About Trapped
I started to build Trapped back in 2005, but it didn't really take two years to be finished. It was more like 3-5 weeks of spare-time development followed by 6-7 months of not touching it at all. Besides that, it was built from scratch: I chose to do every part of it, from design to programming, without using anything ready (A* was an exception, but doesn't matter that much).
The other thing that delayed it was the house. The first one had three floors, a basement and an underground maze, with over a hundred rooms. When I completed the maps (without any furniture) for two floors I realized I wouldn't finish it ever, so I decided to make a smaller house (based on a house I actually lived in when I was a kid) and concentrate in the puzzles.
So after two years, the white rabbit is ready. It is very unlikely that the next two parts will take more than a few months to be released, since that most of the hard work is done, and the puzzles will probably be better, now that I'm free to create them without the technical stuff and all the designing in the way.
Bruno Maestrini started to help at the end of the process, with texts and advising, and made it better than I would. He'll have a bigger participation in the sequels as a puzzlemaker as well, and that will help to make your life more difficult and hopefully fun.
The story
The story in Trapped is the one thing I don't really like about the game. It tries to be serious, but in the end it's just lame. But it's useful, and it's done, so I'll keep it. Next time I'll try something funnier and more stupid.
At the beginning the story was attached to Alice in Wonderland: the second part was called "the looking-glass" and Becky's original name was Alice, besides a load of other references. I terminated this when I realized the puzzles would have to be more related to the books, and that was a limitation I didn't want to deal with. The only thing left was the white rabbit, but only because its image is funny.
And it was a trilogy since always. That way, I could use the same furniture and house and system and characters two more times instead of waste a great load of work in one game only.
The game
I grew up (and so did Bruno) with the classic adventure games: Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, Sam & Max and many others. I liked those games because they demanded a different kind of thinking: you had to improvise a lot and make things that barely made sense. Sometimes it was a twisted thinking. Those of you who remember picking up the poster with the anatomy of a tentacle, sending it back to the past and putting it in the pile of flag designs so that in the future the american flag would be a perfect tentacle disguise know what I'm talking about.
I don't spend so much time playing games anymore, but those I do play seem to have lost it. In later adventurelike games, such as Silent Hill (which is a good game), you find a 1 here, a 7 there, add them up and get an 8. Back then you would find a 1 here, an L some other place, use a washing machine to rotate the L and make it look lke a 7 and only then get the 8 you needed. You know what I mean, right?
Then I discovered online games such as Crimson Room. They're good games, but still linear, and sometimes they only depend on clicking the right pixel. I find it really annoying, to be sincere. And most of them are poorly designed. Not that I am a great designer myself, but anyway.
So I decided to make my own game, even if it had the limitations of an online game, and listed a few guidelines:
- The game would be in third person, and the character would be able to move by the scenes while interacting with the ojects.
- It wouldn't have a crappy story, as "I'm in some place - I get out of it". At least, it has to be "I'm in some place for some reason that will be explained - something happens - something happens - something happens - I figure it all out and get out of it".
- The puzzles would be as nonlinear as possible. If they were strange and had a twisted logic, they would be perfect. But they would still be logic and make sense.
- By "puzzles" I meant the natural pick-and-use-items of the game. There wouldn't be any puzzles in the strict sense of the word.
- All clickable objects would be visible. If the player can't see an item, it can be picked by clicking on its container (such as a drawer or a dead body). If an object is tiny and has a small clickable area, it cannot be hidden by the background or the other objects around.
- The player can't die. He can, however, do something that will trigger an alternate and premature ending, that will force him to retrace his steps to continue the game. If that is possible, the game must have a save-and-load function.
I didn't manage to fully accomplish every item of this list in the white rabbit (the alternate endings weren't even tried, although they were considered), and Trapped is surely not to be compared to the games I cited above, but I think I did a good job so far. The next parts shall be better.
By the way, you can know some new game that actually relates to the old ones, and it is likely I've never played it. If you do, please let me know.
The people
I'd like to thank the people listed below, for testing and giving advise about the game while it was being made. Lots of things changed because of them, and their opinion is worth lots more than mine, since I simply cannot play the game myself. So many thanks to all:
Baunilha
Bruno Galera
Bruno Maestrini
Catiele Fortes
Cleber Maia
Ernani Luz
Fabio Scaico
Gustavo Velho
Hugo Jr
Julio Oliveira
Marco Maestrini
Paulo Cabral
Ricardo Cunha
Rodrigo Roesler, august 2007
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