Messages

At the moment, my solution to a lack of inspiration is to read William Blake.

This is an ingenious game, I can't think of another like it. The animations and post-effects really bring what could have been a very static puzzle to life. Bravo Mr Twelve!

I thought I was well on my way to completing the pill-puzzle, until I realised that I hadn't been moving the floating orbs when I'd been moving the pills. Oooh I wish I spoke japanese.

Here's a new mini-screenshot from Nelly Cootalot:

Slightly off-topic, but I remember the game not working on windows 95 (version a). Before I played Discworld Noir I didn't know there were different versions of each edition of windows.

As Rincewind says, it's well worth the trouble. Good luck Akatosh!

So far it seems ok, politicians have been bringing this issue up since the 80s and nothing significant has been done, so we probably have plenty of time.

I think that's the nature of scapegoating. If we ban video games and juvenile violence continues... what then? Blame rock and roll?

Anyway, everyone knows it's immigrants who are inculcating violent tendencies into our youth.

This is as delightful as usual, and I'd also like to see the reference image.

The only suggestion I can make is to soften the shading beneath the collar. I seem to be able to see the shape of the brush used in the gradations from white to grey. It detracts a little from the inky watercolour look.

wow. thats the most beautiful thing ive ever seen. whocares about detailing and colors and composition.

Are you inferring something about my detailing, colours and composition...?

I'm glad that seems to have helped. Bear in mind that more than one character moving down the hill will make the walkbehind business more complicated. I'm sure it's workable though.

A solution is to create a second view for the character with their up and down animations swapped, and a walk-behind baseline that would alter at the point that the character walks over the hill. Then you need to change the character view while he's walking down hill.

That's described better in this thread where Strazer solves the problem:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=25457.0

And there's a demo I made here:

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Walk_Behind_Hil.zip

If you're careful with the walkable areas it works quite well, and you don't need to remove player control while they're walking down the hill.

The astrology puzzle in Keepsake, which depends upon the player guessing that a constellation of a mermaid represents fertility on the grounds that mermaids are female. I can't see how a mermaid would give birth, so it doesn't work for me.

surely the worst ever puzzle in Flight of the Amazon Queen, you get passed a talking gorilla just by telling it he doesn't exist. TWICE.

That's not as bad as spending ages getting your jet-pack working and flying to the misty valley, just to learn that your mechanic friend made the same journey by inexplicably hitching a ride on the villain's blimp. If he can go on the blimp, why can't I?

I think the 'S' on the Black and white draft looks better. Your jagged 'S' looks a lot like the SS logo which isn't appropriate, I think a firmer 'S' might be more Stalinist. I do like the hammer-'T' though.

I've mentioned it before, but the outrageously stupid safe puzzle in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Pearl Earring. Or, indeed, any lock puzzle who's solution is coded into the lock's surroundings.

No one who knows what locks are for would do that!

i don't think the people in prodigal were illusions.Ã,  though, i'm not sure now.Ã,  played too long ago.

I'm pretty sure we're told that...

Spoiler

The cult all left for the marvelous dimension a long time ago - passing through the cell one by one, presumably. If those people were real, it probably would have been quicker for our brother to trick one of them into releasing him.

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I really like your characters, and particularly the names, but this is part of your synopsis puts me off a little:

Wendigo is a medieveal fantasy world with a few odd twists, basically a "common" fantasy realm with humans, elves, dwarves and centaurs living in unsteady alliance,

Why? I think too many fantasy narratives become preoccupied with the recycled politics of warring factions, tribes and species. This is a really likeable idea, so I wouldn't want to see it lose its quirkiness.

Feel free to disregard all these suggestions, but this is what I think would work well.

Instead of dropping your narrative into a pre-formed environment, strip the story down to what makes it interesting and exciting. I'd suggest taking away castles, woods and mountains. Then build an world around your characters and their adventure.
If you need a wood, add a wood, but if it can be something more interesting - a petrified forest, a whalebone graveyard, a shipwreck desert - then choose something more interesting. Choose something that particularly relates to your characters.

Instead of acknowledging cliches head on, invert them subtly. Allow the player/reader to realise that you're turning narrative conventions on their head, instead of advertising that fact. It's much more fun for us that way!

It would be very easy for you to go down the road of spoof, which is well trodden. If your story can be a comic fantasy it should be, dont make it a  spoof just because that's easier. I hope that doesn't sound harsh, I'd just like to see this idea realise its potential.

Also, should it be "chimera" or is "chimare" an intentional choice?

Prodigal was quite enjoyable, but I don't feel that it really made sense. There's a good chance that I didn't understand it properly but...

Spoiler

...if our brother was luring us to take his place, and all of the people we ran into were just illusions, his puppets, why were they slowing down our progress? Why would our imprisoned brother make us get a chicken dinner for an imaginary man before rescuing him?

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I do agree with Rui that Black Dhalia has one of the most memorable endings of all adventure games. I also agree that GKII's was very poorly handled, but GKIII's ending was much better.

[Starship Titanic:]

I don't think these have been mentioned ( and I think text adventures ought to be allowed):

Starship Titanic: For spookitalk allowing you to hold reasonably complex conversations with characters through the text parser. Also for it's upgrading your interface as you are moved up from 3rd to 1st class.

Syberia: Having a separate inventory for items and documents. This may not have been the first, but I can't think of another.

Nord And Bert Couldn't Make Head Nor Tail Of It: For it's use of puns/double meanings/homophones and other wordplay to create a world that could be transformed at the typing of a sentence. For instance, you find a Jack-Of-All-Trades and are able to use it as a car-jack, a jack-knife and many other jacks.

Gabriel Knight I-III: Allowing the player occasionally to speak to more than one character at a time. I'm not sure which of the games used this technique, but I suspect that they all may have. This may seem inconsequential, but it broke from the question-answer model that most dialogues follow. It gave a sense that you were really contributing to a dialogue, not just interrogating someone.

Also Gabriel Knight III for it's overarching what's-been-going-on puzzle...

Spoiler

Wherein you have to work out what all the characters have been up to from the observations you've made throughout the game. What distinguishes this from Cluedo and its ilk is that you don't know beforehand that you are going to need to suss everyone out. It relies on the player paying attention and really thinking about the game world.

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These 'puzzle island' games (even when they're not islands, you get what I mean) are very odd for me, because they give you so little to go on that it's not so much that the puzzles break the suspension of disbelief, it's that there's no disbelief to begin with. Very transparent slideshow-puzzle-slideshow-puzzle for me.

I have quite the opposite experience with the best of those type of games, like Myst and Riven. I find the opportunity to scrutinise, explore and investigate a rich location extremely involving. Still, different hats for different cats.

I must say the title led me to expect crude MS Paint scribblings, but this looks amazing! I absolutely love the style, and I'm impressed that you're using anim8or. I couldn't get the hang of its bones.

I love the backdrops, especially the paint-splat trees.

Ali by the way he felt about himself you mean I should try to achieve an egocentric effect?, and now that you mention it, steel is suppoused to be strong and is all busted there, could that be a problem too?Ã, 

The busted steel is not necessarily a problem, but Stalin was a complex man. It's not enough just to characterise him as something terrible. He was powerful, glorious and terrible. Your fractured lettering illustrates something of the reality of Stalin, but little of the propaganda. Where is the captain of soviet industry? Where is the leader of the world's only true democracy? These aren't easy things to capture, but summing an individual up with lettering isn't easy.

If you can't use a background I'd still suggest adding a wider margin - that would make the lettering easier to read. I'd also suggest you forget about the texture and work on the lettering in sillouhette, then put the texture back on later. That will help clarify what is and isn't working.

Ok I've made my mind then, I'll change the N

About your edit Matt, the black thing would be consider background Im afraid, thanks for the edit.

I've tried the outline thing before, It looked much more functional, and much more ugly.

I didn't realise the N was backwards, but I agree. Don't overlook the fact that functionality is prominent in socialist design, and may have a place in this work.

Your lettering looks strongly expressionistic, and rather like the lettering for the 'Metropolis' poster. What it captures is something of how people feel about Stalin mainly fearful.

Stalin was the man of steel. He chose that name. Steel is strong, industrial, unyielding, defiant. What your image lacks is a sense of how Stalin felt about himself.

I think the rust could work well, but against the white backdrop it looks like it could be paper. I think you need a different backdrop, and perhaps a wider frame, to pull the shards together.

The worst example is Post Mortem, where you have the key hole & the newspaper but you can only pick up a pencil IF YOU'RE PRETENDING TO BE A JOURNALIST!

If, like me, you pretended to be a policemen, you have to use a different method. I was still able to put the newspaper under the door, but unable to pick up any of the games multiple pencils.

Enraging.