Nataly Buchannon and the Amulet of Kings

[skullkid22]

Will the game be freewere or commercial?

[i k a r i]

I'm not involved in the project, but I can tell you is going to be freeware.. (thanks god for it =P)

[Sam.]

The game will most definatley be freeware, we will offer a download from our site (www.amuletofkings.com) which will be for free.

We will also (hopefully) be able to offer a CD version, which, for a fee (covering production and postage) will be available. This will have a full dvd case with covers and all sorts of neat stuff. There may be a special features part too.

All of this is still in the working, we haven't finished the game yet!

[Tracubetto]

Great game!
I've liked the music a lot, but all the game is good.
Some advice for u:
(sorry for my english, i'm in a hurry and cannot check it properly

- Enable a "click to read more" option for dialogue, so that i've to click to read the others parts of the dialogue. That will be usefull for "non-english" guys

- sometimes Nataly cover the hotspot, so if i want to try another interaction (for example first examine, then use) with hotspot i've first to move Nataly away.

- "use items" interaction could be available also clicking on the icon of the item. At least, that was the natural interaction for me playing the game. Or maybe this interaction could activate a "examine item" interaction.

- it could be nice to add a "pick up" option in the interface, "use item" for picking up items seem to me too much generic.


great game anyway 

and if you want an italian translation for the tech demo, i'm available! (do you remenber me Darth?  )

[Ashen]

if you want an italian translation for the tech demo, i'm available!

Thanks for the offer! However, the Demo is done with, we're not going back to it, so we don't really need a translation.
Obviously, any bugs people can find will be fixed, and any suggestions we like will be added in if possible, but don't be looking for the demo itself to be updated. Everyone please keep commenting - it's all useful stuff - but you'll have to wait for the full game (or a second, much later demo  ) to see exactly what's changed.
Now, Tracubetto, if you're still free then and still feel like it, we'll probably take you up on that translation.

- Enable a "click to read more" option for dialogue, so that i've to click to read the others parts of the dialogue. That will be usefull for "non-english" guys

Could you elaborate on this a bit? You mean you don't want text to automatically disappear - the player would have to click it away - to give longer to read it?

[Tracubetto]

that's ok ashen, go on with the game 

Ashen saw: "You mean you don't want text to automatically disappear - the player would have to click it away - to give longer to read it?"

yes exactly, i mean this.

good work
Nico

[i k a r i]

Well if you need an spanish translation, I could help 

[Darth Mandarb]

and if you want an italian translation for the tech demo, i'm available! (do you remenber me Darth?  )

Of course I remember you!!

Well if you need an spanish translation, I could help

It's not something we've (the team) really discussed that much but I think it'd be awesome to have translations.  The trouble is, Nataly travels through 5 different language areas (English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian) so it might get downright confusing to translate!   But if you guys feel up to it I'm sure we'd all be interested

Thanks for the offers!

Small Update
I have decided to go a slightly different direction with the characters ... to try and make them fit better with the backgrounds.  I'll post an example as soon as I have it.

[scourge]

Very cool. Hope it turns out brilliant The game is gonna rock.

[i k a r i]

But the germans in the game speak english so there is no problem  .....right?..I don't think it will be confusing...there is a BIG (really big) spanish community who can't play AGS games because most of them are in english!...so when games are big like this one, I think there should be a translator...
Because this one is going to be big, right?..

EDIT: well I could translate the game if you want 

[Sam.]

well, I can definatley say this game is going to be big.

I can also say, that all environments will try to be kept as realistic as possible, including language. It will not however, require universal understanding, anything that you need to know will be in english (or whatever language it is, pending translation)

[DanClarke]

I played the tech demo and it all looks great, very solid game. I look forward to the actual game. Any idea of size?

[AlbinoPanther]

well, I can definatley say this game is going to be big.

I can also say, that all environments will try to be kept as realistic as possible, including language.

YOU ARE READING OUR MIND.

Please do that cause we are so tired (in movies and games) of hearing some german or italian guy or girl talking pure english.

If you do that you will be our heroes.

[Darth Mandarb]

I played the tech demo and it all looks great, very solid game. I look forward to the actual game. Any idea of size?

Thanks!  Just wait till you play the actual game!  It'll blow the demo outta the water!

As for the file size we aren't really sure.  We've got fully animated cutscenes which aren't in place yet so it's hard to guess.  But I'm sure saying it'll be over 20-30MB isn't unreasonable!

We want to keep the DL size reasonable, (for our dial-up users!) but we don't want to sacrifice our vision just to keep the file size small.  And as mentioned before, you can get a copy of it on CD shipped to you as well!

[DanClarke]

I played the tech demo and it all looks great, very solid game. I look forward to the actual game. Any idea of size?

Thanks!  Just wait till you play the actual game!  It'll blow the demo outta the water!

As for the file size we aren't really sure.  We've got fully animated cutscenes which aren't in place yet so it's hard to guess.  But I'm sure saying it'll be over 20-30MB isn't unreasonable!

We want to keep the DL size reasonable, (for our dial-up users!) but we don't want to sacrifice our vision just to keep the file size small.  And as mentioned before, you can get a copy of it on CD shipped to you as well!

Sorry Darth, i meant size as in number of screens/hours of play etc. Should have made it more clear, doh!

[Darth Mandarb]

Sorry Darth, i meant size as in number of screens/hours of play etc. Should have made it more clear, doh!

Ahhh!  No worries!

We have, as of now, planned on 10 Unique Locations (2-5 backgrounds each), with 29 Playable Scenes and 26 Cutscenes.  This is subject to change of course

As far as hours of game play ... I'm not really sure.  Definitely a full-length game though.

[Nikolas]

I just played the demo.

It was niiiiiiiceeee! very nice!

It remind me of professional games, of earilier days...

Anyway I do have a couple of observations if you don't mind.

Personally I don't like very much the way you handle commands. I mean I found it a little akward that you have to find the hotspot, right click and then choose your command. Maybe it is just me.

But still it had coherence and it was beautifull. All the menus where connected, the dialogue menu was great.

About Nathaly I have to say that her sideways animation is a bit weird. And really excuse me for saying these things, but I hope for the best here. The original speed was too slow and she seemed to be "sliding" her feet on the pavement. When I changed the speed and took it at around 80% she did move at an acceptable speed but the animation was all recked because it was too fast. Again maybe it's just me.

Well, the music was great, not getting in the way at, which is something that takes talent to do. The BGs and characters are amazing, just amazing. And the whole thing is put together with care.

Looking forward to this game.

[Gregjazz]

Plays really well. Nice GUI and all.

The walking is really painfully slow, though. Also, if I right click and do something while I'm walking, sometimes the main character suddenly reverts to an earlier position...

[i k a r i]

Nikolas and Geoffkhan those observations were already made  you can check the answers from the producers in page 3 or 4..
Just to let you guys know..

[Sam.]

Thanks for all of the kind words and comments.

A little bit of honesty from the team, the demo was not really produced and submitted to any stringent quality controls. It really was  just to give a general idea of what the game will be like. The quality of that demo is NOTHING to what the game will be like when its finished! (you wait till you see what darth has cooking for the animations!)

an update?

Of course. Christmas is going to be a slow period of development, we all have family lives an issues to be dealing wqith, but progress will not halt entirely, darth is still spriting when he can and ashen is constantly tweaking the code. Expect to see alot more progress further into the new year.