Messages

I'm questioning whether adventure games actually need the look function.  Ask yourself if it's ever actually useful in your game.  Other than comedy games where the game has genuinely funny responses for everything, I'm trying to come up with an example of a game that actually made good use of a look at function.  I guess it could be a chance to demonstrate the character's "voice".  You learn about the character by the way he/she sees his/her surroundings.  But how many games pull that off well?

Some games actually require you to examine something before you can interact with it.  I can't name one off the top of my head, but I'm sure I've seen that mechanic before.  Interestingly enough, it often frustrates me.  I feel like I already knew what I had to do, but the game wouldn't let me do it until I had the character look at it first.

I'm pretty sure The Book of Unwritten Tales did that.

Oh, I don't need a full list, my point is that LMB=look is relatively rare. So doing it like that "because lots of other games do" is not a strong argument here.

Don't worry, I wouldn't have done it just because other games did anyway!

Whilst I know a lot of games use the Right Mouse Button = Interact, LMB=Look,

I don't think I've ever seen a game that does it this way. Could you name some of those games you refer to?

Off the top of my head I think Deep Silver's games - Secret Files, Lost Horizon - used that, and AstroLoco: Worst Contact.  I'm sure there are others - Ceville possibly, but I'd have to check.  I'll try to give you a proper list later, can't remember them all atm.

Maybe it just doesn't matter - I mean, you do pretty much get used to whatever interface you're using at the time - I even learned to live with that horrible verb coin in The Curse of Monkey Island... but:

Our dev team can't seem to agree on this.  Whilst I know a lot of games use the Right Mouse Button = Interact, LMB=Look, to me that has always felt the wrong way round - I MUCH prefer LMB=Interact, RMB=Look.

Does anyone else have a preference?  Do you actually care which way round it is?  I can't exactly explain why I favour one method so strongly over the other, but my mind will never accept RMB=Interact as being "right".

Tentacle cutting is WRONG!

But other than that, this looks really cool.

Cat - I really love the design of yours. 

The others are great too - I just particularly like that game and the way your design brings out the solitude and darkness of the game.

Latest screenshots (some WiP):













































This is most of the locations from Act I and all of the indoor locations in Act II (you will be controlling the ship itself for half of it - exciting or what?! )

We're closing in on getting Act I fully finished, delayed a little as we ended up deciding to add a couple of puzzles / mini-games.  Our testers have had a preliminary look at the build and I'm a little nervous as to what they might have found!

BTW if anyone here runs a blog and would like to be put on a list to get a preview version of just Act I, please PM mew.  It would be nice to get some early coverage of what people think of the first part of the game while we create the rest of it.

@bentibbetts - thanks!  Hope you enjoyed it.

Just want to clarify in case anyone is confused - this freeware game is only set in the same game universe as the commercial games and features some of the same characters, including of course the main character.  Dark Side features my very own bad graphics, whereas the commercial games will feature much better graphics by much better artists then me, be fully voiced, and of course be a lot longer.  (I'm proud of this little game though! )

1 -

Spoiler

Drum made of cow hide

[close]

Okay, here's one that will either be painfully easy, painfully difficult, or somewhere in between...

Crikey.

I have a weird idea this is something I saw recently for the first time in decades... Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

[Monte Carlo or Bust]

If not The Great Race, maybe Monte Carlo or Bust?

Spindle?

BTW the second one in my list was not answered.

Oops... that was:

2. Claws like a cat,
Crooked as a snake's hiss.
Patch together your guesses.
You won't guess this.

(No idea what the answer is.)

Still no idea I'm afraid!

Something to do with a "fork" in the road maybe?

[jwalt]

Wow, tough... well , Meiz's entry is absolutely beautiful, but I really love jwalt's idea and use of the shape, so I'm voting for jwalt this time.

Raspberry Jam Sleepover Party?

Serious, that looks revolting.  Looks a bit like Final Fight or something along those lines, but with much more gore. Yuk.

Great stuff KB!  Hope it all goes well.  I'm proud to have played a part in the game too, even if my part was much smaller than frenzykitty's small part. 

Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders?