Messages

What I meant about Arthur being a mute automaton was the fact that he wanders around doing your bidding with no semblence of a personality until the brief Prosser scene, also the only time that I saw him say anything. In the meantime we have the Guide yabbering on about 'You' constantly.

If you think about games like King's Quest, it wasn't any different.  The narrator would say you, and the character would do what you asked it to.  And in the text version, there really wasn't any personality in any format.  There was minimal dialogue amongst the characters, and I am just speaking for myself, but dialogue is probably my weakest point with respect to story-telling. 

From my perspective, you should put yourself in the place of the man/woman on the screen, and ask yourself what you would do.  Short of making the game in the first-person, I don't understand how you think we should be altering the game. 

After playing the 'old' demo this afternoon (surprising because I didn't even know I'd downloaded it..) I.. have to say I'm not sure about what the idea of this project is. I mean, I gather it's meant to be an 'updating' of Infocom's text adventure, but when the game remains as apparently unchanged as this it becomes a bit counter-intuitive. From what I played the only 'new' dialogue was straight from the book (well, and probably the radio play which we didn't get here in Oz..) and having an unseen narrator explain what everything was to me while Arthur trundled about like a mute automaton was quite a blatant hang-over from the text version.

So.. not wanting to sound rude... I have to ask what is being added to the game in this update? Because, at the moment, it seems to be all about the text, which is all there in the original vesion anyway and in a more accessible format.

To give visuals to the original, mainly.  Someone new to adventure games may be a little strayed from the original text-based game, but may be more inclined to play something a little more visual and "interactive."  I understand the text-based is more interactive because of its possibilities, but to a newby, it may not feel interactive. 

The other thing we "added" was a sense of timing.  Instead of 50 turns to get off of the earth, you literally have 12 minutes, for example. 

We are not really trying to do a lot of "new" stuff to the game in order to preserve its original awesomeness.  Also, I don't consider this an update, but a remake.  I hope that answers your questions. 

Finally, there are bits we had to add to the game in order to make the transition from text to point-and-click smoother.  I.e. the poetry reading scene.

So, try out the game and if you don't like it, go to the BBC radio 4 site and play the text based game.

I had a really neat idea for a competition.  I am very interested in education and educational research.  One thing I have come across is this study on IT and education.  Out of the 20,000 (or so) people interviewed, over 50% liked learning by using interactive games they could control. 

The suggestion I have for a competition is to design a game to teach something.  This can be anything from teaching calculus for college students or teaching chemistry to high school students.  I think you could have some really neat things to teach using AGS as the chalkboard. 

I am not talking about a multiple choice game to test rote knowledge.  I am saying design a game where the player investigates and explores, and as a result will learn the things of importance. 

also on the trailer

During one of the cut phrases, "for its time ..."  The grammar on that one looked funny.  Don't remember what was wrong with it though. 

But I think a fun one to add would be "and above all ..." cut scenes "DON'T PANIC!" then one of the cutscenes with an explosion

maybe you could make a letter-coded patch for the game.  I.e. the red box would be red, but with an R on it.

yeah it is here

I like the hidden things.  Especially for certain key entries.  Once you put it in the search engine, it is always on the list, but I like it.  AND/OR entries get added to the list with time.  Either they are added at key points in the game or they appear after one hour of play (or until searched for). 

listen to bastard wants to hit me by they might be giants

without reading what every other person has said, I'll say this.  I am not a smoker, but my wife was.  What helped her to quit was me giving her a guilt trip everytime she ran out for a cigarette.  In general, she had an external motivator to prevent her from having another one.  After the withdrawal is over (3-7 days maybe), the trick is to avoid the habit.  This means avoid the things you used to do that instigated smoking.  I.e. taking a coffee break with your smoker buddies.  Take it at a different time by yourself. 

Also, it helps to ween off of it if you only smoke if already slightly inibriated from booze.  Then you fall in the trap of wanting a cigarette everytime you are buzzing off of booze.  Not a great situation, but maybe a fair tradeoff.

As for Gilliam, I loved the footnotes in Good Omens.

Gaiman.

actually pratchett

I get terry pratchett and terry gilliam mixed up a lot.

Neil Gaiman is funny too though.  It's hard to say who wrote what in that book.  Now if you could figure out how to make THAT book into a game, I would play it. 

As for footnotes, I think if you have a little blinking light or something then the player can click on it if he so chooses, or he can ignore it.  Make it the player's choice of whether or not it blends in.  It could be a subtle as a little word (footnote #1) flashing at the footnote moments or as explicit as the whole screen being filled with a decision box of whether or not the player would like to read the footnote. 

As for Gilliam, I loved the footnotes in Good Omens.  They were hilarious. 

Dualnames,

I thought you played the game (a bit).  During certain parts of the game (usually non-important), you would get the response but there would be (footnote 1) in parentheses next to the statement.  They were usually quite funny. But how to add them was something I wasn't sure about.  But having a cutscene with the guide opening up and saying what the foot note is could be fun.  Go to the BBC4 site referenced in the script file and you'll be able to read them all.  An example is:

Spoiler

when you listen to Hey Jude, it has a little blurb about the beatles in the footnotes.

[close]

SEMI OFFICIAL poll of the day. 

For those familiar with the original.  Should we add in the footnotes or not?  Those familar will know what I am talking about.

In the thought of making him designed as happy, but obviously not.  His bottom is four wheels with the hubcaps as daisies.  His middle is a sphere of a big yellow smiley face not just  , but  , but the depression comes in his facial expression and his hunched over shoulders and his arms dragging (bad posture).  Also, he has to move REALLY slow.  Maybe have his arms sway like a gorilla when he walks cause he is to depressed to give them any support.  In addition, maybe have a crude scratch mark across the daisies and the smiley face as though marvin tried to scratch them out.  OOH I just had a thought, instead of a big yellow smiley and daisies, the wheels and his midsection can be the green little smiley they have on all of the books.  I think you know what I mean.

THe other way to go is to have it fit his personality and make him goth/emo.  How you make an emo/goth robot I don't know, but it's a thought.

But my original thought with this game was to make it original with respect to looks.  Even though your recreation of the movie Marvin looks very good, I say ditch it.  Or modify the crap out of it.  Smaller head, many bright colors, a permanent frown, etc...

But are we trying to be totally within the realm of reality, or no?  Not that I would call it fantasy, but having elements that aren't 100% realistic aren't too awful, I think they spark the imagination.  I am not saying have griffins and pixies and such, but surviving predators is a neat aspect of survival.  Outwitting them as it were. 

You could have it sort of a sick experiment by an even wealthier guy.  Maybe he has a submarine that could simulate them hitting a rock spire and it punctures their boat.  The wealthy guy owns the island and uses it to test people's survival skills.  Sort of cliched concept of rich guy hunts people.  But this isn't apparent at first.  Obviously some bits of survival are natural, but the wealthy guy incorporates artificial dangers too.

As a puzzle, there is a small patch of land surrounded by a tar pit, but the land has a large amount of fruits and vegetables (or something else that is desirable) and he has to build a sort of bridge. 

Also, with it just being survival, I have a hard time with where the climax enters in.  What, you go 7 days without dying and then the coast guard comes in?   Maybe make the survival an integral part of the game, but give the son clues (or a strong inkling) that his dad is on the island with him and alive.  So he has to use his wits and resources to cross that tar pit, climb that cliff, etc...  to reach him. 

Another thought about that, son purposefully goes looking for dad who he suspects was stranded on said island.  Twisted quirk of fate, nature lands him on the same island.  Clues emerge that tell the player, his father IS alive and on the very same island he is on (he finds his dad's pocket watch or something).  Obviously, the player doesn't know this at first.  This would obviously give the player reason to explore the island to the fullest to find his father. 

I think a simple yacht being overturned in a freak storm would suffice.  A harsh wind can easily tip over a boat if the sail is up. 

Obviously too late, but I just had a great idea for a game.  An adventure game based off of the great escape (the movie with Steve McQueen).  You play the role of scrounger, distractions, manufacturer, surveying, etc... 

As a side note, go ahead and run with these ideas (anyone).  A simple pm saying, hey I used your great escape idea is all I ask for. 

my head is just bubbling with ideas. 

In order for the tribe to trust the player (or whatever) he has to get the very nasty princess to marry the very picky shaman (or whatever).  So he has to set up a shower or bath, he has to find the shampoo to get her hair nice, he has to concoct a perfume from the flowers, he has to make a bra to make her breasts more attractive, etc... You get the point.

also, the fact that he is rich is good.  The boat could have been fairly big, allowing for a lot of the items the player will find and utilize to be things he wouldn't normally see on a remote island.  Maybe he finds batteries on the shore and a tarp is carried into a cave by a bear, or whatever.  This presents a lot of potential (that will make sense) to the necessary tools to solve the puzzles.

Puzzle idea, setting up an alarm system so the big mountain lion (or whatever) doesn't eat him when he sleeps.  And there is a similar meter for sleep deprivation as there is for heat exhaustion.  Certain tasks and such will deplete the meter more than others.

Referring to the warring tribe idea, some ideas for a source: tribe A stole tribe B's ancient artifact, romeo and juliet sort of situation, tribe A's shaman was murdered and shaman's assistant framed tribe B, a recent geophysical activity has forced a shift in the way the fresh water flows and if tribe A doesn't share, tribe B will parish, but tribe A is selfish and never liked tribe B in the first place. 

I think the sailboat has a lot of potential, but to add in to the survival and build a story, maybe there are natives there too (I know it sounds like Lost, but bare with me).  There are two warring tribes, and the protagonist is caught between the middle.  In terms of puzzles, he has to build traps and get items, make distractions, etc...  In terms of story, the player is forced to choose between tribe A and tribe B in terms of who to go against.  I.e. in order to survive, he must end the war by overcoming tribe A or tribe B.  Choosing a different tribe results in a much different set of goals and objectives for the player's survival.  In terms of tying it to dad, maybe choosing tribe A he finds out tribe B is holding his dad as a sacrifice to the volcano, but if he chooses tribe B, tribe A gave his dad some potion brainwashing the dad into thinking he is the destined ruler of tribe A and must destroy tribe B to fulfill his destiny. 

I think you get the point.  Obviously the two different possible storylines will intertwine, for programming ease, but I think it'd be neat.  Another similar alternative, would be you can choose which person you are (the dad or the son) and the son is forced to help tribe A and the dad is forced (or maybe highly encouraged) to help tribe B but of course they are not aware of this till the very end. 

This is the puzzle that prevented me from ever finishing the original text-based HHGTTG. It's supposed to be bloody unfair and horrible. So there.

Interesting enough, there are shirts that say, "I solved the babel fish puzzle."  Also, Infocom, Douglas Adams and the programmer (can't remember his name) originally dubbed the game as only moderately difficult.  Which is funny, cause it is bloody difficult.

Solution hint

Spoiler

If you read the text closely in a step-by-step fashion, it is sort of clear.  Maybe it is clear, cause I played it so many damn times to get the scripting, but there are a couple of obstacle, but only one way to solve them. 

[close]

I am pretty stoked the Avs moved on.  Now that we are playing our rivals, I am hoping it will rev us up and we'll go far.

Maybe this has been mentioned, but I just saw the youtube video for this game called crayon physics deluxe.  The game developer said he used a physics engine from someone else.  I was wondering if something like this could be developed into a module or something?  I think these physics combined with what is already available through AGS would make for some amazing games.

This falls under the category of suggestions for future versions of AGS.  So I believe I am in the right forum.