2018-07-09 04:23:09

Excited to finally release my first audio game! The Great Cheese Robbery is a turn-based strategy game in which you play as a mouse who has broken into a house that is rumored to hold a piece of cheese of mythical proportions. Navigate the game board in one of five game modes, and try to make it out alive with as much cheese as you can gather, all while avoiding the cat that roams the house, traps that will bring your adventure to an early end, and other items that may or may not help you. The game is currently available in English, Spanish, German, and Portuguese. To read more and download, visit http://patoprod.com/index.php/2018/07/0 … e-robbery/

Los Angeles Based musician, blogger, and programmer.
https://artistibarra.com/

2018-07-09 04:40:32

hi there...
first time I tryed to download I got 404 not found, but now I can download the game but it's only 600kb , and I can't extract it smile

2018-07-09 04:53:28

Apologies, accidentally made some changes which broke the download link for a couple minutes. Should be working fine now, and clearly off to a smooth start. haha

Los Angeles Based musician, blogger, and programmer.
https://artistibarra.com/

2018-07-09 08:07:24

Hi.

Nice to see a new developer.
I've downloaded the game and given it a try. I really like the sounds, especially the way the trap sounds pan as you move around the board, and the mousetrap squish is particularly amusing big_smile.

My only major problem at the moment is basically the game is entirely one of chance, there is literally nothing you can do to prevent bad outcomes, which essentially turns the game into snakes and ladders. Since there are no bennificial squares and bonus cheese or shields are awarded on specific dice rolls, even rolling to go back would only make sense if you happen to miss the square with the big block of cheese and want another go back to get it.
Likewise, there is literally no way of avoiding the traps, either the god of random numbers is your friend or not, usually not (especially when you get below ten food, which makes the quick escape mode nearly impossible to survive for more than four turns).

I don't want to be harsh, I can see the work that has gone into the game, the presentation, the atmosphere, the translations into different languages are all very well put together, but if there isn't too much I can do to improve my performance at the game but wait for random chance to  favour me, the game will quickly become frustrating, indeed I've played about 10 games so far  all have ended rather quickly (particularly since cat attack makes quick escape mode a death sentence within four turns).

Even in the world of dice games, there are games with tactics, look at the likes of Ludo or backgammon as examples, points where its necessary to make value judgements based on dice rolls (actually I rather enjoy backgammon myself), perhaps adding a little of that sort of tactical play into great cheese  might be helpful?

For example, what if you could pick up cheese to take with you, but had to sacrifice moving one square each of the dice for every piece of cheese you carried? or what if there were cheese as bate in the traps, and landing close to a trap would earn some (which would also mean using the dice back option would help), or perhaps there could be survivors of previous mouse raids cought in traps that you had to rescue, but at a sacrifice of some of your existing food, making it a case of resource conservation?

Lastly as a miner stylistic point, I would suggest perhaps changing the "small cheeses" you gather as part of your food collection to some other, more utilitarian item, for example breadcrumbs, or nuts, and keep "cheese" as the main reward item in the game to avoid confusion and make it clear that your actually robbing cheese big_smile.

Looking forward to seeing future releases, or indeed improvements to the main game.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-07-09 08:14:47

Hi.
I haven't tried the game yet, but I would like to congratulate you on the first release. It's quite a big release for a developers first game. I'm impressed, and look forward to give the game a try.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-07-09 13:45:47

Hey I like this, it feels really polished and well thought out. Kudos for doing something like this, putting the time in, making sure its good to go before it gets booted out the door in to the wider world of gameliness.
I do agree with Dark though, it seems far too random, seeing as luck being on your side or not is the only way you can get ahead.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-07-09 18:56:30

yea glad to see your first release. can't wait for future updates for this game or new games! congrats

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2018-07-09 19:25:22 (edited by Orko 2018-07-09 19:26:51)

From Dark's description, this sounds a lot like the chance games on Alexa and I didn't like those, you have no control over the possible outcomes at all. I like randomness in games for things like maze or dungeon layout, placement of enemies and treasures, etc, but the outcome of the game, success or failure should depend on the skill of the player, not on whether some random number generator decides to drop a rock on your head or not.

But congratulations on your first release, that's quite an accomplishment.

2018-07-09 20:26:56

@@Orko, no this isn't like chance dungeon or chance starship, its more like snakes and ladders where the hazards are on the board and you roll dice to try to get to the end whilst avoiding them.

The problem is that firstly, you literally can't do anything about avoiding hazards other than roll the dice and hope, and secondly, every turn you lose one food, and once your food gets below ten there is a random chance of you being killed by the cat, whether you've landed on a trap or not, so basically the hole game revolves around being very, very lucky.

its a shame, the sound quality is awesome, the messages you get when you die are amusing, and clearly a lot of work has gone into the presentation of the game (there's even a high score menu and several game modes), I just wish there was a wee bit more tactics as I said.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-07-09 22:45:23

Hey:
So I just downloaded and ran the game but i get no sounds. Any ideas?

2018-07-10 14:15:16

Maybe its starting up, but then crashing before the sounds can load in, are you able to alt tab and see the window. For me, it runs fine, no crashing, no bugs, etc, but every machine is different.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-07-10 15:24:38

I don't think there are any actual startup sounds. When you begin the game you should be told "welcome to the great cheese robbery" and be in the start  menu where you can start game, check high scores etc.

The readme doesn't say what screen readers are supported, but it seems to work with NVda and microsoft Sapi though not supernova.

I don't know about Jaws.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-07-10 15:41:43

Jaws is dependant on the coder, its written in BGT, I can tell this because of the little window that pops up at the top left, all BGT windows are this same size, and look exactly alike. SO its a matter of, did the developer check if Jaws was running, and if so, install the key hook? If the answer is yes, it will work with Jaws, if not, then it probably will not, or mileage will vary.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-07-10 18:24:09

O the game works fine. Its just that when I go to learn game sounds and volume adjust I don't hear a thing, not even when i roll the dice and move around the board. Is this normal?

2018-07-10 18:44:37

Thanks for all the feedback so far!

At Dark and ironcross32, definitely some valid points. This was an issue I discussed with the folks who helped me test this, and the compromise wound up being what is under the "Hints" in the readme. The map doesn't ever change, so everything remains where it is. You can check out the hints for more details, but basically there as a special item every five squares, and some of the more major items are layed out specifically in the hints. We came to this conclusion after debating how much to give away without taking all the fun of the guess work.

At KenshiraTheTrinity, I'm not sure what could be causing this, but would appreciate any other info you might have so I can hunt down what's wrong. The only thing that comes to mind is if you downloaded within the hour or so after my original post, as I'd accidentally broken the download link in a way that made some downloads at that time faulty. The zip should be around 21 mb in size, if it's less than that, you may be having the download issue I mentioned.

The game has support for all the screen readers BGT supports, but myself and the testers were only using JAWS and NVDA.

Los Angeles Based musician, blogger, and programmer.
https://artistibarra.com/

2018-07-10 21:48:49

You going to add a donation button? This seems like allot of hard work went into it, plus sound libraries unless you made your own sounds.

2018-07-10 23:27:52

i think the game is cool:)

2018-07-11 04:31:30

I vhecked the size of the game and the zipped file was 21 mb while the unzipped version was a little over 23 mb. Don't think its because I'm on xp. I played through a normal game and won in just a few moments without really knowing on, since all that was being anounced were my squares and food. Thats about all the info I have since it didn't error during my playthrough.

2018-07-11 07:56:10

Hi.
I've now tried the game, and I agree that there is too much of luck and randomness in the gameplay. The game is cool, but not something which I feel like playing multiple times. I like the sounds, the layout and other things. But the gameplay could be better. I'm just not sure on what to add to make it a better experience.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-07-11 09:07:21 (edited by the blasting gd 2018-07-11 09:11:06)

Hi all,
Great game Quacker and congratulations on your first release. I do, however, agree to what was said about that chance dominating the game would cut down on its replay value. Nevertheless, you have certainly put a lot of work into this game and for those of you who want to support Quacker for his effort, you should check out the readme; rather at the bottom there is a line which will let you know how to do that. It always pays to read the readme. wink

Errare humanum est!

2018-07-11 14:09:23

Thanks Blasting.
@quacker
Can we get sounds for walking over traps, cheese, items ETC so it'd be easier to know when to try for a back roll? or do you think that would give too much away.
Obviously if we keep trying and missing we'll just waste food anyway.
Is their any way we can get more differing ambience? what's their now is great quality and you've got very nice panning, but I think a fish tank, clock, dripping tap, wood stove, ETC, even some people ambience like a TV/radio, rocking chair, someone cutting vegetables or doing dishes, that would all be quite cool.
Obviously if this takes place at night than the latter wouldn't make sense, but then maybe some crickets or someone snoring off to the side or something.
Could really add to the scene.
Also I noticed that effects such as the shield play their activation sound before the roll that started them, which is kind of odd...
I really like the different game modes, it adds a nice touch, and I've never played a game where you can move backwards before, so that's pretty interesting too.
I love the little laugh the mouse makes when his shield breaks LOL.

2018-07-11 15:00:06

@Quacker Can we send our translations for the game? I can do a Serbian one if you are interested.

2018-07-11 16:37:58

great game, quacker.

are you a pato?
ARe you Spanish?
haha.

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2018-07-14 03:34:01

At KenshiraTheTrinity, honestly stumped here. Would be curious to hear if any others are having issues similar to this which may point to what might be going on.

At defender, the idea of playing a sound when walking over a square with an item is certainly a good one, and surprised neither I nor the testers came up with it! haha I'm not sure how well it would fit given how the game is operating now, but might be fun to go back and add another mode that randomizes the game board layout, but gives you clues in the manner you described. Thanks for the feedback!

At nidza07, certainly, and thanks for the offer! Once it is done, feel free to shoot me a message on here or through the website and I'll be in touch about adding it to the download.

At ogomez92, what ever would make you guess that? haha For you non-Spanish speakers, "pato" means duck in Spanish, and having held the nickname "Ducky" among my circle of friends for many years, the choice of what name to release under was basically made for me!

Los Angeles Based musician, blogger, and programmer.
https://artistibarra.com/

2018-07-14 12:04:25

I have made an Arabic translation for the game, where would you like me to submit it?
By the way, good job for creating your first game, I've enjoyed it a lot. Let's hope it won't be your last