Dinner for Pigeons served

TM · Sat 16/04/2011 01:43:11

OMG, I can't believe it's finished! It seems so small but it took all these months to make. It's called:

Dinner for Pigeons

What is this?
A freeware, snack-size adventure game with candy-colored cartoon graphics </foodreferences> and a gentle arcade slant (basically meaning there's a health bar and you can die...)

The story?
Close your eyes. Imagine you are a pigeon. You are a hungry pigeon. Fortunately, these are the streets of plenty. So fly over to the diner and steal an evening meal from under people's noses. Try not to get killed in the process. That is this game.

Download download download:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1421

Update: New version 1.0.2 is up that fixes the Hint arrow & a bunch of other stuff.

Many thanks to Ben304 for being an inspiration and testing the game and especially to Justin aka Dos4/GW who wrote the beautiful music and also did some testing! More thanks to the people on this forum who helped me with my AGS issues.

Note:
The game is in 1024x768 with a bunch of animations going on. Only late into the development did I realize that this is not what AGS was made for. Thus, the game might run jittery and sluggish on older machines. I am sorry.

Gabriel_Down · Sat 16/04/2011 08:13:10

The main concept of the game is charming. The graphics and animations are among the best I've seen here. Especially the graphics have that casual games look but manage to maintain a warmth and personality most casual games don't. The music is also nice suiting the game very well!

but

*retard alert*

Ummm I can't really figure out what I'm supposed to do. Tried some things died 3 times then stopped playing and resumed browsing the forum/listening to david sanborn.

Edit: lol ok finished it, congrats that was really nice!

mode7 · Sat 16/04/2011 08:21:15

Same here I just keep dying! Do you just have to be quick or is there a kind of puzzle scheme you have to persue?

The graphics a gorgeous and the amount of animation overwhelming - i also liked to see that there is hotspot information system integrated. While most hardcore adventure gamers despise this - i think this should be a standart feature in modern games.

cianty · Sat 16/04/2011 09:49:01

Just downloaded it and played it through. What a beautiful little game! Definately the best new short game I have played recently. Love it! And the ending is just perfectly rewarding - it really made me laugh!

Thanks for making my day!

Iliya · Sat 16/04/2011 10:06:55

Wooow, what a great graphics!!! Really nice! Congrats TM!

TomatoesInTheHead · Sat 16/04/2011 11:02:32

Amazing graphics and animations, and nice puzzles, a fun little game.

Was the "Hint" arrow supposed to do something? When I clicked on it, the pigeon just walked a bit, so the click went through the arrow I think.

ThreeOhFour · Sat 16/04/2011 11:04:29

Ah, congrats on releasing it! Definitely one of the most polished games I've seen in AGS.

Snarky · Sat 16/04/2011 16:29:29

Very nice and attractive little game! I had a lot of trouble figuring out what I was supposed to do at first, because I wasn't sure what kind of puzzles there were and everything I tried seemed to kill me. And the hint system appears to be broken. But once I managed the first step (getting the popcorn) and could see how to play, I got unstuck pretty quickly.

I posted some hints on the Hints forum for others in a similar situation.

Buckethead · Sat 16/04/2011 17:36:49

Very nice little game. The graphics are of proffesional quality and the puzzles are quite fun and clever. I was enjoying just flying around with my pigeon and land on places just to see what would happen.

Still couldn't figure out how to get the burger.

Iliya · Sat 16/04/2011 20:34:57

I finished it!

Very nice little game with very nice music and graphics. The puzzles are also good!

TM · Sat 16/04/2011 21:45:40

Hey people! I thank for your kind words and am glad you enjoyed the game. You all get an imaginary award from me for solving (or trying to) the game in tenacious mode, which was on because...

Quote from: TomatosInTheHead on Sat 16/04/2011 11:02:32
Was the "Hint" arrow supposed to do something? When I clicked on it, the pigeon just walked a bit, so the click went through the arrow I think.

Yeah, that's a bug, thanks for bringing that to my attention. It is supposed to answer some questions that arise from the somewhat unusual gameplay. I am very sorry for the confusion. It kind of slipped into the final build, I don't know how...
Anyway, it is fixed in the new build 1.0.1.

Igor Hardy · Sun 17/04/2011 01:14:09

Congrats! Really excellent short game. Fun, very polished and well animated.

Not really a complaint, but I would never have beaten the hamburger man without checking the in-game hints. I guess it's difficult, but fair though.

Also, finding the hotspots was a nightmare before I actually noticed the question mark button after several deaths. I completely missed the fence and the mouse hole hotspots for instance. Nevertheless having different areas with different interaction possibilities is ultimately a feature that works very well within this game.

Khris · Tue 19/04/2011 19:56:20

Damn nice execution, maybe this will finally shut up the "AGS = 90's pixel mush" crowd.

If you haven't tried this, download it now!

cosmicr · Wed 20/04/2011 01:07:22

hey! I like 90's pixel mush!

hedgefield · Thu 21/04/2011 00:36:17

Cool, the hints were exactly what I needed to finish the game! I got the hang of it pretty quickly but I only got as far as

Spoiler

picking up the popcorn bag and I had no idea what to use it on or what the bird was for.

[close]

Nice game man, something else for a change and the graphics are gorgeous.

selmiak · Thu 21/04/2011 21:24:41

Quote from: hedgefield on Thu 21/04/2011 00:36:17
Cool, the hints were exactly what I needed to finish the game! I got the hang of it pretty quickly but I only got as far as
Spoiler
picking up the popcorn bag and I had no idea what to use it on or what the bird was for.
[close]
Nice game man, something else for a change and the graphics are gorgeous.

thanks for writing what I was about to write

TM · Sun 24/04/2011 08:06:29

Quote from: Ascovel on Sun 17/04/2011 01:14:09
Congrats! Really excellent short game. Fun, very polished and well animated.

Not really a complaint, but I would never have beaten the hamburger man without checking the in-game hints. I guess it's difficult, but fair though.

Also, finding the hotspots was a nightmare before I actually noticed the question mark button after several deaths. I completely missed the fence and the mouse hole hotspots for instance. Nevertheless having different areas with different interaction possibilities is ultimately a feature that works very well within this game.

Yeah, I feel the controls/UI are the one thing that's lacking polish. I'm very aware of that and I might rebuild the game in flash one day if I figure out how to make the control scheme clearer (suggestions?

).

Quote from: Khris on Tue 19/04/2011 19:56:20
Damn nice execution, maybe this will finally shut up the "AGS = 90's pixel mush" crowd.
If you haven't tried this, download it now!

Thanks! The thing is, though, that on my notebook, it runs really badly and slow, so AGS is not really that well-equipped for hi-rez stuff.

Quote from: cosmicr on Wed 20/04/2011 01:07:22
hey! I like 90's pixel mush!

Me two! My next game is going to be much mushier. I really want to try different art styles. (but I also want to make something that runs well in AGS on older machines)

tzachs · Sun 24/04/2011 09:45:40

I loved this game, some really clever puzzles, and felt really polished, well done!
Maybe it's just me, but I found the health for the pigeon is really unnecessary for this type of game, and didn't really added anything to it...

And a small suggestion:

Spoiler

In the popcorn puzzle, you have to run three times until the chimney top falls, but there was no visual hint for that. It would help if every time the top would be a little more swinging to the side or something like that so we'd see a difference.

[close]

Khris · Sun 24/04/2011 12:46:55

Quote from: TM on Sun 24/04/2011 08:06:29
Quote from: cosmicr on Wed 20/04/2011 01:07:22
hey! I like 90's pixel mush!
Me two! My next game is going to be much mushier.

I'm sure we all do, I love it. But some people seem to think that's all AGS can do/is good at.

Matti · Sun 24/04/2011 22:34:32

I really enjoyed this little game! Polished, clever and pretty.

tzachs: I immediately tried it several times as I was sure it would happen. You maybe right about the health bar though.