majikmonkee
30 Point Warrior
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Posts: 406
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Post by majikmonkee on Dec 7, 2006 17:34:51 GMT -5
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...oh, wait. I mean, a long time ago, I wrote out an RPG set in the Star Wars universe as sort of a fun exercise with some sketches and general ideas for how the story and puzzles would go. Later, I saw Yoda Stories by Lucasarts, played it hoping for a Zelda clone, and was grossly disappointed. Well, a few years later, I started making mods for Wolfenstein 3D, and it was a lot of fun, but never quite what I wanted to be doing. I wanted to create RPGs, not FPS, and I discovered my coder, Adam, had similar interests. Well, he started building an RPG engine called the Zol engine from scratch, and all we needed to test it was a story...and some graphics. Since this was a personal project, and I don't have a whole lot of free time on my hands, I used a lot of the graphics from Yoda Stories and plugged them into the engine and the game, entitled "Star Wars: Bloodlines" (no relation to the book, I named the game years before it came out), finally took shape. Our main goal in all this was to see if the engine is suitable for our totally original independent project, but some people I know suggested I share Bloodlines on a Freeware basis, and so I have (with the stipulation expressed in the documentation that if the owners of the Star Wars license and all it's names, visuals, and other intellectual property want to pull it, I'll do so). Only the engine for the game is our own, I'm not trying to pass off the YS graphics, sounds, or other content as mine. Anyway, the game can be downloaded from it's moddb profile at the link below (look for where it directs you to downloads on the right hand side of the page). If you like the game, great. If not, well, hopefully you'll like the totally original project Bloodlines helped us create the engine for better. May the Force be with you! mods.moddb.com/5754/star-wars-bloodlines/
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xanatos
30 Point Warrior
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Posts: 401
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Post by xanatos on Dec 7, 2006 19:38:38 GMT -5
Hmm cool stuff, I am going to download it.
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AWOL
40 Point Warrior
Warning: Kissing Chihuahua On Head Causes Sporadic Pooping, Urination, and Biting
Posts: 820
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Post by AWOL on Dec 8, 2006 8:45:53 GMT -5
LOL.. I downloaded the program and - Wow! - that kind of gaming takes me back to Leisure Suit Larry and all those other games that came out like that. It's interesting to play a game that harkens back to a day when graphics weren't everything, and the story was essentially propelled by figuring out what items go to what NPC's to get a tidbit of information. Enjoyable game, and strangely addictive!
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Post by grievous on Dec 8, 2006 9:06:20 GMT -5
I just downloaded it now I'm stuck on finding the item to show the Chief Ewok to prove I'm not an Imperial. Also, after I first installed the game on my Windows 98 computer (as a safety precaution, all downloaded games go on that), it crashed my whole computer while I was going through the help files. I was able to get everything back up and running and a quick uninstall and reinstall seems to have fixed the game.
The game is very fun, I like the chibi-deformed art style, but I can't find the darned PAUSE button. The help menu doesn't appear to have the actual button listed. Overall, I'm enjoying the game even though I just started and hopefully I won't have any more problems.
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majikmonkee
30 Point Warrior
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Posts: 406
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Post by majikmonkee on Dec 8, 2006 10:36:44 GMT -5
Sorry about the crash issue. We haven't had that one reported thus far. Everything was done in Visual Basic and kept pretty simple, but I guess stuff like that can still happen. I hope it didn't mess anything up. The chief puzzle is sort of twofold. First, you have to have acquired an additional "party member", found in the screen directly above the screen with the chief. After that, the party member will give a hint as to how to get the chief to release Han. Think Return of the Jedi. The Pause button thing confused me at first, then when Adam told me I realized it was just because it was too obvious. It's the "Pause/Break" button on your keyboard, located above the "Page Up" key. I didn't figure that out either till I asked him months into the project. I appreciate getting feedback here. I saw moddb said there had been like 600 downloads in two days, and not a single comment on the game (besides people mentioning I used borrowed graphics, which I clearly explained the reason for before I even released the game). Most of my Wolfenstein mods got useable responses, but that was because I presented them to the Wolf3D community. On a side note, if anyone likes this game and wants to check out any of my first person shooter mods, visit my Switchboard page linked below (the Image World site was my creation too): www.angelfire.com/droid/majikmonkee/SB.htmlFor those who complete Bloodlines and want more from it, there is a secret level and two secret "modes" accessed based upon your performance throughout the game. The secret level itself even has secrets also based on performance in it. There are also hidden areas in the first couple of levels that tend to get overlooked... :-)
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Post by grievous on Dec 8, 2006 11:23:41 GMT -5
Well, I finally figured out the chief puzzle by some... violent process of elimination . I'm now on the final boss's second form (at least I think it's the final boss) and am trying to beat him. I experienced two more crashes of just the game but it was nothing a quick computer reboot didn't fix. Overall, I've really enjoyed the game. Favorite part so far has to be Yucker simply due to how freaky he looks. Good job.
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majikmonkee
30 Point Warrior
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Posts: 406
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Post by majikmonkee on Dec 8, 2006 12:35:31 GMT -5
Thanks. :-) Not to spoil it for anyone, but after stepping back and looking at the story years after it was written, I see some Lord of the Rings elements tossed in with some Resident Evil type themes, which might be a tad odd for a Star Wars story, but since it was an RPG, I didn't want to do just another "Rebels blow up a big superweapon" type story. You may notice the enemy saber combat system was a little under-developed, but that was mainly because while we wanted to accomodate the story as much as possible, that part of the engine probably won't be used extensively in our next project for which the engine was built, and it was becoming very time consuming trying to tweak it...
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majikmonkee
30 Point Warrior
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Posts: 406
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Post by majikmonkee on Dec 8, 2006 16:06:15 GMT -5
If anyone is interested in giving some specific feedback, here are some questions you could answer for me that would be helpful:
Has anyone:
- found something they really loved about the game? - found something they really hated about it? - completed the game (on any mode)? - discovered secret areas in any levels? - discovered the secret level? - unlocked any of the "secret gameplay modes"?
These are some design specific things I'd really like to hear from players about, so if you read this and have played and have a minute on your hands, feel free to post here!
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Post by grievous on Dec 8, 2006 16:27:50 GMT -5
The game is very fun overall and has some good puzzles especially considering the fact that it is a completely freeware homemade game. Also, Yucker is freaking awesome.
Some of the battles are REALLY difficult. The ones that stand out at me most are the Bounty Hunter battles and the AT-AT battle. Perhaps it's just because I was low on health at that point but I found them to be frustratingly difficult.
I completed the game on Normal mode. My only real problems with difficulty are mentioned above but also the final boss. However, the final boss should always be difficult so I have no problem with that.
I don't THINK I did. Of course, I can't know what is a secret without knowing if it's secret or not.
Nope.
Again, nope.
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AWOL
40 Point Warrior
Warning: Kissing Chihuahua On Head Causes Sporadic Pooping, Urination, and Biting
Posts: 820
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Post by AWOL on Dec 8, 2006 17:45:57 GMT -5
I think I'm just really bad at this sort of game. But I'm stuck. I'm still at the very beginning and just bumped into Chewy by the water with a lot of broken parts lying around. I don't know what to do from there. I can't go to any other screen except the ones I came out of, and I don't know what to do with R2 yet and can't figure out how to move C3PO. I think I just suck at puzzle games. It's hard to bounce back and forth between this as Guildwars. Beyond that, I still think the game is addictive and fun. I like the graphics and the controls are easy. I'd just like an "official" strategy book I can peek into every now and then to get me out of jams every once in a while. One thing I always found irritating about puzzles games is getting stuck and not being able to go forward until one very specific thing is done. Ugghh. But I like the game and want to keep playing it if I can get out of this jam.
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Post by YodaBreaker on Dec 8, 2006 22:48:58 GMT -5
I'm probably prviding too cryptic a clue by saying "Use the Force, Luke! Remember, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior - especially where Ewoks are concerned."
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Post by YodaBreaker on Dec 9, 2006 0:23:22 GMT -5
Has anyone: - found something they really loved about the game? The Yoda-species quizzes, and the ingenuity that was needed to beat the AT-AT. Overall, the game was a quick play, but it was still an enjoyable enough ride I also liked the way in which ranged weapons did less damage the farther away you were from your target. There were a number of spelling and grammatical infelicities throughout the text, and the characters seemed to be afflicted with a nasty case of Adventurer's Exclamation Points (in which more than half of the sentences ended in an exclamation point). Also, the really long blocks of text got difficult to read, especially with that small of a font. My eyes got tired, and I skipped over some of it. Normal here, too. No, but I may have found a bug, in whichtalking to IG-88 on Mako gave me 10 of his item, when I believe I should only have been able to get 1. Another bug on Mako was that the first time I got to play as Luke again, I had the level of health and blaster charge I had when I left playing as Luke; however, subsequent times gave me 0% health and 0% blaster charge. I'd guess the latter is more what was wanted, and enough rations were dropped to make it easy enough to build my health back up. Nope, despite trying to do so - on Mako, somewhat seriously; everywhere else, barely at all. Nope. I think the engine has some potential, and I'd be interested to see what would happen with an even deeper storyline. As it was, it felt quite linear, though there were a couple of fun brainteasers along the way. However, it might require original artwork to feel like less of a rehash of Yoda Stories. In short, this is nicely pitched as a freebie "proof of concept" for the engine. I tend to like simpler games, so this was right up my alley
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majikmonkee
30 Point Warrior
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Posts: 406
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Post by majikmonkee on Dec 9, 2006 7:50:17 GMT -5
Thanks, guys. This is all very helpful, the hates as much as the likes. I'll direct Adam toward them because even for a freeware engine test project, I'd like to get the bugs stamped out for future players (and anyone who wants to re-download it). I have opinions about the game as well regarding things that could have been different, and I see some of those reflected here. If anyone has any questions about game related issues (ie needs tips to get through it) feel free to email or PM me here. My email is mmerrill@centene.com . Of course, I'll still be checking here if you have comments you just want to post too. Glad everyone is enjoying the game overall. For a first time non-mod project, it being enjoyable was my main goal.
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majikmonkee
30 Point Warrior
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Posts: 406
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Post by majikmonkee on Dec 9, 2006 11:13:39 GMT -5
Adam's been updated on the bugs mentioned before, and he's looking into them. I didn't quite understand what triggered the "no health/ammo for Luke" bug grievous mentioned, though. Do you remember doing anything different the times that happened? Added by YodaBreaker: I modified this when I meant to quote it - sorry, but I don't seem to be able to get the rest of this post back, despite my best efforts to reconstruct it
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xanatos
30 Point Warrior
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Posts: 401
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Post by xanatos on Dec 9, 2006 13:06:24 GMT -5
I want to get this, but Grievous said that it crashed his computer.
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