The “The "I actually live very close to where this story takes place" Award” Award

Presented by tizilogic to:

The Alchemist's Tower (Stackzilla)
This is a point and click adventure story. Due to time constraints I didn't start properly until Thursday afternoon. My aim was simple: to create an experience reminiscent of the mysterious explorations found in similar games of the past, such as Myst. It's also an opportunity for me to try to exercise my PyperCard library (a simple shim around Kivy, that works like HyperCard). The story starts in a dinghy on Lake Zurich, Switzerland. I've uploaded a play-through to YouTube (spoiler alert, you'll see the puzzles being solved). Installation Clone the Git repository (apologies that it's so big, I've been using uncompressed game assets), or download the and unzip the compressed source. The Alchemist's Tower only works with Python 3. Create a new virtualenv: python3 -m venv tower Then within the root directory of the source repository install the dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt Finally, run the game from the root directory of the repository like this: python main.py You should be presented with a screen asking for your name. Please also make sure you have sound switched on -- it's an important aspect of the game. I hope you enjoy it..! Linux Sound Issues Due to a bug in Kivy, sound may not work on Linux based systems. The fix is to compile and install the ffpyplayer package in your virtualenv before installing from requirements.txt. Links for how to do this can be found at the following GitHub issue: https://github.com/matham/ffpyplayer/issues/71 tl;dr - install a bunch of system wide packages along with your Python headers, then just: pip install . within the virtualenv from the root directory of the ffpyplayer Git repository - detailed instructions here: https://matham.github.io/ffpyplayer/installation.html#linux.

This is a point and click adventure story. Due to time constraints I didn't start properly until Thursday afternoon.

My aim was simple: to create an experience reminiscent of the mysterious explorations found in similar games of the past, such as Myst.

It's also an opportunity for me to try to exercise my PyperCard library (a simple shim around Kivy, that works like HyperCard).

The story starts in a dinghy on Lake Zurich, Switzerland.

I've uploaded a play-through to YouTube (spoiler alert, you'll see the puzzles being solved).

Installation

Clone the Git repository (apologies that it's so big, I've been using uncompressed game assets), or download the and unzip the compressed source.

The Alchemist's Tower only works with Python 3. Create a new virtualenv:

    python3 -m venv tower

Then within the root directory of the source repository install the dependencies:

    pip install -r requirements.txt

Finally, run the game from the root directory of the repository like this:

    python main.py

You should be presented with a screen asking for your name. Please also make sure you have sound switched on -- it's an important aspect of the game.

I hope you enjoy it..!

Linux Sound Issues

Due to a bug in Kivy, sound may not work on Linux based systems. The fix is to compile and install the ffpyplayer package in your virtualenv before installing from requirements.txt.

Links for how to do this can be found at the following GitHub issue: https://github.com/matham/ffpyplayer/issues/71

tl;dr - install a bunch of system wide packages along with your Python headers, then just:

     pip install .

within the virtualenv from the root directory of the ffpyplayer Git repository - detailed instructions here: https://matham.github.io/ffpyplayer/installation.html#linux.