SERIAL -- a first-person nightmare adventure -- Downloadable Demo!

[FrankSlimski]

I'm working on a game called Serial, which will be done sometime in 2013.
It's a horror game, so please avoid it if you have a weak constitution.

http://frankslimskigames.com/FrankSl...erialDemo1.jpg
http://frankslimskigames.com/FrankSl...erialDemo2.jpg
http://frankslimskigames.com/FrankSl...alDemo3Alt.jpg

This game is not for children. Don't even play it around children.
Lots of nudity and gore.

The demo is roughly 250mb.
Follow this link to my website to download it.

http://frankslimskigames.com/

And don't forget to vote in the poll above.

[juguefre]

downloading now but It seems too dark in the pics.....

[ironbelly]

let's hope for a flashlight

[FrankSlimski]

Yeah, I was worried the pics may be a little dark. The game plays with light and darkness a lot, though. It fits the horror theme. There is no flashlight, but you do find a box of matches.

[Private Tux]

Sounds good, but I'm a little bit more frightened at the horror games, so this one does energetic.
Downloading...

[Max Power]

What are you supposed to do exactly?

I ghosted around this level forever. There's nothing here but some BSP and platforming to the top of a fire escape. Current gameplay is first person platforming.

Why all the spook talk? "horror game", "avoid it if you have a weak constitution" "Lots of nudity and gore". None of this is in the game. There's a blood splat, and a dead body prop once. It just seems like hype.


I really have no idea what you're going for, but here's some technical feedback:

This is not a beta. The term refers to a game that is done, and is now is bug testing / finishing phase. At this state, I'd call it pre-alpha.

No objects are referenced, so nothing looks real. Odd scales, weird shapes. The fire escapes, for example, is a smoothed box with holes cut in it.

All the objects are just randomly placed, again no reference used.

There 's a roof tile used as a brick wall for a building.

There's essentially no UDK features used. Just diffuse on bsp and planes. Basic features, like decals, could be used instead of tossing planes everywhere.

I think you credited more texture artists than there are textures in this level.

[FrankSlimski]

@ Max Power : You didn't make it past the first map. The demo ends shortly after entering the third map. So, you can find more nudity and gore and horror and work from all those extra texture artists if you can figure out how to get all the way through the "pre-alpha". Thanks for the input.

[juguefre]

Now this is what he meant when he said HORROR!!!





no textures.....I'm horrified!

[bauriema]

I think the whole point is telling people that you have a downloadable demo, and that it's a horror game full of gore and not for children etc etc, and then when ppl dl it, they just see an unfinished map, with not much to do and as Max Power said, with no UDK features.
Of course ppl from the forums won't mind taking a look at your levels and give you their opinions, but I think you started wrong by 'selling' something to people that it's not even close to what you're promising.

[FrankSlimski]

Well it is just a work in progress. I'm not rolling out any multi-million dollar product here. And with all due respect Juguefre, you're taking shots of angles the player will never reach, so all those untextured areas are hidden, unless there's some way to the rooftops that I don't know about. Also, there are 3 maps in this demo. Everyone seems to be unable to get any further than the first one. If you explore a little bit, I'm sure you'll find all 3.

[juguefre]

Well it is just a work in progress. I'm not rolling out any multi-million dollar product here. And with all due respect Juguefre, you're taking shots of angles the player will never reach, so all those untextured areas are hidden, unless there's some way to the rooftops that I don't know about. Also, there are 3 maps in this demo. Everyone seems to be unable to get any further than the first one. If you explore a little bit, I'm sure you'll find all 3.

Oh come on I got bored after a few minutes of wandering around doing NOTHING, don't you think that giving the player something fun to do will help your game? I mean ANYTHING ELSE besides finding the way to the next level where I suppose the objective is....... find the way to the next level!!!........ thru an EMPTY scenario.....

Now seriously, not long time ago in a conference in my city a pro game dev said something like this "if you don't capture the player in the very first 5 minutes of the game then your game is doomed" I guess he was right.

[FrankSlimski]

That's good advice. Perhaps I do need to spice up the beginning. I use the term "nightmare adventure" to describe the game because I am toying with the concept of confusing the player and revealing plot points slowly and not concretely enough to form any exact idea of the story...the player even being confused as to what role they are playing in the story. Later in the game this really becomes apparent as architecture appears to change when the player isn't looking, and an overall nightmare feeling sets in. I appreciate all the feedback from you and everyone else. Thanks.

[Max Power]

Please explain how to exit the first map. As stated, I ghost'ed around, F7'ed all the tricks and saw nothing.

Also, you can't use the "WIP" excuse when you call it "beta". Again, beta is a DONE game sent for bug-testing. It goes back to marketing. Call it a pre-alpha, and you won't get so much flak due to misrepresentation.

[FrankSlimski]

Yeah, I didn't really know what beta meant. Sorry about that. I thought it was synonymous with demo. This is more of just a demo of the very early maps of the game.

I'll tell you how to exit the first map, although I really wish people would just explore and have fun with it and find the exit that way. Platform up the railed walkways until you get pretty high up and it looks like you might be able to jump to the rim of a broken pipe and get higher. Well, you jump to the broken pipe rim, and if you don't miss and fall inside of it, you'll fall inside when you try to platform off of it.

[FrankSlimski]

And when you fall down that pipe it brings you to the second map. Kind of like Mario.

[FrankSlimski]

I'm going to downsize the corpse found on the first map. I'm also going to leave blood marks as clues to where to climb the railed walkways to make getting through the map easier. It is the first map after all. It should be easier to understand. I'm not sure how to give the player an initial objective without tying them to a character. I want the player to assume that they are a homicide detective searching for a killer, until later when they question whether they are in fact the killer that's running from the authorities. I'm only leaving subtle clues throughout the game, but it won't be answered until the end. So...I guess my question is, how do give them that initial objective that starts them purposefully running through the first map? Any ideas would be appreciated and considered.

[FrankSlimski]

Alright. Version 1.3 of the demo is up. I made that first corpse smaller and added some blood spatter clues to the first map.

[juguefre]

I'm going to downsize the corpse found on the first map. I'm also going to leave blood marks as clues to where to climb the railed walkways to make getting through the map easier. It is the first map after all. It should be easier to understand. I'm not sure how to give the player an initial objective without tying them to a character. I want the player to assume that they are a homicide detective searching for a killer, until later when they question whether they are in fact the killer that's running from the authorities. I'm only leaving subtle clues throughout the game, but it won't be answered until the end. So...I guess my question is, how do give them that initial objective that starts them purposefully running through the first map? Any ideas would be appreciated and considered.

Well lets see (I'm by no means an expert) first about the objective I don't know about you but if I find a dead-skinned-impaled body and then I find a track of blood or maybe hear a sound that leads me somewhere I'll go the opposite way!....for real anyone with commun sense will follow the killer of that mutilated body? if you have a strong reason you may do that...revenge? maybe the dead body was your sister or wife.....or maybe you should put something less gore like a headless body I dont know I might go look for the head....or if you see the killer shadow running away with what appears to be the head in his hand......I guess I'll go the other way here too! but in any case you need a reason to force the player to behave in a particular way maybe a logical reason(maybe not) how about this you are not chasing anyone you are running from someone....you could lead the player to believe is the killer chasing you when in fact its the pigs "cough" "cough" police "cough"

[Max Power]

Still doesn't make any sense. By design, it's esoteric at best.

I played to the end of the demo, but even saying "played" is a stretch.

There's nothing to do, no gameplay at all.

First area: jumping around randomly placed fire escapes until falling in a hole, but all up to this point if you fall you start over.

Second area: walk down unlit cylinders and jumping around tiny pipes. If you fall you start over, but then the last one you're SUPPOSED to fall down. I need to stress the point of consistency here. You can't tell the gamer one thing, then immediately change the rules.

The matches is a nice touch. They should last MUCH longer though. Since they are infinite it seems, there's no reason for them to instantly go out. Spamming the F key isn't gameplay

Platforming without lighting does not work. The user has to move based on precision, but can't see anything. In addition, using the default UDK look, the user can't LOOK DOWN and the super tiny pipe you're supposed to precisely walk on.

Third area: again, nothing to do, walk into a building, walk into a hole in the wall, and "thanks for playing"

You need to either learn UDK or hire someone that does know the editor. Again, no features used, no particles, no gameplay implementation, just walking around on BSP.

juguefre used a great word: LOGIC. There's just no logic to any of this.

[bauriema]

I think that you should play games that matches the style you're going for. Like... it's a kind of 1st person platform right? I'd use 'Alice:Madness Returns' as a reference, bc it has lots of platforms and stuff like that, and it also has places where it's rly dark and they came up with very good solutions. Like in one of the stages you're at a real dark place and there's a kind of ghost horse fish that floats and follows the way you're supposed to go. If you take too long to jump the platforms and go through the obstacles, you lose the ghost and then you can't see a thing anymore (and the darkness also 'hurts' you, so you pretty much has to be fast to keep up with the ghost or you die). it's challenging and inventive. If you're going for a horror game, you need to watch movies, play another horror games a lot etc. References ARE A MUST!
I don't know if you watched the Silent Hill movie, but that movie is a good example of what you could do. In Silent Hill they don't give the spectator much info on what the heck is going on in the beginning, but lots of things happens to keep you interested. And there's an objective (in the movie it's the mother looking for her lost child). An objective is a must in a game like that, even if you have to change the story you've planned already.

[FrankSlimski]

Thanks so much to everyone for taking the time to give your thoughts and vote. These efforts of yours are the hammers that will pound my brain feces into a diamond. One game that comes to mind when thinking of what I'd like Serial to resemble is Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Back when I was modding for the Fallout series, I played Amnesia and was totally amazed at how scary it was with absolutely no fighting interaction. It was a lightbulb moment for me as someone who has always tried to make shocking horror content, that you could use nuance and a minimalist approach and still make it terrifying. The end of the Serial Demo is really the beginning of the "rabbit holes" area of the game. The game takes a twist into a nightmare world where architecture shifts and things make even less sense. The player will return to the house (which has many rooms), and in each room there is a "rabbit hole" to another type of nightmare world.

[Max Power]

The attitude you accept feedback with is admirable.

Amnesia

Audio, you do kinda nail that. I feel users might not recognize how strong the audio work is in this project due to the other faults. (It's all about breaking the illusion, once it's broken, it's done). However, all of this changes once other features are put in.

Post Processing: Amnesia pushes this as do most modern games. It's difficult to understand creating PP materials, and activating them at the right time. Unfortunately, it's a must because games have set the bar.

FX: play such a huge roll. Particles add life. Fog, smoke, steam, fire, all very simple FX one can Google and find comprehensive tutorials.

Optimization: if you can't see it, it shouldn't be rendering. F7. Object selected, hit F4, max draw distance set to visibility equals optimization.


What is horror?

weakness, the unknown, the unexpected.

Amnesia displayed weakness around three concepts:

1) it's dark and the latern has limited by time oil. This created the strategy of

2) the dark make the player crazy (heart meter). The crazier you were, the more PP kicked in and distored the world. All full crazy the player fell down and blacked out.

3) Monsters. Essentially patrolling entities. Increased the crazy meter by look at. Player has no way of combating these death monster thus increasing avoidance.

Doom3 was all monster closets, where things pop out in front of the user. This is a cheap scare. Greater pain comes from anticipation. Knowing pain in coming, but giving the option of avoid it (gameplay).

What is Adventure?
This is options. Not the first adventure game, but one of the best examples of Legend of Zelda (NES). It presented a non-linear world allowing the user to power up and enter all but the last dungeon at any time. On top of that, many of the dungeons allowed for non-linear gameplay.

What can we learn from this? Options, secrets, multiple way of acheiving the same goal. The idea behind adventure is being rewared for freely exploring the envorinment. As in, the user doesn't have to explore said area, but doing so rewards them.

Understandably, creating assets isn't you're forte, I'll gladly give you the package files
http://www.indiedb.com/games/old-town
It's a project I'm done with, and would gladly allow anyone else to use them for eplsoration of game design as much of them are WIPs.

[FrankSlimski]

Demo Version 1.4 is up. Pretty big update. Tons of minor fixes, added objective to the beginning, fx to the matches, post-processing, and extended gameplay.

http://www.frankslimskigames.com

[FrankSlimski]

Everybody make sure to vote in the poll if you've played Serial. I'm trying to decide the future of this project, and your votes play a big part in that decision.

[juguefre]

Everybody make sure to vote in the poll if you've played Serial. I'm trying to decide the future of this project, and your votes play a big part in that decision.

Sometimes it's easier to start from 0 than trying to fix something with bad foundational basis, it will save you time if you manage to understand the message.

[FrankSlimski]

Yeah, I hear you on that one. Last year I was in these forums with a game I was making called "Infinite Pull", and after getting about 7-8 maps into that game's production I decided to pull the plug. Always a learning process. Always improving.