2011-06-11 18:33:10

Hey guys, earlier this week I started working on a little game idea that popped in to my head at work.  To clarify, this is Not! the game I've been developing with Locutus that will be using head tracking technology.  As you all know by now, I can't keep myself from branching out into other ideas, so I present to you, yet another side project.  Temporal.

The current status of the game is pretty rough.  I don't even have any sounds in it, except for screen reader dialog.  The reason I'm posting this game so early, is because I need to get people's reactions to the game's concept.  As far as I know, no other audio games work like this one, so I don't want to invest too much time into it until I know people don't hate it, haha!

In Temporal, you awaken in a government facility deep underground.  You don't know how long they have been studying you, but you have been kept in a drug induced, unconscious state, to prevent you from escaping.  Through some type of mistake, you have awaken.  Keeping you unconscious was this facility's first line of defense against the most powerful human ever to walk the earth.  you.  Using your powers, to jump forward and backward through time, you must escape the lab they have been keeping you in.  This game requires you to keep careful track of what you have already done, as well as planning ahead for what you intend to still do.  Traveling through time means you will share the environment with all other instances of yourself who were present at that time.  Confusing?  If you jump back in time, you may run through a room where a past version of yourself is busy attacking the guards.  When you hold open a door now, later you will travel back in time to this point in order to run through it!  With everything going on, you must always be careful not to run into any past versions of yourself, or you will destroy the continuity of events and lose the game.

www.kaldobsky.com/audiogames/temporal.zip  (1.33MB)(v1.3b  Last updated 7-5-11 9:35am EST)
Twynn92 has put together a walk through to help people get the hang of playing the game.  Here is the link:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yl6s0d

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-06-11 18:47:46

Oooh! This sounds like awesome fun! I'm going to try it now and report back on how it went.

2011-06-11 18:59:18

THis game is really hard. Like hard. Like really hard. I mean I killed a few guard but they are all blocking the doors.

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
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2011-06-11 19:35:20

I've fixed a bug that caused some problems to arise after leaving the menu and returning to an ongoing game.  If you have the time, I do recommend grabbing the new update.  Saved games should still work even after updating the game.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-06-11 20:10:40

I couldn't find how to save my game. However, I got into and out of the security cntrol room, and relized that there was really nothing to the terminal, because I hacked the computer and opened up the main door, and held the switch so I could leave the security terminal room, and went to the main door, and behind the main dor was a closed security door! THere were no other buttons or doors or anything in the lab so I was basically stuck stuck stuck.

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
Follow @TheGreatAthlon5 on twitter for humorous facts and game updates!
If you like my posts, thumb me up!

2011-06-11 20:20:32

... Wow. XD
I like this concept. It's definitely interesting.
Having just started I'm still pretty haphazard with my strategies. I managed to kill all the guards in the lab only to walk into the security door and get crushed (whether it does that automatically, or whether I should have waited for all the guards to die I haven't discovered yet...).

I can see this having an atmosphere somewhat like Night of Parasite if sfx / music were added.
And on that note, the ability to quickly check and see what the nearest object (bee it a door or guard or whatever) in a given direction is would be pretty helpful.

I really like this concept. I haven't gotten far enough to tell if there are any major problems or needs for improvement yet. ^_^

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-06-11 20:36:07

KeyisFull, to save the game, press escape and find Save game on the menu list.  Since you have a game currently in progress, it gives you that option now.  I foresee me changing around the menus a bit later, but for now, they seem to get the job done.  Was the door you ran into, the emergency door?  If so, that door was closed when the guards spotted you leaving your cell, if you weren't able to kill them fast enough.  Because the game is turn based, it seems strange that it would take the guards over a dozen ticks to hit the emergency alarm, but in real life this could represent the very short time it took them to notice you, realize you weren't the lab technician, and reach for the alarm buttons stationed near each of them.  I've already had one person tell me there just isn't enough time to kill them all.  My response was to chuckle and remind them they can travel through time, hehe.  I hope that helps!

CAE_Jones, the doors don't crush you automatically, so I would chalk that up to bad timing.  You were probably standing in the doorway when the huge steel door was closed by someone else.  Whenever I find I have lost track of when doors open and close, I take it as a good time to get out from within any door ways, ROFL!  Oh yes, and I've been writing down people's suggestions about helpful commands to add.  I will do my best to add them in a timely manner.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-06-11 20:45:06

Downloading this now, probably try it later... Sounds like another interesting one, Aprone.

"I've learned that this life's not just a game, just a line, between the pleasures and the pain." - Aaron Lewis

2011-06-11 20:55:13 (edited by twynn92 2011-06-11 21:25:14)

Not sure how yet, but I got a runtime error 9 or something similar to that. Guess I should have copied it... Ugh. Is there a log somewhere?

Can you separate where all the guards are into separate messages? And can we somehow view said messages over and over again after moving?

Also, Tick zero isn't supposed to exist, right? Or is it.

2011-06-11 21:05:05

This should come as no surprise to anyone who followed Lunimals, but I'm already posting updates and the game is only about an hour old, lol.  There's no better way to spot bugs, or gather useful suggestions, than to post a game for everyone to try.  If you've already been playing the game, I'd ask that you once again download the latest version.  I've fixed a few reported bugs, including one that would sometimes fail to report guards in a room if there were exactly 2.  I've added in the suggestion to list other instances of yourself along with the room description.  At any time, remember you can press C to refresh your messages after loading up a saved game.

Twynn92, if you get that error to happen again, please let me know.  Um, currently the only way to get updated guard information is to press C to refresh the room message.  I'm written down your idea to separate the messages, and I will look for a good way to implement it.  As always, thanks for the suggestions everyone!  big_smile

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-06-11 21:09:12

especially the door messages. I find myself going back over and over again to review what doors are around. Even better would be a view command so you could view everything in the room all in 1 scoop like guards, doors, terminals whatever, past versions of yourself, whatever, and switches of course.

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
Follow @TheGreatAthlon5 on twitter for humorous facts and game updates!
If you like my posts, thumb me up!

2011-06-11 21:13:25

KeyIsFull, can you give a little more information about your view command idea?  I'm just not sure I understand it yet, please let me know how it would differ from the current room descriptions.  Anything I can do to help people understand the environment around them, I will gladly work to add!

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-06-11 21:25:36

Well, you press like v or something. A list comes up, allowing you to listen to what's around 1 by 1, and what they are doing if it is a previous you. Also, You could even, if you wished, include a sound scape feature. It would browse each row starting at the top, restricted to the current room of course, and play different sounds fo like something to kill, a door, a switch, an alternate you, and where you are at right now.

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
Follow @TheGreatAthlon5 on twitter for humorous facts and game updates!
If you like my posts, thumb me up!

2011-06-11 21:28:52

You'd think, after getting the error once, I'd save more often, right? Nope, I just didn't save at all...

Run-time error '9':

Subscript out of range

Time to figure out why and how I'm getting this error.

Aprone, would it be useful if I submitted a saved game and told you the exact steps to replicate said error? It happened twice now, so I'm pretty sure I could do it again. It always happens when I timejump to tick zero.

currently the only way to get updated guard information is to press C to refresh the room message.

Oh. I guess I didn't really understand the purpose of that key when I read about it... smile

2011-06-11 21:46:44

Hmm, I've gotten into the security control room, but can't seem to get out even while holding the button at m8.

I actually had a problem earlier where I tried to move twice before sapi had finished talking, and my system locked up for several seconds. Jaws and the game seemed to be clashing over CPU after I restarted, so I had to close jaws to get it stable again. It's been working fine since (I'm using NVDA at the moment).
Whatever happened there, it could easily be some inconvenient combination of my computer, Jaws, and me rushing it at a bad time. (I also had firefox open at the time, I think). I don't know if I want to try to freeze my computer again to reproduce it, lol.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-06-11 21:53:34

hi aprone and everyone else, smile
this game is pretty good considdering it's only about a week old lol.

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. -Abraham Lincoln

2011-06-11 21:58:19

twynn92, having your saved game file would be incredibly useful!  Once I can get the error to occur right in front of me, I can usually trace it back to the source easily.

KeyIsFull, I've written down your idea and will work on adding it.  I agree that it is a good idea, and would be quite useful to everyone.

CAE_Jones, I'm not really sure what would have caused the hang-up, but unless it happens again I'll just assume it was some odd combination of everything running at the same time.  The door switch for the security room is at J-10 actually.  The switch at M-8 opens the server room door.  Like many high security facilities, these people did their best to ensure multiple people were needed in order to freely move around.  Time travel has a funny way of getting past traditional security measures though.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-06-11 22:16:13 (edited by twynn92 2011-06-11 22:20:24)

Aprone,
I've replicated the error in this saved game file. Download the saved game, load it into Temporal, press space to load the tick timejump dialog thing, enter 0, then press enter. Voila! Error awaits!

2011-06-11 22:20:46

Thank you twynn, I will check this out in a few minutes.  Hopefully my next update will fix this problem for you.

Excellent!  Thanks to that saved game, I had no trouble at all, finding and fixing the bug.  If you download the update I just posted, it should fix the problem for you.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-06-11 22:39:55

Awesome! I'll go and play the game, and look for more bugs, now. smile

In all honesty, this game is probably one of the most fun games I've played yet. Although if I want to go far, I better write down the stuff I do so that I can refer back to it so as not to revisit myself without knowing.

Your games are so distracting... big_smile

2011-06-11 22:42:03

Awe, if I had known that before I saved with it impossible to escape. ^_^. My timing on getting into the room was pretty poor, and I didn't leave the door open for me to get back out, and it's only open long enough for me to get in.

So I started over, and now I've escaped. smile
It's easy to forget when you have past versions of yourself walking around... I was hurrying up toward the server room door after having set it up so I could get in, and completely forgot that I had jumped back to the time I had walked up to the door when it was locked and had to load. XD

Although I haven't tried leaving without completing that last bit yet. I think I'll go do that now. ^_^

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-06-11 22:44:59

It's awesome to see you're already putting out updates for this game so frequently. I still haven't tried it, but I have a feeling I'll be as addicted to this one as I am to all your other games. lol
Speaking of your other games, I just purchased a wireless mouse today finally to try and conker Daytona. My other mouse didn't have enough wire on it, so I couldn't draw the shapes like I wanted to if that makes any sense.

"I've learned that this life's not just a game, just a line, between the pleasures and the pain." - Aaron Lewis

2011-06-11 22:55:34

Aprone,
Is it possible for you to implement a "go to cell" feature? For example, I want to go to L10 really quickly without arrowing around or something, virtually, of course (as in me not moving) to explore the surroundings. I assume that the game will grow larger and so it'd be a nice feature to have.

2011-06-11 22:58:08

CAE_Jones, you might not have actually been trapped after all.  I'm sure you didn't hold the door open long enough to enter the room, hack the computer, and get back out, but could you have just jumped back again to when the door was first being held open?  If you waited for your past self to walk through the doorway first, you could have then walked out assuming it was held open for a few ticks longer.

Staindaddict, hopefully you'll like the game once you've had a chance to play it.  Lunimals was a little more polished when I first released it, so expect to be a little disappointed with this one at least as far as sounds are concerned.  I still haven't gotten around to adding any, so this might be one of the only audio games without any audio!  ROFL!

Twynn, I'm not quite sure how I should have such a feature work, but I do like the idea.  You're right, other missions may be on smaller or larger maps, so it would be nice if you could quickly jump around.  If you have any ideas on how best to accomplish it, please share.  I've written down your idea so I don't 'forget it, maybe I will think of something.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-06-11 23:07:48

I had the door opened just long enough for me to get through once, not long enough to get through twice without bumping into myself.

As for a go to cell feature, I can see three ways of doing this (well, four if you bring the mouse back in. ^_^).
One would be to just have pressing a letter / number move the view to the row / column in question. That would require reassigning keys that are already in use, though.
So a better alternative might be to hold shift or control and work the same way.
The other option would be to just have a key that asks for a cell to jump to (via input box, I guess).

I like option 2 (modifier key + column / row address). It leaves the rest of the keys available for any future use that might be worth having and doesn't require reassigning C / D / F.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.