Shaw's Nightmare

Requests for games to be added to the site
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musa
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Shaw's Nightmare

Post by musa »

I'm here to request addition of a modern DOS BUILD engine game. It is called Shaw's Nightmare.
I developed this game.

History:
I started Shaw's Nightmare in 2007 but I cancelled it. Then I found the BUILD engine and I restarted the project
but I needed a programmer. Nuno Martinez came in but when he found out I was planning to sell the game he
quit. I tried several times to program it by myself but failed until in June 2009, but then I lost interest in the project
in October. Then in 2011, I started the project again but the computer was formatted and I lost the data. I restarted
in August 2012, and here we are. Eduardo Sanchez Barrios came in but he quit before the game was completed.
He had no time for the project but he did not tell me until recently.

Story
You are Shaw. You were reading a book then you fell asleep. Suddenly,
your headphones start picking up strange sounds: static, men yelling orders,
screams, bones cracking and finally silence. Then a hole grew and you are
sucked into it.

Things aren't looking too good. You have never been alone in your life.
Plus you don't have your father's guns. If only you could get a hold of a
rapid catapult or a camera gun, you could protect yourself.

Suddenly a scout boy comes and you stabbed him with a nearby knife. Then
angry growls arose. They know you're here. There's no turning back.

Downloads
0.99: http://www.mediafire.com/download/1pj4t ... SN0_99.ZIP
1.0: http://www.mediafire.com/download/8dmp0 ... /SN1_0.ZIP
1.2: http://www.mediafire.com/download/5y8kr ... /SN1_2.ZIP
1.4: http://www.mediafire.com/download/fz4eu ... /SN1_4.ZIP
1.5: http://www.mediafire.com/download/sm1m9 ... /SN1_5.ZIP
1.6 (current): http://www.mediafire.com/download/bl6tq ... /SN1_6.ZIP

Official page can be found here: http://shawsnightmare.ucoz.com
Last edited by musa on December 9th, 2014, 2:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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DOSGuy
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Re: Shaw's Nightmare

Post by DOSGuy »

Hi musa.

Sorry for the late reply. I'm going through a series of unfortunate personal events and I don't have a lot of time to review games at the moment, but you're on my radar and I'll get to it when I can.
Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article.
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MrFlibble
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Re: Shaw's Nightmare

Post by MrFlibble »

DOSGuy wrote:I'm going through a series of unfortunate personal events and I don't have a lot of time to review games at the moment
Sorry to hear that!
musa
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Re: Shaw's Nightmare

Post by musa »

I've opened an forum about Shaw's Nightmare. Go here: http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/shawsnightmare
If you have a question just send email to shawsnightmare@googlegroups.com
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DOSGuy
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Re: Shaw's Nightmare

Post by DOSGuy »

The most obvious problem for me is that the art is too primitive. I do add modern DOS games to the site, but I expect them to meet a high standard. I recommend bringing in an artist to improve the game's appearance.
Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article.
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MrFlibble
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Re: Shaw's Nightmare

Post by MrFlibble »

I should say that the game is quite playable. It pays a lot of homages to Doom and other well-known 2.5D FPS titles.

The art - well, I actually thought that it was a deliberate choice since the game is about a kid's nightmare. Also, with this kind of art no one is going to accuse the author of copyright infringement.

It should also be noted that people from the Duke Nukem 3D fan community (Duke4.net) reacted to the game rather positively.
Malvineous
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Re: Shaw's Nightmare

Post by Malvineous »

I'm not sure I agree the game is playable - I found the controls extremely sluggish and there's a huge delay between moving or firing and the action happening. I also couldn't get past the second level, as I found and collected a yellow key but the only door I hadn't opened said I needed a key to open it...

After looking at the details though, the art isn't a deliberate choice. If it was deliberately chosen to look like a kid's nightmare you would still pay attention to niceties, like properly aligning textures on the crates so the pattern doesn't repeat too obviously. I don't mean this to sound mean, but it does look like the whole game was created by a ten-year-old.

Of course having said that, for a ten-year-old to create this whole game - that in itself is pretty impressive. It looks like there are a heap of levels (even though I couldn't get past the second one) and the BUILD engine is considerably customised - the .grp format has been replaced with a new .dat format, the menus and setup are different, there are custom textures, 3D voxels, music, sound effects - a lot of effort has gone into this game.

To musa:

This is a great effort, but unfortunately you won't get a lot of interest from the community because there are a number of elements in your game that go against the traditional style of games. The most obvious is the artwork. I hate to say it, but it does look like it was done in MS-Paint. I'm sure if you ask around, some of your friends will turn out to be really good artists and they might be willing to work with you on the game. Writing a game is always teamwork, these days it's as good as impossible to create an entire game on your own. Likewise for the music - you have gone for atmospheric music, but then used really loud harsh instruments which demand your attention and so detract from the atmosphere. Maybe some friends can help you with the music too?

With the levels, you need to think about how easy it is for someone who has never seen the game before to play it. A lot of the walls are the same colour, so it's difficult to see where hallways appear because they look just like walls. I understand you might want the game to be tricky, but if the player has to walk along every single wall looking for openings, the game quickly gets boring.

This is a personal preference, but I find the movement controls quite difficult. When you compare Doom to Duke3D, Doom's controls are "mushier", in that the player takes longer to start moving when you press a key, and keeps moving for longer when you let go. Your game controls are even further along on this scale, and I found myself frequently falling off objects because the player kept moving long after I released a movement key. I find the responsiveness of Duke3D and Shadow Warrior much easier to play.

Other than this, I am quite impressed at the level of customisation you have achieved from the BUILD engine. I was expecting a Duke3D mod or similar, but you have actually produced a unique game. I'm not sure I have actually seen any other completely new BUILD games since the engine source was released, so perhaps this is the first? Congratulations!

Of course given the above issues, and that the game hasn't had a commercial release, I don't think it will be added to this site. But if you are willing to take the suggestions of myself and others and improve your game, hopefully one day you will reach your goal!

If nothing else this is a good indicator that you'll probably have a decent chance at a career in the gaming industry, since you know exactly what sort of effort is involved in bringing a game from an idea to reality! Best of luck if that's the way you intend to go :-)
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DOSGuy
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Re: Shaw's Nightmare

Post by DOSGuy »

Malvineous wrote:Other than this, I am quite impressed at the level of customisation you have achieved from the BUILD engine. I was expecting a Duke3D mod or similar, but you have actually produced a unique game. I'm not sure I have actually seen any other completely new BUILD games since the engine source was released, so perhaps this is the first? Congratulations!
And that's the kind of novelty that I'm looking for. I think anyone who does something new with an old DOS engine should be rewarded. I had the same thought as Malvineous, though: the art looks like it was made in MS Paint. I don't have a problem with cartoon graphics, and I agree with MrFlibble that it would even be appropriate in a child's nightmare. Any artistic style would do, as long as it doesn't look amateur. As much as I'm an advocate for gameplay over eye candy, I feel like the art has to be at a certain minimum level, otherwise potential players are going to think that the game was made by a child and not bother with it. The internet is full of artistic people. If you could improve the look of the game, I think it would be much better received by gamers, and I would be honored to host a game that extends the legacy of DOS games.
Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article.
musa
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Re: Shaw's Nightmare

Post by musa »

Malvineous wrote:I also couldn't get past the second level, as I found and collected a yellow key but the only door I hadn't opened said I needed a key to open it...
You probably missed the silver key in the first room when you teleport. Go the elevator and go to the upper left room. You'll find a silver key in there.
Malvineous wrote:Writing a game is always teamwork, these days it's as good as impossible to create an entire game on your own.

I could never find anyone to help me. Some people came along but they left me. Let me list them.
Nuno Martinez: He was to help me in programming. He left when he found out I planned to sell the game. Details are here.
Eduardo Sanchez Barrios: A sad story. He contacted me wishing to help me in the game. I was still searching for backups at the time so I told him to wait. When I didn't find it, I started the game anew. In September 2012, he claimed he was working on textures. Then he did not reply to me soon afterwards. I tried contacting him hoping he would come back. Eventually in June 2014, he finally replied to me on Twitter but he said he is very busy in his office and that's why he has stopped working on Shaw's Nightmare.

And I tried e-mailing people and asking for help in forums but nothing worked.
DOSGuy wrote:The most obvious problem for me is that the art is too primitive. I do add modern DOS games to the site, but I expect them to meet a high standard. I recommend bringing in an artist to improve the game's appearance.
See above.
Malvineous wrote:This is a personal preference, but I find the movement controls quite difficult. When you compare Doom to Duke3D, Doom's controls are "mushier", in that the player takes longer to start moving when you press a key, and keeps moving for longer when you let go. Your game controls are even further along on this scale, and I found myself frequently falling off objects because the player kept moving long after I released a movement key. I find the responsiveness of Duke3D and Shadow Warrior much easier to play.
Are you talking about 0.99 movement? I reduced the time the player to stop moving.
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MrFlibble
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Re: Shaw's Nightmare

Post by MrFlibble »

musa, have you tried websites which provide royalty-free, open game art? If you just Google "freeware game art" you can get quite a few nice sources like these:
http://opengameart.org/
https://www.makeschool.com/gamernews/27 ... developers
http://letsmakegames.org/resources/art- ... evelopers/
http://freegamedev.net/wiki/Art_asset_resources
...etc.

The game itself seems quite stable and playable (I also would prefer more smoother movement though), so great job in this respect!
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