Messages

I'm trying to come up with a name for him...
I have been thinking "Tony Visser"Ã, 

I don't want to be a downer, but a "visser" is an alien from a book series I read. It's really something that only a fan of the book series would know, but if you don't want people to think about the vissers from the books, then I suggest not using visser as a name. If you don't care, it's not a huge deal. Just thought you might want to know this, just in case people think your character is one of the vissers of the series and ask you about it.

Unless... he is? 

I just spent about an hour on this game. It was very short but I was expecting that, being that it was from the "short games" archives. Duh. Regardless, I would have liked to experience more of it. It was very cute. ^.^

The backgrounds were okay; some were noob-ish (crayon looking trees and a campfire from another game?), but some were slightly professional looking. I noticed sometimes the styles would clash and that is one thing that really bugs me. I prefer a game with the same art style all the way through.
5/10 Backgrounds

Character design was really great. The animations were very nice! I could have opted out on the bloody gore animations, but it was "cartoony" enough to not be a horror flick for me.
6/10 Character Design

Plot was simple, but enjoyable and the small twists were a nice touch. The few characters involved were surprisingly in depth for such a short game. I was immensely fulfilled when it came to plot and character development, as adventure games are nothing without a great plot and working characters.
8/10 Plot and Character Development

Puzzles were mostly linear. One hint gave away one answer sort of thing. I was stuck for a few minutes on two of them, but they both ended up being logical and interesting. The stick puzzle was the hardest, as I had no clue what to do next but now that I've done it, it makes perfect sense.
8/10 Puzzles

I have a few minor critiques. The first one is that I like there to be acknowledgements between actions. If I can't perform an action, I want a little narration saying "You can't do that." or something to that extent. It helps us know if we're trying to use something in the wrong spot.

Second one is that there is no cursor marker. Where is the hotspot on each cursor object? Is it a corner? Is it the middle? If it's in a corner, which corner? If it's the middle it's very hard to judge if I'm in the correct spot to click.

The third is a bug. Ben does a puzzle animation twice in the cave even after having finished it. Email me for more info because I think hiding spoilers just makes people want to highlight them anyway.
arasannayamu@hotmail.com

Overall, this game was enjoyable while it lasted. I have yet to play the other three in this series (they're a bit longer apparently?), but will be doing so immediately tommorow morning.
7/10 Overall Enjoyment

Ciao!

Haddas: No, it's not done with Flash. I don't know (or care) how to use Flash. These are just lines in PSP7. You might be referring to the vector look? I used vector lines sometimes to get good curves on some things since my tablet broke.  :'(

Scuthbert: I am coloring in the lines where it needs to be. It's a work in progress.. as in.. not done yet. I'll clean up the outside lines later.. maybe. And the carpet looks like grass??? Damn, I kinda liked the slightly shaggy look to the carpet myself.   

Johnny: I also can't tell if the leaking color gives or takes. One minute I love the sketchy look and the messy artistic chaos and then the next minute I like the cleaner look.   
As for the table-looking thing. It's a snake tank to the right of the desk with a hide and a water bowl. This is a work in progress remember please.   

Okay, been slowly working on it... whatcha think?
I think that I should go with colored pencil because it's what I know. LOL I'm not that good with computer art.

Work in Progress done in PSP

A bug!
When on the pier, after the cat is gone, I put twine and lure together and the game crashed and said
"invalid inventory item"

Uhm.. yeah.
Pencil sketch.

A rough sketch of a bedroom with a butterfly theme. Supposed to be kinda cluttery, but not a mess. Many people wonder where the bed is. It's on the left in the corner and not completely showing. That's where the window for the bedroom is too. The light will come from that side where you can't see the window.Ã, 

Pencil Sketch

I like the new cloth but you should add a belt or something like that. Asian people always wear a belt when wearing this kind of clothes.

Ancient Chinese women do not wear "belts" as you say. There is a sash called an 'obi' on a 'kimono' in ancient Japan. I believe you are talking about an obi and that would not look right on an ancient Chinese woman. The artist has it right and she looks very nice. Don't change her, though I think a small pretty flower in her hair would look just grand

I need some criticism, please.  

Comments... hmm... beautiful choice in colors. Reminds me greatly of a soft chinese painting. Now it just needs some variety in tones and shades so it doesn't look so flat. Unless you are going for that?

As for a crit, well... it's flat to say the least. And I don't mean the colors this time. I mean the depth. The perspective is way off in places.. the door especially. And another thing, one-point perspective is more often than not for learning basic concepts of perspective. One point perspective, unless done exactly correct, looks awful and disbelieving and the reason being... one-point perspective is virtually impossible to depict in real life. It's usually only used for good looking trompe-loiel (trick of the eye) paintings and drawings. Ditch the one-point perspective way of thinking and I think things would look far better. But it comes down to you and what you want so..

Make 'em say 'Ni hao' (hello) and 'Zai jian' (good-bye) when you talk to them. Please make it at least culturally accurate.

Agreed. If you aren't willing to take the time to look up some facts of the culture you are basing your story on, then IMHO the story doesn't deserve to be written. Not trying to be rude, but it sounds like you just don't want to research your ideas and that seems lazy to me.

I do hope you don't take my crits too harshly. I am blunt oftentimes and do not mean to sound so. I wish you luck in your endeavor. ^^

Well what do you think? Personally I am totally speechless. I think the additions of the wall shading (good advice that!) and the mirror reflection completely livened the entire space! I just wish I could perform the same advice that I give to others. I'm horrible at backgrounds..  :'(

However, I did not think about the fact that having a mirror would mean needing a reflection of sprites that walk about in the room! I will definitely keep this in mind for my own rooms.  

The plot sounds like Mulan.

I thought so too but then remembered that 'Mulan' was loosely (very loosely) based on an old Chinese legend. So maybe this plot is also based on the same legend. It's not impossible or infringing since it's like the many people who remade several medieval fairytales. If the legend has any historical factor however, there should be some basic reference to that at least.

Unlike Disney's horrible rendition of 'Pocahontas' and 'Kimba the White Lion'.
*shudders*
But I digress.

OoooooOooooooooo.
Nice!  

I have a small idea though. To show that the room is not just two walls and really four with only two being seen, you could imagine what is on the other lower right wall and mirror it so to speak.   If you don't want to do that, at least give the mirror a little shine. The mirror looks like a flat blue surface with no depth for the time being. Know what I mean Joe?  

You can also download it for free, legally, from the creators' website: http://www.revolution.co.uk/_display.php?id=10

...
...
...
...
...
:o
...
...
...
...
...



...
...
...
...
...


You don't want to know what I am actually saying out loud.. it's just gibberish.. pure utter astounded gibberish.

Okay all I have to say is...

AWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!  THAT IS SO CUTE!
And it's sort of a mini adventure game too!

This is not a personal thing, just Arasan Nayamus' introductory thread reminded me of something that often caught my attention and I thought that I'd finally mention it. She writes:

"Runaway!" If you haven't got it, GO GET IT! Best Buy does not carry it from what I've seen. I have only found it at Circuit City so far. Go! Buy!

Why do you (the plural you=Americans, as always ) think that everyone on this forum knows what is "Best Buy" or "Circuit City"?

LOL
I think nothing of the sort. Thanks for coming to that assumption. I do not believe that everyone knows what Circuit City or Best Buy is. I've been online for a good ten years at least and I'm 21, am well aware that the whole world can be online and I have many friends from other countries. I play MMOs for cripes.

What I do know is that a logical statement can be correctly interpreted. I was explaining a computer software and that you can buy computer software at Best Buy and Circuit City. A logical assumption would be that CC and BB are places to buy software at. You guys play adventure games and rely on mostly logic in those adventure games and yet can not divulge in the concepts that I am portraying. I was merely stating that it would be a good idea to go to your local software retailer and see if they have it. And if not, buy online for all I care.

Go get a life.  

...but has anyone played the newer adventure games? Adventure gaming isn't dead persay, but it is a minority, that's for sure. And it's being updated, and personally I think if someone can do a good job on the 3D aspects, then more power to the adventure gaming community. Anyway, there's two good ones that come to mind.

"Runaway" - It has a gorgeous story about a guy that gets uncannily caught up in the mafia. It's funny, the puzzles are well rounded and interesting, and it incorporates 3D characters into a 2D world which is quite an astounding leap in this game's creation. I found it to be a good transition personally, it didn't bother my eyes like most 3D cel shading does with other clearly 2D anime/cartoons/games...
The company is Spanish and so the game has been out in other countries for quite a few years, and the USA is just now getting their hands on it. So far the only place I can find this game is Circuit City and online. It's a nice $30 game. Well worth it. Go. Buy. Now! What are you waiting for!  
http://www.runaway-game.com/

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" - Have not played it yet, but I definitely want to. It being in pure 3D throws me off a bit, but the story and challenges look exciting!
http://www.journey-earth.com/index_us.htm
(Btw, I discovered that if you click to the main page you will get a flash screen that details the game and if you click the either logo (from the first page or the flash page) a few times you'll get samples of a few different song tracks! Haha. Nice little easter egg there even before you buy the game.  )

Yeah, so. Anyone play these or know of any other good looking adventure games that are recently out and about? The problem is the lack of advertising and the exclusiveness of the stores that carry these types of games so I'm helping these minor companies out and trying to keep adventure gaming alive!! Even it it's in evil 3D mode.

Lure of the Temptress? I haven't played that game in a while, but I vaguely remember starting a fire and escaping from a jail cell. There was a pub too.. But every adventure game has a pub. So I guess I'm not much help.

OMG! THAT HAS TO BE IT!
<excitement>
http://www.gamershell.com/hellzone_Adventure_Lure_of_the_Temptress.shtml
Look! Look! The screenshot of the jail cell! OMFG! I can't believe it! I've spent years looking for this game! I can't wait to find it again! Thankyouuuuu!
</excitement>
*cough*

Feel free to delete this entire thread if needed... since it is now completely pointless.  

i just counted 55 games from the games page that all have original graphics and that's not including the tons of RON games there are.

Not always art either. "This guy is based on...blahblah..." and the easiness of talking about game ripping programs comes to mind but yes, I suppose you are correct. I guess I am used to being in communities that like to steal other people's art and possbily wrongfully assumed this place was the same. Nonetheless, I shall continue to enforce my intellectual copyrights just to be on the safe side.  

and the elfwood comment was one person who just joined and has since posted twice so maybe you shouldn't hold that against the ags community

Sorry also if I came across as holding against the entire community. I have a peeve about copyrights and can sometimes get very defensive. You would too if you were stolen of some art right out from under your nose... at an art college of all things. A whole folder filled with at least an inch of stuff of ideas for Durasia... scary. I even dreamt once that someone used that folder to produce ideas about Durasia, perfectly copied, and made a TV show around them and I couldn't get anyone to listen to my pleas for help and injustice! Sounds silly maybe since it was a dream, but I woke up DAMN SCARED. Durasia is my lovechild. Durasia is copyright ME by the United States intellectual property act! Whoooooooo!
*cough*
Sorry. Got off on a tangent again.

Thanks for the welcome.

If ANYONE knows the game title, I will be forever grateful!! I have been looking for it forever! I know how it starts and that's it. It was first scene...  : .... SEEN... on a friend's computer and that friend only had like an hour each day on the computer so.. yeah. Never got to play much since my time on their computer was considered part of their time limit... gah... parents.

Anyway, the game is set in a medieval setting and you start as a guy in a cell in a dungeon (or a tower maybe?). All that is in the dungeon is a door, a window, a torch and a pile of straw. Naturally you have to torch the straw and pretend that the fire was an accident while the guards inspect your cell. You then escape, lock the guards in the cell, and go on your merry way.

Vague memories of the game involve a town with a pub and a rude bartender who I think was an ogre?? Or maybe the ogre was a bouncer?? Hmm.. what else..?? I do believe the graphics were VGA (do not take my word on that), there was sound and music but no voices, and it was definitely an adventure game. I do NOT remember if it was point and click or text based but remembering the puzzle of the torch and straw makes me strongly believe that it was an adventure game.

Any ideas?? Thanks.

This is what you should NOT do

You could have copy/pasted the article and made it a quote, but the registration was free and the info that you said it was about things you should not do in a game sounded pretty valuable so I registered to see the article. I have to say I do not have faith in this article much... there are lot of blatant opinions in this without valid backup. I agree with a few of the ideas but the whole of the article is just an opinion (and a horrible lack of knowledge). However, one must remember that this article is about game genres as a whole, not just adventure games. Some of the things the writer explains DO work for adventure games and have been known to be enjoyable.
Here are my peeves about the article.

"Somebody gave me a copy of The Legend of Kyrandia a few years back, and I played it with some pleasure â€" right up until I got to the maze....."

Haha. That's funny. My favorite aspect of that game was the maze! No joke!  
It was done very ingeniously with the fireberries that went out after a while and left you in the dark. I thought that was hilarious. I still have the original map that I drew out for myself somewhere around here.. It's got pushpin holes in each of the grid squares cause I had it pinned on the wall and I used the pushpins as markers of where Brandon was in the maze. That has got to be the best maze ever created and I know there are other people out there that like mazes in games so don't go saying it's the worst thing to put in a game. That's just an opinon. The way you go about the maze is the key to a good maze. For me, Kyrandia's maze takes the cake! I loved it then and I love it now! I still play Kyrandia just to brush up on my memory of the maze and see how often I don't get eaten by cave creatures without the map.

"Mazes don’t have to be boring and stupid. It’s possible to design entertaining mazes by ordering the rooms according to a pattern that the player can figure out. A maze should be attractive, clever, and above all, fun to solve. If a maze isn’t interesting or a pleasure to be in, then it’s a bad feature. "

HUH?? How was Kyrandia's maze not clever or patternless? He must not have understood the fireberry's significance or something.. or maybe he's talking about some other maze in the game?? I can't think of one..

"A Switch in One Room Opens a Door In Another Room A Mile Away
Nor does it have to be a door â€" I mean any item which affects a game obstacle a long way off. Doom was guilty of this a lot, but the worst example ever was in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, an Infocom text adventure. In that game, if you didn’t pick up the junk mail at the very beginning of the game, it was unwinnable at the very end. "

*cough*
Can anyone tell me the significance of the number 42??  
Seriously though, the radioplay/book/show was filled with rediculous irony, I'm sure the game had to have some too. I think this part of the article is justified just because Douglas Adams was a genious. I about spit my pop out onto my moniter laughing at this article writer's idiocy. I mean, who hasn't read Hitchhiker or at least heard of it??!! It's FILLED with IRONY. (my favorite chapter coming to mind being about the Spirit of Agrajag) It's going to have an ironic ending! I think what he thinks is the lack of an ending, might just BE the ending of the adventure! And it's a damn good one knowing Hitchhiker..  

I am not saying this particular aspect of gaming is not frustrating in the least, and should be avoided of course, but... this is Hitchhiker we're talking about and if you KNOW Hitchhiker you'd find the ending ironic and funny, not frustrating in the least.  

"Kill Monster/Take Sword/Sell Sword/Buy A Different Sword/Kill Another Monster"

Dude, this is again an opinion. I happen to like playing with this aspect of a game. Being able to sell and trade stuff to get an uber item is fun to me and to a lot of people that play D1, D2 and DSiege, as well as countless others. Mmmm.. Arcanum is cool too. Only certain sellers bought certain things at certain prices. I thought that was neat. It was logical too. Armories didn't buy potions for instance. Only alchemical shops did. Not really a concern for adventure games, since most money usage is 'rail-roaded', but I have to say that this is not a horrible aspect to a certain genre of game. Just a horrible opinion.  :

"You Have 30 Seconds to Figure Out This Level Before You Die."

Understandable in most games, but you know.. Lemmings comes to mind. That series of games was BASED on timed procedures and it was fun! Again, another blatant opinion.  : Besides, if you can save at the very beginning of a timed scene that's all the better. CMI you fall down a cliff and have to use an item in your inventory to save your fall before you plummet to the water below. At least you don't die but you have to go all the way back up the cliff, talk to Ozzy (I think that was his name) and then try again. But this usually works in an adventure game! So careful about saying that this article describes what you shouldn't use in an adventure game cause it's not just about adventure games.  :o

"Stupid Opponents
Another thing I’m tired of is stupid monsters who lumber towards you until you shoot them."

Agreed in most cases, but Blizzard did an excellent job in this area. There are monsters that interact with other monsters, call other monsters, revive other monsters, run away when hurt or leader is felled... etc. But true on most cases like I said. I've got a demo to a game I'll never buy just because the monsters in it are dumb as oxen. They only attack once you are within range... so you could stand there  within ten feet of them shooting arrows at them while they are walking back and forth and back and forth endlessly... with no retaliation whatsover. The demo is not on my computer even anymore. Damned if I can even remember what it's called.

"Neat, Tidy Explosions
Look closely at a picture of a place where a bomb went off. It’s a mess. A real mess. Things are broken into pieces of all sizes, from chunks that are nearly the whole object, to shrapnel and slivers, down to dust. And they’re twisted, shredded, barely recognizable. Things that are blown up by a bomb don’t fall neatly apart into four or five little polygons â€" they’re blasted to smithereens."

Okay, now I think this guy is just getting picky. Dude, it's a computer game! Not reality! Explosions and deaths are not going to be real! That's the point! If people played GTA to learn how to kill... maybe then you'd make it a lot more real but it's NOT for that! (at least I hope not) It's a way to let out pent up anger and frustration mostly. At least that's what all the guys that play it tell me it is for. I mean, you blow shit up in a game, and it's just for kicks! Get a life and quit analyzing the size of polygons for cripes!  : : :

"Scott Kim tells me that I’m being a bit harsh by labeling some of these misfeatures as “lazy” puzzle design."

Hmmmmmmmmm... I wonder why!
This guy needs to get a life. Do I say that too often?