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StillInThe90s - thank you!

Any differences or fixes between this and the Summerbatch version?

Nope.

Loved this game even though it was obviously very short.

Thanks(again)! It's not that short, though, is it? I mean, it takes about an hour to beat, I've seen shorter games than that.

Any chance that you might consider doing a talkie version?

Nope. A poor talkie can ruin the experience completely, and I don't think I have it in me to make a good talkie. Maybe in the next game?  

Patchwork is a short fantasy point-and-click adventure. It was a part of the Summerbatch bundle, but now it's coming to a home near you free of charge!

DOWNLOAD IT HERE!

Story:
It's a big day for Daniel - he's about to test a teleportation device he's been building for the last few years.
Will everything go as planned, resulting in a stunning breakthrough in modern science, or is he, as it so often happens in situations like this, going to end up in a parallel universe, where magic and fairies are pretty common, while cell phones and sneakers aren't?





Features:
- Two playable characters
- Hand-painted graphics at an astonishingly non-modern 800x600 resolution
- Simple two-click interface
- Minutes of gameplay
- All of the bugs and typos featured in the Summerbatch release of the game

George R. R. Martin's "A Song Of Ice and Fire" seems to be a good next step from Sapkowski's Geralt saga (I think the pre-saga short stories about Geralt are the best bits, but it's all great stuff). It's only a guess, though, since I haven't read Martin's books, but I hear they're somewhat good and sound quite similar in tone.

As for a more Planescape-type fair - I think China Mieville's "Perdido Street Station" is a pretty good match - it's moderately dark, plenty weird and quite inventive in a similar to Planescape way. It's a bit long and the language Mieville uses had me reaching for the dictionary more often than I would've liked, but it's really well written, has plenty of great world building and interesting ideas.

[Idea:]

CaptainD, thanks!

And here are my votes:
Idea: yarooze - funny/scary/cute is always a good combo (well, sometimes it's ghastly, but not this time)
Atmosphere: CaptainD - I really like this one - it has that slightly trashy 90s cyberpunk feel - a good kind of trashy
Design: CaptainD - it's obviously very stylized, and almost entirely successful at that
Composition: yarooze - very clever use of space and perspective distortion here
Functionality: cat - it's very straightforward and simple, but therein lies it's charm and functionality - it's really a background
Technique: yarooze - pretty much a pixel-perfect composition, very minimalistic, yet still impressively detailed

Phew, barely made it in time! Here we go:

[Patchwork]

Oh, well, why not!

For your consideration:



Patchwork is a short fantasy point-and-click adventure. It was a part of the Summerbatch, and now you can get it for free by following the link at the bottom of this post.

Story:
After a teleportation experiment goes wrong, a young scientist finds himself, and a good part of his laboratory, in someone else's house. In a parallel universe.

Screenshots:
 

Features:
- Two playable characters
- Hand-painted graphics at an astonishingly not-quite-retro, but not-at-all-modern 800x600 resolution
- Simple two-click interface
- Minutes of gameplay. Dozens of them

Suggested categories: Best Background Art, Best Character Art, Best Music, Prettiest Manual

Games page entry

Oh, man, love the theme! Hope I'll find time to whip something up - been meaning to draw a public transport-related scene for a while now.

[Idea]

Great entries all round!

Idea:  Misj'
- because there seems to be one. Also, there are clear hints at some kind of story behind this background and it's not the first image that comes to mind when I think "Ice".
Atmosphere:  nihilyst
- it's so coherent and precise in it's snowiness that it creates a very dense and particular atmosphere.
Design:  Anian
- this is a tough category - Misj' always puts a great deal of thought into his designs and I just love the way he's done the fire and the carpet on this one, but I feel that Anian was more succesful at creating a more uniform and unique style.
Composition:  Anian
- again, really hard to choose between Misj' and Anian (and nihilyst). Misj''s entry has a nice interplay between warm and cold, nihilyst's is very solid and reliable, but Anian's, because of it's simplicity, is by far the most precise and easy to read.
Functionality:  Misj'
- this is an easy one - loads of stuff to look at and interact with, plenty of possibilities for puzzles, a story to piece together and a cat. What's more functional than that?
Technique: Anian
- no idea which one to choose here, so I just picked the one I like the best.

Shame that I didn't find a category to vote for icey - it's a nice entry, but it's not quite on par with the rest of them and could've used some more work.

Hi, welcome to the forums!

The main character's design (I assume), is utterly excellent and the others are quite inventive and diverse as well - great job! The background shows a great deal of promise as well, with it's confident composition and precise lineart. My only problem with it is that it doesn't seem to have much in terms of interesting unique elements - it's a really well rendered medieval building, sure, but that's pretty much all I can say about it at this point, and that's not extremely exciting. But judging from your exceptional character designs - I'm sure you'll be able to turn it into something special. So best of luck with that, very much looking forward to see where you'll go with this!

I won't comment on the recording quality, but the song itself is quite good. It's has a sweet vulnerability to it, and reminded me a bit of My Bloody Valentine and Microphones, which are among my very favourite bands, so well done on that. And you can't go wrong with xylophone/glockenspiel for a Christmasy feel.

Simply excellent screenshots! And I've been wondering whether the awesome portrait on your avatar was Kathy Rain for a while now, guess I can stop wondering. Even more excited about the project now!

A sparrow with a machine gun, obviously! Such a great movie 

Releasing something is the best way to move on. And for anyone who wishes to improve themselves moving on is quite important. Also, judging from my limited experience with releasing games and my vast experience of not releasing(or even finishing) them - it's much more fulfilling and fun to release them, even when you have strong reservations about their quality (which is always).

So, yeah, release. Unless it's really, really, extraordinarily bad and will ruin the lives of millions. Unless it's another Call of Duty*, basically.

* This sentence is meant for comedic purposes only. I'm sure CoD:Whatever is a perfectly fine game and haven't ruined any lives whatsoever. My lawyer made me write this.

The first thing that came to my mind was a panda from Ranma 1/2, but kung fu-figthing pandas have become such a cliche lately, so I'm guessing that's not it. And I can't make heads or tails of the "I don't understand you" bit.

Making games.

Makes sense. I remember I had a felling that a world will end when Ben Chandler makes his 304th game.

Oh, no! That's too soon! I want to live, dammit! 

Wise man say: When your thing get wrong, chilly down...

That movie is so good.

Dreamfall was awesome and you guys sucks for even hinting otherwise. That is my thesis.

Zoe Castillo <3

This.

Also, I don't remember Dreamfall to have any puzzles at all - it's mostly running and sneaking from one cutscene to another in my memories.

Anyway, great news! Ragnar is one of the best writers in the industry, so to have him back working on a story-driven single player game is wonderful. The Secret World has a lot of great writing and neat ideas, sure, but it's still way too MMORPGy for my taste. More TLJ, though - that I would definitely enjoy.

This is indeed looking extremely lovely and charming! I'm getting a nice Fraggle Rock/Dark Crystal vibe from it, which is awesome. Looking forward to seeing more!

I would also like to second that Rice Boy is wonderful, as are Order of Tales and Vattu.

Wait, is it ThreeOhFour Day today? Happy birthday, Ben! Have a nice piece of cake and then go make us some more games and podcasts and stuff!

Yay, finally! Great episode, guys - Morales conspiracies, Lionheart, juicy AGS gossip, indie games and just the right amount of hate for the Dodge/Burn tool - it's like it's been made specifically for me, not Ponch!

Actually, scratch that bit about the dodge tool - there's not enough hate in the world.

Looking forward to the next podcast!