The Journey Down: Over the Edge

[theo]

That's right! Chapter 1 is finished! I have been working on and off on this game (and its following chapters) for over 5 years. Man does it feel strange to post this or what?!.... I didn't realize I'd one day actually have to release this and stop picking at it. Wow. What an odd feeling. My brain is tingling. I was hoping to feel a great calm and sort of bathe in an all round sense of closure upon release... instead I get this foreboding feeling that this project has barely started. What a wonderful thought!

A big thanks goes out to all you testers out there. You have done an amazing job hunting down issues!

Here are some screens for those of you who missed the production thread:

The Journey Down is a classical point and click adventure game, full to the brim with puzzles, conspiracies, mystery and adventure!

In chapter 1 "Over the Edge" we follow Bwana and his trusted sidekick Kito, as they struggle to make ends meet at their waterfront gas station in an off-beat place called Kingsport bay. When all hope seems lost and the power company is on their case with a mean threat, something promising appears. A woman. A woman with cash. What strings does she come attached with? What secrets are hiding underneath her fair surface? Find out, in chapter one of The Journey Down!

-

Please drop me a line if you do play through the game and tell me what you liked and what you didn't like. Honesty sucks, but I need it. I'm about to get my hands dirty with chapter two and the more feedback I get this time around, the better chapter two will be.

Also obviously if you find any bugs or odd flaws in chapter 1, please don't hesitate to send 'em my way. I will most likely be updating the exe some time soon with fixes to the issues that arise now that more people start playing the game.

Thanks for playing! I've had a great time making it, I hope you will enjoy it as well.

Here follows a collection of links related to the game:
Jayisgames feature.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun feature.
Game, set watch feature.
Interview on Zombie Apocalypse
INDIE GAMES Freeware Game Pick
PC GAMER Feature
IGC Feature
GAMASUTRA Best of indie games
Review on HardyDev
Review on the Slow down
Interview on the Slow down
Review on CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog
Official GAME JOLT profile

My own article on HardyDev
Sketches and Deleted scenes

[ThreeOhFour]

Congrats on release man! Easily one of my favourite AGS games, awesome work.

Can't wait to see what you do for the next chapter!

[Ryan Timothy B]

I also can't wait. I can only imagine what chapter 2 holds for us.

Great work and congrats. The hard work will pay off.

[Igor Hardy]

Easily the best freeware AGS game released this year so far. And one of the best looking ever.

I'm only a bit sad you didn't pull it off in higher resolution. The quality of the art really deserves it.

More feedback later.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Very nicely done, all around.  It has a sense of nostalgia with it that makes the game feel like a lost early 90's gem rather than something recent, and that's a compliment!

[Sughly]

I didn't get far into it (yet!) but it's very impressive indeed (though we all saw that in the screens a long time ago  ). Can't wait to get back into it tonight... and congrats on the release after such a long period in development! I can only imagine the feeling.

[GarageGothic]

Beautiful work. I haven't played much, but even going in with high expectations from those gorgeous and super stylish screenshots, seeing the game in motion absolutely blows my mind. The animated light changes are among the most gorgeous effects I've ever seen in a 2D game. Also, I love your use of close-ups, both for cutscenes and puzzle solving - the hands-on approach to the first puzzle is right up my alley (one of my own key design principles in fact), so hoping to see more of that further into the game.

I'd actually disagree with ProgZ about the nostalgia factor - not that it's absent or anything (I did get a strong MI2 vibe from the interior of the house at the docks), but the reason I find the game so appealing is precisely because it's not trying to emulate the "classics". Feels very refreshing, also in terms of music and style of humor, a not particularly retro despite the lo-res. Really looking forward to playing some more. Nice touch with the PDF manual, btw.

[arj0n]

Congratz on releasing this 

[Anian]

Really nice and beautiful game. The walking animation is a bit strange, but small, or should I say tiny, things like that can be seen, still it looks very profesional. Like a cross betwenn Grim fandango and Full throttle. If it had voice acting, it would be pro stuff.
Oh, and the music, while in some places might be a bit too exagerated for me (that's because I try to image people saying the lines), still is very awesome mix of styles.

[markbilly]

Played a bit of this and the production values are excellent. Lots of animation, and good at that!

Looks like this is the game to beat this year! *gulp*

[Khris]

This is so far one of the best AGS games I have ever played. It genuinely feels like made by LucasArts around the time they published The Dig or Full Throttle, immediately before the switch to highres.

My only two, very minor!, quirks are the font and the down-scaling of the characters. I think the optics would definitely have benefited from a font at least slightly different from the default one.
The nearest neighbor scaling of the characters is much harder (impossible?) to avoid; it's quite noticeable because the sprites are pretty big though.

I didn't get that far yet but only stopped because I had to go to bed. I'll continue playing later today.

And let me say the lighting effects (car headlights on wall at the very beginning) are breathtaking, very nice work!

[Anian]

I didn't get that far yet but only stopped because I had to go to bed. I'll continue playing later today.

And let me say the lighting effects (car headlights on wall at the very beginning) are breathtaking, very nice work!

You should see the end. Brilliant production.

[Monsieur OUXX]

It genuinely feels like made by LucasArts around the time they published The Dig or Full Throttle, immediately before the switch to highres.

Yep.
- Gorgeous graphics
- Clever "directing" (close-ups, angles, etc.)
- Cool story telling (just enough to hook up the player)

Now I must PLAY the game to see if the puzzles are up to the rest ;-)

[Crimson Wizard]

I totally agree with Khris regarding sprite scaling. At first I wanted to mention this when was beta-testing, but then I thought it's far too late to fix this, taking total production time into account, so I did not.
Well, perhaps you may consider fixing this in some future "deluxe" version.

Also, I really hate to say this, but

Spoiler

I actually liked the older "beta" soundtrack more, especially "Bad Boss" theme and "Makenas dinner" theme.  

[close]

[ddq]

So far, very nice, but ran into a bit of a bug!

Spoiler

As soon as I put the steering wheel on the plane, the main character said it was the last part, even though I'd only gotten the propeller and not the engines, therefore, missing a big chunk of the game! Also, I was able to get the fan a second time after I had given it to the mechanic.

[close]

Still very awesome, but might want to fix that!

[theo]

Thank you all for the kind words! It happies (svengelska rocks) me knowing that you guys are having a good time playing it!
Regarding sprite scaling: I agree. Perhaps next chapter goes higher res. We'll see! I am having a hard time making up my mind on that issue actually.. So many pros and cons.

ddq: thanks for the feedback and bug report!

It certainly isn't supposed to end without having fixed all the quests. Must look into this!
What order did you do things in?`roughly? I'd love to be able to reproduce this.
I don't doubt for a second that there are loads of small similar bugs a lurkin'. Please don't hesitate to inform me of them!

I've known all along that I'd have to make an update some time after the release, it is only to expect.

thanks!

[ddq]

Oddly enough, when I reloaded my last save and

Spoiler

got the engine first, the same thing happened before I could attach the wheel. I had already given Kito the propeller, so that might have something to do with it. I'll start again from scratch and see if I can do things in such an order as to not end the game prematurely.

[close]

Overall, the puzzles were great, just as long as I got to do them all!

[Crimson Wizard]

Regarding sprite scaling: I agree. Perhaps next chapter goes higher res. We'll see! I am having a hard time making up my mind on that issue actually.. So many pros and cons.

I think there's another way, without making hi-res game. You can make extra set of sprite frames for distant views and close ups (one like the insides of plane scene), which would be scaled up/down manually. This will require extra work, ofc, including scripting view changes, but you won't be needing a switch to hires.

[GarageGothic]

I really don't see any problem with the sprite scaling - unless you activate the "smooth scaled characters" option which makes them look horribly blurred to a degree I never noticed in any other AGS title. Perhaps I'm missing the finer points of pixelart, but to me the character scaling is perfectly good as-is and doesn't detract one bit from the overall beauty of the artwork. Then again, I was never an "all the doors have to be the same size to avoid scaling" nazi (nor were the guys at LucasArts back in their day, btw).

Not that I wouldn't love a hi-res version, though

[theo]

Ddq: I have located and stomped out the bug. New zip will be online within a couple of minutes. Big thanks for noticing this!

Wizard: Yes, two spritesets solves the problem when they work separately, but there's no way to fade between them. Simply switching between spritesets between rooms, I do all the time. The plane scene however uses animation that I only had in the low res version though, thus the characters look extra broken in that very scene. A part from that one I have given Bwana unique sprites every time we zoom on him. If I remade the whole game from scratch I would definately have done him more hires from the start. Good lessons for the coming chapter!

GarageGothic: This whole "scaling characters or no scaling characters" really is an interesting discussion and also an interesting choice one does when starting an adventure game project. I could ramble about my personal opinions regarding the pros and cons forever.... I personally have always preferred lucasarts approach, where characters scale like crazy, this makes them pixly but on the other hand it opens up for some amazing room design... definitely worth the penalty of pixly characters. You will notice however that whenever guybrush gets zoomed in in mi1+2 theres always a completely different sprite showing him, and the standard sprite never really gets very big. Guybrush never dares to wander close to the camera. Skillful room design, that's what that is.

Khris: hehe I'm starting to get the feeling this font thing will haunt me. I've had several similar comments so far. I guess this ags crowd is pretty much fed up with that font by now... This too, I will keep in mind for the next chapter.

[tampie85]

Congratz on releasing the game!

[Ozzie]

The graphics are truly amazing, the final cutscene was quite unexpected in its length and well done execution! But I agree, higher res would do the art more justice!
Also liked the soundtrack very much, was quite relaxing.
My only quibbles are directed towards the controls. It would have been nice to be able to leave locations instantly with a double-click on the exit. Instead, when you double-click, the game makes you wait until the character walked to the exit, which can be annoying when you just thought of something to take another look at. Also, Bwana walks really slow.

But anyway, the game was good entertainment, thanks!

[splat44]

Interesting and easy game!

I am certainly looking to the sequel!

Well done!

[frederic09]

nice game ^^

i can't wait for the next chapter

oh and i found a "bug". If you've taken the fan, and after you look at the cash register, the fan reappers again on the room.

[cianty]

Downloading right now. Can't wait to test this game!

EDIT: You can't load games. At least I can't.


---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000094 occurred in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00483D9D ; program pointer is +220, ACI version 3.12.1074, gtags (1,0)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and post the details on the AGS Technical Forum.



Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.

An error file CrashInfo.dmp has been created. You may be asked to upload this file when reporting this problem on the AGS Forums. (code 0)
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

[arj0n]

oh and i found a "bug". If you've taken the fan, and after you look at the cash register, the fan reappers again on the room.

Darn, that's the bug we couldn't reproduce after we noticed we had

Spoiler

a hanging fan and a fan in the inventory...

[close]

Thanx.

[theo]

yep. We knew that one was lurking in the depths somewhere! it's fixed now though:)

regarding the double click on exit and possibility to abort an exit action, I couldn't agree more!  This would be a great fix. If someone could explain to me how to do this I'd gladly implement it and upload a new version with this fixed. It has bothered me a long time! I have learned a lot of basic scripting from working with this game but I haven't gotten that far yet. (I bet it isn't even complicated, I just haven't figured it out that's all...)

regarding the load issue, I have NO IDEA whatsoever is going on there. It seems to be working for people who are playing the game in general. Or have I managed to break it in the most recent release? Thanks for the heads up anyhow, I'll look it up!

Thanks again everyone!

[Pinback]

Loved everything about this game, and just wanted to say I thought the graphics were charming and superb.
Forget high res! Old school rules man! In higher res I think it would lose that certain something...

Oh and congratulations Theo,  I recall you saying something earlier about monumentally underestimating the amount of work required for a game of this calibre- a situation I'm all to familiar with!
So yeah, congrats on making your vision come to life!

[Chicky]

What a lovely game! I'm really impressed with the animations and CU's! It's a shame about the sprite scaling but i'm sure with 2x AA (which my windows emulator doesn't support) It would look just fine. I've almost finished it! Will update when i've seen the end

[arj0n]

regarding the load issue, I have NO IDEA whatsoever is going on there. It seems to be working for people who are playing the game in general. Or have I managed to break it in the most recent release?

Theo, you did manage to break the newest version  :o  
Tested and it turned out that in the newest version, downloaded at 20-aug-2010; 16:14 (zone: GMT+01), loading a save game makes the game crash...

Since I can't find the version number, here the filesize specs of jdags.exe:
Filesize jdags.exe as seen in windows explorer: 229,936Kb
Filesize right-click, properties on jdags.exe: Size: 224 MB (235,453,791 bytes)
Filesize right-click, properties on jdags.exe: Size on disk: 224 MB (235,453,791 bytes)

Another thing:
When using CTRL-V I can't read the popup text by any means...
Tried in full screen and several windowed modes.

[Saurabh]

my life is luins.. Ha ha 

Can't wait for next episode 

[theo]

Thanks all!!

Arj0n. Did you by any chance try to load a saved game from the previous version of the game?
If you could please try to resave and reload with the new exe and drop me a line on how it works that would be much appreciated!

thanks!

[Romeo]

The game is up to expectations...It reminds me of the old Lucasarts games.
I loved the lighting effects

Thanks for sharing this game

[arj0n]

Arj0n. Did you by any chance try to load a saved game from the previous version of the game?
If you could please try to resave and reload with the new exe and drop me a line on how it works that would be much appreciated!
thanks!

Yup, removed the old savegames.
To be sure I also tried this on a second pc.
Downloaded the game today [21-aug], removed the old savegames.
Saved the game and tried to load it: Game crashed [as expected  ].

[Charity]

This was amazing.  I did notice the issue with character scaling a little, but only for the first few minutes of playing.  After that it wasn't an issue.  Still, I think that these graphics would definitely look fine in high res, if you decide to go that route for the future.  That and a couple choppy animations that I would probably still count as a net improvement in a lesser game, a few missed capital letters, and maybe one or two other minor quibbles, are the only things I could really find to complain about in this game.

The art is beautiful, the music is atmospheric and cinematic, the characters have a ton of personality, and the puzzles fit the setting, even if some were a little straight forward.  I can't wait for the next Chapter, and given your attention to feedback in this thread, I expect it will be even better than this one.

[theo]

Thanks Lyaer! I think hires/lores doesn't really make a difference. What really matters to me is that i have a good workflow so things actually get done.

Arj0n. I've now managed to reproduce the bug. It only does this in a few selected rooms. I have no idea why those rooms should be more problematic than the other ones though. The whole savegame routine is sadly very much beyond my powers.

Where you are when loading doesn't matter apparently, what matters is what room you saved in. Very weird. If anyone has any clues regarding what might be wrong please drop me a line!

[Jimbob]

Congrats! Awesome little game. Was hoping it would be a bit longer, but its always nice to be able to finish something in one sitting at a reasonable pace. Great cutscenes and visuals, all the little incidental animations make a hella difference in the presentation of the settings. Lovely stuff.

As everyone else has said, I'm looking forward to the next part!

[ZayanM]

I really liked the style and atmosphere. Amazing presentation/production quality. Like others, looking forward to next part!

[TheJBurger]

Very cool game. It really does remind me of a lost LucasArts gem. The way you combine the overarching goal (the Edge), with great direction, backdrops (the City / Docks), and closeups, in addition to solid puzzle design, setup, and distinct character personalities--it really gives it that early 90s charm.

If I could make two minor suggestions:
- I couldn't find the "Docks" exit for the longest time. I had to go into the Hints & Tips thread to see that people were mentioning a completely different location which made me think I had missed something. Only then, I went back into the game after probably playing for ~ 1 hour and found the docks.
- A double-click/skip to destination option would be very nice.

Spoiler

The simple way is just to use the StartCutscene(); option in AGS then you can press ESCAPE to skip to each room.

[close]

Then one tiny, tiny bug:

Spoiler

- In the room where you see the plane from overhead, there is no walkbehind in the bottom left corner, meaning you can walk on top of the box there. This is right where you would go down to the room with the oil tap.

[close]

Excellent work. Good luck on the rest of the game!

[Chicky]

There is a hint about the docks in one of the dialogue lines iirc, that instantly made me search for it

[theo]

Thanks ZayanM and Jimbob!

TheJBurger: Thanks for the kind words, bug report and tip. I'll try your cutscene idea and see how it feels.

I will most likely be accumulating bugs and fixing them this coming week, will try to have a new patched up version online by next weekend.

[CaptainD]

Thanks ZayanM and Jimbob!

TheJBurger: Thanks for the kind words, bug report and tip. I'll try your cutscene idea and see how it feels.

I will most likely be accumulating bugs and fixing them this coming week, will try to have a new patched up version online by next weekend.

Can you add the ability to run it in 640x480 resolution?  I know the graphics won't actually be a higher resolution but the only way I can run the game in Vista right now is to have it in a tiny window that I can hardly see!

[arj0n]

Can you add the ability to run it in 640x480 resolution?  I know the graphics won't actually be a higher resolution but the only way I can run the game in Vista right now is to have it in a tiny window that I can hardly see!

You can't just choose "run windowed", 2x nearest-neighbour filter?

[CaptainD]

Can you add the ability to run it in 640x480 resolution?  I know the graphics won't actually be a higher resolution but the only way I can run the game in Vista right now is to have it in a tiny window that I can hardly see!

You can't just choose "run windowed", 2x nearest-neighbour filter?

4X and I have full-screen.  Duh.  Sorry, forgot about that feature.  :

[markbilly]

What an excellent game! Just finished it and that final cutscene was amazing!

With a little bit of attention to detail - new font, and... oh, just a new font - the next three chapters could be even more excellent!

[CaptainD]

Cool game so far, I'm really enjoying it.

I think high res graphics would have looked great too, but the game has an irresistable retro charm with the high-quality, low-res graphics.  (Great music too!  )

Haven't completed it yet but everything seems good so far.

[Alun]

Just finally got around to playing this.  Very nice!  I think the strongest thing this game has going for it is the fact that it has a totally unique look and style, especially the character designs... completely unlike any other adventure game I'm aware of.  Of course, by saying this is the strongest thing about the game, I by no means mean to imply it's weak in other aspects.  Pretty much everything about it was very well done -- the puzzles, the music, the story...  the biggest quibble I'd have was that I was bothered a little by the pixelation of the scaled characters inside the airplane, but that's already been brought up.  Great game!  Looking forward to Part 2!

[blueskirt]

I second everything that was said regarding switching to high res. You're doing your graphics a disservice by shrinking them to 320x240 and anti-aliasing them like there is no tomorrow when they seems to have been drawn and designed for 640x480 or higher, at least from what I can judge from your sketch thread. Remaking the first game, with its crazy finale cutscene would probably be too much work, but I sincerely hope the future episodes will be in higher resolution. Or a whole lot less anti-aliased at least.

Other than that the game is great, the sounds and musics are fantastic, and, excluding the anti-alias and low resolution problems, the graphics's coloring and design are excellent. I especially love that view of the city from the charter. And that final cutscene was bloody amazing! :o I can't wait to play the sequel!

Edit: Complete rewriting.

[ddq]

No, in my opinion, you should stick with low res. First, because I think it looks awesome and second, because if you switch to high res, it'll take longer for part 3 to come out!
EDIT: Part 2. I mean part 2. I guess episode 3 would take longer by proxy? Or something?

[Creamy]

This game ROCKS 
The level of difficulty is just fine for me, as I get easily frustrated.
The graphics are amazing. It reminds me of MI2, full Throttle and Runaway (for the beginning). Why don't we see the eyes of the characters? Are they some kind of voodoo puppets?

"higher res pretty please" +1

"can't wait for a sequel" +1

[theo]

This never-ending hires vs lores discussion never seases to entertain me.

It seems some of us have a built in anomaly in our reptile brains that make games with big chunky pixels make us feel right at home, while some of us, through cold reasoning state that higher resolution gives a better canvas to portray beaitiful imagery upon. For some reason I have a bit of a split personality /schizo thing going on there where I love 'em both.

The way I see it the most important thing is that its easy to work with, so it gets done. The lores alternative therefore wins by a mere few points since lower res means less time spent on drawing details.

HOWEVER - I am considering a completely different technique when drawing characters for chapter 2 that might turn the whole thing on its flipside. The hard edges on the characters have given me a lot of headache and extra cleanup work when drawing them. I might consider switching to proper alpha transparency so I can make them smoother. That should ease my workflow a whole lot. My theory though is that this may result in a smudgier look, and for the game not to end up blurry, I might have to up the resolution on the whole thing. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I'm seeing other problems with higher res as well though. Chapter two will have loads of animated backdrops. Since I'm having a hard time finding a good way of compressing animation so it works properly on all computers, I simply use raw, uncompressed images in a sequence. This means big filesize, and in the case of upping the resolution, it means huge filesize. Won't people whine and gripe about the game being a 900 mb large download?

Also I'd like to change resolution since nowadays most people use wide screens of one sort or another. 320x240 is nice, but it gets squished heavily on most monitors. I am considering going to 640x400. What are your thoughts on this?

Please, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[markbilly]

By animated backdrops, do you mean you plan to have say, 5 backgrounds for a room and cycle them? I'm not sure if I'm right but to solve the performance thing, just turn the animated parts of the backgrounds into animating objects...

Anyway, really looking forward to the next part!

[david]

 the middle way is a great choice... 640x400 perfectly fits this as far as I am considered

BTW I love your game, I can only repeat what was said already
my opinion is do your game that kind you like it and you want it to look like it
take care and please carry on  

[arj0n]

the middle way is a great choice... 640x400 perfectly fits this as far as I am considered

seconded.

[theo]

Thanks david!

Markbilly: No, I will most likely have a 3-4 second long animation at 24 fps, thus ending up at roughly 90 frames.
This definitely won't go for all my backdrops, but several of them will be heavily animated. It will add up to quite the large pile of assets.

Best would certainly be if someone explained to me how to compress these things as an animation, ogg for an instance, and have them run at the right speed, with the right size, and most important of all, without crashing the game since people don't have the required codec.

[F1ak3r]

Wow, that was fantastic! It felt like a cross between Grim Fandango and Flight Of The Amazon Queen (with a far less annoying control scheme than either of them). I loved the story and the puzzles, it goes without saying that I loved the graphics and animation, and the music was great too.

There were a few missing capital letters and apostrophes here and there, but nothing else was wrong with the game. Great work with this - I'm excited for the next chapter!

[AndyfromVA]

Excellent, Mon, truly excellent.

[blueskirt]

*Sigh* How to write this post so I can get my point across, so I don't sound like an insulting moron and so it doesn't take me two hours to type... it seems like I'm cursed to pick only two.

I can fully understand why people like low res, I got one of those lizard brains that love low res and pixel art myself, it has its charm, it has the nostalgia factor that high res lacks, and it leaves more room to the imagination as you're often only given a guideline and you must let your imagination fill the rest, just like when you read a book. But if I had to choose between blurry low res graphics and sharp high res ones, I'd choose the latter one.

Let's take a look at this screenshot.

This screen was painted by hand, then scanned and resized to 320x200. But after the resizing, an artist came and tidied up the background, to make objects sharper, outlines cleaner and add little details that got lost in the transition to low res.

Disclaimer: I am absolutely not insinuating that you've sit on your laurels when you were done with the resizing. I have no idea how you work, and I'm fairly sure you spend a whole lot of time tidying it up after the resizing.

All I am asking for is for the graphics to be sharper. Pick the graphical style you prefer. Like I said in my last post, either make it high res (which means 640x480 and above, in my book), either stay in low res but take it easy on the anti-alias. I don't care which one you choose, if it is sharper than the first episode, I'll be happy.

That is all I had to say.

[Khris]

Day-hamn!

I just finished this amazing game and it seems really petty now to complain about the font.
When I got stuck the first time I had totally missed the dock location, other than that the puzzles were just right. The polish on this game is really impressive, the final cutscene is the bomb, especially given how hard it usually is to combine 3D and low-res art and keep up graphical consistency.

Don't know what else to say, I loved every bit of it!

[Charity]

This plug-in might be relevant to you, though it looks like the author hasn't been around for a while, so if it doesn't work "as is," you might be out of luck.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=34910.0

Anyway, I said earlier that I supported a move to high res.  However, I do not have a strong opinion, either way.  I love good low-res artwork, and this episode is absolutely lovely.  I think your art style would work splendidly at a higher resolution, but it has certainly proven itself in this resolution, too.

Bottom line: You are a good artist.  If you are happy with your artwork for the next episode, chances are the rest of us will be, too, whatever route you take.  Do what works.

[Wersus]

This is a very nice game.

+ The world is impressive and feels like it goes on beyond the current location
+ Lots of custom animation
+ The art is beatiful
+ Lots of custom animation (so great to see this that I put it twice)
+ "It factor". This game definately has that special something
+ Respect for doing it for free


- Characters feel a bit glued on
- Docks are a bit hard to find
- Bit of a pixel hunt with the...

Spoiler

crab, or at least I had to read a hint to find it. Also there's really nothing pointing you to that direction if you know you have to scare the dog, but don't know how to do it (like someone saying he's afraid of crabs or something)

[close]

Really enjoyed playing it overall

[Nlogax]

I just want to add to the chorus of approval really. I'm not yet finished, but so far I love everything about the game (apart from the slightly blocky characters  but that's a minor thing). The music, the puzzles, the characters and the dialogue are all excellent. They feel familiar yet also original. Also, I would have to disagree with the previous comment about the pixel hunt- to me it was an obvious item that I could see when I entered the screen, but I guess everyone's different.

[Alun]

Also, I would have to disagree with the previous comment about the pixel hunt- to me it was an obvious item that I could see when I entered the screen, but I guess everyone's different.

Agreed... to me, it was obvious the

Spoiler

buoy

[close]

was significant, and as soon as I got the

Spoiler

fishing pole

[close]

I knew I'd have to nab it with it.  It's true that there was no hint specifically pointing toward

Spoiler

the dog being afraid of crabs

[close]

, but I don't think that was necessary; it still seemed like something logical to try.  But then, often what's a difficult puzzle for one person may be easy for others.  For me, the very last puzzle I solved was getting the

Spoiler

propellor

[close]

... which in retrospect seems like it should have been about the easiest and should have been one of the things I got first!

[tzachs]

This is brilliant!
To me, one of the best AGS games ever made...
Since the graphics were already praised, I must also praise the world that you've created here. I love unique worlds that are really thought-of and seems to have great depth, this sort of thing can really make a game epic.

The only thing missing for me was voice acting...

[CaptainD]

Completed it, loved it, reviewed it.

http://captaind-pc-gaming.blogspot.com/2010/08/freeware-adventure-game-review-journey.html

[wisnoskij]

Nice game, with great stylish graphics for the most part.

Cannot wait for the story to continue.

[theo]

F1ak3r, Khris, AndyfromVA, wisnoskij : thanks!

Lyaer: Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. I had a brief run with theora when I first started making cutscenes but it was SO unreliable it drove me nuts. If this plugin does what I want to do it is worth a lot to me.

Wersus: Thanks! I hope to fix the "glued on" feeling in chapter two by shading the characters some more. We'll see how well that goes heh.

tzachs: Yeah voice acting would have been awesome no doubts!

CaptainD: Thanks for the kind words and coverage! Much appreciated exposure.

blueskirt: I agree. the cleaned up look theyve got on the backdrops in FT are gorgeous. They must have spent incredible amounts of time on sharpening them up. I have in fact, mostly been sitting on my laurels regarding this. Post downsampling work has been very limited. The journey Down does suffer a bit from the same thing as mi2 in that respect, as many details blur out into nothingness. I too believe my backdrop style would do good of being shown in higher resolution (provided I spend more time on detailing). I am however battling myself about this issue over and over again. There are so many pros and cons.

Unless paople start raving against it it seems like I will end up making chapter two in 640x400. A rather odd resolution no doubts, but it seems to fit my needs better. Does anyone know, by the way, if that resolution for some technical reason is a bad choice? Do monitors in general have a harder time fullscreening at it because of its odd dimensions?

[Snarky]

I just finished playing Chapter 1 this morning, and have to echo the general praise. This is a great little game, and I'm really looking forward to the next installment.

The graphics are beautiful, obviously. The backgrounds may be the best I've seen in an AGS game. Love all the custom animations and effects. Even without the making-of thread, it would be obvious that you've put a ton of work into really making it a polished product. And the game has good, (mostly) reasonable puzzles to boot.

To me, the best part of the game is the setting, which is very Grim Fandango-ish, in that it feels both original and familiar.

Apart from that, I particularly enjoyed the storytelling. Combining the large-scale (city-wide conspiracy), the personal (missing adoptive father, possible love interest), and the practical (keep in business) motivations works really well. And the way you avoid spelling everything out right away makes it a lot more interesting. Players are left to puzzle out the Edge, Underworld, and just what kind of world the game takes place in as the game goes along, and many things are still left mysterious at the end of the chapter. I think that's an approach you could have used even more extensively: we really didn't need to see the big evil boss in the intro, or hear him say KILL THEM. It made the threat a little more mundane than it needed to be.

So, after the praise, some criticism:

-Add some shading/tinting of the characters so they blend in more naturally with the backgrounds! The one place I noticed you using it (entering the freezer), it looked great. Maybe even add a very soft shadow under their feet, so they don't look so much like they're floating on a separate layer.

-While you've clearly obsessed over the graphical design, I got the sense that you hadn't put as much effort into the aspects of the game that aren't your main field of interest. I'm thinking mainly of the sound effects and the text editing:

There's a general lack of sound effects, and the ones you have are often a bit dull. For example, in the intro, when the big thug knocks in the door to the professor's lab, there's only a very basic sound of the door falling on the floor, but no sound for the door being knocked off its hinges. Similarly, when Bwana and Kito fiddle with the fuse box, I was missing sounds for the various actions. Throughout the game, many opportunities for a good sound effect are missed.

I'm not sure that it really has fewer/worse effects than the classic LucasArts games, but because it's so richly animated, I would expect it to also have a rich sound design; a cartoon without strong sound effects just feels wrong. (Obviously, voice would be a great addition, but I didn't feel like it detracted from the game.)

Similarly, the level of polish on most aspects made me disappointed that someone hadn't done a better job copy-editing the text. Lots of missing commas, missing capitalization, and a few misspellings. A lot of people won't notice or won't care, but to those who do it just gives an amateurish impression. And I think it would have been better if you had followed the LucasArts convention of putting in a "..." at the end of lines with more to follow; the reading experience feels a bit choppy without it.

Oh, and the cook's stereotypical Japanese mispronunciation of R's as L's is a tired and borderline offensive joke (and applied with annoying inconsistency). Really wish you could have come up with something more original and funny here.

Other than that, just noticed a few small glitches in the graphics: the (extremely cool) water ripple animation is a bit off in the diner exterior scene: part of the dock is rippling along with the water, while a big patch of water is stationary. Also, it would be great if you added the water ripple to the screen with the entrance to the cargo ship, as the perspective is a bit hard to read here. (It looked to me like the buoy was easily within reach, at least with the mop, so I didn't understand why I needed... something else.) And there's the missing walkbehind on the bottom left of the plane exterior screen that JBurger already mentioned. Oh, and there's no response to right-clicking on the ginger in the inventory.

I have no opinion on the whole resolution issue. I think it looks great as is (I didn't mind the antialiasing), and I'm sure it would look great in a higher rez as well.

Hope you find the feedback useful. Good luck on the next episode!

[Alun]

Oh, and the cook's stereotypical Japanese mispronunciation of R's as L's is a tired and borderline offensive joke (and applied with annoying inconsistency). Really wish you could have come up with something more original and funny here.

I didn't think to mention that in my initial post about the game, but now that Snarky's brought it up, yeah, that did bother me too.  Overall, I thought it was a great game, but that was one detail I could have done without.

[mouthuvmine]

Just finished, and I gotta say, that was so awesome! I find that the timing of a lot of adventure game humor distills the jokes fairly often, but you've done a great job making me laugh when I was supposed to laugh. The ending scene especially. You've already heard all the praise on the visuals you'll ever needs, but I was particularly in awe of the 3D parts. It was just blended so well. What I believe caused the sprites to seem "glued on", as it was put, is the thick outlines. I felt like they were meant to be stylish, but they served to separate everything. I would say this will be a non-issue when you go up to 640x though.

The music was also great, but sound otherwise was the big detractor for me. Effects were so sparse that when I did hear sounds, they seemed out of place. And, though it's not a must, decent quality voices would've really added to the already great polish.

[ddq]

Found another review. Some dickweed couldn't stop ranting about how good it was, so you can read it if you reeeaaally want... http://hardydev.com/2010/09/01/the-journey-down-over-the-edge-review/

Spoiler

It was meeeee

[close]

[Igor Hardy]

Damn, ddq. I was just writing about that.

But the vital message still stands - Everyone be sure to read the review!

[BaconPigbutt]

Ok, Its my first post and I'm more of a lurker, but I have to praise this game. Brilliant! Thanks for making it for us, and I'm looking forward to the next episode!

[mouthuvmine]

Having read that review and talked to my brother after he finished it, i feel compelled to chime in on finding the spice for the stew recipe...I think the puzzle worked on me perfectly, as I searched that area like crazy the first time I was there, and when I found out what I needed, it just clicked for me.

[Dualnames]

I don't believe I've shared my thoughts on this have I?

I found the production values to be outstanding. I don't think its close to Lucas Arts, but in fact I find quite higher (it may sound absurd I know).

I'm not very fond of the story, there's nothing that's dragging me in, and that's only me, so don't start worrying, but the story is very well written and the characters have some depth. It's just not exactly my cup of tea. Please don't make more out of this part of my comment.

The puzzle design is extraordinary. It's definitely very close to the Lucas Arts standards.

The locations also gave me that vibe, especially the port with the fisherman and the sailors.

All and all well done.

[Mordalles]

just wanted to add that i really enjoyed the journey down. what really stood out for me was the backgrounds. defenitely some of the best backgrounds in a released ags game. great stuff. and the lighting effects was great. loved the sparks at the docks. and the car's headlights.
looking forward to the next part.

[forest_guru]

Great, great, great game. I've downloaded it recently and finished in one evening... I want the second part NOW! The music is also great, I downloaded the soundtrack and everything by that composer and I'm listening to it often...

[Sughly]

FINALLY finished it! Damn chervil!! Once I got that one I was fine...

Didn't expect that ending! Just... wow. Very, very well done. I hope the second isn't too far away 

[celestialroad]

I'd just like to say that I logged into these forums for the first time in years, and the first thing I did was download this game. A very well done effort! I haven't finished it yet, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the story, atmosphere and protagonist. The backgrounds in particular are top notch. I can't wait for more.

[buddha]

Just took a stab at the game and finished it in one sitting. Very enjoyable that was. Nice job!

I had no issue with character scaling during most of the game. The only place where maybe a bigger sprite could have been used was when in the plane. The resolution was fine for me, high def is nice but low def kind of hides brushstrokes and sometimes leaves a small part to the imagination. I could watch those blade runner/syd mead-like cityscapes you make all day   . The Monkey Island II vibe turned out very well also, the interior of the charter is spot on.

Being used to playing games without speech, the lack of it didn't bother me at all. The nice music and sound effects kept me company very well. That said this game would certainly benefit from getting a talkie version. But I understand that this only complicates thing even more, logistically. As it, probably, is already hard enough to get the game released without that extra headache as is

Since you wanted some constructive criticism:
Some of the descriptions could have been a little more alternated. Sometimes you'd click on something and you'd get a whole story. Then when you click on it the second time you get the same long story again (e.g. the blue cup). Having a different or shorter answer the second time around might work better.

To illustrate:
First time you click on e.g. a photo frame: "Me and my brother used to go to the park every sunday afternoon. We'd spend hours climbing the trees and chasing each other on the wildest epic adventures."
The second time you click: "Ah... the fond memories"

This prevents the player from having to click-click-click through the story to skip it, because he's already read the same.

Another nit-pick could be the walk cycle of the protagonist which could have had a couple more frames.

Kito could have had a couple more dialog option when conversing with him. Some more background info on the brothers' lives maybe etc.

That being said this game was very polished and well presented. As other mentioned the pdf manual was a nice "cherry on top" touch. Maybe you could also include in it those great deleted scenes and 'making of' texts etc. Maybe with a mention not to look at those before having played the game. Just an idea.

Anyway, keep up the great work! I'm looking forward to playing part II, to find out what happens to our friends.

Cheers

[theo]

Snarky:

Thanks for your kind words and lovely honest feedback! Regarding the japanese stereotype I gotta admit that was a bit of a cheap shot, hopefully I'll be able to steer away from similar low-blows in the future. All other comments are valid as well. I will keep it all in mind for chapter two! Only problem is, the more I keep raising the bar in one place, the more I need to keep on raising it in the rest. It's an arms race against myself that I appear to be having a very, very hard time to win.

mouthuvmine:

Agreed on the character outlines. When zoomed I liked the look of it but it never blended very well once it was 1:1. As you yourself mentioned, this will solve itself by upping the resolution. That's my plan. As for sound, chapter two will have a more detailed soundscape I can promise you that!

ddq: Thanks for the feature, man:)

BaconPigbutt: Thanks for playing!

Dualnames: Thanks! Let's hope the story evolves in a direction that is more to your liking!

Mordalles: Thank you! If you're a sucker for visuals... Chapter two will look even better:)

forest_guru: Glad you liked the game and the music! I am incredibly fortunate to have found such a skilled and fitting musician for the game.

Sughly: Chapter two is no less than a year away, hope you'll survive until then!

lazycalm: Thanks!!

buddha: Regarding alternated descriptions, I agree! It was actually first at the end of the production I realized this was important so you'll only find such descriptions in a few select places. I'll do a better job at this in chapter two, I promise. Also promise to bring in some more backstory dialogs with Kito:)

[CosmoQueen]

Oh my gosh that game was so much fun! The graphics were amazing, the dialog was funny and the puzzles were creative yet easy enough for even ME to figure out! Oh and I can't forget to mention the cut-scenes. ASTOUNDING!! You've really outdone yourself my friend!

I really can't wait for part 2! I'm anxious to find out what happens next!

[theo]

Thanks for the kind words CosmoQueen! Regarding chapter two, I'm equally curious!

Btw, here are a couple of interviews about the making of the game if anyone is interested:

Interview on Zombie Apocalypse
Interview on the Slow down

As well as some of my thoughts on backdrop design for adventure games:

My own article on HardyDev

[Czar]

I loved the game, tho I wasn't expecting it to be low-res, or was I doing something wrong. The only thing that makes this a non-pro product are too few slides of animtion, otherwise it's a great work. The music ofcourse awesome, the story keeps you goin.
When's the sequel? I had a feeling the first part would end at the most interesting part.

[BatWitch]

Sigh.. the backgrounds use color so beautifully 
I could stare at them all day.

[Igor Hardy]

This is something I just found out through Indie Games blog, Andy Schatz - the recent IGF winner for Monaco - has been recommending The Journey Down at PAX 2010.

the whole event, with many games mentioned: http://www.firehosegames.com/2010/09/words-of-wisdom-indiecredible-now-on-youtube/

just the TJD bit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0LN8SL

Well, what Schatz actually ends up saying about the game and the audience reactions I find rather disappointing (no real love for adventure games), but any kind of recommendation from one of the best known indie devs out there is a really good thing.

[Sythe]

The backgrounds and integration are the best I've ever seen in an AGS game. Haven't played past the second puzzle yet, but much respect.


Bug report:
---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An error has occurred. Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 3.12.1074)

in "room4.asc", line 265

Error: MoveCharacter: character not in current room

---------------------------
OK  
---------------------------


Happened when I was fooling with the rat.

[Dualnames]

I reported this error long ago as well, it occurs randomly and has to do with CC module. You probably have missed something theo, nothing much to worry.

Just one bug on a flawless game.

[theo]

Ascovel: Thanks for upping my head on that talk, interesting stuff! Gotta agree with you on the reactions though. You'd wish a crowd would go "YAY!" when someone mensions Monkey Island, not "meeehh".

Sythe: Thanks sythe! Regarding that rat puzzle, I'm not surprised it comes to bite me in the rear again, I did a lot of ugly scripting in that room. Yuck.  :

[Igor Hardy]

A whole The-Journey-Down-focused article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun :o

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/16/the-journey-down-over-the-edge/

[Dualnames]

A whole The-Journey-Down-focused article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun :o

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/16/the-journey-down-over-the-edge/

There’s even CGI of the era during the end sequence, all running through Chris Jones’s Adventure Game Studio. It’s a real work of art.

With respect to rock paper shotgun, but after that phrase they decided to figure out the motives of all the ethnic characters appearing in the game, and that strike me odd. It's a great game and there's no need,trying to find treacherous patterns on a game that's so straightforward. Yes, the game is using stereotypes, but hinting that theo did it in a racist way, really bothers me,cause I know it's not true.

[Igor Hardy]

Btw isn't it true that Japanese speakers usually have problems with Ls when speaking English? Even some English words that modern Japanese borrows for everyday life are modified this way for comfort of use.

Is it really offensive to have a fictional character talk like that?

[cianty]

The actual sound is somewhere between L and R so there is definately some truth to the stereotype. I guess you'd have to hear an actual voice over to judge whether the L is really spoken in a stereotyping way or in a way reminiscent of the true sound. I think I'd need to see a Japanese complain about this to take strong offense in it myself. It's a lot about context also and the overal depiction of the character. :

[theo]

Originally Bwana and Kito had a very heavy African/Jamaican accent going on as well, where I intentionally spelled things wrong for the accent to be more obvious. But since lots of the dialog is focused on those two it became hard on the player since it made one stumble allover the misspellings. I decided however to keep the "dialect misspelling" on Sabo, since he really didn't have very much dialog, and that certain trope (R->L) is so well known, I figured no one would stumble on it.

If there were more such "characteristic accent" tropes I could've added to other characters as well, I would have done so. I think it adds a lot of character that I otherwise would be missing.

After hearing this comment a couple of times though I have realized that some people actually do find this offensive, or rather, I've found that people believe that there are people that find it offensive. Whether this is true or not I do not know. Either way I find it rather odd a thing to get all wound up over, but I do respect the opinion and will definitely shy away from doing similar things again. If Sabo ever were to return to the series though, I can assure you, his accent will remain. It is, simply put, the way he talks.

Either way, thanks Ascovel for the heads up on this article! Free coverage rocks! 

[paolo]

I decided however to keep the "dialect misspelling" on Sabo, since he really didn't have very much dialog, and that certain trope (R->L) is so well known, I figured no one would stumble on it.

[...]

If Sabo ever were to return to the series though, I can assure you, his accent will remain. It is, simply put, the way he talks.

I think that hits the nail on the head. If that's the way he talks, it's the way he talks. If other characters had been pointing out his accent or goading him to say words with lots of Rs in them just so they could laugh at him, that would have been a different story. If Bwana and Kito can have Jamaican characteristics to their speech (like "mon" for "man", which the reviewer points out) without it being made an issue, then why can't Sabo be made to sound Japanese? These nuances add to the authenticity of the game, in my view.

[Anian]

I think that hits the nail on the head. If that's the way he talks, it's the way he talks. If other characters had been pointing out his accent or goading him to say words with lots of Rs in them just so they could laugh at him, that would have been a different story. If Bwana and Kito can have Jamaican characteristics to their speech (like "mon" for "man", which the reviewer points out) without it being made an issue, then why can't Sabo be made to sound Japanese? These nuances add to the authenticity of the game, in my view.

Exactly. I mean there are stereotypes and intolerance and then there's just using details to help add personality to characters. Nobody in the game was mocking each other for speech patterns, nor did they give actual primary characteristics (like only the villian being Jamaican or similar) and certainly there was no foul language used.
People who do something because they think somebody will get upset to that kind of stuff or think that everybody wants to offend them, just don't have anything else better to do and, if anything, are worse than people who actually sometimes use stereotypes to make an opinion about other people. Personally, I just went along with it, I noticed it, but don't have the slightest idea why somebody would find it offensive or anything more than a nice detail... (though since I'm sort of a eastern European type gnome, I guess I wouldn't know)

I suggest you stay with your judgement and decision process, cause people who complain to such insignificant details will alaways find something to complain about.

[Snarky]

I think the reason to be sensitive about the Sabo character is the history of fairly egregious racist caricatures of Japanese people in western pop-culture, which the "comedy Japanese accent" was and is a big part of. Take for example Mickey Rooney's Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's. (And some milder, but still embarrassing examples from comics.)

"Ethnic" accents are of course based on reality. It can be hard to find the right line between a true portrayal and a stereotype, especially in comedy. Like cianty says, is has to be seen in context, but since Sabo is a sushi chef who throws his meat cleaver at you and worries about his "honor", that doesn't really help much. And I don't think the notion that it can offend is liberal paranoia, either. The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), for instance, have denounced talk shows for jokes about the R/L difficulty.

In TJD it was, IMO, too innocent to make a big deal of, and I haven't seen anyone do so. But yeah, something that's worth mentioning and keeping in mind for the future.

[Anian]

The western pop-culture really? I would have thought they have the whole anime and manga products to do that...certainly not helping with stereotypes.

[cianty]

But yeah, something that's worth mentioning and keeping in mind for the future.

Absolutely!

[theo]

I certainly agree. Lesson learned, I hope.  

In other news, I just sort of finished a poster for the Journey Down.
If anyone should have more JD cravings I recommend downloading the wallpaper and slapping it onto every single computer you come in contact with!



The wallpaper currently exists in three different sizes.

1024 x 768
1280 x 1024
1680 x 1050

If you're fav size is missing just tell me and I'll create it!

[cianty]

OOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!!! That's beautiful!!!

[theo]

Thanks  Are you awesome enough to use it as a wallpaper? come on, are you?

Reposting the wallpapers here so they don't get lost on old page:



The wallpaper currently exists in three different sizes.

1024 x 768
1280 x 1024
1680 x 1050

If you're fav size is missing just tell me and I'll create it!

[cianty]

My girl-friend sitting next to me just saw the picture and pointed out some similarity...  :

[Sughly]

Gah! The poster/wallpaper just makes me want high res TJD more! It's so... delectable

[theo]

lol cianty a stunning resemblance!

Sughly: Who knows what the future might hold! 

Thought I'd share some sweet Journey Down love from Jayisgames, check it out here:

http://jayisgames.com/archives/2010/12/the_journey_down_over_the_edge.php

[Igor Hardy]

Congrats on the JIG review, I'm happy TJD is starting to get the attention it deserves.

[Matti]

I just realized that I never commented the finished game.

I really liked it! I was glad to see that the graphics weren' the only good thing about the game, instead everything (except the scaling issue) felt right. The puzzles were perfect, I got stuck a few times but didn't need a walkthrough.

If it would've been longer it could've very well been a lucasarts classic.. it definitely played like one. And it had a nice Grim Fandango touch which is a very good thing.

Looking forward to the next chapter.

[Igor Hardy]

TJD is among the honorable mentions in Gamasutra's Top 10 Indie Games of 2010! The list was prepared by IndieGames blog editors.

[theo]

hey matti thanks for the kind words:D Means a lot!

Ascovel, thanks for the heads up about the honorable mentions! I wonder if an honorable mention actually creates any traffic though. Lol I'd never bother looking up runners up. 

If anyone out there is the least bit interest I can also add that the skygoblin website has now been updated with... nothing really. just a shinier front page. Please drop by if you're bored and got nothing else to do.  8)

[cianty]

If anyone out there is the least bit interest I can also add that the skygoblin website has now been updated with... nothing really. just a shinier front page. Please drop by if you're bored and got nothing else to do.  8)

Just had a look. The front page looks splendid! Love it!

However, it would be nice to maintain the left side navigation throughout the site. So when you go to "Screenshots" or "Behind the Scenes" the naviagtion should remain where it was before. Clicking "back" on the browser is very inconvenient.

[Igor Hardy]

Ascovel, thanks for the heads up about the honorable mentions! I wonder if an honorable mention actually creates any traffic though. Lol I'd never bother looking up runners up.  

Well, I guess indie games' nerds like me do bother to check all those lists carefully. Actually I'd like to believe getting into such article brings a modest amount, but higher quality traffic.

[theo]

cianty: That's a good idea! Given some time I'll try and get the menu in all those screens. Most likely that would look better too:D

[cianty]

Most likely that would look better too:D

Yep. 

[theo]

cianty, I've started adding the menu to the different pages now. Feels a lot better. Will be quite some time before I work my way through all of them though. Thanks again for the tip.  8)

Btw, JD just got a nice feature on DIYgamer, check it out here.

[Igor Hardy]

A new review of Over the Edge appeared on Alternative Magazine Online:

http://alternativemagazineonline.co.uk/2011/01/26/game-review-the-journey-down-over-the-edge/

It's written by Martin Mulrooney who some of you might know from other blogs too...

[kconan]

  "The Journey Down" got a nice blurb in the January, 2011 edition (page 118) of PC Format magazine.

[selmiak]

<3 this game! Just finished it and yeah, this is sooo cool, can't wait to play the other chapters and find out more about the underworld

[LeftHandedMatt]

I just completed Over The Edge, and I am SO impressed. The artwork is stunning, the story and characters are imaginative and captivating, and the puzzle design is absolutely perfectly balanced. It never got to the point where I was so frustrated that I couldn't work out what to do after some exploration.

The only minor critisicm I can think of: one thing that separates this from a completely professional game is the poor grammar and spelling in the dialogue. Many players probably aren't too bothered about this, but it drives me nuts! It's especially important since the game has no voice audio and requires you to read. Almost every line has something a bit off in it, and it's a shame that just that little aspect lets it down.

But it's a small thing when compared to the INCREDIBLE work you have achieved here. Bravo. You deserve to be paid for work of this quality.
Give me the next chapter please!

[Baron]

I've finally finished it -incredible work.  The sprites and animation were awesome, the backgrounds were amazing, and the cutscenes blew my mind!  I thought the spelling slang added atmosphere, but I could see how it might be hard to discern a Chinese stereotypical accent in written form if you weren't a native English speaker.  Truthfully the only constructive comment I can offer is setting up some lighting regions so that the main character sprite doesn't stick out so much in darker environs -when he's standing next to the ship captain all shrouded in shadows he looked quite a bit out of place.  But the characters, game-world, and dialog were all top-notch in my opinion.  Really a must play -good job and good luck with the commercial edition.

[Armageddon]

What? I thought the dudes were Jamaican 'mon.

[Baron]

  I thought the spelling slang added atmosphere, but I could see how it might be hard to discern a Chinese stereotypical accent in written form if you weren't a native English speaker. 

I was specifically thinking of the knife-throwing chef mixing his Rs for Ls when I wrote that (since that's what I had the most trouble following myself).

[theo]

kconan: thanks for the heads up! Wish I could see it with my own eyes somehow...

selmiak: Glad you enjoyed it!

LeftHandMatt: Thanks for the kind words and loving critique. I'm hoping to have all text in shape once I actually get the voice acting in there, I'm confident it will read a lot better then.

Baron: Yes, the slang/grammar/spelling thing is something many people have commented on. Hopefully this won't be an issue once voice acting comes in and clarifies things. Thank you!

-

I'm currently putting together a full voice cast for chapter one of the Journey Down. If you are interested in auditioning for one or more of the roles, please check out the auditioning thread over at VA: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?63492-Point-n-click-adventure-looking-for-voice-actors

Follow the polishing of chapter one over at: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=42693.0

Thank you!

[kconan]

kconan: thanks for the heads up! Wish I could see it with my own eyes somehow...

Just be sure to use your own; no borrowing eyes from anyone else.

http://www.boltactiongame.com/PCFormat.png

[theo]

Thanks, man! Fun to see the game being spread to such freaky places as Real Life too.

Here are a couple of new interviews. Check out the latter one for some more fun behind-the-scenes type imagery!

Indie game pitch on Joystiq

Interview on Alternative Magazine Online

[Chicky]

Just did my daily check of joystiq and was so chuffed when i saw the interview! Great job!

[WHAM]

Also spotted this on joystiq just now and had to come check this thread out again.

Great job, man! This just goes to show that there is yet another developer in the AGS community, who has done great enough job to be recognized far and wide outside the AGS community.

Well done!

[theo]

Thanks guys! Glad to see you actually saw the stuff on joystiq.com without me having to direct you there! I've been lucky to catch a lot of coverage on all sorts of sites, feels very good seeing it spread so nicely. Make no mistake though, getting coverage is all about hard work contacting and sucking up to different sites. There's no magic involved.

If you're Swedish speaking, here's a new podcast interview on level7:  L7 Radio 12: Samtal med skaparen av The Journey Down

[Tarmstorm]

Hey I speak swedish!
That was actually a really interesting interview, if not a bit short.

[Kristof]

Really nice backgrounds! Awesome use of lights/shadows.

[theo]

Thanks Tarmstorm! Here's another spankin' new Swedish Journey Down interview if you're curious.

Also:

AMO just finished a delicious interview with Simon D'souza, the games' musician! Don't miss this! It's a good read.

I'll also take this chance to thank everyone for your support during the AGS Awards! I figured JD would win a couple of awards, I had no idea however, that it would win so many.  :o

[sampler]

WOW! Just finished and I must say I really enjoyed this adventure. It's one of my favorites and eadily the best I played this year. It would be very cool if the text were spoken and the graphics were high definition. I think the music, puzzles, art work and controls are exactly right. Puzzles were challenging without being so complex I needed to be a MENSA. A longer version would be so much fun. Your work is on par and might I suggest better than many comercial games. You've done "ADVENTURE" gaming right! I couldn't decide which I liked more, the art work, music, or animations. So I'm giving my vote for best feature to the story line. Good story and consistent plot. What fun!

[coldwater]

This game was so amazing. The graphics were great, the music fit perfectly in every location, the characters were interesting, the puzzles were fun (albeit a bit easy at points), but still this game was one of the funnest ags games I've ever played. I'll be downloading chapter 2 within seconds of its release. can't wait!

[Bebe LaStrange]

I haven't gotten far into the game yet but so far am liking it. Nice graphics, backgrounds, etc. Love the Point and Click games. Congrats on releasing it.

[Barbarian]

Just been playing this game for over an hour now. Quite fun and addictive!
I wanted to say thanks for an excellent game and for sharing with us.

The quality of the game shows that you put a lot of time and work into it.  It's a neat art style, story is interesting, great characters, nice music, good humor, puzzles are good, easy-to-use controls. Overall, congrats on a job well done! You've got some real adventure-game-makin-skillz there!

*Edit: So, I've just finished this great little game. I think it took me perhaps a little over 2 hours to complete. Kudos! I eagerly await the next chapter (that is if you're not totally burned out now and still plan on making another chapter). The ending cinematics were quite well done too, but of course left me wanting more.  Cheers! 

[MYKAYEL]

I'm sure this will sound stupid but I have no choice but ask:
Where is the download link?

[CaptainD]

I'm sure this will sound stupid but I have no choice but ask:
Where is the download link?

Not really a stupid question, I also failed to find it in this thread, checked on the game page though and found it:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=1344

[Chicky]

dfgdfgggdfgd dfghdbdh sg!!!1111!@!

I thought the HD version was out

[MYKAYEL]

I'm sure this will sound stupid but I have no choice but ask:
Where is the download link?

Not really a stupid question, I also failed to find it in this thread, checked on the game page though and found it:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=1344

Thank you.

[jiro]

I decided however to keep the "dialect misspelling" on Sabo, since he really didn't have very much dialog, and that certain trope (R->L) is so well known, I figured no one would stumble on it.

[...]

If Sabo ever were to return to the series though, I can assure you, his accent will remain. It is, simply put, the way he talks.

I think that hits the nail on the head. If that's the way he talks, it's the way he talks. If other characters had been pointing out his accent or goading him to say words with lots of Rs in them just so they could laugh at him, that would have been a different story. If Bwana and Kito can have Jamaican characteristics to their speech (like "mon" for "man", which the reviewer points out) without it being made an issue, then why can't Sabo be made to sound Japanese? These nuances add to the authenticity of the game, in my view.

Sorry for reviving this old thread, but I have to respond to that. Firstly, I'm very grateful to Snarky for bringing it up (and explaining why it doesn't work). Secondly, about what you said there: true, characters didn't make fun of Sabo, but The Journey Down's game-makers themselves did. Why else did they put the 'r/l' cliché there in the first place? It was obviously designed to make players chuckle. And no, it's not a good nuance. It's a seriously overused and badly understood cliché. Pure and simple.

It's also so abused that most English-speaking people of Japanese ancestry can't stand it. I mean there's always a jerk speaking "like a Jap" to you, like "Hey, Jilo, courd you pass me that papel?" As if you'd never heard the joke before. When in fact you hear it almost every day, even though you're a native English speaker. We get it all the time. That and 'ching chong' and 'me love you long time'. Seriously, people? couldn't you be more creative? :/ So unless you understand Japanese and English, don't even go there with the 'r/l' cliché. It's just not clever or cool.

Thanks for hearing me out. Great game, btw.