Future Flashback

[LostTrainDude]

First of all this looks great! Congrats to the team!

1) I'd probably ask the players if they want it to be on or off when they click on "New game" rather than having the switch in the options menu. Other than that, what happens if I click on something when the game suggested me how to explore the environment"? In other words is the hotspot\objects interaction disabled in that stage?

2) I love stuff like the action popups a lot, but probably they break the immersion a little? I mean, I guess that if the game was set in some sort of virtual reality it would fit very nicely.
Still, I'd probably leave it just for stuff that usually is not that obvious, like "Kyle picked up the flashlight". Usually the inventory is what I get most bad feedback about, that's why I'm telling you

3) I don't really mind, but beware of "info dumps"! Try to spread the information about the character(s) in smaller bits and pieces through environmental storytelling and\or other well placed occasions I'm guilty of info dumps a lot, by the way

4) I like the UI as well as the character dialog closeups! The only thing I'm not sure about is the mouse icon, the one with the red and blue buttons, whenever you are hovering a hotspot. Is it context-based, meaning that it only shows what you can actually click (some hotspots may only be examined but not used, for instance)?

Keep up the good work, this is looking great!

[eri0o]

Hey @LostTrainDude

1) Great suggestion, I will ask the question when clicking New Game! Oh, the tutorial is a module, and each click type is disabled before their respective text is shown (there's and if before processClick that goes like if(TutorialModule.isRightClickDisabled()) return ). The idea was that the tutorial can be enabled in any level - the why will be explained in the Future.

2) Ok, ditched actionPopups, tried something different now, I thinks it breakes the immersion less:


3) Thanks, will reduce info dumps. And nice website! Bookmarked!

4) The mouse icons are context based. They surely will be needed for joystick support in the future (with different graphics) but I am not sure too on they being available for mouse. I guess I will ditch them for mouse later on.

Thanks for the feedback!

[eri0o]

Theme music updated!

Hey small update, just wanted to show the Title Screen with the new version of the theme music. If anyone has the habit of listening to music through YouTube on TV, you may want to listen to the following video.

If you haven't subscribed, please do, if we get to 100 subscribers we can have a proper channel URL.

[Click'd]

Sexy sexy glitches.

[Cassiebsg]

Looking good and sounding great!

I just have a little nitpick:

Spoiler

I notice the Quit is very near the lower edge, while you have lot's of empty space on the top.
It makes my "symmetry" side scream: "Center that text! Pull everything up a few pixels... "
But note that I like how the title fits nicely in the dark facade in between the windows... don't change that!

Maybe the easy solution would be to move the Continue-Quit block, center it under the "Flashback" text and pull it a bit up?

[close]

[eri0o]

Hey thanks ClickClickClick and Cassiebsg! About the nitpick, I agree with you, I did a small adjustment...

Spoiler

[close]

[eri0o]

We have a website!

futureflashbackgame.com

We are creating a website and also now we have an official twitter @futureflashbck. We hope to use those as ways to connect to people interested in the game so we can feel if there is interest! Please provide feedback on the website.

[Click'd]

Behold a future where a drug is capable of recreating vivid memories.

"I can think of a couple of works with that premise" was my first thought here. Sorry for the negativity.

Untangle the obsessive mind of an ex-surgeon, that after an accident, starts reliving the memories of a girl he never met.

I'd cut the ", that after an accident, starts" part.

Did I read this thread wrong? I thought your game was about "real" time travel.

[eri0o]

Hey @ClickClickClick, I am sorry, no real time travel, only memories. The description in the website actually is the one we opened this thread with. There is a feature list in the presskit, but I am not sure yet if we can do a better writing there on our intentions in the project

[ricardojuchem]

I just posted this on Twitter and I think that the people here maybe like it.

[imgzoom]http://futureflashbackgame.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/steps-small.png[/imgzoom]

Steps that I usually do when I make a pixel art background:

1 - Simple Wireframe
2 - Adding local colors
3 - Creating the objects
4 - Lighting and color correction

[Fitz]

Neat! Loving all the magenta and indigo. A very useful lesson, too, for someone who's not very good with backgrounds.

[KyriakosCH]

Very cool

[eri0o]

Hey we added lots of links to the homepage of the project, so I will add them here if you haven't checked! Social Networks!

Blog | YouTube Channel | Facebook Page | Twitter @futureflashbck | cartrdge | presskit() | indieDB

On the blog, I recently posted on development (with some help from Gurok):

Ship of Theseus Development

We are taking a top-down approach for Future Flashback. We wrote a story, and telling it in the adventure genre felt natural. When looking for tools, I eventually found Adventure Game Studio. It has all the ready-to-use objects that I like from RPG Maker, but for adventure games. It's also powerful enough to let you ditch any ready-made objects so that you can create your own, with a very easy to use scripting language.

You can use the default adventure elements to prototype the story and the environment, then take your time refining the gameplay and replacing default objects and methods with what works best for the game. It works really great with pixel graphics too, which is a plus since it's the aesthetic that we are going for. While I didn't know Adventure Game Studio or its scripting language a year ago, it has a friendly learning curve that means the hardest part is often deciding what design works best instead of what can I code.

This is my favorite development strategy, the "ship of Theseus strategy" (as coined by eri0o), where I have a good set of defaults for creating and I can replace each part at my own pace. New parts can be different and enable me to move forward, while the old parts provide a safety net that, if something is too hard to replace, I can leave as-is and work around. This approach gives me a predictable development path where I know I can advance if only a little each day.

The predictable pace of development gives me the tranquillity to explore and iterate on the design, while being able throw ideas (and code) away because I know they are easy to explore. Since I am not the only person using the tool, I also have access to ready-made code that helps me iterate faster until I'm ready to cut the unneeded parts or polish them to fit our vision for the game.

Link to this post...

[ricardojuchem]

We are still working hard on the game, so hard that sometimes we forgot to share new stuff.

Here are some new backgrounds.

Cheers!

[imgzoom]http://futureflashbackgame.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/DO6egMRWAAAqoKP.jpg[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]http://futureflashbackgame.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/bg_gif.gif[/imgzoom]

[Lasca]

This all looks super great! Looking forward to playing.

[eri0o]

Thanks Lasca!



We are working hard to make this a good game! I hope in 2018 I can provide more updates here in the thread!

[CaptainD]

This is looking really nice - keep up the good work!

[eri0o]

More Screenshots!

Hello!

Small update! Adding some more screenshots below!





(last one is kind of a small error on player.ChangeRoom ... )

You can see some more screenshots on the game blog or @futureflashbck on Twitter!

We have been testing a slightly change in the game interface that will hopefully make the game better.

[HanaIndiana]

Yay screenshots! I'm really enjoying the pixel art.

[Cassiebsg]

And error!? And I thought you had figured out the best most comfortable bed of all times! I was so looking forward to to the future... a levitation bed.

Loving the art and the mood. Keep up the good work.