[Game] Death in Sakkara: An Egyptian Adventure

[Squize]

Morning guys, nice to see so many of you have given it a go already.

tonypa:
Yeah if you play as a guest it won't save.
No one's ever had that bug, and it's been tested to death. Weird.

mixedtrigeno:
Erm, yeah there is clicking involved, although your point has kinda missed me ?

Pugger:
We'd like to see more adventure games too, but honestly it's such an insane amount of work you wouldn't believe.

happinessSam:
Not sure about how many languages in total, that's for BBC Worldwide to deal with
Hopefully the translated copy will fit ( Yep, everything's had to be made dynamic because of it ). We're just finishing off that version today.

Thanks to everyone else who's said nice things, makes it all the more worthwhile.

As to the safe... perhaps their's a clue in the telegram ? Hmmmm.

Squize.

[Squize]

Oops sorry Klas, missed your post mate when writing the above reply.

Really not sure about game time to be honest, I'm guessing 30mins per episode ? They do change in length, and some have more "mini-games" than others.

The conversation engine structure was heavily inspired by the posts I got in my thread asking about it, which I am really grateful to everyone who posted.

Squize.

[mbenney]

I played for quite a while before i realised i was learning things. *shakes fist*


hehe
lovely, loving the comic book style.

[thehumanchimp]

wow, cool game. The safe confused me a bit. i thought the "TO: Mortimer Armstrong" had something to do with it, but realised there was another number hiding at the bottom which i had missed.

I liked the pacman style game where you try and catch the robber, i lost the trail once, but managed to find him again...is it possible to lose that game? and if so what happens?

[Squize]

Sorry for putting ideas in your head [m]

THC, it just goes to a game over screen, but you can repeat the game ( Well, you have no choice really, you can't progress until you do ).
All the games are replayable from the title screen once they're unlocked.

Squize.

[phreax]

Only one problem...I HATE WAITING!!! One week pr. episode... it's gonna be a looooooong winter

[mr_malee]

its cool. I love the graphics and the style. Very indiana jones. Only problem i found was that there were two loading signs always on the screen. When i opened the journal and close it before the data loaded the text never went away.

awesome game though.

[Squize]

phreax, it'll fly by mate

Thanks for the shout about the bug Mr_M, working on a fix just this second and it should be uploaded by the end of the day.

If anyone feels the need to, feel free to go here:
http://www.e-creative.net/yorum.asp?ID=5331
and give us a little vote

Squize.

[tomsamson]

had the feeling this deserved a longer playtime than the average coffee break game, so i wanted to wait till i had that time before writing a comment.

Really all in all great stuff mate. The story unfolds nicely, gameplay and graphics are class. I actually like everything about it, looked a while but couldn´t find anything to moan about.
Totally sucks one into it and makes one feel like in the good old days where adventures ruled the game world.
Kudos extraordinaire.

[Squize]

"looked a while but couldn´t find anything to moan about."

You shouldn't be looking that hard mate

Glad you're liking it so far blue, stick with it, 'cause the further episodes just look better and better ( And I know you're a sucker for nice art like that ).

Squize.

[ihoss.com]

Hmm, I could get past the hotel room. There was nothing to do except keep trying the safe, and that got boring after a while. And when I tried to start the game again i restarted.

[phreax]

Ihoss, yup, that sounds like an adventure game to me Be patient though! It is possible!

[leight]

hey Squize!

That's sweet man! I love the graphics I've played it once, and can't get past the damn safe The my lunch hour was up. It's brillient so far - love the comic feel (as said before).

When I first read the thread title I'm like - ooh, a squize platform egyptian game. I was curious But it wasn't like that at all - it's still awesome though!

Well done

[TeroLebe]

Darn that was good. The mood was like playing old Lucasfilm/-arts games. Too bad I solved the safe problem... Now I have to wait whole week....

[Squize]

ihoss:
Listen to phreax mate, you do have to put effort into an adventure game
Clue, check the telegram and read it out loud.

leight:
As if I'd do an Egyptian platformer, I know that's your baby
There is a platformesque game in there in later episodes, with ladders and that.

TeroLebe:
Thanks mate, glad you're enjoying it.

There is actually an episode 1b. It was going to be emailed out to everyone but there was a change, but I'm pretty sure it's been triggered by now. It just adds a couple of days content to the journal, a kinda "This is what happened after episode 1 and before we get going with the map we've found" installment.

Squize.

[phreax]

Yeah I got that right away Squize...and then I started looking for more...now that's what a good game's about Still, the waiting sucks

[ihoss.com]

You have gotten a lot of good reviews so you need some bad ones too:
1) In all the conversations it doesnt matter what you say because you will get the same answer anyways. In one case on the train (I think) I had 3 options which were essentially the same. They also lead to the other guy answering the same thing.
2) The other characters have no personality. Your objective isn't to get any information out of them or get them in a certian mood but to get finished talking to them. If I could get the guy on the train excited enough to spill some extra info, or force the father to pay for my expedition with clever talking then I would be impressed.
3) I had no choice but to join the expedition, I had no choice but to tell my name to the guy on the train and I could get the room key without telling the guy that I was her brother.
4) The story is linear and there are no exceptions. If I could take off at a branch that could get me killed or something else then the game would be more exciting. Right now I can only go forward or stay still, and if you stay still for too long it gets boring.

[Squize]

Didn't realise I needed bad reviews, but thanks anyway.

I'm going to answer without hopefully getting too defensive about it.

1) The answers are slightly different, and there are a couple of different conversation threads, but yes they pretty much all meet up at the same point. This is a Flash game, done with 1 designer, 1 lead coder, an additional coder, an illustrator, musician and a production manager ( Plus a lot of support from BBC History etc) . This still isn't LucasArts.
2) Hopefully the manner in which they speak, ie the actual language, adds personality to them.
3) Yep.
4) The story is linear although we have tried to disguise that fact as much as possible.

All your points are valid, but please keep in mind ( And I know I'm being repetative ), this is still a Flash game. A free, as far as the players are concerned, Flash game.
It's a complex monster of a game as it is. We have to work to budgets and timelines. This isn't a hobby game with a infinite dev time. We're a business, and we have to take that into account.
Yes we'd love to have seperate paths through the game, and the conversations allowing for totally different outcomes, but it was well outside of the scope of the project. It's not a case of us being too lazy to do it, or not having the ability or the insight, it's a case of having to meet a deadline whilst not going too far over the budget.

Thanks for your feedback though, it's always good to see a thoughtful comment.

Squize.

[ihoss.com]

Thats ok, I understand why you did it this way, but my point is that I'm not incredibly impressed with the engien as others are, because it is simply a story. Even though it is flash and made by 2 people it can have all the things I added. I'm not saying that I can make anything better. You did a great job and you made a good game, but the engien isn't outstanding. Thats just my opinion

[phreax]

I understand what you mean Ihoss, but look at it this way: It's very hard to quit playing before you reach the end, so the gameplay definitely works! Regarding the engine, we haven't seen much of it yet, as there may be alot more in the episodes to come! You can be sure that it wasn't episode 1 that took half a year to make