Thanks to a diligent tester, the game has now been played in its entirety, taking us all the way to 52.5% complete testing!
8 Likes
Thatâs awesome! I have, er almost started about four times (my son and I both got sick as soon as the Comp voting period closed, oddly, so no IF time the past few days. Hopefully soon!)
4 Likes
Just wanted to add that the first person to complete the game was a newcomer to the forum, Robert Eggleston (@AERobert), who took around 20 hours to play.
In his honor, as an easter egg, the formerly unnamed Captain will now have the name âEgglestonâ on his jacket. Thanks for your help!
And congrats to the IFComp winners!
10 Likes
I got a ton of transcripts over the weekend (including the 10,000 move full playthrough!) and finally worked through them. Version 6 is now up, and it contains a ton of bugfixes. Full list below (collapsed for brevity):
Summary
-The polar bear has a description
-Animals become unlured when riding the goat
-You canât get softlocked by putting a box of seeds on the gorilla nest anymore
-An infinite spell scroll glitch is now patched
-fixed a deeply misleading message associated to the amnesia spell
-The rusty robotâs position is now more clear
-fixed some issues with third person perspective
-Added in some filing cabinets that were described but did not exist
-All buttons on the nuclear reactor control panel now have descriptions
-Itâs more clear now when youâve gotten on the plank.
-If your clone takes an iron bar out of a hole, the game no longer gets Schroedingerâs barred
-The game correctly reports changes in speed and direction when firing cannonballs out of the circling ships
-The room exits no longer rotate if the part the player is in stands still
-Players can now âget allâ from containers they are holding like the envelope or pizza box
-Fixed bug with implicit take keeping player from applying plaster to the wall
-Gave an explanation for the bizarre strength of a poster and a plastic table
-Fixed a bug preventing the player from displaying their ID card
-Fixed a beta testerâs preferred name
-Fixed a locker that could be open and locked
-Fixed a bug where you couldnât lock any unlocked thing
-You can now see whatâs on the other side of the glass floor
-You can no longer take your own statement and travel into a false flashback
-You can no longer drop a mission-critical item when it is in a satchel
-Clarified on what is electrified and what is not
-added disambiguation between walls
-The captainâs bookshelf no longer appears empty
-The revolving door you can unlock is now unlockable
-You can now touch things in the northern section of the revolving door
-You canât cut out infinitely maany glass circles anymore
7 Likes
Small update today, version 7.
-âunleashâ and synonyms can now take an object.
-You can look behind the waterfall
-You donât have to jump out of hiding when taking an object you already have
-Changed the name of a quip to fix disambiguation
-Removed âtortureâ as a verb to fix disambiguation
-Got rid of the ability to smell a departed odor
-The owl notices mice
-You canât smuggle the meat of the cold zone any more
-You can eat snowflakes
-Fixed numerous typos and small responses
8 Likes
I was wondering about that but forgot to ask, it didnât really make sense for that owl to ignore a tasty treat 
2 Likes
Iâve put out version 8, which has some quality of life fixes but nothing major.
-the limestone rocks can be climbed (with proper gear)
-Hamburger buns are now transparent
-The FINISH command works when Max is in the Kitchen.
-You can fly for one turn longer, now
-You canât command the robots to leave the room anymore
-When the game says you are taking an unheld grenade before you arm it, it is no longer lying
-Examining a robotâs memory slot no longer lists its recorded actions due to an issue with printed action names
-Changed The parser error internal rule response (W), which I did not know existed.
-Clarified that stunned bosses are only incapable of shooting, not other actions
-The knights of the round table explicitly leave once defeated
-You can survive ripping a giant door out with your magnetic powers now
-The player can no longer smuggle things out of the horror caves
-Added several missing synonyms
-A flashback involving a man with a briefcase now actually has a briefcase
-The prop/disguise room now has an exit.
-Several random typos
-Added more description to socket
-Added âworldâ as a synonym for the earth below
-Fixed a draft appearing when it shouldnât be
-Fixed a bug where âinsert 20 into coin slotâ would try inserting 20 random things
-Fixed a bug where âenter 2â when holding the calculator would result in the player entering random things
-Added a temporary error message for when players try to take multiple copies of things theyâre already holding.
9 Likes
Version 9
-clarified why you canât take mud without the tub
-clarified why forest was out of bounds
-fixed bad response when tying the stick to the fishing line
-added more synonyms for attaching fishing line to stick
-added âfishing rodâ as synonym for completed fishing rod
-legalese updated
-bad things threatened for trying to open the sulfur pack
-The cable ladder shows up as an exit going down
-Thereâs now a response for trying to show the police badge to people you know on your own ship
-Fixed an edge case where you could get stuck recording more than 5 commands
-Added some merciful options when trying to set the vault door to a combination or trying to open the combination lock
-added code from @otistdog making it easier to take pizza slices out of a pizza box and money out of an envelope
7 Likes
Version 10:
-Fridge no longer hard-codes what is in it
-Fixed some stray lines that didnât make sense
-Removed the keeperâs power button when their body is present
-added more synonyms for money
-eliminated mold once the mold is eliminated
-simplified yang field meter instructions
-Optimized burning down the Sydney Opera House from around 3 seconds to < 1 second per turn
-fixed a bug introduced last version that made âinsert allâ apply even to conversational topics
-fixed typo preventing scientific equipement from appearing
-added little bits of reaction to some areas
-you are less likely to put cattail fluff into the wrong mud
-fixed some improper time of day references
-added some flavor text to the beginning of several levels
-Fixed searching paint cans
6 Likes
Give us a break! We only just refurbished the concert hall and sold off the 1973 donuts:
-Wade
6 Likes
Weâve reached my original targets! That means that the game will definitely launch this year.
I plan on sticking to the original release date, although I might make it slightly earlier to coincide with more peopleâs winter breaks. More testing reports are still coming in with excellent feedback, and there are still a few things Iâd like to tinker with, but Iâd be happy with the product if I released today.
Thanks so much to all the testers! These are the credits so far; if anyone has contributed to this game and doesnât see themself listed, please contact me! Same if anyone wants a name change:
Beta testers include Amanda Walker, the Xenographer, John Ziegler, Jade, Christopher Merriner, Patrick Mooney, Brett Witty, Rovarsson, E. Joyce, Max Fog, Dee Cooke, Ian Greener, Chandler Groover, Lance Cirone, Zed Lopez, Cody Gaisser, Alex Proudfoot, Radioactive Crow, Doug Egan, Mike Spivey, Larry Horsfield, Dirk Spivey, Arthur DiBianca, Hal Rushton, Hidnook, Charm Cochran, Grueslayer, Lynnea Glasser, Wade Clarke, Onno Brouwer, Mel Jason, Alyshkalia, Daniel Worm, and Robert Eggleston, who was also the first to beat the full game.
Hanon Ondricek gave helpful advice about the concept and title. Phil Riley and Peter Bates made suggestions about coding. Mike Russo and Garry Francis gave poetry tips. Wade Clarke and Mike Russo (again) gave some prose tips. otistdog provided helpful Inform 6 code.
Matt Weiner, N. Comier, Mike Sousa, Austin Auclair, Doug Egan, Pinkunz, and Charm Cochran served as inspiration for some puzzle content. Many of the standard Inform examples were used, but a lot of code was directly lifted from Under Contract, Example 205; Lethal Concentration 1 and 2, examples 255 and 257; Nickel and Dimed, example 262; Robo1 and Robo 2, examples 426 and 429; Entropy, example 182; The Cow Exonerated, example 401; In Fire or in Flood, example 401; Otranto, example 228.
Cover art was made from photographs by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and by Sandra Rushton, my mother.
A new release version will be coming out today or tomorrow, so if youâre thinking of starting this soon, Iâd wait until that is out (version 11). Thanks so much to everyone!
16 Likes
Version 11:
-fixed duplicate listing of food on table
-bad logic rings can only die once
-clarify that the rope is tied to things
-added a shortcut out to the end of the haunted house section
-clarified that the control panel has NEXT and BACK buttons
-fixed an issue with painting the rocking chair
-Your speech props can be referred to as âitemâ or âitemsâ
-fixed description of benches not appearing
-drew more attention to a pile of burnt stuff
-worked on disambiguation with the two supports
-removed a double ceiling from the lonely house
-fixed many messages related to the effects of spells in unusual circumstances
-gave up on keeping robots from shooting their own blasters and made it default to either shooting some random useful target or, if none are available, the roof.
-several typos fixed
-Corrected some grammar when performing some actions on yourself
-added some content to Sanya and Arawn
13 Likes
Awesome progress, Brian!
3 Likes
The Xenographer and E. Joyce are both me! I changed my forum username in between rounds of beta testing.
4 Likes
Oh, that makes a lot of sense! I think I knew that once but forgot. I always imagined the Xenographer has some gender-ambiguous person wearing steampunk goggles and a green jacket. Iâll correct that!
4 Likes
Haha, I love that image, actually! But yeah, my mysterious alter ego and I donât need 2x credit.
2 Likes
Thank you Brian, I have enjoyed a lot testing the game for almost a complete year. It is a pitty that I am traveling last months becouse of my job. This is a great, big, must play game.
I hope you will repeat some awesome project soon.
- Jade.
4 Likes
Version 12:
-Fixed many typos in the haunted house
-Converted âshowingâ to âgivingâ in several instances
-fixed a bug where you only needed one token to get the obol
-blocked leaving or taking statements for the one turn before the mystery is solved
-removed description of furniture in police station when that furniture is gone
-Fixed bug where you can say the two contradictory things to people in ending 1
-The black rift in the fifth upgrade doesnât turn red prematurely anymore
-the caramel apple no longer teleports
-fixed duplicate description of pedestal and glassed area in fifth upgrade
-Edited ending 2 to be less depressing and more determined
7 Likes
A (bad?) poem:
The owl notices mice
Hamburger buns are now transparent
the caramel apple no longer teleports
Fixed searching paint cans
drew more attention to a pile of burnt stuff
-Wade
7 Likes
Release 13:
-Made diagnosing default to rifts, if present.
-Numerous typo fixes.
-Fixed missing descriptions
-Removed quotes from Onomotapoeia
-Fixed several âbeforeâ rules that were missing âinsteadâ at the end.
-Fixed many tense and person errors in the endings
-Changed a few misleading responses in the ending area
6 Likes