The Quest to find The Dark Hills by Stephen Brown

Review Rachel

Liking it!

Comment Stephen Brown

The password for the computer is under the desk in "your room" on a post it note. It's been so long now though I don't remember how to get it. I think you just have to look under it. If you break the desk however (I think you can do that by kicking it) you'll never find said post it note.

Comment soul emporer

where is the password for the computer answer asap please

Comment soul emporer

where is the key at the very beginning answer asap please

Comment Stephen Brown

I hope this wont count as spam.. but I just wanted to note on here that the first level of the sequel game has been released for those who are interested in giving it a go.

Revenge of the Shadow Masters (level 1 ONLY):
http://www.textadventures.co.uk/review/365/

Please check it out and give us feedback!

Comment Stephen Brown

Hey,

Sorry it took so long to write a response Breeze, I was having trouble logging in. Glad to hear you liked the parts where you had to find/do something. We at Slackers Inc. tried our best to make sure there are more ares like that in the sequel were working on. One of our beta testers even went so far as to say that our sequel game is almost like that of Infocom. This of course made us very excited and makes us feel were doing our jobs a bit better then we did with this first game.

The sequel "Revenge of the Shadow Masters" has a lot more puzzles to solve in it, and has been vamped up with pictures as well as background music which really gives you the feel of being in the environment. Unlike in our first game where a lot of objects really had no meaning and didn't need to be in the game... we've made sure that pretty much every object has some sort of purpose, take-able or not.

We're proud to announce that the official release date for the RotSM Demo is set for: July 16th 2011. So be sure to mark your calender!

Slackers Inc. Team

Comment Breeze

I liked the parts in the house and church, where the game doesn't let you go before you have done/found something, a nice way to prevent players walking around aimlessly.
the 'Levitate' bit got me stuck pretty long, I would have never guessed it, it didn't make much sense to be honest :)
Lots of items where unused, is there a purpose for every item, for just to mask the important ones ?
Great game, I am waiting for the sequel

Comment Stephen Brown

Hey,

Thanks mate! As for the constructive criticism, I know. I assure you that in the sequel 'Revenge of the Shadow Masters' (release date: Unknown) there is indeed more actual use for acquired items along the way, as well as more puzzles.

Also, just to keep you guys up to date on the sequel.. Currently level one has been fully coded and we're beginning work on level two. Once level two is coded a Demo will be released!

Review pofke

Overall I think the game is quite good. I did like the gameplay and the size of the world.

Some (constructive) comment:

- You introduced so many nice items with which to make nice puzzles but didn't use them.
- overall there might have been more puzzles, the game was a little too straightforward.

Great effort, I hope to see more from you guys,

Pof

Comment Stephen Brown

Just an update to the above. I've played the game on and off line and can't seem to re-create this effect. I was able to get more money however by dropping the ten dollar bill, and then picking it back up. I forgot to decrement the money variable when the player types 'drop money'. So it stays at $10, and then if you pick it up again you now have $30 and so on.

Comment Stephen Brown

Hey Wheelnut,

So I've been told. A good friend of mine who's recently been able to play the game online told me. I'm not sure why it happens, but it isn't supposed to. He said that you don't even need to leave the room. You can just type to 'open the desk' again and it will have the same effect. I'm just going to leave it though. The sequel is coming along nicely and far as I've been told it doesn't have this glitch. Must of been something I overlooked.

Comment Wheelnut

I've only just started playing, but I've already found a glitch.
And a very lucrative one, I might add...

In the beginning, in the room where you find the nightstand, you can get unlimited money! (as far as I've tried, anyway)
All you have to do, is open the night stand, take the money, and leave the room.
When you re-enter the room, you can repeat the sequence!
The amount of money just keeps adding. I got 100 bucks from the nightstand...
I don't know if this is a glitch, or if it's supposed to happen.
It works for the lighter fluid as well...

I'll continue to play the game now...

Review Thomas

Ah yes - that towel did the trick, although I must admit I never got around to read that Hitchhiker's Guide. This last part was not very intuitive (I would have edited the use options in order to simply use the towel on the boat, and after that just head norteast instead of having to pick up the boat into the inventory), but that is a minor hassle, since the game is actually playable and completable. Also, I would have liked to have had a word or two with the main antagonist before I put him in the dirt. :)

But...my earlier comments remain. The long room descriptions, along with the well paced unfolding of the story, makes an IF game good in my book. You also managed to create a world that is believable large, something that is difficult to achieve with mere writing. Anyway, congratulations on making a good game! I hope to see more from Slackers Inc in the future.

Comment Stephen Brown

Ah yes, the boat! lol. We went for something of a Hitchhikers Guide method in that your towel is very useful (you use it to plug the hole). If you have the towel from Damien's Book shop all you should have to do is type 'fix the boat'. Then in order to use it, you'll need to 'take the boat' because it has to be in your inventory before you can use it. Once you've used the boat, the North East exit will unlock. We do have a forum with and FAQ.

URL:
http://slackers-inc.proboards.com/

Feel free to join!

Comment Thomas

Alas, I seem to be stuck again. I got tons of items in my inventory, but I cannot figure out how to fix the boat. Any hints? Or do you happen to have a walkthrough for the thing? :)

Comment Stephen Brown

Hello there Thomas,

I know it's a bit hard to work out, but the final clue should say..

"Up 'til now you've topped the rest
Over, above and beyond the best
Sky's the limit, so you shall rise
Into the heavens before our eyes."

You have to 'levitate' in order to get the next map. Once you have the map it will unlock the North exit, and you can continue. If you'd like, after levitating you can type 'land' and it will print 'You slowly descend back down to the ground.' but you don't need to because the exit will already be unlocked.

Thanks for the positive feedback thus far mate!

Comment Thomas

I am stuck, have no idea what to do after getting the final clue at the second church. How do I proceed?

I will not post a review before I have completed the game, but so far I am pretty impressed. Writing is elaborate and of good quality, except for some typos (alter). Also you are missing some objects, like the bed in your bedroom. Some scenery object descriptions would have been nice, like the mosaic in the church.

However it is very intuitive and therefore very playable. Typing "cut down eastern tree" did exactly that, which is only a good thing. To many text adventures are plagued by the dreaded "guess the verb" disease.