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I haven't read Steel Beach but the title reminds me of On The Beach; probably one of the saddest book I ever read, and also the only book that can make you cry of sadness while reading about a car race!

The original Civ2 when it first came out... Took away months of my life, made me a social outcast, and I've never been the same again, except that I'm alright now, no really, mid-nighties, what were they?! SHUT-UP!!! YOU LIE!!!

I remember playing this one a lot too! I ended up giving myself challenges. One of them was the city-state scenario. I'd name my first city Hong-Kong and see how long I could last. It actually worked, with a different strategy, some things that are costly in the game you don't need anymore but others become more efficient, I ended up on Alpha Centauri

Once I did it but customizing the map to be an archipelago, called my city Singapore, and lasted to Alpha Centauri as well.

Some people say my game is a horror game. There is a video somewhere of a streamer who jolts all the time while he plays it. But it may not be what you are looking for, I don't know!

Truth is that I love the English language and the culture that goes with it. I love speaking English. I love that there is a lingua franca we can all use to communicate with each other.

I like it less when those who speak it natively just take it for granted and use their mastery of it as leverage. In fact it has not always been the case. The English language is seen as the international one since WWI but its native speakers started seeing it at the standard way of thought only once Anglophone pop culture skyrocketed in the 1950s onward.

It's less about business or politics and more about culture. Whether the common language is French or English or Latin or whatever, people in business or politics would never see someone with a foreign accent as inferior or laughable, they would just communicate to acheive their goal, they would probably be sensitive not to appear as dominant even if they were. But we talk about cultural representation here, just as in the test you posted: in business I see foreign speakers who are successful but on TV they all have to speak perfectly? Why?

I totally agree. I speak English with a heavy accent and that should be fine. Native Anglophones should be more tolerant with people speaking with an accent. The fact that a character speak with an accent means they can speak several languages so they are not intellectually inferior. A "non-white" should not have to be a perfect Anglophone to be seen as successfu - neither should a "white" from a non english speaking country.

The world is full of non-native English speakers in successful position yet we keep portraying the world as dominated by people who speak like a CNN news anchor. That's like the bad stereotype of "black people acting white" and giving up all their black culture to act like a white person in order to be accepted. We should not have to be raised in the English language to be seen as competent and intellectually equal to others.

Again, from my perspective, it is native Anglophones who are not as clever because you can be sure they do not speak any foreign language.

But that's because the test you posted here is solely for the satisfaction of Anglophones. It disregards what us people would think about it. And they do not realize we have to speak that language only because it is forced into us.

Manga art emerged from long traditions of drawing in Japan. The appearance of wider eyes in manga art stems from inspiration from American cartoons like Dumbo, not being forced on the Japanese, but because artists never thought of drawing huge eyes before and were impressed by the potential it gave for facial expressions.

deliberately promoting American values and, perhaps inevitably, western aesthetics.

This is what I have an issue with, this tendency for Americans to equal "western" with their own US vision. All while they relentlessly trash mainland Europeans. Or to be back on topic, there is no reason why Mainland European males from, say, France or Italy (two cultures that are treated in a monstruously xenophobic way in Anglo-American media) would feel "represented" by a white American actor whom they know probably hates and despises them deep inside.

Americans make it all about race because it is their main debate and main vision but, as a multiethnic and multilingual people with no roots in the Anglosphere, I find language a much more important tool of discimination. Native Anglophones of any skin colour have a huge privilege and a huge power over non-Anglophones of any colour. Just ask yourself which language we have to use just to have this conversation in the first place.

Having roots in both Mainland Europe and East Asia, I can tell you both cultural spheres are not impressed at all when they see Americans or other Anglophones talking in their behalf. And we would be interested to see a movie or a game with an East Asian person that wasn't raised in an Anglophone country and whose worth is not only assessed in comparison to the Anglosphere, or a Mainland European who is not a laughable weird coward punching ball whose eating habits are mocked by people who eat hamburgers for breakfast.

And personally, I'd love to see someone whose identity is to be multicultural, equally from different linguistic spheres, and not the Anglosphere. This has never happened. And that's what I try to portray in most stories I write.

And what have you faced in this thread exactly?

A computer screen.

I played it as a tester and it was really good fun very well done game on every level.

Good news for those like me who never saw MASH before, you will still enjoy the game very much!

And, between Another World and Hitman there are a lot of blank canvas protagonists in games.

I don't think Dr Lester (the main character in Another World) is a blank canvas. Just because he doesn't speak, doesn't mean he is not developed as a character. One of the greatest things about Another World is its capacity to use what I call "play don't tell" to convey its story through gameplay without any exposition. It is through the interactions in the game that you discover who Dr Lester is. The simple fact that he is introduced as a top scientist but is wearing a t-shirt and drives a sports car is meant to show you the character breaks the trope of scientists being either big nerds or old men. Coupled with the remote yet dishevelled location where his project happens, you can see him as an outcast in the scientific community. During the game you discover he is more resourceful than the average scientist, if only because he doesn't freak out in front of what happens. One moment that says a lot about Dr Lester's personality is when he is first confronted to the aliens who will capture him: the second they appear, he stands and raise his hands with a confident face, like he has notions of anthropology and knows how to display himself in a friendly and non-threatening manner to a civilisation who doesn't know him. Then he smiles crack. Etc etc, the game shows a well written character through the game and not through text.

I'd also challenge that Tintin was a blank canvas. Hergé wanted to express Tintin as a child-like and seemingly weak character who always win against big mean guys. In early albums, Tintin is portrayed as prodigiously strong despite being shorter than everyone else: in The Blue Lotus three huge thugs are sent to knock him out but he single-handled kick their asses instead. In later albums, the little guy outsmarts everyone. Hergé wanted to convey a message to readers that being a little boy was not going to be an obstacle to triumph from adversity. All of Tintin's counterparts in foreign countries are always portrayed the same way: Chang, arguably Tintin's dearest friend, is portrayed as shorter than any other Chinese person and wearing the most simple clothes when everyone else in the streets of Shanghai is wearing colourful attires. In Tintin in Tibet, the brave sherpah who will help Tintin save Chang similarly is portrayed with the most simple features. Hergé had a taste for humility and simplicity of character that he wanted to see win the day. That's why Haddock only becomes virtous and noble when he reaches down to Tintin's humility, otherwise he would only be an alcoholic failure, and that's why villains like Colonel Sponz or Rastapopoulos are always portrayed as sophisticated and colourful. Hergé in The Blue Lotus, inspired by his own interaction with a Chinese person, quotes Laozi urging you to "find the way", and finding the way implies going back to simplicity and humility, sincerity - a lot of Tintin is about that. It's more than a blank canvas.

Hello all,

It was over two years ago that I decided I would make narrative games. Yet it was only a couple months ago I started the creation of my first game (which you can find here).

So what happened between these two events? What I did for two years? I documented myself to get ready for it.

Not only I looked into how to use AGS or other engines, I also looked into games themselves, read articles on the topic, played games to see what was good or not good, and above all, constantly reminded myself that I did not know anything about making games and I had to learn and learn and learn more.

So in the end I thought why not publish all of this. I wrote so many notes on stuff I learnt, either playing games or reading articles, I decided to publish these notes. The result is a blog which you can find here: https://formosafalanster.wordpress.com/

I will be updating three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It's easy because I already wrote over 50 articles and all are scheduled to be published already.

I hope it can be interesting!

Many thanks to all of you who answered here or contacted me in private to give me your feedback! I am very happy my first game has such a warm and positive reception!

I have taken into account most of the comments and have amended the game accordingly, if you download it now it will include all the corrections. Some things were left behind but it is still a more fluid experience.

I have not added music because I am a mediocre musician. I also tend to enjoy games in silence so I did not really mind but it is true I should find someone to partner with for music. I also looked for free music but nothing was very appropriate, contrarily to the pixel art.

Maybe I would get my old Wurlitzer out of the storage and try to write a tune but I am not sure as I am now working on another game

Thanks again!

Well never mind, it's solved, if you load the latest version you will not have this problem 

Was fun! Good riddles. Only when saving games, after a restart, they were gone. But you can finish the game in reasonable time and without dying or being blocked.

How the hell is that even possible, I did not change anything about the saving system from the standard template... is there any explanation to that?

I read them, and also his "Supernova Era" and one of his short stories collection.

First of all, the books doesn't really express any pro-CCP view which is obviously a relief. Remember any and all of you who use Steam are using a software who once censored a Taiwanese game in order to comply with the demands of CCP trolls because the game dared to include a subtle joke about their dear leader... So you should not be afraid of reading Liu.

In fact most of Liu's work express a fascination for the idea of blending east and west. Lots of his most successful characters are Eurasian, and several times he wrote stories in which the Earth's future leader is half Western half Asian. Whether this is a genuine belief or not is another matter entirely. but this is what you will read when you read his books. It's not like he writes every Chinese as a hero and ever white person as a villain or anything. The first tome of the Three Body problems include a scathing critique of the Cultural Revolution but then again this is now accepted by Beijing.

The Three Body Problem, like most of his work, finds its appeal in the fact that it is inspired by very realistic science. I think they call it Hard Science Fiction in English. There are very eery, even poetic concepts that Liu gets out of extremely complicated scientific facts.

Liu works better when he does short stories. He was primarily a short story writer. Thus, his enormous "Three body" trilogy is better read as a collection of short stories. Especially the last tome, which reads like several ideas he had sewn together. Each chapter reads like a short story with the same character as she somehow goes forward in the future and explores entirely different worlds.

The most thrilling thing about his books and what makes me read them to the end is this gigantic scope, enormous scientifical concepts that take you through eons of time and seemingly endless distances. His characters are cold and emotionless for the most but then again a lot of SF is like this (I am not primarily a SF reader, my favourite authors are definitely not in that genre). I think this is what Obama meant in the often-repeated quote where he said "the scope of (Liu's books) was immense". They indeed make you think out of the box. And I will always have respect for someone who dares to use something unusual (in this case, very arduous scientific concepts) to create fiction and even, I insist, something very poetic more than often.

He is not a groundbreaking author, he is not the future of literature or even SF alone, he is not a good person but he is not a CCP agent either, but I can't deny I had a good time reading all his books in a row as it was sufficiently weird to make me think out of my usual safe zone and on occasion make me dream a bit. THere are a few quotes I related to and kept in a notebook where I collect quotes.

His "Supernova Era" was the weakest and his short stories are the best in my opinion.

I loved the Kathy Rain game and I really hope it means she will be back for more adventures, she was a great character and the "90's period piece" effect was really brilliant. She needs more good stories!

[The House of Mr Chocolate]

After two years documenting myself and reading and lurking on this forum and elsewhere, I dived in and after six weeks of work I can introduce my first game to you:

The House of Mr Chocolate

Mr Chocolate lives alone in his house. He never goes out, slowly loses his memory, and he is so lonely that he took the habit of talking to objects... But something is happening in this house! Explore with him what is disturbing his peaceful retreat and why something is trying to force him out.

Like in most adventure/point-and-click games, you will have a "Talk To" command, but Mr Chocolate is all alone... Only by mimicking Mr Chocolate's habit will you succeed in completing the game, and hopefully you will get to experience his sense of solitude and the emotions he is going through.

The AGS page link: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2510-the-house-of-mr-chocolate/

The game includes:
- A unique "fog-of-war" system: the house is all dark and as you walk through you will be able to see more of its corners.
- A mystery around the poignant story of a lonely man.
- A pixel-art house to explore with a strong personality and many hidden items.
- An astonishing number of dialogues for a game with only one character...







You can find the game here: https://formosafalanster.itch.io/the-house-of-mr-chocolate

Please report bugs and typos to me (I am not a native speaker!)

Last but not least! I intended this game to be a proof that I am able to sustain a project from beginning to end. Apart from the sprite of the main character and a few random sprites in game, I used open source pixel art. If you enjoyed The House of Mr Chocolate, you know I am able to work on a game and bring it to completion, so please reach out so we can work on future games together! If you want to make a game with me, let me know!

I played it if you really made this in two weeks you must really be experienced with pixel art and AGS!

The puzzles were fun but it was easy, I finished it in 20mn without really thinking. I had a fun time though! Metalheads appear often in narrative games but you took an original and genuine angle. For a start because the music is really great. Some details are telling the story in a clever way: the prog rock vinyl collection for example is something I discovered while exploring the game that told me about the character, the interactions with the caretaker and her telenovelas say a lot about their relationship, the ending was cleverly done too. There were some good ways to make the game more interesting too: the questions to ask the caretaker which made me click repeatedly, and the fact that you look for three items at the same time so if you stall while looking for one you can get busy with another (but again it was not so difficult so I was never really stalling).

I will not criticize the game for being short considering you made it very quickly, it was obviously made for a short time of fun and you succeeded at it My only criticism is that I cannot handle the references to nineties games anymore, they have been done so often that they don't make me laugh any longer. Your game was really much more fun when you were using your own brand of humour!

Thank you all, these are really very interesting tips!

I will use some of them, and remember the others for future projects.

I have made a thread in which I invite people to test my game if they want to: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58749.0

Thanks a lot!

Oh I did not know the debug mode had all these options, I will look it up, thanks a lot!

[Project:]

Project:

"The House of Mr Chocolate", my first foray into making an AGS game. Here is a screenshot:



I wrote the whole story and did the sprite of the main character, then patiently coded it entirely on AGS. All other graphics are from open source free pixel art. I used the standard GUI for a first game. I also developed a sort of "fog of war" system: the house is first fully dark, and only reveals itself as you walk through it.

My intention is to show I can sustain a project to its end by myself, in hope that it would convince other people to work with me on future, more ellaborate game. I do not ambition it to be of commercial quality but I still want it to convey a nice emotion and to be an enjoyable play.

Details:
Mr Chocolate lives alone in his house where strange phenomenons suddenly start happening. He never goes out, and he is so lonely that he took the habit of talking to objects... Explore what is going on with his house and why something is trying to lure him out.

The game plays on a trope in point and click game: a Talk To verb that players would use to speak with other characters... but Mr Chocolate is all alone, so you have to use the Talk To verb on objects instead. Only by mimicking Mr Chocolate's habit will you succeed in completing the game, and hopefully you will get to experience his sense of solitude and the emotions he is going through.

Positions Available:
I have done a game that works from beginning to end. I still need to make an intro screen and an ending animation (for the moment, ending the game just brings you to a frozen screen, I will develop that later, while people are testing the game itself). Hopefully you would be able to tell me if I forgot things, if there are glitches I did not see, and simply if the game is nice or not.

I would also welcome any proofreading especially because I am not a native speaker.

Deadline:
I am not in a hurry to complete the game. My sole hope is to have a finished game to show the world at some point, so I can then move on to other projects, hopefully with other people who would be keen on working with me because "The House of Mr Chocolate" was good enough to convince them that it would be nice to do something together.

Comments:
Please send me a PM here and I will send you the game via a link. Please specify me what kind of link you want, I have never done this before and I am not sure what is the best way to send a game to somebody.