THE WINTER ROSE

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

INTRODUCTION

	The Winter Rose was created by Alex van der
Wijst, aka The BaRoN,  in 2005.  It is now and shall forever
be freeware and may be played and shared as much as you
like.  It may not, however, be sold or modified in any way
shape or form.  If you are interested in making money from
adventure games I suggest you make your own!  If you
payed money for this game you should report the incident
to me at www.vanwijst.com .  Bugs, criticisms and fanmail can all be directed to the same address.
	The Winter Rose was made with AGS (Adventure
Game Studio), game building software that is also available for free at
www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk or www.bigbluecup.com.  The creator of AGS is Chris Jones.

STORY

	Across the mountains but before the sea there lay a
magic forest of great peace and bounty.  Men were few and
far between, but lived in health and happiness in balance
with the land and their fellow creatures.
	But then, from across the sea there came a great
blight in the form of a mighty ice-dragon.  From its mouth
spewed forth a fire black as night and cold as winter. 
Whatever it consumed was frozen to the quick, preserved
forever as the dragon’s food.  As the black fire was spread
through land and air the entire realm was blanketed by an
unnatural and eternal winter.
	Men rallied themselves in defence of the realm, and
great and valiant lords from far abroad came questing for
the dragon’s demise.  Yet the strength of men was as
nothing to that of the mighty dragon, who smote them one
by one in the tangled woodland.
	Only a few survivors remained hidden from the ice
dragon, eking out a living in the frozen waste, but as the
years past they became fewer and fewer....

TECHNICAL
	
	Alright, I'm not a "techie", so don't look for any funky computer lingo here!  This game should run on most systems with Windows 95 and above.  If you can't run the game on your system I'm really not the guy to ask why -try the good folks at the AGS tech forum at www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk.  The game is designed to run at 640 x 400 resolution but if your computer is slow you might want to change this (although the graphics won't look nearly as nice).  To do this click on the "winsetup" icon in the Winter Rose folder and do what you gotta do.  Also in the game folder will be files called "music.vox", "acsetup.cfg", "ags_snowrain20.dll" and "alleg40.dll" -these are all necessary for The Winter Rose to run.  Finally there will be this ReadMe and the Winter Rose exe file that will run the game.  If you save during the game, those files will be automatically placed in this folder also.

GAME PLAY

	The Winter Rose functions much as a Sierra point-
and-click adventure game of the early 1990s.  If you are not
familiar with the interface, than you might want to read the
rest of this section.
	After the game loads you will be presented with five
options: View Intro, Start, Restore, Credits, Quit.  Initially
you will want to watch the introduction (a short animated
scene detailing the plot and what you are supposed to do),
but subsequently you will probably want to skip it by
clicking on Start or Restore (which will allow you to load a
saved game).
	Once playing, all game play options are available
from the top of the screen -move your mouse cursor there
and they will appear.  On the left you will see six icons - a
boot (for walking), an eye (for looking), a hand (for
interacting), a dialogue bubble (for talking), a bow and
arrow (for shooting) and a sack (which holds your
possessions).  Click on the first five and your cursor will
change to that mode, which will enable you to exert the
corresponding interactions in the game.  Clicking on the
sack will take you to an inventory screen which will allow
you to examine your possessions, use them with each other,
or select them for use in the game.  
	To the right there is a scroll with an arrow pointing
to it (for saving) and one with an arrow pointing away from
it (for loading saved games), a flag (for quitting) and a
picture frame (for finding out game information and setting
the game play speed).
	Basically you will be presented with a series of
puzzles which you must figure out in order to beat the
game.

HINTS

	So you've run into a problem you just can't solve, but you don't want the answer just handed to you.  Below are some vague suggestions:
1) Really look at the landscape and the things in it.  You might not be able to carry a lot of it with you, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can't make use of it...
2) Talk to the Hermit -your father will give you a good idea of where he is.  The Hermit is a fountain of wisdom and offers many hints and tips.  Just keep asking!
3) The gnome keeps killing you.  Yes, one of the first things you have to do is get rid of him.  I'd talk to the Hermit and really consider your options...
4) Talk to everybody.  Some characters are harder to find than others, so if you're not sure you've talked to everybody here's a list: Your Father, The Hermit, The Abominable Snowman (twice), The Enchantress and The Moiler Mole.  Most conversations loop eventually so you can always go back if you think you missed something.
5) Starting fires: just use your tinder box on just about any open area.  There are references to this in the game but I suppose it could have been more obvious.  Sorry.  

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ACTUAL SPOILER FOR WHERE A LOT OF PEOPLE GET STUCK

6) "Catching the gnome at his own game", as the Hermit says.  This refers to the little trap that throws a knife at you.  If you make a snowball by touching the path you can use it on the 'catapult' tree to reset the trap.  There, I said it.

CREDITS

	The Winter Rose was written, painted, illustrated, animated and
programmed by Alex van der Wijst, aka The BaRoN
(www.vanwijst.com).  He has made one other adventure game to date
called Al-Quest 1, and several non-adventure games using AGS including Turnip Twenty-One and Invasion of the Floating Death Orbs.
	Music was composed by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741).  Sounds were harvested from around the internet or recorded by Alex van der Wijst (bet you can't tell which ones are which!).
	Beta testing was undertaken by Matt & Nick Bolton,
Riley, Kalum & Connor Crossman, Jen Auger, Splat44 and Mr. Mozarella.
	Snow-Rain Pluggin was created by Scorpiorus and it has really helped to set the mood.  Thanks Scorpiorus!
	Adventure Game Studio (AGS) was
created by Chris Jones (www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk).


If you're having technical difficulties please report them as being with version 1.3.  Thank you.
