TMUK Text Adventures #1: Chapter 1 - You awake in a room...

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Save game, and let's go!!

Martin

[Pinwig]

I don't think any of the other options on the original menu would yield anything interesting.

SAVE
GO outside
ESTIMATE time

Cos we don't want those nocturnal terrors jumping us in the night.

[Stomski]

Dec 30, 2018 19:04:13 GMT Pinwig said:

SAVE

Inventory:	Transformers pants (wearing), green uniform (wearing), key card, note
Location:	Foyer
Connected Locations:	Corridor, Remote courtyard

Current Score: 30/250
SAVED

Dec 30, 2018 19:04:13 GMT Pinwig said:

GO outside
ESTIMATE time

You exit through the main entrance, returning to the courtyard. As the night's sky begins to lighten and dawn breaks, the carcasses of the creatures who had once been such a bane to you have seemingly finally stopped smouldering. You look to the sky, one moon has moved with the stars high above the vista before you, the other, grey and foreboding curiously stationary in the brightening sky.

With the sun beginning to rise, you estimate it's probably dawn. With no idea of your locales calendar length, size of planet, rotational axis or position you couldn't possible make a more accurate estimation than that.

Inventory:	Transformers pants (wearing), green uniform (wearing), key card, note
Location:	Remote Courtyard
Connected Locations:	Foyer, Small Room

Current Score: 30/250

[Pinwig]

Phew. No nocturnal terrors. I wonder what these moons are telling us about where we are. Is the grey one the Death Star? It seems to be in geosynchronous orbit, whereas the other one seems more natural.

MOUNT bike
START bike
DRIVE in the direction of the distant city

[Pinwig]

Yeah!

[Stomski]

Dec 30, 2018 20:39:56 GMT Pinwig said:

MOUNT bike
START bike
DRIVE in the direction of the distant city

You look to the horizon at the wasteland before you. With no other leads to go on, you decide to push forth following the instructions from SP that the note provided, with no clue if Mr. K even exists, let alone how he can help. Mounting the speeder bike and remembering the instructions from the Infoterminal, you gently turn it safely in the direction of the city.

'Ah, this thing really moves!' you exclaim as you dart across the landscape, passing by effortlessly any threat that may lurk out there. You'll be at the gates to the city shortly and begin to wonder just what awaits you when you get there.

End of Chapter 1 Score: 30/250

Interlude

High above the planet's surface on the brig of a large spaceship a sharp, almost grating voice coming from a winged robot towering above and addressing a collection of bounty hunters. A slender robot, an almost lizard like humanoid in a yellow jumpsuit with brown skin, a hugely muscular white skinned alien, leather biker clothes, hooked chain around one arm, red eyes, large moustache, stubble and big spiky black hair as well as others.

A high ranking officer to one side sneers 'Bounty hunters? We don't need their scum. Our target won't escape us...' The winged robot continues to his audience -

'There shall be a substantial reward to the one that finds SP. You are free to use any methods you like, but I want him alive...' He pauses to point at the white skinned bounty hunter in particular '...no fragging.'

The bounty hunter looks up at the robot, locking eyes as if to assess whether to give up on the bounty and just take on the entire crew of the ship here and now as if for sport,  But needing the cash after coming off a big booze and gals session it's easier on the hangover to just accept it for now. He growls in reply 'As you wish', although not sure if he can keep his promise longer term.

An officer calls to the main robot - 'My lord, he wishes for an update'. The robot turns on the spot and moves from the brig to his private chambers. A holographic hooded head appears before him.

'What is thy bidding, my master' the robot asks.

'There is grave disturbance. It seems that our friend is still with us, I have sensed that he approaches the city as we speak. This is most unexpected given what you had informed me.'

'I offer no explanation, we believed him destroyed, he must have had help! Perhaps he is more powerful than we anticipated.'

'He must not discover his identity or he could destroy us.'

'If he could be turned, he would be a powerful ally.'

'Turned? This is not a case of allegiance, it is about the unification of power and me taking it from him. Find him and bring him to me.'

'The bounty hunters are already on their way, my master.'

'Gooood... goooooooood....'

The hologram fizzes and disappears.

'What is it that you fear, my... master?' the robot chuckles to himself.

To be continued...

[Pinwig]

Hurrah!

[Stomski]

Doing a software update would have killed you out of sheer boredom btw. It is an XP machine afterall.

[Shockprowl]

WOAW!!!

[Pinwig]

I thought about it, but I couldn't see how it would be of any benefit!

[Stomski]

Starting to plan chapter 2. It will be less linear and I'll probably add some extra features such as hotspots, letting you know more info about the current location's available options.

But time for feedback...
Was chapter 1 too long? Too short?
Were the puzzles in hindsight too difficult? Too easy? Not intuitive enough? Too meta in the case of the logs? Too many red herrings? (the Borg's potential for helping with the logs springs to mind)

A lot of time was wasted punching walls, not wearing clothes and not looking at doors/key cards. I put this all on you guys! (Blueshift mainly)

Ta!

[Shockprowl]

The only way to silence Blueshift....



IS TO EAT HIM...



I thought it was stunning, Stom', a lot of fun. You've clearly put a tremendous amount of thought/work into it. More of the same!

[blueshift]

It was fun but in terms of feedback it feels like some things only had one solution and anything else was 100% wrong, whereas I always like to think around things. (Like, Martin's plan to shove the Borg out the window should have worked but because it wasn't the right answer, it was impossible)

[Pinwig]

I'm giving this due consideration, Stom, but just wanted to chip in on Blue's last point. I think if there were multiple solutions to problems the game would have to be much more spontaneous - like a D&D session instead of a text adventure. Which would make it much harder to plan. Stom is running this like a proper old school text adventure, which needs a logical framework to run. If it doesn't you could end up in all manner of continuity problems - like if the Borg had gone out the window he should logically have attacked the dogs, which at the time we were trying to do that would have meant we either wouldn't have had the keycard, or would have shortcut the problem with the Ghostbuster guns. Stom has made very sure that everything in the game makes sense and works, it's really intricately thought out. Having multiple answers to problems might make the game quicker and possibly more humorous, but I'd argue it would be much more simple and full of plot holes.

[Stomski]

Maybe the issue is with it being called a CYOA, when you're clearly not doing any choosing. It's a P&C / text adventure hybrid.

[Pinwig]

I like it because of that. I like a good roleplaying session as much as the next man, but Stom has the 80s text adventure feel nailed on in the way this works, and the frustration in finding the single right path is part of that.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

It's great, and I'm OK with being funnelled down a specific path, but I do enjoy funny/quirky solutions to problems more than sensible ones, like in the Monkey Island series. Red herrings, and use of objects in ways other than what you'd expect to use them for (and yet in ways that make logical sense).

Martin

[Stomski]

Monkey being used as a wrench for example?

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Yeah. And if forced to fight a duel, you spurn the pistols and choose the banjo as a weapon!



Martin

[Pinwig]

This thread has caused me to purchase Fate of Atlantis and Star Trek 25th Anniversary from the tail end of gog.com's Christmas sale this evening. The latter I remember fondly and the former I've never played.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Jan 4, 2019 0:03:12 GMT Pinwig said:

This thread has caused me to purchase Fate of Atlantis and Star Trek 25th Anniversary from the tail end of gog.com's Christmas sale this evening. The latter I remember fondly and the former I've never played.

You mean Indiana Jones and the FoA? I played that when it first came out in the early '90s and loved it!

Martin

[Pinwig]

Aye, that's the one. Soon as today's chores are out of the way I shall give that a go!