Messages

I'm stuck in the same place as a few others have been.

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I am playing as a sorceress. I have been robbed while sleeping. I've used sixth sense many times in the room as advised but there's no piece of cloak. I used sixth sense all over the town and found Regin's house and spoke to him in his house. I have no idea how to proceed. I've read every post on this topic and I'm still stuck. Does the exact phrase I used when confronting the thief make a difference? If it makes a difference, I've casted it over and over and it's at level 18. Does the level of the spell matter?

I came back and Regin left. I see that the different switches have different letters and I suppose I have to touch them in a certain sequence to spell something to make something happen. I have no idea what sequence the letters are to be arranged. I tried using sixth sense in this room and following the sequence of the little ball and that didn't help.

In addition this is a timed puzzle because you are both hungry and tired and no way to get food without money and sleeping just makes you die of hunger.

Edited to add that I did solve this and I'm on chapter 2 now.

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Thank you

SHADOW

The arcade sequence: if you play through it 3 times, you are prompted with a screen that asks, "would you like to make the game easier?", which then makes Colemin walk extremely fast, and it is basically a breeze to win the arcade sequence. In the final game, we may just make that "easy mode" happen sooner, or possibly even make it possible skip the whole thing. The real point of these types of "arcade style" sequences, in our minds, is to break up the game and add some variation to the gameplay... but not at the price of frustration, causing people to quit the game. 

I agree with providing a variety of objectives rather than sticking to strictly adventure-style puzzles and an arcade game is not necessarily a bad way to do it. I found it much more playable once I used the mouse as I described. What I would suggest is to work on the gameplay of the arcade game to see if you can make it more fun rather than dropping it altogether.

SHADOW

I really enjoyed this game. The graphics and environment were good. The puzzles are on the easier side but still fun and solvable. Like others, I did not like the arcade game.

The problem with the arcade game is that even though the objective of the game is simply to observe the pattern of the falling bombs and avoid them, the area that the player can walk is not visible or easily defined. You should be able to walk anywhere between the barriers but in fact you can only walk on an exact hidden path between barriers. By the time you figure out where you can walk, you get hit by a bomb.

@grim: I spent forever on the game playing using arrow keys until I realized that you can use the mouse. It was much more solvable that way.

Anyway, it looks like it has promise and I'm looking forward to the release.

SHADOW

I finished with 376 points.

I liked the graphic style. I had a bit of trouble finding a "flow" to the game because of how abstract it was. It's not quite clear to the user what the goals were so a lot of "what do I do now" was by trial and error or by "I think I'll use A on B because otherwise there's no use to A". There definitely is a lot of originality and creativity in this game. Some sound would have dressed it up a bit.

As I said, I do like the graphics but unless you label hotspots, you really have to use the graphics to make hotspots stand out or have some reason for the user to click on one. For the most part I think that hotspots were fairly logical but sometimes exits are depicted as dark spots or less and hard to identify.

Anyway, overall a decent game with some good humour. Thank you and good luck in your next game.

SHADOW

You will all be glad to know the areas you're referring to are areas I had already made clearer because my SO was complaining, so you're looking at the easy version. So in regards to your questions:

Where to find the latex?

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There's an altar devoted to Steve's MDMA trip. It can be accessed from the upper floor of the blue house (It's white and ornamental, with carved rabbits. It's not a puzzle: just the second door on the left.

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Thank you. I actually had been in that room at some point. Some doors are hard to know that they are doors because they just look like dark spots and you sort of have to click every dark spot in case it's a door so it's easy to miss.

SHADOW

Where do you find the latex?

You need to access the rooftop of the blue house.

Thank you

SHADOW

Where do you find the latex?

Thank you

SHADOW

Hi Shadow,
How can I thank you for those kind words?
I'm so happy it gave you some funny hours and that it enjoyed you.
These things lead me to continue to create games and especially to improve my techniques.

I also thank you for telling me what to make best, such as the colour based puzzles. I'm thinking to solve that writing on hotspot's description the colour of buttons, 'cause I didn't think about people who can have problems in distinguishing colour. So the description "button" may become "orange button" or "red button" and so on. Or ... including a button "easy solve the puzzle".

Anyway I'm so happy for your words.
If you don't mind, It would be also great if you rate the game in the game page.
I would like that many people as possible would play the game.

P.S.
The characters were so well characterized thanks to the terrific work done by RumCorp(se) (www.rumcorpse.com). They have been great in transforming the original characterizations (in Italian, with typical Italian humor). In my opinion, now characters feel almost real in the British/Irish context. I will never finish to thank them.

I looked at the rumcorpse website and now I understand how the English was rendered so perfectly with all the puns and cultural references that would never make you think that this was a translation. They did an excellent job.

And I posted my comments and rated the game.

SHADOW

I completed the game and I really enjoyed it.

Just my thoughts on the game:

The areas that the game stood out are the art/environment and the story. The length was perfect. The quality of the characters and the detailed backgrounds is exceptional. Not just in the drawing but in bringing both Donald and the NPCs to life. I could go on about how Donald's walk cycle really captures how the elderly walk and how each character really plays their respective role perfectly for this game. I think that the receptionist was the only one in the game with no personality

I can't remember the last time I laughed so often throughout playing a game. The humour was right on and consistently entertaining right to the end. The plot was engaging and developed at a good pace for the length of the game. Many of the puzzles were just right, being a good balance between being challenging yet solvable with a bit of thinking and trial and error, often having to think out of the box. You've also struck a good balance between inventory and dialogue-based puzzles with the hints being for the most part accessible to the player.

The only points to consider in a possible sequel (hint, hint) would be:

First, I said that the humour was funny and entertaining. While it's true that I enjoyed it for the most part, frequently laughing out loud, some of the jokes were just repeated too many times and the funniness wore off that way. One example of an overused joke was

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the play on words of the title "Count". By the way, SOME people might find that term offensive, but either way, I felt that the pun was just repeated too many times to remain funny.

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Second, I feel that while most of the puzzles are really clever and creative with adequate hints, many of them had a "read my mind" arbitrariness to them. Even once I found out the solution, I found myself thinking "did he really expect the player to guess that...?". This game has a fresh and creative out-of-the-box wackiness to it, which made it really fun to play but sometimes the expectation for the user to guess the precise nutty solution was just not realistic.

Finally, just something to consider: while the majority of players have no colour vision deficiency, many players have trouble seeing identifying colours making certain colour-based puzzles impossible without a complete walkthrough.

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The time machine

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puzzle is probably difficult to many players, (judging by the questions in the hints forum) but insurmountable to players who can't tell colours. It's really a design decision for the developers whether to include puzzles that cannot be solved by a minority of players to have a wider variety of puzzles or to eliminate colour-based puzzles to accommodate all players. There is no right or wrong and I don't think that having one puzzle that required a complete solution posted really diminished my experience but it may be something to consider for the future.

In all, I think that the the most difficult parts of the art of creating a good adventure game were expertly accomplished in this game and just the highest commendation for those who clearly put in a lot of talented effort to this game.

On behalf of myself and probably most others who completed it, I really hope to see a sequel!!!!! The story certainly leads itself to be continued where this game left off!

Bravo to the developers!

SHADOW

You are on the right track but you need to know what bait exactly is the best.

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...  someone with a lot of experience at sea might have heared about it ...

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Thank you. I finished the game. I will post my thoughts when I get a chance.

Happy New Year!

SHADOW

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I have everything but the bait for the marlin. I was thinking to find something gross from the kitchen but no avail.

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Can anyone help?

SHADOW

hi Shadow,

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After getting the first light on, put the ERA-dial on B.C. ('cause Brutus killed Cesar Befor Christ) and then, open the first purple tap and push the yellow lever three times.. you'll see a yellow ball falling into the tap (it's the "lemon drop"). Then CLOSE the first tap (maybe you don't do that) and open the other purple tap. Push again the yellow lever three times.

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I solved it by following the walkthrough. Thanks anyway.

Aside from the time machine, I'm really enjoying this game. I hope there aren't any other sections of the game like that.

SHADOW

[(they are for the italian version, but it's all the same EXCEPT FOR THE ERA BUTTON)]

Hi Shadow,

Spoiler

Befor founding Prof. Barker, if you ask the ghost in the bathroom where to find him, he answer that prof. Barker is often in the reading room.
About colors .. yes it's supposed you can recognise green from red. Now that you say that I imagine you're referring to someone who cannot recognise, so I'm thinking about labbelling each color button.
if you need help to solve, there are those pictures:



(they are for the italian version, but it's all the same EXCEPT FOR THE ERA BUTTON)

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Spoiler

I can't get past the first one. Are you supposed to pull the lever after the light on the left side lights up? I can't get a second light to illuminate based on the picture

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SHADOW

Hi Shadow

Spoiler

Look the ghost detector you have in the inventory and that you found in Delano's room.
Go in the "reading room", near the tea-room.
Here use the detector on Donald... Donald will use it.
Prof. henry Barker's Ghost will appear.
Talk with him and ask him of the time machine.
He will talk about a "song". Then ask him wich is his favourite book. He will answer "Gulliver". Then find this book (the blue/ciano one).
Take the book and look inside!
You'll find the song!

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Ok, I found it. .

Spoiler

I'm wondering how the player was supposed to know that specific room. I used it in the bathroom based on the hint in the diary but I can't think of a hint indicating to use it in the reading room. Also, the hint seems to expect the player to be able to know what colour each button and lever and switch is. It seems that ONLY the dial has the colour labelled. For those of us who cannot tell red/green and other colour differences, is there a way to solve this puzzle?

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Grazie

SHADOW

CaptainD

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yeah, but be sure you got the right "age".. You can see a dial  on top left... A.d. Or B.c. ... In the song there are written historical events.. So you have to figure out the right age [\hide]

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I am stuck at the same place

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I don't have a clue what the different levers and switches do. I don't know what song you are referring to

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SHADOW

Inconsistency:

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It's sort of the theme of the game. Many of the rooms or sets of rooms are fragments from other worlds and contexts, with some bridging between them. There is no more plotting going on than the protagonist's "hope" this might be just in one enclosed "test area", and that normality is reachable. It gave me a lot to work with creatively with puzzles and characters, as well as being the story I went for. As the cloaked one sais at the end: "You really thought you were the hero of a Tale of Adventure, didn't you."

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Well, that was certainly accomplished! The creativity was brilliant and the game was overall very enjoyable.

Cheers

SHADOW

Hi,
I need a larger cloud, suppose I have to show something to the fisherman (I got 2 or 3 so far). What to do with the funny - now working - machine next to the grumpy sleeping alien.
Suppose to do all this first before dealing with the witch?

Did you:

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get the pants for the alien yet?

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SHADOW

Okay...here is the solution:

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You must go all the way to the door and shout at him from that side. This will scare him back along the rope to the left. Keep shouting...

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I don't think I would have solved that in 1000 years! Thank you!

SHADOW

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He's already at one wall...

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yes, and there's no way to interact with him or make him move.

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If you got the key from the chimney then you must have gotten the scissors from the rope...Remember how you did that

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I did that by talking to him and he moved to the edge. Now it says that he's already at the wall

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SHADOW