Inn of the Dancing Sea Dragon

[TheBear]

Short Version
I've created a very short casual adventure game that follows a Druniad named Hazel who runs the Inn of the Dancing Sea Dragon. Currently there are only three puzzles with supplementary linear dialogue trees but this was only meant to be a prototype.

More Information
I'm in the very early stages of attempting to make a commercial casual/classic adventure game. I've been looking at a bunch of engines to work in and have become attached to the Monocle engine as it shares a lot in common with Aquaria (Alec's working on it). Monocle still has a ways to go so I decided to prototype some adventure stuff to see what I could get working. I was playtesting with random images from Google for a while before I came to the conclusion that I may as well use the Aquaria art. That of course then led me to making that prototype into something playable which is why you see this post. I guess it kind of makes sense as before Sacrifice grew into something much bigger it was originally intended to be a more casual experience of Aquaria.

Download
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3175096/DancingSeaDragon_v1.0.zip

Screenshots
   

Video Walkthrough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvCjwdYrEE4

[FrancesF]

Bear, playing that was really fun!  A good way to start the day.  You've created some great characters, and I do hope their story continues...

[GMMan]

It looks like a HOG... Never knew that was possible. I guess anything is possible now. So what does that make the BBGE?

[Sindhi]

Well, I got partway though the little mod. Can't get the wrench out of the treasure chest. What's the secret?

[TheBear]

The treasure chest is locked so you have to use the key in your inventory to open it. If this were more than a prototype I would have spent more time on expanding the hint and feedback system.

[Sindhi]

Ah, thanks.

[TheBear]

FrancesF took the time to make an awesome looking damaged version of the turtle's shell. Once Hazel fixes her shell the graphic changes.

[Widget]

Played through this yesterday night and I'm hugely impressed. I was both amazed at what you've been able to create in an Aquaria mod and thoroughly entertained.

If (and only if) you're still adjusting it, I do have a couple of suggestions;

• Hazel uses the phrase "[...]mistreating their war turtles so poorly[...]" before the turtle puzzle which is technically a double negative. It would be clearer as either "[...]treating their war turtles so poorly[...]" or "[...]so mistreating their war turtles[...]".
• Also, in the cleanup puzzle, I found it a little tricky to keep track of which items in the right-hand image I'd already removed from the left. Would it be possible to remove the equivalent items from both at once?

As I said, though, it's already fantastic as-is and works beautifully. I can't wait to use it as a gateway mod to introduce non-gamers to Aquaria!

[TheBear]

Glad to read you enjoyed it! Thanks for pointing out the double negative; I've uploaded that fix.  For the spot the difference puzzle I was planning on implementing the standard feedback system which is to "fix" the item on the left. Instead of removing the item you find (what it does now) it puts that item back into its correct place (what is  shown on the right). It seemed like a pain to code at the time but I just thought of an easy way to do it after looking through my code again. I'll try to get around to it.

[FerreTrip]

I really wanna play this, but I can't get past the first dialogue box!!! What's going on? I'm clicking the arrow, and nothing's happening. I've pressed every key but nothing. What's wrong?

Scratch that, somehow works. That said, this was interesting and cutely fun. Admittedly, being able to move around instead of let the game move Hazel would have been nice. Regardless, I liked this, and the whole "what's gonna happen next?" thing actually has me intrigued! Sounds like there's a nice story here! And super-kudos on figuring out how to do all that stuff to begin with! Please try to finish this someday.

[fletcherpugh25]

Interesting mod. I'll try this one out. Thanks for sharing.

[archy]

What do I need to do to install this?

I extracted it into the _mods directory, but Aquaria doesn't seem to recognize it. (It doesn't appear in list when I click "Mods" on the Aquaria main screen)

Maybe it's because I'm on Linux? (I'm using the Aquaria for Linux version from the Humble Bundle...)

[achurch]

Make sure you install to your personal _mods directory, under ~/.Aquaria, not the _mods directory in the game distribution.

Also, on Linux you need to make sure all filenames are in lowercase. This shouldn't prevent the mod from being recognized in the first place, but it would cause things like broken graphics while running the mod.

[False.Genesis]

Hackfixed for the opensource version: http://fg.wzff.de/aqmods/AdventurePrototype.zip
Also added to mod downloader.

I think that completes it. If I missed any other mods, let me know.

[bluejaysylver]

Just re-discovered the fun that is Aquaria...but now the link is dead Still possible to re-up?