Messages

Hi everyone!  Sorry for the bump.  Just an update.  Two games have already signed on the dotted line with us, with two more possibly doing the same.  We are still looking for more, so if you've got anything, drop us a line.

Hi all!  We're about to release Gemini Rue in German with a German publisher, and the one thing they need is the winsetup.exe file translated into German.  Is that something we can change on our own?  Or is there a German version of winsetup.exe floating around?  We'd need it for version 3.2.1.111.

Thanks to anybody who can help!

-Dave

It doesn't have to be necessarily about BAM BOOM in the first five seconds. You can definitely do a lot with a slower paced opening - but it still has to be engaging right from the get-go.  Many modern adventure games (including some of my own) have long, drawn-out introductions with lots of dialog and believe that to be immersive.  It's not.  Give the player control as soon as humanly possible, immerse them in a world, and make it worth exploring. 

This is especially true for modern games, where you typically download a demo (or one-hour trial) for free.  Back in the "old days", a player would be more willing to give it a try even if it didn't interest them at first, because they would have paid hard cash before seeing one pixel of it.  But now?  There is zero investment in downloading a free demo.  So if it doesn't interest a player then there's no reason to play it further, let alone purchase it.

If you're making a series, I much prefer the Blackwell/Bourne school of naming (looking forward to The Blackwell Ultimatum  ) as opposed to just 1, 2, 3.

The problem with this is that it screws up the games' order when they are listed anywhere.    "Convergence" comes before "Legacy", which comes before "Unbound."  The upcoming "Deception" will only add to the muddle.

When I first started selling commercial games I experimented quite a bit.  I once wrote about it at length on my blog, but I've always found $14.99 to be the sweet spot for my games.  People will inevitably complain that it's too expensive, but whenever I sell games for less I always make less money.

This is an interesting subject!  And a huge point of contention with me. Things have changed so much in the last ten years.  It used to be that you expected the first hour or two of gameplay to be the most boring part.  You explore, you learn about the world, everything builds up, and THEN stuff starts to happen and it all pays off.  Now?  You've got maybe 5 minutes to make an impression before the players goes "Bleh, bored" and switches games.

Of course, back then you probably already bought the game and were already invested.  In this modern era of one-hour trial demos, you really have to get the player hooked in order to get them to pay.

SAVE GAME!!

This is fun.

Hide under the desk, point the gun at the door, and wait.

This looks AMAZING, guys.  Can't wait to see it in action.

Thanks!  I think it mostly has to do with that the actors are standing up and can really use their diaphragm to emote properly.  It's especially apparently during the more "intense" dialog exchanges.  With the headset mic, they'd usually sit down and speak quieter than normal to avoid peaking out! 

Speaking of which, I recorded the last lines of both Joey and Rosa today.  Now I just have to record... well, everybody else.

-Dave

The ironic thing is that Abe and Rebecca perform together all the time, but for Blackwell they have to do the VO recording separately.  Still, the way those two play off each other is brilliant.

Hi everyone.  The inventory item making gig has been filled.  Thanks for all the responses!

Ah, apparently my monitor's resolution is not compatible with Wintermute's, so I have to run it in a window.  Hm.

Hm.  I did that.  I selected "Don't show this window" and clicked OK.  Then the window closed and nothing happened.  Running the .exe again just brought up the settings window again, and the "don't show this window" checkbox was already checked.

Hm.  I tried installing the demo and running it.  I got the game settings window and that's all.  Selecting "OK" just closes the settings window.  There doesn't seem to be a way to run the game itself. 

Hi all.  I need a tiny bit of graphical help with Blackwell Deception.  Specifically, the inventory items.  There are about sixteen 22 x 22 inventory icons needed to be drawn, and we need 'em fairly quickly.  We'll pay $50 for the trouble.  Drop me a PM or email with some samples of your work.  Thanks!

-Dave

Thanks Gilbot!  By "indices" do you mean number of characters?

the actors chemistry is great,

Well, obviously!

And speaking of VO, here are some voice samples from the game:

Rosa clip
Joey clip
Conversation clip 1
Conversation clip 2

Read through this test and you'll see Mary Sue mostly refers to the shitty characters 13 year olds make up after watching their favourite TV show/reading their favourite book. I think most authors/game creators with half a brain don't need to worry about falling into the Mary Sue trap, as you will probably instinctively weed out most of the flaws on that test with pure logic.

If not, well... keep tryin'

... Rosa Blackwell's score is -1.