The Daily Click

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The Orphanage Demo (Updated)

Author:

ben mercer

Submitted:

11th March, 2007

Favourites:

Genre:

Shoot 'Em Up

Downloads:

846

Rated:

44th Place

(4.6 / 5)

Edited By ben mercer on 3/12/2007

Hi,

I uploaded a demo of "The Orphanage" on Daily Click a while back. Since then I have made so many improvements to the game that I thought it would be a good idea to re-release the updated demo level.

The Orphanage puts you in the shoes of a Black Operations Commando sent to investigate a mysterious uprising in an isolated town in north russia. Intelligence has revealed that a recently disappeared renowned biochest, Dr. Adam Cornwell, played a part in this uprising.

The game is designed as a tribute to games such as The Half Life series, FEAR, System Shock 2 and Far Cry.

It features:

- Intelligent opponents that work as a team to take you down
- Spectacular visual effects
- A chilling atmosphere and plot
- BULLET TIME! Yeah baby!

Getting Started
===============

Requirements

The game's ballistics, AI and visual effects make it quite hefty on the CPU. I would reccomend at least a 2Ghz processor to play, but feel free to try it on something lower end, i'd be interested to find out how well it plays.

Controls

WSAD - Move
Left Mouse - Fire primary
Right Mouse - Fire secondary
Q - Next weapon
R - Reload weapon
G - Grenade
F - Flashlight
Spacebar - Use/Swap weapon
X or Middle Mouse - Slowmo
Left Shift - Sprint/Kick grenade

If you are having difficulty getting anywhere with the game, check out the tips section in the readme. If you are new to this kind of ranged combat driven game you will find them invaluable.

All that is left for me to say is... Have fun!

EDIT:

WARNING: This game features extreme violence and some strong language.

Review This Download

http://stuckengine.sitesled.com/Orphanage_PublicDemo2.zip (10 mkb )

This download contains more than 50 comments, so only the latest 50 have been shown, click here to view all comments (69)

Posted by Attan

13th March, 2007

Great great great!!! The realism was the best of it! Maybe you should improve the graphics a little (like adding four more directions to the caracter) and work more on the movement engine, but otherwise it was wonderful! I would like to have some savepoints. I'm soure you could figure out a realistic way to save the game

What about the granade effect that i saw in a demo video?

Posted by ben mercer

13th March, 2007

You can see the grenade effect when a grenade explodes when you are in slowmo.

The game will save in between maps. Mostly each level comprises one map, but larger levels are split into several maps. I think allowing the player to save too often leads to players not really caring about dying and therefore taking a different approach to the game.

I did think about giving the characters 8 directions... but it's so much work. It might happen it might not I guess.

Posted by nim

14th March, 2007

Great presentation, atmosphere and visual effects. The flames in the intro are very nicely done. I played through it a bunch of times to appreciate everything more. I particularly like the fact that you can't see enemies unless they're within your field of vision.

Although you're taking all of your design cues from FEAR and Half-Life, you've done very well to recreate the action in 2D and with the tools we use.

So, be assured that this whole thing is looking very impressive so far, but here are a couple of things I think could be improved:

I'm standing with the other guys who say that the reaction to being shot (i.e. twitching the gun aim) could do with a re-think. Definitely, some kind of feedback to the player to indicate that they've taken a hit is a good idea, but I think it could be toned down a little. The system works well if the player has time to dive behind cover and correct the aim, but more than once I was in a situation where an enemy would decide to chase after me while I fumble around for the R button to reload. But even if I do, I'm as good as dead because my gun aim is already doing somersaults. I understand what you're trying to do, but when you're out of ammo and the AI is in still chase mode, there's not much else the player can do other than look forward to the inevitable death screen with the nice blur/fade effect. You want to make sure that the player only ever feels frustrated at their own lack of skill or judgement, not because of a gameplay decision by you.

Someone already suggested this, but I think automatic reloading would be a huge improvement. Half-Life and FEAR have this feature without any disruption to the realism. If your gun is empty and you press fire, the game should be able to figure out what you want to do.

Or how about a auto-melee attack on mouse1 if you're close enough, or the ability to fire your other weapon with mouse2 if the primary weapon is out of ammo.

One other thing: FEAR and Half-Life are great games, and as I said you've done a great job combining key features from them all. It would be nice, however, if it wasn't so much like FEAR in terms of storyline, presentation and some in-game scenes. I don't have a problem with taking aspects of the combat system from each game, but when I saw the figure appearing and dissipating exactly as Paxton Fettel did in FEAR I wondered if the line between "inspiration" and "copy" had been crossed. You already have a great combat engine, but why not create your own paranormal effects. It's obvious that you have the skills to do it.

The WASD set up worked well and I can't think of a better alternative. I'm left-handed so I often have to reconfigure FPS controls anyway, but at least you assigned slo-mo to the middle mouse button. I don't think FEAR even did this by default, but it seems obvious to me.

As for the triggered events - I really liked them! Perhaps including longer breaks between the combat would help to increase tension - especially for the second to be really effective. I liked that the first was in a random place each time. Replay value FTW!

Good luck with the rest of the game!

Posted by renneF

14th March, 2007

I am was just playing Metal Gear and I'm wondering, will there be any stealth sections in the game, or are the enemies just too perceptive?

Posted by ben mercer

14th March, 2007

Ok i'm going to tone down the getting hit gun aim effect. What I will do is make it so that at normal difficulty, the aim doesn't wander too much so that average players won't become totally incapable of firing back. On realistic modes though, it will be jacked right up to what it is currently. On piss easy mode it will be barely noticable. I think that is a fair compromise, do you think so?

I suppose then people who want to play through the game can then play less realistically, with more opportunity to be like Rambo whilst skilled or just masochistic players can go all out and play in the more realistic modes. It's kinda like microsoft flight sim in that respect

I could assign a melee attack to spacebar (use key) when you are close to an enemy.

The game is heavily derived, I used the FEAR dissipating effect because I think it looks cool basically. I could change it I spose though, good idea. I'll assure you though that the storyline isn't THAT similar to fear.

Posted by ben mercer

14th March, 2007

ⓕⓔⓝⓝⓔⓡ To answer you comment, in short no. This comes down to making the game fair really. I think extending the line of sight system to fade out enemies behind you would be too confusing, so if you can see behind you so can enemies basically.

This doesn't mean there aren't opportunities for stealth in a firefight. First of all flanking and popping up somewhere a good distance away from where an enemy last saw you will increase their reaction time to seeing you, so you can get the jump on them to some extent. Using the desert eagle also makes you more stealthy, although these features haven't been fully implemented.

@Nim

Sorry forgot to say; I'll make auto reload optional.

Posted by Johnny Look

14th March, 2007

There's something I'd love to see:
some kinda fog of war. Sometimes I don't have a clue of where I'm looking at.

I agree with Nim, don't make to similar to HL and Fear, the game has a lot of potencial to be much more than a simple clone.

Posted by Del Duio

14th March, 2007

For a melee weapon you should have him use a big Maglite Ben. Those things are brutal- Plus, it doubles as what it actually is- a flashlight in case you need to see in the dark later on in the game.

Think of it, how many games have a flashlight as a weapon at all?

Posted by AsparagusTrevor

14th March, 2007

As a whole this is really good, the presentation is really professional and the effects are brilliant. A few things I didn't like, the line of sight was really confusing, the enemies fading out in the middle of a firefight made it a bit unfair. Maybe they should stay visible as long as you know they're there or something, I dunno. I agree with everyone else about the recoil when you're shot. The enemies are intelligent enough without having anything else adding to the difficulty. Also, I hope you plan to have customizable controls for those of us who don't like using WASD keys. All in all, it's coming along really nice.

Posted by

14th March, 2007

About the fading out, just make the enemies stay visible for a short while after loosing them from your line of sight before they fade out again?
Just a suggestion, nice game btw. :] A bit too hard for noobs like me though V_V; Heh

Posted by Attan

14th March, 2007

"more than once I was in a situation where an enemy would decide to chase after me while I fumble around for the R button to reload"

You don't need to reload. Just switch weapon. The beauty of the game is that you have to think before you approach an enemy. Don't attack more enemies then you can take out with your current ammo.

Posted by nim

14th March, 2007

Good point

Posted by Willy C

15th March, 2007

wow, pretty damn cool. It lags just a bit on my computer, but it's impressive that it's playable at all on it! Two thumbs up!

Posted by Willy C

15th March, 2007

Does this use the stuckengine of yours? Update your stuckengine site!

Posted by ben mercer

15th March, 2007

Nah it doesn't. StuckEngine is pretty much dead at the moment. I started making it for MMF 1.5, and as an MMF 1.5 engine it would be really good. But then MMF2 came along, so there was no point in releasing it on an outdated platform.

The problem at the moment is that half the decent extensions weren't ported to MMF2, so I'm not going to work on it again until I have the tools to make it proper good

The trouble with a delayed fade out of the enemies would be that you would be able to see where they were going and it would make it too easy. The reason why I put the line of sight system in is that it would be unfair not to; enemies can't see you when you are behind a wall, so why should you be able to see them behind a wall? Also the system will make the online multiplayer so much better.

Posted by

15th March, 2007

Yeah, I understand that ^^; but what about adding a small time-delay on the easiest mode only? For us n00bs x)

Posted by Dustin Gunn

15th March, 2007

Coming from someone that hated the first demo, this is pretty much awesome.

It's cool that you're pushing the limits of MMF, and now that the controls are fixed, it's actually pretty fun. To the people dying from the dazing after getting hit, I recommend liberal use of bullet-time.

Posted by ben mercer

16th March, 2007

The first demo was terrible your right. Ugh I even played it the other day to compare, and it really is shite. I'm glad I decided to improve it rather than going and making all the levels in crappyvision.

CheezeDragon, fraid I think I'll keep it how it is. My advice to you is listen to the soldiers' speech. If they say "cover me" they are going to try and storm you, if they say "grenade out" they have thrown a grenade at you.

In a first person game you cannot see enemies around walls. The only real difference is you have to remember not to assume that there are no enemies present if you can't see them.

Posted by Bo Fu

16th March, 2007

This is brilliant, but I can't get into it because of the absolutely wicked recoil. I'm glad you're fixing it, because right now, firefights are very frustrating - too frustrating to make me want to practice and get better.

Instead of having enemies instantly disappear, perhaps they could very slowly (slower than they currently do) fade into invisibility. That way, you don't lose track of an enemy just because you moved a miniscule amount north.

Posted by renneF

16th March, 2007

I second CheezDragon and Bo Fu on fading.
Peer pressure!

Posted by ben mercer

17th March, 2007

Ok... I'll bow to your damned peer pressure

I think what I'll do is make them fade slowly, but then fade more quickly whilst they are moving.

Posted by

17th March, 2007

Hah, I knew it would work ;D

Sounds awesome :]

Posted by ben mercer

17th March, 2007

Hehe well I wanted to make the game a realistic experience (despite being 2d) but I suppose not everyone has instincts of a supercommando

Wonder who voted thumbs down? If you are going to do that at least tell me why...

Been working on some multiplayer with mooclick recently. The online engine is coming on pretty cool; it's fantastic to see characters walking around in the control of a human player.

Posted by

17th March, 2007

I know, but just dont make it too realistic

For example; in real life you dont have a health meter, and you dont know exactly how many bullets are left in your weapon. But you still have a HUD in the game... and I hope youre not removing it

So, just dont overdo the realism, gameplay is more important. :] So far, its a pretty awesome game.

Posted by Del Duio

17th March, 2007

Ben, it's INQUIRY not ENQUIRY. (Sorry, but those things bug me haha).

The begining is AWESOME. The effects & music remind me of the creepy beginning (for then) of Super Metroid in a way.

I can't get anywhere in the actual game, however. I can cut the fence with the best of them but the first guy is hard. My main problem was the mouse control for the guy's viewing. It's too sensitive IMO, especially compared to the realitive slow walking speed of the guy (which is not a criticism). I spent more time trying to control the crosshairs than getting killed by the enemy- which happened a lot!

Other than that, everything seems largely amazing with what you've managed to pull off. I could just suck at these types of games though since nobody else had a problem with it aside from me. Grenades are cool, but not when they bounce off the sandbags and blow me up hahaha. Great fun, thumbs up!

Posted by ben mercer

18th March, 2007

Well cheezedragon I'm kinda going on the fact that your combat suit has health and ammo diagnostic scanners built in. I suppose a health meter replaces actually feeling unhealthy like you would if you really got shot.

Yeah I think mouse sensetivity needs a slider. Haha yeah grenades are quite bouncy, but this is so that you can rebound them off walls into a room or something.

The full game will actually have an extended intro done using the game engine.

Posted by JFrudy

18th March, 2007

I'll confess that the movement uses bouncing ball movement

he dude, doesnt the clickteam movement controller extension have a vector movement thingy? try that

Posted by ben mercer

20th March, 2007

Vector movement has poor support for multiple objects.

People underestimate the bouncing ball movement, it is actually pretty powerful. The only problem with it is that it doesn't give silky smooth collisions, but unless your a big zelda fan or something i really can't see that being too bothersome.

Posted by Neuro

31st May, 2007

Fantastic! I played through it properly and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I didn't mind the dodgy collisions, to be honest. I'd rather 'bounce' off of obstacles than get snagged on them.

What I didn't like where the random 'surprise!' moments where a soldier would just burst out of a door - React a little too late and you're pretty much screwed, with no cover and no easy way of taking them out, what with aim going haywire. Being left-handed, the controls were a little awkward, but not too bad - an arrow key configuration would be nice, though.

I think a slight flaw with this realistic gameplay is that encounters become predictable - if you see a bunch of sandbags up ahead, you know there's going to be trouble. That being said, it's nice to have time to prepare for a very intense and enjoyable gunfight!

I downloaded this (or the previous version, I don't remember) quite a while back, and I can't believe I never pushed myself to get the hang of the style of play that this game demands. I was immersed from start to finish, disappointed when the demo came to an end!

Big thumbs up. I eagerly await the full release. In fact, I'd quite happily pay for it

You seem to really have your head screwed on tight for this sort of thing (having also read your articles and bits of your webpage). I can tell the Orphanage is going to be a hit.

Posted by Tomssuli

4th August, 2007

First I tried on realistic and forgot that there was bullet time... It was evil hard, then on normal and checked the key for the bullet time, and it was fun

I liked the enemies tendency to go hiding... and the surprises sometimes that they weren't there where you last saw them

I also like the Half-Life style text theme. Nice work!

Posted by denfilade

2nd October, 2007

omg

!!! Someone beat me to making a game like FEAR and half-life! o well..back to the drawing board!

Posted by Fadex

9th November, 2007

Rated :

I completed demo on Realistic mode

this is so unbeliveable game

and so hard

Posted by Fadex

9th November, 2007

Rated :

Extreme Realistic is more fun

the guys are following me

Posted by Fadex

9th November, 2007

Rated :

And of course i completed it without bullet time

Posted by Trooper_959

15th January, 2008

Rated :

I love shootem up so i give this 5 out of 5 really awsome game impressing ai.Awsome graphics and sound effects.Your game is just all over awsome.

Posted by Moonyjacob

6th March, 2008

Rated :

really good

Posted by alastair john jack

4th April, 2008

Rated :

I think it would be good if your health could regenerate after a while. Instead of always looking for the next health pack.

Posted by ben mercer

6th April, 2008

I have now implemented a halo style health system into the game amongst many other things

Posted by alastair john jack

7th April, 2008

Rated :

Thats good, it was really hard trying to get to the next health pack on 3 health with 2 guys in the way.

Posted by Bricnic

20th June, 2008

The game is really well made and cool, but here are some minor problems I found:

The .exe has the name "Orpanage" instead of "Orphanage". Pressing ESC in the game does nothing, I think it should bring up a menu- having to press ALT+F4 to quit a game is bad design.
The controls aren't visible anywhere within the game, you would only know how to do anything if you read the readme, and since there's no tutorial or anything, just straight into the action, it can be a little confusing.

Posted by Blue66

20th June, 2008

The game looks really nice and the engine is well made, but I have to say that the disorient thing what happens when you get hit completely kills the gameplay for me.

It's no fun at all running behind sandbags all the time to avoid any kind of damage to be able to shoot back. And all of a sudden jumps a commando out of a house shooting the shit out of me and I can't do ANYTHING AT ALL against it. Sorry, but I don't see where the fun is...

Posted by Jarl Fenrir

20th June, 2008

Difficulty looks strange for me. HARD mode seems to be the easiest for me, while i caanot play on easy... strange. But game is really good.

Posted by s-m-r

21st June, 2008

Rated :

The effects and graphics are all jaw-dropping. But I can't understand why--when you're aiming for realism--that a battle-hardened commando's crosshair ends up spinning around to the back of their field of vision while in the middle of combat. Even Gordon Freeman--a scientist in one of your chief inspirations for The Orphanage--never had his aim thrown in the opposite direction, and he wasn't a battle-trained soldier. I suspect Valve (and other FPS shooter designers/coders) had to wrestle with the same realism dilemma, and in most cases they opted for the side of gameplay. I hope you do too.

Although the game is a joy to look at/listen to and I'm itching to play it, I don't want to endure the ordeal, since the crosshair flying all over the place is so incredibly, incredibly frustrating. Normal, Piss Easy, it makes no difference.

In the interest of full disclosure: use a trackball mouse, so it may be more affecting to people in this same hardware situation.

At the very least, PLEASE make this sensitive feature an option as opposed to required for play. It would be a wise design choice.

Posted by asfadfgdabg

22nd June, 2008

Please give a dload for a file which isnt fullscreen because i cant set my widescreen 1440x900 screen too 320x200

Posted by Fish20

23rd June, 2008