Prodigal v1.1
By Benjamin Johnson

Story By Nathan Johnson

Art Design By Edgar Rocha

Welcome to the world of Prodigal and thanks for downloading it! Ive been working on this game since January, and Im pleased to be able to release Prodigal at long last! There are a few things Id like to note before you dive into the world!


Computer Speed:

It is STRONGLY recommended you play this game in FORCED LETTERBOX mode, 640x480, with antialiased sprites active. I have included a .cfg file that contains all these settings. Unless you are determined to change them, you dont even need to run winsetup.exe. The exception to this is if you are running on a 1.6 GHZ or less AMD, or a 2.0 GHZ or less Pentium. In this case I recommend dropping the resolution to 320x240 forced letterbox. This game pushes the AGS engine HARD in several places, and you will get extreme slowdown on slower systems! 


Playing the Game:

The world of Prodigal will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played an adventure game before. Once the introduction has finished playing, you will find the protagonist, Jacob standing in a forest. Up at the top of the screen is a bar that looks like a splat of blood.
 
This bar is your friend! As you are looking around for hotspots, a description will appear in this bar. It is the easy way to make sure you arent missing something in the game!


Next, move the mouse ALL the way up to the top of the screen. The Iconbar GUI will appear, with icons in this order:
 
Walk   Look   Use   Talk   Inventory   Save  Load  Quit   Info


Simply LEFT click on the icon you want to use, and the mouse cursor will turn into that function. Remember to look around each area for points of interest!


Dont like using the menu bar? You can cycle through Walk, Look, Use, Talk, and your active inventory item by clicking the RIGHT mouse button.






Now LEFT click on the blue suitcase to bring up your inventory, which will have icons arranged like this:
 
Examine    Select      OK       Up    Down


The gray area contains all of the inventory items you currently carry. If you want to examine an item (strongly recommended,) LEFT click on the Examine button, then LEFT click on the item you want to examine. To choose an item, click on Select, then on the item. Your mouse icon will turn into that item. Now LEFT click on the OK button, and you are ready to use that item in the world! 

Note that you can also combine items. Simply LEFT click on an item, then LEFT click that item on the item you want to combine it with.

Finally, if you want the main character to instantly arrive at his destination while walking, simply click the middle mouse button. I strongly recommend that you DONT use this your first time playing through the game, as it will destroy much of the atmosphere of the game if you skip through the rooms! Still, I got complaints about the speed, so it is there if you need it.


Finally

Stuck? Cant find those pants? Not sure how to open the prison door? I know the feeling. Nothing brings the fun of a game to a halt like being stuck with nothing to do. For this reason, I have included a walkthrough with the game! Check out Prodigal Walkthrough.doc to work your way through those sticky situations!


Thats about it! I hope youll enjoy the game! Drop me a line to know what you thought of it! real_trisk@yahoo.com Comments welcome, flames will be deleted and ignored. Only by your support will a sequel ever get made! :)




Special Thanks

Special thanks go to Chris Dragonrose McCleod. It was her critique of my initial idea that made me decide to reach for the stars with the game. Even though she left the project shortly after that, her influence has left an indelible mark on the entire game. Thanks Chris!

Thanks also to Edgar Rocha, the coolest guy in all of AGSdom. He spent many hours of his time drawing the excellent portraits of the characters, and did most of the monster animations. I could not have done this project without him! Not to mention his support for the project, which never wavered even for a second. He kept me pumped to be working on it!

Thanks to my brother, Nathan, for coming up with the complex, epic story of the game. I originally was just messing around and had little idea of what story Id do, if any. He dreamed up a whopper of a tale that spans hundreds of years. Trust me, folks, even the most innocuous thing in this game has a purpose that will come out in the sequel, if it is ever made. The story is just getting STARTED here!

Thanks also to Andrew Edmark, a very busy guy who was willing to take time out of his schedule to whip up the Prodigal website. That kind of stuff is beyond me, and without him, who knows what would have happened to the game?

Thanks also to my family for putting up with my AGS obsession for the last 9 months!

Many others helped with the game, see the end credits for a complete list! Thanks for playing!



Document written by Benjamin Johnson, June 14, 2005
Modified October 26, 2005 for v1.0
Revised November 7, 2005 for v1.0
Revised November 11, 2005 for v1.1


