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Title: Phenomenon 32 Post by: Jonas Kyratzes on May 19, 2010, 07:17:35 AM So, after more than a year of work, the game I originally started making for the TIGSource Cockpit Competition has been finished.
I'll repost the plot summary from my website, because I have run out of good ways of rephrasing it: Quote Phenomenon 32 is a free 2D exploration/platforming game with RPG elements. BACKGROUND In an alternate 1940s, scientists discover an extremely powerful and dangerous new area of physics, code-named Phenomenon 32. Years before it can be fully understood, the United States government uses it to create the ultimate weapon: the Reality Bomb, whose blast not only destroys matter, but shatters reality itself. By the 1950s, the Great Depression has reached an unimaginable low. With the threat of revolution and pressure from the multinationals on the inside, and the aggressive policies of Stalinist Russia on the outside, the government sees only one way of revitalizing the economy: war. Within less than a day, the Earth is gone. The Reality Bomb has done its work. Twenty years later, a small population of humans is still alive on the moon. Previously dismissed and laughed about as a waste of money, the Moon Colony is now humanity’s last shelter from the insanity of war. But the Moon Colony was never meant to be completely self-sufficient, and now resources are finally running out. There is only one place to get more. In a special ship designed to withstand the dangerous environments of Earth, you are sent to explore our former planet, to gather information for research, and to find all the materials needed for the Moon Colony to survive. But Earth is no longer the Earth we knew. Things have shifted; out from the cracks in reality, dangerous creatures have appeared. Radiation from Soviet bombs is widely spread; and in some places, reality itself is so fractured that not even your ship’s shields can protect you. Phenomenon 32 has turned the Earth into something… unknown. The game is free, runs on Windows, and can be downloaded either from my website (http://www.phenomenon32.com) or from GameJolt (http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/platformer/phenomenon-32/2370/). I hope you enjoy it! Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: Zaratustra on May 20, 2010, 10:59:14 PM nice but oh god it crashes so much :(
stuck at 20/30 completed areas Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: Jonas Kyratzes on May 21, 2010, 05:51:19 AM nice but oh god it crashes so much :( stuck at 20/30 completed areas That sucks. Have you tried installing the game outside of Program Files? On some systems that helps. Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: muku on May 21, 2010, 07:22:47 AM It's great to see that you managed to finish this after all this time. I'll be sure to give it a try, I'm really interested to see what you did with this. The download is huuuuge... will get back to this once things let up a bit...
Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: Corsair on May 25, 2010, 07:05:05 PM I started playing this game last night, and it kept me up till it was light out. I really enjoy the atmosphere of the game, and the voice acting in between missions is great (I really like how the little incidental logs break up the time I spend gathering resources.) The game as a whole feels like a surrealist take on STALKER, especially the ambient sound (particularly in the Underground Bunker).
The controls are definitely a problem - My hand is on the left side of the keyboard most of the time, so I have to reach over to use M or B. Moving these functions to Z and X would make things much easier. It's also difficult to remember which weapons are mapped to which number keys. It might be easier if the top status bar displayed icons for the weapons you have, along with their numbers. The resource system is very well done. At first I was confused about Octium looking like spikes, but I figured it out quickly enough. I really like how you have small respawning resources mixed with larger one-shot deposits - that makes exploring an area for the first time very rewarding, but means you can still "farm" an area for more stuff. The game is definitely very difficult (I HATE those stupid mosquito things in the Valley and Marsh :apoplectic:), but since you can upgrade your ship to make things easier, I think the difficulty is appropriate so far. The difficulty makes getting past each area very rewarding, and makes the post-apocalyptic atmosphere that much more compelling. I'm currently stuck at something like 24 explored areas - odd, because I have more like 15 areas displayed on my map. I'm pretty sure I've been found all the exits for the areas on my map - I'm hoping that I'm not being held back by a bug or something. Can I do anything with the (sorta spoiler)big tentacle thingie in the abandoned lab? Maybe if there was an upgrade to add a function on the map to see if you had found all the exits, data discs, etc. on a level, it would make things a bit less frustrating. Phenomenon 32 has already given me lots of inspiration for my own games (particularly the surreal art style - out of curiosity, what made you choose a greyscale color scheme?), and it's likely to keep me occupied for quite a while. I hope to see more games like this from you in the future! EDIT: Oh, right clicking moves the map! That's a piece of information I wish I hadn't missed... Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: Jonas Kyratzes on May 27, 2010, 08:32:51 AM The controls are definitely a problem - My hand is on the left side of the keyboard most of the time, so I have to reach over to use M or B. Moving these functions to Z and X would make things much easier. It's also difficult to remember which weapons are mapped to which number keys. It might be easier if the top status bar displayed icons for the weapons you have, along with their numbers. I've just released a patch that adds more traditional controls. Having only the shift/space/M controls was a silly mistake. Quote The game is definitely very difficult (I HATE those stupid mosquito things in the Valley and Marsh :apoplectic:), but since you can upgrade your ship to make things easier, I think the difficulty is appropriate so far. The difficulty makes getting past each area very rewarding, and makes the post-apocalyptic atmosphere that much more compelling. I'm glad you feel that way - and yeah, I hate those mosquito things too. They were designed to be hated. Just like real mosquitoes, which are clearly evidence that there is either a Devil or a God with a really bad sense of humour. (What exactly is the evolutionary purpose of buzzing next to my ear at six in the morning? Huh? I hate those bloody creatures.) Quote out of curiosity, what made you choose a greyscale color scheme? It was absolutely essential to me in order to create the feeling of a really alien place. (The inspiration for this was Metroid II.) Quote EDIT: Oh, right clicking moves the map! That's a piece of information I wish I hadn't missed... I am such an idiot sometimes. I really need to put that in the manual. Sometimes when you're making a game, you spend so much time playing it that some things start feeling self-evident, even when they're not.Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: C.A. Silbereisen on May 27, 2010, 10:05:50 AM Just stoppin' by to say I'm really enjoying this. I like how it's pretty atmospheric, but derives most of its atmosphere from the voice acting as opposed to the graphics. It almost feels like playing a text adventure in that sense.
Also, is there a way to run it windowed? Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: John Nesky on May 27, 2010, 10:32:00 AM I also really enjoy this so far. (And Metroid II!) I also missed the right-click feature for a long time.
I end up spending a lot of time with just 1 ship integrity point. Some part of my brain would rather retry when I make a mistake than spend resources to pretend I didn't make a mistake, so I try to get a perfect on levels and retry when I get hit. Similarly, I kept trying to get past hard sections without using stealth because stealth felt like cheating to me. After reading some comments from other people I realized that stealth was supposed to be used to get past certain sections. Another thing I didn't figure out until reading comments was the exit in the top left of the marsh area near the middle of the map. I *found* the exit on my own, but I figured it didn't count as different from the entrance since it was on the same side of the level, so I collected the resources and then wandered somewhere else instead of going off the screen to exit. Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: Jonas Kyratzes on May 27, 2010, 12:33:12 PM Also, is there a way to run it windowed? No, sorry. I didn't realize people would want that, and I'm not sure Construct supports switching between windowed and fullscreen mode. (Maybe I will check that out.) Another thing I didn't figure out until reading comments was the exit in the top left of the marsh area near the middle of the map. I *found* the exit on my own, but I figured it didn't count as different from the entrance since it was on the same side of the level, so I collected the resources and then wandered somewhere else instead of going off the screen to exit. You're right, that is a little confusing. I wish there was some way of marking the various exits a bit more clearly - too late now, I guess. Glad you guys are having fun, though! Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: deathtotheweird on May 27, 2010, 03:28:19 PM Sure it does. Make a new keypress event and for the action go to System and then under Display is Set Full Screen. Which you can enable or disable.
Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: Jonas Kyratzes on May 28, 2010, 02:05:59 AM Sure it does. Make a new keypress event and for the action go to System and then under Display is Set Full Screen. Which you can enable or disable. Ah. Indeed. Either I missed that, or I had stability issues with it at some point in the far past and dismissed it. Either way, it's something to keep in mind for the next patch. Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: Jonas Kyratzes on August 23, 2010, 06:28:45 AM For those who played/finished the game: the bloopers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C7YebxCJms)! (Caution: spoilers and silliness.)
Title: Re: Phenomenon 32 Post by: John Nesky on August 23, 2010, 08:49:05 PM I totally cracked up at 0:30. :lol:
EDIT: I can sympathize with the rest. Voice acting is totally fun. |