Spooks!

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

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Petra

SPOOKS.....
at first I did not know what to do..

But after 10 minutes of playtime I could not stop this lovely game!!

And i needed the Hints and Tips Forum for this ;D


Really great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do more!!!!!!!!!!!






Allustar

Awesome game "The Ivy"Ã,  8)

The graphics were so clean feeling for a first time adventure game.

And .. just with MSPaint that's wonderfulÃ,  :o

Well done scripting Vince Twelve.... I enjoyed your "Anna" game too.Ã,  8)

The first brain puzzle of "Spook" almost threw me for a loop.

Congrats
~Allustar~

Should we expect a sequel?Ã,  :P

lakerz

This game is quite amazing.  Everything about it made me want to keep playing it, even though I was quite tired.  Just a fantastic job for all involved! 

nihilyst

I just finished Spooks! And, hey, that game was great. It had a lovely new idea, well scripted puzzles and dialogues. One of the best AGS games I've played in the last few months. Keep it up!

cheers
nihilyst

Charity

I thoroughly enjoyed Spooks, and will be sure to keep my eye out for any further games from you in the future   My only gripe, I think, was a problem with my own machine.  What format did you use for the music?  It refused to play for me, so aside from the sound effects, I was forced to play the game in silence.  (I believe this has happened to me with a few other AGS games, as well.)

If anyone knows a way I might be able to remedy this, I would be most appreciative.

~Lyaer (a.k.a. Mr. McMooo, for those who may have noticed my lurking back in the EZBoard days)

nihilyst

I think it has MIDI music. I first didn't hear much of it, because it's very silent, and I had to incease the volume on both my soundcard mixer as well as on my speakers to hear it. You could check, if you have activated the midi driver of your soundcard.

cheers
nihilyst

Charity

Hmm...  Midis usually play fine for me.  I tried cranking up the volume, but all that got me were a few deafening text messages.  Just to be sure, though, how do I get at the midi driver?

Kinoko

#67
I just started playing, and I -LOVE- the game so far!!

Edited because I'm an idiot.

2nd edit: I just realised I never commented again after finishing the game. It was excellent!! One of the best games I've played in ages! Extremely well polished, funny, good puzzles, the art style was great and the music was really nice. I loved that it didn't drag out and yet it was long enough for you get to know the character well enough to really appreciate that gorgeous ending.

The Inquisitive Stranger

I just played this game as well. From one Canadian girl to another, good job!
Actually, I HAVE worked on a couple of finished games. They just weren't made in AGS.

Daniël Brooks

just finished playing the game.

Overall Enjoyment:   100%

well done!!

The Ivy

@Petra: Thanks!Ã,  That's a lot of exclamation points.Ã,  Guess I have to make something else, now. :-,

@Allustar: Glad you liked the graphics, they were fun to do.Ã,  Drawing is so much easier when you're drawing things that don't really exist.Ã, 

Sequel?Ã,  Oy...my free time...we'll see what happens when the school year ends. :P

@lakerz: That's quite a compliment, thanks very much.Ã,  I'll thank you on behalf of my team, too, since I'm sure they're lurking around here somewhere.

@nihilyst: Cheers, nihilyst!Ã,  It's awesome that you finally got to see the ending.Ã,  I'll see what I can do about "keeping up the good work."Ã,  I still have some ideas kicking around.

@Lyaer: Sorry, I can't help you there.Ã,  Vince took care of all the technical bits.Ã,  Woo Vince!

@Kinoko: Hey, I'd been waiting to hear your response, and I'm happy it turned out positive.Ã,  People have been using our games as an example of "look what girls can do!" lately, and I'm glad to be sharing that designation with you. :-,

Don't tell anyone, but that "gorgeous" ending you saw was something I came up with at about 3am during exam season last year.Ã,  Funny how inspiration can sound like a little voice in your head saying, "Psst, you should find out what Mortia looks like in colour rather than studying for biology."Ã,  I think I made the right choice. :)

@Inqui: Thanks, hoser. ;)

@Daniel Broooooooks!: Thanks man.Ã,  I like your umlaut.

Play_Pretend

I too think this game is the epitome of "Friggin-sweet"ness.  You did an awesome job on it, and it's one of the three AGS games the got transferred over when my computer crashed and had to be completely reinstalled a few weeks ago. :)

Sheepisher

Hi,

This is my first time posting on the AGS message boards, although I've been downloading and playing the games for yonks now!

So I just wanted to say how much I was impressed by your game "Spooks", The Ivy.  The graphics were delightful and full of character, and the selective use of colour - tied into the story - did indeed give it an edge!  The dialogue was always witty and helped bring the characters to life.  Most importantly, the story was original, involving and gripping, and unwound with a real flare for storytelling.  It was a decent length - enough to intrigue and involve and yet leave me wanting more - with a good, solid puzzle structure and a very rewarding end sequence.  As others have said, it's difficult to believe that this was a first attempt!

Alas, I haven't had the chance to listen to the music yet - I seem to be experiencing the same difficulty as Lyaer, which is weird because MIDI normally works perfectly fine on my machine - but I shall persevere.

I have two minor constructive comments.  The first is in regards to puzzles - one or two of them were a little bit formulaic (of the "Give A to B in order to get C, which we give to D in order to get E" variety).  It was also noticeable that some areas or characters only became unlocked when the game mechanics demanded it, which is a little cheeky ... thankfully, the story and characters were so involving that I didn't find it frustrating.  Also, I should point out that this is the only game - professional or otherwise - that I've completed without a walkthru' for quite some time, and although I got temporarily stuck once or twice, it was nothing a little lateral thinking couldn't solve!

Secondly, there were one or two occasions where I found Mortia and an NPC going through a rather lengthy dialogue that they'd already had.  It would have been a nice, professional touch to replace that dialogue with a shorter, catch-up summary dialogue, especially since your writing elsewhere was so enjoyable.  A niggling point, perhaps, but I'm a huge advocator of judicious dialogue tree pruning because, if you're not careful, it tends to remind you that you're grappling with a logic program instead of talking to an actual character!

However, I must stress that these are two very minor points, and that "Spooks" was the most enjoyable adventure game - professional or otherwise - that I've played for quite some time!  I very much look forward to your future games!

- Sheepisher
"Like a balloon and ... something bad happens!"

skullkid22

The game was excellent, it had an excellent atmosphere, almost like a Tim Burton film. It's one of the most creative and enjoyable AGS games I've played, I loved the graphics, characters and music.
I loved the ending although it did leave many unanswered questions about the character's past so hopefully a sequel will be made one day.

Kaelem Gaen

I just beat this game Ivy and I have to say I loved it!   Did you really do the graphics all in MSpaint? I also thought the ending was awesome 'specially the bit after the credits.  I really can't wait to see more of your work.
~ Chaos, panic, disorder...  My work is done here. ~

The Ivy

@Strange Visitor: That's exciting, I like to hope the game has some replay value.

@Sheepisher: Thank you!  This game was definitely a first for me, and I'm glad you liked it so much.  You're right about the puzzles being simple at times, but I was happy to hear you were able to beat it without a walkthrough.  That was pretty much my goal, to make a game that you could solve just by thinking logically.  Oh, and that it would be decently rewarding at the end.  With obscene amounts of sarcasm. 

I just got a gig as a staff writer for a humour paper, so hopefully the jokes will only get better as I get more practice.  :-, 

@skullkid22:  Hopefully the other 21 skullkids are in agreeance with you, that'd be pretty sweet.  I'm considering taking a poll to see if I should do a sequel to this game or something totally different.  More on this as it develops.

@TerricMoonborn: Yep, MSpaint for everything.  I'd occasionally have to take a few days off so my wrist could, um, de-paralyze.  Luckily I have a Wacom tablet now, and I'm just waiting for school to finish so I have time to practice with it.  Future games will hopefully look a lot more polished :-,

DizzyDancer

Yay!! I just finished and that was AMAZING! Thank you so much Ivy! You're fantastic! This game was so unique, with lovely graphics, perfect music, etc... I really do hope there will be a sequel. And I would totally buy a T-shirt! "It's a ghoul thing." lol Brilliant! :D
There's no emoticon for what I'm feeling!

Ali

This was a really good game, and genuinely funny. The music and graphics were perfectly in key with one another and the use of colour was very effective. Sarcastic player characters can often be tiresome, but Mortia was really likeable. Spooks was also supercute.

Best of all the game didn't feel like a full-length game cut short (as some short games can). The story was short but satisfying.

If you were to make a sequel, the only suggestion I'd make would be to consider MrCollossal's diagrams in this thread. I think perhaps the player has too much access to the Carnage-val at the start of the game. It would be nice if there were a few rooms that would allow the player to get an understanding of the world. Then later, a wider area could be opened up.

It felt slightly odd in this game to have many rooms to explore right away, and then (without giving too much away) very few towards the end.

That's a minor point though, this is definitely one of my favourite short adventures.

Steph

Apparently the game site is down? Does anyone know where else I can d/l this game?

Vince Twelve

The old game site is still there at:

http://games.thexiis.com/

and you can download the game from there.

But while this thread is bumped, I might as well formally introduce the new xii games website:

http://www.xiigames.com

from there you can navigate to the new Spooks page and download the game.

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