Barren – Finally released!

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Yeah. I thought it would never happen. The crap I started having trying to pack this game. But that's all (I hope) behind me.

Barren is finally here. The game that sucked up half of my game dev life.

Download (Windows): http://lachie.phatcode.net/Downloads/Barren_v12.zip (16.6 MB)
Download (Linux): http://hmcsoft.org/fb/barren_v12_linux.tar.bz2 (15.4 MB)

Screenshots:


Game webpage: http://lachie.phatcode.net/barren.php

Anyway, this is classic point and click adventure game played through the eyes of the player (scene by scene movement). It's placed in a SF-phantasmagoria type of setting where you play a person of unknown origin stranded in a strange dreamlike place. It’s a relatively short adventure game, but features a fair of amount of cut scenes and cool atmosphere.

The project was started long time ago during 2002 (as a QB program) without a clear goal, which resulted in several aspect of the game being quite clumsy. The source code passed through several overhauls, and the final version of the scripting system was a nightmare to manage. Probably a wiser game dev would kill this project long time ago. But not me. I'm a nurturing mother-like game designer.

I love my children. While others would abort it, I bore this monster in my womb, gave birth to it, and taught it to crawl, then walk, and then speak. Others would walk away from it, I didn’t. So you will forgive certain improper features my child has.

Due its long development process a lot of people entered and left the project which resulted in a large amount of gfx/sound resource being done for the game, and I'm quite proud on that part of the project. Josiah did some great stuff with several cut scenes graphics, and his awesome music accompanies most of the game. He came last to the project and practically saved it. Zamaster too did his share of music tracks which are equally great. Na_th_an’s early work on the fake OS shouldn't be missed too.

Also, beta testers did a great work on improving the game so one more thank to them.

Anyway, download the game if curious and be so kind to post some feedback. A walkthrough with few Easter egg clues will be delivered to people who email me with kind words and with a proof they actually tried to complete the game.

Cheers!

[hexdude!]

Cool, I've just started, but I'm enjoying it so far, especially the ambiance and cut scenes.

P.s. If anyone has linux FMOD troubles poke me for a while.

[Pritchard]

Lachie already knows I think this game is beautiful, but I'm not sure everyone else does.  This is just a great game, through and through.

[BadMrBox]

Oh, downloading.

[BadMrBox]

Oh, downloading.

Finished it. I'm not sure I did absolutely everything there is to do but I finished it . Fun stuff.

[dabooda]

My plans where to simply download this and play a bit to give you a good evaluation. Well that was an hour and a half ago. I couldn't stop and probably wouldn't have if I didn't become hopelessly stuck(stupid android). I love it, great job. The graphics, music, atmosphere and challenge all work nicely. I will now go back to playing it. I will never be able to make a game up to this standard, really great job.

DaBooda out...

P.S. I'm not ashamed of being stuck, but you suck anyways for beating it mr.you-know-who-you-are.

[nkk_kan]

Awesome game
i love the graphics and ambience..they create the perfect environment

I'm stuck there too, dabooda <SPOILER>(darn the androids!)</SPOILER>
and Badmrbox finished it in one and half hours?!?!?! O.O

[BadMrBox]

Yeah, I did . I'm not going to give you any hints thought

[Hezad]

Rah finally !! I have to go out right now but I'll Download it and play this evening !

[nkk_kan]

no hints? darn

<SPOILER>
btw i killed the android! >=)
</SPOILER>

Ps Lachie, a simple graphic glitch! (yeah.. kill me )

when you open Pong.exe in the computer, the monitor at the back becomes enlarged
and stays that way even after i close the pong game.

[BadMrBox]

when you open Pong.exe in the computer, the monitor at the back becomes enlarged
and stays that way even after i close the pong game. Tongue

Damn, I forgot to mention that. Besides that - the pong game was kinda... eh, hard.

[hexdude!]

Hrm, I just finished it, but I'm convinced that I haven't done everything.

Anywhoo, what's with the pouring out spolilers into this thread?

[Hezad]

Arf this is simply awesome !! And I'm already stucked in the game ^^ I won't ask any help of course

Some things I noticed though : Sound is awfully hum.. clippy (hope you see what I mean) on my computer :s

And a last remark about gameplay :

(Warning spoiler for those who didn't play yet)

[Spoiler]

NO SPOILER hehe

[/spoiler]

Still, rah, it's exactly as I thought : AWESOME !! (and i'm just at the beginning )
And the musics are as awesome as the game really really cool.
Congrats to all people which worked for this game

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Thanks a lot people for all the kind words. I wasn't expecting such raving comments on the game.

I'm really happy to see that most of you made some progress in the game, and got stuck on different places.

Thanks for pointing out another bug nkk. I will fix it. I didn't have the patience to test the game in Scale2X very thoroughly on my PC much as it runs slow in that mode for me. Anyway, it's a Scale2X glitch. Will be fixed in few days when I'm sure I got all the bugs listed.

To Hezad:
Hezad, you should be able to ask questions about Torn only if you read the poster. So you prolly missed that. Nevertheless, I'll double check my code.

Any yes, could you folks please turn down on spoilers. It's a short game. Thanks.

What I forgot to say in the original thread, I will probably take a break from game design after this game. It's not that it didn't happen before, but this is the first time I'm making a conscious decision. Some 2-4 months I'm not starting anything. I'll concentrate on FBGD depending on how much my free time allows.

[Hezad]

Oh.. okay I understand, my brain didn't got the message :p Sorry for the spoiler, I'm getting it off right now