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So Gravity and I have been talking lately about starting up a site. At its core, it would be a social network, but don't think to yourselves, "Facebook clone," or anything like that. This would be a site directed at both indie game players & fans, and indie game developers.

The players (regular users) would sign up to the site for free and be able to add friends, chat, send messages, upload pics -- the usual social network stuff. They would also be able to become fans of indie games that are either in development (you'd be "watching" these), or have already been released (you'd be "fans" of these, or something similar).

The developers would sign up (with multiple tiered memberships, including a basic free option, of course) and have their own profile for their development company, or themselves (if they're just a guy making games). Developers would be able to create profiles (maybe mini-profiles or just pages) for each of their games, which users would then favorite/watch and be able to rate, review, discuss, etc. Developers could even host their games directly on the site, and even sell their games right through the site. The site would act as a host and a store in that regard.

Overall, the site has two goals in mind, which would work together: (1) to allow indie gamers and fans of indie games to come together and interact in a setting geared toward their love of games; and (2) provide a platform for indepdent developers to reach a target audience, as well as interact with their customers (or non-paying audience), and ultimately release their product to eager fans.

The site would categorize games into various genres, such as adventure, casual, arcade, puzzle, etc. and would limit developers to small-scale companies at the most, and individuals who have released a single free game at the least.

What is your general opinion of such a site? Would such a site be appealing to you personally? Would you join up? What other features would you want to see added if you did join up? If you are a developer (or say you were one), would such a site be a useful tool for you to utilize, given there were a large number of members on board? Do you feel that such a site would be able to fulfill the above two goals to both side's satisfaction?

I'd like to know what you guys think of this idea, as it's something we've been discussing for quite some time now.

I had no idea that area was explorable. I couldn't find a door that leads there. I thought I tried every door.

What bothers me is the amount of wasted space that I'm encountering so far. I mean, yeah, this space will most likely be utilized later in the episode, or at worst, in future episodes, but they could've worked around that by providing something of use in those locations from the get-go.

Hehe, it looks like the guy is saying "I like booobs" over and over.

[sparsely]

So I've been playing TSL for an hour or two now, and so far I have yet to come across any real puzzle. It's just interaction after interaction, with a few HORRIBLE narrator jokes tossed in, including shameless self-promotion if you try to talk to SingSing, the nightingale. Also, fourth-wall jokes are fine and dandy, if they're done properly, and sparsely. TSL fails in that regard.

It takes so long to get from point A to point B. I'm sure there's a speed slider somewhere in the options (I haven't checked yet), but it's not just that. There's SO MUCH unused space. In the 4 or 5 screens between the castle and the dock, there's nobody around to talk to. You can't even interact with the "End is Near" doomsayer guy with the mask.

I walk all the way over to the dock, only for the narrator to tell me that the ferrymaster isn't here yet, so try searching for more clues in the castle. In the castle, however, I keep getting hints that there's nothing in there anymore, and to venture outside of it to continue. UGH.

Thanks for the clarification, Erpy.

Can't wait for KQ9 to come out. I've been playing TSL for an hour or two now, and.. well, I'll save my comments for the Adventure Chat/Talk forum thread on the subject.

Where do you get these god-awful fonts?

Seriously, that font is just... yech... it's inconsistent and not appealing at all.

What kind of feel are you looking for in terms of the typeface? I could help you pick out a nice font that would go well with the theme.

Same here, all of the sites I run, combined (including ShutUpload, a file hosting service) transfer about 250GB per month (about 8-9 GB/day) and HostGator has specifically told me that I'm nowhere near using any amount of bandwidth that would worry them.

If you want to create a minigame where two human players can go at it, that's actually relatively easy. It's all about restrictive movement, tracking whose turn it is, etc.

But if you want to introduce a computer AI? You'd have to literally be a major in computer science in order to even begin to grasp the concept of such a thing.

[year]

My game's web site uses Wordpress (for which it was very easy to create a custom theme from scratch) and its own domain name.

A domain name can cost as little as $7 or $8 yer year, plus a basic hosting package can cost as little as $7 or $8 per month. Not that much out of pocket, to be honest.

I use HostGator, and their $9.99/mo plan offers unlimited bandwidth and web space. (And before anybody says anything, I checked with the tech support department, and the only limit is a physical one, which is 20% of their total upstream, which I calculated to be about 20TB per month max.)

It wouldn't be that much work to store the user IDs of those who voted on any particular game, and prevent vote-spam.

IA is releasing Space Quest II on schedule, and a King's Quest game, as KQIX-Team said.

And as for AGD-I:

Once we have finished tying up all the loose ends with our current project, we will not be remaking any more Sierra games. Unfortunately, the time required to create games as detailed and complex as these is no longer something that we have the resources or time to do pro-bono. Making these games requires an immense amount of dedication, willpower, commitment, and a great number of personal sacrifices. And while we have learned many valuable things from remaking these titles over the years, the situation has certainly taken its toll on us.

Seems less like legal worries and more like lack of resources and no longer being worth it.

But anyway, back on topic: KQ9 looks so far to be truer to the classic VGA style, which I absolutely love.

Are you looking into voice acting in the near future? AGDI and IA both managed to get Josh Mandel to voice Graham in their KQ remakes. It might have been for free, I'm not sure.

The only reason why Vivdendi (?) cared about The Silver Lining was because they flew WAY over the radar and publicized themselves way too much. Same with the SQ7.org guys, although that is arguable. Infamous Adventures and AGD Interactive released their remakes just fine without much hassle, IIRC.

I totally forgot about the game in "Big". I always wondered whether that was a real game or not. Most likely made up for the movie. Just like how "Fake-intosh" OS's appear in movie computers.

This game looks absolutely amazing! I can't wait for it to be released.

I had what I thought was a reference in "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People". At one point I thought Simon Pegg's character mentioned Laura Bow, but in fact he said "Clara Bow". Then it dawned on me... have there been any references to adventure games in movies or television?

I'm thoroughly confused... how could you do a remake of a game that came out three days ago?

Whoops... I thought this was the "Completed Games" forum. 

[New Screenshots Added!]

New Screenshots Added!

Woot woot! Here are some additional screenshots to whet your BTS appetite:



More character renders will be coming very soon!

One time my friend asked if he could have a go with my X-Box. I told him we weren't divorced yet and that she had a name! Bazinga.

Oh yeah, that's... good to know?

Are they forcing people to register to download it? If so, that's utterly stupid. And it breaks one of the main ideals of web development: never force registration unless there's a DAMNED good reason for it.

I got an advanced copy of TSL as one of the mirror hosts for the game. I installed it the day I got it, but haven't tried it out yet.