Messages

[my]

Just wanted to add that so far this seems like a perfect game to play with young ones - my 8 year-old has been thoroughly enjoying it and laughing herself silly at some of the things she's tried to do and the responses the game gives her! 

Annoyingly, she has also developed a vice-like grip on the mouse when it's "her turn" to play games on my PC... I wonder where she gets that from... 


Finished it - good story and a very melancholy ending. Nice puzzles, lovely graphics and great choice of music tracks. Well done mate!

> Inspect flattened area in case the cause isn't simply natural causes as you thought

> inspect sister's car. Try opening the doors and popping the trunk.
+2

Spoiler

Hope you recover soon buddy!

[close]

Exactly how much leeway do we have in interpreting the rule for "modern day." I have an idea, but it's definitely more of a mid to late 90s vibe. Which to me, as an old person, the 90s feel rather modern-ish.

I'd say anything 20th or 21st century is fine 

Glad people like the topic 

If anyone wants a hand with puzzle design / dialogue or something I'd be up for helping, won't have time for anything more in-depth this month.

As always with your games, this looks great! Though I am greatly disappointed by the brevity of your game title. 

[The Corruption Within]

Indeed, it is The Corruption Within, me being a little sneaky as I was the writer / designer for that game.

Not Mad Dog. Much, much more recent.

Here's another screenshot:

A new build has been uploaded to fix a small issue with the menu screen and add a congratulatory screen when you complete all 100 levels. The demo has also been updated to fix an issue which was preventing the configuration tool from launching correctly (thanks Kitty Trouble for reporting that).

https://captaind.itch.io/snow-problem


Only 17 days till the game is released on Steam if you were waiting to get it there!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2097090/Snow_Problem/

[The Potion Master]

Thanks to everyone who voted for The Potion Master! Hopefully we will be able to build it into a bigger, more polished game at some point, circumstances permitting.

Big props to GOC Games and Slasher for two great entries 

I knew I recognised that screen and Will Shakespeare pushed me in the right direction! 

I played it many years ago but at the time I thought it was the most impressive freeware adventure game I'd ever seen. Pretty sure I never completed it though and was never quite sure if the "insert disk" message you got at one part of the game was a joke or because the game wasn't actually finished?!

Anyway let's see if anyone knows this one...

Hmm... Ozzy Mandril and the Quantum Playwright? I may not have got the name quite right.

I just "made" these with Nightcafe. I think they look pretty cool

Indeed, they look pretty good.

Not THAT far from being usable IMO

I think the difficulty would be not just getting a scene but also getting the viewpoint / perspective that you want, although this could possible be achieved to some extent by judicious cropping.

>Reminisce about past adventures with your sister

Ow wow haven't logged into my GameJolt account for months... years maybe. Will take a look.

Looks very interesting, as I thought from the trailer in a different post.

I just typed a long-winded question about how you would know what nouns could be used and realised that you already provided the answer by saying you would have to take your own notes!  Truly old-school.

Just to add my two pennies, trying if possible not to just cover the same ground as others...

- It is *possible*, but that doesn't in any way mean it is likely that you will make a decent amount of money even if you make a really good game. I know of indie devs who are commercially successful, but they are very much in the minority (and I don't include myself in the "successful" category even though technically I have made a small profit, if I count all of the time and effort from myself and others as free).
- If you want to make any money at all, you need to make sure you that start building your audience from day one. Be active on social media, forums, etc, and mention your game often. This is more difficult than it sounds - maintaining motivation to keep plugging your game, perhaps after months of hard development without anything really new or "wow" to show for it (in terms of your marketing efforts), can feel pretty soul-destroying. What Dave said about making small - possibly free - games first is a great way to start to find your audience, but you really do have to keep plugging your game(s) all the time.
- Ind devs are famous for under-pricing their games. I've never really seen any convincing evidence that "cheaper games sell more" - and I did kind of start off with that impression myself. Bear in mind that for the vast majority of devs, after launch week, your game will seldom sell apart from when it's discounted. So if you price your game low, you give yourself very little scope to offer a decent discount and still make anything.
- You absolutely need to be on Steam to sell decent numbers, but being on Steam will not in itself generate sales. You still need to do it all yourself unless you are very fortunate. So whatever price you're looking at, you need to factor in the $100 Steam Direct fee (albeit you will get this back if you hit $1000 in sales) and the 30% cut Steam take.  I think there's also a small percentage taken as payment processing fees which may vary depending on the country of purchaser.
- Once you create your game, if you have established relationships with reviewers / streamers etc, you can get a few reviews pretty quickly. However review sites and steamers are constantly bombarded with new requests so long waits are common; non-responses from people you don't already know even more common. A dev I know recently spoke of sending out a couple of thousand review requests and receiving less than a dozen responses.


Anyway hope you find these comments of some use. I look forward to seeing what you create, whether commercial or free! 

[State of Mind]

State of Mind

Spoiler

Very nice entry as always by Slasher, a short and sweet game but a lot of fun and very well in keeping with the theme. Definitely the most feel-good entry! I very much enjoyed building up the good vibes in this game.

[close]

Cutman

Spoiler

Wow... the tension I felt playing this game was intense! I'm not a fan of boxing but still got drawn right into this very clever concept. Being able to save between rounds was very much appreciated. The boxing animations were really well done too.

[close]

Two great entries, but my vote goes to...

Spoiler

Cutman, because it does something rather unique and does it very, very well.

[close]

Linux version now available on Itch as well:
https://captaind.itch.io/the-potion-master-mags-version

[https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2629-the-potion-master-mags-version-/]

This game was created for the MAGS August 2022 gamejam by Kastchey and myself.

A short but somewhat challenging point-and-click game with a fantasy setting, based on the theme of "Healing". You play the apprentice of a potion master who is near death after an experimental potion causes catastrophic results. (There may be the odd bug since we didn't have time to do much testing.)

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2629-the-potion-master-mags-version-/

We are looking at possibly expanding this into a much larger game in the future.

STOP USING ME AS A BRAND!!  You'll put people off 

Game page is up: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2629-the-potion-master-mags-version-
Main download now on Itch: https://captaind.itch.io/the-potion-master-mags-version

I feel like someone who created a basic cake recipe, someone else collated all the ingredients, mixed them, baked and decorated the care, and is now trying to give me credit for that cake.

It's Kastchey's cake, people. Eat it. It's good.

Also, don't experiment with potions in real life, it's almost definitely bad for you.