Game becomes broken if you insert button in machine and back out

[MADanger]

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Last chapter. I cut the button off the dress and put it into the machine. I backed out to search the area more, then went back to the machine and pulled the crank. Now there is now power. Predictably, going back to the closet does not have another button to cutoff. I now need to restart the whole chapter again. Very frustrating. This is the second puzzle I encountered in the game where if you do not do things exactly right, the game breaks and you have to restart.

[Daria Morgendorffer]

Nice username

[Brian Monday]

Originally posted by Mad Ass Danger:

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Last chapter. I cut the button off the dress and put it into the machine. I backed out to search the area more, then went back to the machine and pulled the crank. Now there is now power. Predictably, going back to the closet does not have another button to cutoff. I now need to restart the whole chapter again. Very frustrating. This is the second puzzle I encountered in the game where if you do not do things exactly right, the game breaks and you have to restart.

Hello,

I am sorry for your frustration with the game. As you've described your gameplay, I don't think you needed to restart the chapter. You definitely didn't have to return to the closet looking for another button to insert into the calliope machine. Once you insert the button into the calliope machine, it remains there until you are able to turn the handle on the calliope machine, whether the calliope machine is plugged in or not. Although you didn't say, I believe that you picked up the electrical cord that was plugged into both the calliope machine and the power outlet on the wall before putting the button into the calliope machine. Since there was no power to the calliope machine, the handle wouldn't turn, even though you had already inserted the button, but instead of restarting that chapter, you could have reattached the power cord to the calliope machine and the power outlet and then turn the handle to get the pliers. The button was still in the calliope machine and once power was restored, the handle would turn and deliver the pliers.

Following these steps, I successfully solved the calliope machine puzzle:

Pick up the electrical cord, then
Click on the calliope machine to get the close up view, then
Insert the button into the slot on the calliope machine, then,
Try to turn the handle of the calliope machine. The game responds with Fran saying,
"Oh, I think I disconnected the machine. It has no power now." Then,
Exit from the close up view of the calliope machine, then
Click on Fran's purse to open inventory, then
USE the electrical cord with the power outlet to reconnect the cord to the calliope machine, then
Click on the calliope machine to get the close up view, then
Click on the handle of the calliope machine to turn it, and the pliers drops in the chute of the calliope machine, ready for you to pick up

There isn't any need to go back to the closet searching for another button, or worse, start the chapter over again. I just tested the gameplay again, and the above steps worked for me just before posting here. I also inserted the button into the calliope machine, and exited from the calliope room and visited a couple other rooms before returning to the calliope room again and then was still able to turn the handle on the calliope machine to get the pliers.

I am always happy to be told about bugs, but I cannot reproduce this one. If I've missed something that you did in your gameplay that caused the game to require a restart, please post again with that additional information so I can take a look. Thank you!

Since you didn't give any specifics about the first puzzle that broke for you, I can't try to reproduce it and, more importantly, patch it. If you care to provide more information about that puzzle, I would be appreciative as well.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your gameplay in the Fran Bow game. I apologize for your having to restart chapter play two times, and hope that you can enjoy the rest of the game despite the trouble you had.

[DoopForces]

Hi, I was wondering would it be possible to add button to allow skipping large sections of talks, e.g. skip 10 next lines, or skip ENTIRE animation, like that sequence at start of chapter

chapter where she wakes up at aunt/home and has lots of talk

it would really increase replayability.

And would help in cases like this where someone wants to restart chapter (though it turned out it wasn't needed to restart it but still).

[MADanger]

Originally posted by Brian Monday:

Originally posted by Mad Ass Danger:

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SPOILER
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Last chapter. I cut the button off the dress and put it into the machine. I backed out to search the area more, then went back to the machine and pulled the crank. Now there is now power. Predictably, going back to the closet does not have another button to cutoff. I now need to restart the whole chapter again. Very frustrating. This is the second puzzle I encountered in the game where if you do not do things exactly right, the game breaks and you have to restart.

Hello,

I am sorry for your frustration with the game. As you've described your gameplay, I don't think you needed to restart the chapter. You definitely didn't have to return to the closet looking for another button to insert into the calliope machine. Once you insert the button into the calliope machine, it remains there until you are able to turn the handle on the calliope machine, whether the calliope machine is plugged in or not. Although you didn't say, I believe that you picked up the electrical cord that was plugged into both the calliope machine and the power outlet on the wall before putting the button into the calliope machine. Since there was no power to the calliope machine, the handle wouldn't turn, even though you had already inserted the button, but instead of restarting that chapter, you could have reattached the power cord to the calliope machine and the power outlet and then turn the handle to get the pliers. The button was still in the calliope machine and once power was restored, the handle would turn and deliver the pliers.

Following these steps, I successfully solved the calliope machine puzzle:

Pick up the electrical cord, then
Click on the calliope machine to get the close up view, then
Insert the button into the slot on the calliope machine, then,
Try to turn the handle of the calliope machine. The game responds with Fran saying,
"Oh, I think I disconnected the machine. It has no power now." Then,
Exit from the close up view of the calliope machine, then
Click on Fran's purse to open inventory, then
USE the electrical cord with the power outlet to reconnect the cord to the calliope machine, then
Click on the calliope machine to get the close up view, then
Click on the handle of the calliope machine to turn it, and the pliers drops in the chute of the calliope machine, ready for you to pick up

There isn't any need to go back to the closet searching for another button, or worse, start the chapter over again. I just tested the gameplay again, and the above steps worked for me just before posting here. I also inserted the button into the calliope machine, and exited from the calliope room and visited a couple other rooms before returning to the calliope room again and then was still able to turn the handle on the calliope machine to get the pliers.

I am always happy to be told about bugs, but I cannot reproduce this one. If I've missed something that you did in your gameplay that caused the game to require a restart, please post again with that additional information so I can take a look. Thank you!

Since you didn't give any specifics about the first puzzle that broke for you, I can't try to reproduce it and, more importantly, patch it. If you care to provide more information about that puzzle, I would be appreciative as well.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your gameplay in the Fran Bow game. I apologize for your having to restart chapter play two times, and hope that you can enjoy the rest of the game despite the trouble you had.

You are 100% correct. Thank you for such a detailed response!

[Brian Monday]

Originally posted by (B.O.) Supreme Leader Trump:

Hi, I was wondering would it be possible to add button to allow skipping large sections of talks, e.g. skip 10 next lines, or skip ENTIRE animation, like that sequence at start of chapter

chapter where she wakes up at aunt/home and has lots of talk

it would really increase replayability.

And would help in cases like this where someone wants to restart chapter (though it turned out it wasn't needed to restart it but still).

Hello (B.O.) Supreme Leader Trump,

Thank you for your comment regarding the ability to skip through large sections of the text with a button when playing the Fran Bow game. The developers do read all the threads on this forum and appreciate all such comments about how to make the game better.

Killmonday Games has begun work on porting the Fran Bow game to the Unity engine. More information about that port can be found here: https://www.killmondaygames.com/2017/12/14/secret-game-new-workplace/.

The major reasons for the porting of the game to Unity are that it will allow for the game to be translated into more languages, and to be released on consoles. The developers are also planning to fix some rarely occurring small bugs that are still present in the game as well. Your suggestion, and others are also being considered with this port as well.

While the developers are not yet sure exactly what the options to speed up dialog will look like in the Unity version of the game, it is unlikely that there will be an option to allow for large blocks of dialog to just be completely skipped through without displaying at all as you suggested in your thread. This is a story-based game after all, and the dialog is important to the story. In fact, gamers have indicated that playing the game more than one time allows them to see new things that they missed on earlier playthroughs. These new things help them to understand the story more completely. Allowing for players to completely skip through such dialog on later gaming sessions could possibly cause those gamers to miss these story elements that they missed on their first playthrough. It is a balancing act to tell the story through the game's dialog, and allow the player to advance rapidly through the game on later game sessions. It is not a trivial matter to decide which dialog to require to be displayed and which can be safely skipped completely, and the programming required to perform this skipping might not be easy either. Probably the balance will tip more toward requiring the story to be told through the dialog displaying (possibly for a shorter time than the present version of the game, if the player desires it to), rather than allowing it to be skipped completely just to play faster on later playthroughs. The story is what the developers want to be told; in addition to the puzzle solving, and skipping it completely does not fulfill their vision of what they want players to experience, even on the second and later playthroughs.

You may wish to follow the progress of both the Fran Bow porting as well as the progress of Killmonday Games' latest projects using these sites:

https://www.killmondaygames.com/

https://twitter.com/killmondaygames/

https://facebook.com/killmondaygames/

Thanks again for your suggestion.

[DoopForces]

Oh right, I didn't mean it for skipping for normal playing, of course everyone watches/reads them closly :)

I ment it only for re-playing game after completing it to "relive" some moments or cool locations.

With lack of manual save-game it is the way for it.

You could allow this in menu if player completed the game, e.g. has steam reward "game end".