Out There

[CHz]

At some point in the next fifty years I'll hopefully finish revamping Telefrag, but until then, here's a completely different game about holding hands and making friends or something.

I recommend playing with headphones and in a darkish space for atmosphere, but neither is strictly necessary. No intentional jump scares, but there is a "surprising" moment or two that you may consider to be mild scares if you have a low tolerance for them.

The graphics are fairly dark, so if you have difficulty making out the walls and such because your vision isn't great or you're just playing outside in the Sun, I've made a brighter version that should hopefully help a little bit.

Out There: http://quiteajolt.com/projects/puzzlescript/outthere/game.html

Higher brightness version: http://quiteajolt.com/projects/puzzlescript/outthere/highbrightness.html

I'm interested in hearing if you got anything from the story-ish bits or if they're just completely inscrutable. I was experimenting/gambling with going wordless and I don't think it necessarily worked out for the best, especially during the bit that happens when you use the thing for the first time.

[Stephen Lavelle]

I ignore the text -the puzzle bits I'm enjoying a lot more than I initially thought i would - currently stuck on this screen

but not stuck in a bad way or anything one thing.

one point of confusion - I don't know if there's a way of knowing where the exit tiles are exactly?

good stuff! :)

S

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PuzzleScript" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to puzzlescript+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Lukas Schüller]

Wow, that was pretty great. And those puzzles were surprisingly tough, though the final one felt weirdly easy compared to the ones before.

I think the textlessness works pretty well for this game, as it leaves more room for interpretation. I honestly wasn't exactly sure what was going on while I used the thing the first time, but it wasn't to hard to figure it out afterwards, and watching it again it makes a lot more sense and is really really cool. Not sure if I "got" the story, but I enjoyed it a lot.

I also love the little bloody footsteps

[Stephen Lavelle]

the screen of text at the start I didn't read initially and was confused about the sound check - similarly I thought the game had broken/become unresponsive during the axe animation section (I was playing without audio the first time through)

[Stephen Lavelle]

(also, there's something I don't like about the main sfx - I physically dislike hearing it)

[Lukas Schüller]

Okay, weird bug: After killing the first handthing with the axe, I close the tab, then reopen it and continue. When I try to leave the level now, it takes me back to the checkpoint I started at. After repeating that seven times or so, it takes me to the first ending level.

[CHz]

Appreciate the comments so far!

though the final one felt weirdly easy compared to the ones before

Yeah that's a weird one to end the game with because the difficulty is almost entirely in how long it takes you to figure out the trick; in comparison, my playtester took something like 30-45 minutes to work that one out. I was hoping that the logic of that one is unusual enough that it'd be satisfying to solve even if you get it right away. (And a little part of me is glad that you did figure it out easily, because that means it was hinted well enough.)

Okay, weird bug: After killing the first handthing with the axe, I close the tab, then reopen it and continue. When I try to leave the level now, it takes me back to the checkpoint I started at. After repeating that seven times or so, it takes me to the first ending level.

Whoops, this is a checkpoint bug that seemingly won't die. Thanks for finding that, I guess the best I can do at this point is just say "don't do that."

similarly I thought the game had broken/become unresponsive during the axe animation section

That's something I was afraid of and want to fix. Originally there I had it so pushing every direction would advance the animation, but I changed it to just the up arrow when I made it so you're locked in there and can't undo or restart (my tester actually got stuck there because he was resetting out of it before it was over). May bring that back, may try coming up with some other visual cue/effect to show that the game is still functioning there.

(also, there's something I don't like about the main sfx - I physically dislike hearing it)

Are you talking about the chop sound? That one is really harsh, I've thought about changing it to something milder once or twice.

[Stephen Lavelle]

>Are you talking about the chop sound? That one is really harsh, I've thought about changing it to something milder once or twice.

no, the hand-moving sound

[mainivstopsc...@gmail.com]

I still haven't finished Telefrag yet, but I really like your puzzle design ideas. The overall mechanic of this one is "simple" but it gave a lot of good puzzles.

As for the final "puzzle" level, it tends to me that when I playtest something and think that something like that could be used in a puzzle, I try it in every single puzzle. So it didn't take so long for me. Still, not enough games have a mechanic-integrated gameplay "spectacle", so it's a great ending to me. A lot of games have massive story-gameplay segregation, and while the ending to me seemed like it was pretty much going to be a wake-up tale from the beginning, the way you did it is pretty powerful.

I noted there's an alt solution to the level you marked "2". Don't bother with the leftmost block and you can still solve it.

The sounds are okay. This sort of sound in Puzzlescript tends to always sound like a fart to me. But I don't really mind it.

[CHz]

Thanks a lot! I backburnered this a while ago and have found it really difficult to focus on it again. Stephen even may have finally fixed the weird checkpoint issue months ago and I haven't gotten around to verifying it. ;_; But an updated version will happen eventually, probably.

I can't figure out the one-block solution to 2, so I guess you're smarter than I am! Lemme know what you did and I'll figure out if that's something that I think needs fixing or not.

[Virelsa]

I really love the concept of this! It turns out to be surprisingly creepy for a PuzzleScript game. And it's hard as nails, too.

The section where you first pick up the thing worked pretty well for me. I get that the player character enters a panicked frenzy, chopping that thing to pieces before stopping and panting, mouth hanging open, a wild look in the eyes. Nice sound effect work, by the way!