Forge Tech Demo Ver1.0 Now available (Updated April 1, 2010)

[Da_Duke2000]

I'll drop a little note about the music. We have a great selection of musical titles already tucked away for the first part of the game, still a few tracks to go though.

We had deeply considered using another major composers work, and how we could incorporate that into the game. I had actually stumbled across Bakula(Vakula) the Smith, another of Tchaikovski's works. It held many plot elements in kind for Forge, but finding the whole album proved a challenge. Not only that, we did not want to be held hostage by the music it presented. Swan Lake for Loom was chosen for a variety of reasons, and definitely inspired Loom to a degree. We do not need such inspiration.

As far as the Chapter 1 goes, it is the plan of Abisso and myself to release Chapter 1 as a complete (or near complete) comprehensive Chapter. It will be completely playable, and have enough polish to show the public that this project is serious and above all, quality.

Once Chapter 1 is released, we hope to have a tremendous response, as most Loom sequels have been doomed to failure and never gotten to our stage. We expect a tremendous surge of new users on the forums, creative contributions, and more importantly offers to help the project with art and our other needs.

Speaking of which, WE NEED SPRITERS, lol. Things are kind of at a stand still without the assistance of a spriter who could dedicate a few hours to make a few simple interactions, gestures, reactions, and environmental accents. Email, MSN, or PM, I'm happy to hear from you! We want to put any donations towards the excellent backgrounds we're PROUD to have for Loom, we don't want to spend them on frame-by-frame sprites.

Thanks!

[Alex]

By the way, I'd prefer having the game released in an episodic format, as long as that won't affect the content (no ridiculous cliff hangers), but that's just me.

Well, I'm glad that at least chaper 1 will be released before the whole game. Can't wait for more loominess!

EDIT: I assume this is for chapter 1, and not the entire game?

[Da_Duke2000]

You're absolutely right, that the progress meter is for Chapter 1. And since we've got Chapter 2's backgrounds... I should really have our web designer make revisions to that page.

Thanks for pointing it out!

As for episodic...it is more convenient for the public, but we don't want to release a Chapter that will be able to be played through in half an hour, as some chapters would be shorter based on content. Think of Loom being released in Chapters...that would be annoying. I can hear the angry rants now, "But I was just getting into it!".

[Alex]

As for episodic...it is more convenient for the public, but we don't want to release a Chapter that will be able to be played through in half an hour, as some chapters would be shorter based on content. Think of Loom being released in Chapters...that would be annoying. I can hear the angry rants now, "But I was just getting into it!".

Ah, didn't think about that. You've got a valid point there, maybe it indeed would be for the best if it is released as one single game.

[ED]

Ok to start with the demo is grate and overall I loved it. But I don’t think you need me to tell you that. I’m going to skip all big thing that people have all ready posted and start nitpicking on the small that I think need work.

•   At the very start with the Quill o’ the wisp logo comes up the bottom P on presents is saved off.

•   When you move the mouse to start the drawing there is slight delay when it changes from the arrow to the hand.

•   There needs to be some sound when drawing, something for when you start drawing, moving along the lines, and when you get to each dot.

•   When click on the statue the icon is from his knees to head and then when it brakes its his feet to neck. I can see why you did this but it would look cleaner if it was just one pose. And the animation of it falling apart/assembling  need to be cleaned up

•   Then you get a drawing wrong the mouse jumps out of the drawing box to just upper left side of the box.

•   When you do a disseminate drawing it does not work if you start from the bottom middle point even though you draw the same shape. I know there’s the glowing point to tell you where to start but I take it is just there for the demo.

•   In the mini games the back to the main menu logo needs to be clearer and the mouse disappears when the animation of the corner rolling up is playing.

•   In the main menu when the tapestry’s first roll down there a little jerk as they get to there full length. And the mouse disappearing when you hold it over them is a pain.

•   After you do a drawing and rusty brings his hands together the sparks change colour depending on the drawing and his eyes just glow. why not make his eyes glow the same colour as the sparks

•   It may be good to have a book of the different drawing for the easy setting but not for hard. One of the big things I
remember when playing loom and having a book with me to Wright in all the drafts.

I hope this helps in some way keep up the work.

[Da_Duke2000]

Wow, what a comprehensive look at our Demo!

Let me start by saying that the Tech Demo was released as a proof-of-concept, more so than a perfect release. Much of what you mentioned were things that we were aware of, but still let me go through your list.

-The Presents logo:
We were not aware of this, thank you.

-The mouse delay:
I'll have Abisso check into this.

-Drawing sound:
Already noted.

-The statue animation:
Unfortunately, this was a stand-in animation, and was not up to our quality.

-The Disassemble drawing:
The exact pattern must be drawn, since some Schematics may take up the full 4x5 grid, placement is important.

-Mouse disappearing:
We desperately need a WAIT CURSOR, as this is something I have heard a few times. The player doesnt enjoy not knowing where their mouse is.

-The main menu logo:
Yes, we will be doing a series of tweaks to the menu system .

-The little jerk
The tapestry does jolt down, we are aware of this, and will be corrected.

-Eyes glowing:
Thats actually supposed to be him blinking . Heh.

-Difficulty:
We will be redoing the difficulty scheme altogether. I don't believe we have any intention of making the Schematics more complicated based on difficulty, but we will be putting less focus on the accuracy part, and more on memory.

Thank you for all your comments, I would love to hear more from you about the project as we work together.

[abisso]

Thanks for the critiques. I like thorough testers, as I'm very fastidious myself.

•   At the very start with the Quill o’ the wisp logo comes up the bottom P on presents is saved off.

I've never noticed such a thing. I'll check it.

•   When you move the mouse to start the drawing there is slight delay when it changes from the arrow to the hand.

I know and I doubt that it's possible to solve it.

•   There needs to be some sound when drawing, something for when you start drawing, moving along the lines, and when you get to each dot.

Nice thought. You're the first to suggest, and yet it seems a quite reasonable feature.

•   When click on the statue the icon is from his knees to head and then when it brakes its his feet to neck. I can see why you did this but it would look cleaner if it was just one pose. And the animation of it falling apart/assembling  need to be cleaned up

The whole tutorial will probably be eliminated from the game (and Chapter1's demo as well) so no need to worry.

•   Then you get a drawing wrong the mouse jumps out of the drawing box to just upper left side of the box.

It's an intended feature, in order to prevent unwanted clicks on the grid that would be seen as another attempt to draw a schematic

•   When you do a disseminate drawing it does not work if you start from the bottom middle point even though you draw the same shape. I know there’s the glowing point to tell you where to start but I take it is just there for the demo.

Unfortunately, the complex design of the grid, together with the need for the script to recognize the schematic that's being drawn AS SOON AS the player clicks on the first dot, forced us to use this solution. Each starting dot is related to a different schematic.

•   In the mini games the back to the main menu logo needs to be clearer and the mouse disappears when the animation of the corner rolling up is playing.

We'll clean the logo up. For what concerns the mouse cursor disappearing, it's a design choice: when the player is deprived by the control (there is, the game takes control) you must make it clear to him. Some games use an "hourglass" or "clock" icon, but we opted for no cursor at all for 2 reasons: Lucas usually used this solution (while the clock icon was usually used in Sierra games AND having a cursor is pointless (I could say "pointerless"  ) if you can't use it.

•   In the main menu when the tapestry’s first roll down there a little jerk as they get to there full length. And the mouse disappearing when you hold it over them is a pain.

This is sadly true, but I'm 99% sure that it's an AGS bug, although a weird one for sure. I'll look for an alternative solution when we'll be close to release the demo, as I don't consider it a really big problem.

•   After you do a drawing and rusty brings his hands together the sparks change colour depending on the drawing and his eyes just glow. why not make his eyes glow the same colour as the sparks

Suggestion noted, it would be cool for his eyes to glow.

•   It may be good to have a book of the different drawing for the easy setting but not for hard. One of the big things I
remember when playing loom and having a book with me to Wright in all the drafts.

Practice and Normal difficulty levels make a book of schematics pointless, since you have a preview of the schematic by simply hovering a dot. We'll probably provide a Book of Schematics in pdf format, with history and descriptions of schematics, and a blank form to note down schematics, as it happened in Loom's Book of Drafts.

I hope this helps in some way keep up the work.

Anything helps to keep up the work. Thank you very much

P.S. I answered without checking Duke's post, and I guess most answers are equivalent.

[Samuel Varg Thunberg]

Just finished my trial run of the demo. And I LOVED it!

The gauntlet idé instead of a staff is really cool and inspering. I cant wait for the full game to be complete!

One thought though:

Some kind of sound (maybe the sound of burning metal) when you draw the lines would be nice.

[abisso]

I like your suggestion! Simple yet effective. I'll do some tests, but I think it will sound good.

[RyuSpike]

Uuugggg....  I can't get past this password screen at all!  I need to know the code and I REALLY don't want to go through all 20,736 combinations.  I tried finding a clue of some kind around the site but just couldn't find anything.  There is no notes in the folder when I downloaded the tech demo and it is frustrating me beyond belief because I really want to play it!  I'm already feeling stupid form trying to figure it out and I'm sure you all see as a big idiot for asking , but I really don't care anymore.  I just want to play the tech demo so I can see how far this project has gone.

So what is the password that I need to enter so I can play the game?  And if it isn't a set code, tell me how I can figure it out without going the painfully long process of elimination.

[abisso]

I'm truly sorry for having failed to notice this before. Unfortunately the place where the demo was hosted before shut down, and when the link was changed it pointed to the wrong file. I've explained the issue on the downloads page as well just a couple of minutes ago.

Basically, if you didn't have a README file inside the archive you downloaded, you should re-download it now, cause it's very likely you had the wrong file.

DOWNLOAD PAGE

[nerdsharpie]

Here it is! Thanks to everyone for their efforts in the release of this Tech Demo.

The Demo will Start with a Loom recap and then move into some Forge Screen shots. To replay the preview, you can do so from the Tapestry Selection. To learn about the new GUI, use the Tutorial. And to play with the GUI freehand, enter the Mini Game section.

Download link is here:
DOWNLOAD HERE

Please, discuss in this topic.

the link doesn't seem to work any more :-(


*edit by selmiak: replaced the outdated link in the quote*

[abisso]

Oh, damned ASUS web-storage! Anyway I already addressed this issue in the post right before yours, but I'm glad you quoted the first post which still had the incorrect link. Now even that has been fixed, and for your comfort, here is a working link:

DOWNLOAD HERE!

[RyuSpike]

Thanks a lot.  Just got done playing the real demo just now and it was great.  The overall look and feel is very much like the original game this is continuing from.  The drawing system being used in this is interesting and makes this game stand out from its predecessor.  Learning how to draw the schematics was a lot easier than I was expecting.  The very idea of using the grid to solve many complex puzzles much like the distaff did in Loom is getting me more excited for this game than ever.

As for what can be approved on, I am pretty sure everybody else before me got it down already.  Smoother animation, some sound during drawing, and some voice acting would make this game better.  Voices or slower text would be nice for me.  I had to read really quickly before the text disappears on me sometimes.  Not at all relaxing when you want to image the character's voice in your head.  This being especially hard for slower readers.  Some of my friends that I would like to share this game with fitting in this category.  So having voice-overs by the game's completion would be good, or having the text stay on screen longer would work as well.

[Darkhar]

Hello guys.
First at all, as I saw in the previews and screenshots you're doing a amazingn work. Cannot wait to the release of the new demo (Or even the game ).
But I'm afraid you've to check again the techdemo download link. It only allows you to download a rar with a music.vox file. Hope you can fix it quickly, I'm pretty sure it will be a fantastic game =D.

Cheers ^^.