Author Topic: Entry: Star Swirl's Parser-Based Pony Adventure  (Read 8822 times)

Offline Oracion

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Entry: Star Swirl's Parser-Based Pony Adventure
« on: 2012-October 07, 08:46:58 »
Hi all,
I've completed my entry in MLGJ, but given that I made it in XNA, I would like to know whether it can run on your computers. If anyone could take the time to download, install, run this and then reply whether it launched, I'd much appreciate that.
Link: http://www.wikifortio.com/719564/Star Swirl's Pony Adventure Setup.exe

Thank you,
Petr

Long description:
Few ponies know that when Discord was liberated during the Return of Harmony, his strength swelled across the timeline and it's during the time of founding of Equestria that the true battle takes place. As Star Swirl the Bearded, you must explore the mines under future-day Canterlot to find an artifact that will grant you the power to choose and change the face of Equestria FOREVEEER!... too dramatic?

This is Windows parser-based interactive fiction. This means that there are no graphics to speak of - that takes place in your imagination. Instead, surroundings and events are described and you interact with the world by typing commands. But do not worry: It is not as difficult as old school games are. There is a suggestion system that will help find the commands you need and the game is set up in a way that you cannot truly lose.

The story itself is about the journey of Star Swirl to the depths. He encountes obstacles (locked doors, mostly), other ponies (Clover the Clever and Twilight and her friends). Most rooms usually have some sort of puzzle you must overcome, for example, figure out a combination to open the door and find a proper item or spell. In the end, you will choose one of four different fates of Equestria.

Remember that you are supposed to use a combination of the suggestion system and command typing. Usually, typing three letters of a word should be enough to eliminate most unwanted possibilities and then you use arrow keys and Enter to choose.

I'm sorry about the need to make it into an installer, but it just makes sures you have XNA libraries installed (or installs them silently, if neccessary).

A Walkthrough file is included for if you get stuck.

« Last Edit: 2012-October 07, 08:52:47 by Oracion »

Offline AnsisMalins

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Re: Entry: Star Swirl's Parser-Based Pony Adventure
« Reply #1 on: 2012-October 07, 09:06:46 »
Finished already? Damn!

Offline Rylius

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Re: Entry: Star Swirl's Parser-Based Pony Adventure
« Reply #2 on: 2012-October 07, 12:17:41 »
Wow, you're fast! :D

I recommend submitting the game on our submission page as well so people can vote on it: http://games.mylittlegamejam.com/
If you run into any issues regarding the upload let me know!

Offline amymist

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Re: Entry: Star Swirl's Parser-Based Pony Adventure
« Reply #3 on: 2012-October 08, 05:19:20 »
It's a little late now, but for whatever reason, the game crashed whenever I tried to save. I wound up writing down the solution to the door puzzle, and going through it a few times. It was fun though, and out of the games I've played so far, I think it's my favorite.

Offline Caracitrine

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Re: Entry: Star Swirl's Parser-Based Pony Adventure
« Reply #4 on: 2012-October 08, 05:35:34 »
I enjoyed the door puzzle a lot. I realized it was really simple to just go backwards from unlocking door six- ending there and then realized it was just counting up from one. I wish it were longer, but obviously limited time makes things difficult.

Offline Cantorlot

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Re: Entry: Star Swirl's Parser-Based Pony Adventure
« Reply #5 on: 2012-October 17, 22:37:02 »
Hi,

Needless to say this is at the top of the list of games I was looking forward to play. It was also the first one I tried (not merely because it was also the first submitted!) Except I haven't managed to run it yet.

If it is easy, would it be possible to get a build that works with earlier versions of .Net (I think even 3.5 instead of 4.0 would help but the earlier the better)?

I tried running it in Wine (I even tried the most recent version of Wine 1.5 built from source) with Mono for Windows and am posting the error message here. But quite frankly, there are so many pieces that could have gone wrong that I wouldn't try to debug it this way. The launcher window does appear but Wine exits with the following error when I click on "Play the game".

Code: [Select]
implement type compare for 1b!

abnormal program termination
err:mscoree:expect_no_runtimes Process exited with a Mono runtime loaded.

In the worst case, I can try something much more drastic to get this to run but that'll have to wait until I have more time.

Also, thank you for posting that in-depth comment on my game. Its really appreciated (and spot on)!

Offline Oracion

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Re: Entry: Star Swirl's Parser-Based Pony Adventure
« Reply #6 on: 2012-October 18, 10:08:17 »
Hi, thank you.

Unfortunately, you won't get the game to run under Linux because it uses XNA. It could probably be ported to ANX or monogame, but that would require a code rewrite which I won't have time to do for at least a week.
It's a shame, I know, as it's basically a text-only game, but I learned about the contest only after it already started and this (XNA) was the thing I was most familiar with.

Offline Cantorlot

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Re: Entry: Star Swirl's Parser-Based Pony Adventure
« Reply #7 on: 2012-October 19, 23:18:53 »
Alright, thanks. Its too bad, but definitely not worth rewriting any code. I'll come back to this one later when I find a Windows machine I can use.