A Weekend at Villa Apate
Killers, Mad Scientists, Cultists, an Ancient God, a very odd Secret Service - and ItAdvCon. Did you have plans for this weekend?
The Story
Paco is a musician whose dream to start to gain money with his talent and passion seems to have a shot, thanks to his contribution to a thrilling videogame that he's done with Marco Giorgini.
The turning point could be ItAdvCon - the Italian Convention for Adventure Games - where they'll be able to showcase their work AND to meet an important publisher that may be willing to put real money on them.
If that was not enough, this year ItAdvCon will be held in a luxury location - Villa Apate, near San Luca, Bologna, usually a place for more exotic and prestigious events - and Marco was able somehow to book a room so they'll be able to finish to prepare their speech together and with every possible comfort.
Paco thinks that they really had a lucky hit.
But did they really have it?
Where are you when the game starts?
Well, you don't know that for sure. You don't remember *anything * but you think you may be in a hotel room. But you'll have to figure out something about your recent past - in a hurry - because it seems someone wants to kill you. And that won't be necessarily your main problem for long.
How to play
Left-click: use / interact / talk to
Right-click: look at / move to
To change area, click to move to the exit point, then once there, click again
Credits
Story, Graphics and Animations by Marco Giorgini (@marcogiorgini )
Original Soundtracks by Paco Diago (@PacoDiago)
Test&Proofing: Paco Diago
Game built with Defold engine (http://www.defold.com)
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
Comments
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This was a great game!
It was unique as well, and I really loved the puzzles. I got stuck a few times, but it was worth figuring out
Again, it was fantastic!
very nice
marco's distraction services are triggered even when they are not needed anymore.
shouldn't the second MAD scientist say "if you are not here for rockets you should speak to our dean"?
Very fun game!
thanks :-D!
Loved this game, a bit challenging but also logical. I do with there's a bit more interaction with the different timelines though, currently there's not much to do in the present. I would LOVE to have multiple time periods to travel to, and you need to constantly hop between them to progress. (Is that too ambitious of a wish lol. This game is still awesome!)
thanks :-) glad you liked it - and yes story could have been more complex than this (you're right - present has few things to do - I'm still wondering if making a richer version of this game in the future)
i played the game, very very impressive! WHen a new chapter? I like very much your defold games!
thanks :-D - really glad you liked it!
I don't know if I'll be able to be back in this specific story setting (my time for making games is limited and I've other projects I want to try) but in case I've got already some (at the moment, very basic) ideas both for a prequel and for a sequel .-)
why are you using Defold as Engine? What pro can you give to you? genuine question, i hope to do something at your level, great games, from italy
I use Defold mainly to forget about multiplatform issues - including html5 port.
The result is lightweight (and that's something I care a lot about) - Lua isn't hard to use, even when you're in a hurry - and compared to what I did before (multiplatform c engine, html5 done using emscripten) using Defold is surely less tricky - and faster.
If you're already a programmer I suggest you give it a try - but if your goal is "just" to make a point'n'click game and you're not already a coder check AGS or Visionnaire before that.
As others mentionned, you can't take the naphtalhene pills whatsoever, making the game unplayable, sadly. Up to this point, it definitely was a good game, original.
I've tried again now - with the html5 version - and well it works :-| - to be exact you have to go to the Storage Room and
[SPOILTER]
not just Use the R pills but also (or just) look at the R pills - if you already checked naphthalene it should say that their similar to something he's already seen - after that if you got his room and interact with blankets in the wardrobe he should take them
Is this exactly what you did?
Got it, finally! I've accidently found out that you need to right click in order to look at the pill and since I'm on a chromebook and in order for the right click to register on the mousepad you need to press ALT+click (the usual 2 fingers touch doesn't seem to be treated as a right click in many games, anyway...) Glad I can proceed with the game!
good :) I'm glad to hear about that!
Wow! I played the browser version of this game. I could never do anything with the R pills in the red room, unfortunately, but the rest of the game before that was really high quality! The music was great, the art was excellent, and the writing was really, really great! The gameplay was pretty intuitive and the story concept was super neat. I wish I could have finished it, but it was really awesome. Congratulations! It's a fantastic piece of work. Thank you for sharing this awesome project with us!
I've tried again now - with the html5 version - and well it works :-| - to be exact you have to go to the Storage Room and
[SPOILTER]
not just Use the R pills but also (or just) look at the R pills - if you already checked naphthalene it should say that their similar to something he's already seen - after that if you got his room and interact with blankets in the wardrobe he should take them
Is this exactly what you did?
Wow! This is super cool and super well thought out.
thanks :-) glad you liked :-D
I can't seem to retrieve the naphthalene pills like in the walkthrough down below. Have I missed a step? I'm very confused.
you can get them - just after you discover what you need them for (before that, you can't imagine why you should take them and you simply let them there)
[SPOILER]
Did you find the R pills container? If so, check them and THEN return to the place with naphthalene pills
[SPOILER 2]
They're in the room where a dude is being held against his will
[SPOILER 3]
That room isn't accessible before you find a way to get rid of Mr. Number Eight
Mhm. I followed all of those steps, yet I still can't attain them for some reason. Is it a bug?
Well, even if I can't rule it out - this is the first time I hear about this issue. What exact message do you see when you check the place in which naphthalene pills are?
Down in this message list, there's also a complete video walkthrough - if you don't mind you could check it to see if there's something different. Anyway - sorry for that
Looking at the walkthrough, when the user clicks on the 'jar full of pills' for the second time, I noticed that they got a different line saying: "It's a big jar filled with whitish pills... they look similar to something else I've already seen.", in which I don't get so I assumed you edited the dialogue and I went straight to room 117 to collect the naphthalene pills.
Again, the user gets the additional line: "These pills are oddly similar enough to Rohypnol ones. Let's take them." where they can retrieve it while I cannot do any of this. It seems I am unable to progress in the game.
Overall, no worries! I have enjoyed the game so far. Keep it up!
I'm really sorry about that - and I really can't imagine how it happened - but I surely check it - thanks for playing and for you detailed note.
You need to right click on the pills to get the different message (investigate) not left click (interact). This isn't obvious from the walkthrough.
Wow, love this game! It looks like a lot of care went into it! The story reminds me of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency..
Well done!
thanks - very happy for your words .-) and yes - thinking about it there are also references to those Douglas Adams books .-)
how do i stop them from shooting me
You have to remember why they shoot at you - and then try to change it (in the past) :-)
You can find hints about the game inside the game folder (if you downloaded the PC version) or here: https://gamejolt.com/games/AWeekendatVillaApate/615569 (click to see the full main post and go to "Do you need hints to finish the game?" section)
Good story, but the back-and-forth and pixel hunting got pretty painful by the end of it. I love old-school graphic adventure games, but there are a few things about them that can get left in the past. I think with some retooling this could be great.
I'd definitely play another game in this universe from your team though.
thanks for playing and for your note .-) - about pixel hunting - I agree - I should do better (at least adding the "space bar" feature to SHOW hotspots). About moving around (if that's your complaint) that's yes a bit old school, even if I like it, but I'll think about it
Thanks :-)
Top game of AdvJam 2021. Putting this here in case people got stuck.... in time. :)
thanks :-)
(btw: even my 14yo nephew used your video to go once stuck in a part he couldn't solve :-D)
Hehe, glad the video helped. What did he think if the game? Does he already want to become a developer? :)
yes - he seems so - not sure if he wants to become a programmer or specifically a game dev - but he's surely intrigued by coding, even if at the moment he's just using scratch :-)
About the game: he's curious and he seems to like it - but it's his first point-and-click and I'm not sure he can really appreciate it :-P
From Scratch to Riches... I mean C, heck yeah! :) And I think it's great if this is his first p&c since it can be special on multiple levels - first game of this genre, that's one, made by family that's two, 2D graphics so he has a good example of the visual style & the quality & detail possible, that's three. I mean, he may not get all humor but that would be the case regardless.
he he - thx .-) I didn't think about all that :-D