Messages

This looks exceptionally nice, especially the (magic) forest. Is Lizo doing the graphics herself? And why doesn't Paul have a beard? Was it only in those past few years that you started to grow one as a dare in which you refused to shave until Lizo's finished the game?

Also, how fun would it be if The Beard premiered at the same time as the secret project I told you about -- since you appear in both. We could actually make a bundle out of it - Paul Franzen: Double Impact!

Thanks I had fun making it, too! The dialogue was a wacky mixture of intense research and insane free-writing -- and I've never once felt limited by the palette. These four colors were all I ever needed. But my finest achievement in 4C is a pixel portrait I drew yesterday of Paul, my proofreader/editor:

The first sentence of the plot summary alone makes for an interesting premise. It'd be funny if the TALK cursor was a sock. And instead of in a pocket, he could store his inventory in another sock!

KiraHara: You should've told us! Now the Golden Sputnik award went to someone! Pluszowego Graya możesz dostać na pocieszenie!

Frodo: Yeah, I like how this scene turned out Coming up with a music theme for it was a toughie, we went over a bunch of ideas and demos before this idea came about -- but then we knew right away this was IT!

Yeah, don't worry about it. As players, we adapted to all sorts of things that look different in real life -- or wouldn't even be possible (such as collectable items instantly disappearing when walked into in platform games). Your game looks so gorgeous you could probably get away with a lot worse

"And the 2013 AGS Award for Best Graphics goes tooo..." Seriously, looks really nice -- even if the characters do appear kinda small compared to the backgrounds.

And if you don't have a clue who to speak to, LOOKING around might give you a clue

(yay, my game has a thread in Hints & Tips )

M0ds: No, thank YOU!

Paul:  IMAX, you say... Hmmmm! Think I should do a special, widescreen version - in HD and 3d?

TinyTim: Ladies and gentlemen, the first person to finish Gray!

Definitely my blue cup I'm always looking for good "soundtracks" to my current mood or something that feels like the world around me -- and this is it. Not minding the lo-fi at all. Some of my favorite indie stuff -- one of which you'll even hear in Gray -- is minimalistic: just the voice, one instrument and static. Or take Ludwig Goransson, who makes these cute little shoe-gaze tunes for "Community" - also some of my favorites.

Also, downloaded your tune onto my mp3, hope you don't mind?

an Urpney: As in, an actual human baby -- or your brother's/sister's new game? Just asking, 'cause yesterday I got asked "How's the proud father?"

Miguel: Teaming up with Nicky = definitely a possibility, if you asked me. I need to take some time off from doing something big all by myself, but I'd definitely be up for, say, drawing backgrounds. Also planning to get myself a microphone and make something of my voice acting hobby We'll see where things go. Right now I'm still half-zombie -- and cold -- so I'll need a little while to recover.

Arj0n: Thanks for the help. The game would be a real bug-fest without you, guys

Goldmund: Ale to juz bylo - i nie wroci wiecej... Ilu wlasciwie nas jest? Doliczylem sie 4: Ty, Ascovel, KiriHara i ja. Ale to i tak wiecej, niz dziewczyn. Oczywiscie niby 1 na 10 osób w necie to dziewczyna - ale 9 na 10 tych dziewczyn to faceci udajacy dziewczyny

Thiezar: And I just realized the screenshots only show one location I should add some more. But right now I'm still sleeping off last week's Gray marathon

Miguel: Thanks Incidentally, NickyNyce -- the maker of Visitor -- was one of the betatesters for Gray. We're also forming a secret aliance to take over the planet

Stupot+ : Yeah, and it was FUN making it in a limited color palette. Might stick to it in some future games -- though I'd definitely like to try something new, too.

Tinytim: It seems Frodo's problem lies elsewhere, not the unzipper itself. Working on it.

Frodo: Oops, my bad! 5 hours of sleep = short memory and lack of focus Sending You a link to audio.vox now. If anyone else has a problem with the files, pm me (not to clog this thread) and if it's something that hasn't been previously mentioned, I will post about it.

KiraHara: Uff! Tak myÅ›laÅ,em, ale Ascovel miaÅ, to samo - wiÄ™c zgÅ,upiaÅ,em. A teraz i u niego w porzÄ...dku, wiÄ™c... w porzÄ...dku

[skipping the intro by pressing Esc]

My fellow Polish AGS-ers are having trouble with the Polish fonts once the actual game starts (after the intro). The quickest fix seems to be skipping the intro by pressing Esc. It's the first time I've encountered this problem - but I'm looking into it.

Rodacy! W razie problemów z czcionkami po tym, jak siÄ™ intro skoÅ,,czy - na razie wyglÄ...da na to, że jeÅ›li przerwać intro za pomocÄ... Esc, to potem czcionki dziaÅ,ajÄ... prawidÅ,owo. Nie wiem jeszcze, w czym problem, pierwszy raz siÄ™ z problemem spotykam (a testowane byÅ,o na kilku komputerach, w tym nawet przez moich testerów zagranicznych, na wszelki wypadek) - ale bÄ™dÄ™ pracowaÅ, nad tym dalej.

Frodo's problem with unzipping the file might stem from her using 7zip to unzip it. It might help to use WinRAR instead.

Try the Polish one first It's a translation, but I think it stays pretty faithful most of the time. Although some puns/cultural references were so hard to translate or too obscure for the Polish player that I had to improvise. But I hope it doesn't feel half-assed. I took a couple of weeks to translate and three days, 8 hours each, to just re-read it

No i Kirihara mi tu melduje, że czcionki polskie nie dziaÅ,ajÄ... - i chcÄ™ siÄ™ upewnić, czy u innych tego nie ma. Bo ani mnie, ani testerom siÄ™ to nie zdarzyÅ,o (poza cross-overem: save w angielskiej, odczyt w polskiej).

Tramponline: Thanks I actually still can't help but be pleasantly shocked that people were actually following this one, given the scarce updates and few screens. Must be Gray's general cudliness. I think I might want start making plush Gray toys

Tabata: Let me take a breather here This one took me 2 years and 3 months to make. If I make anything anytime soon, it's going to be something short and sweet. Maybe a MAGS?

NickyNyce: Of course I had to make it free. It's crucial that the game reaches as many people as possible. AND MAKES THEM MY ZOMBIE SLAVES! MRAHAHAHAAAA!

Frodo: I sent you a pm asking for details. I'll try to help you sort it out one way or another
M0ds: Thanks! Does Gray apply for AdventureX this year? Last time I checked the deadline for entries was Dec 10. So would you have us? I mean, just Gray, I myself am too far away, unfortunately.

Armageddon: Thanks! Let's have a cigar now, shall we?

David Holm: I myself have seen the intro more than a hundred times -- and yet the music never fails to just blow me away Wait till you hear the outro tune! And as for the puzzle you're stuck in: one major hint i can give you is... conversations. You can talk to EVERYTHING, not just people

Squinky: Oh yes, this little alien is very verbose. There's one monologue that fills up 1/3 of the screen (by moderate estimate). Gray takes a LOT after me. When there's a topic I know something about. it's hard to shut me up

Kirahara: Dzieki wielkie! Nie wiedzialem, ze tyle tu swojakow Check my reply to David above for hints on that puzzle. As far as the font is concerned... That's weird, I tested the game on multiple computers and never had that problem. What does it look like? Like # * $ & and stuff instead of Polish letters? I only had it happen if I first started the English version, saved a game, then opened the Polish version and loaded the savegame. But that usually went away if I just started a new game. If all else fails, just reinstall the game and choose Polish in Winsetup from the start.

Also if anyone gets stuck, don't hesitate to ask or pm me OR you could start a new thread in Hints and Tips! If Gray doesn't get one, I have failed

[THE ALIEN INVASION HAS BEGUN]

THE ALIEN INVASION HAS BEGUN

AND THEN... THE EASTER EGG EDITION HAS LANDED

(check the updates at the bottom of this post for details)

Fear and tremble, Mr. Zuckerberg, for Gray has raided Facebook

Meet Gray - an unbearably cute and insanely smart alien. Follow his unfortunate excursion to Planet Earth. Help him conquer Earth.



Uhh... Wait, no... Help him find his ship.

And THEN conquer Earth.


WHILE ON YOUR QUEST, YOU CAN:

- look at everything -- and learn things you never knew. Or never WANTED TO know.
- touch or grab everything -- only to learn it's futile at best, and also dangerous.
- talk to everyone - and everything! -- and get in some WEIRD arguments.
- use EVERYTHING on EVERYTHING -- and hear a detailed explanation of why exactly this particular combination makes no sense at all. Or is dangerous. Or STUPID.
- marvel at Gray walk on his lopsided legs
- learn how to cleanse your ears (and other orifices) properly
- face death -- and laugh it in the face. Or at least chuckle awkwardly...




THE GAME FEATURES

- a devious, yet lovable and cute main character
- a hick with itchy fingers
- an environment influenced by the time of the day
- duck hunting
- moth hunting
- pixel hunting
- Lo-Definition graphics in astounding 4C (four colors)
- surprising, astounding, scary and/or disgusting facts about all kinds of things
- over 20 original audio tracks
- unique responses to each action (mostly sarcastic in tone)
- over 3500 lines of dialogue (mostly monologue, actually)
- language versions: English, Polish -- and more coming up...

DOWNLOAD THE GAME NOW

Profess your allegiance and love for the invader on Gray's facebook page

News update Dec 2, 2012:
- if anyone has problems unzipping the file, pm me and we'll try to figure it out.
- jesli ktos widzi krzaczki w polskiej wersji po zaladowaniu save'a zachowanego w wersji angielskiej - to na razie moge polecic po prostu zaczac gre od poczatku. Poprawie to, przetestuje - i jesli nic nie bedzie krzaczyc, to puszcze poprawiona wersje w tygodniu.
- if anyone experiences problems with Polish fonts after loading a save game from the English version - the only fix right now is to restart the game from scratch. I'll fix the issue within the week.

News update Feb 4, 2013:
- Gray is taking over Facebook. Check the site for updates, video-trivia and random stuff.
- planning to start on a German translation soon
- more extra content is being considered

News update April 5, 2013:

The Easter Egg Edition is here! You never knew it was coming -- and it's a week late. But look at it this way: a second wave of alien invasion is not something you'd see coming. Even when it's late. Oh well, let's say it's Easter 2014 Early Edition!

The Easter Egg Edition features:

- Easter eggs, obviously (that includes ACTUAL Easter Eggs)
- two new and fully interactive inventory item (and one of them is... yup, you guessed it!)
- lots of bugs -- such as bees, termites, fireflies, a moth, and mosquitos
- a free pass to places you had no access to, before
- a possibility of Gray dying instant death in some of those places (so... make friends with F5)
- Gray's rise to power -- and the subsequent fall (may or may not include death)
- Gray getting rich (or dying trying)
- uncomfortable questions he was afraid to ask -- finally asked (and guess what?)
- new old cutscenes -- same stories, but each with a little twist (the intro will asstound you!)

The Easter Egg mode is off by default, so that those new to the game could have a fun, safe, straightforward game experience. If that is at all possible with Gray.

How do you turn the Easter Egg mode ON, then? If you're super hardcore adventure gamer -- you'll find your way. For normal, sane people, here's a little poem:

Keep going east, although it's hard

Or pr*ss a butt*n right *t the st*rt

Press it again - and holiday's end

Download the Easter Egg Edition HERE

(in case you were wondering about the 23Kb/s download speed -- MediaFire is eerily slow tonight, hope it gets better!)

If all goes well, it'll be there in a matter of 15-30 minutes. Uploading it right now

EDIT:

Yup, it's DONE   The release thread can be found HERE

PHEW!

I'd like to thank everyone on the team: SwordOfKings128, Sephiroth, Maggie, Paul Franzen, Arj0n, Tabata, NickyNyce -- and all the folks who followed Gray on the forums And especially ThreeOhFour, who was the one to inspire me to fulfill my teenage dream of making an adventure game And Densming, without whose AGS tutorials I would've never been able to get anywhere with the game. And Sephiroth, Khris, Matti and Geork, who taught me some more. Thank you all!

Looks gorgeous - and sounds fun, too. Gotta love the short piece of narrative there.

That song should be the soundtrack to this game, with the trololo part playing on loop.

Hey, I was thinking about this one just the other day, wondering how it's progressing. Looks amazing, as always!