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Well the precedent in the show is that Time Lords/Ladies are a sexually dimorphic race. All Time Lords and Time Ladies have regenerated into their respective genders. It doesn't really make sense for him to change sex considering.

Terrific that this is on it's way - I've been waiting a while and I think Nelly is still my favourite AGS game that I've played. Backed last night. (Kicktraq says you're looking good but then you probably realised that)

[Naiad Down]

Well I'm kinda actively working on a game for this (writing) but as is a pattern for me I've found it difficult to get much done due to work and ill health. I'd like to commit to finish this one because the idea is good but I doubt I'll make the end of the month (hence why I hadn't posted about it here) It's designed with one room and basic graphics to keep it simple but it involves a lot of coding.

I'll just share the title atm - Naiad Down atm, because I think it's pretty catchy.

I absolutely loved it, but I should say COMI is my favourite of the series. I also was a bit 'meh' after Episode 1, but the series in my opinion really leaps up in quality with each episode. What I really enjoyed was that it did a lot with the characters - Elaine, LeChuck, Guybrush, the Voodoo Lady all have quite a lot of character development and a lot to do through the series and I thought the new cast - Morgan and Le Singe particularly - was just as strong. Also, I don't remember it being very interesting in Episode 1 but the puzzle design is just great - that said, I think it's one of Telltale's strengths. So I guess if you're not a fan of their Sam and Max games or any of their others you mightn't be too impressed with TOMI.

In my opinion TOMI is Monkey Island 5, and a real triumph. All five episodes combine to make one strong, lengthy and fulfilling adventure game. And I went into it fairly hostile once I saw one of the guys who made Escape was onboard. 

Dude, someone needs to make a game that has a crazy long intro, like 15 minutes or something. Then you get control of the character, solve one puzzle and watch a 10 minute ending

To the shame of its developers, Space Quest : Vohaul Strikes Back ended up with a 30 minute intro sequence. Unfortunately their was actual content inbetween the 30 minute intro and the 10 minute ending. Maybe there should be a special Squinky Edit?

EVERYONE thinks their game is crap when it's finished. Just release it. The feedback will be invaluable.

I think this is pretty damn near universal. Why? Tim Schafer and the Two Guys from Andromeda have done commentaries of their past games as part of their Kickstarter promotions and were highly critical. If legends of the industry aren't satisfied, what chance do the rest of us have?

there's a clip somewhere with Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert (I think) talking about the fact that verbatim' dialogue allowed them to do four jokes really, as the player is presented with four different punchlines.

It also allows for a type of fourth-wall breaking joke that the other types don't! I really enjoyed it in the LucasArts games (I don't remember exactly which one(s) did it, but I'm guessing at least Monkey Island) when the player chooses some kind of badass response, but the character is too chicken to say it, and uses a different response instead.

The first one to come to mind is Curse of Monkey Island, where the Voodoo Lady asks if Guybrush wants to see her photo album of her grandchildren, and all the responses are along the lines of "I'd rather claw my eyes out with a pair of rusty scissors", but Guybrush just says "Erm, maybe later..."

It's an interesting argument to have, because it really depends on the amount of immersion you require in a game. As said, hiding the exact phrasing from the player definitely does make the actual response from the character more surprising - BUT if you're being surprised by what your character is saying it suggests you cannot be very immersed in the game. I think Mass Effect one (where certain dialogue options led to Shepard killing people in cold blood) and Heavy Rain ('I'm feeling depressed' becomes 'I no longer have any reason to live') are two big offenders.

I believe your two arguments are not mutually exclusive.

Darth is right, Kickstarter is for the tiny unknown guys. But ktchong is right in a way too, you don't need to be Tim, but you need a reputation, you must prove that, time and again, you're capable of bringing a project to completion, tested and polished, even if they're just small indie titles.

I'd back this up. Somebody like, say, Yahtzee who has made several games and proven he has a grasp over writing and design and could do something with a budget and wouldn't want to go through a publisher could benefit from Kickstarter. (Yes, his internet fan base would help a lot too) Dave Gilbert would be another example, or the guys who made Slender. The mega success of Chris Avellone and Tim Schafer is because they have such big fanbases and they react strongly to the fact that a designer they love and respect cannot make the game they want to make.

Maybe I'm the lamer new age gamer, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of beating games like Mass Effect, that aren't actually that hard but draw you into the story and give you a strong sense of accomplishment for beating it.

For straightforward examples....

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, which had an IMPOSSIBLE (well nearly) final stage where you literally have to kill 60 guys in the space of 2 minutes running out of an exploding munitions factory

Iron Storm which was relentless in its difficulty as I recall (nobody else seems to remember this game as horribly difficult but I do)

Super Punch Out. Only this year. I'd never heard of Punch Out, (I'm a PC exclusive gamer and always have been) then saw clips of this game on YouTube and thought it looked really cool. It is but... man. It's the ultimate trial-and-error, pattern spotting, reaction time challenge. Eventually I was hitting the wall at every fighter and saying "Well, I'm NEVER going to beat this guy!" (because if you don't know what you're doing every fighter at later levels will knock you out in about fifteen seconds) but something made me keep coming back. Sending Nick Bruiser to the canvas for the first time was really something special.

Interestingly, I DIDN'T get that feeling with Fallout: New Vegas, because I had serious video card trouble when I nearly beat the game, and only had enough cash to get a new card about eight months later. Playing through the last three quests felt really empty because the continuity had been broken. Even though I'd beaten a tough game, it didn't feel like I'd done much at all. Really disheartening.

Jared: I'd be very surprised if you saw this game in a store!   Maybe it was Resonance of Fate?  (Which, by the way, has a lower metacritic score than Resonance!  Ha!)

Hmm, I'm sure it was this game. Now I'm wishing I'd taken a photo...

..or alternatively worried that I may be hallucinating in the midst of my fever..

Hey, Joseph, did you say you working on a DOTT-style Star Wars point and click adventure or am I thinking of someone else? Because the one-line summary of that got me interested I remember...

I saw this in an EB!

..but I had no money at the time. And when I went back I couldn't find it. And then the staff said they hadn't heard of it.

I'm going to try again because having a physical copy would be REAL cool.

Was it called Not Another Point and Click Adventure Game or something? The two kids who are going to enter into a reality show, but the game ends before they actually get to the audition? I really liked that.

Also, Duckbutcher's half-finished Doctor Who game. Really good cliffhanger.

And I'll third either Larry Vales III: Time Heals all `Burns or the promised final instalment that Phil Reed mentioned a couple of years ago...


...and I might just make a shout out to all the unfinished stuff on my harddrive. Hell's Cafe and Accommodation may yet get made! (But I doubt it)

I've actually been getting concerned about having pledged to LSL and Replay Games given how Paul Trowe has been acting. I mean, he's apparently one of the guys running the company but it's clear he doesn't have good communication skills or judgement, and as far as I can work out he isn't even much of a programmer.

As for Sam Suede... well, even without Trowe I would have been amazed for this to get funding. That trailer was terrible. The brief bits of dialogue were astonishingly bad. I could look past what was there and imagine it being a fun game from the concept that was being pitched (especially if Al was ACTUALLY on board) but I couldn't see a mass of people looking past the clunky delivery on offer in the pitch video.

Oh, man. Can't believe I confused MUGEN with MAME. Sigh.

But yes, MUGEN is the tool to use for a fighting game. It really is made for it and is fairly easy to use, even if, from memory, it has very limited GUI.

Even when it was going it wasn't what I'd call a convivial atmosphere

MAME is the closest thing there is to an AGS for Street Fighter-style fighting games. I'd say checking that out would be the way to go, unless you want a fighting game in the middle of an adventure game.

I've also never gotten the disdain for IE. I never liked Firefox, and still don't - I used it for a while when I was having issues with IE in a new build and, really, Firefox crashed for me a lot and was constantly failing to complete downloads for me. It was also failing to display/load webpages for me on a pretty regular basis. For something that was meant to be far superior I was very, very disappointed.

I use Chrome now, though. The first browser to convince me that it legitimately IS superior to IE. I was still disappointed when I found it caches pages in a different way so I can't recover pages after they're deleted or explore anything in an offline mode, but those aren't functions I've ever used often.

Congratulations on having Scott Murphy as a backer! 

[EDIT: What AGS people would you be most thrilled to meet or have speak?]

EDIT: What AGS people would you be most thrilled to meet or have speak?

Keynote presentation from Icey?