Messages

Allow me to quote myself:

Everyone

I don't see why the voting should be allowed for the entrants only.

[now]

Everyone votes now. Two votes, two days.

Disney's Nightmare by TwinMoon.
Circuitborne Affliction by ShadeJackrabbit.

[RULES]

Welcome, this is the second round of the fortnightly writing competition.

This time we're going to try something different. Each participant has to write a story inspired by a tune composed by yours truly, download MP3 or OGG. Simply listen to the tune and shape whatever feelings it evokes in you into a story.

RULES
- Write a story of around 300 - 400 words.
- Post your story or a link to it in this thread, all the entries have to be in by June 9th.
- Voting will take place on June 10th - 11th.
- The winner gets to host the next competition.
- Top three entries will get a pixel trophy!

TROPHIES
      

Ready, set, go! And remember, HAVE FUN.

Oh thank you, and congrats to Candall, ShonenAiGuy and Colxfile as well.

I'll start a new competition shortly.

Dark Adrenaline by Candall, well written and depicted, overall a very good read. I could well imagine this being a excerpt from a book.

Seychelles by Colxfile, great and unexpected twist, after which everything just gets worse. Well depicted, too, I could almost feel the sun burning my skin in the beginning, the dull atmosphere of your average office in the middle and the cold and depressing rain in the end.

The black outer glow around the logo looks bad. I suggest you drop the outer glow altogether. You could also try replacing it with a simple stroke instead, for example. Also, I don't like the gradient in the background. You might want to try a simple pattern background there instead, or just a single background colour.

I like what Darth did with the menu and spacings in general, in your version everything looks a bit crammed. This is a common mistake actually, I've made it myself way too many times.

Other than that, I quite like it. The bright orange highlight colour is good and I like it, just remember not to overuse it. I don't know how you're planned the content area, but using the orange as a highlight colour there somewhere could work (links, headers). Then again, orange against light blue background might not be a very good combination. I guess you'll just have to try several and things and pick the one that looks the best for you!

[Pure]

Pure

Nancy waited.

She waited for the morning to come.

She waited for the mist to disappear, for the sun to rise.

Her dress, once white and sparkly as pearls from the deepest ocean, was now wet and dirty of sea water and sand.

In front of her, Nancy saw the turbulent sea. Everywhere else, nothing but sand. Heavy mist muffled everything around its curly arms. Occasional dark shapes moved in the distance. Nancy didn't hear a thing from the rumble of the sea, but she knew that they called for her.

”Come here, little child, come here”, they called.

The voices, they were enthralling. The fascinating tones hinted of a better place, of a place where Nancy could have been herself. Nancy felt confident. She knew she had only one choice. She knew what she had to do.

Nancy took a step forward. Somewhere in the distance someone was calling her name. Nancy knew it wasn't one of them. This voice was boring and scared, it lacked the tone. Why would Nancy want to be with someone whose voice lacked the tone? Why would she want to be with people who didn't know better? Nancy was right, everyone else was wrong.

Nancy took another step forward. The boring voice was getting closer but Nancy didn't notice it anymore. She heard something else, something better. She heard only one thing.

The water was cold but Nancy didn't care. She didn't feel the cold. Instead, she felt all warm and soft inside. They were getting closer. Nancy felt them moving around her feet. She felt the warm and the soft grabbing her legs and slowly pulling her under water.

”I'm home”, Nancy said and smiled. Her voice had the tone.

I would like to see another rounds of Release Something! and Artitude!

Brief update on my situation;

I finally managed to burn the songs I on a cd! I had to install the player on another computer and transfer the songs there. The player uses a TID code system to identify its users, and one TID code works on three (3) different systems. I guess the player just doesn't like external cd drives... But eh, I'm happy now, I just think I'm never going to use their system again.

Meanwhile, I still haven't received a word back from the tech support. Also,

I don't like paying to download music. It isn't really that I'm cheap, it's just that there's something about paying for something that you don't really get to call yours that turns me off. When I put money out for something, I want a product. I want a physical thing I can hold up and say, "I paid for this." The whole digital-consumer age leaves me kind of high and dry, especially when so many things are available via the internet for free.

My thoughts exactly. Also also,

I've got loads of vinyls myself, and nothing really beats the feeling of putting one in, dropping the needle and listening to the first cracks.

Vinyls for the win!

Also, as per your situation, what service was it you used?

It's (apparently) one of the few "big" Finnish download services (NetAnttila, Finnish site only) and also the only one I've seen that makes the customers to install their own music player. There are of course websites where you just select the music you want to buy, pay for it and are given a download link to the files. And that's how it should be, too. I don't understand why they have seen all the effort to set up a system that just makes things more difficult for the customers. I want to be able to listen to all my music on only one player, goddammit!!

EDIT: heh, I'm actually starting to regret I saw all the effort to buy/download those songs, I just should have bought the albums and live with the less good songs!

They say that the future of music business is on the internet. While that may well be true, I'm not excited about it at all. I don't pay to download music because I want to have the physical cd/lp/whatever in my hands, admire all the neat cover artwork, read the lyrics and possible additional info from the booklet etc. I also haven't pirated music in ages because I want to support all the good musicians for their hard work.

However, earlier today I decided to buy a bunch of songs by a certain band from the internet. I could have bought all their records instead, but the truth is that, having heard the albums before, I have only enjoyed about half of the songs on them. So I thought I'd pick only the good songs and make a compilation cd of those myself.

After browsing through several internet music stores I came across a place that had all of their albums for sale/download. Unfortunately, that place had their own system that requires customers to download an iTunes-type program through which the music is purchased. After paying for the music, the customers can burn the songs on a cd or transfer them onto an mp3 player. But they also have to use the program to listen to the tracks they've purchased. You don't get actual MP3 or WMA files, all the music you've paid for is only accessible through the program. I thought the system was ridiculous, but decided to go for it because there indeed seemed to be the option to burn the songs on a cd.

Well, that didn't work, the burning process just froze right at the beginning and I had to force my cd drive open to get the cd out. I sent an angry email to the store in frustration after having tried to burn the cd several times without success. If they come up with a solution then everything is fine and I'm happy when I get my music on a cd. But if nothing can be done, I'm left with either recording the tracks from the store's own player and saving them as MP3s or downloading the songs from illegal websites. Because technically that wouldn't be illegal as I've paid for the tracks already... right?

What do you guys think of such means to sell music and do you think it's the way to go? Personally, I'll stick to buying cds as I'm such an old fashioned crazy old geezer!

And yes, several AGS games (or other adventure fangames) have been shut down. The list includes the Garfield: Mutant Lasagna game, several Monkey Island fangames, Quest for Orgy, and King's Quest Nine. That's off the top of my head; there may be others.

LucasFan's umm... Indiana Jones game? (someone correct me, please) was also shut down and Spyros' remake of Hugo's House of Horrors had to be taken down.

Where'd you get those bell bottoms dude?  Vintage or new?

Bought brand new some time ago from a neat little jeans shop in Tampere, just below the central square McDonald's!

http://www.televisiontunes.com/Bucky_O_Hare_and_the_Toad_Wars.html
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Chip_And_Dale_Rescue_Rangers.html
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Darkwing_Duck.html
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Denver_the_Last_Dinosaur.html
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Duck_Tales.html

I... I stopped having my hair cut?

Professional photography


Too much light


Snapped by my colleague, thanks to her.

Haha, somebody remembers (the game itself, not the name, haha)! Ahh man, I'm afraid I have to admit that Goldlagoon has gone Run Hot. Like tens of other projects, it just exploded and got way too big, even though I was going to release it in episodes. I have a whole bunch of art and music finished for it, the story was about 90% done and all, and then... I just stopped working on it. It's a shame because there was lots of stuff I was looking forward to seeing in the actual game. I remember there was a "Games that never were" type thread once, perhaps something like that should be done again. I would personally love to see material from games I anticipated but that were eventually cancelled. And I would definitely post some never before seen material of Goldlagoon, too!

I can't remember if I have already replied to this thread, but I'm still looking forward to The Legend of the Leitor's Edge. Who would have guessed! Also Ben Jordan Case 7 and The Blackwell Converge are something I can't wait to play.

EDIT: one more, Oswyn!!

Oh sweet, Snake finally finished a game! Congrats on that, man!

I really love the atmosphere, you've managed to capture the classic arcade game mood really well. Some sound effects here and there would have probably made it more lively, but that's pretty much the only "negative" thing I have to say about it. Also, the lack save/load system is a good thing, makes it feel more like an arcade game. And the music is excellent!

Great job, Snake and team. Now bring us Leitor's Edge!!

Oh by the way, the contents of the first post have disappeared as if by magic, probably due to the recent server maintenance.

Great stuff, Andail, really enjoyable. I remember hearing early versions of some of these in Critics Lounge, great to hear how the songs have progressed since then.

Oh, and don't worry about Myspace, as others have stated. It's a great place to promote your music and get it heard.

Keep it up!

Lately (in alphabetical order):

Bloodpit - Off the Hook
Brother Firetribe - False Metal
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Hardcore Superstar - Hardcore Superstar
Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
KISS - KISS
Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime
Tarot - Spell of Iron
W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.

"Favourite favourites" (saying all time feels silly, because some of these are quite new) (again, in alphabetical order):

Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid
Brother Firetribe - False Metal
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time
KISS - Alive!
Lordi - The Monsterican Dream
Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil
Skid Row - Skid Row
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry
W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.

Or something. Along those lines anyways.