Stolen - a morbid adventure game

[PseudoFanboy]

Hidden Tunnel presents​

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a morbid adventure game​

 
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle
Engine: RPG Maker VX Ace
 
Premise
 
A young boy wakes up in the middle of the night for reasons he does not know. Soon he finds that his sister has been taken from her room while the rest of the family slept. The boy leaves the house to find her on his own, following an ominous trail through the nearby woods and into a clearing, where he finds a secluded house she must have been taken into. Soon enough, though, the secrets of the house and the missing girl are thrown into question and mystery, and as the boy ventures deeper into the house and the secrets below its very foundations the truth becomes something far worse than anyone could have imagined.

'Stolen' puts the player in control of the young, unnamed boy. The player explores the game world consisting of 3 main 'Acts', not including the first puzzle-less 'prologue' areas (Act 0), inspecting objects and solving puzzles to further progress through the world. A lot of the puzzles in 'Stolen' require clues or items found in different places, so exploration is an important element of play. Even seemingly innocuous objects may have a clue attached to them, so the player is taught early on not to leave stones unturned.
The game features a prompt-based approach to Item usage, asking the player to make the choice as to what they should use to solve the puzzles. Just because you have the Key, you don't automatically unlock the door. Some Items may even need to be combined in the inventory before a puzzle can be solved, although this is only in rare cases. Some puzzles (even rarer) do not provide a prompt, and Items must be used from the inventory in the right place to solve them.

'Stolen' features a multiple-ending system. Depending on how the 'final puzzle' is solved and the player's actions thereafter, the young boy will meet a different fate, one in which his sister may not even be saved. One ending requires the player to have found all of a particular collectible to be triggered. It is this ending that unlocks 'Stolen+ Mode', where the game can be replayed with several new, lower-scale puzzles are scattered throughout the world which, when solved, unlock the 'Final Act' to play after the player achieves the correct ending in that mode. It is recommended that the player first play through 'Stolen' to completion before focussing on such elements.
 
Screenshots
 

Spoiler

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"Features"

• Solve puzzles to explore the world and discover the secrets of the house and beyond
• Find Diary Entries, Drawings and Epilogues to unravel the story
• Assorted minigame puzzles
• 5 Endings in total ('Fools', 'Guilty', 'Tragic', 'Martyred', 'True') plus one secret Final Act
• Cheat code system
• 'Stolen+ Mode'

Download

• Mediafire
• Mediafire (inc. RTP)
• 'Stolen' GameJolt page

Credits

Some resources are by other RPGVXAce users.

Graphics: Rainbow Jellow, Recife (rpgmakervxace.net). Celianna (forums.rpgmakerweb.com)
Scripting: Shaz (forums.rpgmakerweb.com)
Music: Gyro, Aaron Krogh (soundcloud.com). E330, inchadney (freesound.org).

Full credits are available in the Manual.

 

[cabfe]

I've tried your demo and here is my feedback:

No music?
No intro? That's kinda blunt to start this way. Who am I? Where am I?

First map is really dark. I can't even see the cupboard, only its upper side.

Opening the door with a Close sound effect is strange. Maybe you should add an Open sound first, Wait some frames then Close.

Corridor:
Still no music... and still very dark.
A framed photo of two children... when the tile shows only one. I know it can be difficult to get the right tile for your need, but you can always add a free image from the internet and resize it to be used as a tile.

Portrait of the family: same thing.
Well, all the portraits are affected.

I cannot run?

Exterior of the house: it's big, maybe a 1:1 scale? Since I cannot run it takes a long time to walk to the other side of the house.
The house is only 1 tile high?

When I get back inside the house, I still can hear the night sound.
Oups, a game breaker bug.
How to replicate:
-Go outside
-Go inside (with the sound effect remaining)
-Go outside again -> everything is completely black.

Got to the forest and didn't find a passage. I don't even know why I should go this far into a forest at night. There's something like blood on the ground. I don't believe a young boy would go alone like that, especially since there is a "sleeping person" inside the house who can help me. (Never wander into a forest alone!)

I quit there.

About the descriptions:
It's good to have them. But it's better to have something more than just "it's a fireplace" or "it's a sink". I can see that already. You did add some more text for other stuff, try to find something for everything.

I can't say much of the game's story since I didn't get to see a lot, sorry.

 

[TeaPatti]

hello~ 

I tried your game but I got stuck in the forest, I think I'm supposed to follow those blood patches right?

I got stuck at two near eachother the 4th and the 5th counting the one you start on. I've found no possible way of going around that row of trees there.

And like cabfe said, it's very dark in the house and walking from the house to the forest kind of makes me lose focus of the story.

 

[Bonkers]

Okay had I not read the manual I'd be totally lost.  I have no direction in game or anything telling me what to do or where to go.

 

I suspect this will be entirely exploration based. I try to leave and it tells me not without the notebook.  That was rather abrupt.  If something

is this necessary, I should at least be told to take it before leaving without the game stopping me from exploring without it.  It's contradicting to the no given direction wanting me to explore.  I just got bottle necked.

 

It's a bed.  Thanks for that.  I don't think this boy has what it takes to save his sister.  Does it even mention at all if he heard sounds or that

the sister screamed, or fought or anything?  I fell we missed a big part of the story.  Since this is a complete game I'm already feeling like

something is left out.  why are there so many written descriptions of useless items which do nothing to add inventory or help solve puzzles?  They aren't helping the atmosphere either.

 

 

Okay the notebook is used to save, which is done through the item screen rather than the menu.  I don't see the point.

This adds a level of extra work to save a game, which doesn't really add anything to the experience.  Why would a little boy be writting all this down when he is suppose to be chasing his sister's assailants.

 

I am going to ask a very obvious questions, "Why doesn't the little boy call the cops?".  Nothing is explained.  Can he get his parents to help?  Does he 

even have parents?  I am not even out of the room yet and there are so many questions and things left out.

 

Alright there is too much blood for the little girl to be alive, and this kid isn't panicking.  He isn't doing anything.  Was the door left open, did the 

kidnapper or whatever break into the house?  Okay the drawing #3 helps a little, the person entered through the window.  Again though, how did the little girl draw

the picture, put it in the drawer, and then go back to bed without getting blood on the crayon drawing?

 

Child Mutism, should be Child Autism.  Okay so they are Autistic patients in a facility.  Why didn't security do anything?  Where is everyone else? Usually children with advanced autism cannot write or draw, so I am not getting why the drawings or the notebook other than to tell parts of the story you cannot show with cut scenes.

 

The book cases in the back of the study room are backwards.  Even in the very dark tint I can see books opposite the wall.

 

somebody is sleeping there.  Okay who?  Can I wake them up to help me?  I am quite sure if I can write, I can write down please help my sister was

possibly killed and kidnapped.

 

Okay bug 1 enter and exit house, total darkness.  Game cannot be played.

I cannot dash.  This hurts the experience because there are a lot of items I need to try and interact with, and there is dead space where I need to travel

between those objects.

 

 

Of the three events describing the piano, keys is in yellow only in the middle one.  I cannot interact or play it, and the mundane descriptions aren't helping me discern anything.  The only thing stolen so far is my time.  

 

This house is enormous and extremely short.

 

I'm starting to think after playing this we need some better quality control, like 3 approved members need to play your game and discern for ourselves it's finished to allow it into the completed games gallery.  Something like this is an early concept at best.

 

"There are more pressing matters at hand" doesn't tell me why I cannot explore a region.  Doing this kills your game, because it is exploration based.

 

This little girl has lost enough blood for a full grown adult.  

 

The path in the forest ends in so many dead ends, and there is no path to the next pool of blood.

I cannot exit the forest once I enter.

No path but the forest can be entered, all these other supposed entrances or transitions all end in "There are more pressing matters at hand".

That's it, the game cannot continue from here.

 

I'm sorry, but in it's current state this doesn't belong in the completed games directory.

 

[PseudoFanboy]

While I'm obviously a little disheartened at these reactions, I'm also very glad to have received them. Any one of these responses is more useful on its own than the feedback I got from the entire work-in-progress topic I'd previously posted. My disappointment rests not so much on the negativity but rather that it wasn't expressed before I tried to take this thing to Completed.

I'd respond to each issue and explain the reasons why certain design choices were made, but if the questions exist at all I guess the desired effect/element wasn't made clear enough at all. I'll try to work on the issues presented and hopefully come back with a better, more finished project.

I appreciate the feedback and apologise for the issues I overlooked.

 

[Bonkers]

While I'm obviously a little disheartened at these reactions, I'm also very glad to have received them. Any one of these responses is more useful on its own than the feedback I got from the entire work-in-progress topic I'd previously posted. My disappointment rests not so much on the negativity but rather that it wasn't expressed before I tried to take this thing to Completed.

I'd respond to each issue and explain the reasons why certain design choices were made, but if the questions exist at all I guess the desired effect/element wasn't made clear enough at all. I'll try to work on the issues presented and hopefully come back with a better, more finished project.

I appreciate the feedback and apologise for the issues I overlooked.

For what it's worth I am willing to work with you to better the game.  Come what may, games are meant to be enjoyed.  I am glad you are willing to work to better it.