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A Long Road Home - AVAILABLE ON STEAM - ME NEED FOOD - GO BUY IT!

Would you give J_C's adventure game a go?

  • LOL, yeah, like he will ever finish it!

    Votes: 27 34.6%
  • Don't care and won't try it! Fuck you J_C!

    Votes: 21 26.9%
  • Even his game deserves a chance, I will try it if it's released.

    Votes: 30 38.5%

  • Total voters
    78

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
I had a quick thought about designing dialogues in adventure games. Many of them in the past used dialogues where they list some options you can choose, but in the end, you will exhaust all of the options anyway, so why is there an option to choose from them?

In an RPG, it makes more sense, because it can lead to some nice C&C, but in a linear adventure game, you can just put a natural flowing dialogue in the game which contain all the dialogue options in the conversation, without you having to click on them. Sure, it takes some interactivity away, but as I mentioned, you will choose all of the options anyway, so what's the point?
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

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Yeah, I would enjoy re-reading 100 lines of dialogue to recall some small detail.
And I really like to discuss all available subjects without an option to elaborate.

All living creatures are just stupid record players which blast their pre-recorded crap on loop, right?
 

J_C

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Yeah, I would enjoy re-reading 100 lines of dialogue to recall some small detail.
And I really like to discuss all available subjects without an option to elaborate.

All living creatures are just stupid record players which blast their pre-recorded crap on loop, right?
Well that's a point I haven't thought about. You are right.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Just realized that the name I choose for my "studio" is 01BitStudio, and the potatoe bros who made This War of Mine are 11 Bit Studios.

:dead:
 

J_C

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Hello Dear Codexian Brothers, Sisters, Furries, Trannies and Gays!

This is a big day, since I managed to finish my first demo for the first game I created. It is not something amazing, actually it is quite shit, but I'm happy that I actually could finish this, instead of abandon it halfway (like I used to). The demo features around 2 hours of gameplay, and it is the first chapter of the story. If you want to waste 2 hours of your life, you might want to check it out. And of course I welcome any kind of feedback, even if it just saying that it is shit.

Follow this link to download the demo:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/a-long-road-home/downloads/a-long-road-home-demo
 
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SniperHF

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J_C

So I've played this thing up to the room in the dungeon place with a bunch of the Ishta lore.
Here are my stream of consciousness thoughts, A lot of the early stuff is minor shit:


In Julie's first dialog she says "good bye", it should probably be "goodbye" though I guess there are grammar nazi wars over this.

I liked the characterization with the pie description and with the note on the wall about the Dr.

Why does Dr. Rasin give a strange newcomer a quest without much dialog? Is he supposed to be kind of aloof? Maybe the PC could offer to help first since the Dr. helped you?

Offer a prayer at the grave? Why when you can't actually do it? [obviously this is figured out later]

The hole in the ground by billy's with a "fresh piece of work", phrasing is weird. Piece of work is also an idiom that doesn't really fit a hole in the ground so the meaning is weird in plain language despite "piece of work" not being incorrect.

Similarly, I found the "he is my friend" line when speaking of Dr Raisn a bit odd.

4 "bottle" or "bottles" of goat milk?

For the recipe I assumed I actually had to acquire a knife and cut the item to pieces using the combo system? Guess not.

Is there some reason you can't just blow off Old billy and use his 50 coppers from the guard to buy supplies?

Similar to the piece of work line, a spade is a thing but most people just say Shovel. Or is calling it a spade supposed to be part of the puzzle?

"Piece and quiet?" - I wasn't sure if this was some clue or just a typo.

Can you add a clickable button on the HUD to use items in addition to "Q"

Julie dialog "hi hi" ? Is that supposed to be he he?

For the language translation puzzles, I think the font is a problem The j's kinda look like i's. Upper/case vs lower case is an unnecessary complication.

The "A" letter doesn't make sense to have Z before it since, Z isn't before A. Maybe go with "reward" instead of "prize"?

On the skull " hope someone will give you a fair price description", didn't really like that as a hint. Felt silly to pawn an artifact to some vendor instead of showing the Dr. that you solved the puzzle. Maybe there was another way to solve this though?

This puzzle - Ishta szeme perzselj! was annoying on several levels.
For one it feels like you're fighting the interface more than anything. Also I didn't see a backspace key but that could just be my own retardation. Also again with the font stuff, lower/upper case, does it matter? I don't know. Did I need the !? (Yes I did, this was annoying). If you can't work a better interface for input you should cut it down to one word. Also it wasn't clear if you needed to type in the translation or the raw text which further compounding the interface fighting.

During the dream sequence/memory thing:
Melissa says "mmm I try" . Is that supposed to be baby talk or should it just be "I'll try".

I tried to "use" my root of yellow acher on one of those red mushrooms in the dark room and the game crashed.

The font for "introduction to theology" sucks, a lot. Hard to read.



I'm not really much for adventure games so take it FWIW. But it was reasonably enjoyable for an RPGMaker thing to kill an hour while I had nothing else to do at work :cool:.

Though right now I'm stuck in the dark room with no way to light it up. I did see an oil lamp available for purchase but I have no cash. I did find the button puzzle while bumbling in the dark but couldn't find the lever part. As well as the oil jar but couldn't find an item to use on it.

Here is a list of my current items:

Root of Yellow acher
Incomplete potion
Snailroot (which for some reason I could not combine with the incomplete potion?)
History book v2
Ornamental Knife (which I tried using on the button puzzle)
Canteen + Water
Rope
Strawberry pie
Rasin's recipie
Magnifying glass
 
Last edited:

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
SniperHF
First and foremost, I appreciate that you took your time to play the game, and even more to give this very detailed feedback. Thank you very much. I'll try to address each of your points.

First, you are correct about the typos and the wrong use of some english words. I tried to do my best about the writing, even though I have some problems with english here and there. I am looking for a proofreader, but the ones I found so far asked too much money. Even for this short demo, it could be around 150 dollars. Maybe some Codexian will help me out later. :P

As for the non-language related ones:
Why does Dr. Rasin give a strange newcomer a quest without much dialog? Is he supposed to be kind of aloof? Maybe the PC could offer to help first since the Dr. helped you?
True. I think I will rewrite this a bit.

Offer a prayer at the grave? Why when you can't actually do it? [obviously this is figured out later]
Well, I gave the option to pray anyway, since it is later the part of a puzzle.

For the recipe I assumed I actually had to acquire a knife and cut the item to pieces using the combo system? Guess not.
You assumed it right. You have every item you need in your inventory.

Is there some reason you can't just blow off Old billy and use his 50 coppers from the guard to buy supplies?
Well, the main reason is that it is the quest to bring back that item. :D This not being an RPG, it is more linear, there is not much choices and consequences. :) The supplies you can buy are just a distraction anyway, with the exception of the shovel. :)

Can you add a clickable button on the HUD to use items in addition to "Q"
I had a pretty nice HUD system implemented in an earlier version, but this shitty engine started to crash randomly because of it, and I couldn't solve the issue. I will try to add the Use Item function to the mouse somehow, but I'm not making any promises. Would it be better if when you right click, instead of automatically opening the inventory, you could choose if you want to open the inventory or use an item?

For the language translation puzzles, I think the font is a problem The j's kinda look like i's. Upper/case vs lower case is an unnecessary complication.
Changing the font is pretty easy, so I will look into it, I am sure I can find a better font for this. The upper case - lower case is not relevant when entering the solution, it is just there because the engine only has this built in keyboard layout.

The "A" letter doesn't make sense to have Z before it since, Z isn't before A. Maybe go with "reward" instead of "prize"?
Fair point, will look into this.

On the skull " hope someone will give you a fair price description", didn't really like that as a hint. Felt silly to pawn an artifact to some vendor instead of showing the Dr. that you solved the puzzle. Maybe there was another way to solve this though?
No, that was the only solution. I will give this a thought.

This puzzle - Ishta szeme perzselj! was annoying on several levels.
For one it feels like you're fighting the interface more than anything. Also I didn't see a backspace key but that could just be my own retardation. Also again with the font stuff, lower/upper case, does it matter? I don't know. Did I need the !? (Yes I did, this was annoying). If you can't work a better interface for input you should cut it down to one word. Also it wasn't clear if you needed to type in the translation or the raw text which further compounding the interface fighting.
Uppercase-lower case doesn't matter, as I wrote previously. There is no backspace, but I wrote an instruction about pressing X to delete characters. You can see that when you use this interface for the first time, entering your name.

To tell you the truth, I myself don't like the keyboard interface, but I would like to have puzzles which are about figuring out a word and entering it. The problem is this shitty keyboard window, which comes with the engine by default. I will try to find a solution, maybe someone from the community managed to implement a better keyboard.

I tried to "use" my root of yellow acher on one of those red mushrooms in the dark room and the game crashed.
Thanks, fixed the bug.

The font for "introduction to theology" sucks, a lot. Hard to read.
It might have something to do with having a lower light in that map. Have you turned on every light in the four rooms?


Though right now I'm stuck in the dark room with no way to light it up. I did see an oil lamp available for purchase but I have no cash. I did find the button puzzle while bumbling in the dark but couldn't find the lever part. As well as the oil jar but couldn't find an item to use on it.
As for the lever, you propably just missed it, try searching that map where you read the theology book. The solution:
It is just right of the furnace in the upper left room.
But there is a very important thing to do in that dungeon first. Hint: in the feeding place in the lower left, there is a half eaten body. Hint 2:
There is a poisionous root with you which smells and tastes awful, maybe you could mix it with something so it tastes better. :)
Final solution:
Yellos Acher+Straberry Pie= poisoned pie, which you can use on the body.

So, this is the end of it, thank you again for giving some feedback. If you muster the strength to play the game further, please let me now. There is more than half of the demo left.

Oh, and one final question. Have you had any problems with saving the game. Someone told me that he couldn't save the game, but I think that had something to do with his windows security settings.
 
Last edited:

SniperHF

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Oh, and one final question. Have you had any problems with saving the game. Someone told me that he couldn't save the game, but I think that had something to do with his windows security settings.

Saves worked fine, one thing I did not try was overwriting a save though. I just kept saving on new slots.

Would it be better if when you right click, instead of automatically opening the inventory, you could choose if you want to open the inventory or use an item?

No, the less multi layered menus the better in this engine IMO.

Uppercase-lower case doesn't matter, as I wrote previously. There is no backspace, but I wrote an instruction about pressing X to delete characters. You can see that when you use this interface for the first time, entering your name.

I guess what I meant though is that whether it actually matters or not isn't so much the issue, it's that it's not really clear if they matter or not if you're playing blind. So that leads to confusion. It's only a problem really because the interface sucks though. If you could just rip through characters typing it out it wouldn't be a problem.

You assumed it right. You have every item you need in your inventory.

For that task with the ingredient list, it seemed to accept the ingredients as is though. I didn't combine anything as the list seemed to indicate. Or did I get a crappier reward because I didn't? Not being aware of that as the player is fine, I'm just curious after the fact.
 
Last edited:

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
You assumed it right. You have every item you need in your inventory.

For that task with the ingredient list, it seemed to accept the ingredients as is though. I didn't combine anything as the list seemed to indicate. Or did I get a crappier reward because I didn't? Not being aware of that as the player is fine, I'm just curious after the fact.
It might be a bit misleading to think that you have to reproduce the potion from scratch. You don't have to. You can't really do it either beacuse you lose these items when you talk to the doctor. On the otherhand when you pick up the unfinished potion, the game tells you that it only needs snailroot. The recipe also tells you that you have to chop the snailroot to small pieces. So the final solution is: Knife+snailroot. Then you add the result to the potion.
 

SniperHF

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You assumed it right. You have every item you need in your inventory.

For that task with the ingredient list, it seemed to accept the ingredients as is though. I didn't combine anything as the list seemed to indicate. Or did I get a crappier reward because I didn't? Not being aware of that as the player is fine, I'm just curious after the fact.
It might be a bit misleading to think that you have to reproduce the potion from scratch. You don't have to. You can't really do it either beacuse you lose these items when you talk to the doctor. On the otherhand when you pick up the unfinished potion, the game tells you that it only needs snailroot. The recipe also tells you that you have to chop the snailroot to small pieces. So the final solution is: Knife+snailroot. Then you add the result to the potion.

I think we're talking about different things. I'm talking about giving the ingredients you bought with Rasin's money back to Rasin. I assumed you had to give him chopped snailroot based on the list. But he accepted it without it being chopped.
 

J_C

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
You assumed it right. You have every item you need in your inventory.

For that task with the ingredient list, it seemed to accept the ingredients as is though. I didn't combine anything as the list seemed to indicate. Or did I get a crappier reward because I didn't? Not being aware of that as the player is fine, I'm just curious after the fact.
It might be a bit misleading to think that you have to reproduce the potion from scratch. You don't have to. You can't really do it either beacuse you lose these items when you talk to the doctor. On the otherhand when you pick up the unfinished potion, the game tells you that it only needs snailroot. The recipe also tells you that you have to chop the snailroot to small pieces. So the final solution is: Knife+snailroot. Then you add the result to the potion.

I think we're talking about different things. I'm talking about giving the ingredients you bought with Rasin's money back to Rasin. I assumed you had to give him chopped snailroot based on the list. But he accepted it without it being chopped.
Oh, right right. I get it now. Yes, you just have to give him that, no need to chop it. The chop part is for later.
 

J_C

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
I'm afraid I have some problem. After I finished the demo, I cannot be arsed to continue the work. I think my enthusiasm ran out.

Maybe some of you guys were right that I won't finish this. :S
 

CyberWhale

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I'm afraid I have some problem. After I finished the demo, I cannot be arsed to continue the work. I think my enthusiasm ran out.

Maybe some of you guys were right that I won't finish this. :S

tumblr_mcgb3gPbKc1r8v175o1_r1_1280.png
 

J_C

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
I manned the fuck up and continued the game, started to create a new map! I'm not giving up you fuckers!
 

toro

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Each time I see this thread I click with the hope of finding a new game but then I see this is about J_C's baby and I forget everything again.
 

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