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

[J_C]

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.

Believe me, I would react the same way if i saw my game as an outsider.

 

[J_C]

Pfew, that was a good few days. I managed to make more progress in the last week than in the previous months combined. Dialogue of Chapter 2 is 99% in place. There is one big puzzle to implement (the "Boss puzzle" of Chapter 2), setting up item usage in the events and I can move to sound design again.

And of course, the beta demo is still available here:
http://tinyurl.com/gnqxrdq

Things are looking up, I have found new enthusiasm for the game. It will be funny when people say that this is more of an adventure game than Broken Age.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

more of an adventure game than Broken Age.

Bloody low bar that, old boy.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

more of an adventure game than Broken Age.

Bloody low bar that, old boy.

Well, judging how the game feels like a poor man's attempt to make a cuck edition of To The Moon, I'd say he didn't get far from Broken Age.

 

[J_C]

more of an adventure game than Broken Age.

Bloody low bar that, old boy.

Well, judging how the game feels like a poor man's attempt to make a cuck edition of To The Moon, I'd say he didn't get far from Broken Age.

Thanks for feedback, you really know how to motivate people.

 

[DosBuster]

Well, I played the first few minutes and I liked it, nice atmosphere in the opening cinematic, dialogue is very bad though, why would a nurse's recount be so dramatic when it comes to the player's wounds, doesn't she see similar things often? Especially with monsters already about?

Also, the player needs a goal that isn't just "fuck around here for a few weeks", also give the player a reason to care about their family.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

more of an adventure game than Broken Age.

Bloody low bar that, old boy.

Well, judging how the game feels like a poor man's attempt to make a cuck edition of To The Moon, I'd say he didn't get far from Broken Age.

Thanks for feedback, you really know how to motivate people.

Offering next batch of my motivational posts for ten cuck... ahem, bucks.

 

[J_C]

Well, I played the first few minutes and I liked it, nice atmosphere in the opening cinematic, dialogue is very bad though, why would a nurse's recount be so dramatic when it comes to the player's wounds, doesn't she see similar things often? Especially with monsters already about?

Also, the player needs a goal that isn't just "fuck around here for a few weeks", also give the player a reason to care about their family.

Thanks for checking it. I will make another pass on the dialogue when the game is finished, so I can improve these parts. Although writing probably won't be the game's strong points, since I'm not a good writer. I hope the overall story will grab people, but the simple pieces of dialogues definitely need improvement.

I will try to make up for it with the gameplay.

 

[J_C]

Someone on another forum suggested that I do some kind of built in hint system for the game, so those who are shit at hard puzzles can advance in the game. I don't know... I was thinking about something similar, but at the same time I'm not sure it is such a good idea. Maybe I just write a walkthrough and add it to the game folder.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Maybe you can make the walkthrough an important plot item that the player must set on fire in the very beginning in order to get a good ending.
Just my two cents.

 

[J_C]

That's actually a pretty fun idea. :D I was thinking about having different endings anyway.

 

[J_C]

Big milestone reached today. Just finished the last map, which means there are a total of 76 of them in the game. The last act of the game turned out bigger than expected, but it is all the better. I will probably fix and tweak the maps as I'm wrapping up production, but that won't be a major change, just some minor alterations.

So, all that is remains is to finalize the gameplay of the last act, add sound/music and I can launch the beta version, which will be all about bug fixing and polishing.

This will be really happenning. I can't believe it that I will pull this through.

 

[abnaxus]

 

[MRY]

I haven't looked at the demo, but in terms of writing, you might want to check out Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing. It's for a different medium, and Egri's got a huge political ax to grind, but I think its core insight (about conflict/dialectic and how that should drive the story) can really make a difference in avoiding the longwinded rambling that sometimes afflicts new game writers.

 

[Mustawd]

Or just rewrite every piece of dialogue Hemingway wrote..

 

[J_C]

I haven't looked at the demo, but in terms of writing, you might want to check out Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing. It's for a different medium, and Egri's got a huge political ax to grind, but I think its core insight (about conflict/dialectic and how that should drive the story) can really make a difference in avoiding the longwinded rambling that sometimes afflicts new game writers.

Thank you for the advice, I will try to squeeze some time to take a look at it.

PS: Funny, this is a hungarian writers's work (me also being hungarian). I didn't know he wrote such an influential book.

 

[MRY]

You can probably get away with skimming. Or, if you can't get that far, the basic idea he has, at its very simplest level, is that a story has to be about a strong proposition, essentially embodied in the protagonist, being tested by other characters. This is in some ways super obvious, but his fairly radical point is that every dialogue should be in service of that theme, and that slack dialogue is slack because it lacks the conflict. It's kind of hard to summarize, but it's a pretty interesting point, and one that I found quite useful in writing for TTON. Obviously in a game things are quite a bit different -- you probably have more than one strong proposition, and dialogue needs to be about gameplay not just themes, etc. But still. I found it useful. One of only a couple books on writing I got something concrete out of.

 

[DeepOcean]

As MRY said, Lajos Egri book is really good and easy to read, recommend Story from Robert Mckee too, it is more for movie script writers but there are some great tips on that book that could apply to game writing too. Writer's Journey from Chirstopher Vogler is good too, especially as you are making a fantasy game.

 

[J_C]

Thanks guys for the advice, really appriciate it.

 

[Trip]

For some shorter, but still relevant stuff:

Creating theme - This on theme
Creating Dynamic Situation - This on situation
Exposition as ammunition stackexchange thread - This on dialogue/exposition
Petitioner and Granter in dialogue sequences (an excerpt) - This on dynamic dialogue (pdf warning)

 

[Ashenai]

Hi, if you still need help I'm willing to proofread/improve your writing for free. Mostly because you're Hungarian, which is weird because I hate my country so very much.

Let me know if you want to take me up on this. I'm a decent writer. At the very least, I can help your protagonist not say shit like THIS to kids.

 

[J_C]

At the very least, I can help your protagonist not say shit like THIS to kids.

I don't know what you are talking about. I always talk to kids like that. Thanks for the offer by the way, I will think about it.

 

[Berekän]

The way it's worded makes it appear as if you want to diddle some children on the side of the road.

 

[Ashenai]

Yeah, to be up for something means to feel like doing something, usually along with the person asking. When you ask someone if they're up for something, you're suggesting they do that activity with you. Your sentence means "Biztosak vagytok benne, hogy nincs kedvetek velem valami ocsmányat csinálni?"

You were going for the expression "up to something."

 

[J_C]

Yeah, to be up for something means to feel like doing something, usually along with the person asking. When you ask someone if they're up for something, you're suggesting they do that activity with you. Your sentence means "Biztosak vagytok benne, hogy nincs kedvetek velem valami ocsmányat csinálni?"

You were going for the expression "up to something."

Damn, you are right. Although who knows, maybe the character wants do to something nasty.