new project in works (Engine available, sort of)

[papillon]

Well, I was going to offer development services, but looks like you guys already have a workable engine available, so not that important anymore.

Anyway, the game I've started working on can be seen at http://irc.wgp.org/users/papillon/schoolgirls.zip (Windows Only) - This is only the VERY TINY BEGINNING of the game showing how the engine works, not anything excitingly playable. All you can do right now is fill out the questionnaire and get a roommate assigned to you. Move ahead by clicking on the dialog window or hitting space or enter. The fast-forward button works and will speed you forwards towards the next decision point. The minimise-dialog button will hide the dialog window until a key is pressed (so screenshots can be taken).

The exe itself holds the engine and the graphics, but all the dialog and decision scripting is in the .dlg file, which you can open in a text editor and peek at or even try to alter (Full release, it will be encrypted, of course.)

The engine is built under Game Maker (http://www.gamemaker.nl/) which costs $15 to register and some time to learn to use.

Let me know what you think of the engine functions.... this is all very much still under development!

[mikey]

OMG, so many girls!!

*cough* Well, yes, the engine seems to be working nicely (at least for me), no troubles at all, the form is a great idea, art and BGs are also very good, functions look nice... no complaints

[Xarbia]

The first thing I noticed was, when you first click on a square in the application form, it always selects the upper option, and to select the lower option you have to click twice, which is rather unnatural.

Other than that, everything looks nice to me. Good luck on this project.

PS - a minor correction: gamemaker currently costs $18 (or 15 euro) to register.

[chronoluminaire]

Wow! Very nice interface and engine! The icons on the text box are rather small for my tastes, but that's a very minor thing. I like the walking around, although if players have to do lots of it you may want to make sure there's a "speedup" key available like in Brave Soul. The engine seems to have *lots* of promise!

Oh, and I don't see the bug that Xarbia does, for what it's worth. However, I do get the smoking warning even if I selected non-smoker: is that deliberate?

I assume there's nothing more to do in the demo after eating?

Great stuff!

[papillon]

That's because it's been changed since that reply. I am planning on fixing that non-smoker thing, I just jump around a lot when I'm working on stuff.

Will probably be updating a lot for the next few days while I am getting details with the interface working better... when I finally buckle down to just story stuff I will disappear.

[papillon]

(First day now basically complete. Yes, I'm slower than I meant to be... had job interviews and Star Ocean to distract me! But there is now a simple way to wreck your friendship with at least one character on the very first night!)

[papillon]

just a quick update to let you know I'm still working here:

There is NOT a new download of the game, because I'm doing story stuff now. (So far, we're through Tuesday evening's activities. Slightly slowed down by wrist sprains on my part.)

There ARE new background graphics being developed - got someone with 3d software to help out.

[kmsgameboy]

hey papillon just wanted to let you know i think your game is turning out great. i have seen a lot of GM games and have worked on some GM projects myself and have never thought of using it in this way. im glad to see you are doing some new backgrounds. (a few of them looked a little messy) over all i cant wait to see it finished. let me know if i can help in any way

[rioka]

Hey papillon, nice job so far. Some things I noticed:

1. The map. If you're in the top row of buildings (other dorm, store, cafeteria)... you can't see the other buildings on the bottom row. Any way you can let the player scroll down and click on the areas down there?
The only way to go around this is if you click on one of the middle buildings and go down that way. Its optional to add but I like convenience.

2. When you talk to Anna, if you choose the second choice - her reply won't show up till you've been to another building and it shows when transitioning.

3. Any way to know how much money you have? I was wondering how much I had left after visiting the store.

[papillon]

On the second one, can you be more clear as to what conversation that is exactly where this happened? (I have hundreds of lines and I can't remember how much was in there when that upload happened ages ago)

As for the money, that's very nebulous at the moment because I still haven't figured out what I'm doing with that. At one point I thought about doing lots of shopping-based things and carefully monitoring/displaying your cashflow, but most of that has gone away by now. There's not very much you CAN buy, so I don't want to make money too much of an issue... but it feels weird to make no mention of it, either. So yeah, still working on that.

[LiX]

So whats this game about? Whats the storyline? The screendump above looks rather nice mucst have spent some time on that GUI?

I would download it but I don't want to untill its finished. I don't like playing demo kind of games because it kinds of spoils it all if you know what I mean.

[rioka]

At about 7:30PM, you meet Anna at the Gazebo where she's sitting alone. There are three options. If you choose the third option and try to sit with her, the reply shows up properly.
If you choose the second choice - which is to leave because she was there first - Anna's reply won't show up till you go somewhere else. I actually visited the bus stop or something and I caught her reply when the screen transitioned between the dialogue that popped when you visit a place to the map screen.

Oh yeah, I just remembered - after visiting the auditorium for the assembly - you can't go back in there no matter how many times you press spacebar or enter. I don't know if you fixed that but thought I'd mention it anways. =)