After the surprising success of ‘The Den’ at IFComp, I was wondering what to do next, maybe something smaller / more ‘experimental’ for Spring Thing?
The Labyrinth
I tried making a co-op escape room thing a while ago. It was made specifically for four members of staff with the goal as kind of a ‘fun thing to do over Teams’ - but as an encouragement to get them to communicate and collaborate. I later wondered if I could adapt it somehow, but it was so specifically designed for four players that it seemed a bit impractical.
And in case you were wondering, yes, I made the whole thing in Google Forms - four similar versions of the game (players didn’t realise they were playing different versions). It still works!
In a review of ‘The Den’, @wolfbiter wondered if it might work as an actual co-op / multiplayer game, and that reminded me of that little experiment. Perhaps I could use the character switching system I made and repurpose that original idea as something that could work solo AND multiplayer?
So, that was going to be my next project, and it felt like a nice fit for Spring Thing.
The Dungeon Crawler
By December 2024, the initial prototype for ‘The Labyrinth’ was progressing surprisingly well. The character switching pretty much works as a solo game, and adding the dynamic ‘Status’ page makes everything much easier, as it combines an inventory, a task list, and a ‘solved’ list all in one place (for each of the four characters).
While I had originally created quite a few of the images, they were a bit all over the place (some taken from photos, others from illustrations etc) so I came up with a more ‘painterly’ look that I applied to all of them, making it all look a bit more ‘storybook’. The four playable characters were each colour coded, and from this, the entire concept of the four colours rippled out across the other games.
At the same time, I had been messing around with the new(ish) ‘do’ / ‘redo’ feature in Twine/Sugarcube. I realised I could get this to update the passage based on keypresses and I had the idea of a simple maze/dungeon crawler where you could move around just with the cursor keys - a sort of IF version of one of those old school 3D games like ‘Eye of the Beholder’ (if anyone remembers that?).
I built a basic prototype where you could move around a simple dungeon really easily. I figured it would need some puzzles and maybe even some ‘realtime’ combat, but… I had no idea how to do that, so I put it away for another time.
The Meta puzzle
I enjoyed being involved with the ‘meta puzzle’ in last year’s IFComp (instigated by @Draconis). I was wondering if I could do something vaguely similar, so perhaps release three or four smaller games under different names that connected with each other somehow. Perhaps I could work on The Labyrinth, then do another couple of simpler/smaller games – with entirely different play and writing styles – and only when you actually complete them all do you realise they’re connected and you’re then able to find the ‘hidden’ ending…? That seemed like a fun idea at the time.
Genre as a concept
If The Labyrinth is a co-op escape room, loosely based on Greek Mythology with a focus on communication and collaboration (in a sort of ‘Keep Talking and nobody explodes’ kind of way), what other genres could I explore? Well, there’s the classic ‘hyperlink’ short story. It would be good to try something with a very different tone, perhaps a lot darker - maybe even horror? I’d always liked the idea of trying my hand at some ‘cosmic horror’ - and a short, more linear story gave me the chance to try a very different writing style.
And I still haven’t actually tried making a classic fantasy game yet, so the keyboard-controlled prototype might be worth revisiting. Although the original plan was a straightforward D&D-style dungeon hackathon, it felt right to change the tone completely and add some much-needed humour. So… Terry Pratchett meets Dark Souls? Well, it was something to aim for anyway.
Treasure of the Deep
This story would need to be very different from the other two. Short, fairly linear, but more ‘immersive’ in terms of background video and audio – both a palate cleanser between the two larger games, but also (in the end) the central story that binds it all together.
The focus would be on an unnamed character, ‘the Captain’, with the ‘Cthulhu’-esque monster representing his descent into depression. The style would be a sort of H.P. Lovecraft meets The Ancient Mariner (with maybe a bit of Moby Dick thrown in too – but with the whale doing the hunting). That’s aiming very high, of course - and definitely beyond my own writing ability, but it’s always good to set ambitious goals, as failure can end up being interesting in its own way! It took quite a while to find the right tone and writing style that fit the mood.
The story would be short, with some minor branching, but as it’s essentially about the inevitability of fate, the branches would always lead back to the same path. A linear story is all very well, but it also needed to fit the ‘experimental’ thing I had set for the others. This is where I decided to try full-screen background video and audio. It took some serious searching to find effects that fit, and then lots of playing around with sound levels and timing to get it to work, but I’m happy with the end result.
I’m quite proud of some of the writing in this one; it pushed me to a style that definitely is not in my normal wheelhouse. The story was originally intended to end where it ends – the ‘final’ ending came much later. And because there was a gap of a month or two in between, it took a while to get back into that writing style again – like changing your own accent!
Sticks & Stones
I’m plowing on with this multiple games idea, although… I’ve just re-read the Spring Thing submission rules, and it expressly rules out submitting multiple entries. Hmmm. It does say that an ‘anthology’ would be ok though… I guess I can work on these and still have the option to submit just one of them later?
So, back to the Dungeon Crawler – my first classic fantasy game. Early on, I had the idea that the game would play into and then deliberately undercut some classic fantasy tropes. The original idea was that the player could choose from two playable characters, the Warrior and the Mage (Elara was cut as a playable character, but she turns up later as an NPC).
The player would then explore the dungeon, but at some point come up against the unkillable boss (aka. The Troll King). The player would then have to swap to the other character and try again, with the same thing eventually happening. Eventually, they would have to take control of the ‘weakest’ member of the party, and then, using smarts instead of might, find the warrior’s sword and the mage’s wand wherever they fell, and combine them to win the day in an epic finale.
I also thought it might be fun to riff on Star Wars! As the original movie basically takes classic fantasy elements, but sets it in space, I’d pay homage to this and have our hero combine a wand with a sword to make a (sort of) lightsaber – a ‘wand-sword’ (which would eventually be shortened to ‘word’). Most of this got cut in the end, but there’s still some references (or ‘echoes’) to it in there; in fact, there’s an almost direct quote from the original movie – one for the Star Wars nerds:
“Aren’t you a little short to be a guard?” She says, clearly unimpressed.
“I’m Belgrub Fizzlespark, I’m here to rescue you!”
There are echoes of other games, movies, and er… quantum mechanics thought experiments in there too for the eagle-eyed.
Oh, and if anyone was wondering why the game is called ‘Sticks & Stones’ - it’s from a children’s rhyme, I’m not sure if it’s widely used or just UK specific, but it goes: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”. I thought it seemed appropriate.
Combat
I wanted the combat to tie in with the 4-button cursor control concept. It was initially going to be turn-based, but I quite liked the idea of having a more immediate ‘real-time’ feel, with a touch of strategy thrown in too.
The trouble is, I had no idea how to do any of that. Even stuff as simple as health bars, etc. I had genuinely no clue. I looked into a few solutions other folks had made, but I always struggle with using pre-made stuff. If I don’t understand how it was made, I don’t feel I can modify it to do what I want it to do.
In the end, I did everything from scratch. Code-wise, it’s all held together with string and sticky tape, but widgets + lots of trial and error got me something that seemed to work ok, and my playtesters really helped to refine it and make it clearer to see what’s happening. For example, the animated timer was a late addition, and really simply shows there’s some time pressure without having to explain it.
I think the ‘timed’ element adds a bit more drama to it, but I discovered that no matter what strategy I employed, as the difficulty ramps up, the combat got a bit frustrating. I think that was because, underlying it all, there are basically dice rolls to determine the outcome of attack, defence, crits, etc., like an old D&D game. However, the immediacy of the more tactile controls makes you feel like you should have more direct impact. In the end, I backed off from the ‘Dark Souls’ difficulty and made it much easier, so the fights rarely got frustrating. I even added a ‘super easy’ mode for those who just don’t like the idea of combat at all.
Tactile puzzles
Just like the combat, the ‘puzzles’ in Sticks & Stones would always be based on the more ‘tactile’ nature of the up/down/left/right interface. More ‘action adventure’ than parser. There are three such puzzles in the game, all of which focus on the cursor key mechanic.
The three levers.
This was the first ‘tactile’ puzzle I tried. It’s fairly straightforward, but the player will probably need to do a little trial and error to work out what settings do what. As there can only ever be four options, that tended to mean I could have three settings and an exit. That limited options a bit, but it did keep things simple.
The ‘elemental’ lock
This is one of those puzzles that looks more complicated than it is. I had planned to make it tricky to solve, but being limited to just the four ‘elements’ and only having three movement options limited how complex it could be. The puzzle can be solved in just three moves – once the player realises they need to buy the ‘elemental guide’, of course. One of the hardest bits was actually making sure this puzzle could be played and completed just using the image alt-text.
The safe
This ended up being the most complex one. I wanted to have a puzzle that fit the more direct feel of this game (and also deliberately go against expectations a bit). On seeing a complex combination, most players will assume they need to go and find the code. This puzzle is different, it relies on you cracking the safe just like you see them do in the movies: old-school, ear to the door, carefully listening as you slowly turn the dial. That was the aim anyway.
Of course, communicating this to the player and making the sound loud enough to hear without being totally obvious was the trick. I had a couple of fall-back ideas for if the player has no sound (or can’t hear). My playtesters (quite rightly) highlighted that there needed to be more focus on these alternative solutions.
The safe puzzle ended up with four different ways to solve it. Initially, it’s just a sound puzzle, but when you go back and chat to ‘Grelbus’ not only does the sound get a little louder, but that also unlocks a visual method that vibrates the correct number (after a short delay). That required learning how to do CSS text animation! If the player still isn’t getting it, Grelbus will give them a ‘device’. Using this on the safe will display a text prompt for each correct number. And the nice thing about having to revisit Grelbus each time is that it unlocks new conversation options and helps the player to trust him a bit more as he’s helping them.
Things tried, things learned
First person?
I’ve seen a few discussions about the ‘best’ point of view to use for IF. Although I still generally think that second person / present tense is the most immersive, this game deliberately shifts across first, second AND third person, in both past and present tense – just for the hell of it. I think I got away with it?
Keyboard control
It may not work for everyone, but I really enjoyed playing a Twine game just using the cursor keys; it made it ‘feel’ very different. I set myself the goal that it should be playable with keys, but also using the cursor ‘buttons’ in the side-bar (eg. for iPad users) - and also using standard text links too. This worked out well, but boy, it was a pain for testing. I had to test the entire game using keys and then again using links just in case I’d missed something (every time I changed something). Was it worth it?
Widgets
I’ve never actually used the ‘widget’ feature in Twine before, this seemed like a good time to try it out. Widgets were indeed the key to getting the combat to work, but I also discovered they’re great for simple, re-usable UI elements too – like all the ‘arrows’ in Sticks & Stones. I’m now a widget convert!
Damned arrows!
⇧ ⇩ ⇦ ⇨ 
⮕
You’d never guess quite how much time I wasted on those arrows though! At first, everything was done using Unicode symbols (see above) - they work great, are pretty much cross-device/browser with no extra images required. ‘Pretty much’ being key though. The arrows above look fine in Chrome, but things start to get weird in other browsers (especially on iOS). The lack of consistency forced me to abandon Unicode and switch to something else. In the end, I used Google Material Icons – it was a painful process, but because I’d set everything up as reusable widgets, it meant I could change it once and have it update everywhere.
Timed-text
Everyone hates timed text, right? Well, this game uses timed text all over the place, and I didn’t get a single comment or complaint. I think this is because timed-text isn’t actually the problem; the issue is the timing. As long as players who read quickly don’t have to wait, timed text isn’t really an issue; just time your text a little faster!
Background images and video
Getting scaling background images to work (on any sized screen) proved fairly straightforward; however, getting scaling background video to work was tricky, especially centering it correctly on any device (whether the side-bar is open or closed). And annoyingly, you can’t cache video, so I had to do some sneaky pre-loading to ensure (for example) that initial colour ‘tunnel’ plays instantly.
I also had to balance getting decent enough video quality whilst keeping the file size to a minimum. My aim was to get the entire game plus all 51 bespoke images, 5 full-screen videos, and 18 audio files into a 20mb .zip file.
Hidden endings
The goal was always to have an ending that tied everything together, although I hadn’t actually worked out what it would be! But the idea was that it would feel like a surprise to find it. That was why I created a ‘hall of fame’ - so if you didn’t make it on there, maybe there was more to discover?
I think the more hard-core IF audience all found it just fine, but I’ve been a little dismayed to see several more casual players go to all the effort of completing the three games and then missing the final bit. I guess that’s the problem with ‘hidden’ endings!
'Casual' vs 'seasoned' IF players
On that subject, in all the games I’ve made, I’ve tried to make them accessible to new or ‘casual’ IF players, whilst also still having enough of interest to hopefully entertain the IntFiction folks too. The downside to this approach is that my games can fall in between – a bit too complex for newbies, but a bit too easy for IF players looking for a challenge. I’m still looking for that ideal balance!
There are so many different players who have different expectations of what makes a ‘fun’ IF game – I tried to cater to these different tastes. I got a few comments that some folks found ‘The Labyrinth’ too easy. But I also know (because I’ve seen it first hand!) that many beginners got themselves very confused playing it. Some people found ‘Treasure’ to be a bit boring as there aren’t enough choices or things for them to do (it’s not enough of a ‘game’). Of course, for a few, that one was their favourite (almost for the exact same reason) – it was the only one my Mum actually managed to complete!
So… what is Echoes actually about?
Even right up to the wire, I wasn’t sure about the combination of three games in one. It ended up being a lot of work (possibly too much!). I should have probably focused on one, and perhaps released the others separately later. However, once I put the final puzzle in place and wrote the ‘full’ ending, I realised that if they were all contained in a single file, then the game knew what the player had already done – so I could alter elements of each game depending on what the player has already seen and the order they’ve played the games. That made it feel like maybe it was worth it.
But what is ‘Echoes’ actually about? The clue is in those opening lines: ‘Every story is an echo of an echo’. Echoes is about the power of ‘story’ and, more specifically, the idea of ‘genre’. That’s the true mystical power of the mysterious stone. Each story within a familiar genre is like an echo of all the others that have preceded it.
A post-comp release is now available: Echoes by radiosity
This has a few minor tweaks and additions. At the very end of the game, users have the option to submit comments or suggestions. Something that’s been asked a few times is the addition of a map for ‘Sticks & Stones’ - although I still think the game is best played by making your own map as you go, I’ve now added a full map to the game (although this still has to be discovered and it won’t reveal too much more than you’ve already found).
Sticks & Stones - complete map
Fun fact: The name of the dungeon, ‘The Devil’s Arse’ sets the tone early on in ‘Sticks & Stones’ – however, it’s not made up, the name is actually taken from a real cave in Derbyshire, UK!
I’ve also tried to make it slightly clearer that if you’ve played all three games, you’re still not quite done yet!
If anyone has any questions about the game, how it was made, or has any suggestions for improvement / constructive criticism, I’d love to hear it!
Thanks.