Gray (E3 version is here!)

[Fitz]

THE ALIEN INVASION HAS BEGUN

AND THEN... THE EASTER EGG EDITION HAS LANDED

(check the updates at the bottom of this post for details)

Fear and tremble, Mr. Zuckerberg, for Gray has raided Facebook

Meet Gray - an unbearably cute and insanely smart alien. Follow his unfortunate excursion to Planet Earth. Help him conquer Earth.



Uhh... Wait, no... Help him find his ship.

And THEN conquer Earth.


WHILE ON YOUR QUEST, YOU CAN:

- look at everything -- and learn things you never knew. Or never WANTED TO know.
- touch or grab everything -- only to learn it's futile at best, and also dangerous.
- talk to everyone - and everything! -- and get in some WEIRD arguments.
- use EVERYTHING on EVERYTHING -- and hear a detailed explanation of why exactly this particular combination makes no sense at all. Or is dangerous. Or STUPID.
- marvel at Gray walk on his lopsided legs
- learn how to cleanse your ears (and other orifices) properly
- face death -- and laugh it in the face. Or at least chuckle awkwardly...




THE GAME FEATURES

- a devious, yet lovable and cute main character
- a hick with itchy fingers
- an environment influenced by the time of the day
- duck hunting
- moth hunting
- pixel hunting
- Lo-Definition graphics in astounding 4C (four colors)
- surprising, astounding, scary and/or disgusting facts about all kinds of things
- over 20 original audio tracks
- unique responses to each action (mostly sarcastic in tone)
- over 3500 lines of dialogue (mostly monologue, actually)
- language versions: English, Polish -- and more coming up...

DOWNLOAD THE GAME NOW

Profess your allegiance and love for the invader on Gray's facebook page

News update Dec 2, 2012:
- if anyone has problems unzipping the file, pm me and we'll try to figure it out.
- jesli ktos widzi krzaczki w polskiej wersji po zaladowaniu save'a zachowanego w wersji angielskiej - to na razie moge polecic po prostu zaczac gre od poczatku. Poprawie to, przetestuje - i jesli nic nie bedzie krzaczyc, to puszcze poprawiona wersje w tygodniu.
- if anyone experiences problems with Polish fonts after loading a save game from the English version - the only fix right now is to restart the game from scratch. I'll fix the issue within the week.

News update Feb 4, 2013:
- Gray is taking over Facebook. Check the site for updates, video-trivia and random stuff.
- planning to start on a German translation soon
- more extra content is being considered

News update April 5, 2013:

The Easter Egg Edition is here! You never knew it was coming -- and it's a week late. But look at it this way: a second wave of alien invasion is not something you'd see coming. Even when it's late. Oh well, let's say it's Easter 2014 Early Edition!

The Easter Egg Edition features:

- Easter eggs, obviously (that includes ACTUAL Easter Eggs)
- two new and fully interactive inventory item (and one of them is... yup, you guessed it!)
- lots of bugs -- such as bees, termites, fireflies, a moth, and mosquitos
- a free pass to places you had no access to, before
- a possibility of Gray dying instant death in some of those places (so... make friends with F5)
- Gray's rise to power -- and the subsequent fall (may or may not include death)
- Gray getting rich (or dying trying)
- uncomfortable questions he was afraid to ask -- finally asked (and guess what?)
- new old cutscenes -- same stories, but each with a little twist (the intro will asstound you!)

The Easter Egg mode is off by default, so that those new to the game could have a fun, safe, straightforward game experience. If that is at all possible with Gray.

How do you turn the Easter Egg mode ON, then? If you're super hardcore adventure gamer -- you'll find your way. For normal, sane people, here's a little poem:

Keep going east, although it's hard

Or pr*ss a butt*n right *t the st*rt

Press it again - and holiday's end

Download the Easter Egg Edition HERE

(in case you were wondering about the 23Kb/s download speed -- MediaFire is eerily slow tonight, hope it gets better!)

[Tramponline]

Yay! Was so looking forward to this one!

Congrats on the release, Fitz!

Gonna give Gray a try right away...

[Tabata]

Congratulations on your release, Fitz!

           

It is hard to believe that this is the first adventure game by Fitz. 

I love this little smart asses Gray, who has to tell a lot about everything. The graphics in only four! colors  are very well done and give you a real retro feeling and the animations are incredibly cute and tons of very well fitting sounds (often sooo funny) and unique music and ...

It is a must play!

... and I recommend you first to try all the "wrong" options (not to miss anything)  - there are so beautiful reactions - it was a real big fun testing it.
           

Wishing you all lots of fun to play
and wish for us all that Fitz will go on with game making ... SOOOON.   

[NickyNyce]

Another AGS invasion, long live the aliens!!!

Tabata hit the nail on the head, this game is all the above. Hard to believe it's your first game Fitz, well done!!

Fun and unique puzzles with lots of well written and funny dialogue. My favorite are all the cool little animations that Fitz put into this, nice and polished release.

Enjoy everyone, and thank you Fitz for letting the world see this one for free, I salute you!

[Frodo]

This looks wonderful.  The wee alien is so cute.   

*downloading now*


EDIT:  I keep getting errors when I try to unzip it.  Downloaded it several times, but I still get errors.   
I'll try again tomorrow.

[m0ds]

Fantastic, downloading and playing v. soon! Nice one getting it released

[Armageddon]

Congratz on finishing!

[Miguel R. Fervenza]

Congratulations and thanks for the game. Epic intro! I'm totally stuck right in the beginning (two screens, two objects, a few hotspots... dammit!).

[Squinky]

So far, the game is wonderful. Love the music. I've barely started it though...Man, aliens are a little long winded eh?

[KiraHaraReturns]

gratuluje i pozdrawiam, czcionka literowa niestety nie zawiera polskich znakow, co do gry, utknalem na samym poczatku, swietny klimat i bede probowal nadal
congratulations and greetings, unfortunately the polish translation doesn't work properly, I'm stuck at the beginning, but i will keep on trying. Great job

[Fitz]

Tramponline: Thanks I actually still can't help but be pleasantly shocked that people were actually following this one, given the scarce updates and few screens. Must be Gray's general cudliness. I think I might want start making plush Gray toys

Tabata: Let me take a breather here This one took me 2 years and 3 months to make. If I make anything anytime soon, it's going to be something short and sweet. Maybe a MAGS?

NickyNyce: Of course I had to make it free. It's crucial that the game reaches as many people as possible. AND MAKES THEM MY ZOMBIE SLAVES! MRAHAHAHAAAA!

Frodo: I sent you a pm asking for details. I'll try to help you sort it out one way or another
M0ds: Thanks! Does Gray apply for AdventureX this year? Last time I checked the deadline for entries was Dec 10. So would you have us? I mean, just Gray, I myself am too far away, unfortunately.

Armageddon: Thanks! Let's have a cigar now, shall we?

David Holm: I myself have seen the intro more than a hundred times -- and yet the music never fails to just blow me away Wait till you hear the outro tune! And as for the puzzle you're stuck in: one major hint i can give you is... conversations. You can talk to EVERYTHING, not just people

Squinky: Oh yes, this little alien is very verbose. There's one monologue that fills up 1/3 of the screen (by moderate estimate). Gray takes a LOT after me. When there's a topic I know something about. it's hard to shut me up

Kirahara: Dzieki wielkie! Nie wiedzialem, ze tyle tu swojakow Check my reply to David above for hints on that puzzle. As far as the font is concerned... That's weird, I tested the game on multiple computers and never had that problem. What does it look like? Like # * $ & and stuff instead of Polish letters? I only had it happen if I first started the English version, saved a game, then opened the Polish version and loaded the savegame. But that usually went away if I just started a new game. If all else fails, just reinstall the game and choose Polish in Winsetup from the start.

Also if anyone gets stuck, don't hesitate to ask or pm me OR you could start a new thread in Hints and Tips! If Gray doesn't get one, I have failed

[Igor Hardy]

Hey big congrats!

Which should I rather play - the English or the Polish version?

EDIT: What a wonderfully stylish opening sequence! And top notch animation in general.

[Fitz]

Try the Polish one first It's a translation, but I think it stays pretty faithful most of the time. Although some puns/cultural references were so hard to translate or too obscure for the Polish player that I had to improvise. But I hope it doesn't feel half-assed. I took a couple of weeks to translate and three days, 8 hours each, to just re-read it

No i Kirihara mi tu melduje, że czcionki polskie nie dziaÅ,ajÄ... - i chcÄ™ siÄ™ upewnić, czy u innych tego nie ma. Bo ani mnie, ani testerom siÄ™ to nie zdarzyÅ,o (poza cross-overem: save w angielskiej, odczyt w polskiej).

[Igor Hardy]

W intro polska czcionka dziaÅ,a - potem już nie.

[Frodo]

Fitz & Tabata 

Thanks very much for your PMs, and trying to help me sort out the problem.  I replied to you both.   

[Fitz]

My fellow Polish AGS-ers are having trouble with the Polish fonts once the actual game starts (after the intro). The quickest fix seems to be skipping the intro by pressing Esc. It's the first time I've encountered this problem - but I'm looking into it.

Rodacy! W razie problemów z czcionkami po tym, jak siÄ™ intro skoÅ,,czy - na razie wyglÄ...da na to, że jeÅ›li przerwać intro za pomocÄ... Esc, to potem czcionki dziaÅ,ajÄ... prawidÅ,owo. Nie wiem jeszcze, w czym problem, pierwszy raz siÄ™ z problemem spotykam (a testowane byÅ,o na kilku komputerach, w tym nawet przez moich testerów zagranicznych, na wszelki wypadek) - ale bÄ™dÄ™ pracowaÅ, nad tym dalej.

Frodo's problem with unzipping the file might stem from her using 7zip to unzip it. It might help to use WinRAR instead.

[KiraHaraReturns]

@Maciek
problem z czcionka pojawia sie rzeczywiscie po wczytaniu zapisu gry z angielskiej wersji, mianowicie w ta gralem najpierw, a pozniej korzystalem z zapisu, startujac polska wersje, bez wczytywania, tego problemu nie ma

[Frodo]

Um... I already told you in my PM, I tried 7zip AND winwar.   

Frodo's problem with unzipping the file might stem from her using 7zip to unzip it. It might help to use WinRAR instead.

[Fitz]

Frodo: Oops, my bad! 5 hours of sleep = short memory and lack of focus Sending You a link to audio.vox now. If anyone else has a problem with the files, pm me (not to clog this thread) and if it's something that hasn't been previously mentioned, I will post about it.

KiraHara: Uff! Tak myÅ›laÅ,em, ale Ascovel miaÅ, to samo - wiÄ™c zgÅ,upiaÅ,em. A teraz i u niego w porzÄ...dku, wiÄ™c... w porzÄ...dku

[arj0n]

Gratz on this awesome release, Fitz!
It was such a pleasure testing this retro gem.

[Goldmund]

Oho! Gratuluje! Gdzie te czasy, gdy bylem jedynym Polakiem w tej bandzie ;-) The game looks super sweet.

[thiezar]

Wow! I love those graphics!I'm gonna play it NOW!

[miguel]

Loving this game. Best AGS game since the Visitor(s).

[Stupot]

Grats on release Fitz. Cute game so far. It's pretty sweet what you've done with so few colours.

[Tinytim]

Frodo, I've found that ZipGenius works well.

[Fitz]

Arj0n: Thanks for the help. The game would be a real bug-fest without you, guys

Goldmund: Ale to juz bylo - i nie wroci wiecej... Ilu wlasciwie nas jest? Doliczylem sie 4: Ty, Ascovel, KiriHara i ja. Ale to i tak wiecej, niz dziewczyn. Oczywiscie niby 1 na 10 osób w necie to dziewczyna - ale 9 na 10 tych dziewczyn to faceci udajacy dziewczyny

Thiezar: And I just realized the screenshots only show one location I should add some more. But right now I'm still sleeping off last week's Gray marathon

Miguel: Thanks Incidentally, NickyNyce -- the maker of Visitor -- was one of the betatesters for Gray. We're also forming a secret aliance to take over the planet

Stupot+ : Yeah, and it was FUN making it in a limited color palette. Might stick to it in some future games -- though I'd definitely like to try something new, too.

Tinytim: It seems Frodo's problem lies elsewhere, not the unzipper itself. Working on it.

[an Urpney]

Goldmund: Ale to juz bylo - i nie wroci wiecej... Ilu wlasciwie nas jest? Doliczylem sie 4: Ty, Ascovel, KiriHara i ja. Ale to i tak wiecej, niz dziewczyn. Oczywiscie niby 1 na 10 osób w necie to dziewczyna - ale 9 na 10 tych dziewczyn to faceci udajacy dziewczyny

MeldujÄ™ siÄ™.

The game looks interesting and I'll have to try it out. That is, when I'm done with everything surrounding my nephew birth today : )

[miguel]

Miguel: Thanks Incidentally, NickyNyce -- the maker of Visitor -- was one of the betatesters for Gray. We're also forming a secret aliance to take over the planet

I knew that, the nude alien 2D art gave it away!
If you guys do team up for upcoming games then we have a winner for AGS, that's for sure.
Both of you are a fresh addition to AGS with tons of potential to be game authors with commercial value. I had the pleasure to tell Nicky that same thing.

Take care, happy game making!

[Fitz]

an Urpney: As in, an actual human baby -- or your brother's/sister's new game? Just asking, 'cause yesterday I got asked "How's the proud father?"

Miguel: Teaming up with Nicky = definitely a possibility, if you asked me. I need to take some time off from doing something big all by myself, but I'd definitely be up for, say, drawing backgrounds. Also planning to get myself a microphone and make something of my voice acting hobby We'll see where things go. Right now I'm still half-zombie -- and cold -- so I'll need a little while to recover.

[an Urpney]

an Urpney: As in, an actual human baby -- or your brother's/sister's new game? Just asking, 'cause yesterday I got asked "How's the proud father?"

It's a human (well, I hope human) baby : )Game still in pre-planing. Certainly will check your baby first.

[Frodo]

Frodo, I've found that ZipGenius works well.

Thanks, I downloaded that to try it.  I get no error messages or popups or anything, but it doesn't unzip all the files for some reason.  Very puzzling. 

[m0ds]

Fitz, yes! Gray is added to the website and I'll make sure your game is playable at the event. Thank you!

[Paul Franzen]

Yessss! I mentioned this to Fitz in an e-mail before, but to reiterate: that intro is a thing of beauty. I feel like I'm watching an IMAX movie. Amazing what you can do with such a limited palette.

[Tinytim]

Just finished. I'm not a game maker but this was great, so neat and tidy. Thank you, TT

[Fitz]

M0ds: No, thank YOU!

Paul:  IMAX, you say... Hmmmm! Think I should do a special, widescreen version - in HD and 3d?

TinyTim: Ladies and gentlemen, the first person to finish Gray!

[KiraHaraReturns]

I finished three days ago, it was an interesting experience

[Frodo]

Love the grass in the bear scene - how it moves as the bear breathes in and out.  Wonderful!   

[Fitz]

KiraHara: You should've told us! Now the Golden Sputnik award went to someone! Pluszowego Graya możesz dostać na pocieszenie!

Frodo: Yeah, I like how this scene turned out Coming up with a music theme for it was a toughie, we went over a bunch of ideas and demos before this idea came about -- but then we knew right away this was IT!

[KiraHaraReturns]

@Fitz: yaycks!

[JSH]

Congrats on the release! Just finished it, I enjoyed it thoroughly The dialogue was great, I liked the wacky humor and you really did some cool stuff with your four color palette. Kudos!

[Fitz]

Thanks I had fun making it, too! The dialogue was a wacky mixture of intense research and insane free-writing -- and I've never once felt limited by the palette. These four colors were all I ever needed. But my finest achievement in 4C is a pixel portrait I drew yesterday of Paul, my proofreader/editor:

[Armageddon]

Save it as a .png.

[Paul Franzen]

The best payment I could've ever received. THE BEST.

[selmiak]

Oh that is a great game.
After first being totally puzzled by the think out of the box puzzles (talking to the sun and the like...) I finally got into the mood for them and really enjoyed it! Actually the challenge made it even better
And the intro and end movies in all their 4 color glory are worth a directors cut with audio commentary

[Fitz]

Paul:

Oh rrrrealy? Then I have some more ideas in mind -- as an advance payment for you proofreading the novel(s) I told you about

Selmiak:

Yes, having the player totally confused at the beginning, and then slowly succumbing to the game's overall insanity, was my basic goal in this project. As such, I declare my mission on this planet a success! And that audio commentary does sound like a plan. I do intend to get myself a proper mic... I'm picturing a special DVD edition of Gray -- with extras! And to make it even more hardcore retro, instead of four colors I would only use ONE! It also could be a full-talkie? 3500 dialogue lines sound like one hell of a job for one person -- but I guess I could do an Indiegogo campaign. Just to finance a yearly supply of sore throat pills

[selmiak]

I don't recall anything interesting with only one color, maybe a turned off TV, but even back in the days movies were black AND white... which is by no suprise... Gray!

Hey, I was having some fun with the ingamecursors, so I thought I'd share it. Hope you enjoy, filled with SPOILERS of locations, don't open if you want to experience this yourself...

Spoiler

[imgzoom]http://selmiak.bplaced.net/stuff/gray.png[/imgzoom]
[imgzoom]http://selmiak.bplaced.net/stuff/gray2.png[/imgzoom]

[close]

[Fitz]

Selmiak:

Oh man, those are brilliant! Can I add them as official game screenshots to the main post?

In other news:

HUUUGE thanks to Cassandra Khaw of http://indiegames.com for the note about Gray!

[selmiak]

sure go ahead, I lay no copyright claim on images made by screenshotting your art (and subverting the game a bit). But I don't know if these images are so representative of the game and not rather scare potential players off

[Saurabh]

Weird and fun with remarkable art style. I really loved the scene with bear, it was brilliant.

[Paul Franzen]

I should've said that it's the SECOND best payment I could've received. Money is the first best 

[Fitz]

Saurabh: Thanks Quirky was definitely what I was going for. Comes naturally

Paul: Oh, but don't underestimate the fame -- and fortune, maybe -- that being a sprite character in an indie game might bring you! If that's not enough, let's say you got 33% of the total proceeds from the distribution of Gray (which are currently at O USD -- but still, 33%... Maaaan!)

[Paul Franzen]

33%?! That's the best rate ever recorded for a proofreader! Let's go, I'm uploading the game to Desura now...

[Anian]

Wow, so much wikipedia, so much references...so much text. Some really nice jokes and very interesting style. Some of the puzzles were a bit confusing, but I got through.
Very entertaining.

[Fitz]

You are too kind - especially when you say the puzzles were "a BIT" confusing

Season's Greetings, Earthlings!



"I'm dreaming of a gray Christmas..."

[cat]

I played this game recently together with my boyfriend, so here comes a short review (some spoilers included):

The graphics are great, the restriction to four colors gives it a unique style. I also like the "palette rotation" where the color of the sky changes with the daytime. The backgrounds are very atmospheric despite the (self imposed) technical limitations, especially the apple trees and lakeside.
There are tons of animations, even for picking up or using objects. My favourite is still the tiptoing one, though. And the woodpecker, with it's fitting sound effect.
The music is great, with the firefly screen one being my favourite. However, the first barnscene tune I found a bit distracting.
The puzzles are clever and make totally sense in their non-sensical way. The only problem was that I somehow missed that my main goal is to have night come. I only realised this after I solved the first sun puzzle. However, we managed to complete it without a hint or walkthrough. The pacing was good and the puzzles fun.

As great as the above mentioned things are, there is also something we didn't like:
For us there was too much text. The Wikipedia trivia got annoying after some time and if we weren't playing together and waiting for the other one to finish reading, I'd have probably skipped much of the text. The first half of the game this was a funny new idea, but in the second half this started to get really boring. Also, telling the Star Wars bedtime story did not only bore the sun but also us players. Here again it was this "should we read on?" and "meh, if you want, I don't really care anymore".
I think I'd enjoy a short, witty comment much more than this endless trivia. There were a few nice jokes about stuff like gravity affecting Gray, but then they were almost ruined by continuing babbling. I also think the outtro should have ended after the fantastic animation sequence flying through 4-color space and planets. The moon scene spoiled that artistic feeling for me.

Conclusion:
Great graphics to enjoy with fitting music and atmosphere, nice gameplay idea (sun, time of day) but the main character is just too verbose and does not get to the point.

[Fitz]

Wow, Cat, thanks for such an in-depth review It was fun (although time-taking and exhausting at times) making all those animations for pretty much every action in the game. And I myself am a huge fan of the in-game music, Sworofkings and Invisible Animals did some incredible things here, can't thank them enough.
As for the crits, yeah, I can see where You're coming from:
- the goal: perhaps he should say it right away, upon entering the farm -- but when you ask the Sun to move away, he does explain "I presume it'll be impossible to find my ship in broad daylight."
- too much text: yeah, I knew I'd get spanked for that on more than one occasion But I just had such a good time writing it. And theeeen I had to translate it back into my native language, all 100 print pages of it. And now I have to do it again for the German version. So You can be sure I learned my lesson and I'll minimize the amount of text in my next project. One-liners FTW!
- outro: I do understand Your point, I love the calmness of that sequence. And maybe it would've indeed been more climatic to let the scene fade into white when he approaches the Moon -- and just leave it at that. But I scripted and animated the whole thing before I knew I'd use the mellow tune for the outro. Initially, the ship flight sequence was supposed to be accompanied by a fast-paced, intense tune, and only in the Moon sequence would it eventually cool off. As it is, it may or may not work for some. But for me, "My Name Is" just fits with the scene so well. None of it was synced with the animation, everything just sort of fell into place. I had the outro, then I got the music, and it just magically fit together.

Again, thanks for such a detailed review, much appreciated and all crits duly noted I will seriously consider adding a few edits here and there.

IN OTHER NEWS:

- Gray is taking over Facebook. Check the site for updates, video-trivia and random stuff.
- planning to start on a German translation soon
- more extra content is being seriously considered

[Fitz]

The Easter Egg Edition is here! You never knew it was coming -- and it's a week late. But look at it this way: a second wave of alien invasion is not something you'd see coming. Even when it's late. Oh well, let's say it's Easter 2014 Early Edition!

The Easter Egg Edition features:

- Easter eggs, obviously (that includes ACTUAL Easter Eggs)
- two new and fully interactive inventory item (and one of them is... yup, you guessed it!)
- lots of bugs -- such as bees, termites, fireflies, a moth, and mosquitos
- a free pass to places you had no access to, before
- a possibility of Gray dying instant death in some of those places (so... make friends with F5)
- Gray's rise to power -- and the subsequent fall (may or may not include death)
- Gray getting rich (or dying trying)
- uncomfortable questions he was afraid to ask -- finally asked (and guess what?)
- new old cutscenes -- same stories, but each with a little twist (the intro will asstound you!)

The Easter Egg mode is off by default, so that those new to the game could have a fun, safe, straightforward game experience. If that is at all possible with Gray.

How do you turn the Easter Egg mode ON, then? If you're super hardcore adventure gamer -- you'll find your way. For normal, sane people, here's a little poem:

Keep going east, although it's hard

Or pr*ss a butt*n right *t the st*rt

Press it again - and holiday's end

Download the Easter Egg Edition HERE

As luck would have it, MediaFire is ridiculously slow tonight, at about 23 Kb/s -- hope it gets better!

[arj0n]

Nice addition tot the default game!