Stonewall Penitentiary (demo included)

I figured it's about time I posted something about this project, seeing as how it's been under development for three years.

Stonewall Penitentiary is a gritty "whodunit" adventure game currently in development by independent developer Christopher Brendel (me). This will be my third commercially-published game, but the first using GameStudio.

You can learn more about the game at the game's website: www.unimatrixproductions.com/stonewall. Please note that I'm currently working on a much nicer Flash-based site, which I will debut in the near future, so I'm aware of how crappy the current site is.

Also, I have finally released a public demo showcasing the game's engine. This isn't a full-fledged, polished demo; it's a bare-bones work-in-progress. As such, the file size is ridiculously large, and the gameplay time is insanely short (10-15 minutes, tops).

Nonetheless, it's a good indicator of what the full game will be like, so enjoy!



DOWNLOAD:

http://www.fileplanet.com/191687/190000/fileinfo/Stonewall-Penitentiary-Public-Demo

(additional download links coming soon...)

Critic: Lighting needs more FEELING. Otherwise it's AWESOME.

A few things about the sites screens , the lights on (what looks like a kitchen) i think the light rays dont look right, to yellowy, also the cell bed looks very square (not sure if you want it like that). But looks good, why did you not post more screens. :p

Edit: Looked at other screens,the rays of light need changing i think , they look fake.

411.5 MB..that is nice..i like the screenshots..

i played the demo. It is just awesome but like everyone said lightning needs to better.

there are some little bugs but i guess it wont be hard to fix them.

while in game press esc go options->controls press esc again and game continues but menu does not appear.

Some entites have shadow problems(toilet papers)

i like the inventory system,sounds & voices, conversation system, point and click(examine & interact thingy.) system etc...

since it is still wip, i assume it will get better. Keep it up!

I would download it , but i am not waiting for 30 minutes to , can you put it on a site with a shorter wait.

looks like a very nice game - did you make all the models and scripts yourself? If so, this is an excellent job for a one man team.

Doof

Thanks for the comments so far, everyone!!!

Re: the lighting - I'll work on this a bit more. Does the lighting need work in the demo (before the lights are on) or in the screenshots (after the lights get turned on)? I'll work on it a bit.

Quadraxas - Thanks for the bug reports! I'll get on this asap.

Blade28081991 - I'm planning on uploading it to additional sites very soon. I can't host it on my own server, unfortunately, due to bandwidth. Are there any specific sites that you would reocmmend?

Doof_Guy - I wish I could take all the credit, but I can't. HeelX is helping out with some of the programming (including all of the puzzles and lip synching code), Blattsalat dirtied up some of the prison textures for me, as well as helped me come up with some structural ideas, a third party programmer wrote the inventory code, and a third party modeller made/textured the real-time engine versions of the characters (not the video sequence versions). The rest of the work is my own.

Erm, im not sure probably something like rapid share, or something similar.

I have rapidshare on my "to upload" list, so it should be on there in a bit. It'll be a total of 5 rapidshare links, though, so it might take you a while if you don't have a premium account.

hmm ok, nvr mnd i will have to wait for a vid or something similar

Eventually, other hosting sites will likely copy over the demo to their own domain, so you will have additional options...it'll just take a little extra time. SOrry!

played the demo and it seems great so far. Graphically not the best mind you but I enjoyed it a lot. Storyline seems to be very "Saw" like but we'll see when the game is finished.

Keep up the good work!

edit: One last thing that should really be changed. I don't like to be remembered that I'm playing a linear game (very important). Please solve the inaccessible areas problem not with some "I don't think I should go there yet".

Hehe, that's actually a big problem that I ran into when I first started making the game. I had written the design document and script before the original Saw movie came out. Then, I watched Saw and panicked, because of the similarities. I went back and re-wrote a lot of the story to deviate from Saw, and I'm pretty satisfied that it goes in its own direction now. But yes, there are definitely similarities!

I didn't play the Demo yet, but i LOVE that you have a lot of screenshots on the site!

I have a few basic questions:

- Do you use level geometry (blocks) in any of the levels?
- Are you using any shaders, like normalmapping, specular etc?
- How about simple detailmapping?
- What version of GS do you use?

I like this work a lot from what I see in the screnshots!
In fact, in the future i'll probably ask if you want to join a project I have waiting to continue with because your work and attention to detail is something I share.

anyway, that's later :P

Awesome job so far! I Can't wait to play the demo

- Jason

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the compliments! To answer your questions:

- Most of the levels use blocks, however some of the areas not featured in the demo are model based. It really depends on the type of area. I've found that indoor areas like the prison tend to work best with blocks, whereas other areas, such as caves and tunnels, work better with models.

- I am using a normalmapping shader (with specularity), a few metal shaders, and a water shader.

- No detailmapping is being used as of yet.

- I'm using the latest version of A7.

Hey CBSection,

Congratulations on bringing your game at the state it is today. It's always refreshing to see a gamestudio project to make it to stages where it actually 'feels' like a completed game, and we certainly don't get to see that very often.

I played the demo and finished it. I liked the concept of the game (I don't care if it's similar to Saw or who did it first..), and there were several elements in that 10 minute demo that managed to get me in the dark mood of the game (like the mental descent of an ex-prisoner that you get to read in that yellow notebook..).

As for critics, I found the generic voices incredibly stiff, fake, and definite mood-killers. I'm talking about the stuff that you hear as feedback from your actions, not the voices during dialogue, which were actually better. Although, the ones during the dialogue seemed a bit overly too joyful. I somehow got the feeling that I hadn't just been kidnapped, tied up, and thrown naked into a disgusting cell but was instead chit chatting with a chick at a bar..

Also, I got a question.. The pic in the desk had writing on it that it was from 1968, but the today dates in the guard postbook were from 1967, so what's the deal with that? Minor design mistake, or major story hint?

Anyhow, good job.. The game definitely felt like it wasn't a Gamestudio project and at the end of the day that's what it's all about..

Cheers,
Aris

hey looks great , i would like to download it but i am a dinosaur with dial up and cant afford the time , but like i said looks and sounds great

LarryLaffer - (Great name, btw, I miss those games)

Thanks for your comments! The talking that plays while inspecting the in-game objects is actually only temporary...I had the voice actor do them REALLY quickly on a junky mic, just to get them done in time for the demo. I plan to re-do these for release so that they don't sound so...well, bad. lol

As for the fairly light-hearted nature of the cutscene dialog...well, that's going to change in the story shortly after the demo ends, when something happens...

Regarding the date issue: You don't learn this in the demo, but - although the prison was closed a long time ago - a guard regularly came in to inspect the grounds for years following. It was one of these guards that left the photo. (Not a story clue, though, I'm afraid. :))

The website is very salutary, the info that is provided on there makes the thing more structured.
The gameplay itself is smooth, the concept is refreshing too but like mentioned before, the lighting needs some work
Adapt that and you'll have one nice game

Cheers

Frazzle

Hi!

The graphics style is good, but why can`t I use resolutions higher than 1024x768?

Maybe I`m totally mad. I can`t manage to free the hands... could you plz tell me how to :-) ?

Robin

you have to cut the rope with a sharp bar near the floor. btw, i got stuck jumping on the bed. i couldnt get out of the cell.

Rondidon - I might include other resolutions in the final version. The reason I don't have them in the demo is, based on the research I've done (including my own experiences from past releases), the majority adventure gamers tend to not have the best PCs, and likely wouldn't be able to handle higher resolutions anyway.

Blink - Thanks for the notice. I'll make sure the player can't get stuck there!

blink: you need to look at the paper on the table and enter the number to padlock. Then wear some clothes and give some of to the girl.

stop telling all the answers ... spoils the fun!
Quadraxas, I think Blink meant that he couldn't get out because he got stuck...

I played to the end of the Demo. it took me some time to figure out how to equip the key, I think you should definately write that somewhere.

The graphics aren't perfect I think, but I didn't care at all when i played it, becauuse I was so busy with the awesome gameplay

bugs/glitches I found:
-the paper roll that's in one of the cells is so close to the floor that it has zsorting errors (I think that's the name) there (the floor comes through the aper) I've seen that error elsewhere as well. (don't remember where)
-I think it was the video player: somehow the game crashed when i loaded and tried to play on, as soon as the next cutscene came. So I tried starting the new game (since that way the player loaded without trouble) and then loaded the old on again: it worked (probably cause the player was loaded already).
-after loading the second time I could still see the hands that were tied together (from starting a new game) as well as the hands with the lantern (from the current game).

It's awesome how you explain the game at the beginning. just by having a voice somewhere from another cell that tells you what to do. great!
maybe you should also have it as written text somewhere, just in case someone starts the game without speakers on.

How far are you with the real story? I'd love to see how it goes on...
Good gameplay, great realization of the story...!
Micha

^
Thanks for the bug reports, Micha, as well as your wonderful comments!

Regarding text in addition to dialog: It's available if you turn captions on in the options menu.

As far as how far along I am in the story, I wrote the entire "screenplay" before beginning on the game, so it's a complete story, full of foreshadowing and twists. If you meant how far am I along in terms of putting the game together, then I'm about 30 minutes farther than the demo lets you play to, approximately 1/8th done with the entire script.

What's taking so long right now are the video sequences. I only have one PC to render them on, and most take approximately one minute per frame. I'm sure you can imagine how that can cause long delays.

Another demo link, for those who had trouble using Fileplanet: http://www.atomicgamer.com/file.php?id=72225

loved the graphics and even how to move around. The only thing I would say is as soon as I got in the game I was lost. My hands were tied, I was in jail, and, I had no idea how to free myself. Which in turn made me give up on it fairly quick. I will say the graphics are great, and I have no other complaints. Demo ran fine, and was nice. Hope to see this completed!

This is the first "puzzle" of the game it is easy... just find a thing with which you can cut the rope.

i played the demo and it's great. the movements in the cutscenes are a bit blocky but okay. the story is very cool, i like it

Very nice. I especially like the pacing of the story.
Crit:
Most definitely the lighting. The light from the lantern is overly harsh, it looked better when I turned up the gamma. I think if you only improved one thing lighting would be it.
Minor crit: the cut scenes are a little jerky but acceptable. The worst was the opening scene where the guy wakes up, his head makes a 90 degree direction change. But I liked the models for the cut scenes, they are better than some I have seen in big production adventure games.
Some advice... not crits:
have the text come on by default, it is hard to eat chips and hear what the girl is saying. An important part of adventure gaming is to be able to eat and play
Have a control menu easily accessible. took a bit to realize that tab brought up the inventory. Had to jam buttons for a while. Yes there is a menu under options but like a lot of people I do not like to hit escape unless I have to!
When you hit tab it brings up the inventory, hit tab it closes the inventory. click on the book the book opens click on the book again nothing happens... so I am mashing buttons again trying to close the book... then I notice the little button up in the corner to close the book. Maybe that button should be bigger. Of course I am playing on a wide screen so maybe it is just me.
Also remember that gritty is good but I do not know if adventure gamers are really into full on slasher type games! I really want to play this game when you are done but I would need to be convinced that wading through buckets of blood is something I want to do in an adventure game.
Last thing: where does the girl go? Ya free her from the cell and then she disappears. I spent some time spinning circles trying to see her. Wouldn't want to wander around an asylum followed by an inmate I can't see.

Nice game I hope to play it soon!