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I've been trying to hunt down the reason, but I've often noticed that threads I clicked on still show up as new. I've just not figured out why, as I can't reproduce it consistently. Possibly has something to do with my constant new-tab opening each forum page.

Yes

I just recently finished it as well (when I got it off one of the recent humble bundles)!

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.

I found that place by searching for it in the city'd database, so I wouldn't say it is random, just a bit conveniently coincidental that it just happens to be in the same line block as everything else you need to reach.
But yeah, I'd agree with you that puzzles aren't really what made Gemini Rue great.

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.

I kinda felt the opposite. I was bored and uninterested with the Delta-6 branch, and avoided it as much as I could (only switched over when I was stuck and couldn't proceed).

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.

I was a bit pulled out of it when I was suddenly explicitly hit over the head with "this is the philosophy!" at that point. Might've worked better to simply hint at the idea in conversation.

I can't disagree with most of your points, but I'm not sure about relegating gameplay interactivity (in the form of puzzles) and player agency and influence to secondary roles. I mean, they certainly work in some games, and Gemini Rue is a great game, but I can't say if that is in spite of, or because of giving those parts less importance. I've often been a critic of how puzzles are used in modern adventure games (and I had to use a walkthrough for a couple of bits in this one), but I always found myself drawn in more into games where the player has an actual visible effect on the world, being able to change it to benefit them or their goal, rather than being lead along a prefixed story by the nose.

Does this mean you'll finally complete it?!

I'm sorry I don't have it, I downloaded the demo ages ago, don't think it was copied when I switched drives. I thought it might be in the AGS Archives, but it seems no such luck. I know that the one I had was called "giftofaldora.zip", according to an old file list of AGS demos. I'm sure one of the AGS game hoarders will have a copy lying around somewhere, you'll just have to wait for them to show up.

So...welcome back?

Happy birthday, m0dulatorzz!

This is more just a simple question than any problem I've been having, although if it is as it seems, it really should be noted as such somewhere.

I know you can have animated cursors, and I know you can have inventory item cursors, and I know you can set a specific sprite for the inventory item hotspot marker, but is there a way to have animated inventory item cursors directly through AGS? Like you have an animation of the item glowing when it is over a hotspot, or perhaps have the crosshairs hotspot marker sprite animated.

I know one could easily code animated inventory item cursors in the script itself (and I know how to do that), but that is not what I am asking.

There is no rule, as far as I know, that you cannot post your game in the Completed Games Announcement section, or in the games DB if it is only a non-english language. There are several games in the DB and the forums that are non-english only.

Happy SSHDay, wherever you are!

preferably Software Engineering.

You poor fool!

I'm a bit confused. Are we talking specifically about Primordia here? Why all surreptitious about it?

As I see it, I don't find any issue with a game being added to the DB even years later, to allow eligibility. It's a bit odd to do, but whatever. I also support the idea that games wishing to be eligible for the AGS awards need to be in the DB, and they'll be considered for the year they were put in. It's on the game's creators whether they want to or not.

I'm also feeling that I agree with LimpingFish's idea of only allowing commercial games to be eligible for the Best Commercial Game award. The other option would be to have a "Commercial" version of every award, and that just wouldn't be feasible.

Speaking of trimming the award categories, here are the voted categories from last year:
    Best Game Created with AGS
    Best Gameplay
    Best Original Story
    Best Dialogue Writing
    Best Puzzles
    Best Short Game
    Best Demo
    Best Non-Adventure Game Created with AGS
    Best Player Character
    Best Non-Player Character
    Best Background Art
    Best Character Art
    Best Animation
    Best Programming
    Best Tutorial or Documentation
    Best Sound Effects
    Best Music
    Best Voice Work

I'm curious about the voter turnout. I realise AGS usually has it low for the awards in general, and there are many who champion the more obscure awards (Best Tutorial or Documentation, for example), but if we had something like less than 10 votes for a certain category, maybe we can skip it? And perhaps combine some of them as well?

Nope, you're right, it happens with me too.

I always thought of Pick of the Month as a sort of showcase of cool games you might've missed when they came out, or that may have slipped through the cracks, so I don't see why The Bunker should be too old to be acceptable.
In the same vein, a pretty short game that I'd suggest: Captain Cringe

When you click any of the "Rated 0" games, it shows that it was not rated yet. So that, I guess? Or maybe the length, content advisory and genre was set, but not yet the cup rating itself.

You're too late, Adeel, you already missed it. Maybe you can get one next year

But...why would anyone voluntarily eat brussel sprouts? There are people on earth who actually find them tasty?
They're like...soggy, buttery lumps of sock!

Hmmmm....Robert Graves wrote many poems about his experiences in the First World War. Not sure how much more serious you can get than that.

I guess that would be one way to search out stuff you're interested in. Google things like '"World War two" poet' or '"Cold war" poet', specific to the subject.

Don't worry, you didn't. Technically, there's still about 12 hours to go before the 24 hours period following the time of my birth elapses.

Thanks for the wishes, everyone!

I also found the 2nd key working. Now installing The Cat Lady (will get to it after Gemini Rue).
Lets see if this will be the first horror game that actually horrors me.

DGMacphee is on #AGS regularly enough.

Interesting interview too!

I haven't changed any of my firefox settings, and so far it seems only AGS is like this, but the text in the forum list and topic list seems to have bloated up. The forum names and topic starters seem to be the same size, but the topic names and Replies/Views have increased in size. Is it just me?