Adventure: The Inside Job

[Akril15]

Thalia James, member of the Earth Anti-Encroachment League for over twenty years, has contacted a bizarre disorder during an inspection of a distant planet. Now it seems that danger is always two steps behind her as she continues what she once considered a relatively mundane job. It seems as if there is something rotten in the state of the Milky Way...

*******

That was the summarizing paragraph for the adventure game I was going to star in...before it got cancelled.

However, for a game character, being cancelled is hardly the end of the world. In fact, there's an entire universe beyond the one that you Outsiders see on your screens whenever you start playing our games...and for the first time, you're going to get a look at it...







This is my first AGS project. It's taken a total of almost a year to finish, and I hope that it will be worth the wait.

The paragraphs above are pretty much the best way I've found to describe this game's plot without giving too much away. I feel that going into too much detail about the plot would ultimately spoil the experience, since the premise of this adventure game is a somewhat unique one (at least, I hope it is).

To elaborate somewhat: My first game, Area 50.5, was meant to appeal not only to people new to adventure games, but to people who love adventure games as well.  Adventure: The Inside Job, however, was designed to appeal to people who not only love adventure games, but have played too freaking many adventure games.



Here's some good news and bad news about what you can expect from Adventure: The Inside Job -

The bad news:
-This game will have ripped sprites, ripped backgrounds, and ripped music.
-The game's storyline is copied from an idea conceived by an author to such an extent that fans of said author would be screaming "RIPOFF!" five minutes into this game.
-This game is pretty big (and I don't mean "big" in terms of story, length, budget, or puzzle volume).

The good news:
-This game has ripped sprites, ripped backgrounds, and ripped music for reasons quite different than the usual "I can't draw/compose music very well"/"I don't have time to draw/write music for this game" excuse, for reasons you will soon see once you start playing. And the game DOES have some original sprites/backgrounds/music.
-This game is meant as a homage to the author mentioned above, in fact, one of his books is hidden in one of the game's screens, and I intend to give him and his idea full credit in the credits.
-This game's size is primarily due to its vast quantity of (original!) animations and its high resolution (640X480!).

In some ways, ATIJ can be considered a fangame, which would make it one the few fangames that includes ripped graphics and music yet isn't a sequel, a remake or a spinoff.



Yes, it's been almost five months, but at long last, this game is now ready to be downloaded and (hopefully) enjoyed by the masses! Have fun, everyone.

Download (66 Mb compressed, 337 Mb uncompressed)
Alternate download
Adventure: The Inside Job Website

[Trent R]

Yay!! It's finally released!
DLing now.


~Trent

[robvalue]

Looks great, I've just started to play it.

I've noticed that if you press tab to bring up the inventory, you don't get the same looking window as when you select it from the top bar, and it says YES NO NO underneath... seems to me like it shouldn't be like this?

[Akril15]

*sigh.*

I'm sorry, I didn't know that pressing tab brought up the inventory. I'll upload an edited version as soon as I can.

[robvalue]

That's OK, just trying to help

I've noticed a few little things so far if you're interested, if not that's cool... such as

Spoiler

When I use an object on the sticky tar (that you use to join two cards together) the response always seems to say that she won't use the cards on the tar, regardless of which object I'm actually trying to use. Also the walkspeed in some of the screens, especially one of the first ones with the dwarf in lo res, is very slow.

[close]

These are only very minor things, please don't get me wrong. I'm very impressed so far, I love the humour, the graphics and animations are excellent and I look forward to playing it more. Great job!

[neon]

This one is great! It's like time travelling, I'm very impressed how much of the old school games you have implented. For myself, I started with Infocom's Starcross in the early 80's. When I started your game, I was shot back into this time immediatly. 5 of 5 points for the idea, very amazing.

Will there be a german version?

If you ever plan to add voice acting, I would be glad to speak the story teller (german and english).

[Akril15]

That's OK, just trying to help

I've noticed a few little things so far if you're interested, if not that's cool... such as

Spoiler

When I use an object on the sticky tar (that you use to join two cards together) the response always seems to say that she won't use the cards on the tar, regardless of which object I'm actually trying to use. Also the walkspeed in some of the screens, especially one of the first ones with the dwarf in lo res, is very slow.

[close]

These are only very minor things, please don't get me wrong. I'm very impressed so far, I love the humour, the graphics and animations are excellent and I look forward to playing it more. Great job!

Are there any other inconsistancies that you've noticed? I want to make sure I've fixed as many as possible before uploading a new version. Regarding the walking speed, it's different in almost every screen, and I tried to implement a speed slider in the game, but no matter how much I tinkered with it, it didn't increase or decrease the speed at all.

This one is great! It's like time travelling, I'm very impressed how much of the old school games you have implented. For myself, I started with Infocom's Starcross in the early 80's. When I started your game, I was shot back into this time immediatly. 5 of 5 points for the idea, very amazing.

Thank you very much!

Will there be a german version?

If you ever plan to add voice acting, I would be glad to speak the story teller (german and english).

Sorry, but I don't plan on doing any translated versions or adding voice acting, since the game is enormous enough without voices. Thank you for the offer, though.

[Kaldire]

wow ... just wow

I love this game! more more more! I would love to see expanded areas and more interaction with possible side quest diversions.. but this is aweeeeesome

didnt know tab did that either! doh!

[Dualnames]

Well, definetely gonna check this one, glad to hear it's finally out.. Great job Akril, sure this one separates itself from the rip-off categories..as originally statedn by you anyway.

[robvalue]

I'm still playing it at the moment, I'll let you know all the things I find.

Another minor point I noticed: when you go to save your game, after you have done that and you return to playing the game, the cursor becomes an arrow rather than one of the normal icons you cycle through.

I'll add more if I find them.

Edit: I've now finished the game. Congratulations on one of the finest quality games I've played on here, I loved virtually everything about it.

It's a very solid game, the only other minor thing I found was

Spoiler

when you first meet Suzy-Ann there is a spelling mistake... she says "wanna see what I just finshed making"... I think the word finished just needs another i in there.

[close]

and I don't know if it was intended or not, but during the ending sequence (which is very fine I may add) you can't skip the dialogue lines.

Thanks again! As a huge fan of the genre this game really appealed to me.

[Potch]

Is there any way to speed up walking?  It's REALLY slow!  Other than that... so far it's great!

[Akril15]

It's a very solid game, the only other minor thing I found was

Spoiler

when you first meet Suzy-Ann there is a spelling mistake... she says "wanna see what I just finshed making"... I think the word finished just needs another i in there.

[close]

and I don't know if it was intended or not, but during the ending sequence (which is very fine I may add) you can't skip the dialogue lines.

I'll make sure to correct that spelling mistake, and yes, the dialogue in the outro is unskippable because it's synced with the music.

Thanks again! As a huge fan of the genre this game really appealed to me.

You're very welcome and thank you for pointing out those problems for me. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Is there any way to speed up walking?  It's REALLY slow!  Other than that... so far it's great!

Thanks. Since a significant number of people have commented on the slowness of the walking, I'm going to increase it in the next version.

[Akril15]

Version 1.3 (or so) is now out. I increased Thalia's walk speed and corrected a couple of minor errors.

[Cameliosso]

Greetings from Poland, and congratulations for this enjoyable tribute game. Despite of the bunch of rip-offs , the game seems to be well constructed and logical in terms of story / intrigue etc... yet I got the question , and maybe its kind  of "how many errors you can find in a film" question... In one of the final scenes Tlotzin mentioned that Suzy-Ann cannot participate any longer  in CGMS, because her game isn't cancelled any more... So it seems that the status of "cancelled game" is a criterium of being in CGMS... so... how the Marek of Teenagent appears there too ? His game was kinda milestone in polish computer enterteinment and it even had a re-release (with voices of creators of also legendery PL computer magazine Secret Service). OK maybe the game is now abandonware , but the main programmer said some time ago its ok So Marek really break this criterium ... or it was about "Agent" in game name ? Just a curiosity ...

[Leon]

Wow, congratulations.
A great game. Great concept and a lot (I mean a lot) of deja-vu's. Great work!

[update] The game wasn't that hard. There might have been some more difficulty/diversity in the puzzles, but overall a nice atmosphere and fun to see the details from all those games.

You might want to remove/replace your last screenshot because for me it was a huge spoiler. Not that the puzzle was that hard but the picture made me realize immediately where to look.

[Akril15]

Greetings from Poland, and congratulations for this enjoyable tribute game. Despite of the bunch of rip-offs , the game seems to be well constructed and logical in terms of story / intrigue etc... yet I got the question , and maybe its kind  of "how many errors you can find in a film" question... In one of the final scenes Tlotzin mentioned that Suzy-Ann cannot participate any longer  in CGMS, because her game isn't cancelled any more... So it seems that the status of "cancelled game" is a criterium of being in CGMS... so... how the Marek of Teenagent appears there too ? His game was kinda milestone in polish computer enterteinment and it even had a re-release (with voices of creators of also legendery PL computer magazine Secret Service). OK maybe the game is now abandonware , but the main programmer said some time ago its ok So Marek really break this criterium ... or it was about "Agent" in game name ? Just a curiosity ...

Thank you very much!

Hmm, I didn't realize that Teen Agent was that popular in Poland. I was under the impression that it had fallen into relative obscurity (much like Jared Wilson's game, Gold Rush!, an old Sierra title).

Since the English version of Teen Agent is much less popular than the original Polish version, though, the Mark/Marek in ATIJ is the one from the English version, not the Polish one. 

Spoiler

And the primary reason that Suzy-Ann is being dismissed from the CGMS is that when her game is finished and realeased, a lot of people will be playing it and she'll be kept too busy to work in the CGMS. As the years pass, however, the game might wane in popularity, and she will have more free time on her hands (like Mark/Marek and Jared).

[close]

[saluk]

I thought the concept and story were great!  I was a bit disappointed with how linear and easy it was though, and a lot of things were a bit slow for my tastes (mostly the walkspeed, but also storywise it takes a while to get going)

I loved the atmosphere, you managed to combine a lot of memorable backdrops and yet not feel like yet another game with ripped graphics.  I also felt very lonely playing this game, like these characters really exist but it's almost like a game character afterlife.  I don't know if those were the emotions you were going for, but I felt it, and felt it strong.

Really amazing first game!

[Jared]

I'm also greatly impressed with this game, and would like to offer you my congratulations. It's a very fun ride, and it's interesting to play a game in which, effectively, the fourth wall never even exists. I had a lot of fun spotting familiar backdrops and characters, with the result being that this came across as a very fitting fan tribute to the genre at large, and there is something quite heartening about the idea of all our cancelled and forgotten game characters living on in that strange world.

Two things I thought was conspicuously absent: Thrall from Warcraft Adventures. As soon as I 'got' that the GCMS were all from cancelled adventures I thought it would have to be just a matter of time before he showed up, but no dice. (Possibly fair enough, since Thrall is a character in the new Warcraft games anyway...) The other thing I felt missing was a trip to Simon the Sorcerer, especially after it got referenced so many times.

The game did feel that little bit too linear on the whole (I think it would have helped to have put more convos in the unused KQ7 scenes, so have Ichabod as the trigger to move the story on but let you chat with all the characters around) and I thought that the way that the climax scene with Sidonius was set up to play felt a bit... too restrictive. I got a lot of enjoyment out of the game, though.

Two questions
1. Is Suzy-Anne and her recently un-cancelled game real, or just a fictional embellishment to make the ending more upbeat?
2. How did you get the graphics from Discworld 2 and the other games without resource viewers? Was it just screencaps at work?

[Akril15]

I thought the concept and story were great!  I was a bit disappointed with how linear and easy it was though, and a lot of things were a bit slow for my tastes (mostly the walkspeed, but also storywise it takes a while to get going)

Thank you! (I have increased the walk speed in the latest version, by the way.)

I'm also greatly impressed with this game, and would like to offer you my congratulations. It's a very fun ride, and it's interesting to play a game in which, effectively, the fourth wall never even exists. I had a lot of fun spotting familiar backdrops and characters, with the result being that this came across as a very fitting fan tribute to the genre at large, and there is something quite heartening about the idea of all our cancelled and forgotten game characters living on in that strange world.

Thank you! That's pretty much the reaction I hoped people would have to this little experiment, so I'm very glad to hear that.

Two things I thought was conspicuously absent: Thrall from Warcraft Adventures. As soon as I 'got' that the GCMS were all from cancelled adventures I thought it would have to be just a matter of time before he showed up, but no dice. (Possibly fair enough, since Thrall is a character in the new Warcraft games anyway...) The other thing I felt missing was a trip to Simon the Sorcerer, especially after it got referenced so many times.

I actually just heard about Warcraft Adventures recently -- I was looking for info on the cancelled Toonstruck sequel and found both of them on a list of the top ten "sequels that never were". If I ever make a sequel to ATIJ, I'll definitely have to include Thrall.

(Actually, not all CGMS agents and supervisors are from cancelled games, though most of them are. Darm from the Kyrandia games is Ichabod's supervisor, that kid from Broken Sword 1 is on Ichabod and Sidonius' team and Jared from Sierra On-Line's Gold Rush and Mark from Teen Agent are on Thalia's team.)

1. Is Suzy-Anne and her recently un-cancelled game real, or just a fictional embellishment to make the ending more upbeat?

That part is entirely fictional, I'm afraid.

2. How did you get the graphics from Discworld 2 and the other games without resource viewers? Was it just screencaps at work?

For those games, I took one screenshot of the scene I wanted, then move the character to another part of the screen and make a screenshot of that scene. Then I pasted one screenshot over the other as a new layer (this is in Paint Shop Pro, a cheap alternative to Photoshop), erased the character in the top screenshot, then merged the two layers (this was pretty much how I got pictures of "empty" scenes before I knew about resource viewing tools).

[Cyrus]

Loved it! I think the only weak point of the project is that many characters and BG's are not involved in the plot and seem to be put into the game for merely decorative purposes (Runaway, CMI, Broken Sword backgrounds, etc.)