Just released Mystic Sands: It’s All Greek To Me!

Playing Project Announcements
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I’m very proud to announce the release of my first interactive fiction game, Mystic Sands: It’s All Greek To Me! I’m a solo developer, who wrote, coded (in c#), and tested my game over a 4 year span. I hope you enjoy the journey playing, as much as I did creating it…

It’s a mythic journey so epic, from the moment you set foot upon MYTHIC SANDS; a Mediterranean isle lost in time…seasoned with Greek mythology, riddled with enigmatic puzzles, peppered with humor, along the way! Mystic Sands is the perfect recipe for adventure, laughs, and head-scratching predicaments to keep you guessing for at least a God’s age…

Search for Mystic Sands: It’s All Greek to me on IFDB or itch io today!

Mystic Sands: It’s All Greek To Me!

Shaking off the fading phantom-like remnants of what seems like a dream, you take in your surroundings…a sun-kissed shore, where an unfamilar voice welcomes your arrival: ‘KHAH-EE-REH!’ Somehow, your mind recogizes the phrase as: ‘GREETINGS’ in ancient Greek. As the words continue, your mind unravels the dialect; becoming hauntingly familar like tattered memories:*

'Oh lion-hearted adventure seeker, you stand here…upon ‘MYSTIC SANDS’. Calling it any other name, would undo its splendor, delivering a thousand arrows of pierced injustice to the mighty Gods! This uncharted, Grecian isle, uninked upon any mortal drawn maps; so enigmatic…where every grain of sand, stone, or rubbled ruin would whisper its secrets, if they, but only could. Be wary, attentive and zealous, every step you take. For you alone fashion your fate, weaving your own destiny upon a legendary quest: to recover long lost treasures of the ancient Gods. Your imagination is but the key to unlocking time-swept, forgotten mysteries and your rightful place among the Gods themselves. 'We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise…’

The ocean’s voice-like waves greet your arrival upon a picture-postcard shore. Flashbacks of a hot air balloon losing altitude, free falling towards ‘terra firma’; like an ancient forgotten memory come back to you. The Aegean archipelago has chosen its latest permanent resident to be. How unfortunate…fortunately it’s YOU!

Perhaps poetic justice has delivered your fate into the waiting arms of the Gods? Destined you are to be…discoverer and explorer of this secluded, hidden gem of the sea. Good luck, or as it’s said in Greece upon beginning an epic journey: ‘good road’ Your very own odyssey awaits…

Mystic Sands: It’s All Greek To Me!

…is an action-packed, interactive fiction game for Windows; riddled with Greek mythology, puzzles and humor…playing homage to Infocom’s Golden Age of text adventures, when Zork and Enchanter reigned supreme!

…is a FREE download for mortals, like YOU…longing for adventure. Not a single drachma is required. Unless, you’re a long-lost relative of Socrates, you probably don’t have any ancient Greek coins rattling around in your mouse-nibbled tunic!

…is the first game of its kind to receive a coveted 12/12 OLYMPIC GOD RATING! Not an easy feat, considering how fickle the Greek God Dionysus is these days!

What the ancient Greek Gods are saying about Mystic Sands…

Zeus (King Father of the Gods): ‘…This game rules…I highly recommend downloading your copy today…this game is mythic, it’s hydra-matic, it’s Greece lightning!’

Hera (Queen Mother of the Gods): ‘…This is the mother of all games…Even dear old dad Cronus can’t stop playing it with his panoply of God- and Demi-God grandkids! What is it with MEN and video games anyways?’

Poseidon (Sea and Earthquake God): ‘…This game is fathoms above anything I ever expected…It left me literally quaking in my sandals! Don’t forget to visit my domain in the game…all I can say is it’s deep!’

Demeter (Harvest and Agriculture Goddess): ‘…Finally a game that’s rooted in Greek mythology…A bountiful adventure, that truly grows on you…You’ll be up all night playing, without even realizing that DEMETER is still running…’

Athena (Owl Activist/War, Wisdom and Handicraft Goddess): ‘…A little bird told me about this intelligent game…It’s much better than anything I’ve crafted in ages…I still try to stay competitive on the Mythic-Gaming scene,…Ask Arachne, I just transformed her into a spider, AGAIN, because she finished Mythic Sands before me!’

Apollo (Dance, Music, Archery and Sun God): ‘…Best game under the sun…A bold, bright, shinning example of what great gameplay should be…My fingers couldn’t stop dancing across the keyboard, playing till the break of day! An adventure like this needs a theme song: Toss a drachma to your favorite Greek God…ME!’

Artemis (Hunting and Wilderness Goddess): ‘…Been quivering for a God’s age trying to hunt down a game this good…A wild adventure for sure! It’s better than taking an arrow to the knee, any day!’*

Ares (War and Courage God): ‘…A battle-royale of a game…I challenge you to find one better! I am STILL waiting…’

Aphrodite (Love and Beauty Goddess): '…A beautifully written story, indeed…Absolutely loved, loved, loved everything about this game!

Hephaestus (Blacksmith, Volcano and Fire God): ‘…This game is fire…A total smokeshow, in the making…it’s hot, hot, hot…I absolutely couldn’t have forged anything better!’

Hermes (Messenger, Traveler, Wealth, Luck, and Mischief God): ‘…I’ve traveled from the cloud-filled heavens, down to Terra Firma, to the hellish fires of Tartarus…I haven’t seen a game any better…No joke, it’s that good!’

Dionysus (Wine-Making, Orchard, and Ritual Madness God): '…It’s better than hiding out from Father Zeus, wearing stolen sunglasses, after indulging a few too many unwatered-down urns any day of the week! 3-headed hair of the dog, doesn’t even come close to how intoxicating Mystic Sands is…Woof! Woof! Woof!

What ancient Greek fans are saying about Mystic Sands…

Polyphemus (Famous Cyclops Spokesperson): ‘…I’m keeping my EYE on this game…It’s looking really good so far…NOBODY has seen a game like this in the last 20 years, except maybe Odysseus!’

Prometheus (Famous Felon, caught red-handed stealing fire from the Gods): ‘…The price of this game makes it worth playing…It’s a steal of a deal…it’s FREE, FREE, FREE…A perfect way to spend a lazy afternoon, chained to a rock for eternity. Zeus really needs to ease up a bit…This giant eagle’s beak is very pointy! Ouch!’

Pandora (First woman forged by Hephaestus himself): ‘…Out of the box, it’s truly a gift from the Gods, unleashed to the modern gaming world…It’s going to cause chaos when your friends have the game that ALL the Gods can’t stop playing…Get your copy today!’

King Midas (Monarch of the Phrygian Royal House): '…A solid-gold hit, you’ve got on your hands…Unfortunately, I can’t even touch the keyboard with this curse of mine…Gamer update: if anyone wants a limited-edition golden keyboard hit me up on my ancient Greek socials: gamertag @GoldenGamer4Ever!

Medusa (The good-looking Gorgon…sorry sisters): '…A rock-solid game all the way to the end…I’m not just saying so, because I’m in the game…Flesh and blood fans have spoken…Everything LOOKS better with Medusa! The stone-cold haters, are still playing games from the past, like a bunch of mindless statues!

Search for Mystic Sands: It’s All Greek to me on IFDB or itch io today!

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Since you’re a new creator, it would be nice to have an online-playable version on Itch, especially since it’s an unknown executable.

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Thank you for your response. I do wish I could make it playable online. However, I coded this game in c#, so it’s just an executable that is meant to be installed on a PC. In the future I’m going to try to make it available other ways. Possibly as an iOS AppStore game.

Thanks for posting a link, as I’m new to this forum.I attempted to insert links to ifdb and itch but I received an error, when attempting to do so.

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i can’t play your game; it may be great. and congrats on actually making a game. but, some friendly advice…

it’s hard for a game to get traction among all the other stuff out there, especially when it’s a platform-specific executable. and you’re asking a lot when you expect somebody to download and run a mystery .exe from a stranger. most people will not (should not?) take the security risk.

you would get much further if you ported your game to one of the many game-making environments out there. i can’t tell what kind of game this is but if it’s a text adventure and you like C#, you would be fine with inform6, TADS/avd3 or even dialog. these compile to a final product that’s playable literally everywhere, including in a browser window.

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Thanks for the advice. My project started out as a hobby 4 years ago and didn’t really expect to end up with a full-length game.I wanted to learn c#, and did so in the process. The only person who’s played through it fully besides myself, is my wife. Love is great…huh?

If I originally intended to release it, to the masses, I probably would have used a more accepted platform, like you’ve mentioned. It’s really a passion project, as I grew up playing infocom games as a youth on my Atari 800 and have always loved programming.

I figured if someone did download and install it, they have antivirus on their machine. I would never download a mystery file otherwise too. I also didn’t think a site like itchio would host it if there’s was anything suspicious about game files they host.

I’ll look into the platforms you’ve mentioned for sure. As I spent 4 years on it, I released what I made. Hopefully, there’s someone brave enough to play it. As it stands my wife played it, even though she would rather go to the dentist than play a game with zero graphics. She even married me after playing it, so that should say something about the game.

Have a great day and thanks for the response. My wife keeps telling me it’s better if people say something rather than nothing about my game. So I thank you for saying something.

It’s a good game too, in my humble and unbiased opinion. It better be after 4 years.

Again thank you. Have a nice day!

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Hi. This project looks cool. However, I have to agree with the idea to at least put a web demo. I’m sat here with a mobile and no way to try it.

So I write my games in c but I transpile to the web. Personally I’ve always disliked html as an app platform. Is there a c# transpiler?

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If I’m understanding: you write your games in C, then transpile (convert) them into something like HTML or JavaScript, in order for them to be played online?

Are you doing a 1 to 1 conversion from C into a web playable format? Once you’ve transpired your code is it playable in that converted form? Do you have to further alter your converted code in order for it to work? Or does it work straightaway?

Conversion from one language seems like you’d need to tweak the resulting code somewhat….Are you experienced in web development yourself? I am not.

Thank you for taking the time in looking at my project and for your suggestion.

Have a great day.

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Apparently there are c# to web transpilers, but I don’t know how they deal with c# needing a runtime.

Maybe really simple input and output of text would work, but pretty soon you’re going to need more.

A lot of people I know use unity for game dev. Unity uses c# and can build for web as well as basically everything. Maybe that’s your route with c#.

Good luck with everything.

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Apologies, I didn’t answer your questions.

I use sokol as my low level backend. So driving the system could be opengl or web as needed. This lib is light. I also use imgui for some simple UI, but soon I always need my own widgets.

C to web has worked well for me. Also I can build traditional binaries.

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Originally Mystic Sands began as a hobby, as a way to learn a new programming language. That was 4 years ago. It began like all programs: simple. But, eventually I had to code everything from scratch.

The parser, engine…the entire game is custom. It’s a completely immersive adventure, in which the player truly becomes a part of the story. Literally, everything can be interacted with. There’s a response/reaction to everything you see in the game. It would need to be reworked considerably to be played as a web experience, for sure,

If I knew I was going to release it publicly I would have written it differently, for sure. For me it was an accomplishment to write it. It grew bigger and bigger as time went on. The game morphed and took on a life of its own…quite organically. It’s a reflection of many things in my life. It’s far too complex for a conversion.

My next goal is to learn another programming language. I recently got a Mac so SwiftUI will be my next language to learn. My goal is to make the game, possibly with an enhanced interface and a graphical look using Swift, and I hope to re-release Mystic Sands, for the iOS AppStore !

I do hope you, or anyone sitting on the fence gives my game a chance. You definitely won’t be disappointed. This was the first interactive fiction my wife tried and I got her hooked from the get go. She literally begged me to start it up everyday, so she could play some more.

Considering, how I didn’t think anyone would actually download my game from itchio…I’m pleasantly surprised how many downloads I’ve had in just the first week alone. I’m sure I’m responsible for a lot of head scratching, as my puzzles are a lot of FUN.

Have a great day, and thanks for the kind words and advice. I really appreciate it.

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Swift is great in the apple world, but you’d be marooned again when people ask for a windows version. Or android.

I found UI frameworks a bit of a poisoned chalice. I used QT for some time, thinking it had all the UI bits I needed. One by one, I replaced them with custom code until none left!

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What is QT?

My game is written in a format that does run on Windows, currently :slight_smile:

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Congrats on releasing a game!

If you did want to try to get it onto other platforms, you have a few options it being written in C#.

  1. Unity, depending on what you are doing with the command line might work.
  2. dotnet core (Now just dotnet) is fully cross platform as well.

But very interesting to see a parser game coded in C#.

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Qt. Qt Quick - Wikipedia

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