The HangZone Game Studio is still working hard. Since the release of Spelldom in 2015, we have been focusing more on contract work and enterprise app development, but the creative juices are always flowing. Escape & Avenge was a project that we began in late 2016. We have tinkered with the game on and off since then, and we believe that it’s a special game you will really enjoy.
Escape & Avenge will be released in the App Store worldwide on April 4, 2018. To help you understand the game, this is the App Description from the App Store:
You’re trapped in the dungeon of a medieval town. The king imprisoned you and killed the wizard—your magical friend and accomplice—for trying to overthrow the crown. At least that’s what the note on the wall says. You can’t remember anything, including who you are or how you got here. Can you escape the dungeon, return to the castle, and avenge your friend’s death? Escape and Avenge is an unconventional text-based adventure that reimagines the genre for mobile. With a couple quick taps, you can chain together any command you want—the perfect blend of speed, accuracy, and range of actions! Throw in some minimalist visual mini games and puzzles and you’ve got a new spin on interactive fiction! There are no ads or IAP—just a poor soul trapped in a dungeon who is looking for help.
Now that you know a little about the game, let’s pull back the curtain, and give you a brief look at our thought process in creating E&A.
Initial Thoughts on Creating the Game
Our initial wish for a new game was to make a text adventure using completely native iOS UI elements. We wanted a no frills look that would take complete advantage of the clean, understated beauty of the native UI. Any iOS user would feel comfortable and at home with the appearance and function of the UI. Also, a text adventure should take place primarily in the user’s imagination. By going with as standard of a UI as possible, we hoped to let the user’s mind fully engage in the game and create a completely unique view of the world of E&A.
Besides that wish, we knew we wanted to have a map. For anyone who has played Zork, the lack of a map can be either extremely frustrating or it add to the mystique of the game. Maybe both. Regardless, we wanted something as user friendly as possible. Our hope for the map was that the player could understand the layout of the world, they could quickly warp around the world, and they could gauge some idea of progress.
We also wanted players to be able to see their inventory. You pick up all kinds of items, and we wanted a streamlined way for players to see what they had and get a quick description. Given the desire to have a couple of views, we immediately felt that a tabViewController would be a great native fit to display the views. Next, we needed to figure out how to execute them.
Creating the Story and Text Input View
The first and most glaring problem that we faced was finding a graceful way to deal with text/command input. As you probably know, most traditional text adventures have a text entry spot where the user can enter literally any command. The game certainly can’t respond appropriately to everything, but it can give a response of at least, “you can’t do that,” no matter what. The beauty is that nothing is given away to the user. The player must figure out every command, and there can even be cool easter egg responses when entering certain commands.
Unfortunately, mobile devices are not the easiest for inputing a large amount of text. We aren’t just talking about a few quick sentences. There’s a lot of guessing and failed attempts involved in text adventures. You’re going to try to give or use a certain item in all kinds of ways before you finally find the solution. In my mind, typing all inputs for a mobile text adventure will only appeal to a dedicated subset of regular text adventure players. You’re cannibalizing a large part of your potential audience by doing straight user text input on mobile.
Nevertheless, the alternative isn’t suited either. Simply giving a choice of possible commands completely written out takes away much of the allure of the text adventure. Sure, you’re still making choices and progressing through the story, but it minimizes how you think through items and how to use them.
Our Answer to Text Input
We are extremely happy with how our text input solution turned out. Our solution leverages native iOS tableViews, and allows the user to construct their sentences piece by piece with simple, quick taps.
The user is presented with all possible action verbs to begin with. Upon tapping one, they are given options for an object or modifier to go with that action. Sentences can build even further as you might start with “Use,” and then have to select an object, then a person or place to put or give the object to. It’s simple, quick, and very open-ended. Yes, it does restrict certain off the wall text inputs, but we feel the speed, accuracy, and efficiency make it the ideal solution for a mobile text adventure. We can’t wait for you to try it and get your feedback!
Other Design Choices
The design of the other elements of the game are a little more straightforward. The map and mini games (Yes, mini games!) get laid out in a storyboard along with all of the other views. Some of them are certainly nice exercises in constraints, but all were designed to be as fluid, simplistic, and minimalist as possible.
On-Boarding New Players
That gives you some idea on the interface design choices behind the game. There is still the issue of on-boarding new players, though. Do we need a tutorial? Do players already know how text adventures work well? There’s always the worry of on-boarding players too slowly with content that is too easy, or throwing players recklessly into a challenging, confusing world with unknown controls. Both are problems and are quick ways to lose users.
Our solution is one that I feel is optimal for all games if you can make it work. There is no tutorial. Players jump immediately into the game. However, the game restricts their movement as they try to solve puzzles to understand how to navigate the game. A quick mini-game opens the experience, and then, players find themselves locked in a dungeon with no way out. Both of these tasks allow the player to focus completely on a known problem as they understand the feel and objective of the game.
The Story
Don’t worry, no spoilers here, but know that the story is beautiful. There are a vibrant cast of characters, dropped hints, red herrings, and the satisfaction of solving puzzles to advance the story. And the twists, oh the twists! We hope that you will be engaged and brimming with emotion throughout.
To add more flavor to the experience, we have a number of minimalist mini games throughout the story. These will hopefully add action, fun, and excitement to the game. They also help bring the story to life. You can’t always just say you want something; sometimes you have to get it yourself!
Conclusion
Thanks so much for reading about our latest game, Escape & Avenge. We hope that you enjoy playing the game as much as we enjoyed making it for you! You can see more about the game at our dedicated Escape & Avenge page. If you have any questions about the game, please feel free to reach out to us. As always, thanks for reading the HangZone blog!