Adventure Game Studio

Was this done for some kind of a contest or something? Or just to test how fast can you do this kind of thing?

downloaded, played, finished, enjoyed
you guys are bringing the adventure games to the higher and higher level
excellent

BTW: the font you chose is very good and is readable

Thank you for this little game  ;D ;D ;D

Igor: Just for the sake of doing it, not for any event.

David: Thank you :)

Good job guys.

And so it begins... the first of about twenty games Ben will be involved with this year (challenge set! haha). Nice little mood piece. Like the guitar work ambiance.
A little blunt in places perhaps, but its 48 hours :P
Well done.

Very nice one. Not much to puzzle :-( , much more to enjoy on the graphics and audio section. The second part of the interactive story was a bit disappointing because there was no choice in the conversation. A nice wordplay/puzzle to convince and persuade #634 would be nice.

Graphical:  In the midsection of the game, when distracting the Stalker, it still looks like he's facing towards the catwalk and thus still can see you. If his face wouldn't be visible, he'd face the other way and really couldn't see you.

Overall, nice, but I'd love to see you two take another two weeks and create something more challenging for the player. In this case, you've won the challenge for yourself :-)

Slight typo (while talking to #634): DeepNet adjusts it's service --> its

Ben without Sebastian -What happened  ???

Very nice for only 2 days, but I would rather prefer to see Ben working some months on a medium length game.

Quote from: Helme on Mon 01/02/2010 15:28:03
but I would rather prefer to see Ben working some months on a medium length game.

It's like you can see into the future,

http://www.gnomeslair.com/2010/01/ten-gnomish-questions-ben-chandler.html (http://www.gnomeslair.com/2010/01/ten-gnomish-questions-ben-chandler.html)

Well well Ben & Calin, go Winter's Shadow go!

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Mon 01/02/2010 09:55:06
Our hero awakens in a strange world, tethered to strange machines, unsure of how he got there and if he wants to go back...

I thought artistically it was well put together. The backgrounds, animations, interface, music, etc.

But the moral of the story... to me at least, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense;
Deepnet is a pretty explicit analogy for the state. But if talking the state out of violence actually worked, then wouldn't we all be free already?

If all that was needed to stop organized crime was to sit down with mob bosses (and likewise politicians) and explain to them that humans are not their chattel, then surely we would not have had 10,000 years of grinding poverty and slavery...

Remember in 1984, Winston doesn't win. Talking doesn't work, because the people inflicting violence are psychopaths.

The other thing that doesn't make sense is that this centrally planned economy with all the vats and enforcers etc could even exist in the first place. The government can't even run a public school or fix major roads once a decade, even with > 50% of the resources of the productive sector. If everyone is in vats, how is it managing to maintain itself?

I think your forgetting the 48 hour constraint :p It's hard to form a cohesive and consistent story in that period of time.

but essentially the point was that reality is always better than a fantasy, no matter how good it makes you feel. This is a reference to people who proclaim that it doesnt matter what they believe, as long as they are happy.
Obviously thats a fairly thinly veiled attack on religion, but also any other belief that does not comport with reality. Anytime someone is deceiving themselves to make themselves feel better I think they are doing themselves and reality, which is beautiful in itself, a disservice.

If you'd like some backstory it goes like this:

DeepNet was a corporate entity that could offer people a "better than reality" experience. They said that you could jump into the pods and be happy for the rest of your life. You'd never know you were in there and life would be perfect.

Robert Nozick concluded that if people were offered a chance at a fake "perfect life" they would turn it down and no one would get in the pod. However my world asks the question of *what if* it were adopted en masse by the entire population. because i mean logically there is no reason NOT to get into the pod and yet something about the human condition makes us want reality more than a more favourable fantasy.

Anyway, as is always the case in these things, DeepNet applied a flawed logic a little too ridgidly and wouldnt let anyone leave. As he puts it "Why would you choose to not be safe". Extrapolate that over many decades and you have the situation portrayed in Hope.

Ofcourse there are a million holes but it was a quick 'thought experiment' if you like.

Quote from: Helme on Mon 01/02/2010 15:28:03
Ben without Sebastian -What happened  ???

Oh, I spent those 48 hours sleeping. They didn't want to wake me up, so Calin took the good ole guitar and recorded the music himself.

I love the backgrounds. Great work guys.

Red Talon

I love how the story seems to be a mix between The Matrix, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Beneath a Steel Sky - perfect! :)

Full opinion soon...

EDIT: Lovely little game, Ben's art is getting better and better! The music was fab and the darker story was interesting.

The end dialogue sequence did seem a little un-interactive, though. That's my only crit'.

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Mon 01/02/2010 17:03:41
I think your forgetting the 48 hour constraint :p It's hard to form a cohesive and consistent story in that period of time.

Yeah that's true. It is quite an achievement for 48 hours.

QuoteDeepNet was a corporate entity that could offer people a "better than reality" experience. They said that you could jump into the pods and be happy for the rest of your life. You'd never know you were in there and life would be perfect.

Makes me think of: Abre los ojos meets The matrix.

Quotebecause i mean logically there is no reason NOT to get into the pod and yet something about the human condition makes us want reality more than a more favourable fantasy.

Well there is actually. The utility function of a gene is to promote the continued existence of that gene. Accepting life-long stasis would be a form of suicide, if there were no way to get out once under.

But we don't need to look to the future for examples of this. People use heroin right now to exactly the same effect. And even though it's as readily available as cigarettes in most cities, most people don't run out and dope up. Why? Because they have their lives to lead; Another way of saying their genes push them onward toward reproduction.

Genes only know how to do one thing: maintain themselves. The cells in your hand only know how to be a hand, and make more hand cells. Your brain and heart and liver and lungs are a means to an end from the perspective of that cell. Each organ in your body exists in nearly perfect ignorance of the other organs. They are all cooperative parasites on your brain, which is a cooperative parasite on them.

But the selfish desire to survive is the very definition of life. The purpose of life is to replicate. That's why it still exists. Any dynamic system without a bent toward continued existence will cease to exist. Life exists because the meaning of life is life itself.

ofcourse in terms of species survival there is every reason not to get into the pod.

However from a personal, selfish perspective there is no logical impediment to life long stasis. if you wouldnt know the difference and your life would be perfect what would stop you?

Also heroin is not a valid analogy since heroin is physically damaging and not self sustaining.

DeepNet will keep you under in perpetuity and keep you healthy which no ill effects.

Great work, what can you add to this? :)

A bit trivial in the message, though (strongly reminds of Matrix), but still very consistent.
This duet, I'm sure, will make perfect projects (waiting for Winter's Shadow!)

Great artwok, as always.
And also, good scripting. The interface, which became standard for Ben's games, found it's final perfection in this game: inventory panel easing up and down, overhotspot labels fading in and out - everything looks very good.

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Mon 01/02/2010 19:05:43
However from a personal, selfish perspective there is no logical impediment to life long stasis. if you wouldnt know the difference and your life would be perfect what would stop you?

Because you know the difference now. And the only point of having knowledge is to better one's self in the future. If one knows that action A causes a consequence equivalent to death, then why would one undertake action A, unless deranged to the point of suicidality?

From a personal selfish perspective -- the only perspective -- your actions will conform with your internal values. If your internal values are toward self-termination, for whatever reason, then maybe tank-life would be an option. But if your values are toward survival and reproduction, as most people's are, why would you even be remotely tempted to act against these values?

The stasis tank is a bad example because it suggests the system can be unplugged. A better example is the veil in the fifth harry potter book. It's a one way entry to a kind of death.

You can put whatever you want over there, but in so far as people are unable to satisfy their life goals there, they will be no more tempted to enter there than they would be to enter an active gas chamber.

Quote
DeepNet will keep you under in perpetuity and keep you healthy which no ill effects.

Well that just depends on your definition of healthy. I would define health as the proper functioning of an organ or organism. Which would case both drug use and deepnet into the unhealthy category.

Anyway, cool story. Keep up the good work.

Nice! I like it. For a 48 hour project it's absolutely amazing. Looking forward to what's coming next.

When I tested it, the game was pretty solid to begin with.  Definetly some great work by Ben304 and CalinLeafshade.

I imagine the dialog you guys had on MSN:

Quote
Calin: Hey, what's up? I'm bored.
Ben: Nothing...

-silence for 6 hours-

Ben: Hey , want to do a game?
Calin: I'm bored, you suck anyway colonial boy!!
Ben: I made Shifter's Box you git!
Calin: I made McCarthy Chronicles you twat!
Ben: I made Annie Android stupid!
Calin: I made Life, you loser
Ben: I made Featherweight!
Calin: I made..eh..eh..let's make that game!

Short, not very original (though it didn't seem copy&pasted but developed a bit), the art was nice, the music was nice...even if I don't look at this with those 48h-tinted glasses, it still looks good.  :)

But make it looooooooonger.

Quote from: Dualnames on Mon 01/02/2010 20:43:48
I imagine the dialog you guys had on MSN:

Quote
Calin: Hey, what's up? I'm bored.
Ben: Nothing...

-silence for 6 hours-

Ben: Hey , want to do a game?
Calin: I'm bored, you suck anyway colonial boy!!
Ben: I made Shifter's Box you git!
Calin: I made McCarthy Chronicles you twat!
Ben: I made Annie Android stupid!
Calin: I made Life, you loser
Ben: I made Featherweight!
Calin: I made..eh..eh..let's make that game!

Wuhaha !!!

Yippie. That's how great companies are founded!

Come on man, we use much cooler insults than that!

Quote from: Ben304 on Mon 01/02/2010 21:51:53
Come on man, we use much cooler insults than that!

You fight like a dairy farmer.

I played and liked Hope.
But as a couple of other people have mentioned, you missed a trick at the end there.  A nice dialogue puzzle would have been perfect for the situation.

Very cool collab. I enjoyed it.

If you had more than 48 hours (see what I did there?), I would suggest:
- It would be cool if the final dialog was an interactive philosophical debate, much in the same way of the final scene in Fate of Atlantis. I think this would've put more emphasis on the theme of the game, as well.
- This would be hard since the game was short, but it would be interesting to see the exposition about the world sprinkled throughout the game, rather than unloaded in one short dialog with the girl.

The puzzles were a bit simple, but I still enjoyed it, regardless.

Nice job to both of you! Thanks for making it, and I hope to see more.

The new generation of game makers with AGS are amazing.
I mean, it's 2 days, and though it is definitely not the best game I think I'll play this year;
It's good.
A game, made in 2 days, enjoyable in such a way, is really great. It really made my day.
Excellent job.

Maybe this is a bit off topic , but I would really like ben304 to make a tutorial on how he draw his backgrounds, I´d love to learn "his style".

So Ben if you read this, please teach me, Pm or put it up on the web, I dont care how , just push me in the right direction.

Your background graphics are amazing!

Just finished. Nice little game, puzzles weren't that challenging, there was a bit of an info-dump that murdered any sense of exposition in cold blood, and the story was not fantastically inventive, but those are all understandable considering the 48 hour time constraint, and the story does at least bring up an idea(Is ignorance bliss?), to me it would have been a lot better if that idea become more actively put at the hands of the user, such as an ending based off the idea of "is ignorance bliss", and if you established a very horrible pain-filled sense of the real world, and forced the player to choose to wake someone up or not, which they wouldn't know what decision to make, but that would have required a lot of time. (Why is it that all my opinions of "a good game" involve the player feeling not exactly "happy"?)

And I have to say that the art and the music was really good, they both worked very well in conjunction, the music was minimalist but obviously thats the point its background music, and it did set a mood, the pink-ishness in the art was close to being a bit of an eye sore, but never got too bad, and was generally well painted.

All in all, considering this is a 48hour project, this is pretty good.

Quote from: karja on Tue 02/02/2010 21:42:52
Maybe this is a bit off topic , but I would really like ben304 to make a tutorial on how he draw his backgrounds, I´d love to learn "his style".

So Ben if you read this, please teach me, Pm or put it up on the web, I dont care how , just push me in the right direction.

Heh, I actually have a few different styles that I use, and all of them are produced pretty differently, but I think I know which one you're interested in learning.

I've already sent out a few little PM tutorials here and there, so I might sit down and make a slightly more complete tutorial and put it up on the internet. I'll PM you if/when I do.

To everyone else, thanks for playing our little project :)

Great production values and very polished, especially considering the time constraint. I really like the art, the music, the puzzles (both of them, although, as previous commenters suggested, the final dialogue might have been a missed opportunity for another one), the font and the interface (except maybe for the fade-in effect of the hotspot description which IMHO overdid it a bit). Amazing at what rate some people can churn out awesome backgrounds like that!

Unfortunately, I didn't like the story at all. I found it kinda clichéd and also agree largely agree with what Sythe had to say about it. I probably wouldn't have kept on playing much longer had it not ended when it did, but as it is, I still found it entertaining and I'm actually glad that it was such a short game. Thanks a lot!

Guys, that was pretty good! I'm impressed with what you can do in 48 hours! Keep it up!

I loved this little game, Main reason is because I myself have just started questioning religion and government lately and this kinda put another spin on what is already in my head.
As stated earlier not enough puzzley goodness but to say it was made in 48hrs its amazing.

Keep it up Peeps ;D

I just played it through.  Great job guys!  I'm very impressed what you were able to do in just 48 hours.  I liked the concept for it as well.  It could work for a much larger game as well.

Hey, this was nice. A great atmosphere and puzzles that even I was able to solve.

Finally got the time to play it - liked it, though I was sure that ...

Spoiler

... they were going to have a little cuddle at the end.

[close]

The GUI was polished and clean, though I did find the text faded in and out a tiny bit slow.  By the time I'd registered that I was over a hotspot, often I'd already moved the cursor.

Quote from: clarvalon on Fri 12/02/2010 07:14:48
The GUI was polished and clean, though I did find the text faded in and out a tiny bit slow.  By the time I'd registered that I was over a hotspot, often I'd already moved the cursor.

Ya, agreed. I was trying to evoke a kinda dreamy atmosphere, for which fades work really well.

But I did let the fades go on for too long you're right.

Actually, I really liked how the overhotspot faded in and out.

Wow for such a short game, that was really incredible. I'm really looking forward to what comes after this!

Well we would be working on "what comes next" but ben has gone AWOL.

Chasing girls or kangeroos or whatever

Coming from the same country as him, I guarantee you he will be chasing girls in the kangeroo's pouch.

arent kangaroo pouches all sticky and gooey?

When women are involved it doesn't matter.. lol

Great!

You guys made a great little adventure.. and I love Ben's graphix again.. keep up the great work..