Castle Paradox

[Mabwudikai]

Allo! Download the demo to my first game and give me feedback!

This is an original game with as great storyline.

Thank you for your time,you wont be disapointed.

MABWUDIKAI

[Septimus]

This game is very funny. There is loads to do in this demo, I are impressed very much. You just need to add some music.....I have some music.....and you need music.......so i shall send you some music if you feel your game needs it.
Adios

[Pepsi Ranger]

I don't play OHR games very often anymore, mostly because the ones that do come out can't hold my attention for more than five minutes. When I do try to play one to test it out, I typically exit the game before I finish a single mission because frankly I find little enjoyment in what I play. I downloaded your game because the premise looked interesting, but I have to say that I wasn't expecting much once I opened it. I assumed I would be backing out just as quickly as I did with many of the other OHR games I played in the last couple years.

But I didn't back out.

Yes, you read that right. I kept playing, not from sympathy or hope for something better, but because I enjoyed what I played. It kept me laughing most of the way through, and kept an interesting story line in play to boot. I thought you began something that has a lot of potential--and I don't say that frivolously like I think some people do when they talk about how a game "has potential." I think your game can gain a strong audience.

But having potential doesn't mean having greatness. You do need to iron some things out from the demo before getting too deep into the current version. Here's my list of recommendations:

1. Add music. I know that a lot of people in this community don’t have the ability to play BAMs, and you may be one of them. But a game of this style MUST have music to set the mood. Film noir typically carries a music style of its own, so you may want to hunt down some music that fits appropriately (anything Hitchcockian could work, or music in the style of Blade Runner or Dark City would also work appropriately). If you’d rather be a purist, which most of us wish you would be, you could get someone with music talent to compose some Noirish tracks for you. In either case, you need music in this game.

2. Improve your graphics. I can tell you right now that most people in this community won’t give your game the fair shot that I gave it. Even though the black and white scale suits this game perfectly, the blocky stick figures will send the kiddies running. Clean up those details, add some contours, and throw in some shading to get you started. Keep your tiles as proportionate to your character as you can. Figure that the size of your rooms can be significantly smaller and still cater to your needs appropriately. Legroom is nice, but knowing what we’re looking at without having to read it is nicer (not that I’m suggesting you get rid of the side comments because those add to the humor of the game).

3. Tighten up your map design. What you have is reasonable so far, but there isn’t anything particularly interesting about your indoor map design. I think you can make some progress in tightening up your map design by reducing the size of your rooms. Again, details outweigh legroom in this community. As far as the Big City is concerned, you really do need to preplan your design layout. Even though the office map is sufficient as is, the city map is a nonsensical mess. Alleys and streets always lead somewhere in real city design (even though it may not seem that way in most metropolitan areas), and I think your city should make an effort to reflect that. I’m not suggesting that you maintain a perfect grid or anything, but I think you should at least make the streets a little less like a maze.

4. The last major suggestion I can make is that you clean up your bugs. One thing I like to do in my games is to use basic plotscripting to walk minor characters out the door when they’ve served their purpose so that they don’t just merely “disappear” when my character has nothing left to say. It adds drama to your storytelling when your characters act like real people. No one I’ve spoken to recently disappeared from where they stood when I finished talking to them, so there’s no reason why the people in your game need to do that. Secondly, each of your dialogue boxes that offer a choice don’t really have an alternative available if the player chooses something different. For example, when my character had the choice to water the plants, I had him water them, and the dialogue reflected that. However, when I activated the next plant and was given the choice, I decided not to water it, but the dialogue said the same thing as before. One thing I like to do in game design is to assign a handful of “Universal Tags” to do all my resetting functions. Essentially, you want a tag you can use over and over in many different circumstances that only turns on for the moment that you need it, and then turns back off as soon as you’re done. I use this tag for all my choice boxes (which MUST be reset if you plan on giving the player another chance to choose), as well as for character assignments for NPCs that will only show up once in the game and then leave when their purpose is fulfilled (I used this a lot before the ability to change identity in plotscripting was implemented).

And that’s about it for starters. As I said before, most of the people in this community won’t give your game a second look for the graphics alone, and the bugs may shy a few more away. But I think your idea is strong enough to stand the test of time if you work on improving these commonly underdeveloped areas enough. The thing that helped me earn the recognition that I’ve gotten (whether I deserved it or not) was that I made myself into a perfectionist. I chose not to release my major games until I knew they were in a state that I was satisfied with. That included making sure that all my player options were acknowledged and dealt with, as well as to iron out any bug that I could find along the way. And even though perfectionism doesn’t always yield perfection, it should yield enough quality that the average player will never know you screwed up somewhere. Right now, your game isn’t perfect. But a few minor adjustments can change that. So, I hope you consider my suggestions.

With that, I hope you continue this project because I enjoyed what I played so far, and not many authors can carry that honor.
_________________
Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

[Tsunamidog]

Not to shabby, It was funny most of the way through.
_________________
The Following Statement is True.

The Above Statement Is False

[Uncommon]

It looks like a decent start, but you have a severe lack of polish. I could deal with the graphics, but the NPCs are all buggy and the text is just bordering on readablility. You need to playtest a little better.

I do like the greyscale, though. No better way to do noir.

[Sparoku]

If you want, I can help you out with the walkabout graphics. I've been working on sprites a lot lately.

Some of my best work can be seen here.
If you don't think you need my help, then that's fine too.
_________________
"There will always be people who will tell you they hate what you made, or like what you made, and will tell you that what you did was wrong or right."
My Discord ID: SparDanger#0305

[Mabwudikai]

Hiya, thanks for the constructive critisism so far!

I've been working on improving my game by using plotscripting. It's hard work and will make my game a lot harder to make, but hopefully it'll be worth it. I'm also making optional missions that you don't have to do unless you want the money/items.
I've shrunk my Big City ap down to an acceptable level and I'm even making a new downtown map.
I'm having trouble with the music as I can't play BAM files on my windows XP. Is there something I should download?
I also don't know how to make BAM files.
Could somebody tell me?
The Game should be finished in a little while. Until then, watch out for updates!

[Uncommon]

VDMS is the program you need to play DOS music on Windows XP.

[LeRoy_Leo]

There are a few ways to make bam files, but my favorite is converting Midi files.
Surely you got a little program called MiditoBam in your OHR kit.
If you didn't, I say check HR again and get it.

Using MiditoBam: You start with a blank screen with weird colored boxes at the bottom. Hit F3 to call up a menu. Go to the location of a midi file and select it with the Enter key (long names appear to be shortened, so know the first few letters in the title). Hit F5 to play/test it. If you are not happy with the instruments, you can always change them using a program like Anvil studio (that's what I use anyway. You might have something better). If you like what you hear, (all Bams suck to a degree) then hit the F2 key and another blank screen will appear. Type in the desired name and DON'T FORGET TO PUT .BAM at the end of the title before you hit enter (You have 12 characters maximum, so that is 8 characters and four left for .bam at most). Thus your brand spanking new Bam is born.

And, like Uncommon said, you might need to use VDMS with the newer Operating systems to hear these files in the first place. In this case, open miditobam using right click and selecting "Run with VDMS" instead of just double clicking. I hope you understand all of that. Sorry to drop the info bomb on you.
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

[Moogle1]

You don't have to put .BAM at the end; it'll do it for you unless you specify another extension.
_________________

Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[LeRoy_Leo]