ELDER71'S PROFILE

author=unity
Dead lady in a church? Or near a door?

Seriously though, I posted this with the hope that it'd be intriguing :)

author=Dragnfly

author=Sated
Anybody who hangs shelves/pictures/whatever over the side of the bed where they lay their head is asking to die in a tsunami of shelves/pictures/whatever falling onto them in their sleep.

Indeed it happened to me. I got away with, like 3HP left and I wasn't the main character so I didn't get amnesia (missed my chance to be the avatar of an ancient god though). All I got was a cut on my forehead. I still love you, Arland Trilogy artbook, even if you hurt me.

Seriously though, the least dangerous scenario is he flails his arm in his sleep and hits it hard against the shelf. And there goes his sex life when she's on top and is criticizing his novel collection while he's trying so hard for her. "Sorry honey, you treat me right but I noticed you have a lot of Goosebumps novels for an adult and I'm thinking maybe we should stop seeing each other."

Speaking of this screenshot I notice the style of the telephone and radio. Intentional for the setting or is it just what you came up with at the time?

The Goosebumps bit was hilarious!

With the phone and radio: I want to keep the object tiles consistent in style and very quick/easy to make. The phone sort of had to look like that so that it could be clear it was a phone

Oh I know folks, I learned this lesson when I was figuring out how to do the fuse puzzle in Omnis.

In this particular case, as far as I can so far tell, switches are the better tool for the job.

author=Dragnfly

author=Elder71
Originally, I was gonna half-arse this game and make it in a few days for the hell of it. But as I've become more invested, and it seems like way more folks are interested in playing T.A.D than I ever imagined, I'm very keen now to do a good job. And putting safeguards in place against the 'easy options' when it comes to design is kinda what I'm about :)

Funny you say that. My entire reason for not putting up a page for the game I'm working on is because I don't want potential for a sudden burst of fans to make me want to devote more time to it and thus endanger things like paying rent and vacuuming:)

That was where my Kickstarter campaign for Omnis fell short, I think.

It was my mistake; I neglected income for so long (lived like a hermit on savings) that, by the time that promotion came around, we were suddenly under a sharp deadline and too much financial strain. I have a job now, so apart from the reallocated man-hours, the Allison Door is in a much stronger position

author=Dragnfly
I ended up having a lot more to say than planned so I'll point form it for everyone's sanity. Also, these are suggestions and observations, not demands and orders.

-Footsteps: That's the type of sound I'd try to make a little song out of if I were playing. dun dun dun... dun dun... dun dun... dun dun dun dun dun... dun. Although the echo is nice. Gives a feel of isolation. Regardless of what sound you use, keep the echo.

It's turned out to be surprisingly difficult to find a 'footstep' sound effect that actually sounds like footsteps when imported into Galv's script. It's the sort of thing I want to get right, of course, but at the same time I don't want to find myself a month down the line still tackling the little frills. For now, I've replaced the sound effect and made it much quieter. It'll need some more work, but as a placeholder, it'll do.

author=Dragnfly
-Not seeing what's behind you theory: When it comes to first person games I always found being chased by something behind me to be more of a pain in the butt than a scare. Thanks for keeping it 3rd person.

I agree. But my design-principle from the very beginning is to use horror elements selectively and at the right moments, so that (hopefully) nothing gets a chance to become old or stale or irritating.

author=Dragnfly
-Lighting theory: A big flaw of a lot of horror games that use lighting scripts is that they're too dark. Even with a light literally can't see more than one tile around you. So you did good here. I think it's a fair enough range. I also like how it sticks to your front. If you've ever navigated by lantern or other unfocused light source in real life and held it down low because holding it up was making your arm tired you know that your body keeps the light from illuminating what you see when you look behind you. Good job with this.

Thank you :) My thinking was: give the light a bigger range but have it flicker, perhaps keeping the player on edge because their match might go out at any second.

author=Dragnfly
-Matches theory: This is a good idea because it gives a resource management mechanic but people who dislike that aspect can just use cheat engine or whatnot and have unlimited matches. It'd be good if you had another "out" for the player though so they wouldn't potentially have to rely on cheating. It'd suck to have to restart simply because you used too many matches. Even action games with a finite ammo supply usually give you a melee attack. Light sources in horror are the same. Another alternative suggestion is to just make it so you're not in 100% darkness without matches. It kind of looks like you have this for when the match goes out.

I've never worked with lighting scripts so I don't know if this is a realistic idea but what about having the lit match extend further than you can see without a match instead of just the brightness of the same front-facing oval area.

Also, yeah better to have matches than a flashlight with a battery that last 10 seconds.

The gameplay is all built around have a kind of 'home base'**. You can go there to pick up some more matches any time you want, it's just the number you can carry that's finite.

The 'resource management' aspect is about making sure you don't run out of matches before you can return to get more. I'll also be playing with the idea of being 'far away' from safety, and an oppressive feeling that, with two matches left (for example), you've got a long way to go to get more.

I think this'll keep up the tension/panic without ever resulting in a situation where the game is broken or where the player just has to play the rest of the game in the total dark.

(** Worry not, horror fans, I have ideas for the 'home base' that will severely undermine any sense of safety or security you might get from it. There'll be no "I know I'm safe, the scariness is dead" vibe.)

PS. The whole 'turning personal pronouns blue' idea is on the verge of becoming too time consuming to be worth its meager effect :)

EDIT
PPS. I should add that only a few areas of the game will be dark. I think have a majority of the game take places in reasonably well lit sections will keep me on my toes, stopping me from getting lazy and relying too much on darkness for The Allison Door's atmosphere.