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General Category => Games => Topic started by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:18, 31 July 15

Title: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:18, 31 July 15
So... the summary is that we are making (or trying to make) a new text adventure for the CPC and I would like to share the progress of the game with you :) . I am designing the adventure and I will try to code it as well, at least the main part, using PAWS (although I do not know if I will need some help!). In the meantime, a great friend of mine (http://blog.elcomercio.es/eldesvan/) is creating concepts and doing the pixel art for the locations, and we are both discussing the plot and the background of the game together. Later, we will polish the game with the help of MiguelSky (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/profile/?u=14), that has lots of knowledge and experience, and we will probably need some testers and people to proofread the text (the game is in English but I am not a native English speaker and I am sure that it will need lots of corrections). Everybody that likes text adventures is very welcome to help :) .

Here is the concept of the main character, the name is Mike.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/368/19849533520_88e035e5a9_b.jpg)

And one of the first graphics. This is the original GIF.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/468/19967787139_eca9b4f436_m.jpg)

And this is how the same image looks converted to SCR and loaded in Winape (I still could not see it in a real Amstrad)

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/292/19531806174_ae667b31fa_b.jpg)

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/329/19967787009_c302cef422_b.jpg)

We still do not have a tittle, by the way. Doomsday is the name of the spaceship! :D .






Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: robcfg on 08:02, 31 July 15
It looks awesome!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Trebmint on 08:48, 31 July 15
Wow that looks really nice. I used to love text adventures, and wrote one or two. Shame we never got a system for creating graphic adventures a bit like Maniac Mansion
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: MacDeath on 09:14, 31 July 15
Nice CGA feeling.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Joseman on 10:04, 31 July 15
Quote from: Trebmint on 08:48, 31 July 15
Wow that looks really nice. I used to love text adventures, and wrote one or two. Shame we never got a system for creating graphic adventures a bit like Maniac Mansion

But we can still get one!  ;)

and when we have this system, then we can think on porting some games that are all in our minds...
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 10:15, 31 July 15
Great you like it so far guys!

Let's see how it works. At the moment we are still fighting with the map and the overall script. It has quite a lot of locations (more than 35) and it is somehow difficult to make everything as consistent as we would like. When you think that everything is under control another possible weakness appears  :( . 
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 22:12, 01 August 15
Very well! Glad to see your posting here!  :)  About that picture up there. You could use MODE 0, since in that pic all angels of line are rel. flat, so the pixel are wide. That would give you 16 colors and the resulution would be still good.  ;)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: MiguelSky on 11:23, 02 August 15
The graphic patch of PAW requires mode 1 images :( But a good work could be done. Nheredia is made with this patch http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=6661 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=6661)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 12:20, 02 August 15
My friend was also saying that the preferred Mode 1 graphics to work if he had the choice. He told me that 4 colors is not actually a problem, but he would not like to work with even less resolution and not square pixels :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: MiguelSky on 14:54, 02 August 15
Perfect then !! For Nheredia I used conversions from the original PC game pictures.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 18:24, 02 August 15
In this case we are making the graphics for the CPC from the beginning. Let´s see if we manage to get the best out of the computer :D. I was asked if we can introduce animations but i said that, sadly, it would be not possible :(


Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 10:38, 04 August 15
Sooo...we have made very good progress with the description of the locations, the map and the overall structure of the game. Sadly, the truth is that since I am not a native English speaker I am afraid that my descriptions are far from correct or, at least, will have a lot of typos. I was wondering if somebody could help us reading and correcting them (just the description of the locations for the moment). Ideally, this "somebody" should be a native English speaker that likes science fiction, because the games takes place inside a big space station. The text is not very long, just a few pages, and I would sent it to the volunteer during the next days :).

Thank you guys!  :D


Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 23:25, 06 August 15
And the game is slowly starting to live...  :)

[attach=2]

[attach=4]

We have introduced all the locations and the connections, so it is possible to visit all the map. Once compiled the whole file is 13 kas. I hope we will have space to put everything we planned without making sacrifices, but there is still a lot of text to add (the descriptions and other messages). Does anybody know how to use 128 kas with PAWs? is this even possible? :?

P.D: we still need a proofreader!!  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: dthrone on 00:31, 07 August 15
I will volunteer as a proof-reader if you still need one (PM me)  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 01:03, 07 August 15
Thank you!! Yes, we really need somebody to correct the English!! I will send you a PM with the details and all the info  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 22:22, 07 August 15
Have you planned translations to other languages?

Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:02, 08 August 15
Well, when it is finished I can always translate it to Spanish, since it is one of my mother tongues. However, this is as far as I can go... I do not know any other languages  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 01:41, 08 August 15
Well, if I find some time then I would be glad to translate it to German.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 01:44, 08 August 15
Thank you! that would be great! But let´s see how long it takes to finish it first :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 16:58, 08 August 15
This is great news, thanks for sharing :)


I may not be a native English speaker and I make the occasional mistake but I can proofread pretty well, if you need a second volunteer!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 19:23, 15 August 15
Thank you!! I will send the text to you as well Gryzor  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: zeropolis79 on 22:12, 15 August 15
If you need too, my daughter can translate into French and German - she's fluent..
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 22:18, 15 August 15
I can check the German translation.  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 18:02, 16 August 15
Almost done with the descriptions; I've got to say what I'm seeing is quite intriguing, looking forward to the game!


Oh, and of course I can do a Greek version if you can incorporate a Greek akpha set...
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 20:20, 26 August 15
I am back from holidays!  :D

Thank you for all the translation offers guys! When the game is finished and running for sure we can try to translate it, although I do not know how to incorporate the greek alphabet  :-X
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: MiguelSky on 22:11, 26 August 15
Well, we could try...
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 18:51, 06 September 15
Sooo... the development goes on with the great help of Gryzor and dthrone :) . The texts of the locations are finished and corrected, the objects are already placed in the map, you can move through the map and pick/wear them... and we are finishing with the puzzles (writing them on paper, not actually coding them). There is lots of work to do, actually most of it, but in the meantime I can show you a couple of graphs from the game. We still do not know if they will be included in the adventure as they are now, but still, we hope you will enjoy them  :D .

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachurl=5]
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Kris on 11:35, 19 September 15
If you plan a french version, then I would be a part of the translation team ;)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 18:54, 19 September 15
Thank you very much!!  :D

Let´s see about the translation when the game is finished. It thought that it would be simple to translate it but I guess that I was wrong. We started with a simple story but it is much more complicated now (Gryzor knows something about this  :-\ ) and I will have to squeeze the database quite a lot fit the game in the TPA of CPM/Plus. I don´t know if a translated version will be possible or not, it will depend on the final size of the file  :) . The good news is that I think that it will be a nice challenging game with different endings and side stories!

Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 09:59, 20 September 15
Are you talking about a single version containing different languages? Because if there were different versions size wouldn't be an issue...
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:14, 20 September 15
Nope! a single version with different languages would be completely impossible  :D :D . The english-only game is big enough to be problematic to fit  :D .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 11:16, 20 September 15
Makes sense :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: talrek on 13:09, 21 September 15
If you are interested, i can of course translate it to French ;-) it won't be very difficult  :P
Just take your time ;-)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 14:36, 21 September 15
Thank you very much! There is still a long way to go until the game is finished though, I think that it will easily take more than one year  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: FloppySoftware on 15:37, 21 September 15
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 18:54, 19 September 15
I will have to squeeze the database quite a lot fit the game in the TPA of CPM/Plus.

CP/M Plus?  :)

It would be possible to build a PCW version?  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 15:55, 21 September 15
Yes! It should be almost 100% compatible. A text-only adventure game should run in PCW straight out of the box, but if you want to display graphics it would be necessary to patch the adventure for the PCW. That is the only difference, porting it should be almost trivial and our graphics work pretty well even in a green phosphor screen  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: FloppySoftware on 16:07, 21 September 15
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 15:55, 21 September 15
Yes! It should be almost 100% compatible. A text-only adventure game should run in PCW straight out of the box, but if you want to display graphics it would be necessary to patch the adventure for the PCW. That is the only difference, porting it should be almost trivial and our graphics work pretty well even in a green phosphor screen  :)

I think too that graphics shouldn't be a big problem.  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 16:34, 21 September 15
Not difficult at all, PCW graphics patch is available  :) . The only difference is that you need to patch the game separately for the PCW and the CPC. I do not know about converting the graphics to a suitable PCW file format, I am using ConvImgCPC for the Amstrad :) .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 22:23, 21 September 15
I was checking now and, actually, the images work very well in greyscale, as PCW likes  :) . You lose some atmosphere, but still.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=5]
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Bryce on 22:28, 21 September 15
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 22:23, 21 September 15
I was checking now and, actually, the images work very well in greyscale, as PCW likes  :) . You lose some atmosphere, but still.

They're pictures of outer space, they shouldn't have an atmosphere! :D

Bryce.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 22:32, 21 September 15
Quote from: Bryce on 22:28, 21 September 15
They're pictures of outer space, they shouldn't have an atmosphere! :D

Bryce.

Oh my, that one was really bad!  :-\ :P
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Bryce on 22:41, 21 September 15
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 22:32, 21 September 15
Oh my, that one was really bad!  :-\ :P

It's Monday and it's late. What do you expect?  ::)

Bryce.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: robcfg on 22:46, 21 September 15
It's not an atmosphere, it's the cockpit's tinted glass...  ;D


Your game art is stunning! If you need help with the PCW port, I'm sure Habi (author of the CP/MBox emulator) will be more than happy to help you.


Keep up the good work!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 23:13, 21 September 15
Right!!!  :) :) :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Habi on 00:42, 22 September 15

Amazing artwork, indeed!

Quote from: robcfg on 22:46, 21 September 15
If you need help with the PCW port, I'm sure Habi (author of the CP/MBox emulator) will be more than happy to help you.


Of course I will! Just let me know if you need some help. ;)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:53, 22 September 15
Sure! In principle porting it should be straightforward. I mean, you do not need to port anything besides the graphics. PAWS interpreter is a native CPM application and it should be able to work with a database written for the CPC. The graphics are different, they need to have the proper format before the game is patched, but creating them from the GIFs should be an easy task. At least for the CPC is completely trivial :).
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 17:28, 22 September 15
These images in B&W have a new character oof their own. Lovely!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 22:03, 22 September 15
I am pretty sure that they will look great in the PCW screen :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 15:54, 02 October 15
Time for an update! (a long one, indeed)

We have been working quite a lot during the last few weeks but we made good progress :) .

First, with the invaluable help from Gryzor we went through the plot more than three times and it improved really a lot since the first version. Initially there was only a way to play the adventure, but we have three different endings and three side stories now. Two of the side quests just provide additional lore that explains what really happened in the derelict space station, however, the other side quest is essential to see the true ending of the game and involves interaction with an NPC. In principle, completing the game without the side quests should be easy enough with a little bit of patience, the most complicate puzzles are, by far, in the side missions. Regarding the puzzles, we tried to make them as logic as possible, avoiding the classical random trial and error present in many of these games. Needless to say that there will be a score system that will allow the player to check his progress at any time during the adventure.

Regarding the code. I have already introduced most texts in the database, including the description of the locations, the messages that would be needed during the game, the description of the objetcs, the objects themselves and so on. There are 36 locations and more than 400 messages that the player can read during the game. I had to simplify some of the messages and descriptions, but I think they are still OK. We are also trying to avoid situations where only a single specific word can be used for an action. I will try to include at least four verbs for every required step. In case of emergency, the player will be always able to use the classical "use this with this" to overcome the problem of knowing what to do but not guessing the right word. I am also trying to make the parser to understand basic things to make the life easier for the player. For example, if there are two objects with the same shape but different colour and only one is present you will be able to manipulate it without specifying the colour to the computer. If both are present, the system will ask which one you want to manipulate. This can be applied to the locations that, for example, have more than one door. Finally, if the RAM allows it, the idea is to allow the player to examine almost everything.

Memory wise, I am afraid that this thing will only run in 128 KB computers. In am very sorry about it, but even compressing all the texts the database without the condacts is going to be around 25 KB. Moreover, we need additional 2.5KB for the graphics patch and 6KB for the parser. This means that we are talking about 33.5KB. Using a CPC 6128 with CP/M Plus I still have around 27KB for the code itself, and this should give me some room to include most of the things we want (although I am not still 100% sure). However, I am pretty convinced that it will not fit in a 464 or a 664. A 3.5" floppy drive will be needed as well, since the graphics will be around 360-400KB. Of course, the version without graphics should run in a 464 with a ram expansion or in a standard 6128.

And what about the graphics? We are progressing slow but steady. It is quite a lot of work to make them, but Dani is creating one per week, more or less. They have quite an insane amount of detail and they will be used for some of the puzzles. The idea is to make the graphics part of the game, not just an ornament, they will be as important as the text. Every location will have a graphic just for it and the same will be true for all the endings :).

And that is basically it! It will probably take more than one year to have everything running but it is OK. We only plan to release this if we are 100% happy with it  :D :D .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:03, 10 October 15
Something more about the graphics! We have made 13 of them already but there is still a long way to go :)

For every location, the outline in black and white is drawn first. Then, we discuss about it and change the details that do not completely match the text. It is not usual, but it happened in the location I am showing as example.

[attachimg=1]

Then the rest of the picture is filled by hand with the different colors. It is the moment to create the light, shadows and details.

[attachimg=2]

Finally, we discuss the color palette and convert the GIF to SCR file format. There is always a little variation in the colors, but it is mostly trivial.

[attachimg=3]

I think I told it somewhere else, but I modified the PalOCP and made a custom version adapted to our necessities that allows us to check the images on an emulator or the real Amstrad. All in all, the process of drawing takes a lot of time but we are very happy with the results  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: invent on 01:23, 10 October 15
Nice teaser update ||C|-|E||


The only thing that might help reduce the file size of the images is less dithering but would be at the expense of the great style that it is now.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 01:35, 10 October 15
It is actually not a problem, they are loaded in real time from the floppy (or the card) when you change your location :) . Although a bit slower than traditional methods this system allows you to include almost as many images as you want if the floppy has enough capacity. MiguelSky (thanks again!  :-* ) taught me how to do this and he used the system in Nheredia as well ( Nheredia (http://www.amstrad.es/espsoft/juegosespbasic/nheredia.php) ). Each image will be 8 KB at the end, so they will load reasonably fast. Even better, you only need around 2.5KB to implement the graphics!

Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 15:26, 10 October 15
Thanks for the update man... From what I've seen behind-the-scenes this is shaping up to be a really nice and entertaining game, so even though by now I've gone through the story line and maps quite a few times, I still can't wait to see the first build :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 21:52, 10 October 15
I'm curious if in this game at some palce we see an 6128  ;)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 23:02, 10 October 15
Quote from: Gryzor on 15:26, 10 October 15
Thanks for the update man... From what I've seen behind-the-scenes this is shaping up to be a really nice and entertaining game, so even though by now I've gone through the story line and maps quite a few times, I still can't wait to see the first build :)

Too bad that you will probably have to go through everything a few more times! You will end completely fed up  :picard: but you will be the first tester as well!  :D

Quote from: TFM on 21:52, 10 October 15
I'm curious if in this game at some palce we see an 6128  ;)

We can actually put one, yes!  Anyway, the station where everything takes place is called 6128-REGUS  ;D

On the other hand, I am making slow but steady progress with the code, everything seems to work quite smoothly, although the sequential language of PAWS, without OR, FOR, IF, ELSE is really killing me. The problem is that, as you all know, the amount of RAM is limited and with a more sophisticated programming language I could save tons of memory. CM/P using more than 64KB does not help either, but that´s life  :) .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 02:50, 18 October 15
Sooo... good news!! The code is happily progressing, although it will still take a lot of time, and I have managed to properly add the graphics. I wanted to tinker with the pictures at the very end of the game, with most of the code already finished, but I felt curious to see the adventure with them at this state and check how everything looks in Mode1. It think that it is very nice, and it does not even load so slow, probably faster than the traditional vector graphics in other adventures :) . If there is RAM at the end, I will change the font for something more appropriate  :-X

(sorry for the horrible compression artifacts).

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: MiguelSky on 07:57, 18 October 15
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 02:50, 18 October 15If there is RAM at the end, I will change the font for something more appropriate  :-X
You don't need more RAM in order o change the font for PAWS. It could be done by modifying CP/M. I used http://www.seasip.info/Cpm/software/setfont.arc (http://www.seasip.info/Cpm/software/setfont.arc) to edit the Nheredia one ;)


(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=6661&slot=3&part=A&type=.png)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 12:15, 18 October 15
That is great! I still had not check how to do it, thank you! :D

I guess that the old nice font used in AD aventures is somewhere out there. It could be nice to give it a try. Alternatively, something that looks like a digital clock would be great  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: MiguelSky on 23:54, 19 October 15
I posted it for BASIC at Fuente de texto del DAAD - Amstrad.ES Forum (http://amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4089#p56426)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 01:24, 20 October 15
That is great! Now, I can apply it as soon as I learn how to use setfont (I still did not have time to look at it  :picard: )

Thank you!

Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 04:19, 15 November 15
It is time for another update!!  :D

Sooo... a big chunk of the code is already finished. In fact, the game is fully playable now, from start to end, and we are adding some features that we left outside because we were not sure about the RAM. We managed to include almost everything we wanted:

- Fights against some other characters. During the fight, the graphics will change and you will see a close view of your opponent.

- Four or more verbs for every action to make player's life as easy as possible if he/she guesses what to do but not the exact words. We also have included the verb "use" as a sort of wild-card that can be employed when you do not know another more appropriate word. I think that this will be specially useful if the player's mother tongue is not English.

- Three endings.

- Score system, although simplified. At the end of the game, it will show you the ending you discovered and the side quests you completed.

- Three side quests, two of them completely optional and the third one essential to unlock the good ending.

- Lots of things that is possible to examine.

- And Amstrad CPC appearing during the game!! (TFM´s suggestion  ;D )

- Some new extra puzzles.

- Some automatic events with their own graphics.

- Parser informing player of the status of the doors, objects, etc., before and after manipulation.

There are some things that we still did not include but you will see in the final release, among them, we would like to add:

- death screen/s.

- "exits" command to list all the available exits.

- decent font for the texts.

- and others.

We are also making very good progress with the graphics. At the moment, Dani has drawn more than half of the locations although, sadly for him, there are still a lot more graphics to go  ;D . We think that they look really really cool, all of them, although it takes quite a lot to draw each one  :picard: .

About bugs, I have been playing the game quite a lot and I did not find any game breaking problem at all. I noticed some consistency issues here are there but they are already solved. I also found some things that needed to be reworked, but I think that they are more or less OK now. Anyway, I am sure that the people beta testing it will find a bunch of problems. The main issue I personally find now is that I am completely unable to judge if the puzzles are just too easy or, in some cases, too hard. This is something very delicate, because logic is something that depends on the person itself, and I really feel unsure about it.

Finally, regarding the memory, the game is already 51KB. I am compressing the database and this saves around 18KB, but still. This definitely excludes the possibility to play it in a not upgraded CPC464, even without graphics. I am a bit sad about this, because I was hoping to make it fit in the TPA of CP/M 2.2, but it was not possible. The final version of the game, including the graphics patch, will be around 58-60KB. As I said somewhere else, all the graphics are loaded in real time from the floppy, HxC or similar, and a 720KB floppy will be necessary to fit them all. We could make a 3" floppy version, though, but just with a fraction of the graphics, I do not think that this is worth it. If X-MEM is installed, I think that it should be possible to use it as a RAM disk but I still did not test it (I do not even have my X-MEM yet  :D ).

And that is it!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: jbaudrand on 08:43, 15 November 15
does it have a savegame ability? I gave up playing Athanor because I can't save and must restart from beginning each time I play
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 09:34, 15 November 15
As far as I know yes it does :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:46, 16 November 15
Quote from: jbaudrand on 08:43, 15 November 15
does it have a savegame ability? I gave up playing Athanor because I can't save and must restart from beginning each time I play

So, yes, as Gryzor said, you can save whenever you want. Moreover, there are RAM save and RAM load options, a short of temporal quick save and quick load  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 17:54, 16 November 15
WoW! Moving forward in big steps!  :) :) :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 17:58, 18 November 15
I have made even a little bit more of progress  :D :

- Added the death screen

- Added and "exits" command that tells you the connections of a location

- Improved some descriptions

- Added more things to examine :)

In principle things look nice, although I will for sure need the help of PCW users if we want to port the adventure to the other Amstrad as well. It should be piece of cake, but still...  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: dodogildo on 18:36, 18 November 15
Being a rookie on this board, I noticed this project a bit late.  But It seems fantastic!! Excellent artwork, ideas, also all the teamwork here.. congrats!

Are you considering to make this a real boxed edition on a disk? With a poster and everything? You can consider crowdfunding.. If you do, I'm in!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 18:58, 18 November 15
Well, it is a possibility, yes. We could create a physical edition with some goodies like a little book with concept art and illustrations, a t-shirt... . But only if we feel that the game deserves it at the end  :D . Then, there is the problem of the physical format itself. A couple of 3.5" floppies? the 3.5" floppies plus an USB pendrive or SD card? None of this is really canonical, to be honest  :picard:
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Puresox on 20:01, 18 November 15
Is there a function that shows all the Verbs that can be used ? Or is that a daft question ,with regard to text adventures.?


With regard to the concern you have of the game puzzles being to easy/hard. Have you considered getting a family member or friend , to go through the adventure with yourself supervising and giving clues/advice when needed . You could sort of get an idea of how they get on with things .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 14:22, 19 November 15
Quote from: Puresox on 20:01, 18 November 15
Is there a function that shows all the Verbs that can be used ? Or is that a daft question ,with regard to text adventures.?


With regard to the concern you have of the game puzzles being to easy/hard. Have you considered getting a family member or friend , to go through the adventure with yourself supervising and giving clues/advice when needed . You could sort of get an idea of how they get on with things .

So, in principle there is not a function telling you all the verbs. This is mainly because some of them could actually give quite a lot of tips about puzzle resolution :) . However, the most common verbs will be detailed in the user manual, and the parser is able to understand a lot of things, much more than in a traditional 8 bit adventure. On the other hand, since "use" is implemented as a wild card you should not get stuck in the game because you are not able to guess the correct word. This is something I always found frustrating in most 8 bit adventures and I tried really hard to prevent the same from happening here, quite a lot of RAM has been used just for this purpose :) .

About the puzzles, well, before the game is released it will go through extensive testing. The testers are going to be people with a lot of experience in these type of games, so I hope they will be very valuable :) . The main part of the story should be actually quite straight forward for somebody used to text adventures. This is because we realized that probably most of the people is not going to expend weeks or months with the game, something pretty common in the past. However, the side quests are by far more complicate. Actually, one of them is not even a "true" side quest because it is necessary to unlock the good ending and a lot of additional lore. So, if you just want to give the game a try it should be easy enough but if you want to go really deep, read all the lore and unlock the good ending the adventure will require far more effort. It is a delicate balance, let´s hope that we will manage to achieve something like that :) .


Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 19:35, 21 November 15
Of course the risk you're running with "people with a lot of experience in these type of games" is that it's going to be easier for them; so they may be able to judge how logical it is or how well made in its technical aspects, but not the difficulty itself...
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 19:58, 21 November 15
That is actually very true! I will also send the game to inexperienced people, at least I know a couple of them that would like to try it and only played an adventure in their lives :D. Anyway, difficulty is always complicate to judge. I remember when I played Chichen Itza, it took me like a couple of years to finish the first part (and countless hours). However, I finished the second in a single evening  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 01:20, 22 November 15
I'm 99% inexperienced in adventures.  :)  Can do some dump user beta testing for you.  :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 02:52, 22 November 15
Thank you! Then, you will officially receive a beta version when is ready plus the user manual  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 00:17, 23 November 15
Ok, the weekend is over, time to sober up ... getting ready for gaming: Helmet up, scratching rust off the swords...
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:49, 23 November 15
hahahaha, it will take some time, you still have plenty of time to prepare the weapons  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 19:10, 23 November 15
Lasersword just fine polished. Can't wait to play it, and I will report everything I get stuck - and I will.  :laugh:
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 19:25, 27 November 15
More news!  :D

This time I decided to give them sooner that usual and then the post can be shorter  :picard:

- The basic code is already finished and I have been testing it for a while looking for game breaking bugs (I did not find them). This will still continue for a little bit more time, since we are having new ideas from time to time and I am going through it again and again to add as much detail as possible. The "exits" command is implemented, it works very well and the same is true for the death screen.

- We added many additional cut scenes.

- All the essential graphics of the game are already made as well, Dani was working like crazy during the last month but they look beautiful. However, we still need to prepare the graphics for the introduction, the three endings, the cut scenes and the death screens :) . They are a huge bunch, more than 50.

- I still need to add a decent font for the text.

- In before, I was testing the adventure in Mode 2 and using text only; now, I am testing it using Mode 1 and all the graphics, this allows to check if everything falls in place, there is not too much scrolling, empty blank lines, etc. I am mostly testing it at the same speed a player will see the game in a real CPC, this lets me to appreciate the pace much better  :) .

- We are already preparing an instruction manual, with quite a lot of lore and detailed info. However, we still did not make much of it.

Regarding the RAM, etc., nothing changed. The game is as fat as in before (53-54KB when compiled as a .COM file) and requires a floppy unit, but runs quite decently. Even loading all the graphics in real time, speed is higher than in vectorial graphics based games (or roughly the same) so it is very acceptable. Of course, if you want to run it in a real CPC with a floppy unit you can expect it to be reading all the time...  I have an HXC installed on mine so at least it is silent  :picard:

About testing, we have TFM volunteering and is polishing his lasersword...  ;D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 19:27, 27 November 15
And this is nothing, I created this reply by mistake  :picard:
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 20:09, 28 November 15
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 19:27, 27 November 15
And this is nothing, I created this reply by mistake  :picard:


I'm sensing a hint for the game... :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:18, 03 December 15
Soooo... it is time to decide about game fonts. I actually managed to find a few decent candidates (thx FloppySoftware  :-* !) and we are trying to decide which one fits the game best in term of aesthetics and readability. I have prepared some screenshots of the introduction with different fonts so, if somebody is interested, he/she can tell which one he/she likes the most!  :D

Font1
[attachimg=1]

Font2
[attachimg=2]

Font3
[attachimg=3]

Font4
[attachimg=4]

Font5
[attachimg=5]

Font6
[attachimg=6]

I personally liked the 2, because I thought that was quite fitting, unfortunately we think that is not very readable. Font3 and font4 do not seem to be very fitting, but maybe Font5 or 6 are actually good candidates. The most readable one seems to be Font6.

Any more opinions?  :)

Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: remax on 11:52, 03 December 15
i would say Font 1 or Font 6... The other ones exhaust me in advance...
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Targhan on 12:34, 03 December 15
Font6, no hesitation for me.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: FloppySoftware on 12:54, 03 December 15
Quote from: remax on 11:52, 03 December 15
i would say Font 1 or Font 6... The other ones exhaust me in advance...

Agreed!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 13:00, 03 December 15
Same here :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 13:01, 03 December 15
So, apparently, it is going to be Font6  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 13:02, 03 December 15
...unanimously :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: robcfg on 13:32, 03 December 15
I prefer Font 2, the others don't have the sci fi touch
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 14:15, 03 December 15
Well that's true, but the important part is actually reading the text, isn't it?
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: reidrac on 14:19, 03 December 15
Agreed that font 2 is nicer (sci-fi themed) but I find font 4 to be most readable.

Perhaps font 4 can be tweaked to be more like font 2.

EDIT: yes, font 6 is very readable... but I find it too bold. Anyway, my 2 cents!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: robcfg on 14:35, 03 December 15
Quote from: Gryzor on 14:15, 03 December 15
Well that's true, but the important part is actually reading the text, isn't it?


Sure, but I have no problem reading it. Maybe a font like Megacorps' or Mantis' one?
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Bryce on 14:46, 03 December 15
Font 2 is most fitting to the subject. Font 3 is "Ye olde..." gothic type and just wrong for this.
I'd choose 6 for readability, but I think all of them would be more readable if the line spacing was increased.

Bryce.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Joseman on 15:06, 03 December 15
font 6 for me too
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 15:32, 03 December 15
Megacorp font is actually very nice, although I do not know if much more readable that Font2. Sadly, I do not even have the source to try  :picard:

[attachimg=1]
(http://wiki.caad.es/Archivo:Megacorp1.jpg)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: robcfg on 19:24, 03 December 15
I hope the attached images are of use  ;)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 19:52, 03 December 15
Well, it's nice and more readable, but still not really so. Plus, it's all caps, which is a definite no-go in terms of readability!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:46, 04 December 15
So, since the majority thinks that Font6 is probably the best, I have put it as the "default" font for the game. Of course, we can always change it if we find something better!  :) (suggestions are very welcome)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: MiguelSky on 18:29, 04 December 15
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 15:32, 03 December 15
Megacorp font is actually very nice, although I do not know if much more readable that Font2. Sadly, I do not even have the source to try  :picard:

[attachimg=1]
(http://wiki.caad.es/Archivo:Megacorp1.jpg)
You can get the Megacorp Font yourself by mean of FontGen (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/programming/fontgen-1-0-for-cpc/msg1641/#msg1641)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 18:43, 04 December 15
imho font 2 just fits to the game.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Sykobee (Briggsy) on 01:41, 12 December 15
1 or 6. Probably 6.


Shame that PAWS text rendering can't use non-proportional fonts.


2 is "70s futuristic" indeed, but for long term readability it's a no, unless you make the setfont loader allow the user to override. Or select their own font even.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: dodogildo on 07:20, 12 December 15
Quote from: Gryzor on 14:15, 03 December 15
Well that's true, but the important part is actually reading the text, isn't it?
Agreed, readability must be the most important criteria here.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 20:10, 12 December 15
At the moment, I am using font 6 :) . It is nice, maybe a bit far from the style I originally envisioned but it is quite readable and definitely much better than the standard Mode 1 :) . Good news is that it can be very easily changed if we find something better. Actually, the font has nothing to do with the game, is just a patch for CP/M, the game uses whatever font the operating system has loaded in that moment :) .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Puresox on 04:01, 13 December 15
Can you make it a selectable option , within game?
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 13:18, 13 December 15
No, no within the game... actually, the game uses a particular CP/M version that is modified with the font of our choice and cannot be changed without a specific tool. It could be possible, however, to include this tool and create a menu in CP/M that allows you to change the font before the game loads. However, doing this every time you want to play seems quite boring and time consuming for the player...
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: FloppySoftware on 16:48, 13 December 15
How and where is stored the font in CPC CP/M?
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: MiguelSky on 00:43, 14 December 15
It's included in the .EMS file of your CP/M. You can edit it with the SetFont tool, as is told in the fonts thread Fonts for CP/M (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/applications/fonts-for-cpm/)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 02:29, 14 December 15
Yes... and then that modified CP/M uses the font you chose as default for all the programs, including our adventure  ;) .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: FloppySoftware on 20:58, 14 December 15
Yes, thanks, but I mean... it's stored in RAM and is it accessible like in the PCW or not?

I mean... is it necessary to patch the EMS file? Or we can patch the memory instead?

Because we can do it on the fly in the last case, and we won't be limited to one font only.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:07, 15 December 15
I think that it is actually stored in RAM (in the first bank in the case of CP/M Plus, that only runs in the 6128). As far as I understand, CP/M resides in this bank once is loaded and the 61KB that can be allocated for the programs are all from the second bank. However, I do not know if the font is accessible without a specific application. What I do know is that SetFont can change it in real time when you load it and type the proper command, that is for sure  :) . So, I guess that it could be possible to change the font overwriting that region of the memory. It should even be possible to do this from PAWS and implement it as a command, since the parser has a function to call an external ASM routine. However, this is waaaay beyond my skills  :) .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: FloppySoftware on 08:29, 15 December 15
Ok, thanks.

I know how to do it in the PCW under CP/M Plus, and I think it would be very similar in the CPC.

What about a program that give the user the choice of select the font, and then execute your game with the CP/M Plus BDOS function CHAIN?

No more code or RAM is required from your side.

:)

Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 10:06, 15 December 15
That would be awesome, although my knowledge of CP/M Plus is limited and I would certainly need help with that. So, the way I am loading the game is as follows: the adventure has two discs, the first contains a BASIC loader, the core of CP/M Plus and a few tools required to run the game, the second disc is the game itself. When you type RUN"DISC from BASIC, the loader loads the classical Mode 0 screen (it is just a colorful graphic) and then it executes the |CPM command. Once in CP/M, there is a very simple PROFILE.SUB with the following lines inside:

ramdos+ D1
b:
doomsday

as you can see, the only thing it does is to load ramdos, configure the unit b:, switch to the unit b: and load the adventure :). It is not necessary to change the font because the CP/M version I am using is already patched. I do not know how to do BDOS system calls, to be honest...  :(


Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: FloppySoftware on 10:30, 15 December 15
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 10:06, 15 December 15
That would be awesome, although my knowledge of CP/M Plus is limited and I would certainly need help with that. So, the way I am loading the game is as follows: the adventure has two discs, the first contains a BASIC loader, the core of CP/M Plus and a few tools required to run the game, the second disc is the game itself. When you type RUN"DISC from BASIC, the loader loads the classical Mode 0 screen (it is just a colorful graphic) and then it executes the |CPM command. Once in CP/M, there is a very simple PROFILE.SUB with the following lines inside:

ramdos+ D1
b:
doomsday

as you can see, the only thing it does is to load ramdos, configure the unit b:, switch to the unit b: and load the adventure :) . It is not necessary to change the font because the CP/M version I am using is already patched. I do not know how to do BDOS system calls, to be honest...  :(

Easy. Just change the last profile.sub line for the appropiate command to execute the font selector, and it will execute doomsday by itselft, using the CHAIN BDOS function.
Another option would be simply inserting the line with the font selector before doomsday.
I would like to help to you in the font selector if you agree.
I only would need to know the exact details to change the CPC Font (I think I could manage this by myself, but any help would be very appreciated), and the remaining free space on both disks.

Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:18, 15 December 15
Sure, I can give you all the info and the DSKs if you need them as soon as I go home at night :). To change the font I simply execute Setfont from CP/M. This opens the program and a new prompt (it is a command line application). Once inside Setfont, you just need to type the proper command and the application reads the file from the disc and changes the font for you, either in a temporal or in a permanent way  :) .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 01:27, 16 December 15
So, here are the files of SetFont plus the manual, that is in PDF format  :) . It runs in the CPC, PCW+ and Speccy +3. Moreover, I am just writing a private message to you because I think that it will be easier to explain the details that way.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 20:57, 16 December 15
Cool to see the progress here :-)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:51, 17 December 15
Yes! It seems that maybe the player will be able to choose the font of the game after all!  :D Thx FloppySoftware!  :-*
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: FloppySoftware on 20:27, 17 December 15
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 00:51, 17 December 15
Yes! It seems that maybe the player will be able to choose the font of the game after all!  :D Thx FloppySoftware!  :-*
It's seems we have a prototype for the font selector.  8)
PM sent!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 13:46, 18 December 15
Since it is Christmas, seems fitting to update the status of the project and show some new graphs for you to see!  :D

- So, the code is basically done now and I am just checking for bugs here and there. I was adding some more details during the last weekend but I decided to keep free the last 8KB of RAM in case the people testing the game notice something that needs to be modified. For example, it could be that they find difficult to guess some of the words or sentences, in that case I will just add all the synonyms and different logical sentences they suggest to be sure that nobody has problems playing the game. If we still have RAM after testing, I will try to add some more features.

- Dani hopes to finish all the graphics by next week. There can be changes, of course, but no more blank screens when the beta is released.

- The instruction manual is almost ready. Gryzor went through it and all his changes have been already added. Dthrone is having a look as well  :) .

- It seems that we will be able to choose the font after all! FloppySoftware is coding a menu that will let you choose between different fonts the first time you load the adventure. Your decision will be saved in the disc and the next time you load the game it will not be necessary to select it again. Of course, you will be able to change it anytime. This font selector works in the CPC and the PCW, something great because the idea is to have versions of the game for both computers.

And finally, these are some graphs for the intro I would like to show you. They are spoiler free and we hope you will like them! IMHO, Dani is doing an awesome work here  :D

(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5832/23743893251_80ccf79809.jpg)

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/631/23199567613_9c4698e598.jpg)

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/733/23717970572_0727b96680.jpg)

Thank you to all of you for the support and the involvement in the project!!



Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: robcfg on 17:06, 18 December 15
Woooooo! Impressive! Looking forward to play it :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: dodogildo on 21:47, 18 December 15
I'll keep suggesting some special boxed edition version for anybody who are willing to chip in :)

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 23:19, 18 December 15
Glad you like it, guys!!!

Sure, if we feel like doing it, we could make a boxed edition, hehe  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: dodogildo on 01:23, 19 December 15
Let's do it, other retro scenes will get so jealous.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Munchausen on 11:02, 19 December 15
Just popping in to say I've only just read this thread and it looks like a great game. I really love the art work. Looking forward to playing it!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Puresox on 16:05, 19 December 15
Looks great and very atmospheric. Thanks for the effort gone into this, as always appreciate all who make games for the system ,which I'm sure goes without saying .
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:45, 21 December 15
So, another little update  :D

- FloppySoftware already finished the font selector and it is already integrated  :-* . So, no more discussion about the game fonts anymore. Now, the user can select between two very readable fonts, the sci-fi one or the standard Amstrad font. Once the player chooses one, the selection is saved and used next the time the game is loaded. I am very happy about the font selector, it is just great  :)

[attachimg=1]

- Dani has finished the graphics! It took several months but we are finally there.

- I added some more minor details.

So, it seems that the beta will be ready quite soon  :D . I am going to Spain for 15 days today, but I will keep on working as soon as I come back and it should not take very long to have something more or less ready for the testers.

Merry Christmas and thank you for your support guys!!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: robcfg on 17:43, 21 December 15
The font selector is cool indeed!

Have a nice Christmas!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Puresox on 20:56, 21 December 15
Superb ! Problem Sorted with style!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: dcdrac on 22:40, 21 December 15
this really shaping up nicely
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: FloppySoftware on 08:12, 22 December 15
It's just a little contribution to a big project. I wrote the font selector fully CPC / PCW compatible because I have the hope of a PCW version of Doomsday.  ;)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 19:27, 23 December 15
Thank you all, guys!! Actually, the font selector was an important contribution, very important indeed!  :D It should be easy to port the game to PCW. As soon as the final CPC version is released we can work on it  :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: khaz on 03:53, 10 January 16
That's a fantastic project you have here, I can't wait to play it!

I'm probably way too late for that, but I want to nitpick about the text:
Traditionally, texts adventure games have the player as the hero and addresses them as "you", effectively putting the player at the centre of the action. In your game however it feels like the player isn't part of the story, they only dictate what should happen next, but what's happening doesn't happen to them, it happens to that character in the game. Using "I" instead of "you" puts a distance between the character and its player, and I really think it's detrimental to the immersion. I, the player, am the guy moving around in a space station, solving puzzle. For a moment, I am Mike, the space explorer with a mysterious past, trying to save everyone from an impeding doom, amass gold and save the princess.

If I take the screens you have shown as examples, and only change this part:

QuoteIt's been a long trip but you are finally here. Just a few miles away you can see the Regus station, silently orbiting Pollux b. The old spaceship is where this Arnold guy was last seen thirty years ago. Luckily, the landing pads seem to be in one piece and even some of the navigation lights are still working. It should be quite easy to land the Doomsday in the docks and enter this giant piece of junk! OK, landing time.

QuoteYou are in your ship, the Doomsday. You can see the enormous dock of the station illuminated by the nearby Pollux through the cockpit windscreen. The ship is resting on a landing pad.

What should you do now?
>_

QuoteA huge medical scanner dominates the room. The scanner is empty, but a corpse still rests on the wheeled patient table. It appears that the body rot here because everything around is stained with dry body fluids. To the left, behind a room divider,  you can see the monitoring computers on a table. There are some shelves with papers to the right.

What should you do now?
>_

In my opinion, "I" is only good when the character is directly speaking, with quotes. Which is how the genre evolved when it started using third person characters to control, a la SCUMM games, and completely discarded text descriptions.

I would also remove "What should you do now?" before the prompt, it will be annoying after a couple of hours/minutes. Or put it only on the first screen, before the first interaction. That way it shows the new player that there is something to do when they see the prompt, while also not overstaying its welcome.

QuoteYou have moved into a dark place.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
>_
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 04:56, 10 January 16
Thank you for your message!  :D

Actually, I was thinking about what you said for quite a long time before writing the adventure. At the end, I decided to make Mike to speak in first person and I would say that it was just a question of personal taste and letting the player know more about Mike through the text, like in a dialog. Most of the adventures I played put you in the skin of the main character and I never liked the approach much because I always felt that the computer was an impersonal narrator situated between me and the action. However, I agree that maybe this is more immersive. Sadly, now is too late to change it, all the texts are written and the game is close to the beta release, let´s hope you guys will like it as it is  :) .

Regarding the sentence before the prompt, I completely agree with you (and the rest of the people involved in the production as well). We removed it long ago and you only see the > symbol now. This also saves space in the screen and everything looks more neat!

[attachimg=1]
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Gryzor on 16:25, 12 January 16
So, we're talking about first- and third-person text adventures now? :D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 15:13, 15 January 16
After coming back from holidays, it is time for another monthly update!  ;D

- All the graphics have been already included, everything works very well and the game looks really nice. Although the pixel art is finished, we are considering to do some minor tweaking for better use of the free space in the screen.
- I continue testing and correcting things, many things. When I left for holidays I thought that everything was more or less OK but it seems that I was actually quite wrong  :picard: . I started testing again from scratch and I found a number of things that were still not completely consistent and needed to be polished. Nothing game breaking, but still. I am close to finish this testing round and I do not know if I will do another one before releasing the beta or not, probably yes :) .

- The instruction manual is almost ready and has been already corrected by Gryzor and Dthrone (thank you guys!). It is quite exhaustive and it should have enough lore and info for anyone to play the game, even if he/she is completely new to the world of text adventures.

- FloppySoftware (thank you too!!) is working in a game loader for CP/M, something that lets you to configure your computer and decide if you are going to run the game using one of two floppy drives. We wanted to do automatic detection, but this is far from easy, so we are exploring other possibilities :) .

- We are making mouse mats with the artwork of the game! Dani has created this cool cover and I have ordered three, just to check how they look and their quality. I will post some pictures as soon as I receive them!  :D

[attachimg=1]

- Finally, looking for something in a drawer Dani found this old cover!  :laugh:

[attachimg=2]
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: reidrac on 15:34, 15 January 16
Very nice artwork :)
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: dcdrac on 18:55, 15 January 16
wow that is amazing
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: TFM on 20:33, 15 January 16
Aber so was von!!!
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Zoe Robinson on 23:29, 15 January 16
Guys, this artwork is beautiful. Any chance of it being made available as desktop wallpaper, or maybe something we can buy and frame?  ;D
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:55, 16 January 16
We are very glad you like it!!!  :D Thank you guys!

So, we are actually discussing how to present the artwork in the case of an eventual physical release. It turns out that we have very very high resolution images (the artwork itself is vectorial, although the color was added in Photoshop) and everything would be possible from a technical point of view :) .  We also have a beautiful and huge pixel art poster with the game map, intro, cutscenes and endings, but there are no plans to make this one available at the moment because it contains massive spoilers, as you can imagine  :picard:
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: Zoe Robinson on 12:58, 16 January 16
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 00:55, 16 January 16
there are no plans to make this one available at the moment because it contains massive spoilers, as you can imagine  :picard:


Please teach Hollywood this lesson; maybe they'll then stop putting spoilers in their trailers.
Title: Re: New text adventure! [WIP]
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 21:30, 16 January 16
Hehe, I really dislike when somebody shows me too much of a movie or a videogame. Nothing like a completely fresh experience, in my humble opinion  :D . Of course, everything needs testing, but testing is a necessary sacrifice that some people make to help some others to better enjoy a game. So, I think that they really deserve a special gift when their job is done  :-*
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: TFM on 01:16, 18 January 16
Just an idea. It would be nice to choose text with a brighter blue (maybe 2 or 11 instead of 1). I have a hard time reading it. Didn't pass the mole test.  :laugh:   :)  Anything else... just pure awesomeness! Will be one of the biggest CPC games for sure!  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 03:00, 18 January 16
That is actually a very good point, although a little bit out of our control  :( . PAWs automatically chooses the color of the text based in the palette of the image, this has a good side and a bad side. The good side is that the color of the text changes with the color of the location and this is actually quite immersive. The dark side is that some locations have a text that it is just a bit too dark. I have to do a bit more of experimentation with this to see if I can solve the issue, but I am not 100% sure. In any case, if this turns out to be something annoying we can always choose another palette for the image (you will tell me when you are testing the game  :D ). Luckily, I think that this is more a problem of reading the text again the bright color of the PC screen. I am telling you this because I was playing the game in the CPC and the color of the text does not seem to be a big issue  :) .
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: TotO on 07:47, 18 January 16
Looking the screens, you are using 4 colours like that:
- Background: Black
- Dark: undefined
- Middle: undefined
- Light: White

Instead of using the "dark" colour for the text, you should allow to use the "middle" one. (change with the context too)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 09:55, 18 January 16
I have some good news!  :D

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

I solved the issue! I cannot specify the color of the text (PAWs always chooses the second color defined in the palette) but I managed to rearrange the positions of all the colors and remap them in the game. I just need to do this for all the locations that need it  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: MiguelSky on 11:08, 18 January 16
Exactly!!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: dodogildo on 19:31, 18 January 16
Great news.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 19:59, 18 January 16
I have additional great news! Some mouse mats!  ;D

They are only a prototype because we need to adjust the final image (it needs to have bigger margins, in this one the things are too close to the edges) but they look very cool already and the quality seems to be superb. I am testing one in the lab to see how it behaves  :D .

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: villain on 21:06, 18 January 16
I never understood what those mats are for, but they really look great!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: robcfg on 10:01, 19 January 16
Ooooooh! Sign me in for one of these! XD
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:23, 19 January 16
Quote from: villain on 21:06, 18 January 16
I never understood what those mats are for, but they really look great!

Hehe, some people do not use them at all. In my case is the opposite, I am a heavy user of mats and I actually need to replace them quite frequently  :)

On the other hand, I am glad you like them guys!  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Gryzor on 11:41, 19 January 16
I don't even use a mouse - I use trackballs or track pads. But I'd put that on my wall :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 01:52, 28 January 16
Sooooo... the BETA 1.0 is finally ready!! 

The testers will be receiving it during the next coming days (thank you very much for trying this, guys!!). Now let´s see how everything works, we still have a few KB of RAM available (around 3-4) than can be used either to fix bugs and general problems or to extend the endings of the game and add more cut-scenes. This is a closed beta because although the game is very playable (or at least that is what we hope) it lacks some things we would like to include in the final release, the instruction manual is still not finished and we actually do not know how the puzzles work in their present state. Moreover, we need to go very carefully through all the texts again once we consider that the adventure is ready and, finally, release the PCW version as well   :) .

On the other hand, since the last update I have corrected a few more things. The most noticeable one is the color of the texts (all of them should be very readable now) and there were some bugs here and there that are gone as well. I am sure that there is still something lurking around, but it should not be a game breaking problem  :) .
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Gryzor on 14:47, 28 January 16
Ah, I knew I had to log into the forum today :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: khaz on 15:39, 28 January 16
I'll just wait for the inevitable physical release ;)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 02:20, 29 January 16
The beta has already been sent to the testers...  :-X let´s hope that everything will be all right  :picard:
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: robcfg on 09:35, 29 January 16
Best of luck!


I'm eager to play the game, so if there's anything I can help with, please tell me  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 09:54, 29 January 16
Thank you!!  :D

At the moment I think that we have everything more or less covered, but who knows hehe  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 12:43, 01 February 16
Hello guys!

I have a short update with some very good news. We are growing! or at least the images of the game are  ;D . Dani was doing extra work and now all the in-game artwork is at 320x96 (it was 200x96 in before, more than enough for playing and testing, but less nice). So, here is a little teaser of the new size:

[attachimg=1]

On the other hand, the testing team is doing a great job and I already have some useful feedback. Moreover, according to some, the game is even playable  :D .
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: khaz on 16:09, 01 February 16
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 12:43, 01 February 16On the other hand, the testing team is doing a great job and I already have some useful feedback. Moreover, according to some, the game is even playable  :D .

Well it's not really an Amstrad game then, is it?

Loving the new artworks, very cinemascope.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Gryzor on 16:22, 01 February 16
That's what I said too, very cinematic!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Zoe Robinson on 22:09, 04 February 16
I need to see this game running on my little old CPC. Text adventures were The Best back in the day. Also, those mouse mats look sweet. Are they glossy finished or matt (please say matt, glossy finishes are godawful when using a laser mouse because the signal gets fired everywhere and my pointer ends up running wild on the screen).
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 22:57, 04 February 16
I am very glad you like the game!  :D I also like to test it in my real Amstrad, is much more charming!

About the mats, they are matt and work very well with laser mice  :) . I am using mine in the lab (I thought that it would be interesting to test it before ordering a bunch) and it is actually very nice and comfortable. Moreover, quality seems really great, the colors did not fade at all. I was talking with the company that prints and makes them and they told me it would be even possible to order the thin version, that I personally find more slick.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 18:50, 07 February 16
Good news!

One of the testers managed to finish the game already  :D . Well, he managed to reach the "bad" ending but he could not complete any side quests. This was somehow expected because the puzzles that involve them are more difficult. Now his intention is to keep on trying and find all the hidden stuff, he has many unanswered questions about the plot. It seems that it took him around 15 hours to "beat" the game, and this is not bad considering that he is not a native english speaker and this was his first adventure. He said that he did not find any consistency problems and found everything very logic, although he had to fight his way around the language quite a lot  :-X .
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: dodogildo on 19:01, 07 February 16
Does the game offer an option to beam you back to a point in the game to try again, If you end up with a 'bad' ending?  It'd be a great feature!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Dubliner on 20:05, 07 February 16
Quote from: dodogildo on 19:01, 07 February 16
Does the game offer an option to beam you back to a point in the game to try again, If you end up with a 'bad' ending?  It'd be a great feature!

You can save your current status on disk, so that option is already implemented. You just need to save on diferent files and that's all.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 20:48, 07 February 16
Quote from: dodogildo on 19:01, 07 February 16
Does the game offer an option to beam you back to a point in the game to try again, If you end up with a 'bad' ending?  It'd be a great feature!

So, yes, as Dubliner said, you can save at any time and after finishing the game you just need to reload your last save and complete what is left  :) . It should be very easy to know that you are reaching the ending, since one of your last actions is a "no return" point in quite an obvious way.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: TFM on 22:55, 10 February 16
Hmmm... I didn't even make it out of the airlock. Well, I'm somebody who never got into this kind of games. So I'm a good dump tester for it. It looks very awesome at all. GFX are incredible great, the power of MODE 1.  :) :) :)


Any hint how to leave the airlock, open/close doors doesn't work. I can push the button, nothing happens.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 19:07, 11 February 16
Do not worry, that is normal if you never played an adventure in before. I can give you all the hints you need by e-mail  :D (e-mail because of the spoilers  :) )
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: MiguelSky on 19:16, 11 February 16
Oh, come on, Stefan! That puzzle it's not too difficult. Try different things.  ;)
Spoiler: ShowHide
What objects are you carrying?
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: TFM on 19:22, 11 February 16
Quote from: MiguelSky on 19:16, 11 February 16
Oh, come on, Stefan! That puzzle it's not too difficult. Try different things.  ;)
Spoiler: ShowHide
What objects are you carrying?



I used the laser cutter, the gun, the space suit. But obviously I can't find the right verb, but that's more topic for a personal conversation since the game is WIP and the interface is under development. Well, I guess I have to check my email now...

Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: MiguelSky on 21:22, 11 February 16
Don't give up!! Have you read the manual?
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:28, 21 February 16
Time for the usual update!

Soo... at the moment four testers, with very different degrees of experience in adventure games, have already finished the beta of Doomsday Lost Echoes (to the people that is still testing it: do not feel pressed at all, we are NOT in a rush here  :D ). They all liked it a lot (or that is what they said, maybe they are just too polite  :picard: ) and nobody found important game-breaking bugs, only details that need to be polished. We received a ton of  useful suggestions, but nothing really deal-breaking. We would like to deeply thank you guys for your time, everybody that finished the game has helped a lot giving great feedback to improve the final adventure!

On the other hand, we are very happy to see that all the puzzles seem to be logic and is possible to solve them. Almost everybody needed a few hints but different ones in each case. We did not find two people that were stuck in the same area for a long time, although for the moment nobody managed to complete all the sidequests and see the three endings on his own (although somebody that finished the vanilla game is still trying hard and refuses any kind of support, let´s see what happens  ::) ).

In the meantime, we are working in the details for the final release, although it will still take time. You can expect, as I said, extended graphics (from 200x96 to 320x96), enriched lore and extended/corrected texts, more things that will be possible to examine, some additional puzzles, a proper web page and a few other surprises  :) .
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: khaz on 02:52, 21 February 16
I am honestly amazed at the level of professionalism that you put in your game. Not only do you try and keep pushing technical limits, you also spent quite a lot of time in fine tweaking the gameplay based on user experience. Not many people have the patience to work on the last 10% of their amateur game, and often we end up with games with much potential that fall just short of being great.

I have no doubt that you will give us an exceptional game, and while I am quite eager to play it I have no desire for you to rush it. I know you won't. Keep working dude.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 12:30, 21 February 16
Thank you! I hope you will like it when it is finished!  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 16:56, 04 April 16
Sooo... it is time for another update!

We have entered in the final stages of the development:

- Firstly, we managed to include the big fat easter egg we had in mind. It took us forever to have it ready, but it is over now. Expect some cool videos and web-based puzzles to discover all the secrets of the game! there will probably some physical rewards for the firsts 3 players finding them  :D (if somebody manages  :-X ). Moreover, we extended the endings quite a lot with new graphics and descriptions and the same is true for many in-game texts. There is only 1KB of RAM left!

- Secondly, I have just sent all the texts to a native english speaker friend of mine that is not related to the Amstrad or videogames at all and she will give them a go. This includes the user manual, the texts of the easter eggs and the in-game texts. More than 65 pages, poor girl  :picard:

- Then, I plan go through the adventure a couple more times to be as sure as possible that it is bug free and I will send the RC1 for another testing round, hopefully the last. One of the testers already played the beta, the other never had contact with the adventure in before.

- Finally, we will upload the web we are preparing and release the CPC version of the adventure . I will try to start working in the PCW port shortly after that. Compiling the database is trivial but the conversion of the graphics will take time.

- In the meantime, Dani was making some drawings from the concepts that will available as wallpapers! Look at this one below! I plan to print a poster from it, or something. We also changed some of the graphics because we found that they were not completely fitting the texts. The "extension" of the graphics is over as well, all of them are 1/3 bigger than in before.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Gryzor on 11:19, 13 April 16
Well, apart from the 'can't wait' part, this art is so awesome... I want a PC wallpaper, a large enough image so I can print it at 60cm @300dpi and a live wallpaper for Android with parallax levels. Am I asking for too much? :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 14:01, 13 April 16
Haha, you can already count with the hi-resolution version. Dani´s artwork has an enormous size, you could cover a wall with it  :D . For the wallpaper with parallax effect... well I am still not sure about that, but we can talk with him and check how he feels about doing it  :laugh:
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Gryzor on 14:31, 13 April 16
Ah... well, if he's open to it and someone can code a LWP for Android it'd be easy, concerning the gfx - I think. Just two or three layers with a little overlapping and a ratio that works well for three screens :) I'd pay for that! :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 19:41, 16 April 16
And here is a teaser of the beta running in Retromaniac´s stand in a real 6128 computer with two drives in the first Amstrad Eterno fair/encounter:

amstradeterno (http://unpasadomejor.wix.com/amstradeterno)

#AmstradEterno hashtag on Twitter (https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmstradEterno)

Thank you, Dubliner!  :D :-*

[attachimg=1]
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Gryzor on 10:49, 17 April 16
Spoiler alert? :D


I wish I was there. There's so much being shown there... :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 12:27, 17 April 16
I wish I was there too, it was really awesome!

The picture, at least, is spoiler free  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 17:48, 03 June 16
Time for another update! This one will be quite short: the summary is that we are progressing slowly but steadily :)

- The native English speaker has already corrected all the texts and she found everything very readable and correct. In fact, she found that the main character was too polite and he should be more tough and sharp. We took the point and Gryzor is kindly going over 65 pages of text again to make him sound more like a hardened space cowboy  ;D

-  Besides that, I corrected and debugged the code one hundred times more, and each time I found something to change. However, I think that is ready now and we will be able to release a RC1 soon enough. Then, this RC1 will go to a couple of testers (one of the original beta testers and somebody else that never had contact with the game) and we will be ready to release it.

- Finally, we were checking how to produce an eventual physical release. Luckily, the prices seem to be affordable enough if there is enough interest. Of course, we have the problem of the format. This game requires two floppies and one of them must be high density. This means that it will only run in a 128KB computer that has installed this kind of unit, either as drive A or B. Releasing it using floppies would be easy enough, but many of us prefer to rely in something like the HxC, others will play in an emulator. So, one possibility (the cheapest as well) would be to produce a DVD with the DSK images inside and let the final user to toast them as he/she prefers. In case the user likes a real floppy, we could include a pair of labels in the box to attach to the discs and give the game a completely original feel. Releasing in DVD would allow, of course, to add quite a lot of stuff: user manual in PDF, wallpapers...

And that is it! 
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: mr_lou on 05:35, 04 June 16
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 17:48, 03 June 16Releasing in DVD would allow, of course, to add quite a lot of stuff: user manual in PDF, wallpapers...

...and a walkthrough video!  :)
And maybe some "behind the scenes" footage too, showing you hard-working behind the CPC monitor.  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: khaz on 10:26, 04 June 16
Not a fan of your distribution plans. I mean yeah, having a bonus DVD is great, but you should absolutely have the game on disc too. That's the whole point of doing a physical release, to have a ready to play physical copy of the game, along with its box and instruction manual. Anyone can go to the internet and get a dsk for themselves, your customer shouldn't have to bother with getting the dsk on discs. Stickers only would be for latecomers once you are done with your initial run, maybe. In any case, the case should be able to hold the discs too.

I don't understand the discs part. You need both a 3" and a 3.5"? Can't you have only a 3.5? Or several 3" that you have to swap? Level 9 Computing did something interesting in that regard, they have the whole adventure with a single intro picture on one side, with all the illustrations on the other side. The user could swap the discs if they want the fancy graphics (and keep swapping when progressing in the game), or not bother and play the text-adventure old-school. Maybe you could do something similar with your 3+3.5 release, so that one can use a stock 6128 and enjoy your game, while a 3.5 user would have the enhanced experience?

(If you make a bonus disc, I suggest a CD with redbook audio of the soundtrack. If you have a soundtrack. And the data doesn't fill a CD. And make it a live orchestral rendition. Then sell it 80€. But seriously redbook audio would be cool.)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Captain Past on 12:11, 04 June 16
Overall I agree with khaz, even though I would be okay with having to copy the game to disks myself if it means that the price will be much more attractive. Tbh I'm not sure if my 3,5" drive even supports hd disks anymore. Are there any games or demos already released on hd disks that I can use to test this?
The interesting question regarding your release plans is imho if people who use drive emulation or want to play the game on an emulated CPC are even interested in a physical release.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 13:03, 04 June 16
It is great to hear you opinion guys!  :)

So, about the floppies in the game, actually is not possible to release it in 3" only but, of course, it is very possible a 3.5" only release. Why? Well, the first floppy contains the CP/M operating system, the font selection program, the loading screen and the program that configures the second drive with DD1 format. The second one contains the adventure (60KB) and all the graphics that are loaded in real time. They are around 600KB and we cannot do disc swapping, it is a limitation of PAWS graphics patch. However, we have more than enough space in this second disc to save the game plenty of times without removing it from the unit. In this regard, once the second floppy is in the computer you do not need to touch it again. Obviously, we cannot have all this in 3", they do not have the right capacity :/. About the 3.5" unit, any drive able to read 720KB DD1 discs will do. You do not need two floppy drives either, it is perfectly fine to run the game from one only, you just need to swap discs when indicated. Regarding a non-graphics experience, this is not going to be possible. The graphics in this game are an integral part of the adventure, without them you actually cannot play it, many of the puzzles are in there :) . Level 9 games had a very sophisticate custom parser, that is why they were able to play with the system quite a lot and include wonderful things, like the split screen.

In any case, if a physical release is produced we would like to create something that makes everybody happy. As you know, it would be more a collector´s item, and it is a non sense to pay for a physical version of a free game if you do not feel really happy and strong about it. So, any suggestions are more than welcome, guys  :D

Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: robcfg on 16:15, 04 June 16
3.5" disks is fine for me ;)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: khaz on 17:02, 04 June 16
Ok, so one normal disc to load the DOS, and one DD disc containing the game proper. In this sort of configuration, I think I would prefer to have both a 3" and a 3.5" in the package. Put both in each drive then forget about it.

Probably a stupid question, but can't you have both on the same disc? Like, the first couple tracks in a normal format to fool the system, and the rest of the data in double density?

Wandering thoughts, but can the CPC access both drives simultaneously? If so, having the adventure on one and the graphics on the other could speed up the loading between scenes, maybe.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: robcfg on 20:07, 04 June 16
I think that most people should have a CP/M disk already if this is the case a single 3.5" disk would be Ok.

You can also check what are the minimum files needed to boot the game, in case everything fits in 720kb.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: TotO on 20:15, 04 June 16
Is peoples using CP/M from ROM (|EMS), will be able to run the game from the drive A: without requiring a second drive?  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 21:50, 04 June 16
Quote from: TotO on 20:15, 04 June 16
Is peoples using CP/M from ROM (|EMS), will be able to run the game from the drive A: without requiring a second drive?  :)

Yes, you can start the game directly from CP/M if you are using a ROM  :) . However, you will not have the possibility to use the font selector, the game will use the standard system font (or the font you have loaded in your CP/M). There is a reason for the two floppies: the files do not fit in a single one even if it is 720KB. We would need a 1.44MB disc if we want just one, and these are not so common. However, all the 3.5" drives are compatible with the other capacity. Being the things like that, and considering that not everybody knows more than the standard RUN"DISC command, I thought that it would be better to use a couple of floppies. The first one just loads the operating system and sets up everything for the game in a transparent way. The second contains the relevant files for the adventure  :)

On the other hand, it is not very possible to play with PAWS standard setup and change the overall behavior of the parser and the graphic patch, that is the reason why we cannot do fancy things like using memory expansions to store lots of graphics and prevent the real time loading. Actually, the graphic patch for the PAWS was released much later than the parser itself, I think that there is not commercial game using it. In a 128KB computer all the RAM is basically full (the whole first block is for the CP/M, the second for the game) but since each graphic uses only 8KB I managed to squeeze two of them in the memory. This means that at least you will be able to go back to the previous location without loading from the floppy. If we had something like a X-MASS driver for CP/M, then yes, everything would run really fast  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: talrek on 08:20, 05 July 16
Hi, great news !!
Do you plan to make something like a X-MASS or another device  install program ?
So you could copy all needed files to the mass device, and play from it ?

Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 08:55, 05 July 16
That would be entirely possible, yes, but we would need a X-MASS driver for CP/M Plus. The other option I was considering was to use the X-MEM as RAM disc but the game is just too big!  :D Sadly, making a driver is way beyond my skills  :-X
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: TotO on 10:11, 05 July 16
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 21:50, 04 June 16In a 128KB computer all the RAM is basically full but since each graphic uses only 8KB I managed to squeeze two of them in the memory
You can't store the GFx packed into the memory and unpack them only when displayed?
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: khaz on 10:18, 05 July 16
Just you guys wait, they will find a way to compress the data / shove some code off, just enough to make it fit on a single 3.5 disc, and implement the Orion Prime loader.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 10:27, 05 July 16
I can´t because I am using the original graphics patch that was made for the PAWS in the early 90s  :) The program basically looks for the graphics in the same floppy where the adventure is and it does not offer many fancy things besides loading them in real time. The good news is that if your graphics are just 8 KB (like in our case, because half of the screen is for the text) you can store two of them in the RAM. However, it would be possible to use something like the X-MASS, given the appropriate driver, to store the whole game and read it from there (it is a little bit less than 1 MB). The other possibility would be to use the Y-MEM as RAM disk and patch the CP/M Plus, however, as we discussed, not so many people has it  :D

On the bright side, even loading the graphics in real time the game is actually not so slow. Definitely faster than The Guild of Thieves, and offers the possibility to save the game in the same floppy of the adventure, no switching at all. In any case, the TGOT is impressive, I perfectly understand why it is so slow.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:43, 26 July 16
Soooo... updates, updates!

- The RC1 will be available soon to send to the final couple of testers (finally!  :D ) Actually, I compiled and put everything together yesterday. I just need to go one more time trough it myself and check that everything is OK  :) In the meantime, Dani will do the web page that accompanies the game, a trailer and the edition of the final version of the manual. Everything should be over by the end of August, when the final testers will receive the game. Playing the adventure one more time and do the final testing would take a few more weeks, but it is OK because September is going to be a crazy month for me anyway. However, the final release should be soon enough, most likely between October and November. It is possible that the texts corresponding to the intro and the endings still receive a revision, though  :)

- On the other hand, Rhino joined the team and made a supercool AMSDOS loader for the game that displays our final loading screens in mb0. They look amazing in the CRT  :-*

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

- Finally, regarding a physical edition, the plans are to release the game first and then, depending of how much you like it, discuss if it is worth it. There are several options but we have quite clear that, in case we decide to make it, it will be something really special, for collectors  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Loic DANEELS on 09:11, 27 July 16
I'll save you time, I already love it (and I suspect many do).
It is very clear you have put a lot of efforts in the game & I'm sure it will show in the final release.
Maybe it won't be the next Guild of Thieves or Zork (while it doesn't feature graphics, you can't argue with the quality of Infocom games), but it doesn't need to be.
At any rate, thank you for working on it for us & I'm sure a lot of CPC enthusiasts will echo my feeling & want a physical release.
I, for one, cannot wait wait to play through it.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 14:12, 27 July 16
Thank you so much for your words!

Infocom games are masterpieces, it is even difficult to thing about reaching the same levels  of quality! The other day I was playing Guild of Thieves again in the Amstrad and I was really impressed by some of the things, like the capacity of the parser to take you back to previously visited places or the amount of sentences that is able to understand. The advantage we had here is that, although this is a text adventure, it is also a 2016 game. We assumed that nobody would play for 3 months trying to solve it and therefore we introduced different levels of complexity. The "main" story is the easiest part, with a difficulty level that scales when you advance. In fact, the first puzzles are very simple, just to let you get familiar with the parser and the adventure. Then we have the 3 side quests that go from the: reasonably acceptable to quite difficult. Finally, there is an easter egg, with plenty of puzzles. This one is almost impossible, a nod to the crazy old good times. The first person solving it (if there is one!) will receive a physical reward  :D Each of the side quests, and the easter egg, add a substantial amount of lore to the story.

Another thing we tried to do is to create a parser that is able to understand many many things. There are around 5 o 6 verbs you can use to perform the essential actions. If you know the answer of a puzzle, you will be able to solve it no matter your level of english.  This seemed to work very well, since some of the testers were not english experts and they managed to go through the game without problems. I am personally very happy about this :) . Testing was also really useful to tune some parts that were either too easy or a bit too complicated, I think that all the people made a wonderful job here  :-* .


Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Javy Fernandez on 04:38, 03 August 16
Spanish version? Yes please ????
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 10:42, 03 August 16
Sadly, there won' t be a Spanish version  :( It is not possible to make it without sacrificing things because to fit the game into the RAM all the texts are compressed and they decompress in real time. This compression worked wonders for English language, saving us around 25KB (otherwise the game would require around 85-90KB of free RAM) but it would not be the same in Spanish, with longer sentences and different words. HOWEVER, I am really confident that anyone able to follow this forum will be more than able to go through the game. We have used quite a plain language during all the adventure to make it easy to understand, and the parser accepts lots of verbs and the wildcard "use" in case you do not know the proper word. The verb "use" can be employed every time you know that this thing needs to be used in combination with this other but you ignore the specific verb, and it allowed all the testers whose knowledge of english is not great to go through the adventure  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: robcfg on 10:47, 03 August 16
Are you using a dictionary for text compression?


If you feel like it, we can talk via pm on the subject.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:10, 03 August 16
I am, but PAWS is much less flexible than the DAAD in this regard :) It has an embedded dictionary that cannot be changed and that is actually the problem. On one side, it really works great with English, on the other, it works pretty badly for any other language. However, even if we could sort out the compression issue, we would still need to create new databases of verbs, adjectives and nouns. This would be very difficult because I have already exhausted them: we are using 255 nouns, 255 adjectives, and 512 messages. There is no room for almost anything besides bug correction  :picard2:
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: MiguelSky on 11:25, 03 August 16
A shame! The compression dictionay in DAAD can be created in each adventure you make.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:55, 03 August 16
Yup! Maese Samudio told Tim Gilberts to implement it this way and it was a neat move  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:01, 09 August 16
Very short but important news for our little adventure! The Release Candidate 1 has been already sent for the final testing  :D It is great because we managed to put it together way sooner than expected!  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Dubliner on 15:29, 09 August 16
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 11:01, 09 August 16
Very short but important news for our little adventure! The Release Candidate 1 has been already sent for the final testing  :D It is great because we managed to put it together way sooner than expected!  :D

Very good news indeed! It was so fun to test the beta, i can´t wait to get a physical release :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ldaneels on 15:05, 24 October 16
For those who didn't see the website: https://doomsdayproductions.org/
Yummy ! I can't wait to play the game.
Any news on a physical release ?
See you in 8 days !
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 17:03, 24 October 16
Oooh dear!  So yes, we were preparing everything yesterday evening and my idea was to do the announcement today, but you were faster than me and discovered the stuff on your own!  :D :D

But the summary is still the same: the game is ready to launch, you can enjoy the trailer right now and we expect to have everything ready to be downloaded the next Tuesday. Then, it will be your turn and you will be able to see if waiting for so long was worth it or not, hehe  ;D

Regarding the physical release, we actually do not plan it for the immediate future but, if there is enough interest, we can definitely think about it. Actually, we prepared the manual in a "ready to print" format just in case this physical edition becomes true. We would need to discuss what would be the best physical format, though. Remember that the game requires either a 3" and a 3.5" floppies or a couple of 3.5" floppies to run  :) .
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: robcfg on 17:12, 24 October 16
Shut up and take my money!  ;D


Jokes aside, really looking forward to play it!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Gryzor on 17:52, 24 October 16
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 17:03, 24 October 16
Regarding the physical release, we actually do not plan it for the immediate future but, if there is enough interest, we can definitely think about it. Actually, we prepared the manual in a "ready to print" format just in case this physical edition becomes true. We would need to discuss what would be the best physical format, though. Remember that the game requires either a 3" and a 3.5" floppies or a couple of 3.5" floppies to run  :) .


Poll time? ;)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ldaneels on 20:08, 24 October 16
oops, I hope I didn't ruin your plans. I was just so exicted to see the trailer, I had to let everybody know.
It does look very nice indeed.
Well, I'll definitely keep an eye out for a physical release should you decide to make one. If that can help, I can provide my own 3" floppy and I imagine a lot of people should be able to. Well, if you decide to make a physical release. At any rate, it's just a possibility if you're short on ideas.
Cheers,

Loic
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Dubliner on 20:59, 24 October 16
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 17:03, 24 October 16
Oooh dear!  So yes, we were preparing everything yesterday evening and my idea was to do the announcement today, but you were faster than me and discovered the stuff on your own!  :D :D

LOL i was wondering myself this morning why i haven´t seen any announcemente when i saw the trailer on Youtube via Gryzor. I even posted about that on retromaniac  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 21:05, 24 October 16
Quote from: ldaneels on 20:08, 24 October 16
oops, I hope I didn't ruin your plans. I was just so exicted to see the trailer, I had to let everybody know.
It does look very nice indeed.
Well, I'll definitely keep an eye out for a physical release should you decide to make one. If that can help, I can provide my own 3" floppy and I imagine a lot of people should be able to. Well, if you decide to make a physical release. At any rate, it's just a possibility if you're short on ideas.
Cheers,

Loic

Hahaha, of course you did not ruin anything! Do not worry!  :D

Quote from: Dubliner on 20:59, 24 October 16
LOL i was wondering myself this morning why i haven´t seen any announcemente when i saw the trailer on Youtube via Gryzor. I even posted about that on retromaniac  :D

I was just looking at it right now!! Thank you so much!  :D :-*

About the physical release, we can start having a look at it when the game is released. If there is enough interest, why not?
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 12:02, 26 October 16
Soo... we released the trailer just a few days ago and it seems that people are really looking forward to play the game. That is awesome, but I would like to clarify a few things regarding some questions that have appeared here an there, mainly to put the hype in place  :-X . I know that most of you guys know exactly what to expect from an Amstrad text adventure, but I have found that  many people that is not so familiar with the machine is reading just the final posts of this long thread and have quite a lot of questions. This goes mostly for them  :)

- The trailer is a cinematic video that Dani made to promote the game. It looks really great because he is a professional graphics artist, but keep in mind that the adventure has static graphics and no music!

- We put a lot of care and love in the game, but it is made with PAWS and its official graphics patch. They are great tools, but old as well. Nothing that can be compared with the awesome custom game engines we can see here from time to time. So, do not expect to find another amazing Orion Prime with music, mouse support, etc. (we are really far from it!). There are no jaw dropping effect besides the mb0 loading screens.

- The adventure only runs in 128KB computers and they need to have a 3.5" floppy drive or an HxC floppy emulator.

What you will be able to play is a game in line with some classic titles, like the AD adventures, but with a parser that is way more flexible when it comes to understand your commands and more than 60 graphics in pixel art that contain important clues and puzzles themselves. Besides, the game has the three endings we mentioned in before, the secondary missions, a big easter egg and lots of little things to examine and discover here and there. We tried to keep the production values as high as possible  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: Gryzor on 12:21, 26 October 16
Heh, I had the nagging feeling that some, watching the video, would think it's going to be cinematic indeed... but it's such a great trailer, really!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (New text adventure [WIP])
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 12:31, 26 October 16
Dani had time to play with his pixel art, that is for sure!  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 02:20, 01 November 16
It is over. It has been a super long trip but we have finally released the adventure. You can visit Doomsday Productions homepage (http://www.doomsdayproductions.org) and download the game from there.

Now it is your turn to try it and see if you manage to enjoy our little production  :) There has been a surprising amount of expectation (probably due to Dani´s great pixel art) but remember that you will just find a PAWS adventure here, nothing close to the magic of Rhino, Targhan or many other great programmers. However, we put a lot of care and dedication on the game to make it enjoyable. We hope that you will have no major trouble with the parser and the learning curve will feel just right. We also hope you will not encounter any major bug when playing but, if this happens, just report us the problem and we will try to to fix any issue.

Thank you all for your continuous support! This would have been impossible without the suggestions of many of you and the contribution of lots of great people that shared their knowledge, time, and dedication with us  :-*

All the team

[attachimg=1]


Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: khaz on 02:51, 01 November 16
Downloaded, but haven't played with it yet. The readme.txt on notepad++ shows a bunch of control characters in the middle of the text. GS and US, which shouldn't be here. They are invisible in regular notepad.

The pdf is gorgeous though. It needs to be printed out.

[edit] Something worth mentioning I believe: the game won't start if the discs are write-protected, or in winape if they are loaded from an archive.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 03:23, 01 November 16
Thank you for the comments! I have fixed the TXT and we will upload the corrected version during the night! :)

Regarding the write protection, actually at least the second disc should be unprotected all the time, because it is best to use it to save your games while you are playing  :) (there is space for around 140 saves in there!)

Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: khaz on 03:40, 01 November 16
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 03:23, 01 November 16Regarding the write protection, actually at least the second disc should be unprotected all the time, because it is best to use it to save your games while you are playing  :) (there is space for around 140 saves in there!)

That did throw me off at first, as I loaded the rar into winape without really thinking. I was surprised to get a write error while loading, it's a bit counter-intuitive; I would have expected an error when trying to save the font or the game, not before. Is writing a mandatory step during loading? I know some people like to keep their data on write-protected discs, and use a separate disc to save their game, to try to minimize the risk of corruption. Though it's much less of a problem on a non-copy-protected game like yours, which can be rewritten at will.

In any case, that's completely inconsequential to my enjoyment of the game. It's way too late here to even try to understand the story, but I can look at the pretty pictures! I do want to see these high-res intro pics on a proper CRT, not in emulation.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: arnoldemu on 07:58, 01 November 16
I just started to play it. I wish I had read the PDF because it answered a lot of questions.

Presentation is nice. :) Descriptions and location graphics are really atmospheric.

First thing I found is that I needed two drives to play it properly. If I tried to play it with one drive, then CPM was asking me to insert disc into drive A, then B, then A etc LOL. After I used two drives it worked much better.

Question: Is there a command for viewing the room graphics and description again? I tried "look" and "examine" (on it's own) and neither work.

I discovered "exits" lists the directions.

I also tried to use "take" and that didn't seem to work but the I found "get" works fine.

Now I will go back and read the manual ;) :-[




Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: MiguelSky on 09:12, 01 November 16
Quote from: arnoldemu on 07:58, 01 November 16Question: Is there a command for viewing the room graphics and description again? I tried "look" and "examine" (on it's own) and neither work.
Try with R o REDES (from REDESCRIBE).
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 11:53, 01 November 16
Glad you are linking the graphics!!  :D

Quote from: khaz on 03:40, 01 November 16
That did throw me off at first, as I loaded the rar into winape without really thinking. I was surprised to get a write error while loading, it's a bit counter-intuitive; I would have expected an error when trying to save the font or the game, not before. Is writing a mandatory step during loading? I know some people like to keep their data on write-protected discs, and use a separate disc to save their game, to try to minimize the risk of corruption. Though it's much less of a problem on a non-copy-protected game like yours, which can be rewritten at will.

In principle you can use a different disc to save your games, but then you would need to introduce the disc of the adventure back as soon as your game is saved because although the game itself stays in the RAM all the graphics are read in real time. To load a game this way you would need to exchange the disc again, type "load", write the name of the file and insert the adventure´s floppy in the drive when the game is loaded :). Good news is that you have RAM save and RAM load commands, so you would only need to do this once if you want. In any case, since the game is not write protected, I think that I would just stick with the "original" floppy, hehe.

Quote from: arnoldemu on 07:58, 01 November 16
I just started to play it. I wish I had read the PDF because it answered a lot of questions.
First thing I found is that I needed two drives to play it properly. If I tried to play it with one drive, then CPM was asking me to insert disc into drive A, then B, then A etc LOL. After I used two drives it worked much better.
Question: Is there a command for viewing the room graphics and description again? I tried "look" and "examine" (on it's own) and neither work.
I discovered "exits" lists the directions.
I also tried to use "take" and that didn't seem to work but the I found "get" works fine.
Now I will go back and read the manual ;) :-[

So yes, all the info is in the PDF, hehe  :D . To pick and drop objects the commands are GET and DROP. To wear a wearable thing you need to use WEAR and to remove it REMOVE. You can re-describe a location with R, as Miguel said, and typing EXITS or Z you will see all the possible exits. The reason of this is that in English we have many verbs that can be used in different contexts with different meanings as well. For example, you can say "take the stick", but also "take off the sweater". You want to avoid using words that in the game could have different meanings depending on the situation because it would make everything much more difficult to parse. It is possible, but we would be using lots of precious RAM writing condacts to deal with these situations :).

Regarding the use of two floppy drives, it is very recommended but not strictly necessary  :) . For example, I am using just one in my modded 464 Plus. The thing is that the first floppy is in charge to load the CP/M plus and configure it in the proper way. It sets the text font and executes a tool that sets the drive B as a high density one. Then, it switches to the drive B and loads the game. If you only have one drive, in my computer there is an error when switching to the unit B, so you have to manually insert the second disc, type B: and then DOOMSDAY to load the game. This is somehow a bit annoying but we were not able to overcome the problem :'( .
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Rhino on 14:59, 01 November 16
It looks great and hope to have time to start playing seriously. I like the Mike character. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: khaz on 15:48, 01 November 16
I'll add to the complaint of lacking "take", "look", "examine", these are staples of the genre. I couldn't pass the first screen because I wasn't paying attention in my first try and couldn't get the description back, or take any items.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 17:04, 01 November 16
So yes, it is probably necessary to have a look at the PDF first and see how the parser works. To get something you use GET, to drop it DROP, to wear it WEAR and to remove it REMOVE. EX, EXAMINE, LOOK and X are all accepted and equivalent and, to describe a screen again, you just need to type R, REDES or REDESCRIBE. To get all the objects type GET ALL  :)   These are the standard commands for most PAWED adventures and all the actions you are used to see in many games are here as well (besides the famous AGAIN)  :) .

(https://doomsdayproductionsblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dd_in_game_0.png?w=676)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: remax on 20:48, 01 November 16
I find it funny (and nice) to mix a real 3" disk with a virtual one from the HXC...

Kind of a modern/classic marriage.

I only started the game, but my first impression is it feels like a very well polished professionnal production from the older times... Not an amateurish production at all.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: FloppySoftware on 21:46, 01 November 16
I suppose that now, once the game is finished, you are fully available to develop the PCW version. Or am I wrong?



;) :D


Don't be in a hurry, you know, but there is a potential gamer here: that's me.  :P




Congratulations for the game, it will be a big success for sure.


:)


Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: alex76gr on 22:27, 01 November 16
You did an outstanding job guys!
There is plenty of well drawn graphics and the use of color is nice and clever.
The text and the descriptions are very good and help greatly creating an eerie atmosphere.
Finally the manual is a work of art!

Thank you guys for your effort.

These are glorious times to be a CPC fan! :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Kerrick Sword on 22:44, 01 November 16
Hello to all,


Im a long time forum reader, but this time i feel obliged to write something.


First of all CONGRATULATIONS for the baby, i know it was a hard and long way until you reached this point.


Second,  i want to say that i am one of the testers of the game, and i can assure you that this is a very polished and enjoyable game, with a good progressive learning curve(or i think so).


Besides this, I also recommend to all of you, that you read the manual:
For people who don't have practice whit this kind of games, you will get the basics of playing, and for the rest, you will get some background of the story and funny/interesting facts and a lot of image art.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 12:12, 02 November 16
We are really really glad you are liking it!  :D

Quote from: remax on 20:48, 01 November 16
I find it funny (and nice) to mix a real 3" disk with a virtual one from the HXC...
Kind of a modern/classic marriage.
I only started the game, but my first impression is it feels like a very well polished professionnal production from the older times... Not an amateurish production at all.

This is how I play tested it with the 6128 Plus and it is actually the best choice  :D The HxC is completely silent and a great device to run the game. You can almost forget that the graphics are read in real time (well, except for the loading speed).

Quote from: FloppySoftware on 21:46, 01 November 16
I suppose that now, once the game is finished, you are fully available to develop the PCW version. Or am I wrong?
Don't be in a hurry, you know, but there is a potential gamer here: that's me. 
Congratulations for the game, it will be a big success for sure.

The PCW version was considered since the very first moment, as you know, and porting the game is almost trivial because somebody prepared a very nice font selector that can be used in both computers. Moreover, PAWS in PCW works great  :D . So, the idea was to release the CPC version first, check that there are no bugs and then, given the time, compile the PCW game using the final source code. This should very easy and the only tricky part will probably be the graphics conversion. Luckily, resolution is not a problem at all, only the choice of colors. So, when we are sure that the code of the game does not need further correction, we can see the best way to convert all the graphics and go for it  :D We would need to prepare a different loading screen, though, and maybe some of the graphics can be slightly changed. The PCW version should have its own manual too, with different loading instructions and a few changes here and there...
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: robcfg on 13:01, 02 November 16
Cool!


I'm still trying to power up the generator on CPC, but would like to play on PCW too.


If you need any help, just ask and the PCWWiki team will come to the rescue!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Targhan on 20:32, 04 November 16
Damn it, I'm stuck!! :)


I can't open the emergency door... I thought that typing 3xxx0 (with xxx being a combination of 1, 4, 9) on the phone or computer would work, but no... What did I miss?


Great design, well written texts. Some background music and FXs would have been an extra touch, but I can live without. Great job!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 20:58, 04 November 16
Hehe! I am giving you a hint by private message  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Targhan on 23:12, 05 November 16
Thanks to your hint, I've progressed a bit more... To get stuck again in front of another keyboard, this time the one from "blue" container... Still a great game, but quite tough :).
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 23:31, 05 November 16
I gave you a second hint by pm  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Targhan on 12:24, 06 November 16
Gone much further yesterday evening. Lots of nice places to visit, and scary things to discover! Really a great game. The texts are very well written, and the graphics quite beautiful. There are even some "cutscenes" for important actions, adding a really nice touch to the whole. Now I need to play more to finish it!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 18:08, 06 November 16
That is really awesome  :D I am glad you are liking it! Let´s see if you manage to finish it or not  :laugh:

On the other hand, I have just added some basic info about the commands into the game´s home page. Some people is still telling me that they need to leave a room and enter again to obtain the description, when it is clearly written in the manual that there is a command (R, REDES, REDESCRIBE, DESCRIBE, DESC ) for that. Oh well... I know that in many classic games it was LOOK, but in here LOOK and EXAMINE are the same verb. It felt more natural to me to have a different verb and a shortcut to re-describe the room and use a common word, like LOOK, to say "LOOK at this" or "LOOK at that". I was assuming that all the players of a text adventure game would go through the manual first and this would be very easy to catch, but maybe I was wrong. In that case I reckon that many people will not know that typing Z or EXITS they can see all the possible exits from a location, and it is possible that they are losing quite a lot of other things (RAM SAVE, RAM LOAD...) that would allow them to focus in the puzzles and not to fight with the parser  :-X
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: khaz on 18:54, 06 November 16
The parser doesn't allow a verb to have both a complement and no complement?
"Look (unknown word or nothing)" = gives the description of the room
"Look (known object)" = gives a description of the object
Get/take is different but would probably solved similarly.

[edit] Don't expect a player to read the manual. It's the last thing they will do :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 20:07, 06 November 16
Nope, they are separate commands. DESCRIBE/R/DESC/REDESC, that are all the same, and LOOK/EXAMINE + object. There are a few reasons behind that, though.

The first is to make the behavior of the parser consistent. If you keep the description of the room as a separate command you avoid using a common word that will be regularly employed for something else and mislead the parser. This can be seen in many quality productions and it does not look nice, but is a problem that all the parsers for classic computers have (as far as I know). In our case PAWS works the following way:

- If you type a verb that is in the game´s database plus a another word that is also in the database and there is an entry written for those words in the current location (or is a combination that does not need a location to work) the game will do something. Either tell you a description, or execute a command. For example: LOOK COCKPIT when you are in the Doomsday -- It is full of knots and buttons.
- If you type a verb that is in the game´s database plus another word that is not in the database (or is in the database but not expected in the current location) the game will tell you something generic. For example: LOOK ELF -- I better focus in the mission right now. The problem is that, for PAWS, it is the same if the second word is not in the database or if there is no second word at all. So, if I was implementing a condact to do as you say, writing LOOK ELF (or LOOK plus whatever word) would just re-describe the location. This is not coherent, since the parser is doing something completely unrelated to your command, and could be annoying as well. However, it happens in TONS of games.

So, the answer could be to keep EXAMINE and LOOK as separate words, but I feel that it is more correct to maintain obvious synonyms as such, because it would be weird that Mike understands something like EXAMINE COCKPIT but not LOOK COCKPIT.

- Another reason is that by keeping a few special commands separate and somehow shielded (we only have very few: RAMSAVE/RS, RAMLOAD/RL, SAVE, LOAD, DESCRIBE/R/DESC/REDESC and EXITS/Z) I saved a lot of RAM that  was used for something else (more descriptions, more flexibility when the player needs to type something to solve a real puzzle, richer texts...). I also found that many people like to have the presence of this one-letter shortcuts when playing, since it is much faster to type Z or R than a whole word.

Regarding reading the manual... well, what can I say! This is a text adventure after all! :) It seems quite logic to do it and we put a lot of care trying to make it attractive, hehe. I wish I would have had a manual like that in the old days, when in same cases they where telling you "just type whatever feels natural and, if it does not work, try something else"  :D :D .
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Targhan on 20:29, 06 November 16
I actually never use "look" but "X". X ceiling, x floor... Very quick and handy, since descriptions are so important. I didn't know about "R", I was using "DESC". Great!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: khaz on 20:46, 06 November 16
What about "look around"? I like that one.
Or "look room"? Not quite English, but "Look at the room" should be.

Maybe I misread you, but you didn't address "look" without any object. Is it the same as not being in the database, or can it be treated differently? The lack of an object being an object (in this case, the room).
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 21:51, 06 November 16
Quote from: khaz on 20:46, 06 November 16
What about "look around"? I like that one.
Or "look room"? Not quite English, but "Look at the room" should be.

Maybe I misread you, but you didn't address "look" without any object. Is it the same as not being in the database, or can it be treated differently? The lack of an object being an object (in this case, the room).

It would be the same as not being in the database, I probably did not explain it well :)

Quote from: Targhan on 20:29, 06 November 16
I actually never use "look" but "X". X ceiling, x floor... Very quick and handy, since descriptions are so important. I didn't know about "R", I was using "DESC". Great!

Yes, X, Z, and R are the shortcuts to remember :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: khaz on 22:10, 06 November 16
So I suppose there is no object for "the room you are currently in" to join to "look".
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 22:25, 06 November 16
There is, you can say: EXAMINE ROOM or LOOK AT ROOM but it will not describe the location again. You will read a more detailed description of where you are instead, this was another reason to keep the two commands separate  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Targhan on 02:21, 11 November 16
WOOOOOHOOO! I finished it! I finished it!!


After a 2-hour session, I finally finished it! I mean, I reached the first ending :). There are still some little stuff I left behind, some computer left unhacked... I feel the toughest part has yet to come.
It was a really great experience, thanks a lot for your hard work! Lots of well-written texts, beautiful and numerous graphics. And even if there is no sound, I admit being quite stressed when discovering new places!


Well, time to sleep now :).
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 23:19, 15 November 16
You finished it and i was so focused with my things in the lab that I did not notice!!  :picard2:   Congratulations and thank you so much for playing!! Which ending did you get? number one, right? how many side quests did you complete? it could be that you still did not see a decent chunk of the game! (the nicest part, in my opinion  :) ).  The most difficult stuff is probably awaiting for you, hehe, but that was the original intention. There are lots of hidden things!  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Targhan on 01:09, 16 November 16
Well, I finished the "normal" ending, I guess (escaping as soon as I could).
Still the phone number enigma to find, and I guess the doctor's computer is not hacked (another password to find...). I admit I don't know how to find them, but I'll give another try before crying for help :).
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Targhan on 19:21, 16 November 16
Well... I'm stuck :) .
Something I forgot about what the "robotic linker" that the main computer talked about. Well, no trace of it. Can you give me a piece of advice please ? Thanks !!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 20:52, 16 November 16
haha, sure, I will be sending you a pm soon!  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Targhan on 20:58, 17 November 16
Second and third ending found! Still 2 (I think) additional "quests"... Two passwords needed. But no idea where to find them, I typed everything that seemed logical to me :) ...
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:11, 18 November 16
Congratulations, you are the first non-tester person that finds the three endings!!  :D

Regarding the passwords, I am pretty sure that you had one right in front of your face quite a few times. Finding the other, however, could be much more difficult. Why don´t you tell me via pm what did you do? Then I will be able to help!  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Targhan on 23:34, 19 November 16
3 endings, 100% of the side quests performed! There is apparently an easter-egg, I'll try to find it but I can't promise anything :) .


And I admit I couldn't have finished the side quests without some hints from CE... Really hard to find!!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 00:07, 20 November 16
Wooo, congratulations!!  :D :D

Yes, I admit that the quests are much more difficult than the rest of the game. We wanted to give it some depth in order to allow the very dedicated players to play for longer and discover new things. Another thing that can be done is to try to examine plenty of stuff. This uncovers some other histories here and there, and many additional details, although it does not count as side quest  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: Skunkfish on 08:33, 10 January 17
Stuart White (aka The Balrog, adventure columnist from AA) posted on Eurogamer yesterday so I mentioned the game and posted a link...


He said 'wow! Impressive - I'll check it out'
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 13:24, 10 January 17
Thank you so much! I am not in UK and it is very difficult for me to post in the forum, but thanks again!  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes (Released)
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 22:25, 27 July 17
 Soooooo... after MANY months (sorry!) we are very happy to announce the release of the very physical edition of DoomsDay Lost Echoes!!

https://www.polyplay.xyz/CPC_2 (https://www.polyplay.xyz/CPC_2)

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

Initially we were not sure about the feasibility of a collectors edition. There were a lot of things to prepare and keeping the prices at a reasonable level seemed almost impossible. Hopefully, Sebastian from Poly.Play came in our help and took care of most of the stuff, making it a reality. We know that the game is still a bit on the expensive side for an Amstrad production, and this is just because we decided to go "big" and prepare a proper release with a huge box, a SD card full of bonus content, stickers, a poster, a nicely printed manual... and of course two floppy discs.

Regarding the discs, there will be a pair of options: either two 3.5" floppies or 3"+3.5" in case you keep the original drive in your 6128 and a 3.5" drive as B. Of course, in the SD card you will have versions ready to execute using a HxC floppy emulator, Gotek or similar device. This means that you will be able to choose among tons of different combinations: 3" drive A and 3.5" drive B; 3" drive A and HxC drive B; 3.5" drive A and 3.5" drive B; 3.5" drive A and HxC drive B; only a 3.5" drive A; only a HxC... etc  :-\

So yeah, that is the summary! The game is, as you know, free and will always be. This edition is just something especial for those that liked the adventure and want hold it in their hands  :D

P.D: I would like to take this opportunity to say that nobody managed to find the big easter egg and the physical reward is still here waiting for someone...
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: reidrac on 22:38, 27 July 17
Sebastian rules. I love his commitment and hard work in putting together these collector's editions.

Congratulations! It really looks fantastic!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 10:13, 28 July 17
Thanks!  :D Sebastian is actually a really great guy. Without him, this would have been completely impossible. It is amazing how committed he is!
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: Gryzor on 16:12, 29 July 17
OH YESSSSS this one's going on my wall!! Really happy about it [emoji4][emoji4]

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: kawickboy on 10:03, 30 July 17
A great announcement.
Some news to show on automn retro events.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: Targhan on 09:22, 01 August 17
Count me in!... As soon as I have internet back (... the joy of moving). The packaging looks awesome. Ah, too bad you didn't release this before releasing the game on the web, you would have sold many many copies.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: Gryzor on 13:36, 01 August 17
But I don't think that ANYONE buys physical copies because they can't get the game...

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 20:39, 01 August 17
Heh, actually, we were not even planning to release a physical edition, although we prepared the user manual for it just in case  :)  The way I see it is like a sort of present for the people that liked the game. I am saying present because, as you can imagine, the price basically covers the cost of a single package  :)  Great that you are getting one, guys!  :D
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: GOB on 20:22, 02 August 17
Hello
Is the French version comming one day or not ?
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: Targhan on 22:20, 02 August 17
Ordered! I don't expect to receive it soon, but it will be worth the wait :).
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 22:47, 02 August 17
Quote from: GOB on 20:22, 02 August 17
Hello
Is the French version comming one day or not ?

Hello!

No, there won´t be versions in different languages. It is unfortunate, but there are good technical reasons for this. I turns out that in order to save RAM and make the game as rich as possible it was specifically optimized for english. This allowed us to compress the text (savig more than 24KB) and include many other language-specific tricks, but there are only 300 bytes of free RAM in the final game  :-\ . It would not be possible to port it with 128KB of RAM without extensive re-writing and, more importantly, without reducing the contents and making the parser significantly more deaf.

Regarding the language of choice, it was English because we consider that it is the way to go when you want to release something for a small community like ours and make it as accessible as possible. I am not a native English speaker either (actually, I am Spanish) but I think that it was the right decision  :)
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: remax on 21:53, 03 August 17
Nice... Seems that polyplay now has an option to use paypal and to have decent postage fares...


I'm gonna have the full collection of polyplay's releases :) They are very nice !
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: Targhan on 08:02, 04 August 17
No Paypal? I paid via Paypal, so I assure you it's possible.
Title: Re: Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition
Post by: remax on 08:13, 04 August 17
It was a "no" that meant "now"  :-\
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