Diamonds in the Rough - AWARD

[splat44]

To answer the question clearly: For now Atropos studios is only offering CD copies, in DVD cases. Shipping to non EU countries is free! so anyone living in USA, or Australia, etc, can get the game for the price of 19.90 euros.

Of course all this is in the atropos website... And the fact that there is no downloadable option at the moment is all over the thread...

Ok but can they deliver to an unverified mailin address?

[alkis21]

Splat and everyone else: Please contact me by e-mail when you have a question because I don't always have the time to follow all the discussions in every forum.

What exactly do you mean by "unverified address"?

[Dualnames]

I wanted to offer free shipping to everyone but it was impossible (or should I say, too expensive for me). I managed to do it for non-EU members thanks to a logistic trick and favorable exportation laws. Please understand that this is an offer to non-Europeans, not a 'punishment' for Europeans. You know how a game is sometimes sold for $20 in the US and â,¬20 in Europe because of different publishers? It's basically the same thing. I didn't think people would take it the wrong way.

Dimitris (is that right?) I don't have a license to sell our product in our office but if you want to contact me in private it would be great if you joined us next time the members of Adventure Advocate get together. I can give it to you then.

I didn't know the adventure advocate members get it together? Where ? When ? How?
This isn;t all a talk from my side to avoid a 1.45e.. why not bother saying that game price is high? Which I don;t consider it to be. And i really like games where Nikolas writes music.. surprisingly the all go good. check at tale of two kingdoms. Yes the name is Dimitris..hehe.
Anyway, I'm planning to order it as soon as possible paying the fee as well.

[alkis21]

I didn't know the adventure advocate members get it together? Where ? When ? How?

Well, it's almost never a group gathering, but I do see Elessar and Fallen Angel now and then. They were in my house last Saturday. Would you like me to let you know next time we go meet?

[Dualnames]

Well, i guess so. I've seen you in pictures so I'll recognise you. i hope you haven't changed since january.

[alkis21]

I finally got around to adding the game in the Full length games category.

The following AGSers contributed greatly to the making:

nikolasideris (current nick: Nikolas): Music, sound effects, sound engineering
Ashen: Additional scripting
KhrisMUC: Additional scripting
monkey_05_06: Additional scripting
SuperScottishHero (current nick: SSH): Additional scripting

Their real names are listed in the game's manual.

[alkis21]

After Just Adventure and Adventure Advocate (Greek), I'm glad to announce that one more web site hosts a very positive review of Diamonds in the Rough: Four Fat Chicks.

[homelightgames]

I haven't been here for a while, but I remember looking at this game a while ago.  Congratulations on it's release!

Good luck!

visionmind

[Peder 🚀]

After a few problems and attempts I finally managed to order a copy (Not really big issues, its more my situation that made the problems)

Are they signed?
Anyway, looking forward to recieve it!
I will post a new post here when ive played it a bit!


Peder Johnsen.

[alkis21]

Thank you for your purchase, Peder. I will gladly sign your copy if you want me to.

EDIT: One more review was announced today. Links to all four reviews can be found in this page.

[ThreeOhFour]

Just finished the game now.

As I am sure most people feel, the character graphics and animation does let the game down. I stopped noticing this after a while, however, so I guess the good points must have overruled this.

Puzzle wise, whilst many of them were obviously well thought out they did have a tendency to be convoluted. While I know some people like this sort of gameplay, I personally do not. It made the game of a good length, but a lot of this length was me trying to figure out exactly what to do next. In one instance, I swear I did something the correct way 10 times before trying again and it suddenly working. This aside, the majority of the puzzles were logical, provided one was prepared to work hard to find the logic .

The story and the issues dealt with are the obvious strengths here - well done for touching on some more interesting issues than are usually found in computer games, and for doing so in a way that didn't, at least to me, seem cheesy or overdone in the typical "evil villain" way.

Nik, with regards to your music: Thanks for making me jump at all the right moments and giving me goosebumps . I always find something that has good music can suck me in much easier, and I found your work here exceptional.

Overall, nice game, and I shall play it again in a while, just to re-experience the atmoshpere .

[Nikolas]

Puzzle wise, whilst many of them were obviously well thought out they did have a tendency to be convoluted. While I know some people like this sort of gameplay, I personally do not. It made the game of a good length, but a lot of this length was me trying to figure out exactly what to do next. In one instance, I swear I did something the correct way 10 times before trying again and it suddenly working. This aside, the majority of the puzzles were logical, provided one was prepared to work hard to find the logic .

Hmmm...

While trying the various betas, I though that there are plenty of hints to go on.

But indeed, I think I know what you mean.

The story and the issues dealt with are the obvious strengths here - well done for touching on some more interesting issues than are usually found in computer games, and for doing so in a way that didn't, at least to me, seem cheesy or overdone in the typical "evil villain" way.

I think that Alkis is being very brave for bringing such isssues on board of the game, in all honesty! I never expected it, it was a great surprise and it felt... right on place actually, after I saw the ending the first time!

There are various small issues, to talk about the ending actually, regarding some things that are implied but not shown in the end, the whole issue about the nature of DiTR, etc...

Nik, with regards to your music: Thanks for making me jump at all the right moments and giving me goosebumps . I always find something that has good music can suck me in much easier, and I found your work here exceptional.

Thanks!

On a note to AGS people. The ending, as well as the "jump out of your place" moments were created after the game was complete! I had full access to the full game and I could very much create the "perfect" (up to discussion, I know) atmosphere for each track!

Still thank you Ben! I'm, personally, very pleased with the result! As well as the game actually! I found the experience more than rewarding and I really hope that Alkis will be able to move on to the next game soon.

[ThreeOhFour]

Nik, with regards to the puzzles, it could just be me being dumb. I have played through 3 other commercial AGS adventures (being The Shivah, The Blackwell Legacy and Super Jazz Man) and this is by far the one with the most difficult puzzles. I'm not saying they're bad puzzles, necessarily. I'm just saying it took me a lot longer to work through them . This made the game slower paced, and I bore quickly.

With regards to the being brave about bringing the issues to the table - agreed. A big, bold move, especially in his first commercial outing, which is why I am pleased he managed to pull it off without the typical fake Hollywood sheen applied to such story devices. I think it is safe to say that Alkis has presented these issues in a very mature way. I read a lot about the ending being a surprise, but:

Spoiler

When I saw the dream sequence, I pretty much guessed straight away what the ending would be, and was fairly well close. I did not expect one part right near the very end, so well done to Alkis for managing to surprise me, even just a little bit, when I thought I was the clever one who had everything figured out

[close]

There is no "discussion" about you getting the tracks perfect, Nik. It is obvious you captured the exact mood that was needed for the cutscenes.

There is a huge conversation that I could enter into about this game, and the ground it covers but I choose not to. Suffice to say that it is nice to have a game that makes you think about it afterwards as well - and not just because of the cool bit where you jumped the table in the kitchen and shot the guy as he was coming around the doorway.

Also, I meant to say this in my earlier post, but had to rush out to dinner with friends: Congratulations to Alkis for getting this game done, good luck with the sales of this, and I shall be watching to see your next steps . Also to Alkis, as shallow as it may seem, your graphics, particularly character graphics, are holding you back. I encourage you to consider your options for the next game - enormous amounts of character scaling here made the walking animation seem even more awkward than the awkwardness it usually had, the angles were completely off perspective... the list goes on. I don't wish to offend your character artist, but considering this was someone who accepted a contract to produce graphics which are of a professional level, I believe you've been let down here  . I'm sure you know this already.

[alkis21]

I'm glad you enjoyed the game Ben. Naturally, the ending is not a very big surprise after you've witnessed

Spoiler

Sydelle's dream

[close]

, it's part of the surprise. And yes, I know all about the problems with the characters, hopefully I'll have a bigger budget to work with in the next game and the animations will be much better.

[wookieman]

Adventure gamers  gave it 3/5

Btw, the game is listed on metacritic
Good job!!

[alkis21]

I know... the AG review was the least positive (although not negative) review of the 10 I've read so far.

[alkis21]

As the good reviews continue, I would like to inform you that we're giving away three free copies of Diamonds in the Rough. Click here to enter the contest. Only hurry up because the giveaway will only last a week.

[Dualnames]

Ok, bought the game, should have done so 4 pages ago. Well, ok I haven't finished it yet so don't go spoiler me. I've reached the part

Spoiler

we're not diamonds, we're coals

[close]

. Ok, the intro is owning,  this part got me thrilled as hell, and actually the game so far is actually quite the best I've ever played. The graphics surprisingly enough do not bother me at all. Except from the barman sprite(there's a white edge around him) nothing has bothered me so far. Concerning the controls they're good, had some trouble at the beginning but they're good, there's eventually some pixel hunt(library exit hotspot still bothers me), but no trouble. the characters have depth, the game despite many many games has ATMOSPHERE. And actually I don't believe it's a rough diamond. I think the game's a Diamond. Loved a couple of easter eggs so far. Anyway, definetely worth my time so far.

[alkis21]

Some news that may please my friend Rui:

-Our game is now available from our web page at a new price: â,¬17.90.

-We now offer free worldwide shipping (as opposed to only non-European countries as it used to be).

-For the gamers who like to have the option to download games, the digital version of Diamonds in the Rough can now be purchased at an even lower price from The Adventure Shop (
http://adventureshop.gamesplanet.com ).

[olafmoriarty]

Hi Alkis,

I really want to buy this game. The "thought board" idea at first glance seems very fascinating, and I basically love the idea that there are still people who make commercial computer games based on the good old adventure game formula.

But when I buy something, I really want to know a little bit about what I get. I must admit that most of the things I ponder over are things I could probably find answers to if I downloaded the demo (I haven't -- I think 100 megabytes is a wee bit much to download for a ten minute intro), but I have a couple of questions about the game, and I hope I'll get answers to them by posting them here.

First: The thought system. Is it intuitive and easy-to-use? While I immediately love the thought of having full control of the character's thoughts, I don't really like the idea of having a second inventory screen unless it's done really, really well.

Inventory items are great when used right, but in many games the way they are used are just ridiculous. I want my inventory items to have a certain amount of logic to them. For instance, I just played an adventure game where my player character wanted to know what another character was talking on the phone about. To find this out, I had to take a cellphone (which also worked as a dictaphone even though its description never mentioned that), use double-sided tape to tape the cellphone to a cat, feed the cat old pizza, salt the pizza so that the cat ran into the room where the phone conversation took place to drink water, go to a phone booth to call the cellphone so that its vibrate mode made the cat come out again (even though it was never explained that the phone was in silent mode), and then, when the cat climbed up in a tree, combine a plastic bag, a broken off bucket-handle and a broomstick to create a landing net to catch the cat in. Of course, when inventory items are meant to be used in that way, the only way to progress in the game without a walkthrough is an immense load of trial and error... And if your game is anything like that, the last thing I want is "another inventory screen", adding more options to the big and meaningless mix.

A related question: is there an easy way to scroll through the different thoughts, or do I have to go back to the post-it board every time I want to change which thought I present to people?

Second: From the reviews I've read, I get the impression that the interface is Sierra-inspired (they mention that you use the right button to cycle through the various kinds of interactions). If this is correct: have you picked that interface because you think it's the best available interface for this game, or for other reasons (e.g. nostalgia)? As Vince Twelve recently wrote an excellent article on, the Sierra interface more often than not really doesn't fit its games. In most games, there's only one way of interacting with 99 % or more of all characters/objects/hotspots/etcetera in the game: You talk to people, interact with large items, pick up small items, open drawers, and so on. So what I'm wondering is: Is your game one of the games where I have to scroll through many different mouse cursors just to avoid getting messages like "I don't want to talk to the doormat"  or "I think that woman would slap me if I touched her there" where a simple one-click interface would have worked a lot better, or do you have all the available interactions there for a reason, e.g. that it in several cases can be useful to try all different interactions on an object?

I'll check out "Other Worlds" to get an impression of your takes on story and gameplay (yeah, the graphics look great, but personally I don't care whether the graphics are made in Poser or MSPaint as long as the story sucks me in and the gameplay isn't too annoying), and most likely I will chip in with a couple of more questions here before I buy the game. Not because I don't really want to buy your game -- I really do. I just want to know exactly what it is that I'm buying before I buy it.