Hello everyone,
If you're in the mood for a little murder mystery, look no further:
Murder in a Wheel is a small adventure reminiscent of old LucasArts titles. You'll recognize the SCUMMy interface.
The graphics were drawn by me whereas I borrowed the midi music from several old games. I already released the German-only version of the game earlier this year, but it took me a long time to translate everything (about 1000 lines of text - phew!).
The story:
Roderick, Lady Blackwin's beloved Hamster, was murdered. It is up to you to solve the crime and find the killer.
Some screenshots:
(http://www.freewebs.com/eshaktaar/MiaW1.png)
(http://www.freewebs.com/eshaktaar/MiaW2.png)
Download:
Murder in a Wheel v2.0 English & German (http://www.mediafire.com/?82ikmzlzixi)
Enjoy!
Wow.. this looks extremely professional.
Im downloading right now, I hope is as good as it looks!!
I'll edit this post to give a better feedback about it ;D
EDIT
Haha, GREAT game, ty very much. Nice graphics and conversations, the only thing I'd say I didnt like much is the music, mostly because you immediately recognize it and it takes a way (a little) the "personality" of the game.
This is your game and it should have its own music, because it's good enough for it ;D
I hope to see more games from you.
Wow you did a really good job making this game. I really like your backgrounds as well. I would like it if you had some original music though. Someone might be willing to do it.
Looks and plays great, well done! Some original choons wouldnt hurt tho :)
Cute game, and the ending makes it all worthwhile!
Hi All,
I've just start a hint area:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32693.0 (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32693.0)
I certainly like to receive some help.
regards
Okay that's one good looking game.gonna check out the game real soon.
Wow, I totally dig those graphics! :D
--Erwin
I played it a long time ago and i really liked it!
The game was for a school project or sth, right?
I give you an A+ :)
Ha! That was great. It took me about an hour to beat. :) Great graphics, characters, cute plot idea, fantastic game!
Beautifully and professionally done. I am very impressed...and stuck. :-[
Later...
Finished it...it's a keeper! Thank you for sharing this with us. :)
Great Game, I really enjoyed that one! I played the original German version; hilarious dialogues!
Well done! Once it is out for voting I give it a 10 out of 10.
:) ;) :D ;D
Thanks for this lovely little game!
Very logical and enjoyable.
4 out of 5 weighted companion cubes.
What can I say? A very good little game. :)
Wonderfull game! Didn't get very far yet but already having fun! :D
Thank you all for your kind comments! I'm glad you like the game.
If things go as planned (which they seldomly do) there'll be more sometime next year. ;)
Wow, that was a well written little game with some really good graphics. I enjoyed it.
Very good little game! Excellent graphics, good puzzles. I enjoyed it very much.
Sehr gut!
I was enjoying this game immensely until it crashed... I couldn't copy the error message, unfortunately, but looks like this is an AGS bug rather than one in the game.
In any case, here's what I was doing at the time:
Spoiler
* Asked Elsa about feather duster
* Said I wanted it to prove Mrs Winterbottom's innocence
* Used feather duster on open laundry chute
* Used scissors on open laundry chute
* Went into bedroom
The game crashed at this point. I tried doing the above again, but the game worked OK the second time round.
Do you know if anyone else has had the same problem?
EDIT: Just completed the game - excellent work! It's a shame the music was not original - did you have permission from the authors to use it?
I agree with the above posts, great game: good sprites/backgrounds, logical puzzles, nice atmosphere...
The only drawback is the music: it would be better with original tracks instead of recycled ones...
This game looks so good. I downloaded it and then after playing for awhile, had 3-4 saves on it, I quit the game......When I try to get back in again, it doesnt come up with any saves, but if I press saves, they are there, but they dont download.
Help please
I enjoyed this a lot. Funny and clever, and very well presented. Good stuff. :)
Murder in a Wheel...
Spoiler
...otherwise known as MiaW.
Could this be a clue? ;)
The graphics are very good and the dialogue is brilliant!
I love the humour, subtle sarcasm with these small pauses in between makes it so enjoyable.
Great game I know about the music but the humour is the funniest so it doesn't matter.
Please make more games! Maybe episodes like Sam & Max 2?
I'm truly loving it, but regarding the keyboard shortcuts, little advice for next time:
"Push"'s shortcut is "S". That's correct - it's a synonim of "Shove".
"Pull"'s shortcut is "X". That's incorrect, in comparison with LEC games, plus it makes no sense. The correct key would be "Y" - "Yank".
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've a murderer to catch. :=
It's a fantastic game. I just finished it and I absolutely loved it. I hope there gonna be some more great game from you soon.
I've finished the game and it was wonderfull! There was some good humour in it and sometimes I even found myself laughing out loud
Spoiler
like when you are awnsering questions and the guys say: the butler did it. And lord blackwin is like: "we don't have a butler" and then you awnser will an all serious face"never the less the butlers guilty" :P
I always feel a bit envious when people with a low post count seemed to have find a way to make great games. But oh well this game was really nice so I don't mind. ;D
Awesome work. Nicely thought out. The music was a bit weak and the credit music really sounded awful. It sounded like a train wreck because all the instruments began to stack on top of each other.
A 4.5 out of 5. Well done.
Thanks for playing!
Quote from: paolo on Thu 18/10/2007 09:16:47The game crashed at this point. I tried doing the above again, but the game worked OK the second time round.
Do you know if anyone else has had the same problem?
I remember one person reporting a crash while playing the German version, but it happened at a different spot and couldn't be repeated either. I blame Windows. ;)
Quote from: Rosie on Thu 18/10/2007 18:19:56When I try to get back in again, it doesnt come up with any saves, but if I press saves, they are there, but they dont download.
Help please
I'm not sure what is causing this. Normally, old saves can't be loaded if the game's resolution was changed in the setup.
Quote from: Ieremiou on Sat 20/10/2007 00:13:50It sounded like a train wreck because all the instruments began to stack on top of each other.
Haha, the joy of midi files sounding different on every soundcard. ;D
Regarding the music, it was really a compromise as the project had to be finished within a rather tight schedule. For the next game I'll try to find someone who can create a few original tracks.
Quote from: Rui "Trovatore" Pires on Fri 19/10/2007 13:23:28
"Push"'s shortcut is "S". That's correct - it's a synonim of "Shove".
"Pull"'s shortcut is "X". That's incorrect, in comparison with LEC games, plus it makes no sense. The correct key would be "Y" - "Yank".
Ah, that is good to know, thanks. I chose the X it because it's next to the Y on my keyboard (I've got a QWERTZ one). The German version uses the QWE/ASD/YXC key block where the key position corresponds to the verb's position in the GUI.
Ooh excellent! :)
I really enjoyed this game a lot. ;) And I look forward to your next game. Btw, the twist at the end of the game was brilliant and flipped the tables on the suspect.
You should really enter this little masterpiece in the game database. I want to officially give it top scores in all categories.
Ok, found it (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?clickvote1193081407). I was trying to get to it using Eshaktaar's profile and didn't bother checking the database myself. Thanks tube. I have now given it top scores in all categories ;D
I just finished playing the German version and will soon replay in English just to see how well the jokes translated. You did an amazing job on the game. Congrats and thanks :-*
Short and sweet. :)
Good graphics and puzzles. Entertaining and amusing, I loved all the little jokes. Keep up the good work. ;)
A well written game with beautiful graphics, gotta love it. The stolen borrowed music was admittedly a low point, but I'm sure you'll have no trouble recruiting a musician for your next project.
Venus: It's already in the database.
I quite enjoyed this. Short and funny with some excellent artwork.
I didn't recognize most of the music, and I thought it at least fit pretty well. You do what you've got to do when there are time constraints involved, I guess!
The English in the game was very good, for the most part, but there were a few errors. I'd point them out, but it's been a couple days since I played.
Dunno what's the big fuss with the music. It was well chosen, it was good, it fit the style and the situations. So it was ripped, who cares. It's not even as if someone wouldn't notice, they're popular tracks in hugely popular games.
I particularly loved the final "interrogation". In fact, the whole thing was brilliant. Congratulations!
I enjoyed this game, and I particularly liked the way the mystery was just this side of logical rather than really 'wacky'. The backgrounds were really nice, particularly the lounge, and I loved the use of textures. The sprites weren't entirely stylistically coherent, but they were effective and the cat looked terrific.
I look forward to more games of this quality!
Quote from: Ali on Sun 28/10/2007 11:09:27
I enjoyed this game, and I particularly liked the way the mystery was just this side of logical rather than really 'wacky'. The backgrounds were really nice, particularly the lounge, and I loved the use of textures. The sprites weren't entirely stylistically coherent, but they were effective and the cat looked terrific.
I look forward to more games of this quality!
Oh yeah, the cat. :D Who could forget Mrs. Winterbottoms? It looked pissed enough to just leap out of your monitor and re-arrange your face before slinking away in blissful glee. :p
Lovely game. Great graphics. Didn't even notice the music was from other games except for the title screen, which I believe was from Maniac Mansion. All the music fit nicely into the game.
I had a fun time playing it.
I have to honestly say I was a bit confused, at the beginning of the game, when the answer choices came up when Ernest asked Lionel about his profession. I had thought that Ernest was the main character since he was the first one to be shown. I became brain dead for a couple of seconds and thought "Why is he answering his own question?". It finally clicked that Ernest wasn't the one answering. It was one of the two guys on the couch. (I would have known which one, had I actually comprehended beforehand what the LEFT guy said about being a psychiatrist.) Well, I finally found out who it was after selecting one of the answers, obviously.
Am I the only one without foreknowledge of this game to be confused this way?
Wow. I feel stupid.
Whoa, completed!
I Liked--!
* Backgrounds. Strongest point in game, absolutely functional and nice looking. Made me sorry that game itself was so short...
* Inventory icons. They look sooo cuuute! Also... how could it be? They're looking WAY better than ones in any LucasArts game I know.
* Story. Funny, simple, yet interesting. Well-written, I say!
* Touch of a designer. How every menu, screen, cursor, font is thought through, how they really blend well together and show a considerable amount of professional designer behind it. Are you one?
BUT in your next game, avoid or improve--!
* LEC gui, if it has no meaningful use in game. Push? Pull? Give? Pick up? Use? Lots of verbs, but they aren't used much actually. Simple look-interact-talk could do the whole thing. I don't remember pushing or pulling anything, neither closing, and the complicated verb gui was there more to confuse me than make anything more interesting or complex.
* Ripped music. As everybody said. Wasn't badly chosen, but still, these tunes belong to overly different, loved game worlds and sound out of place in your game.
* Lazy animation and different sprite design. That was worst part in this otherwise brilliant little game. Characters look too real for this cartoony style and their animations feel really rushed and low on frames. Atleast main character could have a bit more fluid and cartoony animation.
Also, characters feel somewhat different from backgrounds and don't blend in well.
Maybe if you drew characters directly onto the background, or used background on a layer under character sprite the time you drew them (I always do so), the harmony could have turned out better. Right now, it kind of looks like MSPaint versus Photoshop, both trying their best.
* Getting into thing. The intro didn't say anything to me, to be honest. A man hates the hamster. Next screen, lots of people, questions and confusion! I had no idea what's going on or who is who until later in the game. Intro could have shown the dinner, with people introducing themselves by hints in dialog or something like this, to understand what the hell was going on at all and where. Even a simple text, like "there's a dinner at Blackwin manor and he and he is invited and suddenly something happens blah blah" could give a better idea.
Though I wrote few long complaints here, I still loved every second of the game.
Make more!
Quote from: InCreator on Mon 29/10/2007 07:24:51
* Getting into thing. The intro didn't say anything to me, to be honest. A man hates the hamster. Next screen, lots of people, questions and confusion! I had no idea what's going on or who is who until later in the game. Intro could have shown the dinner, with people introducing themselves by hints in dialog or something like this, to understand what the hell was going on at all and where. Even a simple text, like "there's a dinner at Blackwin manor and he and he is invited and suddenly something happens blah blah" could give a better idea.
[/color]
I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt confused by the introduction. Now I don't feel so dumb.
Funny, I thought the intro was perfect for the game. Neither did I mind the LEC GUI - with all those LEC influences, any other GUI would feel out of place.
Brilliant, very well done. Easily in my top 5 :)
Well Done.
This was an excellent game. Really liked it. A lot ;D
Did you draw the sprite of mr. Blackwin first? Somehow the fact it had less colors than other sprites bothered me thoughout the game ;)
And:
Spoiler
First I didn't like it when hypnotism came in to play, seemed a bit stupid and I thought "hey you can't hypnotize anybody to something he/she doesn't want to do." But then when I though about it more, he could have suggested her to do his bidding in a way she wanted to do, like protect the hamster or something. So it was okay then.
The game was very good.
the graphics are smooth, the story is good, the puzzles have a correct difficulty, there are no pixel-hunt, etc.
Perfect from beginning to end!
I just had an hesitation in the final puzzle :
[EDIT] OK, here si my spoiler
* WARNING! WORST SPOILER EVER! IF YOU READ IT YOU'LL KNOW THE WHOLE GAME! *
Spoiler
Before doing the last puzzle (the one where you answer the questions), there is no real evidence that the doctor is actually involved : the wife could have done that on her own : she wants to take the money AND get rid of the cat AND not to be accused, so she kills a hamster on her own, swaps the hamsters, and then lets evidence so that the doctor is accused... Or did I miss something?
Try "hide" instead of "spoiler".
Good game, thanks for it! :)
Awesome. I loved it. This is the first adventure game I've cared to finish and post about for a long long time. It is thanks to people like you that adventure games are still alive.
Thank you all for your comments. They're much appreciated and give me some food for thought for my next project.
Quote from: InCreator on Mon 29/10/2007 07:24:51* LEC gui, if it has no meaningful use in game. Push? Pull? Give? Pick up? Use? Lots of verbs, but they aren't used much actually. Simple look-interact-talk could do the whole thing. I don't remember pushing or pulling anything, neither closing, and the complicated verb gui was there more to confuse me than make anything more interesting or complex
Although I prefer the LEC GUI to the Sierra one, I agree the puzzles in this game would've worked with a simpler GUI, too.
QuoteCharacters look too real for this cartoony style and their animations feel really rushed and low on frames. Atleast main character could have a bit more fluid and cartoony animation.
That's mostly because I had to make all the character sprites and their animations within a very short time. Deadlines are fun!
Quote from: zabnat on Sat 03/11/2007 21:09:20Did you draw the sprite of mr. Blackwin first? Somehow the fact it had less colors than other sprites bothered me thoughout the game ;)
That's right, well observed! I made his standing pose long before everyone else, and when I came back to animate him, I didn't add any more colors.
Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Mon 05/11/2007 09:58:11* WARNING! WORST SPOILER EVER! IF YOU READ IT YOU'LL KNOW THE WHOLE GAME! *
Spoiler
Before doing the last puzzle (the one where you answer the questions), there is no real evidence that the doctor is actually involved : the wife could have done that on her own : she wants to take the money AND get rid of the cat AND not to be accused, so she kills a hamster on her own, swaps the hamsters, and then lets evidence so that the doctor is accused... Or did I miss something?
Spoiler
If she had done the murder on her own, Dr. Hadley wouldn't have come up with a lie as to why there is dried blood on his hanky (nosebleed). He simply would have said he didn't know where the blood had come from. At least, that's how I'd explain it. ;D
Just played this little gem.
I'd say it was a little too dialogue heavy, but thankfully it was good dialogue so I'm willing to forgive.
And the mystery itself was so tight and well-planned just like a good Jonathan Creek or Poirot.
For those interested in how I made the backgrounds of this game, I uploaded the photoshop file of the bedroom with all the layers intact: http://www.mediafire.com/?43tzmylyjjm
I drew all the backgrounds at double their final resolution, but to make the upload not too big, I scaled it down to the game's resolution.
Maybe this is of help for some.
Appreciated! Thank you, downloading to check it out. I am not to confident in background creation yet :)
Very fun little game! I await your next project! ;D
Wonderful game. :D
The backgrounds kinda remind me of Day Of The Tentacle. There was a lot of humour, that really made me laugh. I found the questions at the end a bit tricky though, but apart from that, I really enjoyed it. ;D
I look forward to playing more games from you. :)
nice game, really. Wonderfull backgrounds, really. The human sprites weren't my favorite part, your characters were not very cute, but okay. The objets and the cat are amazing.
The music fitted well too.
Keep the good job done. Prima Arbeit
I was laughing my ass off by the dialogue really really really really really.... sure? hahahahaha!!!
great game!
I loved the puzzles and the dialogues.. made a boring evening very interesting last night
Also just finished it, and must say it's a great game.. looking forward to any new game you're making..
Spoiler
One thing I think wasn't exactly right was the end with all the questions, it was too much guessing, especially since he says to get back later when you got more proof (or something like that) but you can't get any more proof without just 'guessing'
Very cool game!
Spoiler
I agree with that the end posed abit to many "aha" momnents, as you should have been able to figure these things out in game (maybe I missed something)
I just finnished it. Very good job! I enjoyed it very much. Oh.. and hello everybody. :)
Is the whole game kind of a reference to Maniac Mansion? Looks very similar.
It is one of my favorite AGS game :=