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Program Announcements / The war is over,

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hmm
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Posted: 19th May 2010 02:14 Edited at: 22nd May 2010 21:37
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22/5/2010 UPDATE DOWNLOAD

Notes:
- Can now attack using z,x to avoid sticky keys problem.
- The game restarts automatically when you die
- Still in full screen exclusive mode so you still cannot alt+tab out of the program.

The war is over,

is my latest little experiment in interactive storytelling.

Warning: This is not exactly a game in the traditional sense. Instead, the focus of the design was to create a beautiful little world where the player can create/interpret a story by interacting with the few entities that inhabit the world.







Download it HERE

Controls are simple. Arrow keys to move. Control to attack, Shift to deflect incoming attacks.

Hope you enjoy. And feedback and criticism is always welcome. I had a story in mind when I made it, so it'd be interesting to hear what you get from it.
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Jimmy
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Posted: 19th May 2010 02:22 Edited at: 19th May 2010 02:22
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Wooo a release from hmm!

Too bad the link is broken


Edit: Wooo changed .png to .zip!

NaGaFailMo.
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t10dimensional
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Posted: 19th May 2010 02:48 Edited at: 19th May 2010 02:49
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It's good but I can't seem to pass the first fight. Any tips?

Also when you die it doesn't do anything, is that normal?

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hmm
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Posted: 19th May 2010 16:27
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Fighting tip: Using the shield to deflect incoming attacks is critical. Deflect with shift.

And it is normal for nothing to happen after you 'die', until you press escape and the game ends.
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yl76
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Posted: 19th May 2010 19:59
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I love how it looks like, it looks like im in a movie. Would it be possible if the buttons for shield and attack on buttons like "z & x". I just have a habit of button mashing shift then getting out of my window due to the stickykeys popup >.<
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yl76
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Posted: 19th May 2010 20:22
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When i alt tab out of game or get kicked out of game then i try to go back in I get a "Runtime error 7008 - Object does not exist at line 974. Object number not found: 1"
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Dr Tank
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Posted: 20th May 2010 22:58 Edited at: 20th May 2010 23:00
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Nice. I killed 2 dudes. Kid is dead sometimes upon my return. Do i need to cut more corn or something?

Full screen windowed mode is so much better than exclusive though. You don't get such bad problems with pressing the windows key etc.

Being a pedant, i noticed that the sun sometimes goes in front of the moon. Also, the moon should move across the sky at almost the same rate as the sun.
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Plystire
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Posted: 21st May 2010 08:15 Edited at: 21st May 2010 08:19
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I failed to find much of a story at all, other than the war is not over.

My first attempt, I could not seem to block the incoming attacks (bad timing) and died on the first guy. I then sat and stared at my dead character for about 2 minutes awaiting SOMETHING to happen. After trying any of the controls to see if they did anything, I then hit escape to quit... not very intuitive there, I might add. Perhaps allow the player to try again when they die instead of forcing them to quit and restart the application to try again?

My second attempt went about the same as the first. I cut some wheat, entered battle and died... though, this time I did block a couple times and got some hits in on the other guy. Quit app/restart....

My third attempt, I went to cut some wheat and accidentally smacked the kid upside the noggin'... I'm guessing he died. It began to rain after the kid died (sad mood intended, I'm guessing), so after deciding that the villager who bared witness to this incident didn't care much at all that I just slaughtered one of our young, I went on my merry way harvesting wheat in the rain. As per usual, strolling some ways down the field, the wheat magically disappears and the red dawn of war approached. This time I was fairly ready to enter combat. I blocked all attacks this time and successfully defeated the bad guy. Upon strolling further down the battlefield, my attire changed back to the villager type outfit and wheat magically reappeared in front of me, whereupon I began to harvest more. With no villager in sight, I can't exactly surmise where in the world I might be. The red sky came again and I prepared for combat. This time I took a couple hits, but again defeated my opponent and carried on... wheat shows up, I cut wheat, red sky comes, and I die in combat... Quit app/restart app...

Fourth attempt, I found myself mashing the block button against the first opponent and the stickykey dialog shows up, whereupon the application crashed.


If a story is meant to be told here, might I suggest making the play a bit easier? Challenging games typically bring with them some form of enthralling gameplay, while the story-based games typically allow the player to continue on regardless of failure count.

Or perhaps I am missing something here.


Nice art style, though.


The one and only,


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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 21st May 2010 21:10
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when I try to play it, it gives me the error that it failed to load image image/media/blood.png,3
It seems to me it thinks that is the entire image name...

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hmm
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Posted: 22nd May 2010 04:25
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Ok. Thanks for the feedback, not entirely good tho... I admit I was expecting worse (anti pretentious art game s**t etc). I'll upload a more user friendly version tomorrow (easier restarts, maybe easier combat etc, use of x,z as combat buttons etc).

@ yl76: I'll add x,z in my new version. I had the stickey keys thing for a bit too. F.ing annoying.

@ Dr Tank: The kid is dead cos you killed him. Think about it... You might be on to the story I intended . If not, that is also great! The unexpected is the game designer's greatest gift. I think. Will also look at the fullscreen mode im using. Pretty sure I couldnt get the other one to work though...

@ Plystire I suppose that you have proven my interactive story telling has been successful...in a way... You have recounted 4 separate (though, by the sounds of it, not very awesome and fun) stories of your play time in the game. I've taken your criticisms on board and will try and make a more user friendly version. I suppose that although I had a particular story in mind (that I still dont want to share...yet) I was really hoping that you guys would try to figure out a story for yourselves. That fact you suggest that the 'war is not over' is a very drastic departure from my original ideas and is quite interesting. In my mind the title was chosen to convey an important basis of the story. The combat; I'm used to it so I can dispatch the enemies quite easily, its useful to get feedback regarding the difficulty. I'll toy around with the ideas you've highlighted.

@ Bizar Guy: I've no idea whats going on with your image prob. Have you checked that the image has extracted the the folder properly? Or have you tried downloading again? Since others have managed to get it to work I'm really at a loss. Hope you manage to sort it out. I'd appreciate your opinion.

Anyway. Its 2:24 am. I've had a few. I am going to bed to enjoy the marvelous friday night sleep. Will post tomorrow.

Again. Thanks for all the feedback. Its nice to have this forum to put your crazy (and apparently completely unfinished) ideas out there to get some good honest and useful feedback. When I'm finished with the update (tomorrow) it'll be more awesome.
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hmm
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Posted: 22nd May 2010 21:37
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Updated. See original post for link and details.
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Sixty Squares
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Posted: 23rd May 2010 00:53 Edited at: 23rd May 2010 00:55
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Hi hmm,

I just played the game, and I must say I love the style. The sounds, the dynamic environment (wheat cutting), the silhouettes of characters, the fluid animations and the changing sky all add a unique style to the game that works quite well.

As for the gameplay, I had a little trouble getting the hang of the combat. Overtime I got it, right now I've managed to get to either the 4th or 5th enemy before being killed, but I still fail to see any story that's built into the game.

But perhaps that's the point-- maybe I'm supposed to use my imagination (after all, you said it was an experiment in storytelling). So here's my thought on what's going on:

I have returned from war, hence the title "The war is over,", but I keep on having these flashbacks of the war. I'll be trying to go about my own business, just cutting some wheat, when all of a sudden I'll be back on the battlefield fighting once more. I'll then return to reality disoriented-- I'll have wandered off someplace. This process continues indefinitely until the pressure is too great (the enemy kills me) and I die of a heart attack or something of the sort. I guess the part where I can accidentally kill the kid is just me being reckless in my fervid dreams.

Anyway, great game. I'd love to see more plot structure added to this (or maybe I just haven't gotten far enough to see more of the plot ). It has a lot of potential, and I think all it needs is something to break away from the monotony of this:



Keep up the good work!
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hmm
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Posted: 23rd May 2010 18:32
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Thats exactly the story I had in mind when I was making the game. You've even added a few little touches of your own to it that I hadn't thought about (the sense of disorientation upon returning to reality, and death by heart attack).

I agree that at the moment the plot is somewhat limited, and that the open endedness of the game means that eventually it may become monotonous for the player. It was really just an experiment to see if I could convey some sort of story through very open ended interactions with the game world, and for me to have a go at creating a consistent little world. In some ways it has succeeded, others it has failed.

I'm quite happy with how it has turned out. But I am encouraged to develop it further in the future.
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AmbulanceGames
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Posted: 23rd May 2010 23:28
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I really enjoyed it, I thought the combat was really fun. It was like a really cool take on single plane beat em ups IMO. Don't know if that's what you were going for but I really dug the art style and just loved it. Kudos to you, sir.
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Dominic Bishop
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Posted: 27th May 2010 20:57
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I tried to load your exe up, but it failed, instead telling me that "bloog.png" could not be loaded.

In fact, every single Darkbasic Professional game exe I have tried to download and play from these forums doesn't want to load for me. The actual interpreter and everything for my copy is fine, but I can't seem to get any external games to work.

Would this have something to do with my PC account not being an administrator? I installed all the updates yesterday to alter the user-interface to the new version, but even afer following the Vista compatability advice it still keeps reverting itself to the old version and won't allow me to play any of your games. However I can still load up the example files, but of course they aren't exe's.

Any help would be vastly appreciated, and I know this technically isn't in the appropriate forum but it is mildly on-topic.

Thanks, and I sincerely look forward to playing this awesome-looking game!

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Butter fingers
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Posted: 31st May 2010 21:39
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hmm, very nice dude. This is visually very beautiful.

I found the animation a little clunky, but I got the feeling that was deliberate. Gave the feeling of simple shadow puppets or perhaps animated paintings.

I love the nice touches in the environment, the gradually more blurry wheat, the way the sun arcs across the screen, the transitions from day to night.

I got the feeling that this was really an "arthouse" game? I mean I felt that the story was something along the lines of the mundane nature of war and life are little different..? Whatever we choose to do we can only move forward.

It's an interesting concept on the whole, and although I got totally frustrated with the combat, I did keep playing just to observe the world.

I think perhaps the weakest part of the game was the combat. The wheat choppin' part was wonderful. the kid jumping about, the sound of your feet etc, it was all very sedate and calm and had the feeling of a peaceful life. I think perhaps that the combat should have contrasted more... I found the AI of the enemy frustrating. He hits you easily with his long spear, and in order not to die you must deflect, but this causes him to back away, out of reach of my sword. perhaps if deflecting caused him to lose balance so I could attack?

Still, I think crit of the combat is probably ill placed as I don't think you were trying to make a fighting game anyway.

It's a tight and nicely executed concept. I enjoyed it. Good work.

I want robotic legs.
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hmm
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2010 01:57
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Really glad you liked it. And its always interesting to hear your take on the story.

Quote: "...in order not to die you must deflect, but this causes him to back away, out of reach of my sword"


When you deflect an enemy's attack you should still be in range to counter attack i.e. you should be able to deflect and instantly attack without having to move forward, making the combat a bit easier. The animation of the enemy at this point is probably a bit deceptive.

It seems lots of people have been finding the combat difficult. And there I was, worried it was too easy! I guess testing it to death has honed by killer spartan skills.
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Butter fingers
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2010 12:43
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Quote: "I guess testing it to death has honed by killer spartan skills."

haha, I'm having the same problem with my project, turns out a year of dev has made me way too good at my own game!

I want robotic legs.
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Benjamin
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2010 21:50 Edited at: 2nd Jun 2010 21:52
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I really like the style of this game. I only played for a short while but immediately saw some things that need to be improved or added:

* Smooth movement (and animations). You shouldn't just stop and start, you should build up speed (about half a second to get to full speed would probably work) and when release a key you should slow down until you stop (again, half a second or perhaps less). It'll feel much, much better.

* Add the ability to run! It's frustrating having to walk everywhere.

* Allow the player to actually turn their character around to walk the other way. I realise this might create a problem in combat, but you could either make it very fast to turn around or allow a 'target' key to be held down so that you stay facing your enemy when moving backwards. Adding this means that you could have areas where enemies assault you from both sides.

* Consider speeding up the attack animation, it seems a little slow, particularly in the beginning.

* Allow attacking while moving. I realise it might be difficult animation-wise, but it would make the movement seem so much more fluid. Not exactly essential though.

Anyway, I'm liking what I see so far. I love the graphical style and the way the scene changes, and the fact that you can cut grass which I think is a nice touch! I like the combat mechanics, although I hope you'll make them more involved in a future release. Keep it up.
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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 27th Jun 2010 09:12
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Quote: "I failed to find much of a story at all, other than the war is not over. "

way to ruin it for the rest of us.


Is't life, I ask, is't even prudence, to bore thyself and bore thy students?
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