My new game "Wazzed": Playtesters needed

Protodermis
Hi There!
I am the creator of Wazzed, a text-adventure game. In my game, you have to find your way through obstacles to get items, which lead you to different places. I include vivid descriptions of each room/place. Although my game is not finished, I published it to receive feedback, and to see if people actually "like" my game :)
I am happy because I published it yesterday (6/30/14) and it already has 10 plays (although 2 are mine)! :D
Please check out my game, rate it, and please leave positive feedback (if you like it).
This is the link to Wazzed: http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/ ... uva/wazzed

Also: For the moderators out there, please categorize my game soon.

Thanks!
Protodermis <---- not my real name :wink:

EDIT: I'm changing the name and all to "Walzed"

jaynabonne
Here is a sample session:

A Bedroom
Wazzed
The World of Wazz: An adventure-filled game full of options and possiblities

by Aixa

You are in a wild forest, in a unknown location. Leaves fall, branches creak, and animals jump from tree to tree. There is a sign pointing north saying "Great Castle of Wazz". There is no exit east or west. To the south is a blocked gate.

> x forest
I can't see that.

> x leaves
I can't see that.

> x animals
I can't see that.

> x sign
I can't see that.

> x gate
The key needed to open this gate is found north, in the Great Castle of Wazz.

> s

You are now in the Temple of Wazz. In front of you, you see a female women named Kelly, but for the moment you ignore her and admire the place. You see a torch near you. There are white pillars and a marble floor. In the center is a beautiful fountain and a statue of what appears to be the King of Wazz. You hear birds chirping, water dripping, and you smell flowers. You inhale and exhale. Perfect. You are stunned, since from outside it appeared to just be the forest continued. An illusion. You start daydreaming,but you snap out of it as a male guard with armor and a spear faces you, demanding silver coins to proceed any further. He threatens you to kill you. I demand silver coins. Give them to me or get killed. I don't recommend you attack me.

> x torch
Nothing out of the ordinary.

> take torch
You pick it up.

> x fountain
I can't see that.

> x statue
I can't see that.

> x guard
Nothing out of the ordinary.

> x kelly
Looking at Kelly, you realize that she is a beautiful young woman. She has red, glazing hair and green, expressive eyes. No make-up on- just beauty. For now, you should start focusing on what most matters now. But you keep in mind she could be a great friend in the future.

> talk to kelly
I will try to help you. You will need to get the smartness potion, because, you know, you may need that- just kidding.

> n

You are in a wild forest, in a unknown location. Leaves fall, branches creak, and animals jump from tree to tree. There is a sign pointing north saying "Great Castle of Wazz". There is no exit east or west. To the south is a blocked gate.

> n
You are in a wild forest, in a unknown location. You currently have no useful objects on you, but ahead you see a sword under a pile of leaves. In the distance, you hear voices whispering.

You are in the Great Castle of Wazz. It appears to be abandoned, although you hear laughs very near you. The floor creaks as you walk, but there is electricity, and the light is on. You know the key is in the bedroom, found north. As you step foward, the laughter gets louder.


> x sword
I can't see that.

> x leaves
I can't see that.

> n

You are in a bedroom. There is a Queen-size bed, but it is very dusty and old. You hear the laughter, as if the creatures making them were right there. They don't seem very humanly. You start looking around, and then 'WHAM'! You scream, but then the door behind you slams shut. Two dwarf-size trolls approach you. You continue screaming. The two trolls have filthy clothes on, green warts over their bodies, a cloth covering their hair, and fancy jewelry around their necks. They get closer to you, as you go against the wall. You start shivering, too frightened to speak. You try to say something but it won't come out. They giggle a little more, and then say in a funny-sounding voice "Who are you and why are you here?" All you manage to say is "I-I c-came here to explore.". They say "Stop fooling around and tell us!". The shorter one pulls out a sharp knife. Desperate for your life, you suddenly say "I'm here for your help. I am seeking the King of Wazz". The troll charges at you with the knife, and you jump. There is a sword on the floor.

> x bed
I can't see that.

> x trolls
I can't see that.

> x troll
Nothing out of the ordinary.

> take sword
You have the sword in your hand.

> l
You are in a bedroom. There is a Queen-size bed, but it is very dusty and old. You hear the laughter, as if the creatures making them were right there. They don't seem very humanly. You start looking around, and then 'WHAM'! You scream, but then the door behind you slams shut. Two dwarf-size trolls approach you. You continue screaming. The two trolls have filthy clothes on, green warts over their bodies, a cloth covering their hair, and fancy jewelry around their necks. They get closer to you, as you go against the wall. You start shivering, too frightened to speak. You try to say something but it won't come out. They giggle a little more, and then say in a funny-sounding voice "Who are you and why are you here?" All you manage to say is "I-I c-came here to explore.". They say "Stop fooling around and tell us!". The shorter one pulls out a sharp knife. Desperate for your life, you suddenly say "I'm here for your help. I am seeking the King of Wazz". The troll charges at you with the knife, and you jump. There is a sword on the floor.

> x sword
Nothing out of the ordinary.

> use sword
You can't use it.

> s

You are now in the Temple of Wazz. In front of you, you see a female women named Kelly, but for the moment you ignore her and admire the place. You see a torch near you. There are white pillars and a marble floor. In the center is a beautiful fountain and a statue of what appears to be the King of Wazz. You hear birds chirping, water dripping, and you smell flowers. You inhale and exhale. Perfect. You are stunned, since from outside it appeared to just be the forest continued. An illusion. You start daydreaming,but you snap out of it as a male guard with armor and a spear faces you, demanding silver coins to proceed any further. He threatens you to kill you. I demand silver coins. Give them to me or get killed. I don't recommend you attack me.



Points from this:

1) Objects you mention in your room descriptions need to have their own descriptions. Room descriptions are not enough. It doesn't make sense to have "In the center is a beautiful fountain" but then have it say "I can't see that" when the player tries to explore the statue further. Extend your "vivid descriptions" (and I find it a bit ironic that the only comments on your game use those exact same words) to include the rest of your game world.

2) Heading north from the initial room, there seem to be two room descriptions, one where you're in the forest (with a sword under a pile of leaves) and then one where you're in a castle.

3) When you head south from the castle, you don't end up going back through the same rooms you were in heading north. Not only is this a bit confusing, but it messes up the map.

4) Good point: you give the player clues about what needs to be done.

5) When the game state changes, your descriptions need to as well. The sword can't be both in my hand and on the floor.

Keep at the work and I'd say play test it yourself. The problem of the double room description and the room jump (and the resulting map issue because of it) should be obvious to anyone playing it, especially since they happen right away.

Protodermis
Hi! I appreciate your honest feedback- but this is my first game. Not only I had to think of an idea and building on to it- I had to figure out how to use the software, which took me a while, although now I figured it out.
What is "x ...."?
The map isn't confusing- although I'll fix it up. You start in a forest. You go north. You get the key. You go south. You unlock the gate to the temple of Wazz. And I have to add more stuff. I don't know why when you said "go south" the gate didn't appear or say it was locked- I'll fix that.
Following your point of adding descriptions to the objects, I will do that. Good point.
And following this: "3) When you head south from the castle, you don't end up going back through the same rooms you were in heading north. Not only is this a bit confusing, but it messes up the map.":
If you walk forward (in real life), and then walk backwards, you will logically end up in the same place. So your point is invalid. It does not mess up the map, in my opinion.
Also the review and comment are from my friend. She asked me what to say and although she actually did like it I gave her the "vivid description" idea.
Thanks for the honest feedback though, that's what I was hoping for. I just didn't want to tell me it's great when there's room for improvement.

Eaten By A Grue
No, the rooms are indeed kind of messed up. When I played, I ended up going north (at one point seeming to skip two rooms), ending up in room where I was attacked by trolls, and then got stuck. When I 'look'ed, I got a description as if I was in the forest, and I couldn't go back south. I could, however, go north, which took me back to the castle, and then into the bedroom again, where I was attacked by the trolls again. I'm not sure what's going on in your code that's doing this, but as it is it's really making it impossible to play.

One thing that I learned while making my first game that can easily trip you up is to be careful with your room descriptions! Remember that if the player will see the description every time, then it needs to apply every time -- in other words, don't put object that can be changed or picked up in the room description (unless you use flags to turn them off), and if an event happens when you first enter then room, like the troll attack, make it a script that occurs after entering the room for the first time, rather than part of the description. You don't want the trolls attack to play out every time! While I didn't see this in your game so far, keep direction in mind as well; it's easy to create, say, a room called 'Top of Cliff' with a winding path leading down, then create the room 'Winding Path' with a description starting with "You descend the winding path, carefully picking your way over the uneven ground...' etc. It feels natural, since you just wrote the top of the path, but what if the player is coming back up from the bottom? Something to keep in mind.

jaynabonne
Proto, do this:

1) Start the game. You are in a wild forest.
2) Go north once. It says you are both in a wild forest and then the castle.
3) Go north again. You are now in the bedroom
4) Go south. It says you are in a wild forest. This looks like the first room, not the room that led you into the bedroom.
5) Go north. It says the same thing as in step 2.
6) Go north again. You are now in the bedroom. And your dot on the map is now floating in space above the rooms. This is what I meant by messing up the map. I doubt that's how you want it.

The problem is that when you go south from the bedroom, it doesn't put you back in the same room you were just in. It puts you back in the first room. I suspect you have not fixed up the south exit from the bedroom to point to the correct room.

Unfortunately, the Quest map display does not deal with this (there's not much it could do, to be honest).

davidw
X is short for EXAMINE, one of the most commonly used commands in text adventures.

I played your game for a few minutes and found it remarkably buggy. Has it been tested at all? One location has me attacked by two trolls, who I kill with a sword very conveniently lying on the ground, only to find that as soon as I type LOOK the trolls are alive again. KILL TROLL doesn't work, but ATTACK TROLL does, and then very strangely offers me various objects to attack the trolls with, including a door, the other troll, some coins, etc - is this intended or a bug? Why on earth would I try to attack a troll with a door or some coins? The sword is also still lying on the floor even after I've picked it up.

The map is way too large and covers too much of the screen. Can it be disabled?

davidw
Also, you might want to rethink the title. I don't know if you're aware, but 'waz' is another word for 'piss'.

Protodermis
Hi guys
I'll fix up the map, I don't know why it's doing that :?: :oops:
How do I fix the x (examine) thing?
I know about the troll thing, but I don't know how to fix it. The script I did after "attack troll" is print message, saying it was dead, but I know that if you then look at troll or attack the troll again the same description will pop up. Oh, I'll add "kill troll".
I think it's a bug, asking you what to attack the troll with- I don't know how to fix that either. It was intended that you just attack/kill the troll with the sword.
I'll disable the map.
I'll change the title to Wazled. :oops:
Thanks!
Protodermis

jaynabonne
For the map issue, I had a suspicion, which may or may not be true, but it's a thought if it helps...

I was guessing that initially your start room went north directly to the bedroom, and at some point you added an intermediate room between them. If so, then when you fixed up the exits, you might have either not updated the one pointing south from the bedroom, or there may actually be two south exits in that room, one pointing to the new room and one pointing to the old room. Just expand that room in the left pane and see if it has two exits in it... If so, delete the one you don't want.

Again, total speculation on my part!

Protodermis
Hey
I fixed a lot of things that you guys told me to:
1.) Now you no longer get stuck in the bedroom. You take the key now, that opens the door.
2.) The title is now "Wazled"
3.) I removed the map
4.) There are more items to examine. In the forest, I added leaves, animals, trees, etc. You can examine those items.
5.) I fixed the exits, now it's like this:
1. You start in the forest.
2. You go north
3. When you go south, you end up in the original location (Wild Forest)
4. Then you go south again to the Temple of Walz

6.) Now you can kill the trolls using the command "Kill troll"

I NEED HELP WITH THIS:

I know that in the bedroom, the description says there is a sword on the floor. But when you take it, it says the sword is in your hand. Then, when you type "l", the room description pops up again, saying that the sword is [still] on the floor.
How do I change this? It happens with other objects too.

ANOTHER THING:

When you go south from the forest, there is supposed to be a gate blocking your way from entering The Temple of Walz (until you get the key). I made the gate to be locked and opened with the key, but if you put the gate as the exit "south" from the forest, and then you type "go south", it doesn't say anything. And I put the Temple of Walz as the south exit, then you can enter, and the gate doesn't block it, making everything else pointless, which I don't want. HOW DO I FIX THIS?


Thanks! :mrgreen:
Protodermis

Protodermis
jaynabonne wrote:For the map issue, I had a suspicion, which may or may not be true, but it's a thought if it helps...

I was guessing that initially your start room went north directly to the bedroom, and at some point you added an intermediate room between them. If so, then when you fixed up the exits, you might have either not updated the one pointing south from the bedroom, or there may actually be two south exits in that room, one pointing to the new room and one pointing to the old room. Just expand that room in the left pane and see if it has two exits in it... If so, delete the one you don't want.

Again, total speculation on my part!


Thanks, but your suspicions are/were wrong. But I had messed up the south exit of the bedroom, it was going to the Wild Forest, but that's fixed now.
Thanks again though!

HegemonKhan
here's two links to help you with the exit~locked door stuff that you want:

1. http://quest5.net/wiki/Hs-blockingexit
2. http://quest5.net/wiki/Hs-lockedexits

these two links above are from this main link (has a lot of other useful guides too for you):

http://quest5.net/wiki/How_to

(you can scroll down, there's an upper section and a lower section)

Protodermis
HegemonKhan wrote:here's two links to help you with the exit~locked door stuff that you want:

1. http://quest5.net/wiki/Hs-blockingexit
2. http://quest5.net/wiki/Hs-lockedexits

these two links above are from this main link (has a lot of other useful guides too for you):

http://quest5.net/wiki/How_to

(you can scroll down, there's an upper section and a lower section)



THANK YOU !!!!! :D :D :D :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :) :) :)

HegemonKhan
there's also this link too (though you'll need to learn how to add libraries to your game, or work with the code):

viewforum.php?f=18

lots of good stuff, ask if you need help on using any of it (I can help you add the libraries or the code to your game file).

Eaten By A Grue

I know that in the bedroom, the description says there is a sword on the floor. But when you take it, it says the sword is in your hand. Then, when you type "l", the room description pops up again, saying that the sword is [still] on the floor.
How do I change this? It happens with other objects too.



The easiest way to deal with this is to only write things in the room description that will always be true, and just make sure the objects you want the player to notice are set to visible and not scenery, so they'll appear in the room description. If you want the items to appear in a particular way, you might add a second paragraph to the room description telling the location of the item, then setting it so that picking up the item turns on a flag which prevents that paragraph from appearing after the item is picked up. This is an issue with the trolls too-- the troll attack should not be part of the room description.

I think some of the problems you're encountering may be because you're picturing the process of writing the game as similar to writing a novel, so you're just putting down what you want to happen as if it was a story--but in writing interactive fiction, you need to create a functional environment to more around in (unless you're doing a straight-up choose your own adventure gamebook). So for instance, you wrote a scene where the player kills the trolls, but you didn't put any functionality to actually change the state of the trolls from alive to dead. You need to make it so that when a player attacks the troll with the sword, in changes from a living troll to a dead troll (the easiest way I've found to do this is to create the dead troll as another object in the room and make it start off invisible. When the player attacks the troll, create a script that removes the troll and causes the dead troll to become visible at the same time.)

Protodermis
Okay, I'll do that.
I think I fixed the sword issue. I did the script being the first time the player goes in the room it says that paragraph.

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