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This isn't Steam-related, but Deponia Doomsday is available at no extra cost if you have Twitch Prime.

I just finished playing the first chapter, and I have to say I LOVED it. I know other people have probably been waiting since 2015 for the next one to come out, but I have to ask: will the next chapter be released on steam? If so, when? (if not, where can I find it? I love this game so much, it's gorgeous and funny!)

Bavolis was asking for testers for the next chapters here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=56022.0

I think they are still available.

I voted for 9, it reminds me of The Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Yep. I had The Running Man and The Hunger Games in mind when I wrote the pitch.

Any update on Strangeland?

#9 The Frighther

I never realized my writing sounds like someone who speaks English as a second language.

#8
I'm a sucker for Christmas stories, so you had my attention right off the bat. The premise is fun and feels season-appropriate in that it sets up some silly, all-in-good-fun antagonism, and offers a solid game structure. The one thing I don't like is the "or doom the world!" bit, which seems entirely extraneous and illogical given what you've described.

Snarky, I enjoyed reading your entire post. I also liked number 8 and almost voted for it. And I agree that the "doom the world" part was off-putting.

Loved the demo. How big is the final game going to be?

Number two ("Conquistadors!") got my vote. It sounds like one hell of an adventure!

I'd be happy to test.

Number 9 ("One of the world's biggest game creators has gone missing") gets my vote too. It reminds me a bit of Ready Player One.

Radiant, is your interest in this related to a new project?

Just wanted to chime in and say the dialogue in this game is some of the funniest stuff I've ever encountered in a point-and-click adventure. I've laughed out loud multiple times, and I'm only partly through the second episode. Well done!

Looks awesome! Got ideas about what direction the story is headed?

Am I remembering correctly that Broken Age had a puzzle in which one character had the information needed to solve a certain puzzle, but the other character was the one who had to physically solve it? But there was never a point when the first character passed on the information to the other character?

Haven't played this one in quite some time, but I remember liking it for the most part.

Edit:
I found a related comment on Steam from 2015:

"Furthermore it's completely unfeasable for I, the player to expect the in-game protagonists to require and utilise knowledge that they would have no way at all of possessing; The whole wiring mechanics and puzzles from the end of Shay's act through to the finale is ridiculous since it calls upon player knowledge of the alternate character's surroundings and actions. Same with the musical note star-map earlier, even though I worked it out pretty easily it's another example of this cross-character puzzle not at all making sense within the game and thus causing players to not connect the dots if they are thinking from the mindset of the actual characters they are controlling.

I guess I just don't like the fact that thinking Meta and outside the 4th wall is the straight up required method to many puzzles in this. Day of the Tentacle's Character swapping didn't do it this bad or at all as far as I can remember, generally you were mostly doing tasks or actions that led to consequences happening in the present/future for the other characters as a result, rather than literally drawing upon knowledge to perform something by someone else.

Eh, that's my gripe that brought Broken Age down for me since it was pretty good up until that last portion."

Happy to see you're beginning your own game, Durq!
Have you made your choice about the story?

I haven't decided yet. At the moment, I'm more focused on trying to get a recently completed children's book published.

Do you have any ideas for your next game yet?

Awesome game! Just got finished now...

The main thing that got me stuck was

Spoiler

Whenever I tried using the dynamite the game said "throw from a distance". I know now that the game was trying to tell me to "just throw the dynamite instead of using it you idiot!", but the way the hint is phrased suggested more to me that I had to find the right distant point to throw it from rather than that throwing it was the main point. I would suggest changing that hint to something simpler like "You need to throw the dynamite" or just avoid the whole thing the way you did with the rope: "Use" and "Throw" do same thing...

[close]

Mandle, did you eventually figure it out, or did you have to look up the solution?

Don't forget Spencer the Speedrunner. Let the player skip text, skip animations, skip cutscenes, fast exit, etc. Minimize waiting.

Edit:
Maybe this goes along with story and exploration, but maybe some players play for setting, the fantastical or abnormal or otherworldly kind.

Yeh I saw his playthrough, you're quite right as it was a one man project I had to pick my battles carefully. But I also feel like if you punish the player at every wrong move you discourage exploration, so it was partly by design. In hindsight though I don't think a few more death scenes would have gone amiss!

Oh, I wasn't saying there should be more death scenes. I was saying that I would have liked the current death scenes to be gruesomer and creative-er. But, still, that would have been a lot more work, and they are pretty cool as is, especially the

Spoiler

tentacle one.

[close]

I will have to check out that walkthrough and see if I can find those other two secrets.

Thanks for the feedback Durq, I'm really glad you liked the game! Always nice to hear.

Thanks for the kind comments, the game was heavily inspired by the Playdead titles Limbo and Inside so that's no coincidence. I always enjoy games that leave you with questions, they stick with you longer than when everything's spelt out for you. And thank you for your observations about the text, I'm pleased that people have picked up on that after many an evening spent staring at Microsoft Word.

You're feedback is really helpful, thank you. This was my first game so in many ways I was figuring out my preferences too. I agree, there are a couple of areas where the formula could be improved.

I've just begun work on my next title so I will look to incorporate some of your suggestions. I'm looking at making a branching path, multiple ending sci-fi game in the vein of Portal 2 next, so watch this space! Thanks for playing!

HINT: If you get all three secrets, don't die at all, and solve an optional puzzle strand you will get a very, very short cutscene which might answer some of your questions

I found just one secret. I searched around for the other two for a decent amount of time but couldn't find them. You must have hidden them deviously!

I'll be looking forward to seeing the first screenshot of the sci-fi game. The art of Journey Home is one thing that really drew me in. What's your background and experience, art-wise?

I also wanted to mention that I saw a let's play video in which the guy was wanting to see more-creative, more-gruesome death scenes in Journey Home. I was wishing for the same thing, although I'm sure it would have been a lot more work.

Most AGS games are made in 320x200 or similar.

Why is that? Just harder to create the art for 1080 x 1920 resolution?

The 1080 x 1920 resolution makes a huge difference, immersion-wise. Great choice for this atmospheric game.

- It may seem minor but it's not often that one plays a game with impeccable spelling and grammar. To me, this really adds to the overall polish of the game.

I second this, and I don't think it's minor. I get a little sad when game text is filled with typos, punctuation errors, and a million ellipses. It detracts from the experience. So great job on polishing the text, LimboJimbo84.

Interface suggestions (for future projects?):
Allow the player to quickly exit a screen by double-clicking the exit.
Allow the player to skip the walking animation by pressing Escape (or whatever key).
Don't have the character walk to everything that's clicked on. He can stand where he is to describe things when the player is using the look icon to click around the scene.
(Maybe these things were possible, and I just didn't enable them. If so, sorry.)