"The Missing Tickets" (mystery game)

[Recca Phoenix]

***UPDATE - version 1.0 had a problem with not being able to get the best ending in Midnight's story. I fixed it. I have updated all the links below to version 2.0 ******

Well, after stalling at the 99% stage since May, Jasper and Augustus in: The Missing Tickets is finally done! *fanfare*
Thanks to Pytom for figuring out those last two problems....

It's a mystery game with several extra stories. I'm open to criticism as always, but I'm not fixing this one anymore (aside from any remaining bugs). About 75% through I realized that I didn't like the way the game was turning out and I just decided to finish it so I could move on. I had no idea how to write a decent mystery game and I could probably do a lot better job now.
Most of the characters are in *real life* stuffed animals owned by myself and my sister. The *real* Augustus is sitting on my bed right now
This one feels a little half-assed because the only thing I drew completely by myself was the characters. The backgrounds are traced and filtered photos, and the music is borrowed (legally >: D ) I don't think you will find it as enjoyable or lovingly crafted as Drawn to You, but I hope you'll find the characters interesting, as they were the one part that I enjoyed making. They were originally (in more animal-looking form) slated for a comic, kids' book, or kids' cartoon type deal.
Because I stalled so much with this one and because it was my first time doing 3/4 characters and not just faces, the art style is pretty inconsistent between characters (I was still figuring out my Wacom tablet when I started this and had a good grasp of it by the time I finished).

I desperately wanted to escape the corny clutches of ren'ai games but after the not-so-great turnout of this game I'm going back to them. At least for some of my upcoming projects.
The project website is here: http://reccaphoenix.wordpress.com/recca ... g-tickets/
The downloads can be found here:
windows: http://rapidshare.com/files/47984227/Th ... 0.zip.html
mac: http://rapidshare.com/files/47985120/Th ... c.zip.html
linux: http://rapidshare.com/files/47986008/Th ... r.bz2.html

[Sailor Kitty]

YAY!

*cries a river of happiness*

Misa loves this game!
It is done! I can play that minigame!
MEEP!

Ok, I'll D/L it now.

[Watercolorheart]

Downloading. Will play, perhaps.

[DaFool]

I love your style! (Another example of why single creators can sometimes have an advantage over collaborations).

And yay! I got the culprit!

Hmmm... check Midnight's extra story, it seems to permeate the Extras section and keeps on playing despite other stories... or maybe that's just me.

But I liked the little games.

[Recca Phoenix]

Hmmm... check Midnight's extra story, it seems to permeate the Extras section and keeps on playing despite other stories... or maybe that's just me.

That happens sometimes, if it does just quit the game and restart it and it shouldn't be a problem.

[Vatina]

Cute and funny little game ^^ I liked Iry's (sp?) extra story with the transforming and battle-scene.

And yay, I got the culprit too!

[Sailor Kitty]

I like midnights game the most. But it is hard. GNYAAHH!

I think I like Lei the best. She has really pretty clothes. Who knows, she might make a cameo in a project I am currently thinking about...

[Recca Phoenix]

Lei's "animal" or whatever is a very chibi-anime-baby digimon-esque looking thingie. I'll post a picture when I can sketch one up. She has always been paired with Feather in Recca's imagination because they are both a similar variety of nonsense-animal. They are not based on stuffed animals like the rest of the characters.

Irys is an orange stuffed dinosaur of mine I've had since I was about 4, originally named "orange face" (I kid you not). "Irys" or "Iris" (pronounced EE-riss) is actually the name of the kaiju (giant monster) in Gamera III: Revenge of Iris. That is what Irys is a parody of, mostly.
The REAL Iris, in monster and baby forms:
You can see the resemblance of baby Iris to monster Irys. Gamera III is a great monster movie, btw, it was the revival of Gamera in the '90s and it has an actual plot and almost anime-like aspect to it, as the girls share a bond with their monsters. i first saw it at an asian film festival. Best line ever: "Why do all these monsters always attack Japan!?" It's answered in the movie it still uses people in rubber suits, but the computer graphics give it more realism.

As for the other stuffed animals....
Augustus is my giraffe, Jasper is my sister's Australian shepherd, Midnight is her giant black lab, and Turtledove is my musical wind-up stegosaurus plushie. I liked dinosaurs as a kid, in case you haven't guessed (What kid doesn't?)
Maybe when I next go home I can fish up some photographs of the animals in question

Thanks for the positive reception so far, I never expected it! Another game with the same characters (and GREATLY IMPROVED graphics, most likely, I can't stand the wrong-sized ones I drew for this one) could very much be a possibility after several other projects. I originally intended it to be a series I could revisit, and not necessarily for more mystery games but for adventure (or even RPG?) type games...

One issue that I mentioned before was learning to draw 3/4 characters AND figuring out my tablet. Also, I paid no attention to the comparative sizes of characters and often had to re-size them when I saw how they fit on-screen together, which I did in a hurry. You'll notice I drew Jasper and Augustus with the pencil tool and fill bucket, and had to blur them a little to match the smooth brush-drawn look of the others, where I coloured on a separate layer. Irys was a disaster because I tried to color her with the brush on one layer and didn't feel like fixing it after I finally figured out to color on a different layer... >_< But I learned a lot. This was definitely a "learning" game, as it went through many overhauls in the process of making it.

[mikey]

I haven't played it fully yet, but from what I played so far it's definitely something for the Ren'Ai Archives - so do we get your permission to mirror it?

Thanks!

[Recca Phoenix]

Yes, you can mirror it there. You can link to the website for it too: http://reccaphoenix.wordpress.com/recca ... g-tickets/

[PrettySammy09]

Yay! I downloaded and played this game!

This game was a lot of fun -- it took me a couple of attempts to find the culprit, but once I did, I was very proud of myself.

My favorite thing about this game was the characters -- they were all super fun. I just wish they had interacted more. It seemed like only Jasper and Augustus got to interact with them -- too bad, in my opinion.

The programming and the gameplay once again stood out. Recca -- your games seem to always come up with engaging gameplay that makes me interested. I liked the ticking clock -- the motive and evidence sheets were also a nice touch. :3

My only suggestion would be...

Have more then one culprit. :3 That would improve the replay a lot. Like, depending on the evidence you gather, the culprit is changed.

Great job!! Awesome music too!

[Recca Phoenix]

My only suggestion would be...

Have more then one culprit. :3 That would improve the replay a lot. Like, depending on the evidence you gather, the culprit is changed.

I considered this but got too lazy to do it. I was considering throwing in random menu choices in the beginning that would change it. Because I knew the game would have limited replayability, I added the minigames.
I would definitely do that for any additional installment, though.

[Anvil Factory]

Cute game. There's something really charming about it. I like how the background picture for the menu screen is animated. Also, the sound effects are really nice. They were suitable and made the game somewhat unique. In addition, I really like how you did your backgrounds. Makes me wanna try the trace method, although there's no way they'll look as stylish as yours. I wonder what would happen if I accused the wrong people... (I don't think I'm "brave" enough to try though.)

Oh yeah, a question:

How many endings are there in Midnight's story? I'm wondering if I should try anymore since it seems impossible to pass the recital. XD I assume I'm not juggling work well since if I press the back button, it continues past the recital... But yeah, it's pretty difficult just keeping him alert, so is there a third ending (or possibly even more?)

[Recca Phoenix]

I don't know if I ever actually tested the game to see if you can get all of Midnight's endings, it was so long ago when I wrote 'em, but the endings you can get are:

#4 best ending - (60+ intel, 50+ alert, 50+ happy)
#1 worst (if you passed out from not being alert or if you failed the recital and had less than 70 happy)
#3 bad (you failed the recital or exam and had less than 70 happy)
#2 okay (failed the recital or exam but 70+ happy)
#5 bored and angsty (pass the recital and exam but happy is less than 50)

So now you know. There should be a possible way to get the best ending (#4). I'll test it and if it doesn't work I'll make a version 2.0 of the game...

[Recca Phoenix]

There was indeed a problem with the code. I forgot to fix the "sleep" action so that it restored alertness. I'll compile new versions of the game. Sorry about that ^^;;;

****UPDATE - I changed all the download links in the first post to version 2.0 *****