Messages

Thanks Candle.  The folks at Manifesto are the coolest guys in the world.

interaction with real Jews!

Real jews!  With genuine kvetching action!

Yep Yep.

http://www.davelgil.com

Started off as a blog about travelling in asia, and evolved to talking about any ole thang now that I'm back home.

Dan, you need to take a few steps back, take a deep breath, and grow a thicker skin.  If people say something that offends you, don't get defensive about it.  If you're easily offended, you shouldn't be posting your opinions on the internet where everyone can see them.

Just pause and think about your posts.  Perhaps there's a reason why people get annoyed?  Is it a conspiracy?  No.  Nothing is wrong with being an active member, but being active doesn't mean exploding onto the scene like a tidal wave.  You seem intelligent, but young and extremely eager.  You are not the first to go through this.  Just relax.  Enjoy reading other posts for awhile, instead of starting your own. 

This topic comes up every six months or so.  It's like clockwork.

Syberia exemplifies what is wrong with most modern adventure games: huge, beautiful locations that are a pleasure to look at, but with almost zero interactivity.

Most people play adventure games for the story, and when the initial "Gee that's pretty" factor wears off it becomes a chore spending ages walking from one end of a pretty location to another.  "A Moment of Silence", for example, had a beautifully rendered airport but it took F O R E V E R to walk through it, and you had to go there often.

     Congratulations Dave!!!! Can I ask you where in New York did this conference take place? I'm from Long Island. How many people where at this place???

Thewalrus

Walrus:
The Gameasutra article gives the details, but in a nutshell it was hosted by the New York chapter of the IGDA (independent gaming development association), and it took place in the NYU Woolworth building.  There were about 130 people there.  One of whom was our very own "Big Brother," who managed to squeak onto the waiting list and got in at the last minute.

linky to the video

Wow!  I didn't even know these were up yet.  Parts 2 and 3 are hard to find, so I updated the original post.  Thanks, Nick.

Congratu-fucking-lations dave!

I know the language is harsh but that's totally awesome. I've been going to IGDA meetings in upstate NY and they're pretty cool but I would have loved to be in the audience when you demoed The Shiva, woop-de-woop!

Thanks, Eric.  The video of the presentation is supposed to go up on Youtube soon.  So you can pretend you were there.

In August, I presented "The Shivah" at an IGDA meeting here in New York.  A reporter from Gamasutra was there and did a write-up about it, in addition to interviewing me.  It took a month, but it's on there now.  You can read about the event, read the interview, and learn about some of the other games that were presented.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060926/hawkins_01.shtml

The event was also videotaped, and was recently placed on Youtube.  You can view the videos here:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P18jOFoiyR4
(Where a trailer for the game is played, and some features are demonstrated)

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWJ6BN4wokI
(Where I open up AGS and recreate a small scene from the game)

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsy-n17i4ig
(Where I answer questions from the audience)

No worries.  That pic was  for a "Two of a Kind" sequel that I designed but never really made.  Perhaps some day.

God, please oh please, don't do this to Two of a Kind..

Oops.

I ment as he's the main 'sweat', no?

The main sweat! I'm not sure what that means, but that's an awesome thing to be called. 

I have not asked people to remove the original version from their sites.  It appears that the deluxe demo
has appeared on a ton of other download sites, though, so the freeware version is a bit harder to find then it used to be.  Still, it's out there.  Just dig.

Thank you for the kind words and support, and to everyone who has purchased and enjoyed The Shivah so far.  You are paying for my Mountain Dew habit.

Same for my coffee habit.  Thank you, dear customers, for keeping us solvent and caffinated. 

Maybe he is not interested enough to pay for it but would still play the orginal (free) game? What's wrong with that? To play the deluxe version, even if he's actually interested, he'd have to pay for it. Maybe he doesn't want that or thinks that it's not worth the price.

Hi everyone.
   
I'm sorry to cause such controversy.  My reasons?  Well, I want to make a buck, true, but I also feel that the deluxe version is a far better showcase for myself, my team's work, and the indie game community at large. 

I was worried that there would be people who would get upset by this, and it was a tough decision to make, but the decision remains final.   I will no longer be supporting the freeware version or advertise its presence on my website.  To do so, I feel, would be an insult to Shane, Peter, all the cast members, and the cool people at Manifesto (who are working hard to distribute the game for me). 

However, I can't deny that the freeware version exists, so here are my views on playing it:

1 - People are welcome to play the freeware version.  It is out there, honest.  Just look on various download sites.

2 - People are welcome to share the freeware version with each other.  Out of respect, I'd prefer if you didn't make it an open link (or make it blatantly obvious, like posting it on this thread).

I hope that clears things up.  I am curious, Mike S, why you feel the original freeware version is "more atmospheric."  Could you explain further?

GGothic - Bestowers of Eternity has become The Blackwell Legacy.

This is the first I hear of it, but to be honest I prefer the old title - "Blackwell Legacy" seems a bit too close to "Blackstone Chronicles".

Yeah, the game has undergone many changes and is at a much higher level of quality.   I decided it would be best to change the name in order to distance the new version from the old.  I actually prefer the new title, since "Bestowers of Eternity" always sounded a bit cheesy and pretentious to me.

SSH: I redownloaded and now it seems to be working fine!  Thanks for the info.

Dave, I'm considering buying another copy of this for my brother. I'm not sure if there's any simple way to purchase it through my Paypal account and get the download to go to his email, so would it be okay if I just purchased it and sent it to him myself? I'm guessing this is probably all right, but I wanted to bounce this off you.

Hi Erenan,

It's easier than you'd think.  When you register at the store you supply a login and password.  Assuming you don't mind sharing the login and password with your brother, he can log in himself and download the game.

Ah.  When I saw this:

I can't solve other people's immaturity. Anyone who flames is banned and the post deleted. This is supposed to be about fun & learning, not a place for immature people to cause trouble.

I thought he was referring to me!   He's referring to other newbies who come to the site and start trouble.  OK cool.  I'm less guilty now.

So I've been looking into rpg engines lately, and I came across this nifty piece o' software called "Explorations".  It's not freeware, but it looked cool so I thought I'd check it out.  In looking through their site, I couldn't find any demos or game samples.  There were small demos of the engine itself, but no examples of games actually made WITH it.

This was a surprise, since they have a small but active community. 
So, I hopped on their forum to ask about it.  The results were... unexpected.  I get the strangest feeling that I totally offended the community there, without intending to.  It seems like a reasonable question to ask. 

Here's the thread:

http://www.explore-rpg.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=ERPGInfo;action=display;num=1158249580

Am I totally offbase?  Or are these guys being totally oversensative?  Has anybody out there heard of this engine?  It looks quite nice assuming it can do what they say it can do, but the unwillingness to provide a game demo totally turns me off.  Even AGS has a small demo that, while certainly not epic, shows the basics of what it can do.