It is a comedy/puzzle world in which you travel through spoof areas of various well-known movies or books. You must accomplish specific goals in order to proceed to the next area. If you have ever played “monkey island” or similar games you will be familiar with the gameplay, except for the fact that it’s on storynexus.
Each area consists of various locations between which you must travel and perform various actions. Bare in mind that this game is at the very least, ridiculous.
I love Monkey Island. The second game is my favorite old school graphic adventure of all time.
I played a round of actions in your game. You’ve got some serious nonsense going on there. I found myself more confused than amused, but I did like that I could buy a parasitic sponge at a junk shop full of things so random they could only be used in an adventure game.
I’m not sure how long I would continue with this as so far it feels like a string of non-sequiturs. It seemed that the area I was in was to be a parody of Harry Potter? I’d recommend giving the player at least a shred of a goal to point them where they need to go next. Apparently Tom had hints, but he didn’t give me any.
It was strange how you start with no money, and you can spend money to a limit until you are stopped. It seemed either completely backwards, or a smart parody and meta-critique of StoryNexus qualities. It reminded me of the “no tea” gag in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
I saw you had an option to restart. Could there be an option to skip the tutorial? The tutorial didn’t seem to serve any real purpose - was it once again meta-humor? - so if I could restart in the alley and get a little further that might be cool.
I’ll try again to see if there’s anything past where I got…but even if it is just “ridiculousness” I need a goal - or a desire to be a pirate and three tasks. If it’s a “down the rabbit hole” sort of construct I need a rabbit to chase…or a letter to mail…or a list of groceries to buy…it can be nonsense, but I need a role in the story and I haven’t found one yet. I only had 20 actions, so if there is a plot-thread to grab onto, you may want to increase the action bank size so I an at least get there in my first round. edited by HanonO on 3/7/2013
Thank you for your feedback, I very much apppreciate it.
I agree with everything you say, and some players (friends) have stated that they could not get the hints, I have no idea what is causing this but have attempted to fix it, please let me know if the problem persists.
The first hint given to you by tom Presents you with a temporary goal of how to leave the area. Once left, the next area will begin the main plot and introduce character who will pop up in many sections of the game, outside of there original areas. (like Murray from monkey island, who is literally everywhere).
The money was done purposely to be unusual and a bit of a twist on the classic, “You have 10 gold, use it wisely”. I may change this in different areas depending on how money is acquired, because you wont always have access to gringots. You seem to have picked up on many of the elements I was certain would go unnoticed, for which I am grateful (no tea).
I will implement an option to skip the tutorial, I had considered it, but it allows the player to gather qualities which will be used later, such as gender and age. Though I think I will add action refreshers after specific, key actions. Just so you can access the second area in your first run of the game. (Once the second area is available to the public)
So far all the story you know is that you are following tom, blindly for now, but not for long. The second area will open up alot more, plot-wise. Though I have added a small amount of extra text in the early conversation with tom, just to give you slightly more oriented play, and a nice quote.
Thanks for the feedback.
Memymoi. edited by memymoi on 3/7/2013
Okay, I tried again with my 20 actions, and spent them figuring out - Tom says to go tot he printers. The printers have a key stuck under the couch and you need a stick. The broomstick shocp requires 8 money. I have 4 money, so I have to go the bar and drink my way from 4 money to 8 money, but I missed it…and I have to start over. What happened to my start over option? Welp…I’ll wait for 20 more turns.
I see the logic you’re playing with. I’d love some more of the writing to point me towards it. Perhaps if you could have a conversation with tom about how confusing money can be?
The other thing that might help is to increase your action bank…right now for testing I have my game set at 100. It took me 20 actions to figure out how something worked and now I have to wait for it to refresh…I’d have loved to get through that puzzle after I figured it out…I could have done it with 30 or 50 most likely.
Ok, so I have increased the bank size for playtesting purposes, though I may leave it at 30 later on. I have Also added an action refresh at the “half-way” point in the area.
However, on the topic of money, I fear you are over complicating it, your money works only in reverse to the norm, no more than that. You have a quality called “money spent” which represents your money. This works by saying how much money you don’t have instead of how much money you do. So “money spent” at 0 = full purse of money. And the higher it goes, the less money you have. What you are suggesting is slightly more complex, though I was going to implement similar things into the second area once players had got used to the “money spent” quality.
I am also going to add a small text into the bank when you first visit just introducing it.
I’d like to mention that only the key elements are currently in the game, just those that you need to move to the next area. Once the playtesting is done various “pointless” elements are going to be added mostly for comedy purposes. Though some will give Achievement qualities that may have a small effect in the later game.
Thanks for you feedback, sorry it’s so confusing.
Memymoi edited by memymoi on 3/9/2013
Sorry for my confusion. The thin broomstick appeared to have requirements of “no less than 8 and no more than 8”. Since it works in reverse I thought I had to lose some money to buy the stick!