Primordia

[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

[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.

[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

[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!

[MarkYohalem]

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!

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.

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

Also, is b'sod a reference to BSOD?

Yes.

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.

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.)

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

Thanks again!  Really appreciate the feedback and encouragement.

[Fitz]

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]

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