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I think the German text is simply an error, something the translator missed. I didn't understand a word of what he said, but I think it has something to do with leaving the refridgerator open (at least that's when it happened for me). The guy in the bed is another error, basically the game tries to run the intro with Zak getting out of bed again, although he is already standing in the room - you will also notice an issue with opening the shades again.

Edit: I think Cairo was just something left in there from an early stage of development. They already had the graphics for the intro, so why not reuse it and let Zak visit again. If you've played the German version, you'll see that they have a bunch of other airports (locations from the original game)  that you can't leave. Wisely they removed those when they updated the game for the translated version.

Silhouettes, I like that, a lot. It gets rid of the overused "Shadow", but carries the same meaning. Good idea.

Ali: I haven't even heard of the last two titles, and I'm supposed to be a film student. How embarassing. I just looked them up on imdb, and realize that I DO know the Méliès film, just didn't know the title. There seem to be two films called The Doctor's Secret, but I never heard of either.

The film title, if that should be the title of the game, could easily be from the 20's, so no problem there. You see, the director in the game worked in Germany during the 1920's, where he made an expressionist version of Alice in Wonderland, among other things. Like many other European directors of the era, he fled to America when the nazis came to power. You might find it amusing, that one of his projects that never got made was a sequel to Caligari called "The Testament of Dr. Caligari" (within the game mythology, Fritz Lang ripped off the title for his Dr. Mabuse film)

Edit: Yes, the Premature Burial is Poe. The film version in the game is heavily inspired by a certain sequence in Dreyer's "Vampyr". I should probably add that the reason for using adaptations as opposed to entirely original stories is 1) because F.W. Murnau and other directors of silent movies did it all the time, most famously Nosferatu (=Dracula) but also Jeckyl & Hyde and others. He would change the titles to avoid copyright issues.  2) because the player knows these stories, and it's much easier to refer to something the audience already knows, and then discuss the differences between the book and this film version (the interesting parts are in the changes made in the adaptation anyway). Other original titles are mentioned, but only briefly, with a short plot summary. This gives me an idea though. The central film in the movie should be an entirely original story, and it should be described with more detail, like the lost Wagner opera in GK2. And the title of that movie could be the title of the game (which doesn't really change anything, in that I STILL have to come up with a good title )

I just finished "The Black Dahlia" by James Ellroy and didn't really like it. It was contrived,  predictable at times and the characters were boring. I really have no interest in tough guy detective stories, but I read it as part of my research for my game as the novel is set in LA in the late 40's.

A few days ago I borrowed some Don DeLillo novels (The Weight and White Noise) at the library, because Chuck Palahniuk is one of my favorite authors, and he's been compared to DeLillo. But before those, I'm going to read Neil Gaimans children's book Coraline and his short story collection Smoke and Mirrors (both of which have been sitting on my shelf untouched far too long. Strange, as Gaiman is my favorite author of all time, and I've read everything else he's written. Maybe I've been afraid to finish them too fast). But I have to read them now, because Gaiman is coming to Denmark next week, and I'd hate to show up at the signing with a book that I haven't even read.

Edit: remixor, I'd like to add that Good Omens is a great book, even if you don't like Pratchett. And Terry Gilliam is probably going to make it into a movie.

Good idea N3TGraph. But in fact she finds several films during the game. And besides, most of the films are adaptations of books, and I can't really call the game "Alice in Wonderland" or "The Premature Burial", can I?

But it's a great idea. I'll have to think about that. Maybe even rewrite the story slightly to give one of the films a more central role.

First of all, let me say that I like Monty Python a lot, and I enjoy watching the old shows and movies from time to time. But I don't really think their kind of humor works in games. Maybe for a single, highly annoying npc (voiced by John Cleese of course ) that you somehow have to get past. But not for a whole game. But then again, I never was a huge fan of LucasArts "funny" games except Zak and the original Maniac Mansion.

I think the adventure genre relies too much on logic to work really well with absurd humor (I still haven't forgiven whoever came up with the monkey wrench puzzle in MI2, and Sam & Max I had to play with a walkthrough just to hear all the cool dialog and see the animantions).

The kind of humor that makes me laugh out loud is mostly dialog-based. I LOVE clever and witty dialog a la Tom Stoppard (Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) and the movies of Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats (my favorite comedy of all time), Chasing Amy).
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is among my favorite comedies as well, partly because the narration is so well written, but also because it's a highly subjective story, showing a skewed view of the world and letting the characters do things that are obviously very inappropriate, but somehow make sense to their drug-crazed minds. In fact that could be a pretty cool idea for a game - having the player character respond to his perception of the world, while letting the player know that it's a hallucination.

Oh yeah, I like the Simpsons too, and Frasier. But I'm not sure that kind of situation comedy, which relies heavily on you knowing the characters in advance, would work for any games except series like RON.

Thanks for all the suggestions. However, none of them really does it for me. No offence, but I think most of them are very much typical game titles (meaning that they are somewhat clichéd and doesn't seem unique). Not to say that my own ideas weren't.  I don't want to sound ungrateful - because I'm not, any new idea, good or bad, adds to the creative process  - but I'd like to explain WHY I don't like them very much.

The whole "shadow of..." concept has been used so many times: "Shadow of the Templars", "Shadow of the Comet", "Shadow of the Beast", "Shadow of Destiny", "Shadow of the Serpent Riders", "Shadow of Oblivion", "Shadow of Zorro", not to mention Shadow Warrior, Shadow Man, Shadow Hearts, Shadow Force, Shadow Company, Shadow Madness, Shadow Squadron

Maybe it would be better to keep out of the shadows altogether
And anything involving Moonlight sounds like some trashy romance novel, at least to me. Edit: Forgot to mention that "Moonlight shadows" reminds me a bit too much of the Mike Oldfield/Maggie Reilly song "Moonlight Shadow".

As for what Rincewind said:

And personally don't think that the title has to be connected to the theme or the plot, but it of course helps if it is...

I agree that the title doesn't have to explain what the game is about, but it should make sense when you've finished the game (like the words "Grim Fandango" actually comes from a poem being recited in the game). A good title should also suggest the genre and a mood, tell the player if this is a comedy or a horror game, a fantasy setting or a 30's style adventure-serial. And most importantly: A title should be unique and memorable. I think this is also the reason that so many games use the player character's name in the title (Gabriel Knight, Larry, Sam & Max, Laura Bow, Zak McKracken), because it immediately brings visuals and situations from the game to mind. Don't tell me that Duke Nukem isn't a more effective title than Shadow Warrior. I'm not suggesting that my game should be named after it's main character (it's intended as a one-off, not as a series of games), just giving examples.

A less specific title such as "Nocturne" or "Shivers" might work, if the game is worth remembering (which Shivers really wasn't). But really they could be titles for any horror game (Nocturne might as well be called Shivers and the other way around). To use a title just because it sounds cool is not a good idea. SLaMgRInDeR, "Chimera (something)"... please, gimme a break, you can't be serious What does it have to do with ANYTHING related to this game?!? I like your other titles though (Past Illusion, Replay, Playback) because they suggest something I hadn't really thought about, that the title should probably reflect the research into the past. I'll have to follow that train of thought further.

Anyone trying to come up with titles for their games ought to check out this article, although it's about movie titles:
http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp24.Title.Search.html

This is the sequence from the fourth draft of the Back to the Future script. The scene didn't make it to the finished movie:

Mr. Strickland has given Marty detention, but Marty has a band audition and must somehow get out of the detention classroom. He notices the sprinkler pipe in the ceiling. As he gets up to use the pencil sharpener in the back of the classroom, he steals a lens from the slide projector.
He sticks a wad of chewing gum to a matchbook and shoots it  at the ceiling, right near the sprinkler valves, using a rubber band.
Marty sets his mirrored sunglasses on his leg, reflecting the rays of the sun from the window onto the ceiling, and using the lens, he focuses the beam on the matchbook. The scene becomes tense when Strickland begins to pull the blinds, which will hamper Marty's use of the sun's rays to ignite the matches, but just then, the matchbook catches fire, the fire alarm sounds and the sprinklers go off, spraying in Stricklands face. Marty grabs a skateboard and dashes out.

Great scene, and very much like an adventure game.

Yes, yes, yes - I remember the Back to the Future "puzzle", with the matches, right? That would be great for a game. In fact, Back to the Future would make one hell of an adventure game. The whole trilogy would make great adventures. Too bad that the ones made were sucky action games.

I was wondering, if somebody here could help me find a good title for my game. It's beginning to get a little tedious to just refer to it as "my game", and I'd hate to change the title during production because the first title was chosen in a hurry.

It's a Gabriel Knight-style mystery relying on detective work, npc-interviews and research. Like the GK games combine historical facts and real-world occultism with fictional conspiracies and supernatural horror, this game explores the history of motion pictures as well as more occult/philosophical subjects. The style is serious, suspenseful, at times horrific. Similar to GK, but without the Indiana Jones elements (the short visit to Africa in GK1 and the final chapter of GK3), in some ways closer to the Blade Runner game in mood.

It's set in modern day Los Angeles, where a young woman, who tracks down prints of rare films for a living, comes across a film by a long forgotten director of the 1930's and 40's. Her research into the past brings her deep inside the dark mirror image of Hollywoods glamour and glitz. The main themes of the game are of reality and illusion, seeing and believing, the authentic and the imaginary.

The first working title I had was "Sunset by Night", which I really liked. But it didn't say too much about the game really, except the setting and the mood. I'm still going to use it, but only as a chapter title. The two current titles that I'm considering are "Shadowplay" and "Shadowland".

"Shadowplay" came first. It's a direct reference to the medium of film as well as certain thematic elements. I would like to have at least some sort of connection to movies or projection, and right now I hate Roberta Williams for having used the title Phantasmagoria already. It would have fit perfectly (the word is, among other things, the name of a predecessor for the movies, a magic lantern of sorts).

"Shadowland" was the result of brainstorming last night. I like it's suggestion of a location, an uncertain world of phantoms. Right now I imagine a stark black and white picture of a Hollywood street, let's say Sunset Blvd., except the only thing you see is the shadows, shadows of palm trees, shaded parts of the hills in the distance. The rest is just white, as if overexposed beyond visibility.

I've played around with film technology expressions such as "Persistence of Vision" and a few others (you know, like the Antonioni film "Blow Up"). They may sound cool, but they aren't very informative about the game.

So, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Any ideas spring to mind? It's actually very hard to come up with a good title for a serious game. Humorous games can always play on movie titles or be outrageously silly, but serious ones are more difficult. No matter what you come up with it sounds like a cliché, or worse, there is already a game of that title (I recently saw someone making a Laura Bow fan game called "Eye of the Beholder", as if that hasn't been used before). I probably should add, that both "Shadowplay" and "Shadowland" have been used as film titles (the former is only a short film, the latter is the 1993 film about the life of Narnia-writer C.S. Lewis).

Looking forward to any suggestions

Well, the Indiana Jones series turned into Tomb Raider (and looking at the latest game, Buffy) and now Full Throttle goes 3d action style as well. Makes me wonder how the sequels to some of the other LucasArts games would look.

Imagine "Loom 2" as a cutesy PS2 platform game with Bobbin jumping around, shooting musical notes from his stick - Harry Potter-style. Or how about "Maniac Sims" where you take control of the Edison household and get the chance to purchase a bigger nuclear reactor for the basement, breed tentacles and, of course, take care of trespassing kids.

Thanks for the link FenderQ, I'll try the code out tonight.

woohoo, my first piece of advice in these forums and I actually helped someone  

You can sync sounds to single animation frames, which you would do for walking anims. You do that in the views editor.

Wow. With the last two entries, I'm glad that I didn't waste any time entering this contest (I intended to, but never got further than a few sketches). They're absolutely fabulous. Too bad I won't be able to get online and vote tomorrow.

Neole: She is supposed to look androgynous in an early 90's k.d. lang sort-of way (not suggesting that all lesbians look like k.d. lang, but she was part of the visual inspiration for the character). But I wouldn't want her to be mistaken for a male. Maybe adding a few more details would help? At least the speech close-up will look more feminine.

I think it's great that there is a custom inventory window GUI in the new game template. But maybe there should also be custom save/restore/quit/settings GUIs - if only to make it easier to customize the colors and look of those windows, not necessarily the functions. I just hate those ugly grey boxes. It would also make sense to have LucasArts style save/load screens along with the LucasArts interface and Sierra style settings screen along with the Sierra GUI.

Edit: Sorry for posting in the wrong forum. I just figured that it was  a beginner sort of question, and besides,  it wasn't really an AGS engine suggestion for Chris, more of a suggestion for those out there making templates.

Try this:

Spoiler

Look at the phone at the station. The characters should read the phone number. Head over to the burger restaurant. Notice the phone on the counter. You need it to call the phone box at the station. Now, how could you get the girl to leave her position, so you can use her phone?

[close]

You have to get on the train to finish the game, which means that you have to get rid of the guard somehow. Is there anything at the railway station which could be used to distract him (if you've already tried it, do it again!).

I agree that the art would certainly work in 256 colors. It's just that a preset palette (even if it's just for certain sprites) seems rather limiting you know. I would hate to add a new character, and discover that they can't use certain colors because it isn't in the pallette. Also, it seems that certain of the effects in AGS (current as well as planned) only work with 16bit color. I'll look into it though. I just don't want any silly technical limitations turning up during the making.

As for the resolution, I DO intend to use 640x480 as screen res, but only 640x400 for the image itself. You see, I want to have the image letterboxed, but the GUI should be in the black letterbox area. (like in Gabriel Knight and, I think, PQ4). I hope you understand what I mean.