Seven Sages - Decipher secret messages and solve riddles

Seven Sages is out now!

http://ghostfromthevoid.net16.net/titlescreenbig-min.jpg

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

  • Seven Sages is a game that requires the player to use analytical
    and critical thinking skills unseen in most games

  • The gameplay revolves around doing research (by reading books in the game),
    deciphering mysterious coded messages (which requires you to write your
    own notes - notebook provided ingame), and solving riddles in order to
    uncover the narrative of the game.

  • The story has deep, mind-bending themes (namely: man’s attachment to
    ideologies and the futility of creating a truly accurate narrative of history)

  • It features nostalgia-inducing retro graphics

  • The bookshelves in the game include bonus short stories contributed by
    various writers (as well as a few classic works in the public domain)

  • Seven Sages is completely FREE (ohh snap!)
    Download here: http://sevensagesgame.tumblr.com

WOW, TELL ME MORE THIS GAME

Seven Sages is a retro-style puzzler where the player must decipher coded messages
and solve riddles in order to reveal the narrative of the game. You play a historian
who has just inherited a strange collection of sealed books from his dead grandfather.
With only a small library of books, a desk to write notes, and your own brain, you
must find a way to unlock your grandfather’s sealed books and uncover their secrets.

http://ghostfromthevoid.net16.net/1-min.jpg

http://ghostfromthevoid.net16.net/5-min.jpg

http://ghostfromthevoid.net16.net/4-min.jpg

http://ghostfromthevoid.net16.net/3-min.jpg

Wow, this is a real nicely polished and well crafted game :point:
I’ll play it later this evening!

Don’t you want to bring it onto steam to at least farm some renown?

Thanks!

This is my first game so I’ve pretty much been winging it on the business end of things. I’ll definitely look into getting it on steam though now that you mention it.

Very nice! Especially on the graphics for that book. It looks very interesting.

Do what the other guy said! Get it on Steam! We believe in you! Lol

This is really great, and that by only having played it a few minutes so far!

Though, I feel like the controls are very confusing, it takes a while to get used to them even to a usable point.
You might want to try to make them a bit more intuitive, mouse controllability for interactions for example could help.

But yeah, definitely aim for Steam or something alike!

Edit: Oh, and hey look, Riven moved you to Featured Games section. Congrats.

Thanks guys!

@Drenius yea, I guess it’s hard for me to judge the feel of the controls since I worked so closely with them. Probably should’ve done some beta testing lol. I’ll look into adding mouse controls for certain things tomorrow. Should be pretty quick and simple to do.

Then again, having a cursor hover the game could destroy parts of the atmosphere again.
All a matter of balancing it out; maybe simply having more… common keybindings would do it already, maybe it’s even just me percepting it that way.

Haha yea, I pretty much based it on the layout that snes emulators tend to have. If anything I’ll try to add a custom key configuration feature in the settings menu.

The game archive you put on your website appears to be corrupted :frowning:
WinRaR allows me to navigate through its two files but I can’t open either of them…

Hmm, it’s working fine on my machine. Does it say anything when you try to open the files?

Also, I’m gonna be putting up version 1.1 (with key configuration options and some other stuff) either tomorrow or the next day, so maybe you can try it again then.

Nothing but an error message from WinRaR saying the file is not finished — I’ll give it a try whenever you update the version, thanks! :slight_smile:

Sounds like maybe the download didn’t complete all the way? Idk. Anyway, I’ll let you know when I put up the update.

I don’t mean to spam here sorry hahah, but just to let you know I’d tried twice so that may not be it.

Version 1.1 is up! ;D

Hopefully it works for you this time. If not, let me know and I’ll see what else we can try.

Also, for those who had the old version that end up downloading the updated version, if you want to keep your saved progress, just move all the .xml files from the old ‘Seven Sages’ folder into the ‘data’ folder of the new ‘Seven Sages’ folder.

The zip file works for me now :slight_smile: I’ll try your game out later on though. Cheers mate!

Niice :slight_smile:

My friend can’t open the file on his computer but I can do so just fine. When I sent him the link and when I sent him the actual files it didn’t work. Is this a problem on his part or is the ZIP file corrupted?

PS: Can I get a hint for the password to the wife’s diary/journal.

Okay so uhm first of all I’m sorry, I thought I had already written my review but apparently I forgot… :yawn: Thank you @Christien425 for having brought the thread back to my inbox :wink:

Seriously, this game feels awesome — even more now that it works on my computer :point:
I love the concept, and the jar is definitely sitting on my desktop until I’ve gone through the entire game!

http://s33.postimg.org/nk1thrh7i/Capture.jpg

I’m not sure how to put it, but your game has given me faith in keeping working on my own project, and I’ll attempt to make mine into something as great as yours :stuck_out_tongue:

So yeah thanks a lot! I don’t play a lot of games — the last one I’ve finished entirely was Rayman 3 in 2008-2009 —, and I really believe I have rediscovered the greatness of gaming whilst playing Seven Sages :slight_smile:

Cheers!
J0 :slight_smile:

Wow. love the pixel art ;D

@Christien425 Assuming your friend has java installed, it might be problem with his graphics driver not supporting one of the OpenGL functions used in the game. Usually, updating the driver is the recommended solution for anything OpenGL related. If it’s not that, I would need more info :frowning:

As for the hint, in Etham’s journal it mentions that the act of solving the wife’s password is what will keep her journal safe. Meaning the password itself is a word that will make Etham decide not to open the journal.

@J0 That might be the greatest compliment I’ve ever received ever in life xD I’m humbled. Thanks for playing and for the kind words! It really made my day :slight_smile:

@SirSoltex Thanks :slight_smile: