Reality Factory

Hi All,

Well, I have tried for a while to finish my demo and I just haven't had
the time - and now the engine has so many new features (and there
seem to be new engines on the horizon!) that I figured I'd just upload
it as-is.

I actually took this to E3 and had Dreamcatcher look at it. Their reaction
was favorable, but they wouldn't commit to publishing it until I was done
with the complete game. I'll work on doing that in 2006.

You can get the demo here:
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/atroup@sbcglobal.net

Go into the Telepath folder. The demo is split into 8 parts for easy
downloading - you'll need the splitter.exe file to put them together.
There's also a PDF of the CD insert text that I made for the demo,
and a datasheet for publishers. Note that the datasheet contains
a walkthrough, which will spoil the puzzle if you care about such things.

Comments (especially harsh criticism) welcome. I can't improve unless
I know what sucks.

Below are three more messages about the game. Thanks!

Alan

Telepath is a Myst-like puzzle solving adventure game. Here is the
background paragraph and storyline:

"From its inception in 1978 as "Grill Flame," until its termination in 1995 as "Stargate," the psychic spies of the remote-viewing program were pioneers on the last frontier of this planet, the frontier of the mind. We had no ouija boards to speak of and, except for a civilian or two, no tarot cards. We had a small cadre of highly trained individuals using techniques developed by "hard" scientists in respected laboratories - techniques, methods, and protocols designed to bring a new degree of accuracy to psychic perception.

The majority of what was done - the successes and the failures - remains classified."

- Mel Riley
From the Foreword of
The Psychic Battlefield: A History of the Military-Occult Complex
by W. Adam Mandelbaum

--------------------------------------------

In the late 1990s, the CIA ran a series of top-secret psychic experiments code-named Project Psion. This was similar to their earlier Stargate/Remote Viewing project - except that this time, the enemies were not the Russians....

From the documentation acquired by our operative, we were not able to determine the nature of the enemy. Only a photo showing a star cluster in the andromeda galaxy (M31) was included.

According to the files, one of the most successful psychic-enhancement training programs involved placing the subject in a series of virtual, computer-generated worlds - called CyberWorlds.

Our operative was able to access the archive area of the database and download most of the files. We present to you here, on this CD, that psychic-enhancement training program.

A lot of GREAT people helped me with this demo. I'd like to acknowledge
them here (one of the main reasons I am posting it):

Me - Concept, Storylines, Game Design, Levels, Web Pages, Documentation

Martin Sant - Hand and Killer Whale Animated Models

Nick Ottosson - Textures, Logos, 2D Artwork, Title Screen, Artistic Consultation

Steven8 - Menu System, Lamp and Organ Models, Aurora Modifications

Tonik - Telepath Soundtrack

Pickles - Scripting (Scoring and Card Choice Systems)

Vexator - Technical Advice on Levels, Textures, and Programming

QuestofDreams - Telepath-specific Programming Additions to Reality Factory

Gekido - Technical Support, and for keeping Reality Factory a Cutting-Edge Solution

Dairyman - Main Reality Factory code and Specific Telepath Additions


--------------------------------

To whet yer appetites. BTW this is RF 068.

I will definitely have to check this out when I get the chance. Remote Viewing is cool.

I actually took part in a remote viewing session one time. I got a very close image to that of the given target. Very interesting stuff.

Cool! Were you remote viewing against a human or a computer? I did
one against a computer once and came out accurately also. I don't
know if they still have those "Mobius Psi-Q" tests...

Oh I forgot to mention, the scores and times that are tracked are
written to a LevA.htm file in the game's home directory (whatever
you've called it). However, the button on the videosetup that calls
up the Telepath Website brings up LevA1.htm. I formatted LevA1
and was using that as a test, and forgot to switch back the videosetup
to display LevA, which is unformatted. I have since figured out how
to put the formatting in, but that's not in this demo The short
story is, to see your real scores, once you get to displaying LevA1.htm
just change the link so you see LevA.htm. You can also (obviously)
open LevA.htm directly with your browser without using the videosetup.

Thanks!

Alan

I was viewing against about 10 people. All of whom got close to the target. I think I was closest but mainly due to the fact that I did not attempt to "see" the image and instead simply drew whatever came to mind.

Because when your mind begins to try to interpret the image you lose the target. Most got that it was black, and pointed, or just something pointed. Everything from the eiffel tower to the washington monument.

I got a black half sphere with a triangle on top of it.

The target turned out to be a WWI German helmet sitting next to the guy administering the session.

It was like a radio broadcast thing where everyone who was listening and taking part e-mailed the guy what they saw. So no scoring. Was very interesting though.

I'm at work now so I'm downloading it as I type this thanks to getting wireless high speed internet here.

Also have to hand it to you for pitching the game to Dreamctcher. There's no way I would have the marbles to actually do that. I hate rejection and if they actually said ok I would probably get so stressed I would have a stroke worrying about completing it.

You all have to know that this demo is just beautiful. I am proud to say that Alan gave me the chance to do some work on it with him. Take a moment and download it. if you have a 56K modem, get yourself a download manager, sit back and wait. It is more than worth it.

In my opinion, the most beautiful piece of work ever to be created with Reality Factory.

I just tried the demo and I must agree it is a sweet looking game. Love the information screens.

However I did hit a problem when I came to the first puzzle. I answered it wrong (so much for my psychic powers I thought it was a O and it was a sqaure).

Anyway the puzzle didn't reset or anything I tried clicking a few more boxes and I got a crash. Probably something I did.

On another note is this demo using bumpmapping? As either the textures are just that good or you've found some way to get the bumpmapping working properly.

I will try it again later because I am at work. Definitely an interesting and extremely professional looking demo.

Edit: This time I opened the door but when I entered the next room I got another crash. Hopefully nobody else is having this problem. Maybe I got a bad download or something as I've tried two different video modes.

Hey ZenBudha!!!

>Because when your mind begins to try to interpret the image you lose the target.

Perfectly stated. Just "see and absorb" is my thinking.

>I got a black half sphere with a triangle on top of it.
>The target turned out to be a WWI German helmet

Dang!!! )))) That's extremely close. I'll post my experience in
another message.

>Also have to hand it to you for pitching the game to Dreamctcher. There's no way
>I would have the marbles to actually do that. I hate rejection and if they actually
>said ok I would probably get so stressed I would have a stroke worrying about completing it.

Ha! Well here's the thing. When I found out I was going to get to go to E3 (thanks
Gekido! I went through the list of companies and wrote to them before the show
to set up meetings. I got some replies, and the most interested was Dreamcatcher.
The woman said she liked my idea enough to give me a half hour of her time, and
at that point I figured she already liked the idea, so the worst that could happen
was she'd say she didn't like my implementation. And I can fix that, so I figured
I had nothing to lose. I met her, and gave her a demo CD and the datasheet. She
asked me some interesting questions about how I planned on finishing the game,
what was my budget, was I going to use RF, etc. She said something like "Let
me level with you. You're an unknown. The only way we'd commit to publishing
your game is if it was finished, or if you had an established team of developers
working on it. Keep in touch and send me updates of your progress." So, it
went pretty well. It never occurred to me until I was sitting in front of her that
she might want me to finish it asap, and I did start sweating. I figured I'd recruit
people from the forum to help me.

>I just tried the demo and I must agree it is a sweet looking game. Love the information screens.

Thanks! They were my first attempt at modelling.

>Anyway the puzzle didn't reset or anything I tried clicking a few more boxes
>and I got a crash. Probably something I did.

I think it's that version of RF - not the most stable. Technically the card sets are
not the puzzles. When you get into the game, there are real actual puzzles (just
one in the demo unfortunately) that you solve, also using psychic ability. Then
you are presented with a set of cards on your way out of the level.

>On another note is this demo using bumpmapping? As either the textures are
>just that good or you've found some way to get the bumpmapping working properly.

The textures are just that good. Nick is amazing. The shame of it is, I have
a bunch of great textures for the ice level that I didn't get to use because I didn't
have time to finish the demo. They're gorgeous. RF 068 was before bumpmapping.
Thanks! And thanks for all your great comments.

>Edit: This time I opened the door but when I entered the next room I got another crash.
>Hopefully nobody else is having this problem. Maybe I got a bad download or
>something as I've tried two different video modes.

No I bet it's the stability - I have 3 PCs and it works on two and crashes on the third.
What are your specs, just out of curiosity? Generally it crashes on changelevels
and card choices. Or sound. A song plays briefly when you open the doors and
see the three card sets in the water. I've had it crash there. This is going to sound
strange, but the one consistent thing I've noticed that seems to work is - don't move
when anything else is moving. Don't walk or turn when the cards are being displayed,
don't walk through a door while it's opening, don't use the hand several times in a row,
or while something is moving. There are some rather.... "interesting".. moving plats
in the cemetery level. You can turn to look at them but if you try to walk it will almost
always crash. Wait until they get out of sight before you start moving. That's one reason I want to upgrade to a newer RF or one of the RF2s.

Thanks!

Alan

PS. Did you see the fireflies?

Hey Steven8 the 2nd!

Thanks )))) And thank YOU for all your help, and I forgot to
mention, moral support when I was ready to throw in the towel.
I'm only sorry I didn't get to use your auroras in this demo - but
they will be in the next version for sure!

Seeya!

Alan

OK so here's my remote viewing story...

Once, I got this OMNI magazine that had a test in it. The setup for the test was
that a computer picked six places around the world, and would randomly select
one of these places every 20 minutes. You were supposed to concentrate for
20 minutes on what the computer was thinking (you didn't know what the places
were) and write down the impressions you got. Also, you were supposed to draw
a picture of the place you were "seeing". Then you sent the results in and were
ranked along with everyone else, and later they sent you a printout of your
scores, what the places were, etc...

So, at the start of one of the 20-minute intervals, I concentrated one night. I saw
a big lake with mountains all around it, from a birds-eye view. Then the view seemed
to swoop down and skim the surface of the water, and I saw a waterfall at one end,
just ahead of me, then I seemed to go back up in the air, and saw more mountains.
Then I started seeing sand, so I figured I must be on a beach. Then I swooped
down along the sand again, and saw a huge metal tower, with a huge base, and
then I remembered the water. I thought maybe I was on some big aircraft carrier
or something, and it had one of those rotating antenna things on top. But like you
said, when I tried to figure it out I started losing it. At the end of the 20 minutes, I
stopped and wrote down sort of what I just said, and then I drew a picture of an
aircraft carrier on a lake, and sent it in.

When I got the results a while later, they said I was not real accurate. The place
that matched my time was a mountain lake in Africa, and they sent me a picture.
It was supposed to be some famous lake, but there wasn't a waterfall. There
obviously were no ships on the lake or anything like that. I scanned down the
list of places, and I noticed that the place the computer picked after my mountain
lake was a radar station in an Arizona desert. At that point I rememberd that I was
going to school and I was always late for class, so I had set my clock ten minutes
ahead so I'd wake up sooner. What THAT meant was that I was really concentrating
on *two* places during the 20 minute interval - first on the mountain lake and then on
the radar station, without knowing it! I was pretty excited.

I went to see my aunt one day to tell her about it, and she was pretty excited too.
She had been a travel agent most of her life, and asked me if she could see the
picture of the lake, because she might have been there. Without my telling her
the name of the lake, she knew which one it was as she had been there many
times. She said "This is a really beautiful lake, but you know, at the other end
of the lake, that this picture doesn't show, there's a waterfall."

Tried agian locked up in the same spot. Yes I did notice the fireflies they are cool.

I'm running a Pentium 1.20ghz laptop with 512mb of memory and a Radeon mobile 9200 video card with 32mb of memory on top of shared memory.

One of the few laptops I could find on the cheap with actual video memory instead of the typical just shared memory most have.

Must be the old version of RF as the new version of RF never crashes on me.

Anyway gotta eat and go to work. I'm getting like no work done on Titan-IC and I've have like a total of 15 hours sleep this week. Two jobs are starting to suck.

Hmm. I'm sorry it locked up on you. I'll definitely be redoing it with a
more stable version. My 3.2GHz never crashes. My 1.5GHz crashes a
lot. I bet it's just CPU-intensive. I think a lot of optimization went into
the later versions of RF.

I totally appreciate your input, and that you took the time to look at it.
Thanks very much. I'm going to go over and look at the Titan-IC
thread.

Thanks again!

Alan