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The first Bake Sale game I've completed!  Well, besides the one I had to complete for the Bake Sale....  
I thought this game was outright hilarious, with a fast pace that never let the player wonder what was on the other channel.  In particular I liked the father-in-law sequence and Stephan's walk-cycle -loads of fun.  I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to exact any vengeance on THAT DAMN BIRD, but I guess that leaves room for a second season. 

Excellent work!

There's a song by that name, by Jon Gomm -- who actually visited said Kalisz two years ago (and with whom I had a drunken conversation).

Did the fact that Mr. Gomm's guitar is held together with duct tape come up at all in this afore-mentioned conversation? 

It ain't high-res.  It just looks that way.... 

Haha!  The AI tic-tac-toe opponent is too hard for me....   I'm still figuring out half the levels, but my best score so far is 40K.  Maybe if I drink a little beer the other half of the levels will make more sense....

But How Soon Is Now?

Soon enough to lock this thread!

Completed Game Announcement

[Blue Lobe Inc.]

Baronic Games is proud to present the release of....

Blue Lobe Inc.



Three daring AGS entrepreneurs start up their own commercial indie label in their parents' basement in this zany web-comic/sit-com/adventure-game!  Join Lazarus (the writer/musician), Mothra (the coder) and Cuddles (the artist) as they struggle manfully against the myriad of setbacks that beset their project.  Will they be able to scavenge enough coffee to fuel the completion of their project demo?  Will Lazarus be able to salvage his inspiration to finish the soundtrack?  Will the group be able to beat off the negative publicity generated by internet trolls?   Find out more than you wanted to know about these questions and more in this thrilling peek into the adventure-game creating process!

Features:

-Fully voiced by full AGSers!
-Playable pixel game demo!
-Professional quality soundtrack!
-Irreverent adventure game humour!
-Obscure references to adventure game classics!
-Voice cameos by AGS A-listers!
-A full hour of gameplay!
-Deloused and debugged by experienced beta testers!

This game is part of the AGS Bake Sale II Bundle, which is fundraising to defray the costs of the AGS server.  Eager players should head on over there and....

Download Now!

Edit November 2015:  I kinda forgot to release this to the general public after the Bake Sale rights lapsed, so... here it is!

[now!]

What does soon means?

It means now! 

Soon, my pretties....  Soon..... 

Play it once, Sam....

Ah, the two greatest words in the English language: default!  The Bard himself would be impressed....

Congratulations on getting this out on time, Radiant!  Hopefully someone will come through with a bit of competition for us. 

[Best Character:]

Well, I guess it falls to me to break the tie.  I was impressed with the writing in both stories, and am a little disappointed that they haven't garnered a larger audience.  But then I guess this is a bit of lefty-hippy anti-capitalist corner of the internet where such a materialistic topic would never be popular.    Anyway,  I have a few entrepreneurial suggestions for both of our contributors:

   I definitely think that Sinitrena should compile all of her short stories in the same world together into at least a virtual novel and try to distribute it on the internet.  I'm not well-read enough in the genre to say authoritatively, but I can't ever recall a stand-alone fantasy novel that was just a collection of short stories in the same world, with the occasional common thread/character popping up here and there.  Who knows, you might be on to something!  
     
     While Sinitrena's work borders on the epic, Fitz's would definitely fit better in a gentlemen's magazine.  It used to be that you could say with a straight face that you were just interested in the articles in the afore-mentioned magazines: I'm not sure how plausible that would be now that most nude pictures are online, but perhaps you could try pitching your story to a porn site as a way of making it a little more classy? 

    And now to the difficult job of actually determining a winner.  This was tough, but in the end I came up with:

Best Character: Fitz for Hubba Hubba.  I liked Sinitrena's Silent One, but he was already created for a previous contest, and while her other characters were well-fleshed out archetypes (Claissa was the pure and true heroine, Jahm the wayward innocent, Vallene the jaded busybody), they weren't especially complex.  Hubba Hubba, on the other hand, was at the same time repulsive and seductive, needy and independent, weak and strong.  It was also clever how she became idealized as the symbolic Earth-Mother, whose malproportioned figurines have been discovered throughout pleistocene humanity's encampments.
   
Best Plot: Sinitrena.  Once again you expertly wove seemingly unrelated threads into a compelling tale.

Best Atmosphere: Sinitrena: Your descriptions of the fisherman's hovel and town really made me feel the places.

Best Setting: Fitz for the base primitiveness of his human society.  I doubt humanity was ever really as boorish as you make them out to be, but playing out these stereotypes is still fun!  I liked Sinitrena's world probably equally as much, but again as it's recycled from previous sessions I have to give the edge to Fitz.

Best Word Choice/Style: Again a tough one to call, but I'm going to say Fitz by a whisker.  I really enjoyed his technical analysis of the female anatomy: Mammary glands seemed to be of special significance. A pair of big, round honka honkas guaranteed its proud owner a chance at reproduction. It is noteworthy that roundness seemed secondary to size -- and symmetry came third.

Cleverest Business Idea of Yore: Again tough.  Claissa was a reluctant entrepreneur who basically had to be shoved into the role through magic and a lot of very obvious hinting, while Hubba Hubba was more of an inventor than a business woman who probably would have preferred for her ideas not to disseminate.  I guess I'll give it to Fitz, half because if I give it to Sinitrena we'll end up with a tie again, but half because Hubba Hubba had the more daring spirit to experiment with new things in order to improve her lot in life.

  And so, it seems as if Fitz has the honour of being awarded this fortnight's highest honour, the Golden Coin:

  ...While Sinitrena receives a silver piece much as those described in her story:

Congratulations to both of you!  And don't spend your winnings all in one place. 

   And thus it falls to Fitz to start the next competition.  I for one look forward to writing again instead of just judging.  And maybe that enthusiasm will prove infectious, bringing more writers back into the fold for the next exciting instalment of....

The Fortnightly Writing Competition!

ooWEEEEooo.... WEEooooo oh!

I'm hearing those marching guys that guard the Wicked Witch's castle, but maybe that's just me.

Er.... GLURP!

[Sinitrena]

It is with a heavy heart that I hereby close the competition with only two entries.  For your consideration, we have:

Sinitrena with Little Dove
Fitz with LinGRRRRie

As usual we will vote by categories.  You can vote up to twice per category (but no more than twice!), on condition that your total votes do not balance perfectly (ie there must be at least a slight winner!).  The categories are:

Best Character: You find one or several characters extra believable/captivating/magnetic/unique, etc.
Best Plot: The story arc was well-organized, coherent, and well-executed with appropriate pacing; basically the best story.
Best Atmosphere: This is all about feeling: did the story evoke strong feelings due to excitement/humour/intrigue/wonder/emotional intensity?
Best Setting: The best background world or milieu for a story; a place brought to life.
Best Word Choice/Style: The technical art of combining words in clever or gripping ways.
Cleverest Business Idea of Yore: Given the parameters of the world created by the author, in which idea would you invest your precious gold pieces?

Voting will be open until midnight April 25, by which time I should be able to cobble together some trophies.  Enjoy the stories, and good luck to both participants!

Nice!  And I'm not just talking about the pictures!  

There are still about 24 hours to contribute, if you're interested (*cough* Ponch *cough*).

For Ponch, as well as the silent masses yearning to contribute to this competition but who are too shy to admit it, I am extending the deadline by four days.  Enjoy the long weekend, and don't forget to get some writing done!

Dude, that's the perfect time to write some crazy weird stuff!   I'll extend if you don't meet the deadline.

YAY SINITRENA!

  I've also got a few more YAYs saved up for other potential entrants, so get those stories in before the deadline two days hence!

Unfortunately, I'm moving in about a week so I don't have the time to submit something worthy.

That's still four days away!  Just write something! 

AGS has made me a stronger person.  Without the siren lure of its creative potential, I would probably just laze around watching tv or gambling in my leisure time.  Instead, I martial those few spare moments into something that I -and usually only I, but sometimes other too -can call productivity, and that makes me feel like I've accomplished something in a day.  And that's how I get that feel-good vibe, can you dig it?

Miguel, we're at at least +4 by now!

On topic, I have nothing against a bit of market research, but I don't think your results will be very meaningful.  Like Lincoln might have said: you simply can't please all of the people all of the time.  So I would do one of two things, if you want your game to be well-received:

1) Pick a specific group to aim it at (advantage being you could follow in the path blazed by other successful developers, but disadvantage being trying to differentiate your game as unique).

2) Make the kind of game you would like to play (advantage being that your passion and enthusiasm will show through, disadvantage being that you might be a weird guy with very eccentric tastes that nobody shares ).

I'm going to go with the crowd here and say follow your heart, but if you're determined to do this rationally at least pick option #1: no one wants to play a statistically popular game 19 times out of 20.