BESIEGED: Or, How to Get Out of a Castle.... Without Being Catapulted
Users Guide

1) Introduction
2) Background
3) Story
4) Technical
5) Game Play
6) Hints                            
7) Credits

INTRODUCTION

	BESIEGED was made by Jaroslaw Bleicher (Yarooze) and Alex van der Wijst (Baron) in 2008.  It is officially freeware, which means you can play it and share it as much as you like.  We object to the game being altered or sold in anyway, but heh, we're both of us too lazy to really do anything about it.  If you paid money for this game please report it on the AGS forums at www.bigbluecup.com.  Bugs, criticisms and fanmail can all be directed to the same site: just find the BESIEGED thread in the completed game announcements of the forums.
	BESIEGED was made using Adventure Game Studio, adventure game building software which is available for free at www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk or www.bigbluecup.com.  The creator of AGS is the onion ring-loving Chris Jones.

BACKGROUND
	
	Both Yarooze and Baron were interested in working on a short project in a team environment, and the idea was bounced back and forth between them of creating a whole adventure game in the middle of a medieval battle.  Several edits and rewrites later the game had changed entirely into what is now the potty-humoured game BESIEGED.  

STORY

        The king is besieged in his castle by the evil Count Bleicher.  Food and time are running out for the defenders.  In desperation the king hatches a scheme to catapult a messenger over the enemy to bring reinforcements.  The only problem is that, even to the deeply ignorant medieval mind, catapulting means almost certain death to the one experiencing it.  Naturally the top soldiers shirk the honour onto someone lower down the hierarchy, until the buck finally stops at the lowly Dung Shoveler.  
	The Dung Shoveler must now break the siege and save the castle.  Success may well win him the heart of the Sexy Servant Girl, while failure will bring certain death, either at the hands of the besiegers or his own side!  You must guide the Dung Shoveler through this short but potty-humoured adventure.

TECHNICAL

	Technically, I don't know.  But here's something that might help: post a message on the AGS forums under this game's topic (either Completed Game Announcements or Hints and Tips) and I'm sure someone will be able to help you out.  The forums are located at www.bigbluecup.com.

GAME PLAY

	This is accomplished by using cursor icons on various parts of the screen.  If you move your mouse up to the top of the screen you'll see your options: a boot, an eye, a weird hand/mouth thing, and a treasure box (you can cycle through them by right-clicking also).  Select a cursor and left-click on something.  If it's the boot cursor you will walk towards where you clicked -this is how you move.  If it's the eye cursor you're using, you will be presented with a short message describing whatever it is you clicked on -this kind of careful observation can provide hints as to what to do next.  If you are using the hand/mouth icon, you are either going to pick-up/manipulate whatever you are clicking on, or attempt to start up a conversation if it's a person.  The things that you pick up will be useful in solving further puzzles and can be accessed through the treasure box, while the conversations will provide background information and maybe a few hints.  The treasure box, when clicked on, will lead you to a subscreen where you can inspect your possessions (eye icon) or select them for use in the game (arrow icon, then item, then OK to return to the game).  You must trade, use or combine inventory items to solve puzzles, which will advance the plot of the story.  If you are good at it you will eventually finish the game and be very satisfied with yourself.  If you are not you will write a cripplingly spiteful review of the game and post it on the internet, after which you will be very satisfied with yourself.  So you see, you can't really lose-out here.

HINTS

        Don't read this section if you don't want a hint!  You can always go to the "Hints and Tips" section of the AGS Forums (www.bigbluecup.com) and ask a specific question there.  But there's at least one puzzle that we expect might throw a lot of people, so we might as well provide a generic hint here.  You've been to the dungeon, the privvy, the tower and the enemy camp, and there doesn't seem to be a way to advance any further.  All is not lost!  Carefully examine the kitchen, throne room and tower scenes: you should notice a common element.  If you can manipulate that element somehow, affecting change, a series of predictable outcomes will unfold.  There -that's all!  Don't say I ruined the game for you -you'll kick yourself for not thinking of it yourself.

CREDITS
	
	The game was created by Jaroslaw Bleicher and Alex van der Wijst.
	Jaroslaw Bleicher (Yarooze on the AGS forums) is best known in the adventure game world (so far) for his NECROQUEST series.  For BESIEGED he collaborated on the plot, drew all of the backgrounds and cursors, and created the promotional video hosted at YouTube (including the music for it).   If you are interested in stalking him he has a blog at yarooze.blogspot.com.
	Alex van der Wijst (Baron on the AGS forums) might be remembered as the creator of other somewhat silly adventure games including THE WINTER ROSE and CHARLIE FOXTROT AND THE GALAXY OF TOMORROW.  He collaborated on the plot, wrote the messages and dialogs, drew the animations and programmed the game.  He's a lazy bastard when it comes to updating his webpage, but there's some archival material to be found at www.vanwijst.com.
	Funkmast deserves high mention too.  He composed all of the original music, and successfully passed off all of the unoriginal music as his own.  He prefers to hand out his e-mail address to strangers: funkmast.musi@yahoo.de.  Yes, that says "musi" and not "music".  Drop him a line letting him know how much you loved the soundtrack.
        Beta Testers were CosmoQueen and.... actually it was just CosmoQueen.  Actually, since I haven't heard from her since she volunteered, she didn't really do that much.  But I was thinking of her while I was trying to debug the game by myself, so that deserves some mention.
        Sounds magically appeared on my harddrive through some unknown (and I'm convinced wholly legal) process.
        Simple Save and Load GUIs adapted using a module by Pablo of the AGS Forums.
	Adventure Game Studio, the program we used to create the game, was itself created by Chris Jones.  He gives it away for free at www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk or www.bigbluecup.com.  By "it" I mean the software.  Well.... I can't actually speak to the other "it" from personal experience.  My advice is to go the AGS forums (same website) and ask around.

           Happy Adventuring,
                       
                The Besieged Team




