* PRO TIP: typing HELP will list all the things you can do *
A bit of promotion on Hacker News suckered 9000 people into wasting collectively 130 hours on this game in the first 24 hours :)
This is the kind of game we wanted to make when we were young.. a classic bit of nostalgic interactive fiction, perhaps with a twist.
Its a puzzle game - you really can retrieve the treasure! - with a small but beautiful world to explore. If you get stuck, its quite ok to ask for HELP.
Who doesn't want to play a game with pirates, Sioux in a canoe, a mad baron in a steam-powered zeppelin, a peculiar hedge-hog and ... sucked in yet?
Of course we could add so much more detail if only we'd had more time! We managed to plumb-together and make-work 51 locations, 33 objects and 7 NPCs so it should be good for hours of game-play.
The illustrated version is absolutely beautiful, but the PROGRAMMING UI is safe for playing at work! ;)
We hope you have as much fun playing it and solving it as we had making it :)
Artwork by Mr War, Code by Will Edwards, Text by James Lovett, Song from the internet "Artifact" by Kevin MacLeod (ISRC: US-UAN-11-00324)
@davidllanos22 I played around with trying to indent and punctuate it but it wasn't going in the right direction; clearly not enough time, apologies :)
I really love the style of your art in this game, some really nice ways of presenting the narrative text. Didnt have time to play it for long but I will be returning to have another go when I have more time :-D
I don't like text adventures much (especially because it isn't something natural to me to read in english). But the graphics are great so i will only rate them :)
I'm sad i have not enough time to go deeper in the story, looks amazing, great script. Art is ok too, but it loaded too slowly in chrome. Music is good but it is too loud in my opinion, it gets in the middle of the game when it should stay in the background.
Love the graphics and a sweet, whimisical story. My problem with this is common to many text adventures ie I feel that I'm trying to be a mind-reader to find the correct commands to do what I want to do. It might help to have a full list of the commands next to the game in the browser window or maybe change it to hyperlink choice based? Cheers!
Really interesting way of combining text adventure with graphics, uncovering areas as you explore. I wish that the text didn't cover up the area you are in, though; perhaps a static box at the bottom would have worked better? To indicate the area you are in, maybe an outline or even a character?
Please work on this more! It has so much potential!
Very nice realization, nice esthetics, writing and all. However, as said above, its a pain found in most text adventures to find what to exactly type to go forward. I visited all basic places, found a bunch of items and had no clue what to do whatsoever. Hopefully you will post a walkthrough for people like me who want to see more but dont want to spend hours trying every possibilities. Great work anyway, congrats.
( i also agree about the text in a separate box and a different typo ! )
W
wombatica25 Apr 2012, 20:14
it is solvable. I don't want to ruin it for anyone but here are some hints. a) get rid of the pirates somehow or b) get the octopus onto dry land. Then have enough items to start combining them to make something (type HELP to see what commands are available). There is more obviously but don't want to give too much away
i struggled to find my way around and to use items. I loved the drawings that popped up and broke the conventions of the text adventure. I didn't realize I could type 'help' until i'd already gotten a bit frustrated with it. fun text.
Cool idea with the IDE graphicmode, however I >>LOVED<< the illustrations! These drawings are awesome!!! The game itself is nice, maybe the help could've been toggled on/off to make it easier find the correct commands, or maybe something like auto-completion ;)
I am biased because I love MUDs. So, gameplay is awesome. I loved the way you merged an oldschool text game with those very good graphics. It's just great - it kinda fits together, like milk with coffee or corn flakes, or pick-what-you-prefer... Having a list of commands without having to type 'help' in every location would be helpful, but then you probably should change the commands/object model a bit to make it more flexible. Auto completion would be just as great.
Nice game! I couldn't figure out what to do after I got into the locked greenhouse, but I greatly enjoyed the ride. Thanks!
W
wombatica1 May 2012, 15:36
23, if you have got into the secret garden, there is something worth examining. Also, go east twice (as in go east, then return via go west, then go east a second time). That won't solve the puzzle but might amuse.
W
wombatica2 May 2012, 16:31
There's now a map cheat-sheet linked in the main entry for anyone who feels like cheating.
Excellent work! The game was pretty long, and the puzzles were good. The commands could be a little shorter/more general for easier play, but it was very entertaining! Great illustrations, and thanks for the SFW mode: it came in handy!
You have some very nice artwork in this game. I did find the layout a bit difficult to work with though, as the more commands I piled up the farther down the screen the help menu would appear until it was running off.
I suppose my main criticism is that I felt like I had to rely too heavily on the help menu to simply show me what was around. It seems as though that should be more readily apparent without a special input command.
Very nice presentation! I liked how you moved to each location when you went there; the vegetable garden description was inside the garden, for example. Very clever!
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Gave it a go, like the way it works, but didn't finish, just explored ;)
Art is ok too, but it loaded too slowly in chrome.
Music is good but it is too loud in my opinion, it gets in the middle of the game when it should stay in the background.
Please work on this more! It has so much potential!
Great work anyway, congrats.
( i also agree about the text in a separate box and a different typo ! )
Overall, cool game =)
Having a list of commands without having to type 'help' in every location would be helpful, but then you probably should change the commands/object model a bit to make it more flexible. Auto completion would be just as great.
Great idea is the Programmer at work mode.
I suppose my main criticism is that I felt like I had to rely too heavily on the help menu to simply show me what was around. It seems as though that should be more readily apparent without a special input command.