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To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Library of Wales, Pokedstudio was commissioned to create Nanw's Great Adventure, an adorably cute adventure that has the player rounding up some of the actual historical artifacts from the library and returning them to the librarian like a good little bunny.
The objective for each level is to find the one specific artifact that the librarian asks you to find, and bring it back to the front desk of the library. Simple, right? A couple of happy caveats aim to block your way: The first is a time limit to complete the challenge, which varies from round to round. The second is the fact that the library and the areas outside the library are quite a confusing maze for your bunny-like character to navigate. Each level requires one or more triggers to be activated to be able to progress through the game. And while there are many passcards and artifacts scattered throughout the world, you're only able to carry one at a time. (I guess that's three happy caveats, isn't it?)
The only keys you need to play this game are the cursor keys. However, the game is isometrically designed, so the up key actually corresponds to moving up-left. (Take note: This is actually rotated a quarter-turn from many other isometric games you might be used to. Darn you, Q-bert!) While discussing this game with Jay, he recommended rotating the keyboard counterclockwise a bit to help you line up the movement a little more easily.
Nanw's Great Adventure is seven levels long (hence, seven artifacts to find). Since time is somewhat limited in the game, it's recommended that you work ahead and try to unlock some doors for the next level before turning in the artifact. Any opened doors and items whose locations have changed are remembered, so if you run out of time, you'll restart only at the beginning of the level, having only lost a small amount of progress. This comes in handy when you have to loop around several different worlds of mazes, including forests, caves, and fields with sheep. Yes, this game has sheep.
Analysis: Who would have thought that such a simple-looking child's game could hold such a devious challenge? The further you progress into this game, the more detours you have to hit in order to open up the next gate, to open up the next gate, to open up the next gate, and so forth. I never knew visiting a library could be so complex! But perhaps that's not the message they are trying to convey. Maybe it's that visiting a library can be so much fun! Yes, that must be it. Read more books! Oh, and play Nanw's Great Adventure.
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Comments (may contain spoilers)
On the 4th level!
Posted by: zmaster | January 21, 2008 11:46 AM
i'm on the seventh!
Posted by: reece | January 21, 2008 12:28 PM
A Welsh game that you can actually play with Welsh text?
AWESOME!
Posted by: Acrux
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January 21, 2008 12:31 PM
I'm on the 6th, but have gained access to the room with the 7th book.
Posted by: ThemePark
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January 21, 2008 12:50 PM
Just completed the game without finding it anywhere near deviously difficult. Are the keycards etc. put in different places the next time you play it?
I really liked the library when I was there three or four years ago. Wales rocks anyway.
@ThemePark: There is a room full of keycards in...
Posted by: Groogokk
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January 21, 2008 1:54 PM
Keyboard rotation = EXTREMELY helpful.
Posted by: Vault
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January 21, 2008 1:57 PM
Well, I've already been there and there were no blue keycards.
Also I can't remove the fence from the lower part of the forest, there are a few books there I want. It seems I'm missing something but I'm pretty sure I've been through everything and activated every single switch.
Posted by: ThemePark
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January 21, 2008 2:21 PM
I only saw one place to use a blue keycard.
Posted by: Tyson
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January 21, 2008 2:44 PM
I can't seem to figure out how the glass doors like those in the computer room work. I got up to the final level, but I couldn't figure out how to get to the book.
Posted by: Ramnesis | January 21, 2008 4:07 PM
ThemePark: The keycard reader in that back room doesn't actually take a blue keycard. (If you look at other readers, you'll see that they all have a blue "display", and the card color they take is shown on the wall above them; for some reason this one doesn't have anything on the wall above it.)
Posted by: Justin | January 21, 2008 4:13 PM
I can't get bible. how do you get past the locked doors in the computer room
Posted by: Atom
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January 21, 2008 4:13 PM
Regarding the second blue panel:
Posted by: keith
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January 21, 2008 4:14 PM
Thanks keith, that actually helped me figure it out.
There is no need for a second blue key card. The doors with red circles on them require a red key card.
Posted by: ThemePark
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January 21, 2008 4:19 PM
the controls are annoying are heck. i wish you could change them so that it was like most games that played from this perspective:where the up key moved you up right and the right key moved you down right etc. its just too hard to get used to this way.
Posted by: Sloth
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January 21, 2008 5:22 PM
I can't find where the bible is? O_o
Posted by: Miff_Otter
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January 21, 2008 5:57 PM
Nice game.
I want to point out the EXCELLENT accessibility options.
There's 3:
1. Enhanced colour - makes the intereactive elements (buttons, vital books etc) stand out more so partially sighted people can see what needs clicking on. My partially sighted friend (with Usher Syndrome) would love this degree of thought.
In game, the effect seems to be achieved by making all non - interactive elements a more muted / neutral colour. Not sure if this is the best way, as it makes most of the game screen more dull. It actually made it harder to see the buttons to activate dialogue with the other NPCs (e.g. the helpful advisor who gives you clues.)
Perhaps a better way would be to add stronger outlines to the interactive elements.
2. Description of background sounds - provides a text description of background sounds. This is in addition to text of spoken dialogue which seems to be on by default. As a deaf gamer, this added a nice touch and helped make the game more atmospheric for me.
3. Pause Non-Essential Animation - I wasn't sure what this did there's not much non-essential animation in the game anyway.
Activating this left character movement, doors opening, the UFO, etc untouched. I think there were less flashing lights on some objects. Perhaps it's a standard option and would do more in other games from the same publisher.
At a guess, the aim of this is to reduce animation that might set off people who are prone to epilepsy from flashing objects.
I wish other games would give the same level of thought to accessibility.
xx RedTomato
Posted by: RedTomato | January 21, 2008 6:12 PM
I cant find the 4th book. HELP PLEASE
Posted by: zmaster | January 21, 2008 6:24 PM
To Who Ever Needs Help Finding The Bible
From Zmaster
Okay now can somebody help me with the 4th book?
Posted by: zmaster | January 21, 2008 6:40 PM
Hmmmm. This game is fun but the time limit is makig it a bit tedious. It might be just me, I like being able to meander about and explore in a typical point and click or escape game without clock pressure. But in this game running out of time, starting again and repeating steps killed the fun for me.
Posted by: Jac
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January 22, 2008 7:44 PM
Fourth Book hints
Gate will close behind you. The gardener will open gate to go back inside if you give him some lunch.
Made it with over 400,000 points, but don't know how high scores are twice that.
One hint... you can get the book behind the cactus.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 22, 2008 10:52 PM
Oops... that hint was for the FIFTH BOOK.
For the fourth...
Posted by: Anonymous | January 22, 2008 11:18 PM
Thanks! So! Much! You PERSON. But what about the sixth book?
Posted by: zmaster | January 26, 2008 8:48 AM
Does anyone know how to get the books in the glass cases?? I am up to 96, 000, but I assume I need those books, and greater efficiency, to reach the elusive high score.
Note that there are many books that are blocked from view, so try to pass over every square if you are trying for a high score.
For zmaster. I bet you could figure this out, but here are brief walkthroughs for the last two books. On both it helps to do some steps before, since time is limited.
Sixth book
Sorry for the anonymity, I hate giving out my email and other info. – Anonymous person
Posted by: Anonymous | January 26, 2008 4:56 PM