Frantic Franko (Best AGS DEMO of 2009)

[Igor Hardy]

Hello everyone,

I'm making a twisted comedy adventure game set in a fantasy world. And a biggish demo is ready for everyone to try.





Frantic Franko is a tale of nasty dwarven warrior (big axe and all that) and his quest for revenge. It's a classic heroic fantasy with a touch of Kafka and Twilight Zone.

It also sports an usual interface and unique gameplay ideas...

0) hack, smell and bite your way through problems

1) Justin Franklin in the role of Franko

2) a persuasive dwarf's bag of junk conversations system - you can physically modify and expand your conversation interface!

3) alternative puzzle solutions

4) Bone Death Pean special feature





Download the demo here or here.

My development diary is kept here

Feedback greatly appreciated!

[Igor Hardy]

Hi, folks! Why so silent about me game? Especially since it is THE adventure game that will single-handedly revolutionize the adventure game genre.

Anyway, I released an updated demo this week: http://hardydev.com/franko/

It's still a WIP, but has more animations, voice-overs and innovations.

a video showing some of the game footage can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbXDVVM1rVw

[ad7venture]

It's somewhat large for my puny phone modem.  Plus, I guess the warrior theme doesn't excite me too much to be honest.  Most of those revolutionize game play deals also turn out to be enigmatic and unfun.  I know that's not fair because I haven't looked at it, but it's almost become a red flag.  It's like people throwing around non-linear, what that actually means is no story and no goals.   A smaller demo would help in my case.
I know you've put a ton of work into it and if I had a faster connection I'd take a look.

[NigeC]

sorry, I missed the original post, I'll have a look shortly

[Igor Hardy]

Thanks, NigeC!

ad7venture, what size would be small enough for a painless download?

Without the voices a compressed RAR with the game weighs 38 MB. I uploaded it for you here: http://hardydev.com/franko/

I wasn't totally serious saying Frantic Franko's gameplay is a revolution within the genre. It is pretty much a traditional inventory-based adventure, but with a couple of experimental features. They mostly concern the way the hero converses with other characters.

I must admit, you shouldn't necessarily expect the demo to be thoroughly unenigmatic and pure fun. Not at this stage at least - it's still a Work-In-Progress and I need as much player feedback as possible to get the most of every feature and idea (I can add the most helpful people to the beta-testers list in the credits).

So, this build (and any earlier/future one) should be treated as a teaser/prototype for the fully polished version to be released in the future and is directed more at fellow game designers and people interested in game design than normal players.

[ad7venture]

I think that size will do it.  I'll let you know.

[StarLite]

Hey Igor, the pics look great. Myself I'm a little too busy with my own project but I will take a look when I get some time. The graphics look hand drawn. I love original work. Take care

[ad7venture]

I got it downloaded, but can't really get anywhere.  I can't figure out how to open the bag of junk.  The verb coin seems somewhat useless.  I can't look at anything and smelling and biting things doesn't seem like it would be very helpful, and in fact, hasn't been so far.  Also, I think scaling would help a bit.  The guy seems disconnected from the background.  I don't know if that's intentional or not.  The colors are much brighter and he doesn't seem to scale and there are no shadows.  I should mention that I'm actually terrible at adventure games.  I do all right with the professional versions, but get lost with most indies.  I guess the main feature I like is the axe, but it could wear out pretty fast.  It's more or less an extra inventory item.

[Igor Hardy]

ad7venture, you can see how to open the bag of junk in the video footage of the gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbXDVVM1rVw I guess I really need to add a certain animation to emphasize the key to finding this puzzle's solution.

The graphics are intentionally a bit weird, though I think the perspective is right, the fire spreads its light on the main hero, and I don't understand how I could introduce character scaling in such small location. Dynamic shadows would be nice, but they are beyond the amount of work I want to invest into a freeware game.

The axe and mouth are in place of the standard hand icon as the main hero has a rule not to put his bare hands on the outside environment.

The sense of smell is replacing the eye as the hero is almost blind and dwarfs in general have very sensitive smell in the world I invented.

[ad7venture]

Dynamic shadows would be nice, but they are beyond the amount of work I want to invest into a freeware game.

I find a simple semi-transparent blob shadow helps connect the character to the background and is relatively cheap and easy to do.  A lot of times you can re-use the same one.  For instance, a blob shadow beneath the floating guy would really help give the appearance of floating.  It's just in this case it almost feels like I am just looking at two independent layers but it might be the effect you are going for also.

[NigeC]

I agree with AD7, a simple shadow would work wonders, it would ground the main character and also give the floating guy a location within the scene

[Igor Hardy]

What you both say about "the blobs" makes a lot sense to me now. Especially in the case of the floating man. I wonder why I didn't think of putting them in myself. I'll definitely add them.

Thanks very much for the suggestion.

[fogfighter]

I like the topmost image. Quite dramatic and expressionsistic.

[Kickaha]

Thanks for sharing this!  Good to see people putting effort into doing games.  The graphics are distinctive, but the screenshots are very similar.  There is a conflict between the axe being an inventory item, and its use on the verb coin.  Sometimes the axe was hidden behind Franko.  For me it needs more of a hook at the beginning to catch the attention, inspire the player forward.

[Igor Hardy]

Thanks, for your comment, Peter.

I hoped that the main hero and the unusual methods of controlling him will be a good hook. What kind of an additional hook would you suggest yourself?

I agree that the plot of the demo starts a bit slow, but it does get more exciting later on + it isn't going to be the actual beginning of the full version, but rather the second (much slower, more complex, and more puzzle-oriented) act of the game.