Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s edition of “testgame.exe: Making the Adventure.” I know, I know, it’s been a little while, and I do apologize for that, but I think you’ll find that this month’s update is suitably large enough to make up for the distinct lack of testgame over the past couple of months.
The focus of this month’s update is something I haven’t worked on in a LOOOOONG while: plot! I’ve implemented a bunch of stuff that Real-Life Paul and I have been putting together in a Word document for a few months now. I have to say, it’s kinda fun working from a script of dialogue and interactions that’s pretty well completed, rather than trying to make up everything on the spot as I also write code (which is how I’ve been doing things until now). And we’ve still got lots more plot planned out already—including a couple of puzzles, a new character or two, etc.—and since I’m having such a good time putting it into the game, you can look forward to more of that in the future!
So, anyway, here are some details of what’s going on: In the last update, you could play as far the conversation with Herkimer. This month, I’ve finished up that conversation (including some new dialogue options), and now you can leave Herkimer’s room, go back down the stairs, and return to the kitchen, where lots more plot stuff happens! Oh boy!
The new stuff ends kinda suddenly (like, in the middle of some dialogue), but don’t be alarmed, I’ll continue working on it next month. This is just a temporary stopping point.
Other new features in this month’s update include the usual stuff…animation, background work, a few new/different interactions with various hotspots/object, etc.
Anyway, I’m quite happy with how things are going. I took some time off from testgame in the past couple of months, but now I remember how fun it can be, and I’m excited to work on it some more this summer! Yay!
So check out the game! Oh yeah, and I’ve given you a couple of save files again, including one just before Paul meets Herkimer, so you can easily play the new plot stuff without having to go through the whole game. Have fun!!
[Important note: If you want to load the game from one of the included save files and you’re using Windows Vista, you’ll have to move the agssave.001 and agssave.002 files that I’ve given you into a folder called “New game” under the “Saved Games” folder in your Windows user name folder. If you’re using Windows XP, you should just be able to leave these files in the same folder as the testgame.exe file and load them from inside the game.]
Things to do/new features of note:
- New plot advancement stuff! (OMG!!)
- New set of optional dialogue with Herkimer, after all of the cutscene stuff that was already there.
- New interactions with things in the hidden staircase room after leaving Herkimer’s room on the way to the kitchen.
- LOTS of new plot in the castle kitchen after leaving Herkimer’s room, including some new dialogue with a (new?) character, a mini-puzzle, and a potential death scene! (We haven’t had one of those in a while.)
- New interactions with things in the castle kitchen (both before meeting Herkimer and after).
- New animation: the door in the kitchen opening, a new character animation in the new part of the game (no spoilers now).
- More dialogue edits and updates by Paul, mostly in the first part of the game.
- Some minor tweaks/changes:
- Finished touching up the squirrel/tree/dirt interactions in the main forest screen after the big changes to this part over the last couple of months.
- New interaction with the shirts in Paul’s bedroom closet.
- Slightly restructured dialogue options with Lily in the first forest room. This will change more later, but it flows with the preceding dialogue a little better, and it’ll do for now.
- Background work: main forest screen, castle kitchen, castle courtyard.
All the graphics and design are by Lizo. The story and dialogue are written by Lizo, with significant input from Paul. The background music is by Lizo. “Let’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/
