The Mansion (WIP)

Your one-time friend summoned you to his mansion with an urgent request, only to betray you. Now you’re trapped in a place where monsters roam the halls, hints of gruesome secrets unveil themselves at every turn, and your escape is barred by traps and puzzles. Your only hope is to search for the keys to your freedom…

…and survive the dark secrets of The Mansion.


Hello everyone! My first ChoiceScript game has at last reached the point where I felt I was ready to share a demo. If you want to enter the demo blind, just use the link below. If you’d like a little more information, read on!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/8uzysus3g9613yt/The%20Mansion%20demo.html

There are a couple of things specific to the demo. First, you’re blocked from going upstairs, which won’t be the case in the full game. Second, the demo ends at the main doors, so it’s possible to hit the ending before you check all of the accessible rooms, if you choose to check the main doors early on.

“The Mansion” is a working title. I don’t think it’s a very interesting title, but I couldn’t think of anything better. Suggestions are welcomed. :smile:

Even though this is a text-based game, I’ve brought my love of survival horror into it. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call it a survival horror game, but I hope some of the core elements are there.

All right, let me know all your comments/questions/problems/etc. Have at it!

Update: I’ve updated the demo to fix all of the issues caught so far.

I’m aware of the infinite first aid kit glitch. I’m also going to make memos visible from the stats screen and make combat a bit quicker.

1 Like

Pretty cool, reminds me a lot of some classic spooky interactive fiction. I tried a few different times, but I kept getting killed by the darkness eventually. Still I got to check out a lot of the rooms (kitchen, bathroom). I love horror so I really like the atmosphere and the inventory is pretty neat.

One possible bug: I killed the creature guarding the dresser and then next description of the room referred to a creature still there. Also, one little note: maybe emphasize more when we acquire the medicine bottles. I sort of missed it the first time through, since we just picked it up automatically without making a Choice to pick them up.

Anyway, keep it up! I’m super intrigued!

It seems like an interesting recreation of the old quest video games.

Can you, please, post here the code of the battles?

I like this so far :smirk: It has this survival horror feel to it and I definitely enjoyed the game play. Playing around the surroundings to either hide or examine stuff is great. The tiny puzzles are fun and the poem? Was it a poem at all? :flushed:

Anyway I do hope the story has more twists and turns to make it more exciting :yum: The best part of this is that I think your MC is supposed to be helpless so that those creatures chasing you around will have an emotional impact to your MC :smiling_imp:

Hope you continue with this interesting story.

Thanks for your feedback so far, guys! :smiley:

@sandwoman, do you think the darkness killed you because of the medicine bottle issue? (That is, if it was emphasized more strongly that you’d picked up healing items, would you have been able to heal and survive the encounter?)
I originally considered making it a choice to pick up the medicine bottles, but I couldn’t think of a way to do that without creating a variable for each individual one.
I’ve checked the code for the monster guarding the dresser, and I haven’t been able to replicate the bug. I did notice a problem, though, where if you entered the room, didn’t turn on the flashlight, and left, the door would be locked again. I fixed that.
Other than kill the monster, what did you do before the bug occurred?
(I did get to fight the shadow creature several times while trying to find the problem, and maybe I should tone down the difficulty of that encounter a little.)

@Mayday, sure, no problem. The battles are in their own scene files, accessed with gosub_scene.

*set monsterhealth 30
*if distance <=0
	*goto creatureturn
*label fight
*choice
	*selectable_if (equipped) #Fight!
		You attack!
		*rand damage 0 10
		*page_break
		*if (damage >=6)
			*set monsterhealth -(weaponpower + 5)
			Great attack!
			*label monster_check
			*if monsterhealth > 0
				*label creatureturn
				The creature lunges for you!
				*rand damage 0 10
				*page_break
				*if (damage = 10)
					*set health -10
					It sinks its claws in deep, and your blood flies.
					*label health_check
					*if health > 0
						*goto fight
					*else
						*goto_scene death
				*elseif (damage = 9)
					*set health -7
					Its vicious attack makes you cry out.
					*goto health_check
				*elseif (damage >=1) and (damage <=8)
					*set health -5
					Its claws scrape you.
					*goto health_check
				*else
					Thank goodness, it missed.
					*goto fight
			*else
				The ${minormonster} falls to the ground with a hideous screech.
				*set monsterdeaths +1
				*return
		*elseif (damage >=1) and (damage <=5)
			*set monsterhealth -(weaponpower)
			Your blow cuts the creature.
			*goto monster_check
		*else
			Miss!
			*goto creatureturn
	#Open Inventory
		*gosub_scene items
		The creature slinks toward you.
		*goto fight
	#Run!
		You make a break for it.
		*rand escape 0 100
		*page_break
		*if (escape >=21)
			*return
		*if (escape <=20)
			You race away as fast as you can...but you aren't fast enough!
			*goto creatureturn

@Aera, I made up the poem.
I’m working on ideas for more twists and turns as the game goes on. The shadow encounter was a recent addition–it wasn’t in my original plans, but I wanted to add in something to shake things up once the player began to feel comfortable with the mansion. (I was thinking about how the original Resident Evil introduces the Hunters partway through, or how Silent Hill 4 removes the room’s healing properties.)

@SamLienhard Thank you very much. I didn’t know ChoiceScript could do that.

You’re welcome!

Yes, at first it doesn’t seem as though a battle system would work in ChoiceScript, but it’s at least possible for a basic system like this. I’m sure more complex ones are possible, too. I think I remember seeing a post where someone had breakable weapons in their game, so that after so many attacks, the weapon would become unusable.

Here’s what I’m referring to:

I’m in the room with the creature guarding the dresser. I approach and kill the creature. Then I go to my inventory to examine the medallion. THEN when I leave my inventory the description of the room says
“There is a door to your left. To your right, the baleful eyes of a [creature] glow. You try not to disturb it with the beam of light, but you catch a quick glimpse of a small dresser behind the creature.”
Now I no longer have the option to approach the creature or anything, but it’s weird that it’s still “there”.

That all said. I’ve gotten a lot further in the game today (solving the candle puzzle, living through the darkness encounter, opening the combination locked door) and trying to save often. :slight_smile: I really like the puzzle solving aspects.

That description reminds me of splatter house except it’s your best friend. Or maybe Amnesia.

@sandwoman Thanks! My code was sending players back to the description of the room after they opened their inventory, instead of just to the choice.

I’m glad the puzzles are being well-received. :slight_smile: I’m glad you’ve used the save system, too. Does that seem to work as it should?

@Dark_Stalker It’s possible some Amnesia influences crept in. I liked that game. :smiley:

@SamLienhard I really liked the silent hill games. Not the movie adaptations those I kinda don’t hate nor like. :smile:

The silent hill “The room” has a hidden healing when you stand near a holy candle :grin: You can try to make simple items into something else while the MC doesn’t know about its properties. Take the strange bottles; one could attract the monsters while the other repels them? Anyway that’s only random thoughts on me. :smirk:

@Aera I love Silent Hill! I’ve never seen the movies.

Ah, I remember using the Holy Candle on Eileen and racing through the halls to try to reach the final battle before the candle’s effects ended…

Hmm, it would be interesting to have more items with effects.

All right, I fixed the issues players caught in the demo so far, and updated the link above.
(Alternately: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/8uzysus3g9613yt/The%20Mansion%20demo.html)

I also added a small achievement system.

i like that there is a memo pad, but it is kind of useless if you can’t access it through the stats-screen directly.
when i went to the candle room i made a memo of the poem and when it asked me what order to light them in i couldn’t access the memo pad because it wasn’t one of the choices.

Ah, good point.
On the other hand, I considered making the poem visible during each step of the puzzle. Hmm…

@SamLienhard Yay! Another silent hill liker :smiley: I really don’t recommend the movies. If you really are curious about the movie adaptations then watch it, but be warned to be disappointed :worried:

The thing about having the items with hidden effects could be a puzzle. Or a simple move of the MC with a certain object. Like if you’re inside a room you have an option to lock the door and a certain scene will be trigger, but if you don’t lock the room. No scene will be trigger :smiley:

I do agree that the memo should be accessible since I think you want it to be something like a guide of notes for your MC? :confused:

@Aera I heard enough about the first movie to decide it deviated from the plot enough to annoy me. I’ve heard the second one is better, but when I saw what they did to Vincent, my interest diminished. xD

Hmm, yes, those are possibilities.
I’ve also decided that instead of fixing the infinite first aid glitch, I’m going to put a curse on players who abuse it. :stuck_out_tongue:

Yes, I think I’ll make the memos visible from the stats screen.

In addition to making those changes (not to the demo yet, though), I also discovered that I never made key items go away once used. It never came up in the demo, but it would definitely be an issue in the full game.

gosub_scene…?

How long have we been able to do that!? That’s way better than what I was planning to do in my own wip. Uhg… I need to find a proper collection of script commands. I wonder what else I’m missing.

Gotta say, like the game. Its got kind of an old school horror game feel too it. Very Resident Evil 1-ish, and I mean that in a good way.

One thing I might point out, it does feel like there’s a little too much back-and-forth in the combat. There’s no depth in it, which is more noticeable because it tends to drag on. Making the combat shorter might improve the player’s experience, either by making attacks more damaging (from both the player and the monster), or making both the player and monster have less health.

Either way, combat ends sooner but its otherwise unchanged. You’d be losing the same amount of health per fight, but wouldn’t have to go as many rounds. A faster experience, but you don’t have to fear your game play balance being thrown for a loop.