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BoRK is a puzzle oriented / some fighting game where your character is a teleportee dumped on Altair IV by a "crazy old bastard of a wizard" as the protagonist calls him. The game is the story of what happens from there.

Music: 100%
Ambient Sound: 100%
Art: 10%
Script: 100% (comicbook adaptation)





Website is my blog, under posts with BoRK as a tag.

Animation- I would have the planet rotate or slowly crawl across the background, to convey ship movement, as appropriate.

I would also have twinkly light thingies on the "dashboard" control.

To match whatever ambient sound you settle on, I personally would have a changes-with-the-storyline monitor display somewhere or something similar, to act as a "clock" for the story.

And I want to say, I admire your preparedness to call bullshit on the "critics" and their "criticism". They aren't critics, they're being snide. Stemming I guess from insecurities. Kudos to you for taking on the signal to noise ration issue in the AGS forums. It is a hard row to hoe.

It's a student game. I just used an awkward word choice, "pretense," to say that I entered it as a student game.

Hope that clarifies it.

It clarifies your behaviour, yes. Thanks.

I'm not going to bother with a RON game. Can't bring myself to do it. Thanks for the help anyway.

Are the nominees all pre-decided?
I'm asking this only because there seems to be only a few in the same category over and over, namely McCarthy, Shifter's Box and Marionette, which I seem to see over and over again; best game, best character, best story etc.

Well, the games are surely a cut above the rest, but it's almost like dominance. :o

It is puzzling. That's for sure. Why everything actually finished within a calendar year isn't just added to an automated voting system I guess we will never know.

Maybe whoever organises it grew up in a soviet bloc country, so they think that is how democracy and voting are meant to work.

...

It isn't, by the way.

Add the other stuff as details using objects.

I really like the new pic! The size issue on the forum though- these are big pics and it makes looking at them awkward...

Are you going to animated the background, or add an object animation for the planet, etc?

I'm asking because the style will make animating a little challenging.

If not, cool, just asking.

Are the kickboards / gaps for legs in front of the chairs and under the control console highly reflective, or is there a line across the floor there? If reflective, cool effect but you need to check the reflectivity angles. If it is just a line across the floor then definitely shade that in, darken it right down to convey that it is in shadow.

But it's looking nice imo.

If only one person enters again, is this going to just turn into a pathetic win-by-default kind of thing? In which case it isn't a competition, it's just a horribly misleading sheltered workshop kind of thing.

ie, the winner certainly WON'T be credibility...

[post edited because of reported complaints]

Well based on the reviews of fragments I've seen, that should be no bar.

post edited because of reported complaints

Cool! I can see what you are going for, I think. And with the normal sized pics you are using as opposed to the teeny tiny clunkers suggested, you really can go for grandeur, especially in the outdoor scenes. Looking forward to seeing more, amigo. Or amiga.

I'm still intrigued by the comment on the blog that it was entered by "pretending" to be a student game? Is it not then a student game?

I wasn't posting for a critique. You asked for help, remember?  :

Or do you want me to just do a down walk cycle for you? I am quite happy to, but if that's what you want just ask. Gritting my teeth through all this passive aggressive behaviour is too exhausting for me I am afraid.

It's not that low-res is better than hi-res, it's just that the bigger you make the background, the more you have to fill it with good art.
Every mistake you make in low-res will be magnified in hi-res and become much more flagrant.

There is a good principle that says that you should always do the most of whatever media and restrictions you've got, before you change to something bigger and more advanced. It's like when a beginner wants to start making film, and immediately buys a $5000 camera because it's supposedly the best, but since he can't handle it, the results end up worse than with a really cheap budget camera.

Either way, it seems that you've made up your mind already, so we can only wish you good luck with your endeavours

Thanks for the kind words.

In your camera analogy, because I already have an almost finished high-res game, it would be like purchasing a $50 camera when I have a $5000 camera that I already own.

But don't post them here and get all upset if people do anything else except praising them.

Of course this is not what I was doing. And that you'd post this comment in full understanding of the preceding conversation is bullying, even if no one wants to admit it. Critical feedback would be: "These backgrounds are sort of plain, here's how you can add some detail to make them more interesting." or "For your next game you might consider using a lower resolution, because this tends to be less work." or "Darkly lit scenes are tricky to draw well, here's some tips on how to improve this one."

Not: "You can create a game by pasting photos of furniture in a line art room, using a double-sized, pixelated Roger as player character. But it WILL look like shit (see Other Worlds for a perfect example). Personally, I won't even try such a game, no matter how ingenious the puzzles or story are said to be."

Which is basically calling my game shit before you've seen it and insinuating that I've put no work into it because I refuse to bend to your expectations.

I agree with you one hundred percent on all counts Sythe.

Now if I may, I WOULD like to offer critique.

Leaving aside the many absurd canards attempting to avoid your spot-on characterisations, I would suggest you soften at the borders of your screens, and darken too, coming into a sharp focus in the centre of each screen where you want attention drawn. Also if the protagonists are furries etc. then maybe consider keeping the world they are in a little bit whimsical... The control surfaces also if they are going to be frankensteined in, I think maybe consider matching the line width used in the original sections of the screens to the apparent line width in the photoshopped bits, to make it a little less jarring.

Finally the somewhat watercolored and / or rotoscoped effect as in the alien world is also going to be a little jarring if the interiors of the artificial environments are going to be clean lines and negative space (in the artistic sense).

Maybe some textures on the expanses of space. Consider the emotions to evoke in each screen.

I sincerely mean my critique to be helpful, and if you feel I've colossally missed your point please say so.

Trouble with that is two fold though, firstly the licensing laws in most parts of Australia are quite deliberately Catch-22 ish so if you start off licensed for 50, thus shall you remain year in year out... And with such a small venue the odds are not good that it will trade well enough to break even let alone profit. But like I said, it might not be a for-profit thing one way or another. Could be inexperience or it could be part of a cunning plan, or a tax writeoff or who knows what.

But they're chasing their dreams so I wish them sincerely all the success the universe can give them.

Only licensed for 50 patrons.

Speaking as someone who amongst other things has interests in clubs... That right there is a big BIIIGGG problem for a licensed venue. Seriously. However, depends if they seriously want to make any money or not. If not, then it's fine.

Can anyone give advice or help?

That's a quickie, but he's a bit more lively looking this way. Not so lego - ish.

It's fresh, and it's striking. Now all it needs is a blood red milk shake, hein?

Looks mighty cool!

Not kidding about the resolution either amigo- that picture is freaking HUGE!

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?category=&action=detail&id=1279&refresh1265077498

Added an "issue zero" game- first 6 steps of the first case for Monkey and Wrench.

Does redpants have a Puffy Treasure Island connection?