Curse Escape
This game is from ldjam.com, which is currently unavailable.
You can try viewing the original page on Web Archive (may not load correctly).
You can try viewing the original page on Web Archive (may not load correctly).
In Curse Escape, you travel around a little looping world, during a little looping time, in order to escape the curse you were cursed with.
It's a story-driven game of intrigue and adventure, of secret keeping and double crossing, and there's candy.
Characters' actions are a result of their individual goals and priorities, and one change in your behavior can influence the course that the story takes.
Because of the looping nature of time, you can become very familiar with the characters, and their secret goals and ambitions, all the while maintaining anonymity with each iteration, enabling you to gain the upper hand, and discover even the most hidden of secrets.
...and I'm going to stop there, because sadly, I ran out of time, due to having several things that I couldn't get out of on Sunday.
I'll keep working on the game, so if you're interested in trying it out when I do get it playable, leave a comment, and you will be notified when I post my 'it's done' comment. Also, I'll be prioritizing the playing of all of the games made by people who comment here before any others.
EDIT: Due to my computer dying and killing my hard drive in the process, I lost all of the game files for this, so, sadly, I will not be able to complete it after all.
And now, a quick run-down of my weekend for posterity.
Friday night, I spent an hour brainstorming and working on various ideas. After I had settled on an idea, I wrote a detailed plan of the game, which took me a couple of hours more. I then proceeded to start building a dialog system. By 2 or 3 am, I was having issues with the dialog system (having never really done dialog in my previous games,) and had realized that for a branching system that was flexible and robust, I'd have to spend the entire weekend on just the dialog system. So, I went to bed and got some sleep.
Saturday morning, around 6am, I got up and switched gears. Previous experience had taught me that even with a great back end, I would need some content to go in it, and that often takes the longest to make. So, I drew the world and the characters, and started working on a story. I spent several hours on the story, and came up with about half of the dialog needed; written as simply as I could do, with minimal branches.
I then decided that I would need to solve the dialog system issue, and took another look at what I needed to build my own. I decided that it would be possible to do a very stripped down version, but very limiting and cumbersome to manage. Now, I have previously looked at Ink as a possible solution for in-game dialog, but I'd never used it in a project. I downloaded Ink, looked at some tutorials, and decided to go with it as an interface between the story and the game. I then rewrote/copy-pasted all of the dialog I had into Ink format.
At this point, I needed a break, so I recorded a cover of a song by Akeboshi from his album, "Roundabout", which I thought might be fitting. At this point, it was 1am, and I had to lead worship on Sunday at 9am, so I scanned in my art and worked on that for another hour before going to bed.
I had no time to myself on Sunday, having several things going on, so we'll skip to Monday morning.
I finished up the dialog and took a look at what I had to do from then. There was no way I was going to be able to do anything in Unity, so I decided to just stick with Ink, and finish out the project as a fancy CYOA-style game.
I was so close! With maybe four or five more hours, I could have done it. However, the fact remains that I didn't.
I should have realized the extent to which I had over-scoped, but I didn't.
Lessons for next time, I guess. :)
It's a story-driven game of intrigue and adventure, of secret keeping and double crossing, and there's candy.
Characters' actions are a result of their individual goals and priorities, and one change in your behavior can influence the course that the story takes.
Because of the looping nature of time, you can become very familiar with the characters, and their secret goals and ambitions, all the while maintaining anonymity with each iteration, enabling you to gain the upper hand, and discover even the most hidden of secrets.
...and I'm going to stop there, because sadly, I ran out of time, due to having several things that I couldn't get out of on Sunday.
I'll keep working on the game, so if you're interested in trying it out when I do get it playable, leave a comment, and you will be notified when I post my 'it's done' comment. Also, I'll be prioritizing the playing of all of the games made by people who comment here before any others.
EDIT: Due to my computer dying and killing my hard drive in the process, I lost all of the game files for this, so, sadly, I will not be able to complete it after all.
And now, a quick run-down of my weekend for posterity.
Friday night, I spent an hour brainstorming and working on various ideas. After I had settled on an idea, I wrote a detailed plan of the game, which took me a couple of hours more. I then proceeded to start building a dialog system. By 2 or 3 am, I was having issues with the dialog system (having never really done dialog in my previous games,) and had realized that for a branching system that was flexible and robust, I'd have to spend the entire weekend on just the dialog system. So, I went to bed and got some sleep.
Saturday morning, around 6am, I got up and switched gears. Previous experience had taught me that even with a great back end, I would need some content to go in it, and that often takes the longest to make. So, I drew the world and the characters, and started working on a story. I spent several hours on the story, and came up with about half of the dialog needed; written as simply as I could do, with minimal branches.
I then decided that I would need to solve the dialog system issue, and took another look at what I needed to build my own. I decided that it would be possible to do a very stripped down version, but very limiting and cumbersome to manage. Now, I have previously looked at Ink as a possible solution for in-game dialog, but I'd never used it in a project. I downloaded Ink, looked at some tutorials, and decided to go with it as an interface between the story and the game. I then rewrote/copy-pasted all of the dialog I had into Ink format.
At this point, I needed a break, so I recorded a cover of a song by Akeboshi from his album, "Roundabout", which I thought might be fitting. At this point, it was 1am, and I had to lead worship on Sunday at 9am, so I scanned in my art and worked on that for another hour before going to bed.
I had no time to myself on Sunday, having several things going on, so we'll skip to Monday morning.
I finished up the dialog and took a look at what I had to do from then. There was no way I was going to be able to do anything in Unity, so I decided to just stick with Ink, and finish out the project as a fancy CYOA-style game.
I was so close! With maybe four or five more hours, I could have done it. However, the fact remains that I didn't.
I should have realized the extent to which I had over-scoped, but I didn't.
Lessons for next time, I guess. :)