Adventure: All in the Game - FINISHED

[Akril15]

There are characters like me in every game genre -- characters that were going to appear in a game, but had it unexpectedly cancelled. Some of them hang around their own game, hoping that another company will complete it someday. Others spend their time hanging out in other games, which they can visit with ease. Then there are the ones like me who decide to dedicate their time to keeping this particular little genre running smoothly.

My name is Thalia James. I'm an agent of the 2D Third-Person Adventure branch of the Computer Game Maintenance Squad.

There are many agents in this part of the CGMS, and some of their assignments have turned into adventures of a scale almost as large as an actual adventure game.

And this is just one such adventure...

------------------

After several months of preperation followed by more than a year of work, Adventure: All in the Game, the sequel to Adventure: The Inside Job, is almost complete. I've attempted to improve on some of the original's shortcomings: there are more puzzles, somewhat less linear gameplay and fewer overly long cutscenes. Expect to see many more familiar faces (from the previous game as well as many other classic adventures), glimpse several new ones and (hopefully) save the genre from another looming threat.







The game is pretty close to completion. I just have a few more screens to complete as well as a lot of testing. Hopefully, neither should take horribly long.

UPDATE (4-16-11): Uploaded a quick trailer here.

UPDATE (5-23-11): The game is nearing completion -- once I get to the point where I can play through it all the way without stumbling over any glitches, it'll be ready for beta testing.

UPDATE (6-5-11): The game is currently being beta-tested. Here's one additional screenshot:



UPDATE (6-12-11): It's here! Click here to download it (112 MB)!

[Frodo]

This is fantastic.   
I loved your last game, so I can't wait to play this one.   

I love how you take old backgrounds\characters, and combine them with your own, to create a completely new game.   

[Cyrus]

WOW A title I've been looking forward to for a veery long time!

[Monsieur OUXX]

Why is the female character being called "James"?     

[Gilbert]

Maybe that's not a female character?

[Frodo]

Why is the female character being called "James"?     

Her name is Thalia James - James being her last name.   

[Monsieur OUXX]

Her name is Thalia James - James being her last name.   

Ah OK :-)
Also, what screenshots should I believe? Screenshots (1) & (3) with really cool and original hi-res graphics, or screenshot (2) with graphics ripped off other games?

[Akril15]

This is fantastic.   
I loved your last game, so I can't wait to play this one.   

I love how you take old backgrounds\characters, and combine them with your own, to create a completely new game.   

Thank you! I've tried to rely a little less on pre-existing backgrounds and characters for this game (mostly because I already used most of the best ones in its predecessor). It was interesting trying to come up with ways of creating characters and backgrounds just as artistically diverse as the ones from other adventure games.

Her name is Thalia James - James being her last name.   

Ah OK :-)
Also, what screenshots should I believe? Screenshots (1) & (3) with really cool and original hi-res graphics, or screenshot (2) with graphics ripped off other games?

Frodo beat me to the explanation of "James". Yes, the first and third screenshots are both original backgrounds (in fact, so is everything else in the screenshots).

The second screenshot is an interesting one. Technically, it's a background from King's Quest VII, but it's much larger than the one from KQVII, and it's not in the resource files of KQVII, but in the resource files of Torin's Passage! As for the characters, all but three of them are from other games.

[tredlow]

Far right in the second screenshot: Is that character from Spy Fox?

[Cyrus]

Are you going to create another trailer for this game?

I've tried to rely a little less on pre-existing backgrounds and characters for this game (mostly because I already used most of the best ones in its predecessor).

You know, classics like CMI, Torin's Passage, etc. have TONS of cool screens, so there's still plenty of material. And there are new adventures like Whispered Wor(l)d, The Next Big Thing, Kaptain Brawe and semi-adventures like Penny Arcade. Nontheless I'll be excited to see the "games" invented by you.

[Igor Hardy]

Glad to see you're making (and even finishing!) a sequel to Thalia's adventures, Akril.

You know, classics like CMI, Torin's Passage, etc. have TONS of cool screens, so there's still plenty of material. And there are new adventures like Whispered Wor(l)d, The Next Big Thing, Kaptain Brawe and semi-adventures like Penny Arcade. Nontheless I'll be excited to see the "games" invented by you.

The trouble is you usually need to tie each game into the plot somehow.

[Akril15]

Far right in the second screenshot: Is that character from Spy Fox?

Yes, it is -- Agent Gracefully from "Some Assembly Required", to be exact. Well spotted!

Are you going to create another trailer for this game?

Yes, I probably will.

I've tried to rely a little less on pre-existing backgrounds and characters for this game (mostly because I already used most of the best ones in its predecessor).

You know, classics like CMI, Torin's Passage, etc. have TONS of cool screens, so there's still plenty of material. And there are new adventures like Whispered Wor(l)d, The Next Big Thing, Kaptain Brawe and semi-adventures like Penny Arcade. Nontheless I'll be excited to see the "games" invented by you.

True, there is still a lot of stuff out there. The problem is finding the kind of backgrounds and characters that would fit, since a lot of the backgrounds and characters in Thalia's games are either A) from canceled or obscure games, B) found only in a game's resource files, or C) appear very briefly in their own games. Unfortunately, I used up nearly all of the unused backgrounds in Adventure: The Inside Job, not knowing that I was going to make a sequel.

The trouble is you usually need to tie each game into the plot somehow.

That's sometimes true, but not always. A lot of the characters in this new game are just cameos, and a lot of the backgrounds are just there to pad the game out (don't worry, though -- there aren't nearly as many "transitioning" scenes as there were in ATIJ). Still, there are a couple of pre-existing characters whose games were integrated into this game in various ways.

[Cyrus]

Are you going to use any "new" adventures like the above mentioned Next Big Thing and Kaptain Brawe, A Vampyre Story, etc.?

[Akril15]

Are you going to use any "new" adventures like the above mentioned Next Big Thing and Kaptain Brawe, A Vampyre Story, etc.?

For the time being, I'm trying to limit my scope to older games. (Plus, I think all three of those games feature 3D characters, so they'd be a bit out of the 2D Third-Person Adventure branch's bailiwick.  )

[Cyrus]

Why not use some real abandoned adventures like Warcraft Adventure, Toonstruck 2 (you've used only TS1 in the first game), Curly's Adventure or others?

[Akril15]

Why not use some real abandoned adventures like Warcraft Adventure, Toonstruck 2 (you've used only TS1 in the first game), Curly's Adventure or others?

Hmm...

I don't think I'm going to say anything about those games right now (except that I've never heard of Curly's Adventure before).

[Akril15]

Bumping this thread to advertise a quick trailer I made for the game, which I added a link to in the first post.

[Cyrus]

 :o Terrific!

[Cyrus]

By the way, I think you could've used a real adventure game villain as the bad guy in your game. For example, Conroy Bumpus, Bigwig or detective Ryan O'Riley.

[Igor Hardy]

Cool trailer! Looks like the game will feature lots of very detailed Thalia animations.