Unavowed - IGF nominee!!

Started by Dave Gilbert, Wed 08/08/2018 20:09:50

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Mandle

One interesting point, for me at least, that he brought up was the way adventure game characters often maintain the same pose no matter what is going on around them, and/or flash in and out of "action" poses when needed, but then go back to the same rigid pose as before.

I actually kind of prefer this to the twitchy random body language that a lot of triple-A games try to do fluidly: like rolling backwards and forwards on the feet slightly while stationary and inactive.

It's a game. They are game characters. I don't really want them to be constantly swaying around. I find that more distracting and offputting than just staying still until I need them to do something.

An occasional brief idle view is nice, like brushing hair out of their face, but the constant body language that a lot of games try to do often just reminds me more that they are not real people.

It's like in a book if the author attempted to describe to me every second sentence exactly what the character was doing with every limb on their body.

There's probably a balance somewhere in the middle as well, but for now I prefer stationary (with occasional idle view) characters way more than hyperactive constantly swaying ones.

TheFrighter


Very good game, Dave! Just one thing: I hate New York. Next time set the game in Vancouver.

_

Dave Gilbert

New York is my home! You write what you know, as they say.

Mandle

Quote from: Dave Gilbert on Fri 07/09/2018 15:02:12
New York is my home! You write what you know, as they say.

After The Blackwell Series I almost felt like I had been to New York so, job very well done.

Mandle

#44
Pity Eli missed a chance for a great line when

Spoiler
Mandala gets drunk from the wine bottle
[close]

It would have been awesome if he had said

Spoiler
"Geez... Talk about yer Djinn Rummy."
[close]

(Not my own work, unfortunately. I saw it in a YouTube video's comments and couldn't resist posting it in here)

LimboJimbo84

Dave, I played this last week, it's an amazing game. Kudos to you and everyone on the team, I thought the whole experience was fantastic.

My girlfriend is playing the game through at the moment, and I'm loving watching her playing in a different way. I'll be playing it through again to see how the different missions are affected by different characters too once she's finished.

Congratulations on the release, the art, music, voice acting, mission structure and puzzles are all top drawer. You can feel the passion and love in every pixel. Keep up the amazing work :-D

Dave Gilbert

\o/ THank you so much!

cat

Dave, please don't forget to add the game to the AGS database. I'm sure you don't want to miss out on the next awards because of an oversight.

Dave Gilbert

Haha. Why break tradition? I'll make sure to add it.

Monsieur OUXX

French magazine Canard PC gave it an 8/10, if I recall. Or at least 7.
They have a tendancy to be merciless with lazy games, and always take the selling price in account. Therefore, this 8 is good news. I always use Canard PC as a reference because they're the only French magazine (whether on paper or online) that does not bend over backwards for ads from large publishers in order to stay alive (unlike jeuxvideo.com, etc.)
 

Dave Gilbert

Added it to the database. And several months before Dec 31st, too!

cat


Blondbraid

I just bought the game off Steam, I'll play it when I find the time! :)


Cogliostro

I've been meaning to ask, any surprises with how the steam achievements played out?  Were you expecting everyone to toast the dryad?  Were you expecting the actor background to be the least popular option?

- Cogliostro
"First things first, but not necessarily in that order." - Dr. Who

Dave Gilbert

UNAVOWED IS AN IGF NOMINEE!!†¬

†ªIt's nominated for “Excellence in Narrative” and got an honorable mention for the grand prize.

I've been dreaming of getting into the IGF since I started this silly company. It's taken 13 years and over a dozen games, but we got here.

Now I'm going to freak out for a bit.

Bavolis

That's awesome - huge congrats!

Kweepa

It's ridiculous it's taken so long.
You should tell them they can keep it!
Still waiting for Purity of the Surf II

Monsieur OUXX

Quote from: Dave Gilbert on Thu 03/01/2019 18:29:06
UNAVOWED IS AN IGF NOMINEE!!†¬

†ªIt's nominated for “Excellence in Narrative” and got an honorable mention for the grand prize.

I've been dreaming of getting into the IGF since I started this silly company. It's taken 13 years and over a dozen games, but we got here.

Now I'm going to freak out for a bit.

Congrats
 

Snarky

#58
<Mod hat>

There was originally a post in this thread:

Quote from: Blondbraid on Mon 07/01/2019 23:55:28
I've been playing the game and I loved it so far, but when it came to the Bronx and the player gets a vision that shows
Spoiler
that the player had an affair with a guy while they were possessed by a demon and couldn't control their own body, and a picture taken of them together is used for a puzzle afterwards.
[close]
and I just felt terrible after seeing that. Am I the only one that feels that this scene was massively inappropriate for the game? I get that it's a way of showing how evil the demon is, but I can't help but feel like sexual abuse is an overused trope whenever people want to make a story dark and it feels unfair to have that sprung up on you without warning, especially since you are meant to create your own protagonist and identify with them.

And I wish to say that these sort of things can be extremely stressful to survivors with PTSD or people suffering from anxiety or depression, and I don't think this kind of subject should be included without a content warning.
For me personally, it took all the enjoyment out of the game and if I had known it was going to be a plot point I probably wouldn't have bought it.

As this led to an extended discussion, it has been split out into a separate thread. Further discussion should go there.

Also, so as not to lose this here:

Quote from: Ali on Wed 09/01/2019 11:07:06
(Also, congrats to Dave on the recent nomination / world domination.)

Blondbraid

I recently finished playing Unavowed, and while I maintain that a content warning would have been necessary
and I think the lack of knowing about those themes beforehand really dragged the experience down for me,
it still is an otherwise well crafted and impressive game, and I can see why Yahtzee put it on his list of the top
five games of the year. The story has some great twists and turns, and the graphics and voice acting is top-notch.

My only complaint gameplay-wise was that the puzzles could feel both too easy and too obscure at times since it was
hard for me to tell exactly how I was supposed to use the abilities of the companions I chose, and choosing the cop origin
meant that Vicki often felt redundant to me as my player character already had cop-related dialogue options, plus I ended up
liking her personality less than the other followers in the game.

But other than that, it is an incredibly well made game that pushes the boundaries of what could be made in the AGS engine.


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