Messages

[Concept:]

Concept: not as much originality as I hoped for, I have to say. Close call between Lorenzo's first one and Selmiak's. I'll go with Lorenzo 01 cause the several "mismatched" (but well integrated) elements really make your mind wander.
Playability: all did a very good job in this sense. I think Selmiak's opens a lot of possibilities with scaling of the character, and the bg could also serve as some sort of mini-map so: Selmiak.
Artistic Execution: I think the more solid in their own style are Abstauber's and Selmiak's, with Rocchinator's worth mentioning for its grainy old-school vibe. I think overall the most gorgeous and rich is Selmiak's, so I'll go with his one.

First of all, this is the message I get:

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Adventure Game Studio
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An error has occurred. Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 3.12.1074)


Error: Single word too wide for window

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OK   
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This happens whenever a GUI containing a listbox becomes visible while OPT_RIGHTTOLEFT is set to 1. As a quick explanation, that option displays the game's text from right to left, in the style of Hebrew and some Arabic languages.

In addition, the text of buttons isn't influenced by this option at all. This exception can actually be put to good use in some situations, but it's still an unexpected behavior.

Workarounds for both issues are already in place in my case, so consider this just a bug-report, not a help-request.

I don't know if the issue has been addressed already in newer version of the engine, in which case I apologize for the waste of time. If you think I should add this report to the bug-tracker as well, please tell me and I'll do with pleasure. So much time passes between one visit to this boards and the next that I tend to forget AGS-etiquette and customs.

Yeah, Paolo is definitely Italian, as I am. I've been in contact with him for a few years, mostly because of his interest in Forge. You can't find often someone as easygoing and passionate as him when it comes to fan-games.
So please, let me clarify that I have no intention of giving him a bad name as a translator. As a matter of fact, I should have told him in the first place, instead of writing here, and I apologize for doing so.

Anyway, both translations are correct when out of context; but only one is appropriate in this case, cause "of gold" specifies the material (we call it "complemento di materia"). I suppose Paolo was simply unaware of both how those cities are called usually here and how they effectively "look" in your game, so he simply chose one of the 2 most common translations and has been unlucky.

On a side note, Aprilskies is another great guy when it comes to helping out for the pleasure of doing so. I'm not surprised he did that in this case, as well.

Binary Legends is proud to present the Italian translation of the Barnett College demo.

Good news! I'm tempted to give it another try just to see if Paolo did his job well.

The first thing that strikes me as questionable is the translation of the title: I'm not entirely sure about the lore of the game, but I suppose it's based on the legend of the eptarchy of the Cibolanos tribe who lived in a confederation of seven villages. As a matter of fact those villages are also known as "Seven Cibolanos villages", or "Seven Cities of Cibola". But, of course, as a reference to the precious metal (that supposedly had been used as the main building material) they're mostly known as "Seven Cities of Gold". This is best translated (and most widely used here in Italy) as "Sette Città  d'oro".

"d'oro" -> made of gold (or, in a figurative way, "precious"); "dell'oro" -> related to gold.

To make a relevant other example, "Fountain of Youth" translates as "Fontana della Giovinezza", because it's not "made of" youth, but "related to" youth.

I suggest you take this into account for the translation of the final game.

I realize only now that there is a new post here. I apologize for that, though I'm not sure if you wrote this before or after getting in touch with me on our Forge boards.

For the benefit of potential other readers, anyway, I'll add one thing. Indeed I'm trying to create a (hopefully balanced) mixture of a unique, original game and a tribute. This is my mission, and though this sometimes seems to displease both hardcore fans and people who only care for originality, I still think it's the best approach to fangame-making.
I'm glad you took some time to reflect and especially that you ended up appreciating this conduct and its results.

As a little generic note on development, several reasons (including a certain need to keep distance from game-making itself) prevented me to work on Forge as much as I should have, in the last couple of months. I still managed to do a bit of promotion, and start both organizing the next tasks (translations included) and addressing the really few bugs found. But nothing decisive, I'm afraid. I believe a more steady pace will be very possible from March and on.

Thanks to all the people that supported the project, be it verbally, financially, or by offering any other form of support. You have my utmost gratitude.

Sorry to stick my nose into that, but... doesn't the fact that you seem to be misinterpreted most of the time ring any bell to you Monsieur OUXX? I'm saying this with a totally peaceful and relaxed state of mind, please believe me. Just trying to help out. You even said that yourself (that you got often misinterpreted) when dealing with the last little misunderstanding about the debug-interface.

So, wouldn't it be better to double triple check what you write from now on?

Once again, I'm saying this just because I'm following the topics, I care for the game and think it would be a shame to discourage other potential collaborators for a lack of etiquette. I know you're a good guy who offers his help in many projects (including Forge), so I don't doubt your good intentions the slightest bit.

That said, congratulations to DoorKnobHandle for his work and to the team for another step towards the release of the game. Any progress on the Debug interface, instead? It would be very interesting to follow the development of that and I'd be glad to be able to use it in the future.

Sincerely,
-Gab

[EDIT: I'm sorry Darth, I didn't notice there was a new message on the following page. Feel free to delete my post entirely if you feel the need to.]

EDIT: I'm sorry Darth, I didn't notice there was a new message on the following page. Feel free to delete my post entirely if you feel the need to.

To be honest, Forge is not well coded. Any decent programmer would whip me till I bled if they saw my code. And it's not a matter of humbleness; I truly believe there would have been dozens of AGSers who could have done a better job in both the visible result and the invisible lines of code. But even if Forge was the better game in the world, this would be totally unrelated from the reasons of my previous post.

First of all, let me stress this: I'm not irritated, I'm not angry, nothing like that. I tend to forget things very quickly and give importance to opinions only if they can help me improve. I'm not offended either, and I'm already fine with your last clarification. Don't mistake my straightforwardness with grudge. I'm not one to hold grudge, even in serious cases, and certainly not for such an irrelevant happening.

But at the same time I don't appreciate judgements made without a consistent background of information to support them. What you stated can probably be attributed to what Selmiak told you, but as a matter of fact he's the only tester that made such a fuss about the typing portion of the bug-reporting interface. 99% of them just accepted the fact they only needed to type in a few details (because the really relevant ones got automatically logged) and modify the log file in their favourite text-editor if they really needed to add some more details.

The crucial topic here, however, is the following: does a good notepad make a good bug-reporting interface? Not at all. This is what I tried to explain in my previous post. If you want my advice, concentrate on creating a good basis for your bug-reporting interface, implement the really useful functionalities and then take care of the "notepad" part of it. Creating a good notepad clone in AGS is a matter of minutes, but integrating it with the functionalities I explained in my previous post is not equally easy. And those are the key factors to make bug-tracking efficient (from my bug-fixer's point of view, at least).

Hope this makes it all clearer, and I don't have anything more to add on the matter, anyway. Case closed for me!

- We know that the "Forge" team had a similar idea, but produced a half-baked built-in notepad for the testers. We're aiming at maximum convenience and efficiency for testers.

I'm not the kind of guy to get easily offended, but I honestly find this remark rather rude. Did you ever try Forge's bug-reporting interface? Nope, because only beta-testers had the chance so far. And thus I suppose you're basing your judgement on what Selmiak told you, since he's one of my beta-testers and your team-mate. So I'll target both of you with this reply.

It might have been nicer, instead of calling my attempt "half-baked", to say "thanks for the inspiration" since you probably took the idea straight from that and tried to improve it. Which is respectable and encourage-able, of course: as a matter of fact, I intended to release my interface publicly sooner or later, in order for the community to help improving it. I just wanted to find the time to polish it a bit more and make a module. I hope you'll manage to do the same and possibly with a better result.
Anyway, from what I can see so far, this is NOT a bug-reporting interface. To be honest, this one looks like a "built-in notepad", and misses the key features of a bug-reporting interface. The only great challenge I found with this kind of tool, actually, is to make it work when the game is COMPLETELY paused (which doesn't happen by calling PauseGame(), for those who don't know). What I wanted is for the game to stop completely while the tester was typing: this is not essential just because otherwise he misses some of the events in the game, but especially because you lose the advantage you have over the bug as more time passes from the minute you spotted it, and more code gets executed in the meantime.
The second minor challenge (since it's really easy to achieve) is to produce a useful log.
I managed to achieve the second effect and got as close as I thought it was possible with the first one, at the cost of sacrificing some smoothness. If you can do that and keep the smoothness in typing, you have my utmost respect; otherwise, to be honest, it's just a simple GUI with a Textbox over it.

My best wishes for your success, and for that of a game which looks better and better day after day. I really have high expectation for this Indy sequel, and with the new collaborators, things will probably get even better.

Cheers,
-Gabriele

Sorry this has been rather piecemeal, but I'm creating this game as a hobby, and I have a crucial lack of time lately.

Naahhh... it's fine! I've been enjoying it. Also, consider the fact I don't play many games (read: I hardly play any game at all) so you should definitely read that as an appreciation of the 3 screenshots and the game's presentation. I understand lack of time and struggles with everyday life, and as a fellow game-maker this is even more clear to me. I really think this has the potential to become a masterpiece.

That said, I don't know if I'll have the time to test it, though I'll continue playing the current version for a while, until I either figure out how to advance or give up. Any bug I spot, I'll let you know for sure.

On a side note, I was typing an edit to my previous post as I was playing the game, but when I saved the reply you had answered in the meantime. So please check the "EDIT" part in there for more feedback.

The game is fascinating so far. Charming graphics, weirdness all over and a persistent sense of eeriness. It's a middle ground between unnerving and bizarre.

Unfortunately, the several bugs and glitches kind of ruin the experience. Most of them have been already notified, but I can probably add a couple more:

Spoiler

Nikee is shown behind the couch where Ankou sleeps, behind the fish tank, and behind something else that I can't recall in front of the glass tub in the home's "bathroom". Also, the black ball (I don't even remember where I found it) has no description in the inventory.

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The main thing that didn't work out for me was the constant impression that my progress was made impossible by a bug. This makes relaxing through the game rather difficult, as you get the feeling you should be able to advance even when you actually aren't doing the right things. Response to unintended actions is not very helpful and reasonable actions end up leaving you with no extra info.

For a game with no sfx and no music, so many glitches and bugs, this is incredibly entertaining and special nonetheless. The whole thing about Nikee being a real person, the fact it took you 14 years to release the game, all add up to the attractiveness of it. No kidding here.

Last but not least, I'm stuck, but I've only played a hour and a half so far and I need to sleep before I give another go. I hope I'm not stuck cause of a bug

Spoiler

(again, cause I already had to start again when I ended up not receiving any hint from De Sade's brain)

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************

EDIT1: another thing that I think hasn't been mentioned is the absolute necessity of a dot identifying where's the pointer in the currently selected item. In a game with no labels to identify what's under the cursor, it's already quite difficult to know what you're doing, and this is an extra obstacle. I recommend adding a "what's under the cursor" label as well, as a matter of fact.
And what about using text dialogues in Lucas' style instead of putting them into the default text GUI? That would differentiate them from narrator's comments. Judging from your pixel-art skills, you could certainly paint a better text GUI, anyway!

As a small update, after another hour or so, I only managed to

Spoiler

find the hidden hole outside the house (thanks to the hint in the secret room), and fix the power. Been in the new floor, but I haven't accomplished anything there. Still, Nikee must (have) be(en) a cute girl, judging from the portrait! A fine painting too

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.

Well, I am using windows 7 and browser is google chrome! So far I'm able playing the game. In term *.tar usually winrar is usually pretty good extracting tar file but I guest it isn't good as I thought! Again, not an issue any more!

I'm glad you've managed to play the game in the end. Let me know your opinion about it as soon as you complete it!

I started playing it and overall my experience has been great, however since you have said your intention is to next release the whole game and that this chapter is about equal to a third of the game,  I don't really want to finish this because I don't want to have to download it again and redo the puzzles that I have already done. So I guess I will wait patiently for you to finish the rest.  I liked the little achievements which can be unlocked, it is that attention to detail and added bonus content that seperates you and gives the game a real professional feel.  I am in agreement with many of the people I hope the rest of the game the story is more based on the players actions rather than going from exposition dump to info dump with a puzzle here and there.  One other more just a comment,  part of what I enjoyed about the original Loom was how it played off of Tchaikovsky composition.  Maybe introduce another composer might I recommend Holst Mars Theme?  Seems very fitting for coming tides of war and Rusty interturmoil... again Just a thought.  I love Loom and I think you have honored it well with what you are doing. Congrats on getting this far and please continue the hard work to its completion.  I would also love to help work on it, but coming in so late to the project might be difficult. 

Heya. I understand your decision of postponing the play, if it's mostly to have a complete and uninterrupted experience; but if it's just because you don't want to be forced to play the first part again, it's a non issue. The game is linear, which means however you reach the end of Ch.1 you are in the same exact condition of any other player. For this reason, when the game is ready, I can easily share a savegame that takes players just before the end of Ch.1.
The only difference could be unlocked Rewards (I'm glad you like them!): but they are stored on separate files and the system has already been developed to be compatible with the future instalments of the game. You just have to keep the files r.dat, g.dat and s.dat that are stored in the main game folder. They are not uninstalled by default, so you can even use the integrated uninstaller and get rid of everything else but them.

Well, it may be I'm not wholly smart enough for the Expert level, though I do prefer the challenge of it.  It felt like I covered all the possibilities multiple times, so I'd be interested to know the thought process of your play-testers - if they saw a pattern I didn't - and you might want to know if they came up with the same leads you expected as the designer.

No, no, wait a minute. This is unacceptable for me to hear and totally distant from what I wanted to imply. Your review and suggestions show you're exactly the opposite of what you said: you're definitely attentive, reasoning, precise; and thus smart. You noticed and organized all the flaws in the puzzle like no one else before you and they all look reasonable points. It's true that most testers seemed to solve the riddle, but I also received complaints from a few of them, and from other players. I absolutely need to improve that part of the game, and you made the task easier.

In that case I'm confused by the concept, because Rusty seems to still have consciousness though he has made no pact with Chaos.  Is consciousness something the dead gradually loose, maybe after the have passed into their respective afterlife?  If so, I suppose they don't need it in order to know they want to make a deal with ChaoS (as in a more emotional, subconscious decision, and it's their Ego they are reclaiming)?  It's a rather metaphysical area and could use more explanation (or perhaps earlier explanation if the rest of the game goes into it.)

You see, this is another example of fine use of the brain. You found a bit of a paradox, and you even sorted out how effectively things are supposed to be. You see, people retain their consciousness for some time when they die. This is necessary for them to reach their Guilds' Havens. As soon as they are in the safety of the Havens, they remain forever like the Transcended Ones: fully conscious and with a physical shape that's reminiscent of their Guild's qualities. Some souls are rejected by their Guilds, though, and thus they wander the Outside, which is hollow, endless and solitary enough to drive anyone nuts and make the residual conscience fade away. One example of this condition is the first Dead One.
The 2nd one, as I said, already accepted Chaos' offer and had his consciousness restored. I never actually thought about the apparent paradox implied: how can the Dead One understand the bargain, unless he already has his consciousness?
But it's an easily solvable paradox. Chaos can give, Chaos can take, and it's VERY powerful. It's enough for Chaos to restore the consciousness to a Dead One, ask him obedience in exchange for the chance to KEEP that conscience, or else it will be taken away once again.
Does this seem reasonable to you?

Of course, not all of this is perfectly explained in the game, so far. There will be a more deep understanding of Chaos and its minions in the rest of the game (this has already been planned and 100% sure). Not everything should be explained, however: what's most important is that it makes sense in some way.

That is very classic loom, maybe just a few fullscreens at dramatic moments.  But the best part about them was, though they had no lip flapping, their expression would change to show their emotions front and center, and that could be done just as well with the small portraits.  It's actually nice having both sprite animation and the portrait on at the same time so that the eye can wonder where it likes.

I'll see what I can do. Maybe a couple of very important dialogues could use those, or I could simply integrate the facial expressions in the small portraits (it's already like it, to some small extent: check the Old Lady).

I've noticed some other things to mention since my last post.:

- Once the mole breaks free, the music maybe should stay with that one intense piece no matter where you go so that the urgency stays in the players mind.

- Small art quibble; Lord Magnate's cloak looks like it is behind the arm of the throne rather then draped over.  I suppose the chair could be designed that way, but it does nag my mind as a bit weird.

- Rusty and the other sprites seem to be the size of the buildings on the overview of the city.  I suppose this may be necessary to see the sprites well, but you might try just two pixels if you haven't already.  Another (harder) way would be to make the buildings larger as they are already dwarfed by the garden's dome, though that has the drawback of making the cavern seem smaller.

- Did anyone else think that the schematic learned from the old woman was referring to the rocking of the chair?  Even though brittle is a more black-smithy kind of thing then rocking - maybe it just didn't occur to to me that the gloves could effect from organic things (I guess our bodies are just machines after all ).

I'll see what I can do with the first three, though this time you're really the 1st one to point those things out. The mole thing seems the most interesting to me. And oh wow, I never thought "Embrittle" could be mistaken for "Rocking". Now that you mention it, it's not so weird, but the dialogue right before the apparition of the schematic is supposed to make things clear. This will become less relevant in the full game, as it will be bundled with the Plates of Schematics (equivalent of Book of Patterns in Loom). You'll know the Schematic names, their origins and effects. I was unsure if I should add it to this release as well, but in the end I thought it would have been wasted for the few Schematics of Ch.1.

part of what I enjoyed about the original Loom was how it played off of Tchaikovsky composition.  Maybe introduce another composer might I recommend Holst Mars Theme?  Seems very fitting for coming tides of war and Rusty interturmoil... again Just a thought.

I thought the same thing meself (without knowing which composer would be best (there were some interesting suggestions on the Forge forums if I recall)).  Though at the same time the composer that was chosen pulls off the tone of Loom very snugly, I wouldn't want to loose that.  Maybe there's room to reference parts of a public domain classical composer in with the new soundtrack.

Nice, nice! Cause it's already been planned that way!
I cannot guarantee that this will become reality, but during the development of Ch.1 when all the music for that part was ready, I asked our musician to check a certain Composition of a certain Composer and see if he could take some parts and use them in the following Chapters. I don't want to spoil everything, and I'm not sure this will fit in the end, but it's definitely something I'd like to as well.
As a matter of fact I also have clearly in mind what I'd like to use as score in Fold, though this might seem "a bit" premature!

Yea, I've played the game and I can tell you its 100% secure and 100% pro

You're too kind good sir!

I would also love to help work on it, but coming in so late to the project might be difficult. 

It's never too late to have fun and be creative! Why don't you drop a message in the Project Assistance section of our Boards and tell us what are your fields of expertise, past experiences with game-making, and such? I've been trying to repeat over and over again that I'm looking for new team-members, after all! You could be one of them.


As always, thanks a lot to all of you guys.

It's great news but... I want to sneak! I want to run! How am I supposed to do that now?!?!

What a fantastic game you have produced there. The art, attention to detail, voice acting seem really excellent! Professional quality.

I only had time to play the very beginning so far, unfortunately at the moment I don't have much spare time to play, but I'm looking forward to it, it's #1 in my playlist.

Thanks and congratulations for all your hardwork and making this happen.

Best regards
Fózi

Thanks to you for playing and for taking the time to express your appreciation. It means a lot, really.

Hi,

Is there something wrong with those files?
I've tried downloading installer and archive and I get the followings:

1) installer 'appears to malicious'1)
2) Archive 'archive content is an unknown file extension in which I'm not sure what to do with it!

Please review those files!

Edited
The problems is resolved! I simply need to right-click on download links and no problems!
Again, it best not clickinf on links for downloading, otherwise it will cause problems specified above!

Now still right-clicking on zip download link, the 2nd finding above still remains!

Hello!

Installer: just DON'T believe what your browser / antivirus / operating system tells you! Especially if it's a Wi(n)dows system. I guarantee 100% that the file is secure.
Archive: as I've written right before the link

"Don't get scared by the extension: ".tar" is actually a very common archive type, and 99% of the uncompressing utilities are able to open it. 7 ZIP is one of those (and it's free!)."

May I know which Operating System and browser are you using at the moment, anyway? And please let me know if you manage to play the game, in the end.

Thanks for getting in touch and for pointing out those potential issues.

Sincerely,
-Gabriele

If I have my say, I am for maintaining Dakota.
Sure, ripped gfx are a significant help but, imo, no big deal, that's only games, just for fun!
Go for a reminder of the law and let me lose with Honour

Very honourable of you, indeed!

As a supporter of having clear rules and limiting exceptions to an absolute minimum, I have an opposite view. Of course, it's no big deal! No prize, just a funny competition: but the contest is cool because it has got rules, guidelines and deadlines.
Creating graphics from scratch takes a lot of time, and steals precious days that could be used to make better puzzles, sfx, music tracks and so on. As a matter of fact, I think Dakota looks much better than Cryo, visually speaking.

But if it's true that the graphics have all been painted over, except for the drug addict, I think we can consider them "almost" original.

So I guess the decision is up to our dear Atelier!

Thx for your comment Abisso.
Indeed two different approaches.
Besides, I have to sincerely congratz Dualnames for his really polished game with good atmo
About white gfx, I guess it's a matter of brightness adjustement.
About label, it's a choice: you have no label in real life hehe (mind, the cursor changes when on something)
About "vanilla", Im very glad you noticed the allusion, congratz (I put some others all along the game...)

Did the cursor really change? I swear I didn't notice. It might be due to the fact I've played in a window, although with 2x filter on. I'd seriously consider doing a remake with different graphics. Do you really need all to be so small on the screen, and those huge rooms (which, by the way, don't even take up all of the available screen)? I'm saying this because I tried to imagine how the game could be with a graphic style like, for example, Ben Yahtzee Croshaw's one, and my mental depiction was very satisfying. A lot of puzzles would be much more pleasant as well.
That said, the current style is consistent and has its own charm, but it just doesn't fit such a game in my honest opinion.

I noticed a lot of other references in the choice of books, but the only global one I got is that.

Spoiler

The whole thing about "white", though true, was mainly an attempt to slip in the "Open your eyes" reference as well, by the way. In case you didn't know, "Abre Los Ojos" (which translates as "Open your eyes") is the Spanish film whose Vanilla Sky is a remake of. I only watched the former, because I read that Vanilla Sky is not just a remake, but an exact reshoot with the same sequences, and just different actors (except for Penelope Cruz). I enjoyed the original a lot, anyway.

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First of all, congrats to both the teams!

I've already played and completed your entries. Though for both, I'm not sure if I got the best ending available. I'm not even sure there's a different ending for Dakota, but I'm fairly positive there's other 2 for Cryo.

One thing is sure: they're surely 2 completely different experiences and approaches to game-making.

Dakota is much more narrative, basically a slightly interactive game whose main focus is telling a story. Graphics in japanese rpg-style (quite nicely put together, I must say) and a good atmosphere, thanks to several changes of ambience, pace and visual effects. Not much challenge, but a neat experience. Good interface, responsive character. Maybe a bit too much info in a short span, but the way it's repeated and explained makes it quite easy to have a clear idea of the events at the end of the game.

Cryo is more interactive and offers some challenge. Some of the puzzles looked really crazy at the first attempts, but they turned out doable and entertaining shortly after. The medicines' one I still don't understand fully (though I suspect some sort of subtle critique to the sanitary system). Graphics are minimal, maybe too much for my taste. And a lot of white, so much that you almost can't open your eyes! Couldn't you use at least a darker tonality, like, for example, vanilla?
Interface is what I liked the least: I hate not having a way to know what I'm clicking on, or at least if I'm clicking on something or not. This made

Spoiler

finding the Computer Theory&Practice book

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a matter of repeated clicking. And the character usually walked far from the clicked objects.

Anyway, thanks to both of you for a pleasant hour of play (maybe less? I actually didn't bother to check).

I think the "release date" should be the "true" one and only release date in whatever language that is. Otherwise any addition to the game might be considered as a new release date, and this doesn't make any sense at all. Plus, it would introduce even more confusion.

Thank you Abisso. It's reasonable.
The only problem is that: if a game is released in Spanish language (only an example) in 2014 and it will be locazided to english in 2015, he should in 2014 Awards ... but how can player evaluate it? Only Spnaish player can. The rest of the world will paly it in 2015, in english. But it was released in 2014.
Another problem: the came cannot be putted in the "complete announcement section" or in DB only if it is in spanish, if i remembere rules.

@Grim: The Cat lady was released in Italian Language in 2013 .. maybe that's the reason

I think we have to face the fact English is as close an "international" language as any will ever be. So unless Esperanto, Interlingua or, most likely, Klingon become the new standards, English should be the main focus when choosing a language for a game.
My approach is probably too extreme, as I've released Forge: Chapter One just in English, though it isn't my main language. But I believe it's highly recommended to release a game with at least the "Mother language + English" combo from the very beginning.

Also, according to the Completed Game Announcements rules:

4. If your game is in a language other than English, please note this in the thread title (ie. Game Title - Spanish Language).

which indirectly confirms that is allowed to post a non-English game in that thread.


Anyway, I'm not the one in charge of deciding which criteria has to be used for non-English games, in relation to the eligibility for the Awards. If bicilotti says it's ok, then it's ok. But I'd recommend elucidating this possible source of debate in a clear way in the new rules for the 2014 Awards.


Speaking of Demos, I still don't understand if a Complete Game and its Demo can participate in two different editions of the Awards, and if a Demo is eligible for all the awards or just for the "Best Demo".

Hello Marquillin. Thanks for the detailed account of your gaming experience! I appreciate this kind of reviews the most.

About the Tomb Puzzle: it seems improvable, that's for sure, and most of what you say makes sense. Red herrings have to be reduced to a minimum. I'd like to keep it a fairly difficult puzzle anyway, at least at Expert proficiency mode; as a matter of fact, it's much easier at Practice Mode at the moment, but identically difficult at Standard and Expert.
First thing to do will be remove some of the most evidently "wrong" red herrings for all Modes.
Then I think I could evidence the important lines in the riddle visually, at least for the Standard / Practice Modes.

On the other hand, though, I need to point out that the majority of the testers didn't get stuck with that puzzle. At the time there was no walkthrough, so I'm fairly sure they did it by reasoning and a bit of trial and error. By going randomly, the puzzle is close to impossible to solve, but if you exclude some combinations, it's still solvable even if you don't know the exact sequence. But this is not the intended way to solve it, anyway: I want a player to be unsure between at most 3-4 combinations, not 20. So thanks for your detailed list of flaws, which will help me greatly in fixing the puzzle.

Pause clearing dialogue lines: I'll see if that issue can be addressed.

Schematics: as you already suspected, the way the grid upgrades are designed makes it impossible to do what you suggested with reversed schematics. Anyway, rest assured: your memory will be stressed a bit more as the game progresses, because there will be more schematics, and their shape will be more complicated. Just as a reminder, there will be diagonal grid-bridges very soon.

Step aside: lol, nice spotted. It's one of those things that most people doesn't notice. And one of those that seeing hundreds of times makes it look correct even if it isn't (this is my case).

Dead Ones' consciousness: actually that DeadOne's consciousness has already been restored. He has chosen to serve Chaos, and so he did receive that in exchange.

Rusty's voice-actor: for as much as I care about fidelity (and I do a lot) I don't think this has to be taken too literally. Some games even go as far as contacting the original actors; but I think it's excessive. And to be honest, as you pointed out, I've always found it weird that Rusty had that accent, being the son of the Foreman. I didn't recognize it as Irish (not an easy task for an Italian guy like me!) but it sounded weird, for sure.
Moreover, Dylan Jones is a great actor in my honest opinion. He offered voluntarily and for free and he already provided about 900 unique speech-lines, which is already more than what an average complete game has. He's also an awesome guy, a passionate fan of Loom, and I couldn't ask anything better for the game.
I'm not implying the other actors are cheaper, of course and I'm sure it's quite evident for those who played the game.

Portraits: you know, originally the former project manager planned to have fullscreen portraits like in Loom (no-CD or FM-Towns version). He even had some of then done, but, to be honest, the efforts required to have those would have been enormous. Since there is a lot of mandatory art to be done, and since those portraits would require a very talented pixel-artist, it would have been a suicide to carry on with that plan. Moreover, the smaller portraits can't be simply downscaled versions of the bigger ones (very low res requires adjustments) and since those were definitely mandatory, it would have been an additional waste of time.
Funny thing is our current pixel-artist, Master Pixelmold, who's the main responsible for the current mini-portraits, misinterpreted one of the requests, and painted an awesome (yet unfinished) fullscreen portrait of Brix. I guess I'll show it:



Isn't it gorgeous? It almost made me reconsider the possibility to have some fullscreen dialogues. But this will only be done, if at all, when the game is complete. There are more pressing matters to be taken care of at the moment, like backgrounds and sprites.

Middle and Right clicks: surely it could be both, and the suggestion about the middle click to act as the least important "action" is very good as well. However, after thinking about it a while, allowing a single-click to act as a quick way to "walk to + interact" would be a pain in the a$$ (to use an euphemism). This is mainly due to the possibility to change your idea, which is something I usually appreciate in games (and it's not that frequent). As you can see, in Forge you can always change your idea after you clicked on something: you simply click on something else and Rusty goes there instead. Allowing "walk to + interact" with a single-click, while keeping the possibility to change your mind would be a pain, though absolutely possible.
I don't know if it's worth it, anyway, so I should probably open a poll and ask other players as well.


Thanks for all the useful input! And whether you already did that or not, spread the word! Pixelmold doesn't have the necessary time to do everything by himself and we need an additional pixel-artist if we want to speed-up the creation process.

Perhaps irrelevant, but I just got an award today for a game released in 2012...

http://www.virtualinn.it/site/virtual-inn-awards-2013-miglior-avventura-grafica/

Hence proving that maybe this whole release date thing is not that important anyway? Clearly media elsewhere don't pay too much attention to it after all. I am officially changing my mind about Primordia, too late or not.

Also, just wanted to say: hey, I got an award! Yay!:)

Congratulations! But I see the Award comes from my country, so you shouldn't use that as an example. We are the land of anomalies, that's for sure!
I'm only making fun of the lateness in the Award, not the fact they chose your game, of course.

Thank you Bicilotti.
Just a question about that: the majority of the games made with AGS are in english, but there are some developers who are not native english speakers and sometimes they release their games in their native language first. The english version often take a lot of time to be completed. In this case, which release date should be took? The english version release date I guess...

I think the "release date" should be the "true" one and only release date in whatever language that is. Otherwise any addition to the game might be considered as a new release date, and this doesn't make any sense at all. Plus, it would introduce even more confusion.

There is another potential set of problems, though. I've only thought about that now that someone brought to my attention the fact that my game is "potentially" eligible once again, with the current set of rules and exceptions.
Forge: Chapter One is more of a demo than a complete game, as I've explained before. But it's technically an episode, and most Telltale games are released like that. Each one of them is considered a separate game, not a demo. How would you classify my game then?
Another thing I don't understand is if a Demo can only win the "Best Demo" Award or if it's eligible for other Awards as well. If the latter is the case, then is it not strange that the complete game based on that demo could technically win again the same Awards when the game is released the following year? Or is it that a game cannot take part to the Awards if its demo has already been in previously?

So, these are the 3 questions:
1. What is considered a Demo?
2. Is a Demo only eligible for "Best Demo"?
3. Can a game take part to the Awards if its demo was in previously?

Independently from those questions, I still haven't changed my mind about participating. But some people are asking me to, and since I'm looking for new team-members, the potential visibility is tempting me.