getting players used to how things work. I have a similar thing in Grisly Manor where the player needs to figure out how to open the front door. It couldn't be easier, but it shows players how to pick up items, use the back button, and use inventory items.
Game length. Grisly Manor has 50 screens(19 locations and 31 closeups), 30 objects to pick up and use, and 4 codes/symbol puzzles. A lot of people complained that that was waaaaay too short. But I had to draw the line somewhere. Working on a game like this takes forever, and you don't know if it will sell or not. Also, I wanted to stay under the 20MB download limit. I wanted to show off the game at restaurants and parties and have people download it. I did not want to needlessly lose sales. Also, I wanted to port the game over to Android at some point. Which, at the time, android apps were limited to 25MB in total size. (just last week they upped the limit to 50MB).
Now, having 30 items means I actually need 60 animation sequences. One to pick up the object, and one to use it. Some were easy, like picking up the matches from the table, but getting the jewel from the gumball machine was a very complex sequence to build, as was the lightning rod, the goldfish in the tub, etc. Takes forever to make! The getting of the matches was certainly much easier to program, but it also didn't add any length to the gameplay.
I'm sure you noticed that the inventory system is very limiting as well. You only have 5 slots. Ihad 7, but one was taken up by the ripped note, so I really only had 6.
This seriously impacts the game length/ difficulty as well. It makes the game extremely linear in nature. You can't keep that sponge in your inventory forever to use later, as it takes up one of the spots. Only having 5 items at a time makes the puzzles very easy. Hmmm. Perhaps I use one of my 5 items to solve this puzzle?
Game length was by far the biggest complaint about Grisly Manor. That, and the admittedly terrible ending! These will both be rectified in my next adventure game.
My next game will be 5x the size of Grisly Manor. And have an unlimited inventory. And a proper ending! It will be a much better game, we'll see if that translates into sales!
Anyway, sorry to ramble on. I only say all this as I think your game has great potential!
Great advice Joe! I suggest anyone planning on making this type of game bookmark this forum so u can go back and read it! And to check stormys progress of course
Firemaple...I'm seriously flattered by your input.
As I've written before it was Grisly Manor that got me looking into making a point and click style game, and led me to buy lots of different versions out there. Learning a bit from each one I've played a bit of.
In reply to each of your points:
- Don't rush, when I start running out of enthusiasm. -
Been going through a little bout of this the past few days, thats why I wrote up a few small steps I wanted to take and I'm making sure I complete one a night. The enthusiasm will come back properly I'm sure after the christmas and new year are over.
- Female audience, 50% of the customers -
This is a very valid point, that until now had not crossed my mind. The game is partly written story wise and there are ghosts and scary 'asylum' style rooms, not much blood though. Hopefully the horror market will be big enough... but I'll certainly keep the blood and gore toned down.
- Story - A half decent story does exist, with a definite 'Shutter Island' sort of theme which will slowly be hinted at throughout. It will take quite a bit of work to do it the way I'd like to, I may have to change it a bit to fit within what GameSalad can handle.
- Horror -
Yeah I can see that by going down the horror route the game won't fit into the normally calmer puzzle solving gamw style, but hopefully I can strike a fair balance. I need to sit down and play 'The 7th Guest'.
- hidden menu button -
you may well be right.... nope you are right....I'll do that.
-True Story - Nice...it is a pretty exciting menu button you have there. I had my Dad playing my game over Christmas, he wasn't impressed, too complicated. He wants me to make 'Tetris' the one game he has ever grasped... (I'll make that next).
- Difficulty -
I know the lift scene is very easy, I'd originally designed a much harder set of puzzles to get out, but I did'nt want to bore the user by not letting them out to explore the asylum. So alot of those puzzles are now spread out throughout the asylum. I've spent this evening adding in game help animations, so the lift scene will act as an introduction as to how the game works. As you say, similar to your opening scene where you have to get into the manor.
- Game length - I'm hoping the final game will have around 2 hours gameplay. But in the end I think it will be what it will be. I'm sure I can make it last a bit longer by adding things that can be investigated that just add to the mood of the game, posters on the walls, charts, mini games. Plus my current loading times will add about 3 years to the gameplay anyway :-)
- Inventory system - Yeah I can see that it will not be long enough for complex puzzles where you might slowly be collecting parts of a picture whilst completing other puzzles and collecting other bits. I'll either have to design around it, or adapt the inventory system. Which took a lot of effort to get working in the first place.
Many thanks FMG... I can't wait to see your next game.
If you fancy volunteering as a beta tester (a few months down the line) that would be great to get your honest feedback. PM me if you do.
Great looking game I hope it does well for you. I love the artwork as well. I was wondering could you make an intro for my Company? You see how after the gamesalad logo your StormyStudio Games appears I want something short like that but with my company name in it "DreamSparks LLC" it should have a Dreamcatcher and maybe some lightning going through it. I am willing to pay some compensation for your trouble. Just send me an e-mail at darkmage733(at)hotmail dot com. Keep up the good work looks really fun can't wait till the release.
quick update...will do a video once I've made a new menu and more...
So what I've done that's new?
I managed to get quite a bit more done over the past few days.
The lift controls fully now work, and take you to different floors with an animated lift display (going up, going down, and floor numbers), also the lift doors open, with proper lift sound effects. I'm yet to make any of the floors to explore.
Also added a main menu button to the main game screen after Firemaples suggestion and removed the hold touch function for main menu.
I created a CCTV style loading screen. And fixed a long list of little bugs. And added Revolting Peasants music to the main menu.
I'm sure I'll be working on it for months yet...but its getting more and more polished.
Thanks Devils. (Also I'll try and get some more work done on your animated logo tonight :-)
Other Dark Asylum news.
I'm currently trying to get granted access to visit a local (50 miles away) abandoned Asylum. There are lots of photos online of it, but I want to take 360 degree photos view for the game. The owners are soon to be knocking it down to build houses. It currently looks amazing.
If they say no I'm going to try and get one of the people who have visited to give me use of their photos and photoshop together the needed images.
Right well it turns out that not much remains of the Asylum I wanted to visit. Though they have said I can go and visit what remains of the water tower and church. I might go along and see what photos I can get. Still waiting to hear back from the owners of another abandoned asylum.
But on an even brighter note, I found via the power of the web an amazing photographer who does lots of urbex (Urban exploring), and he is making his back catalogue of stunning photos available to me. I'm going to photoshop the photos to make it fit in with the game design and user interface. But honestly some (actually all) of these photos are incredible, creepy arts of work in their own right. Amazing compositions, lighting and real life tatty textures. They almost look like CGI the environments are so unreal.
I can't post any online as he has not made them available to download for the public.
But hopefully there will be some in the next video update I do.
Eeeek!!
But first I need some sleep...as I've been working on this so much the past few nights. Searching for photographers, finding the owners of the asylums to try and get granted access, sketching out the floor plans for each floor of the asylum. Not much actual work in GS but I'll be back on it soon.
(Oh and once I finish 'Devils' animated logo of course, pencilled in time tomorrow night for that :-)
Also having to fit in my day job, and helping organise my daughters 1st birthday party...pirate fancy dress theme. Supposed to be making a treasure hunt, (The perfect time to test out some puzzle ideas .. )
Cardinal said: @stormystudio Is it ok if I make a game about an asylum. Because yesterday I saw a movie and I came up with a pretty good idea for a game. Is it wrong if I make a game like Dark Asylum. I'm not intending to copy your game.
Well, I guess you can do what ever you like. It's a free world and the app store is what it is. And that's part of the appeal. There are other asylum apps out there.
Obviously I'd prefer it if you don't make the same style of game, i.e. not a point and click horror game where your trapped in an abandoned asylum...
I have been following this forum for a month now, but I have to say: OMG, haha, this is definitely a must buy for me! I like this sort of games (point and click) as is my girlfriend. (comment for Joe: The secret of grisly manor is the most played game on my girlfriend iPad(2 times I played it through en 2 times by my girl. I'm also looking forward to your title )). Good luck with this one Jon!
And Cardinal, thanks too...if you really want to make your asylum idea then please do, but if its going to be a point and click game with a very similar story we might just be competing with each other unnecessarily...
Wow, I've got app envy -- this game looks great! It looks like you are putting a lot of research into this and taking the time to make it right. Good for you!
JackBQuick said: Wow, I've got app envy -- this game looks great! It looks like you are putting a lot of research into this and taking the time to make it right. Good for you!
Thanks for the "app envy" bit, makes me think the game is heading in the right way. Just wish I had more time to get going, especially as my new photographer contact has started sending through high res copies of some textures and pics.
Also started writing a spooky little riff on a eukele (comedy instrument of choice), its great because I can work on it at work whilst sitting and waiting for an animation to render out in After Effects. The tune will hopefully live over some cut scenes, or credits sequence.
Working on Devils logo tonight...before I do anything else...
Just found a cool old article about the horror game genre, and stuff like that. Really good article if your working/thinking of working on a horror based game..
Comments
After a new Poll on GameSalad and a tonne of feedback on the TouchArcade thread, there is a game name change, the game now has a more exact storyline planned out, is going to be more psychological horror then blood and gore..
New name (will it change nearer completion.... who knows.)
The Horror or the Dark Asylum, or Dark Asylum, for short...
I'm sure I hit 'the wall' for 2 days, and was struggling to get in the right mood to put the hours in. Started the usual thought of 'is it going to be worth the effort', 'is it a crap idea', 'should I be making a fun puzzle game instead'. etc etc...
I eventually sat down with pen and paper, and reworked the story I'd written which the game is based on. Not reworked much, but got rid of some things that were holding back the dream of making a bigger and better game.
Anyway...back loving the game.. (never physically stopped working on it, it just started feeling like work and not play),... and as they say in 'The Shining',....
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... "
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... "
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... "
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... "
...
anyway...
Need a new title as 'Dark Asylum' is taken....(note to self, check the name is available to be registered even if its not already on the app store).
Also here's a pic for one of the close ups when you manage to unscrew a vent...shows the graphical style i'm aiming for...
http://www.stormystudio.com/images/vent_lift_floor01.png
-Josh
Thanks..
I'll email you in a bit, to get your device details, so I can setup an adhoc build. Might get you to test it pretty early on if that's cool, just to see what you think of the user interface. There's a tonne to do on the game still, especially as I've decided to make it a bigger game with more rooms to explore and the lift will just be a nice vehicle for moving from level to level (once you've got the lift working that is).
Cheers
Jon (stormystudio)
Managed to put about 10 hours into the game this weekend. Lost loads of time trying to solve little bugs, like 'item description text' fading in when not wanted. But still accomplished quite a few things.
New things I've done:
Created a quick and simple 'instructions scene' where you skip through 4 slides each showing a basic in game function with a scary image to accompany each one. 'hold touch for 5 secs for main menu', 'swipe to move', 'touch to investigate', 'think to survive'.
Added an animated clock that appears next to where you touch, if you touch the screen for more than 1 second, the clock counts down, when it reaches 0 you are returned to the main menu. I'm doing this instead of cluttering up the screen with another button, which will hardly be used in the game.
Created a new 'STORMYSTUDIO GAME' animated intro/logo/sting to go at the beginning of the game. Looks pretty cool if I say so myself... (need to perfect the timing for the sound, as it works fine in 'PREVIEW' but not right in an ADHOC build of the game.
Created a few more images for in the lift, the lift controls panel, with name plaques detailing whats on each floor of the 5 floor building. All very creep sounding.... e.g. 'Boiler Room', 'Research Lab', 'Private Restricted Access'.. etc etc etc. .... (Planned out the rest of the game very roughly on paper).
Created a new loading screen, for during the long (5 seconds) loading of the lift scene. Each time showing a different optical illusion...
Got a new music track made by Revolting Peasant (From the Forum) to put in... (Many Thanks Jonas for this, its awesome).
Also started putting in images for the descriptive text you click on rather than text generated by GameSalad, as there's more control, and it looks nicer with a little drop shadow and stuff...
Game size is getting quite big, like 35 Mb already...and there are a lot of rooms to do yet...
The final thing could so easily top 200Mb....EEEEeeeeeek!!!,
Though I saw Riven was just released on the app store and is over 1Gb.
can't wait to get to play this! oh, and btw, the export i sent you seems to be waaay better than what i intended to send you with the fader automations - sounds pretty great on my ipad speakers. still, if you want, i'll get you another mix. and if you want the creaking/screams seperately, let me know and i'll send them (plus the music without all the sounds). I'm subscribing to this thread in the hope of seeing mooore vids(!!) soon;)
and 200MB is nothing compared to what is being released atm (though 1 GB really is too much for my tastes..) wouldn't be a hinderence for me to get the game, anyway.
cheers
RP
Again thanks for the track its really brilliant, still yet to put it in the game, been tinkering with lots of other bits and I'm saving adding it for when the first scene works perfectly as a sort of mini celebration by adding new music.
Here's the latest video preview of the work so far.
I've now got an incredibly long list of little jobs to do to make the game works as I want before I churn out the remaining parts of the game. Fingers crossed it will be a smash hit.
...back to work...
Cheers again, I'll let you know as soon as I've got a video preview with the music track in.
First of all, the game looks fantastic.
The attention to detail is really nice - and I think it is critical to the success of these games. You will find that your motivation comes and goes when you work on such a massive game. Don't sacrifice quality and try to rush it out the door when you get sick of working on it!
The audience.
From my experience, the major audience for these types of adventure games, MYST, etc., is slightly older, educated women. This is true of my Desktop games as well, which are mostly word games and Mahjong type games. It is generally not the same crowd that plays Madden 2010, Call of Duty or Infinity Blade. Of course there is some crossover, as adventure games are my favorite too, but generally this is the case.
That being said, I think the violent, horror theme skews it away from women. Which is fine - there are no rules - but it is something to consider. I think that a cold, industrial elevator spattered with blood is definitely targeted more to younger players than it is to my mom!
However, I really enjoy the psychological aspects of it. I like the quotes, and I would love it if a story was woven into the game. Missing diary pages scattered about, corruption at the asylum, some dark secret about the doctors/patients, etc. etc. Shutter Island, Kingdom Hospital, et al. I think that would add a nice depth to the game. And I think that is something that would appeal to women as well. Give the game a more human element, etc.
And I don't mean to go on and on about female players, but I am concerned that you are ignoring 50% of the customers with your current direction, targeting a younger, male audience who are more interested in action games.
Also, the horror element adds a level of (unnecessary?) tension to the usually relaxed, thoughtful puzzle solving.
The hidden menu button.
While I totally understand the reasoning: more real estate, more immersive experience, I am concerned that people will not know or forget how to use it. Nobody reads instructions apparently. And once the instructions are gone, I assume they don't come back. I would be worried that people will forget how to get to the main menu to change their settings and become frustrated. If I were you, I would also put a faded little circle with an "M" in it in the top right-hand corner. It can be argued both ways of course, but over the years, I have realized that it behooves me to make the interface as easy (and dumb) as possible. I have gotten so many emails from confused customers over my "clever" interface designs.
True story: I let one of my mother's friends play the game. She has never played games before. She tapped the Menu button and it went to the Menu screen. She was so excited. It was as if she figured out one of the puzzles! I swear!
Difficulty level.
I love adventure games, the harder the better, but I purposely made Grisly Manor to be the easiest adventure game that I could think of. Thinking about my audience of older women, many who have never played video games before, I wanted the game to be an easy introduction to the genre. I mean: log goes in the fireplace, matches light the fire, ice pick breaks the ice, wrench turns the bolt, etc., etc. People knew what they needed even before they had the item! And STILL, I have received over 500 emails complaining that the game was too tough!
The difficulty of the game is definitely something that is hard to master. A delicate balancing act for sure. It''s very tough to keep everybody happy! If the game is too easy, people will solve it too quickly. If it is too hard, they will become frustrated and hate the game and give up. I definitely erred on the side of easy - at least it would make people feel smart and be able to complete the game.
I can tell you right now that the first sequence of your game is very easy: toolbox/sponge/coin/panel. Even though I am well aware that that took you weeks to construct, people will solve that in 30 seconds, trust me. They are trapped in the elevator, so nowhere to go. They will tap on everything and quickly solve it. But that is a great introduction to the mechanics of the game, getting players used to how things work. I have a similar thing in Grisly Manor where the player needs to figure out how to open the front door. It couldn't be easier, but it shows players how to pick up items, use the back button, and use inventory items.
Game length.
Grisly Manor has 50 screens(19 locations and 31 closeups), 30 objects to pick up and use, and 4 codes/symbol puzzles. A lot of people complained that that was waaaaay too short. But I had to draw the line somewhere. Working on a game like this takes forever, and you don't know if it will sell or not. Also, I wanted to stay under the 20MB download limit. I wanted to show off the game at restaurants and parties and have people download it. I did not want to needlessly lose sales. Also, I wanted to port the game over to Android at some point. Which, at the time, android apps were limited to 25MB in total size. (just last week they upped the limit to 50MB).
Now, having 30 items means I actually need 60 animation sequences. One to pick up the object, and one to use it. Some were easy, like picking up the matches from the table, but getting the jewel from the gumball machine was a very complex sequence to build, as was the lightning rod, the goldfish in the tub, etc. Takes forever to make! The getting of the matches was certainly much easier to program, but it also didn't add any length to the gameplay.
I'm sure you noticed that the inventory system is very limiting as well. You only have 5 slots. Ihad 7, but one was taken up by the ripped note, so I really only had 6.
This seriously impacts the game length/ difficulty as well. It makes the game extremely linear in nature. You can't keep that sponge in your inventory forever to use later, as it takes up one of the spots. Only having 5 items at a time makes the puzzles very easy. Hmmm. Perhaps I use one of my 5 items to solve this puzzle?
Game length was by far the biggest complaint about Grisly Manor. That, and the admittedly terrible ending! These will both be rectified in my next adventure game.
My next game will be 5x the size of Grisly Manor. And have an unlimited inventory. And a proper ending! It will be a much better game, we'll see if that translates into sales!
Anyway, sorry to ramble on. I only say all this as I think your game has great potential!
Joe
As I've written before it was Grisly Manor that got me looking into making a point and click style game, and led me to buy lots of different versions out there. Learning a bit from each one I've played a bit of.
In reply to each of your points:
- Don't rush, when I start running out of enthusiasm. -
Been going through a little bout of this the past few days, thats why I wrote up a few small steps I wanted to take and I'm making sure I complete one a night. The enthusiasm will come back properly I'm sure after the christmas and new year are over.
- Female audience, 50% of the customers -
This is a very valid point, that until now had not crossed my mind. The game is partly written story wise and there are ghosts and scary 'asylum' style rooms, not much blood though. Hopefully the horror market will be big enough... but I'll certainly keep the blood and gore toned down.
- Story -
A half decent story does exist, with a definite 'Shutter Island' sort of theme which will slowly be hinted at throughout. It will take quite a bit of work to do it the way I'd like to, I may have to change it a bit to fit within what GameSalad can handle.
- Horror -
Yeah I can see that by going down the horror route the game won't fit into the normally calmer puzzle solving gamw style, but hopefully I can strike a fair balance. I need to sit down and play 'The 7th Guest'.
- hidden menu button -
you may well be right.... nope you are right....I'll do that.
-True Story -
Nice...it is a pretty exciting menu button you have there.
I had my Dad playing my game over Christmas, he wasn't impressed, too complicated. He wants me to make 'Tetris' the one game he has ever grasped... (I'll make that next).
- Difficulty -
I know the lift scene is very easy, I'd originally designed a much harder set of puzzles to get out, but I did'nt want to bore the user by not letting them out to explore the asylum. So alot of those puzzles are now spread out throughout the asylum. I've spent this evening adding in game help animations, so the lift scene will act as an introduction as to how the game works. As you say, similar to your opening scene where you have to get into the manor.
- Game length -
I'm hoping the final game will have around 2 hours gameplay. But in the end I think it will be what it will be. I'm sure I can make it last a bit longer by adding things that can be investigated that just add to the mood of the game, posters on the walls, charts, mini games. Plus my current loading times will add about 3 years to the gameplay anyway :-)
- Inventory system -
Yeah I can see that it will not be long enough for complex puzzles where you might slowly be collecting parts of a picture whilst completing other puzzles and collecting other bits. I'll either have to design around it, or adapt the inventory system. Which took a lot of effort to get working in the first place.
Many thanks FMG... I can't wait to see your next game.
If you fancy volunteering as a beta tester (a few months down the line) that would be great to get your honest feedback. PM me if you do.
Jon (stormystudio)
Stormystudios 'Horror Box' thread. (to showcase bits and get feedback)
to
Stormystudios 'Dark Asylum' thread. (to showcase bits and get feedback)
That would be great. Thankyou...(Oh and if you do, please feel free to delete this message) :-)
Great looking game I hope it does well for you. I love the artwork as well. I was wondering could you make an intro for my Company? You see how after the gamesalad logo your StormyStudio Games appears I want something short like that but with my company name in it "DreamSparks LLC" it should have a Dreamcatcher and maybe some lightning going through it. I am willing to pay some compensation for your trouble. Just send me an e-mail at darkmage733(at)hotmail dot com. Keep up the good work looks really fun can't wait till the release.
Edit:
That means I'm feeding my daughter, not playing cut the rope. :-)
So what I've done that's new?
I managed to get quite a bit more done over the past few days.
The lift controls fully now work, and take you to different floors with an animated lift display (going up, going down, and floor numbers), also the lift doors open, with proper lift sound effects. I'm yet to make any of the floors to explore.
Also added a main menu button to the main game screen after Firemaples suggestion and removed the hold touch function for main menu.
I created a CCTV style loading screen. And fixed a long list of little bugs. And added Revolting Peasants music to the main menu.
I'm sure I'll be working on it for months yet...but its getting more and more polished.
http://www.stormystudio.com/images/security-loading-01.png
Other Dark Asylum news.
I'm currently trying to get granted access to visit a local (50 miles away) abandoned Asylum. There are lots of photos online of it, but I want to take 360 degree photos view for the game. The owners are soon to be knocking it down to build houses. It currently looks amazing.
If they say no I'm going to try and get one of the people who have visited
to give me use of their photos and photoshop together the needed images.
Ace
Awesome idea...hopefully the brightly colored game salad additions on top of my helmet wont get me noticed.
...
Right well it turns out that not much remains of the Asylum I wanted to visit. Though they have said I can go and visit what remains of the water tower and church. I might go along and see what photos I can get. Still waiting to hear back from the owners of another abandoned asylum.
Here's a link to what it used to look like:
http://www.abandoned-britain.com/PP/canehill/2.html
But on an even brighter note, I found via the power of the web an amazing photographer who does lots of urbex (Urban exploring), and he is making his back catalogue of stunning photos available to me. I'm going to photoshop the photos to make it fit in with the game design and user interface. But honestly some (actually all) of these photos are incredible, creepy arts of work in their own right. Amazing compositions, lighting and real life tatty textures. They almost look like CGI the environments are so unreal.
I can't post any online as he has not made them available to download for the public.
But hopefully there will be some in the next video update I do.
Eeeek!!
But first I need some sleep...as I've been working on this so much the past few nights. Searching for photographers, finding the owners of the asylums to try and get granted access, sketching out the floor plans for each floor of the asylum. Not much actual work in GS but I'll be back on it soon.
(Oh and once I finish 'Devils' animated logo of course, pencilled in time tomorrow night for that :-)
Also having to fit in my day job, and helping organise my daughters 1st birthday party...pirate fancy dress theme. Supposed to be making a treasure hunt, (The perfect time to test out some puzzle ideas .. )
YOU WERE A GHOST ALL ALONG!!
Remember when you finish Stormy's game, I called it right here!
QS
Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io
(I'm still deciding whether to put to someone in...I'd like to keep the game gender neutral, so the player has some sort of belief it could be them..)
Obviously I'd prefer it if you don't make the same style of game, i.e. not a point and click horror game where your trapped in an abandoned asylum...
:-(
Wake up explore the asylum, lots of ghost of children, You unravel the story of who/why they were killed...
And Cardinal, thanks too...if you really want to make your asylum idea then please do, but if its going to be a point and click game with a very similar story we might just be competing with each other unnecessarily...
Cheers...
Jon
Also started writing a spooky little riff on a eukele (comedy instrument of choice), its great because I can work on it at work whilst sitting and waiting for an animation to render out in After Effects. The tune will hopefully live over some cut scenes, or credits sequence.
Working on Devils logo tonight...before I do anything else...
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/5772/revival_horror_new_ideas_in_.php