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[Neat Fire Games]

Sorry I'm a bit late for the party! Please see attached for your consideration... 

Neat Fire Games proudly presents Journey Home

Journey Home is an old-school point and click adventure game with a modern twist.
The game features multiple endings, death sequences, secrets, optional puzzle strands and much more.
It will take most players around 1 hour to complete.

Game Development
My goal was to make something that I could be proud of and to hone my skills in every aspect of video game development.
The game took around one and a half years to make, in my spare time. I have dabbled with AGS in the past, but this is my first completed project.
I feel that I have a much stronger understanding of the program now and can't wait to bring this knowledge to bear on new projects in the future.

The Story
A sharp clap of thunder jolts you awake.
You find yourself cold and alone in a dark forest clearing.
You have no memory of who you are or what you're doing here.
You just know that you need to make it to the distant light that you recognise as home.

But the forest is not going to make it easy...

And you might just find that there's more to this strange pilgrimage than meets the eye...

Launch Trailer

 

Screenshots








The Team
Jim Clark: Game Design, Art, Animation, Sound, Programming, Marketing
Kate Rock: Voice Acting
Testers: Kate Rock, Mark Chamberlain, Mike Clark, Julia Clark, Nathan Lusher

Special Thanks
Chris Jones and the AGS Community.

Download
AGS Game Page http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2244/
Itch Game Page https://limbojimbo84.itch.io/journey-home

Neat Fire Games Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/neatfiregames/

Dave, I played this last week, it's an amazing game. Kudos to you and everyone on the team, I thought the whole experience was fantastic.

My girlfriend is playing the game through at the moment, and I'm loving watching her playing in a different way. I'll be playing it through again to see how the different missions are affected by different characters too once she's finished.

Congratulations on the release, the art, music, voice acting, mission structure and puzzles are all top drawer. You can feel the passion and love in every pixel. Keep up the amazing work

Yeah, I think you're right. Maybe something I can incorporate into Journey Home 2

Thanks for playing Durq!

There's a Walkthrough pdf on itch.io that has some hints as to the secrets in the game without spelling them out completely, just skip to the very end of the 2nd page if you don't want anything else spoiled They were a relatively late design choice, and are arguably a little arbitrary, but there was a strong line of reasoning behind them. They are all essentially metaphors for looking beyond the obvious, which is what you will get a glimpse of if you get the best ending (mentioned above).

I've got a degree in Fine Art, and I work in Graphic Design (I design vehicle liveries). I draw and paint in my spare time, I've sold a few pieces. See some of my paintings at www.facebook.com/jimclarkart/ if you're interested! But mostly my game art is inspired by Bill Tillers work in The Curse of Monkey Island. As you might have guessed I'm a huge videogame fan, ever since I was little.

Yeh I saw his playthrough, you're quite right as it was a one man project I had to pick my battles carefully. But I also feel like if you punish the player at every wrong move you discourage exploration, so it was partly by design. In hindsight though I don't think a few more death scenes would have gone amiss!

I appreciate your interest, thank you.

Thanks for the feedback Durq, I'm really glad you liked the game! Always nice to hear.

Thanks for the kind comments, the game was heavily inspired by the Playdead titles Limbo and Inside so that's no coincidence. I always enjoy games that leave you with questions, they stick with you longer than when everything's spelt out for you. And thank you for your observations about the text, I'm pleased that people have picked up on that after many an evening spent staring at Microsoft Word.

You're feedback is really helpful, thank you. This was my first game so in many ways I was figuring out my preferences too. I agree, there are a couple of areas where the formula could be improved.

I've just begun work on my next title so I will look to incorporate some of your suggestions. I'm looking at making a branching path, multiple ending sci-fi game in the vein of Portal 2 next, so watch this space! Thanks for playing!

HINT: If you get all three secrets, don't die at all, and solve an optional puzzle strand you will get a very, very short cutscene which might answer some of your questions

Thanks for getting back to me Mandle, much appreciated. I will be making a couple of changes in my final patch for the game, thanks for the input

Nice! Glad you enjoyed it Mandle!

If you get a spare mo I would love to know how you feel it can be improved? Everyone's been really nice about the game so far, but I'd be really interested to know what you feel would make it better.

Here are a couple of hints for you

AGS forum user peter has very kindly put together a walkthrough of Journey Home in Dutch should you need it - http://www.gamesolves-nl.tk/

Much appreciated peter!

The third secret is at the house (outside, not in the basement). It involves one of the items you mentioned

Thanks for the info Khris, much appreciated! I will update with this info where needed.

Thank so much for your feedback Shadow 1000, I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed summation of your playthrough!

I'm glad that you enjoyed the game, and am really pleased with the level of difficulty you describe, that's exactly what I was shooting for so that's awesome. I'm also glad you found the length to be about right, I didn't want the game to outstay its welcome or be artificially inflated.

Thank for your constructive criticisms also, let me briefly reply to a couple of your points;

- The voice acting is the game is quite minimal, it's really only a series of different noises/grunts etc when you perform certain actions. For example, when you try to push the boulder, or if you try to talk to some of the animals, such as the Wolf (featured in the trailer). There are a few more instances but I won't list them here for fear of spoilers. Don't worry, you didn't miss any set up. There is no spoken dialogue, as I wanted to follow the 'mute boy' format of Limbo and Inside by Playdead. I appreciate that voice acting is a bit of a stretch as a description, maybe I should have called this Sound Effects or Samples instead.

- With regard to the ending

Spoiler

(again without any spoilers), I wanted to leave it deliberately ambiguous. Once again, this is a nod to Limbo and Inside by Playdead, as I wanted to give the player the opportunity to make up their own mind as to what the world and set-up means. I've always found this to be really compelling and powerful. However, if you find all 3 secrets in the game, and you don't die at all, you will see a very short cutscene which hints strongly at the true meaning of the game. I was hoping this would encourage replayability, but maybe I have set the bar a little too high in accessing this.

[close]

- There are layers of meaning in the game (beyond the boy in the forest), which are also hinted at when you discover the secrets in the game. These are also quite ambiguous and cryptic, but they do point towards the larger story which is hinted at when you receive a 5 star rating. There will be hints dropped about these secrets on the neat fire games facebook page in the coming few days, so if you get a chance maybe have another play armed with these hints! (These hints are also listed on the walkthrough, which is available for download.)

Thank you for all your kind comments, they're very much appreciated!

[Neat Fire Games Facebook Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/neatfiregames/]

Head over to facebook and share my post for a chance to win a piece of framed concept art signed by legendary game designer Ron Gilbert!

Winner to be picked at random and announced on Sat 17th March 2018.

Neat Fire Games Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/neatfiregames/

Thanks Mandle hope you enjoy the game!

[Neat Fire Games]

Neat Fire Games proudly presents Journey Home

Journey Home is an old-school point and click adventure game with a modern twist.
The game features multiple endings, death sequences, secrets, optional puzzle strands and much more.
It will take most players around 1 hour to complete.

Game Development
My goal was to make something that I could be proud of and to hone my skills in every aspect of video game development.
The game took around one and a half years to make, in my spare time. I have dabbled with AGS in the past, but this is my first completed project.
I feel that I have a much stronger understanding of the program now and can't wait to bring this knowledge to bear on new projects in the future.

The Story
A sharp clap of thunder jolts you awake.
You find yourself cold and alone in a dark forest clearing.
You have no memory of who you are or what you're doing here.
You just know that you need to make it to the distant light that you recognise as home.

But the forest is not going to make it easy...

And you might just find that there's more to this strange pilgrimage than meets the eye...

Launch Trailer

 

Screenshots








The Team
Jim Clark: Game Design, Art, Animation, Sound, Programming, Marketing
Kate Rock: Voice Acting
Testers: Kate Rock, Mark Chamberlain, Mike Clark, Julia Clark, Nathan Lusher

Special Thanks
Chris Jones and the AGS Community.

Download
AGS Game Page http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2244/
Itch Game Page https://limbojimbo84.itch.io/journey-home

Neat Fire Games Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/neatfiregames/

This game has now been released. Thank you all for your input and help in it's creation, hope you enjoy the game!

Here's my final update before release, some animal animations

New teaser trailer

   

Looks really interesting does it have multiple paths or endings? Getting an early Silent Hill vibe from some of the screenshots, good luck with it!

Morbid I know, but here's a couple of the death animations from the game