Infamous Quests
The Games => Quest for Infamy => Topic started by: Monster on August 22, 2012, 08:31:09 AM
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I've been enjoying the Demo here and there, but I don't get enough free time.
Well, I recently found the time to actually complete it. I also watched the Let's Play video by GameHorder, and I've come up with some observations and thoughts on the game (or at least the Demo).
First, I'd like to say that I love the concept of the game, and have been waiting to play it since I first heard of the idea ages ago. I've never been an active poster in the Adventure Gaming community, but I've always lurked and watched out for certain games. So far, this one has delivered on its promise of fun, and I wanted to let the team know that they have done an incredible job.
Art:
- I love the backgrounds. The art is definitely reminiscent of the old Sierra classics, with a nice, updated rendering. I want to see more of the town and it's surrounding area. The forest and flowers are beautiful, and sets a very particular scene. The use of the day and night cycles really adds a lot to the game. I love the sunsets in Volksville.
- The same goes for the sprite art, which really captures that old Adventure feel. The Character Designs are fantastic, and the animations are excellent. Also, the portraits really add an extra dynamic to the characters. There's a sense that you get to know them. Brattle is my favourite, I think, but I'm also partial to Prospero (naturally, who isn't?).
Audio:
- The voice work in this game is somewhat inconsistent (some of it is a bit echoed and a couple of characters are more forced), but all in all it is quite commendable, and in fact fantastic for a project at the Demo stage. There are some nice highlights in the mix, and I find myself growing more attached to different characters.
- Roehm's voice is great, no complaints there. I particularly like the Narrator, however. His snarkiness and sarcasm are awesome, and capture the essence of the game world and characters. I also love the guy in the beginning, Swart: "We can sing songs together." Fantastic delivery.
- Prospero is another highlight here. His detachment from anything non-magical is apparent. He has the cynical tone to go with his experience and wisdom. Brattle's voice is another I love, because it has loads of character, and I love the character. Markus' was a great voice as well, and clearly portrayed the indignant attitude of the character.
- The music is very well done. The moods are conveyed nicely, and I get a sense of what it would be like to live in Volksville. The songs add just enough ambiance to the game without distracting the player.
Story:
- The story works well so far. I like that we are following a vagabond with an unknown past full of many possible kinds of debauchery. We pick up with very little information on Roehm or the world around us, and we learn little bits as we go along. It's a great way to deliver the story.
- The humour is present and I find myself chuckling as I play. The pivotal scene with Markus shows another side to the town, and one that threatens our anti-hero. Rayford seems to have quite a hold on the town, and he clearly has no tolerance for the criminal element.
- I really want to get into that Tobacconist's shop to see what that's all about. I hope to find grass I can do more than look at (and hope it turns out to be just as funny).
- I played through the Rogue story, and I watched the Sorcerer in the video. I can imagine where the other path leads, having spoken to the guys in the Pub. Great job introducing the 3 character types. Each seems to have it's own independent motives and goals in the world, but they are accomplished via very similar means. I think that the Demo was wonderfully executed, and hope for more deviations in paths in the future.
- The final scene is wonderful, and hints at even more fantastic things to come. I can't wait to find out how much bigger this world will become. The darker, spookier overtones of that section are of much interest to me. What the hell was that guy's name? I can only imagine it means something mind-bogglingly Cthulic.
Programming:
- Great Programming means a seamless experience. Everything should feel like a natural extension of the game world. In Quest for Infamy, this is definitely true. I found the puzzles and games to be fun, and they made sense in context. Combat was a little tough, but I imagine that was a particularly tough Beast, and that Roehm still has some puny Statistics. I found no Bugs at all, and I know that's no small feat in any project.
All in all, it's a fantastic start, and I'm looking forward to more. I anticipate that the next Demo will be a fair improvement, but I also understand that these things take time to do properly. You're all doing great so far, and I have faith that the next Demo (and the final product) will be worth the wait.
Small criticisms:
- The town was rather difficult to navigate. I had difficulty with the Tongs as a result of this, but was finally able to return them. I also had some trouble with Brattle, since he is gone at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't simply wait until he was back, so I was in somewhat of an unwinnable state. I obviously managed to finish it in the end anyways.
To everyone on the team, congratulations! I am among many others that are very impressed by this Demo. It is quite obvious that you have all been working hard, and I am happy that your efforts are paying off. I hope that your success on KickStarter continues beyond this game, and that we can enjoy more Infamous Quests in the future.
;D
I encourage others to post their thoughts or impressions of the Demo as well.
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Monster - thanks for that very flattering and well written review on the demo. I really appreciate that you took the time to write that! We learned a lot in making the demo, and are trying to improve upon it.
Again, man, thanks. It was a great read!
Bt
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I love what y'all got so far. The art,the jokes and touching the dead guy a few times to immaturely hear (highlight text for spoilers)you should leave the poor b alone now. I loved the TV reference when talking to the horse or at least trying to. I wonder what TV show y'all got that from though. :P But anyways I'll play the demo some more later. Keep up the good work guys. ;D
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Wow, I missed this thread until now. Thanks so much for the kind, and indepth comments, Monster, and to you too, Mitsy. We are all still working our butts off to make this game a real winner but it's great to know we're striking the right chord with people so far :)
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Hi, I just finished the demo, so I want to share some opinions too ;)
Generally I agree with most of what Monster said. I totally love the graphics and music, which really feel like the QfG series. Most of the voice acting is brilliant too (I especially like the narrator, as many others do).
The city seemed kind of empty and not much was going on, but that is completely understandable in a demo.
But one thing i kind of missed in the game (and that is the reason why I'm making this post) was the option to do random mischief like punching someone, insulting people, doing irresponsible stuff like knocking down the city sign, hitting the obnoxious crow with a rock, burning stuff for fun and so on. Except for the intro, the whole thing felt more like quest for glory. The hero won't do stuff like this and you would just get a sarcastic comment saying, that doing something like that wouldn't be wise, or that you don't want to do it. I guess some things like that are planned, but I still wanted to point it out, because there aren't many games, where you can play a scumbag and I think, that combined with the humor that this game definitely has, it might be really enjoyable. Also situations stemming from this, might be good starts for minor quests (like investigating some little crime you've done yourself or just getting caught doing something bad and finding a way out of it). I just hope this game is going to be a real Quest for Infamy ;)
(and i noticed a minor bug while doing the sorcerer quest - i returned to the mage just with the beast's head, but when i climbed back out of the city with the glass to get the blood, the hero seemed kind of invisible, but i managed to get the blood alright, so no big deal;)
Good luck with the game, keep up the great work!
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Well - the size of town is a bit smaller in the demo than it is in the final version - and yes, interactions with some things in the game aren't there. Programming every conceivable thing one could do would take forever, but we do plan a good level of interactivity with your environment.
What you'll find about Quest For Infamy is that you're a man who's more interested in self-preservation that just wanton destruction. For instance, causing random mayhem - yeah, you could do it, but there's consequences to that in certain situations - especially in a town where there's a Sheriff just looking to make people's heads roll. You'll find the more infamous things you can do occur in the choices of your interactions with people - and the courses of action you choose in dealing with them.
Being infamous is less about just being a random jackass that just causes mayhem. You'll never get anywhere in life that way! Sure, you could do it - but you'd just end up in jail, and that's not where Roehm wants to be.
Heh, I will say, though, at points and places in the game - you could, if you were so inclined, randomly "punch" someone or something. That's what the attack icon is for.
And, of course, based on your choices and actions - you sure could play Roehm as a scumbag, or you could play him is a slick, clever and sly guy who's out to make himself some loot and a place in this world - even if it isn't by the most kosher means possible....
Thanks for grabbing the bug - I'll be sure to pass it along to Chuck, our lead programmer extraordinaire, and thanks for playing the demo! We've been working really hard on this for a while, and we're totally stoked to be able to show more to people.
Bt
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Thanks for the reply.
I'll be waiting for the full game then to see what interactions are going to be made possible.
I just thought that Roehm would be the kind of guy who does as he pleases and that it might be fun, if the decisions were left to the player in these little things (like "you've already stabbed the head once, you don't want do do it again" - well maybe i want to ;). Of course I'm not talking about doing things that would largely influence the story, or downright evil deeds. I'd just love to be able to do little things just for the fun of it. And exploring these options might be even more fun.
It's just a suggestion and I'm sure I'll love the game even without things like that. And maybe when the story continues, Roehm won't even think of doing stuff like that, when some real goal appears ;)
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Heh - trust me, I get ya. There are a lot of little things you can do for fun - we're all about the ancillary actions here. But I also did have to consider, as a designer, what kind of story or plot is there to a character who just runs amok, causing destruction? Not much - I mean, there's games like that, and it's fun for a while, but after the 30th time I stole a police car, got a bazooka and got the army and helicoptors to come after me in Grand Theft Auto, I decided I wanted to play the story!
Roehm is the kind of guy who does as he pleases - but what pleases him doesn't always get him into trouble or cause mayhem. It serves him - it gives him more comfort, safety, pleasure, power.... villains don't always think they're doing bad, and they have some kind of charisma to attract other people to want to be around them and serve them. Sure, you can buy lackeys if you're rich - but Roehm's not (at this point). He's a self made man, on an early path to what would surely be the good life.
So, yeah - you can break some stuff, attack some people - but there are repercussions to your actions. In the end, Roehm just wants to get out of a scrape with his neck intact, and maybe some more gold in his pocket than he previously had!
If you're looking for "little things" to do, try attacking the beast's body after you killed it and taken the head!
Bt
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wow, that's exactly what i was talking about. if you include some things like that here and there, i'll be completely happy. i wasn't asking for anything bigger than that. and even bad consequences for minor things like this would be fun - if only the shady guy knew i not only killed his pet... ;)
looking for jokes like this always makes me want to explore a game completely. i'm really getting excited about this. i backed via paypal and can't wait for the next demo and the full game!
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Hahah.. yeah, the game will be full of little things like that - hopefully it'll take people a while to find all of them.... we've got a few planned in there that we THINK will be harder to find, but they're really just fun little things to do. Who knows, though - the internets are full of crafty people who find EVERYTHING in games! Hahah.
I promise, you're going to love what we've got cooking. Seriously, we have a team full of crazy people who dream up some fun stuff to do in our game - in addition to all the plot and puzzle related elements!
Bt
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I liked it.
One thing I do wish- more skills to level up. That was always something fun to do in QFG.
Also, it might be nice if there was a quest log of tasks to do on hand, based on requests/jobs your character is assigned.
Finally, I hope the game lets you buy lots of stuff if you ever get to the point of having tons of excess money. (or at least applies it somewhere positively like the ending)
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Glad you liked it!
The full game does have a lot of skills to level up, and a lot of places to level them. I'm not sure whether we'll do a quest log or not, I don't know if we've even discussed it to be honest! And yes, there is plenty of stuff to buy both in Volksville and at other places in the valley.
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Awesome! Few last things.... it'd be nice if there were multiple romance options (like QFG 5) and some more fan service from some of the girls. (like Nawar/Sheema dancing or that jungle girl in the bikini in QFG3) Nawar was always the hardest to romance in that game, (not counting the thief-phobia of two other girls) so that made things interesting.
It'd be nice to have some secret bosses, like the "Pizza Elemental" in the QFG2 VGA remake. And hopefully there can be enough super-tough enemies so that even high-stat characters won't get too bored near end-game.
One other idea- 4 scoring systems. One for fighter points, thief points, mage points and general points. The final score for each may open certain unlockables for new games, encouraging more than one playthrough. (like magic unlock for pure mage characters) Also, it might encourage players to RP as one type during the game instead of a smorgsaboard like QFG always did. (unless you guys are going with one class option per game, which you might be or it may have just been a demo choice)
Finally, I have no idea how the game would end but, why not include an import life just in case a sequel is ever made? At the very least, even if the main character doesn't return, it could be someone trained by him or related to him who has lesser skills of his. No spoilers on the ending though, but if it's feasible just think about it.
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Yes, Roehm has some romantic options, but he's more interested in staying alive and progressing his own infamous goals.
I'm not sure about secret bosses, there are some bosses that aren't required to be killed to complete the game, and there's plenty of hard bosses with their own mechanics throughout the game.
Although your scoring idea has merit, we're not using a points system in QFI. Each sub-class is unique in itself and has it's own abilities to solve problems with.
I'll not comment on the end of the game! :)
~ Shawn
Keep in mind that although we're fans of the Quest for Glory series, Quest for Infamy has nothing to do with it besides a casual nod and general inspiration. The mechanics are all original works and we don't base everything we do through a "QFG filter."
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Ah I see, thanks for the info!
The one advantage to a scoring system that I'll miss (aside from that happy noise it makes when you accomplish something) is that it's a way of telling you there's a few extra things you can still do in the game.
Of course, scoring systems actually are annoying in cases like LSL2 where it's virtually impossible to get those final few points or have any idea what enables you to do so since the solutions are so obscure.
One more demo question- how do I get the gaming window to maximize. Unfortunately, I don't have an alt button on my keyboard so I can't use alt+enter.
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We have plans for a scoring system, it just won't be the same as traditional Sierra games. I really don't want to give anything away though, the more people know the less interesting the final product will be!!
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Also, one thing I REALLY liked was being able to break in Rayford's door to his house. Although the demo doesn't quite get into what makes him a bastard, it was fun to have the PC say "screw it" and just cut loose. Sure, the town guard busts him afterwards, but it's still fun even if just for a little bit.
A minor complaint, I really didn't like all the times he'd try to attack someone/something and the narrator would give an explanation about why he doesn't want to do it. Though, I can see where it might be a lot of trouble to include a death scene/dialogue for hitting 100+ people/buildings, it'd be nice to have more stuff to attack. (and maybe some fights are losable with lousy stats- I'm thinking of that beefy bodybuilder in the tavern)
Also, thanks for reigniting my interest in QFG, I'll be playing that to tide me over til the summer. :) Hope I'm not yapping too much, just posting my own personal wish list of things in a QFG-style evil game.
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Yap away! :)
I love your enthusiasm for the game and I really look forward to you playing the full version and telling us what you think of it!
In the full version, there will certainly be more things to attack and break than there are in the demo (as a spoiler I'll let you know that Mr Roehm isn't above petty vandalism either!) But consider that if someone came into your town and started fights with everyone and kicked in random doors, looted, pillaged etc. Wouldn't people just end up saying "Oh screw this dude, let's just get rid of him." Doesn't make for a great story to be honest. It's a hard line to draw.
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I'm still wondering if anyone has killed the blacksmith yet.
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HA! Not likely Jerm. You have to act fast to get that one.
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That one's the best. I did a good death scream for him.
Bt
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What?? You can kill the blacksmith?! Ok, you're yanking my chain...right? I'm assuming you guys are joking here...but of course you're going to make me go re-play it now and somehow try that. Thanks a lot.
::)
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BUGS
1. Can't scroll through multiple saved games, you have to delete older games to reach files below.
2. Speed seems to be inconsistent.... sometimes upping it works, and the guy moves like he's on drugs, other times it doesn't effect him, seems to be random.
3. Not a bug but, when you try to kill the blacksmith when he goes to Rayford it'd be nice if it auto-evented him without having to be super-close and coming in from the south.
Additionally, an option to auto-maximized the screen would be great, I've seen that on a few games.
I'm curious what happens if you try buying a drink with no money but, it'd be too insanely long to drink like 2000 beers.
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One thing though, props for making the game have 3 paths- it gives a lot more replay value. "Power gamers" like myself will always try to make an uber-god character, but this way you gotta play 3 times through to see the whole game.
As for the game, my guess is each path has a significantly different plotline, some of which may intersect a bit. I'm kind of curious about the mage one, simply because Prospero seems really interesting, but the thief one interests me. (even if the thieves seem like the wimpiest faction in the game thus far)
Another thing I'll add, hmm... careful not to make it too easy to grind up stats. QFG's biggest flaws are stuff like building up a tough boxer just by climbing trees and throwing 1000 rocks.
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I can't say anything specific, but I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to assure you that each class definitely has a number of unique plot elements associated with it. :)
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That's cool!
Believe me, if the game gave me the option I'd probably play as a magical thief-brigand tribrid, lol.
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The different sub-classes have unique quests but the overall quest / story-line of the game is the same for all three paths. Otherwise we'd just be making three games!
As for increasing stats, I don't want to give away too much but each stat is raised on a bell curve, the higher the stat the more work it will take to increase it.
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Another thing I'll add- I do hope there's a lot of houses and other stuff to rob. Obviously it won't be like Skyrim where you can rob anything in sight, but a good number.
My favorite robbery in QFG was always the bank in 5- not just cause you'd start the game loaded, but also because certain characters would make reference to it. You could even rob it twice, really driving the owner nuts, but then the bank would become so guarded afterwards that you could only break in by killing several guards, after which there'd always be an ambush inside the bank.
It seemed odd in QFG1 how you could rob the sheriff and some sweet little old lady and nobody would ever say anything about it, or suspect that the new guy in town had something to do with it. I like the idea of the world responding to your criminal actions.
Finally, I know we never get to see their boss and maybe he's some kind of smooth conman badass but I gotta admit, the thieves look the least interesting from what we've seen of them so far.
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The thieves get a lot more interesting.
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Quest for Infamy demo 2.0 feedback
I am thoroughly pleased with this game -- I didn't believe I could relive the Sierra experience until I fired this up. Phenomenal!
The game shamelessly borrows from Quest for Glory and King's Quest and other titles, yet it has an identity that is utterly it's own.
This is heads & shoulders above anything you've released as "Infamous Adventures", particularly pertaining to originality.
I didn't think there could be a totally fresh, purely Sierra-style game in the year of 2013 but you have proven me wrong.
I'm sure these things are easy to fix:
The slightest nuances and bugs, while seemingly minor, have a way of disrupting gameplay and breaking the illusion. The final product, in my opinion, should be as polished and professional as possible.
Please don't use the same jokes twice (for example, picnic). Please make sure the text always adheres perfectly to the speech -- we will immediately notice the inconsistencies.
Since the CD version of KQ5 was my first adventure game ever, I've become attached to the *speech-only* option. Having both speech and text feels redundant, and I'm sure you'll have the option for disabling the text boxes in the final release. I think you should have it set to speech only, no text as a default in the final version. Voices communicate a lot more by themselves, than do pixelated text boxes.
I hope you will implement stamina, food and "vigor" potions. Food should be necessary. Not being able to run forever, as well as dying because I never bothered to sleep/eat added to the realism in the QfG games. I hope you will program this perfectly without providing any crutches.
On the subject of crutches, make the combat harder! Make it so Roehm can constantly die in all kinds of unexpected, fabulous ways. I'd like some conversation options... if you say the wrong thing to the townspeople, they call the guards and you die. If you talk to the wrong guard after becoming a notorious high-ranking member of the Thieves' Guild, he finds out who you are and you die just like in Conquests of the Longbow.
Playing the "drinking game" should have consequences (such as a death box reading: you knocked up a barmaid and spent the rest of your life trying to support a child before your wife stabbed you to death). What if Roehm can become an alcoholic? He would win the drinking games and make lots of money, yet he would need a constant supply of booze. The options are limitless!
Make this less vanilla, and more hardcore... as much.as.possible.
This speaks of the state of modern gaming: I want to feel like I'm in a risky, dangerous game world where I have to be tight and on-point, and save constantly. Please, please, please don't make this game feel like a cakewalk. I want to struggle through it. I don't want to be able to beat this game in less than a week. I WANT this to have the same level of frustration I felt when playing Codename: ICEMAN without a hintbook.
Finally, don't be afraid to break some of the old-school rules and make this a brand new game unto itself. This is not Sierra, this is Infamous Quests. We DO have some modern technology and I really want you guys to blow people away and even revolutionize the game creation process with this Kickstarter endeavor. You are not creating Call of Duty 19, you are creating a brand new game with its integrity intact, and for this I am thankful. Please convince me to be add myself to the list of contributors!
P.S. the fact that "Ina" is so tantalizing shows how much promise Quest for Infamy really holds... ;D
just my 2 cents
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Thanks for your comments, we really appreciate hearing these things. We love adventure games and want to make this the best possible game we can. It's a passion for us, not just a business.
I must say that I don't think too many people will join you in wanting the same level of frustration as Codename Iceman! :)
To answer some of your points...
There will be an option to have text-only, speech-only or both in the final release. I don't think it will default to speech-only, but the option will be there on the control panel for you to select that. It's always a balance between what we like, what you like, and what most people like. The middle road is always the best option for defaults like that.
Yes there is food in the game. Yes, you will die if you don't eat for a length of time. Stamina, no. We're not implementing that. As I've said in other places, this is an adventure game first, and an RPG second. We don't want to overcome the adventure fans with too much RPG stuff, so it's a balancing act. There's a lot of ways to die in the full game though, and combat will certainly be more intense. Each sub-class has unique ways of dealing with combat, so there's a lot to master.
~ Shawn
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Codename: ICEMAN should die in a fire. Challenge in an adventure game is good, but being forced to beat a 100% random game 20ish times while not being able to save/reload properly is not challenge so much as it is outright sadism. And being forced to die to discover that certain puzzles even exist is not good design.
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7Legion77 -
Seriously, thank you so much for the praise, and taking time to write that! It means a lot, not only to me, but to everyone who's been working hard on this game.
I appreciate the amazingly constructive criticism, too - you offered advice without being rude, effusive or just being down right mean! This, on the internet these day, is a feat for which you should be commended!
Trust me - Roehm will be able to die is many fun and tantalizing ways. I enjoy writing deaths and having death scenarios for him to deal with. Save early and often is definitely a motto of mine.
As Shawn said - we don't have stamina as a traditional statistic, per say, but as noted, you'll die if you don't eat food or go without sleep for too long. And, yes, you'll not be able to run forever, as you're definitely not an Olympic Track star as the player character!!!
Sometimes the actors recorded speech varies from the written text, due to the nature of their performance, ad-libs, etc - but for the final version, we'll have someone testing that very aspect so we can correct any major text differences. One of my favorite parts, however, of QFG4 was the men in the Inn who you could talk to - their speech varied WILDLY and hilariously from the text, and I love the spontaneity of actors as well, so I'm looking for the best of both worlds.
We're hustling away on this, and every bit of praise and constructive criticism and advice always helps.
Thanks again.
Bt
PS - Yes, I think many people would love to give CODENAME: Iceman a kick in the pants. Our game won't be that hard - nor will it be a cakewalk. Plus - there are many different ways to solve problems and puzzles, and many different roads to completion in the game. You'd have to replay it to see all the goodies, for sure.
Bt
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I enjoy a good challenge. I know most people like being able to play through "kiddy" difficulty on Mass Effect if needed, but the more challenge the merrier!
Did he delete his post? What'd he even say? (I support multiple saved game options)
Oh well, make the game as hard as possible! The harder the better! :D
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Did he delete his post? What'd he even say?
No, it's one page back in this thread, on the bottom of the page. :)
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Haha, I was a little "oiled" when I wrote that last night. Code name: ICEMAN was an exaggeration... but don't you miss playing volleyball and swimming out to save a girl?
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Oh yeah! It's the sub-simulator and the card game that really rubbed my noodle in a bad way!
Bt
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Don't worry, Legion. Most of us working on this project are of the old school mindset when it comes to game difficulty, death possibilities, puzzle possibilities, etc. I think you'll be happy when you finally see what we've got up our sleeves. ;)
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I finished playing through the demo 2.0 it looks amazing. I am so glad you guys are making this game. Thank you . I learned to read playing kings quest 1. I love all the old sierra games, and they are sorely missed in the gaming world today. i believe that you all are worthy successors to sierra thank you so much for keeping this style of game alive.
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Thanks, man! We're trying!
Bt
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I think the game looks good but my biggest concern is the attack system. Needs a little more epic. :D
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Yeah - the attack system has already gone through several more revisions since we did Demo 2.0 - we put that engine in there many, many months ago - and kept developing the full game version. It's quite impressive now, what with each classes special features and such.
Bt
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Backers can see some screen shots of the final combat system in the backers forums.
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Cool!
One more thing, I hope you guys implement a points system to the game. There's a good reason why Mario has fun sound effects for one-ups, power-ups and coins, similar to the sound effect casino machines make when spinning or paying out.
Aside from that, it adds replay value and a "gotta catch em all" mentality to playing through. The nice little jingle when you solve a complicated puzzle also lets you know you're achieving something and getting along further in the game.
Also, according to one old interview, it helps game designers come up with puzzles, trying to figure out how to find more things to do to get points and make it through a puzzle.
One last tip- play games that are incredible that you want to be inspired by! "The Witcher" team was started by a foreign team that did the translation work for Planescape: Torment, and now they're on the cover of Game Informer. I'd imagine playing some oldschool Sierra and maybe Lucasarts for that, heh.
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One last tip- play games that are incredible that you want to be inspired by! "The Witcher" team was started by a foreign team that did the translation work for Planescape: Torment, and now they're on the cover of Game Informer. I'd imagine playing some oldschool Sierra and maybe Lucasarts for that, heh.
I think you'd be hard pushed to find anyone working here who hasn't played almost every Sierra and Lucasarts adventure game already! In all seriousness, though, we strongly advocate playing influencial and interesting games, not only in this genre, but any and all...you never know where your inspiration is going to come from, and it certainly doesn't happen in a vacuum!
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Backers can see some screen shots of the final combat system in the backers forums.
Anything else in there? ;)
One more thing I'll add- I think the best option for combat is a combat difficulty slider. Games like QFG2 VGA and Mass Effect have them. It lets people up the difficulty for a good challenge (or if combat gets boring), or lower it if they're just trying to learn their way through. (or are "just playing for the story") That way, everyone gets what they want, whether it's a total newb or a challenge-junkie.
Might be fun if there were some New Game + rewards for accomplishments like winning the game without lowering the combat difficulty. ;D
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Backers can see some screen shots of the final combat system in the backers forums.
Anything else in there? ;)
We've been swore to secrecy, so if I did tell you what has been released from the Cave of Wonders, then I will get dragged off to the secret dungeon.
On my own notes, there is only one thing I want to add at this point (since I am only half way through testing it myself), I hope there are more funny death moments. When I was in the pharmacy and the narrator was saying "You really don't want to touch that", all I could think was "OK, create a save file here, and lets see how I die", but no funny death happened :(
But I know that this is only the demo, and we will see many funny deaths in the game itself. You only have to look at the "trying to pick up the fishing pole" part for one such example
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Don't forget the hidden "death by dehydration." ;)
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Backers can see some screen shots of the final combat system in the backers forums.
Anything else in there? ;)
We've been swore to secrecy, so if I did tell you what has been released from the Cave of Wonders, then I will get dragged off to the secret dungeon.
On my own notes, there is only one thing I want to add at this point (since I am only half way through testing it myself), I hope there are more funny death moments. When I was in the pharmacy and the narrator was saying "You really don't want to touch that", all I could think was "OK, create a save file here, and lets see how I die", but no funny death happened :(
But I know that this is only the demo, and we will see many funny deaths in the game itself. You only have to look at the "trying to pick up the fishing pole" part for one such example
That is EXACTLY what I did...saved my game and tried to get into trouble anywhere I could, like in Prospero's, the apothecary, the bar (picking fights anyone?), and even the general store. I'm hoping for more opportunities for funny death scenes too. (I do like, for example, where he reaches for the fishing pole and they tell you the story about how, although you're not stupid enough to drown, you are dumb enough to get hypothermia...) ;)
I also agree with Bad2DaBone (but I can't remember how to put more than one person's quoted post in mine) that an option for "Easy" or "Difficult" mode in combat would be really awesome. Epecially for someone like myself who plays these type of adventure games for the "adventure" part and not the action...
Sarah Rupert :)
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Heh, yes - trust me - there are PLENTY of places to get into trouble... I enjoy writing the death messages, heh.
And as for Battle Difficulty - yes, in the final version we'll have settings for easy, medium and hard difficulty with arcade/battle sequences.
I know I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again - we're not going with a traditional point system, rather we're going with an achievements system and an "Infamy" rating at the end of the game. Different events and paths you choose will affect this.
Bt
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In the latest "Hero-U: Rogue To Redemption" Kickstarter Project Update #35, Corey Cole says that Lori solved the problem of Adventure game or RPG game by implementing a slider for their game...
Lori came up with a new solution to the "Is it an adventure game, or is it an RPG?" question. Instead of having a difficulty slider (or possibly in addition), we will have a game style slider. You will be able to select "Puzzles only, no combats", "Traditional RPG with random encounters and emphasis on combat", or "Mixed adventure and RPG". We may add a few settings such as "RPG Challenge Mode".
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That's going to be a lot of work, in my opinion.
That's literally programming each puzzle point with at least three unique solutions.
I look forward to seeing that in action!
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I agree. Eliminating (or minimising) the random encounters, in regards to combat, should be fairly trivial. Beyond that, complexity progresses arithemetically, and for puzzles in which hysteresis is respected, geometrically! Also, the test matrix for QA is increased accordingly.
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Yeah, implementing and programming that kind of options for difficulty would definitely be a challenge. For battle, I'd say it would be a matter of adjusting stats for the enemy characters vs. you (ie their Hit Points, strength of attacks, etc.) but it's all how a programmer does it. Heh, it's easy to describe something as a "slider" but to make it function is a whole other ball game! Sierra games sometimes had "Sliders" for difficulty, but they really only picked from 2-3 settings. The slider just looked pretty.
Bt
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I really enjoyed demo 2. I didn't play the first demo, so it was all new to me. I got all 3 endings and I'm looking forward to the full game.
I made a video of some of the demo 2 glitches. I'm sure you know about and have fixed most/all of these for the full game already but it's fun to have a video record.
- Stuck after climbing tree glitch (I see this one has its own thread)
- Levitation near town wall glitch (if you walk to the west instead of south then something odd happens)
- Gate glitch (if the gate is closed and you walk through it instead of climbing then you go to the next screen but you can't move. If you try to climb the gate then you magically appear from no where.)
- Blacksmith position glitch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG56E-x3loI# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG56E-x3loI#)
One of the town locals collided with Roehm during one of my games and they were just doing their walking animation on the spot but I haven't been able to recreate it and I wasn't recording video at the time.
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Yeah, implementing and programming that kind of options for difficulty would definitely be a challenge. For battle, I'd say it would be a matter of adjusting stats for the enemy characters vs. you (ie their Hit Points, strength of attacks, etc.) but it's all how a programmer does it. Heh, it's easy to describe something as a "slider" but to make it function is a whole other ball game! Sierra games sometimes had "Sliders" for difficulty, but they really only picked from 2-3 settings. The slider just looked pretty.
Bt
....
Really?
Huh.... I never knew that!
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Sektor - thanks for the video of the bugs! That really does help!
I think when we come to beta testing, we're going to have some good hands on deck!
@Bad - heh, yeah, programming is quite a tricky thing. It's not like magic where you just wish things to happen. It's all a bunch of annoying numbers, math and equations.
Bt
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Sierra games sometimes had "Sliders" for difficulty, but they really only picked from 2-3 settings. The slider just looked pretty.
Really?
Huh.... I never knew that!
Well, yeah. Then, you have a couple of options on implementing what pops out of the actual slider. One (which I would suggest) would be to pre-set each of the notches based on testing and gameplay balance. Perhaps from zero to ten, you increase the multiplier for random combat encounters by one per two notches, perhaps an enemy stat increases by 2% per notch (for a total of 20%), and a few other things happen at key points in the scale.
The other option would be some kind of diabolical polynomial built to smoothly scale all the relevant factors positively or negatively (does anybody actually do that?!).
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I think Oblivion did. Giant demons could be slain like rats and regular guys could take hits like a tank on lowest or highest.
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Well, yes, but that could have been a single attribute ("enemy hit damage"). I wonder if any game actually constructed a complex polynomial across multiple terms to smoothly scale loads of factors (smoothly as in differentiable and continuous multivariate functions).
Certainly lots of games have difficulty sliders, B2DB :)
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"I wonder if any game actually constructed a complex polynomial across multiple terms to smoothly scale loads of factors (smoothly as in differentiable and continuous multivariate functions)."
Can you say that in English? :-\
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Can you say that in English? :-\
Um. Probably not. I'll shut up now... sorry :-(
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I noticed the text uses a**hole and a***hole spellings. For consistency, I'd only use one spelling although I guess it depends how the voice actor says it :)
I usually run every where but when going across the stones on the river, it changes to walk, so I have to select run again. It might be better to restore previous setting.
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"I wonder if any game actually constructed a complex polynomial across multiple terms to smoothly scale loads of factors (smoothly as in differentiable and continuous multivariate functions)."
Can you say that in English? :-\
In other words, weaving a variable or two into the entire game's code so that changing the number to increase or decrease the difficulty changes the way the game works in many respects, preferably in a smooth way so that even subtle changes will cause small effects.
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"I wonder if any game actually constructed a complex polynomial across multiple terms to smoothly scale loads of factors (smoothly as in differentiable and continuous multivariate functions)."
Can you say that in English? :-\
Not speak for S_D, but there are a lot of different factors ("variables") when designing such a complex game like QFI, especially for the fight sequences...
While I have never programmed a computer game, I have dabbled in programming and can imagine the following scenario for a generic video game:
(A) What is the chance of a fight sequence occurring while you explore the countryside? = range of 0.00 "never" to 1.00 "certainty", which depends upon how stealthy the player is, if they are fatigued or healthy enough to avoid confrontations to begin with, and how prevalent monsters are in that area
(B) What type of monster encounter will it be? = a random number, based on whether or not is it nighttime or daytime and the likelihood of that type of monster being in that particular area (Goblins are 35% of all monsters in the forests, while Griffins are only 3-5% near the mountains)
(C) What are its stats? Single or a group of monsters? What kind of loot/valuables? = a multiple of established base values for that particular monster type, randomly 0.75× to 1.50× for each stat value; a random value for the number of monsters attacking; and a random value for the loot each one would carry
(D) How aggressive is the monster? = a value based on monster type, time of day, and the monster's stats
(E) What are the odds the player can "run away" from the fight? = A percentage based on the player's stats and the monster's stats
and so on...
All of these numbers are added/multiplied together in a formula to result in a single random monster fight occurring.
As S_D said, while it's possible to tweak the numbers with a slider to make the fights easier or more difficult, that might not make the game enjoyable because the resulting gameplay is imbalanced -- and for each "notch" position of the slider, that's a whole other game that needs to be evaluated. One setting = one game; ten settings = ten different games
Coming up with complex formulas that allow the player to make it easier/harder for ALL gaming experiences (not just fights) would be extremely difficult to devise and quite involved.
As I said, I've never programmed a game, so the experts here might say that what I've written here is WAY off base... ???
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It's kind of like this.
(http://walyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/12-Surface-IQ-Pentagon.jpg)
There is no "slider" that can solve this. There are many different aspects and permutations.
Bt
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By the way, solving that rubix cube is required in order to beat the full game. Whoops, spoilers!! ;)
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Wow, you guys, thanks! It can be explained in plain English, after all! I'm just a shitty communicator. Feels pretty good for a bunch of smart folks to "have my back" and thoroughly explain what I couldn't... what, in my mind, was a set of formulae. How does one explain formulae?
S.D. begins shuddering violently at the memory of physics classes at University...
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By the way, solving that rubix cube is required in order to beat the full game. Whoops, spoilers!! ;)
Rubix dodecahedron, actually ;)
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How about a Rubix tesseract?
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How about a Rubix tesseract?
Haha, I love that!
Bt
http://youtu.be/5xN4DxdiFrs (http://youtu.be/5xN4DxdiFrs)
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Am blown away by demo2.0 the game world is taking shape nicely and I look forward to exploring it. Just have a few small things that I picked up below, but am really impressed at the level of polish for a demo
Combat system seemed very luck based, I got killed by the beast one time and the next time did exactly the same moves and killed him without my health being lowered at all. A swing of 32 healh points seemed like a bit too much luck was involved. I know this was not the final battle engine, just thought I would provide the feedback in case it helps.
I think the conversations scripts are very well written but an edit over the hotspot text could be good. For example when I try to click on the door of the house it says you are too politie to knock on the door, but doesn't mention that it is locked or anything else.
Many things I try and click on give a generic response while some of them are details in the picture that do need their own reason as to why you cannot interact with it.
Kurdt sprite doesn't look at all like a tough guy when you see him sitting in the pub (as opposed to his close up pic), I wonder if a slight enhancement could be made to his arms to show that he is clearly a big guy.
Rayford comes up as a discussion topic in conversation thread with the barmaid even though at that stage I don't know who he is.
Ian is not ugly enough! He mentions a few times that he is unattractive so he needs to be grossed up a bit more!!
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Heh. The joke's about Ian being ugly are a joke - because he's a pretty boy!
Bt
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Here's a great little write-up of the second demo that I just stumbled across. We ought to send a thank you to this guy.
http://indiestatik.com/2013/02/12/quest-for-infamy-demo-2-0-provides-more-hilarity-to-explore/ (http://indiestatik.com/2013/02/12/quest-for-infamy-demo-2-0-provides-more-hilarity-to-explore/)
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Ahh ok, my mistake. Is the joke that he is a pretty boy who can't see it, or are his jibes about his appearance him being sarcastic?
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His jibes are sarcastic! Listen to the guy! He's dripping with sarcasm and the slippery wiles of a thief!
Bt
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I did get his slippery responses but didn't pick up the sarcasm on that one. Then again I think sometimes sarc is harder to detect with an english accent. I think you have done a great job of making Kurdt, Prospero and Ian all very interesting however! Character development is clearly a strength!
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Ian makes me cringe, I can't stand him. But that's GOOD right? The slippery little whyioughta. And the blacksmith is another bellsniff.
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When the narrator complains he's "a squirrely looking fellow" that makes the audience inclined to think that Ian's ugly.
I though that too when I spoke to him. His personality (annoying, weasely and cowardly) doesn't help much for him either, though maybe there's more to him than meets the demo.
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http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=squirrely (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=squirrely)
It doesn't mean he looks as ugly/cute as a squirrel, it just means he moves about like one and acts a bit crazy, like he's had too much coffee.
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Exactamundo, friends. Ian's a hustler; running a shady dice game, darting from here to there, avoiding Rayford... he's shifty. Heh. Seriously, not too much to read into. He's making ugly jokes about himself as a joke.
Bt
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As an American I can say that squirrely is more associated with being rodent-like. (from my perspective)
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I'm American, and I always took squirrely to mean wily, crafty, clever - the squirrel darts from here to there, taking items to store for later - quick.... yeah, rodent like to a degree, but not in looks - more in attitude.
Bt
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I have always heard it used to refer to something that was not quite right or behaving unpredictably.
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I have always heard it used to refer to something that was not quite right or behaving unpredictably.
This. Very well said. That is exactly how I understand it.
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Loved the Demo, still playing it to find eggs. Also trying to figure out what happened to the horse.
did notice a small bug with the blacksmith similar to the other one mentioned before, though this one self fixes.
if you move off the screen as the blacksmith is starting to wander over to the fire when you return he is over around the fire hammering away instead of at the anvil like he should be for the animation. After a while though he goes back to the fire, skipping the walking bit and then everything goes back to normal. Well normal for that town anyway.