THE UNFOLDING SPIDER: A TALE OF LOVE, ADVENTURE AND BETRAYAL
You wake up in a grimy gas station bathroom.
You remember everything.
(http://i.imgur.com/rFWfl.png)
Is the gas station attendant actually The Angel Gabriel? Why does the man waiting outside call himself The Weaver? What really goes on after hours at The Intolerable Dark, a gentleman's club for gentlemen? Are you searching for revenge - or for redemption? What waits for all of us in the darkness?
A TRAGICOMIC DETECTIVE ADVENTURE MYSTERY HORROR STORY, FORGOTTEN BY HISTORY
(http://i.imgur.com/KcD1H.png)
The critics are furious!
"BAD... NOT GOOD... A VERY BAD GAME"
-The Guardian
"ABOMINABLE... FOWLEY, MY PET CLAMSHELL, MAKES BETTER GAMES AND HE IS NOT EVEN SENTIENT"
-Huffington Post
"LAST NIGHT I PLAYED THIS GAME. TODAY I WOKE UP IN A GARDENING SHED COVERED IN A STRANGER'S BLOOD. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?"
-Country Home and Garden
PLAY IT IMMEDIATELY! CLICK ON ME (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1481)
I love the title - somehow immediately grabbed my attention.
But maybe that's some kind of idiom I never heard about?
Quote from: Ascovel on Fri 23/09/2011 21:49:32
I love the title - somehow immediately grabbed my attention.
But maybe that's some kind of idiom I never heard about?
Ditto!
Oh man. I just love your games. And your music in them. And the design. And... and... let's just say you're one of these reasons true gamemaking isn't dead. Cheers. :)
I won! I am THE TARNISHED HALO. :-[
Nice short game. Had fun playin' it!
Quote from: Ascovel on Fri 23/09/2011 21:49:32
I love the title - somehow immediately grabbed my attention.
But maybe that's some kind of idiom I never heard about?
Nope, just an unusual phrase.
Also thanks everyone!
Quote from: kaputtnik on Tue 27/09/2011 18:49:17
I won! I am THE TARNISHED HALO. :-[
Me too! Not sure if it counts as a "win" though - would be good to know how many possible endings there are.
Enjoyed this a lot, even if I'm not 100% sure of all the story details.
It was a real joy to play this beautiful game. I'm very impressed... Simply, one of the best AGS games in a long time, visually simplistic, but so wonderfully abstract and artistic that it doesn't matter at all that the characters are just few pixels stuck together, and the backgrounds are rather plain...
This game is a journey and I enjoyed every step of it. I think you deserve to be noticed for it because... it's honest, it's very clever, and it challenges the player in many new ways than we are not yet used to. Consider me a fan. Well done!
Finished it. Simple and not very interactive, but (positively) shocking and atmospheric.
Can you tell me if there's more revealed at the end depending on the your actions throughout?
Oh, and did you do the music yourself or borrowed?
The ending will be slightly different depending on your actions, but not significantly.
And yeah, I wrote all the music.
Quote from: FrancoFranchi on Wed 28/09/2011 22:13:07
Me too! Not sure if it counts as a "win" though - would be good to know how many possible endings there are.
Enjoyed this a lot, even if I'm not 100% sure of all the story details.
I think this is
not the kind of story that needs to be fully understood. It's there, it's a bit stange, like Lost Highway, and it just creates the impression that there is something bigger surrounding it, but there probably isn't. If we knew about it, the illusion would be destroyed and the whole thing just wouldn't be as much fun as it is now;)
I keep thinking about this game... I hope PC Gamer picks it up for review/DVD free version?
That's basically why I wrote "I won", I just found it a funny idea to "win" a game like that, like winning a poem contest, then. You enter the stage, say your romantic poem and then you shout "I WIN!". The best approach might be to just enjoy the unsharpness of the story and let yourself get carried by the unreliability of the narration; I really felt that, even though my decisions might not have mattered a lot, the game let me invest my personal emotions and take meaningful decisions. It might be pretty linear at its core, but all those strange hints and disconnected layers of the story made it a really poetic experience to me. And now I want to see the clamshell that can do better than that!
The game is definitely a film I'd watch.
"You wake up in a grimy gas station bathroom.
You remember everything."
This, here, is the ultimate mockery to game plots.
I love how everything in this game is a mockery to adventure games and how this game is still an adventure game.
I can't honestly put it with words, on how fantastically inspired and amazing this game is. This is probably the closest thing to Brazil a game could ever be. Funny, satirical, horror-like, weird, and sad. You pick whichever emotion you liked best.
Sir, i thank you, for being incredibly awesome. This game is everything I hoped "How they found silence" would be. A simple and yet so utterly clever game. A masterpiece.
I'd just like to add that synopsis of the game in the first post was actually what sold it to me. As soon as I read the first sentence, I was hooked, and willing to look past the simple graphics.
And Dual, if I hear Brazil one more time... I might even watch the damn thing at last ;)
Quote from: Grim on Sun 02/10/2011 02:46:37
And Dual, if I hear Brazil one more time... I might even watch the damn thing at last ;)
Brazil, Brazil, Brazil...
Moderate darkness :=
That's the bad one right?
I've received "you're an indecisive git" final evaluation - something in that vein anyway.
Quote from: discordance on Thu 29/09/2011 02:18:04
And yeah, I wrote all the music.
I'm impressed.
And that said, I agree with others that the graphic art is the only aspect that cheapens the overall effect of the story.
I actually take the opposite approach on the graphics. I think the simplicity involved was what made it all the more interesting.
Quote from: Domithan on Tue 04/10/2011 01:13:54
I actually take the opposite approach on the graphics. I think the simplicity involved was what made it all the more interesting.
I agree with this - having a stick-figure hero was a great move. It helps quick-start your imagination more than a detailed sprite would have done.
by the way "nice rose"
I bet we all thought it was an axe at the beggining.Pretty clever using graphics this way,experimenting with imagination and perception.Excellent game with a heavy surreal and dark-gothic film noir feeling.Symbolism beats common sense and rules throughout the adventure.Didn't play through all the endings,but it was a interesting experience!
I loved the game. I am making a remake in 1024x768 and 32 bit color.
It is almost the same as the original and same dialog.
Don't worry Cory I am giving you full credit and tell people to play the original game.
Is there a way to stop the screen in-game to read the dialog?
The backgrounds are real pictures.
Looks like about a 32 or so length game.
Alot more rooms than I thought at first.
Alot of work. The music will be different.
funny game, I like the atmosphere :)
I just replayed it and came across this error:
an error has occured:
room9.asc, line 6
Error: Face Character: Characters are in different rooms.
after strangling the bouncer I was in the dark alley again (not next to the dumpster), entered the club through front door, followed the bartender and the music from the club was still playing and I think the dumpster wake up cutscene was about to happen...
Errr...not sure if he'll appreciate his baby being messed with. But hey, I don't know.
Quote from: selmiak on Tue 11/10/2011 14:57:24
after strangling the bouncer I was in the dark alley again (not next to the dumpster), entered the club through front door, followed the bartender and the music from the club was still playing and I think the dumpster wake up cutscene was about to happen...
So you strangled the bouncer, woke up in the alley, and then the wake up scene didn't play? That is odd. Did you get the chapter title before waking up?
Quote from: dbuske on Tue 11/10/2011 13:15:23
I loved the game. I am making a remake in 1024x768 and 32 bit color.
Quote from: dbuske on Tue 11/10/2011 13:15:23
The backgrounds are real pictures.
Quote from: dbuske on Tue 11/10/2011 13:15:23
Alot of work. The music will be different.
LOL! I'm sure it will be the best remake ever!!! But could you do me a favour and also change the title? Maybe call it something like "The Neatly Folded Origami Caterpillar"
I was just back in the dark alley with the 3 hobos around the fire before the club, not at the dumpster behind the club. That's why I went through the club until the scene started. Dunno if there was a chapter title. I guess there was the seasoned grave scene missing too.
It sounds like you managed to skip a chapter transition somehow . . . I'd better look into that.
You have just been Goat Parked! (http://parkinggoat.com/index.php/reviews/77-the-unfolding-spider)
It is an honour!
Also I'm curious, what was the "subtle choice" you mentioned?
Wow, really charming game. Loved the atmosphere, and the concept. It reminds me of those DM-less roleplaying games, where what a player says he did may become part of the story (I'm talking about the dialogues, where your answers are always true, since there's not a game's reality but just a player's reality). Woah, you screwed up my brain with this game, I don't even understand what I'm saying.
I don't know if you chose purposely to use such a minimalistic graphic style, but I truly believe it was the best choice possible. In a game like yours, being able to apply your own characterization and personification on those stickmen adds a lot to the experience and atmosphere.
Ending kind of disappointed me though, and I hoped for more evident changes, in relation to my choices.
Still, a little gem.
indie game mag (http://www.indiegamemag.com/freeware-indie-game-roundup-3/) awwww yeah