Messages

Reminds me of another Roderick.

Which one?

[Captain Downes and the Pirate Princess]

I've released my entry! (never thought I'd finish my entry it before slasher! )

Captain Downes and the Pirate Princess

Captain Roderick Downes is sailing the Baltic sea when he is boarded by pirates led by a local princess, and Roderick soon finds himself prisoner on his own ship.
He will have to escape using the things he can find in his cabinet of curiosities.

Here's the download link!

Nice!
Good one!

Thanks!

[Here's a link to the review!]

My game have just gotten a new review on the Plug/Play blog, so I thought I'd share it here.
Here's a link to the review!

I just tried it, and aside for a walkable area in the ruins not quite lining up with the background it was a decent short game.

[Best Character:]

Best Character: Adder, by JudasFm
Best Misfortune: JudasFm, because I just felt so sorry for Adder in the end
Best Atmosphere: JudasFm, the planet seems like a fascinating place
Best Writing: JudasFm
Best Unpredictability: JudasFm

It's always bothered me when people overuse acronyms while taking it for granted that everybody knows what they mean.

My game is playable from start to finish, but I'm worried it might be a bit short even for MAGS standards.

Yay, thank you so much for your votes everyone!

Interesting example Blondbraid. And just gave me a thought:

Perhaps one extra reason why they show the treasure trove in the background in the live action version is because it's an actual set they spent money on and want to show it off as much as possible to justify that. Whereas in the animated version it would have cost extra money to show it in the scene where it wasn't needed so, wisely, they did not.

But the problem is that most the backgrounds in the remake is CGI anyway, so it would still take time and money to animate, and there is no way to justify that terrible blue light that take away all depth and contrast from the image.

As for the original shot, it's still Disney. If they wanted more background detail, they could have afforded it. Making the background empty was a deliberate artistic choice.

If you're lamenting CG, the ballroom sequence of Beauty and the Beast (1991) is a strange choice. The backdrop is pretty famously CG:

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/25-years-ago-cg-secrets-ballroom-sequence-beauty-beast-145174.html

That's true, but the CGI is well integrated with the 2D animation, and more importantly, it's a good example
of different animation techniques combined to create a mood and artistic expression, and it's stylized to look magical
and fit the fairy tale tone, compared to the drab colors and poor design choices in the remake meant to be "realistic".

I never cared much for Disney anyway but I agree it's rather pointless to remake all their old back-catalogue in live action. I guess they don't have to pay any writers.

One Disney film I did like was Aladdin. I know they're remaking that, too. I'll definitely be interested to see how they do it but I won't be rushing out to watch it on the first night.

I really didn't like the teaser I saw for the Aladdin remake, it looked like it had all the same problems as the other remakes. For example, compare this shot in the trailer:

To the corresponding scene in the animated movie:

The cinematography in the above shot is simply terrible, everything is a cluttered mess and all is drenched in the same blue color,
making it hard to tell what is even going on. It honestly took me several seconds just to see where Aladdin's arms were because it was so busy.
Meanwhile, in the animated version, the camera is deliberately angled away from all the treasures in the background when Aladdin picks up the lamp,
because the lamp is the focus of the scene, and likewise, the colors of Aladdin and the lamp is clearly contrasted against the simple blue background.

So it's not just that the remakes are creatively bankrupt, but they actively ruin all the great visuals and cinematography of the originals too.

I don't think that Disney-thing is aiming to nostalgic, more to who don't like to watch an 20 years old cartoon. There are people that if a black and white movie runs on tv think it's broken!

Well, then it's their fault for missing out on some truly great films just because they are in a different format than what they're used to.
But the classic 2D cartoons still looks as beautiful as they were decades ago while 90% of all CGI effects in live action movies look dated five years later.
I get that not all people like animated movies, but can any sane person honestly say that this:

Looks better than this?

All the vibrant colors are drab in the remake and the beast looks like he's right in the uncanny valley,
while the original still looks like a storybook illustration brought to life.

It grinds my gears that Disney is churning out pointless live action remakes of their animated movies. Not only has all their remakes looked ugly, visually cluttered and even terrifying, because cute and pretty things in a simplistic cartoon-style doesn't automatically translate into cute and pretty in live action, but their single reason for existing is because they want to cash in on the nostalgia of people who loved the original movies but are too cowardly to admit that they love cartoons, so they need a suitable live-action substitute instead. It's the ridiculous mindset that live action movies with CGI are inherently more serious and grown up than animated movies on full display, despite all you'd need to see how insane that claim is to compare this movie clip to this clip.

If anyone wonders, my pitch was:

Spoiler

The other paperclip.
In hindsight, I guess my idea was too complicated for the word limit of the pitch. My main idea was partially inspired by The Shadow Out Of Time by Lovecraft,
but the focus would be exploring a city that was an amalgamation of various cultures and periods. As to answer the questions by Cassiebsg and Durinde,
the reason the aliens would use human labor to terraform the planet was because they decided it would be more resource effective and require less supervision
than their own technology, and being a long-lived species, making humans spend centuries working on a project wasn't considered a long time from their perspective. As for why they wold
want to study human scientists, they would be curious and want to learn technology adapted to different planets and cultures, and it would be strongly hinted that
humans wasn't the only species they had studied.

[close]

I'm glad you have not changed your graphical style Blondbraid.... It if works why change it?

I wonder what is in his cabinet of curiosities?

Thanks! Though I did try using a pre-made pattern on the protagonist's clothes this time, I hope it looks alright and isn't distracting.

All I can say about the cabinet though is that it contains some puzzle items and I'm worried giving away too much might spoil the gameplay.

These movie titles just look funny when placed next to each other:

Storyboarding (if any): I don't really do any storyboarding per se, most AGS projects I've worked hon haven't needed any
Paint Backgrounds: Firealpaca, since it's almost as good as photoshop, but free and doesn't take nearly as long to start up
Make Sprites: Firealpaca
Make Animations: Firealpaca, using the onion skin mode
Sound Effects: Whatever free ones I can find
Music: Royalty free music from the web

Like what the others have already said, I fail to see how this could be profitable.
While some old school gamers still prefer physical copies, I don't think I'm alone in the
sentiment that digital distribution is simply more convenient for developer and costumer alike,
and more environmentally friendly as it eliminates the need for plastic and paper packages and
the emissions created by transporting them.

Personally, I barely even buy physical games anymore since whenever I want to play a game, it's just som much
easier to play it directly on one's pc than digging through the shelves looking for a disc, and most game stores
don't even have most games I want available, just the top ten AAA games that's trendy just now.

And even if you really, really want a physical package with the game, wouldn't it just be so much easier to
offer a printout and let players print the package out on paper, transfer the game to a blank disc at home,
and then put together their own package?

[Click here to take a look!]

Commissar's Contrapasso is now also available on itch.io.
Click here to take a look!

I do hope you all like the custom background I made for the game page!

[Jason and the Golden Apple]

I've played all the entries and here are my thoughts:
Jason and the Golden Apple by Slasher

Spoiler

The puzzles are alright, but the story wasn't that funny and mostly just random stuff happening. The different art assets were all poorly fitted together with bits missing, though reinterpreting Jason as an Orc was an interesting choice.

[close]

Sweet Mythery by Vampire Wombat

Spoiler

There was some good art and potentially fun story, but it was too short and unfinished to make much of an impression.

[close]

Here Be No Sirens by Kastchey

Spoiler

I liked the art and story and the one item puzzling was fun. It's the entry I ended up voting for.

[close]