Alum - greenlit and progress

[bangerang101]

Alum update: Release is drawing nigh!

First of all, we wanted to thank everyone for being supportive and trusting us to make an awesome adventure game. Now, down to brass taxes!... We are almost completely done with the game. We've pretty much got the graphics, GUI, puzzles, programming, sound fx, and music on lock-down. It's just about to the point where it's a matter of cutting the audio for the voice-overs, dropping them in and mixing them in AGS. After that, some final play-testing and the game will be ready for release! Also, I wanted to thank everyone who voted for us on steam... We have been greenlit and are excited to release on PC, Mac, and Linux!


Anyway, enough of the small talk... Here are some new exclusive screenshots for the AGS community:



and a little run animation I ended up throwing on Micah towards the end of programming the game (which he was none too happy about, until he found a spot to put it in the game and settled down ).



We are just about 95% of the way to completion. We are so excited (and slightly nervous) to share the game with everyone, and we hope all the extra effort we put into polishing the game pays off. Again, thank you all for the support and encouragement. Please keep on the look-out for release. Cheers, AGS crew!

- Luke

[shaun9991]

this game looks great. backed your project a few days ago, best of luck with the remaining funds needed!

[dactylopus]

This game sounds really good.  $10K is quite a bit, but I wish you luck in getting it.

Great job so far, the visuals are beautiful.

[miguel]

It reminds me of the PSOne version of FF7 or 8, can't remember.
The backgrounds are really nice.
Good luck with it!

[SarahLiz]

Looks very beautiful!  Just became a backer, hoping you reach your goal!


Sarah

[Stupot]

Bump.  I just backed this.  It will be a shame if you don't make the goal.  I hope the game still gets made regardless

[CaptainD]

This looks really interesting - all the best with your funding campaign and development.

[shaun9991]

This game deserves to make it, best of luck guys! I'm pumping it on twitter as much as i can

[bangerang101]

Thank you guys for your responses and support! Anyone have any ideas where we can promote it a little more? If you have an "in" with any community/person please share it with them. We'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks again

[shaun9991]

You should try these guys -

theindiemine.com, email press@theindiemine.com

They have a good following and will surely write an article for you

(copy and pasting this from twitter)
Great Indie news sources @tigsource @PixelProspector @indiegamescom @TheIndieMine @indiegamemag @IndieDB @IndieGameReview

edit by darth posts combined, no need to double-post

[bangerang101]

Great! thanks for the suggestion... we will shoot them an email now.

[bangerang101]

Were down to less then 2 days on our kickstarter! If anyone is planning on supporting Alum, that hasn't yet.. Now would be the time Thanks guys!

[Frodo]

Backed this right from the start.  Really hope you succeed.   

[Stupot]

Note to self:
If I ever start a Kickstarter campaign, make sure to get John Walker from RPS involved before it's too late.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/17/fund-alum-so-i-can-play-it-kthx/

This time yesterday I thought you had no chance.  Now I'm starting to think it can be done :-)

[dactylopus]

This time yesterday I thought you had no chance.  Now I'm starting to think it can be done :-)

Same.  I hope you guys manage to get the last few hundred dollars!

[KodiakBehr]

We're rooting for you!

[Stupot]

Well blow me, you've only gone and done it :-)

[dactylopus]

Congratulations, guys.  You managed to pull it off at the last minute.

Kudos!  Can't wait to see how the game turns out.  I wasn't able to back it, but I will certainly be playing it when all is said and done.

[Retro Wolf]

I had a feeling it was going to be funded at the last moment! Congratulations!

[Matt Frith]

Congrats guys!

[bangerang101]

Thanks so much for your help/support guys, we couldn't have done it without you fine bunch! We are so excited to continue on the development of Alum for you all.

P.S. The AGS community is by far the best (especially when you can't figure out how to do some tricky coding, and there is no other website that you would possibly find this information)

Again, thanks for your support guys... much love!

- Luke

[shaun9991]

 congratulations!!!

[SarahLiz]

Very happy to support your game and even happier that the kickstarter was a success.  Congrats!

[Stupot]

Has anyone heard anything about this?  As far as I can tell we haven't had a peep since the day the game won their Kickstarter funding three months ago, now.

[Darth Mandarb]

And you waited ONE DAY after it is 90 days old.

bangerang101 - if/when you want to post an update let me know and I'll unlock it!

[bangerang101]

We have just released a interactive, playable demo for "Alum".

click the link to go to the download site!



http://www.alumgame.blogspot.com/

[Darth Mandarb]

A new thread for this type of announcement is not allowed.  I have merged it with your existing thread (and unlocked it).

[bangerang101]

oops, sorry about that! thanks for merging it for me!

[Stupot]

Man. Really enjoyable demo! This feels like it's going to be a really epic game.
I'm really impressed.

Couple of typos and other notes, if you don't mind:

Spoiler

The man, Joe says "Geuss it's just another day" (guess)
Pige says "Your practically there" (you're)
Saul's note says "recieved" (received)

Also, the door next to the 'contraption' has the number 121 next to it, which is the same as the door upstairs that you deliver the parcel to. Maybe this should be a different number.

The 'get the drop' clue was too much of a giveaway. I would have liked to have had a chance to work that out for myself.

[close]

But, yeah, as I said, Brilliant stuff.  Any idea of a release date?
Also, you should update the original post to include the info and link to the demo :-)

[Grim]

Josiah told me about this demo being out - your brother seems dead proud of you guys;)

I'm gonna try it tonight!;)

[Tabata]

Just played the demo and those litle typos aside (and also the fact that I don't like arcade-sequences  )

I really like the story, the style and the gameplay!

~ So you got a new fan

  THIS IS GREAT! 

[Monsieur OUXX]

Really nice demo. I like the level of finish, and the immersion in the story and universe is immediate and very pleasant  -- The only obvious place for improvement, I'd say, is the lack of contrast in the backgrounds.
Having said that I'm stuck towards the end, but no doubt I'll find a bloody place to hide.


EDIT: I had a game crash:
When the bots are after Alum, and he reaches the "golden stork" screen. I take the rope and I get the AGS crash window :
An error has occurred... (blahblah)
In room2.asc, line 555 : Error running function 'hHotspot7_Interact": Null pointer referenced.

Please note that it happens AFTER the small animation of taking the rope.
I restarted the game, did more or less the same things, and that time it work.

[Chicky]

Very nice game you've got going here, the demo feels really tight, the interface is nice and responsive. You also have some lovely animations and a good understanding of dialog pace, with a very consistent art style. Can't wait to see this finished

[ThreeOhFour]

I loved this, loved it. If you can keep this level of quality up for the whole game, it's going to be an amazing adventure.

Please, though, find a proofreader. The weakest point in the demo was the amount of errors in the writing. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it a ton and you've earned my preorder!

[dactylopus]

This Demo is really nice, aside from the issues others have mentioned already.  Wonderful job!  I am looking forward to seeing where this goes.

[kaput]

Nice work! I really enjoyed it a lot. That Gary Coleman game was a pain in the ass, though, has to be said.

[Grim]

Played, got stuck at the arcade game, quit.

But the adventure game part is splendid. It really gives that old school feel, like playing Curse Of Enchantia or Lure Of The Temptress.

And like Ghost said, the dialogues are just right in length. Often in adventure games you're scared of starting a conversation because you know another cup (or two) of coffee will be needed to get through it;) Here, not the case. Just the right amount to flesh out the world and characters, without needless chatter about the weather. The puzzles are the meat of the game here, and they are really cool, actually!;)

Well done, Orsies!;)

EDIT: Oh, and I LOVE the Vague illness idea.

[Shadow1000]

I really enjoyed this game. The graphics and environment were good. The puzzles are on the easier side but still fun and solvable. Like others, I did not like the arcade game.

The problem with the arcade game is that even though the objective of the game is simply to observe the pattern of the falling bombs and avoid them, the area that the player can walk is not visible or easily defined. You should be able to walk anywhere between the barriers but in fact you can only walk on an exact hidden path between barriers. By the time you figure out where you can walk, you get hit by a bomb.

@grim: I spent forever on the game playing using arrow keys until I realized that you can use the mouse. It was much more solvable that way.

Anyway, it looks like it has promise and I'm looking forward to the release.

SHADOW

[bangerang101]

Wow, this is probably the most encouraging/motivational stuff I've heard in a while, lol... thank you guys so much! I just wanted to mention a few things about the problems you guys mentioned.

The arcade sequence: if you play through it 3 times, you are prompted with a screen that asks, "would you like to make the game easier?", which then makes Colemin walk extremely fast, and it is basically a breeze to win the arcade sequence. In the final game, we may just make that "easy mode" happen sooner, or possibly even make it possible skip the whole thing. The real point of these types of "arcade style" sequences, in our minds, is to break up the game and add some variation to the gameplay... but not at the price of frustration, causing people to quit the game. 

The crash in the alley: Micah (who is coding, music, some animations, dialogue and story) fixed this today and re-uploaded the demo.
EDIT: wasn't aware of the other crash mentioned when roping down the golden stork, I'll have Micah take a look and fix it again.

the typos: We roughly went over the grammatical errors before releasing the demo, but obviously we got a little excited and missed a few things. Sorry about that!... I know this is frustrating for some people, and I promise we will refine our dialogue a lot more before the full game is released.

At any rate, thank you guys so much for your encouraging words and thoughts. We are really excited to show people what else we have in store, for the coming chapters of the game.

@Grim: thanks man, we can definitely take a compliment from you. The Cat Lady is on-point as far as atmosphere and puzzles go! We have just have to throw in a "tears of mars" song somewhere

cheers!

[Shadow1000]

The arcade sequence: if you play through it 3 times, you are prompted with a screen that asks, "would you like to make the game easier?", which then makes Colemin walk extremely fast, and it is basically a breeze to win the arcade sequence. In the final game, we may just make that "easy mode" happen sooner, or possibly even make it possible skip the whole thing. The real point of these types of "arcade style" sequences, in our minds, is to break up the game and add some variation to the gameplay... but not at the price of frustration, causing people to quit the game. 

I agree with providing a variety of objectives rather than sticking to strictly adventure-style puzzles and an arcade game is not necessarily a bad way to do it. I found it much more playable once I used the mouse as I described. What I would suggest is to work on the gameplay of the arcade game to see if you can make it more fun rather than dropping it altogether.

SHADOW

[Grim]

I didn't even realize you could use keyboard for the arcade section!- used mouse from the start and couldn't do it, even on an easy mode. I think after 3 times it should go into easy mode, and after 5 ask player if they want to skip it. That way everyone's happy;) It's hard to judge difficulty of these things and it's clear on this forum people have struggled;)

[Kiira]

Great plot, the Vague idea is very interesting. Puzzles were ok, but I feel the need to say I hated the arcade part. Probably it's just me, but I couldn't get done with it even when I had the chance to lower its difficulty. I love adventure games, I love solving puzzles and arcade games have nothing to do with the AG world. It all turned out to be frustrating.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I used the keyboard for the arcade (unlike some, I didn't notice I could use the mouse). It's made difficult by the fact that the collision boxes are awful, so you end up hitting randomly the sides of the "road" -- which makes the character stop unexpectedly, and before you realize, he dies under a bomb. That's extremely frustrating.

I think that could be very easily solved by enlarging the walking areas a bit.

[Stupot]

I also wasn't a massive fan of the arcade bit at first.  I struggled for about 10-12 attempts until I realised that the bombs all fell in the same 5 places.  But once I realised this it only took another handful of attempts to get it right.

Maybe for an alternative solution, if the player has more than, say, five or seven attempts and then leaves the arcade, when he comes back in there could be three tokens hanging out of the machine as if someone else has played it in the meantime and forgotten the tokens.

[bangerang101]

Yeah, I think it's safe to say that we will be changing something about the arcade sequence to make it either easier, smoother, or skip-able. Thanks for the great suggestions, guys. EDIT: We also now have a writer going over the dialogue, and making mechanical and/or stylistic changes to the script, as we go. What a blessing!

[Frodo]

Just played the demo, and LOVED it! 

Love the story, with the Vague illness, and Alum trying to get the cure.  And the graphic style is just how I used to play back in the day.  Love it! 

Spoiler

The 2 Lurid attacks really made me jump lol 

[close]

There's a few typos, as other people have said, so please please get a proofreader. 

[m0ds]

Really nice atmosphere in the demo, and all the attention to detail! I haven't completed the demo yet but have enjoyed and been intrigued by the goings-on so far

[Janos Biro]

Just completed the Demo. Beautiful game. Loved the music and the pace.

Spoiler

Those Lurid attacks really made me jump too. And I saw one typo of note: "geuss".

[close]

[bangerang101]

I just updated the first post in our thread w/ progress and links to a new video and our greenlight page, rather than making a new post. Check it out!

[Adeel]

I'm on Steam and I will definitely vote for it in Green Light; because the game deserves it. Good luck!

[Frodo]

Vote for it on the GOG Wishlist here. 
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/alum

[Adeel]

Vote for it on the GOG Wishlist here. 
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/alum

Done!

[bangerang101]

Yes! Please vote on GOG.com... We want to have it available to as many people as possible. I submitted Alum to GOG a few days ago. Thanks for the support guys!

[bangerang101]

Quick update and exclusive screens bump! Check the first page for progress, ect. 

[ThreeOhFour]

Those new screenshots look excellent, best wishes for finishing your game up!

[Jay Tholen]

Guys, I am super pumped. I feel spiritually linked to your project since we ran our Kickstarters at roughly the same time and both failed the first time around. Also both of our games have vague theological metaphor stuff.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Nice. Real nice. Congrats

[bangerang101]

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I do hope it does well. Right now, I'm real excited about the overall quality of the music, sound, and voice-acting... and how it's all sitting in the game. Seems to really pull the experience together when you add the right touch of sounds and music. I think the mix of the organic music elements (classical guitar, kalimba, shaker, ect.), with the  electronic stuff, really sets the music apart.

I feel the same connection with Dropsy, Jay. I love following your updates on Dropsy and all the behind-the-scenes stuff. Really excited for you and our buddy, Dropsy. . Can't wait to play it!

[bangerang101]

Quick update: We will be releasing the game on May 15, 2015. Here is the "release reveal" video we posted on our kickstarter page, if you're interested in more info about the release date.

We will also be releasing a brand new trailer about a week or so prior to the release of the game.

...So stay tuned for the release of Alum, and tell anyone you know who might be interested in the game about it. We are not releasing the game under a publisher, therefore we need help to get exposure and make the game a success so we can continue to make awesome, high quality P&C games. If you're a press member for a video game site, or you run a website/blog, and you think Alum would be a good candidate for review, please shoot us an email ( @ crashablestudios@gmail.com ) and let us know.

Thanks, AGS community!

- Luke

[Thegolddiger]

The main character is a child. Am I right?