~airwave~ - I Fought the Law, and the Law One

kaputtnik · Mon 21/02/2011 08:09:20

Thank you everybody who said they enjoyed the radio show! Finally I had the chance of using all the stuff that had been stored away on my hard drive for years and never put to good use, hah. By the way, Zak's radio announcements and comments are all first takes, I really wanted to create an improvised live atmosphere, and it seems to have worked! Oh, and I am surprised nobody commented on my slightly jarring accent until now, I suppose this must be one of the advantages of globalization.

About the radio show and text confusion: I agree, listening to (narrating) text while reading text that is normally spoken is just too confusing. I've been thinking maybe I shouldn't have put it all together in one track, but rather in separate files, so there could have been an easy way to simply turn off speech? A radio with jabber filter, actually pretty useful if you ask me! And Zak could probably invent it quite easily.

About the drink mixing puzzle: I am starting to think that I am kind of a counterintuitive sort of puzzle solver, I mean, even Leon had problems solving this (!), and I solved the puzzle like 1-2-3, without even thinking. I talked to Rasputin, heard about the drink, noticed that you could mix drinks inside the bar - done. And then I got stuck forever on every single one of the following puzzles, haha.

I am not sure yet if and how we will release a soundtrack for the game, and I am not sure if it should be free, donation based or if it should cost a little money (I'm thinking $5 here) - I have no experience whatsoever with charging money for downloads, I have never in my life filled in a tax form, and I would have to ask my former band mates for two or three tunes if they are okay with me releasing the songs and maybe charging a little for it (all of my songs are band recordings, while David mostly recorded whole songs on his own, the only exception being the Kosmonaut Gonzalez tune - the only band we ever played in together).

Atelier · Mon 21/02/2011 22:09:15

Ben, I have a question.

When will you propose to Calin?!

Igor Hardy · Mon 21/02/2011 22:30:22

Quote from: Atelier on Mon 21/02/2011 22:09:15
Ben, I have a question.

When will you propose to Calin?!

So that was what the game's plot was really about!? :o

Ponch · Tue 22/02/2011 02:52:38

Quote from: Ascovel on Mon 21/02/2011 22:30:22
So that was what the game's plot was really about!? :o

My God! It all makes sense now! I'm speechless!

Calin Leafshade · Tue 22/02/2011 08:37:48

You guys are just jealous that he wants to touch my penis and not yours.

..I assume he realises that i have a penis...

ThreeOhFour · Tue 22/02/2011 10:27:37

Actually I vaguely remember proposing to him last week, and I'm sure he said "I do".

(this isn't actually a joke, I really do remember it occurring)

Ponch · Wed 23/02/2011 02:41:13

Goodness! I haven't seen this much man love since the last Oceanspirit Dennis game!

Sughly · Wed 23/02/2011 08:49:02

I was going to wait until I finished the game but since I suck at it and haven't had the time to get past where I am, I thought I'd duck in and pass on my congratulations on another fine game. It really is a great setting and atmosphere, as always. Loving the whole radio concept! I'll add something a little more insightful when I'm done 8)

ThreeOhFour · Wed 23/02/2011 10:51:45

Ponch: There's more homo-eroticism in the average conversation between Calin and I than in the last OSD game!

Sughly: Thanks, glad you're enjoying it thus far!

saluk · Fri 04/03/2011 20:40:09

Not much to say really, except congrats on another masterpiece. My favorite thing you've done I think, and the fact that it's the tip of the iceberg is really exciting!

Strangely, I didn't get as stuck as others have on here, and I'm usually one of those who has to have a walkthrough at the ready at all times. I was actually worried I would finish the game before hearing all of the songs and dj portions, but it was timed almost perfectly. It had just started to loop as I went in for the last cutscene.

Yeah, I loved the really laid back, on the spot style of the narration, good job kaputtnik. I did detect an accent

But I think it added a lot to the flavor.

One thing that kind of bothered me at first, was the fact that we could hear their voices on the radio, and then when the game actually starts, they talk so silently. But with the sound mixing problems I don't know if there's a good solution to that, and of course doing full voice is a lot more work than just the few lines that there were.

Great job everyone, looking forward to the next part!

BlueAngel · Sat 05/03/2011 10:33:05

Wonderful little game. My only problem was that I didn't know what to do with the wrong drink I mixed up and sometimes it was hard to find the map.
Super game neverless.

SuperDre · Mon 07/03/2011 20:02:34

And yes, another great game by Ben and his great sound/musicsupport'team'.. Loved the graphix as always, loved the sound and music.. Looking forward to more games with the same characters...

TomatoesInTheHead · Mon 07/03/2011 21:58:00

Nice game, I have to say I didn't have any problems with the puzzles here. They may have been illogical or strange, but the hints in several dialogs made them pretty clear for me.

I also thought at one point that the radio moderation interfering the dialog was a bit distracting, but I just paused the dialog for a moment and listened to the radio show first, so it wasn't much of an issue for me. And the radio show gave a lot to the atmosphere, especially in this nightly setting.

Lastly, I actually wanted to congratulate you on choosing a title that puts the game in the top position of any alphabetical list, but now I found out it's in fact the last entry in the game database

Looking forward to the second part!

Igor Hardy · Mon 07/03/2011 22:00:11

Quote from: TomatosInTheHead on Mon 07/03/2011 21:58:00
Lastly, I actually wanted to congratulate you on choosing a title that puts the game in the top position of any alphabetical list, but now I found out it's in fact the last entry in the game database

Ben, you sly fox, now you have the database cornered from both sides! :o

ThreeOhFour · Tue 08/03/2011 15:06:50

Saluk: Thanks! It's easily one of my favourite projects to date, and the finished first chapter really makes me proud and hopeful of what we can end up turning the series into. Glad you enjoyed the game and the musical/DJ portion, hope you enjoy the next episode whenever we get around to building it

BlueAngel: Yeah, the drink puzzle seems to have had a few people stumped, and I was aware that the exit hotspots weren't as clear as they perhaps could have been (but did do my best to make them reasonably obvious. Thanks for the comment, glad you had fun!

SuperDre: Thanks! I look forward to furthering Elodie's (and a few other character's) story!

TomatosInTheHead: Well, it's nice to hear you understood the puzzles! I already had a game on the top of the list, this was my sneaky move to have one down the bottom as well

Glad to hear you enjoyed the atmosphere, creating a strong sense of ambiance was a big priority for me in this game.

Acovel: Heh, I wondered how long it would take before somebody noticed my sneaky plan (yes, I am absolutely shameless)

tzachs · Fri 15/04/2011 22:56:34

I enjoyed parts of the game, and other parts less so...

Liked:
* The live radio concept was awesome. Also of course, the songs were brilliant. My best part about this game without a doubt.
* The graphics and animations here were stunning as always with your games, and perhaps even more so in this one.
* The setting of the game (saving the bar/radio station) is original and really refreshing for an adventure game.
* Some little touches really helped bringing the world to life. Especially the part of people talking to you with new things to say almost every time you re-enter their screen.
* Interesting choice of characters, like the little girl that plays bass in a rock band, and the lesbian bartender that's in love with Elodie, you don't get to see this in games...

Disliked:
* How should I put this? Too much text to my taste, but it's more than that, since I have played games with lots of text in the past and loved it.
It's that I found most of the text not the most interesting. To me, I found Elodie itself to be one dimensional, it seemed that her sole characteristic was her love to indie music and that's all she talked about (that wasn't related to the actual story), and she talked and talked some more, and I grew tired of it, it was overwhelming.
And if that wasn't enough, most of the other characters also were only interested in music and that's all they talked about (and I'm a hobbyist musician myself, but it was just too much).
I ended up skipping some of the dialogues, and that's probably the reason that I missed the hint about the drinking puzzle and had to resort to the walkthrough.
* There was a second time that I had to resort to a walkthrough, but it wasn't because I was stuck. Here's what happened:

Spoiler

I saved and exited the game after the part where the band told me they needed the string and tambourine. I opened the game again a few days later, and didn't remember what they needed. I tried to talk to them but they didn't repeat it, so there was no way for me to know what my goal is now, so I had to read the walkthrough just to know that.

[close]

This one can easily be fixed.

Ali · Sun 19/06/2011 16:04:47

Me and the missus just finished this (you make games too fast for me to keep up).

I think the world you create is great (as always) and I like the fact that you're happy to leave things unresolved... but I'm still looking forward to a continuation of the game. I'm hoping for a sequel cleverly incorporating the word 'two' into a well known song title...

Nelly thinks your girls are too skinny from the side, but she loves everything else about the game. Particularly the natural character interactions and the way the outcome isn't obvious from the start.

In conclusion: Fun!

ThreeOhFour · Sun 19/06/2011 16:12:41

tzachs: Missed your feedback, but appreciate it! I agree that I went a little overboard in spots with the band things, and will focus a bit more on other stuff in the next episode

. Thanks for playing and commenting!

Ali: I agree, I recently went back and tried to improve my anatomy skills and the first thing I realized was how skinny I make people from side on! I've definitely changed this since learning that. There is a second episode most definitely in the works (awful well known song pun title included!) but I'm currently without my game making amigo kaputtnik, and so am focusing on other things until he can find the free time to work on AGS stuff again - at which point the SPIRIT of ROCK (or THE spirit OF rock) will most definitely be continued

Thanks for the comments!

Ben X · Sun 11/12/2011 12:10:41

Congratulations to Ben on his #indievisibility award!

http://www.sizefivegames.com/2011/12/11/indievisibilty-end-of-year-awards-results/#more-1438

(And commiserations on Simon Byron's Australian-accented reading of Ben's acceptance speech that morphed into Cockney halfway through.)

Ponch · Sun 11/12/2011 16:06:36

Congrats, Ben. Now you have no excuse not to finish part two. 8)