Coeus IV is a text adventure about a lose lose situation. With 10 seconds left until the Governor has to decide the fates of thousands of lives, he takes to time travel to find another solution.
Cool concept. A nice way to cut the Gordian Knot by being able to focus on content for the 48 hours rather than graphics and collision systems and whatnot. Nice job!
Holy smokes this is great. The writing is top-notch, going to need more time to fully digest this one so giving some tentative high ratings here. Good work.
really enjoyed thius, didn't expect to enjoy it, havent really played anything like this if im honest but was awesome writing and story, i cant complete it though -.-
I love this. Well-written, and great ambiance with the music and visual layout.
I really really like how you dealt with inventory management and context-sensitive actions. I've been trying to figure out how to structure something like this in hyperlink text adventure, and you just presented me with some great inspiration.
Now this is the kind of game I like! Science fiction, tense and claustrophobic plot, infection bio-thriller, moral dilemmas, text-based puzzle solving. Good stuff. The visuals are nice, and the music is very good and sets a great mood. Seriously, just listening to this was a joy. The timer is a good source of tension.
Unfortunately, the end result is a bit less than it could have been. The writing quality is variable: good at best, cheesy at worst. (The "game over" messages are probably the best writing, in my opinion.) The solution to the problem comes across as a bit more B-movie in style than you'd think from the sombre premise.
On a technical level, the implementation is OK, but has some problems caused by the format used: for example, it would be good if actions disappeared once they were carried out. (And there's a bug in the university where a new pamphlet appears every time you talk to the student.) But, hey, 48 hours put a limit to how much you can program.
Typoes: "claustrophibic", "quandrant" (just once; you spelled it right the rest of the time), "Centriod".
tl;dr: despite some niggles with the implementation and occasionally schlocky plot elements, I enjoyed this a lot.
Very nice adventure game. Little typo there in Centroid Park: "claustrophobic" spelled wrong. I didn't solve it yet after about 15 min of trying, but I vow to come back! Good job!
Hi everyone, just wanted to pop in and respond to some comments.
First of all, thank you all for playing the game. I'm overwhelmed by your kind words thus far.
Second, I must admit I'm a little surprised for the mentions about the music. It took me about 3 hours to do, including learning how to use the software; I was worried I wasted too much time on it, but now I feel better about taking the time on a custom soundtrack. The drum track was done in Hydrogen and the MIDI sequencing on Qtractor, if anyone was wondering.
Also, thank you for the constructive criticism, especially from Christina Nordlander and Udo... I've fixed the typos where I could find them, and the next version will have them worked out.
I specifically wanted to respond to Christina Nordlander's post. About the plot, I definitely agree it needs work. I really wanted to focus on the setting, atmosphere, and mood, especially on the limited time frame. The pamphlet thing was actually supposed to be humorous, I left it in purposely. And right now the framework doesn't have any knowledge or state other than your inventory and location... for a more complex game, there would be a record of the player's actions and repeating actions could possibly have different effects, for example, when you talk to the bum when the power is on, he still says its out. Stuff like that.
Finally, I plan to clean up the code and release it as a text adventure framework. The ultimate goal is to write the entire games in XML alone (right now level data is all XML but actions are implemented as a series of Javascript callbacks).
Again, thanks for playing the game, my twitter handle is @fuball63 and my email is my username at yahoo.com if you want to chat.
Comments19
Nice game!
Dig the music, dig the vibe. LOVE the way time passes within the space - a really thoughtful way to address the theme.
I really really like how you dealt with inventory management and context-sensitive actions. I've been trying to figure out how to structure something like this in hyperlink text adventure, and you just presented me with some great inspiration.
Unfortunately, the end result is a bit less than it could have been. The writing quality is variable: good at best, cheesy at worst. (The "game over" messages are probably the best writing, in my opinion.) The solution to the problem comes across as a bit more B-movie in style than you'd think from the sombre premise.
On a technical level, the implementation is OK, but has some problems caused by the format used: for example, it would be good if actions disappeared once they were carried out. (And there's a bug in the university where a new pamphlet appears every time you talk to the student.) But, hey, 48 hours put a limit to how much you can program.
Typoes: "claustrophibic", "quandrant" (just once; you spelled it right the rest of the time), "Centriod".
tl;dr: despite some niggles with the implementation and occasionally schlocky plot elements, I enjoyed this a lot.
First of all, thank you all for playing the game. I'm overwhelmed by your kind words thus far.
Second, I must admit I'm a little surprised for the mentions about the music. It took me about 3 hours to do, including learning how to use the software; I was worried I wasted too much time on it, but now I feel better about taking the time on a custom soundtrack. The drum track was done in Hydrogen and the MIDI sequencing on Qtractor, if anyone was wondering.
Also, thank you for the constructive criticism, especially from Christina Nordlander and Udo... I've fixed the typos where I could find them, and the next version will have them worked out.
I specifically wanted to respond to Christina Nordlander's post. About the plot, I definitely agree it needs work. I really wanted to focus on the setting, atmosphere, and mood, especially on the limited time frame. The pamphlet thing was actually supposed to be humorous, I left it in purposely. And right now the framework doesn't have any knowledge or state other than your inventory and location... for a more complex game, there would be a record of the player's actions and repeating actions could possibly have different effects, for example, when you talk to the bum when the power is on, he still says its out. Stuff like that.
Finally, I plan to clean up the code and release it as a text adventure framework. The ultimate goal is to write the entire games in XML alone (right now level data is all XML but actions are implemented as a series of Javascript callbacks).
Again, thanks for playing the game, my twitter handle is @fuball63 and my email is my username at yahoo.com if you want to chat.
See ya!
Top notch writing and an excellent story. good work.