- Nov 26, 2018
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- 509
I've managed to make a proper changelog! Please don't hate me for it - I just didn't got enough time week ago. damn job consume me, and work on this version left with only 5 hours of sleep per day during last few weeks.
Check v5 changelog!
Check v5 changelog!
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here. please!Okaaaaay.
First of all, I commend your determination to invent complex unorthodox gameplay. It really makes this game special, though may be not apreciated by that many. Yout choice, and you stick to it. It's admirable.
Secondly, you specifically asked for feedback on new dungeon. It LOOKs great! Both visuals and level design. Sadly, can't give a formed opinion.
I was able to find only one solution for one puzzle -
. I stopped exploring when the game freezed upon entering this location:
I can see a lot of potential "puzzle solvers" there, so I decided to try again when the bug is fixed. I played version 5.2.
I have a few considerations though:
1) The main idea of the dungeon, as I get, is to design mechanisms and enviroment as close to reality as possible, hence no glowing dots on interactible objects. As of now I can't conclude if it worked for me or not, but the several things I'd like to point out are:
-a lot of people are not very familiar with mechanics and it's theoretical background. It does not help that objects are small and are drawn in unfamiliar steempank style instead of 20th century style. Yeah, I know what junkbox is, I know it purpose and that probably tinkering with it can influence something. But to do that I have to differ it from everithing else (and there is a lot of objects) by visually examinination, otherwise it is "clicking everithing in hope for some reaction", which is not the expected way to puzzle solution, I prezume )
-Moreover: these are two junkboxes from different locations:
At first I found the one on the first screenshot. It is not interactible. From that I devisied that this type of object is not interactible, and skipped every other object with this image, until accidentally clicking the object from second screen, where I found out that it is indeed a junkbox from text description. IMHO, if interactible objects are not highlighted, every object of the object type that is potentially interaclible should be interaclible (i.e. clicking junkbox from first screen should result in text like "this junkbox is totally rusty and damaged beyond repair"), otherwise it is "clicking everithing in hope for some reaction"
- (partly humor) There are a lot of thin pipes there. If Adelina had a wrench, why not unscrew them and use as levers? Spent some time looking for a whench (surely one can't build all this whithout a whench. And we know for sure they have crowbars). Just saying. Point is - the problem of not highlighting interactible objects is an infinite amount of potential solutions that could come into players mind that did you did not think of. And it could be sad that they aren't working
. Finding the one solution that came into someone else's head is not always as easy and fun as it seems.
2) Economics. Till this update there was one type of in-game resource: money. Now there are two: money and mood. Till now mood was just a parameter that represented your ability to make money from bar job. But now it is a resource that could be spent on going to dungeon. That changes the effectivenes per resource income of bar job and newspaper job, and now the balance is completely off.
Say we do only newspaper, we get:
5 copper and 5 mood (rest in evening)
Say we do only bar, we get:
4+ copper and 10 mood (rest morning + day) - from 20 to 35 mood, that makes:
4+ copper and -10 to 25 mood.
Taking to account that 5 mood costs 6 copper (most cost effective bar treat), bar job is just not worth it. IMHO need rebalancing.
3) So far I've seen 4 quests in the game, 3 of them dungeons heavily relying on puzzles and deversification and one article writing quest with no actual gameplay for obtaining information. That rises the question: what will be the main focus of the game - information gathering or enviromental puzzles? IMHO, the problem with puzzle dungeons as you implement them is that they take a lot of time and effort and do not advance the plot much. So if puzzle dingeons are the main focus, then either other aspects will be naturally neglected or game development is going to roughly 10 to 20 years. It's all just some considerations, maybe something to think about and arrive the entirely different conclusion then i did ))
Now, as you might suspect, different people have different interests, so it might come as no surprize that you spent 100+ hours on dungeon, while I found myself more interested in mechanics and details of bar job implementation ). I will address them in another post, though, when thoughts and statistics are fully gathered.
First of all, I commend your determination to invent complex unorthodox gameplay. It really makes this game special, though may be not apreciated by that many. Yout choice, and you stick to it. It's admirable.
Secondly, you specifically asked for feedback on new dungeon. It LOOKs great! Both visuals and level design. Sadly, can't give a formed opinion.
I was able to find only one solution for one puzzle -
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I can see a lot of potential "puzzle solvers" there, so I decided to try again when the bug is fixed. I played version 5.2.
I have a few considerations though:
1) The main idea of the dungeon, as I get, is to design mechanisms and enviroment as close to reality as possible, hence no glowing dots on interactible objects. As of now I can't conclude if it worked for me or not, but the several things I'd like to point out are:
-a lot of people are not very familiar with mechanics and it's theoretical background. It does not help that objects are small and are drawn in unfamiliar steempank style instead of 20th century style. Yeah, I know what junkbox is, I know it purpose and that probably tinkering with it can influence something. But to do that I have to differ it from everithing else (and there is a lot of objects) by visually examinination, otherwise it is "clicking everithing in hope for some reaction", which is not the expected way to puzzle solution, I prezume )
-Moreover: these are two junkboxes from different locations:
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- (partly humor) There are a lot of thin pipes there. If Adelina had a wrench, why not unscrew them and use as levers? Spent some time looking for a whench (surely one can't build all this whithout a whench. And we know for sure they have crowbars). Just saying. Point is - the problem of not highlighting interactible objects is an infinite amount of potential solutions that could come into players mind that did you did not think of. And it could be sad that they aren't working
. Finding the one solution that came into someone else's head is not always as easy and fun as it seems.2) Economics. Till this update there was one type of in-game resource: money. Now there are two: money and mood. Till now mood was just a parameter that represented your ability to make money from bar job. But now it is a resource that could be spent on going to dungeon. That changes the effectivenes per resource income of bar job and newspaper job, and now the balance is completely off.
Say we do only newspaper, we get:
5 copper and 5 mood (rest in evening)
Say we do only bar, we get:
4+ copper and 10 mood (rest morning + day) - from 20 to 35 mood, that makes:
4+ copper and -10 to 25 mood.
Taking to account that 5 mood costs 6 copper (most cost effective bar treat), bar job is just not worth it. IMHO need rebalancing.
3) So far I've seen 4 quests in the game, 3 of them dungeons heavily relying on puzzles and deversification and one article writing quest with no actual gameplay for obtaining information. That rises the question: what will be the main focus of the game - information gathering or enviromental puzzles? IMHO, the problem with puzzle dungeons as you implement them is that they take a lot of time and effort and do not advance the plot much. So if puzzle dingeons are the main focus, then either other aspects will be naturally neglected or game development is going to roughly 10 to 20 years. It's all just some considerations, maybe something to think about and arrive the entirely different conclusion then i did ))
Now, as you might suspect, different people have different interests, so it might come as no surprize that you spent 100+ hours on dungeon, while I found myself more interested in mechanics and details of bar job implementation ). I will address them in another post, though, when thoughts and statistics are fully gathered.
- Nov 26, 2018
- 303
- 509
Can You give me Your save-file before going to room where You stucked, please? I need to figure out what can cause it.Okaaaaay.
First of all, I commend your determination to invent complex unorthodox gameplay. It really makes this game special, though may be not apreciated by that many. Yout choice, and you stick to it. It's admirable.
Secondly, you specifically asked for feedback on new dungeon. It LOOKs great! Both visuals and level design. Sadly, can't give a formed opinion.
I was able to find only one solution for one puzzle -. I stopped exploring when the game freezed upon entering this location: View attachment 892197You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
I can see a lot of potential "puzzle solvers" there, so I decided to try again when the bug is fixed. I played version 5.2.
I have a few considerations though:
1) The main idea of the dungeon, as I get, is to design mechanisms and enviroment as close to reality as possible, hence no glowing dots on interactible objects. As of now I can't conclude if it worked for me or not, but the several things I'd like to point out are:
-a lot of people are not very familiar with mechanics and it's theoretical background. It does not help that objects are small and are drawn in unfamiliar steempank style instead of 20th century style. Yeah, I know what junkbox is, I know it purpose and that probably tinkering with it can influence something. But to do that I have to differ it from everithing else (and there is a lot of objects) by visually examinination, otherwise it is "clicking everithing in hope for some reaction", which is not the expected way to puzzle solution, I prezume )
-Moreover: these are two junkboxes from different locations:
At first I found the one on the first screenshot. It is not interactible. From that I devisied that this type of object is not interactible, and skipped every other object with this image, until accidentally clicking the object from second screen, where I found out that it is indeed a junkbox from text description. IMHO, if interactible objects are not highlighted, every object of the object type that is potentially interaclible should be interaclible (i.e. clicking junkbox from first screen should result in text like "this junkbox is totally rusty and damaged beyond repair"), otherwise it is "clicking everithing in hope for some reaction"You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
- (partly humor) There are a lot of thin pipes there. If Adelina had a wrench, why not unscrew them and use as levers? Spent some time looking for a whench (surely one can't build all this whithout a whench. And we know for sure they have crowbars). Just saying. Point is - the problem of not highlighting interactible objects is an infinite amount of potential solutions that could come into players mind that did you did not think of. And it could be sad that they aren't working
2) Economics. Till this update there was one type of in-game resource: money. Now there are two: money and mood. Till now mood was just a parameter that represented your ability to make money from bar job. But now it is a resource that could be spent on going to dungeon. That changes the effectivenes per resource income of bar job and newspaper job, and now the balance is completely off.
Say we do only newspaper, we get:
5 copper and 5 mood (rest in evening)
Say we do only bar, we get:
4+ copper and 10 mood (rest morning + day) - from 20 to 35 mood, that makes:
4+ copper and -10 to 25 mood.
Taking to account that 5 mood costs 6 copper (most cost effective bar treat), bar job is just not worth it. IMHO need rebalancing.
3) So far I've seen 4 quests in the game, 3 of them dungeons heavily relying on puzzles and deversification and one article writing quest with no actual gameplay for obtaining information. That rises the question: what will be the main focus of the game - information gathering or enviromental puzzles? IMHO, the problem with puzzle dungeons as you implement them is that they take a lot of time and effort and do not advance the plot much. So if puzzle dingeons are the main focus, then either other aspects will be naturally neglected or game development is going to roughly 10 to 20 years. It's all just some considerations, maybe something to think about and arrive the entirely different conclusion then i did ))
Now, as you might suspect, different people have different interests, so it might come as no surprize that you spent 100+ hours on dungeon, while I found myself more interested in mechanics and details of bar job implementation ). I will address them in another post, though, when thoughts and statistics are fully gathered.
1. It's great idea! I'll add it today. Thank You.
2. Good point. I'll make rebalance little later. It's need to be done proper.
3. Main focus of game - not too easy question. But I'll try to answer in best of my ability.
Game development take time. A lot time. There are a lot of planned things, that I want to implement in game. Like "Character Development", "Sexuality development", other side-jobs, spend of "Fame" and "Affinity" points to do certain things in game and of course warmap and story-points where it will change, and all this element is twisted and important to form full picture so my project won't be just another simple "press 1 button to open all linear content". Every element need proper attention. For example side-jobs won't be just local mini-game with 0 impact on story. There will be interesting events and some content will be available to discover only through side-jobs, and of course I want this modules to be hot and flexible. Environmental puzzles should have more than 1 way to finish them. Story should have more than 1 ending, and I don't want to make "good" or "bad" choices/endings. To make all it we just need Your support.
For example this reply - helped me to understand some issues, and to improve quality of project. Thank You!
If You have some more questions or suggestions or complains - Please tell me about it!)
- Nov 26, 2018
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Do You think that highlight all interaction objects is good? Or should I just highlight crucial objects?
well im kinda stuck at the beginning
i went to the court and went to the local newspaper
i have to find a blueprint (dont know where) and the 'Monokel' (dont know the location were running across the map like 20mins)
i went to the court and went to the local newspaper
i have to find a blueprint (dont know where) and the 'Monokel' (dont know the location were running across the map like 20mins)
- Nov 26, 2018
- 303
- 509
After You visit court with gunsmith - work few more days in local newspaper, than You will get continue of story. Monocle is not presented yet.
I kinda like the idea of not highlighting interractible objects at all. But i'm not sure if it could be theoretically done good enough in a dungeon that big, so people who do not enjoy this gameplay style won't get pissed and abandon the dungeon and the game ).
Being only one person that even haven't finished the dungeon yet my opinion is hardly adequate.
Back to the question - I enjoyed the system you implemented in warehouse dungeon: all interactible objects are highlighted, but the order in which they should be interacted with or if they are to be interacted with is for players to devise.
- Nov 26, 2018
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That's what I did in v5.2a . More than that - some objects will be highlighted only if player will discover need in them.
In my humble opinion everything depends by the context: if you are casually walking on a street, it is useful highlight the interaction objects (like it happens with the guys who tells the news near to the square in the city), because you don't have any clue about what you should do. But if you are searching a house (like it happens in the warehouse), nothing should be highlighted because the scenario is telling you that you have to search for something, even if you don't know what.
I think your is the best compromise about what objects need to be highlighted; but this is only my idea and others might not agree.
- Nov 26, 2018
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That was good idea! At least people will be able to find their way to solve the dungeon. But I still didn't highlighted all on purpose. Some elements can be found only if read notes and pay attention to details.
- Jan 10, 2018
- 2,328
- 3,091
I think that, since there are interactable and non-interactable versions of the same item highlighting the ones that can be interacted with is a good idea, once the player knows to look for, say, "a chest." You can highlight dummy chests if you want, but I'm not sure that this would add to player enjoyment. If the clue is very specific ("a red chest" when there is only one red chest) then highlighting is counter-productive because highlighting hurts immersion.
Testing, testing, testing...
Bugs, bugs, bugs...
1)
2) Tutorial for minigame is only available on the main entrance. Not as if it is that complicated, but if u have one it should be in both entrances
3)
4)
5)
Thats all for now )
Bugs, bugs, bugs...
1)
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2) Tutorial for minigame is only available on the main entrance. Not as if it is that complicated, but if u have one it should be in both entrances
3)
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4)
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5)
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Thats all for now )
- Nov 26, 2018
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Fixed all above except 4. Unfortunately PRG Maker doesn't provided proper camera controller.(
Thank You a lot! Please reupload.
Figured that much. But that's not the only way to fix the problem. Perhaps rearranging from 4*2 to 3*3 or something like that would do the trick
- Nov 26, 2018
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It's 4*4 actually. But still remake it - require too much time(it's like to do same thing again from scratch). Perhaps I'll check what is possible to do with existing camera controll.
Can I suggest to add an advise, that says to save the game immediately before to do the action described in the point 4? I have seen this kind of advises in other games and they are good to prevent the lost of all progress, when the player is going to start a crucial part of the game; even if in this case it would serve to give you the time to find a better solution.
- Nov 26, 2018
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The thing is - I don't want to change this part. I'll try to see what can be done with camera.