GameCola: testgame.exe - Making the Adventure (5-7-2)

-- by Lizo Medina-Gray

So here we are again. Another month, another testga—holy crap that list of new things is huge!

This month’s new features can be more or less broken down into two main groups: prettiness and gameplay. And plot. OK, I guess that’s three grou—I mean seriously, have you seen how long the list of new things is?!

Where was I? Oh yeah, new edition of testgame this month.

Just loading the game you will immediately notice at least one difference: I changed the game to "letterbox format," which essentially works out to widescreen on my computer—although it might be different on other machines…. Now, I think this looks pretty sleek (woah, did I really just use that word?), and I’m a huge fan of my graphics not being stretched and distorted during gameplay (which is what was happening before). If anyone has any strong and pressing opinions about this, however, and thinks I should change it back, please let me know. I’m all about the feedback.

Oh, and when I said there was new plot earlier in the article, I was sort of lying. There’s no actual new plot, BUT, you can now get farther in the game. Like, a whole new screen farther! And good luck getting passed the stream, btw. :) All the plot that happens in that new screen will just have to come later.

Also, the included readme file should help point out any features you may not know about. It’ll get more stuff on it later, don’t worry.

I’ve also finally started working on an aspect of the game that I’ve been talking about for months. Yup, I’ve actually done it; I’ve started writing background music. There’s only one track so far (it’s the forest theme), and the sound quality definitely leaves something to be desired. Does anyone have any suggestions on making MIDI files? Is that even possible without a keyboard connected to my computer? These are all things I simply do not know. I might have to eventually break down and just record everything with live instruments, but we shall see.

So anyway! Read the list of new things, for crying out loud, for it is impressive. And then… download the game!!!111!!1!

testgame v.15

(no extra programs needed to run this file)

**Note** If you get an error message about resolution when trying to run the testgame.exe file, first open the winsetup.exe file and change the resolution option to 640 x 400.

Things to do/new features of note:

It’s now possible to cross the stream! This even involves a new puzzle and an awesome death scene for good measure. :)
And after crossing the stream...NEW ROOM! Check out the cool lighting tricks there, because that’s just about all you can do for now….
Very small addition to the central forest screen in that the squirrel is there and disappears into the tree the first time you enter the screen. Did you even know there was a squirrel in that tree? This is to remedy just that.
More work on the stream screen: tidying things up, making the castle look more like a castle, and the woods look like they actually belong to the same woods in the previous screen, etc.
New animation in second cutscene (the one with Lily and Thurston)—this is still far from finished, but it’s a good start!
There are now things to do in the second screen. That is, things to look at and interact with. I just realized how empty that screen was.
Finally fixed the button with the giant black box in the icon bar at the top of the screen—it now shows a picture of the item currently in use from your inventory.
Prettier GUIs. The "you have died" box is waaaaay pretty now, like crazy. Look for more of this sort of thing in the future. I need pretty.
No more really ugly gray bar at the top of the screen.
New fancy letterbox display! Now the graphics actually look like they did when I drew them.
Paul moves faster now. Like, significantly.
Super helpful readme file now included.
Most exciting thing ever: Music! It’s quite fuzzy right now because I haven’t figured out the best way to get it into the game, but just walk around in the forest and you’ll hear it! Why did I put this at the end of the list?

All the graphics and design are by Lizo. The dialogue was written by Lizo, with significant input by Paul. Paul is voiced (appropriately) by Paul Franzen. Lily is voiced by Lizo. Thurston and the vine are voiced by Matt Gardner. Artie is voiced by Matt Keels. Omar is voiced by Jenny. "Lets's Go Skateboard" is written and performed by The Word Problems. Adventure Game Studio (the program used to create this game) can be downloaded at http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/

-- Lizo Medina-Gray {7-15-2006}