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Petra, I'm sure many people in this thread find your musical suggestions worthwhile. I don't, but that's ok. It's generally none of my business how you decide to use the forum. If the moderators do not mind your constant double-triple posting, who am I to bother.

Even though I ultimately prefer Loom, I like The Dig very much and would really like to hear Helm's ten (or more) ways to make a better game from it.

Ways to improve The Dig (which I love, otherwise)

part 1: remove stupid crystal puzzles. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Time-consuming, padding, for no reason whatsoever.

part 2: make everything look-at-able so I can also know how the game characters feel about the game world themselves. I know how I feel about it, but this isn't a movie. This is a game. Let me in on the player character's heads. We know, adventure game characters talking to themselves for no reason... "it's just not cinematic". I don't care, it's a genre convention I can deal with, let me in on those heads! Make it 'thoughtspeak' if you have to! In the wonderful IF tradition (sierra kept it on for a few of the early graphical games) a global look-at impression would be nice for a whole alien world.

part 3: discussions that are dynamic and influence how the other NPCs feel about you, not just info-mining CLICK ON EVERY OPTION crap. There's just 3 people on the planet. Give me dynamic affiliations and distancing, make me feel paranoid if I push everyone away. Make the NPCs cooperate if I manage to be diplomatic. Make Brink not do stupid shit on his own if I am EXTRA good at keeping the mission together. Give me these options, don't just throw puzzles in my face that I solve to advance your movie-plot forward. This 'oh this is my story, and if you're a good boy and solve my riddles I'll read you another chapter' stuff we're all better off without.

No offence Petra, do whatever you like, but there's about a million forums about music on the internet.

hypocrite, I think!

I clicked on everything manic. It's all good, click, click! Destroy your life!

Brussels didn't win me over, and the impromptu photographer brigade triangulate-shooting us didn't help cheer me up too much. My brother seems very excited to be there, though. Family and coworkers, along with pretty women and anemic belgian 30-year olds in hilarious sweaters abound.

The lack of forward-thinking gameplay contributed to the genre being considered dead, and only kept in a sort of static-life-support by nostalgic fans and nostalgic fans-that-start-studios alike. Gameplay can be so much more in adventure games than it has been in the era of point and clicks. You say the way you control the character doesn't matter because there's examples of good control on all aspects of adventure games. I disagree. I think point-and-click games destroyed adventure game control. Show me a game that is point-and-click look/use and I will show you 10 ways to make a better game from it. That these were occasionally really immersive experiences is IN SPITE of the control scemes, and that is indeed a testament to the power of the story-driven medium, but it doesn't excuse pointless clickery. Controlling a character in my opinion should not be ordering him around with clicks and waiting for him to do as decreed. That sort of thing leads to a detachment from gameplay. Constant, direct control is better in my opinion. There's so many elements in that sense that make an AGI game far superior in gameplay than say, King's Quest 5, from the aesthetics to the control to the puzzles. Also, point-hand-at-thing-and-guess-what-hand-does is ridiculous and sad that we still play games that are like that. There's so much to discuss here and I don't mean to ramble. Gameplay should mean more than just puzzles in adventure games.

If it's not about the story, character development or setting atmosphere then don't use it at all.

That's movie world. In game world, it's about gameplay.

There's all types of doom. Epic Doom Metal (Helm favourite. Started with Candlemass' Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, other followers include Sorcerer, Memory Garden, Solitude Aeturnus. Traditionally speaking, if a band is playing Epic Doom Metal, they're at least very good. This genre doesn't seem to have mediocre bands) and is a bit faster than most stuff, since it's epic and power-metal-ish usually. There's Sabbath and Sabbath-clones going from 'traditional doom' to full-out stoner, a good example of such music being Kyuss, the first few Monster Magnet albums and of course, Sleep - Dopesmoker. Then there's DoomDeath or Romantic Doom with the british brigade of Anathema (first two), My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost (first two) which is quite slow, but with grinding fast passages usually, a lot of bands suffering from the  'slow death metal', syndrome. Then there's Funeral Doom, by the Finns, with Skepticism, Thergothon, Tyranny and the like. This is your 30bpm Doom where there's just a tympani and church organ and a guitar going BZZZZZ. Australians dISEMBOWELMENT are a very important band affiliated with the Funeral scene but not exactly fitting in (their most distinctive thing being ripping blastbeat parts with pretty acoustic guitar strumming, then cutting into SLOW DEATH for 3 minutes, then repeat), along with the mighty Esoteric and Unholy. Then there's Drone Doom, which is just ambient music by metalheads, usually sans drumming completely, like Sunn0))) and Khanate.

Electric Wizard were great on 'Come My Fanatics' in my opinion, only. 'Return Trip' destroyed my mind. I'd say they were still traditional doom, only very heroin-impaired at that stage.

One could do worse than listen to music by any of the bands mentioned in this post, if they feel they're interested in Doom.

I use Sonar 5 for multitrack and mixing purposes. NI Guitar Rig 2 for guitar ampage and effects, BFD drumkits and plugin in Sonar for drums, sometimes also still NI Battery 2 with NS kit for a few specific things. I used to use Absynth as a Dxi native in sonar for synth sounds, but nowdays I do most stuff with Fuzzpilz's excellent Oatmeal. For orchestral stuff I use Garritan Personal Orchestra, and the 2dvd packs of Kontakt stuff on top of that. If I had bought all that I'd have paid thousands of euros.

This, along with live guitar ran through a Creative Audigy 2 ZS rack, and effect pedals, microphones, a midi keyboard, is my basic setup. I can write what I need to write with this stuff.

I've used, and can vouch for Buzz. Extremely powerful and versatile, not very user-friendly for medium-level users though. Prepare to spend some time getting everything as you need it to be.

SimB, I agree with your post a lot.

I'm talking about Forsaken from Malta, not the US band. I'll upload a song for you and then you'll love it so much you'll go and order the actual album.

http://www.locustleaves.com/03-dominaeon.mp3

Shut up you're going to love them, and you totally get all sweaty when some metal singer shouts about god. The fact that you just said 'secular' and 'metal' in a row shows where you're coming from. Just admit it. God gives you a boner.

Listen to Forsaken.

I think this walk-style suits this one guy, but generally I don't think that down walkcycle should be used much (eric, don't hurt me). I never finished a project, but I made this walkcycle that's pretty ok as a generic base (a bit too much arm flailing) for downwards walking.

kitty agrees

Guybrush, since you get a boner over jesus, listen to Forsaken - Dominaeon. Some of the best epic doom metal since Candlemass kickstarted the thing, and the lyrics are WHITE AS FUCK. Really awesome 'god is coming, repent sinners for you will SUFFER' type of stuff. Real conviction.

Nobody knows. It's horrible. My condolances.

haha

Start off with Deicide - Legion, Immolation - Unholy Cult, Incantation - Onward to Gehenna and don't forget the classics! Bathory - Under the Sign and Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath!

make a day of it!

I'll only be playing satanic Heavy Metal on 6/6/6. Only proper! I'm making the playlist in advance.