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[TikiHubGames]

Web Player
PC Download
Mac OSX Download
Linux Download

Controls:
The Lamp will reset your game
The inkwell will change fonts before hitting "Begin"
The Notepad holds options to click on
You can flip through with "Next and Previous"
ESC exits the game

Looking for any and all feedback!!

Current Build:
Manifest Development Build 0.024
May 20, 2015
Θ Additional proofreading.
Θ Canvas fades in with lighting instead of blinking on.
Θ Intensified Name Box color change; Set Name suggestion to gray; Name suggestion now clears when clicking Name box, and re-appears if no text is entered.
Θ Added basic splash and icon imagery; Game now shows Manifest Cover Image while loading the scene.
Θ Increased support to resolutions at exactly 5:4/4:3/16:9/16:10 ratios.
Θ ESC button now prompts the game to exit after confirmation.

Still looking for feedback and suggestions! Try the demo now

Manifest: A Procedural Story-Telling Game

www.tikihubgames.com

Web Player
PC Download
Mac OSX Download
Linux Download

Please leave us feedback on our Kickstarter Preview and this thread, we are eager to hear from the community!
We are not picky what type of feedback, but we are most eager to hear the community's thoughts on Procedural Story-Telling and our approach to it
We'd also like to have it tested on Mac OSX and Linux!
We want to take this to the limit eventually, but we started with a small project we felt a two-person team could appropriately handle.
Thank you for reading!

Description
(PlayTesters may wish to skip this section if only interested in trying the game)

Manifest is a game about choices. We have made use of the Unity engine's editor scripting options to create a tool which allows us to dynamically configure text by a large number of world, character and story traits. You can find us working with this tool, or ask for a demonstration of it, at www.twitch.tv/tikihubtony.

The game itself puts the player into the role of an author, and writes a story that is different from beginning to end, every time you play. We have begun with a small selection of linear stories to show how games currently work. These stories are set up under a number of requirements and modifications. At the time of this post, it is an equivalent level of a higher end branching narrative in my opinion, and is only about a day's work, broken up between my day job. Bob has been working hard at producing promotional imagery and concept art to help show the players how the final game will look, and what kind of animation we plan on adding.

*Update on Story Content 5/20/15*
I have done quite a number of gameplay tweaks after receiving excellent feedback via this thread. I'm planning on focusing more on story content for the next patch, but with enough helpful feedback, I will always prefer to iron out the game experience before adding things to experience in it.



The engine works by setting up three "Pieces":
1. A World: There are many worlds in Manifest, each one unique, filled with it's own history, physical and magical rules. You may find yourself in a familiar world, or an unfamiliar world each playthrough, learning new facts about that world and as a result, becoming more aware of the impact of your choices. These worlds contain a large number of locations, information, character roles and items set by the writer through our tool.
2. A Cast: Each world has it's own set of characters. These characters begin as cookie cutouts, and may be named, or more generically described, like Eugene, or Knight. The personality of this character may be generic (no requirements), or incredibly specific. All information pertaining to these characters may be developed throughout the story, allowing for different names for a knight depending on player and npc driven actions. Each character has a large set of dialogue lines associated with them, and the system may switch between characters depending on player or npc choices. To emphasize, the NPC is capable of decision making and narration just as much as you are. You may choose the same options as a friend, and the NPC may still choose differently at any point.
3. Text: This seems obvious, a story needs writing. Each section of text (an unlimited number of text pieces layered in tiers across the characters) undergoes a system of requirements before being passed into a pool of options. For the player, up to four of these are chosen to as options to choose from. For the NPC, a single option is chosen from the pool. After being chosen, the option then executes a number of modifications to characters and the world, ranging from minor personality changes to moving characters to different locations, killing them, ending the story, etc.

With enough content filled into this engine, every playthrough should be different, from beginning to end. We are planning a much larger set of games to follow, but as a new company, we feel a need to develop our game in a small, controllable platform we can use to experiment with and learn how to best organize our stories for writing purposes. So the current game is text-and-image based, however we will introduce a large amount of animation, including a full room, free perspective camera, and models/animation that act out the story in the room, outside the window, and in pictures on the wall.

More information is available on our Kickstarter Preview.

ChangeLog

Manifest Development Build 0.023
May 15, 2015
Θ Several proofreading changes; Personality Trait values adjusted for coherence.
Θ Tweaked mouse clicking behavior to empty info bar and refresh cursor.
Θ Buttons no longer modify the cursor while inactive.
Θ Player must enter a main character name;Name entry now begins with "Name" suggestion text.
Θ Reset Lamp now gives off confirmation dialogue, and must be clicked twice without leaving the button area.
Θ Page Turning buttons now have images, and appear/disappear when there is or is not content to show on the next/previous page.
Θ Several New quality options added to PC/Mac/Linux launchers.
Θ Opened up personality modification/requirement options per line in the StoryTool to allow modification of more than the giving/receiving character personalities (developer use).

Manifest Development Build 0.022
April 30, 2015
Θ Integrated age in the Story Tool  (developer use); Added PlayerAge text keyword.
Θ Integrated PlayerName text keyword.
Θ Added Font Toggle button to the Inkwell.

Manifest Development Build 0.021
April 26, 2015
Θ Introduced the universe of Fuze with seven starting Player Role options and stories.
Θ Fixed an overlapping error with initiating lines; fixed an omission error with ending lines; fixed an error with Character switching (different from Player Roles).
Θ Cleaned up shadow aliasing caused by a steep lighting angle.
Θ Interface: adjusted camera angle to provide a better reading view; added restart button on the Lamp.

Currently planned updates:
Θ PC/MacOSX/Linux Loading Screen improvements.
Θ New cursor images to line up along hotspot.
Θ Blinking text cursor for Name Box.
Θ Full Page graphics to go with the Stories.
Θ Story content, of course!

[Quicksand-S]

Well, to be more specific, the rules/guide asks people to introduce themselves in the thread that's made for that sort of thing. I don't care, personally. I'm just being annoying.  

Anyway, that was a lot of text so I just skipped over it all looking for a link to the game. I really didn't like that I had to go through two different pages on your site just to get to it. Why not a direct link? I kinda understand wanting normal visitors to the site to learn about the game, but we're playtesters here and it's preferable to be able to quickly and easily access the game we're trying to test.

On a related note, while your screenshots here look good, your site isn't quite as appealing. A bunch of the colors clash (like the Tiki Hub" text in green on that blue background. There's also some aliasing around that text), and the various pages use similar but non-matching styles. Also, since you're using white text for the main content, some of it nearly disappears on certain parts of the background.

When I go to the "Click to play the demo" page,  all elements of the page are in the wrong spots, overlapping one another and there's text at the top left that says "Tiki Hub Games is a small start up ready to introduce the" before getting cut off. If it's not like that for you and you want an screenshot, let me know. My guess is that it's just something to do with "position: fixed" being used without setting up a container for the fixed elements. I haven't looked at the HTML/CSS much, though. Also note that the link under the Unity plugin to return to the main site is broken.

I know none of that is related to the game itself, but since you've got a Kickstarter in place I image you want to make a good impression so I thought I'd mention the website issues.


On to the game...or not. The Unity plugin froze up, so I had to forcibly stop it. Now I get the error "Can't load data file" every time I try to run it even after restarting my browser. Any chance of a downloadable version?

[TikiHubGames]

Thank you for the reply Quicksand!!

I'll move my introduction over the appropriate place!

We are just two people, and my artist has been developing the website and the majority of model/texture content at the same time while juggling work and home life, so some of the weird glitches he simply hasn't gotten to. That's why we're introducing things early and giving people a preview of our Kickstarter before going live. We want to refine things and build a little buzz before we do that.

I will forward this to him so he can work on the site accordingly. Unity Web Player is notorious for buggy behavior, and does not work at all on Chrome, I apologize for the inconvenience. I am putting a direct link to the Alpha demo at the top of the OP.

A downloadable version is no problem, along with a low-resolution Web Player, I'll put up a link in the OP ASAP and make a note of it.

[Ronsho]

This is an interesting concept, there is something satisfying about seeing your choices turned into words in a book.  Have you thought about giving the player choices that don't have as literal of a connection to what ends up in the book?  Each of the choices I was presented with were the actual words that would end up in the book, but what if there player had the option of doing something in that corner where we choose words, and then doing that thing gets turned into words?  Or clicking on pictures instead of words, so then we're surprised by the interpretation that the writer has for our choices?

[gimymblert]

looks cool

[Quicksand-S]

Ok. I gave the downloadable PC version a try.

-A loading screen would be nice. I saw the "Made with Unity" screen and then the program froze for a good 20sec or so. I thought it had crashed.

-When choosing traits, I found it weird that my choices rarely seemed to have anything to do with one another. It was strange to compare things that were unrelated.

-If I clicked on one trait and then a new trait appeared under the cursor, I didn't see the new description until I moved the mouse. Not a "problem" maybe, but didn't feel right.

-"This character is reknown..." should say "renowned". Later, the text started a sentence with "would often receive answers in the forms of cryptic riddles". That wasn't a full sentence, and should probably say "form" rather than "forms". A few other lines also started non-sentences with lower-case letters. There's some proofreading needed.

-Certain parts of the book (like the left side, 2/3 of the way down) change what the cursor hand looks like, even though they're not interactive.

-I noticed that other things changed the cursor and I clicked on them. There should really be a confirmation pop-up to keep people from accidentally resetting everything like I did.

-You can create a character without a name. You can also pick the same trait twice sometimes.

-After I finish setting up my traits, I get one question and then nothing happens and I have no more choices. There's no indication that I have to click on the page to flip it (or that it's even clickable until I put the cursor over the page corner).

It's a fairly interesting game. I hope you add music of some sort, and sound effects for flipping pages or "writing". My first time going through to the end, I got a story that gave me only one option for each choice, so that wasn't great. My second time was a bit better, but still very limited. That said, I can see the potential for an enjoyable experience here.

[TikiHubGames]

These are all wonderful comments and feedback!!

I apologize for the lack of response, I've been busy with my day-job.

I'll try and address it as thoroughly as I can

Ronsho -
That is essentially what we want to do with the rest of the room, and what we'll be asking for funding to work on. There will be both viewports and interaction in the room, like a window, picture frames, etc. These will change, and sometimes allow interaction to drive the story. The idea behind this is that we want to give you the feeling of being part of a writer's creative process and imagination.

Quicksand -
Again, you are very helpful sir. I would like to let you know that we are working on a new version of our website taking into account your feedback, Bob tells me I should have a link to check out the test version in my email tonight or tomorrow.

I'll work on the loading screen as soon as I've wrapped up my currently planned story updates, that is actually already planned, but I wanted to have Bob do a custom piece for it. I can substitute one of his other promo pieces to make it work for now however. I'll make sure to post an update here when all these things are fixed up.

The proofreading is agreed, unfortunately it's just me making stories right now, that's another major thing we are looking for funding to aid - writers/editors. I'll try to be more thorough when proofreading, and perhaps I can pull Bob off the art for 30 minutes each day to proofread as well.

I'll put some more work into the traits. I did notice I had a couple of repeats keywords in there, such as "Predictable" where the word was in twice but there were different descriptions and variables, and have already fixed that. It was not a coding issue, just me going a little too quickly when setting up those options. However the inconsistency has more to do with my decisions when setting them up. That's just my own strange interpretation of how personalities work. I tend to think of a lazy person as still capable of being demanding for instance, but others have disagreed with me. That issue will be a more lengthy process of integrating a professional writer into our staff and typical gameplay tweaking/feedback from testers like you.

I'm having trouble reproducing the interaction error in the book. Perhaps it's that you are noticing the "page turn" interaction area is still highlighting the cursor even when there is no page to turn? This interaction is present along the left and right edge of the book. I'll make sure to go through the cursor cycles and prevent it from showing interaction at times when there is nothing to do with the buttons.

Ensuring that the player enters a name only takes a second, that will be in the next version over the next day or so. Similarly, I will try to integrate a confirm for the reset button and some kind of recognition that there is new text to read, maybe a glow on the edge of the page, or lighting up the little graphic in the corner of the page? Let me know if anyone has any suggestions/input there.

There are a number of things we want to do, but you can see how it's difficult for us to rapidly change these things while working other jobs. A lot of what you both suggest we are working towards but simply haven't been able to reach yet. Sounds, music, animations that show the pen writing into the book, flipping the page, animating the room, the fading glimmer of purple ink settling into a book and becoming a dark almost perfect black indented into the paper...

I'm really excited to see that people are interested in this idea. We have much, much larger ambitions for the story engine, this text and image based (Did I mention there is already a system built in for us to add full-page graphics that detail important scenes or decisions in a story? We simply haven't had enough time to make the first graphic yet :/) game is only the beginning. It's kind of like our proof of concept for the procedural story-telling approach we have, so that we can build a name and budget to produce something much more action-oriented when it comes to developing the plot!

Can't wait to show you the next patch!

[KieranTribe]

This sounds like a great idea, and a brilliant concept, and seems to have been executed really well so far.

+Great concept
+Graphics
+Player choice implementation
-No tutorialisation (a simple label would suffice )
-No loading screen, I thought the game had crashed as the poster above said

Obviously, to execute this fully you'd need a large team of writers to work on the project and supply you with hundreds of different parts to create full-blown stories. I'm not sure if it's possible without that large a team, to be honest, but I wish you luck!

8.5/10, 9 if the content wasn't currently limited.

[TikiHubGames]

I appreciate that a lot!

We are planning on the entire staff being writers to some extent, while we will have 1-2 people act as priority writers and team editors. We are aware of the hurdle to fill this game with content, that's exactly what we're looking for funding to set up. By putting myself and Bob on a payroll it will allow us to generate additional income (or if we can get to stretch goals we'll directly fund writers that way). Right now, with tourist season gone in Florida, I'm losing spare time, which is making this project slow down right now.

I'll tell Bob you like his artwork! The graphics are 90% him, I just did the wall/floor texture and lighting. He's a very talented 3d artist. I'm proud to be working with him.

I still could use some feedback if anyone has suggestions for some visualization to display there is more to read on the next page. I will be talking with Bob about it tonight, as well as getting graphics for the loading screen. I've already addressed the reset button, some of the wonky text persistence when clicking options that Quicksand mentioned and made sure to force the player to enter a name.

I will *try* to push the next update out tomorrow night.

[gimymblert]

in wchich wy it's procedural? it assemble predetermine paragraph with hole? is it the structure, does it have hiearchical template (template that fills template)?

[TikiHubGames]

To answer your question Jimbert,

This would be considered a modular procedure call system to the best of my knowledge.

It is not necessarily paragraphs, it can be single pieces of dialogue exchanging between characters (original intent), or several paragraphs, that's up to the writer. The values assigned by the writer are not branches however. They aren't dots connected to another (though it can be used this way!!). They are modifiers with a set of requirements. There is a large amount of room for emergent gameplay left open, while still maintaining coherence in the story. A line might show up by random chance while being in a pool of 6 options picked out of a hundred, of which you picked it from 4 of the 6, or the NPC picked directly from that 6. These lines are all checked by your character choices. The one you choose adds a stone to the character's inventory. From there, any line which requires a stone would pass the inventory step of the procedure call until the stone is removed by a new line.

So a line passes inventory, if the player is in an appropriate location, is talking to this character or that, is this far through their story, has this type of personality and more, and as a result - has this many lines to choose from. The biggest problem, as noted by KieranTribe, is the need for a large volume of writing. That's where the tool we've developed comes in handy, and hopefully the funding we'll receive from Kickstarter if we are successful, or from sales if not .

[gimymblert]

Oh okay, it's writer led node where each node have it's own "writer's program"? That sound great, I always looks for different aproach I plan to soon start proceural stories generation but different system, not based on text.
It kind of remind me of the system of Left 4 dead as I understand it
http://gdcvault.com/play/1015528/AI-driven-Dynamic-Dialog-through

[TikiHubGames]

I did take a little bit of inspiration from the Left 4 Dead AI Director. It also pulls from the old Fallout games (and New Vegas) where certain dialogue was based on character traits. Then there's Dwarf Fortress, which is probably closer to what you'd like to experiment with. If you are interested in procedural stories created through parsing methods, check out Dwarf Fortress for sure. The only problem I've found with high-parsing methods is the coherence of the story, which DF stories can fall short on. As a DotA fan, I notice context sensitive dialogue as well. However, this system is like a significantly more complex version of these, designed to string text parts together to create a consistent narrative, instead of interject dialogue or one-liners that are relevant to the situation (though it's completely capable of that I guess).

That was a good question, thanks!

[gimymblert]

I wasn't talking about the AI director a all! I'm talking about their dialogue and banter system! They have a very very simple system outline in the video I shared, There is zero parsing at all and zero AI

[TikiHubGames]

I thought you'd appreciate the sort of irony that my inspiration wasn't from that aspect :p. Although when you point it out, the banter is closer to what we've made.

[gimymblert]

haha okay! That's looks good, right now Chrome refuse to dl the game because zip with exe though

[TikiHubGames]

Actually I just got on today after being called in to work unexpectedly to cover a no-show. I've got an e-mail from Bob here, looks like we had a mishap with the assets folder, I'll have to re-upload them. So the game not working would be on our side.. sorry about that . Should be up within ~15 minutes? However long it takes to upload all of them.

[TikiHubGames]

Also, I'd like to ask Quicksand, and anyone else who's coming by this thread, to check out our new website, and let us know what they think .

www.tikihubgames.com

[TikiHubGames]

Hello! I have a decent update as far as tweaks go, no new story content with this one, instead I spent some time at proofreading and mostly adjusting the personality tweaks regarding content. Here's the patch log along with the old patch log details

Manifest Development Build 0.023
May 15, 2015
Θ Several proofreading changes; Personality Trait values adjusted for coherence.
Θ Tweaked mouse clicking behavior to empty info bar and refresh cursor.
Θ Buttons no longer modify the cursor while inactive.
Θ Player must enter a main character name;Name entry now begins with "Name" suggestion text.
Θ Reset Lamp now gives off confirmation dialogue, and must be clicked twice without leaving the button area.
Θ Page Turning buttons now have images, and appear/disappear when there is or is not content to show on the next/previous page.
Θ Several New quality options added to PC/Mac/Linux launchers.
Θ Opened up personality modification/requirement options per line in the StoryTool to allow modification of more than the giving/receiving character personalities (developer use).

Manifest Development Build 0.022
April 30, 2015
Θ Integrated age in the Story Tool  (developer use); Added PlayerAge text keyword.
Θ Integrated PlayerName text keyword.
Θ Added Font Toggle button to the Inkwell.

Manifest Development Build 0.021
April 26, 2015
Θ Introduced the universe of Fuze with seven starting Player Role options and stories.
Θ Fixed an overlapping error with initiating lines; fixed an omission error with ending lines; fixed an error with Character switching (different from Player Roles).
Θ Cleaned up shadow aliasing caused by a steep lighting angle.
Θ Interface: adjusted camera angle to provide a better reading view; added restart button on the Lamp.

Currently planned updates:
Θ PC/MacOSX/Linux Loading Screen improvements.
Θ New cursor images to line up along hotspot.
Θ Blinking text cursor for Name Box.
Θ Full Page graphics to go with the Stories.
Θ Story content, of course!

Still looking for feedback and suggestions! Try the demo now

www.tikihubgames.com
Web Player
PC Download
Mac OSX Download
Linux Download

[Saithir]

Hey, thought I'd give this a try, so here's some feedback. I was using the Mac OSX version 0.23.

- It doesn't scale well in windowed mode. In resolutions 1028x768 and below, the left and right sides of the scene are cut, preventing me from using the lamp or the previous page buttons for example. Also the age slider has its hover below it, not on the yellow bulb. Higher resolutions are okay.



- Like someone before wrote, a loader would be nice, I was wondering if it even works.
- Choosing your name is not intuitive at all. Maybe show a cursor in the box after I click it, or hide the hand until I finish typing?

Otherwise, looks pretty okay for me. Not gonna comment on story or anything, there isn't much to comment on yet.