Earl Mansin: The Breakout 1.1

[HillBilly]

EARL MANSIN: THE BREAKOUT 1.1

DOWNLOAD HERE
(Roughly 66,6MB)

Version 1.1 out now! Download today!

Earl's Official Website
(Props to Peder Johansen)
Download the Very Official Soundtrack

Check Out the Slightly Official AGS Game Page

[Peder 🚀]

Congrats on finishing the game!

I am downloading right now!
Ill edit my post with feedback when Ive played it a bit!

edit:
DAMN!
This was definitly worth the wait!
This is brilliant!

I love the game!
Awesome intro!
Great puzzles, great story, music and voice acting!
Still trying to finish it .

Also just found small (non serious) a bug:

Spoiler

if you turn light off then shut the "door" on the circuit box and bite off the wire, when he then go to turn light back on the door just keeps shut when he turn the light back on, then he close the closed door.

[close]

[Leonard LePage]

Awesome! I've been waiting so long for this!

Downloading now...

[i k a r i]

Wow cool!, at last! 
I'm downloading pretty fast right now, I'll post some feedback later, altough I can already say I'm gonna love it 

EDIT: Niiiice game!!, Im enjoying it a lot, I love the cutscenes, the main character, the MUSIC! (wow), everything is superb, congratulations, and thanks for this game!

[Candle]

Roughly 170MB zipped ? why games getting so big?

[Peder 🚀]

Candle:
Because they include well made cutscenes, pro music and speech .

[tube]

Code: ags

An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this
is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 2.72.920)

in Room script (line 33)

Error: NewRoom: Cannot run this command, since there is a RestartGame command already queued to run

Drat. It seems Earl's not in speaking terms with AGS Linux. I'll have to hunt down a windows box to play this one...

[Nikolas]

HAHA!

YAY!

Billy, I won't edit my post, I will repost when I've played this! Just one short question: Why not offer a zip and a rar folder? in rar this could very well be rather less than 170 Mb... (in RAR it's 128 Mb, for anyone wondering. It's not THAT big a difference really)

Still this is one of the games I've been really looking forward to!

If anyone has any tips on how to get the game "out there", besides just sitting around, please do tell.

Post on forums about indie games/adventure games?
www.cgempire.com
http://www.justadventure.com/
http://www.mysterymanor.net/forum/index.php?sid=73a4ceb3c8d425149ce85bdbfe094644
http://www.gameboomers.com/
http://www.adventuregamers.com/forums/index.php
http://www.adventuredevelopers.com/index.php
http://forums.cgsociety.org/

Banners also help, as well as (even) communities like myspace, facebook, etc...

Contact also magazines, etc, to include the game in their CD offerings?



Ok enough for a first post with no impressions... I'll be back sooner or later.

[Kt]

I cant get this game to work.After I download it and try to extract it,it says there are no files.

[Nlogax]

Looks good. D/L now.

[TripOne]

Cool one, but the cutsceens (including the intro) runs just like fast forward but not the audio (it's cut when the FF ends). Tryed several winsetup.exe options and the compatibility options. Nothing worked.

Win XP Home and Win XP 64bit Pro with the latest updates.

Any ideas?

[Peder 🚀]

I cant get this game to work.After I download it and try to extract it,it says there are no files.

Redownload, first time I downloaded it took 1 second and it was done, for some reason it did not download the whole archive..

[peter]

i get a error when i click new game

Video playing error
idirectdrawmediastream getformat failet

but i can play the game ?

[HillBilly]

EDIT: Niiiice game!!, Im enjoying it a lot, I love the cutscenes, the main character, the MUSIC! (wow), everything is superb, congratulations, and thanks for this game!

Glad you like it! For those interested, you can download the soundtrack here or here. Use the first if you want just one or two tracks, and the second if you want it all properly labeled.

Billy, I won't edit my post, I will repost when I've played this! Just one short question: Why not offer a zip and a rar folder? in rar this could very well be rather less than 170 Mb... (in RAR it's 128 Mb, for anyone wondering. It's not THAT big a difference really)

In the next version, with the various bugs that will/has been found fixed, I'll offer a .rar option and an .exe installer option if that helps.

Cool one, but the cutsceens (including the intro) runs just like fast forward but not the audio (it's cut when the FF ends). Tryed several winsetup.exe options and the compatibility options. Nothing worked.

Win XP Home and Win XP 64bit Pro with the latest updates.

Any ideas?

I find this odd. The videos require the Cinepak Codec by Radius, but that should be included in all new computers since Windows 95.

On all the computers I tested the game on it worked fine, so I have no idea.

i get a error in the start

idirectdrawmediastream getformat failet

but i can play the game ?

Where does this error appear and in what form? Is it an error from the AGS engine or the standard Windows warning window? Does the cutscenes work?

[Jon]

I have been waiting for this for months! Great game.

[peter]

i get a error in the start

idirectdrawmediastream getformat failet

but i can play the game ?

Where does this error appear and in what form? Is it an error from the AGS engine or the standard Windows warning window? Does the cutscenes work?
[/quote]
I did get this when i click new game and when i click  then on the screen the game start with no intro

I did have problems with the Iccvid.dll. i have put the dll in the windows/system32 folder and it works now.  its has nothing to do with the game it was my computer
Thanks

[TripOne]

I find this odd. The videos require the Cinepak Codec by Radius, but that should be included in all new computers since Windows 95.

On all the computers I tested the game on it worked fine, so I have no idea.

So, cheating, hum? Can't code a proper cutsceeen, hum?
...
and
...
Aaaaah, I always knew that Anime was evul, but DAMN it's sweet!!!

Ok, cleared of jokes now; Once you mentioned it was a codec, I tryed to substitute mine for that site's and didn't worked, so I thought it could only be CCCP(Combined Community Codec Pack)(I just had XP Home reinstalled). It worked. Now let's see if I can finish this before the Anime fever comes down on me.
Thanks for the tip.
Off to the game now.

[HillBilly]

Ok, cleared of jokes now; Once you mentioned it was a codec, I tryed to substitute mine for that site's and didn't worked, so I thought it could only be CCCP(Combined Community Codec Pack)(I just had XP Home reinstalled). It worked. Now let's see if I can finish this before the Anime fever comes down on me.
Thanks for the tip.

What solved the problem? Installing or uninstalling CCCP? This could be useful information for people with the same problem in the future.

Also glad you got the game to work.

[HillBilly]

The website is up, thanks to Peder for setting it all up for me. It'll take 1-2 hours before it's fully functional though.

[TaH]

Is the hammer supposed to disappear after second guard is put asleep?

[HillBilly]

Spoiler

Is the hammer supposed to disappear after second guard is put asleep?

[close]

No. Does it?

[AlenKaCZ]

Can't download it. It says that the site is suspended. Can you fix it? Thx ... Lookin forward to play your game ...  

[Mandarell]

Does this game work with Vista?
It doesnt for me,when i click new game the screen turns black and
a guy talks in 10-15 seconds and thats it?
Please help,really wanna play your game.

[HillBilly]

Can't download it. It says that the site is suspended. Can you fix it? Thx ... Lookin forward to play your game ... 

This is currently being looked into. Thanks for notifying me.

Does this game work with Vista? It doesnt for me,when i click new game the screen turns black and a guy talks in 10-15 seconds and thats it?
Please help,really wanna play your game.

If I remember correctly AGS does not officially support Vista, and I haven't tried it on that OS myself, but try running it with Windows 98/XP compatibility mode, alternatively with administrator privileges. That's all the information I found. Messing around with winsetup.exe may also solve some issues.

If you get the game to run, please tell me how and I'll add it to the FAQ.

[Mandarell]

Does this game work with Vista? It doesnt for me,when i click new game the screen turns black and a guy talks in 10-15 seconds and thats it?
Please help,really wanna play your game.

If I remember correctly AGS does not officially support Vista, and I haven't tried it on that OS myself, but try running it with Windows 98/XP compatibility mode, alternatively with administrator privileges. That's all the information I found. Messing around with winsetup.exe may also solve some issues.

If you get the game to run, please tell me how and I'll add it to the FAQ.
[/quote]

Tried the above right now but with no luck

[Peder 🚀]

Game can now be downloaded from: http://www.johnsendesign.info/earlmansin/earlmansin.rar

[SPYDAVE]

Just finished it and wanted to take a moment to let you know how much I enjoyed this game!

The art style is very pleasing and the puzzles made you think without being too difficult (very logical puzzles)! ... Looking forward to more Earl!!!

FYI ... the hammer also disappeared with me. I restarted a saved game, played through it again and kept the hammer (no idea what I did before to cause it to disappear).

I also played the game on Vista. The game gave me no problems so I'm sorry I can't help you there Mandarell.

[TripOne]

What solved the problem? Installing or uninstalling CCCP? This could be useful information for people with the same problem in the future.

Also glad you got the game to work.

Uninstalling CCCP.
Mind you that I didn't even tryed to fiddle with some of it's options. Installing it again isn't that troublesome anyway.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Glad too see you finally got the game released.  Nice work all around!

[Venus]

Spoiler

Is the hammer supposed to disappear after second guard is put asleep?

[close]

No. Does it?

I've had that problem, too. Had to go back to an earlier savegame to finish the game...
Apart from that nice game.

[supersnake52]

Does this game work with Vista?
It doesnt for me,when i click new game the screen turns black and
a guy talks in 10-15 seconds and thats it?
Please help,really wanna play your game.

I have this exact problem but im using winXP pro.

I tired to dl this codec pack but i can't dl it from the website!!!

[Frodo]

Does this game work with Vista?
It doesnt for me,when i click new game the screen turns black and
a guy talks in 10-15 seconds and thats it?
Please help,really wanna play your game.

Go to the game setup, and tick 640 x 400 and Anti alias (fast cpus only) in the graphics settings.  That should work.  

[cobra79]

Very nice game. The puzzles were great, the graphics charming and the voice acting superb. No bugs for me and really smooth gameplay. The only odd thing I encountered was that the game shut down after the dying sequences and after the outro. I guess this was intentional but I would prefer if you could go back to the start screen instead.

[Mandarell]

Does this game work with Vista?
It doesnt for me,when i click new game the screen turns black and
a guy talks in 10-15 seconds and thats it?
Please help,really wanna play your game.

Go to the game setup, and tick 640 x 400 and Anti alias (fast cpus only) in the graphics settings.  That should work.  

Thats default setup and that usually work,because i have played many other AGS-games without problems,but thanks anyway. 

And i saw that @supersnake52 had the same problem with winxp-pro,
so i dont think that Vista is the problem.

[Besh]

Really nice  game.
Waiting for the next act.

[Mandarell]

I made a way around the problem instead of solving it.
I tried the game on my old computer with winxp and it worked fine,so i just made a gamesave and put it in Vista-pc and clicked load game and it worked fine there too.
There must be something with the intro the computer dont like,but now i gotta play,bye 


EDIT: Well,that didnt last long,came to the place where i opened the door and then.....a black screen again  :'(  Think i give up for now

[Peder 🚀]

I tried the game on my old computer with winxp and it worked fine

But youve allready solved!
Just play it on your old computer!!

[AlenkaCZ]

when i click new game the screen turns black and
a guy talks in 10-15 seconds and thats it?
Please help,really wanna play your game.

I've got the same problem, but I am using Win Xp so probably it doesn't matter which Windows do you have. I am going to try it on my older computer and I hope it will be OK (because the game looks so cool). But I will appreciate if you try to fix it :-)

[AlenkaCZ]

so i just made a gamesave and put it in Vista-pc and clicked load game and it worked fine there too.

Can U pls send me the save, so I can also finally play the game? I am really desperate, I try to download game on my second computer and there was another error  . So if you will be so kind, send me it to varkockova.a (at) seznam.cz . Thx a lot.

[Snarky]

Very cool little game, HillBilly. I just took a look in the mirror when I woke up this morning (before shaving or washing my hair), and I realized that Earl Mansin looks a lot more like me than any other adventure game character. 

Some of the puzzles pissed me off, though:

Spoiler

When I'd got the first sheet, I wanted to just cut off a small piece to make a chloroform rag. Earl refuses, and instead I have to click on a secret hotspot in the clothes bin to find one. Also, when the sheet wasn't long enough for a rope, I immediately tried cutting it in strips, but Earl wouldn't use the scissors then either. But then it turns out this was the right solution after all! I just had to pick up the other sheets first. Extremely frustrating. There should at least be feedback when you try reasonable actions that would accomplish the task at hand. Also, after throwing the brick the first time it disappears inside the case, and can neither be seen nor clicked on. The game gives no indication that it can be picked up again. That's pretty unfair.

[close]

If it wasn't for the walkthrough I don't think I would have completed the game. It isn't fun to know how a puzzle should be solved but not be able to do it because the game insists on doing the actions a certain way or in a certain order. Hopefully you'll take this in the spirit it's intended: constructive criticism.

[Cino]

I have to agree with Snarky, the excact same things got me upset as well.

But other than that, it's a great game. Nice graphics, good music and superb voice acting.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Heh, DoTT goes gory and violent, hey? Never thought it'd turn out to be such a great mixture, though.

Great graphics, great story, great puzzles, great music, great acting... damn, that was a short, über-sweet game. Congrats!

BTW, I second everything Snarky said in his spoiler. Also, shame about the hammer bug.

[Uku]

Nice game, i liked it, glad you finished it.

[Stupot]

Funniest. AGS moment. EVER

*Spoiler Alert*

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f349/Captain_Stu/AGS/Hahaha.jpg

[HillBilly]

Hey everyone. I've finally established an internet connection and I'll be able to comment on this thread again.

Tried the above right now but with no luck

I guess you're outta luck on that one. Only solution I can imagine is getting a hold of an older system and play it on another machine. Sorry.

Same goes for those with the WinXP problem. If you figure out a way, please tell.

Uninstalling CCCP.
Mind you that I didn't even tryed to fiddle with some of it's options. Installing it again isn't that troublesome anyway.

Thanks, this might be useful for someone in the future.

Glad too see you finally got the game released.  Nice work all around!

Thanks!

I've had that problem, too. Had to go back to an earlier savegame to finish the game...
Apart from that nice game.

I can't for the life of me seem to get that bug myself.

IF ANYONE COULD TELL ME IN DETAIL WHAT THEY DID BEFORE THE HAMMER DISAPPEARED, PM OR REPLY HERE. PLEASE.

I'll fix up a patch this weekend to resolve the problem, as soon as I figure out how it happens.

For the patch I'm thinking about PatchMaker. Anyone had positive experiences with this for AGS games? There will be changes in both the .exe and speech files.

Very nice game. The puzzles were great, the graphics charming and the voice acting superb. No bugs for me and really smooth gameplay. The only odd thing I encountered was that the game shut down after the dying sequences and after the outro. I guess this was intentional but I would prefer if you could go back to the start screen instead.

Thank you! I did not like the solution of having the game close down, but a strange issue of the save files disappearing happened when I used the "restart game" command from there. As my GUI programmer went missing, I had no one to consult about this and went with the second best solution.

Really nice  game.
Waiting for the next act.

Thanks!

I made a way around the problem instead of solving it.
I tried the game on my old computer with winxp and it worked fine,so i just made a gamesave and put it in Vista-pc and clicked load game and it worked fine there too.
There must be something with the intro the computer dont like,but now i gotta play,bye 


EDIT: Well,that didnt last long,came to the place where i opened the door and then.....a black screen again  :'(  Think i give up for now

Sorry about this. It looks like your computer crash at every cutscene.

Since there seems to be a problem with them only, I'll try to export them with a different codec as soon as I get home, and hope that'll work.

If it wasn't for the walkthrough I don't think I would have completed the game. It isn't fun to know how a puzzle should be solved but not be able to do it because the game insists on doing the actions a certain way or in a certain order. Hopefully you'll take this in the spirit it's intended: constructive criticism.

I actually had those exact issues on my fixlist, with an alternative version of the rag puzzle, doing just what you said. Unfortunately, I had been stalling this game far enough by my nitpicking, so I just went for a release after having it on my harddrive for over a year. Looks like I should've taken the extra time.

Since both the playerbase and myself agree this is bad design, I'll see if I can fix it by one of the next patches.

I have to agree with Snarky, the excact same things got me upset as well.

But other than that, it's a great game. Nice graphics, good music and superb voice acting.

Glad you liked it!

Heh, DoTT goes gory and violent, hey? Never thought it'd turn out to be such a great mixture, though.

Great graphics, great story, great puzzles, great music, great acting... damn, that was a short, über-sweet game. Congrats!

BTW, I second everything Snarky said in his spoiler. Also, shame about the hammer bug.

DoTT is not the worst game to be associated with.

Yeah, it's a bloody shame. It'll be history as soon as someone tells me how to archive it, though.

Nice game, i liked it, glad you finished it.

Thanks!

Funniest. AGS moment. EVER

*Spoiler Alert*

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f349/Captain_Stu/AGS/Hahaha.jpg

I'm glad it was taken the same way it was intended.

[Stupot]

Hmm, I never had a problem with the Hammer.
Maybe you guys just didn't scroll down far enough...
Just a sugestion.

Is it true that...

Spoiler

you can hit the guard over the head to kill him instead of using the chloroform?

[close]

If that is the case then you could have a different ending depending on which method was used.

[HillBilly]

Is it true that...

Spoiler

you can hit the guard over the head to kill him instead of using the chloroform?

[close]

Give it a shot. Or two.

If that is the case then you could have a different ending depending on which method was used.

I disagree.

Spoiler

It's simply there so you have a friendlier option. You even get an option to turn back when you've used the hammer once. Besides, it's such a minor part of the storyline that it should have no effect on the ending.

[close]

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Maybe you guys just didn't scroll down far enough...

Bleh on ye.

When I

Spoiler

put the guard to sleep using the chloroform

[close]

the hammer disappeared from my inventory. It just wasn't there anymore. At that point, I had all the items I could have (i.e., all the game items minus the sign or its components). That's all I can say.

[HillBilly]

Weird. I can't get that to happen at all.

I'll look at the code when I get home and see if I find anything there. I think I can guess where the issue is, anyhow.

EDIT: I need a guinea pig to test my different solutions for the cutscene problems. If you only hear the music and the voice over(before the game goes black) after pressing new game and would like to help out, give me a pm. I will link you to a few test files(between 2 -10 MB) in a couple of days, and you tell me if they work or not. Don't be shy, stand right up!

[ManicMatt]

This game rocks my ass! I just love the animations, the voices, the graphics, dialogue etc etc..

I can't wait to play it again when you've fixed the hammer glitch so I can finish the game. 

(Also agree with Snarky, although I wouldn't say it pissed me off)

[tube]

I can't wait to play it again when you've fixed the hammer glitch so I can finish the game. 

I worked around the bug by

Spoiler

picking up the hammer only after I had put the guard to sleep.

[close]

[HillBilly]

This game rocks my ass! I just love the animations, the voices, the graphics, dialogue etc etc..

I can't wait to play it again when you've fixed the hammer glitch so I can finish the game. 

(Also agree with Snarky, although I wouldn't say it pissed me off)

Thanks! You can also work around the bug by solving it the alternative way.

[supersnake52]

Weird. I can't get that to happen at all.

I'll look at the code when I get home and see if I find anything there. I think I can guess where the issue is, anyhow.

EDIT: I need a guinea pig to test my different solutions for the cutscene problems. If you only hear the music and the voice over(before the game goes black) after pressing new game and would like to help out, give me a pm. I will link you to a few test files(between 2 -10 MB) in a couple of days, and you tell me if they work or not. Don't be shy, stand right up!

Just sent a pm

[Brad Newsom]

This is some top notch stuff! Definitely reckons continuation! Although I think a couple of things couldve been done better, which has already been pointed out, I think this will deserve a special place on AGS!

[Knoodn]

Great game. I enjoyed it very much.
I had a lot of fun to try out the diffrent ways to die.

[radiowaves]

I just finished it and I must admit, this game is super fun! I actually laughed at  a lot of things in this game, so funny. Even cursors and menu (especially the end menu) are very original.

[Svartberg]

OMG it's finished !
I'll download it as soon as I can - can't wait to try it out mate.
I'll also mirror it on my site if you want.

[HillBilly]

This is some top notch stuff! Definitely reckons continuation! Although I think a couple of things couldve been done better, which has already been pointed out, I think this will deserve a special place on AGS!

Thanks. As mentioned those issues will be fixed in the patch.

Great game. I enjoyed it very much.
I had a lot of fun to try out the diffrent ways to die.

Great to hear the death scenes were more of an amusement than an annoyance.

I just finished it and I must admit, this game is super fun! I actually laughed at  a lot of things in this game, so funny. Even cursors and menu (especially the end menu) are very original.

I had a lot of fun with those cursors, so I'm glad you liked them. Also happy to hear you found the game funny. As long as you laughed at the right spots, that is. 

OMG it's finished !
I'll download it as soon as I can - can't wait to try it out mate.
I'll also mirror it on my site if you want.

Svartberg! I was wondering when you were gonna show up. I hope both you and your orchestra synthesizer are doing okay.

A mirror would be splendid. Just, uh, wait a few days 'till I get some annoyances sorted out.


In other news, does anyone know Czech? I'm really curious on what this says:

http://plnehry.idnes.cz/adventure/earl-mansin.html

[TheJBurger]

Yay I finished it. A good game all around. Good graphics, nice animations (especially the cursors), and cool cut-scenes, except I have a few nitpicks.

- I'm one of those people who doesn't save and thinks the game will save me from death situations. So when I accidently died when walking into the first guard, and jumping out the window, I was kind of annoyed because I hadn't saved my game at all (but I learned after dying the first time). Also, it would've been nice if you could load your game after dying instead of the game exiting on you.
- I thought the puzzles were pretty logical, and I only needed help for the final puzzle. I think I have to echo Snarky's points, but it didn't bother me that much. Also, I probably wouldn't have solved alot of the puzzles if I didn't mindlessly click on stuff

Spoiler

(such as double clicking on the broken glass to get my brick back, which was just a mindless click, but it made me advance in the game.)

[close]

- At the beginning, I thought it was kind of odd that the main character says he hid the hack-saw, then he expects me to find it, but he doesn't even tell me where it is.

I also found a bug:

Spoiler

At the end, I didn't know how to get past the spot light. I walked as close as I could to the spot light without entering it, and I was still safe. At that position I spotted the crack on the right side of the screen and I interacted with it, letting me win the game. It was kind of funny since I knew I skipped the oh so final and last puzzle.

[close]

[HillBilly]

- I'm one of those people who doesn't save and thinks the game will save me from death situations. So when I accidently died when walking into the first guard, and jumping out the window, I was kind of annoyed because I hadn't saved my game at all (but I learned after dying the first time). Also, it would've been nice if you could load your game after dying instead of the game exiting on you.

I would've loved an autosave option whenever you enter a new room, and be able to return to the main menu after you die, but I've lost all contact with the guy who fixed the GUI, and was left with an unpolished GUI. A shame, really.

- I thought the puzzles were pretty logical, and I only needed help for the final puzzle. I think I have to echo Snarky's points, but it didn't bother me that much. Also, I probably wouldn't have solved alot of the puzzles if I didn't mindlessly click on stuff

Spoiler

(such as double clicking on the broken glass to get my brick back, which was just a mindless click, but it made me advance in the game.)

[close]

I agree that was hideously unfair of me. I've already decided to add some kind of graphic of the brick in the patch.

The final puzzle was also hard and kind of "out-there" compared to the other puzzles. However, if I get the time(already have the motivation), I'll see if I can fix up an alternative way to work around it. I've already played around with the idea of more dynamic puzzle solving. (like the guard in the surveillance room)

- At the beginning, I thought it was kind of odd that the main character says he hid the hack-saw, then he expects me to find it, but he doesn't even tell me where it is.

He shows you though. If you watch the intro again, you'll notice the camera pans over the most important hotspots in the cell. I thought it was a pretty neat "visual" puzzle/hint, but it did stump more people than I expected.

I also found a bug:

Spoiler

At the end, I didn't know how to get past the spot light. I walked as close as I could to the spot light without entering it, and I was still safe. At that position I spotted the crack on the right side of the screen and I interacted with it, letting me win the game. It was kind of funny since I knew I skipped the oh so final and last puzzle.

[close]

Wow, I'm glad you told me this. That's pretty crucial.

Thanks for playing the game, and the nitpicking. I'll be home tonight sometime, and then I'll start working on the first patch. Hopefully it'll be out by friday.

[Nostradamus]

This was awesome 

This game will be a contender for many AGS awards this year. Great lucasarts style graphics, great animation and videos, great voice acting & dialogue, itesm description were amusing, puzzles were the right level - challenging but not overly difficult, though I agree with Snarky about the bed sheets puzzle process. I loved the death scenes but the game must really have poped up the option to load or restart instead of exiting on you. All in all a very enjoyable game in a great style, leaving a taste for more.

Two bugs though, the major one is that after doing the final puzzle the game crashes. That just can't happen!
The minor one is that in inventory screen (which is greatly designed btw) sometimes when you click the look on items, you get the description for another item in the inventory and not the one you intended and clicked on.

[deadsuperhero]

I just finished playing it, that was well worth the wait!
Earl's voice is just simply...hilarious.
I love the writing, the humor, the dialogue, the puzzles.
My favorite bit though, was rummaging around the desk, and just taking things.
"I don't need it, but what the hell."
"Another inventory item never killed anyone."
"Sure, why not."
"Ah, something useful, lets put all this worthless crap back."

And I really loved "Well, looks like I'm up shit creek without a paddle."

[Mordalles]

i agree. cool game! superb voice acting and pretty entertaining violent cutscenes. 
thanks, hillbilly.

[HillBilly]

This was awesome 

This game will be a contender for many AGS awards this year. Great lucasarts style graphics, great animation and videos, great voice acting & dialogue, itesm description were amusing, puzzles were the right level - challenging but not overly difficult, though I agree with Snarky about the bed sheets puzzle process. I loved the death scenes but the game must really have poped up the option to load or restart instead of exiting on you. All in all a very enjoyable game in a great style, leaving a taste for more.

Thank you for the kind words! I've already explained why the game exits and don't go back to the menu a few times, so I won't bother being a broken record.

Two bugs though, the major one is that after doing the final puzzle the game crashes. That just can't happen!
The minor one is that in inventory screen (which is greatly designed btw) sometimes when you click the look on items, you get the description for another item in the inventory and not the one you intended and clicked on.

Did you get an AGS error when the crash occurred or just your standard "send error report" windows popup? I can't do anything with the latter, as that seems to be something with the AGS engine itself. The minor one I'll see if I can fix, but I won't promise anything. I downright suck at GUIs. 

I just finished playing it, that was well worth the wait!
Earl's voice is just simply...hilarious.
I love the writing, the humor, the dialogue, the puzzles.
My favorite bit though, was rummaging around the desk, and just taking things.
"I don't need it, but what the hell."
"Another inventory item never killed anyone."
"Sure, why not."
"Ah, something useful, lets put all this worthless crap back."

And I really loved "Well, looks like I'm up shit creek without a paddle."

Sonny did an magnificent job on Earl's dead pan and apathetic voice. I'm glad you liked it too!

i agree. cool game! superb voice acting and pretty entertaining violent cutscenes. 
thanks, hillbilly.

You're welcome!

[Nostradamus]

It was an AGS error message, not a windows error

[HillBilly]

By golly man, tell me what it said. I'm working on the patch right now, and it would really help.

[Nostradamus]

AppName: earl mansin.exe    AppVer: 2.62.772.0    ModName: earl mansin.exe
ModVer: 2.62.772.0    Offset: 000acf76

And actually it generated a windows error log report.
Don't know if this helps.

[Giest]

Pretty good game, but I think that with your graphic, animation, sound, etc., capabilities you guys are capable of making something really top notch. Perhaps your puzzle making, graphic scale, and story creation wasn't that great in this game, but you guys certainly have the ability to make something better. I hope to see something from you in the future that's a knock out.

Thanks for the game.

[b0bskij]

I had to register just to say what a wonderful game you've created!

Hillarious stuff indeed but my only complain is that it's way too short! However I'll give it ago later on again (as it seems like there is multiple ways to knock out the 2:nd guard?)

[HillBilly]

AppName: earl mansin.exe    AppVer: 2.62.772.0    ModName: earl mansin.exe
ModVer: 2.62.772.0    Offset: 000acf76

And actually it generated a windows error log report.
Don't know if this helps.

This seems to be beyond my control, sorry.

Pretty good game, but I think that with your graphic, animation, sound, etc., capabilities you guys are capable of making something really top notch. Perhaps your puzzle making, graphic scale, and story creation wasn't that great in this game, but you guys certainly have the ability to make something better. I hope to see something from you in the future that's a knock out.

Thanks for the game.

Since this was my first game ever, I of course expect some criticism to occur. Your comment was a bit vague for me to work with, though. Thanks for playing.

I had to register just to say what a wonderful game you've created!

Hillarious stuff indeed but my only complain is that it's way too short! However I'll give it ago later on again (as it seems like there is multiple ways to knock out the 2:nd guard?)

Glad to hear that. Yeah there are two ways to knock out the guard. I would wait for version 1.1 before playing it again though. It's all improved and bug-fixed (hopefully). Should be out any time now.

About it being too short, we'll see if I can't do something about that in the future. I have some ideas on how to extend it, and there'll be some additional locations if I go through with it. But let's all wait and see.

[HillBilly]

Earl Mansin: The Breakout 1.1 is out!

...And you can download it here! I've compressed the speech and movies a whole lot, so now it's at the humble size of 66,6MB. As always, if you find anything wrong, don't hesitate to tell me.

Right now I get one vote for each hundred download at average, so if you liked the game*, please give it a vote.
*If you didn't enjoy it, lie when voting, or avoid the voting page by all means necessary.

Some new key features:

- Now with German subtitles(by Ralf Knollmann)! And what language would suit a psychopathic serial killer better?
-Compressed speech and video files for size!
-The hammer bug and "quick escape" bug fixed!
-Adjusted and re-designed the sheet puzzles slightly. So all the previous walkthroughs of the game will have to be updated. 
-New and prettier menu screen
-A funky installer, instead of a boring .rar file!

You can also download the whole soundtrack!

The website will be updated later today.

Enjoy!

[[Cameron]]

Just wanted to say thankyou for the game, it was really good, and the soundtrack as well, I'm listening to it now on iTunes. I cant wait for it to be continued.
Cheers
Cameron

[Uku]

Downloaded it (again) and finished (again). First i started panicing, when i couldn't get that rag from botton of that box then after a while i got it.

installer was great! also it seemd to me that low-quality videos make a bit better mood for game, its not so "clean" etc.
but when i die, in that room where is the tombstone there is a flash"Main menu"(quickly dissapears) and when i click no matter where, game quits. so perhaps you make something like load and quit buttons to that place? then i dont have to start the game over and over again.

[HillBilly]

Just wanted to say thankyou for the game, it was really good, and the soundtrack as well, I'm listening to it now on iTunes. I cant wait for it to be continued.
Cheers
Cameron

Glad you liked it.

Downloaded it (again) and finished (again). First i started panicing, when i couldn't get that rag from botton of that box then after a while i got it.

installer was great! also it seemd to me that low-quality videos make a bit better mood for game, its not so "clean" etc.
but when i die, in that room where is the tombstone there is a flash"Main menu"(quickly dissapears) and when i click no matter where, game quits. so perhaps you make something like load and quit buttons to that place? then i dont have to start the game over and over again.

Thanks! I should really do something about the menu. I'll see if I can cover it in a little patch I'll be releasing on a later occasion. (There were some small issues with the German version)

If anyone still has nitpicks, I'd love to hear them, apart from the sudden quit at the death menu.

[Tsolaelia]

Wow, this was a fantastic little game! Very polished - the graphics and voice acting were brilliant, and I liked the interface and the puzzles. My only nitpick would be to agree with Snarky about the lack of in-game feedback for progress on the puzzles, but really this was such an achievement, especially for a first game.

[HillBilly]

Wow, this was a fantastic little game! Very polished - the graphics and voice acting were brilliant, and I liked the interface and the puzzles. My only nitpick would be to agree with Snarky about the lack of in-game feedback for progress on the puzzles, but really this was such an achievement, especially for a first game.

Really? I would think you'd get enough feedback in the 1.1 version. If you give me any examples, I might add some hints in the next patch.

Thanks for playing.

[Snarky]

I haven't played v 1.1, but from what you describe it sounds great! I'm so happy that you keep supporting the game after the initial release. Too often, it seems, do creators abandon their games once they're posted on the Completed Games forums, neglecting to make those little tweaks that would really help them come into their own. I'm glad you took my and others' feedback, and hope it has helped improve Earl Mansin.

[Afflict]

Downloading

[dunnoson]

I will take a look at the new game.  I will write a game review after I finish this game.

[dunnoson]

  This game is reviewed by:  dunnoson

This game is a very interesting game that I have reviewed.  It had a unique atmosphere, because he used a bum to portray as Earl, and it had a very interesting storyline. 
I liked the graphics, because it tells that the author spent many man-hours to make this game, and there are a couple death scenes, but it is pretty interesting.  I really liked the part where he shot a guard with a brick.

Ratings:
Puzzle – too easy
Graphics- excellent
Storyline – excellent
Replay value – none

Rating – 3 out of 5 stars.

(Not recommended for kids under 13 due to violence)

[Afflict]

Was a nice little game. Very enjoyable. Nice Graphics.

Best words to sum it up is short and sweet.

Some notes to HillBilly

Spoiler

I have to say that some parts like the power switches when off the office light is still on and the background lights where the cells are are still on. I think there was one or two more but I cant remember them, the game is really kewl thanks for making it

Made in flash this game would be much smaller Maybe make a online playable version (Will have loads more exposure that way)

[close]

[Nostradamus]

Flash sucks.
95% of the people here have internet fast enough to download an AGS game. And it's only 66MB, that's not big.
What, are you on 56k?  and if so, it's really time to move on...

Also, I'd like to reply to dunnoson:

Replay value â€" none

WHAT??  This is a very enjoyable game and certainly can be played over several times. You claim you really loved the game and you give it high ratings, so why don't you wanna play a game you really loved again?

[Afflict]

Nostradamus, the reality is the AGS community is really not that large. I respect most of the members here and have grown to love this place. (I mean who doesn't)

Anyway the fact of the matter is Flash doesn't suck. I am on a DSL connection yeah  so whoopie I download pretty fast, the point is just if this game was in flash it would probably be like 5 meg and thousands more ppl will probably play it.

[ildu]

Children, children. Having something in Flash instead of some other engine wouldn't annul the space taken by the music and the voices. It would make the size marginally smaller in terms of graphical elements. However, I do agree that with Flash, the game would be more easily accessible to more people. And Flash does not suck, the majority of people using it do.

[Nostradamus]

There are 4140 registered users here plus dozens to hundreds of anonymous lurkers, so I'd say the community is pretty big. Adventure games isn't a popular genre in the big flash sites anyway and yeah since what gives the game its weight is mostly music and sounds it wouldn't be much smaller in flash. For freeware adventure game playing crowds, most of the potential is here. And so making it in flash wouldn't give it that much more exposure.

[Afflict]

I disagree fully with the previous statement. There are thousands of adventure & room escape games made in flash.

The file size will be reduced dramatically for various reasons. Eg:
* Vector graphics
* Sound & Graphic Compression
* swf vs exe file size
* no videos since the elements are vector and animated directly in flash so no avi files

Anyway the total music and voice files after extraction for this game is 11,434kb + 11,179 so thats between 22 - 23 mb the rest of the files amount to 138 mb

So you can by more than half the games original size with flash ( Total being about 160mb )

So Nostradamus my friend you say flash sucks yet it seems you don't know it well at all, I can say Lamborghini's have crappy handling and that would be about the same as your flash statement since Ive never driven a lambo.

Anyway I don't think this is the thread to be talking about this we are cluttering Hillbillies Game thread.

Edit : Just wanted to add that flash is expensive & AGS is free and for a free program it's amazing how awesome it is. By no means am I saying that Flash is better than AGS I was merely suggesting to Hillbillie (since the gfx looks like it was made in flash) to maybe do a flash version, for more exposure.

[HillBilly]

Plus it would be a total bitch to program.

I haven't played v 1.1, but from what you describe it sounds great! I'm so happy that you keep supporting thegame after the initial release. Too often, it seems, do creators abandon their games once they're posted on the Completed Games forums, neglecting to make those little tweaks that would really help them come into their own. I'm glad you took my and others' feedback, and hope it has helped improve Earl Mansin.

I'm always open for things to improve, as long as it's on a small scale. Like certain responses for certain actions even if they don't work, but does make sense in a way. This is easy to add and hopefully decreases the frustration level of the player and improves value, so I'm all ears if someone got suggestions. I probably won't change major stuff like puzzles and such, though.

Replay value â€" none

And here I was hoping the super secret alternative puzzle would be good for at least something.

There are 4140 registered users here plus dozens to hundreds of anonymous lurkers, so I'd say the community is pretty big. Adventure games isn't a popular genre in the big flash sites anyway and yeah since what gives the game its weight is mostly music and sounds it wouldn't be much smaller in flash. For freeware adventure game playing crowds, most of the potential is here. And so making it in flash wouldn't give it that much more exposure.

Plus for some reason people seem to be picking up on AGS games pretty fast. I think I got on MobyGames after three days, and the Czech really seem to appreciate independent adventure game development.

And I don't think this is a game for your average Newgrounds or 123-free-flash-games.info crowd.

Anyway the total music and voice files after extraction for this game is 11,434kb + 11,179 so thats between 22 - 23 mb the rest of the files amount to 138 mb

So you can by more than half the games original size with flash ( Total being about 160mb ) 

Even if I managed to half the size in flash, I doubt anyone would care to wait for a 70MB .swf to load. Few places I could upload it too, and it would run slow as hell fullscreen. And since WinRar/InstallCreator works really well with AGS games, it cut the down the download about 100MB. I think that's pretty good.

[Brad Newsom]

I'd say adventure game's should move over to flash more mainly because it will allow vector based imagrey while avoiding problems with resolution size. No lost in detail the larger the screen is. Also all information is in Vector format, reducing the size. So really, its more efficient to make it on flash. Then again, where do you start when making an adventure game in flash. Seriously, unless someone makes an adventure engine for flash and release a template, just like what AGS does, people won't bother. So your safe for now.

[HillBilly]

I'd say adventure game's should move over to flash more mainly because it will allow vector based imagrey while avoiding problems with resolution size. No lost in detail the larger the screen is. Also all information is in Vector format, reducing the size.

But the quality reduces the performance considerably on slower computers, especially fullscreen. Besides, if you run the game in a window as it is now, it's pretty much as good as a .swf file could get.

So really, its more efficient to make it on flash. Then again, where do you start when making an adventure game in flash. Seriously, unless someone makes an adventure engine for flash and release a template, just like what AGS does, people won't bother. So your safe for now.

...And of course this too. Just thinking about programming the walking and inventory interactions makes my head spin. I haven't used actionscript since 2004, and I think they've moved up 2 versions since then.

[Afflict]

http://lassie.gmacwill.com/

Tada Flash AGS anyway I mean haven't you guys seen Nearly Departed? Or What makes you tick ?

Anyway I'm all for indy development heck, just haven't got around to mess around with Lassie yet.
The guy doesn't mind people using it for indy games.

Hillbilly seriously I think that the ppl on new grounds would love this to be honest you might even get  a daily feature which will get you probably 100k plus views Also the size will be more than half probably 30 - 40 mb

Depends on how you build it. But check out Lassie you might enjoy it

[ildu]

To me Newgrounds has always been a bit of a trashy place. It'd be like pimping your fat wife on the streets.

[Nostradamus]

When I said Flash sucks, I didn't mean flash sucked as a whole, just that it sucks for adventure games.
First as far as my experience goes you can't save games in flash, and that's crucial in an adventure game. And AGS is designed for making adventure games, and is much easier to make a game than Flash, where you have to make everything from scratch.
If Lassie is so great howcome there's only FOUR complete games made in it?   

And there aren't thousands of flash adventure games, there are only a few. Most games under the "adventure" category in flash sites are actually platform, shooters and other forms of action games. And I don't consider all those escape the room games full adventure games, they're more like One room hour games, with a play time of maximum 5-10 minutes with an overused unoriginal concept, they don't really count.

This is the AGS forum, and people here like to make adventure games with AGS, because it's easier to make games with it and friendlier to play adventure games with.
Basically what you're doing here is like going to an automated machines factory that makes a product and preaching how much better it will be if they change their method to making the products by hand only without machines to help them.
It's a lost cause - Flash is not better than AGS for adventure games in any way. Now let's give this a rest, Hillbilly already said he wouldn't do the game in Flash.

[MYKAYEL]

Flash is cool for some interactive movies and such, but NOT for adventure games. I'd pick AGS over FLASH anyday. :|

[Svartberg]

Kudos for the 1.1 patch mate.
But how come 1.1 is 66megs compared to 1.0 which was 125megs ?

[Afflict]

And AGS is designed for making adventure games, and is much easier to make a game than Flash, where you have to make everything from scratch.

Dude I didn't say flash is better your getting it wrong your obviously not reading any of my posts. I merely suggested that putting it in flash would save loads of filesize and have more exposure since the game was solved in about 15 minutes anyway. A suggestion that is fair simply because I am sure Hillbilly has flash.

When I said Flash sucks, I didn't mean flash sucked as a whole, just that it sucks for adventure games.
First as far as my experience goes you can't save games in flash, and that's crucial in an adventure game.

Yes you can save in flash like I said you obviously don't know it that well.

If Lassie is so great howcome there's only FOUR complete games made in it?   

Well for the most part I will assume because no one is gonna buy flash to use lassie unless they already own flash. That's sort of logical...

And there aren't thousands of flash adventure games, there are only a few. Most games under the "adventure" category in flash sites are actually platform, shooters and other forms of action games. And I don't consider all those escape the room games full adventure games, they're more like One room hour games, with a play time of maximum 5-10 minutes with an overused unoriginal concept, they don't really count.

MMM well to be honest most of the AGS games get solved in a couple of minutes... And no there are some of the most amazing adventure games I have ever played made in flash. Not just that I actually played some games that might even evolve the genre as a whole.

This is the AGS forum, and people here like to make adventure games with AGS, because it's easier to make games with it and friendlier to play adventure games with.
Basically what you're doing here is like going to an automated machines factory that makes a product and preaching how much better it will be if they change their method to making the products by hand only without machines to help them.

No what I am doing here was simply as stated above made a suggestion to Hillbilly. Then you had a issue about it, I clearly stated that I don't think flash is better than AGS but you seem to miss that the whole time. I think absolutely that AGS is the best Free Indi development tool out there for Adventure games. It has a very good support community in place, keeps on getting updated and upgraded and is completely free. You go on insulting flash, for no reason... I take offense to that even though we are in the AGS forum. I did not tell the whole community to flock over to Lassie and start making Flash games I merely pointed someone with the interest towards the tool. Just like I would point anyone who would like to make adventure games to AGS.

It's a lost cause - Flash is not better than AGS for adventure games in any way. Now let's give this a rest, Hillbilly already said he wouldn't do the game in Flash.

I simply request for you to read what was written. I thought this flash thing was put to rest a couple of posts ago, your the one digging it up.

*Here is the part where I apologize to Hillbilly for the clutter on his game thread.

Kudos for the 1.1 patch mate.
But how come 1.1 is 66megs compared to 1.0 which was 125megs ?

The compressed version is 66 Mb Uncompressed its 160mb, I am not sure why the one you have is 125mb 

Hillbilly?

[HillBilly]

*Here is the part where I apologize to Hillbilly for the clutter on his game thread.

I shall crush you with the power of thousand suns.

Kudos for the 1.1 patch mate.
But how come 1.1 is 66megs compared to 1.0 which was 125megs ?

The compressed version is 66 Mb Uncompressed its 160mb, I am not sure why the one you have is 125mb 

Hillbilly?

1.0 was 128MB zipped.
1.1 is 66MB zipped.

And the drastic file reduction comes from compressing the speech and videos. Your tracks suffered no damage, Svartberg. And most can't probably notice too much of a difference on the speech either.

[Goncis]

Well  On plnehry.cz they are saying the game is pretty good. Plot not amazing, but great graphic and audio professional dabbing. Recommandation for everyone. But that it has some bugs If you would like complete translation. write me on ICQ 263796664
And I must admit that this is a great game !! Now Im stuck but I wont look into solution, it will ruin the fun of succes .. Im realy glad to play this Thnx

[HillBilly]

If you would like complete translation. write me on ICQ 263796664

Of the review? I don't have ICQ but I'd love to know what it says completely.

[CoffeeBob]

Just finished this the other day. Great game, HillBilly! Although it was shorter than I expected, it was great fun while it lasted. Awesome art-style too.

[robvalue]

Thank you for making this game. It is one of the best and most professional games I have played on here.

I loved the graphics, the voice acting and the puzzles. Everything about it!

I found the puzzles logical and solved them without resorting to a walthrough which I think is a sign of a well designed game. Hope to see more from you!

[forest_guru]

I run the game, press new game and *bah* Black screen with voice in background... Windows XP, installed cccp codecs and nothing changed... please change video codec... I really want to play this game  :'(

[paperella007]

hello, could you give the solution of earl mansin please?
thank you
bye bye

Very cool little game, HillBilly. I just took a look in the mirror when I woke up this morning (before shaving or washing my hair), and I realized that Earl Mansin looks a lot more like me than any other adventure game character. 

Some of the puzzles pissed me off, though:

Spoiler

When I'd got the first sheet, I wanted to just cut off a small piece to make a chloroform rag. Earl refuses, and instead I have to click on a secret hotspot in the clothes bin to find one. Also, when the sheet wasn't long enough for a rope, I immediately tried cutting it in strips, but Earl wouldn't use the scissors then either. But then it turns out this was the right solution after all! I just had to pick up the other sheets first. Extremely frustrating. There should at least be feedback when you try reasonable actions that would accomplish the task at hand. Also, after throwing the brick the first time it disappears inside the case, and can neither be seen nor clicked on. The game gives no indication that it can be picked up again. That's pretty unfair.

[close]

If it wasn't for the walkthrough I don't think I would have completed the game. It isn't fun to know how a puzzle should be solved but not be able to do it because the game insists on doing the actions a certain way or in a certain order. Hopefully you'll take this in the spirit it's intended: constructive criticism.

[Barbarian]

Hiya Hillbilly.  I was away from the AGS scene for a while, so I only just downloaded and played your Earl Mansin game recently.

Great job! It's come a long way from way-back-when I helped ya to fix a couple of the bugs in the early stages.

Overall, I enjoyed it, even if some of the puzzles were a bit obscure. The wry humor was well done. The graphics suited this style of game nicely (though a minor gripe might be no locator-dot on the pointers, and was sometimes hard to correctly know where to position on things).  The voice acting was nicely done and gave more "personality" to the characters.  The various movie-style-cutscenes were quite well done as well.  So, a big congratz on providing us with a nice entertaining game

Look forward to seeing more from you in future. Best regards!

[Bohnito]

I run the game, press new game and *bah* Black screen with voice in background... Windows XP, installed cccp codecs and nothing changed... please change video codec... I really want to play this game  :'(

same problem

[DuckAndCower]

This is one of the best AGS games I've played. Definitely professional quality.

[HillBilly]

Hey,

Thanks for the comments! About the video bug, I have a hard time solving it without experiencing it myself. Some people got it fixed by installing CCCP, some not. You could try googling for the "MS Mpeg4 v2" codec, and see if that helps. Alternatively, try experimenting with winsetup.exe, run the game in a window etc. If all else fails, burn the game on a CD and play it on another computer(if you have access to one).

If anyone experiencing this problem manage to solve it, please share.