Messages

A most gentlemanly birthday to Nightfable- keep being awesome and a good time!

Do you know why Doom is in 1st person perspective?

That space marine. He's sitting on a toilet the whole time.

He pushes it around on tiny wheels with his big beefy arms.

That's also why the "urnhg" sounds when checking for secret doors is so convincing.

He's trying to get rid of that huge huge caber.

Someone on my skype/steam list really should have told me about this.

We have this AGS group over at Steam; maybe (possible) future sales could make an announcement over there, too? There's that "event" feature and it surely would give extra coverage.

Let's keep 'em coming.

Done. And I feel like I'd love to see that House Hunter game. It sounds blissfully pointless!

Happies, nemoes! Harpy Thymes!


__
DAMN! And a belated one to Stupot. Totally missed that, sorries!

Eh? Pff. Any?

Center Peed

Awww! That was the first game I ever played in the Atari console I had to torture my parents three years to get. And it came with The Mona Tack which was pretty awesome too...

1st: CassieBsg
I just love the idea of looking through an ordinary keyhole and seeing a galaxy out there. It's almost as if Douglas Adams sprited that.

2nd: Misj'
Lovely lovely art and great amount of detail, plus a wicked idea.

3rd: Arjon
Just classic. And nicely retro. Basically the Larry Laffer entry of the whole bunch.

Ich kann nichts mehr posten, ohne dass es zurück in's Deutsche übersetzt wird. Zauberei! Hexenwerk! Das Forum liest meine Gedanken!!!

[I swear, once you blink, it's different!]

I swear, once you blink, it's different!

Procedurally generated content is an old hat- it's been around for so long that is has found its way into almost any genre, often with good results. But Team Slot Machine (of "Rogue Dice" and "It Always Chances" fame) have taken the concept to a whole new level and you'll probably never see anything like this ever again. Because Once You Blink, It's Different.
Seriously, that is the title of the game.

At the core OYBID is a real-time action RPG in the vein of Diablo 4, Torchlight 3 and Duke Nukem Eternal. You're a lonely adventurer and click your way trough masses of enemies. These games arguably always get the best value out of procedurally generated loot and levels but OYBIT goes the extra mile by randomizing everything.
Every little thing.
It's almost mind-boggling.

It starts with the game's world, which is constructed from a vast library of set pieces. An actual history of that world is then randomized, applied and results in different races, technology levels, philosophies and big events like feuds and wars and lost cultures. From THIS background, the game then constructs a simple plot and hands the results over to you.

This means that maybe you're the last survivor of the lost Dryad tribe, tasked to find a magical seed in order to restore the World Tree so that all the tech-obsessed, gun-toting goblins can be defeated. Or maybe you're a scholar exploring a recently discovered temple site just to wake up a long forgotten evil. Or you're a hyper-intelligent jellyfish exploring the ruins of Atlantis (where all the Hillbilly Elves hang out). Or you end up in a suspiciously historical setting where Northland Barbarian Snakemen battle Southern Valley Ewokes (they really look the part).

It doesn't stop there. While there's invariably a mix of combat, magic, stock puzzles (you know, pushing crates around) and keys-for-locks even the mechanics can be wildly different. Magic can be anything from simple "cast-from-spellpoints" to a rune system last seen in the famous Ultima Underworld. And again, everything is generated on the fly. I once built a gun that shot mutated ants. You can't get that in Diablo 4!

With such a wildly variated library to pull from, it's surprising that the game even randomly generates its looks; this to a lesser extend however. I saw simple 2D "platform" games, isometric view and full 3D, but I have to admit that Iso Is Best. OYBID does a good job of keeping the looks simple yet charming, and once you see your Antman Indiana Jones explorer wielding a chainsaw you'll easily forgive the fact that there are better-looking games around. Controls are silky smooth and rather intuitive, and the audio, while not outstanding, does its best to compliment the action without drawing too much attention to itself. It works- it's all standard genre fare and easy to get into.

Some mechanics are always in effect- most notably there's permadeath and this really IS a drawback, because once you lose a setting by dying on your quest you'll probably never hit the same combination of elements again. Team Slot Machine has dropped hints that they'll eventually introduce an option to save a "game seed" for further runs but haven't revealed any details yet.

In a recent review of Oceanspirit Dennis Explores The Big Black Hole I asked if it maybe WAS the best ARPG ever, and gave it a solid 9.7. I stand by that. But OYBID really ups the game by giving you literally endless replay value. For 20 bucks you'll ignore the game at your own risk.

9.9 / 10 (because 10/10 is still reserved for Half Life 3)

Game: Once You Blink, It's Different!
Publisher: Team Slot Machine
Price: 20 Bucks
Copy Protection: miguel
Platform: Cross Platform (PC, Mac, Linux, XBone, RePlayStation, Nintendo 3DS (announced))

__
edit: some typos corrected, some touching up

Manky eye-run... (slight Japanese accent)

Goo goo ga joop!

You in the back! Put down that ham sandwich and pay attention!

*mrph?*

*hides sandwich*

Lovely! I went through my Steam lib and found...

Dead's Pace

Vier. (It makes sense in German)

Jetson's Guns Gold.

Sort of the Stars.

Decent.

[That's how he got his powers, by sitting on Batman's icy toilet!]

....and now, presented for your consideration, the ice toilet:

I think you got that wrong, Baron. This is clearly the home of a wealthy, well-off polar bear, and what you thought was a toilet is, in fact, his priced, stylish kitchen device. Probably a blender.

Or maybe the bear is also BATMAN and this is the place where he grows his sidekicks. Robin, y'know? That could be a lab. A fancy, icy, Bat-Icebear-Man Cave lab.

Maybe Mr. Frost helped design it.

__
EDIT:

Maybe that IS Mr. Frost! As a kid! That's how he got his powers, by sitting on Batman's icy toilet!

64 bit it is then

This would make a rather nifty sale argument...

Clerk: "Now this PC here, this is a true powerhouse, and to unleash the power even more, it comes with Win7 64bit, preinstalled!"
Customer: "Oh! So it, er, can run Tomb Raider?"
Clerk: "Ha! Haha! Allow me to laugh! It can run Tomb Raider twice! And then you can run it again and play it without hickups!"
Customer: "Oooooo! Oh, but what about all those id Software games, I hear they are..."
Clerk: "Pssst. You didn't hear that from me, yes, but the id guys, they are regular customers, and guess what they buy..."
Customer: "Amazing! And, like, really demanding future games? I hear a computer is outdated the minute I plug it in these days!"
Clerk: "With the power of Windows 7 64bit, this PC here (taps it) will run games that are yet to be announced!"
Customer: "Wow."
Clerk: "Still thinking about it?"
Customer: "Well, yeah, you know, I only buy a computer every so often..."
Clerk: "Let me tell you this! This computer here (taps it again, lovingly) once run the last Sim City game, unpatched, for a total of FIVE MINUTES before it crashed."
Customer: "Now that's TRUE POWER!"
ClerK: "I say!"
Customer: "Almost unbelievable!"
Clerk: "That it is."
Customer: "And you had so MANY good arguments!"
Clerk: "I did not even use the best one."
Customer: "W... wait now, what?"
Clerk: "This computer here! It even runs AGS!"
Customer: "Wait! The Adventure Game Studio?"
Clerk: "The one and only. (removes glasses) And I'm Chris Jones, by the way, secretly selling these babies in my free time just to spread more joys to the interworlds!"
Customer: "Ohmigosh! I'm a lifelong fan! I'm..."
CJ: "I know who you are, and thank you for using Adventure Game Studio and keeping the games alive."
Customer: "Can I kiss your Onion Ring?"
CJ: "Well if you must. But no touching the unicorn over there."
Customer: "squeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaalllllllllllll"

[/daydream]


__
edit:
Must. Stop. Daydreaming.

Ah, Brawe was a very underrated game for sure, I really liked it back then. The humour was spot on and the looks were indeed great. Hope they'll make their goals

I'm on a Win7 Home Edition, 64bit version myself. I can confirm that AGS runs well on that combo- for three years now I haven't had a single issue with it.

__
edit:

It does my old AGSer heart a spell of good to see someone basing his computer purchase decision on the fact that AGS will run on it. Really, that's just heartwarming

And a friendly welcome to the forums too!

I wonder how many households pets have ever mistaken chamber pots for drinking bowls.

They think I'm Rockefeller?

I just read that a single testicle goes for 300 euros on the black market. There's ALWAYS an option, mig!

Fondle the axle, then tap the leylines.

+1. That should give us a headstart.