Adventure Game Studio

A schoolteacher wakes to find his entire life is missing from public record.  His bank account, his health care, his credit cards are all frozen when the government declares him to be a non-person.  As he takes the steps necessary to pull his life back together, he becomes aware of nefarious forces that have conspired against him.  The truth, it seems, is never pure and rarely simple.

Conspirocracy starts in an exaggerated, highly-bureaucratic re-imagining of Toronto, Canada.  Medical droids serve as gatekeepers between patients and doctors.  The activities of beggars and buskers are regulated and tasked.  Airport security is taken to an more extreme, disconcerting level.  As the player, you will have your work cut out for you finding what you're looking for when the system is stacked heavily against you.

Loosely inspired by Douglas Adams' Bureaucracy (1987), Conspirocracy is a comedy that introduces the player to an eclectic cast of characters in a wide variety of locations as he uncovers the secret of what became of his identity.



FEATURES

• A complete story with a large cast of voiced characters, challenging puzzles and lots to see and do.
• Unlockable achievements for players who discover the many easter-eggs hidden within.
• A "stress" management system.  Our hero has a weak heart and too many stressful incidents will elevate his blood pressure with dire consequences.  As you explore, you will need to find ways to relax and keep from losing your temper.
• Our hero carries a cellphone and a tablet with him wherever he goes.  From any point in the game you can peruse a selection of apps that you have installed.
• A dynamic hint-system that, if activated, will provide a nudge in the right direction when players get a little stuck.
• Two different endings (with rumours of a secret third-ending for the dedicated explorer) based on two different perspectives you may have about the events surrounding the loss of your identity.

(http://media.desura.com/cache/images/games/1/28/27532/thumb_620x2000/Screenshot12.png)  (http://media.desura.com/cache/images/games/1/28/27532/thumb_620x2000/Screenshot5.png)

(http://media.desura.com/cache/images/games/1/28/27532/thumb_620x2000/YetAnotherScreenshot.png)  (http://media.desura.com/cache/images/games/1/28/27532/thumb_620x2000/Screenshot10.png)

(http://media.desura.com/cache/images/games/1/28/27532/thumb_620x2000/Screenshot14.png)

MEDIA

AdventureGamers.com (http://www.adventuregamers.com/news/view/25118)
Complex Gaming (http://www.complexmag.ca/video-games/2013/09/kickstarter-indiegogo-video-game-funding/canada)
IndieGames.com (http://indiegames.com/2012/09/_conspirocracy_promises_a_trip.html)
Indie Game Insider (http://indiegameinsider.com/2013/09/16/conspirocracy-indiegogo-campaign-launched/)



For myself, and a lot of others in the AGS community, this has been a labour of love for the past year and a half.  You can see our development history (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=46687.0) that took us to this point.  My sincere gratitude to all our supporters during the IndieGoGo campaign, the patient guidance of Khris, monkey and the others on the technical guidance forums along with the welcoming, supportive and fun AGS community.  Special mention goes to Greg, who worked tirelessly at gunpoint to produce all of the featured audio, Denis for writing an amazing 22-SONG SOUNDTRACK (http://www.problematic-music.com/) for the game, Edwyn for recording thousands of lines (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97K5H_PeMH8), Nicky, Geoff, Kahlief, Joel -- thank you.

Congrats KB!  I know it's been a long journey for you to get to this point - game looks awesome. :cheesy:

Congratulations on the release Kodiak :)

congrats on the relase  ;-D
is there a demo available somewhere?

I'm afraid there isn't a demo.  There are a few videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KccEiZb8CFc) though.

Making a demo will be my next priority, I think.

  Cool, congrats on the release!  I'm looking forward to checking it out when I get a bit of spare time.

Proud to have contributed my voice to this stunning game :D

Are you also going to add the game to the AGS games page?  (After you have a demo, presumably. :-D)

Congrats on the release, Kodiak!

I know you put a ton of love into this thing and it really paid off. A good day for fighting blindness, and a well made and fun adventure game.

Great job, well done.

This game is absolutely amazing!

I'm still playing it, but it has so far been a tremendously fun experience.
Well done to Kodiak and all you other people involved in this. Pats on backs all round. Just such a clever game, so many great touches, and really funny.
Put it this way, when I stopped playing for the night, I expected my clock to say around midnight, but it was 2am (nod)

Thumbs up!

Congrats man, it turned out great :)

Congrats to the team! I'll definitely try and pick this one up when I get a little bit spare cash. The list of features are quite impressive, I must say. Hope it does well.

QuoteA "stress" management system.  Our hero has a weak heart and too many stressful incidents will elevate his blood pressure with dire consequences.  As you explore, you will need to find ways to relax and keep from losing your temper.

That kind of reminds me of another game ;)

Finally finished it. Brilliant game. I'm going to stick my neck out and say this might just be my favourite adventure game of this year.
If you stick it on the AGS games database, Kodiak, I can rate and comment it :-)

Spoiler

I got 4 out of 5 achievements.  How do you get the top one?

[close]

Well thank you very much for the high praise!  We've also received a lot of great feedback through Desura, and from those who pre-ordered.  I'm glad you enjoyed it -- we certainly had a lot of fun making it.

I've added it to the AGS games database (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1745/) though I can't seem to figure out how to add more than one picture.  If somebody could send me some guidance on that, that'd be awesome.

We have submitted Conspirocracy to a number of sites for review and consideration, and we`re looking forward to getting some feedback from them.

To answer your question,

Spoiler

The first achievement, "Hole In One" can only be obtained if you manage to get the golf ball in the cup on your first try.

[close]

Wow ! I should browse the Forums more oftenly. Gratz on the release ! I'm very happy you get through it. Going to buy it next month.

I absolutely love playing this game, I love everything about it.  It's beautifully drawn and I'm having a lot of fun with it in my spare time.  Well--except that I seem to get stuck on several different puzzles like, oh, once every 5 minutes.

I know I'm probably going to get flogged for saying this BUT... as an extremely proud and happy backer of this game, I just really wish there was a walkthrough for it...:(  Even the "hint" system is only helping me a very small amount...I don't usually have trouble solving adventure game puzzles to quite this extent, but for some reason I'm really struggling with this one--which is REALLY frustrating me because since I love it so much, I would really like to finish it!

So...anyone?  Walkthrough coming maybe at some point, like in 2014 sometime?  I couldn't help myself, I just had to ask...

:(:(:(

Thank you Sarah, this is our first commercial game and we're really glad that it's getting such a positive reception!  Not to reveal too much at this early stage, but significant progress has already been made on an ambitious and unique new title that will be made using the AGS Engine, and that wouldn't be possible without the support of the indie community on Conspirocracy.

I will commit to releasing a walkthrough after the holiday season.  In the interim, if you're really stuck, you can always send me a private message asking for a clue, or ask for a hint in this thread (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49651.0).

There's a nice review of Conspirocracy at Indie Game Insider. (http://indiegameinsider.com/2014/01/02/conspirocracy-review-an-adventure-into-a-world-of-questions/)
It's a good read, and it pretty well sums up what the game is about.

In celebration of...uh...January, the AGS awards, my impending marriage, houseplant appreciation day (JANUARY 10th, NEVER FORGET) and other great things...

Conspirocracy is now 75% off for the month of January

(And if the $2.50 is just too much to stomach, send me a message and I'll give you a free copy so long as you make the request in the most bureaucratic way possible.)

What a great game! Loved it. MY favourit part was fighting the scorpion in the desert. Genius!
Thank you for this game!

Yay -- thanks Lasca!  Three days worth of drawing and coding and recording for a 5 second gag.  And I'd do it all again.

Quote from: KodiakBehr on Fri 24/01/2014 22:51:42
Three days worth of drawing and coding and recording for a 5 second gag.  And I'd do it all again.

Tell me about it! :smiley:
Wish you the best man. Conspirocracy is indeed a unique adventure.

Dunno if anyone else has tried it, but the game doesn't seem to be working with the (as of typing) latest Git revision of the Linux runtime:

QuoteAGS: Adventure Game Studio v3.3 Interpreter
Copyright (c) 1999-2011 Chris Jones and 2011-2013 others
ACI version 3.3.0.1144

AGS: ***** ENGINE STARTUP
AGS: Reading config file
AGS: Initializing allegro
AGS: Setting up window
AGS: Initializing game data
AGS: Initializing TTF renderer
AGS: Initializing mouse
AGS: Checking memory
AGS: Initializing speech vox
Speech sample file found and initialized.
AGS: Initializing audio vox
Audio vox found and initialized.
AGS: Initializing keyboard
AGS: Install timer
Checking sound inits.
AGS: Initialize sound drivers
ALSA lib rawmidi_hw.c:233:(snd_rawmidi_hw_open) open /dev/snd/midiC0D0 failed: No such file or directory
AGS: Install exit handler
AGS: Initialize path finder library
AGS: Load game data
Script link failed: Runtime error: unresolved import 'Character::ChangeRoom^4'

Quote from: Sslaxx on Sun 26/01/2014 14:32:00
Dunno if anyone else has tried it, but the game doesn't seem to be working with the (as of typing) latest Git revision of the Linux runtime:

Quote
Script link failed: Runtime error: unresolved import 'Character::ChangeRoom^4'

I am 99% sure this game is built with Alan's Draconian edition. It is currently incompatible with ags 3.3.0, nor its ports.
I believe we will deal with those incompatibilities in the further update (like 3.3.1).

I'm afraid Crimson Wizard is right about that, Sslaxx.

Conspirocracy has been nominated for Best AGS Game of 2013, so we're celebrating by extending the sale for another few weeks.

Firstly, congrats on the nomination! ;-D

Secondly, LostTrainDude did a nice review of this game for my site - http://www.indiegamenews.com/2014/02/indie-adventure-game-review.html

Will the demo be ready before the end of January?

Quote from: janosbiro on Sun 09/02/2014 05:15:16
Will the demo be ready before the end of January?

Well, it's February 9th today, so I'm pretty sure we can't make that promise.  We've got the whole team tied up working on a new project presently, so we haven't put much thought into producing a demo.  We have instead elected to price the game very competitively (it's on sale for less than the price of a coffee and a donut, and if that seems unreasonable for a game released without a demo, we're also offering free copies to anyone who messages me with a request in the most bureaucratic way possible.

There's also a Let's Play (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LROVEd0_sI) that should give you a sense of how the game feels.

LostTrainDude's review was a delight to read, thank you for featuring it CaptainD!

Oops, sorry for the mistake. I meant before the end of the 75% discount. Thanks for your answer anyway. I'm very interested in playing this game.

FYI Sslaxx, and anyone else interested, Linux users may build from "develop-3.3.1" branch (lowest compatible commit: e3dcf485309164b861fcb26a6a85cf989894561b (https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags/commit/e3dcf485309164b861fcb26a6a85cf989894561b)). The build will be partially compatible with the game. It should be possible to play Conspiocracy, however you won't be able to use saved games from original version of Conspiocracy (and vice versa) at this moment (and frankly it's hard to tell how easy that may be solved).
I don't want to post too much unrelated technical information in the game thread, so please discuss any arising problems in "development" section of the forum.

Sorry for offtopic :)
Nice looking game, btw, just bought it, will play.

Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Mon 10/02/2014 21:31:31
Nice looking game, btw, just bought it, will play.

Thanks.  It's a bit divisive.  Some people love it, some people completely hate it.  I think we all see it for what it is, have learned a lot from our design mistakes, and are working hard to build something to a higher standard.

Quote from: KodiakBehr on Mon 10/02/2014 23:10:15
some people completely hate it.

Some people are numpties.

Looks good, myself however, I'm still waiting on a playable demo before I can make the decision to purchase. I hesitate to request a free copy or even purchase for a reduced price. It just doesn't feel right. I like supporting the point and click industry, the AGS specific games even more so.

There's a nice little write-up on Adventuregamers.
http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/26023/