Well, yes, he made another game. 5 Days A Stranger. I havn't downloaded it yet cos i'm at school. Get it at http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/5days or the AGS Games page.
His games are good. If he doesn't want to post here about them, then I'm glad somebody does.
Of course, now that we've got wind of it, I'm sure a witty update slagging us off in some way on his website is inevitable.
Looks cool. I'm downloading it.
it was quite fun and the art is an amazing leap from his other games and the animations are much appreciated
a very enjoyable game with a few minor problems i feel
rock on with games woo woo
eric
Interesting... Auhsor, any idea when he first put it up?
I'm with Eric, rode, and Scumm on this one--just play the game and enjoy it for what it is. I think for once in the whole history of this forum we can resist bringing Yahtzee's whole biography into mention. I'm downloading it now and I'm looking forward to it.
I've had a look at it, it's the usual great standard his games used to have.
The only annoying thing is the GUI, you have to go into the inventory screen every time you want to change from "use" to "walk" or "talk.
Quote from: remix0r on Tue 23/09/2003 08:44:16
Interesting... Auhsor, any idea when he first put it up?
Judging by the site, i think it was yesterday. I'm downloading it now.
Graphically, it looks superb.
I just finished it after quite a few hours, Excellent game, kept me wanting to keep playing, some clever puzzles, some obvious, not the most original plot, but still an entertaining story.
Well put together, well worth playing, another great game, there's been a few good game's come out lately, I wonder if people are holding out till december to bring out the gems, I sure hope so.
I just finished it too. Its a nice game, though not as good as others.
A nice and highly atmospheric game. It could have used some beta testing, though. I'm reviewing it for AG.
Looks good. Nice improvement on the shading :)
Downloading now, but won't play just.. yet :P
Anyone worked out what his alias was when he was asking for help here on this?
"Every time I think I'm out... they pull me back in!"
Is what Yahtzee would say if he were italian.
And in the mafia.
And Michael Corleone.
And in a movie.
Called the Godfather.
Part 3.
I always did picture Yahtzee as looking a lot like Al Pacino.
Wow, Yahtzee. That brings back memories. It's amazing how much the AGS community has changed over the past 3 to 4 years. Like roadkill said, Yahtzee does make good games.
I knew (and hope) Yahtzee would make a game again.
/me goes to play...
As always, an excellent game from Yahtzee. I really liked the animation and the atmosphere. I sure am waiting for his next game.
First I wasn't gonna post anything at all, because I knew I would write something degoratory about Yahtzee, then I read his article on Hollywood on the frontpage of his site, and I couldn't agree more, so from now on, let it be known that I hold no grudge against Yahtzee anymore.
I haven't played the game, though, so I haven't got anything to say anyway.
Finished the game last night. Very good, and well made. The interface annoyed me at first but i got used to it. Overall a good game, a little short, as in some extra puzzles could have been added to lengthen it, but yeah, it was cool.
Wow... that was Yahtzee's best game. He sure has improved and I like his animations. Good job with plot too.
Nice one.
...and that makes 3 excellent AGS games in a row I played!
Thank God (well, not God, really, but my job that at present allows me to do nothing but playing games...!) that I restarted playing AGS games.
What were the buggy bits? I didn't find any!
I still haven't figured out what this conflict between Yahtzee and the rest of the AGS community is all about. But boy do his games rock.
Aside from the somewhat clichéd plot and the a-bit-too-colorful-for-the-mood graphics (I really think a more monochrome palette a la Odysseus Kent could have added tons to the atmosphere), I loved everything about this game. The structure was terrific - I haven't seen such a buildup of tension in any other amateur adventure, it reminded me of The Shining, rather than more obvious comparisons like House on Haunted Hill.
I adore games with lots of dialogue, especially when there's conflict as here. The suspicion and mistrust was almost like something out of The Thing. I really wish people would work more with characters. Inter-character conflicts is one of the most powerful tools of storytelling, and adds much more than, say, a flashy animation which would take three times as long to make.
Oh yeah, graphics animations were nice too (especially you-know-who falling on his ass in the bathroom), but what really won me over was the writing and the overall design. Beautiful job. (In fact, it was so good that I've decided to nick a few... er, let myself inspire for my game :))
Well done Yahtzee, loved it from start to finish, the plot was one of the best I've seen in a while and had a nostalgic value reminding me of Maniac Mansion and Hugo House of Horrors.
You've done it again.
I am very similar to yahtzee in a way; very arrogant, and think we should just back off a bit and let him get back to taking over the world. His games are great, and reading through some of his site it's quite humourous looking at his take on life / death.
I would quite gladly welcome him back to the forums...
Regarding the game itself:
I just completed it after some thrilling hours. There is lot to be learned from a game as good as this. Sure there are mistakes, like badly placed humour, but as a whole this game is one of the best ever.
The characters are real, they react to the world, unlike most characters in amateur-adventures. Each one has a unique personality. In the beginning of the game I saw a lot in common with Agatha Christie's 'A Mousetrap'.
Sometimes everything's so real I forgot I was playing a game.
The plot, though not most original, is told well. The player is not told everything that happens, so that imagination gets activated. That's exactly like it should be in adventure games.
Graphics are innovative at places, sprites being rather high quality. The 16-year old kid looks much younger than the other players. I was impressed.
So, there's a lot to say about this game, but playing it will give you the clearest idea.
I liked the game overall, especially the "dynamic" feeling to the mansion (characters moved to different rooms, etc.) but there were a few story things I think that could be improved.
It would really build tension if you suspect everyone else in the house. If you catch them doing something shady; anything to mislead the player. This could be build up until the player practically starts every time he sees another person in the house. Also, the characters would have to be killed off slower, as not to reduce the pool of suspects.
The whole spirit thing would be a surprise, especially because it controls people (including the player) in the house.
The idol should be more of a central piece to the game. It would tie in really well with that whole Africa bit, and maybe it acts as a home to the malovent spirit of the murderous son. Or something.
Coupled with some creepy atmospheric music (especially for the dream) and sound effects (creaking wood, wind down the chimney, doors opening and closing, etc.)
Also, how does the fire in the fireplace burn for five days?
Just my two cents.
don't read if you haven't played
bop bop bop
the biggest complaint i have about the game is that you'd discover something amazing like a room behind a wall with shackles in it and you couldn't tell anyone about it. The only character that got scared died right away and then all the other characters were headstrong or too young to care. As far as I remember no one really got scared and when whatsisname in the leather jacket did start acting suspicious he just sat there in the dining room looking at papers and yelling at you.
i wish the house messed with them more. it seemed to me that the house existed on another plane and i pictured it on a floating island in the sky no one getting in no one getting out cause of the ghost. The ghost brings the car in for some reason that is never explained and it shouldn't have stopped there. Come out of the bathroom and try to go downstairs but the stairs are gone. Doors are added and taken away when someone steps through them, brick walls appear inbetween doors and rooms you've visited many times. This is the same thing I missed from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, the act of being messed with by AM.
The car was great, when it appeared i was confused in a great way, i felt "there is something going on here that is crazy and i'll soon learn." but the car seems to be added mostly to give you the lock picks...
more on being messed with: I kept waiting and waiting but it never happened, I wanted to walk into the dining room and see the picture on the wall changed a little. Like he's facing a different way or he's a little more menacing. I wanted to see small things changed in the house day by day or even second by second. walking into the hall with the staircase gone would have screwed me up pretty good, but walking into another room and noticing something is off but not being able to put my finger on it, even better.
I agree with the big brother, music music music and footsteps DEFINETLY! unknown footsteps moving through a house while you're downstairs, things scraping on the ground, doors closing all the stuff that scared the shit outta you in Silent Hill.
Now these are just the bad things i felt were in the game or things that could have been improved on, consider them as a critique. I loved the game and thought the animation was amazing the dream sequences quite well done and the art was amazing [though some of the lighting was too banded for my tastes] The walk cycles were absolutely amazing, verrry smooth, i was jealous.
all in all a great game and can't wait to see more.
eric
Also why couldn't you just smash the windows at the front door with something and just escape, that would have been so easy. It looked like a pretty weak front door too, mmmmmmmmm, I guess it's just a game.
As with most of the posts in this thread, possible spoilers if you haven't finished the game yet.
One thing that bothered me was the 16-year-old (forget his name) - he seemed like something out of the 1950s, for a while I was convinced he would turn out to be a ghost (when he mentioned Terry Pratchett that kind of threw me); I mean, he talked about being beaten by his teachers, and he was willing to perform a bloody stupid dare for a single pound - what's he gonna spend it on, penny whistles and moon pies? I did think perhaps the game was set in the 50s, but with all the talk about Reality TV I realised that that could not have been the case. Very short for his age, too - though perhaps that can be excused by the main character's height (6' 4", whatever that is in real measurements) dwarfing him.
I did love a lot of the other stuff, though - like the reference to Thief, the way the music suddenly builds up and make you think something is going to happen, the general design and atmosphere of the game which evokes a kind of Colonel's Bequest crossed with Clock Tower (to which I believe the shower curtain thingy is a reference) feeling, and the fact that the puzzles and dialogue were actually quite good.
I actually prefered it to his earlier games, which I didn't dislike.
hehe, i remember having yahtzee on my icq years ago, hes a nice guy...thats all i have to say :)
This game is one of the best ags adventure game i've ever played. I haven't finished the game yet, but I like it alot! I can pretty much say that I think it's about as good as pleurghburg was. Maybee I just like murdercases ;) The only thing that annoyed me was the GUI. I'm used to the rightclick and immediatley change of mousecursor ;)
You're welcome I guess...
Quote from: Minimi on Wed 01/10/2003 07:52:02I can pretty much say that I think it's about as good as pleurghburg was.
Well, bear in mind Pleurghburg did many more advanced things than 5DAS does, and it's a LOT (lot, lot) longer, which took much more effort. I'm really enjoying 5DAS, but it's pretty hard to compare it to PDA.
Quote from: MrColossal on Sat 27/09/2003 22:01:34
i wish the house messed with them more. it seemed to me that the house existed on another plane and i pictured it on a floating island in the sky no one getting in no one getting out cause of the ghost. The ghost brings the car in for some reason that is never explained and it shouldn't have stopped there. Come out of the bathroom and try to go downstairs but the stairs are gone. Doors are added and taken away when someone steps through them, brick walls appear inbetween doors and rooms you've visited many times. This is the same thing I missed from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, the act of being messed with by AM.
The car was great, when it appeared i was confused in a great way, i felt "there is something going on here that is crazy and i'll soon learn." but the car seems to be added mostly to give you the lock picks...
more on being messed with: I kept waiting and waiting but it never happened, I wanted to walk into the dining room and see the picture on the wall changed a little. Like he's facing a different way or he's a little more menacing. I wanted to see small things changed in the house day by day or even second by second. walking into the hall with the staircase gone would have screwed me up pretty good, but walking into another room and noticing something is off but not being able to put my finger on it, even better.
And a quote from fullyramblomatic.com:
Quote5 Days A Stranger v1.3 is up. Yeah, I know you already played it. Well, I added sound effects with this one, so the least you ungrateful pricks can do is download it again and listen to all the lovely sounds I painstakingly added. Also, I made two of the paintings do weird and creepy things like change over time or occasionally look a bit different
/me waves to Yahtzee.
What a guy, that yahtzee is.
Good stuff. Reminds me of a "more comic" version of Revenants.
m0ds
Awesome game, one of the best AGS games I've played, and to think I almost missed out on this! Luckily, CJ posted it as the GotM.
I was genuinely scared several times. The characters were very well done and all had their own unique personalities. The sound effects were great and added to the spookiness of the game. The puzzles were excellent and logical.
Some nitpicking: I agree with GarageGothic that some of the colors might be too bright. Although spooky, Trilby's car appearing out of nowhere might be too implausible, but some kind of explanation would be nice. The UI wasn't very friendly, so I resorted to using F1-F4 to choose verbs (instead of right clicking).
Although the game was pretty long, I wish it was longer just because it was so enjoyable and captivating. I hope that Yahtzee does decide to make more AGS games.
Excellect game to Yahtzee. It gave that good feeling of satisfaction when it was over. Very easily on my top five. I enjoyed being creeped out at times. Nice choice of music. Excellent graphics. Nice animations. I loved the dialogs.
Rating: ***** (5/5)
EDIT: Dang. Now how am I going to sleep at night?
"Hey, Rhubarb Celestial, you have 0 messages, 0 are new."
That's what I get after not logging in for almost a year. Bah humbug.
Anyway, since there's a discussion panel happening on this topic...
I do think this was one of his better games by far. The graphics were a huge step up from his thick-black-outlines-coloured-with-the-fill-command horrors of the RB games, and the sheer diversity of the small animations throughout the whole thing adds a lot more atmosphere and involvement. The characters were each sufficiently different enough to make interacting with them quite interesting (although I was convinced that the kid was a ghost too), and I really liked the dialogue, especially the conversation between Trilby and Simone when he's locked in the shed. And the whole haunted mansion Clock Tower theme is something I always loved (although maybe he went a bit overboard with the 'twin boys one of whom is locked up his whole life' thing). I wasn't too crazy about the badly written-up spells (from someone who studies mythology, legends and superstitions as a hobby, but maybe I'm just being picky) and personally I thought the whole 'masked serial killer' thing was a bit lame too, but to people who aren't constantly barraged with his expressed love for Friday 13th and Nightmare on Elm St films, I guess it might seem acceptable.
The thing that really pisses me off about YZ and his creations is that he always makes the mistake of thinking that the small details don't matter. True, this IS an amateur game, but this is all stuff that could easily been fixed had be been bothered to exert himself just that tiiiiiny little bit extra. For instance, I thought the music, taken directly from some dodgy anime RPG Creator, was absolutely terrible, grating, harsh, and repetitive while not being all that atmospheric. There are a dozen small but irritating plot points that make no sense, like the car appearing in the yard (it was so inane as to be funny, something which I don't think he was aiming for) and the body being under the floor tiles (the guy just staggered upstairs, dug out the floor, and carefully sealed himself in again without a trace before dying, did he?). There are also a few references to various short stories and novel attempts he's written that would be lost on people who don't either know him or read his site avidly (like the whole thing with AJ's government connections which is never really explained or elaborated on). You could usually tell someone when a new development arose, but a lot of the time you had to keep it to yourself. Plus, as someone said, the house didn't seem that difficult to break in or out of.
Overall I did like it, especially the puzzles which were fairly logical and solveable without being too easy (I got stuck several times but still finished it all in one sitting without hints). The dream sequences were great, something I certainly wouldn't have expected from him. In my own summary, it's an attempt to break away from comedy into a more serious and atmospheric genre, and it works ok for me.
He moves to Australia in two days. Hip hip hooray.
I simply loved this game. I couldn't stop playing until I reached the end. The best written AGS game I've ever played. Thank you, Yahtzee.
I personally liked 5DA. I thought the plot elements were excellent, with well-written characters and great dialogues. There were minor inconsistencies, however, at some parts of the game as Mr. Celestial has pointed out (i.e. the body of the second son being underneath some tiles in the bathroom floor, and the car appearing). But other than that, I saw very little to complain about.
Yahtzee's graphics have indeed improved significantly since RB, although I noticed that he gradually does seem to develop the graphics and over-all gameplay of his work everytime he launches a new project.
The choice of music was not bad either. the SFX of the whispering voices and scratches in the background really added to the ambience of anxiety and trepidation the game was trying to project. I played the game several days before Halloween at around 1AM alone in my room, and I was so creeped out that I had to turn on the TV while playing just to break the tension and simulate an environment as if I weren't all alone and scared to death inside my own bedroom. ;)
Quote from: Rhubarb Celestial on Fri 31/10/2003 12:23:08
and personally I thought the whole 'masked serial killer' thing was a bit lame too, but to people who aren't constantly barraged with his expressed love for Friday 13th and Nightmare on Elm St films, I guess it might seem acceptable.
At first, I wasn't too crazy about the idea of a 'masked serial killer' either, because in the back of my head, I was still expecting that the killer was a 'real person' and not some 'supernatural entity'. Unfortunately for me, it was not, and so I had to come to terms with the same fact I had to deal with when watching horror films: that some elements need to be lame and senseless to actually be perceived as scary (for some people, anyway).
Oh, and btw, I think the masked serial killer factor is more a jason than a freddie ;)
Quote
Plus, as someone said, the house didn't seem that difficult to break in or out of.
Someone mentioned earlier that this was a 'sort-of' rip-off from haunted house movies like "House on Haunted Hill". I however, see very little resemblance to House on Haunted Hill, but more on Stephen King's "Rose Red".
The reason they were locked-in and couldn't get out of the house in "HHH" is because of some mechanical device that was designed to seal-in the entire building so that there will be absolutely no way out. In contrast with "Rose Red", the reason they couldn't get out is because the house was alive and its supernatural powers itself (with the the help of the ghosts and the psychics) won't let them out. There's this scene where they were trying to break the glass of the window, but no matter how hard they pounded on it with their hands and a cue stick, they couldn't break it. They also couldn't break open the doors no matter how hard they try, more because of the paranormal elements afflicting the house's structure.
Quote
The dream sequences were great, something I certainly wouldn't have expected from him. In my own summary, it's an attempt to break away from comedy into a more serious and atmospheric genre, and it works ok for me.
I can only very much agree with you on this one. :)
Sorry to revive this old thread, but I just wanted to ask: Did anyone here buy/play the 5 Days A Stranger Special Edition (http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/5days/) yet?
(I'm mostly interested in how the commentary works as I have a similar feature in my game)
Course we didn't. No one tells us anything.
<sulks>
Sounds interesting indeed. I should go over and check it out.
edit: Oh... you have to pay $5 dollars to him... Looks cool, so maybe another time when I have moneys sorted out.
I've just bought it,
this was the girst ags game i played about 2 years ago and i was gonna download it again when i noticed this topic about the special edition, so i thought why not ?
its very good, the interview is quite funny tho not very informative, and ive only played a short bit of the game with comentary but its very good.
its well worth the $5 or should i say £2.73
I didn't yet, but maybe I will, just to support him, once I get my new credit card... though I have to say I'm probably one of the few people that didn't like 5DAS too much. It certainly wasn't bad, just a tad... I dunno, overrated? Same as Pleurghburg, the story was pretty good, but the "adventure" part itself (ie. the puzzles) was sort of lacking. There wasn't anything memorable like the last puzzle of Two of a Kind, for example.
In fact, even though I played 5DAS about four months ago, I only have vague memories of the game, especially the characters... the only one I remember clearly is Trilby.
I bought it a couple of days ago, but I don't have it yet... >:| Where's my email?
I received my email the same afternoon. I'll PM you his email address to get in touch.
Just in case anyone is interested, Yahtzee has released the special editions of 5 Days (and the rest of the Chzo Mythos) and even 1213 for free on his website.
They all can be found here: http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/donate.htm
Quote from: TheJBurger on Tue 21/07/2009 06:48:44
Just in case anyone is interested, Yahtzee has released the special editions of 5 Days (and the rest of the Chzo Mythos) and even 1213 for free on his website.
They all can be found here: http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/donate.htm
Thanks for the info. Do you know when this happened?
I think about 2 or 3 days ago.
No one really go to FullyRamblomatic since Yahtzee starts reviewing games.
Gonna play the last 1213 Wooooah!
Thanx for the Info JBurger.
Well, there goes my morning.
Yay for free things.
Oooh! Thank Jburger (and Yahtzee, of course)!
Oooh, thanks for the heads up on this. Now to spend all day playing them again.
Ha, one of the first AGS games I played, if I remember correctly the very first even. Actually I just replayed the frist three games of the Chzo cycle last week. Seems like I have to start again now! ;D
Never played the special editions. Good to hear
Same here, one(s) of the first AGS games I played, and one(s) of my favorites. :)
Ah, there go the fanboys!
I must say despite people love this, it's the one yahtzee game I don;t really enjoy.
1213 is the only Yahtzee game I still havn't played... spose I should at some point.