Al Emmo: Official Demo released

[buloght]

Hi.

Some of the graphics looks awesome. You have some great artists. There is a little inconsistency (which very important for me). The portraits could do with a little work. Overall the game looks cool and it has potential, though it's a bit expensive for me.

[piperhcombs]

The graphics in this game look awesome. The background scenes (the style) remind of the point and click adventure "Fable". Anyone what I'm talking about? (And maybe even a little Broken Sword.)

I'd gladly play this game if it didn't cost thirty bucks. I can see why it's a commercial release- a lot of hard work must have gone into it- but $29.99 seems a bit steep for a computer game.

[Nikolas]

...but $29.99 seems a bit steep for a computer game.

War of Warcraft = 29.99$
Oblivion = 39.99$
Titan Quest = 44.99$
Half Life 2 episode 1 = 15.98$
Warcraft III Battle Chest = 27.98$

Prices taken from Amazon.com usually reduced by 10$ or something simmilar. certainly there are cheaper games out there, no doubt about it. Don't come to me with another list of cheaper games. I just got the 1st 6-7 I could think of just like that.

How is 29.99$ for Al Emmo a bit steep for a computer game?

(Still haven't played the demo)

[piperhcombs]

Well, all the games you named are popular commercial games 1000s of people play or are from major game companies etc. I meant in regards to games buyable on the internet not made by major game companies and not widely known- independent developers, if you will. And, the games you named are not from the same genre.

I didn't say it isn't worth the money or anything- it probably is- I'm merely stating my thoughts.

[sergiocornaga]

How is 29.99$ for Al Emmo a bit steep for a computer game?

Well, given that this entire community is centred around free adventure games, I think that's a very reasonable statement.

[Erpy]

No, $29.99 is pretty standard for what you pay for a PC game. Not just nowadays, it's been like that for decades. The fact that we're a new company doesn't mean we can't ask what's pretty much a standard price for a fair amount of PC games.

[pamplemousse]

...but $29.99 seems a bit steep for a computer game.

War of Warcraft = 29.99$
Oblivion = 39.99$
Titan Quest = 44.99$
Half Life 2 episode 1 = 15.98$
Warcraft III Battle Chest = 27.98$

Prices taken from Amazon.com usually reduced by 10$ or something simmilar. certainly there are cheaper games out there, no doubt about it. Don't come to me with another list of cheaper games. I just got the 1st 6-7 I could think of just like that.

How is 29.99$ for Al Emmo a bit steep for a computer game?

(Still haven't played the demo)

When playing Al Emmo demo, I felt like I was playing an amateur game or a fan game or something. There is lack of polish in the 3D scenes, not professionel looking and if you give the demo a try you see what I'm talking about.
The first bar scene with Ivanna and the scene when Rita sings (terribly i might add) are very poorly done and not something you expect to find in a game that costs 30 bucks. Al's walk/run look very "glidy"- his legs scissor about so he doesn't look like he is on a hard surface at all, but floating. If they were going for old school sierra, then why use 3D anything? If they weren't going for old school sierra, then production values need to be better.

Also, the story isn't interesting. The most interesting part to me was the treasure story, but I read online that it is of course a well known historical Arizona legend. The Al story is very Larry and I've seen those types of characters before (Ivanna the russian, Al, Rita the spanish 'princess', etc) Kind of boring and papier thin. Also Rita was dull and I didn't care about her and she was supposed to be the heroine! I didn't think she was worth the trouble. Al gets excited just because she sings a catty song in a squeaky out of tune voice? No way.

What I guess what I'm getting at is that all things considered, the game doesn't seem worth $30 to me.

Of course, how does one put a price on someone's creative efforts? not sure but if they cut out the 3D scenes...dropped or reduced the narrator (he's exactly the same throughout and it gets tiresome and irritating) ,stopped trying to make EVERY single thing funny even if it isnt, and made some original jokes not based on stuff thas been done many times before..... then i might buy it for 30 dollars.

[Nikolas]

i. I'm 94% to download the demo, so I'll come back to it.
ii. No matter how poor a game is, since it is commercial it has the right to cost however much money the developers feel like (or paid for like, or whatever else).
iii. If the game sucks the reviews will give it a 2/10 and the game will be over. The price does not make a difference. No one will come and say 'If the game was 10$ the review would be 5/10 and not 2/10".
iv. Anything, with any tool (AGS in this case) has a right and the abilities to make something useful, stabtantially good, commercial and whatever else.
v. I'm not paid by Himalaya studios or anything like that
vi. Darth? Am I a abd person for keeping discussing this???

[voh]

No matter how good you think your own game is going to be, adventure games are not a very hot commodity nowadays, and if your game indeed feels like an amateur game, then you're causing trouble for yourselves by asking 30 USD for it.

Unless it IS professionally made, and FEELS professionally made to the player, you can't ask the same amount of money for a game like Blizzard and Valve are doing.

10-15 USD. More than that is just arrogance.

[CaptainBinky]

Wowzers!

I'm kind of with Nikolas on this - like or dislike the game... Buy it, or don't buy it. Your call. But don't have a pop at charging what isn't really an unreasonable amount of money when you consider the costs of running a studio (regardless of whether you're distributing via the InterWeb or not).

Having said that, the backgrounds look pretty! Not played the demo yet, but now I'm all intrigued

Cap'n Binky

P.S.

Unless it IS professionally made, and FEELS professionally made to the player, you can't ask the same amount of money for a game like Blizzard and Valve are doing.

Are you really implying that ALL commercial games you've ever played are as polished and feel as professional as those examples by Blizzard and Valve? There's plenty of "professional" crap games out there that cost £40 and get 1/10.

[GarageGothic]

It's fun that the posts complaining about the price in this thread don't ever consider is the $15 shipping overseas cost. That brings the price up to $45! But I've been that Himilaya Studios are working on a better shipping deal and that there possible also will be a downloadable version. Aside from saving the shipping costs, I would hope that the price is also a bit lower to reflect that you don't get a physical product to put on your shelf.
I think something like $20 for a downloadable version would be reasonable and would sell a lot of copies. This seems to be the standard for indie games you buy online, and it's pretty much what modern adventures like Nibiru and And Then Tere Were None retail for (at least from what I saw in Canada).

iii. If the game sucks the reviews will give it a 2/10 and the game will be over. The price does not make a difference. No one will come and say 'If the game was 10$ the review would be 5/10 and not 2/10".

I'm reviewing Al Emmo this month, and I can assure you that the price will affect the final grade. If it's priced like a standard commercial game, it must be compared to commercial games despite being an indie title. Let's just say that Himalaya are fortunate that 95% of recent adventure games suck . Another example of this is Dark Fall 2: Lights Out which was a nice game for the 20 Canadian dollars I paid for it. Sadly, the Danish distributor insisted it was a full price game at more than double that amount, and at that price I just couldn't recommend it to our readers.

[voh]

Are you really implying that ALL commercial games you've ever played are as polished and feel as professional as those examples by Blizzard and Valve? There's plenty of "professional" crap games out there that cost £40 and get 1/10.

I'm implying that if the game is crap, it shouldn't have costed that much in the first place. There's a lot of people, studios, companies charging WAY too much for their games. Hence why I don't buy a lot of games, unless they're reasonably priced.

I paid 50 euro for the Longest Journey. I paid 45 for Dungeon Keeper. Those games were worth it (since I still play them, and back then couldn't stop playing them until finished), but the first game of a new "company", of questionable quality, should not try to be up there with games that ARE of good slash excellent quality.

If the game was 15 USD, I'd probably purchase it just to support the creators. But for 30 USD, I wouldn't.

That's limiting your market, in a market that's already limited. Common sense, man

[Darth Mandarb]

Somebody PLEASE start a thread in the Adventure Related Board and take this conversation in there ...

This is the "Games in Production" thread for this game and it's been totally hi-jacked with talk about it's short-comings and high (eventual) price.

Bottom line:  It's their game and time put in ... they can charge whatever they want.  Don't like it?  Don't buy it.

Thank you, drive though ...

[Nikolas]

Ok.

Played the demo

Had it downloading for 2 hours or so, with 30 kbps!!!!

Anyhow my coments:

1. I like the narrator and Als voice.
2. I can certainyl see that the writer and everybody in the team knew what they were doing and that's good. I laughed a lot, in a lot of places.
3. The animations were well made. (see bellow for details)
4. AGS workd well in the game
5. Music, voice acting, sound fx, all worked (and especially the 'I'm waiting for the train', hilarious)
6. The fact that you have covered all possible choices, of actions in the game, provided me with great joy, as for 15 minutes all I did was clicking randmnly to get a differnet response from the narrator! hehe

Concerns:
1. The animation, although well made, from what I knwo from other animators, is nowhere near professional level. Even if AGS is not the most powerful engine, this does not provide excuses for the animation.
2. I was rather annoyed by the continuous remarks (although funny) from the narator, telling me that I can't go there. (Because it's a demo and I have to buy the game). Ialready knew that I didn't need some guy reminding me all the time. That kinda ruined it.
3. AGS, is a stable and good engine, but after the 3d cutscenes it did look rather poor (although you do have 8 directions and all that), still it looks a little poor (In my eyes)

In all I understand what the other people were talking about, but stil lthink that any price you want to put, that's your problem, and your risking.

And of course this is indeed one of the best examples of AGS, pushing it as far as it goes (though I wouldn't know, not knowing shit about AGS coding and all that)...

Nikolas

[buloght]

Niko: I'd say non-adventures are pushing the AGS limitÃ,  ;)Ã,  :PÃ, 

Well after also acquiring the demo, I played it a bit. I had to after all the weird comments this game got.

My thoughts:

1) the narrator is a George of the Jungle movie/space quest (7 I think) rip. Nothing wrong with it, but it gets a little bit much after a while, it's a like a brother/sister or someone being sarcastic about every little thing you do or say. Though in space quest the narrator was awesome and funny.
2) The 3D is good, but not good enough for commercial standards. Some of the characters are badly rigged and it looks like someone just learning to do 3D characters, though with that said,Ã,  they aren't that bad and at least you didn't just use Poser (though there is nothing wrong with that too).
3) Al's voice ... is it a woman doing him, i'm serious, it sounds just like a woman?
4) Comics are excellent! But the inconsistency of 3D and comic cutscenes interchanging isn't very pro and clashes, either do everything 3D or everything comics. The comics are excellently done, that guy is good, My personal opinion would be to go with the comics, I love them plenty.
5) Backgrounds are beautiful, sometimes a little inconsistent and 'incorrect', but then what is incorrect to some may be correct to others.
6) The humour wasn't very funny for me, not at all, I didn't enjoy them as it felt forced a lot and a little sick. But I know it's a grown up game and some people enjoy such humour.
7) 3D characters look out of place and very amateur in the game, they are not commercial quality, that's if I compare it to commercial games, not indy people making commercial games.
8) I think the game is enjoyable somewhat and has a lot of potential and obviously a lot of people will love it. Congratulations on all the work done and goodluck with your sales.


[edit] thanks voh  I forgot which one it was  .

[voh]

space quest (7 I think)

You're probably referring to Space Quest 6, since 7 was never made slash finished

[Phate]

You should put this game on the Xbox Live Arcade, plenty of people have been asking for an adventure game for the arcade.

[Kweepa]

That would require a version of AGS for the XBox 360. (Or a complete rewrite, of course.)

[Phate]

I heard that if you haven't programmed your game for XBLA you can get Microsoft to do it for you and they get a higher percentage of the profits than if you do it yourself.