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[https://www.flickr.com/photos/kennethhyde/sets/72177720296589125]

Talk about Development Hell! 

After many production delays, I have finally released this project that I began way back in 2014....four rolls of images that I captured over three different iterations of our beloved annual-ish meetup have gone through the developing tank.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kennethhyde/sets/72177720296589125

Films used for the first ten photos (in Portugal) are Lomography X-Pro Slide 200 iso 120 (cross-processed) and Lomography Color Negative 100 iso 120. The rest of the set (New Orleans and Iceland) are on Adox Color Implosion 35mm and Rollei CR 200 Slide 35mm (cross-processed).

Some of the frames would normally be considered unsuccessful, but I decided to leave them in due to their interesting light leaks and textures. One of the rolls was nearly destroyed by a camera back failure in the middle of the New Orleans trip. I was able to salvage a few of them, but I estimate about 8-9 shots were lost to the void.

Enjoy! I hope we can do this again when all is right with the world

[this property]

Mittens 2015 will take place in New Orleans from August 7 to 14 at this property.

The roster thus far (bold names are confirmed):

Attendees
Snarky - Arrival on August 6
Quintaros - Arrival at MSY 11:45
Tzach - Arrival at MSY 12:09
Noa - Arrival at MSY 12:09
Grundy - Arrival at MSY 12:09
Disco - Arrival at Amtrak Station 15:32
violetnotpurple - Arrival to Amtrak Station 15:32
Esseb - Arrival at MSY 18:56
AGA - driving
Tamara - driving
MillsJRoss - driving
ddq - driving

Payment information can be found here.

As far as I can tell, I have to be German, or have a German address in order to buy a .de domain name.  I know there are rules about this, but are there any trustworthy Germans who would help me acquire one of those fancy domains for an upcoming project of mine? (I'll pay for the domain, of course!)




Thank you to Vince Twelve for helping me write this post

I am interested in registering a ".de" domain using my name as a hack, but was blocked at the very last point in the transaction by a tick box confirming I (or an administrator) have a German address. My plan was to lie up until I was confronted about it

Name.com and GoDaddy seem to have "trustee" services where they take care of the address requirement on behalf of the purchaser. Each are a bit more than my preferred registrar: Namecheap. Name.com would be alright if necessary, but I would not give GoDaddy any business unless it was a final resort. All of my domains are with Namecheap, which do not offer that particular service. My Montenegro (.me) domain was obtained through them without issue, but ".de" has different requirements.

I understand that ".de" and other country-specific TDLs are popular for these type of hack registrations, so there must be either a way around or it is just not strictly enforced? Does anyone have experience with this?

[About this Project:]

About this Project:

A summer holiday adventure in beautiful Downtown Anaheim, California. Mittens is the annual real-life meeting for adventure game creators mostly from the AGS community.

The location will be the unparalleled Ultimate SoCal Vacation Homes â€" Garden Retreat II.

Arrival Times:

Arriving by car - ETA at Mittens house 17:00
Disco
Esseb
AGA
Jen

ProgZMax - 06:30 at Anaheim Amtrak Station
Dave - 14:57 at SNA, United Airlines 1010
Janet - 14:57 at SNA, United Airlines 1010
Snarky - 18:57 at LAX, US Airways 701
Abstauber - 21:25 at SNA, United Airlines 1177
Christina - 21:25 at SNA, United Airlines 1177
Grundislav - 22:30 at LAX, American Airlines 629
Misja

[Disco]

Mittens will be August 19-26 at this place in Rosslare Strand, Ireland.

Attendees and arrival times:

Disco  10:05
Layabout  10:05
Grundislav  10:30
Snarky  10:35
Esseb  10:35
Cat  11:05
Tier  11:05
bicilotti  12:50
abstauber  17:55
CJ   ferry (in Rosslare ~18:00)
AGA  ferry
Mr Jake  ferry
Creed_Malay  ferry
Kimberleigh  ferry
Mods  ferry
Tzachs  ferry
Noavana  ferry
LimpyFish  local
monsieur_ouxx  local
Miez local-for-a-day


Post-Mittens Weekend in Dublin (with date of departure)

Communal:
Grundislav  (28, 10:30a)
Esseb  (28, 10:35a)
bicilotti  (28, 4:45p)
Pumaman  (28, ferry)
Mr Jake  (28, ferry)
Creed_Malay  (28, ferry)
Kimberleigh  (28, ferry)
Tier (28, ferry)
AGA  (28)
Jen  (28)
Layabout (28)
abstauber
Snarky  (29, 11:15a)
Disco  (29, 12:45p)
Magintz  (29, 12:45p)

(15)

Private:
Cat+bf (28, noon-ish)

(2)

[EDIT BY AGA:]

EDIT BY AGA:

Near Foiano della Chiana, Tuscany, Italy.

Official pages: http://www.yourtuscanvilla.com/large_villa_pool_tuscany/profile.htm and http://www.fattoriaiponti.com/

Read this, this and this for location and payment details!

List of attendees

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

Hi  

Now that January is nearly elapsed it seems like it is time to start discussing this thing again. While previous threads have gone on about where to hold the 2010 meetup and possible venues, regardless of where it is I think the next thing to discuss is when to hold it, which we can then use as a guideline for picking a place.

Last year was the odd year with Mittens being held toward the end of June rather than the late July/August that it normally was previously (I think due to property availability?) which seemed to be fine overall now that the majority of us are not studying or something as has been the case with many prior events. Perhaps everyone interested should state what times they are not available this summer and what their preferred timeframe would be if any.

For myself, once again this year I plan on doing another 6 or so week trip (which I am well-positioned to do more successfully this year than in other years ) so I am flexible, though have a preference toward the latter half of summer as opposed to earlier on.

Based on some of the comments in the Mittens Return thread, I though it wise to start a new thread dedicated to Mittens IX planning.

Though it seems that Holland was decided as next year's location, a few at the most recent shindig (including yours truly) were either not present at that discussion, or else pissed on sangria. Perhaps we ought to put the next location up for review again.

Aside from Holland, Italy is another location mentioned often both in the other thread as well as at Mittens this year. Beyond that, I'm not sure what other possibilities were discussed in public or private, so if there are any other locations that are good candidates, lets hear them!

I can see the appeal in either Holland or Italy. No other AGS meet, Mittens or otherwise, has been held in these countries. Also, budget air or rail/car put them in reach for most of our European members, and both countries are major air destinations for the Intercontinentals. Now that we are in a better situation to get more input on the next Mittens, we should discuss the main choices and try and get to some consensus. I have made a quick list of the highs and lows of each:

Pros for Holland:
1. WILL ALL THE DUTCH AGS MEMBERS PLEASE STAND UP!
2. Cocoalicious.
3. Gives CJ a chace to brush up on his Dutch

Cons for Holland:
1. Haven't we tried this before?

Pros for Italy:
1. Villas that sleep our usual numbers are seemingly ubiquitous, or so the internet says.
2. We can hold hands without fear of persecution.
3. Gives CJ an excuse to speak in his fluent Italian.

Cons for Italy:
1. No local to organise


Okay, so that may have been more silly than I planned, but on a serious note I feel strongly enough about Italy that I would be willing to make the arrangements as long-distance host and handle all those responsibilities. I have nearly given up on ever hosting "Mittens in the Mitten", so it could be an opportunity for me to organise our beloved gathering, if only once.

A quick Google shows no shortage of 20+ villas or farmhouses to choose from, and most of the ones I've seen have been substantially less than we paid for in Hollywood. Even the first one I found looked promising and (comparatively) inexpensive at £1,867 a week, which at 22 person occupancy translates to about £85, or $136 USD per person :o There are still dozens more I haven't even looked at.

So what do we want to do? Where do we want to go?

So I bought some crayons on a whim the other day for the first time in forever. I forgot how cool they are after all these years, they are so fun and bright and inexpensive ^_^ I got some 4x6 index cards too and look what I drew already





Also when I was crayon shopping, I picked up a bottle of champagne and a hash brown. They are so good.



Don't you just love crayons? =^.^=

[Q: Why an EGA remake of a VGA game?]

Impressive Owl Games is proud to present its first AGS production, an EGA remake of Sierra-Online's 1992 hit, Quest for Glory III : Wages of War!

Are you one of those hard-line 16-colour freaks who loved every parsing moment of Hero's Quest and Trial by Fire, but stopped cold when you saw the atrocious 256-colours that made up the remainder of the once-great Quest for Glory series? What about that aggravating icon-based interface? If this in any way describes you then you better hold on to your ass!  8) Our goal is to strip away all the glam and glitz from Wages of War and return the series to its old-old school EGA roots.

Alright, now for the images!



The Hero sprite, updated with the new outfit first seen in Wages of War


The Figther, training to be a Simbani Warrior!


I decline to put up progress totals until further notice, since honestly there are still a few aspects of the remake that we have not finalised, such as how the map is going to work, traveling to other villages, fighting, etc. are going to work. Work on the art however is going quite fast, with the bulk of the Tarna and Simbani village backgrounds well underway.



I have already received several emails since I made my first casual offline announcements. Here are a few of the more common ones:

Q: Why an EGA remake of a VGA game?
A:The idea originally came to me a couple years ago while surfing the AGDI boards in anticipation of their VGA remake of Quest for Glory II when I realised that, once that game is released, every Quest for Glory will be either VGA originally or have a remake counterpart. This leaves every game with an EGA version except for games III, IV, and V. Since there are those who do not believe a remake necessary, in some cases even  preferring the originals, I saw a market for EGA remakes.

Q: Who is working on the project?
A: Impressive Owl as of this moment is a rather small development team (well, duo would be more accurate  ) currently led by me, Disco (sprites and animation), with Grundislav on programming. However, due to his priorities with the Ben Jordan series, Grundislav is essentially my scripting tutor until further notice.

Q: Once QfGIIIEGA  is finished, do you have plans to remake IV to EGA?
A: That question is way too early to even guess. The complexity of these games is such that I have already decided only to make the Fighter class available for the first version in order to expedite this remake. Many games are started and never finished because they get way too out of control size-wise, so in order to (hopefully) avoid that possibility I had to sacrifice some things for the initial release. If the remake proves popular, then we will definitely make updated versions including the Wizard and Thief.

Q: Will I be able to import my character from the first two games?
A: See the answer to the above question. Is he a Fighter? Then YES!



As of 31 March we are looking to recruit a web designer for the official website and at least one animator and background artist each to assist me with particularly the longer cutscenes. Please PM Disco to apply for these postitions.

The day has finally come. My first character sprite, ever, is in the works. After a long planning process, from being inspired to make this game during the first OROW competition, showing off concepts at Mittens 2005 and discussing the project during the first AGS Podquest ages ago, I am ready to begin  .



3x


I have no problem shading and highlighting fine art, but digital always gives me a bit of trouble. My first couple highlighting drafts made his face look dirty, and I'm still not convinced I've got it right. Also, I am wondering if I have either too much highlight on his shirt, or if the shadowed area is too wide.

Hey there Sam and Max fans,

As the title states, Telltale has released the Sam and Max trailer. It's purpose is to show off the graphics and voices, as none of it seems to belong to any gameplay environment. You can view it at the new S&M (:) site here. Sam talks about Gametap (Telltales collaborators) and Sam speaks about the series being episodic. The dialogue is hilarious and does not betray the franchise.

Though the voices are not the same as the game or cartoons, they are still true to the duo. I must say I am relieved now, and can't wait to start playing this "season"  .

Hey there 

Straight after Brittens this summer I will be attending the second day (July 23) of the Lovebox Weekender electronic music festival in London. Are there any AGSers planning on going? I would be willing to meetup were that the case.

The main attraction for me is Jamiroquai, who are headlining the second and final night (I've seen them in Detroit and Chicago, and look foreward to a performance where they have homefield advantage ) The first night is headlined by Groove Armada, but I am busy that day  :. A list of other acts can be found at www.loveboxweekender.co.uk.

Any takers?

On November 21(Monday) and 22(Tuesday), Adventure Europe will be hosting a developers chat in the style of last year's Inventory Birthday Party, where adventure developers meet and chat with fans in our forums. That event was a hit, many studios made special announcements or displayed new screenshots. I expect this year's event to be quite the same.

The confirmed roster is as follows:

Pendulo Studios (Runaway)
Step Creative Group (Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, Alice's Journey)
White Birds Production (Lost Paradise)
Deck 13 (Ankh)
Kheops Studio (Return to Mysterious Island, Voyage)
Totem Games
Himalaya Studios (Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine)
AGDInteractive (King's Quest 1+2 and Quest for Glory 2 VGA remakes)
Herculean Effort (Apprentice series, the Find)
Nucleosys (Scratches)
Fusionshpere Systems (Secret Files: Tunguska)
Lullaby Studios (Hidden Rooms)
Faraway Studios (Until I'm Gone)
Anaconda Games
4Reign Studios (Dilemma)
Frogwares (Around the World in 80 Days, Sherlock Holmes games)
Revistronic (Three Skulls of the Toltecs, Wanted!, Fennimore Fillmore's Revenge)
Micro Application (Nancy Drew games (publisher))
Legacy Interactive (Law and Order: Criminal Intent)
Telltale Games (Bone series, Sam and Max 2, CSI 3)


Each developer will have a two-hour timeblock announced a few days before the event. We encourage those interested in participating in this event to register with our forums.

Okay this is of course a fictional holiday, but that does not stop it from being the 50th anniversary of the invention of time travelÃ,  ! Yes, on November 5, 1955, Dr. Emmett Brown was hanging a clock in his bathroom, slipped and was knocked unconscious. When he awoke, he had the idea for the Flux Capacitor, which....makes time travel.....possible.

Happy 50th Flux Capacitor!!

Alright, here goes my first post to the Critic's Lounge.



This is the logo for the team or "studio" I wish to release games under, named Impressive Owl.

Something I know I need to improve are my leaves, they just kind of bother me. I made it look better once by pixelizing the leaves layer, but that is something I want to stay away from where logos are concerned. Can anyone please suggest more ways to improve this?