Himeros Hotel - Adult Adrift Adventure 1.04

[Seztworks]

Point taken.
You are right and I will change the responses to fit.

I have added hints if you ask about the camera again.

A more general question is how "hard" the game is supposed to be. If a player does not read the the text there will be a lot of instances where you will not be able to progress as it will require the player to ask a specific character about a specific subject that is hinted at in the text. If a case as simple as this where the NPC says what you have to say back, can cause issues, then there will be a lot of things that I would not even dream about trying to implement in fear of the player getting stuck and giving up.

The game has no time limit and you cannot fail the main story. The challenges I have planned are small compared to other adventure, rpg or puzzle games but still requires some player awareness and problem solving. A lot of games require a large amount of trial and error and that is not something I am a fan of. The only reason to load a save is to continue where you left off.
So what difficulty setting should I make the game for?
Visual novel - No puzzles, just events happening at the player. 0% of players should need a walkthrough.
Adventure - Some puzzles, players have to follow hints and solve problems on their own. 10-50% of the players might need a walkthrough once in a while.
Oldschool adventure - Hard puzzles that might even require outside knowledge to solve. 50-99% of the players might need a walkthrough and some might even follow it all the way through.

The goal was to place it somewhere in relaxed adventure. But if players would rather have an interactive story then I can do that as well.

[bloodfield]

I am having issues with reloading saved games again. I had progressed 2 encounters with gem and daisy, 1 with lara. I was going good. Today when i reloaded it. MY score is 0/5/0

redownloading standalone one along with blorb version. will try again ;p

[Seztworks]

@bloodfield

That sounds very weird. Your S should be 0 unless you have completed the Gem or Lara path. But your X should be bigger then 0. Unless you have hit the bug with experience dropping.
The numbers are not important as such right now as long as your L: number has not changed after the load. You should still be able to continue.

[bloodfield]

it hasnt changed but x was higher but now its zero and going to -1 to -5 xD . Nevermind. Downloaded again. Will play again. NO issues trying again. It never gets boring xD

[Seztworks]

Does it go down every time you load the save or when you do something specific?
If you can remember what you do every time it goes down I would love to know.

[bloodfield]

Sorry for the trouble but i think it was the old save folder i was restoring from.

Also I finished gem path, angela path.
my x is 5 now.
L 162015411614



Also i did meet rain in alley and she didnt seem to want to talk. I just wanted to know if there is anything more i am supposed to do?

[Seztworks]

Cool. You are pretty far.

It seems you haven't started with Frey yet. If you have seen a certain amount of porn on your computer you should be able to ask Frey about somethings related to that. (porn)

[boyo111]

Was playing again and noticed some text updates

These are in the Frey Dinner and a Show scene

"your pants tent is very" - might be more correct as "your pants' tent is very
"she roles over unto the couch" - "she rolls over onto the couch"

Missed it before, but reading more closely on this play through.

[redle]

A more general question is how "hard" the game is supposed to be.

I know. You're right. Also, my comment was probably worded more strongly than intended.

And yes, Adrift type games do tend to have lots of text and require paying attention to it. It's a bit of a mix between guess-the-word, find-the-hidden-word, and keep-log-of-keywords-found/memorize-continually-growing-list-of-keywords(phrases). I'm not knocking the style. There is plenty of space for all types of games.

That said, some tasks/words are more guessable/rememberable than others (getting back to your "how hard" do you intend the game to be). Say I have a conversation about taking a trip. Even if I don't remember word for word the conversation, or I save and then continue playing 3 days later and barely remember the conversation at all, I have a rough idea that the plan is for travel. Keywords like car/van/truck/train/airplane, suitcase/bag/backpack, tickets/map/itinerary are all "guessable" words even if I don't remember the specific word that was italicized. Something like, "sit in seat 12C," is not.

To me the "please" statement falls in the later category. Doesn't really matter if the keyword is not guessable because it is too specific or because it is tangential to the conversation instead of part of its core.

And I don't at all mind saying that the player needs to read and comprehend that they are required to say please. Although, at least in my mind, the conversation requesting the please should then be repeated over and over. Basically saying
>ask about camera
Oh, I'll give you the camera when you say please.
>ask about camera
Oh, I'll give you the camera when you say please.
>ask ab...

Rather than how it is now. Currently the response to the second, and later times the question is asked, sounds like the task has been completed. The player is then left completely baffled why they don't have the camera because it sounds like it's all been taken care of.

Doesn't matter if it's buried in 30 paragraphs of text, I just like access to all text required for a given task until that task is completed. But I realize others have the game write out their entire transcript so they have access to it already. Others keep full journals of keywords, marking them down (doesn't help if they miss the word, but at least removes the memory over time problem). Also depends on how likely the game is to be played in its entirety in a single sitting. For me, the bookkeeping isn't the fun part of the game, so I prefer for the game to do that for me. Although it wouldn't surprise me if bookkeeping is exactly what some others love.

Not meaning to say you need to do it any one particular way. Just trying to point out a potential added difficulty that isn't necessarily intended.

[bloodfield]

have i hit the end?

L: 1753151811626

[Seztworks]

@bloodfield

You have indeed hit the end of the two "complete" paths. Lara was the new path and just wanted to make sure someone other then me could get to it.

@redle
I understand your points and for the specific case of the camera I have added the requested solution in the next build.
I will also add a section in help about my design idea to guide players towards the easiest way to play.
In the case of remembering a keyword, my idea was to let the player focus on the one at hand until he has solved it. That is the main reason there is no time limit. So if a task gives you a keyword hint you could focus on that until you have found the right person to talk to or thing you need to do. Credits are "unlimited", time is "unlimited" so if you are a player that tends to loose track the best advice is to keep one task active at a time. If this still fails for the playergroup as a whole I might consider adding a tasklist. Even if that is a very large amount of work as we now have crossed 100 tasks and will be getting close to 500 when the this game is done.

[bloodfield]

[quote="Seztworks"]@bloodfield

You have indeed hit the end. Lara was the new path and just wanted to make sure someone other then me could get to it.

It has been really been a good journey to play this game. Looking forward for more from you.

[Seztworks]

Now that someone has completed the current content and we have fixed most of the major bugs we can take a look toward the future again.
I will be adding the different feedback from this beta run in a small patch with some minor new content that I have been working on while waiting for the feedback. This small release should be ready sometime next week and then I will go back down into the code monkey cave and work towards the next major release.
The goal for the next beta will be around 40% completion so another full path and some mixed stuff for the rest. Timeline will again be a month+ depending on how much spare time I can throw at it. Real life is pushing more now that we have passed the relative safety of the holidays.
This puts game one at completion sometime towards the end of this year and the trilogy sometime in 2018.

Fun times.
Seztworks

[Skelaturi]

\r and the trilogy sometime in 2018.

Fun times.
Seztworks

Probably less, you would get more experience with programming in Adrift.

-----

now i got a small tip for those who like it. There is a thing called "macros" in adrift. Basically you can list a command there and with the press of 1 button (if key bound) the macro will do whatever was in the macro. This can be helpful for repetition in games. Like the money farm.

How to create a macro? Go to the top bar when the adrift runner is running. Press macro > Edit macros > create macro > on the bottom of left column is add > name your macro > right side column make your macro. Remember list the commands under each other. This is a macro i call "standard work day", what it does well work, cooking, eating etc i have listed it in a spoiler cause well there is tiny spoiler in it.

east
up
cook breakfast
work
cook lunch
eat lunch
work
cook dinner
eat dinner
down
west
read tome
wait until 23
surf
sleep

PS for the macro to work, you need to be in your room at 06:00 am at 5 energy or more. If lower energy you get different results. Macro is used by me, if i need the credits to buy something. And yes there are variations on it.

[Seztworks]

The macro can be helpful if you are behind on credits.
Just one disclaimer for first time players.
The macro as it is listed by Skelaturi will skip certain story content that could make progress difficult for you. So please only use it if you have seen the content in an earlier playthrough or if you are already using a walkthrough (future case )