20: Silence

[Thaumaturge]

DLL archive 1
DLL archive 2

(Simply extract the dlls to the same directory as the game.)

Competition entry version:
Executable and miscellaneous files (~7.3MB)
Models and images (~5.6MB)

Once again, in separate files in order to meet the Filecloset 10MB limit, and my apologies for the download size. :/

Just unzip everything (including the dlls linked-to above) to the same directory.

~

Prototype 1

NB: I will probably release any subsequent versions without some of the files included here, for space reasons, and to limit upload size on my end and download size on yours, so perhaps hang on to these archives if you do download them, for the duration of the competition at least. That way I can just provide a new executable, additional content, and any subsequently-important dlls without already-uploaded files taking up space. I considered also uploading the content separately from the program, but decided that it was probably not worth it at this point.

I do apologise for the inconvenience of this system. :/

Note that the two dll downloads should be the same as the ones linked-to for Dead of Night, so if you downloaded them from that thread you should be able to use those instead of downloaded them here.

Of course, if you have the Panda engine, you should be able to get away with not downloading the dlls at all. ;)

~

Silence is intended to be a short horror-adventure piece. I'm not sure of how much more to say, since the story is intended to be told through the game, and both that and the controls are, according to the competition, supposed to be conveyed without text. ;)

I'm not sure of just how effective the horror elements are going to turn out, but we'll see - it's worth a shot, not so? ^_^

I hope to have a brief prototype up within the next few days.

Note: This is not the idea that I posted about in the competition thread, concerned about the horror elements. I became a little uncomfortable with an element of that idea (the player was a ghost who, as the primary gameplay, possessed and thus animated corpses; their fragmentary memories were intended to be used to solve puzzles, as well as relate story), and decided to discard that element rather than continue with something that I wasn't happy about. This idea does, however, take a lot from that idea, and is essentially an evolution of that idea in response to the changes that I made and my desire to keep certain elements (such as the control style).

[Kensei]

Sounds interesting, Thaumaturge.

There is a fantastic opportunity to convey a story through the game. Thinking back to the demo of Clive Barker's Undying, when you use your character's 'second sight'. I remember looking at a picture of the family, from a distance and normally, they look like a normal family - but when you get closer (can't remember if you have to 'activate' the second sight), their images contort to reveal their demonic forms.

Might be an idea to do that, perhaps less complex. Like you are in a room and there is a picture on the desk, you pick up the picture and it shows an image of a man and his dog. Then the door closes behind you and you have to figure out how to get out of the room.
Ending up that you have to press the 'dog' shaped symbol, on a totem pole, next to the door

I am looking forward to this (as well as the other games :D )

[Thaumaturge]

Originally Posted by Kensei

Thinking back to the demo of Clive Barker's Undying, when you use your character's 'second sight'. I remember looking at a picture of the family, from a distance and normally, they look like a normal family - but when you get closer (can't remember if you have to 'activate' the second sight), their images contort to reveal their demonic forms.

Hmm... That's a very good idea, actually; it may well help me with some minor story- and gameplay- related issues, and I was already planning on certain events that would fit in nicely with this, I believe...

I will think on how to go about implementing this, and how to explain it, I believe - it could be very valuable indeed. Thank you very much! ^_^

Of course, I want to get the already-decided on gameplay elements in place first, but thankfully things seem to be going fairly smoothly for the most part, thus far.

(the "Scrye" spell was indeed manually activated, as I recall. ;)

It's a pity that Undying didn't get its sequel... :/)

Originally Posted by Kensei

I am looking forward to this (as well as the other games :D )

Thank you very much again! ^_^

[Thaumaturge]

At last, my first prototype of Silence! (Download links in the first post.) I would have preferred that I had reached this point earlier, but ah well, it is as it is.

Thus far I'm reasonably happy with what I've created at this point. There's next to no horror yet (this being, effectively, the introduction and tutorial level), and little to interact with, but it demonstrates the basics of the gameplay thus far implemented at least, I think, if not, I don't think, the full range of the system that I have in place.

Notes:

- There is nothing yet beyond the second door - that I intend to rectify soon enough, however. ;)
- There are very few sounds, and those that I have thus far are more or less place-fillers, created using Audacity and based on the sounds that it allows one to generate without recording, as a result of a (hopefully minor) issue regarding recording.

I haven't yet gotten around to implementing the "Scrye" ability, although I still hope to do so.

I'm a little worried now about finishing in time, but we'll see what happens...

[dINGLE]

I downloaded it, but I can't seem to get it working.

I just downloaded the prototype, not DLLs,
then I copied the contents of the Panda3D 'bin' folder into the extracted game folder.

When I start up the silence exe, the dialog comes up, then the window,
but before anything displays on the window, both close.

Could it be an old version of Panda? Dead of night worked ...

EDIT: looks like I have an old version ...

here's my error:

"BAM file is version 6.15, this program can only load version 6.0 through 6.14 bams."

I'll have to download the DLLs after all

[Thaumaturge]

Aaah, right, yes - I'm afraid that, according to the documentation that I've read, BAM files are specific to the version of Panda with which they were compiled, so they might well not work if you try to run them using another version of Panda - sorry about that! ^^;

You might have better luck using these egg versions of the models, and editing the file <Silence_install_directory>\etc\Confauto.prc so that the line that starts with "default-model-extension" (the last line, I think) has ".egg" instead of ".bam" (without inverted commas, of course).

Thank you for trying the game. ^_^

(Note to others: The game should, I think, still work if you use the dlls that I provided; the above applies to those attempting to use their own installation of Panda to run the game.)

[dINGLE]

no luck I'm afraid.

I changed the confauto file like you suggested, after that didn't work I renamed all the .bam files to have no extension, which didn't work either :(

[Thaumaturge]

Urk - I just realised that I didn't include part of the solution - the egg files. Sorry about that! >_<;

I was suggesting that you use the egg files instead of the bam files, rather than renaming the bam files.

You should be able to download the egg files here.

Once you have them, unzip them to the same location as the bam files, and set the line in the confauto file that I mentioned to have ".egg" instead of ".bam" - in other words, to look for egg files instead of bam files.

[edit] Again, note to others: The game should, I think, still work if you use the dlls that I provided; the above applies to those attempting to use their own installation of Panda to run the game.

[dINGLE]

works :)

From what I can see the interface is quite good and intuitive,
the graphics are pretty good too.

But I don't quite get what is happening on that other computer ...
and it also seems slightly unlikely that a room full of computers would have one chair :D

otherwise seems good so far,
looking forward for some kind of mission/story/objective or something to do

EDIT: and the starting sequence, with the guy getting up and pushing in the chair, thought that was pretty good, didn't expect it :)

[Thaumaturge]

Originally Posted by dINGLE

works :)

Aah, excellent! ^_^

Originally Posted by dINGLE

From what I can see the interface is quite good and intuitive,

Thank you - I'm glad to hear it. ^_^ I doubt that it will change overmuch (at the moment I'm hoping to stick to logic and sequence puzzles, and avoid including an inventory), so hopefully it should be so for the rest of the game. I do have one additional interface mechanism in mind to implement at the moment, but that should hopefully be similarly intuitive.

Originally Posted by dINGLE

the graphics are pretty good too.

Thank you again. ^_^

Originally Posted by dINGLE

But I don't quite get what is happening on that other computer ...

I presume that you interacted with the computer, and saw the second, black-and-white screen? If so, then you're not really supposed to get it at this point - it's essentially the first "weird" thing that occurs, a hint that something's happening. I also intend to add a cue shortly after it appears to prompt the player to leave the room and start exploring.

Originally Posted by dINGLE

and it also seems slightly unlikely that a room full of computers would have one chair :D

Heh, yes, I know - that's just laziness on my part. ^^; I will hopefully add more chairs by the final version.

Originally Posted by dINGLE

otherwise seems good so far, looking forward for some kind of mission/story/objective or something to do EDIT: and the starting sequence, with the guy getting up and pushing in the chair, thought that was pretty good, didn't expect it

Thank you very much!

Hopefully I'll have something slightly more interesting to do by the next version. ^_^

I very much appreciate the feedback. ^_^

[Kensei]

Ok, I played through it briefly.

Very nice start, Thaum, I like it - always a fan of adventure type games.

A few gameplay issues, perhaps its the engine, I dunno, never used Panda.
Is there a way to control the camera with the arrow keys? I had a few hassles with the camera going crazy when I tried to pan around to look at the room.

Also thing to be wary of is the door closing (collision checking, is that possible?) at one point I accidently closed the door when I was walking halfway through - the man got stuck in an endless, 'eerie' (lulz, pun intended) loop of being eaten by the door :D

Um, are you meant to be able to exit via the elevator?

I think, to heighten the 'scary' factor, perhaps you need a 'sting' (short piece of music) when you press the button...

Otherwise, I. Want. MORE!!! :D

[Thaumaturge]

Originally Posted by Kensei

Ok, I played through it briefly.

Admittedly there's only "briefly" in it at the moment. ^^;

Originally Posted by Kensei

Very nice start, Thaum, I like it - always a fan of adventure type games.

Thank you, Kensei - I appreciate that, and your comments, very much. ^_^

Originally Posted by Kensei

Is there a way to control the camera with the arrow keys?

Oh yes - I can include that without too much trouble, I believe. In fact, it should be very quick to implement.

Originally Posted by Kensei

I had a few hassles with the camera going crazy when I tried to pan around to look at the room.

What do you mean by "going crazy"? Did it move too fast, or jump unpredictably? Was your mouse still within the window when this happened, or did this happen when you let it stray outside? (If it is related to the mouse leaving the window, I might also make it fullscreen.) I'd like to try to replicate this myself, so that I can try to hunt down and exterminate the bug.

Originally Posted by Kensei

Also thing to be wary of is the door closing (collision checking, is that possible?) at one point I accidently closed the door when I was walking halfway through - the man got stuck in an endless, 'eerie' (lulz, pun intended) loop of being eaten by the door :D

XD

I'll try to remember to attempt to replicate that on my end - thanks for pointing it out. ^_^

Admittedly, being eaten by a door is in tune with the theme of the game... ;P

Originally Posted by Kensei

Um, are you meant to be able to exit via the elevator?

Not yet. ;)

(In fact, I implemented that, including a little elevator model, just yesterday (I think that it was), and am currently on break from working on the corridor to which it takes you.)

Originally Posted by Kensei

I think, to heighten the 'scary' factor, perhaps you need a 'sting' (short piece of music) when you press the button...

I do think that you're right - I'll hopefully have more sounds in general at a later stage. Better sounds too, for that matter. ^^;

Sound, admittedly, isn't my strong point, I don't think, but I'm loath to have someone else work on the sounds since I'm not sure of my progress.

Originally Posted by Kensei

Otherwise, I. Want. MORE!!!

*smiles and bows* As you command, m'lady. ;)

[Kensei]

Originally Posted by Thaumaturge

What do you mean by "going crazy"? Did it move too fast, or jump unpredictably? Was your mouse still within the window when this happened, or did this happen when you let it stray outside? (If it is related to the mouse leaving the window, I might also make it fullscreen.) I'd like to try to replicate this myself, so that I can try to hunt down and exterminate the bug.

It might have been when I went outside of the screen.
Methinks fullscreen will be better or, if its possible, a way to pause the game or something if the mouse leaves the window (once again, I am not sure how easy it is to do in Panda)

Originally Posted by Thaumaturge

I do think that you're right - I'll hopefully have more sounds in general at a later stage. Better sounds too, for that matter. ^^; Sound, admittedly, isn't my strong point, I don't think, but I'm loath to have someone else work on the sounds since I'm not sure of my progress.

Look at the Game.Dev resources thread, there are a few sites with free sound bites... You just need something like 'Dum dum DAAAAAA!!' to draw attention to the fact you have discovered something of importance.

In fact, if I remember correctly, a few adventure games have a sound that is made when the user clicks on the correct thing.

[Thaumaturge]

Originally Posted by Kensei

Methinks fullscreen will be better or, if its possible, a way to pause the game or something if the mouse leaves the window (once again, I am not sure how easy it is to do in Panda)

I think that I'll look into one or both (fullscreen, at least, is just a matter of setting a config variable in one of the files that I distribute, if I'm not much mistaken) - thanks! ^_^

Originally Posted by Kensei

Look at the Game.Dev resources thread, there are a few sites with free sound bites...

That's a good point - thank you again. ^_^

I'll try to get some better sounds into the next version, but admittedly I'm prioritising sounds below models and gameplay at the moment.

Originally Posted by Kensei

In fact, if I remember correctly, a few adventure games have a sound that is made when the user clicks on the correct thing.

Hmm... I'll think about that, but I'm not sure that something that consistent would be a good idea - circumstance-appropriate sounds, however, might be a good idea, in some cases at least.

[edit]

Originally Posted by Kensei

'Dum dum DAAAAAA!!'

... But perhaps slightly less cheesy. ;P

[Thaumaturge]

At last, after ten thous- well, the project has felt a little long, at least. :P

The final competition version is now linked-to in the first post. ^_^

Again, this version uses the same DLLs that I linked-to previously, so if you already have them you should be able to just use those, rather than downloading them again.

(It's a little over the deadline - am I too late? :/)

I didn't manage to implement everything that I wanted, the sounds are all self-made, explaining their (lack of) quality, and I'm not sure that the horror really works, but overall I'm reasonably happy with the results. I'm not sure that I provided enough clues to the puzzles, however.

There are still a few bugs left; offhand I recall that the left and right panels sometimes disappear until they are next told to reappear, and that there are some collision issues, especially at low frame-rates.

It's rather late to change anything, of course, but I'd nevertheless appreciate feedback. ^_^

[edit] Oh, dINGLE, I'm afraid that I didn't upload the egg versions, since I was already running late. I can still upload them for you if you want them, however, although they're not part of the entry as such.

[Nandrew]

Hey! Great game, unfortunately I appear to be stuck: I've been wandering around the second major area, second sighting and what not, and have even seen a ghost activating a control panel, but for the life of me I can't seem to progress. :(

More importantly, the Panda OpenAL DLL failed to load on my computer. I can run the rest of the game fine, but no spooky music. :(

I'm going to play this some more and try give additional feedback. Some really creepy elements thrown in, which I quite enjoy.

[Nandrew]

Another thing, actually: would it not have been preferable to centre the character on the screen, rather than placing them at the bottom? It would require far less re-rotation of the camera.

[Nandrew]

Okay, ANOTHER post:

Me getting "stuck" earlier seems to have been caused by a bug which didn't let a couple of the game events trigger. I'm not sure what caused this, it appears to be pretty random. I restarted and I seem to be doing OK now, though.

[Chippit]

I seem to have encountered an unfortunate bug. I became stuck in your level geometry in the second area, between (or, more accurately, inside) a computer terminal and a wall, and was unable to progress. The collision response seemed to have pushed the character in the wrong direction, placing me where I should have been able to get.

I also seem to be missing the audio library Nandrew mentioned above.

[Thaumaturge]

Originally Posted by Nandrew

Hey! Great game ...

Thank you very much. ^_^

Originally Posted by Nandrew

Some really creepy elements thrown in, which I quite enjoy.

I'm glad to hear that - I was a little worried that they didn't work, but then I think that it's hard to judge that as the person that put them in, and knows that they're there. ^_^

Originally Posted by Nandrew

More importantly, the Panda OpenAL DLL failed to load on my computer. I can run the rest of the game fine, but no spooky music.

Originally Posted by Chippit

I also seem to be missing the audio library Nandrew mentioned above.

Narg. It seems that I missed that one in my haste - presumably I have it on my machine, but not inthe DLL bundles or main download. I'll find it and upload it, I believe.

As to music, eheh, there isn't any actual music, as such - there are sounds, however. Music is not one of my strengths, I don't think (well, neither are sounds, come to that, but I find it easier to produce sounds that more or less work than music). ^^;

Originally Posted by Chippit

I seem to have encountered an unfortunate bug. I became stuck in your level geometry in the second area, between (or, more accurately, inside) a computer terminal and a wall, and was unable to progress. The collision response seemed to have pushed the character in the wrong direction, placing me where I should have been able to get.

Erp! That's one that I didn't see. o_o

I did find that there were collision problems at low frame rates (you should be able to see your frame rate in the top-right corner), admittedly, caused, I believe, by my movement system essentially "teleporting" the character too far in a given update. This is fixable, I believe, but I simply didn't get around to it in time.

I'll take a look at that computer, however - I presume that you mean the computer that you find after the elevator, not any of those in the first room?

Originally Posted by Nandrew

Another thing, actually: would it not have been preferable to centre the character on the screen, rather than placing them at the bottom? It would require far less re-rotation of the camera.

Hmm... Possibly. I chose that point of view, as I recall, so that more was visible ahead of the player. Admittedly, this was chosen for an earlier game, I think. You might be right with regards to this game; it might be more valuable in such a game as this to see around the player character than ahead of him.

Originally Posted by Nandrew

Me getting "stuck" earlier seems to have been caused by a bug which didn't let a couple of the game events trigger. I'm not sure what caused this, it appears to be pretty random. I restarted and I seem to be doing OK now, though.

That's odd...

Have you varied the order in which you perform actions? Sequence is important, and in at least one case activating a sighting not relevant to the current sequence intentionally "interferes" with completing that sequence. For the main corridor (in which you make your first sighting), there should be four sightings available after the first, of which two make up that first sequence.

If you're not sure of the appropriate sequence, watch the ghost's actions in the sightings for clues.