Primordia

Started by Dave Gilbert, Wed 05/12/2012 20:53:36

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Dave Gilbert



Story
What happened to the humans?

Set in a post-apocalyptic world strewn with cast-off machines, Primordia tells the story of Horatio Nullbuilt, a stoic robot who values his solitude and independence. Horatio spends his days studying the Book of Man, sparring with his droid companion Crispin, and tinkering with the airship they call home — a peaceful existence that becomes threatened when a rogue robot steals the energy source that the pair needs to survive.

When Horatio and Crispin's search for energy brings them to the dazzling city of Metropol, the simple quest to recover their stolen power core leads to unexpected discoveries about Horatio's origins and a new understanding of the legendary humans who walked the earth before him.

Developed by Wormwood Studios
Published by Wadjet Eye Games

Reviews
"There are gameplay mechanics and storylines that have stood the test of time – Primordia is one of those games." (10/10)
The Four Oh Five

"Primordia is one of my favorite adventure titles of all time."
-Softpedia

"Primordia will enchant its guests, leaving a deep impression that will have you wanting more."
-Thunderbolt Games

Screenshots








Team
Art: Victor Pflug (Pinback)
Writing/design: Mark Yohalem
Programming: Jim Spanos (Dualnames)
Music: Nathaniel Chambers (Bubble Pipe Media)

Starring
Logan Cunningham (Bastion, Resonance)
Abe Goldfarb (Blackwell, Shivah)
Sarah Elmaleh (Gemini Rue, Resonance)

Trailer
[embed=640,360] <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0YvWQi_5fsw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> [/embed]

Price
$9.99

Where to buy:
Buy it directly from Wadjet Eye Games
Buy it on Steam
Buy it on GOG

Armageddon

Congratulations on another great release, I'll be sure to get it on Steam soon. :-D

MurrayL

Looks amazing - can't wait to play it!

an Urpney

#3
Argh, the
Spoiler
info kiosk riddles
[close]
. Ingenious but hard as hell.
Born to the sound of marching feet,
Trained as a military elite.
Each of us drilled and singled out to be,
An Urpney.

kconan

  Congrats to Pinback and Wadjet Eye Games, this game is awesome!

m0ds

Congrats on releasing it! It came a long way, I hope to find some time to play it in the new year.

CaptainD

I aim to take a break from game design / creation so that I have time to play this - looks amazing!
 

qptain Nemo

Bought, started playing. Absolutely bloody superb so far. Graphics, music, writing are all nothing short of awesome. Seriously, this is a rare treat, I must say I expected it to be much less great. I bow to the developers.

arj0n

Playing it and loving it.

Grim

Well done! This year's releases will finally put AGS on everyone's radar!  ;)

Congratulations, guys! I wish you all the best with and I'm full of respect for all your hard work! :)

selmiak

downloading 1GB with 30-70kb/s is a pain. Will start playing once I finished Gray...

arj0n

"Error: Unable to render character 0 () because loop 2 does not exist in view 96"-crash in the room with the running engine outside while
Spoiler
looking at plating and trying the plasma torch on it and then walk right
[close]
.

Dave Gilbert

Quote from: Arj0n on Sat 08/12/2012 22:22:10
"Error: Unable to render character 0 () because loop 2 does not exist in view 96"-crash in the room with the running engine outside while
Spoiler
looking at plating and trying the plasma torch on it and then walk right
[close]
.

Fixed on day 2! :) Sorry about that. You can either redownload, or avoid the bug by:

Spoiler

Using the "OK" button to exit the inventory screen instead of clicking outside of the window. You only need to do this while looking at close-up screens, like the generator.
[close]

Tinytim

If I said what a fantastic game it would be the greatest understatement I ever made. Finished it but wish it could have gone on forever. Wow! Sequels?
If somebody says they know all the answers, they haven't been asked all the questions.

DBoyWheeler

Congrats on the new release...

Eh, one of the characters reminds me of Bobbin Threadbare from Loom.

zyzzyvette

I had this game on preorder and was really excited when I got the email with the download link... I think it took me two nights to get the good ending (thanks coffee). Absolutely amazing game, and I would def. buy a sequel if there was one. I think I ran into a couple bugs, but nothing game-breaking. One was the bug Arjon mentioned. The other is, at one point, all the dialogue started skipping forwards really fast so that it was impossible to read. I've run into this same issue with some of the Blackwell games too; not sure if it is a bug in AGS or some special-sauce Wadjet script or what.

Anyway, thanks for making Primordia. Look forward to your next release. :wink:

ThreeOhFour

Sometimes AGS does this to me if I've minimized the window at any point, sadly.

Stee

Press Escape when you alt-tab back into the game. You might have to do it on some text (ie looking at an object etc). And yes it's an AGS thing not a WEG thing.
<Babar> do me, do me, do me! :D
<ProgZMax> I got an idea - I reached in my pocket and pulled out my Galen. <timofonic2> Maybe I'm a bit gay, enough for do multitask and being romantical

JSH

#18
Congrats on the release, enjoyed it a lot! Finished it yesterday and explored all of the different endings. Great atmosphere, beautiful graphics, good puzzles and plenty of optional stuff to explore. Kudos to the team! Next up is a playthrough with commentary on! :)

I found a crash bug though. It seems to be connected with combined inventory items that are consumed in the process, but the consumed item somehow still remains in the active slot in the GUI at the top of the screen. If you click the item the game will crash since the player character does not have the item anymore.

*EDIT Checked the offical Wadjet Eye forum, guess you guys already know about this crash :)

an Urpney

One little theological note : )
Spoiler

Horus was not a god of death - in Ancient Egypt Horus was a god of Egypt (Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt) united under Pharaoh's reign and Pharaoh himself was believed to be incarnation of Horus (later: son of Amon Ra).
Egyptian god of death, the dead and afterlife was Anubis.
[close]
Born to the sound of marching feet,
Trained as a military elite.
Each of us drilled and singled out to be,
An Urpney.

Mati256

Quote from: an Urpney on Tue 11/12/2012 07:30:41
One little theological note : )
Spoiler

Horus was not a god of death - in Ancient Egypt Horus was a god of Egypt (Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt) united under Pharaoh's reign and Pharaoh himself was believed to be incarnation of Horus (later: son of Amon Ra).
Egyptian god of death, the dead and afterlife was Anubis.
[close]

Spoiler
There's a virus you can use that is called Thanatos, god of death in Greek mythology. You can miss this virus entirely, like some other things in the game. Not entirely sure if a good design choice. My first ending was refusing to ally with Metromind, it was the worst ending in an adventure game ever. I just died and nothing else happened. Thankfully after that I found some other endings much better.
[close]
My Blog! (En Español)

an Urpney

#21
Quote from: Mati256 on Tue 11/12/2012 21:30:58
Spoiler
There's a virus you can use that is called Thanatos, god of death in Greek mythology. You can miss this virus entirely, like some other things in the game. Not entirely sure if a good design choice. My first ending was refusing to ally with Metromind, it was the worst ending in an adventure game ever. I just died and nothing else happened. Thankfully after that I found some other endings much better.
[close]

Spoiler
Yes, I know about the virus which comes with complete Horatio's backstory - and it's name is pretty accurate: as Thanatos, it's a collector of souls, a Grim Reaper for robots - just as Thanatos was in Greek mythology.
My first ending was merging with MetroMind and that wasn't satisfying as well - I didn't want her to absorb Horatio!
Endings I've found:
- Kill Scraper with the virus (wanted to do the same with Metromind, but Horatio refused), take the power core,
- Blackmail Metromind, take the power core,
- Destroy the power core,
- Merge with MetroMind,
- Destroy every robot in Metropol with the virus,
- Commit suicide,
- Get killed by Scraper.
Still have some items unused (like Oswald's oil can - after taking it this quest just ended without any reward), so maybe there is more...
[close]
Born to the sound of marching feet,
Trained as a military elite.
Each of us drilled and singled out to be,
An Urpney.

arj0n

And it arrived, whoohoo!


@ the whole team:
What an amazing game, it did live up to all my expectations. For sure one of the AGS top projects of 2012!
Thanx!

tinyhippo

One of the best adventure games I've played so far. Immensely atmospheric. Would like to say thanks to everyone who developed it. For the most part, it inspired me to try doing a game of my own. :smiley:

Monsieur OUXX

The game got 7/10 in the best French video games magazine ("Canard PC") because despite being excellent on so many levels, it's too short (despite its re-playability with several solutions to one puzzle). They say it will reach its full value when the price drops a tiny bit in a few months. (that magazine includes the length and the price in their grades)
 

qptain Nemo

Quote from: Mati256 on Tue 11/12/2012 21:30:58
Spoiler
My first ending was refusing to ally with Metromind, it was the worst ending in an adventure game ever. I just died and nothing else happened.
[close]
Whoa, I really disagree, I thought it was a cool, emotionally strong ending. I was quite happy about it being included.
And obviously I strongly approve of all the optional missable stuff in the game. :)

CaptainD

I too was pretty disappointed with the ending Mati256 talked about to be honest, although it was my second ending. 

Apologies if anyone has already asked this but how many endings are there?  I found the two obvious ones, I had an idea there might be another one with
Spoiler
being able to fix Crispin - man I hope you are able to do that, the little dude#s sacrifice really brought a lump to my throat!!
[close]
.

But even with being a little disappointed with the ending, and not really taking to the game fully until I got to Metropol, I have to say that the main section of the game was absolutely brilliant - in terms of story and atmosphere, aesthetics, characters, puzzles - particularly the multiple solutions to many puzzles.  The music was terrifc, reminded me of Vangelis' Bladerunner score in quite a few places.  Congrats to the dev team, you did an amazing job!
 

kconan

  Alert the Minister of Propaganda for Primordia, as we haven't yet seen this in the FYC Thread. :)

ddq

I thought the FYC thread was only for games no one played?

kconan

  I look at the FYC thread as more of an official throwing of the hat in the ring, and some fun game pimping.

CaptainD

 

Tramponline

Next AGS winner at the Aggie Awards!

Primordia won in the category 'Best Setting' today.

Congratulations to all of you!

Also in particular to Victor and Mark for making this eerie dystopian vision come alive. 
Had a great time testing it. Well deserved, gentlemen!   

Stupot

It is indeed a great setting. Congrats to all involved :)

yashination

Honestly one of my favorite games that I've played recently. I really liked Crispen. I wish I had my own sidekick or lackey now.
Check out my game Static.

MarkYohalem

We've released "Fallen," a free spin-off story set in the same universe as Primordia.  It's a good introduction to the setting if you haven't played Primordia, and if you have, you may enjoy the way it continues the story.  You can find it on our Facebook site:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wormwood-Studios/47815438015

Or at a direct download here:

http://www.primordiagame.com/fallen_part_1.pdf

The upside of following it on Facebook as that you'll get notifications when the next parts are released.

Mati256

Nice addition to the adventure game.
Kindle friendly or epub would be awesome!
My Blog! (En Español)

MarkYohalem

Thanks for the suggestion!  When the whole thing is released, there will be an ePub version for download.

Pinback

Fallen Part 1: Awake is now on Youtube in Audio-Visual format. This was an experimental project of mine created in tandem to Mark Yohalem, Tamás Szathmáry's and my illustrated text version.

For this version, Fallen is read aloud by Tord Johnson, accompanied by an ambient score and animated landscape.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vmtgUgifGQ

Anian

#38
Hold the hell on, damn it, I'm just playing the game now.  :grin:
Just got into Metropol, very nice game so far, oozes atmosphere.

EDIT: finished the game, everything was very nice, except maybe the kiosk puzzle which kind of depends on a small detail that I just didn't catch and thus got stuck. Story, art, music, all interesting. Very nice job.
Now onto those Fallen episodes.
I don't want the world, I just want your half

MarkYohalem

The graphic novella is now up at:  http://www.primordiagame.com/Fallen_Complete.pdf

Audio version will follow soon.

donkeymilk

excellent game!
i want to see more joey and the girl games!

voh

As a slightly more on-topic response, I would like to say that I finally got around to purchasing, then obsessively playing, and just now finishing the game (managed all endings).

Since Beneath a Steel Sky I haven't really played a game like it, and this is the closest I've seen so far. And it has made me enormously glad and excited about what you guys will be doing next.

Everything about it just grabbed me. The voice acting was ace (as always with this crew, and I was glad to find myself accepting Abe as Crispin, not as Joey in a robot body as I had feared), the graphics were honestly just fantastic, the atmosphere gripping, the characters interesting (I actually gave a damn), and the story was interesting from start to finish. There was always that 'just one more screen' feeling that keeps you going.

Honestly, best money spent on a game in a while :)
Still here.

MarkYohalem

Thanks so much!  Glad you enjoyed it, and I hope we can live up to your expectations going forward.

Dualnames

Ah, thanks for all the kind words, they mean lots to all of us, Mark is just more prone to read them first and answer (he reads reviews from Bulgaria, that's how determined he is). It's a great honor to be compared with BASS in any way, and I'm quite glad we've made you a bit nostalgic about it.
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)

voh

BASS is almost my favorite adventure game. And Primordia got eerily close. I'd say it's pretty high in my top 20, even.

So yeah. Way more than a bit nostalgic :)
Still here.

Pinback

I finally posted the second audio installment of Fallen on YouTube; Arise. Check it out and please 'like' the video if you are so inclined. Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKFok2JqIpE

MarkYohalem

Also, we're currently up for the Steam community sale vote, if anyone cares to throw a vote our way.

Pinback

With the Primordia short story Fallen complete I decided to cap off my work on Primordia once and for all with a retrospective video showcasing my art and music for the project. A lot of this stuff was unreleased art, (there's a few paintings even I had forgotten about!) or higher resolution versions of the stuff that has been made public.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iEQvl8y_3Q

Armageddon

Aw, I was hoping for a commentary.

Love that Brazil inspired poster, any highres download for that?

Pinback

@Armageddon Sure! Here's the highest res I have;

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/672/n716.png

Grundislav

Finally got through my backlog of games and managed to play and finish Primordia.

What can I say that hasn't already been said?  I greatly enjoyed it, and was amazed and impressed by all aspects of this project.  Outstanding job all around.  Tomorrow I will play through again with the commentary, because I am extremely eager to hear all the behind the scenes stuff that went into this game.

Ali

Like Grundislav, I just got round to playing this with my girlfriend. We really loved it. Apart from being beautifully realised in low-res, it's very well written. The balance of drama, pathos and humour is really good, and it's not full of the portentous overwriting which you often get in attempts at serious science fiction.

Thanks!

MarkYohalem

Thanks so much guys!

Fitz

Spectacular! I don't think I've felt such fulfillment since finishing The Longest Journey ten years ago (almost to the day, actually!). Tried all the possible endings -- and they all do feel relevant and consistent with the story.

I'm not usually a fan of serious, dark stories -- but I was in love with the game from the first screenshots. It reminded me of The Cathedral a lot, with its dark and haunting atmosphere, a somewhat familiar tall, thin main character -- and a deeply rooted religious theme of duty, obligation and self-sacrifice. I loved the logics of the robots. I think Nemento's sense of program over self was the most striking example, an almost messianic motif. But what really struck a chord with me is the humor. Crispin simply kills with his one-liners, I laughed and I chuckled a lot. But my favorite was Clarity's response about the permit necessary to perform any maintenance works ;)

Also, is b'sod a reference to BSOD? That'd make sense, given the technological theme -- AND since the first thing that comes to mind when you see a Blue Screen of Death is a curseword ;)

The artwork is brilliant. Yes, it could've been a little bit brighter, because sometimes it's just so dark you don't expect to find anything (missed Crispin's chip the first time around) -- but oh well, it all served the mood (so well, I might add). I'd prefer the game in hi-res, too, such detailed art seems to be begging for nothing less than 1024 -- but it still looks beautiful, nonetheless. It defintely has that classic feel and quality of -- off the top of my head -- Discworld.

The voice-over was -- again -- fantastic. Logan's as great as I'd expected him to be. Crispin, as voiced by Abe, steals the show, though :) Great cast all around, and great sound editing, all the robotic voices were cleverly made and fun to listen to. The music was just the right kind of dreary and creepy -- with some great songs here and there.

The puzzles were fair most of the time -- though I often got stuck, not realizing I could disassemble used items in my inventory to recover parts. I always tried to do something, but it was somehow never the right thing. Which brings me to my biggest gripe: the interface. I would've really appreciated key shortcuts - for inventory, map and database especially. The inventory icon was just way too narrow for my convenience, and so was the database window, it could use some more space. But oh well, it's not something you can't get used to :)

Again, congrats to everyone involved, great job all around and a truly memorable experience.

The Fool

Damn it Fitz, now I need to buy it! :D
:)

MarkYohalem

Quote from: Fitz on Sat 10/08/2013 14:52:00
Spectacular! I don't think I've felt such fulfillment since finishing The Longest Journey ten years ago (almost to the day, actually!). Tried all the possible endings -- and they all do feel relevant and consistent with the story.

Thanks so much!

QuoteIt reminded me of The Cathedral a lot, with its dark and haunting atmosphere, a somewhat familiar tall, thin main character -- and a deeply rooted religious theme of duty, obligation and self-sacrifice.

Never heard of Cathedral before.  Double thanks for introducing me to it.  It's beautiful!

QuoteAlso, is b'sod a reference to BSOD?

Yes.

QuoteWhich brings me to my biggest gripe: the interface. I would've really appreciated key shortcuts - for inventory, map and database especially. The inventory icon was just way too narrow for my convenience, and so was the database window, it could use some more space.

The shortcut keys are "I" "M" "D"; you can also use "C" for Crispin.  If you look, there are highlighted letters in the tooltips when you mouse over those icons.  And it's in the How to Play menu under options.  But I was really concerned we didn't make that feature obvious enough, and obviously we didn't!  (Incidentally, I long agreed about the inventory icon, but Victor loved the layout of the toolbar and, from an aesthetic standpoint, I agree.)

QuoteAgain, congrats to everyone involved, great job all around and a truly memorable experience.

Thanks again!  Really appreciate the feedback and encouragement.

Fitz

#56
Ah, my bad for not reading the How To Play - the basic interface of left-click for walking/action and right-click for looking seemed pretty intuitive, so I never even considered to read more on the topic. I think I just got used to AGS's standard key shortcuts (TAB for inventory, etc.). I'm going to play the game again with comments -- which I'm really excited about -- so I'll let you know how it worked for me :) And yes, reading "Fallen" is also on the list.

As for The Cathedral, it's a solo project (an an unfortunate Oscar snub in 2002) by Tomek Baginski, whose work you might know from The Witcher 2 cinematics and the trailer for this awesome Cyberpunk game, among others. But I enjoy his non-commercial, artistic stuff -- such as Fallen Art or The Cinematograph -- the most.

MarkYohalem

It's been so long since I actually PLAYED an adventure game, I didn't know that tab was the standard inventory button.  Maybe if we ever patch the game again, we can put it in. :)

donkeymilk

#58
I like insert or backspace for inventory key.
Though i suppose it all depends if your a wasd or arrows player!
Arrows up,down,left,right all the way !(for me)

MarkYohalem

If there's anyone out there left who's been waiting for a steeper sale to buy the game, Primordia is now 66% off on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/227000

Armageddon

#60
I got it today finally. :P I was wondering if game companies can tell Valve not to put their game on sale. Because it would really suck a lot for Steam to just do it themselves, especially if you were planning some DLC sale the next week.

Ben X

#61
I assume Steam ask the devs first!

Regardless: Primordia PURCHASED.

edit: 9/9/13 Primordia is now part of a deal on gog.com where if you buy 5 games from a certain selection, you get 80% off the total. Offer on for around a week, I think.

MiteWiseacreLives!

Finally finished this one tonight, been savoring it :) Why doesn't this game have a spot in the AGS database? How am I gonna rate it(with a great score, BTW)! (wtf)

MarkYohalem

Thanks!

As for your question -- For whatever reason (I think because James assumed Vic was adding it, Vic assumed Dave was adding, and Dave doesn't really involve himself in the AGS community as much any more), no one ever put it into the database.  That's also why we weren't up for the AGS awards back when Primordia came out, which was a rather embarrassing error on our part.

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