Spooks!

Started by The Ivy, Tue 14/02/2006 21:24:20

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Ashen

I agree with everything that's been said so far, this has to be one of the best AGS games I've seen for a while. Sorry I don't have anything more original to add.

Will we be seeing more of 'Mortia' in future games?
I know what you're thinking ... Don't think that.

calacver

Nice game. I liked it alot.

The sprites and backgrounds were very amateurish, but it's good color usage nontheless. After all this is independent game making.

Good story, dialoque and nice puzzles. Well done. With some other excellent recently related games it seems AGS has a much higher standard than it used to have.

The Ivy

Wow, these comments make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Fisher: Merci beaucoup.

Fizzii:
Spoiler
Heh, yes, the hair...I didn't think it would hold up well under real gravity.Ã,  Uhhh, no pun intended...sorry.
[close]
Ã, Glad you liked Mortia, she was lots of fun to write for.

magintz: Professional?Ã,  Heh, I don't know about that, I think I just like to make my sprites hurl insults at each other ;).Ã, 

Grapefruitometrist (er...whatever :P): I've asked Vince to create a zip file, which should also make the game more accessible to the Mac users out there.Ã,  Any luck with WinRAR?

Rosie: Aww, you're welcome!

CosmoQueen: It was actually only about 8 months of moderately hard work to get this game done (although I can't speak for the rest of my team on that one).Ã,  Hope you like it.

ggp: Excellent, glad you liked the jokes.Ã,  As for starting another game....AAAUUGH!Ã,  Er, I mean, I think I'll take a few weeks off. :PÃ,  Ã, 

buloght: Can I borrow a pair of socks?Ã,  Mine have been rocked off.

Afflict: Gracias!

Mordalles: Wow, thanks!Ã,  I'm sure a few of those comments will make it into my diary ;).Ã,  I must be one of those crazy people who considers pixel pushing a legitimate form of artistic expression.

ManicMatt:Ã,  Thanks!Ã,  Glad Spooks made the top 10.Ã, 

provost:Ã,  Jumped out of the mind of Tim Burton?Ã,  Hey, that sounds like a plot idea in itself ;).Ã,  Seriously, thanks for the compliments, I'm very appreciative.Ã,  Chris, you have cool friends.

vict0r: Hey, thanks again...Norway.Ã,  :-*

Khaaaaan: Cool, can't wait to hear what you think.

Ashen: Hmm, I'm not sure about the future of 'Mortia.'Ã,  I have a few other game ideas fighting for attention right now, and I'm still deciding what I want to do next.Ã,  My next game will probably be in a different graphics style, since I have a Wacom tablet now and I'm just learning to use photoshop.Ã,  What I may end up doing is sketching a few ideas for games, maybe doing some mock screenshots, and having people vote on which idea I go with first.Ã,  I think I can trust that the people on these forums have good taste in games. :)

calacver: Cool, I'm glad you think Spooks is a nice game.Ã,  Hopefully my artistic abilities will get better with future projects.Ã,  After all, the independent game making community wouldn't stand for anything else. ;)

Take care guys, you've really made my day. :)

Grapefruitologist

WinRAR... Well... I think I'll just wait for the zip version. I have to work on my own game anyway.
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vict0r

Grape: Whats the problem with downloading winrar? Trust me, this game is worth it :D

Ivy: No. Thank you Canada :)

Vince Twelve

No more tears!  Here's a .zip version:

http://games.thexiis.com/files/spooks.zip

Ivy, you might as well update the AGS games page to include this file as one of the "mirrors."

I'll update the site when I get a chance.

Grapefruitologist

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SmootH

#47
Ivy, "Spooks" is looking pretty good!

One comment though, the Book puzzle might need either a clearer set up or a more explicit clue. I may be alone here but I just lucked out solving that puzzle.

Anyway, It's an interesting game, but its lack of volcanoes and space cowboys can only allow me to give it one and a half thumbs up(out of two of course)
There is nothing, NOTHING ointment can't cure!

Neil Dnuma

I love this game.

I think maybe it could have been a tad more non-linear than it is, when the geography is laid out as it is. There tends to be a little too much walking in circles. Or floating, to be precise. There could have been more stuff going on at once... Also, the graphics seem just a tad rushed in places (might of course be the MAGS syndrome), some exits aren't that obvious, and perhaps some elimination of double pixels and more thought out use of contrast in the grey tones could have made this look even better. Also, if hotspots had highlighted names, it'd be great.

But that's nitpicking of course. Even if not perfect, the graphics are succesfully stylized and sets the mood greatly. The music is the best game music I've heard in a long time. And the personalities and dialogues feel really worked on. I got sucked into the universe. Puzzles have a nice variation to them.

This game proves most of all the willingness to do something different, to bring the players into a world with great, defined personality. It's not easy to do that, so kudos for making this such a great ride.

splat44

Hi,

I just completed that game.

I hope for a sequel.

Cheers


Mr Flibble

One of the best concepts I've ever seen.

Downloading now.
Ah! There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling!

SSH

#51
Very minor thing: inside the "inhabited house" Mortia doesn't turn to look in the direction of the bookcase or the animatronic when you "look" at them.
12

Alun

Quote from: SmootH on Mon 20/02/2006 00:08:13
One comment though, the Book puzzle might need either a clearer set up or a more explicit clue. I may be alone here but I just lucked out solving that puzzle.

Well, it seems different people have trouble with different puzzles.  I didn't have any trouble at all with the book puzzle myself--I knew I had to get that book as soon as I saw it, even before I heard another character talk about it--but there was a different part that had me stuck for quite a while.  After I solved the game, though, I read through some of the help requests and such, and it seems that while there were plenty of people who had trouble with parts that had posed no problem for me, the part that had caused me so much trouble, I didn't see anyone else asking about.

So...what's a horribly difficult puzzle for one person may be a cinch for another, and vice versa...

Spoiler
For the record: what gave me so much trouble was figuring out how to get that stupid chandelier down.  I was pretty sure it had to be done to distract the gorgon so I could take the book and the muffins, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.  After being unable to untie the knot, I figured maybe the rope had to be burned.  It even occurred to me I could light something on fire with the burning policeman.  But I couldn't figure out what I could use to light the flame.  I went through a lot of frustration before finally figuring out that I could take the candle from that one "apparition" in the Inhabited House...(As soon as I had the candle, though, I knew exactly what to do with it...)
[close]

Okay, admittedly in the case of the book puzzle there is one potential pitfall for certain players:

Spoiler
The book stands out because it's red while everything else in the screen is in black and white...but that may not be obvious to colorblind players.  In fact, just this issue came up in the Hints and Tips forum.  SmootH, are you colorblind, by any chance?  (Or do you have a monitor that doesn't display colors clearly?)
[close]

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scourge

All good games has at least one hard puzzle for every person :) Great stuff ivy!

The Ivy

SmootH: Hey, sorry aboot any frustrations with the puzzle, but I'm glad you were able to figure it out.Ã,  Thanks for the encouragement!

Neil Dnuma: I appreciate your specific comments, I'll do my best to address those types of things in the future.Ã,  Heh, "MAGS Syndrome" is a good way of putting it, but I made the decision at the start that I could settle for less-than-perfect graphics if it meant getting a game finished, and that's exactly what I did...eight months later, with a ton of help. :P

Thanks for the other nice comments too.Ã,  I can safely say that hearing things like this is the best part of making a game.Ã,  :)

splat44: I'm glad you liked it.Ã,  As for a sequel...I dunno.Ã,  I've got lots of other ideas kicking around that I think would make better games.

Mr Flibble: Wicked, let me know how it goes. :-,

SSH: A wizard did it. ;)

Alun_Clewe:
Spoiler
Yeah, the chandelier business is tricky, but I'm glad you got it solved in the end.Ã,  SmootH mentioned in a PM that the tricky part was finding the candle and knowing to take it.Ã,  You're very right that some people have difficulty with different parts of the game, but maybe buloght has a point too.Ã,  Wouldn't want to make a game too easy now, would I? ;)
[close]

buloght: Thanks, bro. :)

Now for some Spooksy news!

I recomment you check out this week's PODQuest, which you can listen to right here.Ã,  In it, Zooty and Grundislav conduct a review of Spooks, and give it a diabetic shock-inducing "five cups out of five."Ã,  Ã, 

Later on, you can also hear an interview with me (woo, me!), wherein Grundislav and I discuss important things like which is the best flavour of muffin and where to buy obscure action figures.Ã,  He also mentions that ridiculous award you people have saddled me with, making this interview one of those things I won't be sharing with my parents. :P

So, in conclusion, listen to the PODQuest.



Seriously, all the cool kids are doing it.

Mordalles

er, ivy, don't you mean die-ary?Ã,  ;D

anyways, since ivy hasn't replied to may pm, i will ask it here.

does the mags game "unfinished" have anything to do with spooks? because, when i finished unfinished, mortia came out of the blue and captured the little gold fish which was the main character of unfinished. what is the connection? has anybody else seen it? is the main character of unfinished spooks? was unfinished his exciting life before he got trapped in a little bag carried by a ghoul? i want answers!Ã,  :P

"It's a fairy! She's naked! Curse these low-res graphics!" - Duty and Beyond

Alun

Quote from: Mordalles on Mon 27/02/2006 23:02:48
what is the connection? has anybody else seen it? is the main character of unfinished spooks?

Well, given that Unfinished was made by a completely different person, I just figured that was a little joke on the author's part.  (Remember that while Unfinished was, um, finished before Spooks, Spooks was announced back in July while Unfinished was being made, so bluber, the creator of Unfinished, could certainly have known about its premise and the appearance of its main characters from its Games in Production thread in time to stick in that ending.)  So, unless The Ivy says so, I certainly don't think we have to regard the events of Unfinished as part of Spooks canon.  (As a matter of fact, they don't mesh with the events of Spooks--in Unfinished, Mortia snags the recently-created goldfish herself, whereas in Spooks she'd never seen Spooks before prior to winning him from the carnival conman...)  It's just a gag, with no deeper meaning.

Quote from: The Ivy on Mon 27/02/2006 07:10:28You're very right that some people have difficulty with different parts of the game, but maybe buloght has a point too.

Oh, I don't disagree with buloght's point--I wasn't saying that the fact that I had a hard time with a certain puzzle was a bad thing.  No, I certainly wouldn't want every puzzle in adventure games to be easy.  Sorry if I was coming across as complaining about the difficulty; that wasn't my intention at all!

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The Ivy

Innnnnteresting, I never played "Unfinished," which would probably explain why I didn't get Bluber's joke earlier.Ã,  Unfortunately now the download link doesn't seem to be working, so I can't see what all the buzz is about.Ã,  Heh, I happen to think parody is the sincerest form of flattery, so hopefully I'll get a chance to check out his game someday. :)

And Alun, don't worry, I didn't think you were complaining.Ã,  Glad to see you liked the game, tricky parts and all.Ã,  Now, on to my next game... ;)

Alun

Quote from: The Ivy on Tue 28/02/2006 19:18:11Unfortunately now the download link doesn't seem to be working, so I can't see what all the buzz is about.  Heh, I happen to think parody is the sincerest form of flattery, so hopefully I'll get a chance to check out his game someday. :)

It seems to still be available at http://aafiles.bicycle-for-slugs.org/mags/Unfinished.rar, if you're curious to see the ending for yourself...

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Mordalles

and here i was thinking conspiracies. haha.

"It's a fairy! She's naked! Curse these low-res graphics!" - Duty and Beyond

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