Dragon Poking Tunes

So far, Poke the Dragon has been the prototype that has received the most positive feedback.  It's looking very likely I'll be taking it to the next stages of development and putting others on hold... for now.

I have another prototype of Poke the Dragon ready, this one with a couple bug fixes, and also with a few music tracks to listen to while you play.  Please click the link below to play the prototype and listen to each track.  It will start you on a random track (there are six total) and you can click the "Next" button to listen to the next one.  Play for as long as you like and play through the tracks as many times as you like, but please make sure that you (1) listen to all six tracks for at least a few seconds and (2) that you try playing the game while listening to the music.  Pay attention to which music tracks you like best and write down the track numbers for your favorites.  When you're done playing, click the link to the survey (or it may be useful to have the survey open while you play).

Here's the link to the prototype.  (Due to the format the music is currently in, you must play in Internet Explorer or else the music won't play.  If you're not a fan of IE, I humbly apologize for this inconvenience!  Safari may work as well, but I haven't confirmed this.)
http://bit.ly/pokedrgn_music

And here's the link to the accompanying survey:
http://bit.ly/pokedrgn_musicsurvey

Review: To the Moon

http://freebirdgames.com/to_the_moon/

Play...  if you enjoy watching and listening as much as playing.
Don't play...  if you don't like games that make you cry.

Rich in story, light in gameplay.  And that's not a bad thing; just make sure you know what you're getting, because I'd guess at least half of this game is dialogue and cut-scenes.  But the story that they tell is a very interesting and touching one.  To the Moon is about two doctors who enter the memories of a dying man in order to fulfill his last wish.  They have the technology to explore and change a patient's memories so that before they pass away, it's as if they had lived a different life.

The most prominent element of To the Moon is the story.  The majority of actual gameplay consists of point-and-click exploration with the occasional mini-game thrown in.  This game came close to just feeling like a movie whose story is only occasionally interrupted by player control.  What saved it from this was the theme of exploring the patient's memories, which kept it from feeling too linear.  I would have liked for it to push that theme a bit more, allowing a greater amount of exploration, but it still pulled it off well, and it was interesting to see how each memory the doctors explore is related to the others.

<spoilers>

In the game you can visit memories at different points of time in the patient's life.  When you're allowed to visit each memory is very controlled.  I would have liked to choose which memory I was going to.  There's a point in the game where the doctors make the change in one of patient's early memories that causes memories after that point to change.  It would have been really neat to be able to make the changes myself and then periodically jump back to future memories to see what effect my changes are having.  But again, which memories you visit and when the changes you made manifest themselves is pretty much set.  It's still fun to explore what's there, the novelty just wears off by the end of the first play-through.

Several parts of the story utilize suspense and cliffhangers, which is okay, but the way they try to pull it off with dialogue gets a little irritating at times.  It feels like every few minutes, the following conversation occurs:

"Wait, do you think...?"
"I'm afraid so."
"What should we do?"
"There's only one thing we can do."
"You don't mean...?"
"It's the only way."

It just comes off feeling a little forced; it's painfully obvious that the doctors know something that the player doesn't, and there's not really a good in-game reason that they wouldn't come right out and say it.  Worse still, by the end of the game, some of the secrets they kept from you are left unanswered, and not in an open-ended, "huh, I wonder what they were trying to convey" kind of way.  It really just felt like they forgot to explain something which would have made certain parts of the story make a lot more sense.  This is probably my biggest criticism.

Its flaws aside though, it really is a beautiful and thought-provoking story.  Questions arise that the characters never really vocalize but which the player is almost certain to consider while playing.  For example, if you had the ability to go back and change certain of your memories, would you?  Would you do it to someone else, even if they asked you to?  Which memories would you change?  Are some memories too sacred to change?  What would you be willing to lose in order to give you life the perfect ending?

I know we're already in the middle of the "spoiler" tags, but this next bit is a major spoiler, so seriously, if there's a chance you'll go and play the game yourself, I'd skip the next two paragraphs.  The old man in the story is dying, and wishes to have his memories changed so that he can go to the moon before he passes away.  The doctors reasonably assume that the best way to accomplish this is to go back to his earliest memories and implant in him the desire to become an astronaut.  But they can't do it.  Not at first.  After doing some more poking around, they discover that the reason is his wife.  With her in his life, he has no reason to want to go to the moon.  The only way for his desire to go to the moon to surface is to remove his wife from the picture, meaning he would die having no recollection of her or their relationship.  This provokes some of the trickiest questions yet.  Is it right?  They're only memories after all; the real her had already passed away, so it's not as if they would be affecting anything in real life.  But does that make it okay?

The doctors go through with it, removing a crucial memory of he and her meeting each other.  Sure enough, they are then successfully able to nurture a desire in him to become an astronaut.  This is near the end of the game, and there's a poignant sense of loss as you watch a montage of him training and preparing and eventually being accepted by NASA.  But then something beautiful happens.  While going through orientation, he is introduced to one of the other new recruits:  his wife.  The two of them train to go to the moon together, and upon returning begin their life together, thus recreating many of the memories that he had lost.  It's as if he loved her so much that the memory of her had become ingrained into his subconscious, so that when she was removed, the man's mind simply put her back elsewhere.  Tear-jerker!

</spoilers>

Despite the parts of this game I think could have been done better, I genuinely enjoyed this game, it's JRPG style graphics, the beautiful music, and the surprising depth of the story.  Freebird Games has hinted that there's more to the story and that they're planning on releasing future games and other content that expand upon it.  (I think there's even a free "episode" available as DLC.)  I hope we see similar interactive-storytelling like this one in the future.

Poke That Dragon!

Yet another prototype for you to play with.  This one is, I think, even simpler than the other two I've worked on.  It's called Poke the Dragon!  And that's really all there is to it.  Poke that dragon as many times as you can in sixty seconds without getting caught!  Kinda silly, but may be worth a giggle or two.  Even though the artwork was done very quick 'n dirty, I'm actually kinda of proud of it.  It's neat to see the dragon moving, even if the animation is rather crude.  But enough patting myself on the back.  Here's that link:
http://bit.ly/pokedrgn_p1

Feedback!  How was it?  Did you find it fun at all, or just boring?  What would make it funner?  Were you able to figure out how to tell when the dragon is waking up?  If I were to run with this idea, I would first of all get some better looking art, then maybe include more clues to tell whether the dragon is stirring and how close he is to waking up, etc.  We could even get more ridiculous and let you "level up" by getting different "poking tools," maybe power ups that make him fall asleep more, etc.  *le shrug*  Does that sound like it would be entertaining?

I know, I know...  Why another prototype?  When am I going to sit down and work on a real game?  Turns out I'm in discussion with a potential artist right now who could help with one of the ideas I've had so far.  In the meantime, I figured I'd try out a few more ideas and pick the one people seem to enjoy the most.  I was also curious to see just how simple I could make a game and still have it be fun.  I figured for my first "published" game, the simpler the better.  Then I can work my way up.  But that also depends on what sticks.  So, of the three prototypes I've posted here (Elemental Tiles, Overflow, and Poke the Dragon) which one do you like best?  Which shows the most promise?

Review: Lurking

http://lurking-game.com/

Play...  if you're really good at holding your breath.
Don't play...  if you simply cannot keep quiet and have no way of disabling your microphone.

In many ways Lurking reminds me a lot of Slender.  A free, relatively short, indie, minimalist, psychological horror.  Lurking is unique however in its game mechanics and how those mechanics make you interact with the game.  In addition to your standard first-person controls, you also use your computer's microphone.  The majority of the game is pitch black, but whenever you make a noise in the game (by walking or knocking things over) or in real life (by speech or other sounds being picked up on your microphone) the sound waves bounce off your surroundings and light up, so you can see using a form of echolocation.  Unfortunately, so can "they."

As horror games go, this one is on the milder side of the spectrum, but still quite scary the first time through, and for a number of reasons.  The graphics are very simple, but that works in the game's favor.  There is some voice-acting which, to be honest, is quite cheesy, but it doesn't detract too much from the game experience.  One place this game really shines is level design.  The using-sound-to-see mechanic is unique, and yet as you go through the game you learn more about it and using it becomes intuitive.

<spoilers>

My favorite moment from this game was the final level.  My brother-in-law was watching me play and we discovered we could use one of the tape players left behind by the inventor to distract the monster on that level.  However, in order for that to work I had to back myself into a corner and thanks to the microphone we had to stay perfectly silent.  We failed a number of times but finally succeeded after literally clamping our hands over our mouths, scarcely daring to breathe as the creature stalked past us.  Loved that added element of immersion!

The best part of any psychological horror game is the lurking insinuations (no pun intended) that it brings to mind.  As the game progresses, you begin to gather hints that these red monsters that are hunting you are something even more sinister... perhaps something buried within your own psyche.  Your deepest fears or the worst part of your nature?  Whatever it is, it's so ingrained within your being that it cannot be escaped, as demonstrated by the very end of the game.  Just when you thought you'd escaped the laboratory and into the light, you walk down a path and find another small building.  Wary, you open the door only to find the very room you began in, and just as you realize this, the inner door leading to the darkness opens of its own accord, inviting you to give up running and embrace what's lurking inside of yourself.  A chilling end; I loved it!

</spoilers>

Lurking is a fun little horror game, but not too scary in my opinion... at least it didn't give me nightmares like Slender has!  The download is free and playable in about 30-60 minutes.  As usual for these types of games, it is best played in a dark room with a good pair of headphones.  The "microphone calibration" didn't work very well for me, but it turned out to be unnecessary, because the default settings worked just fine.  Give it a try; step into the darkness!

E. Tiles: Now with Graphics!

I've added some temporary graphics to Elemental Tiles to replace the old text-only interface.  This may make it easier to tell what's going on.  The tiles still don't animate; I eventually want them to slide to their new location (again, similar to 2048) instead of just instantly appearing there.  Also, I'm in discussion with someone who may agree to be the artist for my first game.  That will most likely be either Elemental Tiles or Overflow.  Either way, I do eventually want to finish this game, including finished graphics, and when I do have prettier graphics it should be simple to replace the stand-in graphics.
So, want to see the new prototype?  Take a lookie!
http://bit.ly/etile_p2
Like before, you'll probably need to allow plugins to run on the page.  And as always, I value all feedback!  I'll add this new prototype to the alpha bundle sometime in the near future; whether you sign up before or after the update is added, you'll still get it.