Escape... by shinD

[raw]
made by shinD for LD21 (-)
made with python + pyglet. if you're not using windows, you should be able to run the game on any system by downloading pyglet from http://www.pyglet.org

If you get errors about AVBin missing, please download appropriate file for your system from http://code.google.com/p/avbin/downloads/list

Sorry about this inconvenience.

graphics with adobe photoshop cs4
sound with sunvox, guitar pro and garageband, with adobe soundbooth for tinkering
notepad++ for code

it's a thing, maybe it's a game, maybe not. it's probably not fun. i wanted to try to do something a bit experimental and - dare i say - artistic with a bit of thought underneath, so take it how you will.

you need to escape! watch out for monsters. interact with things. if nothing happens, try to motivate yourself some more.

dont read the source, cause that's where the real monsters lie (=terrible coding!)!

Ratings

Coolness 76% 1
Overall 1.92 458
Audio 3.58 41
Community 2.63 219
Fun 1.33 490
Graphics 2.92 203
Humor 1.00 466
Innovation 2.25 375
Theme 2.45 370

Feedback

Kharza
23. Aug 2011 路 07:31 UTC
Getting this on Vista64:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "escape.py", line 8, in <module>
File "character.pyc", line 6, in <module>
File "resources.pyc", line 40, in <module>
File "pyglet\media\__init__.pyc", line 1386, in load
File "pyglet\media\riff.pyc", line 202, in __init__
pyglet.media.riff.WAVEFormatException: AVbin is required to decode compressed media
Shigor
23. Aug 2011 路 17:38 UTC
You forgot to include AVBIN library (it can be easily googled and downloaded, but...)

Very nice audio which sets quite a good mood together with the art... but as you said yourself, is there a game? - Character walking slowly half a pixel at a time (if not less, i was sure i'm blocked somehow in collision, then i noticed he IS moving.... superslowly.
馃帳 shinD
23. Aug 2011 路 20:02 UTC
You're right, I didn't think about avbin, since I had it and stuff just worked. Sorry about that. Slow movement is intentional, though it should be at least noticeable. I haven't been able to test the game on any other computer configurations so it could be due to general performance issues too, I'm not sure. But yeah, it's very focused on audio and art - and I'm glad those parts work as I intended - not so much on gameplay at this state. It can be 'won' or 'lost' but that's about it. So yeah, up to your interpretation of the definition of "game"!
foobaz
24. Aug 2011 路 01:24 UTC
Congratulations on your first entry. (It works on Linux by the way.) I'm glad you didn't pick the platformer (there seems to be too many around).

I think you need to at least double the speed and give more feedback to the player. Then I think this would make an interesting game.

After "losing" 3 times, I ended up changing some of the code and made it print some (hidden) value. But I was still not able to win. I wasn't even able to take the pills. I think the player could use some more feedback with respect to those values.

**WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD**
**WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD**
**WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD**

Especially the game over sequence when you lose, so I know when to stop pressing 'e' since I already lost.

I had to double the initial monster_counter to get anywhere (I don't think increasing this number would hurt the player's experience of your game by the way).

I'm not sure if this is a bug, but even after the sky changes, the monsters are still there. I still haven't won yet (or at least I don't think I have).

You code also refers to some kind of computer object (although it seems to be only a negative effect object) which I haven't found anywhere.
Rudy
24. Aug 2011 路 08:34 UTC
I am not sure I "get it".

P.S. x32 binary works for Win 7 x64, just in the SysWOW64 folder.
Jedi
24. Aug 2011 路 08:53 UTC
Quick question: Have you ever enjoyed tapping keys in a game?

It's a lazy, crappy mechanic that should be outlawed from all games! (and I'm sorry to pick on your game specifically for it)

The way you make the player move at ~1 pixel / second, the way I don't get insight into what I'm doing, the way you tell me to tap e to use an item but when I'm standing in front of the only item in the room tapping e just seems to make me disappear faster... all these things make it seem like you and your game hate me, the player. What did I do to offend you?

I read in your postmortem that this was, "Not intended to be" fun. I can't tell if that's some kind of rationalization or just a really bad idea IMO.

Sorry if it seems like I'm laying into you hard. It's because I really like the artwork and audio and sense there's something really cool in there that wants to escape these flaws...
summaky
27. Aug 2011 路 16:32 UTC
I don't get it...
ExciteMike
29. Aug 2011 路 15:28 UTC
I had to move avbin.dll down a folder to get it to run, you might want to update the zip.

But even after that I couldn't figure out the game. My guy seemed to just fade out to invisible by the time I got near the pills, and tapping e didn't seem to help anything.
zazery
31. Aug 2011 路 23:25 UTC
The slow movement is interesting but like others I had a difficult time understanding how to use the item. Audio was pretty nice.
gokuhd
01. Sep 2011 路 02:33 UTC
Cannot play it >.<
馃帳 shinD
01. Sep 2011 路 15:59 UTC
Thanks everyone for all the comments!

@foobaz & others Yeah, I agree the lack of feedback does kinda kill it. That's priority one I've addressed as I've picked up the code and continued working on it.

@ExciteMike I thought I did update the zip with the dll, huh. Guess I uploaded the wrong one.

@Jedi Since God of War did it with chests and such? :P You should've seen the version before this where you had to move while tapping! (Debugging it got so goddamn annoying I had to remove it)

About the Not intended -part, I think it's a case of bad implementation within the time limit. I do think there's a case for games that are not fun in the traditional sense in order to explore certain themes, just like there are movies and books using unfun methods in that way. My experimentation did perhaps fail at this time, but maybe someone will fare better!

I've started working on some of these problems and I'll release an updated version some time in the future!
馃帳 shinD
01. Sep 2011 路 16:02 UTC
@foobaz oh yeah, and the computer object was a leftover from before, but I decided to remove it since I was running out of time and having objects overlapping on screen did freak out the "interaction" part.
stigrv
05. Sep 2011 路 08:36 UTC
Download link seems to be broken. The link from your website worked though. :)
馃帳 shinD
06. Sep 2011 路 15:54 UTC
Ah, thanks, I was moving files around and forgot to update the link here.
angrygeometry
06. Sep 2011 路 17:03 UTC
definitely a lot of potential here, but some major tweaks are needed.
Pierrec
09. Sep 2011 路 10:08 UTC
I actually liked this game. I just played once, and I think I lost...but I was surprised. That what I'm looking for when I'm playing LD games. So well done, and thanks.
marudziik
09. Sep 2011 路 21:00 UTC
A little too artsy for my taste, I'm afraid. The game has a disturbing atmosphere, but not really that much more. It's not a bad entry, but it has some art-game specific flaws (lack of feedback to the player, not a very good choice for movement mechanic). Art games can be playable, but sometimes they do end up like this: just interesting. It's not that bad, but I wish there would be something more here.