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I missed the original when it came out, went to buy Perfect Tides, found I already had. Played it yesterday, found out there's a sequel in the making and all I can say is HYPE.

Mara's my kind of 'loser', and I wish I didn't identify with her as much as I do as an elder Millennial aspiring writer who spent way too much time online

Poorly. I do apologize, next time I should have the time needed to sit down properly

My conjuring is slow, thanks for the extension! 


(I'm also revising my next draft of the novel I'm working on, so I got distracted  )

Well lemme conjure up something.

Responses to feedback

Mandle:

Spoiler

It wasn't, though Leonard in a way does combine some qualities in people I've worked with. Thankfully none who were that selfish and narcissist. Glad you liked it!

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Sinitrena:

Spoiler

Fair points when it comes to normality/dramatic. I think what I was going for was more the mundane kind of evil, the energy-vampire type, who just sucks all joy out of everything. But you're right, it's very down to earth still. I seem to have missed the call for dramatics in the opening post, but see it now

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Sinitrena with Demonic Boss - Literally

Spoiler

I actually quite like it. The twist was to me pretty clearly signposted but I enjoyed getting there. I didn't really feel like I wanted the character to be in a bad place though, I didn't really _feel_ he deserved it. Overall I enjoyed reading it! Also, now I'm sad I self-censored, because there was a lot more swearing in mine originally, but still less than in yours 

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Mandle with Jun, Harriet and Everyone Else

Spoiler

I've written some AI stories myself, and the one thing that always gets me is that once AI gets to be too powerful, it'll be instant. And it doesn't matter if Jun had said no, if it hadn't been him, it would've been someone later, somewhere else. There's a desperate kind of sadness to the scenario, and then there's this almost whimsical ending to it, where Jun just goes 'eh, if it's all fked anyway, what could be a fun thing to do?' that I appreciate. Good stuff!

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Votes:

Spoiler

Sinitrena 4
Mandle 6

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Woah. Welcome back, Voh.

We also would have accepted:

Woah!  Voh!

Heehee, 'tis me!

[His Kingdom]

My god I let this linger for too long.

His Kingdom

Spoiler

Leonard looked out over his Kingdom and saw that it was good. The smell of freshly ground coffee hung thick in the air, the musical sound of the espresso machine was all around, his branded apron and hat fit snugly, and his worker bees were doing a fairly acceptable job. It had been an amazing first year running his own coffee house, and it had changed everything for the better for him.

He'd been stuck in a career not of his own choosing, office-based and boring beyond what he was able to accept, and had spent most of his time behind his desk daydreaming about what he'd rather be doing instead. Over time, one thought had kept coming back. Make his hobby -- making exquisite coffee -- his actual job.

His parents had called him insane for giving up a guaranteed pay check for the uncertain existence of a service-based business owner with very little experience with it, but he knew he had to do it. No reward without risk, after all.

Leonard had very specific demands of how the coffee should be. He had spent far too much time throughout his life getting both of them exactly right, and he was not about to let the quality slip now that he had people actually pay for it. And he had found out very quickly that good help was hard to get.

Right now, he had decent help. Not good yet, but he could whip them into shape if he had to.

It was important to Leonard to offer not just coffee, but a coffee education. For that reason, his menu had little information sections about the coffee that was on offer. And more specifically, it had a section on it that was a list of coffee that would only be prepared and sold to those who would agree to drink it as provided, without putting milk or sugar in it.

They were listed as the 'pure brews', and they would never be available for things like lattes or white flats, whatever those weird Oceanic drinks were called. Leonard refused to care.

It was a crisp spring day, and Leonard was standing in his regular spot, slightly off to the side of the counter. From here he could see, judge, and correct everything his flawed worker bees would inevitably do wrong. And though his bees were busy, there was no guarantee they were busy doing the right things.

"Kate, clean the counter," he barked at her. She looked up from the boxes of coffee beans she was unpacking, sighed, and walked over to the counter to clean it. She had learned a good while ago that arguing with Leonard didn't get her anything but the argument itself and a load of frustration.

"Dave, refill the napkins," he snapped at Dave, fully intending to make Dave feel like an idiot for not seeing it before Leonard had to tell him. Dave was in the middle of taking a customer's order and halfheartedly nodded at Leonard, clearly planning to first finish what he was already doing. When Leonard stared at him intently, Dave sighed, apologized to the customer, and walked off to the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, can you take my order instead, then?" the customer said to Leonard.
"No," he said without looking at her or acknowledging her any further.

She huffed loudly, stood there for a second longer to see if Leonard would change his mind or if Dave came back, but when neither happened she turned and left, rightfully annoyed. The little bell hanging at the entrance dinged as she pushed through, and she was gone.

Leonard didn't care. He didn't need her. She had been trying to order a coffee that was mostly milk and other adulterants like syrup, so good riddance. They didn't even have syrup. He didn't even want to offer milk and sugar, but he had learned very quickly that he didn't really have a choice. If he wanted to reach people and educate them about coffee, he needed to lower the threshold so any old neanderthal could come in and leave a better human being. So he had swallowed his pride for the greater good, and allowed the crap to remain. For now. To trap the idiots and get them through the door.

Leonard once more looked out over his Kingdom and saw that it was good.

The door dinged again, and a young woman walked in, nodded at him, and sat down at a window seat. Since Kate and Dave were busy doing what he had told them to do, he sighed and decided to take her order instead. He walked over and saw she was checking out the menu.

"Hi, welcome, what'll it be?"
"Hi," she said with a smile. "I'd like a Feriado de Jorge, please."

Feriado de Jorge was a custom blend Leonard had made, and was the only blend on the pure brews menu.

"That's entirely possible," he said, pleased that she picked so well. "You do know it's only served black?"
"I saw that, that's fine," she said pleasantly.
"Alright, I'll go make that for you," Leonard said, and walked back to the counter.

He tapped Kate on the shoulder, who was about halfway through cleaning the counter, and told her to make the coffee. She started to protest, but realized that it wouldn't help, so she let her shoulders droop and just went along with it. She wiped off the counter just enough so she could use it, then started on it.

Kate knew that even though he was an absolute asshole to her, he still wasn't going to accept a sub-par coffee at his place for any reason, so she did her best. The ultra-fine, reddish brown, fluffy-looking crema topped off a well-made double espresso looked delicious to her. As she stopped the espresso machine, she felt pretty good about it. She took the cup, made sure it looked good, and then got ready to bring it over to the customer.

"I'll bring it," Leonard said, as he stopped her and took the cup from her. "Keep cleaning."

He always did this, take credit where he did literally nothing to deserve it, and Kate just shrugged and went back to cleaning the counter. This is who he was, and she had given up hope for him to ever change.

He handed over the coffee to the customer carefully, did his little spiel about how he came up with the blend, and she nodded politely. When he was done, he wished her much enjoyment.

After he had walked away, she put her cup down. She took a wooden stirrer from her coat pocket, which she had brought herself, then rummaged through her bag for a second, before pulling out two cheap-looking paper sticks. A stick of sugar and a stick of powdered creamer. The unbranded stuff you'd find at a truck stop, the stuff that just says 'sugar' and 'creamer' on it with nothing else. She ripped open the tops of both and dumped them in.

Kate noticed, and held her breath for the drama that was undoubtedly about to unfold. Leonard hadn't noticed yet, but when he took up his regular spot again, he looked back and saw she was stirring her coffee. He then noticed the empty sugar and creamer packets and his face turned red in an instant.

"No no no don't you dare," he shouted at her. "Do not!" he then added, even louder, taking a step forward.

The customer looked back at him and looked confused.

"What? You said it only came black, so I added my own stuff to it."
"You're--" He had trouble breathing. "You're not--" He stopped talking and was visibly shaking.

He suddenly pointed at the exit and screamed at her to get the hell out. "Get out! You philistine! You absolute monster! You b--"

Kate gasped. The other customers gasped. Dave stuck his head out from the kitchen and looked at Leonard disapprovingly.

The customer looked at him for a second, then got up, and simply left. Her face had shown her anger and, frankly, disappointment.

Kate walked up to Leonard and stood in front of him. "Did you really just call a customer that word?"
"She deserved it," he answered quietly but angrily.
"Yeah, no, she definitely didn't. You're insane. And you know what? I've taken a lot of crap from you, but I'm done," she said, as she started undoing her apron.
"Done?" Leonard said, his anger subsiding a little, only to be replaced with a sudden fear.

Kate took her apron off and let it drop to the floor, then shouted "Dave! We're leaving!"

Dave walked out of the kitchen, saw Kate's apron on the ground, and started undoing his own. They had been friends for long enough that he didn't need to be told what was happening. He walked over and dropped it on top of Kate's. Then he stood by her side, not saying much but just looking at Leonard, waiting for Kate to say the word.

Leonard looked at the aprons on the ground and knew that if this was Dave and Kate quitting, he was in deep shit. "Kate, Dave, listen," he started, putting on an awkward smile, getting ready to use all of his charisma to smooth this over somehow.

Kate held up a finger to stop him and spoke calmly, though with a barely hidden anger of her own.

"Stop, Leonard. It's not your turn to speak. I'm completely done with your constant complaining, nit-picking, angry outbursts, and just—" she waved at him, "—this whole thing. It's not worth it, and after seeing how you treated that customer today, even going so far as to call her the b-word? No. I refuse to deal with all of this anymore."
"Yeah, you suck," Dave added.

Dave knew that if Kate was this worked up, she was probably right. He definitely only worked here by this point because Kate was there, and he enjoyed working with her.

Leonard  looked at them both, and started panicking at the realization that they were definitely quitting and leaving him by himself. But then the part of his brain that knew so objectively that he was definitely right kicked in.

And now Kate was defending the customer massacring his coffee? His blend? And Dave was defending Kate? So they were all in this together, now? 'Oh, no, no, no', Leonard's brain stupidly went.

"Fine. Screw the both of you. Who cares," he said, his spite forcing its way through his building panic. "Leave then."

It was not fine. He absolutely cared. He didn't want them to leave, because he knew he couldn't run this place without them.

"I don't need you," he said dismissively.

Yet he absolutely needed them, but he didn't know where the words were coming from at this point.

Leonard was too far in now. He had made his decision, rational or not. Regardless of the consequences, he wasn't going to let them win. In for a penny, in for the dumbest, most stubborn, most self-destructive pound.

"I can do it alone," he said bitterly, knowing he definitely could not.

Kate just smiled and shook her head. She knew he was lost without them, and none of what he had just said was actually true. She knew him well enough to know he was lashing out, and he'd realize he had screwed up eventually.

But this time she did not intend to be there when that happened.

"Good to know. You can mail us our last paychecks. Anyhoo, have fun doing this without us."

Kate and Dave walked out without looking back.

Leonard sighed deeply with his eyes closed and then opened them again, only to be met by stares from confused and scared customers. He could tell they were nervous, especially the children, some of whom were now crying.

They'd seen all of it.

He knew he'd need his customers more than ever, but Leonard forced himself to ignore that too. He couldn't deal with it right now.

"All of you can get the hell out too," he said to them, as he walked toward the counter and shut down the espresso machine. The customers all scrambled to get to the door as fast as possible, away from the raging psychopath.

One yelled at Leonard that he would leave a bad review.

Leonard just chuckled sadly and shook his head.

"Like that matters anymore," he muttered, as the door closed to his now empty kingdom.

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Imma try to get in on this one.

I'm going to try entering this

I really enjoyed the game

It's beautiful, the voice acting is great (as always) and the story worked for me. However, as I played it multiple times, there is one thing I would suggest you fix - a way to skip the credits. Maybe I missed how, but none of the keys I tried worked. I eventually ended up alt-x'ing my way out, but one would expect ESC to work.

But other than that, getting ready to play it with commentary on

One thing I know when I buy a Wadjet Eye game is that it's going in the classics folder. Same here      

Hey, not to be a negative bastard, but can we perhaps get a corresponding winsetup.exe or perhaps whatever settings I need to do to make it do 2x nearest neighbor in fullscreen?

Because when I play this on my home media center (a win7 pc), my TV keeps saying it's not an appropriate resolution (hence why I'm assuming it's trying to set 320x200/240) and that message keeps hovering over the screen :/

EDIT: Fixed it by stealing Gemini Rue's winsetup, renaming the Herione's Quest exe to Gemini Rue.exe and changing the settings. Still, though, 640x480 is probably a better resolution anyhoo?

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

I'm looking at the drawer containing my six 24h comics. I'm hoping to do it again this year as well

I salute you, and your inevitable pain/frustration!

Trained as an English to Dutch translator, aspiring fiction writer, actually a software developer.

Sometimes confused.

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

I will play any game you make. I already can't wait

I started programming because I wanted to make games. I started with QB4.5, but then discovered the web, where I connected with other QB programmers.

I never really got far with conventional languages, but I started playing around with PHP because internet was just too exciting not to get involved in. I also know that almost all programmers are elitistically negative towards PHP

About 2 years ago I started developing in PHP professionally. I spent a long time not knowing what I wanted to do (I could do a lot of things, but never really dedicated myself to one or the other). I can say, with full confidence, that I found that I love programming. A whole lot.

But I still want to make games

[can]

Okay, regardless of what the exact truth is, the fact that this many accounts are posting from the same IP will remain shady at best.

This isn't about 'discrimination'. Most people on these forums have been supportive of commercial ventures (though are sometimes disappointed by seemingly high price points, that doesn't mean they're not supportive of the venture itself) because it shows that we, as AGSers, can do 'real', commercially viable games. Look at Resonance, the Blackwells, Gemini Rue. That we'd be negative towards Anas because of his game becoming a commercial venture is one incredibly weak argument. Hell, it was on my 'to check' list.

Either way, I think maybe it's a good idea if all the complicit accounts stop posting for a bit. Let this die down. Talk to the mods, find the truth or at least a middle ground everyone can be happy with.

Making this a public debate between the 'accused' and the mods will only reflect badly on Anas and friends.

Take a breath and find a solution.

Had this happened in any of my communities, I would have done the same thing. So, yes, excellent moderating.

The fact that he declined the skype session (which could have completely cleared him if played well) and that he left on his own make it seem that the moderators (and many members) were right. That's a satisfactory conclusion. He seems guilty, but he left without making it worse.

That sort of speaks for him too. This could have been a much dirtier end. I'm glad it isn't.

I'm also glad about the insight. Sure, it's nosy, and I really have no right to have the insight, but knowing about the suspicion and actually getting the outcome completely and clearly explained gives so much trust in that you guys are doing this for the right reasons.

It's a shame he thought he could leverage the forums to his will. I may not be the most active AGSer, but I respect this place far too much to ever consider doing that.