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Cart #you_know_they_are_looking-2 | 2025-01-18 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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You know they are looking

You know they are looking is a text based adventure game somewhat inspired by
"Away from this world" by @stadam.
This is the second winnable version of this game.
This is very much not finished. This is a prototype.
If you have any feedback feel free to leave it in the comments.
I would like what this game plays like by someone who doesn't know what to do yet.

At the moment it isn't very good yet.

  • The menu's are a bit tedious to navigate.
  • The balance probably isn't right yet.
  • There are almost no graphics to set the scene.
  • There is no sound design.
  • I probably missed a ton of typo's.
  • Punctuation still needs work.
  • The writing defenetly still needs some love.
  • I want to get the general atmosphere to be as creepy as possible.
  • It is probably very hard to tell what you are supposed to be doing.
  • The intro and gameover screen are pretty much placeholders.

Changelog

  • getting captured is more consistent and predictable.
  • repairing the radar isn't as optional anymore.
  • solar panels can break now.
  • the game does a slightly better job explaining why you got captured (hopefully).
  • fixed some bugs, but likely added way more.
  • the time it takes to complete an action is now properly taken into account
  • repairing something takes 3 hours, nearly all else 6 hours.

Im am pretty much at the compressed size limit (98%) so doing any graphics or sound design is going to be a bit of a problem if I don't learn how to optimize for that soon.
Still plenty of tokens though.

Some tips:

  • Get solar panels working first.
  • "Support" is mandatory to repair, radar is optional.
  • Whether an action gets you caught depends on ships flying overhead, You can see these on the radar.
  • An action takes 6 hours by default, the time it takes a ship to reach you, is taken into consideration.
    If a ship isn't overhead yet, but will be in the time it takes you to finish an action, it can spot you, if that action is one of the actions that get you caught.
    This is the most buggy feature in the game though. And it doesn't reliably work yet.

Older versions

Cart #you_know_they_are_looking-0 | 2024-11-10 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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After a few tries and one too many acid baths, I escaped on day 14. I think I may have been lucky though, as I prioritized repairing the comms over radar (at the game's urging) so I didn't know what was flying overhead for the most part. It was nice that I didn't need to worry about solar or the support system once fixed, or needing to re-repair comms to get rescued. Maybe some events could be added so players would need to pay attention to those or something, for added challenge.

Also, it would be nice to have a way to guarantee you won't get caught as long as you take the correct actions (or precautions).
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I played for awhile trying to figure out what to do, but couldn’t until I looked at the tips. Then it made sense. After playing a few times I started to get the hang of it and getting to at least day 10. But then I kept letting out a sigh of relief and getting caught, which was very annoying. It would also be nice to know more of the story because you escaped from a lab and are in hiding, but it’s a little confusing when it says “the creatures”. Are they humans that are trying to find you or something else? Maybe not in the game, but in the description you should add the story and how the player got to where they are.

Bugs I found:
Sometimes when it’s displaying text, it says nil and then just continues like normal.
I don’t know if this is a bug, but when you’re sleeping for example, it describes you sleeping and then in the middle of reading it new text shows up saying that they found you.

It’s kind of weird that you’re able to draw their attention by sleeping.

This is a great game. It was really fun to play until I let out a sigh of relief. Definitely getting a heart and star. Great job!
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@Verb
The game does indeed seem to bias towards acid baths :).
There actually are a few events that can break systems. I guess you lucked out not coming across any of them.
Capture is supposed to be completely avoidable (at least in theory). The current version is a bit unstable in this regard though.
Going by your feedback I am making the radar more necessary in 0.2.

@Andrew967
Once you get caught doing something it's 50/50 wether you make it out or not (in most cases). That might be too harsh though. Guess you got unlucky getting the same event over and over again.
In the upcoming versions I plan to make it a bit easier to figure out what actions cause you to get caught. The version will also be more stable in picking the correct events for the correct circomstances.

I haven't had the NIL issue yet while working on the next version. Do you still remember what triggered it?

Thanks to both of you for playing my game. Your feedback has been extremely helpfull.



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