Adventure: Welcome to the Genre

Started by Akril15, Tue 23/01/2018 18:17:30

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Akril15

Thalia James' job in the Computer Game Maintenance Squad is seldom an easy one. After one of her assignments nearly ends in disaster, she is asked to track down five characters believed to be responsible for a series of criminal activities throughout the 2D adventure genre. With that to grapple with as well the mysterious condition from her past that has inexplicably resurfaced, the first annual Adventure Game Awards and the grand opening of something called the Mega-Game, this adventure is bound to be anything but mundane.

------------------

Unlike its predecessors, the majority of art, sound and music in AWTTG is original (that is, free online resources as opposed to assets mtaken from other games). You will still be seeing a number of familiar locales and characters, but there will be a lot of new places and faces as well (plus a few characters that will be familiar to you if you have played Adventure: The Inside Job and Adventure: All in the Game).





There will be puzzles, there will be inventory items, there will be dialog trees...



...and there will also be wardrobe changes.



Download the game here!

Adventure: Welcome to the Genre's AGS entry

Adventure: Welcome to the Genre's website (includes a walkthrough, behind-the-scenes info and other extra goodies)

Frodo

Congrats on releasing the game, Akril  :cheesy:
Very happy to see this one.  Downloading it now.

arj0n

#2
Congratz, Akril!

Thalia's back!
This game is really big gameworld-wise, has a great story, lot's
of characters, amazing animations and clever puzzles.
Love the diversity of rooms ranging from low-res to vga style.
One of my favorites of 2018 already!

CaptainD

Woo-hoo!!

Congrats on the release.  Looking forward to giving this one a spin ;-D
 

Creamy

#4
After spending a couple of hours in this glorious patchwork, I can already confirm that this game is another massive love letter to the genre  :-D

I've selected "adequate knowledge of adventure games" since I knew that this series use some advanced references. No problem so far. Thalia is always keen to fill me on everything anyway.

I was afraid I wouldn't remember all that Maintenance Squad jazz since I've played the other episodes a long time ago but the concepts are reintroduced in a pleasant way - lots of animations and cutscenes!
It hasn't been very challenging yet but I don't really care since I'm entertained and intrigued by the story.

More later!
 

Akril15

Quote from: Frodo on Tue 23/01/2018 18:41:03
Congrats on releasing the game, Akril  :cheesy:
Very happy to see this one.  Downloading it now.
Thank you! Making this game was a long process made even longer by some unfortunate personal issues, but I'm glad it's finally out now.

Quote from: arj0n on Tue 23/01/2018 19:14:34
Congratz, Akril!

Thalia's back!
This game is really big gameworld-wise, has a great story, lot's
of characters, amazing animations and clever puzzles.
Love the diversity of rooms ranging from low-res to vga style.
One of my favorites of 2018 already!
Thanks! I'm very flattered that you consider this game a favorite.

Quote from: CaptainD on Tue 23/01/2018 22:34:46
Woo-hoo!!

Congrats on the release.  Looking forward to giving this one a spin ;-D
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it.

Quote from: Creamy on Tue 23/01/2018 23:25:12
I was afraid I wouldn't remember all that Maintenance Squad jazz since I've played the other episodes a long time ago but the concepts are reintroduced in a pleasant way - lots of animations and cutscenes!
It's not very challenging yet but I don't really care since I'm entertained and intrigued by the story.
Yeah, I tried to provide as much backstory as I could at the start without it coming across as a massive info dump. There were a few particular puzzles in the game that more or less all of my beta-testers needed help with, so I'm interested to see if they trip you up as well. ;)

Mandle

Playing as soon as possible. Loved the first two and by the sound of it this one lives up to what they delivered!

Akril15

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 24/01/2018 14:10:11
Playing as soon as possible. Loved the first two and by the sound of it this one lives up to what they delivered!
I certainly hope so. Thank you! :)

Tabata

Just wanted to jump in to congratulate for the release        

and to confess that I already dived into your game, having lots of fun playing (nod)


... and to report about a little oopsy/crash when I used the ...
Spoiler

... mirror on the lit torch in the cave


(sorry, I can't stop trying stupid things :grin: )
[close]

Akril15

Quote from: Tabata on Sat 27/01/2018 17:08:08
Just wanted to jump in to congratulate for the release        

and to confess that I already dived into your game, having lots of fun playing (nod)


... and to report about a little oopsy/crash when I used the ...
Spoiler

... mirror on the lit torch in the cave


(sorry, I can't stop trying stupid things :grin: )
[close]

Thanks for catching that. I'll be sure to fix it when I get the chance. For some reason, I've been getting a lot of unhandled_event errors with this game, and I'm not sure why.

DBoyWheeler

Wow!  Long time no see, Akril!  And really kick@$$ new game here!

m0ds

well done! curious, what was the "one track" of mine you used? I hope to get a bunch more into my (ancient) free section. for now tho it's nice to find out you grabbed one and used it! unless you used the original nelly cootalot theme, in which case, law suit pending. just kidding ;)

Akril15

Quote from: DBoyWheeler on Sat 27/01/2018 23:51:51
Wow!  Long time no see, Akril!  And really kick@$$ new game here!
Thank you.

Quote from: MJL on Sun 28/01/2018 22:40:11
well done! curious, what was the "one track" of mine you used? I hope to get a bunch more into my (ancient) free section. for now tho it's nice to find out you grabbed one and used it! unless you used the original nelly cootalot theme, in which case, law suit pending. just kidding ;)
Thank you! The track was "Test 2", and it appears in the game's finale.

Akril15

If anyone who has finished the game is wondering what the "Questions" section in the credits refers to, they are featured in an Easter Egg in the later part of the game that may be a little hard to find...but hopefully it isn't too out of this world.

*hint hint*  ;)

Mandle

I just finished the game and I'm quite proud to say that I played the entire game through OLDSCHOOL style without a single hint from any source...

Just me and the game...

It took me three days and about 20 hours of playtime I would say...

The game is HARD!!!

It's REALLY hard to complete on your own, but very rewarding and I'm glad I played it through on my lonesome and resisted any hints.

I've been looking for an oldschool full-length adventure game for some time that could hold my jaded interest and make me want to beat my head against when I was stuck and when I saw this one come out I resevered it for a RL time period where I could just turn off the internet and play it as it had been intended: As a love letter to hard-to-solve adventure games from the '90's back when when you were stuck you were stuck.

Man, some of the puzzles had me beating my head against the wall for 4+ hours but it was SOOOO satisfying to experience those pre-internet moments where I solved them on my own and progressed...

I perservered because I had played the previous 2 games and knew that I was in good hands and knew that Akril15 would not let me down and that the puzzles would not have left me feeling cheated when I finally figured them out.

I'm not going to go into spoilers at all here but several times I almost felt the game must be bugged or at a dead-end state because some of the puzzles were beautifully minimalistic and yet soul-crushingly tough to solve:

I'm looking at YOU Gus!!! (But the magical moments when I solved them was pure 1990's wonderment and reminded me why I fell in love with adventure games to begin with)

The art and animation that goes into the storytelling and cutscenes is jawdropping...Like seriously this game could have just done the puzzles and story and it would have been fine but we get serious cinematic full-on cutscenes with Tarantino-style camera angles and pacing...

I would fully recommend this game to hard-core adventure game fans and also advise to play it without hints...

You will go through hell and back if you do so...

But when you finish the game you will be in heaven...

Trust me...


Akril15

Wow, thanks for the glowing appraisal, Mandle! I wanted to make this game longer and more difficult than the previous two games without making it ridiculously unfair and frustrating, and judging by what you're saying, it sounds like I hit that sweet spot. :)

Mandle

Quote from: Akril15 on Tue 30/01/2018 18:33:54
Wow, thanks for the glowing appraisal, Mandle!

You're more than welcome. Thank you for the amazingly fun time! May I ask how long it took you to make the game?

It does quite a few things that seem outside the normal capabilities of AGS as well:

Spoiler
The 3D maze section blew me away! I suspect it was kind of "simulated" 3D in the maze section but it was super well done! Did you create that effect yourself or was it a module?
[close]

For a product that you obviously can never legally make a single cent from without getting hit by a million C&Ds it's top professional level in all regards.

You must be nuts! (laugh)

Akril15

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 31/01/2018 02:56:27You're more than welcome. Thank you for the amazingly fun time! May I ask how long it took you to make the game?
Even though it's been about six years since I officially started working on this game, there were long stretches that I didn't get any work done. I added up the days where I recorded I worked, and the actual number of days I spent working on this game was a lot lower than I thought it would be: approximately 484.

Quote
Spoiler
The 3D maze section blew me away! I suspect it was kind of "simulated" 3D in the maze section but it was super well done! Did you create that effect yourself or was it a module?
[close]
Spoiler
I did not make that section; that was Richard Evans (Wretched)'s Easy3D Module.
[close]

QuoteFor a product that you obviously can never legally make a single cent from without getting hit by a million C&Ds it's top professional level in all regards.

You must be nuts! (laugh)
Yep. :grin: I definitely want to make a 100% original game now that I've got a good handle on AGS. It'll definitely take a while to get started, though.

SarahLiz

Ok, at the risk of sounding like a cheater, I'm going to bite the bullet and ask the question:  any plans for a walkthrough?  (Please?)  Loving this game, but I'm not even able to get as far as the folks asking questions in the hints & tips section.  I don't want to give up on it, I really like this game!  Quirky and lots of fun!

Thanks in advance...just try not to scold me!  (laugh)

Akril15

Quote from: SarahLiz on Mon 05/02/2018 22:10:09
Ok, at the risk of sounding like a cheater, I'm going to bite the bullet and ask the question:  any plans for a walkthrough?  (Please?)  Loving this game, but I'm not even able to get as far as the folks asking questions in the hints & tips section.  I don't want to give up on it, I really like this game!  Quirky and lots of fun!

Thanks in advance...just try not to scold me!  (laugh)
I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! There is a walkthrough available on the game's site.

BunnyShoggoth

#20
I'm really looking forward to your next project! As usual with trilogies, the first part was great because it had a cool fresh idea, and the final part was even better because it squeezed every drop out of this idea.

My favourite locations were the "cutesy children's room" in the Mega-Game, the Adventure shop with its internal narrator, and the Vertex (was cool to see how characters in Thalia's world spend their free time).

I dig the Cabal, especially Loamy (it is a bit sad that his "toad prince" backstory didn't make it into the game) and LeMort with his "stereotypically villain" appearance and room. IMO, a
"pure oldschool 2D" version of him and his room could be interesting, maybe somewhat like Mort Cadaver's cabinet from KQ7.   

I also loved the idea about "adventure archeology" and the pre-computer origins of the adventure genre. Know what, I have my own idea about this, that perhaps "purely digital" characters existed in some forms and interacted with humans before humans even invented computers. Some paranormal researchers believe that humanity during its whole history has been surrounded by weird teleporting and shapeshifting creatures made of unknown form of energy who manifested themselves as "ghosts", "demons", fairy folk, etc.; sounds really reminiscent of game characters with their changing sprites and CommKeys, doesn't it? ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Trojan_Horse_(book)

Akril15

Thank you very much, BunnyShoggoth!

QuoteI also loved the idea about "adventure archeology" and the pre-computer origins of the adventure genre. Know what, I have my own idea about this, that perhaps "purely digital" characters existed in some forms and interacted with humans before humans even invented computers. Some paranormal researchers believe that humanity during its whole history has been surrounded by weird teleporting and shapeshifting creatures made of unknown form of energy who manifested themselves as "ghosts", "demons", fairy folk, etc.; sounds really reminiscent of game characters with their changing sprites and CommKeys, doesn't it? ;)
That is some interesting stuff. There's probably enough material there to make a whole new game out of (though I doubt I'd be up to the task).

BunnyShoggoth

Quote from: Akril15 on Wed 07/02/2018 11:45:15
There's probably enough material there to make a whole new game out of (though I doubt I'd be up to the task).

Do you have any ideas for your next project? :wink:

Akril15

Quote from: BunnyShoggoth on Thu 08/02/2018 23:21:15
Do you have any ideas for your next project? :wink:
I have a few ideas for much smaller games that I've started fleshing out. I haven't been able to make much headway yet, though.

xandmatt

#24
Binge-played the first two so I can now play this one! Have very much enjoyed the series so far -- there's elements of the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde (which I love).   

EDIT: Aaand I see that Fforde's just been referenced in Thalia's room!

Kini

Loving this so far. Fantastic work. I'll give more feedback when I've completed it, but in the meantime I have a bug to report:

Spoiler
After I got the archeologist to leave, I tried again to pick up her book. The timer cursor appeared and just stayed and stayed, so I couldn't do anything.
[close]

Apologies if this has already been pointed out; I didn't want to read any spoiler comments!

Kini

Hey,

Sorry to be a party pooper, but I have another quick bug to report:

Spoiler
When I tried to give the tape recorder with the recording on it to Rusty Nailbender, my game crashed and I got the following message:

in "unhandled.asc", line 170
from "GlobalScript.asc", line 3589

Error: Error running function 'unhandled_event':
Error: Null pointer referenced
[close]

Kini

#27
OK, I've now finished it. And all I can say is... it was BRILLIANT!

There's so much about this game that I could praise, from the innovative mix of art and gameplay styles to the great story and puzzle design. But I think the highest compliment I can give is that it managed to create a true world that I will miss being in and look forward to returning to one day - something I feel about all the greats of this genre.

On paper, the whole idea for this game is (forgive me) one that I should hate - a meta-y, fan-remake-type mess. But somehow it works so well. I'll be playing the previous games from this series imminently.

In case you can't tell, I'm seriously impressed. Well done. And thank you. I can't wait to see what you do next. :-D

Akril15

Thank you very much for the feedback, Kini!

I was able to fix the problem you reported with Rusty, and another person reported a similar bug with the archeologist, but I was unable to replicate it. At this point, it seems like I'd have to have someone else take a look at that code, because I have no idea what could be causing that problem. Sorry. :(

BunnyShoggoth

#29
Quote from: Akril15 on Fri 09/02/2018 00:02:57
Quote from: BunnyShoggoth on Thu 08/02/2018 23:21:15
Do you have any ideas for your next project? :wink:
I have a few ideas for much smaller games that I've started fleshing out. I haven't been able to make much headway yet, though.

Wishing you the best! Btw, this paranormal researcher I mentioned, John Keel, suggests that the entities we used to know as fairy-tale creatures (gnomes, fairies, demons, etc.), are now pretending to be aliens and representatives of "Intergalactic Federation". So it's quite plausible that the regal Queen Valanice of Daventry would now present herself as the space officer Thalia James ;)

https://secretsun.blogspot.com/2012/06/wizards-workings-and-walk-ins-enter.html

Akril15

Quote from: xandmatt on Sat 24/02/2018 09:56:28
Binge-played the first two so I can now play this one! Have very much enjoyed the series so far -- there's elements of the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde (which I love).   

EDIT: Aaand I see that Fforde's just been referenced in Thalia's room!
Thank you! Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series was a major influence on this series (as you might have picked up by now). The world in the series is more or less the computer game version of the Bookworld.

Quote from: BunnyShoggoth on Mon 26/02/2018 11:41:52
Wishing you the best! Btw, this paranormal researcher I mentioned, John Keel, suggests that the entities we used to know as fairy-tale creatures (gnomes, fairies, demons, etc.), are now pretending to be aliens and representatives of "Intergalactic Federation". So it's quite plausible that the regal Queen Valanice of the Daventry would now present herself as the space officer Thalia James ;)

https://secretsun.blogspot.it/2012/06/wizards-workings-and-walk-ins-enter.html
Interesting. I've read a few sci-fi stories where the fantasy creatures of Earth are actually extraterrestrials (Clifford D. Simak's The Goblin Reservation is a great example).

Akril15

I've uploaded an updated version of the game with a few minor bugs fixed. Hopefully, I haven't accidentally broken anything else. :)

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