Alum - greenlit and progress

bangerang101 · Tue 20/08/2013 00:22:41

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 · Tue 20/08/2013 13:16:40

congratulations!!!

SarahLiz · Tue 20/08/2013 17:37:09

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

Stupot · Thu 21/11/2013 11:19:13

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 · Thu 21/11/2013 13:07:36

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 · Sat 11/01/2014 20:04:12

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 · Sat 11/01/2014 22:13:33

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

bangerang101 · Sat 11/01/2014 23:04:04

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

Stupot · Sat 11/01/2014 23:14:58

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 · Sun 12/01/2014 04:19:23

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

I'm gonna try it tonight!;)

Tabata · Sun 12/01/2014 10:47:43

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 · Sun 12/01/2014 12:53:47

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 · Sun 12/01/2014 13:57:20

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 · Sun 12/01/2014 15:36:15

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 · Sun 12/01/2014 15:53:44

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 · Mon 13/01/2014 01:45:55

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

Grim · Mon 13/01/2014 02:06:59

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 · Mon 13/01/2014 02:57:43

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 · Mon 13/01/2014 03:09:42

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 · Mon 13/01/2014 04:29:09

Quote from: bangerang101 on Mon 13/01/2014 03:09:42

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