Bobby and Nina are dared by their friends Tiffany and Billy to go into an abandoned mansion or risk being "losers for life." It all seems like fun and games at first until little Nina gets lost. As Bobby searches for his sister, he discovers a floating doll with a diabolical plot... and a taste for blood.
Will Bobby and Nina make it out of the mansion alive? What kinds of horrors await them inside? And how did this mysterious and murderous Dollie come to be? The answers lie within The Mansion... if you can survive.
Characters: Bobby Age: 10 The game's protagonist and playable character, Bobby is a young boy full of curiosity. He cares deeply for his younger sister, even if he doesn't always show it, and would do anything to protect her from the clutches of the crazed Dollie.
Nina Age: 8 Bobby's younger sister. Nina is a very hyper little girl who tends to get major mood swings. She loves making friends and is easily persuaded, which makes her an easy target for Dollie.
Tiffany Age: 11 A friend of Bobby and Nina. Tiffany is somewhat stuck-up and arrogant, and she loves making herself feel superior. She sends Bobby and Nina into the mansion on a dare.
Billy Age: 11 Tiffany's twin brother. Billy is a fun-loving kid, which is the only reason he gets involved in Tiffany's constant dares.
Dollie Age: Unknown A mysterious floating doll that Bobby encounters in the mansion. Her appearance is creepy enough, and it doesn't help that she wants to kill anybody who walks into the mansion. Her origins are unknown.
Screenshots: The title screen.
A screen from the game's opening cutscene. Tiffany's a bit of a bully, isn't she?
Exploring the dark, creepy mansion with Nina.
Meeting Dollie. She totally doesn't want to stab you in the face or anything.
Features: Ccoa's Ultimate Message System with face graphics to make the cutscenes more engaging.
An adventure game-like experience with a few pinches of horror.
A total of six different endings to unlock.
Music and sound effects from Clock Tower: The First Fear, Rule of Rose, and Haunting Ground.
A very persistent pursuer who won't stop chasing you until you manage to throw her off.
Hold down Shift to run! Yay!
A self/partner talk system that allows you to review your objectives.
Credits: A HUGE thank you goes out to the following people:
Kouji Niikura and Kaori Takazoe for the Clock Tower music and sound effects.
Yutaka Minobe for the Rule of Rose music.
Seiko Kobuchi for the Haunting Ground music.
Enterbrain, for creating such a wonderful game-making system to work with.
Ccoa, for creating the Ultimate Message System (UMS) used in this game.
Eric of Mimesong, for putting together the Ultimate Tilesets.
Reone662, for the Caterpillar script that makes Nina less spastic when she follows you.
arevulopapo, for the footstep script.
Night_Runner, for the energy script that doesn't freeze the game.
D. Lord, for the window skin.
Kyo-kun, for being a huge help in several areas, including mapping the study and making the title screen.
Gozaru, for the face graphics.
... And you, for playing this!
Notes: The menu is still your standard RPG fare even though there's nothing to equip, no status issues, etc. I'm not quite sure how to simplify this.
The couches in the lounge clip over Bobby's head when you stand under them. I could fix this, but then Bobby would be over the couch when you tried to sit down. (And yes, I've tried fixing their priority in the tileset. It doesn't work.)
The footsteps are not synched. I have no idea how to fix this.
This post has been edited by Alicia Jewel: Apr 27 2012, 03:58 PM
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Okay, I'm going to do something I swore to NEVER do again: I'm going to post a beta version of 1.3 in the downloads section while keeping 1.2 up just in case something goes wrong. I haven't been able to get anyone to test this besides myself, and I think we all know by now how unreliable of a game tester I am. (I'm so lonely. T_T)
So, yeah, as usual, let me know if there are any bugs, if you have any suggestions, etc. I've been getting some ideas from other sources, so I might experiment with those while this little beta's going on. That partially depends on how busy I will be in the next couple of weeks with finals going on.
EDIT: Almost forgot! List of fixes!
Normal Fixes:
The tutorial should now display in normal Start
Fixed a lot of lighting and freezing errors in cutscenes
Fixed some fading issues between rooms
Delilah's room shouldn't get darker when you rescue Nina
HOPEFULLY, health not going down has been fixed now
Spoiler Fixes
Nina will no longer jump in front of you when you rescue her from the basement
The cage door should no longer disappear
You'll no longer talk about trap doors every time you enter a trap door
You are no longer able to enter Delilah's room during the finale
This post has been edited by Alicia Jewel: Apr 27 2012, 04:01 PM
Hey I just played the game and I think it's a great concept with wonderful story. I got a bit stuck, but I'll try and get past that.
My Observations:
Really good characterizations, clear characters
The fact that you can interact with everything is nice, makes it interactive
Gameplay-wise, though, everything is too spaced out. You take too long to get anywhere, and there are too many items, making it a case of "let's just try interacting with every single object until something happens", which isn't fun
Probably should have save disabled, with save points. Being able to save or pause in the middle of a chase breaks the tension.
Dolly really freaks me out, so you've succeeded in the "horror" bit.
As you noted earlier, health and stamina have bugs. My health doesn't go down at all when she attacks me, neither on the bar nor my actual health. So I never die.
When I used the poker on the furnace, I wasn't clear what happened. Did I stab her? did she disappear? What happened? It was overall confusing.
Right now I'm stuck at the part where she gets out of the bathroom. I've tried interacting with everything from that row of rooms, but I'm gonna try the first row of rooms next.
So yeah, if anyone knows how to get past that, including the developer, let me know.
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QUOTE (thatbennyguy @ Apr 28 2012, 05:28 AM)
Hey I just played the game and I think it's a great concept with wonderful story. I got a bit stuck, but I'll try and get past that.
My Observations:
Really good characterizations, clear characters
The fact that you can interact with everything is nice, makes it interactive
Gameplay-wise, though, everything is too spaced out. You take too long to get anywhere, and there are too many items, making it a case of "let's just try interacting with every single object until something happens", which isn't fun
Probably should have save disabled, with save points. Being able to save or pause in the middle of a chase breaks the tension.
Dolly really freaks me out, so you've succeeded in the "horror" bit.
As you noted earlier, health and stamina have bugs. My health doesn't go down at all when she attacks me, neither on the bar nor my actual health. So I never die.
When I used the poker on the furnace, I wasn't clear what happened. Did I stab her? did she disappear? What happened? It was overall confusing.
Right now I'm stuck at the part where she gets out of the bathroom. I've tried interacting with everything from that row of rooms, but I'm gonna try the first row of rooms next.
So yeah, if anyone knows how to get past that, including the developer, let me know.
*pops her fingers* Okie-dokie, let's take this one point at a time.
Awesome! One of my biggest focuses in this game was character creation and development, so I'm glad you like them.
Haha, part of that was compulsion. I figured that just having some things that gave responses when you interacted with them would be confusing and frustrating, so I went ahead and added reactions to pretty much everything you can look at/touch.
That was actually one thing I had been hoping to fix with the "item sparklies," but I can see it hasn't entirely worked. Which parts can you think of that you really had trouble/frustration with?
In the original beta, I tried to make it so that you were unable to save during chases, but that proved to bug out a lot and make it so you couldn't save period. I'll consider save points, but first I need to think of where I would put them. (Putting them in the clocks like in Haunting Ground would be too easy, eh? )
You have no idea how much that makes me happy. I did everything in my power to make Dollie as creepy as possible, and it makes me outright GIDDY when people are scared of her! I kind of wish I could have done voice acting for this to add some creepy giggles, at least, but that might be more trouble than it's worth.
I REALLY don't know what could be wrong with the health system. I've tested it over and over again, but I've never had any problems with it. Are you playing 1.2 or 1.3 beta?
Yeah, you pretty much stab at her with a hot poker. (Though considering that she's nothing more than an animated doll, that might not make a WHOLE lot of sense, but work with me.) I couldn't figure out a convincing way to code that, especially with the random nature of Dollie's movements, so I chose to just black it out.
How are you stuck? Can you not interact with anything, or can you not find a hiding place? Or are you not sure what to do next? (In which case, a better idea of where you are in the game would be helpful because there's quite a bit to do on the second floor.)
Like I've said before, posts like yours make my day as a game maker. It helps me see what parts of my game that people like and what parts could use improvement.
[*]That was actually one thing I had been hoping to fix with the "item sparklies," but I can see it hasn't entirely worked. Which parts can you think of that you really had trouble/frustration with?
Oh, I didn't really see the sparkles on items. So the sparkles are the interaction points? Because I just thought you had to interact with every object until you find the right one :S
QUOTE
I'll consider save points, but first I need to think of where I would put them. (Putting them in the clocks like in Haunting Ground would be too easy, eh? )
I think that's a great idea. But up to you.
QUOTE
I kind of wish I could have done voice acting for this to add some creepy giggles, at least, but that might be more trouble than it's worth.
Nah, it's pretty scary as is. It reminds me of Resident Evil, back in the days when you didn't have a gun and just had to run away from zombies. The horror genre has been dissipated in this way, that's why I like the game Amnesia: Dark Descent. So well done on the horror aspect.
QUOTE
[*]I REALLY don't know what could be wrong with the health system. I've tested it over and over again, but I've never had any problems with it. Are you playing 1.2 or 1.3 beta?
I was playing 1.3 beta. So yeah, that might be it. I'll try 1.2 when I get home.
QUOTE
[*]How are you stuck? Can you not interact with anything, or can you not find a hiding place? Or are you not sure what to do next? (In which case, a better idea of where you are in the game would be helpful because there's quite a bit to do on the second floor.)
Hmm, I wasn't quite sure about the notion of finding a "hiding place". Like, do I hide in a cabinet and wait til she's gone, or what? She just came out of the bathroom, just so you know, so I've just been rushing around the rooms, trying to interact with every furniture in sight. Maybe I don't *get* the game? I didn't see the tutorial either (probably coz it was the 1.3 beta version, or I downloaded an earlier copy), so I kinda just made up my own rules
So yeah, I'll surely play through it again when I get back home, and look for the sparkly things. Probably I should try the 1.2 version as well, to see if the health problems persist. Because she literally attacked me, like, 500 times and I didn't die.
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First of all, sorry I took so long to respond. I had finals week to worry about, and I've spent the past few days trying to reset my brain after all that studying.
QUOTE (thatbennyguy @ Apr 30 2012, 03:19 PM)
Oh, I didn't really see the sparkles on items. So the sparkles are the interaction points? Because I just thought you had to interact with every object until you find the right one :S
Are they really that hard to see? I could probably change their animation cycle to be longer if that will make them easier to see... or maybe I could try to make them brighter.
QUOTE
I was playing 1.3 beta. So yeah, that might be it. I'll try 1.2 when I get home.
1.3 beta was actually supposed to fix the health issues, but apparently it hasn't worked. I'm just about ready to throw in the towel on the health system and revert to the very first version: if Dollie hits you, you die! But that would really suck, wouldn't it? :/
QUOTE
Hmm, I wasn't quite sure about the notion of finding a "hiding place". Like, do I hide in a cabinet and wait til she's gone, or what? She just came out of the bathroom, just so you know, so I've just been rushing around the rooms, trying to interact with every furniture in sight. Maybe I don't *get* the game? I didn't see the tutorial either (probably coz it was the 1.3 beta version, or I downloaded an earlier copy), so I kinda just made up my own rules
You're supposed to be able to interact with certain objects while Dollie is chasing you (but NOT while she's in the room) so you can hide. These spots are listed in the guide alongside the evasion points, most of which you DO use while she's in the room with you. I've had an issue in the past where some hiding places were bugged and froze the game--is that giving you issue? I'd highly recommend playing Clock Tower: The First Fear if you can get your hands on it for an idea of what this is like. If you like Amnesia, then you'll probably like CT.
One thing I was thinking of doing was also adding sparklies for hiding places while Dollie is chasing you or for evasion points when you can use them. But seeing as how apparently the sparklies are hard to see, I'm not sure how much that would help.
You're supposed to be able to interact with certain objects while Dollie is chasing you (but NOT while she's in the room) so you can hide. These spots are listed in the guide alongside the evasion points, most of which you DO use while she's in the room with you.
Oh, OK. I didn't really get the concept of the game... I wasn't sure how to hide from her? But I guess you can hide in cabinets and stuff or hide around corners. I was just flailing around trying to find the next checkpoint, really, no hiding involved But yeah I get it now. Hopefully I'll be able to play again sometime soon, but I'm bogged down with assignments as of late. I will play again and try to hide this time
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The Mansion, A Clock Tower-inspired survival-horror game
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