Subject 17 - A Voice Input Based Adventure Game

neo187 · February 07, 2012, 09:59:11 PM

Hello all

I have just released the beta version of a short demo that I have been working on for a student project. Would love your comments or any bug reports.

Subject 17 plays as a retro style adventure game, where the point and clicking can be replaced by the use of speech. As you manouver the character through the environment you can use the Google Voice facility to speak to the character and give her instructions, for instance to ask her to check an area or to use a particular item (Voice Search needs to be installed for the game to be played with voice, otherwise it can still be played simply with touch gestures).

Subject 17 tells the story of a young girl who wakes up in locked bedroom with no recollection of how she arrived there.

The game was targeted towards lower end devices (like my one

) So polygon count/texture resolution have been kept to a fairly low level, this may change in the next release.

YouTube Game Trailer.

Android Market page.

Game Walkthrough.

The game was made mostly using the jBrush level editor for JPCT.

EgonOlsen · February 08, 2012, 10:10:23 PM

Nice. I will add it to the projects page if you don't mind!? However, i made it crash while trying to pull out the suitcase (using touch controls, not voice):

Code Select


02-08 22:08:41.968: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13404): java.lang.NullPointerException
02-08 22:08:41.968: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13404):     at com.voicegame.Level.translateObjects(Level.java:644)
02-08 22:08:41.968: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13404):     at com.voicegame.Level.update(Level.java:168)
02-08 22:08:41.968: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13404):     at com.voicegame.GameWorld.update(GameWorld.java:359)
02-08 22:08:41.968: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13404):     at com.voicegame.GameController$MyRenderer.onDrawFrame(GameController.java:558)
02-08 22:08:41.968: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13404):     at android.opengl.GLSurfaceView$GLThread.guardedRun(GLSurfaceView.java:1462)
02-08 22:08:41.968: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13404):     at android.opengl.GLSurfaceView$GLThread.run(GLSurfaceView.java:1216)

neo187 · February 09, 2012, 03:58:12 PM

Yes sure, do add it. Have being trying to reproduce the error with no luck $:-\$ So you just touched on the briefcase when the view was on it?

Thanks again for checking it out.

EgonOlsen · February 09, 2012, 04:20:59 PM

Yes...i looked at it, started to pull it using the touch controls, it started to move and then...*bang*.

neo187 · February 09, 2012, 11:40:15 PM

Quote from: EgonOlsen on February 09, 2012, 04:20:59 PM
Yes...i looked at it, started to pull it using the touch controls, it started to move and then...*bang*.

Fixed. Thanks for the report.

Hrolf · February 10, 2012, 02:34:49 AM

I love this idea! If you could make more like you were actually talking to the girl it could be really powerful. So she says 'help! I'm stuck in this room what shall I do?' and you say 'calm down, look around you'...

...thinking about it, that would be quite hard to do...

Anyway, good work! Looks good.

neo187 · February 10, 2012, 07:34:59 PM

Quote from: Hrolf on February 10, 2012, 02:34:49 AM
I love this idea! If you could make more like you were actually talking to the girl it could be really powerful. So she says 'help! I'm stuck in this room what shall I do?' and you say 'calm down, look around you'...

...thinking about it, that would be quite hard to do...

Anyway, good work! Looks good.

Thank you! Well the idea behind the project was really to demonstrate the potential of the use of speech in games, which can potentially be very fun and involving!

The technology out there is not yet advanced enough for anyone to just speak naturally to a device and the engine to always interpret that accurately... But when it gets more powerful then imagine a similar game with much more complex algorithms/AI/word associations.... it could really feel like you're talking to a real person through a screen!

EgonOlsen · February 10, 2012, 08:24:37 PM

I tried it again...it didn't crash...but it's not a suitcase either:

Edit: The suitcase was there when i looked again.

EgonOlsen · February 10, 2012, 08:33:13 PM

Tried to play it some more...it's interesting, but i can't control it. I don't understand what i have to do to make her move into the direction that i want. It seems completely random to me...

neo187 · February 11, 2012, 08:30:16 PM

Mmm well I give a gameplay guide in the 'controls' section of the menu (it can be accessed anytime by pressing the Menu key)... maybe i should expand on it more...

There's a thumbstick icon on the bottom left corner of the screen? pressing the top, left, right and bottom tips of it makes the character move in relation to the camera? and pressing the camera icon gives you different view angles of the room? the tumbstick would always start movement in relation to the current angle...

Please feel free to suggest ways you think it could play better...otherwise thanks again for checking it out!

EgonOlsen · February 12, 2012, 08:36:40 PM

Quote from: neo187 on February 11, 2012, 08:30:16 PM
pressing the top, left, right and bottom tips of it makes the character move in relation to the camera?

"Pressing" is the key word here...i'm used to slide on these virtual sticks but if you do this here, it's impossible to control. Maybe simple direction keys would be better.

neo187 · February 14, 2012, 04:00:06 PM

Quote from: EgonOlsen on February 12, 2012, 08:36:40 PM
Quote from: neo187 on February 11, 2012, 08:30:16 PM
pressing the top, left, right and bottom tips of it makes the character move in relation to the camera?
"Pressing" is the key word here...i'm used to slide on these virtual sticks but if you do this here, it's impossible to control. Maybe simple direction keys would be better.

Thanks for that input. I've amended the thumbstick behaviour to act the way that I think you are describing, now it responds to sliding movements as well and it's also a bit smaller so that it can mimic a thumbstick by following your finger as you move it, this should make it a tad more intuitive to control the character I hope...

Thanks again for your comments!

EgonOlsen · February 14, 2012, 10:56:44 PM

Controls work much better now IMHO. Still not perfect, but i've never seen perfect touch controls (that includes my own tries), so it's fine the way it is now.

Lestat · September 30, 2013, 11:49:52 AM

Duuuude. Keep working in this game. It is awesome, I like the concept, the mistery. Even the trailer video is very entertaining. Almost 2 years since you published it :S The mistery is killing me! (well, me for some months)
You just released another game, so I guess (and hope) you will now work on this :3
Sorry for necroposting.