next »

[siegarettes]

EDIT: Major updates. Version one of the game is complete. Some new feedback would be great, thank you to all who commented on the first version, it was incredibly helpful, even if i work in all the suggestions. 

Game Description:
*Welcome to Inspiration, an empty world populated only by a figure known as Him, and the stars that he longs to reach. This is a place where the lights are of Lefts and Rights, and where THE END, seldom really means the end of a story.

*Once Upon a Time is an interactive story in the form of a puzzle like game. Your role is that of the stars, coming down only to inspire and destroy.

it is a large file, but if you have the time i put a lot of effort into this and would like feedback. critical feedback is great, just don't be an asshole about it.

new download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jdumynzmmih

[William Broom]

First of all, people on this forum often get offended when people join and immediately post their game in Feedback, because it seems like they are 'pimping' their game.

Secondly, both your links seem to be broken. The link to yoyogames results in a page that says 'you do not have permission to edit this message' and the download link is just miswritten. I managed to extract the correct download link, though:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/572a22/n/ouat.zip

Despite all that, your game looked interesting, so I tried it out.

First of all, I liked the presentation a lot. The music and the simple, surreal graphics gave it a very interesting atmosphere. I didn't like the text at the beginning - it seemed quite superfluous, but then again, I didn't really understand the game as a whole all that well.

Which brings me to my next point, which is that it was difficult to understand what was going on. I assume that's what you're aiming for, but it really is very esoteric. I never could work out what my goal in the game was, or how various events connected to each other. Once, the game progressed to the next level apparently without any input at all, but that might have been because I was skipping backwards and forth a bit by then.

Which brings me to my next point, which is that the debug controls cause the game to break down rather severely. I got a lot of error messages after skipping back and forth a bit, although I could always choose to 'ignore' them and eventually they would go away.

Ultimately I was intrigued by the game, but it seemed set against allowing me to unlock its secrets. Skipping forward, I saw several alternate endings that were nothing like the story I had followed, and I wondered how to reach them, but I didn't feel inclined to go back and try to do things differently, because I had no idea what it was I had done the first time. I hadn't made any rational choices in the game, so I wasn't able to make different choices to search for different endings.

I also think that (without the debug keys) it's too hard to replay the game. Once you get an ending, you have to exit the game, start it up again, and watch the tiresomely slow writing at the beginning all over again. It would be better if you could go directly to the start of the actual gameplay.

Keep working on it and I think this game could be really good.

[agj]

I agree. Way too hermetic. I liked what the introduction promised --controlling the story--, but then I had no idea what to do. Apparently, right clicking allowed me to shoot lasers from space? Left clicking made the character advance? Not sure. And the mouse cursors were really weird, unless they were glitched out. I think you have something potentially very good here, but you should work on the symbolism of the images to be more universal (understandable by people other than yourself), and the verbs to be more transparent.

[siegarettes]

thank you very much for the feedback. it was very critical, but i am very glad that it was. also i am sorry for the broken links and the fact that this was my first post. i do think i left some comments on the TIGS blog, however.

again thank you for the advice and support. i am trying very hard, and at time i find it to be very difficult as well. this concept requires a lot of direction and if you find that you have some more that i can go in please tell me.

after all, in the end, even if you make a game for your own purposes it will end up being for others to experience.

[EDIT]

i am currently working on something to help streamline the gameplay.hopefully it will be successful. it is just a little text before certain levels that gives a little more story, as well as a vague hint to what needs to be done. similar to Ed Macmillian's coil. kinda. not as cool though .

[agj]

That's a good idea.

Please, don't be discouraged. What you have there has me intrigued. You're trying to do something new, and new things are hard to do, but they're worth much more than retreads of the same old stuff. So, work hard.

[William Broom]

Yeah, I hope you do keep working on this game. It has great potential.

[siegarettes]

The newest version of the game is out. Check the first post for the download link, new description, and new image.

Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions, once again.