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Go hiking!
Spelunking!
Pick wildflowers!
Swim!
Cook!
Mountain Climbing!
Bushwhacking!

Just remember...

You only have One Hour.

One Hour is a short puzzle game that could best be described as a camping simulator. You'll get to enjoy the peaceful tranquility of the wilderness, climb mountains, explore caves, go for walks through the lush forest, etc... but there is a catch. The game is only one hour long. Win or lose, you'll be done in an hour. There is no pause menu, no inventory screens, no message windows, nothing that will delay the end of the game. As soon as the game loads, the clock starts ticking.

Why is it only one hour? Well, you'd have to play it to find out. Suffice it to say that there is a reason, and there is a plot.

You're doing a great job Frogge.

The game consists of a series of short puzzles that each tie into each other. The game has four different endings. The challenge with One Hour was to create a game that tests the limits of my eventing knowledge as well as my own mapping capabilities. The entire game takes place on a single expansive map, carefully created using Parallax Mapping. The only scripts included in the game are utility, and do not impact gameplay. Scripts such as Hanzo Kimura's Ultimate Overlay Mapping, an Antilag script, and certain scripts to skip default RMVX scenes are included, but every puzzle is fully done using event systems and common events.

Please note that older slower computers may experience significant lag when running this game. I've done what I can to work around the limitations of RMVX, but there is only so much that can be done when the game runs on a single map. Faster systems shouldn't have any trouble. The game is compatible with JoiPlay, and runs smoothly on mobile devices.

Credits
Celianna
First Seed Material
Anaryu
Hanzo Kimura
Marc

Latest Blog

The Hour is Upon Us

That's right, One Hour is complete!

Sort of. I guess it's technically correct to say that the game is complete. But this is really more of a beta release. Seeing as I know everything about the game, how to solve the puzzles, and what the objective is, I can finish this game in about 15 minutes. But the game is supposed to last close to an hour. Obviously. So this release is more to test out how difficult the game truly is, and whether or not players find themselves completing the game too quickly, or running out of time.

Also, for all I know this game is garbage. Maybe it crashes the moment you load it. Maybe the premise absolutely sucks. Or maybe it's the next GOTY (Ha. HA HA. Right).

For what it's worth, the game is finished enough that it is in a fully playable state, complete with four different endings based on how many tasks you complete and if you complete them correctly. Please don't hesitate to provide feedback, I'd love to hear your thoughts! The good, the bad, the ugly, whatever you've got, I'll take it.

Also. I'll mention this now, since I'm sure somebody will if I don't. The game does not have music. That's deliberate. It's meant to be somewhat atmospheric. The sound does gradually shift over time, but music is completely absent from the game. Maybe I should add music? I don't know. Let me know what you think.

This game was a test to see if I could create a puzzle game using RMVX, since I've only ever made RPG's. I wanted to see how creative I could get using event systems, and this whole project sparked from an idea I had regarding a dynamic day/night system. I think it went pretty well, and I'm happy to have released this earlier than expected. Hopefully you'll all enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Happy playing!
  • Completed
  • Strak
  • RPG Maker VX
  • Puzzle
  • 03/06/2022 05:45 PM
  • 12/26/2023 10:53 PM
  • 04/16/2022
  • 12067
  • 2
  • 99

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Posts

Pages: 1
Awesome game! I played through the whole thing. I'm not sure if the following of what I say will be a spoiler to the game, so I'll mark it. I kind of have some questions, though.

So I got all the ingredients to make the antidote(?), supposedly using milk thistle, coal, and dandelion at the cooking pot. My character still died though? Am I supposed to complete the game within a certain time frame, such as before it says 45 minutes at the top? Am I missing something? I did try to rerun it as fast as I could but nothing changed, and it still says that he's too late.

I think one of the endings might be doing nothing or the time runs out, so maybe I'll try that when I have time. For now, I've gotten 1/4 endings.

How do you open that little treasure chest though?!! It has a lock-code, and 8 digits. I think it has something to do with the page numbers on the papers throughout the game, and try as I might, I'm no good at puzzles :(.

I really want to get all the endings, though. Hope you could impart me with some of your all-knowing knowledge?
Hey, thanks for playing! And thank you for hiding the spoilers. I'll answer your questions below.

So you got close, but not quite the "true" ending. You're very close though. You got all the correct ingredients, but the only missing step was to open the lockbox. You're absolutely right, the pages do have clues to the code. Basically, the first number in the page is the digit on the lockbox, and the second number is the actual code. So, for example, if a page says 4 - 7, you'd change the fourth number from the left on the lockbox to the number 7. While the antidote will help with survival, it's not strong enough or effective enough to help you survive on its own. Keep in mind, once you enter a digit, it gets saved, so you can go back and forth. You don't have to memorize all the digits at once.


Hopefully that answers your questions. I will also detail how to get each of the games endings below, for anyone who wants to know. I won't detail what happens with each ending, just how to get them.

The first ending requires you to run out the clock.

The second ending happens if you fail to open the lockbox, but you concoct an antidote. The ingredients used don't matter.

The third ending happens if you concoct an antidote and open the lockbox, but if you incorrectly harvested one of the flowers instead of Milk Thistle.

The last and "true" ending requires you to correctly concoct an antidote using Milk Thistle, as well as open the lockbox.


Thanks for playing! Hope this helps.
I'm hesitant about adding a review since the other guy pretty much summarized my personal thoughts about the game too.

So here's my feedback as a comment:

It IS pretty jarring! And the lagging (mind you I only have a 2-year-old laptop) adds to the atmosphere! XD In a way it really, really, really feels like you're alone and you got nobody but yourself for this game.

The puzzles are nice. The rocks gave me a good time and left me wishing for more of them. The vines maze is a good maze; while navigating it, it felt like I was doing something that had more impact beyond looking for the next path to cross. The cave maze too, while simple, really worked well with the lamp thing. The swimming while very standard is of good enough quality to complete the quad.

The story was pretty lacking, and I personally think it's the lack of set up. I'd rather have a short message on a black screen open up before we start with the character waking up. Put me in his shoes, you know? I'm also not even sure why I should care about the locked box in the first place. While twists and surprises are nice, not having a proper set up for game mechanics will likely leave the player feeling very, very confused - and this is something that my non-RM friends taught me when they played the initial demo of my own game.

It does leave me wanting more; I'm just not sure where you're taking this game to. (Open spoiler tag below for my personal recommendation.)

BUT if you took this to a horror level, perhaps an atmospheric horror game where the "enemy" is an unseen supernatural entity of the wilderness, I think it'd really pop out and shine. You can go "this is a horror game", and when people open its executable file and see "you have one hour" they'd really feel like, "Oh I gotta do something I gotta SURVIVE". Not only is our character poisoned, but something out there, whatever that unseen is, is watching our every step, waiting for our demise.

And I would love that. I love horrors based on everyday concepts. There's no real "killer" or "enemy"; just us and our fear amped up by our perceptions and our worries. And this game has the potential to be that; I just don't know if this is how you want your game to be.

But, if your intention is to merely show concepts, this is a good game. It did leave me thinking, "I want to see more of this guy's work," in a "That's it?! Don't leave me hanging!" kinda way. XD
Lol, yeah I'm kind of done with this game. It served its purpose. It was never meant to be a full project. It was born out of a desire to implement some new systems and try my hand at some new concepts. Honestly, the "story" such as it is was an afterthought. As a result, the narrative part of the game is pretty weak, and I'm okay with that. It was meant to be a basic puzzle game with some unique mechanics and systems. Glad you enjoyed what was there though!
Man I missed that in the blog post, lol!

But yes, in terms of the systems and the puzzles, I think the game is good! Even if the puzzles themselves are not really new concepts, I think they hold each other up pretty well, and it is pretty difficult to keep puzzles within a single game of a more or less consistent quality. (I like puzzles a lot. Is that too obvious? XD)

If there is one thing about the puzzles I want changed, it's probably the level of information you feed the player, e.g. difficulty level, what must be done, what I should look for, etc.
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