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First Try: Escape from Hick Chick Run- Finished

PostPosted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 8:49 am
by reneuend
:!: Updated new download link (01/06/09): The original download link has exceeded the allotted bandwidth. please use the following instead.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=ce536882a2fba06fd2db6fb9a8902bda
:!: Update V1.72 (01/05/09): Game tested and fixes have been made. Try it out and let me know what you think. I included a readme.doc. While it may be a little helpful, it's geared more toward non-AM users.
:!: Update: I'm having someone retest this game before I put out the final version.
(01/05/09)The latest version is:
http://www.fileupyours.com/view/226193/EHCRunV1-72.zip

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This is my first game using Adventure Maker. Feedback is appreciated. I don't have a digital tablet or scanner to build drawings with, so it was done completely with a mouse and PSP. One glaring mistake is the mishandling of the first-person orientation from one frame to the next. I can see where 360 panoramic views would help with this. Next time!

Also, thank you for advice and patience from others on this forum! :)

Name: Escape from Hick Chick Run
Windows based first person adventure
file size: 50 Mb

Game is loosely based on experience with chickens and chicken farmers. I realize chicken adventures might be a bit overdone, but having some history with them gave me some ideas that I knew would get some laughs from those that I drew my ideas from.

I appreciate constructive feedback!

Image
The farmer

Image
What's an adventure without an explosion or two?

Download link for the game(updated!): http://www.fileupyours.com/view/226193/EHCRunV1-72.zip
or
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=ce536882a2fba06fd2db6fb9a8902bda

PostPosted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:29 am
by MRM2811
Heh, A nice little concept.
I like the graphic work too.

I will DL and have a look.

:)

PostPosted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:44 am
by Lyberodoggy
The game looks fine, it's a little difficult meaning that you don't really know what to do next, and has a bug. Major one, when clicking in a chicken box I get an error... dunno why, but It just keeps poping

I'll take a look

PostPosted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:24 am
by reneuend
Thanks Lyberodoggy. My 10 year old beta-testers didn't run into this one! :(

I'll take a look and see if I can find the issue. I assume it's right at the beginning?

Updated Download file

PostPosted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:53 am
by reneuend
Thanks for the quick call on the error. Turned out to be just a simple syntax error. If there are any more major bugs, I'll yank it and do a more thorough testing.

Here is the new file:
http://www.fileupyours.com/view/226193/EHRunv1_6_1.zip

PostPosted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:11 pm
by Lyberodoggy
OMG... another 20 mins :P

suspending until testing is finished

PostPosted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:46 pm
by reneuend
:!: Update: I'm having someone retest this game before I put out the final version.
The latest version is:
http://www.fileupyours.com/view/226193/EHCRunv1_7.zip
----
:oops: Sorry for the premature submission. My first beta-testers didn't do a thorough job.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 1:50 am
by Zenoc2
Oh sure, blame it on the ten-year-olds! :P

I'll download as soon as I'm done with what I'm working on.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 8:30 pm
by reneuend
Zenoc2: That's why you have kids, right? :twisted:

Zenoc2, MRM2811, and Lyberodoggy: Thanks for your interest and comments. I already found a couple dumb mistakes where I left some debug statements in the code. I took them out and updated my download but unless you want to help test it, you might want to wait until the fully tested update (not by my 10 year olds! :)).

Version 1.72 - Fixed and tested

PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:06 pm
by reneuend
It seems pretty solid. Let me know what you think. Thanks for everyone's comments and interest.

download zip file includes executable and readme.doc:
http://www.fileupyours.com/view/226193/EHCRunV1-72.zip

PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:54 pm
by Lyberodoggy
If you need beta-test in your next game, post in the Beta testing section of this forum

Additional Download link

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:50 pm
by reneuend
The original download link has a bandwidth limitation that has been exceeded. Please use the following instead: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=ce536882a2fba06fd2db6fb9a8902bda

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:52 am
by reneuend
Lyberodoggy! Are you saying I should fire my kids? :wink:

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:25 am
by Lyberodoggy
hehe... No, just give them the vacation :P

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:00 pm
by Mystery
Hi reneuend,

Funny topic, and I like your graphics, too. :)
Hmmm, but I find it extremely difficult to navigate (in terms of orientation).
Been through many screens so far but only found grub to pick up :lol:

yeah. I know.

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:52 pm
by reneuend
Hey Mystery,

Yes. I totally agree with you. The navigation is horrible. :oops: I'm totally embarrassed by it. I guess I was too close to the work to see how bad it was.

:shock: HOWEVER!!!! You could only find the grub? Really? My wife did better than that! have you found the bad wallboard? where there are other things to find? Have you found the cracker? The roach? The string? Go to the feedbag and pull on the string. You need to move some dirty straw to get to the bad wallboard. That should get you started.

:wink: Thanks for compliments. Someday, I'll invest in a graphics tablet or scanner so I can do better artwork. For now, if I keep the subject matter light-hearted it shouldn't make too much difference.

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:12 pm
by Mystery
Hi reneuend,

Well, the orientation is just not player-friendly ;)
Don't worry too much about that, it takes much experience to create a game that is player-friendly (in terms of orientation, navigation, understanding what's going on etc.).
I'm also still learning a lot from player feedback on each game that I make. As a game creator you just know too much, and therefore it's not easy to take the perspective of a player who has no idea of anything :)

Hmmm, yeah, seen the roach, a calendar, cracker, string, but I can't pick them up.
Otherwise I've been clicking around and all I got were messages, lol :lol: I'm often playing room escape and point-and-click games, and I usually do quite well.
Maybe in this case I just got a bit frustrated about the navigation (e.g. clicking on the right arrow brings you to another screen, then clicking on the left arrow to go back doesn't work because you bump in a wall), and my confusion about such things took away my ability to focus on finding items :lol:

I haven't given up, I saved it, but I needed a break.
I'll post more feedback if I can finish :)

And I think that for your first game you did well :)

PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 12:46 am
by reneuend
Hey Mystery,

Next time, I'll make sure the navigation is perfect. If you find it frustrating, wait until you go outside the coop! If knock over the water feeder outside, you have to get back to the coop before the farmer grabs you. movement from frame to frame is timed and you have to navigate across the puddle so the farmer will slip and fall. Anyway, the concept seemed good at the time. :roll:

PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:01 am
by Mystery
I've already been outside aswell. :)

The strange thing is that I can't pick up or move things, just the grub.
Can't move dirty straw, can't pick up cracker or string etc.
I must be missing a trick, lol :lol:

PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 3:37 am
by reneuend
OK. Maybe this is it:

The normal arrow cursor will only give you a general description.
:arrow: To perform an action (like moving or picking up), you first need to click on the "hand" icon.
:arrow: To look at something more closely, use the magnifying glass icon.
:arrow: To talk to someone (albeit, not used much), use the lips icon.

I hope this helps!

PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:07 pm
by reneuend
ok. there is a small issue where you lose the string after using it and the only way to get the string is to open the feed sack again. I'm going to fix this and add a little navigation map for the coop to help out Mystery....ok....Mystery and my wife can't be the only ones struggling with the navigation, so it's for everyone else also! :)

stay-tuned for version 1.73!

PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:36 pm
by Mystery
Lol, thanks for the tipps, I thought that the hand was the "regular" mouse pointer :oops:
Now I'm of course further :D

Btw, there are things that you can pick up several times (e.g. cracker)

*Goes back to figure out things*

I'm curious about the enhanced navigation :D

PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 7:47 pm
by reneuend
I knew about the cracker. It's an easy fix, but I every time I went through the game I just ignored the fact that it was still laying there! I believe that's the only multiple. The string was fun to work with because I made sure it was dropped every time it was used. Then because some scenes were made up with mutiple frames which showed up based on certain outcomes, it became a challenge to determine where the string should be! Thank goodness for the HasItem routine someone wrote up! :)

I'm glad your getting further...I'll go tell the wife she's alone again! :lol:

PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 8:24 pm
by saturn
I think i found 2 problems. One is that each time the farmer "punishes" you, you always find another cracker. I had 4 and kept getting. Also i don't seem able to get the hammer (?) from the wall, i click on it, it disappears but the "bump" sound continues and it doesn't appear in my inventory....the navigation issue was mentioned before...

PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 8:35 pm
by reneuend
:oops: Hammer? I believe you are talking about the grub. Hahaha! Sorry Saturn. It's obvious I'm going to have to get a graphics tablet.

I think you just need to click on the "hand" icon first then click on the ..er..grub thingy!

The normal arrow cursor will only give you a general description.
:arrow: To perform an action (like moving or picking up), you first need to click on the "hand" icon.
:arrow: To look at something more closely, use the magnifying glass icon.
:arrow: To talk to someone (albeit, not used much), use the lips icon.

I just didn't add code to disable the cracker image when you return to that frame. I fixed it and will be available in the next release along with the navigation fix.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 8:37 pm
by Mystery
I think I know what saturn means, I thought it was a nail :lol:
It disappears when I click it, but doesn't show up in the inventory, then re-appears when I come back to that screen.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 1:16 am
by reneuend
You guys are hard on publicity! :oops:

First remember, I'm using a mouse to draw all this. With that said, I'm including the sordid picture of the GRUB on the nail, so everyone can see that it's not a hammer, or a just a nail, or a Michael Jackson doing the splits.... :roll:

Image

When you click on the nail, the grub falls and you have to pick up the grub. I'm using a 22" widescreen. Could that possibly cause a problem? I'll have to test this on a regular screen. I've never seen it NOT show up until you come back. (sigh)

I appreciate yalls comments...I really do. Now I know what I'm up against! :wink:

PostPosted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 1:59 am
by Mystery
Well so, as I said it is a nail, btw nothing against your drawing :)

Well, since I started 1-2 days ago, and continued the saved game, I already forgot where I found what. So it's confusing that the nail disappears and reappears ;) But with variables you could disable the nail from reappearing after it has once fallen down :)

Just don't take the comments too hard, it's your first game after all, and a good one :) There are just some confusions for players in it :wink:

PostPosted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 3:54 am
by MRM2811
If you are looking at getting a graphics tablet I would suggest "Bamboo".

PS. Cute lil game as I expected, Keep up the work.
:)

PostPosted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 5:13 am
by reneuend
Thanks Mystery. I'll take care of the nail! Actually, I like critical comments. But, I also like to have fun with them. If no one criticizes then I won't improve. I created a walkthru, but I thought I would wait until I tweaked this thing a bit before putting it out there. I need to put this to bed though since I'm getting involved in other events on this forum and I have a certification exam to get ready for. School never ends...never.