The McCarthy Chronicles: Episode 1

[Helme]

I think the role of the panel needs to be seriously discussed by the forum community and some change/arrangement should be agreed.

We should discuss that in another topic, apart from the McCarthy Chronicles.

[Cogliostro]

Let me start by taking Helme's advice and then talk about advice...

One last bit of advice. We're throwing a whole bunch of what we consider "improvements" at you - take it all with a grain of salt. What you did the first time worked very well; don't let us push you around. If you think something's a good idea, do it; if you don't, don't - even if someone says you should.

Your ideas have served you well so far. Don't try to please everyone against your better judgment - you'll end up pleasing no one.

A bunch of us have offered up advice about what you should do to improve your next game.  All of us did this because we were excited about what you created, however, that only makes us sincere.  Listen to all of the comments, but don't feel compelled to act on ANY of them.

Cogliostro

[Grim]

I drank 7 cups of coffee while playing this great game. That's how many cups I'd give it.

Don't let the crits discourage you. It's clear they got into details because they enjoyed it a lot... but I also feel they were a wee bit too picky.  You could find such faults in any masterpiece if you tried.

I'm waiting for episode 2, kettle on standby:)

[Ryan Timothy B]

I didn't expect to see a 2 cup rating. 
After seeing this I actually looked at all the screenshots of every 2 cup games, and out of the few 2 cup games I actually played, I think there were only 2 games I didn't expect to see in there.  This game, and another one.

And to reply to Leon's suggestion.  I have to disagree.  I believe the ratings panel does an exceptional job doing what they do.  I may not agree with this particular rating, but the majority of the ratings, I do agree with.
One reason why I prefer the rating panel over the 'public' rating, is mostly because it's consistent and reliable.  I also like reading the rating panel reviews as well.
I think the rating system should remain as is, with the rating panel deciding the big rating.  You can always appeal if you don't believe your game deserves the rating--perhaps it'll change, or it may actually remain.  No harm in trying.

[Calin Leafshade]

I think it was probably Babar who rated my game.

Work of an infidel.. 2 cups
Work of an infidel.. 2 cups
Work of an infidel.. 2 cups
Work of an infidel.. 2 cups
Ah, truly a game fit for Allah himself.......


2 cups

[Leon]

Rating discussion continued in this thread.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I greatly enjoyed some of Mordalles' animation work on this game, particularly near the finale.  Also, the rain overlay set a solid atmosphere for the game.  McCarthy's dialog was rather ostentatious at times but overall I found it an enjoyable puzzle-light adventure.

Nice work, guys, especially Mordalles.  Every time I see your sprites they improve!

[Vel]

That was a great little game, very atmospheric. I did think it was a bit too early for it to end on a cliffhanger, but oh well... I hope the next one's longer. Keep up the good work!

[Dualnames]

I don;t recall who said it from the forums but we were all fighting about Yahtzee's games, and that they suck as a story. So somebody replied that "They have what other adventure games don't. And its the most important thing in an adventure game. Atmosphere."

So I find the last phrase to sum up my opinion on the game, which I find technically, visually and atmospherically excellent.

3 cups is an understatement, that's all.

[Anarcho]

This is a really excellent game!  Fantastic atmosphere thanks to the haunting music and B&W backgrounds, high quality voice acting, and puzzles that fit with the story.  Way to go!  Can't wait to play the next one.

-Logan

[Calin Leafshade]

Thanks alot, thats praise indeed from the author of EE.

edit: entirely off topic i love that someone said Emily Enough should be for people of age 30 or over... what kind of deviance requires you to be 30 or over to not be perverted by it... people are insane.

[Anarcho]

Wow, thanks for even remembering EE.  But seriously, you've got a hit on your hands.  Keep up the great work!

BTW, who said EE should be for folks 30+?  What makes a 29 year old unable to deal with grandma-cide?

[Calin Leafshade]

Check the comments on your games page in the database :p

People be crazy.

[Mordalles]

I just wanted to add that it was great working on the game. Calin has done a great job. Things that I found really awesomely done was the great noir atmosphere with the film grain, some awesome voice acting (especially the groundskeeper and tabitha), I loved the puddles of water, and the writing of course. well done, calin!

ProgZmax, thanks! 

[saluk]

First off, great game!

Any nits I pick are only because the quality of most aspects of the game make the sore spots stand out more. In a game of less quality, the small issues are not noticeable, because the whole experience is lacking. In a game of high quality, the small issues look bigger.

I found the puzzles to be a bit, well, nonexistant. I actually don't mind this too much, as it's the first in a series. When there is a series I like the first game to be rather easier than subsequent games. I was irritated with Tales of Monkey Island when I found I got stuck on the first chapter far more often than subsequent games. Still, in later chapters I would love to have to think a bit!

I'm not sure if this is intentional, but at times McCarthy says things in the past tense. I found it a bit disconcerting that tense was not more consistent. There are obviously times where changing tense makes sense, but the way this game was set up, I think past tense should be relegated to cutscenes where he actually is narrating about the past, and not during gameplay. Just my opinion. Maybe I just haven't gotten used to the style yet (it took a while before I was used to it in Broken Sword, but at least the past tense was mostly consistent in that game).

Some of the noir lines were a bit over the top and took the tone from haunting to laughable. I suppose with noir it does need to be a little over the top, but I couldn't quite place what tone you were aiming for, as it seemed to vary a lot throughout the game.

The fireplace text for example had both of the above issues, sounding silly and being in the "wrong" tense.

But all of the very minor issues aside, it was a great experience, and I'm looking forward to part 2. A new AGS series is born!

[MrCheminee]

I just played the game and I must say I am really really impressed by what you've achieved. I've read somewhere this was your first game? I can't believe it.

The artwork is very beautiful, the music is stylish, the effects and spoken bits are really adding something, only some small things didn't seem right to me. Like the same amount of knives after you pick one, the windows respawn after the animal jumped through it and the same comments on happenings that allready occured, like the lit window, where somebody was while everybody was downstairs, or the girl that was in the kitchen but got somehow earlier in the mausoleum than me...
Your joke on DOTT was wellplaced and fittet somehow very nice in the atmosphere that was created. I am actually quite jealous on your graphic skills.

[Spummy]

First off, congratulations on the project completion (I'm fairly sure this is your first one, correct?). You achieved certainly well crafted graphics and music, to even have voice acting is some nice polish. I've never posted on these forums before, but Have played a lot of adventure games, and games as an artistic medium is pretty much my thing, I study it, rant about it, whatever, and I wanted to make my first post in response to your game because even though, I feel the story to have many weak areas of execution, you appear well meaning, and heading in the right direction, so I shall give to you my thoughts and criticisms for you to take or ignore as you wish, I'd love to see a vast improvement in the next game, afterall.

YOU MAY FIND THIS SPOILERISH IF YOU HAVN'T PLAYED

First of all, the very first bit of opening dialogue(monologue?) is pretty good, that moment is effective and interesting enough and immediately sets the entire feeling of the game, but then, McCarthy babbles on about waking up, when you should've found a way to SHOW us about waking up to the sound of the phone ringing. Then it immediately jumps into talking about the Church, and ends with that nice enough piece of dialogue about "Arriving with none of the talent" thats a good line, but you just already had a good line from the very first room, it feels like you were trying to start the story twice. Immediately we're thrown into a room with you know what, which feels way to early to be throwing something thats suppose to be dramatic at the player, a key thing about pacing a story is to have an interesting intro, then build up to the first dramatic part, you've had an (More like 2) interesting dialogue part, and you're throwing them right into drama, which was really poor, having the player trying to break in first would've been a bit better, and it would've made more of a "WHAT THE HELL?" effect on the player, because they discovered it, it didn't just get thrown at them. A good trick for any game genre is that you use exposition as a reward for the player making it through a section of gameplay, don't be afraid to have foreshadowing in the less-dramatic parts, but you should build up to a key event, and have exposition there, and the key event should have PRESSURE.

Second of all McCarthy's immediate like to Sarah is odd, to me that suggests hes either the (Possibly overly) romantic type or the perverted type, since neither were built on It just gives me a big question mark why he'd like this girl really, character blab on about her being a nice girl, but she interacts with the protagonist on quite meaningless little ways (Atleast at the start when hes already saying poetic things about her) that she doesn't have a personality because her character doesn't "act", she says nothing along the lines of really being nice and doesn't really do anything along those lines either, she has about as much personality volume as 2 blue cups of coffee (Sorry, I couldn't resist ), I guess you always have time for that sort of stuff and its just the start, but a personality for her should have IMMEDIATELY been created, you created an immediate feeling of the game, now do it with your characters.

The more dramatic parts of the story have no interactivity at all, thats really poor for a video game, your stories pacing (When its dramatic or not) shouldn't just be in dialogue or in the cutscenes, it should also be in the gameplay, don't see gameplay and narrative as seperate things, if you can, use them as tools to support each other, create gameplay to emphasize story and feelings, create story to create a mood for the gameplay. This will improve the flow of the story dramatically, which, I'm sorry, was the worst part about this game, it dribbled from area to area, dialogue to dialogue, never really changing feel. The part with the [SPOILERS BUT NEEDS TO LEARN THE TAG] wolf was way to telly and not enough showy, some of the dialogue should've been there(The part about "What if I hit someone?" was it? That was good), a lot of it should have not. The key to dialogue is that you want the effective dialogue, not lots of dialogue.

Micheal doesn't act at all, for a person thats supposedly troubled and especially considering [SPOILERS BUT I DON'T KNOW THE TAG DON'T READ] He had an abusive farther, his siblings keep dying, and one became some omnipotent evil goddess thing, I'm not expecting him to be in his right mind, and his fairly normal behaviour and personality is just silly. Then we're told to believe that Sarah would stay here for Micheal because hes clearly so fragile.

Anyway, theres potential, but theres aspects of execution that need to be worked on. I wish you luck on your next game.

Hopefully no massive typos, I get words mixed up sometimes.

[MrCheminee]

Though I agree on most points Spummy pointed out, I just have to disagree on the part about the dramatic stuff in the church. Actually at the moment itself I also had my doubts about finding a girl offered to satan, just like that. But as I played further it actually gave me certain expectations and a big deal of the mood for the rest of the story. And after playing the game it just added to that cliffhangerfeeling (Who is the killer, what did he do in the hotel, how is he connected with the werewolves, someone allready died, how many more will die?). It made the story bigger, because now we do not only have to watch out for the werewolves, there is also some satanic ladycutter around, that likes to cut ladies in a satanic way.

It also gave me the idea of watching a horrormovie, when often one of the first scenes gives a glance of the terror that is about to come. I liked it and it triggered me even more to like the game, as the Film Noir aspect allready did. It gave the character and the player(me!) a motive to go to the hotel and it even made trying to get into the hotel even more exiting, because maybe the girl in the window was the next to be cut up, hopefully I was not to late!

Except for this Spummy has a few valid points to say. I thought it is somehow a shame that there is no sprite for the character getting in or out of bed, especially since he is doing it a few times in the game. And for the screaming part, I had no idea where the screaming was coming from or who it was. I only found out when I wanted to take the stairs, and the screaming apparently came from the room aside mine. I think this could be made a bit clearer so I would not be wasting my time trying other doors, while the girl allready should have been eaten. As for including the sound effects of a screaming girl or a phone ringing, they can't be that hard to add (I went to youtube to find a really horrible homemade scream) maybe you wanted to show us your game to soon?

Allright, again a big story I wrote, but let's just say it shows how much I care!

*Jealous on graphics, jealous on graphics*

[Calin Leafshade]

How come most peoples games get one liners like "Good game, really enjoyed it" and mine gets a 300 word slating :p seems rather unfair to me.

I agree with most of the points raised though. The story was fairly badly planned and so the execution was a little haphazard.

let hope i improve.

[markbilly]

Hey, you've got 6 pages of very useful critique and praise, Calin. I'd be pretty pleased!