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Anyone else having a problem getting his video to load?  Tried 3 browsers and it won't load. Says it's unavailable.

EDIT: Nevermind.  Musta been a Youtube hiccup.

As exciting as ever!

So at the end of the travel video there's a couple frames of something...  Took a screen grab, dropped it into Photoshop, adjusted the levels and VIOLA!  A very low-quality image of Nepal!

I hope Quo and Jandomer don't mind...  I'll remove the screengrab if they do.  But for the time being, here's a low-quality peek at Nepal!

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/TheResidentAlien/Untitled-3.png

Just grabbed it.  Been wanting to try Gemini Rue for awhile...

Now hopefully I can actually find the time.  Also grabbed the Humble Bundle.  But I start my new job on Monday... so time just became a little more precious.

Some good looking games in this mix, though!  Very excited.

Looking astounding, Jandemor!

Ah, I grow more and more excited for this project as it moves along!

It's definitely not Stuff Stephanie.  I own that atrocity...  It's not nearly as competently photographed as whatever that still is...

Not sure yet...

Heh... this is the second time you updated just as I was considering sending you a PM... 

Looking great!  How far along would you say you are?

Game developers have been learning all the wrong lessons from the adventure games of the past, and The Dig is no exception when it comes to a game that people glean all the wrong positives and negatives from. The greatest aspect of the adventure game, arguably, is exploration. Every single bit of the design of the Dig is suited toward exploration of a new, alien world. A world that doesn't operate under typical human thought, but an alien thought. A mode of thought that must be pieced together in order to understand it and thus survive. The Dig is a great example of fabulous design. Exploration isn't about convenience, but the adventure game of today typically is. That's why we've got games like Back to the Future that run on convenience and little to no exploration. Puzzles are part of the discovery and the progression, but a good adventure game is all about giving the player freedom to explore. That's why so many older games with "too many verbs" and text adventures are so great to me. They give more options to explore. Yes, this makes design tougher and sometimes it can fall apart. But it's better than what we've got now, because what we've got now doesn't get the core of the genre. Games like Indigo Prophecy and The Last Express are incredible because they have a plethora of options available to the player, and thus more freedom to explore your environment and the possibilities therein. A one click- two click interface is restrained and lazy. The Last Express ran on schedules, leading to a feeling of unpredictability, which made exploring its environment dangerous and thrilling. Gold Rush, for me, is one of the greatest adventure games ever made by this logic. It's also one of the most difficult, but it's by no means impossible.

Bingo.

That's why I still love the classic adventure titles.

I picked up Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings recently, and aside from the fact that it's glitchy and disappointingly designed, it also offers absolutely no exploration.  Everything is linear.  At least it has Fate of Atlantis as a bonus title...  Of course that's now the 4th copy I own of Fate of Atlantis, so perhaps that didn't justify the purchase.

I really much prefer a title that challenges me to unlock its secrets.  I like waking up in the middle of the night with a eureka moment.  And I feel that's something that's altogether lost in many contemporary titles.  But The Dig nails that aesthetic brilliantly.  I played it for the first time just a little over a year ago when I bought it in the Steam pack everyone's discussing (a PC and a Mac CD-ROM of FOA account for the other two copies I own).  It took me about a week to play through it.  It was fully engrossing because I felt like I was truly lost.  It captures the sensation of a foreign situation and having to adapt to the situation.  It's this level of immersion that your standard game is just missing.  It's one thing to challenge the dexterity of one's thumbs, but to have my mind challenged is what I truly appreciate.

The Dig? That game sucks. It requires too much logical thought, ingenuity, and stuff like trial and error. I hate puzzles which take time to realize the mechanics of in order to find a solution. That makes my brain hurt. I want quick, easy puzzles that I can get done NOWWWW!!!!!! Instead of spending two days to a week on a puzzle, I want to be able to finish it in several minutes, because otherwise it breaks up the experience and the pacing. Oh wait, that's the kind of stuff stupid morons say. Adventure games aren't movies, you dickless swine.

[goes back to playing Gold Rush, another great adventure game most people don't play because it makes them sprain their vaginas]

You had me very worried there until that last sentence...

Oh man, I'm salivating.  Love the style.

nice work on all the mini games, but if we added up all the time wasted releasing mini games then the actual game could probably have been finished by now.

Yeah.  They're fun to play and I'm grateful of the the hard work the team puts into them.  But I'd be just as satisfied with one yearly screenshot from the full game in lieu of these releases if it meant the full game would release sooner.

Such attention to detail, Quo!  Love it!

You including the "love you" lashes and the kid putting the apple on the desk too?

...I can almost picture an apple as a great item for some such puzzle later on in the game.  Sorta like the spoiled mayo in FOA.

LOOK AT APPLE
"Hey, there's a worm in here!"
*Worm added to inventory*
USE WORM WITH FISHING HOOK
"That does the trick, now to lower it down..."

...or something...

Probably the scene from the novel.  There's a scene in Germany where Belloq meets with Hitler that's in the novel.

Have you seen Forrestal?

Thanks for the hint, but I must admit I have no idea who or what Forrestal is.
I am not feeling to clever over here now .

Well perhaps this will help shine some light onto things for you...

One question-- what was the purpose of the first screen with the split-trunked tree and the branch?

As I watched the whole movie again to find out what to do with the damned carved paving Stone, I found out that it is not a part of the movie, but all the backgrounds are really close to the movie. So guess who is running from the hovitos in this screenshot from the movie.

EDIT BY DARTH - PLEASE DON'T QUOTE WHOLE IMAGES ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S THE PREVIOUS POST!

I don't know why the bushes next to the man with the hat look like a lion attacking him though. So if anyone can help me out with the carved paving stone I'd be thankful.

Spoiler

I already put it into the loom but Indy just looked around and nothing happened...

[close]

Cool!

As to your question...  Here's the solution...

Spoiler

Look at the stone while in the room with the light.  You'll then be able to turn the stone over using a kind of difficult to find hotspot on the side of the stone.

[close]

Suggestion for Jandomer and Quo...

For the turn-over hotspot that everyone's struggling with... how about a simple interface on the image to make it implicitly clear where to click, such as an arrow to click on?

(And I'm stuck at the beam of light .)

Look very closely at an item in your inventory.

As I said before, the hot spot on this item is a bit hard to find...

- the phrase "let's leave it" feels wrong to me... I'm guessing it should be translated to "Let's go"

That's my fault. It was no easy process doing the translation of the translation. I don't know who did the first translation (spanish -> english) but it mostly seemed to be done via google-translator (sorry, I don't want to offend somebody, it just looked like that). So to understand the logic behind these sentences, I had to play the game in Spanish and retranslate most of the English lines. So it could be possible that there are one or two lines, which I forgot and don't seem right/appropriate.


All in all, it was really nice to be able to help creating such a wonderful game and bring in some new ideas that, apparently, got realised   And, if you want, I would continue my work as translator and "idea-creator" () on the full game.

Yes, I had the same problem with the first demo.  Quo gave it to me already translated (which was great, since I don't speak any Spanish) and just asked me to fix up the syntax.  But that was a headache!  It was a large part of why it took so long, to say nothing of the fact that it was a busy time for me...


Thanks for working on the translation!

One question-- what was the purpose of the first screen with the split-trunked tree and the branch?

[Some nitpicky stuff]

Nice little demo.  I particularly liked the music!

Some nitpicky stuff:

- the open screens (the company logo and the fan community graphics) are on the screen a LONG time and are unskipable (made me think something had gone wrong)

- It is a tad bit tedious to have to wait for the secondary characters all the time (watch them walk) at  the begining of the demo (you walk off the screen, then Sapito follows, then Barranca) it really slows down the game play

- the phrase "let's leave it" feels wrong to me... I'm guessing it should be translated to "Let's go"

All-in-all I liked the feel of it and think it's off to a great start!  Keep up the good work team!

Yeah, I agree with all three points.



Jandemor-- if you would like, I will fix the minor syntax errors for you.  This time, I promise I can be MUCH faster than on the first demo.    ...of course there's relatively little that needs fixing this time through.

Pretty good.  Didn't take too long to finish.

There are some minor syntactical errors.  There is one line of text that I noticed wasn't translated at all.  Also, I question the point of labeling random walls and parts of the jungle that one can't interact with.  Kinda clutters things.  And some things (the sand for instance) aren't motivated as well as they might be.  If you've seen the movie, it's obvious.  But one would expect not to have to follow the film to solve the puzzles.  My only other critique is that the hotspot to flip the two stones over is kind of hard to find.


But all in all, very very good!  Enjoyed it-- felt like 1994 all over again.