My contribution to the Virtual Worlds contest. I've been working on it for a month or so, and it's not even all that set up. This is merely a look at the opening, not the game itself. It's a contest entry and the sandbox part is just getting written. Do not expect an actual game experience yet. You'll have to move the html file into the same folder as the image filter to get images to work. This is my first game with images, so I'm still learning, though for a number of reasons, it's ideal during development to keep those separate at the moment.
There's probably a lot of spelling errors and some stuff that doesn't make sense. This is just a preview. :)
It's quite liner at the moment, because this isn't the game. This is only the opening. (The thing you'll probably be able to skip once the game is really developed.)
Ypu're a young college student who made a new friend, and have been drawn into a vr game test. Where this will lead, say?
AFAIK this is an unfinished intro of a game that supposedly has a bit more "simulated" playstyle than the into lets on. (you can take a peek at it via "debug mode" link at the start)
The intro is rather well written (as far as it IS written), but that says nothing about the quality of the main part of the game which is in an untestable stage at this point (simulation depends on good design hell of a lot more than it depends on good writing).
In case that was somehow not clear, this is NOT meant as a negative review or even critique at this point. So far so good (dare I say, notably better than average?), but this needs to be continued before it can really be evaluated.
P.S. The line "maybe not be a pervert" was contextually hilarious, considering what kind of game it is and what site it is posted on.
What is there is very good.
Story: Well writen, with interesting characters
Images: Great, would love to see more for the ingame moments
Choices: (at least at this point) Small variations in consequences but enough to make you want to play through again with other choices. Will be interesting to see if the choices have an affect later in the game.
You know what? I've been stuck on dead end after dead end in this game for over two hours with no clue of how I'm supposed to progress, and quite frankly that's as much of my time I'm willing to spend in this. I don't know how the rest of you guys even managed to get as far into it as to see much of a story, but I'll wait for a later update before trying this again.
Why can people not put their html file into the same folder as the picture folders, name the whole thing the name of the game, zip and upload that...so things work properly??? Why is this so hard to figure out? So pics seem to work for this if you take the html file and put it inside the dsd folder so there is one dsd folder between the html and the picture folders...Would it be so hard to have made the pictures folder named pictures instead?
Pros:
Storytelling is detailed full of diaoluge and exposition. The scenes unfold like a novel and feel quite immersive.
The Characters feel like real people with histories, background likes, dislikes, motivations, and even quirks.
The writing stands alone and is rather arousing. I like the realism of the situation even in "game".
Cons:
Pictures don't work. But you already know that as everyone seems to point it out along with the gramar errors.
Dead ends are obvious. Maybe the game could go in on a few pages of dead end paths with oportunities to get back on track before abruptly ending. They would feel like viable coices and give players more room to explore.
The first test has no images. adding some images would really help to tie the entire experience together and make it feel like everything was a part of the same work.
Take Away:
Overall a solid start thank you and keep up the great writing.
