Abandoned

This game is a explorer/ mazegame.
You play an odd creature engeneered in an old abandoned laboratory. Your goal is to find your way out.

I tried to design the game in a way to give you a feeling of being abandoned and lost, not by having a lot of dead ends, but by having multiple ways to go at any time. You probably only need 30% of the items in the game to find your way out, however the game has two different endings, and for the real explorer, there is always the goal of getting 100%

Here's an old screenshot, apart from the navigation in the bottom right corner, the it still looks about the same.

Download: http://www.jajproductions.nl/Abandoned.zip

Yoyogames page: http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/51736 (Instant play is working)


Testing this game has been hard because of it's non-lineair nature and lengthyness. I'm pretty sure it'll take you at least an hour to finish, even more to get 100% I really hope after many, many hours of testing that the game is error-free, but I can't guarantee you won't run into something. Thats why I hope that if you run into something, you'll tell me about it, so I can fix it.

Another note is that this game is not for people who like everything to be clear from the start, it's really for people who like exploring and to figure things out themselves. There is not one right way to go in this game, there might be a quickest, but even I don't know what that is yet.

When you die or get one of the two endings, the game shows you how long you spent on it and the percentage of items you found. I'm really interested in the result, and I'll be waiting for the first one to get 100%

I really like the concept of this, it is kind of like a cross between An Untitled Story and Pathways, and since both of those rocked, this game probably will too. I was even thinking about making something like this for a future project, I have already downloaded this, and glanced at it briefly, but I am yet to look into it extensively. I will edit/repost after I finish my Algebra 2H homework.

This game is excellent. Starts of pretty slow but I'm a patient kind of gamer so I got into it. Great work. No errors found yet but if I find any I'll let you know.

12 megabytes? Could you somehow make it smaller?

I could make it smaller actually. The exe file itself is only 3MB, the music files that come with it make it bigger. If I reduce the quality of the music it would be smaller. I'll make a smaller version later today if I have the time, however I think the 9 MB of music may be worth the download.

If I were you, I would leave the music at the quality it is now and offer it as a separate download (like a music pack) for those of us who are willing to download the extra 9mb and for those who aren't, they get a simple 3mb download. Just a suggestion.

Anyway, I barely got to play this (leaving for school in a few minutes) but from what I did see, there's a lot of polish and it's well-structured. I'll be sure to play it more once I get home. Good work.

-PF

In my opinion music in this project is too important to be played without. However I will make a low quality download

Okay, I finally got to play this, this is DEFINATELY like a "Untitled Story" and "Pathways" cross, so naturally... I LOVE IT! It definately gives the isolated feeling you were going for, the music is beautiful, the graphics are eerie, the game in general is just plain awesome! My first try I only got 8% completion, and I timed out at 10 minutes, I am going to edit or re-post when I get a score that I am satisfied with... Haha, nice game, very hard too.

Thank you very much
I'm very glad to hear that.

I got a glance at it. Like the music, and I look forward to playing after Geometry.


Couldn't get too far. I pressed a button and got the following error:


Time to restart.

Well, make a smaller version then...

Haha, everyone who plays this game is supposed to be doing math homework.

Interesting game Jaj.. loved the eerie atmosphere and quite enjoyed trying to figure out what to do. Haven't run in to any errors as of yet.

Well, here it is, a 6 MB version. Sound quality is crap though so I really REALLY reccomend the normal version.

http://www.jajproductions.nl/AbandonedLow.zip

Just wanted to say I'm a big fan of this game. It's clear you put a lot of time and effort into it and I like it a lot. It sort of feels like Metroid with all the enemies removed which is really neat. Keep up the good work!

Yes, thats a bug. It can only happen when you don't have any powers yet though, so once you get the green lazer you don't have to worry about it anymore. I'll fix this later today.

First I thought the game was abandoned and wasn't interested since it wasn't finished. Then I realized it was the title of the game.

Excellent, but I got stuck when I got the Lazer upgrade 4. (Pow 4) then I couldn't destroy the pow.2 blocks.

I thought it would be clear that it was the title since only finished games are allowed here. I'll clearify it.



I assume you mean the red pow2 blocks? If you reach a green botanic area, you are on the right track. The road between the 3 or 4 green and the red 2 is pretty long, but also pretty lineair.

No. There were Green Lazer-blocks that I needed to break in order to reach the upgrade to Green Lazer 4. That went fine (I had pow 3 on Lazer before.) But when I tried to get back, I couldn't destroy the blocks, even though I had pow4 on lazer and the blocks were only pow2. I restarted and tried again but the same error occured. The place was just left from where you start.

Ok, I get whats happening. Since you are so close on the blocks, somehow there isn't colision between the bullet and the block.

I'll fix this later today together with the other error.
For now, there is something you can do, I know it should be working normally, but there is a way to get out in the old version. By altering the hyperspeed power and the shooting power quickly using S or A, while pressing the shoot button, the bullet will collide with the blocks and the blocks will go away. Again, this is the only place in the game where this should occur.

Haha, me too! Anyway, I just got L4 Lazer Beams and am working towards L2 Hyperspeed, but am uber lost, also, I just noticed that you hid some (shortcuts / hidden areas) throughout the game. Where you can walk through (seemingly) solid walls, you clever devil. Anyway, don't tell me where to go from here! I want it to be a surprise! Even though I am low on Oxygen.

Edit: 33% Completed: 58:00 Minutes Alive

There arn't THAT many shortcuts, kinda forgot about those later on. However there is a lot hidden behind non-solid walls. No I won't tell where.

33% is one of the highest scores I've heard about so far

This game is now in the cagematch! Don't forget to vote if you like the game

Also, I finally uploaded the game to yoyogames, and I fixed the two bugs yesterday.

Great game, got 75% (still no happy ending, I guess that there is another if I somehow heal that dying bird in the beginning area?) and could make more, but got too cnfused when looking for 1B teleporter activator :/
Why the map doesn't show the top and rightmost line of rooms?

75%, Thats amazing
The 1B activator... Do you want a hint on how to get to it?

There are 4 rooms not on the map, I didn't want to make the map bigger for just those rooms.

And 88 minutes ;p But that was the first time play and I was trying to check every possible place I could and remembered. Got headache at the end while looking for left items, so yeah, it would be nice to get that hint... I don't even remember seeing that actrivator...

Ok, I'll give a hint:

There is a part where there are a couple of lazers in a row, you can also go down in between those lazers. It looks like going down is only useful in case you mess up, but there is actually a secret passage down there as well (use truth torch) after finding that passage you should be able to find the switch. You need to have either the spark of life or the warp power in order to get to the 1B switch.

Thanks... but the switch is not working, I'm pressing 'x', the sound can be heard but it not turns blue nor the message is displayed.

Wow great game, The atmosphere is great, and I really liked the music/ambiance.

Voted for you in Cage Match and I can't wait to beat this game fully, I just KNOW the end will be awesome.

VERY good game. I like it a lot.
mind sharing your secrets?

I enjoyed this game very much. Kudos to you for showing such dedication towards this project.
I played til I died, and may even find myself going back to replay.



That's how I did lol

/adashofSiren

I havn't checked it yet, but it could be that this is another bug because of changes I made later on in the game, because I have tested it before and it worked.

EDIT: I'm afraid the problem is bigger than I though. I didn't notice it because when testing, I switched the B1 before the A1, it turns out that the B1 checks if the A1 is on or off, instead of the B1 is on or off, because of this, the B1 only works if you havn't pressed A1 yet. I'm really sorry about this, the game is just so big that things like these take hours, hours and hours of testing to find out. I'll fix it ASAP. If you want you can try out if the savefile you have now works with the new version. I expect it could, since I'm not working with persistent rooms. I'll edit when the new version is up.




I hope you are not expecting cinematics... I kept the ending pretty simple, super metroid style.

i like it, although it scares me! A great adventure game that people could keep playingfor hours on end. I really think it is excellent, but i didn't really understand the story or the point. The graphics could also be improved. But i do think it is excellent. 8/10

Uploaded a version with the bug fixed.

The point of the story is that I want to give you the exact information you would have when you get out of an egg in a strange place: Nothing. You know you are somewhere unpleasant so the goal is to get out.

So, finally completed it in 100% with time 103:22 ;p But it I've missed one bird statue, why aren't they counted?
While this game is very confusing and sometimes annoying it's most of all very entertaining and absorbing. I would give it 8.5/10 :>

Great

You missed a bird statue and got 100%... Thats odd :S

May I ask you a question?
In what pattern did the birds fly in the end?

Those statues aren't even marked on the map... Heart (at least I think so ), I've missed the top one in the right half

Thats true, they arn't marked, but they should count towards 100%
I guess it's possible to get 102% then...

BTW. The birds are almost like cinematics ;p

I thought so
You get a point for everything you do and in the end it devides the nuber of points you've gotten with the maximum number of points, I guess I just can't count that well lol.

I think that you should leave it like that. 102% is like a special treat that says "You're better than reality."

Congratulations on the Cagematch nomination.

-PF

Thank you



I won't make another version for it now at least. Don't think I'll change it.

I didn't play it very long, but I didn't really like it. I loved An Untitled Story for 2 things: the non-linear exploration part, discovering new lands, getting new, fun abilities, the various environments, that was all awesome. And the second part is the hardcore platform gameplay. This one seems to have the exploration part, but the lack of gameplay tears it apart. I find it boring to just hover around freely in a confusing maze trying to find items which aren't too fun to use (in An Untitled Story each ability not only helps you get to the next exciting land, it also helps you to get more things in previous lands, and you can use them in the platform part).

The problem is not that it's not a platformer, the problem is there's nothing to replace that challenge, and there's no chalenge at all apart from that timer (you die if it runs out? I didn't realize that it was counting down your oxygen until I was about to quit, I just figured it was a game play timer and din't pay attention to it). The timer just forces you to run hover about quick, and maybe some other people like time things, but I hated it. Another type of chaççenge (such as platform) can give you a good prize for conquering the chalenges. There were some really hard stunts you could (but werent forced to do) in An Untitled Story, and it felt really good when you got to the end of them and got a heart of victory, knowing that you accomplished something that you've been trying for half an hour, in frustration (yeah i'm a sucker for frustrating platformers) and then finaly won.

The oxygen thing just doesn't give any gratification for finding the boring item in time, especially since every area looks the goddamned same and you just kept flying around almost randomly and luck just happened to be on your side. Again, I'm not saying you should make your game a platformer, you just needed something to replace it. Maybe I should've given it more time, and there were gonna be some really fun puzzle or story telling just up ahead... One really good thing that you did was to provide not explanation for where you are at all, or who you are.

If you dedice to make another exploration game, here's my tips:

- Maybe you should play AnUntitledStory if you haven't it's a great game if you don't mind frustating platforming, and even if you do, play as much as you can take. It's excellent, both as a platforming and explorating game.
- A good type of gameplay you can use is puzzle
- Make the items unboring, in the sense that you can use them in the game play part too, or even in some cases, exclusively serve only gameplay purposes
- Please no more timers
- Levels should be less confusing
- What's that horrible creature that obeys my keyboard inputs???
- Provide movement controls at the start, and how to use abilities when you get the first one

God damnit, why do I write such huge reviews? I need to work on that... Maybe express my ideas in shorter, simpler phrases and try not to repeat myself... Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you make a great game someday with my little help.

I think it shouldn't be compared to aUS it's completely different and for example I like both games for what they are.

Well, same here - if you want to complete it 102% () then you have to find new skills and use them in rooms you've visited before to get another and probably again later to use even another one

Well, the timer is very tolerant and gives you loads of time, I think it makes challenge if you want complete everything... However getting all is challenge itself, after some minutes of play you begin to 'feel' the map ( - only at the beginning you are completely lost), you know some places where you will be going many times, some places that you see and feel desire to get there but have no idea how to do it. Figuring it finally out is sometimes really a challenge and might be very rewarding

Not much storytellin, but various puzzles are common (pure logic, but also logic + orientation... there are also situantions where you meet puzzle that you think you should be able to complete and spend solid minutes to figure it out then giving up, just to come back much later with a new skill you wouldn't even thought of )

Have you only collected radioactive light? I had to constantly change active skill to through red, green or blue barriers, secret passages... super speed and the torch are skills that I was using almost all the time while exploring.

Both agrrees and disagrees This is in fact one of the major challenges to understand the map.


and

My major point is, just because YOU (PetzI) don't like the game, that doesn't make it a bad game. I think a lot of people have to realise that, you are not going to like every game, not because they are bad, but simply because you don't like the genre. Comparing this with an untitled story is like comparing apples with eggs. They both have a roundish shape, but taste completely different.

The things you suggest are things I explicitly chose for, not ' mistakes' I made designing the game.
What is unique about this game (in my opinion) is that it does not focus on action elements, and thats what SOME people, obviously not you, like about it.

Also, you clearly didn't play the game long enough if you suggest puzzles, there are PLENTY of puzzles in the game, and also powers that can be used in gameplay (all 7 of them).


Readme's are called readme's for a reason



I'm sorry it's not your type of game, but this here is a great game. I'm confident enough to say that.

Thanks for the comment though

Raszlo: Yeah, your right, but that wasn't my point in that part. My point was that you can also use them in gameplay, in that case, platforming. Maybe I can give another example: In Zelda Ocarina of Time, there's a part where you get the hookshot, and have to use it to get to the next dungeon. Well, you later have to use it on the boss, and you can use it on enemies, and to get to places you couldn't before (sometimes bonus places). The parts in bold are the ones I couldn't find in this game, although (again) maybe they were going to appear soo enough.

Puzzles I didn't see any (same as above), and as for the timer, okay, I guess it's a challenge, and if a person likes it or not is just a matter of opinion. But if "getting everything" is part of the challenge, or rather, if orientation is part of the challenge, I'm not sure it was made properly. You keep getting lost. I didn't "feel" the map, like you said, the only way I could get somewhere was to remember it (no, this can't be part of the challenge, because every place looks the goddamned same, it's a complete maze, the only way you could remember it is if you spent 2 hours studying it or you were just plain lucky), and if you didn't remember it, you just had to run around randomly to see if you would trip on it eventualy. IMO, this is horrible, it's like having a platformer with blocky collision, but that's part of the challenge. It's not fair to time a perfect jump but to fail because of bad collision. But here, there's NOTHING to time perfectly, since it's just pure luck that you can remember it. Maybe some people can memorize the paths without being lucky and enjoy this, I guess, but getting lost is frustrating, especially if you keep getting lost in the same place over and over, and after you find the right direction, there's just another room to get lost in after that.

I didn't see any puzzles, so if I play those some more someday maybe i'll post something about them. Thanks for your response, I seriously had to check the author's name to make sure you werent him

jaj, you're acting like I trolled all over the place. I don't remember saying your game is bad, and I did say that this was just my opinion, so instead of replying with "this is an awesome game", try to do what Razslo did (or just leave it entirely to him). You said they can be used in game play, but you didn't explain how, and I didn't say you needed to "focus on action elements", I said you needed to focus on game play other than exploration. Sorry if I missed all the puzzles, but I was nearly out of oxygen, bored, lost and frustrated about being lost about when I reached the second (sand) area, so I didn't have a really good first impression.

Read my reply again, thats not what it is saying. Yes, I do think this is a great game, but I'm not saying everyone should think so, the opposite in fact.
I don't feel the need to make you like the game, you don't like the game, period. Play games you do like, but don't start telling me what kind/ genre of games I should make, I'm not making them especially for you you know.


And thats exactly where you are wrong, and thats exactly the point I tried to make. YOU don't like it that way, OTHERS may.

I focussed on exploration, exploration only. It was my choice to make this an exploration game as pure as an exploration can be, there are people that enjoy that kind of game. (as people have allready expressed to me) I really don't mind that you are not one of them, but you can't call these decisions flaws. And at the very least you imply that they are flaws. I have a target group, not everyone can be in it or I would be making boring family games that nobody truly loves.

This is NOT a platformer, and this has NO enemies, so you can't compare it to games that do have those things.
My items can be used as exploration tools, since exploration is what this game is about, that makes them usefull in gameplay.


When you are using words like " horrible" and not much else positive to say, what else can I assume but that you think it is a badly made game?

I believe I agree with you entirely, jaj, although I'm just saying that to support you, not to get into this "conversation."

The game was pretty "organic," if you know what I mean. xD The music scared me, and I muted the sound eventually. It (the music) was pretty cool, just a bit too creepy for me. :S It did really go well with the way the game is though.. It was a too hard for me, although I will still rate it a 8/10 because it's so unique and nicely executed.

Tip for Petzi: Remember to review and rate a game based on the game itself, not based on how much you like the genre (etc), and you best not to compare it to other games, especially if they're very different in some (or many) ways.

Nice!

I've heard multiple comments on the music (or the game as a whole) being too scary, and I think the composer of the music will only be taking that as a compliment It also makes me wonder if it's possible to make a game as creepy as silent hill in a 2D environment.