83 replies to this topic

[Mercerenies]

Demensitis

What is this?
Demensitis is a text-based adventure game wherein you follow the plot as a teenager who has been given the task of finding a cure to a deadly disease that threatens to engulf humanity. This isn't like normal text-based games where there is one right answer to everything and you simply sit in the background and watch the plot flow. You decide what happens. You choose which characters you want to befriend and which ones you prefer dead. You accumulate your own inventory and decide which items are best used in battle.

Features
•Text-based prompts, some with comical answers that will have amusing results.
•An inventory system, from which you can use items at any point, adding variety to the game.
•A turn-based battle system.
•An achievement system, featuring 80 achievements of varying difficulty.

Screenshots
Getting Started:

Spoiler

Inventory:

Spoiler

The Shopkeeper:

Spoiler

Battle:

Spoiler

More Screenshots

Download
http://www.mediafire...ie5bbk3b3y992ex

Changelog
Full Versions:

Spoiler

1.0
- Part X complete
- Achievement system added
- Officially released

Demo Versions:

Spoiler

7.2
- Fixed crucial bug with later parts of the game
7.1
- Fixed crucial surfaces bug
- Added command line parameters
- Stat changes are now shown
- Rewrote transition engine for efficiency
7.0
- Part IX complete
- New file loading menu implemented
6.2
- Fixed a major bug with the creation of new save files
6.1
- Fixed some major inconsistencies in the code
- Many minor bugfixes
6.0
- Part VIII complete
- Added colored text to keywords
- Added AI to enemies
- Various UI tweaks
5.1
- Crucial bugfix
5.0
- Parts VI and VII complete
- Nerfed a few enemies
4.0
- Part V complete
- Added an options screen to turn off certain special effects on older computers
- Transitions can now be skipped by pressing ENTER
- Minor bugfixes
3.0
- Part IV complete
- Migrated to Game Maker 8.1
- Fixed incredibly slow room transitions
- Added a helpscreen to the menu at the start of the game
- Added an inverted color scheme (Press F2 to use)
- Added a really cool looking wavy effect to certain parts of the game
2.1
- Crucial bugfix involving starting a new game
- Added scrolling in the main game window with the scrollwheel
2.0
- Part III complete
- Bugfix when exiting a battle after winning
1.0
- Initial demo release
- Parts I and II complete

Progress
Demensitis has now been officially released. No major features will be added in the foreseeable future, but I will still be monitoring this topic and fixing any bugs that are reported to me.

Notes
•The game does open in full screen. It does not change your screen resolution. If you prefer to play it in windowed mode, press F4.
•The game was compiled in Game Maker 8.1 and is therefore compatible with both Windows Vista and Windows 7. I have not tested the game on Windows 8.
•The game saves automatically at predefined points. It tells you when it does so. You may not save your game at other points.
•In newer releases, the game files are managed by the game itself in your AppData folder. If you have a file somewhere else on your computer from a previous version, use the "Import File" function to copy it into AppData.
•During battle, you type the item you wish to use and press ENTER to attack with it (the game explains this). If you wish to use the same item as last turn, simply press the UP ARROW key (the game does not explain this). However, please do not spam UP ARROW and ENTER quickly, as this has been known to cause issues, specifically if you press ENTER at the end of a battle during the transition back to the main game. (This bug has hopefully been fixed in more recent versions. Please report if you still experience problems.)
•If you prefer the white-on-black color scheme to the default, run the game with the command line parameter "-inverted" (without quotes), and it will open with the inverted color scheme.
•If you are on a public or school computer and do not wish to save your game to the AppData folder, run the game with the command line parameter "-portable", and it will use the old file save/load system and ask you where you want to save.
•It is not possible to earn every achievement in one game file. The achievements are saved with your user, not your file, so you can play through the game multiple times to clear any achievements you miss the first time.

Edited by Mercerenies, 15 February 2013 - 02:00 AM.

[Mercerenies]

Demensitis Demo 2.0 is now available.

Part III has been added to the game.

Feedback welcome. And please report any typos or grammatical errors you find. I'm a bit of a grammar nazi, and I rushed in typing some of this, so there are probably a few errors.

[chance]

Not bad. I played through the neighbor encounter and practice, then went to the mountain, met the retired wizard...

oh wait... I don't want to give away the plot. Anyway, it was fun. You don't see many text adventure games nowadays.

Some suggestions:

1. Jazz up the narrative a bit. Use more interesting descriptions of things the player sees. Your language here is pretty bare, so you need to "paint a picture" in the player's mind.

2. Maybe you could add some "branching paths" to follow -- like the Zork series. As it is, the player's movement options here are pretty one-directional.

But it was a very good start. I hope you continue it. +1

[Mercerenies]

Not bad. I played through the neighbor encounter and practice, then went to the mountain, met the retired wizard...

oh wait... I don't want to give away the plot. Anyway, it was fun. You don't see many text adventure games nowadays.

Some suggestions:

1. Jazz up the narrative a bit. Use more interesting descriptions of things the player sees. Your language here is pretty bare, so you need to "paint a picture" in the player's mind.

2. Maybe you could add some "branching paths" to follow -- like the Zork series. As it is, the player's movement options here are pretty one-directional.

But it was a very good start. I hope you continue it. +1

*gasp* There are people actually playing this! Lol.

Thanks.

And concerning the branching paths idea, I have a rough idea of a plot that I want this game to follow as it is, but I do hope to add more choices so that the game can branch off chapter-by-chapter but then converge at the end. I tried making a game with a similar plot that branches off and doesn't converge a few years ago, but I quickly gave up on the project once it became too massive. It's too much for just one designer!

[sners]

I have played it a bit, but when i was about to fight the evil guy on the mountain (forgot his name) fir the second time i still wasn't strong enough and with no way of training i had to start a new game.
I liked the battle system with the exception of one thing, the time it takes to go from adventure to battle.

When i started a new game for the reason above, the game stopped working when i went to sleep in the retired wizard's hut.

[Mercerenies]

evil guy on the mountain (forgot his name) fir the second time i still wasn't strong enough and with no way of training i had to start a new game.

Yeah, that's the first major boss battle in the game. The trick, if you read the dialogue, is to defend for the first few turns (the Ring boosts your DEF), and your enemy will weaken in strength every turn.

I liked the battle system with the exception of one thing, the time it takes to go from adventure to battle.

Do you mean the literal transition length?

When i started a new game for the reason above, the game stopped working when i went to sleep in the retired wizard's hut.

Hm... I can't seem to reproduce that error... were you doing anything different than normal when it did that? :/

[sners]

Do you mean the literal transition length?

Yes, but that could be just me i don't really like waiting.

Hm... I can't seem to reproduce that error... were you doing anything different than normal when it did that? :/

When i have to wait i start to press random buttons to see if i can skip it.
And it seems your game doesn't like the left mouse button.

[Mercerenies]

Yes, but that could be just me i don't really like waiting.

I've noticed that that transition runs significantly slower on my laptop than my desktop. I figured it was my laptop being slow, but maybe that's normal and my desktop ran it abnormally fast. I'll try running it on a few more machines and see if that's the case.

When i have to wait i start to press random buttons to see if i can skip it.

Ah, I cheated and used the room transitions to create that effect, so it can't be skipped.
I still can't duplicate your error though, so it must've been the way the thing responded to a particular key...

And it seems your game doesn't like the left mouse button.

"Doesn't like" as in ignores completely, or "doesn't like" as in behaves oddly in reaction to?

[sners]

And it seems your game doesn't like the left mouse button.

"Doesn't like" as in ignores completely, or "doesn't like" as in behaves oddly in reaction to?

Doesn't like as in crashes the game, but it only works during the room transition.

[Mercerenies]

And it seems your game doesn't like the left mouse button.

"Doesn't like" as in ignores completely, or "doesn't like" as in behaves oddly in reaction to?

Doesn't like as in crashes the game, but it only works during the room transition.

Hm... I can't seem to make that happen on my end either. I don't know what's going on. :/

[sners]

If you can't make it happen, it could be a problem with my laptop.

[Mercerenies]

If you can't make it happen, it could be a problem with my laptop.

Could be. We'll see if anyone else has similar issues.

[Piemaniac]

I like this game so far, a text-based adventure is a nice change-up. I'll leave for you a few thoughts that came up during gameplay:

- Sleeping is waaayyyy too slow. I went afk and got a snack while waiting for the cycle to end.
- I got confused the first time when entering battle as to why the screen flashed three times (which was only weird because each flash took around 3 seconds). Either have each flash be very quick or just have one wash-out to white, sort of the opposite of how you come out of a battle back into the regular game.
- Would you consider white text on black background?
- Remember to keep your fonts consistent! Notably in battle and in the inventory.
- To keep blocks of text cleaner, is it necessary to have "[Name]: " before each line of dialogue?
- For your sake I hope you've coded a story engine that allows you to easily add new story options and things as you develop the game, especially as it eventually expands into 10 full parts. Currently the game does feel like you have some freedom of choice until you realize that the "wrong" answers eventually force you into the central storyline anyway, so right now it feels very linear for the most part.

Overall it was enjoyable to play! I will enjoy seeing where this goes.

[Mercerenies]

- Sleeping is waaayyyy too slow. I went afk and got a snack while waiting for the cycle to end.

I'll go ahead and speed that up in the code right now. I agree.

- I got confused the first time when entering battle as to why the screen flashed three times (which was only weird because each flash took around 3 seconds). Either have each flash be very quick or just have one wash-out to white, sort of the opposite of how you come out of a battle back into the regular game.

The transition seems to run moderately fast for me, but I'm more thinking that I'm the one with abnormal behavior. I'll have to run the transition on another computer to check...

- Would you consider white text on black background?

I may make that an option in the future so that the user can choose between the two.

- Remember to keep your fonts consistent! Notably in battle and in the inventory.

Hm... I was actually doing just the opposite: Trying to create contrast to show the difference between the the main window and popup UIs.

- To keep blocks of text cleaner, is it necessary to have "[Name]: " before each line of dialogue?

What are you suggesting in replacement? I added those tags when the number of characters got high enough that you couldn't tell who was speaking with quotes alone.

- For your sake I hope you've coded a story engine that allows you to easily add new story options and things as you develop the game, especially as it eventually expands into 10 full parts. Currently the game does feel like you have some freedom of choice until you realize that the "wrong" answers eventually force you into the central storyline anyway, so right now it feels very linear for the most part.

I'm not sure what you mean here... clarify?

[Piemaniac]

I added those tags when the number of characters got high enough that you couldn't tell who was speaking with quotes alone.

What I meant was just having a paragraph of dialogue in cases where there are several lines by the same person. If there is not a break in the quotes to describe action or to have a new person talk, then it's understood that the speaker has not changed. If this format you're using is standard for these types of games or you just have the personal preference then feel free to handle it in any way you see fit.

I'm not sure what you mean here... clarify?

Oh, all I meant was that having a well-set-up game on your end will make it easier to add and change story elements as you continue working on it. e.g. If you go back and add more story detours, which would be nice, I hope it won't be difficult to do so.

Hm... I was actually doing just the opposite: Trying to create contrast to show the difference between the the main window and popup UIs.

Oh ok. Just from a design standpoint, basically use any other font for the battle/inventory since my mind immediately recognizes it as the default font (or very similar)

Something else that came to mind since playing, are the instances of flashing to white (or black for sleeping) all room transitions? Mayhaps that is why you are having a different experience in terms of speed. I'm not sure how they work but maybe GM is really inefficient with room transitions so they work slower on older computers? It could be something to research. Having a white/black box covering the screen with a slowly added or subtracted alpha would accomplish the same thing and might run more consistently between machines.

[Mercerenies]

What I meant was just having a paragraph of dialogue in cases where there are several lines by the same person. If there is not a break in the quotes to describe action or to have a new person talk, then it's understood that the speaker has not changed. If this format you're using is standard for these types of games or you just have the personal preference then feel free to handle it in any way you see fit.

No, I think that's a good idea. I'm just trying to find excuses 'cause I don't wanna go through the whole first half of the game again and fix it

Oh, all I meant was that having a well-set-up game on your end will make it easier to add and change story elements as you continue working on it. e.g. If you go back and add more story detours, which would be nice, I hope it won't be difficult to do so.

Then yeah, I think I'll be fine. The system has worked thus far, and I trust that it'll work to the end.

Oh ok. Just from a design standpoint, basically use any other font for the battle/inventory since my mind immediately recognizes it as the default font (or very similar)

Oh, you think they look too similar? I thought you were saying they looked too different
Yeah, I want contrast, so I'll probably change that soon if it looks similar.

Something else that came to mind since playing, are the instances of flashing to white (or black for sleeping) all room transitions? Mayhaps that is why you are having a different experience in terms of speed. I'm not sure how they work but maybe GM is really inefficient with room transitions so they work slower on older computers? It could be something to research. Having a white/black box covering the screen with a slowly added or subtracted alpha would accomplish the same thing and might run more consistently between machines.

Yup, they're both room transitions. I suppose I could get rid of the sleeping one the way you say, but I'll still have to use a transition to get in and out of battle (those are actually different rooms), so I'll have to fix the problem anyway. I'll look into that. Thanks.

[Piemaniac]

Oh, you think they look too similar? I thought you were saying they looked too different

Sorry didn't clarify - they look too different in my opinion, but if you are going to keep them different then change the lesser-used one to anything else since I recognized it as Game Maker's default font, not the default font in your game.

I'll still have to use a transition to get in and out of battle (those are actually different rooms)

Yeah that one is not as problematic, no worries.

[Mercerenies]

Sorry didn't clarify - they look too different in my opinion, but if you are going to keep them different then change the lesser-used one to anything else since I recognized it as Game Maker's default font, not the default font in your game.

Ah, that makes sense now. I'll mess around with it and find another one that looks good then. Thanks for the feedback

[Mercerenies]

Alright. I've been looking into the transitions. I found a topic on the GMC from a long time ago that was, in essence, a GML script that ran transitions. I used it to test my current transitions and... Wow! Those things are slow! I don't know what Game Maker was doing with them on my computer, but after looking at the numbers, the "proper" speeds would've been:
Normal battle entry transition: 16 seconds
Sleep transition: 32 seconds
"Dramatic" battle entry transition (plays before boss battles): 64 seconds (We have a winner)
So, yeah, sorry about the ridiculous wait times. I'll probably release a UI only update (as in, no new story elements, but an improved UI) in a few days.

On another note, I've added the inverted color scheme (white text on black) as requested. It'll appear in the next update, and you'll be able to switch to it with F2.

On an entirely unrelated note, my GM8 has ceased to function. So this game will now be developed in GM8.1. Any subtle UI changes that appear in the next update that I'm unaware of can be blamed on the transition.

[Mercerenies]

Well, so much for the UI only update. Part IV is done. Enjoy.