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INSANIA by AthenaGames - DEMO [PC]

PostPosted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 6:33 pm
by AprilSkies
Hi everyone,

We are ATHENA GAMES a new Italian indipendent studio oriented towards games development (principally focused on the Adventure games development).
This is our WebSite: http://www.puntaeclicca.com/athenagames/index.php

Our first game (made with AM 4.6.1) is called INSANIA and would like to present to you the DEMO of the first episode: "INSANIA Ep.1 - Nightmares from the past"

Story:

Mike Rubens, a young and brilliant judge of london, is renowned for his investigative ability bringing to justice many criminals. Everything seemed going for the best: He has a nice house, a beautiful wife, a normal life broken up by moments of confused memories and by moments of blackout.

Mike's life will undergo a grievous and unexpected change outstanding any human feelings: He will be accused for the murder of his wife Diana! He doesn't have any chances of defending himself since he was caught by the police beside his wife's body with a knife covered with blood in his hand. Everything seems unreal and in his cell he is desperate and he asks why all this is happening to him.

Everything appears against him until one day he receives help from a mysterious person that helps him to escape. Mike is hesitant, after all he is a man of law, but he wants to investigate e prove his innocence and this has the upper hand. Mike still doesn't know what's waiting for him: nightmares, murders, unreal situations that will devastate his mind driving him to "Insania".

Is Mike really insane?

Why does somebody he doesn't know want to help him?

You can DOWNLOAD the DEMO GAME from this link:
http://www.puntaeclicca.com/athenagames ... _ENG_V.rar

Characteristics of the game:

- First person
- Puzzle medium-high.
- Exploration
- Anxiety
- Investigation


Give us your impressions!

PostPosted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 9:33 pm
by reneuend
I'm downloading now! It's awesome to see a new game in the works! Thanks!

:shock: Very NICE!!!

The navigation is a little messed up in places, but your design is great! The game is very well done!

When its completed, this MUST go on the AdventureMaker Game Site

There are some english spelling and grammar mistakes. Let me know if you need an english beta tester.

Oh. There are a few english mistakes on the website that you might want to fix.

well done.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 9:42 am
by Simon
I download the demo. I hope I won't get the "library not registered" error, like it happened on the game of ImmortalWind (Some peace of mind)

PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 10:16 am
by AprilSkies
reneuend wrote:I'm downloading now! It's awesome to see a new game in the works! Thanks!

:shock: Very NICE!!!

The navigation is a little messed up in places, but your design is great! The game is very well done!

When its completed, this MUST go on the AdventureMaker Game Site

There are some english spelling and grammar mistakes. Let me know if you need an english beta tester.

Oh. There are a few english mistakes on the website that you might want to fix.

well done.


thank you.

yes, we may need an english beta tester. It's a good idea, cause we are Italian and everyone who tested the game is from english non spoeaking countries... so why not ...

PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:01 am
by Simon
Ok, I've been playing with the demo and I'm stuck :p


I'm in the first house with a locked door, a desk with a lamp and 3 books, and on the left another room with a stepladder, paintings and shelves.

I found the word which explains how to open the door, I took the key I found in the trash can, and got also the pliers on the shelf.

I then used the key on the door mecanism, it worked correctly and put back the rotative arrow to the top.

Then the judge says he needs something to insert in the holes so he can rotate the mecanism. I've tried the pliers many many times. I also have some soap which doesn't seem very helpful here.

I've tried clicking everywhere in these 2 rooms and didn't find the way to go further...

****************

First impressions on your game. I'll be honest, and I hope I won't seem too harsh.

The overall is good, I like the direction and how the story takes place. The voices are a good surprise and fit well to the game, even if they're not always very persuasive. But that's an excellent thing to have voices, and it makes the game more immersive. The scenario seems serious and well thought, and the mystery around the murders made me want to continue the game (until I was stuck...)
Overall : good.

The audio is very good, I really felt the oppression in the opening scene, then the panic while escaping from jail. Both the sfx and the music are well chosen. There's a sfx I didn't like (the one when a new object is added to your inventory) : it reminds me of a windows sound or something I already heard somewhere...
Audio : very good.

Graphisms are effective, I feel there was a lot of work on them. The environments are as glaucous as we expect them to be in this game, and I liked. The colors are well chosen too, and I didn't feel amateurism in this part. All I could say is that the environments are a bit empty.
On the contrary, I'm mitigate about one of the characters. The policeman in the opening scene seems unreal, like frozen. I don't know how to describe him... I think his posture is too straight. But that's a detail. I really liked the way some mysterious characters appeared : the one which gives us the key to exit the jail, and the mysterious shadow talking to us before the second murder. This is exciting, because it works well with the story !
Graphisms : good.

I'll end with the gameplay. This is somehow what gave me most problems. There are a lot of good ideas (the letters being kept in the documents near the inventory), but sometimes you don't really know where to click. I think it's often a problem of cursor : when I see a down arrow, I think the camera will watch downstairs, but in fact it brings the hero a few steps backwards.
Also, I don't always understand your choice of placement of the hotspots. And one thing that really annoyed me is that you can't go back on your steps most of the time. I understand it's due to the urgency of the judge's situation, but it's a bit frustrating sometimes. Example : when you get out of the jail, you have to open a big door with 4 (or 5 ?) locks. But when you're in front of the door, you cannot go back on your steps to watch the desk which was on your right. You can't even go back in your jail. Same thing when you're in the street : I cliked immediately in the left path (which continued the story with the 2nd murder), but I couldn't go back to examine the police car I saw quickly before I clicked on the left alley.
Well, that's somehow logic for the judge to go fast (who would like to go back in jail ?) but we're in an adventure game, and you never know if you didn't forget a new object to add to your inventory... The player needs liberty in this kind of game, I think...
Gameplay : a few problems to solve.

To conclude, I'd say this is an interesting game. I couldn't go very far as I'm stuck, but I enjoyed the play. There was a lot of work to make this game, I can feel it, and I must congratulate you for your motivation. If only you could solve the small gameplay problems ! I encourage you to keep the good work and continue to make this kind of games !

PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 4:48 pm
by AprilSkies
Thank you Simon for your comments and suggestions.

about the game play we had to make a choice: allow the player to turn around or to use the "technique of shrimp" (how we call it) ... that means that the player can go back on his steps. we choose the second 'cause "turning" will make the game confusing (we tried it.. and it's confusing).
We didn't use "scrolling" (like cubic panorama or cylindrical) 'cause we are not so able in graphics.

In the very beginning of the game it's true, the player cannot go back in his steps, and that's because the judge is "escaping", but in the rest of the game he can do it ...

The game is difficult i know ... It's normal you're stuck in the "house" ... you have to find another object (one more) ... (there's a little pixel hunting) and use it "on" something, to "make" something that you can put in the rotative mechanism ...

PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:23 am
by Simon
AprilSkies wrote:Thank you Simon for your comments and suggestions.

No problem, I hope people will enjoy your game because I had fun with the demo !

AprilSkies wrote:about the game play we had to make a choice: allow the player to turn around or to use the "technique of shrimp" (how we call it) ... that means that the player can go back on his steps. we choose the second 'cause "turning" will make the game confusing (we tried it.. and it's confusing).
We didn't use "scrolling" (like cubic panorama or cylindrical) 'cause we are not so able in graphics.

I undrstand, I also have this kind of problem in my game...

AprilSkies wrote:In the very beginning of the game it's true, the player cannot go back in his steps, and that's because the judge is "escaping", but in the rest of the game he can do it ...

That's what I thought, it only happens during the escape. Great then !

AprilSkies wrote:The game is difficult i know ... It's normal you're stuck in the "house" ... you have to find another object (one more) ... (there's a little pixel hunting) and use it "on" something, to "make" something that you can put in the rotative mechanism ...

Haaa ! I'm gonna try again then :)

Edit :
I've found the secateurs (wirecutters ?) but still don't know what to do with them :( I've tried them on everything ! It's very difficult :cry:

How did you make this inventory in your game ? It's better than the native one from AM ! Did you use a plugin ?

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:13 pm
by ShadowHunter
Hi,

Great to see this demo, I'm very pleasant surprised.

One tip, don't exit on "X" press immediately but ask if the player is sure they want to leave or not... (I've read the warning in the PDF, but most will not read it, trust me :wink:)

Please continue like this :D

With best regards,

ShAdOwHuNtEr

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 7:36 am
by AprilSkies
Thank you ShadowHunter!

Good idea to insert a "quit confirmation"!

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:08 am
by Simon
As you speak of a "quit" confirmation, I think it would be better to keep a menu (the right click for example) because most people won't remember the shortcut keys... First time I played, I wasn't careful and wanted to open the menu : nothing. So I exited with alt+f4 without saving... It's true that I was trying to go fast because I had other things to do, but that's still an example.

PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 12:24 am
by reneuend
Sounds like a good idea for a plugin!

PostPosted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 1:07 pm
by AprilSkies
Yeah it would be a good idea for a plug-in!

We didn't use a men? to exit or save the game to avoid saving in the men? page ... we prefered to use the standard savegame popup.

but anyway we should use an exit confirmation