Hey guys!

I'm incredibly excited to have a working demo for my game, WAKE: Evolution through Extinction. It is a sci-fi hidden object and puzzle game with a big focus on workable puzzles and an interesting story.

It can be viewed here in the Sci-Fi section of published games.
http://www.textadventures.co.uk/review/1088/

What I'm hoping for:
So my reason for making a demo is because this game will be enormous when fully-complete. My goal, by making this demo available, is to gather advice on the direction and design and how I have implemented things.

-Is the game fun so far?
-Is the story/dialogue interesting so far?
-Is the pacing okay for the introduction and demo puzzles?
-Really anything you want to comment on is very much appreciated.

So I am really looking to see what works for you and what doesn't work. That way, I know what the strong points and the weak points are. If you have ideas for the direction and game-play, I'm more than happy to take them into consideration.

Let me know what you think. Thanks, everyone!


P.S. SPOLIER! - Quick walkthrough of necessary things to progress through the demo. I recommend only using it if you get stuck on anything.

1. In the Hyper-stasis Room, you must talk to Duffy twice to continue to the next part.
2. In the Medical Station, you must "Ask Duffy about Key" (or similar keyword) to get the Alien Supply Crate key.
3. With the key, you must open the crate, which unlocks the exit
4. Rummage through the time capsule and collect the cell phone
5. Proceed ahead to the massive skeleton
6. Search the three available locations for bone fragments. Three are obvious, and listed in the objects/rooms list when you enter the areas. Two are mildly hidden, behind debris or in the tank.
7. Choose to complete the skeleton with all 5 bone fragments in your inventory.
8. Ahead is a courtyard with a generator and solar panels. You will need to enter the thift store though, and open the safe. The safe requires a 6 digit combo. To find the combo, look at the hint behind the painting. It mentions, "weighing your options" and "location, location, location". There is a scale in the pawn shop which will offer you the first three digits. The second 3 digits are a single repeating number, which is hinted by the street sign's name outside the thrift store.
9. Go to the solar panels and clean them off
10. Use the mirror on the solar panels to charge the generator
11. Inspect the generator to notice the severed wires
12. Use the metal pole found inside the tank to complete the circuit
13. Go to the door keypad which is operational now, and type in the 10 digit code, which is found on the dog tags recovered from the tank

EDIT: Part 3

14. Proceed north once inside the military complex
15. Enter the first door on the right
16. Approach the closed locker and note that the description describes it as fragile
17. Type "Kick Locker" to break it open
18. Collect Gieger counter and Hasmat suit
19. Exit this room and return to the main lobby
20. Proceed east to the auditorium
21. "Look" at the stage
22. Take the lead canister that appears
23. Due to a bug with some sort of update, the verbs "open cap" and "close cap" are not appearing for the lead canister. Type "open cap lead canister" to bypass this and open the canister
24. Use the Gieger counter on it in the presence of the keypad-locked door.

I will update the rest asap.

I just started playing the game, and it is wonderful currently.

The only things I found out:

-Is there a turnscript/timer in the first room?

Effects of long-term hyper stasis are currently unknown.

-I think you should post this in the game announcements section
-A grammatical mistake:

I notice a book or journal at the skeleton's feet.
When you seem to get your bearings
Who knows what things I might remember after I figure out where I am.

-You can't read the journal, but when you look at it you read it.
-Why can't I take the journal? It seems important.

-Grrr..hate the conversation. People are going to just click through.
-Perhaps show room description after conversation?

-The four tools in the crate should have no bulk, or that room should be visitable as much as possible. Because they seem important.

-The CD should be takeable. I want to hear some music from the MP3 player.
-This message is frustrating:

You reach down to take it, but have second thoughts. This wouldn't be useful, and it would just weigh you down. 

I want to try fixing the watch, seeing the drawings and playing the music!

> call duffy
I don't understand your command.

-Perhaps a more intresting reply, like "If only he had a cell phone."

> open hatch tank
After all these years, the vehicle has acted like a pressure cooker, destroying most of the items inside. But you see various objects inside the tank's crew compartment that might be useful.

> open hatch
I can't see that.

-Self-explanatory

> complete skeleton massive skeleton
That's it! You have the bone fragments.

- Why not 'use bone', 'put bone on skeleton' and others along with that?
-You can open the safe before unlocking it, but there will be no mirror..

This is just a bit of bugs, but I believe future posters will touch up on that. There is a case of Guess-The-Verb, but the HUD helped with that. The puzzles were very good, and I think this has the potential to be a great game.

Thanks a lot, sonic! Very good points. I will expand on the typed commands much more here, since I focused so heavily on HUD commands rather than typed commands.

I will certainly try to flesh out the various possible commands to have fun responses to them too! Who knows, maybe I will give Duffy a phone too

I have an example of "funny" possibilities though that I threw in, like trying to use the metal pole on the solar panels, and then trying it a second time. I need to inject a lot more humor though into the sillier possibilities, so that the game is serious if people want it to be, and then funny when they try to be funny themselves.

I will also flesh out the possibilities for some of the items. I think making things like the watch more interactive, and adding pictures and things for items like the drawings, are something I certainly can/and will expand on as the project grows. Good tip.

If the conversations are annoying, would you have any other suggestions about conveying the story? Making the conversations almost purely optional? Or introducing all comments at one time, rather than a few comments per page? Or is the story too prominent in general?

Thanks again!

I think the conversation should have atleast 7-11 lines, so players won't just click through and it won't be much of a text dump. Or making it more interactive. If it was my game, I would put a 'skip converation' button and warn players in the intro that doing that will make you (potentially) lose important items/knowledge. Or even highlight the main points in the skip conversation.

How about if I made the vast majority of dialogue optional, but, at the beginning of the game, I made it clear (like you were saying), that ignoring the dialogue will cause you to miss out on fleshing of the story and characterization.

That way, the people who are not really fans of story in a game, or that want the story only when they want it, can get it at their leisure.

I want to avoid a text dump as best as possible.

Also, how do I re-post a room's description along with hyperlinks after each string of conversation? I want to clear the screen during a conversation, but I'd like to get that description back when the conversation is over. Any ideas?

It seems erroneous to me that someone who dislikes story in their games would be playing interactive fiction though. Just my two cents.

sgrieg, are you saying that with the way I present the story in mind? Or are you saying that more simply as a general comment about text adventures?
I'm leaning towards the latter, but just wanting to make sure.

Because my main concern is whether or not I am presenting the story in a familiar and powerful way, rather than, am I presenting it in a clunky and annoying manner.

I meant in general, as I haven't had time to play your game yet what with my trying to finish up Zombie Death Gauntlet. But I finished that this morning, so I will be taking a look at your game later tonight.

Oh, thanks! I appreciate you taking the time and any feedback you might have.

Just as SG said, nobody plays interactive fiction if they detest story. They would play the Atari games (Pacman, Tetris, Space Invaders). There are games without puzzle, but not many games without story.

Anyway, I never understood why there's a mirror in a pawn shop. I can see how glass works, but not a mirror. (Unlesqs it was doated I. Diamond and gold).

Well, I could make the mirror fancy. Something that the owner took from the shop and threw in the safe, along with the other things. And since the safe was cleaned out, this was the only thing that they decided to leave behind in there.

Also, would you guys suggest that I publish this as a demo? Or should I post this thread in the announcement forums? I'm looking for multiple views before making huge changes. Although - I am curious sonic, if you thing I would solve your concerns about the dialogue by making more of it optional, and less of it required to go through to the next puzzle etc.?

What are your thoughts in that regard?

You could publish is as unlisted (for a private demo) or public (for a public demo) in textadventures.co.uk. Maybe even the IFArchive, if you know about it, and ask a mod to move this thread to the Announcements thread.

I would also like to see a few red herrings, but not much. The safe could have a gold coin, the tank have an unloaded gun which you can never load, etc.

It's an IF guideline to read everything, so it sort-of-won't-matter. I would put some bits of talk, a spice of backstory, that little pinch of humor (unless your story is serious) and (you guessed it) a tablespoon of info to keep the reader reading.

I would also make the dialogues repeatable (and perhaps even tweak it the second time) and its info clued somewhere in the out-dialouge world. (Because some just skim.)

Oh, that solar generator puzzle is wonderful too. I advice you have sunlight scenery there and describe it. And that "weighing your options" is slightly misleading. I put my inventory items in the scale. (Why not make an item show its bulk when you keep it on the scale?)

Thanks, Sonic. I will be doing that!

Excellent game, sir. Lots of fun.

Please update the walkthrough, because I'm stuck in part 3. Thanks!

Hi Alien! I'm glad you enjoy the demo. I will do that asap.

Asyranok wrote:Hey guys!

I'm incredibly excited to have a working demo for my game, WAKE: Evolution through Extinction. It is a sci-fi hidden object and puzzle game with a big focus on workable puzzles and an interesting story.

It can be viewed here in the Sci-Fi section of published games.
http://www.textadventures.co.uk/review/1088/

What I'm hoping for:
So my reason for making a demo is because this game will be enormous when fully-complete. My goal, by making this demo available, is to gather advice on the direction and design and how I have implemented things.

-Is the game fun so far?
-Is the story/dialogue interesting so far?
-Is the pacing okay for the introduction and demo puzzles?
-Really anything you want to comment on is very much appreciated.

So I am really looking to see what works for you and what doesn't work. That way, I know what the strong points and the weak points are. If you have ideas for the direction and game-play, I'm more than happy to take them into consideration.

Let me know what you think. Thanks, everyone!


P.S. SPOLIER! - Quick walkthrough of necessary things to progress through the demo. I recommend only using it if you get stuck on anything.

1. In the Hyper-stasis Room, you must talk to Duffy twice to continue to the next part.
2. In the Medical Station, you must "Ask Duffy about Key" (or similar keyword) to get the Alien Supply Crate key.
3. With the key, you must open the crate, which unlocks the exit
4. Rummage through the time capsule and collect the cell phone
5. Proceed ahead to the massive skeleton
6. Search the three available locations for bone fragments. Three are obvious, and listed in the objects/rooms list when you enter the areas. Two are mildly hidden, behind debris or in the tank.
7. Choose to complete the skeleton with all 5 bone fragments in your inventory.
8. Ahead is a courtyard with a generator and solar kits. You will need to enter the thift store though, and open the safe. The safe requires a 6 digit combo. To find the combo, look at the hint behind the painting. It mentions, "weighing your options" and "location, location, location". There is a scale in the pawn shop which will offer you the first three digits. The second 3 digits are a single repeating number, which is hinted by the street sign's name outside the thrift store.
9. Go to the solar panels and clean them off
10. Use the mirror on the solar panels to charge the generator
11. Inspect the generator to notice the severed wires
12. Use the metal pole found inside the tank to complete the circuit
13. Go to the door keypad which is operational now, and type in the 10 digit code, which is found on the dog tags recovered from the tank

EDIT: Part 3

14. Proceed north once inside the military complex
15. Enter the first door on the right
16. Approach the closed locker and note that the description describes it as fragile
17. Type "Kick Locker" to break it open
18. Collect Gieger counter and Hasmat suit
19. Exit this room and return to the main lobby
20. Proceed east to the auditorium
21. "Look" at the stage
22. Take the lead canister that appears
23. Due to a bug with some sort of update, the verbs "open cap" and "close cap" are not appearing for the lead canister. Type "open cap lead canister" to bypass this and open the canister
24. Use the Gieger counter on it in the presence of the keypad-locked door.

I will update the rest asap.

Seems like very exciting game.. Were you able to complete it? Please share demo.. i am very excited about it.