Tour guide: And coming up on your left, you can see this month’s issue of “testgame.exe: Making the Adventure”!
Crowd: Ooooh, aaahhh.
Little boy: Oh boy! Mommy, can I go touch it?!
Boy’s mother: No, dear, you should never go up to a newly updated article about an adventure game-in-progress you don’t know; it might bite you.
Little boy: Aww, Mom, you never let me have any fun. *pouts*.
Boy’s mother: Well, darling, maybe if you go ask its caretaker, and if they say it’s all right, then you may pet it a little. But make it quick, mind, the bus is leaving again soon.
Little boy: Wow, Mom, thanks! *jumps out of the window and scuttles across the street*.
Little boy: Hey mister! Can I pet your “testgame.exe: Making the Adventure?!”
Lizo: First of all, I’m a girl. And secondly, no you may not. It’s a little grouchy right now, not being finished and all. I’m not sure how it might react to a little boy coming up and prodding it while it’s in this state.
Little boy: *sniffles and begins to cry*.
Lizo: Um, hang on, kid. Would you like me to tell you about it instead?
Little boy: Yeah! *brightens up*. Yeeaaahh!!! Tell me about it!!
Strange voice: Ha ha. You fell right into that one, didn’t you.
Little boy: Huh?
Lizo: What? Who said that?
*silence*
Lizo: Oh well. OK, this month’s article is going to be about the usual stuff, really—how the game’s coming along, the new things I’ve added and things I’ve been playing around with trying to get to work, that sort of thing.
Little boy: Woooooahhh, cooooool! What kind of things?!
Lizo: Well, since you asked, there are a few new and exciting additions to TestGame this month, including two new cutscenes packed with new plot material, plenty more work on graphics and backgrounds, general prettiness, that sort of thing.
Little boy: Cool…. *watches a butterfly fluttering by*.
Strange voice: Brilliant use of wordplay, there.
Lizo: *looks wary but continues talking*. I’ve also been playing around a bit with having the little vine in Paul’s pocket comment on things when Paul speaks, assuming Paul can talk to the vine at the time. This strikes me as a really good way to establish the vine as a character, and gives more incentive to go back and look at things while the vine’s around, but I’m having some trouble with the actual mechanics. As it is right now, the vine’s words sometimes get pushed off the end of the screen, but this still might be the best way to go about it as far as I can tell.
Little boy: I’m bored.
Lizo: It’s OK, kid, I’m almost done. Ha ha, come to think of it, it’s almost like I’m writing the article right this very moment.
Strange voice: You are.
Lizo: …What? Who are you?!
Strange voice: I’m…YOU!
Lizo: NooooooOOOoooooo!
Overlord Lizo: Thank you for accomplishing my job for me so very nicely. I’ll just wrap things up here a little bit.
Little boy: *walks up to TestGame article and touches it*.
TestGame.exe: Making the Adventure: *eats the little boy*.
Lizo: You tyrant!!
Overlord Lizo: Too true. How fortunate for me that you are under my control. And how fortunate that my creation has been listening to and recording your every word.
Overlord Lizo: *picks up TestGame.exe: Making the Adventure and folds it into a neat package for later publication, then leaves*.
*silence*
Overlord Lizo: Play TestGame.
(no extra programs needed to run this file)
Things to do/new features of note:
- New Cutscene #1: Immediately after Paul crosses the stream. I’m working on further establishing the vine as a character, and hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
- New Cutscene #2: As soon as Paul enters the screen before the castle. This new material includes a semi-puzzle, possible death (perfectly safe, as always), and me playing around with timers.
- Updated background screens: Paul’s room, cave of thorns side room, outside Paul’s room, main forest screen, and stream screen. There’s like, more shading and stuff. There’s also a fun new poster to look at on Paul’s wall, and the cave of thorns side room actually has a wall made out of thorns now.
- More things to look at/interact with in Paul’s room and the cave of thorns side room.
- Go look at/touch things while you have the vine and can talk to it. There’s not much you can do with this right now, but there will certainly be more later!
- Updated readme file, including troubleshooting and contact information.
All the graphics and design are by Lizo. The dialogue was written by Lizo, with significant input by Paul. Paul is voiced (appropriately) by Paul Franzen. Lily is voiced by Lizo. Thurston and the vine are voiced by Matt Gardner. Artie is voiced by Matt Keels. Omar is voiced by Jenny. “Lets’s Go Skateboard” is written and performed by The Word Problems. Adventure Game Studio (the program used to create this game) can be downloaded at http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/
Little boy: Aaaaahhhhhhhhh! Ooh. Cool innards.
