Dog of Apocalypse (Survival Action) NEED TESTERS!

Caelifer


BETA TEST here: http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/cwshbp0vi06md-6j5otdxq/dog-of-apocalypse
** It is not finished yet, a couple more sections to go. But please feel free to give it a try!
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Hello wonderful people!

I have been making this story-game for more than a couple of months now and I have a wonderful story already laid out. Lots of twists and drama, as well as adventure and a big setting from laboratories to forests and suburbs to cities. As of the moment, I'm near finishing the first story arc. I'm really excited to how the game would turn out. I think the biggest part of the game is how there would be very different endings. Some good, some bad, some sad, some happy. Along with the companions you'll meet and join you along the way. I really do wish a lot of people would play it once it comes out.

This is the third game I've made using Quest, and all of them has been gamebooks so far. All of them written from a Second Person point of view. First is a short called 'Burst Forth' (http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/1fmu7dkykko_ek18bleiea/burst-forth) and my second game is a survival horror 'Daylight' (http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/eiw__aa9luydpdsuj3f2cw/daylife-the-first-night).

This new one is also a survival horror gamebook... well, it tries to be. So you might die a couple of times along the way. But being a smart dog makes it fun and exciting (in a pee-smelling Lassie hero-dog kind of way) so I labeled it as a comedy. A Survival Action Comedy, if you will. I wish you guys would also try the other two games I've already made and maybe leave a rating/review and a comment or two.

Thank you!

Caelifer
I've updated the main post and published the game for Beta Testers! See the link above and please try to play it. Thank you!

It has gotten fairly long and I need some comments or opinions about how the game progressed so far and how you think it should continue to be better.

jaynabonne

So you might die a couple of times along the way.



That, sir, is an understatement. :lol:

Caelifer
I'm so sorry. Well it is a survival game so death is around every corner, and then some. Like really. Death death death haha

Actually, I tend to put hints and warn players before something is bound to kill them from a specific part of the story. I almost decided to take them off as it looked like it makes the game too 'predictable'. Anyway, I left it there and played around with the words, hoping I've made it challenging enough to keep players entertained, but not too hard to make it unplayable.

The checkpoints, although unspecified, would be your lifesaver.

Code-wise, those checkpoints and the branching paths in the story made player deaths a migraine to script. I made use of flags to keep track of all the decisions the player makes, and I had to reset them every time they die. As well as remove the page links their story branches has generated. Ugh.

Maybe there's a way or a function to make it easier, but as of now I hard coded them to be sure. I figure as the game gets bigger the problem will rise from my coding style. But I'm too lazy to rewrite the scripts from scratch haha

ChrisRT
I just had my first go at the game, and I like it! At first, I was unsure about the font - I usually find 'handwritten' fonts difficult to read, but this one is legible and seems to work well with the genre. Although it is a text-based game, I like the pictures, too. The colour changes on them help with the post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and I also like the 'death screen' - it's large, sudden and red enough that you immediately know you've done something wrong. One thing I noticed when playing is that when I selected a choice, the text would often scroll down all the way to the next set of choices, meaning I had to scroll up again to read the main text for that scene. Obviously this is only a minor thing, but I was wondering if that's how it is meant to work.

As for the writing itself, I think your own label of "Survival Action Comedy" describes it very well. There seems to be just the right balance of humour and horror to make the game relatively lighthearted, but also have a sense of danger present.

In terms of the actual gameplay, it took me a little while to get into the dog's character, but once I did, following my instincts generally paid off, and the consequences of the player's actions seemed logical. In the forest area, however, where you meet an aggressive creature, I felt like the outcome seemed to be based mostly on trial and error - most of the player's decisions seemed to lead to death, and the one that led to survival didn't seem significantly different / more preferable. The frequent deaths were offset well by the 'checkpoints', though, which is a feature I particularly liked. Having to start all over again each time would have been frustrating, but with your system, each death is more of a humorous event and learning experience, and less of a serious stumbling block to playing the game.

In my playthrough, I finished the game by jumping across a ravine. The game gave me the message "Jump!" before finishing, without any further options - I guess this area is unfinished, though? In any case, I enjoyed testing the game - I like the writing style and the length of descriptions, as well as the checkpoint system, and aside from a couple of areas where the decisions seemed a little arbitrary, I don't really have many suggestions for improvement. It'll be nice to play the game when it's completely finished. :)

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