Adventure Game Studio

Made in roughly two weeks for the holidays. Now that the whole Christmas business is out of the way, it's time to play some Christmas games! Any bugs you encounter you can PM to me or Babar, or just post them in this thread. Remember the spoiler tags.  :)

Story & Graphics by 'HillBilly'
Programming by 'Babar'
Music by 'i stole your car/o64'

Enjoy!

Updated 01.02.09:
Version 1.0.2.0 released, fixing all known bugs.
Version 1.0.2.1 released, adding game icons.
Version 1.0.2.5 released, improving some graphics.
Version 1.0.2.7 released, fixing stuff and improving some other stuff..

Looks brilliant.  I love the look of the main character.   :)

There's been a slight update, fixing a few minor bugs and adding some small improvements.  :)

I like this game but I have the feeling something is missing or I am not doing it properly. In the previous version (they have both v1.0 in the upper right corner)

Spoiler

I was able to take the hair clip and saw a hook in the ceiling. In the new version I can't take the clip anymore and the hook is gone. Other than that I can't do much.

I have reconstructed Santa and need a beard. I know where to get it but am not able to.

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Hillbilly is not around to update the proper link yet, but meanwhile I suggest you use this link, which is a slight update over the last one:

Merry Christmas, Alfred Robbins (http://www.lumpcity.co.uk/~babar/misc/Merry_Christmas.rar)

What's different with the version from the link at the top? It's both the new version?

Quote from: Babar on Fri 26/12/2008 19:34:33
Hillbilly is not around to update the proper link yet, but meanwhile I suggest you use this link, which is a slight update over the last one:

Merry Christmas, Alfred Robbins (http://www.lumpcity.co.uk/~babar/misc/Merry_Christmas.rar)

I don't have WinRAR here at work, but if I understand you correctly this is the newer new version?  :P

Leon, I'd appreciate it you used spoiler tags in your posts, and I'm thinking mostly of the first one.

Unless Hillbilly just updated it now, the link I provided is a newer version that both the previous links Hillbilly provided.

Quote from: HillBilly on Fri 26/12/2008 19:43:07
Leon, I'd appreciate it you used spoiler tags in your posts, and I'm thinking mostly of the first one.

Sorry about that....

Quote from: Babar on Fri 26/12/2008 19:46:57
Unless Hillbilly just updated it now, the link I provided is a newer version that both the previous links Hillbilly provided.

But I still can't see any difference in versions. I'm still unable to continue....? Your link and Hillbilly's gave me the same timestamp (12:31) and they are both different from the first version I downloaded.

....aaaaaaand let me know what you think of the soundtrack!

Going to give this a play now :)

Hey hey! That was great fun, especially for being produced in such a small amount of time, the art and animation is great and the game carried a lot of atmosphere.

Damn, was I sure Babar was on to something. I should have got it at the first place. Good jolly game.

Just finished it.  Brilliant game, thanks HillBily, Babar, and I Stole Your Car.   ;D

And wow!  What an ending.  I didn't expect that.   :D

I noticed a small discrepency though.  It's nothing much, but thought I should mention it anyway.

Spoiler

When you take present for wife out the safe, it's a WHITE dress.  At end of the game, she is wearing a RED dress, and she thanks you for the RED dress.

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Awesome work though.   ;D

I'm not sure how you guys were able to proceed any further. I'm having the same problems as Leon. It seems like I can't proceed any further.

Spoiler

I can get get so far as to put the santa claus back together with the glue. I used to be able to use his shaving brush with the red nail polish to then paint the santa, but it won't let me do that anymore. And I can't grab the green hair clip from his wife. Anyone have any hints? Am I doing something wrong?

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Quote from: Frodo on Sat 27/12/2008 18:17:26
Just finished it.  Brilliant game, thanks HillBily, Babar, and I Stole Your Car.   ;D

And wow!  What an ending.  I didn't expect that.   :D

I noticed a small discrepency though.  It's nothing much, but thought I should mention it anyway.

Spoiler

When you take present for wife out the safe, it's a WHITE dress.  At end of the game, she is wearing a RED dress, and she thanks you for the RED dress.

Spoiler

Awesome work though.   ;D

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Glad you enjoyed it. I can tell you as much as I'm aware of it, and it's on purpose.

CROS, I'd check out the hints thread (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=36412.0). There was a bug in the previous version regarding the nail polish.

Appearantly no one wants to believe me (or us) but there is nothing to do. All the hints are great and I'm sure it's me that does something wrong but for the third time:

Spoiler

There is nothing in the bed, nothing under the fridge and nothing in the toilet. I can select them all, and all I see is: this is your fridge, this is your toilet and he's lying under his christmas blanket. There really is nothing to do!! I just downloaded version 1.013 and it has the same problems.

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And it's getting worse:

Spoiler

I can't use the nailpolish anymore. I now have the note from under the fridge.

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Found a bug:

Spoiler

While using the shaving brush (without the polish)  on the glued santa I see: You try to memorize the code...

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Quote from: Leon on Sat 27/12/2008 19:48:36
Appearantly no one wants to believe me (or us) but there is nothing to do. All the hints are great and I'm sure it's me that does something wrong but for the third time:

Spoiler

There is nothing in the bed, nothing under the fridge and nothing in the toilet. I can select them all, and all I see is: this is your fridge, this is your toilet and he's lying under his christmas blanket. There really is nothing to do!! I just downloaded version 1.013 and it has the same problems.

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Spoiler

You're right about the second point. After you've clicked under the fridge once he only walks over to the fridge when you click underneath. I'm currently trying to bother Babar to fix it. You should be able to progress, though. Why would there be anything in the bed or toilet?

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If there's nothing in or under the bed then...

Spoiler

... why's Frodo suggesting to pull the sheets to find the shard there?

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I don't know. Maybe take that discussion to the hints thread?  :)

Yeah, I'll take it there. I must say it's not completely as I said but whatever he tells us also doesn't work. I'll continue there.

Finished it. Good game.

Spoiler

I was wondering why the atmosphere of the game had a somber tone. I mean, the guy was 42 and the music and dialog made him seem like he was old as dirt. I understood after the cryptic phone call that this was going to be more than just a regular Christmas. That ending was crazy lol.

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Hope you make more.

Quote from: EKM on Mon 29/12/2008 02:38:52
Finished it. Good game.

Spoiler

I was wondering why the atmosphere of the game had a somber tone. I mean, the guy was 42 and the music and dialog made him seem like he was old as dirt. I understood after the cryptic phone call that this was going to be more than just a regular Christmas. That ending was crazy lol.

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Hope you make more.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

In other news, the last couple of days have been spent killing those horrid bugs, and adding a few more responses for the actions that deserve it. If you haven't completed it yet, I'd download the new version.  :)

Looks great! Nice one. I will check it out...just gotta get something released beforehand :)

Quote from: Mods on Tue 30/12/2008 18:55:59
Looks great! Nice one. I will check it out...just gotta get something released beforehand :)

Hey man, when nature calls...

Nice one, nice ending. I thought it's just another pieceful weloveusall-christmas story. ;-)

Thanks. I was aiming for that first impression, so good to know. :)

I've launched a website, MYRLIK (http://www.myrlik.com). You can check out the MCAR part if you want. I've also done a slight update by adding custom icons to the game.

Uh, wow. The ending sure was something...
...But I'm impressed by whole game anyway. It has a very strong style and atmosphere. And music (Hey there, i stole your car! I'm talking about ye music!) is simply charming and very atmospheric. And it's just of a good melodic quality. Slightly reminds me of Frank Klepacki's ambient tunes. So, expecting more neat music from you.
And the game itself, as I said, is pretty. The blending of a warm christmassy feel, dramatic tension and weird suspense was very well executed.

Awesome game! I first played the 1.0 version before coming back here (out of frustration over the game's stubborness to not let me use the nail polish like I wanted) and download the latest version, and I must say you did an excellent job in the latest version at adding with all those additionnal clues that greatly improved the game's responsiveness, great job there.

Excellent story!

Spoiler

After the strange phone call I immediately hid under a pillow fort and layers of security blankets expecting a serial killer or some monster to pop into the house by the end of the game, when it was time to climb down the attic stairs, I knew something bad would happen, I was completly prepared to any possibilities, yet the ending completly caught me off guard, nice job!

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As for the music, I loved the title screen music, but I didn't hear much of the ingame music (the one played during 95% of the game) because the volume for that music is too low IMO. In order to properly hear the ingame music with all its subtleties, I must raise the volume a lot which make the footsteps and the phone sounds too loud. But otherwise all musics greatly fitted the story and atmosphere.

Sole glitch and inconsistency I could find in the game were:

Spoiler

Glitch: If you put the hairclip back on the wife's hair when she is asleep, if you go in the kitchen while the wife is awake, the hairclip will be floating in space.
Inconsistency: If you go in the kitchen when the wife is awake, the package will still be on the kitchen counter as if she didn't open the package at all.

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-Edit-
Many things

Quote from: captain Nemo on Wed 31/12/2008 03:21:25
Uh, wow. The ending sure was something...
...But I'm impressed by whole game anyway. It has a very strong style and atmosphere. And music (Hey there, i stole your car! I'm talking about ye music!) is simply charming and very atmospheric. And it's just of a good melodic quality. Slightly reminds me of Frank Klepacki's ambient tunes. So, expecting more neat music from you.
And the game itself, as I said, is pretty. The blending of a warm christmassy feel, dramatic tension and weird suspense was very well executed.

Hooooly shit I don't believe you even know who Frank Klepacki is! He did one of the most amazing tunes for an old DOS game (one of my favourites) called Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon. So that's a pretty big complement, thanks pal.

If anybody is interested at all in the music I can put a few extra hours into tweaking the music for a soundtrack release. :)

Definitely release a soundtrack for the game! Be sure to put it up on Game Jolt, too.  ;)

Quote from: i stole your car on Thu 01/01/2009 15:29:57
Hooooly shit I don't believe you even know who Frank Klepacki is! He did one of the most amazing tunes for an old DOS game (one of my favourites) called Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon. So that's a pretty big complement, thanks pal.

Well, I not only know who he is, but I am his fanatical fanboyish fan (and of Westwood studios also), so it was indeed intended as a big compliment. :)
Which one tune from EoB2 do you mean? I'm more than sure I'll be playing the game again, so it'd be interesting to pay extra attention to your favourite tune. By the way, EoB2 has a simply amazing pixelart intro from which I never get tired of watching.

Quote from: i stole your car on Thu 01/01/2009 15:29:57If anybody is interested at all in the music I can put a few extra hours into tweaking the music for a soundtrack release. :)

When I really like the music in an AGS game I just take a resourse ripping program and gather all these sweet tracks in a matter of seconds. And I guess your music won't escape this unevitable fate. But of course it's a great idea to release the soundtrack, especially if you feel like enhancing it. So please do it. I'll download and enjoy it in any case without hesitation. :)

Well thanks for all the kind words guys. I'll start working on putting together that soundtrack, it shouldn't take too long at all.

Also the Frank Klepacki tune is indeed the amazing introduction music.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_FUdqAzkHp8

EDIT: It's approaching 3am and it's done! I'm just going to clear it with Hillbilly that he's fine with the package and if so, I'll post the download link tomorrow :)

Right well here it is. Enjoy!

(http://www.scubacoaster.leafo.net/Music/Album%20Cover.png)

[DOWNLOAD 7MB] (http://www.scubacoaster.leafo.net/Music/Jake%20Milner%20-%20Merry%20Christmas%20Alfred%20Robbins%20OST.zip)

Tracklist:

1. Title
2. Ambience
3. The Attic
4. Finale
5. Credits

It clocks in at just over 7 minutes and also has a little readme file for anybody interested in the random musings over the songs that were going through my head during composition. Thanks for all your kind words regarding the music and I hope you all enjoy listening to it over again.

Sweet! Thanks, Jake! Got and relistened it right away. And enjoyed again.
But don't get too proud already, make more good music for good games! :)

Also thanks for stoling my car, I don't like cars.

Hey I might not ever make a game soundtrack again so I wanted to make the most of it, it's a bit OTT I know.

I had the distinction of playing through the game 4 times and found the comparisons between your actions in the game and the ending to be quite interesting.  Well done.

Just finished it at the second playthrough, got stuck due to a bug at the first. This definitely does not earn a plus in my book. Shouldn't have bothered with the second playthrough though, the game itself leaves a lot to be desired for in my opinion. I'm going to get very critical, but not because I wish to offend anyone.

Puzzles: the note hidden invisibly under the fridge was a downright dick-move; it was completely illogical, and pixel hunting puzzles are something I generally frown upon. Otherwise, nothing special, mostly fetch and deliver, occasionally combine, very linear progression (tree getting decorated by the wife part after repairing the figure and lighting the candle, for example. By the way, said part didn't occur on my first playthrough and I had to check a walkthrough to discover I'm indeed stuck and need to restart) and doesn't require brainwork at all. Interface could have been a bit more user-friendly as well, took me a while to find the cycle items buttons, and I don't see why all items couldn't have appeared simultaneously in a GUI, anyway.

Graphics: busted for extremely lazy use of gradient filters! It's actually quite unnecessary and at points it's downright hideous. Filters are usually bad for you anyway, so you ought to try to avoid them in the future. The cartoony graphics don't fit the really fucking depressive mood in my opinion.

Plot and characters (spoilers, whatever): this is what I consider to be the worst quality of this game. It starts out as depressing (in a bad way) and completely uninteresting, becomes really tasteless at the end, and the ending is about as shocking as the sun coming up in the morning (lol the postman went postal and pwned his family, what a surprise). It's not deep, it's just disgusting. This isn't the way psychological horror works. I think that the symbolism between the boring stuff you need to do and the actual killing is more clumsy than interesting.
You probably expect the player to be shocked by the ending, but why should he be? Do I relate to the main character in the slightest at the end? Nope, because I don't know bugger all about him (and therefore I don't care about him either). He's got no personality, and him not uttering a word doesn't help this in the slightest. Half Life could get away with this sort of thing, but this is an adventure game. Apart from the fact that his wife has a few quirks with lace doily and nail polish, and that they're not in the best financial situation, we have no knowledge of any valid motivation that could explain why he should have flipped like that, so the whole family-killing thing becomes meaningless and gratuitious. Sod that.

Well I liked it.
I did have to look up how to find the note, but apart from that I thought it was a pretty good game.
The music especially added a lot to the atmosphere.

I liked the story, I liked the graphics, I liked the ending, but I certainly did not like the 'puzzles', I agree with above about pixelhunting (that's just plain awfull).
I really liked the style, so I hope next time you'll rethink the puzzles and make them more logical or at least not have us pixelhunt (maybe instead of only using the red cursor, maybe red cursor + tooltiptext as a lot of other adventures are using (like about every adventure these days)..

Sorry to dig this up, but I just played this and I want to talk about some things. I'll post after I figure out how to post spoilers.
Edit: Alright, I've got it...

Spoiler

Okay, so, when the game begins, you see a light come on. However, the light appears to be on the very top of the building. How can we have an attic with a window later on if this is true? The attic can't metaphorical, the character mentions being there before. The attic "extending" makes sense as a metaphor. Also, I don't really get the point of the phone call, other than its purpose of telling the player something is amiss. There doesn't seem to be any significance to it and it isn't a re-occurring theme. Other than those things, the end scene did make me jump and I saw some clever bits of the story fall into place. (I.E. the son is strangled, but before we see the main character tuck him in gently.) Yeah...

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Any thoughts?

Hillbilly, please considering updating this to multiple endings or even a prequel game.

I AM BEGGING YOU!

Quote from: theofficialcirax on Tue 03/06/2014 20:05:04
Hillbilly, please considering updating this to multiple endings or even a prequel game.

I AM BEGGING YOU!

Holy ancient threads, Batman! The last post in this thread was FIVE years ago! If you want to contact the game creator, PM him/her. We generally try not to dig up long dead threads.

Quote from: piperhcombs on Tue 03/06/2014 21:35:25

Quote from: theofficialcirax on Tue 03/06/2014 20:05:04
Hillbilly, please considering updating this to multiple endings or even a prequel game.

I AM BEGGING YOU!

Holy ancient threads, Batman! The last post in this thread was FIVE years ago! If you want to contact the game creator, PM him/her. We generally try not to dig up long dead threads.

Ah sorry, just doing my supporting of and amazing game.

I don't think it's ever too late to express your appreciation for an AGS game, and this is certainly the thread to do it in!

Quote from: Snarky on Fri 06/06/2014 13:25:13
I don't think it's ever too late to express your appreciation for an AGS game, and this is certainly the thread to do it in!

I agree. I loved this game too! :)

I remember playing this game a couple years ago and the ending still chills me.

Quote from: Diath on Sat 07/06/2014 08:37:46
I remember playing this game a couple years ago and the ending still chills me.

I am so glad people still remember this game, it truly is a masterpiece

Just finished it... WOW! That ending...

Spoiler

The safe puzzle was frustrating, though

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Quote from: JuaniT on Mon 09/06/2014 15:56:08
Just finished it... WOW! That ending...

Spoiler

The safe puzzle was frustrating, though

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U should try and share this game as much as possible, I am glad i bumped this game topic because it's awesome!

OK, so I played it and I loved it (never played it before). But I knew that ending was coming. Nah? I guess I watched too many movies, right. I see this stuff all the time. BUT, it was well executed.

Quote from: Sunny Penguin on Tue 10/06/2014 03:51:28
OK, so I played it and I loved it (never played it before). But I knew that ending was coming. Nah? I guess I watched too many movies, right. I see this stuff all the time. BUT, it was well executed.

Yes this game has a very well written story, it actually gets you interested in the main character.

So I played the game and agree that it's well made, but I don't really get what makes it the best game ever. I'd really like to know why you guys loved it so much. To be honest I don't really get what the game wants me to take with me after completing it. Is there some kind of insight to be gained with the ending or is just an unexpected twist?

Edit: I'm not saying that a game MUST leave me with something to think about, I love a game that's just entertaining, but the best game ever should probably be more then that.