Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

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Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by humbird0 » August 24th, 2010, 1:48 pm

Lastest version: August 22 2012 Download

Babysitter's Club 2 uses an experimental game design.
There are some common difficulties that people seem to have when playing it.
Since I created everything, I don't always know what parts of the game are hard to figure out.
So I thought I'd make a thread for this.

These are the difficulties I'm aware of:
  • It's hard to figure out where you're supposed to go. (Which missions are giving people trouble?)
These are the glitches I'm aware of:
  • The game runs slow when it's played in full-screen. (Not exactly a glitch, but I don't know how to fix it)
  • The petshop clerk temporarily disappears after completing a petshop mission.
  • The scan goggles only outline half of the town.
If there are any other problems, please let me know.
I'm also open to any solutions you could suggest.
This is mostly for design issues, but you could mentions glitches too.

* UPDATE *
I just updated the game. August 21 2010
With this new version, does anybody still have difficulty with missions or the characters' names?
Last edited by humbird0 on August 28th, 2012, 7:08 am, edited 8 times in total.

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by Nemesis96669 » August 24th, 2010, 6:01 pm

For the name remembering problem you could try doing what the Japanese do use unusual(yet beautiful) names or the names of things/animals/places/states(for instance Princess peach/cloud/snake etc) Usual names like Lisa,Rebecca won't do (and when they do use usual names they have a small story behind them that will not let you forget her easily(something you don't have the luxury of doing in your games ofc)like Clair redfield in resident evil etc)...another thing you could do besides renaming them is use a kind of interface that has their "portraits" and the amount of jobs you've done for them...kind of hard to forget when you can easily open that interface and check(could be hell to program that though)

And for the hard to figure out part you could either have a NPC we can ask and tell us of the where he has last seen one of the girls (hard way would be to add choices like "have you seen"...."list of names to pick from" and then give you the appropriate answer like that "Oh, You are looking for *name * I think I saw her entering *place here with a small description"...I know... lot's of coding for small results that's why I told you it was the hard way)...the easy way would be to just add signs(like small exclamation mark clouds near or on top the place of interest)

I'm not all that good with coding so helping you with the other 4 problems would be kind of hard...though if you send me the script(should you want to trust me with it) I just might be able to track some inconsistencies or missing scripting...then again it's just a suggestion...

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by humbird0 » August 24th, 2010, 7:30 pm

So you're saying that the main problem is finding the missions themselves?
I was considering putting an exclamation mark over the people with missions for you.

The mission interface is a good idea.
It actually wouldn't be too hard to make.
And it'd also make it clear when a mission ends too.

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by Eluno » August 25th, 2010, 1:07 pm

Why not something like a Journal that serves as a reminder where to do and a Quest Log?

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by humbird0 » August 25th, 2010, 4:32 pm

So basically a way to see which missions are left, right?

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by Eluno » August 25th, 2010, 6:30 pm

No no, I mean a small window that says what quests your on and a general idea of where to go to advance said quest. For example...

--Blackwind City--
*** 1. Sally told me I need to go fetch her some bottles of soda at the store, I remember there was a new store on the corner that sold great, ice cold cokes..***

*** 2. I need to go pick up a gift for Mandy's party, I think I saw a really cute pair of shoes at the department store..***

See where I'm going? You divide quests up via location where you picked them up. If you need to travel out of the town to complete some, you can just have them as "World" quests with hints in the quest text on where to go next.

I'm trying to avoid the typical WoW styled quest window, as efficient as it is I really don't like to copy another's work...

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by Warzone » August 25th, 2010, 9:22 pm

I'd also like to mention that the game also randomly locks up during conversations with other characters.

I'm not quite sure why.

so far this has occurred during the first conversation where the girls coax Shelly into working for them.

the seen with the rat.

the 1st conversation after giving Shelly's sister the pencil.

and while talking to the girl that's hanging up clothes.

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by humbird0 » August 26th, 2010, 1:02 am

Here's the latest version: August 21 2010
http://www.4shared.com/file/SNci9rpB/ba ... -2010.html

(!) I fixed the freezing issues.
(!) Revised some code so the scan goggles work correctly with hidden object markers.
(+) Added a "task" menu that shows all the missions available and who offers them.
(+) People who have missions for you have $ icons over them.
(+) A "mission complete" message appears when a missions is... complete.
(-) Removed the save & load buttons for now, until I figure out how to fix the problem with them.
(~) Set quality setting to "low", which seems to make a difference for some people.

Bug: The petshop clerk vanishes right after completing a petshop mission.
Bug: Scan goggles only outline half of the town.
Last edited by humbird0 on August 28th, 2010, 10:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by XxDeceptionxX » August 26th, 2010, 3:11 pm

The lag is defenitely gone now. And it doesn´t randomly freeze annymore (I hopped over from ULMF to Toonchamp forums to tell you that, since I saw people complaining about you posting your stuff there.) Annyways I like the new additions to the interface. Just try not to make missions as easy as finding a mission, that would take the whole point of playing a game away. ( :

Oh and since I am already here, The goggles mission isn't finished yet right? Since there is nothing in the hidden cave. I still can't repeat enough how much I like your plots and fantasy haha.

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by tilley » August 27th, 2010, 9:59 pm

No more freezing going on here. Haven't had any other bugs happen so runnign well from my POV

Also does appear to be running much more swiftly.

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by Wav3_CrackeR » October 2nd, 2010, 2:13 am

I think ive found a bug here :-\ After doing the quest "neighbours scheme" the character spawns into a tree on the left side of the screen and you cannot move away ... so youll have to restart the game. :'(

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by dergrubben » October 2nd, 2010, 7:32 am

Wav3_CrackeR wrote:I think ive found a bug here :-\ After doing the quest "neighbours scheme" the character spawns into a tree on the left side of the screen and you cannot move away ... so youll have to restart the game. :'(
In the new version, any quest that automatically spawns the character in some location has been sticking her in walls for me. The two I can think of offhand are the neighbor's scheme one and the new one with the two boys.


Another issue is with the "magic show," where the screen fades to white when she gets hypnotized and never comes back.


...


As a final note, didn't the previous version have the option to save? It would be nice to have that option again, particularly with the glitches that require restart.

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by humbird0 » October 2nd, 2010, 7:55 am

The teleport problem is fixed now.
I removed the save-load buttons because they didn't restore things properly. (The HUD would be missing)

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by Wav3_CrackeR » October 2nd, 2010, 8:02 am

humbird0 wrote:The teleport problem is fixed now.
I removed the save-load buttons because they didn't restore things properly. (The HUD would be missing)
Thats good :D now is the new added quest with the magic show getting looked into or isnt it finnished yet? I keep getting a white screen with sex sounds :P

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Re: Babysitter's Club 2 - Design Problems & Improvements

Post by humbird0 » October 2nd, 2010, 3:45 pm

Okay, I've fixed the fading problem, and uploaded the new version.
I also added a debug menu that'll allow you to jump to missions quickly. (and cheat)
Just read the text file about how to use it.

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