Stuck in After the Fall

gcewing on 2009/09/11 10:06

I seem to have reached a dead end. I've gained access to the following rooms: Main Courtyard, Dining Hall, Kitchen, Pantry, Music Room, Ballroom, Study, Long Hall, Library, Observatory (from the library end only -- haven't got onto the balcony there).

I've found the following doors that won't open yet: One at the end of the ledge above the kitchen; one down the underground stairs from the main courtyard; two downstairs from the Long Hall; four off the balcony above the main courtyard (all except the one leading to the library).

I can see a feather on the balcony above the ballroom, but can't find a way of getting to it yet.

Have I missed any feathers, doors or places I can jump to, or some other trick?

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Comments

adam on 2009/09/11 16:39:

Is there anything in the Study that reminds you of something else you've seen elsewhere?

gcewing on 2009/09/12 04:07:

Okay, got it. I recognised the pattern, but it didn't mean anything because I hadn't discovered what you could do with the other one. I did actually try to interact with the one in the study before, but I hadn't put enough oomph into it!

BTW, there seems to be a slight bug with those things -- in the attic I managed to get one jammed up against another so that it wouldn't move in any direction, despite there being nothing obvious blocking it from moving sideways.

Also noticed that the map in the study doesn't quite seem to match up with reality in some places.

adam on 2009/09/12 08:20:

The one in the kitchen is supposed to force the player to learn what that pattern means - but we realised after release that you can skip the puzzle in the kitchen that should have required you to use it by jumping up off the dining table. Is that what you did?

There is a bug with these which comes up occasionally, as mentioned in the README, which we only discovered very late on and didn't have time to fix. If you get them irretrievably stuck, you can hit Esc to go back to the menu screen, then 'C'ontinue your game, whicn resets them all to their original locations.

The model in the study is our original design for the map. We added some extra connections to make exploring more interesting (and to make it easier to find the locked areas - every feather opens a door off the courtyard, but sometimes some others as well) and took out a few extraneous rooms because they didn't have any purpose or we didn't have time to implement them. I'm impressed that you studied it in enough detail to see the difference!

gcewing on 2009/09/12 10:03:

you can skip the puzzle in the kitchen that should have required you to use it by jumping up off the dining table. Is that what you did?

Oh, so that's what it's for! Yes, I climbed on the table -- it just seemed like an obvious thing to try, and when it worked I didn't think to look for any other solution. I think it would have taken me quite a long time to figure out that you can move the pantry block, though -- there's just no clue that such a thing is possible until you try to do it in a fairly determined way. I'm not sure what could be done about that. Maybe have a note from the butler asking one of the servants to move the cupboard into the next room or something like that.

The model in the study is our original design for the map. I'm impressed that you studied it in enough detail to see the difference!

Well, I thought it might give a clue as to where to find secret passages or something. Would have been another good way of giving a subtle hint.

Tee on 2009/09/12 11:34:

I realized the blocks were movable because the ground was a bit lower there. But that's only because it's a pattern present in other games.

I remember that on the second block puzzle, I managed to get one block stuck somehow, but then I realized that block wasn't necessary.