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I'm sure almost everyone here has heard about it by now, but I'll sum it up for those that don't.

It's basically a petition to the EU to pass a rule where players must be given the means to play a live-service after their permanent closure. Whether that's through an end-of-life update (like modern arcade games already do), the tools to run your own private server (saving people the task to reverse engineer the code to make their own tools), or some other way (I can't think of any other way though).

The petition has already met the threshold to be considered, but whether or not they reject it because of bots or something, has yet to be seen.


Personally, I think the initiative is a good thing and I hope it passes. 
I don't like live-services, and their temporariness is baked into their design, so anyone who does like them, should already understand and appreciate that those servers are going to be permanently closed one day.
But there's no reason for the vast majority of them to give you the message "Can't connect to server." After the servers close down. Especially when a lot of them are mostly single-player experiences anyway.

Hello.

What I'm suggesting here is a GetTimer() function, which simply returns the number of cycles left on a timer. My reason for this is twofold. Firstly, sometimes you'll want to be able to do something in the middle of a timer, without setting up another timer. Secondly, it would provide a way to see whether or not a timer is running, without incurring the IsTimerExpired()'s OFF state.

Basically with that second reason, what I'm suggesting, is a function similar to IsTimerExpired(), but where it never goes into an OFF state. It always returns true or false depending on whether it's counting down or not. In this case, it would be something along the lines of if(GetTimer(1) > 0).

This is because there have been numerous times that OFF state feature of IsTimerExpired() has caused me headaches, simply because I've either forgotten about it or it runs counter-productive to what I'm trying to accomplish. A quick look through the forums for problems that people have had with timers, and it seems as though I'm not the only one.

The thing is though, that OFF state is very useful. But it'd be nice if we had a function which didn't have it. And being able to get the exact time left on a timer, would do exactly that.
Alternatively, a IsTimerRunning() function, which returns true if the timer is above 0, or false if it's below 0, could also work. But that would be much more limiting.

I really hope this feature isn't something that's already in the editor. I've looked through the manual, and couldn't see any mention of it.
But none the less, thanks for hearing me out.


EDIT:
By the way, I know you can do this by simply implementing your own timers. But to me, it really seems like it's something that should be part of the editor itself.

[bool move_player (int x, int y, WalkWhere walkableArea)]

This is a simple function that I use in all of my games, that allows you to easily cancel out of a walk.
I've tried to make it as generic as possible, so that it'll work in any project without any effort on your part. But it was originally adapted from code from a 9-Verb template, and I have mostly only used it in a BASS template, so you'll need to let me know if there are any issues. But from my tests, it seems to work just fine in the Sierra template.

It provides two functions: bool move_player (int x, int y, WalkWhere walkableArea) and bool walk_face(int x, int y, CharacterDirection faceDirection, WalkWhere walkableArea)
The walkableArea variable is completably optional, and is only there if you want the player character to walk over a non-walkable area. I can't think of a reason why you would want to, since if you cancelled out of it, you'd probably end up stopping in a non-walkable area. But it's there if you want it, and can be completely ignored if you don't want it.

Module supports AGS 3.3.0 and higher (might support lower, but I haven't tested it)

>>DOWNLOAD MODULE HERE<<
>>ALTERNATIVE MIRROR<<

USAGE:
Just use the new move_player function in a similar way to how you would the Walk function, but in an IF statement.

Code: ags

if(move_player(140, 140))
{
  player.Say("The door is locked.");
}

The new walk_face function is used in the same way, but you must also include the direction you want the character to face after reaching their destination.

If you want the OverHotspot functionality to work while in this cancellable state, there is one line of text "actionText = null;" in the game_start function which needs altering. You just need to replace null with the name of the gui element you use for said functionality.

If you have an animated wait cursor, then find waitModeView = -1  and replace -1 with the view number your wait cursor uses for its animation. If you don't have an animated wait cursor, this value can be safely ignored.

Limitations:
Animated cursors will not animate while in a cancellable state.
Requires all cursors that are used in the game, to have the same HotspotX and HotspotY as one another.



History:
1.0:
Initial release.

1.1:
Just fixed a minor bug involving the inventory icon messing up the cursor sprite. I accidentally introduced the bug while genericifying the code related to the cursor sprites, just before I released the module. Sorry about that.

1.2:
You no longer have to be at the pinpoint exact coordinates, which should fix any slight problems that might occur with the pathfinding. (The tolerance level can be set to whatever you want, by default it's at 2 pixels from the coordinates, but you can set it to 0 if you want exact coordinates only again.)
You also no longer have to set the interface to display normally during a pausing event in the global settings. You can have it be set to whatever you want now.
Only a single line of code (line 17 to be exact) now has to be altered to get the OverHotspot label working, as opposed to three lines in the previous release.
I also added an option to have the player walk over non-walkable ares if you want, as well as a new walk_face function, which walks to the location and then faces in the correct direction, just like the GotThere module.

1.3:
Firstly, I made the module compatible with AGS 3.3.0 and presumably older. You see the previous version broke compatibility with that new walk_face function, so I fixed that. I wouldn't recommend using such an old version of AGS, but if you are, you probably have your reasons, and there's no reason why this module shouldn't be compatible with the older versions. So that's why I fixed that.
Secondly, I fixed a problem where the module didn't work correctly if you had an animated wait cursor. Now it'll function as normal, although you will have to tell the module what view your animated wait cursor is using.
I probably won't be updating this again anytime soon, because I can't think of anything else that needs to or could be improved. So enjoy.

[Rowen's Grand Adventure]

Rowen's Grand Adventure is a reboot of my very first AGS game.

What started off as a normal day (for Rowen at least), quickly turns into him being forced to take a couple of vacation days. So join Rowen and his (supposedly evil) twin brother Roger, as they travel to a strange country known only as the United States of America. While there, Rowen will enter a cooking show, mess with the mafia, help finish a movie, and escape from a hotel. But Rowen's blundering eventually leads him into stumbling into an operation that deals with something that's worth more than ten times the price of gold.

During this adventure you will meet many colourful characters, such as a clown with globophobia, a cactus which says it can't talk, and even the Grim Reaper himself.

So join Rowen on this truly grand adventure. 


Screenshots:







Current Progress:
Story--  100%
Puzzles-- 100%
Graphics--  100%
Scripting -- 99%
Music/Sound-- 99%
Voice Work-- 99%


Release Date:
[2025]


Development Diary:
25th September 2023
This is the biggie. The game I've been working on since *checks notes* 2014. Although that's when I started this iteration of it. The absolute first time I worked on this game was *checks notes* 2008. Because this was actually the first game I ever tried to make with AGS. I never finished that game though. Instead I turned it into a crappy comic, and I subsequently made a crappy game that served as a prequel to said crappy comic. That game was the first game I ever uploaded onto AGS. It was so bad, that I spent the next 8 years improving before I tried uploading another game onto AGS.

This game is also quite easily the largest game I've ever made to date. I'd easily say that the end product will be about four times larger than my current largest game (which I think is Crepe Fields). I've not announced this game until now, because I wanted to get it to a state where I could see the end goal in sight. And while I am still many months away from that finish line, I can finally see it. Although that's in no small part due to the sheer amount of time I've been spending on it this year.

I'm currently at 33 characters, 32 rooms, and 143 items. So that should give you some indication of the scale I'm going for with this game. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, I want to make one of those small demos that reuse assets from the game but has it's own set of unique puzzles, and I want to include another (much smaller) game as a completely optional easter egg. I'm really making sure to earn the "Grand" in the title.

Of course before doing that I still need to finish the game, improve all of the graphics (primarily the backgrounds), and do some thorough bug testing.
I don't know if I'll be giving an update every week like I usually do, but I'll definitely make sure to give an update at least once a month. 
If you've read this far, thank you. 

23rd February 2024
Today marks the day when the game officially became playable from start to finish. That's right, not only have I finally finished the last third of the game since my previous update, but I've also just finished implementing the credit sequence. 

Next up is a whole lot of testing and bug fixing, improving the artwork, and implementing the easter eggs, followed by even more testing of course.

9th September 2024
I can now proudly boast having made the only game with an infinite loop meta joke.

Things have been going smoothly with Rowen's Grand Adventure.
I'm nearly onto the beta testing phase.

2nd December 2024
Just a little update to say that the game is almost finished.

All's left is the voice acting and bug fixing.

The voice acting is likely to take a while.
There are over 10,000 lines of dialog in the game.

6th February 2025
A quick update letting you all know what the current progress is with my game.

I'm halfway done with the voice work, 5000 lines recorded, with only 5000 left.

5th April 2025
I've finally finished recording all of the voice lines!

I just need to listen to them, rerecord any lines I flubbed, play my game, and then send it to my beta testers.

Click here to buy.

The sequel to my point and click adventure game, Black Friday.

It's been twenty years since the incident, but the killer scarecrow has finally come back. Will this brand new group of five teenagers be able to accomplish what their predecessors failed to do, and rid the world of this pumpkin-headed scarecrow once and for all, or will they end up barely surviving a traumatizing event that will haunt them for the rest of their lives?

A homage to the slasher movies of the 80s in the form of a point and click adventure game, with some gameplay elements reminiscent of the Clock Tower series. With multiple endings, longer puzzles, and a deeper story, this is sure to please any fan of adventure games, horror, or slasher movies in general.

• Two-click interface: left-click to interact, right-click to examine.
• Spacebar to pause.
• F5 to open save menu, F7 to open load menu.
• Contains strong themes and gore.
• Multiple playable characters.
• Multiple endings.
• Game length 1 to 3 hours, depending on player skill.

OS: Windows XP or above

Processor: Intel or AMD CPU

Memory: 512 MB RAM

Graphics: DirectDraw or DirectX compatible card

DirectX: Version 9.0c or above

Monitor: 800x600 or above

Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Additional Notes: Mouse, keyboard

If you like the game, why not
play this game's prequel here for free.

[Autumn of Death: Black Friday II]

Autumn of Death: Black Friday II is the sequel to my point and click adventure game, Black Friday.

It's been twenty years since the incident, but the killer scarecrow has finally come back. Will this brand new group of five teenagers be able to accomplish what their predecessors failed to do, and rid the world of this pumpkin-headed scarecrow once and for all, or will they end up barely surviving a traumatizing event that will haunt them for the rest of their lives?

A homage to the slasher movies of the 80s in the form of a point and click adventure game, with some gameplay elements reminiscent of the Clock Tower series. With multiple endings, longer puzzles, and a deeper story, this is sure to please any fan of adventure games, horror, or slasher movies in general.


Screenshots:







Current Progress:
Story--  100%
Puzzles-- 100%
Graphics--  100%
Scripting -- 100%
Music/Sound-- 100%


Release Date:
Depending on when I get feedback on the beta version, it could be anywhere from the end of this month to sometime next month. More info once I'm certain, but definitely soon either way. I'm aiming for the 28th of November though, and I think there's a good chance I'll make it.


Development Diary:
17th June 2022
I've made pages on both GameJolt and Itch.io to use as DevLogs.
I'm planning on making this my first ever commercial game, so obviously I'll need to up my game in terms of art and quality, as well as come up with a good price.
(Is it too ambitious to want to sell it? If you have any advice or if there's something I need to know beforehand, please share it.)

24th June 2022
I've been working on scripting, sprites, and the living room.

You can now open all of the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen!

1st July 2022
This week I've been mostly polishing up that first act. Drawing character sprites, refining backgrounds, making animations.

8th July 2022
I gave some of the animations and backgrounds a first pass.

I also finished Act 1. Other than a few missing animations (including graphics that need another pass), it's pretty much playable without issue.

15th July 2022
I've done all sorts this week, including giving the backgrounds another pass, adding interactivity to the rooms, making inventory icons, and working on yet more animations.

22nd July 2022
This week I finished the inventory icons, added lip syncing (although there won't be voice acting), and sorted out most of the room interactions.

29th July 2022
This week I worked on act 2, polishing up a lot of the cosmetic details.

There won't be an update next week as I'm going to be taking a short break. But there will be an update the following week.

12th August 2022
I worked on the ending cutscenes. But they still need custom animations for that extra bit of polish.

I also implemented a note that you can pick up and read.

19th August 2022
This week I've been working on the main menu and the credits screen, as well as the game's music. Also the microwave after you've put something inside it, and the character wielding the weapon they use to attack the scarecrow.

26th August 2022
This week has been about polishing and removing placeholders.

I've worked on the main menu some more, the downwards sprites for two of the characters, a proper pixel-art version of the logo, and the basement's fusebox.

3rd September 2022
I gave the fonts another pass, made and implemented an animation for the scarecrow, and started working on making the characters actually sit down on that sofa in the intro.

9th September 2022
This week I finished off the introduction, the animations for the endings, and started going over all of the backgrounds and improving them, having just finished the basement.

Lastly, I finally added the game over screen.

16th September 2022
This week has been all about improving the artwork for the rooms. I've been adding objects, shadows, and foregrounds, among other things.

The game looks way prettier now.

23rd September 2022
This week I spent all of my time coding in responses for everything I drew in the rooms last week.

I also made a credit sequence, to give the game a bit of extra flair at the beginning.

30th September 2022
This week I fixed a few problems, such as missing sounds and animations. I also improved art used in the last game, so it's more consistent.

I added an extra step to one of the puzzles, and been working on an easter egg.

7th October 2022
I've been working on the smaller stuff this week, such as bugs and missing art.

Next week I plan on brushing up the menus and GUI elements, and finally make some icons for the game. Then it's testing time.

14th October 2022
This week I've been prepping myself for entering the polishing phase by doing up the GUI elements and making an icon for the game.

I'm very proud of how the icon came out. It took me an entire day to make it though.

21st October 2022
The polishing phase continues.

I've been fixing more than just bugs though. I've also put hints into places where someone might try a solution, correcting and improving artwork, and just generally polishing everything up.

28th October 2022
The polishing phase continues apace. It's taking a lot longer than I expected, but I should "hopefully" be out of the pre-alpha stage sometime next week and into the alpha stage.

4th November 2022
This week I finished spellchecking the script, and I'm now alpha testing.

I've fixed a few minor problems already, a missing hint here, a bigger clickable area there. I also added an additional puzzle.

Next, beta testing.

11th November 2022
This week I fixed up problems found during alpha testing, and have sent the beta off.

Now to wait to hear back from them. If there's no update next week, it's because no progress has been made as I'm still awaiting feedback.

22nd November 2022
I've finally uploaded a trailer announcing my game's release date.

28th November 2022
Fixed up some more things according to feedback from the beta test phase, and uploaded the finished game.

[Current Progress:]

A soft reboot of Blooded Fields.

There's been another murder in the quaint little coastal town of Beckenshire, and since the local detective isn't around, you've been called in to solve it as your first case since being made detective.

Hunt down clues, interrogate witnesses and suspects, and form a theory as to who the murderer is, before finally giving your notes to your mentor to confirm your suspicions.



[imgzoom]https://twentyquidamusements.thecomicstrip.org/files/crepefields/screenshot1.png[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]https://twentyquidamusements.thecomicstrip.org/files/crepefields/screenshot2.png[/imgzoom]

I made these backgrounds and the new Crepe sprite in a bit of a rush. Because I want to get it all done as quickly as possible. But overall, I'm rather proud of them. I'm going to be honest with you, I think I prefer this style. Although I would honestly prefer to have a consistent style with the previous game.

I will be refining all of the artwork once it's done. Adding shading and dithering and such. I just want to get it finished first.


Current Progress:
Story--  100%
Graphics--  100%
Scripting -- 99.9% (May still have some bugs.)
Music-- 100%


Release Date:
21st of december 2021


Development Diary:
5th December 2021
The rooms are coming along a lot quicker than I thought they would. Although I clearly messed up the scaling in the kitchen.
I only have three rooms left, then it's onto the character sprites.

6th December 2021
I'm continuing to make good progress.
I've only got one room left to make, the shop.
Also, arj0n fixed the perspective in my kitchen, so I'll be using that.
I plan to add dithering to the backgrounds. But I'm going to leave that until last.

7th December 2021
I've made all of the rooms, and I'm now working on the sprites. Today I refined the front-facing pose for Crepe, and then made all of the other poses that I use throughout the game. So unless I decide to refine her a bit more, she's essentially complete.

8th December 2021
Made the sprites for the Landlord, Farmer, and Drunk.

I think they could use a bit more improvement before I make the few animations that they have. I also still have two more characters to draw out.

I think I'll slow down and take it a bit easier though.

9th December 2021
I made the remaining characters, and made most of the missing objects in the Manor. I also improved the painting in the Manor.

Tomorrow I plan to make the open versions of the drawer, cabinets, and fridge for the kitchen.

10th December 2021
I've been finishing off the objects in the rooms. There's only two objects left to do now, as well as the game's logo.

After that I've got to sort out the menu icons and the inventory icons.

I plan to take the weekend off though, so I'll do them later.

13th December 2021
I've done quite a bit since my last update.

Finished the character sprites, room objects, game logo, and my brother's nearly finished with the inventory items.

Next I need to edit the menu sprites, fix inventory icons, improve backgrounds, and beta test.

14th December 2021
I made new sprites for the menus, made a new icon for the game, and began sorting out the coordinates of everything in the game. The field and the map are done in that regard.

I'm hoping to sort out the music later today.

15th December 2021
Made and implemented the music, sorted out the coordinates of everything, implemented the inventory icons (had to make a few my brother didn't make yet, also I altered a few here and there).

The game now needs a good playtesting.

16th December 2021
Well I can safely say that I won't be making that deadline I had set for myself.

That being said, the backgrounds are really starting to come along. You gotta love good old Deluxe Paint.

[Crepe Fields: A Scare Among Crows]

Crepe Fields: A Scare Among Crows





Click here to download.

Summary:
A soft reboot of Blooded Fields.

There's been another murder in the quaint little coastal town of Beckenshire, and since the local detective isn't around, you've been called in to solve it as your first case since being made detective.

Hunt down clues, interrogate witnesses and suspects, and form a theory as to who the murderer is, before finally giving your notes to your mentor to confirm your suspicions.

Details:

• Two-click interface: left-click to interact, right-click to examine.
• Fully voice acted.
• Unique 6-colour palette, loosely inspired by amber monochrome screens.
• Contains strong themes.
• Completable within four hours.

Specs:
320 x 200
32 bit color!
d3d

I like AGS, so I've kept using it. But it's occurred to me recently that I've never really considered the benefits and drawbacks of using AGS.
Then I started thinking about how some people will choose a game engine, start working on their game for a while, find a problem with the game engine, choose another game engine, recreate their game up to the same point, find another problem, and just keep doing that over and over until they either give up on the project or settle on a game engine. (Usually the former.)
So then I started thinking about the various pros and cons of every game engine.

For Adventure games alone, you have:

• The Unity Plugin "Adventure Creator"
• Adventure Game Studio (of course)
• Sludge
• Visionaire
• And Wintermute

(assuming I haven't forgotten one)

For more generic game engines, you have:

• Unreal Engine
• Unity
• Game Maker Studio
• Or a custom built engine

So what would you say are the pros and cons of the various engines? Why would someone choose AGS over the others, or reject AGS over the others?
Personally I think a big pro for AGS is that it's completely free and open source, with an active community.
But I think a big con for AGS is that it's really difficult if not downright impossible for multiple coders to work on the game at the same time. It's not really a drawback that affects most of us, since we generally work on games on our own, but I still think it's a major drawback.

Thoughts? 

[Reality-in-the-Norm]

Reality-in-the-Norm




Click here to download.

Summary:
Reality-on-the-Norm is a game series where anyone can make a game. This is my installment.

Set in a slightly different dimension to the other RON games, Reality-in-the-Norm follows David Jones at the end of a treasure hunt. See completely different versions of old characters, as well some new ones, as you get to witness a completely different take of Reality.

Now with voice acting, courtesy of the text-to-speech synthesis program 15.ai

Details:

• Sierra interface: left-click to perform action, right-click to change action.
• F5 to open save menu, F7 to open load menu.
• Contains strong language.
• Completable in under two hours.
• Voice over by a text-to-speech program.

Specs:
320 x 200
32 bit color
d3d

If you like the game, why not
play the other RON games here.

[Reality-in-the-Norm]

Reality-in-the-Norm will be my first attempt at a RON game.

Set in a slightly different dimension to the other RON games, Reality-in-the-Norm follows David Jones on a treasure hunt, as you get to witness a completely different take of Reality.

People have said to me on multiple occasions, that you don't need to be an expert in RON lore to make a RON game. So I'm putting that to the test with this (technically still canon) soft-reboot.
And of course there's plenty of references to real RON lore. I couldn't help but learn a few things and include them. And this is supposed to be a "B" dimension of sorts, so there's got to be plenty of similarities.
But I'm hoping that people who like RON games, will still like mine. And that people who have never played a RON game, will consider playing mine.

Screenshots:
[imgzoom]http://twentyquidamusements.thecomicstrip.org/files/ritn/ritn1.png[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]http://twentyquidamusements.thecomicstrip.org/files/ritn/ritn2.png[/imgzoom]



Current Progress:
Story--  100%
Graphics--  100%
Scripting -- 99.9% (Might be a few bugs I missed.)
Music-- 100%

Release Date:
19th of September, 2019.

Oops. Looks like I hit a sore spot in my previous post. Sorry about that.
But I stand by what I said, and this thread pretty much proves it. When it comes down to severe and spontaneous outrage, the bias alone can make it impossible to distinguish between what's real information and what's misinformation. Making searching an impossible chore. A good example is the recent controversy surrounding Pokemon Sword and Shield. Thankfully there was a nice video I found that explained it all objectively.

Also, I would like to add, that I still don't know what the Fez 2 controversy is about. (Apparently he said something, but I don't know what.)
Or the Channel Awesome controversy that happened recently. (I think it has something to do with maternity leave, but I'm not sure.)
Could I also have quick explanations for those as well. Pretty please. 

Because seriously, this whole not-knowing thing, really does grind my gears!
You lot may be part of the hive-mind, but I've yet to be assimilated. So I need things explaining to me.
(It also grinds my gears slightly, how negatively everyone here reacted to me not liking not-knowing. But that's exactly why I didn't know in the first place.)

By the way, thanks Blondbraid for the video. I'll watch that now.

I think my subject line says it all, but I'll try to explain further.


I want to use:

Code: ags

Room.ProcessClick(player.x, player.y, eModeInteract);

But I can't, because player.x and player.y returns the position of the player relative to the room, and Room.ProcessClick wants an x and y value relative to the screen. This in turns causes a lot of problems for scrolling rooms.
I'm sure the answer is a simple formula of some kind involving the viewport and room width or something, but I can't for the life of me figure it out.

[Black Friday]

Black Friday




Click here to download.

Summary:
Somewhere in Maine, five teenagers decided to spend the night at a farm. To goof off and have fun, as teenagers do. But little do they know that they're being watched by an evil entity intent on doing them harm.

Soon they find themselves being killed off, one by one. Will any of them survive?

Black Friday is a homage to slasher movies in the form of a point and click adventure game.

Details:

• Two-click interface: left-click to interact, right-click to examine.
• F5 to open save menu, F7 to open load menu.
• Fully voice acted.
• Contains gore.
• Completable within half an hour.

Specs:
320 x 200
32 bit color
d3d

If you like the game, why not
vote for it in the November mags thread.

[Private Detective]

Private Detective




Click here to download.

Summary:
Private Detective is a procedurally generated murder mystery game, where you must solve randomly generated crimes by finding leads, questioning suspects, and gathering evidence from the crime scene to compare with samples found in the homes of the suspects. It plays a lot like an adventure game, but with a lot more deduction and a lot less inventory object puzzles.

Details:

• Two-click interface: left-click to interact, right-click to examine.
• Contain mild references to violence, alcohol, and tobacco.
• Cases take six minutes on average to complete.

Specs:
320 x 200
32 bit color
d3d

[Private Detective]

Private Detective is a procedurally generated murder mystery game, where you must solve randomly generated crimes by finding leads, questioning suspects, and gathering evidence from the crime scene to compare with samples found in the homes of the suspects. It plays a lot like an adventure game, but with a lot more deduction and a lot less inventory object puzzles.

The game has no end goal, except for the completion of as many cases as you can. I'm developing it to be something akin to Minesweeper or Solitaire. A fun little distraction that you play for a short while. As such there's no story (although I'm thinking about adding something extra after a hundred cases).

I know the title is really boring, but it's the best I could come up with. And unless I think of something better, it's probably going to stay like that.

Screenshots:
[imgzoom]https://orig00.deviantart.net/e507/f/2018/165/0/d/3_by_danvzare-dcedrsu.png[/imgzoom]
[imgzoom]https://orig00.deviantart.net/648e/f/2018/165/6/f/4_by_danvzare-dcedrtb.png[/imgzoom]
[imgzoom]https://orig00.deviantart.net/2468/f/2018/165/8/8/5_by_danvzare-dcedrtk.png[/imgzoom]

Current Progress:
The game is roughly 94% complete. I would be more specific, but I'm kind of winging it, so I'm not sure how much more I'm going to add.
What I can say though is that it's fully playable, but it's lacking a few cosmetic things, and it probably has a few bugs.

Release Date:
The deadline I've set myself is mid-july (which would make the full development cycle for this game around four months). And if I continue at the pace I'm going, and nothing major happens that distracts me from working on the game, I think it's quite likely I will meet that deadline.

Ok, I've had this theory for six to eight years now, but I've mostly kept it to myself because it was just a stupid idea, and 10 times out of 10, game theories are wrong. But after finally playing Thimbleweed Park, I'm 100% certain my theory is correct. I'm going to put the rest in spoiler tags, because it contains spoilers for Thimbleweed Park (and Monkey Island 1 and 2).

Spoiler

I think the ending and twist Ron Gilbert had for Monkey Island 3, was repurposed for Thimbleweed Park.
Which is that The Secret of Monkey Island is a game. It's clever word play, because it is a game, and that's also the secret.
The usual theory is that Monkey Island all takes place in the imagination of Guybrush Threepwood, but I remember (hopefully I'm remembering correctly) reading that Ron Gilbert straight up refuted that, and also said that the actual answer is quite obvious when you know what you're looking for.
And if you think about it, there's nothing more obvious than Monkey Island being a game, Guybrush even says it at the end of The Secret of Monkey Island. And everything that could be interpreted as children breaking character (the swordfighting pirate on SoMI telling Guybrush to play along with the pirate speak), could just as easily be interpreted as game characters breaking character.

But the real reason why I think this theory is true, is because I came up with it six to eight years ago. Waaaaaaaay before Thimbleweed Park was even a concept. And lo and behold, the latest game from the same creators just so happens to have the twist I theorised for a game that they never got to make.
It wouldn't be the first time a game creator has reused a concept they came up for a game, in a completely different game. A recent example I learnt about was the time mechanic in Prince of Persia Sands of Time originally being conceived (and refused) for Donald Duck Quack Attack.
And let's not forget that Thimbleweed Park has five characters because of reusing an old idea. The whole game seems to be about reusing old ideas.

Also, it's a theory I've never heard anyone come up with before. And once again, I think I remember Ron Gilbert saying somewhere, that no one had ever come to the correct answer.

Whether or not this was going to be the end of Monkey Island 3, the Secret of Monkey Island, or just an unrelated twist, I'm not sure. But I am 100% confident that the idea came from that never-to-be-made game. And I wouldn't be posting this if I had a shred of doubt (which is why I've never once mentioned it on these forums before.)

Also, I think this would have been a terrible twist and/or ending to the Monkey Island series, and now I'm glad we got CoMI instead. (It kind of sort of works for a single game like Thimbleweed Park, but definitely wouldn't work for a trilogy) I still want to go into an alternate dimension where MI3 exists though.

[close]

And in case you don't know who I'm talking about. George Romero died on the 16th of July.

While admittedly I don't know of any of his work other than his Of The Dead series. You've got to admit that the guy did make some pretty good films. Night of the Living Dead is not only in my opinion the best film he made, but also the first film with zombies as we know them in it. If it wasn't for Romero, the zombies we know today would probably be called vampires (since that's what they were called in I Am Legend, of which Romero based his zombies on).

May he rest in peace... and hopefully not come back as a zombie, thus bringing about the zombie apocalypse.

[The Adventure of the Hero]

The Adventure of the Hero




Click here to download.

Summary:
A great hero has been sent on a quest to defeat an evil witch, but things soon go awry when a time portal into the future is opened up.

Join the hero as he defeats a witch, gives incredibly life changing career advice, makes alcohol, and saves all of time and space!

Details:

• Two-click interface: left-click to interact, right-click to examine.
• F5 to open save menu, F7 to open load menu.
• Fully voice acted.
• Contain mild partially censored swearing.
• Completable within half an hour.

Specs:
320 x 200
32 bit color
d3d

If you like the game, why not
vote for it in the February mags thread.

[23rd February, 2017]

The Afterlife
7th February â€" 23rd February

No one was starting up the next round, so I thought I'd do it.

Ok, you've died. I know it's a real bummer. But don't fret, it's not that bad, because surprisingly enough you've just discovered that there is in fact life after death. But what does this place look like?

Is it Heaven, Hell, Hades, or the local post office?
Show us what the afterlife looks like!

Deadline is 23rd February, 2017. Good luck everyone.


Trophies: