'Ben There, Dan That!' (http://www.zombie-cow.com/?page_id=17) is a freeware comedy adventure game by Zombie Cow Studios, written by and somewhat-narcissistically starring the eponymous Dan and Ben, a couple of layabout geeks who always seem to find themselves knee-deep in high-adventure.
Through an improbable series of events, our heroes find themselves trapped on an alien spaceship, and must puzzle their way through multiple madcap dimensions to make their way home.
‘Ben There, Dan That!’ is bursting with bold cartoon graphics, reams of laugh-out-loud dialogue and colourful characters. It also features an incredible musical score by Mike Watts of Encore Music.
Written, naturally, in the ever-awesmoe AGS. Thanks Chris! ;)
Download your copy today FOR FREE, let’s not forget: www.zombie-cow.com
(http://www.zombie-cow.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/btdt_01_sm.jpg) (http://www.zombie-cow.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/btdt_04_sm1.jpg) (http://www.zombie-cow.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/btdt_02_sm.jpg)
If you like it, please do tell your friends and mention it on other forums... thanks!
Let us know what you think! Here's our AGS game page. (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?category=&action=detail&id=1056)
By far my favouritest AGS game thus far. :) The dialogue's fantastic, very funny, lovely style and presentation, and has perhaps the best walkcycles in any game ever made! :D
Makes me feel kinda sad we didn't make a shorter, comedy game first. :( ;)
Great job Dan!
I keep getting a error when I try to install this game. :( It's something link "the cabinet file disk1.cab is corrupt." and it stops installation prematurely. I would really like to play this game.......
worked fine for me :S as tube says below try redownloading. It's worth it! :)
I've only played for a bit but I'm loving the game already. I've always been a sucker for witty dialogue.
Quote from: piperhcombs on Sun 13/07/2008 20:59:18
..."the cabinet file disk1.cab is corrupt." and it stops installation prematurely.
I got the same error. Redownloading the game fixed it. Something wrong with the server? Seems like it occasionally corrupts the data it sends out or something.
I LOVED IT.
That is all ;D
EDIT: on second thought, I will expand upon my affection for this game ;) Hilarious dialogue, fun art style (the sprites were so cute) and animation (as Lemmy said, fabulous walkcycles), and puzzles of just the right difficulty. Spiffy job, Dan and Ben! :D
I keep having an error that pops radomly while instaling the game! :'(
Ooowwhh!
You can get a .zip here. Hosted kindly by lemmy and binky...
Zombie-cow hope to sort the problem pronto! :)
The original download should now be working perfectly.
Just like to say I've played it and it was amazing. One of the funniest, most easy to get along with AGS games so far this year!
Awesome! Thank you! I'm going to try this right now
Edit: Double Awesome! You've made something... I don't find words as I'm Spanish and english is not my main language. But I'ts really great!
Congratulations!
This game so totally rocks my socks off!
I haven't played it all that much, but I love it already. Especially the music and atmosphere created by the introduction :) The game has alot away of Sam&Max , wich is good! :)
Completely brilliant!
My favourite AGS game to date, by MILES!
It will make you laugh, it will make you cr... laugh again. AND IT'S FREE!
A very witty and charming game that takes a playful pop at the adventure game genre, and even itself, whilst simultaneously being a fantastic example of said genre. Superb! :D
I salute you Mr. Dan and Mr. Ben. 10/10.
PS: AMAZING. Download it pronto!
I've only played this a short while but I just have to comment. This is so great. Colourful, funny and very stylish.
The writing is also excellent. I loved the fact that when:
Spoiler
I clicked the lightbulb and he said "I'm not touching that. Only a complete idiot would touch that" I knew exactly what to do, immediately ;D
Very, very cool.
This is a beautiful game, good jokes and excellent puzzles! Made me laugh a lot. Thank you
I'm sure it's a nice game, it's just that i find it hard to read the dialogue. The letters are of a chubby font and seem to clump together so that it's hard to distinguish each word, and also the colour is not the best considering some backgrounds. Some times I wish games could have white text on a black background - just like when something on TV is subtitled.
Also, the dialogue speed is on the fast side, English is not my native tongue and I would have like a few more seconds to read the text.
You can change the text speed in this game, unless the slowest setting is still too fast for you.
I'm close to the end I think, a bit stuck but I don't want hints yet.
All I can say is that this game is brilliant! Lovely graphics, really nice humour and interesting puzzles. Don't know why I'm kept reminded of Rodekill and RLBAT though. :=
One good thing about this game is that you get different (and relevant) responses for clicking (and using items) on nearly every spot (like Ace Quest, I bet for some reasons people may not get as annoyed in this game as in AQ, I was never annoyed by the text in AQ personally though). On the down (good?) side, this may make progressing in the game a bit harder as you need to filter out which of the texts are crucial hints to solve a puzzle.
One thing I found a bit unfriendly is, you need to click through a number of icons to get to your desired mode, which can be annoying sometimes, if the actions are also placed on the popup top-bar like the SCI games they could be accessed easier.
Also, though I think the walking speed is perfect, it's still a bit slow when travelling at times, especially at the long corridor where you need to go from a room on a side to another room on the other far side of it.
All and all, the details in this game is amazing, you get animation for doing nearly everything, also nice story-telling cutscenes. These are all good things.
Looking forward to seeing another nice game. :D
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I am sad. Is there any chance for a mirror somewhere? I want to play this.
A mirror until the zombiecow servers recover: Should be fixed now. Link removed
Awesome game, thanks Dan!
It starts off a bit slow with the apartment setting, but once you get past the first puzzle it picks up tremendously.
I did have a couple of gripes with the characters coming up with pointless reasons for not doing something rather than just bloody doing it though.
Spoiler
Melting the lamppost with lava. Why is that a worse solution than cutting it with a can opener? That really stumped me, particularly since I thought the dioramas were just illustrations so I didn't pick up the can opener for ages.
Picking up the loo cakes in the thermos. I didn't even think to use newspaper since that would be a soggy mess that surely he wouldn't want to carry around. He could have automatically transferred the loo cakes to the newspaper if he needed to get the lava later.
Oh well, I got there in the end.
Thanks again!
A fun game, but what's with all the walkcycle hype? :=
People drawing me to games under false pretenses is
unacceptable! However, I will forgive it in this case since the game is actually fun!
Spoiler
I actually thought of the newspaper with the urinal cakes right away, Steve, though I see your point. Also, some of the humor in this game doesn't really 'work' for me and I agree the dialog is overlong at times, though I can see why people would enjoy it.
Well done!
"A fun game, but what's with all the walkcycle hype?"
Are you kidding? We're you expecting HD, 2000 frame walk animations or something from our comments? ;) They're the most hilariously brilliant walkcycles ever.
Sorry, I don´t get the altar-thing!
Spoiler
I read the bible and know I have to light candles in specific order. But since the combination doesn´t fit the chronological order in the bible and due to my impatience in finding the correct story order I gave up trying.
Pleeeeeeeeeease help. :-)
Spoiler
What are the candles made of? Fire? Do any of the references mention fire? Are the references listed in a particular order? Match the order with the order of candles that are on and off. I hope this helps without just outright telling you! :P
Someone should set up a Hints and Tips thread...Sorry, someone already has... (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=35099)
Sorry, mixed up topics. But thanks anyway. That help should do. ;-)
"A fun game, but what's with all the walkcycle hype?
People drawing me to games under false pretenses is unacceptable!"
They are my fave walk cycles of any AGS game to date!
What is not to love about comedy animations?
I really like what I'm seeing so far. The unprecise use of lines and colouring give a cool look to them, a look that would've been wrecked if done the wrong way.
Quick question: what font are you using? I know I've seen it somewhere... A Lucasarts game?
Quote from: LeChuck on Tue 15/07/2008 22:46:30
Quick question: what font are you using? I know I've seen it somewhere... A Lucasarts game?
It's the
Day of the Tentacle font, nice spot ;)
I recognized the DOTT font straight off! It was a nice little homage, I found.
I finished this yesterday and loved every minute of it. This is definitely one of my favourite AGS games to date. I'll be mentioning this to some friends!
QuoteI did have a couple of gripes with the characters coming up with pointless reasons for not doing something rather than just bloody doing it though.
Hmm. Have you maybe missed the point that this game's a parody of adventure games?
Adventure game avatars are
constantly coming up with fairly arbitrary, pointless and unfair reasons for not doing things, in order to maintain the game's structure. That's what we're making fun of, generally...
Well, well, well- what have we here?
A frikkin' good game, actually. From the (totally hilarious) intro to the little references and jokes littered throughout the plot, this really is pretty high up on my "laughs-per-minute" list!
What I liked best was, though, not any part of the game itself, but the whole package: Clean, nice homepage, easy, fast d'load, installer, and then off into a romp of cliche and (sometimes hit-and-miss, but usually worthwhile) adventure game references.
Great job indeed; you can't help but loving this.
But you know that now thousands of hopeful newcomers will storm the forums? ;D
Thanks for the kind words!
We're fine with newcomers... the more the merrier!
Don't forget to vote us up on the gamepage to counter the frankly wrong 3 cups rating, so we're no longer languishing below a deserved 90% rating...!
;)
Really liked this game, thanks! One of the funniest games I've played, and with the most varied dialogue, especially for random interactions between inventory and objects! I liked almost all the puzzles.
Just played for a few minutes but I really like the style, the music, the sounds... and the DOTT-Font. Just one little thing (in the very first room): If you walk to the very bottom the character is drawn in front of the plants.
Well, that's it for now. I'll continue playing tomorrow.
Ooh, thanks for spotting that matti. I'll look into it asap and re-upload a new version.
Best,
D
Heh heh, I'm loving this game. Lots of cheeky humour.
Technically,
Spoiler
"smote" is the past tense of "smite" - the past participle is "smitten",
but hey -
Spoiler
maybe the priest just got it wrong
and it doesn't stop it being a good gag.
Don't worry, we know ;)
I had a few reservations about this game before I played it. I was worried that 'hilarious' would translate as toilet humour, internet in-jokes and swearing...
To be honest, there was a bit of that, but it was also genuinely funny, and very enjoyable. The character art was really loveable as well and the writing was like a british Sam & Max. In fact the writing was so engaging that it made the puzzles harder, because even irrelevant interactions provoked interesting responses. Let's see a sequel!
Hehe sequel? I have a suggestion.
Spoiler
In the sequel you play as someone else who eventually overrules the two dictators and makes them back into their original *ahem* useless selves, so they'll return as the main characters in the third game.
We know what we'd like to do with a sequel, and we've had some great ideas and have a title and everything.
Sadly, it's just not going to happen on a budget of zero. Zombie Cow Studios really needs to focus all its efforts on projects that'll bring in some serious cash...
:(
I finally completed this game. I really enjoyed it. Some genuine laugh-out-loud moments.
One small gripe I did have was the fact that you have to keep cycling through to the hand cursor every time you need to walk through an open door (or even an archway). It's fine if the door is closed and you need to use the door to open it, but once it's open you should be able to just walk through it. I just felt I was clicking more times than I needed to be.
Great game. I liked all of the subtle references to pop icons, as well as the great humor. Looking forward to a sequel.
Thanks guys. I'll look into that 'walk to on open door' thing, it might be possible for the next fix as it's something a few people have reported.
Also, if you love it, please vote on our game page. (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?category=&action=detail&id=1056) Somehow we're languising under 90% at the moment. :(
Also, I'm afraid there will be no sequel whatsoever unless we get enough cash through donations to justify it, so if you can plug the game anywhere, please do...!
Just finished it. An interesting game with tons of great dialogue. I particularly liked the fact that it seemed as if every inventory item had its own "vocabulary", so that I very rarely ran into a boring "I can't use this item here" message but instead got hilarious messages about how I don't want a dead man's hand to handle this thing or how I don't want the top hat to smell like other people's wee. This is one thing I think many game developers would be better off doing, so I liked it a lot.
What's the point of complaining so much over "low scores"? They're not that low, seriously. I voted for it, and I voted that it is a recommended game that people should put on their to-play-list. In my ears, that's a pretty good thing to say about a game, and still I managed to pull the average score DOWN with that vote. So having the game at just below 90 % is pretty darn good, isn't it?
I have no idea how the AGS Panel works and evaluates, but three cups isn't THAT bad a grade, is it? I haven't played many four-cup-games, but I seem to recall that I've found most of them great, even better than this one. So three ain't that bad.
All in all, a good game. The downside is that it's somewhat repetitive in the way that every puzzle is about unlocking a room and entering it to find the key to the next room (which, sadly, is one of the most over-used puzzles in the adventure game world) and I also think it could have been better with less forth-wall-breaks. The upside is tons of hilarious dialogue and darn cute drawings throughout the entire game. 4/5 from me.
(Oh, man, I hate playing the bad guy...)
I liked this game. I laughed out loud, which is something I rarely do. But...
...it isn't that great a game. BT, DT! offers the player a fun time, no doubt about it, but unfortunately it's weakest link is it's gameplay. The writing is great, the situations are funny...but in all honesty, you could remove the game part altogether, and still be left with an excellent cartoon series.
It may sound all Killjoy McWetBlanket, but, in my opinion: "Ben There, Dan That!: The Story" = Excellent. "Ben There, Dan That!: The Game" = Good, not great.
I also liked Gibbage, and I enjoyed following it's progress in PC Zone. I look foward to seeing BT, DT! in next month's issue.
As for generating income, well...fork, we'd all like to suckle at the teats of that particular bovine (zombie or otherwise)! But as Dave Gilbert famously once said "There just ain't no money in it!"*
*(Not actually said by Dave Gilbert, ever, but I like to think he once uttered that very lament. I'd ask him to say it it now, but he has so many swimsuit models on his yacht that he can never get a clear mobile signal through all the silicone and spandex...)
Hooray! I made it all the way through this post without sounding like a total condescending cock. Just half of one. A cocklet.
Thanks, LimpingFish, for finding the words I was looking for. I agree with everything you say.
In cases like this one, it feels particularly hard to open one's mouth to say "Yeah, this game is really good, but it's not THE BEST GAME EVER CREATED". I don't know why, but it feels so harsh and insensitive, especially when everybody else is praising the game and the game creators seem to be very disappointed with a sub-90 % rating (when, according to these statistics (http://ssh.me.uk/ranking200807.html), only twenty of 470 games have a ranking of 90 % or higher (and that puts BTDT in the top 5 %!)).
Like I said above, I liked this game. And in some ways, it was excellent. But I don't understand what all the fuzz is about, either. And I can't help wondering why that makes one feel as a bad guy.
Anyhow, just had to write this to make it obvious that I agree with LimpingFish here, because I know it's so much easier to give criticism when someone agrees with you. And if people stopped criticizing, the world would stop improving. And I assume that would lead to its implosion.
Does the Load feature work in this game? I saved my game, and have the save file...but it doesn't show up in the Save/Load lists.
Strange. The load feature worked perfectly here.
How DARE you say such terrible things about America?! I'LL SUE YOU!!!
Seriously, though, I enjoyed the game. The dialog was funny (if a bit long) and the puzzles were clever. I liked the whole running gag about
Spoiler
Ben killing practically everyone they met
The art style was nice too, and yes, the walk cycles were great. Nice work!
I've just finished this game and I thought it was great fun. Lots of humour, even if some of it won't be understandable outside the UK. Just to repeat what olafmoriarty said, I really enjoyed messing around with deliberately wrong interactions just to see what the characters said.
It's always great to see a game that has been worked on so thoroughly to make sure everything is working. I did spot two small bugs though:
Spoiler
* When I gave the Underground technician the moonshine, all that happened is that Ben walked to the left (past the turnstile) and then to the right, past the technician. It worked, but this seems to be a weird way for the character to carry out this interaction.
* The only typo I found was "clammering" - this should be "clamouring". And I think the past participle of "smite" should be "smut". ;) That would be far more appropriate. ;D Only joking.
So excellent job, guys. I'm off to give you nice big fat top marks now. Hm, what do you have to do around here to get four cups, I wonder?
Quote from: paolo on Wed 23/07/2008 18:53:58
So excellent job, guys. I'm off to give you nice big fat top marks now. Hm, what do you have to do around here to get four cups, I wonder?
Fuck it. I've put on the Crown of Cocks once, I may as well wear it to good effect.
I've yet to hear anyone explain to me just why this particular game deserves four cups. Not "It's better than some of those four cup games!", but actual concrete examples of this games superior quality. The quality that the panel looks for when rating a game.
All areas of the game. So help me out, here. Give me examples of the excellent gameplay mechanics that lift this game above the rest. Because, cock hat or not, I played this game before I saw it's cup rating, and I came to the same critical conclusion. No big conspiracy, no vendetta. Just some guy quietly thinking to himself: "That was a good game. I like it.".
It seems you can't even call a game
just "good" anymore without the hounds being let loose.
Quote from: LimpingFish on Wed 23/07/2008 20:14:46
It seems you can't even call a game just "good" anymore without the hounds being let loose.
The thing is that according to the official blue cups rating description, 3 cups = "a decent game", and 4 cups = "a good game"... so technically, if you think it's a good game it
should deserve 4 cups in your eyes ;)
QuoteI've yet to hear anyone explain to me just why this particular game deserves four cups. Not "It's better than some of those four cup games!", but actual concrete examples of this games superior quality. The quality that the panel looks for when rating a game. All areas of the game. So help me out, here. Give me examples of the excellent gameplay mechanics that lift this game above the rest.
I don't want to take this thread entirely off-topic, but I was under the impression that different areas could compensate for others when assigning a rating. For example, looking
solely at the graphics, Trilby's Notes doesn't look like a 5-cup game to me, but I assume the gameplay and story make up for that (haven't played it, so I don't know from experience).
Anyway, I think BTDT does excel in areas of immersion and the overall fun-quotient :)
And please, just so that no one misinterprets me, I'm not arguing with the board rating; I understand that, in the end, it's a person's opinion, just like mine. We just happen to differ in this case :)
Quote from: paolo on Wed 23/07/2008 18:53:58
So excellent job, guys. I'm off to give you nice big fat top marks now. Hm, what do you have to do around here to get four cups, I wonder?
It would help if the took 5 minutes to release a version with easier ways to jump to cursor modes... its definitely the worst gameplay feature, although a double-click to run to speed up the sometimes too-slow walking would help.
Quote from: MashPotato on Wed 23/07/2008 21:38:52
And please, just so that no one misinterprets me, I'm not arguing with the board rating; I understand that, in the end, it's a person's opinion, just like mine. We just happen to differ in this case :)
Indeed, it's only an opinion. :)
And your right; BT, DT! excels in a number of areas. But like I said earlier, it's weakest link is it's gameplay. And the one thing a four/five cup game must have is strong gameplay. Other areas can only compensate so much.
It's just hard to understand the apparent "hard sell" approach to an otherwise unremarkable game, and the implied notion, though slight, that the game was somehow being mistreated.
I've been with the rating panel since it's inception, and the only reason it holds any interest for me, is that it allows both myself and the other panel members to offer a largely untainted (by popular opinion, by personal ties to the developer, whatever) opinion on the games that get added to the database. And to offer a more stable/reliable alternative to possibly misleading user ratings; a situation, it has to be said, not helped by campaigning for overly positive voting, deserved or otherwise.
This is all very weird for me. I like the game. Hell, I'd support Ben and Dan in their future game development endeavors. BT, DT! is a good first game, far better than most first games. But it has it's faults. I didn't rate it, but I agree with the rating it received.
And it makes me feel like a shit to play Captain Bringdown and the Buzz Killers, but that's the way I see the situation.
Quote from: olafmoriarty on Wed 23/07/2008 09:50:47Strange. The load feature worked perfectly here.
Seriously?...I'm not sure
how far I got really...but a couple of the puzzles did take me a little bit to work out:
Spoiler
At first I didn't realize you could click all three sections of the pillars. I knew the candles had to do with the Bible references...but I only had 2 verses!
I got as far as say...
Spoiler
Britain...talking to "the King"
And I'd talked to most of the other people there...just not looking forward to having to start over again. :(
Quote from: LimpingFish on Wed 23/07/2008 20:14:46I've yet to hear anyone explain to me just why this particular game deserves four cups. Not "It's better than some of those four cup games!", but actual concrete examples of this games superior quality. The quality that the panel looks for when rating a game.
An excellent question to which I have no good reply. The reason I personally said I gave the game a "4/5" was that the dialogue in my opinion was hilarious enough to pull the whole game upwards, but honestly I don't expect the Panel to think in the same way. The game was hilarious, and the artwork was cute, but from a trying-to-be-objective point of view I completely understand that the complexity of the interface and the similarity of the puzzles pulls the score down.
Anyhow, I'm still of the opinion that a 3/5 is a pretty good grade.
Quote from: MashPotato on Wed 23/07/2008 21:38:52
The thing is that according to the official blue cups rating description, 3 cups = "a decent game", and 4 cups = "a good game"... so technically, if you think it's a good game it should deserve 4 cups in your eyes ;)
Decent is just a degree of good. The description also says that three cups equals "give it a go". I don't tell people to give a game a go if I don't think it's good.
Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Thu 24/07/2008 11:42:51
a couple of the puzzles did take me a little bit to work out:
Spoiler
At first I didn't realize you could click all three sections of the pillars. I knew the candles had to do with the Bible references...but I only had 2 verses!
I figured that one out right away, but I agree that it could have been done better, especially when taking into account the inconsistency:
Spoiler
With the candles themselves, one clicks the chandeliers and not the single candles, quite the opposite of the way one had to click on individual verses on the pillars.
The most confusing puzzle in the game, by the way, is in my opinion
Spoiler
getting the can-opener from the museum. Not because it is difficult to get the can-opener (it's not), but because the dioramas really look like paintings. Examining them doesn't really reveal that they're dioramas, either. So when I needed some kind of item to cut a lamppost down, getting the can-opener from the museum was the last thing I thought of -- not because it doesn't fit with the game's bizarre logic, but because I assumed that the can-opener was painted on the wall!
The worst part is that that frustration could have been resolved with a simple @OVERHOTSPOT@.
It's too bad that as far as I'm concerned, the dialogue is the only strength of the game. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it was too long or displayed to fast. No, it was bloody hilarious throughout and just perfect.
But every other aspect of the game just falls short of getting my unconditional fangirl-ish drool-soaked approval.
The gameplay quickly becomes annoying because you always have to right click your way through every action to do anything. And if you're like me and have a very bizarre fondness for clicking on mouse buttons very rapidly, this system becomes eye twitch worthy.
The graphics almost deterred me from playing at first. Then I tried the game out and had to admit that they worked fine with the game's tone. Still, they're not great. I don't think they're even cute. They just serve their purpose without inspiring any awe. Well, they did inspire an arched eyebrow, but for all the wrong reasons, I'm afraid.
The puzzles quickly get repetitive. I thought the one with the candles was really neat, but after that it went "find object to stick into next very obvious place" and even "try random object on random stuff" at one point. The can opener point, actually.
But even with all these problems, the game remains so damn entertaining, and isn't that the one thing that we ask for? So yes, I enjoyed playing it, yes I laughed out loud at various points, especially in the museum shop, and yes I do think it's a Good Game and I'd recommend it to my friends. But I won't go back to play it again some day in a fit of nostalgia. Because as Good as it may be, it's not Great.
h t t p : // w w w.thetriforce.com/forum/index.php?topic=7421.30'
"I'm so pleased everyone seems like like this (bar a few snooty humourless cunts at the AGS board). Gibbage sort of split people down the middle between those who liked it, and those who couldn't get it to run, so it's nice to see 99% positive comments.
It won't go on XBLA because it's written in AGS, which is a fairly-shitty pointy-clicky generator. If we get a million downloads, we might take the series further and look into doing somethng more mainstream with it (FAO Jonathan: I think this would be a perfect non-LEGO project for TT, FYI)"
I actually loved the gameplay and interface, but found the absence of ingame music a little disappointing. But only a little.
edit: whoa this thread just got ugly
Quote from: ouch on Thu 24/07/2008 20:48:38"I'm so pleased everyone seems like like this (bar a few snooty humourless cunts at the AGS board).
Dan is clearly joking here, as I take pride in being the first snooty humourless cunt to write in this thread, and I didn't do so until six days after he wrote it.
Quote from: ouch on Thu 24/07/2008 20:48:38
it's written in AGS, which is a fairly-shitty pointy-clicky generator.
Your AGS review: 3/5 cups?
QuoteDan is clearly joking here
I almost find it amusing how someone can write anything they want, no matter how offensive, and say
it's just a joke lol and people should just nod their heads and dismiss it all. Yes, funny. Very. To be honest, this kind of thing carried into the game in spots where I found myself annoyed by some of the anti-American comments, and normally I'm never annoyed by any good-natured ribbing at all. Some of it just didn't seem good-natured at all, but that's just how I interpreted it.
However, I think the topic's derailing a bit here onto cup ratings rather than opinions of the game itself. There's already a thread for complaining/praising the cup ratings ;\.
Quote from: paolo on Wed 23/07/2008 18:53:58
Hm, what do you have to do around here to get four cups, I wonder?
I seem to have opened a can of worms here... For the record, I wasn't intending to criticise the panel's judgement on what merits three cups and what deserves four, but in my opinion (and my opinion alone) this deserved a higher rating. I respect the panel's view, and this was not the place to open up a discussion of how the panel determines how many cups a game should get. So, sorry if I offended anyone with my sarcastic question.
Wow, this game is FUNNY. I love the adventure game references, the fourth wall breaking, and the pointing-out-the-obvious-for-humour stuff.
The graphics are funny, and the characters talk in such an entertainingly British way (sorry if that's offensive, or anything).
The only problem I have is the interface. You can bring up the top bar in the main menu, right-clicking all the time gets irritating, and there's something about the inventory... but I just can't put my finger on it. Oh, and there's no "name of what your mouse is hovering over" text. But I suppose that's not too terrible, and the action cursors DO indicate whether or not you can interact with whatever your mouse is over.
I haven't played very much of it, but what I have played is great. Oh yeah, love the walk cycle. If people really walked like that, the world would be a better place.
Finally finished the game \o/
This game is FAAAAAAANTASTIC !!!
I love it!! I love the humor style, including the cynical jokes about adventure game and inside jokes about Ben & Dan being the game makers. I love how you cared to write something funny with any click be in look, use, talk or Ben. Thank you.
The puzzles were just the right level and were really fun.
I love all the
Spoiler
plot twists. At the beginning I thought it was just a simple short game about a couple of guys wanting to fix their TV. All of a sudden WHAM I'm on a spaceship with alternate realities. Awesome. And then the twist at the end. TWO surprising unexpected twists in the plot in one game. Bravo !!
For me it's the AGS game of the year so far! :=
Mad props to you and now you simply MUST make a sequel. This was too great to end here!
Agree.
A sequel would be a 'must have' for me.
One of the funniest game I saw in the last month.
Excellent game.
I enjoyed the humor throughout the whole game. Every action has a funny and entertaining response.
This game reminded me (once the makeshift aerial was setup) in every way of the game Out of Order (http://www.hungrysoftware.com/#/games/outorder/) by Hungry Software. Just the whole multiple doors with an array of random shapes to open them. I think Out of Order is also a British game, though I could be wrong.
Anyway, it was a great game. I'm hoping to see more adventure games starring Ben and Dan.
Thanks for all the BTDT love, guys, it's really appreciated. I was only being facetious about the three cups, but I don't think that came across. Sorry.
I don't think there'll be any more games starring Ben and Dan, I'm afraid. We simply can't afford to make anymore simple freeware games :(
The next game will doubtless carry the spirit of BTDT, though, so keep an eye on us and what we're up to via www.zombie-cow.com
Quote from: thezombiecow on Fri 01/08/2008 16:46:58
Thanks for all the BTDT love, guys, it's really appreciated. I was only being facetious about the three cups, but I don't think that came across. Sorry.
I don't think there'll be any more games starring Ben and Dan, I'm afraid. We simply can't afford to make anymore simple freeware games :(
It's always hard to see a product not live up to the expectations one has as a developer. For every person who likes something, others will dislike or feel something can be improved upon, that's just how it is. I guess the cup rater fell somewhere in the middle of the group. It's impossible to please everyone, but as long as you please someone you've done your job as a developer as far as I'm concerned.
Can't wait to see what you guys do next!
I found this Spoiler Free Hints Guide (http://www.zombie-cow.com/?page_id=107) on the Zombie Cow Website (http://www.zombie-cow.com). It is great if you need some help, but feel rubbish about cheating through it... (and as a bonus, it is extremely funny!).
Also, found the museum shop easter egg recently. It just added to the hilarity! :D
I know, super old thread revival but I only managed to play that game yesterday.
What rocked:
Totally rad animations, it's quite possibly the first time I smiled for animations as trivial as walkcycles.
All the jokes, 4th wall breaking and more particuliary the many running gags.
The possibility to set the dialogs speed.
The incredible amount of unique messages for all possible interactions. It's a bit of a two edged sword actually. Lot of unique messages is definitivly a strong point, but I found myself wasting 10 minutes or so just clicking on everything, OCD-style, when entering a new room, and with this amount of unique messages, I know I missed a whole lot of jokes and funny remarks, which make me sad.
What did not rock:
No music, I spend most of the game humming musics from DOTT.
Sometimes there are just too much dialogs.
Many useless delays in between sentences. I remember sending a PM to ProgZ regarding useless delays in between sentences in Ace Starkiller but that was nothing compared to the insane amount of useless delays in BTDT. What's worse? It must be some sort of glitch or bug for surely it cannot be a feature, but around the end of the game, starting at the frozen dimension and the museum, delays got significantly longer, ranging between 5 and 7 seconds each, so when you get one of those discussion which consist of "sentence, delay, sentence, delay, sentence" or 2 delays one after the other, the insane amount of downtime is enough to drive someone mad, MAD!
That's pretty much it, I sure hope one day you will have enough money to allow yourself to make a sequel for that game. Or you could sell deluxe editions of your BTDT games. But you must make a sequel.
That was a pretty awesome game right there. Kudos to you both.