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The thread's been kinda quiet lately -- but I can assure you I'm working harder than ever to make it. Still a lot of details to polish, but the gameplay looks solid at this point, and the game is playable from start to finish. I think/hope/pray I'll be done in 48 hours.

Yup, that's exactly what it is To make it even more fun, in each room the sun will be made of something else -- as will every repeating element of the scenery (like the ground or water). It's getting hard to come up with a consistent theme for each room -- and I've seen some WEIRD stuff while doing my research -- but that's what makes it fun and challenging!

It's definitely got a nice gradient that fits the scenery -- although I am considering changing it to pale-yellow-to-orange gradient taken from a picture of a urine sample. That way it would be more consistent with... well, certain other elements of similarly gross nature

Interesting fact: those are actually as ancient as the mountains/rocks they're supposed to represent -- they are dinosaur feces! Consistency (pun intended) was very important to me. I even gave the mountain range a name: the Scatskills

Damn, does the time fly or what? I'm still busy working on the backgrounds, got two out of five -- but those were the hardest to make. Here's the first one.



I decided to take the animal theme to a bit of an extreme in background design, too: all the elements of the scenery are animal parts of the body, animal products -- or excretions

How's everyone else doing?

The left one just looks like a very tall person, and the other looks average -- so whichever of the two was your intention is the right one. I'd say the right one looks more natural, though, the clothes fit better.

As for the animation, it looks beautiful. I really like the color theme.

I think/hope it should be ok as long as the character is still essentially an animal, living in some sort of a natural habitat, not wearing clothes and such. Because Monty here is a bit anthro -- but not quite.



No clothes = check. Lives out in the wild = check. He doesn't talk, either, and communicates with grunts, instead -- and will have a non-standard set of actions available: including hitting stuff, hissing, roaring, and also pooping and peeing. I'm also taking the animal theme to a curious extreme in background design However, I'm still considering some simple, rather unorthodox combinations of objects forming primitive tools -- and some symbolic graphics (think hyeroglyphics/icons) as a means to communicating things more complex than "yes/no/that won't work".  What do you guys think?

Don't worry, Schizmo, everyone's probably working like busy little ants deep down underground -- only to launch a merciless attack, come September 30 Plus, it's still pretty early. I've finally conceived of some sort of a plot only yesterday, and all I have right now is one left/right walkable.

Speaking of which, meet Monty Lizard!



He's a Komodo dragon, living a happy family life (as evidenced by his cheerful smile). Said family will be the trigger for his eventful quest -- full of deadly threats, long journeys and clashes with the unyielding forces of nature.

OK, so it's not going to be THAT long My scripting helper Sephiroth and I wanted to do something short and fun, 3-5 rooms, I guess. For the same reason, I chose this collage-esque style instead of hand-drawn art (I was inspired by a beautiful AGS game with graphics made from cut out paintings -- anyone remember the title?). I'm also thinking about adding some voice-over (some samples of me goofing off with my mic can be found in this thread). Not for the characters, no. Monty and his family are lizards -- and they're as reptilian as can be. Don't mind Monty's upright stance -- I'll have you know Komodo dragons are actually perfectly capable of standing on two hind legs.

Denture Alley Lurker: I'm still astounded that ANYONE offered their services -- and will not hold it against anyone if they back out, because it IS a whole lot of text. Two people sharing the translating duties would be great - since you could proof-read the other's part later.

I'm only getting a hang of my new mic and all the do's and dont's of voice training and audio engineering -- but making funny/scary/bad-ass voices has always been my hobby. So, without further ado - presenting my voice-over demo reel

The first two samples are try-outs for a voice-over for Gray:
Gray and the farmer's first encounter
The monarch denying Gray's request
It's nothing serious, though, just me having fun. I would love to do a full VO, but with about 3500 multi-sentence lines to go through, it'd take a LOT of time and effort. Also, I would have to do a Kickstarter campaign for cough syrup alone

I also did two random, unrelated demos:
My version of The Trailer Guy
Dragon voice
The grim overtones in those two might be the result of my sugar withdrawal Days 6 and going strong!

And last but not least, for reference, here's my actual voice.

While the puzzles did seem too generic, it was still an enjoyable little game. The graphics were definitely nice: simple, but quite elegant. As far as the plot is concerned, I liked the inner voice, the story behind it was a nice twist, and the exchanges between it (him?) and Eric were fun. The computer store clerk was my favorite, though. The explanation for

Spoiler

the lack of a walking animation for the character

[close]

cracked me up.
Another thing I found funny is that I had an idea for a puzzle involving

Spoiler

tricking a person into consuming a spicy dish, too

[close]

a long, long time ago, when I was about Adeel's age,. Even stranger: I was going to use characters from that game (or an idea for a game, which never actually went anywhere beyond a basic script) in MAGS this month, but eventually I didn't start working on it.

Aaanyway... To sum it up: simple, short but sweet, nevertheless, with some nice narrative tricks. You could certainly expand the story in some future game(s).

Although it remains to be seen how functional the idea is, it does look fun. As Andail noted, it's still pretty much just randomly generated content rather than a fully personalized experience -- but how exactly would one achieve the latter (especially without breaking some personal/security barriers)? I've actually been wondering whether games would ever go in this direction: try to suit each player rather than have all players adjust to the game. Imagine a game console plugged into an electroencephalograph, responding to your brain activity - or, to put it simply, your mood - on the fly. For instance, it'd give you some slack when you're tired (e.g. sending fewer/weaker oponents your way) and really challenging you when you're up for it. Or throwing something fancy your way when, say, your EEG indicates that you're bored.

[DOOM 2: The Rage and the Mortal Kombat between Aliens, Colonial Marines and Hitmen at Battlefield Earth.]

Move over and let me introduce my next alien-themed game:

DOOM 2: The Rage and the Mortal Kombat between Aliens, Colonial Marines and Hitmen at Battlefield Earth.

Tagline: "Payne will be awarded with a Medal of Honor"

...with the same title as THIS thread

Ah, my bad for not reading the How To Play - the basic interface of left-click for walking/action and right-click for looking seemed pretty intuitive, so I never even considered to read more on the topic. I think I just got used to AGS's standard key shortcuts (TAB for inventory, etc.). I'm going to play the game again with comments -- which I'm really excited about -- so I'll let you know how it worked for me And yes, reading "Fallen" is also on the list.

As for The Cathedral, it's a solo project (an an unfortunate Oscar snub in 2002) by Tomek Baginski, whose work you might know from The Witcher 2 cinematics and the trailer for this awesome Cyberpunk game, among others. But I enjoy his non-commercial, artistic stuff -- such as Fallen Art or The Cinematograph -- the most.

I'm really enjoying these, just the kind of thing to lie back and listen to on a lazy evening Was it the last one that mentioned Primordia? Because seriously, maybe I'm tonedeaf, but Crispin sounded so much like Grundislav sometimes!

Spectacular! I don't think I've felt such fulfillment since finishing The Longest Journey ten years ago (almost to the day, actually!). Tried all the possible endings -- and they all do feel relevant and consistent with the story.

I'm not usually a fan of serious, dark stories -- but I was in love with the game from the first screenshots. It reminded me of The Cathedral a lot, with its dark and haunting atmosphere, a somewhat familiar tall, thin main character -- and a deeply rooted religious theme of duty, obligation and self-sacrifice. I loved the logics of the robots. I think Nemento's sense of program over self was the most striking example, an almost messianic motif. But what really struck a chord with me is the humor. Crispin simply kills with his one-liners, I laughed and I chuckled a lot. But my favorite was Clarity's response about the permit necessary to perform any maintenance works

Also, is b'sod a reference to BSOD? That'd make sense, given the technological theme -- AND since the first thing that comes to mind when you see a Blue Screen of Death is a curseword

The artwork is brilliant. Yes, it could've been a little bit brighter, because sometimes it's just so dark you don't expect to find anything (missed Crispin's chip the first time around) -- but oh well, it all served the mood (so well, I might add). I'd prefer the game in hi-res, too, such detailed art seems to be begging for nothing less than 1024 -- but it still looks beautiful, nonetheless. It defintely has that classic feel and quality of -- off the top of my head -- Discworld.

The voice-over was -- again -- fantastic. Logan's as great as I'd expected him to be. Crispin, as voiced by Abe, steals the show, though Great cast all around, and great sound editing, all the robotic voices were cleverly made and fun to listen to. The music was just the right kind of dreary and creepy -- with some great songs here and there.

The puzzles were fair most of the time -- though I often got stuck, not realizing I could disassemble used items in my inventory to recover parts. I always tried to do something, but it was somehow never the right thing. Which brings me to my biggest gripe: the interface. I would've really appreciated key shortcuts - for inventory, map and database especially. The inventory icon was just way too narrow for my convenience, and so was the database window, it could use some more space. But oh well, it's not something you can't get used to

Again, congrats to everyone involved, great job all around and a truly memorable experience.

Wow, there's definitely some food for thought. Some things I had doubts about -- and some I never even knew.

I'm wondering about wide-screen vs. 4:3, though... AGS 3.2.1.11, which is what I'm using, has the 16:10 wide-screen resolutions for 320 and 640 -- but the next available resolutions, 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768, are both 4:3. For the project I'm planning/preparing for right now, I'd prefer a high resolution, at least 800 x 600. Should I reconsider and settle for something less?

Also, as far as the GUI is concerned, I think the interface in Primordia -- left for walking and interacting, right for looking - works perfectly. The only gripe I had with the overall interface is there aren't -- or don't seem to be -- any key shortcuts, and you have to wait for the drop-down menu to slide down each time and theeeen choose map/inventory/etc. It goes against the simplicity of the cursor GUI's.

Primordia also made me realize that you're totally right about episodic games. I have this idea for a story consisting of three parts. I was thinking about dividing the whole thing into three episodes, because each part takes place in a completely different setting AND employs different game mechanics. BUT it'd still make sense to make it one big game divided into acts instead.

As for intros, I don't think lenghty introductions are such a bad thing, especially if there's a good balance between the talking and visuals without the narrative, where you can just sit back and watch. I might've over-done it with the dialogues in Gray's intro -- but there's still plenty of non-stop action, and you gotta love that music Aaaanyway... letting the player PLAY from the get-go -- and revealing the story bit by bit, instead -- is definitely a good idea. A model example of that is "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis" - see for yourselves here. That's also the way I've decided to go about it this time, it feels natural with the story that I have in mind, with the player's own actions setting everything in motion. Also, I don't think I can do another five-minute intro

It's like she says in the first video already, games are made mostly BY guys -- and FOR guys -- and as such, they are a realization of the "adolescent male power fantasies". "Damsel in distress" -- or any kind of objectifying/demeaning women -- is just one of the many negative tropes in games. Consider weapons. What's essentially intended as a tool of defense, in games becomes often the main -- or only -- means to progress in the story. Hence the popularity of Modern Warfare and Battlefield franchises, which results in subsequent installments being released every year.

The "damsel in distress" trope isn't specific to games only, though. It's still very present in movies and television -- and takes on a more demeaning form, I think. And I'm not just talking about the Spider-Man franchise, which is basically a re-enactment of Bowser kidnapping the Princess: MJ is constrained and all she can do is scream and wait for Peter to save her. What I'm really annoyed with is the plots where the character manages to set herself free somehow while the goon's not looking, and then -- with a plethora of heavy objects at hand -- she chooses to swat him with a proverbial daisy. Even if she manages to knock him over, she doesn't take the opportunity to knock him out to secure a safe getaway. Instead, she chases herself into a corner -- where the male brute, at his finest just seconds after taking a crowbar to the head/hot iron to the chest, seizes her again. Maybe I'm just weird, maybe I'm a psycho -- OR a closet feminist -- but I can't wait to see a girl let him have it

I don't think games are going to make any significant progress anytime soon. Other media may have, to a lesser or greater extend. Literature, for instance, made some significant progress since the time when Thomas Hardy's works -- in which women very often brought powerful men, often reducing them to poverty (Mayor of Casterbride), or even killing them (Tess of the D'Ubervilles) -- caused so much critical outrage that he gave up prose entirely. But let's face it: even today, we live in a world where guys are expected to buy the girl a drink

Ah, quite a pixel hunting puzzle there. There have been some tricky hotspots indeed. Also, having Chet as a clickable character often obscures other clickable hotspots/people.

Anyway, I've played some more and I like how it develops, Chet's suave attitude seems to be an actual asset rather than just a gimmick. The action sequences came a bit unexpected -- but they're not at all out of place in a game like that. I've actually watched The Adventures of Tintin the other day and it's a similar experience. Also, the art style and the gloomy music often made me think of Barely Floating.

EDIT: Finished