2019-07-25 16:02:50

Description: This is a Rogue-like, Zork-like, text-based adventure game.  You are a brave adventurer exploring the world using simple text commands.  You don't have to type, but you can if you want. Find treasure, weapons, armor, potions, and monsters! There are continuing chapters in development.

For those of you bent on having a read back feature, you can check the speech option at the top of the screen during gameplay. The speech is crisp and clear. Just pick an unlocked world and play. You will get something for completing an adventure. Link to the game on ich.io is below.

https://sleeplessinc.itch.io/swords

2019-07-25 16:23:54

I'm going to look into it, but can you tell us more?

2019-07-25 16:32:47

is this another game from wastelander?

2019-07-25 16:49:40

@2 You explore, fight monsters and collect loot and lend aid to the realm. I'm already on my second adventure. I'm curious to see how this develops. The gameplay is kinda like eamon where you use a text parser to do stuff.

@3 No.

2019-07-25 17:09:58

This seems like something that wastelander would make

2019-07-25 19:38:58

I clicked run the game but nothing happened. what did I do wrong?

2019-07-25 20:11:55

For me it took me to a link and a copywrite notice. You have to click the link to start.

2019-07-25 20:13:50

I got on there but when it brought up stuff like New game, I was not able to click on or access them.

2019-07-25 20:28:07

@KenshiraTheTrinity Absolutely loving this. Completed the angry dragon, received the ending message, any command typed from there just says game over.  Can't find a way to move on to the bog beast which the game mentions is your next adventure.  All I see is new game and reset game. What on earth am I missing?
Thanks

2019-07-25 20:57:36

Go to new game and choose it from there.

2019-07-25 21:01:35

Thanks but it looks like you lose all your items etc?

2019-07-25 21:10:26

Sorry just saw that you don't.  Didn't look at inventory.

2019-07-25 22:17:35

Gave this one a try, wow that's a nice find indeed. It does rather remind me of Eamon, though the combat seems a bit simplified from what I've seen, Eamon after all had other companions and spells and such, still as I've been really in the mood for some old school dungeoning this was just what I fancied.

I do wish the game had a few of the same advantages muds and IF had, EG x or ex for examine, and the ability to look at bad guys before they attacked you.

I also wonder if there is an order for the adventures? Since someone mentioned above I started with the angry dragon and while that was fun I wasn't exactly sure whether that was the first game or not, or when and how to play the others, indeed description of the different chapters would be nice.

Still, I'll be interested to see where this one goes and will certainly being adding to my Itch.io collection.

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.)

2019-07-25 22:37:59

Yup I started with angry dragon as well. It was a totally random decision and I saw that it was unlocked. Perhaps the dev would be willing to take some feedback.

2019-07-26 09:50:18

hello guys have you guys played this game with ios safari? i tried but i cannot play. if someone can give them a feedback please let them know that using voiceover we cannot click new game.

hi. i am a dark matter miner. yeah, i am setting mines that when something steps on it, it will explode and release huge amount of dark matters. oh sorry... i am a slave miner, i am mining dark matters...

2019-07-27 18:59:22

Okay, the poor developer apparently couldn't register on this forum but found this topic, so I  left a comment on Itch.io with a link to the introductions thread.

I have checked a couple of the other games, and it seemes that Angry dragon is the only one to start with. Test, Svelte and Alilland are all just one room affairs with no where to go and nothing to do, indeed perhaps the developer could save a bit of confusion by removing them from the selector, and maybe numbering the others if Angry dragon is indeed intended to be the first adventure.

I also wish that the games had some sort of ongoing experience factor, as in Eamon you improved with your skills, but still we'll see.

Btw, the game also describes "saying" commands. I don't have a working mike at the second, but playing  with speech would be cool, has anyone tried it?

I'll need to  run through Angry dragon again myself as I have the cookie with the safe file where I finished it on my laptop, but hay I didn't explore everywhere last time so a nice chance to run through and bash a monster or two big_smile.

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.)

2019-07-29 22:01:22

Hi everyone!  I can post now, so thank you Administrators. 

So my name is Joe Hitchens.  I create the Swords game.  I will try to answer a few of your questions about it.

"Angry Dragon" is indeed the first of what I'm calling "chapters" in a hopefully longer saga.  "Bog Beast" is the second chapter.  Those are the only two so far.

Yes, there are other modules in the list, and yes, they're really just test modules.  And yes, I should make them invisible to avoid confusion.  I'll do that.

Regarding the idea of carrying loot and attributes across the chapters.  There are a lot of issues with this, but I do intend to have "something" carry across the chapters to tie them together.  But it may be limited.  I also have to figure out how to do it as I'd like to let the player go back through previously played chapters (for top secret reasons).  So that's something I have to work out.

My intent was to make each chapter rather small, and short; Something you could play within the space of 30 to 60 minutes ... just a little fun thing to do when you're bored.  It would be an epic story/adventure, but it would be broken up into many very small chunks of game play and not heavily dependent on each other.

Regarding voice/sounds: The voice option enables the speaking of the output for you.  It does not allow you to speak the commands.  HOWEVER!  There is an Alexa version of this game that does!  The Alexa version was actually created first and includes only "Angry Dragon".  If you have an Alexa say, "Alexa, open the Swords game" and you should be able to play it with your voice.  The web based version is unlikely to have voice input anytime soon though.

Regarding iOS Safari, I didn't test that, so I don't know how well it will work.  In fact, it's only been tested in Chrome on a Mac.  It "should" work in any desktop version of Chrome or Firefox.  It might work in other desktop browsers or in in browsers on mobile devices, but can't guarantee it.

Regarding comparisons to other games.  I don't know what Eamon is.  I know generally what MUDs are, but haven't really played any.

Regarding commands.  You can type in the full verbs like "inventory", but there are some common abbreviations that work, but not all the verbs have abbreviations.  "I" for inventory should work, as well as N, S, E, W.  I think "x" is short for "study" (examine).  Perhaps "t" for take.  The abbreviations are all one letter, so just try them out until I can include the list in the instructions.  You can shorten the noun to just the general portion in most cases, if it wouldn't be ambiguous.  For example, if there is a red potion in your inventory and no other potions, you can enter "quaff potion"  and leave off the "red".

I believe you can "study" bad guys without them attacking you.

You do currently lose your loot when you play a new chapter, but again (as above) I hope to have at least sort of carry-over.  One of the main issues is that in order to carry items across chapters, those items would have to balanced in terms of game play across the whole saga.  For example, a magic sword that is crazy powerful works okay in Angry Dragon, but if I carry that over to the next chapter then does that make me super-powerful and able to murder everything in sight right from the start?  Or do I somehow increase the power of all the creatures on subsequent chapters to take that into account?  What if the player doesn't happen to have found that sword in the first chapter?  Then they'd be way too weak.  So, although I want some continuity across chapters, I still want to preserve the ability to have each chapter be a very small, self-contained little adventure unto itself.  It's a work in progress.  Ideas are welcome.

Yeah, it just keeps saying Game Over at the end.  All you can do is Reset or New Game.  It's lame.  I'll try to improve on the UI there.

Hope that answers some questions. 

I purposely wanted the game playable with your eyes shut (if you're sighted), hence the abbreviations and the voice.  I did this mainly because I wanted the player to user their imagination rather than include graphics in the game.  It's sort of as an experiment.  It actually didn't occur to me that it would be a good game for unsighted folks, but I'm glad it is, and would like to do what I can to make it as accessible as possible, so please give me pointers on how I can do that better.

I appreciate you all having a look and asking questions.  I may not be able to check this forum often.  I'm more likely to be looking at the itch.io comments.  An even more direct channel to me would be to email [email protected] or [email protected].  Please don't hesitate to give me feedback and suggestions.

Thanks everyone.

j.h.

2019-07-30 00:33:33

Hey, and welcone!You can find out more about and try out the adventuress of eamon for yourself at eamon-remastered.com, but basically, it's like sword, though it has an out of game area where you can buy equipment and increase your stats. Still, I definitely think that there's room for both of these to co-exist, because sword has enough going for it to be a unique experience. smile

I can confirm that sword works fine with chrome on android. Question: Do you plan on expanding the alexa skill to reflect the changes with the web version of the game?

I am excited to see what's coming up for the game! Keep it up smile

2019-07-30 02:06:48

No current plans to update the Alexa game, because the codebase is quite different, but you never know.

Sleepless Inc. isn't really in the game development business anymore, so right now, this is just an experiment and doesn't make any money.  As such, there's a limit to how much effort I can put into it.  If anyone has suggestions on how it might be able to generate some income please let me know.  For example, what would have to happen to make people willing to spend a few bucks for a new chapter?  Are the levels a bit dull?  Melee too boring or repetitive?  Absent the game generating at least a trickle of revenue, I can only work on it a little at a time.

I'm open to letting others use the editor to make new content, so should anyone want to do so, let me know.

Thanks again everyone.

j.h.

2019-11-14 22:27:07 (edited by sleeplessinc 2019-11-14 22:27:30)

Our tireless team spent absolutely no time at all to make a shitty kickstarter page.
Feel free to give us money.
No really, feel free.
I'm not going to beg, but "please".  (I have children.)

http://kck.st/2NPjreU