Abigail

Message

papillon · #1 Post by **papillon** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:38 am

This is short. I had a week of no net connection, so I made a little something. (This is also completely untested, so report problems if they occur.)

For those of you who said in that other thread that you like to play a game only once, this should work for you. There are some choices early on to set the scene, but there is only one ending, and it's probably best to go through just once.

Requirements - Windows, DirectX 8, the same things my games usually require.

Can be archived elsewhere if so desired.

http://irc.wgp.org/users/papillon/abigail.zip

The other purpose this release has is to expose the workings of my engine. Unlike Summer Schoolgirls, the dlg file here is not encrypted. You can open it in a text editor and read the entire game script. You can change lines. If you're bored enough to figure out the coding, you can easily make your own game with the same graphics. Should you do so, feel free to post your own edited dlg file here so we can see what you did with it.

ShiraiJunichi · #2 Post by **ShiraiJunichi** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:02 pm

Interesting little game. Though, it would've been useful to know...

that the player is female from the very beginning. I realize the reference to "actress", but I didn't catch on at first. I guess this really goes to show how much people assume that the player is male

#3 Post by **PyTom** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:28 pm

Hm... "An unexpected error occured when starting the game.", and then the program quits. This is on a P3 Thinkpad, call it four or five years old. Could be the same old video ram problem.

I'll try it on another computer.

#4 Post by **PyTom** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:30 pm

Okay, it worked on a modern dell laptop I have access to.

Some random thoughts:

I think this may be possibly the shortest game we've had so far. Even though some plot happens, I think this may be more properly appreciated as a visual poem then a visual novel... seeing how it captures the thoughts of a 15 year old girl at one point in time. Or something, I've never been good at reviewing.

I did think it was an interesting choice to not give the game a "happy" ending, and so to emphasize the unrequitedness of it all.

Was independence hall the source of one of the photographs? It looked quite like it.

Somewhat geeky engine-writer thoughts:

The auto-pagination of text is a misfeature, I think. It tends to break large blocks of text up into pages at awkward places, and not at sentence boundaries. This makes it somewhat harder to read the text.

Likewise, if the entire screen were clickable instead of just the text, it would mean the mouse wouldn't have to block the text ever.

ShiraiJunichi >>> since this was a papillon game, the relationship didn't surprise me in the least. It's a theme.

mikey · #5 Post by **mikey** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 1:34 pm

I found it a very nice little piece. I like thoughts, so this suited me very well... and I also liked what PyTom marked in the spoiler. It is somehow natural, and a good choice. And speaking of choices, it's great that you could squeeze in so many - you can actually play this and that's really a great thing.

It may be a small game now, but who knows, if you make one story like this every now and then, they could make for a nice collection one day, much like one can get in a book with short stories.

kara24601 · #6 Post by **kara24601** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:25 am

I'm the opposite , I didn't enjoy the plot much 'cause it was so depressing.
You're only given two choices for every mini scene or whatever and although it was neat that you could _sorta_ make her smile , it would've been nice for there to have been a true / fully "happy path".
The graphics are nice , as usual.
But it's more realistic to make a "no happy endings" type story and such.

#7 Post by **PyTom** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 5:19 pm

Assuming that "Can be archived elsewhere if so desired." counts as permission, I've added this to the archive.

miriam · #8 Post by **miriam** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:30 am

Papillon, thank you so much for making "Abigail" available. I thought it was beautifully bittersweet. It also had some brilliant observations on human nature and the roles we get forced into, and was paced really nicely. The pictures were charming. I was enchanted by the entire piece. Thank you.

PyTom mentioned that GxG stories are something of a theme with you (they are with me too). Have you made any others available? If so, I'd love to see them too.

I'm trying my hand at a RenPy story at the moment, however I decided to play it low profile for my first and make it about a straight relationship (though even my straight-relationship stories never quite turn out normal.)

If you want to read any of my stories see my website at:
http://miriam-english.org
For some reason the most recent 4 stories (most recent are at the top of the page) are not very nice... in that they have streaks of horror running through them. I dislike horror so I have no idea why I wrote them. The more pleasant ones are "Anti-sense" and below.

Tabris Macbeth · #9 Post by **Tabris Macbeth** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 6:54 am

Now, I know this will probably sound profoundly egotistical- given that it's supposed to be a compliment- but...this looks like something I'd do. Uh, for what's it's worth, I'd like to think of myself as quite the accomplished writer! There's a certain feel to this game. A feel that I rarely get outside my own work. There's heart, here. Soul, personality, the ever-sought after "it" factor. It's not too terribly often I can find it, and it makes me smile a strange little smile...
And I feel like a shy kid, again, squirming in front of all the eyes that are on me as I give you this invitation:

http://z11.invisionfree.com/WOAM/index.php

It's an inside joke that I'm a shameless self-promoter, but...not this time. Think it more like...trying to give a present.
<ahem> Right, then. I'll...just be going...

-Tabris