Demo version of UPRAISE is ready for testing

#1, by dannyFriday, 23. June 2023, 11:28 11 months ago
Hello to the community,
I don't want to publish this topic in a big way yet and will first try to do so here in the forum.

Today I present you my playable demo version of "UPRAISE". A sci-fi game inspired by the old "Captain Delta and the Source of Argos" game and developed entirely by one person! The demo is truly for testing. I have tested the game several times on different systems. The log list shows no more errors and the demo ran smoothly.

What does the demo contain?
the first three sections of the main game (content differs slightly from the main game)
full English and German voice-overs
separate videos for the demo

minimum system requirements:
CPU: Intel/AMD with 1.5Ghz
RAM: 8GB
Graphics card: NVIDIA/AMD/Intel with 2GB V-RAM!
Hard disk space: 400MB
OS: Windows 64-Bit

Hint:
If the game jerks with the effects, simply switch off the "Effects" in the options menu.

New version uploaded
- Download
danny

Newbie

4 Posts

#2, by matty47Sunday, 25. June 2023, 07:59 11 months ago

Excellent. Artwork is very professional with good 3d look. Love the dust when running. Music is good. Overall very enjoyable.
matty47

Newbie

1 Posts
#3, by esmeraldaMonday, 26. June 2023, 12:25 11 months ago

I could play it on my potato of a pc (i3, 4 GB RAM, 1 GB (ancient) graphics card) when I turned the effects off.

I'm not sure what kind of feedback you want, so here is a mix of gameplay and technical feedback.
Mostly nitpicks:
- some of the hotspots have only an action for rightclick, but none for leftclick, and the other way around. A default answer (like with the comment set) would be nice.
- when trying to get the fuel, clicking with the handpump on the plastic canister makes that disappear (it stays in the inventory of course). An information where to use the pump instead would make more sense. After using the pump, the pump disappears (that is ok) but there is still the hotspot marked with handpump
- rightclicking on the bridge send the character to 0,0 (side of the bridge without console)
- I didn't realize I got the metal pole. Some feedback that I found something in the pile would have been nice.
- the walking distances are a bit long for my taste
- some information when the character has suffered too much damage would be welcome. I wasn't surprised he died when the creature chewed a bit too much on the hero, but dying when the falling scrap metal hit him for the second time was unexpected and having to run along the serpentines again was not very welcome. (or did I just not see a health bar somewhere? Because that isn't something I usually look for)
- I liked the English voice over better than the German one where the emphasis was sometimes a bit off in context

These little things aside, the game looks awesome (especially with the particle effects turned on ^^) and the sounds (music and sfx) are creating a fitting atmosphere. The scanner puzzle at the beginning was interesting, the rest of the puzzles were a bit too easy for my taste (that is a problem when creating realistic puzzles, the player knows exactly what to do, it's just about finding the item. No "aha!" effect when solving a puzzle.) I hope the difficulty will ramp up a bit when the game progresses. Looking forward to the full game.
esmeralda

Key Killer

514 Posts
#4, by dannyMonday, 26. June 2023, 17:16 11 months ago

Thank you for the compliment matty47.

Great, thank you esmeralda! You have helped me a lot.

I'm already working on implementing your comments. Especially in the German voice output, the sentences are emphasised better. The character now gives more feedback whether the player has found something or not and also warns before he will die.

The beginning of the demo is supposed to be easy and feel like a tutorial without being annoyed by constant tutorial hints.
After that, the game is mostly non-linear, there are several locations and from then on it is up to the player where to go and how to proceed. This also makes the game more difficult. Of course, there is also a fast travel system to save time.
danny

Newbie

4 Posts
#5, by NigecMonday, 26. June 2023, 19:31 11 months ago

Great looking game! It's running fine on my system AMD Ryzen 5 with a GTX1650
However I've had a crash to desktop trying to use the rock on the creature

There wasn't anything in the log file, just that the program had terminated

It happened again this time just after I tried to get fuel, it maybe something to do with sound, as there's a loud short staticy type sound as it crashed.. there is a crash dump file this time
- Download
Nigec

Key Killer

629 Posts
#6, by dannyMonday, 26. June 2023, 22:36 11 months ago

Thank you for your feedback Nigec.

That is strange. I don't have the programme crash in connection with the sounds and have tested the demo on several different systems today. In rare cases I also hear this short static sound, but then that is pure random.

On my weakest mini-PC (Intel NUC) the compiled game runs without crashes.

Otherwise, I have uploaded a new version.
danny

Newbie

4 Posts
#7, by dannyThursday, 06. July 2023, 20:14 10 months ago

Thank you, Nigec, for your note about the sound issue and the dump file.

Upon further testing, the game crashed at the same point for me as well. The dump file indicates an error with SDLAudioP2 and Vis Audio Thread. The same note as in your dump file.

I looked into the sound files and noticed that some of them had a bitrate of 48 and 96 kHz. It seems that the engine cannot handle that. I have created music assets for Unity and Unreal Engine, and they require sounds with a bitrate of 44.1 kHz.

I have converted all the affected sound files to 44.1 kHz.
danny

Newbie

4 Posts

#8, by NigecFriday, 07. July 2023, 20:27 10 months ago

great stuff that you found something
I'll give the game another run through tomorrow
Nigec

Key Killer

629 Posts