A Tale Of Two Kingdoms (Deluxe Edition)

Started by Radiant, Mon 16/07/2007 00:55:56

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Radiant



A Tale of Two Kingdoms is a graphical adventure in the style of the classic Sierra games. Set in the world of Celtic mythology and fairy tales, it features many sidequests and alternate endings. This release is a Deluxe Edition with a new interactive prologue, several graphic updates, and professional voice acting.

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The ancient kingdom of Theylinn is beset by enemies. Within the castle walls, nobles vie for the old king's favor, and not everybody is happy with the sole heir to the throne, princess Rhiannon. Meanwhile, danger approaches, in the form of an invading army, a hostile giant, and a mercenary troop who are ancient enemies of the Theylann king...

Download from Steam, or Humble Bundle, or from Itch.io. The game is DRM-free.



Nikolas

#1
Please note, that we are reuploading the zip file, due to some tiny details, that I missed. (so thank me for the delay). Should be up in less than half an hour, but the exe file is already uploaded for you to start playing.

Enjoy :)

EDIT: Uploading coplete. There is no problem with the game, that we are aware of at the moment.

ildu

Umm is it a new build or what...? I downloaded the game before your post, Nik.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

I know this game has been a long time coming for you and the team so congratulations are in order.  It's good to see a long standing project finished.

Nikolas

Quote from: ildu on Mon 16/07/2007 01:50:14
Umm is it a new build or what...? I downloaded the game before your post, Nik.
The same build.

There was a savegame left in the zip file (not the exe from the AGS site) which crashed the game. I removed it and uploaded the zip file again.

No fix yet... :)

pslim

Look great. Downloading now.  :)
 

Ghost

#6
Whahey, I was so waiting for this- downloading *and* brewing some coffee!

EDIT: Already astonished. This is a level of detail and style I've last seen in the KQ2 Remake, and ATOTK seems to outrun this. Congrats to the team.

Also, I would like to announce my first victory at the boardgame  ;D

i k a r i

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! This is out?!

Oh damnnnn, thanks.

I remember the first time I saw the GiP thread for this game, the first thing I thought was "perfect", the story and idea fits me perfectly, I can't wait to play it  ;D
QuoteWell, one think is not liking him, and the other is making humour of the retarder people!
Nacho speaking of Bush.

cosmicr

#8
wow the graphics look very nice indeed, as does the atotk website, however, that crystal shard website takes me back to 1997!

edit: just had a play. amazing. best presented ags game I've seen so far. the sierra feel has been captured perfectly. however, too much dialogue! I just want to get straight into the game, but all I've done for the last half hour is read dialogue!  when I get some more time I will play it properly. but well done!

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

It's out?!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

anyone

the sprites in the game looks like to be designed for resolution 640 x400 rather than 320 x 200, in lower resolutoin they are looking not as should be I guess

Fizzii

Quotethe sprites in the game looks like to be designed for resolution 640 x400 rather than 320 x 200, in lower resolutoin they are looking not as should be I guess

They were designed for 320x200 resolution, so I don't know why they don't look good at 320x200 ingame (I myself use 640x400 as I play the game in the window since my monitor is so big). I'm guessing it has something to do with the scaling in AGS, and maybe it works better at the higher resolution, but I wouldn't know for sure.

Quotetoo much dialogue! I just want to get straight into the game, but all I've done for the last half hour is read dialogue!  when I get some more time I will play it properly. but well done!
lol. Well, it's rather necessary to establish the background, characters and plot, and this is a rather complex game, so dialogue is needed to explain a fair amount of this. Glad you like the game so far though. :)

Radiant

Quote from: Fizzii on Mon 16/07/2007 10:03:51
I'm guessing it has something to do with the scaling in AGS, and maybe it works better at the higher resolution, but I wouldn't know for sure.
That is correct - scaling is sharper on a higher resolution.

In 320x200, if a sprite is displayed full-size, every pixel of the sprite is on-screen. If a sprite is displayed half-size, only 1/4th of the pixels are displayed.
In 640x400, if a sprite is displayed full-size, every pixel of the sprite is displayed as a 2x2 block of pixels on-screen, which looks the same as in 320x200. If the sprite is half-sized, every pixel of the sprite is still visible, albeit not as a 2x2 block. Hope that made sense.

Meerbat

Well, this would be probably as good a time as any for my first post on the forums.  :=
Hope you guys enjoy playing our game!

Charity

This is brilliant.  I love it.  One thing though - the psuedo-archaic dialogue feels a little forced and distracting, especially at the beginning, when you are just getting to know the characters.  I'm sure this was to be atmospheric, but sometimes I think it's better to just admit that we don't speak Old English any more, and let characters speak more naturally, even if it is anachronistic, 'cause let's face it, if the average person can read it without getting a headache, it's probably anachronistic anyway.

That said, the art and scripting are incredible, the puzzles generally don't feel like the same thing over and over, and the plot is reasonably complex - more than I've seen in a lot of amateur games.  It really does feel kind of like playing an old Sierra game, especially with the somewhat open ended gameplay.

Jon

Great game, a real contender for many AGS awards!

Groogokk

A fine game indeed, with absolutely fantastic graphics and great music. What seriously gets on my nerves is the pseudo-shakespearean language. Words and phrases like "lest" and "Know you where..." that don't fit in with the rest of the dialogues stand out like a snail in a salad bowl. That won't keep me from playing though  :-\

deadsuperhero

The fediverse needs great indie game developers! Find me there!

Peder 🚀

Yay!!!

I will download this as soon as I get my laptop online again..
Looking good!!

This really took me by suprise, never expected this to come out now :P.

P S


deadsuperhero

It's great, but there's a very bad problem...Saving.
I got pretty far, saved, then quit.
I start it up again, and now my saves are gone.
What happened?
The fediverse needs great indie game developers! Find me there!

Radiant

Quote from: Alliance on Mon 16/07/2007 21:07:35
I start it up again, and now my saves are gone.
What happened?
That's very odd. Perhaps your disk was full? Did you run the game from the zipfile? Perhaps the saves ended up in the wrong folder for some reason? Try running a search (there should be a search button in your START menu) for files named "agssave".

Storygamer

I'm enjoying this game immensely.  I have found a number of bugs and mistakes.  Most of them don't really detract from the game experience, but there are a couple of things you might want to change.

First off, the two biggest problems--there are at least two spots where you can ask a question in dialogue that should not be available without more information (I'm only up to Chapter 4 so there might be more).  These are the spots, enclosed in spoilers:

Spoiler
When I speak to the jeweller woman after re-entering Carbonek, as soon as I introduce myself as Brann, 2 dialogue options become available which refer to the fact that she has my magic belt--in spite of the fact that the belt is NOT in the shop and the woman has NOT mentioned it, so I have no way of knowing she has it.

When I speak to the cider woman in the village in the 4th Chapter, I am given the option "Who is the robed girl I saw in the orchard?", in spite of the fact that I had not yet visited the orchard that day and had never seen any robed girl there.
[close]

Second, the castle escape--
Spoiler
The stairs you have to take after exiting your room are nearly impossible to notice.  I tried everything after leaving that room, and finally went to check the Hints and Tips forums.  Even AFTER reading that there was a second set of stairs near the guest room, I still couldn't find them right away.  I would strongly suggest making those stairs more visible or noticeable somehow
[close]

Third, there's a rather funny bug during the castle escape.  When standing in the barracks, if you use the vase on Gereint or the guard, it does display the appropriate message--but the bug is that before that message is displayed, Gereint or the guard will say whatever it is they would have said if you used the vase on them earlier.  The result is that if I use the vase on Gereint, for example, he says "I think that vase is from the king's chamber," in spite of the fact that he's not supposed to even know I'm there.

Finally, with regards to the language--I see a lot of complaints here about it but I actually like the medieval-ish language.  The only problem with it is that every now and then you use a word wrong.  For example, the bridge scout says "ought" when I think you mean "nought".  Also, Gereint says "three years hence" when referring to an event three years ago.  "Hence" means "after" or "in the future".

Other than those things, this game is amazing!  One of the best AGS games I have ever played.  That intro movie is terrific, it really sets the scene and draws the player in.  The story is fun, the puzzles are challenging but not frustrating, the graphcis and music are superb, and the game is just overall fantastic.

deadsuperhero

Quote from: Radiant on Mon 16/07/2007 21:32:16
Quote from: Alliance on Mon 16/07/2007 21:07:35
I start it up again, and now my saves are gone.
What happened?
That's very odd. Perhaps your disk was full? Did you run the game from the zipfile? Perhaps the saves ended up in the wrong folder for some reason? Try running a search (there should be a search button in your START menu) for files named "agssave".
No, I put it all in its own folder.

Spoiler
Also, I can't find the coin anymore. It's just gone, and I think I need it to make a wish. Do I have to restart?
[close]
The fediverse needs great indie game developers! Find me there!

Radiant

Quote from: Alliance on Mon 16/07/2007 22:13:13
Spoiler
Also, I can't find the coin anymore. It's just gone, and I think I need it to make a wish. Do I have to restart?
[close]
No.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

Ah, got to playing to it, finally.

What can I say? Everything about it is absolutely gorgeous. Characters, story, gameplay (very King's Quest!), art, music, dialog... congratulations on a job marvelously done.
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

i k a r i

Whyyyy..

I've gotta say I was enjoying this AGS game like no other,
Spoiler
I made it to the camp after escaping
[close]

And then after saving my progress went to work...
When I arrived all my savegames were gone!, I was wondering if any of the game developers could give me a savegame up to this state. The game closed correctly so there is no bug I could report, well, I think I'll do it all again, its not much if I already know what to do. And I'll get to hear the music again  ;D

Thanks for this amazing game, no really, thanks.
QuoteWell, one think is not liking him, and the other is making humour of the retarder people!
Nacho speaking of Bush.

m0ds

Save game issue sounds similar to the problem we had with the FoY demo, which occured through the use of an EXE installer. Once that issue is corrected, I will definitely download!!!!

Khris

This game is really great, I especially love the music.

(Unnecessary) Installers always bug me, so the first thing I did after installing was copying everything to another directory and uninstalling it. I'm really glad that saved my savegames, too :D

jenimad

I'm having a good time playing the game so far, even if I keep getting stuck (probably more my issue than the game's)-

I did come across a bug, though (cut for mostly non-spoilers, but I'll try and be careful)-

Spoiler
For some reason the game's chapters went a little wonky on me- I was in Chapter Three, it gave me a cutscene of the two people talking about things I didn't know yet, and I started Chapter Five... only to shortly get bumped back, starting Chapter Six.  I don't know if that messed something up, but it was strange.  I'm not quite sure how I did it even.
[close]

Radiant

Quote from: m0ds on Tue 17/07/2007 01:52:00
Save game issue sounds similar to the problem we had with the FoY demo, which occured through the use of an EXE installer.
Could you please elaborate?

If the .EXE installer is the problem, we also have a nice ZIP file to install the game.

http://crystalshard.net/atotk.php?page=down

(I've updated the AGS games.php page to point there)

buloght

#31
Quote from: Radiant on Tue 17/07/2007 09:08:00
Quote from: m0ds on Tue 17/07/2007 01:52:00
Save game issue sounds similar to the problem we had with the FoY demo, which occured through the use of an EXE installer.
Could you please elaborate?

If the .EXE installer is the problem, we also have a nice ZIP file to install the game.

http://crystalshard.net/atotk.php?page=down

(I've updated the AGS games.php page to point there)


This happened to me too. When you immediately say "play game now" after intalling without exiting the installer, it loses your save games. But only the first time when you exit and go back to play. After that saving is no problem. So just don't play the game immediately, quit the installer (after installing and go in through the desktop item or directory), The save games only dissapeared that first time (when using the installer the play now) ... if you know what I mean.  After that saving is fine.


[edit] Great game so far, very polished and the amount of effort is tremendous (and I believe I recognised one sprite of big brother). The art is great, slightly inconsistent, but that is too be expected for such a large number of people working on it. Some rooms are weaker than others and slightly different in style and texturing. so with portraits, but it is slight and doesn't make the game feel any less 'together'.

There are confusing things. For one:
Spoiler

the jeweller, chancellor and stable boy have no idea who I am after I go back into the city which is unrealistic since you dined with them the previous day and talked to him in the stables.
[close]
The puzzles, too
Spoiler

the comb fits in the hole but the sword blade not, that is weird. When standing in the corner of the room (at night in castle) to avoid the guard who checks on the falling statue, it's probably just room design, but if he didn't see you there he is blind. A large dark shadow (like in desperados or commandos) would have been perfect too. The jumping in the water from the pier was weird too, it happened more by accident than me having the intention.  Also the vase with scepter, I doubt a king would put a scepter just there, it was just weird, felt like a forced puzzle.
[close]

And I wondered why
Spoiler

I just couldn't swim back into the city  :D (reach)
[close]

Anyways, just some illogical things. It's a great game, it has a real professional feel. Congratulations on finishing such a big and beautiful game, team radiant.

Quote
A Tale of Two Kingdoms is an epic faerie tale, in the classic style of the famous Sierra and LucasArts graphical adventure games
I'd say 100% sierra and 0% lucasarts.

SSH

Its something to do with the working directory when the game is launched, I think
12

paolo

#33
The game has just crashed on me. Here's what I did:

Spoiler

* Talk to druid
* Select "Could you do something for me..."
* Go to inventory
* Click on hand icon
* Click on key
* Inventory remains open with message "You can ... like" obscured underneath it.
* Click to advance dialog.
* Game crashes with:

---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An internal error has occured. Please note down the following information.
If the problem persists, contact Chris Jones.
(ACI version 2.72.920)

Error: run_text_script1: error -6 running function 'unhandled_event':
Error: Array index out of bounds (index: -1, bounds: 0..99)
in Global script (line 2620)


---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------
[close]

And I agree on the language - I'll comment more when I've finished the game. However, Storygamer, "ought" is OK ("ought" or "aught" means "anything", so "have you heard ought" is correct).

Radiant

Quote from: paolo on Tue 17/07/2007 15:01:57
The game has just crashed on me. Here's what I did:

Thanks for pointing this out. We shall release a v1.1 update shortly to fix this, and other miscellaneous issues brought up.

Note that this issue can be bypassed by clicking the arrow, rather than the hand, and then closing the inventory; thus it should not impede your progress.

paolo

#35
Quote from: Radiant on Tue 17/07/2007 15:34:12
Quote from: paolo on Tue 17/07/2007 15:01:57
The game has just crashed on me. Here's what I did:

Thanks for pointing this out. We shall release a v1.1 update shortly to fix this, and other miscellaneous issues brought up.

Note that this issue can be bypassed by clicking the arrow, rather than the hand, and then closing the inventory; thus it should not impede your progress.

That's good - I look forward to seeing the update. I suppose it won't work with games saved in v1.

Unfortunately the arrow does not do what I want - when I
Spoiler
click on the arrow and then the item, I temporarily have the item, but if I use the hand, I get a message that looks as if there is a message saying that the druid is giving the item to me [I'm particularly keen to get hold of that key and the self-bored stone], so the effect is not the same.
[close]
Thanks.

Update: Ah, I see now - I just need to use the item on myself.

i k a r i

Buloght

Spoiler
they can't recognize you because of the spell your friend casted on you, the spell to ignore your identity
[close]

Spoiler
When you say he can't swim back you mean when he gets tired of swimming much?, it happens after 8 screens (I think)
[close]
QuoteWell, one think is not liking him, and the other is making humour of the retarder people!
Nacho speaking of Bush.

buloght

Quote from: i k a r i on Tue 17/07/2007 17:19:44
Buloght

Spoiler
they can't recognize you because of the spell your friend casted on you, the spell to ignore your identity
[close]

I missed that in the dialoque, my mistake then :)

Balin

I remembered reading about this on the AGDI forums a long while back, and had semi-forgotten about it. Glad to see that it's finished! As of this post I'm about 60% done downloading, and I can't wait to play it!  8)

pslim

Just wanted to let you know that my friend and I are playing this right now and we're really enjoying it. I plan to give a more useful review when I'm finished.  :=
 

Danyul

#40
Just completed the game tonight.
Your game is one of the best i've played.
I'm currently replaying to try and achieve 100% stats.  ;)
Ahh shaddapa ya face.

GradyTn

Finished your game and there is much to congratulate you for. Good music, graphics, animation, a really well put together game, professional in many ways. Very reminiscent of the King's Quest genre. However, I find myself walking away from it somewhat unenthusiastically. Perhaps it was that some of the puzzles were somewhat obscure, or that having to fight my way through some or searching to find what to do next fractured the flow of the narrative, or that there was too much dying (never liked that in older games) or, at least in one case, performing the correct action to complete a chapter was a problem.

I should say that I was never a fan of the King's Quest genre so that should put things into perspective. Nonetheless, this is a really fine effort, a top notch creation in many ways, and I'll be playing your next one.

Thanks and kudos.


pslim

I just managed to crash the game.  The error message is:

"in Room script (line 79)"
Error: SetCharacterSpeechView invalid view number

What I did:

Spoiler
I tried to talk to the goblin wearing boxer shorts in the room south of the Druid's home after entering the hamlet disguised as a goblin.
[close]
 

TheJBurger

Warning: Very long post.

Congratulations on finishing the game. You've really managed to create a King's Quest--Quest For Glory hybrid, and pulled it off very nicely. Perhaps the most impressive thing is that you succeeded in creating a living, breathing world, with characters, animals, a long history, and managed to pull it around a well-told story with very enjoyable open-ended gameplay. I noticed for the first time in a long time that I was having fun just exploring in an adventure game, and just doing random things. When I got stuck, I moved on to another problem; there was always so much to do.

Most of the puzzles seemed very logical, and in different varieties. However one puzzle seemed kind of illogical to me:
Spoiler
I couldn't even find the hole containing the comb, and even if I did find it (without help) why would I be looking for the comb there?
[close]

I just finished the game on a lesser ending and I'm going to try and get a better ending. However, I thought I'd post my comments now.

I have a really long list of critique, comments, and suggestions. Most of these are VERY minor, such as a walkbehind that is off by 5-10 pixels, but I thought I'd list them anyway since it would help perfect the game, even in the tiniest manor.

Please note, the game is amazing and these are all minor details, only offered as constructive criticism.

Here it goes:
(Spoilers below)
Spoiler

- The intro, though necessary to explain the story and set up a premise, felt too long with too much dialogue.

- The autosaves were well implemented and I appreciated them.

- When trying to escape from the castle at the beginning, I found it kind of annoying that when clicking on certain hotspots you would get spotted by the guard instantly. While on the other hand, waiting 5 seconds would not get you spotted.

- In the castle bedroom (when you are a prisoner) the guard  walks in front of the stone wall on the right. The walkbehind is incomplete.

- When you talk to the guard in basement next to the general when sneaking, the general still says the castle guards are not to talk to you.

- Interacting with doors gives messages that you tried to open them while not even walking to them. This isn't a bad design element; it's nice to not have to wait for the character to walk, except it makes no sense especially when you're sneaking around the castle and outside of town.

- At the pier, the ocean stops animating sometimes and it looks awkward.

- The music in the camp abruptly stops (intentionally I presume) and in my opinion, it gets a little irritating.

- Sometimes swimming upwards/downwards will break a walkbehind area in front of a rock. The character will be drawn in front of the rock.

- In the scene with the shipwrecked boat you can walk directly on what appears to be a cliff from the beach. Intentional?

- When controling other characters, they say "You cannot use the INVENTORY ITEM on itself." But I think this should be first person because you have switched characters.

- When going down in the inventory, the UP button appears. But when you go UP again, it stays there even when you can't go up. Clicking UP again will cause the button to disappear.

- After the storm outside the Jeweler's, I could walk up and down the cliff and never fall off.

- I could talk to the cider woman about the girl in robes before I ever even saw the girl.

- When having the druid "touch" the stone, he says a message that is hidden behind the GUI, then he says he cannot use the item on itself.

- When showing the sword to the blacksmith, he says "Seeing the quality of the blade, the blacksmith nods appreciatively." The narrarator should be saying this instead.

- After getting the Dark Lord's help, you can ask for it again and repeat the same conversation to no avail.

- When using items on the mouse (animal), the mouse's name does not exist, for example "There is no need to slash the  with your sword."

- When givng the wool cloak to the goblin (and perhaps other chars?) they say, "I'm sorry sir, but I cannot take back used clothing." This is the tailor's line. Intentional?

- When giving gold to the prisoned tailor, he still acts as if he was in the shop.
[close]

In no way really did any of those detract from the overall experience. I haven't had this much fun in an adventure game in a long time.

Thanks for making it.

Radiant

Thank you for your comments. I'll look into that, and those bugs seem easily fixable. No matter how much you test a game, once it goes live and hundreds of people start playing it, details will come up :)

Quote from: TheJBurger on Wed 18/07/2007 08:11:54
Spoiler
I couldn't even find the hole containing the comb, and even if I did find it (without help) why would I be looking for the comb there?
[close]
The pooka put it there. Blossom can tell you this.

Charity

Alright, finished it on (one of?) the 'good but with some loose ends' endings and I wanted to report some glitches.

Spoiler
If you give gifts to the Pooka inside the fairy kingdom, after having given her a previous gift, the next time you enter you will need to pass the test again, and if you talk to your bard friend, he will tell that your next goal should be to enter there, instead of to rescue the druid village  whatever your actual current task is.

There were also a ton of glitches during the rabbit quest.  If you walk off the cliff by the jeweller's, as a rabbit, instead of dying you turn back into a human, and if you return to the scarecrow scene, it starts the next chapter automatically.  (This part almost felt scripted, as no other point that I know of allowed you to jump off the cliff and live, and I think there was even a message of some sort, but the plot never seemed to suggest that long falls reverse transformations, and there were the ither glitches.)
If you talk to the castle guard as a rabbit you get to reenter and see the princess again, still as a rabbit, though of course you can't survive.
Sometimes during the fox chase the fox seems to disappear.  Not sure what causes this.
Glitches if you enter the scarecrow scene with a fox already chases you.
You can still climb through the window into the monastery, but the fox still follows you.
Rabbit form won't cross the bridge when being chased.  Or won't always?  Some people seem to have managed it.  I used a lilypad.
I didn't notice any glitches on the other side of the river.

Unrelated to the rabbit, if you give the key to the monk and then ask him to open the case with the orb, he still says that the key was lost.  Also, if you use the key to steal the orb, and then give the key to the monk, you still get honor points.  I don't know if that was intentional or not, but it's awesome.
[close]

Iv4n

Wow! This game is out already? I still can't believe! I was waiting for it and no word for it here or in the forums... But that doesn't matter. I'll now download, turn off the lights... thank you thank you thank youuuuuuuuuu :)

ManicMatt

I've had a quick go on this, looking good! Is this game was any further polished I'd go blind!   ;)

Im still at the start, but I was enjoying the music when..

Spoiler
I was playing the board game. Beat him on my third go! It's that reversi game or whatever it's called as a triangle! Interesting! Also surprised to find a game in a game! Who do you think you are, Rockstar?   :P  :)
[close]

Kurdt

I guess like most other people I'm amazed this is out already. I guess I don't really frequent places where there would be anything in the way of news updates for the game, so I had no idea as to how far along (or if it was going along at all) the game was. I haven't downloaded it yet, but I'll do so the first chance I get and let you know what I think. Congrats on adding another cool game on the pile of indie adventures. There's nothing quite like the completion of something you've spent a lot of time working on.
"The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything."

buloght

Well I finished (not at 100%). Really nice game. Am I glad I did because that 3d cutscene is awesome, da_elf did it right?

Spoiler

Maeldun calls himself a warrior but the game freezes when one goblin is on screen see you and it kills you without you even having a chance to react. On the rope ladder puzzle, would have been much more logical with Branwyn standing on your shoulders, throwing a dagger is an odd solution.
[close]

All in all, an ags classic. I think the most important things for me that made the game slightly less than it could have been, was the inconsistent art (bgs and portraits especially, and I recognised some of your actors, especially the bunny) and the trial and error.

Anyways, I'm only commmenting so because this is definitely one of the most complete and awesome ags games yet.  The depth of plot and characters are deep man :)  Goodluck with your future games, team radiant, it will surely be awesomer even.


Radiant

Quote from: buloght on Fri 20/07/2007 12:15:30
Spoiler

Maeldun calls himself a warrior
[close]

Spoiler

As hinted at by the backstory and by Branwyn's dialogues, he's not really the warrior of the group - she is. The mercenary troop is hers; Maeldun is more of a diplomatic and/or sneaky kind of guy.
[close]

buloght

I know that radiant, but
Spoiler

he is still a warrior, he must be trained, he carries with him a sword (and dagger), he should at least be able to defend himself, he can't be that hepless. I don't believe that. He sparred with the goblin leader (even though he won via sneaky method). A warrior is a still a warrior, thiefs and assasins would defend themselves if trapped.
[close]

Fizzii

Spoiler
The goblin could always call for the rest of the army to back him up ;) Maeldun is trained, but nowhere near as good a fighter as Branwyn or Geraint
[close]

TheJBurger

I still haven't beat it (stuck in chapter 8 ), but no one is helping me in the hints & tips thread, or they don't know how.
Spoiler
I'm stuck on the staircase in the castle after defeating the monster in the bedroom. I don't know how to wake the princess up or open the gate. And I don't have the flute, so am I in a walking dead?
[close]

I'd also like to report some more bugs. Apologies if these have already been said:
Spoiler

- When being taken into the castle by the guards after revealing your identity, the walkbehind on the right of the castle wall is incomplete.

- In the later chapters, sometimes the man in the camp tells you the wrong thing when you ask him what to do. I found one cause of this; (CHAPTER 6) if you give back the goblin crown to the goblins, then the man tells you to go back to the forest village and look for something the goblins left.

- When transformed into a rabbit, I proceeded to cross the stone bridge and while there, the fox disappeared from my trail. I went back to the scarecrow and the "Uh oh! A fox!" message popped up again. A fox was nowhere to be seen but it ate me anyway after 5 seconds.

- When going into the goblin camp as a rabbit, the goblins still act is if you were a human by greeting you.

- As a rabbit, going south from the goblin camp turns you into a human before the hill, and then back into a rabbit at the top of the hill.

- Talking to the rope ladder gives the response, "Strangely enough, the  does not respond."

- Talking to the statue on the castle stairs gives the response, "Strangely enough, the  does not respond."
[close]

snoopy

 I had the same save game problem
but i did what Radiant on the A tale of two kingdoms message board said and renamed files starting with 0
and so far it worked.
Thanks Radiant
Just wondering do you have vista because i have vista and maybe this save game deleting only happens on vista?

John

Meerbat

buloght -
The jack rabbit? I don't even remember which page I got it from, but it wasn't Durer  ;) Though, yes, pretty much all of the reference pictures I used were google-able... I was hoping it would be more amusing than detracting to sometimes use familiar faces (it was also easier for me to find suitable models in the right poses).

Charity

Pretty major bug.  Kestrel mentioned this in the hints thread, but I thought it should go here, just in case.

Spoiler
After finding the the assassin and showing the truth gem to the princess, the cutscene plays out like normal until the princess says it's time to apprehend the assassin, at which point the game crashes with this message:

Error: run_text_script1: error -6 running function 'on_call':
Error: Script appears to be hung (150001 while loop iterations without an update) in Room 81 script (line 41)
[close]

Fizzii

Yes, it has been fixed in v1.1, which hopefully will be put up soon.

GreenBoy

Great game fully enjoying it.  Though I have noticed a few bugs.

Spoiler
When you show the scarecrow your dagger he uses the same reply as the blacksmith.
And in the 4th Chapter when you meet the druid a second time and click talk on him he starts using the same dialog as your Bard friend.   (I forget his name)

Very weird.
[close]

Fizzii

#59
Version 1.1 has been released! Reported bugs and crashes have been fixed up to yesterday, and there should no longer be any show stoppers.

Download here

(The installer still says version 1.0, but it is actually version 1.1)

Edit: For those who already have downloaded v1.0 of the game and don't want to redownload the full 95Mb, the .exe can be downloaded here (22.17MB):
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NEEUX950

Unzip the file and replace the existing .exe in the ATOTK folder with this file. (Note: Saved games WILL NOT work with this file.)

Vel

My oh my, first the infinity string, now this - it's a great year for AGS games, indeed!
I played it for about an hour, and I must say it feels very Sierry, in the best possible way, it somehow reminds me of the king's quest and quest for glory games' atmosphere. Although I haven't fully explored the possibilities of alternate endings and solutions, I congratulate you for doing the effort to implement such thought by many unnecessary things. It should really enhance the experience.
Congratulations on completing the game again, I'll post an in-depth review once I finish it.

Wellington

#61
A game like this DEMANDS a full review, but I don't know where to post it.

So I'll write it now, and post it here. I'll try to keep it spoiler-light. That said, if you want absolutely everything about the game to be a surprise, don't read on. There is also a spoiler for Full Throttle in there, because some things are too glorious to hide behind spoiler tags.

A Tale of Two Kingdoms (v. 1.1)
Publisher: Crystal Shard (Independent)
Release: 2007

SUMMARY: I expected this game to be as spectacularly bad as its introduction, and it continually disappointing me by being very, very good.

AToTK vs. Grim Fandango, Round One, FIGHT!

A Tale of Two Kingdoms is more fun than it has any right to be. Between a clumsy introduction, flat characters, constant and annoying death, one major side-plot that fails catastrophically, and another major side-plot that fails more subtly, it ought to have been an ordeal.

But it's more fun than large swaths of Grim Fandango, which is both upsetting and gratifying.  Grim Fandango is more gorgeous, more funny, more challenging, more memorable, and more quotable, full of clever moments and shining wit and ingenious set-pieces, the kind of game that theoretically converts non-adventure gamers into adventure gamers with its brilliance. So it's shocking to see A Tale of Two Kingdoms succeed in places where Grim Fandango fails. It's like seeing a puppy crush a Sherman tank. This is also why it is gratifying.

How is this possible? Since this is a spoiler-free review, I'll explain with reference to a hypothetical example.

KQVI-Lite:

In Hypothetical Quest (or, if you prefer, Strange Flamenco) you meet a young boy whose dog has been captured by a giant aphid.

LucasArts version: You improvise a Giant Aphid Costume from a yellow robe, wooden legs, etc.

KQVI version: Killing the aphid requires fixing a broken flyswatter. Alternatively, you can call on the Ladybug Queen to truss up the aphid, but only if you saved her life earlier. Saving the Ladybug Queen is impossible if you traded the Ladybug Pendant for the key to the Flyswatter Shop, and you can't fix the swatter if you sacrificed it to enter the Ladybug Queen's realm. Thus, partially solving each puzzle renders both impossible, and the game unwinnable.

A Tale of Two Kingdoms version: If you won a pen in a game of quoits OR stole one, THEN used it to forge a letter and save the Friendly Local Urchin from hanging (OR broke him out of jail), AND found the Potion of Spider Transformation, you can turn the urchin into a Spider Warrior, who eats the aphid. Alternatively, if you reforged the Flyswatter of the Tuatha, you can swat the aphid and save the dog. Otherwise, the dog dies.

But! The death of the dog does not prevent you from finishing the game; you have a world to save, after all. The ending will change, possibly by the addition of a downer-scene in which you see the little boy crying for his dog, and you may be locked out of some other puzzles. But you can ALWAYS win, and there are a lot of dogs to rescue, and each one gives you a little score boost and more dog-rescuing tools.

Yes, I intend to abuse this metaphor as far as it will go.

So although AToTK seems KQVI-inspired, it never makes aphid food of the player. It might tantalize with a now-unrescueable dog, and the dog-rescuing puzzle may be genuinely unfair, but it's still optional. The weakest endings may be dreary, but they are also victories on one level or another, and they point to places where improvement is possible. And when an aphid costume absolutely must be made, multiple sets of pieces are available, and if you've lost some of them, somebody will find a way to supply you with another. The more you of them you find unaided, the higher your score goes. This system, in which one's degree of success can be read in one's score and ending, allows the nastiest frustrations to be avoided.

This sounds like a cop-out, a game that lets the player refuse to play it. But it isn't, because the player always has something to aim for, and a convenient NPC is always ready to suggest exactly what that is.  Yes, there are a few situations in which one can walk into danger without a needed item, but the game disables saving in these potentially nasty cases, and often autosaves immediately before. And even when the best endings are locked out, the story still has some impetus. Not only is the game always completable, it is impossible, as far as I can tell, for the player to be locked out of an ending in which good triumphs on some level.

AToTK allows multiple paths to victory, and always keeps side-quests open so that there's something to do, and this is why AToTK, played casually, with no regard for solving ALL of the puzzles, is just more fun than several sections of Grim Fandango.

Don't get me wrong - Grim Fandango has a lot of fun parts. But frustrating sections drain adventure games of their fun quickly. The early segments of Grim Fandango, as well as a few puzzles at mid-game, are particularly bad for this. Grim Fandango, tied as it was to an extremely linear story, couldn't afford too many optional puzzles or situations. It thus became a sort of specialized torture machine whenever the player hit a stumbling block. In many ways, an adventure game is judged on its failures. What I remember most vividly about King's Quest V are the places where it was grotesquely unfair.

Being as broad and player-friendly as AToTK is hard. The side-quests effectively double the playable size of the game without doubling its frustration factor, but make things very hard on the designers and testers. If the player can end up holding certain items late in the game on some playthroughs, but not others, meticulous planning is required. One could have each object solve one puzzle and one puzzle only, but that's boring and predictable, and AToTK eschews that sort of cheap trick, instead electing to increase its design burden by giving some optional objects up to three uses. I suspect that Adventure Game Player Heaven is filled with multiple-use, optional items- as is Adventure Game Designer Hell.

In spite of this complicatedness- and it was sometimes possible to see the gears whirring, in the forms of shifting event triggers - I ran into very few bugs, and generally, when I wanted to try something reasonable but game-breaking, the game explained why I couldn't. Why can't I light a lantern with a candle up on the wall? It's too high, or it's at a lousy angle, or whatever - the game explained. There were exceptions, of course; ordering other people to look at themselves or other people gave strangely uninformative messages, but in general, everything worked. In a game of this scope, this is magnificent. The designers of AToTK really understand the importance of attention to implementation detail. And spell-checking.

So, no matter how many arbitrary deaths AToTK throws at you, it makes it very clear that it does not hate you, and wants you to win. And so, if you're playing to win, this is an intensely fun game. If you don't mind a bit of a downer in the ending, and aren't too picky about writing, that's all that should matter. Just play it.

Summary of Pros:

* Forgiving gameplay.
* Lots of fun things to do.
* Polished execution, at least along the main branch.

On the Other Hand...

But while AToTK dramatically outdoes the commercial classics in many ways, it fails to measure up to them in others. Yes, it's much better than the weaker sections of Grim Fandango, but it isn't as good as the whole game. This may have something to do with the lack of a massive budget and long experience, but there are other reasons why AToTK sometimes fails to meet that bar.

First, the story is only engaging about half of the time. In theory, it should work better than that, since it's a stronger story than most games get. A gentle opening is interrupted by a series of tense scenes that give the hero a problem to deal with. Complications occur, little set-pieces ratchet the tension up, there's a wide-open midgame, and the whole deal is tied up neatly in the end. There are no subplots that involve searching for Six Spirit Gems to reforge the Dagger of Plottiness. There are few fetch-quests, and they're usually disguised or complicated subtly. When the hero wants to help people, it's because they have real problems to deal with, not because they've lost Random Object No. 152.

So, what's the problem?

Engaging stories demand engaging characters. Not well-written characters - a flat character can drive a decent story, if the player's given control over that character's destiny. But the ones that the player spends the most time with should be interesting. This does not happen.

In AToTK, the player has two sidekicks. Consider the more interesting one. He's pretty likeable, offering useful advice and quirky asides. One optional, totally incidental scene that does not involve the player, or, for that matter, any real action by this NPC, managed, somehow, to perfectly solidify his character for me. Yet his role in the story is minimal. He dispenses exposition, magic, and a secret that moves the story forward, and that's about it. But if he were threatened in the endgame, rather than a character I cared absolutely nothing for, it would have been two, maybe three times better (+- 5% error). This may be purely subjective; the developers clearly tried to make the threatened character interesting, with side plots and so on. But it didn't work for me.

And I don't think this is entirely a fancy on my part, because it seems that most of the more interesting characters in the game have bit parts, while the key parts are given to boring characters. The villain is, in particular, an astounding case. The writers of AToTK manage to do almost everything right. It is as if they assiduously followed a checklist of things to do to make an interesting villain:

A) Make sure the villain has a specific motivation.
B) Have him or her create horrible predicaments for the hero.
C) Indirectly deliver info on the villain via another character.
D) Don't let the villain fight fair. The hero should win in spite of the odds.
E) Make it possible for the player to see where the villain lives, and explore that space. This fleshes out the villain more than a speech ever could.

The writers do all of these things, and yet, incredibly, AToTK has one of the most boring villains ever to mar a good game - and there's a LOT of competition. He/she makes Mordack look like Iago. It is as if, somewhere along the line, their villain had been transmuted from gold into lead.

There are a number of possible reasons for the weakness of the villain. The connection between the villain and the mystery plot is never fully solidified during the main, mandatory plotline, so, in many playthroughs, the villain seems to rise out of nowhere. I suspect that fiddling more with the mystery plot would address this, but I'm reluctant to do this - more on that below. And even when the villain appears, he/she has absolutely nothing of interest to say. So, scratch one villain.

But what about the Loyal Sidekick, the one who can fight and helps you solve puzzles at key points and so on? Surely that character is even cooler than the one who delivers exposition and clues? Surely the character who is closely connected with the hero through past exploits, who swaps banter with him in the opening, who is set up to be important, who acts as a surrogate PC in at least one scene, and (SPOILER)
Spoiler
does critical things in the endgame
[close]
is interesting, right?

No, for that would defy the First Law of AToTK Writing: "The more important a piece of writing is, the less likely it is to be good." Until the endgame, your Loyal Sidekick is a glorified treasure chest. During the endgame, there is a slight improvement, but given all the things this character could say or do to respond to what happens, said character seems like a poseable mannequin.

But the side characters? Some of them are wonderful. They have little flashes of wit and character and good writing, and though the dialogue often ranges from bland to blander, there's just enough spice there to keep interest up. They aren't fighting the First Law, after all, so they can be cool.

If you are skeptical of the First Law, consider the introduction. The opening chapters neatly and effectively drop the hero into the intrigue, but the damage has already been done. The intro text is horrendous. It wants badly to be Epic, Dark, and Mythic, which is unfortunate in a game whose TITLE is Grand and Epic, but whose content is not. Everything that's cool in this game works on the level of individuals, not opposing armies, and everything that's fun works on the level of a fairy tale - personal, whimsical, silly, and a little spooky. Apparently, like scripting contextually-defined conversation topics for a major sidekick, writing a good intro is harder than it looks.

Another case of the First Law in action: the mystery plot. Mysteries are hard to get right, and AToTK doesn't. To the credit of the designers, the Exposition NPC mentioned above never claims that solving the mystery is a critical priority, and one can get a highly satisfactory ending without ever figuring it out. But the framing of the plot makes figuring out this mystery crucial on the level of the story, if not the actual gameplay, so everybody will want to solve it, I think. Alas, only astounding luck and dogged, even pointless, persistence can make that possible. After trying repeatedly and eventually reading a spoiler, I gave up and just got on with the main plot.

I do not think that this means I can't meaningfully review the game; a player who failed to solve a King's Quest V puzzle due to lack of dead fish would have something very meaningful to say about it.

The physical clues offered are horribly weak and semirelevant, or even misleading, and a few must be gathered under circumstances where a sane protagonist would be better off concentrating on other things. They are all red herrings. (If the developers wish to correct me on this, I hope they will. I found maybe three physical objects that could be construed as clues, which seems low for a game of this scope, but I solved quite a few little side-quests.) These clues are not obtained by actually investigating the mystery. The conversational clues are apparently better, as the culprit says something revealing, but these are easy to miss. I cannot say any more for fear of spoilers, but the way in which the player is asked to demonstrate knowledge of the solution unsatisfactory; the player is hit with a menu like a freight train.

The Dagger of Amon Ra used a similar mechanism to resolve its mystery, and relied on the acquisition of tiny, often nearly-unnoticeable clues for its resolution - but its solution was reasonable once the right clues were acquired. Perhaps I'm hopelessly dense, but, judging by the response on the Hints Thread for AToTK, this is not true. As far as I can tell, the mystery plot is just broken. Furthermore (and this is a mild spoiler),
Spoiler
even if there were real evidential justification for the identity of the culprit, there would be no narrative reason for it. Yes, in real life, sometimes the Master Criminal is somebody you hardly know, but that's not at all satisfying in a game.
[close]

What's really surprising is that the designers of AToTK manage to slip here in spite of setting up everything needed to make a good mystery plot possible. They have NPCs that wander around and show agency, that chat amongst themselves while the hero listens in, and that have motives. There's suspense, subterfuge, and so on. It's as if a good game had been written and, at the last minute, somebody decided to change the identity of the culprit and erase a few clues. This could be remedied with a few dialogue lines, a few objects, a few more interesting responses for showing certain things to certain people - but if it was not fixed between v 1.0 and v1.1, it probably won't be fixed between v1.1 and v 1.2.

But there's still hope that these, and other, issues of writing will be addressed, and AToTK will be the better for it. On to the other issues.

In a really complete adventure game, when the player was stuck, the detail and dialogue are fun enough to experience that frustration is allayed. AToTK has mixed success in this regard. You can't just wander around and look around at things and expect to be entertained for too long, because the descriptions and scenes are only sometimes interesting. The world is superficially engaging, but is, on closer inspection, hammered out of recycled bits and pieces; a castle looks like a Fantasy Castle is supposed to look, with little clear regard for function. Grim Fandango's Rubacava may have been a frustrating place to spend hours in, but at least it was Rubacava.

The town fares a bit better than most locations, as it's bustling and filled with people you can eavesdrop on, but the effect isn't as good as it could be. Maybe it's the surreal randomness of the wandering of the NPCs that does it. Maybe it's the architectural dullness of the houses, or the distanced viewpoint, or something like that. One tiny village in a corner of the map, with only two enterable dwellings, somehow manages to feel more convincing than the main town. I can't explain this; maybe it's the detailed art inside one of the homes, or something like that.

It should be noted that very few commercial or amateur graphic adventures really nail this, which is a shame, so AToTK probably shouldn't be held to a high standard in that regard - not until we all pony up $50 per download. But it's still sort of unfortunate.

Conclusion (or, It's Good, Honest!):

The difficulty about writing a review like this is that it's easy to explain what DIDN'T work without resorting to spoilers, but it's hard to explain what did. I've given a sort of general design justification for why AToTK is fun, but it ultimately comes down to specifics. It comes down to the concerted efforts the design team made to keep the world well-modeled - yes, a lot of it is generic, but it's still pretty good if you aren't wandering the same few screens in frustration. What really makes it work, I suppose, is that reasonable actions have reasonable responses, that there ARE some characters whom one can care about a little bit, even if they are minor, that the gameworld keeps changing in little, unexpected ways, that things are always happening, that you can get through much of the game without ever feeling like you've seen all of it... these things are hard to get across without spoiler specifics.

I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. Although the writing of A Tale of Two Kingdoms really does merit the hatchet job above, although some puzzles are a bit unfair (but optional), although there are strange and unexpected slipups, all of this is overwhelmed by the creators' consistent design competence, ambition, and dedication to making a fun game. As long as you don't try to do EVERYTHING, there's a good chance you'll like it.

Pros: In many ways, AToTK embodies good adventure game design. If you want to have fun, and can handle a few slightly underclued puzzles, go for it.

Cons: In many ways, AToTK embodies bad adventure game writing. Also, there are unfair and tetchy bits, so if you want to do everything... please, don't.

-----

Postscript:

Given the effectiveness of the apparent design philosophy of AToTK ("Okay, let's try to make a game that does not hate its player and in fact wants good things to happen to the player"), why isn't this approach used more often? For one thing, it is very hard to pull off. It demands obsessive playtesting and more design effort than might even be possible on a commercial game. It may force sacrifices on the level of storytelling and character development. It means writing scads of puzzles that some players will never see, which requires real self-discipline.

Now, it's been tried. King's Quest VI boasted an Easy Path and a Hard Path, with mixed success. It suffered from some severe game-wrecking situations - see the hypothetical Ladybug Queen case above. But Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis had three paths, none of which were too frustrating, and was also quite possibly the most intensely fun adventure game of all time, so there's hope.

But it's not the design problems that stymied this approach in commercial games. This type of design makes the game faster to complete - and a short play time was a deadly sin in a commercial adventure game. Nobody wants to pay $50 for a game that they finish in two days. One can replay, of course, but replaying is repetitive even in the best case, i.e., A Tale of Two Kingdoms or Quest for Glory.

As a result, in adventure games, a long ordeal is somehow seen as preferable to a short thrill ride. In its day, Full Throttle garnered endless complaints about its cutscenes and its short effective play time, apparently because a game in which, in the final playable sequence, the hero crawls on a speeding truck while said truck is CHASED BY AN AIRPLANE THAT SMASHES INTO IT AND DRAGS UNTIL IT IS HANGING OFF OF A CLIFF, FORCING THE HERO TO SEND THE VILLAIN PLUMMETING TO HIS DOOM AND ESCAPE BEFORE PLANE AND TRUCK FALL OFF THE CLIFF AND EXPLODE could apparently be improved with the addition of a maze, or perhaps a cutesy bit with mailing tubes.

Amateur developers are finally changing this, and we are finally getting good adventure games, but it's taken a long time. If somebody could just combine the polish, wit, and style of Grim Fandango with the common sense and player-friendliness of AToTK, we'd have something really incredible.

Wellington

If there's any interest, I'd like to post a more spoilery commentary, too. I feel as if the above review doesn't quite give AToTK enough credit in specific terms.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

As long as you use spoiler tags abundantly, why not?
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

Wellington

Okay, heavy spoilers ahead. REALLY HEAVY spoilers.

Every so often, I ran into something in AToTK that made me grin. Usually it was because the developers got something right in an unusual way. Sometimes it was because there was a moment of humor. There were too many of these to list, but I'll name a few.

Spoiler

1) Using a lantern on a candle in the monastery gave a sane response; I mentioned this in the review as the canonical Good Thing To Do in an adventure game. There were many other cases like this.

2) Digging at the end of a rainbow and finding a pot of gold there was fun. Admittedly, there may be a culture gap here for some people.

3) The multiple uses of the bag of sand. The real puzzle is realizing that one can fill a bag with sand and make a useful item out of it; after that, the places where it's used are fairly clear - not that I didn't bang my head against the "let's see if we can turn objects to ice and crush them" avenue of thought. The clever thing about this, I think, was that solving the second giant challenge required figuring this out, and reading the book in the monastery and using that gimmick to beat the goblin required figuring this out - but solving either puzzle effectively gave a clue to the other. It's extremely elegant - a multi-use item built by the player.

4) Realizing that the seemingly pointless ladder puzzle was really a way of cluing the player in to Branwyn's dagger-throwing ability. A-ha. A lesser game would have just had her mention, offhand, that she was good at that kind of thing.

5) The variety of wishes available at the well - and the fact that I could win even if I, perversely, chose "Health for Branwyn" for the sake of an honor point.

6) The whole rigamarole with the statue and the flute in the endgame was dubious, but the hidden room? Brilliant, though I needed a hint. Perhaps another clue to emphasize the change in the background would be nice?

7) Discovering the island, then piercing the illusions. A stronger emphasis on the map clue might have been good, as might more dialogue hints, but it was a good moment.

8) On the island, all of the special descriptions generated by the snake statuette. Perhaps a stronger indication that it no longer had much in the way of special power off of the island would have been good.

9) "Oh, so that's why she wants a pumpkin!"

10) The escape from the goblin camp - one of those situations where the first logical thing you think of works nicely, but still manages to be fun. I maintain that the most fun bits are the ones where a clue snaps together in the player's mind, and the whole sequence is solved without dying. Here, the river escape was cued by the earlier ocean escape, making it nicely intuitive.

11) The clue for the mirror lake puzzle - that is, that walking into the lake showed Whiteblade's reflection.

12) Leading the barghest back to the camp and letting my allies unleash the fury. Or hitting it with holy water. Either way was pretty great.

13) Rabbit dialogue box.

14) Throwing a dagger at the fleeing assassin, and seeing that reflected in the line about the dagger being on the floor. (I think there's a minor bug here, in that the game still acts as if you kept the dagger and had it confiscated in a message box that appears shortly after. But it's exceedingly minor. Also, it's really hard to click the dagger on the assassin consistently.)

15) The alarm rope red herring was clever.

16) Giving back keys to people for honor points was well-implemented, and while a warning would have been nice, taking back coins from the tailor was a nice touch.

17) Finally, my favorite scene. For the entire game, we've been told that Taliesin is uncanny. We've been told all about the connected-to-the-fae thing, and he's got musical talent. We've been told a lot. Anyway, wandering around, the player might encounter him sitting on the ground, thrumming a lute, while the Pooka dances. It's not even all that thoroughly implemented.

That's it; there's no obvious narrative purpose for this scene. However, there's a subtle one. First, it shows us Taliesin hanging out with the Fair Folk before he drops his deus ex machina secret passage solution in the endgame, making it more plausible. More importantly, though, like the scene where the magician's apprentice teleports away from the scornful townsperson, this segment tells us more than any straight dialogue possibly could.
[close]

Guest

Crash

Spoiler
after freeing blossom, the changeling kid, when I went back and entered the ship the game closed.
[close]

Sorry, didn't write down the error message. Just letting you know.

Meerbat

#66
Our first review!
It was an entertaining read, Wellington.

Btw,
Spoiler
the alarm rope is not a red herring, but it's involved in a puzzle to obtain that most-used and abused adventure game inventory item of all times.
Also, the barghest is not always a problem; sometimes it can be used as a solution too ;)
[close]


P.S. Grim Fandango is my favorite adventure game of all times.

Vel -
Spoiler
Nadiavam se da ti haresa
[close]

Ledz

a bug that wasn't fixed in 1.1:
Spoiler
In the part where Maeldun's girlfriend goes to the monastery to read books, if you don't go and see her leave the monastery but go directly to the camp and walk toward her place, the game locks up.
[close]

P S

Just finished - this game totally rocks!

I second Wellington's comments - the feeling of immersion in this game is awesome!

Thanks so much for making it!

Inkoddi

I found a few oddities. Does the king use dwarves as nightly guards, and doesn't that tree look quite alike a rock?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/Inkoddi/shrunkguard.png

paolo

#70
This might already have been mentioned (I think I remember seeing something similar reported somewhere) and might even have been fixed by now:

Spoiler
When you get into Theirna na Oge, if you look at the green roots to thel left of the door, the name of this object is omitted from the text that is displayed. For example, you might get "You examine the , but see nothing special." or "It is a perfectly ordinary ."

The same thing happens with the rabbit.
[close]


MonoK

I found a bug with the new release of the game:

Spoiler
I can't pick up the wounded bird. I'm in chapter IV. I never had trouble to pick it.
[close]
Anyway, the game is a real masterpiece. It is a real pleasure to play it again and again to find every honour and wisdom point! Two thumbs up guys!

sthomannch

Excellent game!
I played it several times to increase the score and discover new things with every turn. Totally captures me...

In version 1.1 I found another bug (I think it was not intended as a side quest).  Day one, in the castle, before dinner
Spoiler

after I found the scepter, I went into the guest room. When I just walked through the door, I found myself in the cave with the fairy quest. I could solve the quest and was transported to the fairy land. When I left from there, I was in day 3 or so. I found no way back to day 1
[close]

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

I had pretty much the same bug as sthomannch. I was playing with the alarum bell, wanting to ring it, go in the guest room and see if anything happened.

Spoiler
I did get the "Well, well, what have we here?" cutscene, as I knew I would - I'd gotten as far as Chapter 3 on v1.0 before I decided to install the newest version and start from scratch.
[close]

When nothing appeared to, I left the room and found myself in exactly the situation sthomannch describes. Since it appeared to be a HUGE spoiler of a situation (unlike stomachache, I had not gotten that far), I quit at once. I hope you can fix this one as well.
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

Vel

I *thought* that Vladislav fellow from the credits sounded Bulgarian! Glad to see another Bulgarian adventure gamer out there, and, yes, I am immensely enjoying it!

Radiant

Okay, that faerie land bug is just weird. I'll look into that and post a v1.2. You can avoid it very easily, as you have no need whatsoever to enter your guest room after you got the scepter.

Nostradamus

#76
Nice game. Looks and feels very proffesional. It must be played in 640x480 though, it looks much better than in 320x200. In 320x200 everything looks weird and out of focus and text is too big. Looks much better in 640x480. The text is still too big even with this resolution though, smaller text would be more comfortable to read especially since the dialogues are really lengthy. The use of music to create atmosphere in situations and places in the game is very good.
Unfortunately I have come across a bug - beginning of chapter 3, when talking to the bard about the stone with a hole the game crashed for no apparent reason. Though I have managed to load a save game and pass the dialogue after a couple of tryes. More unfortunately, I only now know there is a version 1.1 but I don't know if this bug is fixed or not. Anyway I don't want to start over the game to play a fixed version so I hope the game is finishable with version 1.0.. Is it?



Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

QuoteYou can avoid it very easily, as you have no need whatsoever to enter your guest room after you got the scepter.

Ah, but I didn't have it when it happened to me. I was just fooling around with the rope.
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

Charity

#78
May have found a walking dead. 
Spoiler
If you return the comb to the changeling after uniting him with his counterpart, there is no readily apparent way to retrieve it from him.
[close]

Edit: Oh, nevermind.  You guys really did think of everything.  Haha.

paolo

#79
Three more rabbit bugs, alas:

Spoiler

After speaking to the druid, I hop back north to the screen with the bridge in. Two bugs happen from here:

1. If I try to cross the bridge northwards (not that I need to at the moment), the following message appears "The fox seems loathe to cross the bridge with its many human smells, and runs off in search for less elusive prey". There is no fox in sight.

2. Far worse than this, after closing the message, the scene advances one frame and the message appears again, getting stuck in an infinite loop.

3. I hop over to the faery ring (where the entrance to Thierna na Oge is) and go round it any number of times withershins, but nothing happens.

Edit: Ah, I see - I need to jump around in circles *in* the faery ring, not just loop around it (and the stones outside it). All OK now.
[close]

Regarding the bug reported by someone else,
Spoiler
namely that you can talk to the guard outside the castle as a rabbit, I don't think this is a bug. Didn't the guards see you get transformed into a rabbit? Even if they had already left, perhaps the guard at the door saw you being transformed. However, being able to ask to see Rhiannon and go back into the castle certainly does look like a bug.
[close]

Da_Elf

if there are different endings, which one uses my animation  hehe? downloading it soon to play, been a little busy recently

Nostradamus

Hmmm, many bugs still being reported. So in continuation with my previous post, should I stop playing and wait for a version 1.2?  cos I'm already at chapter 3 in version 1.0 and I'd hate to progress and then have to start over again for version 1.2



Meerbat

Da_Elf,

almost all endings have your animation.

Nostradamus, none of the bugs are show stoppers in version 1.1. I just finished the game without encountering a single bug.

Nostradamus

Yeah but I'm in version 1.0. Can the game be finished in v1.0?
Should I wait till 1.2 (if there will be such version)?
I just don't want to progress in the game any further before I know because starting over is a bitch



Charity

#84
Nostradamus -

Spoiler
You can still finish the game in 1.0 provided that you don't find out the assassin's identity.  If you do, you will later encounter a crash during a non-optional cutscene, and you won't be able to forward the plot or get the happy endings.
[close]

Nostradamus

meh, but it sounds like an important part of the game that I don't wanna miss, so I'm stopping playing it for now.

Radiant, will there be a v1.2?



hystericbliss0

Another game crash:
Spoiler
I was trying to talk to the unseelie and prove to him that I defeated the giant so I can get the onyx orb and right after he says "unbelievable" the game crashes and a message pops up saying:

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 87 Script (line 308)

Error: Face character: characters are in different rooms
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Storygamer

#87
I dunno if this has already been reported or not, but there's a set of very severe bugs in Chapter 7 with regard to the "fox and rabbit" stuff...

Spoiler

The first time I encountered the fox, he killed me.  So, I decided to bypass him completely the second time around.  Instead of going south and then west from the castle, I just went south twice and then headed west.  I got the message saying "the fox is scared of the bridge and runs away" (paraphrased a lot).  This was kind of weird because there was no fox chasing me this time around, but the more serious problem was that when I clicked to get rid of the message, it just popped up again.  It kept doing that no matter what I did, so that there was no way to progress or even quit the game--I had to hit Alt-F4.  I tested this again with the same results.

Resigning myself to being chased by the fox, I went to where you meet it southwest of the castle, then went back east, then south, then west to the bridge scene.  Once again I get the message that the fox is scared of the bridge and runs away, but this time the message doesn't stay.  Whew.  I cross the bridge, go talk to Amairgen, etc. etc.

Before I had a chance to turn back into a human I had to leave, so I quit the game and forgot to save.  When I loaded it up again, I figured, no big deal, I'll just repeat what I did last time.

It doesn't work anymore.

I have no idea why.  Now, though, when I go to the bridge, the fox still runs away but it won't let me cross.  It keeps saying "For some reason you are loathe to cross the water" (paraphrased), in spite of the fact that I'm NOT trying to cross the water, I'm trying to cross the BRIDGE like I did before.  I've tried several times with the same results.
[close]

This bug has caused me so much frustration that I've basically given up.  The few other bugs were not major problems, but this one has impeded my progress completely--I cannot progress any farther with this stupid bug in the way.  Just letting you know, this needs fixing--because this is one of the best AGS games I've ever seen, and it'd be a shame to have it stay ruined by something like this.

EDIT: I've just checked the walkthru for this game and found an alternative way to escape the fox, so I was able to win the game after all.  I did discover one other story-contradiction at the end, which I thought the author should know about...

Spoiler

This contradiction happens if you finish the game (i.e. defeat the sorceror) but you failed to find the Princess AND you failed to discover the assassin.  Taliesin first says that the princess is dead, having been mauled by an unknown magical beast--and this confirms what Paradur has already said, so she's definitely dead.  But then when the characters talk about how the assassin is still at large, Branwyn says "So Rhiannon is now a possible target?" and Taliesin says yes, the assassin may try to kill her now.  That would be rather difficult since she's already dead, don't you think? :)
[close]

Excellent excellent game btw! Definitely needs some fixes, but I am still absolutely blown away by what you've done here--one of the best AGS games I've ever seen!  My hat off to you!

Balin

#88
Yeah, I had that problem with the fox when I played through it, too.

EDIT: Was reading through the walkthrough, and I just found out that
Spoiler
you could go into the Tailer's shop once you've escaped from the town. I was never able to do that, as everytime I clicked on his door, I'd just walk up to it but never go in. And he was open, because this was before he runs away. Possible glitch?
[close]

Vel


Storygamer

Balin--I think it is a glitch, yes, but you can circumnavigate it by
Spoiler
Just WALKing into the shop instead of USEing it
[close]

Radiant & others who made this game (and anyone else interested):
http://storygamer.blogspot.com/2007/07/tale-of-two-kingdoms-free-game-you-must.html
Just you'd like to know about it :).

Radiant

#91
Quote from: Da_Elf on Wed 25/07/2007 14:27:29
if there are different endings, which one uses my animation  hehe?
The two good endings.

Quote from: Balin on Fri 27/07/2007 19:10:12
you could go into the Tailer's shop once you've escaped from the town. I was never able to do that, as everytime I clicked on his door
Use the walk cursor. This should be fixed in v1.1.

The game can be completed in v1.0, and you can get 100% score and cutscenes in v1.1. Nevertheless I'll start working on a v1.2 now that I'm back from Mittens.

And thank you for the reviews!!

Nostradamus

I'm patiently waiting for v1.2.
Seems worth the wait.



Wellington

Okay, now that the euphoric glow of the justifiably high initial reviews has faded, I'm going to put up my suggestion list. I do not do this out of the old delusion of fan-entitlement, but out of the hope that if another version comes out, they might be considered.

Major spoilers ahead.

Spoiler
Potential issue: Hole with lost comb is hard to find and quest-critical.
Possible solution: Make it slightly more visible.

Potential issue: Use of iron rune can shut player out of changeling quest without warning.
Possible solution: Make it harder to lose the rune. New problem: Player may use iron rune as a catch-all solution to many puzzles, rather than think of novel solution. New solution: Using the rune on the princess drains some of its magic, but not all of it. It takes multiple uses to destroy it.

Potential issue: Getting the rope early in the game is critical for major sidequests, but is possibly out-of-character and is certainly counterintuitive.
Possible solution: Justify getting the rope - not sure how. The idea of having Branwyn bet Maeldun that he can't steal it seems... out-of-character. Alternatively, set up another way of getting a rope.

Potential issue: Mystery plot lacks enough clues.
Possible solution: Add clues. Possibility: Give clear hints that the blacksmith forged a fake dagger, or something along those lines. Stress the physical strength of the assassin.

Potential issue: Not enough motivation to begin absolutely critical stable-boy quest.
Possible solution: The game already hints that you should show the note to Taliesin - perhaps Taliesin could drop a clearer hint that it would be wise to show the note to the Sidhe. In addition, it might be wise to make the note stick out of the haystack visibly.

Potential issue: Island is hard to find.
Possible solution: Map can also appear in monastery library? This should give the player a chance to see that critical clue later in the game. Wait, does the map appear in the monastery library? I've forgotten.

Potential issue: Ice orb's use is ambiguous. Description suggests that it might be able to freeze random objects.
Possible solution: Emphasize that its use is tied to a specific location.

Potential issue: Not enough payoff on the apprentice-befriending quest, and the girdle thing seems a little unclued.
Possible solution: If Maeldun lingers too long in the tower after helping the apprentice, she will appear instead of the wizard and warn him to get out if he values his life.

Potential issue: Stealing the blacksmith's shield seems poorly motivated during the brief time-window that it is possible.
Possible solution: Blacksmith visits the docks multiple times during the game, making this quest more forgiving without robbing it of its essential challenge. New problem: Player has less opportunity to get sword sharpened. Solution: The additional trips all come after Maeldun gets his sword sharpened. New problem: More dialogue needed. Solution: Blacksmith meets with

Potential issue: Black cloth clue is extremely odd; tailor gives little info, save that assassin is a local, and the blacksmith denies everything.
Possible solution: Tailor states that he has sold several cloaks made with that material to various local gentlemen. Still an ambiguous clue, because the cloak could have been stolen by a woman.

Potential issue: Message clue is somewhat misleading.
Possible solution: Uncertain.

Potential issue: Introduction text too long and vague.
Possible solution: Edit down introduction text; consider padding intro graphics by using image from book in library - if it wasn't originally intended for the intro.

Potential issue: Villain leaps onstage in a sudden and strange way.
Possible solution: The apprentice speaks of him in more specific terms, and has more screen time.

Potential issue: Branwyn lacks much of interest to say.
Possible solution: More conversation options for Branwyn. Clearer idea of character.

Potential issue: During assassination scene, doing stuff like "looking at the ajar door" doesn't really give atmospheric responses, and the draconian "the assassin jumps out of nowhere and kills you for lingering" stuff probably should be used to punish things like trying the alarm rope a few times, then walking over to the door and looking in, and so on.
Possible solution: Loosen the assassin's trigger a bit, and implement cautious behavior.

Potential issue: Throwing the dagger at the assassin requires a pixel hunt.
Possible solution: Refine this - although, given the speed of the animation, it's probably a major pain.

Potential issue: Why on earth would Maeldun look at a doorway during an assassination?
Possible solution: Find a better way of getting the hair to the player.

Potential issue: It is unclear, at first, why Maeldun lacks his girdle during the assassination scene, causing time to be wasted searching his room.
Note: Mention the loss of the girdle explicitly as soon as Maeldun wakes.

Potential issue: In the final battle, the order of events is highly finicky; why should an attack on the sorcerer by Maeldun distract him just as well as an attack by the guardsman? (Answer: Because then he'd have nothing to do.)

Possible (not entirely satisfactory) solution: If Maeldun attempts to attack the sorcerer, the guardsman will step forward as well, and will get to the sorcerer first. He might even shout something along the lines of "Stay back - you're no fighter."

Possible extra-awesome thing to do: Find a way to work Taliesin, the changeling, or the apprentice into the battle as a distraction that appears if the guard captain manages to get himself transformed. This keeps the battle going and gives us another chance to throw a dagger at the charm. While the teleport animation for the apprentice makes her a viable option, she doesn't seem like the noble sacrifice type...

Whew!
[close]

Secret Fawful

You can check out another review of the game HERE btw.

dunnoson

THIS IS A WONDERFUL GAME!!  I LOVED THAT 3D scene!  I VOTE THIS GAME FOR AN AWARD!!
currently working on:


I am in the Brainstorming stage.  Also am trying to gather a team.
I am committing to this game.

Thinking about creating another game, NCIS themed.

paolo

#96
It may well be that everything I am about to comment on has already been said, so apologies in advance if this is the case. I finished the game just over a week ago but have been away.

Here are my comments, mainly on the language in the game, and my bug reports.

Spoiler

The language

It's tricky to get archaic English right because most people are not very familiar with it these days. I'm no expert, but a few errors were glaringly obvious to me:

* The inflections of "thou" are very similar to the inflections of "I": you can pretty much change the "m" to "th" to go from the first- to the second-person singular: hence "me", "my", "mine", "myself" in the first person are "thee", "thy", "thine" and "thyself" in the second person. In particular, note "thine". This means "yours", not "your". So, for example, "thine name" is incorrect - this should be "thy name". Similarly, "thine self" is incorrect - this should be "thyself". However, "thine" can be used instead of "thy" before a vowel, so "thine eyes" is correct (as is "to thine own self be true"). Perhaps this usage led to the authors thinking that "thine" can always be used instead of "thy".
* "Regale" does not mean "recount", so you don't regale a tale to someone. It means to entertain (see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/regale). Hence you regale someone with a tale, you don't regale a tale to someone.
* "Vagabond" comes from the Latin for "wandering", so in "a wandering vagabond", the word "wandering" is redundant.
* There is no such word as "o'threw" - it should be "o'erthrew". ("O'" is a short form of "of", not "over".)
* I take it that the blue cup's misuse of archaic language ("Thou appeareth to be playingeth...") is deliberately incorrect.
* The changeling struggles with his thees and thous, calling them formal, but the formal form is actually "ye" (see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ye).
* "Avast" is a nautical term, so, unless he used to be a sailor or pirate, why does the monk use it?
* "Shall" is occasionally used as if it were a formal form of "will" (eg, "We shall crush you"), but it is not. "We shall crush you" means "We are going to crush you"; to say "We are definitely going to crush you", you would need to say "We will crush you". See the usage notes at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shall - while the distinction isn't really made these days, it certainly would have been in the era in which the game appears to be set.
* The use of US English clashes a little - British spellings would have given a truly quaint, olde worlde feel.
* The contractions "'tis", "'twas" and "'twould" should have a capital "t" when used at the beginning of a sentence (compare "'Twas the night before Christmas...")
* "Loathe" is a verb meaning to detest. "Loath" (or "loth") is an adjective meaning "reluctant". Hence "The fox seems loathe..." should be "The fox seems loath..."
* "tidings will turn" - tidings are news; should this be "the tide will turn"?
* There is no such word as "antromorph" - shouldn't this be "anthropomorph" (= humanoid)?
* A common mistake when quoting poetry is to put a comma at the end of each line. Poetry should be punctuated in exactly the same way as the text would be if written as prose. Consider the following lines taken from the game and converted into prose: "Careful, he might be tempted to bite or put up a fight." Note that there is only one comma, and none after the words that come at the ends of the lines in the equivalent poetry. In poetical form (the slashes separating the lines are not needed when the lines are given one at a time) this becomes: "Careful, he might / Be tempted to bite / Or put up a fight." No extra commas should be added. See for example the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet for a good example of punctuation (or its absence) at the ends of lines of poetry.
* "Have need for" and "in search for" should be "have need of" and "in search of", respectively.
* "Fae" is fuel-air explosive (see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fae) - should this be "fay" or "fey" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fay, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fey)?
* Does a harp have snares? A snare drum does, certainly, but aren't the strings of a harp just called strings? There is no mention of harps at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/snare nor of snares at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harp
* "Rise" is intransitive; "raise" is transitive. Hence "...would make Theylinn rise once more..." (not "raise").

On the plus side:

* Thumbs up for the correct use the archaism "an", meaning "if".
* Double thumbs up for the amusing motto on the shield in the smithery - a nice little joke for those who understand Latin.

Bugs and other errors (some or all of which have or might have already been reported)

* When you pick up the squirrel while it is sitting on the roof, you are told that it climbs down the tree (which is one bug). It then does not move at all until you interact with it again, at which point it instantaneously moves from the roof to the ground.
* If you walk across the bridge in the righthand half of Thierna na Oge, the others follow you and hem you in, meaning that you can't move or do anything else. Presumably there is some sort of character collision detection in the program that gets stuck at this point.
* You can talk to the guard outside the castle while you are a rabbit, ask to see the princess and even tell him who you are, and he doesn't turn a hare... er, a hair. Maybe he saw you being transformed, however.
* It is a hare, isn't it, and not a rabbit? I don't remember which word the game uses.
* If you attempt to cross the bridge northwards whiel you are a hare, you are told that the fox runs off in search of less elusive prey. Two bugs here: no fox is present; and the game repeatedly displays the message, getting stuck in an infinite loop.
* "You feel uncomfortable crossing the river" - I am guessing that there is some scripting here that draws a straight line between your current and intended positions and tests to see whether it crosses water. The problem here is that this message is displayed even if you happen to clip a tiny bit of the river, which is silly as the hare is going to walk along the bank regardless. I think the test should be updated to test whether or not the start and end positions are on opposite banks, which would mean the hare would definitely be crossing the river.
* You need to hop around inside the faery ring, not just around it (I hopped around the stones for ages before I realised this) - perhaps the game can make this clearer.
* Apparently the walls of the city are too smooth for footholds to allow you to climb them, but you are able to scramble down them easily enough when you use the plant to get in. Of course, this is essential for the game, but it's inconsistent.
* The inner wall of the castle is much higher than the outer wall... is the interior of the castle set into the ground?
* There are several places were the name of an object does not appear in messages when you look at the message - these include the following, some of which have already been mentioned: the statue on the stairs in the castle; the plant to the left of the gate in Thierna na Oge; the rope ladder in the cave.
* In Chapter 8, all the doors in the castle are locked but the leftmost. When you try the leftmost door, you walk towards it and the guards spot you when you are halfway down the corridor. Unless you tried opening the other doors by remote control, would the same not happen when you tried, say, the second leftmost door, which is way beyond halfway down the corridor? The character should really walk to each door that is tried, not just to the leftmost one. You'll still get caught, but hey, that's the way the game goes.
* If you play the flute again in the castle after the guards have left, you get disembodied comments from the guards and the game crashes as it attempts to move the non-existent guards out of the room: in Room 90 script (line 486) - Error: MoveCharacter: character not in current room
[close]

Apart from that little lot, the game was great. Congratulations on the Herculean effort your team put in. It is a masterpiece and you deserve to be very proud.

PS: In case it seems I'm being overcritical about the language in the game, I should add, as I forgot to when I posted this, that you've done a damn good job on the archaic English. All too often people think you can just scatter a few thous and thees about without any consideration of whether they are used correctly, and just tack "eth" on the end of every verb (when in fact it should only be used as a third-person singular ending). So congratulations on your EXCELLENT WORK on the old-fashioned language in the game!

Radiant

Spoiler

Crossing the river - no, the scripting uses regions, hence if you get too close to the water, there's the message. AGS walking doesn't work the way you think it does :)

Unsurprisingly, climbing down a wall is easier than climbing up a wall.

With respect to walking to doors, it is a conscious design decision to not make Maeldun walk to every hotspot or object when clicking on it, because given the sheer amount of such spots per room that would rather increase the amount of time it took a player to look through it. I don't think I want to be inconsistent in this just to add a few places for Maeldun to get caught when clicking on a spot that doesn't really have a game purpose.

Interestingly, in Dutch the things on a harp are indeed called snares.

Please spare me the grammar lessons. I am aware of English grammar, what you point out are simply typoes. Also, Cuppits misspellings of pretty much every second word are very much deliberate (there was at least one game reviewer who thought META was a serious game, go figure... :P )

My encyclopedia shows half a dozen entries for FAE, including "fundamental attribution error" and the "Ecuadorian Air Force", as well as it being a synonym for faerie.

Ironically, in medieval English, "thee" was the common form and "you" was the formal form; however, since nowadays the latter is commonly used and the former deprecated, this has been reversed in fantasy books.
[close]

paolo

I see. Thank you for the clarifications and explanations. It's obvious that you did your homework when writing the game, so please excuse me if I seemed to be too critical.

Please also see the final paragraph I have added to my posting above.

Tuomas

I'm sorry but I can't help saying this wasn't a bt of a disappointment regarding graphics since I've seen a lot of the work before, also I've been working on this game myself spritewise, ones that were unused. But nevertheles, I'll play this game through and see what it makes, as a game, you know. I just thought that I'd make a remark regarding the first impresion it gave me.

I think you did well with your team Radiant. But I can't help thinking you could have done better.

Leonard LePage

Quote from: Tuomas on Wed 08/08/2007 22:56:40
I'm sorry but I can't help saying this wasn't a bt of a disappointment regarding graphics since I've seen a lot of the work before, also I've been working on this game myself spritewise, ones that were unused. But nevertheles, I'll play this game through and see what it makes, as a game, you know. I just thought that I'd make a remark regarding the first impresion it gave me.

I think you did well with your team Radiant. But I can't help thinking you could have done better.

Sounds like someone's just miffed that their sprites weren't used. I say this because I thought the graphics were spectacular! Right up there with some of the best graphics I've ever seen in a freeware game.

nihilyst

Quote from: Leonard LePage on Thu 09/08/2007 02:13:22
I say this because I thought the graphics were spectacular! Right up there with some of the best graphics I've ever seen in a freeware game.

Seconded, although the quality of the backgrounds alters. But nevertheless: the bgs are beautiful and well animated, the character portraits are marvellous. Great job!

Tuomas

Quote from: Leonard LePage on Thu 09/08/2007 02:13:22
Sounds like someone's just miffed that their sprites weren't used. I say this because I thought the graphics were spectacular! Right up there with some of the best graphics I've ever seen in a freeware game.

Seriously though, mine weren't that good, I agree this one has better. I'm just pointing out, that the prospects were higher when I was following the making of this game. I suppose I expected too much, probably the screenshots were the best ones from the game, at least it appears so imo.

P S

Whatchoo talk' bout dogg?

ATOTK hella rocks!

Jhumjhum

Thanks a million Radiant for making this fantastic game!

It was exceptionally wonderful and wonderfully exceptional.

After a long time I got to play a full length fantasy adventure.

I wish you had made all the quests compulsory and tied it to the main storyline. I finished the game and realized I hadn't done so many things and played again (looking at the er.. walkthru this time :-[) to see where I'd gone wrong.

I was hoping
Spoiler
We would somehow see Maeuldun getting married to the princess. I know there was the lady Branwyn, but the main character getting the princess seems more romantic to me somehow.

Also I could have sworn that the goody goody Lord paradur was the culprit and the ending of the game would involve throwing him and the snob jeweller to the gallows.
[close]

Loved the characters, especially the pooka and the scarecrow. The music was divine. A screenshot of Thena na Oge is my current desktop wallpaper.

Waiting to see more of your games in the future.

PS: I also loved playing Warthogs.


Radiant

By popular request we have made part of the ATOTK soundtrack available for download as MP3. Enjoy!

http://crystalshard.net/atotk.php?page=down

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

Escuse me, but are you planning on releasing a 1.2 version to fix that annoying little bug in chapter one? I'm waiting for the fix in order to play the game. Maybe just a patch, if that's the only fix?
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

Radiant

Quote from: Rui "Trovatore" Pires on Sun 19/08/2007 19:12:12
Escuse me, but are you planning on releasing a 1.2 version to fix that annoying little bug in chapter one? I'm waiting for the fix in order to play the game. Maybe just a patch, if that's the only fix?

Yes, I am. Hopefully within a week. It took so long because there's other things to fix as well; most of them minor, though.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

farvardin

congratulation for the game "A tale of two kingdoms", Radiant, I've tested it on linux Debian, it's working well, except I couldn't have any music, but it doesn't matter (AGS doesn't seem to support Alsa). Thank you for having checked it could work for linux users (by not having windows only extensions).
I haven't played much of the game, but the graphics are gorgeous !

jkohen

Quote from: farvardin on Tue 21/08/2007 12:33:33
Radiant, I've tested it on linux Debian, it's working well, except I couldn't have any music, but it doesn't matter (AGS doesn't seem to support Alsa).

Works great here using ALSA with OSS emulation. You can always try "aoss ags" if the engine complains about not having enough free channels/voices.

Radiant

#111
Now available: update v1.2

This fixes (to my knowledge) every bug and issue reported in these threads, in particular teleporting from your bedroom to Thierna na Oge, being unable to pick up the pigeon in one room, and being unable to cross the bridge in rabbit form. I wish to thank everybody for their feedback.

Download full game

Nostradamus

Great, now I can finally start over and play the game to the end. Thanks for the update.



InCreator

#113
Little issue:
When rabbit is leaving the castle, in the (outside!) room with castle entrance and balcony(Room 17?), "entry cannot be found" error appears. I don't know how it happened, but it just appeared when room faded in.
Nothing bad though, clicked message away and game continued as usual.

Queen Kara

Probably not bugs but....(since they're possible spoilers I thought it would be a good to put them in spoiler box or whatever)
Spoiler
When I went to play the game in chapter 1, I couldn't find any pieces to put on the board and since you're not allowed to move pieces alreadyon the board I couldn't really play the game so I never got anywhere with that. I kept looking at the "hints" and trying but I gave up because no matter what I tried it seemed like there wasn't really a way to do anything other than have a closeup of the board and quit or stuff....maybe I missed something so I will go back later and look at the drawer that I just got an idea about but I would be surprised if that changes anything. Then, when trying to fool the captain so I can get the rope, he never comes up fast enough...I go to the balcony and he doesn't come so because he's always so slow or missing I try to go down but that's when I get caught. Minor issue but if you get to a certain spot of the balcony it looks like you're standing in midair right in front of the edge or whatever instead of being _inside" the balcony. I guess I keep going too far to the edge there....thankfully it doesn't impede movement but it's an odd little thing that I kept noticing when trying to fool that guy.
[close]

Otherwise the game is very enjoyable so far.
Lovely graphics.
I'm jealous of the artists because I wish I could make backgrounds like that .....I'd love to make games that remind people of King's Quest and other games in art quality but I will probably never be that good.
Klaatu Verata Niktu?

Radiant

For the Dampiry game, simply click on the board.

Spoiler

The balcony is optional, and you're not supposed to wait for him, nor to use the stairs.
[close]

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

#116
Apparently, in the beggining of Chapter 4,

Spoiler
if I enter the orchard via the village, instead of via the path, the girl does not appear, and it doesn't seem to appear when I later enter the orchard either.
[close]

Also, in chapter 3, I seem to have misplaced the coin I found

Spoiler
by the waterfall. I have not given it to the guy on the bridge, or made a wish (I toyed with both of these, but then restored). Branwyn doesn't have it either. I was in my inventory, and then it wasn't. :P I noticed it when I got to the jeweller's and tried to sell the conch. Is it a bug, or can I have misplaced it somewhere, or gotten stolen, or what? And if it IS a bug, will I need that coin?

EDIT - Nevermind, it was probably payment for the sword. But did the game say it was? I DID wonder how I was going to pay for it, but since the game just let me, I didn't bother overmuch. One ducat, then, was it? I'm pretty sure the game didn't tell me about it...
[close]


And by the way, when you drink in the pond, your reflection doesn't drink with you.

One last thing - with more than one inventory page, at times I'm at the TOP of the page (as it were) and I still get the arrow pointing UP. It disappears when I click on it. Little thing, I know...

IMPORTANT - The game will freeze if you open your inventory and USE the holey stone when in the fairy ring.

EDIT - I finished the game. I loved most of it - music, graphics, animations, all brilliant. What I disliked was some puzzles and/or the presentation of some items and/or how to GET those items, and knowing I was stupidly missing out on stuff eventually made me resort to the walkthrough.

Spoiler
The black hair - the king's just been stabbed, and his killer's fleeing, and there's no clue as to why I should LOOK at the door!

The rope - I didn't even *see* the rope until I read it in the walkthrough and cranked up my Gamma settings. With so much care for shortcuts, why not also a gamma slider?

Getting the rope - Jumping out of the balcony? Being a guest in the palace? No one even reacts? Maeldun is there as a diplomat, why should he even consider jumping over the balcony like that?

The giant puzzle - even as I squished the apples and did the rest of the puzzle, I thought, "those are obviously not rocks! Shouldn't I have disguised them in some way?" I'd have never thought the giant was THAT stupid.

The holy water - this is what definitely put me on the walkthrough. I first got the cider, then I got the holy water, then I got regular water to get the comb - I got them as I saw them. Then, ONE CHAPTER LATER, I go for some more holy water - there isn't any. I had NO IDEA I could only have taken it once, if I did I wouldn't have wasted it like I did. There was nothing to indicate that there was only enough water for once, or that the fount was now empty, and in fact all other interactions lead me to believe there's still water in it.

The golden apple - just tell me, is there anyone who can tell me, or anywhere I can find out, that the apple's enchantment is a sleep enchantment? If not, it's pretty much guesswork.

The "you can rest here" puzzle - boy, I sure am glad I had the walkthrough for this one. It's common courtesy to at least hint the player that he shouldn't rest - usually via some narrator messages that go "You feel all your worries ebbing away. All your toils, all your troubles, dissolve into nothingness. Soon you almost forget you and your own were ever wanted men."

The horseshoe - You did give a subtle hint. Nevertheless, a slight visual hint would have come in handy as well. But this is a point I won't press.

The acorns - you do realize that oak tree had little to distinguish it from all the other trees in the game and that after having interacted with so many the player usually feels no desire to interact with what seems to be yet another one that doesn't even have an unusual "look" message, right?

The raknovisk, or whatever - in my playthough, the grass was around the fairy ring. Boy, what a pixel-hunt until I actually found the right place to click in that bloody ring. :P Made me wonder several times if it WAS the fairy ring.

I realize most of these things are, in one way or another, optional. I don't mind optional when it's because of something I can't figure out. But when it's because of my Gamma setting or because of that holy water issue, I just give up.
[close]

Otherwise, the game was great.

EDIT 2 - One more thing:

Spoiler
What are the clues that the Blacksmith did it? Not game-wise - how are we supposed to figure it out? What's supposed to clue us in? One of the big clues doesn't even point in his direction - the black, perfumed hair.
[close]
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

Fizzii

Rui-

About the coin:
Spoiler
Yes, the blacksmith does charge one ducat for having the sword sharpened... he mentions 'For me regular fee o'course', then takes the coin. If you didn't have the money then he would've asked how you were going to pay for it, or something.
[close]

Regarding inventory items:
Spoiler
Black hair - you don't need it at all; it's a red herring. You don't get any points for getting it, and it's obviously Rhiannon's given that it's long, black and scented with flowers.

Can't answer about gamma slider to check the rope brightness, but I do have to say that all the graphics I did appeared fine on my monitor, but it seems that if one's monitor isn't calibrated properly, a lot of thing appear too dark.

Anyway, a rope is always useful to have in case one gets into a sticky situation ;); but said puzzle is entirely optional.

Giant puzzle - is based on a fairytale story (Brave Little Tailor?). In which the protagonist defeats a troll/giant by cheese or similar method. Let's just say the giant has very poor eyesight and/or is colourblind :)

Holy water - fortunately, there is another object that can be used in place of it, so you don't neccessarily need it if you have that other object.

Golden apple - if you ask the monk to look through books, one of the descriptions will yield dialogue about Snow White and a golden apple.

Staying trapped in Thierna na Oge - Taliesen hints in his dialogue that the lure of the Fae is strong and one has to be careful not to get enchanted by them. Also, in between chapters, after defeating Rashakk, there is dialogue between the two fae, in which the unseelie tells the seelie queen that she shall not keep 'it' (Maeldun) as her pet (or something to that extent).

Oaktree - you can see the acorns in it though ;)

Grass - I suppose the hotspot could be changed, but I believe you click on the mushrooms rather than the centre of the ring. Before ATOTK was released, the actual puzzle involved finding a certain type of mushroom, but that was changed to grass after it was pointed out that the mushroom names and appearance weren't scientifically correct.

[close]

Finally, (note that this has a lot of storyline spoilers, and I hope I explained this clearly):

Spoiler
There are a number of hints to the player as to who the assassin is, mostly through eliminating who can't have done it by reading dialogue in cutscenes and working out what they were up to. There are three pieces of 'real' evidence: dagger, parchment from bird, black cloth. The fact that the dagger had Branwyn's crest implies that either someone had an existing dagger (or it was one of Branwyn/Taliesen), or that someone had crafted a dagger to lay the blame on the merceneries.

Now, the people in the castle at the time of the murder were: Chancellor, Geraint, Iseult, Ruadh, Midir, Rhiannon, and you, that Maeldun knows of. Branwyn, Finegas and Amairgen left the castle, and since they said they'd travel together, you know none of them could've remained in the castle. That doesn't mean to say that none of them could've gone back to murder the king, but it's much less likely.

- Ashe was never allowed in the castle, Changeling was too afraid of leaving Thierna na Oge, and Niameh is too old and probably at home at the time of the murder. Also, the sorceror's apprentice probably wouldn't kill the king since she was bound by the Pact, and if she did, she would probably use magic instead.

- There is no evidence pointing to Finegas or Amairgen, and in fact both are rather helpful to you. Both don't possess means of magic or stealth to re-enter the castle after having left it, therefore they are unlikely candidates.

- Branwyn and Taliesen both did not like Vortigern due to past conflict but both have each other as an alibi. Also, Branwyn is a warrior, not an assassin, and though Taliesen knows some magic, he mentions that doesn't know enough to do something complicated, say, for instance, teleport into the castle. Therefore they are ruled out.

From the cutscenes and dialogue, these are more hints you get:

- Chancellor/Geraint: Geraint mentions that the chancellor was doing something dishonourable, implying that he knew where the chancellor was at the time of the murder.

- Chancellor/Midir: Chancellor mentions that Midir's behaviour was disgraceful, and Midir tells you he was having a drink with 'a friend' and got drunk. Note, if you show the black cloth to Midir, he will tell you that someone bought a cloak from him recently. Also note that Midir and Cailte are friends from the cutscene between the two. Midir is an unlikely candidate for a murder given that he was snoring fast asleep during the whole event.

- Jeweller/Ruadh: Discuss 'a deal'. You know that the girdle is in the jeweller's shop, implying that she somehow stole your belt... most likely, Ruadh had stolen it, which he later admits to. (If you befriend Ruadh, he'll mention offhand that the Jeweller and Paradur are lovers - this is what Geraint was referring to as 'disgraceful' behaviour by the chancellor. This was subtle, but note that the two were quite friendly to each other in the library, that Iseult stuck up for the chancellor by admonishing Rhiannon in the dinner scene, and that she's later seen visiting at the castle). This effectively rules out Iseult, Ruadh, and Paradur from commiting the crime.

This leaves three people left: Rhiannon, Cailte, Geraint.

- Rhiannon is not the murderer primarily because she was already in the throneroom by the time the guards took you there. The assassin wouldn't have been able to get into the throneroom without being seen, therefore the assassin can't be Rhiannon (also because it's highly unlikely that she'd murder her own father at such a time like this)

- I suspect that most players might've thought that Geraint was the murderer (or Paradur). Geraint isn't the murderer mainly because evidence doesn't truly suggest that he is, only suggestions by characters such as Taliesen. Also note that the guard at the gate castle says that Geraint stays with the soldiers in the barracks each evening, effectively giving him an alibi. Character-wise, Geraint is too loyal and honourable to murder his own king.

This leaves Cailte.

- Talking to townspeople about the king's death: All of them will acknowledge that the king was murdered except Cailte. Also, Cailte seems quite intent on having Geraint as king, and calls King Vortigern weak and feeble. If you show him Branwyn's dagger, he will mention that it's not interesting, and that he could craft one easily within a week. Cailte seems in denial about the whole situation. In a cutscene between him and the sorceror's apprentice, he insists she find out where Maeldun the murderer is - this may throw some people off from thinking it's Cailte, but note that Cailte insists that Maeldun is the murderer - his intention is to see whether the apprentice can discern the truth, but more the fact that he wants Maeldun scapegoated so there's less chance evidence will pop up against him.

- The third piece of evidence - the note: Implies there's political intrigue going on. Cailte isn't particularly in a position of power, but the wizard is powerful, and can convince Cailte to his cause and get him to do his bidding.

So in summary, while Iseult and Paradur were spending time together, Ruadh was stealing Maeldun's girdle, and Geraint spending time with his guards, Cailte got Midir drunk, then carried out the murder. He had made a dagger beforehand to ensure the blame was laid on the mercenaries, and had bought a cloak from Midir to ensure that he was not easily recognised. He had enough motive, despising Vortigern for losing to Whiteblade years ago, and he certainly had opportunity to carry out the crime.
[close]

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

Re coin:

Spoiler
Arr, I noticed the "regular fee". I thought, "damn, I probably won't be able to afford it. But let's wait until he says how much it is." But then he just took the sword, and I thought, "Oh. Maybe I'll only have to pay when the job's done." And later on I noticed the missing coin...
[close]

Regarding inventory items:

Spoiler
Black hair - A red herring that has some relevance, as it immediately throws suspicion on someone. At any rate, it's explained, I guess - but honestly, you didn't expect anyone to find it on a regular playthrough, did you?

"Anyway, a rope is always useful to have in case one gets into a sticky situation ; but said puzzle is entirely optional." --> Ayuh, but it's one thing not to do an optional puzzle because I don't get it. It's another thing, much more frustrating, if I can't do it because the game was a tad too dark, for my monitor, in the room where the rope was.

Giant puzzle - If I'd known his eyesight was poor and he was colourblind, I might have gotten it. ;) Never heard of the fairytale you mentioned - which is always something to consider. Not everyone knows the same stories.

Holy water - Yes, there's another object, which I'd already used to dispose of the first Berghest. Thus leaving me with no way to save the princess on the last chapter. :P A situation which wouldn't have happened if I had had some way of knowing, or even noticing right after the deed, that the holy water was only good once.

Golden apple - Sure I did, but again - fairytale stories. I saw the references, I skimmed through it. And in my mind, Snow White's apple is bright red, it's always been a juicy red apple. So the "golden" didn't register. Not everyone has the same story references... and seeing Snow White, my brain just didn't register the "golden" bit.

Staying trapped in Thierna na Oge - You know, you're right. That probably is warning enough.

Oaktree - Those were acorns? They didn't look like much of anything. :P

Grass - I wasn't trying to click the center, I was clicking *around* the ring. Around the stones, actually - how was I to know the mushrooms made the ring, rather than the stones? Anyway, I didn't want to pick up a mushroom, so it seemed fairly obvious I shouldn't click on the mushrooms...
[close]

Re storyline - So it's strickly for the Sherlock Holmes' out there. :P Not my cup of tea, waaaaaaay too dense without any actual response in-game (in-game I'm trying to figure out the goblin thing, mostly), way too many things to happen inside my head. But I guess some people will enjoy it... maybe. You've certainly put a lot of thought into it. Me, if I want a mystery like that I play Laura Bow or something, I certainly wasn't ready to do all those mental gymnastics in a fantasy game.
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

Radiant

Spoiler
Black hair - yes, I expected some (but few) people to find it, and turns out they did :) some players compulsively look at everything.

The problem with Snow White's apple is that in several renditions of the fairy tale, it has a different color. In some tales it is white-and-red, for instance, and in some it is bright green. The reason it's gold is to attract attention, and to distinguish it from the regular apples (that are red, in the orchard).

Aside from that, several people hint at it being enchanted, and you can show it to the faeries to learn more.
[close]

Sherlocking isn't everybody's cup(pit) of tea, but you can get a lot of mileage out of the game without doing that. I think in many adventure games there's groups of people that just want to get to the end, and others that want the full score.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

Ayuh - there'll always be people who just play it through, and people who actually live the experience. It's just that even after I played the game, and up until the moment I read Fizzii's post, I didn't realise it was THAT kind of game - or rather, THAT kind of part of the game. When playing a fantasy game, you don't expect to actually solve a separate mystery - rather, it gets solved as you go along, maybe requiring you some deduction. What I mean is, the extent of the required deduction is not at all what you expect from this kind of gane, so you're on a totally different mental track.

Anyway, I agree - lots of mileage. And don't get me wrong - I did LOVE the game. Guess such non-linearity's not my cup(pit) of tea, I like to see everything...
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

shbaz

I dig the multiple side quests and endings most of all.

Excellent work.
Once I killed a man. His name was Mario, I think. His brother Luigi was upset at first, but adamant to continue on the adventure that they started together.

Radiant

Wow, according to the counter we have over 10,000 downloads now! Thanks, everybody, for your support!!

Buckethead

I still haven't tried this one... I guess I should do so because it looks (and must be) great  :)

Ieremiou

Been a while since i've been on the forum and I just downloaded your game and it is version 1.2.
Shortly after the opening credits, Whiteblade says "Festival or nay, this man may have [neither] meat nor wine from my table."

From what I remember from English and the either/or and neither/nor usage this sentence is missing the word "neither."

Just wondered if you had noticed.

EDIT:
I accidentally found another "error."
Here is a screenshot of the error.

First run a new game and then clicking through all the dialog during the eating and landing sequence. Then after the Chapter 1 screen, the screen of the castle from the outside shows. Immediately press escape and the above screenshot happens.

Btw, wonderful game so far and I love the music.

EDIT 2:

There seems to be some inconsistency with the name of the country. I've seen both Theylinn and Theylann. Which one is correct?
Ieremiou
-----------

Love of Adventure games everywhere :)

Radiant

Quote from: Ieremiou on Sat 20/10/2007 01:25:09
There seems to be some inconsistency with the name of the country. I've seen both Theylinn and Theylann. Which one is correct?

Both are correct - Theylann is the adjective form.

Erwin_Br

You might want to check the links on your site. When I thought I was downloading the patch, it actually downloaded the full game again. And when I clicked on a second mirror, it was pointing to the correct file, but my "download limit" on that file hosting site had exceeded.  :'(

--Erwin

DragonRose

I just finished playing. Fantastic game! Great puzzles, VERY pretty (I love the rolling clouds in particular) and an awesome story. I only got 90% wisdom and 90% honour, though, so I'm going to have to go back and do it again.

Oh shucks, oh darn.
Sssshhhh!!! No sex please, we're British!!- Pumaman

deadsuperhero

Hey, seeing as this works pretty well on Linux, I'd be more than happy to package this in a .deb file, and submitting it to various Linux game sites.
The fediverse needs great indie game developers! Find me there!

Radiant

Quote from: Alliance on Thu 25/10/2007 21:54:23
I'd be more than happy to package this in a .deb file, and submitting it to various Linux game sites.

That would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

(please ensure you have the latest version, v1.2, and please include a short file that points to crystalshard.net )

deadsuperhero

I'll announce when it's ready.
EDIT: Can you send me some sort of icon that you would like to use for it? If not, I can just draw a vector image in Inkscape for it, or whip something up in GIMP.
The fediverse needs great indie game developers! Find me there!

Radiant


Ali

Since this game was very much in the vein of King's Quest, I didn't expect it to be my kind of game. I was pleasantly surprised, because ATOTK improves upon KQ in a number of ways. The puzzles are more coherent and unfair deaths are few and far between.

Though the style didn't appeal to my tastes, it was a lot of fun to play. I enjoyed it even though I did very badly. I'm probably the least wise and honourable person in the thread!

Sythe

This game is really excellent. I find many AGS games lack good narrative, this one does not. Excellent work.

I have a bug to report (may have already been reported:)
Spoiler

At the goblin place I never saw the rune and never picked it up.
Thus when it came to freeing the princess from her enchantment, I could not.
So the princess remained in limbo until I approached the end of the game.
After retrieving the truth gem I returned to the castle and the princess was magically there despite never having been released from limbo...

Maybe this isn't a bug, but I never read any explanation for it.
[close]

Radiant

Thanks, but that's not a bug. As Maeldun has (likely) been trapped in a faerie spell a couple times over the course of the game, he knows it's possible to escape from that; it just takes awhile.

Sythe

Quote from: Radiant on Mon 05/11/2007 14:53:17
Thanks, but that's not a bug. As Maeldun has (likely) been trapped in a faerie spell a couple times over the course of the game, he knows it's possible to escape from that; it just takes awhile.

Ah, a real bug this time... although it did not affect game play.

Quote* error seeking entry!
(please note room number 17, and from where exactly you entered it)

Spoiler
This is after being turned into a rabbit when I emerge outside. Game play wasn't affected however
[close]


Traveler


vertigoaddict

You know, I still haven't played this game...

Can anyone describe it to me in one word? It might motivate me to take the time to download this.

GarageGothic

#138
Um, one word? Flawed.

Of course a single word can't do any game justice, so I'll use this chance to elaborate: I honestly disliked the game after my first playthrough, which is also why I haven't commented on it so far out of a "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything" philosophy. However, replaying it with the help of a walkthrough, I enjoyed it quite a lot, discovering how much I'd missed due to a couple of unforgiving design issues.  I could discuss these at great length, but the major failure of the game, as I see it, is that it shuts the door to some of the most interesting part of the story without even letting the player know of his mistake*. And what could have been a really interesting whodunnit subplot is so poorly clued that even the most observant might be in doubt when pointing their finger at the culprit (quite like some of the lesser subplots in the finale of Dagger of Amon Ra).

That said, A Tale of Two Kingdoms is a major achievement in amateur game development. I can't think of any other large-team game of this scope that has actually been finished, and even less so with such a consistant and professional looking result. Hats off to the developers for that impressive feat.

I think A Tale of Two Kingdoms would benefit greatly from a Deluxe editions, where some of the event triggers/inventory items were handled differently and the whodunnit plot was beefed up a bit. But as most of these seem to be design decisions rather than oversights, I doubt it'll happen.

* Let me give my favorite example:
Spoiler
Having to pick up the rope at the beginning of the game to be able to retrieve the bridle is madness. First of all, you have absolutely no reason to even try picking it up. At this point of the story you're getting to know people and trying to locate the scepter, not robbing generic inventory items from your hosts. Second, it doesn't seem very likely that there's only a single piece of rope to be found in the whole land. I mean, isn't there always coils of rope lying around in harbors? And third, why can't they just go over the wall on the vine like you've been doing for the rest of the game?

Some other things that bothered me were the disappearance of the iron rune (why shouldn't we assume that using it on the thief would count as its single use, which then wouldn't have been a very wise decision), and the fact that despite being noblemen none of your friends can borrow you a coin or two.
[close]

Radiant

Quote from: vertigoaddict on Sun 18/11/2007 00:52:48
Can anyone describe it to me in one word? It might motivate me to take the time to download this.

One word? For a 100-Mb game? Not really :)

But here are links to half a dozen reviews of the game.

Traveler

While I liked the game a lot, I must agree with GarageGothic's assessment. The murder plot has major logical holes in it - so big, in fact, that when I read about the suspect on these forums, I discarded the idea as speculation, it was so ridiculous. I really don't know who was the murderer, as iI believe it's next to impossible to figure it out by reasoning.

Nevertheless, it's still an awesome game - as an "amateur" game, it beats many, many, many commercial games in quality, detail and fun. (The music is also wonderful.) So even with the flaws that GG (and some others) mentioned, I'd still give this game at least 9 out of 10. :)

JayBTV

I loved this game!!  Needed the walkthru since there's so much to do but it was fantastic to play.  Hope you guys do something else in the future!

LimpingFish

PC Zone had a full page feature about ATOTK in their last issue (UK).

I finally got around to scanning it, and you can see it here!  :)
Steam: LimpingFish
PSN: LFishRoller
XB: TheActualLimpingFish
Spotify: LimpingFish

Radiant

Game of the month? That's awesome!

Do you perhaps have a scan of the second page as well?

LimpingFish

Oh, sorry, I should've been a bit clearer. I meant a full single page. I cropped the borders from the page, but that's the entirety of the feature.

My bad.  :-[
Steam: LimpingFish
PSN: LFishRoller
XB: TheActualLimpingFish
Spotify: LimpingFish

Radiant

Hm, that's odd, the story feels like there's a bunch of sentences missing at the end :)

Anyway, thanks.

Stupot

Congrats on the article, ATOTK guys.
It was very positive, but I couldn't help thinking he could have worded it better.  When he says something like 'It's just long enough that you're more likely to get bored first", I'm sure he actually meant that as a compliment, but it didn't really say what it meant.

Iv4n

I wonder what Quest for Yrolg is? Is it a sequel of ATOTK or something completely new IP?

Radiant

Quote from: Iv4n on Thu 22/11/2007 19:21:08
I wonder what Quest for Yrolg is?

Aaah, wait and see! :P

It's not a sequel. It is an adventure game. it's also high resolution.

Coming soon to a website near you.

Blue

Quote from: Radiant on Fri 23/11/2007 12:22:05

Aaah, wait and see! :P

It's not a sequel. It is an adventure game. it's also high resolution.

Coming soon to a website near you.


That sounds interesting  ;D
I loved ATOTK! Great game!



Radiant


Leonard LePage

Really cool image. Merry Christmas!

Any place we can find a larger version of the image?

Radiant

Quote from: Leonard LePage on Thu 27/12/2007 04:29:39
Any place we can find a larger version of the image?

Unfortunately, no, considering ATOTK plays in 320x200 resolution to begin with.

Galen

Alas, the download stalls during the later stages. I'm unsure wether this is Firefox or my sucky ISP's fault.

Radiant

Quote from: Crazy on Thu 27/12/2007 20:56:06
Alas, the download stalls during the later stages. I'm unsure wether this is Firefox or my sucky ISP's fault.

Hm, that is odd. Have you tried both the regular and the mirror link?

Firefox is usually quite stable with downloads. If your ISP connection is flaky, I'd suggest getting a download manager like GetRight.

Galen


Dee

This is a little off the subject, but I looked for the topic with the most recent postings.  I found this one.  Here's my minor little issue:

When I installed the game, my music.vox file flaked out.  Everything else is perfect.  I'm wondering if I can get my hands on just the missing music.vox file, as the whole game took quite a while to download.  It's a wonderful game, and I really really want to hear the music everyone has been raving about.  Thanks.

Radiant

What do you mean, it flaked out? Did you do a disk scan on your hard drive? Is the installer program still there?

If not, I believe your best bet would be to download it again - the music is about 60 megabytes all by itself, which is about 2/3rds of the download.

We do have a few loose soundtracks for download on our website (see signature) if you want to listen to them on your desktop, rather than in-game.

Dee

Sorry, should have been more specific.  By "flaked out" I mean everything installed normally, except the music.vox file.  I got an error saying the file was corrupted, and it asked if I wanted to continue anyway.  So, I did.  I had some problems with the download, so I should have seen it coming.  I was using getright and I kept losing the mirror website's server.  I had to keep pressing "resume."  Oh well.  I'm over it.  Thanks.

Dualnames

I was reading a magazine(I live in Greece) then I saw a small text...
Title:
Tale of Two Kingdoms..
I'm bored to write what they wrote exactly but they said a little about the story and that the game has a big replayability value and for Nikolas who they didn;t mention they said that the amateur developers took a great effort on the music...

The magazine is Computer Games Magazine..
http://www.gamesite.gr/news/viewnea_data.asp?category_id=90
Worked on Strangeland, Primordia, Hob's Barrow, The Cat Lady, Mage's Initiation, Until I Have You, Downfall, Hunie Pop, and every game in the Wadjet Eye Games catalogue (porting)

Nikolas

jim,

I'm trying to find the review online and it's impossible! have no idea where to search and their site is a bit of a mess. Is it posible to find a direct link, or maybe scan the article, if you have it on the magazine please? I'll translate it. (or maybe if it is on stores tell me which magasine number, since I'm in Athens right now)

Dualnames

I've sent you a PM. And yeah the site is a bit of mess. I couldn't find it on the site either.
Worked on Strangeland, Primordia, Hob's Barrow, The Cat Lady, Mage's Initiation, Until I Have You, Downfall, Hunie Pop, and every game in the Wadjet Eye Games catalogue (porting)

Radiant


Ghost


Nikolas

We also got featured (in a small-ish review) in a Greek magazine called 'Computer Games Magazine'



Rough translation:

A Tale Of Two Kingdoms
In the footsteps of Sierra and Lucas.

A Tale Of Two Kingdoms is a classic point 'n click adventure game which is based on the games from Sierra and Lucasart.

As it is obvious from it's title, the game transfers you to an era of fairytale and fantasy. The mythical kingdom of Theylinn is in danger from the raids of hostile parties, who are ready to throw down the king himself.

But that is not all! The king is also in danger from the tens of noblemen who would like nothing more than to see him fall from his thrown. In the meantime towards the furthest borders of Theyliin there is, well hidden, a second kingdoms, inhabbited by fairies and other creatures. The A Tale Of Two Kingdoms is an adventure which stands out for it's atmophere as well as the five different endings, which rise dramatically the replauability. During the game you will meet plenty of NPCs, with whome you can communicate, while the amateur developers have done an outstanding work in the departement of music. If you are a friend of classic point 'n click, this is worth a look!


rough translation but you get the idea, I hope. :)

Radiant

That is essentially a transcription of our website blurb :)

Anyway, it's nice to hear they like our game.

Dualnames

Dont i get special thanks or an award for digging this?
Good scanning by the way.
Worked on Strangeland, Primordia, Hob's Barrow, The Cat Lady, Mage's Initiation, Until I Have You, Downfall, Hunie Pop, and every game in the Wadjet Eye Games catalogue (porting)

Nikolas

Thanks Jim :D

(I already said thank you in the other thread, or my memory fails me? :S)

Dualnames

I think it does but I'm bored to check so.. nvm. I was just kidding.
Worked on Strangeland, Primordia, Hob's Barrow, The Cat Lady, Mage's Initiation, Until I Have You, Downfall, Hunie Pop, and every game in the Wadjet Eye Games catalogue (porting)

Radiant

Quote from: Dualnames on Tue 22/01/2008 13:15:50
Dont i get special thanks or an award for digging this?

We can give you a free copy of our next game, if you want :)

Dualnames

I'll take it, knowing that your next game is gonna be freeware.
Worked on Strangeland, Primordia, Hob's Barrow, The Cat Lady, Mage's Initiation, Until I Have You, Downfall, Hunie Pop, and every game in the Wadjet Eye Games catalogue (porting)

LuciferSam86

Great game!  ;) I want more games from you (maybe the next game could be a SF game...  :P)
God is Real, unless declared Integer

Play_Pretend

#172
Woot!  I stayed up all last night and played ATOTK straight from start to finish...hooray for being sick and getting to take off work! :)  Terrific game...I would stop on screens and forget to play for a few minutes while I studied the background artwork...truly phenomenal stuff.  I admit, I had to use a walkthrough a lot and had a lot of "Oh dear god, I forgot to save recently, didn't I..." moments. :)  But overall, super enjoyable and a classic!

One possible bug I found, I don't know if anyone mentioned it already or if it's been addressed...I had problems with my Save GUI.  After I filled it up to the max and had to start deleting save games to make room for new ones, it wouldn't let me save new ones, just replace old ones.  No matter how many I deleted, even when there were only, say, three left, it still forced me to replace the top save game in the menu.  I ended up having to delete all of them to stop the replacing, but it would start up again every time my save menu got full.

(Oh, and the inventory...when my inventory filled up and I could click the down arrow to go down to the second inventory circle...whenever I clicked back up to the top inventory circle, the up arrow would stay there and then just disappear when I clicked it.)

I hope I didn't just miss a patch or something, just wanted to let you know.  Thanks a ton for ATOTK, it really took me back to my Sierra childhood. :)

Radiant

It's a known issue, but thanks for your feedback. I'm in doubt whether I should release a v1.3 at some point; there aren't any big issues but there are a few details that could be improved. But then, there always are :)

Radiant

On behalf of the entire team, I wish to thank everybody who voted for us in the AGS awards. It's really great to win some of those :)

SSH

12

Radiant

Quote from: SSH on Tue 19/02/2008 17:50:09
Which ones isn't it great to win? ;)

That one that we had a big row over last year :)

Suz

I'm having a problem trying to play the game.  The dialogue text flickers so rapidly on the screen that it's impossible to read.  Its like my computer is too fast.  I run Vista on a dual core processor.  Is there anyway to slow down the text?

Radiant

I would suggest to run the included winsetup.exe - if you're running the game in full-screen mode (as is the default), run it windowed (or, if you were already doing that, try running it full-screen instead).

If that doesn't work, I'd suggest updating your graphics drivers.

NK

This is a great game better than the King's Quest I got stucked too long because of missing items that I'm unaware of. This game is kind to give clues in dialogs, books and sparkling animations on items. On second round, I was able to pick up more hints. One complaint is the rope at the beginning, I concure with the one mentioned in this thread. Why all of a sudden they need a rope instead of the ivy? I thought we need to goto roof or something.

The moment I found the black tower was so awesome. I was scared hell chased by baraghest and fox. Thunder storm and fog effects were nice. I find the forest backgrounds prettier than the faeri land. Trees and animals are all so lovely.

I like all the characters with their own stories, like Ruadh and Blossom had deep stories and likeable. This makes ATOTK so special. Even goblins have noble characteristics to keep their words. And I thank the giant. I wish Maeldun and Branwyn had some cute moments like Pooka and Taliesin.  Branwyn lacks her moments in this game. She calls Maeldun Beloved sometimes and that is not enough to clue player to use her dagger when needed. Branwyn could use more prettier or stronger portrait. I was suprise to realize faeri queen is after all not so pure good -- she is a faeri after all.

Somethings I've found.

* possible spoiler *









Ruadh said he would throw the lockpick after their girdle stealing but somehow it is in possession of Maeldun after it's done. When the jeweler is killed, she miraculously showed up later in the funeral ceremony.





*end of spoiler*




And this one, not 100% sure it is a bug of not, the stolen back girdle disappears after bunny moments. I've tried 3 times, going through scared fox chasing moments all over. So I gave it to Branwyn for safe keeping.

Guessing the assassin is awesome idea but too hard. I guess it's for the players who like to get 100 points.

Thanks for the great game. Do we have a sequel?

Radiant

Thanks for your comments!

Quote from: NK on Tue 18/03/2008 23:37:32
Why all of a sudden they need a rope instead of the ivy? I thought we need to goto roof or something.
Because, as you could see in chapter two, the city has numerous guards during the night.

QuoteI was suprise to realize faeri queen is after all not so pure good -- she is a faeri after all.
Precisely. Faeries of myth aren't all that pure and good, if you look at them closely.

Quote
Ruadh said he would throw the lockpick after their girdle stealing but somehow it is in possession of Maeldun after it's done. When the jeweler is killed, she miraculously showed up later in the funeral ceremony.
That would seem to be a bug.

alkis21

I haven't played a new game in two years, and now that I finally have some time I decided to give ATOTK a try. My first impressions are extremely positive. I will post more comments after I've played it for some time.

Dualnames

By the way the magazine i told you last about considers ATOTK as the top five indie games of the year.
Worked on Strangeland, Primordia, Hob's Barrow, The Cat Lady, Mage's Initiation, Until I Have You, Downfall, Hunie Pop, and every game in the Wadjet Eye Games catalogue (porting)

Radiant

Quote from: Dualnames on Thu 03/04/2008 14:34:47
By the way the magazine i told you last about considers ATOTK as the top five indie games of the year.

You mean the Greek one? Great! Do you perhaps have a scan of that?

Dualnames

I can't just scan everything but say to Nicolas that it;s computer games current version
Worked on Strangeland, Primordia, Hob's Barrow, The Cat Lady, Mage's Initiation, Until I Have You, Downfall, Hunie Pop, and every game in the Wadjet Eye Games catalogue (porting)

SuperDre

I just 'finished' this one, it's a beautifully made game, but I found it to be one of the most frustrating adventure games ever, too many path's, too little information on what was actually needed or needed to be done.. I found the game more like walking around like a chicken with no head..
The non-linearity was just plain bad gameplay IMHO, not knowing what you actually wanted the player to go, so therefore just let it be possible to do everything and nothing.. so IMHO it's a shame that such great backgrounds,animations,sounds and music are ruined by bad gameplay..

So next time I hope you guys and girls just make sure the gameplay fits the wonderfull done backgrounds,animations, sounds and music..

Zazzaro

Wow i thought that's what made the game great. It made you "adventure" by wandering around and trying to figure out what to do. Also gave it great replayability. To each their own. Hoping they are working on a new game similiar in depth to ATOTKs.

Wonkyth

There is talk of a sequel in the far off future, but I wouldn't hold your breath.
;)
"But with a ninja on your face, you live longer!"

Radiant

I had in the past decided to not have any translated versions of this game, but Bela Selmeci has managed to convince me otherwise. Therefore, a Hungarian translation is in the works, thanks to him. Since this means changing some of the code to accomodate translations, I'll be taking this opportunity to fix the reported bugs, too.

Stay tuned!

Radiant

The game has now been translated into Hungarian, and v1.3 is available for download. There aren't many changes, but I took the opportunity to fix some bugs including the only "walking dead" situation reported (if you left the bottle in Midir's shop when he closes it down). Also, I've added a little bonus at the end if you have a near-perfect Honor and Wisdom score.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/905

Since the game now supports translation, I would also be willing to consider a translation to e.g. German, French, or Spanish if somebody is interested in doing that. If you are, send me a PM with some of your prior work.

Monsieur OUXX

Hello, sorry for necroposting, but I think I have relevant information :

ABOUT HOW WELL THE GAME IS AGING
Surprisingly well! ;)
- I've downloaded the game from AGS, so I assume it's the latest version (1.3) -- I couldn't find where to check that.
- I've used the usual trick to play an old game on a more recent engine (renamed the .exe to AC2GAME.DAT and then used acwin.exe taken from AGS 3.3.4)
- Good news : it works pretty well appart from one display issue : the player is sometimes hidden behind animated objects, such as doors, waves on the beach, etc. HOWEVER the huge advantage is that I could use D3D9 (DX5 wouldn't work) and really cool upscale filters. I strongly recommend you guys port the game to 3.3.4 or higher. From what I see it wouldn't be too hard.

ABOUT A BUG
- I wouldn't have necroposted only for what's above, but I've found a small bug : when I click twice on the skull, the character finds a "small piece of bone" behind it. Then it becomes the active cursor and it even appears in the "easy-access inventory" (you know, that one object that is displayed on the right of the inventory).HOWEVER when you open the inventory, that bone is gone. From everywhere. Forever. ;)
I don't think this could be caused by the engine upgrade. Could it be a bug that was never reported? I didn't find any trace of that action in the walkthrough.

ABOUT TRANSLATIONS
It is so tempting to volunteer for French translation! But since Nelly Cootalot, I've learnt that this takes a LOT of time. Especially there, with poems and Shakespearian language. I wouldn't want to end up doing this.


Long things short: anyone who's never played this game... Just do it! :)
 

Fizzii

Hi everyone,

We are pleased to announce that we are officially working on a deluxe version of A Tale of Two Kingdoms!



A Tale of Two Kingdoms is a graphical adventure in the style of the classic Sierra games. Set in the world of Celtic mythology and fairy tales, it features many sidequests and alternate endings. For this new release, we are doing a Deluxe Edition with a new interactive prologue, several graphic updates, and professional voice acting.

The ancient kingdom of Theylinn is beset by enemies. Within the castle walls, nobles vie for the old King's favor, and not everybody is happy with the sole heir to the throne, princess Rhiannon. Meanwhile, danger approaches, in the form of an invading army, a hostile giant, and a mercenary troop who are ancient enemies of the Theylann king...





Please support us and help to get this game Greenlit on Steam:
http://crystalshard.net/steam.php (to open Greenlight page in Steam client)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=861490245 (web link)

Thanks for your support! :)

Athanor

I'll buy it the moment it's available, that's for sure. AToTK is not only one of the best AGS-games ever made, but also one of the greatest adventures I've played in my life. I'm really looking forward to the deluxe edition. May I ask if there's already an approximate release date?

Fizzii

ATOTK will be released some time after Leylines is released (it's a non-AGS 4X strategy game: http://store.steampowered.com/app/585820 , in case anyone's interested in our other projects).

Spoiler
Personally, I told Radiant it'd be cool if we can release ATOTK exactly on its 10 year anniversary, which is mid year :)). But we'll have to see whether we can actually make that date.
[close]
At the moment we've just opened up voice acting auditions. Details can be found here: http://voiceacting.boards.net/thread/404/tale-kingdoms-adventure-game-18m


Mandle

Nice voice acting!!!

This is one of my favorite AGS games of all time!

Best of luck with the deluxe edition!

SarahLiz

Wow, how exciting!  Definitely one of my all-time faves on AGS too--I've probably played it more times than any other game over the years...

So, suffice it to say that this will end up on my Steam library come the 31st.  :) 

~Sarah

Fizzii

A Tale of Two Kingdoms is now available for purchase!



It is 15% off on Steam, and non-Steam copies are available from Itch and Humble Store. Please support us and spread the word!

Download from Steam
Humble Store
Itch.io

Fizzii

ATOTK is on sale for 20% off, ending tomorrow:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/603870/A_Tale_of_Two_Kingdoms/

You can also get ATOTK in a bundle with its soundtrack and the Crystal Shard Adventure Bundle (comprising Larry Lotter and the Test of Time, Starship Quasar and Quest for Yrolg), for a total discount of 40% off until tomorrow.
http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/5656/Indie_Adventures_Bundle/

sawyer

Quote from: SarahLiz on Mon 09/10/2017 21:17:57
Wow, how exciting!  Definitely one of my all-time faves on AGS too--I've probably played it more times than any other game over the years...

So, suffice it to say that this will end up on my Steam library come the 31st.  :) 

~Sarah



Thanks to all who made this available!
I cant wait to play on my android, (achievement link fail) because this game truly is awesome!!

sawyer

#200
..

sawyer

:grin: Think you could do a talkie v. Stargate Adventure.....:shocked:(nod)

Cassiebsg

Okay, this is starting to be annoying... :-\
I clicked the "Download Demo" on the AGS DB entry, and it just sends me to Steam, and the mirror to humble... but I can't see any link on either sites to get the demo, only the buy the game link seems to be available! :(

So, where's the demo?
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Peder 🚀

I don't think there is a demo, it's really an issue with the AGS site, I think it shows a "download demo" button for all commercial games...

Cassiebsg

Uhm. I thought there would only be a "dwl demo" if there was a demo to be dwled, otherwise it should be called "buy the game" link instead...
But guess this is not the right topic for this. :-\
There are those who believe that life here began out there...


Crimson Wizard

#206
Sorry for bumping, I am not sure where it's better to report bugs. I found a minor issue: if you press F5 during the language selection, then after intro begins the "save dialog" is visible on screen, and it keeps hanging there through the intro and on main menu. It also does not react to Cancel button, so there's no way to dismiss it there.

Radiant

This is the correct place to report bugs. Thank you, I'll fix this in the next release.

Durq

After hours and hours of playing through this wonderful game and refusing to ever look at a walkthrough, I finally reached one of the endings.

And now I'm wondering if Crystal Shard has any new games in the works?

SirPrimalform

I just got to (an) ending of this wonderful game and there was a point during the ending where the screen went black for an extended length of time while music played. I'm sure I read somewhere that the deluxe version mentioned an animated ending (I guess an FMV of sorts?). I'm wondering if the black screen I saw was meant to be something other than a black screen? I'm being deliberately vague about the details of the ending so as not to spoil anything for anyone, but hopefully anyone who has finished this will either have encountered the black screen, or whatever is meant to happen instead.
Thanks to anyone who can shed any light!

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