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To continue the retro-feel I will say: ROFL!!!

Spoiler

In space noone can hear you say "I GIVE UP"...

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Truly an epic game!

By the way monkey, is that design course you're taking focused on adventure games specifically?
Not to spoil the fun, but if it isn't, you should probably get as many non-AGS people as you can to take the survey and balance out the results a bit. Because with adventure games in the lead like that, I think you're hardly getting a very representative picture at the moment.

But I thought everyone's clocks stopped in 1991...

HanaIndiana please make sure you finish your game whether you make the deadline or not! I'm so in love with your game concept and must play it!!! It sounds like it could be truly awesome!

The big thing with your type of game I think is game balance: How easy/hard it is to reach the goal, so I'm quite happy to offer my services for testing when (not if ) that time comes...

Best of luck!

Now I'm off to play....erm I mean playTEST (keep forgetting that bit cos it's so damn fun!)...Red Hot Overdrive again

Wait...what???

Somebody is already finished???

* Mandle double checks all the locks in the car, pumps up the music, and puts away his...

(To be continued)

[THIS GUY WANTS IN!!!]

yes, the trophy is indeed an ear

THIS GUY WANTS IN!!!

Done! One thing though, there is no option for "I mostly/only play free games" in the question about when/how you buy games.

Thanks Mandle, did I ever tell you you're my favourite bitch?

Awwwwwwwwww!!!

Don't know if I should cry or be depressed... you guys already beta testing, and I'm still trying to get all my locations and puzzles in place...

I wouldn't worry too much about me. I'm playtesting bits and pieces as it progresses, and my playtesters are being incredibly patient with what must be a rather annoying process for them. As for puzzles/story/locations...I have been making them up on the fly.

Granted, I do have them pretty much all planned out in my head now (I have a one hour bicycle ride to work and back every day) but the month is already half gone and I'm starting to panic! At the start I wasn't too worried because I had no solid ambitions as to where the story would go, so I was just thinking I'll just end the game whenever the deadline comes, but now that I actually have a story-arc in my head I'm getting emotionally-attached to it...Dangnabbit!!!

Time to put this Speed Buggy into overdrive!!!

It's also good to get back into action after several failed attempts and disappointments.

I already told you mate: The other night doesn't matter to me...That kind of thing happens to all men at some point...

ACBD for me

Ooo, I like the graphics AprilSkies, I'm jealous. Can't wait to play it.

I've playtested the first few alpha versions and I must say the game is amazing already!

It's always fun knowing who you are going to lose to ahead of time...Well, I guess AprilSkies has some experience with that feeling also...

* Mandle steals AprilSkies' odometer and runs away cackling wildly...

I have picked up quite a few passengers already on my first MAGS journey (by which I mean playtesters). They are talking a lot about knocking sounds coming from the engine, not enough ventilation (the AC is still broken), and are starting to mention the weird muffled thumping sounds coming from the trunk...

What my eclectic team of fellow travellers might have not noticed just yet is that there are no door handles on the interior of the car...

* Mandle puts the car on cruise control, turns to his passengers, and pulls out his...

(To be continued...)

1st: Tabata (For such an original take on using the obvious arch shape for something different)
2nd: Monkey (Because it's just a sandcastle, and expertly drawn)
3rd: Hobo (I like the idea of a sandcastle being built by tiny workers as a huge project)

Something about autumn puts me in the mood to work on games.

I totally agree! I think it's because the weather is still nice and sunny but the wind has that slight chill creeping in. A nice juxtaposition which awakens the artistic spirit, the very essence of which is the linking of seemingly unconnected or completely opposite concepts...

Or maybe it's just because all the hot summer fun is over...

Not sure...

This looks awesome...I'll grab it now and play it next month around Halloween!

HAHAHA!!! That was great! Thanks for the laugh!

the hitchhiking route. A simple plot/game about getting from A to Z. woohoo!

Try telling that to Arthur Dent...

All joking aside: Can't wait to see what you come up with. I can't remember ever playing a game where the central theme/mode of getting around, was hitchhiking (well except for HHGTTG, but then again they didn't actually hitchhike that much)

I'm not a big fan of overt hint systems.  I try to avoid walkthroughs whenever possible, but at least walkthroughs are more effort to access than built in hint systems.  As you said, in-game hints systems are just too tempting to click on.  I'd much rather that the designer predict potential sticking points and put the necessary clues in the actual game world accordingly. Nothing should be unsolvable without looking carefully at your surroundings or asking NPCs.

If I'm stuck I'd much rather be able to find the appropriate clue by exploring the scene a bit more. Isn't that the whole point of a game based on investigation and exploration? Make your hint "system" part of the exploration process.

I don't like the 3 hint only rule either, if only because it's a lot of work on your part that any given player is only going to see a fraction of.

I never feel more depressed playing a game than when I click a hint button only to be given a clue that I should have fucking worked out myself.

ALL of this!

One really well-done example I can think of off the top of my head is:

(I'm sure most people here have played Day Of The Tentacle but I'll hide it anyway:)

Spoiler

Washing the horse-buggy (in the past timeline) to make it rain would have been ridiculously obscure if not for the fact that when Bernard looks at the dirty car (in the present timeline) he says something like: "Some people believe that washing one's vehicle will cause it to rain."

The "hint" is disguised well enough in that it's given in a seperate timeline from the buggy puzzle by a different character and it doesn't stick out as an obvious hint...It could just be one of Bernard's nerdy comments.

But it is enough of a "hint" in that it is given to you in the same location (in a seperate timeline) as the buggy puzzle and the dirty car/horse-buggy and kind of across-time counterparts, so it should eventually stick in the player's mind enough to provide that "AH-HA!" moment we all love when we have solved a puzzle on our own, without the "AWWW MAN" moment when we feel the solution was fed to us.

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After a weekend marathon on AGS I have the first three rooms almost finished. I'm telling myself at the moment that some of the crappier looking objects are just "place-holders" but I know in reality that I probably won't get the time to pretty them up before the deadline. I'm just happy for the moment to have a few working puzzles done. I guess my next step is to get to work on clarifying the plot, which is not really understandable yet.

Absolutely loved Mudlarks, so can't wait for this one! I really enjoy the way your use of real location photos brings a feel of "the extrodinary happening right under everyones' noses" to your pieces!