Messages

I *knew* i was forgetting something today.  Oops!

Oh well.  Thanks for the awards, everybody!

THANKS!  It's quite exciting.  And nerve-wrecking as well.  I'm giving a 30 minutes keynote speech at the GDC as well (on religion in games, of all things) and I've been freaking out over that.

I agree with Blackthorne.  A pseudo cold shower might be best.  Let the community nominate as per usual, but have a committee step in if a nomination is obviously mean-spirted. 

This glowing review has nothing to do with the fact that I got namedropped in the game. Dave, you owe me a sandwich.

I just made one, Ivy.  I'll give it to you at Mittens.

Who said anything about free money?  Nobody is giving them money for nothing.  Nobody is forcing you to buy the game. 

As Rui says, the p3n1s nomination was a fluke.  A one-off.  A by-product of a democratic system that got ruined by a few idiots.  This doesn't concern me.

What does concern me is this incredible bitterness that has erupted from nowhere like a geyser.  A geyser aimed straight at Himilaya.  And why is that?  Because people don't t like the game?  Does that justify this insane flamefest?

If I ever write and sell a game that (heaven forbid!) people don't like, I hope they have the decency to direct their rage toward the game, and not toward me.

I would never presume to know what the Himilayan crew thinks, nor preach to them about how to run their business.  They do have a fanbase.  Their game, from what I can see, is a commercial success. 

Whatever they are doing, they are obviously doing it right.   They obviously care about the genre or they wouldn't be putting all their time and money into these games in the first place.

I am honestly shocked and disappointed at the reaction of this community towards Himilaya.  Criticise the game, certainly, but don't criticise them. 

Maaan I feel old.  The 90s didn't seem all that long ago.  I remember being in college in 1996, and there was all this 80s revival stuff, and it seemed like a different world. 

I miss flannel shirts, though.  I really do.

Wadjet Eye Games has been nominated for a Gamer's Choice Award in the category of "Best New Studio"!

Is anyone else going to the GDC this year?  Or live in San Francisco?  Drop me a line.

I just saw The Blackwell Legacy on the front page of gamespot.com! It has an entry!

Nice, and can be seen here: gamespot.com/pc/adventure/theblackwelllegacy/ . Did you ask for it to be placed in the database, Dave, or was it placed on the website without intervention on your part (or anybody others)?

Ooh!  Crazy.  No, I don't know how that got there.  It might have been sent there by the Manifesto folks, or the marketing fairy. 

Edmundo is correct.  Not only that, but Greg has been working in games longer than most of us have been alive.  He's a bit of a radical, yes, but he's the first to admit that.  I'm willing to take Greg's rants more seriously than others.

I've met Greg on many occasions, and even had dinner with him and the Manifesto folks.  They are the coolest people around. 

Thanks everyone!  Turns out a friend of mine (who works at a post-production studio) offered to help make the entire presentation for me, so I can leave it his hands. 

Thanks, Nik!  I'll give it a try.

Yeah, 320 x 200 isn't really any good because they are going to project the video onto a big screen and it will look very ugly.  Exporting it to VHS and then re-importing it could work, albeit very time consuming.  Any other suggestions?

Hi all,

I am in need of some help, and quite urgently.

I need to create at least five minutes of HIGH QUALITY video footage from a game to be used  as B-roll during a presentation.  The industry standard is a piece of software called Fraaps, but that doesn't work with AGS for some reason.  I found another software called "Windows Media Encoder", which works for the little videos I placed on youtube, but for anything bigger it slows the game down to a stuttery crawl.

Is there a nice way to do this?  I know I've seen good quality videos of AGS games before, but darned if I can figure out how it's done.

Thanks much,

-Dave

Demo is being tested as I type this.  In the meantime, you can check out this TRAILER ON YOUTUBE.

edit: Aaaand the demo's up!  My apologies for this taking so long to create.  It was very difficult for me to pick and choose the "right" scene(s) from the game to show off.  After throwing out about five different demos, I finally settled on one I think works.

Check the original post for the link. 

-Dave

Looks promising, Downloading it now.

A few questions.
How much of "Bestowers of Eternity" is in it?
Will you be remaking your other games? Two of a Kind and your RON games?

Hi Mook,

Maybe about 10% of Blackwell borrows stuff from  Bestowers.  The rest is all new.  It's not a "remake", per se.  I'd like to think of it as a whole new game.

None of my other games will get remade.  If I return to the world of ToaK, it would be for a sequel.

Hope you enjoy the game!

-Dave

Thanks!  I managed to snag a copy of that magazine today.  The write-up is so small I'm surprised people have seen it, but it's still nice to be in print!

Blackwell has been reviewed by Gameboomers!

It's the game's first review. And you always remember your first!

Anyway, I haven't been that prolific in addressing the major issues (demo, bug fixes, etc) because I needed some desperate "me time" after the game was done.  Now that I've taken two weeks to relax and depressurize, I'm fit and ready to get right back at it.

Lots of logistical stuff has now been taken care of.  The soundtrack is now available on the Wadjet Eye site, for those who are into that kind of thing.  Also, the game has been updated to v1.2.  This fixes many of the minor bugs people have uncovered.

I'm going to punch out a demo tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

-Dave

I'll just put in my lil two cents, here.  If you want publicity, you have to go out and work for it.  Finishing the game and putting it on the AGS forum isn't the end.  That 15 minutes of fame is over VERY fast.  To keep something out there, in the public eye, capturing peoples' interest, you have to get out there and promote. 

The AGS community is like a big family, true, but this is primarily a community of game creators.  Not players.  While there are certainly a large number of players here, that's not the main purpose of this forum.  If you want your game to reach the ears of game players, you have to go where the game players are. 

A game can be great.  It can be the best game ever.  But if nobody actually hears about it, nobody will ever play it.  Marketing and promoting is a necessary evil, I'm afraid.

Thanks Vince, and thanks everyone.  The store is back, o yessiree.