Topics

This topic has been moved to Critics' Lounge.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=51692.0

This is such a cliche of a topic... but hey let's do it anyways!
So here's where we can write down our new years resolutions, to make it even more embarrassing when we eventually fail to keep them.
Oh and you can't say 1280x720 because I just made that joke now.

This topic has been moved to The Rumpus Room.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=51499.0

This topic has been moved to General Discussion.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=51459.0

Hello AGSers. As you're probably aware, we have a database full of games and certain other things that pretend to be games, and that database has both regular users' ratings and a special panel score.

Now this panel needs fresh blood, because the current members can't keep up the pace, because of stuff that happens and various other perfectly valid excuses.

This post will give you a quick run down of how it works, although it probably doesn't work exactly like that anymore.

If that's TL:DR for you, here's the skinny:
* You'll pick a game from the database that hasn't been rated yet
* You'll provide a comment (a mini-review, simply) and a score
* You'll write in a specific thread what you've just done, because other panelists may want to review your review and bring aspects of it into question
* Rinse and repeat

We expect that a panel member
* Has been around for a while and is known in the community to be mature and respectful, or at least isn't a notorious troublemaker.
* Plays lots of AGS games
* Can remain neutral and professional, so like when I try to pressure you into giving TSP 5 cups you must have the integrity to tell me to bugger off.

Well, I think that's it. I'll remove this thread once we have filled the positions. If you think you're the one we're looking for, don't hesitate to PM me. If you still feel unsure of what the heck this is about, do spend some time browsing the database, checking out how different games have been rated and commented on in the past.

Happy holidays,
Andail

This topic has been moved to Beginners' Technical Questions.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=51374.0

55-word story, voting time

Here are this week's entries. Read them through and then vote for the best 3. Happy reading! Btw; sorry for not responding to or confirming any PMs; I just haven't had the time. Let me know ASAP if I've messed up something in your story.

[/font]

1

Excerpts from a search history:
domestic robot review comparision
personal robot review comparison
intimate robot review comparison
sexbot review comparison
Nina 6900x customer review
Nina 6900x best price second hand
...
skindroid new account
6900 manual tutorial
6900x personalize preference
6900x record cloud storage
...
skindroid privacy breach
video skinnyleaks [profile.jpg]
plastic surgery review comparison

2

Ivan held fast to the handle outside the airlock, his knuckles white under layers of protective gloves. "Janice, push the button!" He saw her clearly through the ten-inch protective glass: the tears on her cheeks, her eyes turned away from him.

She wouldn't actually watch him die.

"Push the goddamned button!"

The sun exploded.

3

Till the end, Marlin was stalling their rush: "There's another way! Building ships to escape the sun!"
Annoyed, Atom and Eva moved ahead. Marlin turned to Medoza: "Yaga, your biotech skills could help humanity survive underground!"
Ignored. Still, he got in with them, and the seven set the dial back 250,000 years, to begin again.

4

There it was again â€" that gentle humming noise.  It was pitch black but I could feel something there, somewhere in the darkness…

I heard it once more.  This time I could hear something â€" respiration maybe? â€" very close.  A soft voice said “We have come.  Transportation complete.”

They had come… bur were they friend or foe?

5

I'd breathed them in. I could feel them dismantling me at the cellular level, travelling through my blood like a shoal of piranha. I forced the needle into my neck, releasing the anti-nanos. And then, excruciating pain as the war began. A molecular blitzkrieg upon my organs, the pain began to encompass my whole world.

6

Two robots are cuddling together.
The robot girl asks the robot boy: "What are you thinking about?"
He answers "I was just wondering if you are with me because you love me, or just because of my car."
The robot girl answers "Who told you about me and your car? It is all a lie!"

7

Through fibres and tubes, secured through nine proxies, Richard was close to logging into the highsecurity system.
The virusinfected mail he sent to the securitysupervisor was bitwise sending the logged password to not cause suspiciuos traffic...

End of Transmission!

Beads of perspiration gathered on his forehead when...  mom pulled the plug to make a call.

8

Jacob looked at his mechanical arm, and slowly squeezed his hand. He could feel the intensity surging through his body, as the electronics and his neurons fused. A soft, almost melodic, szwvrt escaped when the tips of his artificial fingers gently touched the metal of his palm. Jacob smiled and thought to himself: Babe Magnet!

9

Evacuation
She cried out in disbelief when the door opened and she saw the same old grey fog; the same sickly green clouds.
”I should be on Hyperion now!” she screamed at the operator who reached out to grab her arms. ”You are, in a way,” he said calmly. ”We just don't erase the originals.”

10

Telling a joke is like guiding tourists through an empty forest. You harness the power of imagery to give the forest life. But you let the tourists bring most of the colour through assumptions. Then you call in a napalm strike to crush what they made. The laughter yields. Too bad I'm a space rat.

11

The prison canteen: the oozing pink glop was as tasty as ever.
She rubbed where her silver necklace had always hung.  Now it was with him, for luck. 
Bonesy whispered: “They made it out!  Guard says they couldn't track them.  We should try again tonight!”
She smiled.  Then she saw something shiny in the glop.

12

Devin #68 opened the door of his Datsun, stepped out and lit a cigarette. It was a fine day for a funeral. Lung cancer again, as always. No one could change that. He stubbed out the cigarette beneath his shoe, took a breath and stepped into the crematorium to say his farewells to Devin #67.

13

Space Alien Madness

"I remember this game," I said, brushing of the arcade sign. A hulking ruin sat behind it. "Loved it as a kid, but then I didn't think it would be prophetic. Why send us here?"

Sam stood frozen with a desiccated tentacle clutched in his hand.

"Sam?"

"They've been here all along."

14

The Circuit Pond has always been a must see for every visitor from outside the Outer Belt. An artificial pond of liquid cooling condensation on a planet that has no natural water is a golden goose for tourism. More than once, loving couples have dunk into it, swearing eternal love, blessed by a little shock.

Since the last round of this competition was quite the success, why not do it again? I asked myself. So here it is.

The 55 word story competition

SCI-FI EDITION

The rules are simple:

• You have 5 days to PM me your story.
• Every story must be exactly 55 words. If you want a title, it must be included in the word count.
• This time around, the story must feature some kind of sci-fi element. It can be ever so slight, as long as it's clearly there.
• Let me know if you want some kind of proof reading (if you're not very fluent in English, you might want the most glaring errors corrected). Also let me know if you want non-standard paragraphing or other text formats preserved. 

After the deadline, I will publish all stories anonymously and the community will vote for the top 3 candidates. Once we start voting, you may discuss the entries in the thread, but not reveal any identities.

Check the stories from the previous round here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50528.0

Just to reiterate: You don't post your stories here, but you send it to me in a private message.

Good luck!

55-word story, voting time

Here are this week's entries. Read them through and then vote for the best 3. The authors of the three best stories will go on to a final round, where they will write new stories - still anonymous - and then we'll elect the final winner. This is because of the large amount of stories submitted; it felt right to award more than just one writer.

NOTES:
1. Titles that weren't included in the word count have been removed.
2. It turned out to be harder than I thought controlling the word count, since the English language has a lot of contractions that can count as one word or two, depending on how you look at it. If anyone wants to object against how a specific story meets the criteria, just let me know. 
3. I have preserved linebreaks, spacing and spelling unless the writer asked me explicitly to correct it.
4. If a writer contributed with more than one story, without saying which one has precedence, I have chosen the one I think is best.
5. There's no #11. Deal with it.

1

You know those movies that start in the middle of a life threatening action scene without context? - And just as our hero is supposedly going to die we're treated with a voice-over explaining how we got into this mess. An hour later he survives anyway.... the bullet in my chest calls that false advertisement.

2

It is a fear unlike any other, a despair that destroys the mind, flays the senses and induces sickening dread into the hearts of those who experience it.  But face this challenge I must, ere all is lost and disaster strikes!

Slowly, reluctantly, not daring to look… I raise the seat of the public toilet.

3

At night, there are two places I visit; the old world, and the new world. In the old world, we didn't always fight. In the new… well, I think you can guess how that sentence ends. Actually, I can't tell which one I prefer - I tend to linger in both.
Then the day breaks.

4

He blamed his mother for making him this way.

His sweaty, overweight client was waiting in the next room, as he carefully climbed into his dress.
“I'd rather have no life than this one”, he pondered.

Which was, he remembered thinking to himself at the time, a remarkable thought for a 13 year old.

5

She was writhing in agony and would be dead within half an hour. As a medical practitioner the decision was easy. I pushed the needle one last time. Her convulsions receded. Her eyes looked into mine and through foamy lips said something that sounded like 'thank you'. The kids are going to miss you, Soya.

6

Irresistible Force

The kitten clung ninja-like to the drooping branch as flower petals fluttered loose around him.  He was the master of acrobatics; the sultan of scaling!  Surely he could spare just one paw to bat at them....  No, bad idea!  His slaves cooed and gushed at his latest predicament.  Take the damn picture already!

7

A gun, held by a trembling hand, dropped instantaneously, clattering on the concrete, the sound resonating. The body convulsing from pain, followed thereafter. The assailant fell to her knees weeping. Her father lay dying... for the greater good. None shall govern this nation, a country of thieves and murderers. It was the Land of Do-as-you-please.

8

Nearly midnight, shotgun in hand, hearing noises in the attic, I cautiously ascend the stairs.  “What's that?” I wonder, releasing the safety.  “Is it groaning?”  Barely seeing, I shoot wildly.  It's still groaning!  Is it living?  No.  It's undead.  It bites!  My life fades and returns, but different: I'm hungry, groaning, in the attic, undead.

9

Dr. Mason was proud of his creation. All his life's work was focused on that moment. Then he finally flipped the switch.
The lights flickered for a moment, afterwards there was silence.
After thirtythree long seconds a grunt. Then it stood up.
It looked him in the eyes and bared its teeth.
It was hungry.

10

Master walks me to the forest every Saturday. I hunt with Pelusa, a lovely foxhound whose owner Raymond won't let me breed. I should get shot of him. Master could help, he is so short-sighted. Raymond could easily be mistaken for a wild boar.  Let's find a way to have him remove his safety vest.

12

I knew her since we were five, dated her when we were fifteen.

Then...

She broke my heart all those years ago, and here I am, cooking dinner for her and him.

He smiles, compliments the wine: "a fine vintage".

He coughs, lips stained with crimson.

She screams, terrified.

I smile and take a sip.

13

“Why do you troll?” she asked.

“Because I want to see everyone happy.” he replied.

“But then, how will people know you're sad internally?” she questioned.

“That's the plan: I don't want them to!” he replied.

She knew he was right in saying so. That's because those who make others laugh are often the saddest.

14

Officer Duval slid his hand across the bloody windscreen as he walked from the scene. Safely off the mega-highway, he turned to his partner saying: "These incidents are only going to get worse as the road system grows."

They walked away from the gridlocked traffic, leaving the suicide victim behind entombed in his car.

15

"Of course I used a waterproof camera during the rainstorm," he scoffed, failing to notice the M&M's melting inside his knapsack. He removed the lens and a covert dab of chocolate dripped onto the sensor.

Aeons passed and his descendants lauded society's progress, inferring that their ancestor's world was shrouded in hazy, brown decay.

16

Mister Bear was shaken. Miss Mouse alarmed him about the conspiracy. The epidemy plaguing their village came from the meteorite crashed the year prior. Their own emotionless furry peers caught the two runaways. Infected then compliant, they mutated into the final plan. From lightyears away, a dying Earth had sent their solution : virulent human DNA.

17

The Lock was the planet's most crowded conurbation.

At the terminus. she was alone in the wagon. In her puke, a shriveled piece of paper. Leaving, she cleaned up her lips as a hurried man entered. He took her seat, and the piece of paper. "Love you from deep inside". He always loved her humor.

The 55-word story competition

Hello.
We all know this community has a plethora of gifted writers, but most of them are much too lazy to enter the regular fortnightly writing, so this is a competition just for them.

Being concise and to the point is indeed a difficult art to master. Many an aspiring writer has failed at preventing their stories - or any text type for that matter; essays, treatises, poems - from meandering aimlessly and unreined, flooding the pages with their thick, opulent ink; sentences and paragraphs so fattened with superfluous words they are nothing less than chunks of textual foie gras; so many adverbs and synonyms stacked upon each other the actual essence is long since buried beneath the sediments of redundant, wayward letters.   

Ever since Hemmingway wrote his famous 6-word story (which, translated to Swedish, would be only three words long, proving what an efficient language my mother tongue happens to be) writing with brevity and pertinence has been regarded as something noble, something to strive for.

Only the most skillful authors know not to waste words - they realize the beauty of keeping it simple, and they learn to recognize a wordy and flowery diction as the hallmark of pretentious dilettantes and precocious novices, and they vow never to belong to that notorious group of sesquipedalian orators, those who abuse and take advantage of the written - or spoken for that matter - word as if the well whence it's drawn will indeed not one day peter and dry out, and, well, yes that is indeed actually pretty darn hard.

----

If you want to participate, PM me your 55-word story. The only rule is that it has to be exactly 55 words long. Don't put the story in this thread - I want all the entries to be anonymous. After one week I will announce all the entries here, and the voting will commence.
Good luck!

Playing around with higher resolutions. I plan for these to be really wide (so more pictures will be added to these), and scroll sideways, with parallax effect (they're already drawn in layers).
Scanned lineart and coloured in PS. I will be more careful later on (since these lines are a bit sloppy) but this is just to try out the style.
The player character will be relatively small, and only walk sideways, so graphically it will look a bit like a platformer.




Any c&c?

[Those who pre-ordered, you can use the Steam/Desura code you got for £5 off the single DVD rom copy. Please remove the dashes from your code and it'll work.]

Hello everyone, my game is now released for your playing pleasure.

[embed=640,400] <iframe width="640" height="400" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WUoo2y-NIPA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> [/embed]

Get it here (will be updated with new links):
http://www.samaritanparadox.co.uk/
http://www.screen7.co.uk/
http://www.gog.com/game/the_samaritan_paradox
http://store.steampowered.com/app/283180
http://fireflowergames.com/shop/the-samaritan-paradox/
http://www.zodiac-store.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=811

and should be live on Desura later

YOU CAN USE DISCOUNT CODE CHRISJONESAGS FOR £1 OFF THE DRM-FREE (ON IT'S OWN) VERSION FROM THE OFFICIAL SITE OR SCREEN7.CO.UK

Those who pre-ordered, you can use the Steam/Desura code you got for £5 off the single DVD rom copy. Please remove the dashes from your code and it'll work.

Thanks AGS for all your support and encouragement! Seeing it finally announced here is a huge relief. I hope it will bring you joy and excitement, and a fair amount of puzzlement!

[you]

Ok, so I have this maybe not so original idea for an online writing community, and I would like your input. I don't have that much experience or insight in this stuff, but surely you do.

The idea is pretty simple. People become members of the community. There's a payment service that allows quick payments back and forth. You can be a writer or a reader, or preferably both.

The writers write original stories, which are released chapter by chapter. If you like someone's first chapter, you click on a fund button, which will charge you, say, 50 cents. When you have done this, you get access to the next chapter. And so on.

Essentially, this is both a way for people to support writers they appreciate, but also a way to easily get into a lot of literature (albeit mostly amateur), but only paying for things that keep you intrigued, and that you can stop reading - and paying for - in case you cease being interested.

There will have to be a few rules, such as a set minimum length for every chapter. There could even be two options; a chapter which is 15 pages or something for 50c, and a part which is 30 pages for $1.

Once you buy the first chapter of a new story, a new "book" will be created in your virtual library, and every time you buy another chapter, it will be added to this book. The books will only be readable through the website, although there could be additional apps for handheld devices that let you access your library.

There would be charts for the best selling story chains, but also special lists for the longest chains, or even the largest libraries.

I see the following advantages:
* Writers often find it easy to start writing, but difficult to keep up the pace. Here they can simply release the first chapter and see if people like it. The money and appreciation will hopefully compel the writer to keep going. If it ends up not being funded at all, the writer won't have to waste any more precious time, and can go back to plumbing or whatever.
* If somebody stops writing for whatever reason, you have only paid for the chapters you've read, and most of the times a very small amount.
* The writer isn't obliged to finish a story - as a reader your 50 cents only entitles you to see the next chapter when/if one is written. This means there are no risks involved, no promises to keep.
* The strength is in the numbers; as a reader you will never end up paying more than maybe ten bucks for a full length novel (300 pages), but if a writer can get just a couple of hundred readers that's a pretty substantial salary.

Thoughts? Has this been done already? Many times even? Is it a lousy idea?

This topic has been moved to General Discussion.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50218.0

This topic has been moved to General Discussion.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50196.0

This topic has been moved to The Rumpus Room.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50043.0

Hello AGSers
This is a first draft of the poster/box art for TSP.
First I wanted to go for something more alternative and artsy, but I ended up with this rather conventional.
Any C&C before I send this one off to Screen7?

This topic has been moved to The Rumpus Room.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49866.0

Let me first of all say that I wouldn't subject just any AGS game to this kind of dissection, but Gemini Rue has garneded so much critical acclaim I think it can take it. Plus, what I'm saying is largely positive.

So I finally played Gemini Rue and just completed it. I'm not exactly going out on a limb by saying it's one of the best indie adventure games in recent years. But while playing it, a few things made me react with surprise.

I asked myself ”what makes this such a good game?” and came to the conclusion that the strongest aspects of GR have little to do with gameplay, or even what constitutes a game. GR's strengths are first and foremost its cinematic aspects â€" the worldbuilding, the atmosphere, the writing, the melodramatic plot.

When it comes to the typical lateral puzzles that P&C adventures are famous (infamous?) for, GR only has a handful, and they aren't very strong. It does have one or two (depending on how you count) logical puzzles (like the ventilation system puzzle), which work well.

Stopping the stompers, while very effectful and exciting, doesn't really qualify as a puzzle in my opinion, but opinions may differ here.

The vast majority of puzzles in GR are either
1. Extremely basic bodily manoeuvres, like using the foot verb on various objects before they can be removed/picked up, or even actions that you'd expect the protagonist to handle on his own, like putting the foot on a pipe or in a hole to gain more purchase so he can reach something.
2. Information searching, via databases or the communicator.

I only counted to one or two purely original, lateral puzzles in the traditional P&C tradition, namely
a) the one where you should talk to Baldur to make him stop walking around, so that you can turn on the steam and burn him, and b) when you should put the extension cord through the hole in the roof instead of attempting to throw it up through it.

Those two left me purely satisfied.

Others did not:
1. One puzzle â€" the one about pursuading the pilot to meet you â€" has you navigating a complex dialogue tree with no clues whatsoever â€" it's just trial and error until you choose the correct option.
2. The protagonist needs a device of some sort to mend his lock picks, and for some reason this device lies in a box in a room that you have no knowledge of. The solution is to kick the boards from the opening and enter this mysterious room, even though you no reason to believe there should be anything useful in there.
3. Swapping the gun with a weight on the pedestal is not only unoriginal and a bit illogical (you'd expect them to have the technology to detect whether the gun is properly replaced) but it's also bad puzzle design to require one specific weight among many, with no way to work out the weight of the gun beforehand.

Other aspects of the gameplay left me a bit undecided. I really don't know what to make of the box-moving routine. I only ever used it to move one box a few meters to the side in order to stand on it and reach something, so in terms of actual puzzle design it's almost ludicrous, but then again it's harmless and kind of cute, and I guess should be seen as a nostalgic wink to the old platformer puzzles of the early '90s.

The shooting part has left critics divided, and while I didn't exactly dislike it, I couldn't help but finding it a bit generic and monotonous. It has Another World vibes to it, but it never gets varying or exciting enough.

The information finding mostly works well â€" Azriel uses various computers and databases to find names and places, and the UI's feel mostly authentic, with all the anachronistic retro-futuristic features you can't help but love (you can travel through space but you use huge wall-mounted computer terminals as diaries, instead of, say, a smartphone...).

The only downer here is that basically all the people and organisations I need to contact reside on the same block, and often in the same building, in a world that initially felt really big. The constant reuse of locales reduces the world size considerably, but it's also understandable that handpainted backgrounds need to be employed economically.

But let's return to the good stuff. Dramaturgically, what does GR do that works so well?

First of all, it establishes from the outset that there's a complex background plot, but you only need to focus on a rather straightforward objective. There's no information dump that the player needs to sort out and understand; instead we're served certain sparse keywords that paint the picture for us. Space colonies. A criminal organisation. A missing brother.

But before we need to be very concerned about the backdrop, we just have to rescue a certain Matthius.  An extraction mission. This makes it easy to dive into the game, and keeps you engaged.

After we've accomplished the first mission, and feel warmed up, it's time to open up the game world a bit. You're now less directed. This is when the game really becomes ”gamey” and in my opinion undergoes its weakest phase. Not only am I disappointed to re-appear on the exact same street (when I got away with the spacecraft, I expected to get a brand new area to explore) but I feel slightly confused as to what to do.

Let's leave Azriel there and take a look at the other main character. Here we have a very classic scenario â€" amnesia mixed with escape-the-prison. It's such a staple of the adventure game genre it's not even considered cliché â€" it's like saying shooting at gas barrels is a cliché in shooters; you just accept it as a genre idiosynchrasy, an ingrendient in the recipe.

GR gets away with this because a) it's only one of two game branches, and b) memory and identity are sort of the theme of the entire game, so it's only fitting.

Playing Delta-6 feels genuinely exciting, and I have this uneasy feeling in my stomach when I'm foreshadowed his fate. I want to escape, but I know it won't be easy.

The monitor voice does border on expositional, and especially being instructed how to move the box is just parodical. But that's forgivable.

Being able to switch between the characters doesn't add anything to the gameplay, and I'm not sure why you'd do this except for variation's sake. I didn't notice how anything in Azriels world could work as a clue in Delta-6's or vice versa.

The most engaging part of this stretch of the game is when we make friends in a hostile, cold environment. As a player I'm yearning for allies, but who can I trust? GR does this superbly.

Towards we end, it becomes clear why critics and players love GR so much. What we have here is a magnificent crescendo, a cinematic climax that most adventure game players must be starved of.

GR stacks twists and sentimental moments on each other in a manner that would make a normal movie appear a bit melodramatic, and a novel downright soppy. But this is a game, and it works wonderfully. Friends die, others escape in the nick of time, evil villains deliver existential speeches, it's just a perfect firework of cinematic devices and tropes.  The game ends and I'm left all emotional and worked up.

There's nothing truly profound going on here (”our identity isn't in our memories, it's in our experiences!” ... hm, ok. ”I could erase your memories, but there's one thing I couldn't erase â€" that's your conscience!”...) but it's cool because it's a game and doesn't have to be really philosophical, it's alright if it feels philosophical.

What lessons can we learn from this when designing a game? Here's my summary.
1. World building. The player needs to feel that they're looking into a complete universe, with all the conflicts, intrigues and things that are specific for that world.
2. Present information in short bits and pieces - don't inform the player how stuff works. The phrase ”show, don't tell” is a bit worn, but it's extremely important and GR utilizes it masterfully. Avoid exposition like the plague.
3. The background plot can be extremely complicated, but there has to be a straightforward objective for the player to focus on, at least initially. It's like in the Bourne movies â€" we have all these important-sounding phrases and concepts tossed around, but we don't need to understand them all at once, we just accept that the background plot is rich and complex. For now, all Bourne has to do is escape and survive.
4. Puzzles are secondary, especially traditional, lateral P&C puzzles. Apparently, most players today are fine with using a screwdriver to open a panel or a grate, and to perform other mundane tasks. When the game is mostly cinematic, the function of the puzzle is to slow down the pace and let the player feel like s/he is actually interacting with the game. In GR, the player doesn't really steer the game, s/he just decides at what pace the plot should progress. Knowing how it will end doesn't mean you can prevent it from happening.
5. Puzzles should be easy. Most modern players are fine with spending just a few minutes on each obstacle. Especially indie games can't afford having the player stuck for too long.
6. Make sure there's a rewarding climax. Many adventure games tend to be well done and thought out until it's time to finish them, at which point they stop being polished and rewarding, and we just get an outro-scene and then the credits. GR has a long, intense, exciting final ending that leaves you completely wrung out. It leaves nothing more to wish for.
7. Player influence is secondary. Instead of focusing on multiple paths and endings, make sure the one you've got is polished and full of content. A player is more concerned about actually completing the game than influencing its direction/ending. A good but pre-determined ending is better than a poor but player-chosen ending. Of course, combining the two may be even better, but waaay more difficult.

That was lengthy. Agree or disagree?

This topic has been moved to Beginners' Technical Questions.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49819.0