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Some times ago I tried to play at Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, a mix of platforming, racing, and puzzles. Not my cup of tea, but I endured in playing because I adore the old Larry.
After a lot of frustranting missions I throw the towel and stop playing. The game is still unfinished somewhere in my library despite how much I payed it.

Have you experienced the same situation? Ran out of fun for a game and drop it before the ending? 

What makes a game a frustration?

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[development hell]

According to wikipedia.org a development hell is "media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in a stage of early development for a long time, because the project is stuck in legal, technical, or artistic challenges. A work may move between many sets of artistic leadership, crews, scripts, game engines, or studios. Many projects which end up in development hell never progress into production, and are gradually abandoned by the involved parties".

Have you ever been involved in a development hell, in videogames for example? And if so how you have solved?

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This pic of Croquetasesina...



...make me think thet is a lot of time that I don't buy a DVD for movies or videogames. Months, problably years.
I find less in the stores, the blu-ray discs are the most. For now.
At the beginning of the year WWE.com announcend that they stop to print DVDs of the events, only online. And so many movie distributors.
Probably the digital downloading will be the future, right now I'm sure the most videogames are purchased online.

But is a fine thing that games will not selling in a phisical copy? Files are easy eraseble.

What do you think about?

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Many developers try to raise funds to completing their games by selling demoes or early access version (EVA in short).
Usually demoes are short but have an end, early access contains a couple of missions that once completed you  con only roaming pointless until you shut down the game.
I'm glad to support indie developers, but someway buying demoes or EAV I feel half empty.

Said that, do you think that selling demoes and EAV really works? Have you esperience in those things?

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The "Bechdel test" was originally a joke in the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For  from the 1985:



Despite the satirical intent this test is actually used in media fiction industry to measure the gender discrimination... or so they say.

Of course there are a lot of inequality in the world, so there are other tests of this kind:
https://lifehacker.com/the-bechdel-test-and-other-media-representation-tests-1819324045
https://www.the-unedit.com/posts/2018/8/20/7-tests-that-arent-the-bechdel-test-that-measure-movies-for-gender-equality-and-representation

This stuff seems just sociobabbling (and sometime it is) but someone in Hollywoodland take it seriously.

Those tests could be applied for other media, so also for videogames.


Have you ever used this kind of analysis when you write games? Do you think those are useful at least for commercial videogames?

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For the 2021 I'd like to use a printable calendar, I never heard of this since yesterday! 

Here's an example, the templates are cutie:

https://www.creativecenter.brother/it-it/home/home-category/calendars


Do you know any other site with cool printable calendars? Possibly multilingual!

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Hallowe'en is coming, and it get the usual rite: disguising as horror monsters, watching horror tv specials, reading horror comic books,

In my humble opinion, one of the most scary comic book is Tim Vigil's Faust. With his steel claws he could resemble someone else that now I ca'nt remember...
Anyway, is a real horrorful and gory one:



And you? What is the scariest comic book you ever read?

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[The Asylum]

According to Wikipedia a "mockbuster"  is a movie created with the intention of exploiting the publicity of another major motion picture with a similar title or subject. Mockbusters are often made with a low budget and quick production to maximize profit. Unlike films that are produced to capitalize on the popularity of a recent release by adopting similar genre or storytelling elements, mockbusters are generally produced concurrently with upcoming films, and released direct-to-video at the same time the real film reaches theaters or video outlets. A mockbuster may be similar enough in title, packaging, etc. in hopes that consumers confuse it with the actual film it mimics, but their producers maintain that they are simply offering additional products for consumers who want to watch additional films in the same subgenres.

Actually the most famous film company in this kind of business is The Asylum, best knowed for the Sharknado saga and other shark flicks.

Sometimes they get  close to plagiarism with the titles or the covers, but nothing more in the end.

Do you think this way of making movies is someway dishonest? Or maybe it's a chance to unleash the creativity of a studio?


Here's some of the most notables Asylum's mockbusters:

Spoiler

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Are you planning a superhero game but no idea for a character? You can use freely those (at least name the creator in the credits):

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Open_Source_Characters

This is a wiki page, if you know other websites that provides open source superhero please post it!

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[Ong's Hat]

Recently a friend of mine told me about the Ong's Hat, a sort of fiction game played online years ago. I looked for a website to learn more:

https://incunabula.org/

For what I understood it's called "alternative reality game", similar to a round-robin tale but multimedial.

Anyone ever played anything like this?

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[James O'Barr]

'Cause Halloween is coming I'm searching some cool horror comic to read. Looking for the works of James O'Barr I found this comic book of 1992 Slash, that seems more horrorful and gore than the most famous The crow:



It was released from Northstar, a comic book publisher in the early '90s specialized in crude horror  and splatterpunk comics. Like this:   

Spoiler

[close]

In the same years also Rebel Studios published many extreme gory issues:




I'm really enthrilled with this kind of comic with so strong graphic and bad-to-the-bone, even if it's no easy find mature horror comics without incur in the pornographic trash.

Could you suggest me any comics and publishers (active or not) of this type?

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[imgzoom]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/AtlasShrugged.jpg[/imgzoom]

After some weeks I finished to read Atlas shrugged, Ayn Rand's most notable novel.

I have to admit that I discovered this novel just because in a website it is tagged with the works of Stanislaw Lem (one of my favourite writers) due the mix of sci-fi and philosophy. So I purchased and then read it.

Well, after the huge reading (about 1500 pages!) here is my impressions:

- sure a great epic and a good writing. The sci-fi element is marginal in the end, the philosophical is very impressive.
- great personality main characters.
- a story so modern that could happen even today.

But in my opinion this great novel also have his cons:
- Ayn Rand didn't talk explicity of capitalism and communism, but her idea of the proletarian system seems superficial and stereotypical. And it's strange considering her high culture.
- it seems more than atheist, I'd say is againist every religion. In particular induism, maybe is a criticism about Gandhi?
- and againist "modern philosopher" that deny the existence of the mind and the matter (nihilist?). But in general, it's like she say: my philosophy is right, all the others are wrong.

Well, these are just my opinions! 

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As probably you already know the premier Boris Johnson is determinate to take UK out of the European Community not later than October 31, ready or not.

This "hard brexit" will certainly have political and economic effects, perhaps positive or maybe not.

And as regards what interests us most: what consequences for the videogame industry?

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"To write a good book you have to read good books first", to say the obvious. And it's true also for the videogames, at least for adventure games.

So I'm asking you about authors (classic or modern) useful to inspire adventure games.

I don't mean your personal tastes in literature,  but writers whose prose is good for a game. For example: I really hate Tom Clancy, but his novel fits well for a spy game.


Here's my "list" by theme:

espionage: Tom Clancy (as said before)
drama: Anton Ã,,Å'echov
comedy: Richard Matheson (I know is famous for horror/sci-fi works, but his humour tales are cheesy)
sci-fi: Michael Moorcock
horror: Seabury Queen
fantasy: Licia Troisi (well, I'm italiano)
mistery: Jean-Claude Izzo


Any other suggestions?

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[International Women's Day]

Tomorrow is International Women's Day!

I'd like to ask: how women are doing in the videogames business these days?



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In this globalized world often we forget that every nation, every state have his own laws about censorship for movies, comic books or music. Some forbids strong violence, others sexual themes and so on.
Videogames don't make exception. In this days of digital purchasing a game could be downloaded pratically worldwide, but how to deal with the censor laws of different countries?

Any of you have ever had problems with censorship?
And how did you solve it?

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I am always amused when adventure games are set in real historical places, just like Gabriel Knight: the Beast within to say one!

A recent example is this Past for Future,  developed in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Taranto:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=FK8wS-MjdGs


https://www.pastforfuture.it/?fbclid=IwAR1n6Cv8_u_KjgPvwiC9t-nQFiLsklWx4-hzeAnav6J0LSRXLxZQGZI5cYo

Yeah, many museums have some "virtual exploration" game-like on their websites, but I think the graphic adventure setting is more intriguing to discover a place full of culture.

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[Clock Tower]

When we talk about our beloved p'n'c adventures the main games that came in minds are developed by LucasArts, Westwood, Revolution, Deck13, Pendulo Studios, Access Software... mostly american and european studios.
But if you ask aboot asian or better japanese p'n'c adventure very few come to mind. The first Clock Tower for SNES, Policenauts for Sega CD/Playstation and few others.
Think about, it's strange that an important game industry as the japanese one don't produce more of this kind of adventure. Lots of RPG, FPS, survival horror and visual novel. But very few p'n'c adventure for what I know.

Why?

It could be a matter of culture? Japanese gamers doesn't like to use the mouse? Or they just doesn't care it?

Even in this AGS community seems there are more occidental than oriental people, but I may be wrong. The impression is that asians are low interested i this games. just my impression, though.

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[Coverbox Art Competition November - Month of dead]

Coverbox Art Competition November - Month of dead

November is a good month for horror...



...so let's do some horror covers!

The challenge is simple:
1) go to AGS search page;
2) At "Genres" spun only "Horror", at "Story type" spun only "Original", at "Game lengths" spun all. At "Filters" de-spun "Only include games with at least 2 cups", then go with the search;
3) pick a not-commercial game (if you have a game of yours in database pick another one);
4) download and complete the game;
5) draw a cover art (with title and OS) inspired by the game;
optional 6) project the packaging of the box;
optional 7) add goodies (maps, manuals or whatelse).

During the process please share sketches and concepts so to follow how the work goes. Feedbacks and hints from non-partecipant are welcomed! Yes, just like this previous contest: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=48770.0

Tips:
- as the pitch contest, a cover have to capture the attention of the audience... and convince that the game is worth to buy;
- use some plot elements;
- use your own style, don't copy the pixel of the game;
- have fun and drink responsibly.

Enjoy!

Start November 1.
The entries ends November 30.


http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/search/


AGS search page

Spybot or Adwcleaner? What is the best free anti-malware, and why?

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