The Journey Down: Over the Edge

[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!