Messages

-Last time it got pretty obvious that it was all your "voice." Instead, winners should write their own speeches. Either let them know in advance that they've won, or ask each of the nominees to send you a speech to use in case they win.

But that was my favorite part of the ceremony! 

I think the awards system is adequate enough as is, but I really think non-adventure games should be allowed to compete in the other categories as well.

As far as the ceremony goes, I really liked it, but I can see where M0ds is coming from too. It would probably be too much work to make both the ceremony "game" and organize the IRC ceremony, huh?

[HIDE QUEST]

Announcing a game I will never release that started production in 2002 (GASP!), the appropriately named:
HIDE QUEST
Featuring over 150 rooms (no kidding), a plot involving time travel, paradoxes, and cliches, Hide-Quest was nowhere near completion when I finally abandoned it. It was really my 'baby' game and let me exercise my bad design skills before (hopefully) moving on.

This was one of the first screens I made for it:

And this was one of the last:


More screenies (circa 2002-2006):
(animated)

I'd recommend making sure you have some code in the Player Leaves Room event to reset the raintimer and Release the backup surface if it's in use, to prevent this happening.

Okay, I reset the raintimer and released both 'backup' and 'surface' drawing surfaces when the player leaves each different room. I tried to recreate the same situation but it didn't crash this time. So for now, it seems to be fixed unless I keep trying different save game/room combinations. Thanks for your help!

This should work correctly, so the crash looks like it's probably a bug in AGS.

Would it be possible to upload the game along with a save game file that causes it to crash?

Alternatively, could you upload the CrashDump file?

I've PMed you the file.

Yes, I did it at the top of the room script.

I have a DrawImage code running in the RepEx, which repeats over and over to achieve a type of rain effect. It works as it should, except in some instances, loading a game during the rain code causes a crash which I can't seem to fix.  The entire crash message is as follows:

Code: ags

---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occurred in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00436A9D ; program pointer is +1004, ACI version 3.02.1025, gtags (30,0)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.

in "room3.asc", line 549


Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.

An error file CrashInfo.dmp has been created. You may be asked to upload this file when reporting this problem on the AGS Forums. (code 0)
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

...And Here is the code (line 549 is near the bottom):

Code: ags

  // Rain Code
  if (gCommunicator.Visible == false && gVerbCoin.Visible == false) {
    raintimer++;
  if (raintimer == 1) {
    surface = Room.GetDrawingSurfaceForBackground();
    backup = surface.CreateCopy();
    doover=0;
    doover2=0;
    while (doover < 100) { // 100 raindrops
    int y=(165+Random(35)); // 165-200 drawing area.
    int x=Random(320); // whole screen.
    if (Region.GetAtRoomXY(x, y) == region[1] || Region.GetAtRoomXY(x, y) == region[7] || Region.GetAtRoomXY(x, y) == region[10]) {
    surface.DrawImage(x, y, 303, (60+Random(40)));
    doover++;
      }
     }
   while (doover2 < 50) { // 50 raindrops
    int y=(107+Random(10)); // 165-200 drawing area.
    int x=(90+Random(230)); // whole screen.
    if (Region.GetAtRoomXY(x, y) == region[9]) {
    surface.DrawImage(x, y, 303, (60+Random(40)));
    doover2++;
      }
     }
   
    }
  if (raintimer == 5) {
    surface.DrawSurface(backup); // THIS LINE CRASHES --- Line 549 ----------- CRASHY CRASH CRASH
        surface.Release();
    backup.Release();

    raintimer=0;
    }
  }
  // End Rain Code

When I load certain saved games, the game crashes on the 'surface.DrawSurface(backup);' line. I assume it's because there's no backup to draw for some reason, but I can't figure out how to fix it.

I really don't want you to give away anything, but I've got a question about the title of the game: Boryokudan, as I understand it, is the Japanese term to describe organized crime. Is "rue" also a Japanese word, or is it the French "rue", meaning "street"?

I really like the title, it is very original.

Thanks. I was worried about the title since I just came up with it, and I hadn't even had a title for the past eight months. You are correct about the word Boryokudan (I hope, otherwise I'm wrong too). As for 'rue', this is the definition I'm using:

Repentance, regret; Pity, compassion; (transitive) To make (someone) repent of sin or regret some past action; (transitive) To make (someone) feel sorrow or pity; To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish a past action undone; (intransitive) To feel compassion or pity

Here's another one I like:


http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000778.html

A possible compromise is to include easter egg puzzles that aren't necessary to solve in order complete the game or to access any of the plot elements but will instead give bonus points, reveal secret non-critical information, or other reward.   According to the "hard core" puzzle solvers here it would seem that solving difficult, non-plot related puzzles is a reward in and of itself.   I do, however, harbor a suspicion that the enjoyment of solving overly difficult and/or convoluted puzzles, for some folks, is derived from other peoples inability or difficulty in solving said puzzles. 

That was one thing Duty & Beyond did, and I thought it pulled it off very well. I believe every (if not, some) 'world' in that game had an optional side-quest(s) that allowed you to go for the extra gem in each world. This meant you could solve the main quest, or you could spend time solving optional puzzles, which was fun in its own right. However, you weren't required to complete them in order to move on to the next world. This allowed players who couldn't immediately solve these puzzles move on without getting too frustrated, while still allowing more "experienced" adventure gamers to play around with them.

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

@Nikolas & robvalue: Interesting point about the font. I'll definitely take that into consideration.

[GEMINI RUE]

Updated January 11, 2011

Joshua Nuernberger presents

In association with
WADJET EYE GAMES

2010 Independent Games Festival
Student Showcase Winner
GEMINI RUE
COMING FEBRUARY 24, 2011

GEMINI RUE is a neo-noir, full length point 'n click adventure game, encompassing a dual narrative.

It follows the story of Azriel Odin, an ex-assassin, trying to bring down the notorious crime group, the Boryokudan, and the story of Delta-Six, an amnesiac patient who must escape his imprisonment before he loses his identity.

GEMINI RUE features traditional adventure game elements, such as puzzle-solving, dialog systems, and more, but also incorporates more unorthodox features, including an action system, and an investigations system. GEMINI RUE was a winner of the Student Showcase Award in the 2010 Independent Games Festival chosen from more than over 190 entries.

TRAILER 2!
TRAILER 1
TWITTER

AWARDS
Independent Games Festival 2010 - Student Showcase Finalist
Featured at IndieCade 2010 @ E3
Indie Games Arcade 2010

PRESS
Indiegames.com - Podcast (Dec 28, 2010): http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/12/indiegames_podcast_14_diy_9021.html (48:30)
Attract Mode - Video Interview (E3 2010):  http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/07/e3_video_gemini_rue_designer_i_1.html
Game Developer Magazine MAY 2010 - Interview:  http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6773/brgamedeveloperarticle.jpg
PCGAMER September 2010 - Preview - Page 1, Page 2
DIY Gamer - Interview (Feb, 2010):  http://www.diygamer.com/2010/02/future-gaming-boryokudan-rue/
IndieGames.com - 10 Indie Games To Watch Out For In 2010: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/12/10_indie_games_to_watch_out_fo.html


FEATURES
Full Voice Acting!
Developer Commentary!
Updated Character Portraits!

A full-length, science fiction/noir dual narrative
A fine-tuned action system, fair to both action and non-action gamers
An intuitive notes and names system for investigations
A traditional verb box point 'n click interface with the "KICK" Verb
4-8 Hours of Gameplay & over 80 hand-painted backgrounds
Neo-Noir soundtrack by Nathan Allen Pinard

---

Starting today, Gemini Rue can be preordered in both downloadable and limited edition CD versions. The download costs $14.99 and will be made available to purchasers upon Gemini Rue's February 24 release. The limited edition CD, which will only be sold during the preorder period, costs $24.99 including free shipping worldwide. Expected to ship in March, the CD release will include the game, a full MP3 soundtrack, and professional packaging, as well as free access to the downloadable version when Gemini Rue launches online.

To get a first look at the game or place a preorder, visit the official Gemini Rue website at http://www.geminirue.com.

---
NEWS:
January 11, 2011
- GEMINI RUE is coming February 24, 2011, under Wadjet Eye Games (http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1143516p1.html)

December 28, 2010
- GEMINI RUE is on the indiegames.com Podcast http://bit.ly/hFV39W!

September 15, 2010
- GEMINI RUE will be at the Indie Games Arcade!

August 1, 2010
- Added IGF, Indiecade, & Interview links

June 27, 2010
- Announcement: Gemini Rue is now the title!

January 30, 2010
- Important Announcement: Boryokudan Rue will be a commercial Release!

January 18, 2010
- Boryokudan Rue has been nominated as a student finalist in the 2010 Independent Games Festival! Check here for more details: http://www.igf.com/10studentfinalists.html

November 18, 2009
- Updated Game info.
- New Blog post.

February 5, 2009
- New screenshot + updated old screenshots
- Added/modified game info a bit
- Changed classic Lucas Arts font
- Release date: I'm not going to give one for fear of it biting me back, but I will say that a large majority of the work is done. The game has been in production for just over a year now, and things have been somewhat on schedule for the most part. There is a 90% chance it will be completed at the MOST within a year.

September 18, 2008
Current team includes myself, and Nathan Allen Pinard on music. I'm trying to remain somewhat reclusive about the game's story and features, and leave that for a surprise when the game is released. The game has been in production for about eight months now, but I won't announce any tentative release dates yet.

I had this problem with The Feeble Files. Information is good but an encyclopedia is a really terrible, undynamic way of presenting it.

There was a post-mortem on the game Portal, where Erik Wolpaw stated the designers' intent to specifically avoid these types of "Audio Log Emails." Instead of having pieces of paper, or diaries you could pick up around the environment, they limited all the backstory information to

Spoiler

graffiti, hidden on a cell wall.

[close]

In my opinion, it gets the job done equal or better than any audio log ever could. And honestly, who wants to pick up a book, inside a game, and read that book instead of reading a real, physical book?

See, this is exactly why I can't understand the view of the anti-puzzle crowd - I loved solving that puzzle. And pretty much all the other ones in MI2.

If you cut out the traditional puzzle (which a lot of people are trying to do anyway, worryingly..) where are people like me going to get the fun out of the game? I mean, if you want to just cut to the chase, good luck to you, grab a walkthrough and have a good time. But *I* can't make the game any more difficult to solve.

The thing is, a game needs obstacle. And the adventure game naturally has puzzles for an obstacle. If you make it like an open book... it's not a game. It's just a story.

I'm in the same crowd as Babar here. I tried doing so many things for that puzzle, but eventually I had to use a walkthrough. When I finally saw the solution, I thought, 'who in the world would actually connect the dots with all these separate puzzles to accomplish one (out of four?) sub-goals to accomplish a main goal in the first act?' But then again, I was young when I played it, and I might have a different view on it if I tried again today.

[Don't make puzzles unnecessarily convoluted]

Great topic.

Don't make puzzles unnecessarily convoluted - This was really an eye-opener for me in this post, because I was so prone to doing it in all my early design documents. The key question here is: what fantasy do we want to play out as adventure game players? Do we want to collect endless supplies of keys and try them out on doors in order to proceed through a story? Or do we want to make story-impacted decisions like hijacking a plane, navigating a tomb for treasure, or investigating a murder by interrogating suspects? Give the player clear goals (with some exceptions) - I don't want to be dropped in a game and left wandering around senselessly for an hour trying to figure out what to do. I want to know what my objective is; I want to know why I'm solving these puzzles and what I'm trying to achieve; I want to be able to relate my progress to my ultimate goal. If the game has no goal, then make that clear to the player. You don't have to tell the player exactly what to do, but at least point them in the right direction.

I feel like I have a lot more to say that I can't remember, but most of what I could add is ripped from either the GTD threads, or the very handy "Why Adventure Games Suck..." by Ron Gilbert.

I enjoyed your comics. I may be out of the loop here, but I've never seen short, 1 page, biographical comics before, and they are each interesting in their own way.

I gotta admit, I love all the philosophical reasoning you write after every comic, but reading them really makes me depressed for some reason. 

Gosh, this is so obvious. I should have just pasted the answer on the top.

Yep, I got kind of bored so I browsed the AGDI forums for some extra side-quest information (I don't think I would've found the new stuff otherwise. I'm not a very clever person).

Here are the side-quests I completed:

Spoiler

Dervish Beard + Potion Components -- if those even count as side-quests
Plant lady (far right desert)
Beast in Cage
3 Shapier Thieves Guild missions + Rasier Mission
WIT initiation
Diary of the warrior (or whatever it was called)
Pizza elemental - I found it, but after trying to beat it, I gave up deciding it wasn't worth the effort! 

[close]

I think that's all of the ones that I did. I probably missed at least a couple.

Okay... I finished the game as a thief, and here are my final impressions:

• Unlike most others, I found the combat great, and consistently challenging and satisfying. I already mentioned my previous thoughts earlier about the combat, so I'll keep this short. It adds an extra layer of depth to the game, and a whole element of strategy instead of the battles just being 'spam until you win' fests. I know it's hard at first, but I'd rather be it initially challenging and getting easier, than easy at the beginning and sleep-walk easy towards the end. Thumbs up!
  
• I feel like what needs to be said about the visual side of the game has already been said. It looks great, plays great, and the attention to detail is superb. Little things like the player only wielding one dagger instead of two during the end fight--if he lost a dagger during the battle--really add a lot to the atmosphere.
  
• Now... I do have one main complaint with the game which is not exclusive to the VGA remake. There's simply not enough stuff to do, or side-quests to undertake. In QFG1, I'd say there are about 10-15 unique locations in the forest, apart from the town and the castle. With QFG2, Shapier just about matches the town and the castle in Speilberg, but there are only a total of 3 unique locations in the desert, 4 if you count the "beast" puzzle revealed later. Even with that, I found myself getting bored. By the time I got to about day 8, I had most of my combat skills approaching 200, I bought most everything in the shops (many of which is just for decroation anyway), and I completed all the side-quests available to me at the time. After that, it felt like I was just killing time with every passing day.
  
• Shortly after that there was no point in going out and fighting, because I either had all my vital skills maxed out, or I already bought everything and any extra money would just weigh me down. I really wish there was more stuff you could do in the desert, or more things that you could buy in the shops. If there is nothing for me to work forward for, either in stats or money, there's no point in me trying to improve my character and gain more gold. One thing that I think might be interesting is battles in the maze of the city at night. Perhaps you could walk down a dead-end alley and have to fight off several thieves who try to mug you or something. Just anything to add more variation and elements to the game would be nice.
  

It's a very impressive remake, but in my opinion it's not as accessible and satisfying as the KQ2 remake. It's still an amazing accomplishment, and it's very well done.

Very cool. The handling is pretty good and the concept is well done. Love the momentum bar and the slide feature. Some complaints, however:
- It's pretty glitchy: I would walk into walls, through walls, and fall through the floor to my demise, over and over. The worst was when the game respawned me, and I instantly fell through the floor over and over without a chance of moving. This kept happening until I loaded a save-game. Another annoyances include the montemum bar pushing you off the second level instantly.
- I don't get the bounce off the wall thing. I tried to do it about ten times and I still don't get it, and I don't know whether or not I need momentum to do it.
- To make matters worse, I couldn't get through the first level at all, because the timer is too punishing. I'd suggest either extending the timer a lot (to soften the difficulty curve), or using a timer such as the one in Sonic that counts upwards instead of downwards. I know I was trying to get all the mail, but being one of those gamers who has to get everything, what was I to do?
- 'F' is an odd choice to grab the wall, since my fingers rest on WASD. It would make more sense for this to be the CTRL key, or some variation, so I don't have to move my fingers (I think).
edit: sorry, for some reason I thought 'A' was used for something, but I guess it was just my natural tendency to have my pinky rest on 'A' and my index finger to rest on 'D.'

I'm only on level 2, so I'll post the rest of my comments later. It's always a challenge to make new things in AGS, so thumbs up for that! 

I finished the game with a score of 563. I really like it and it has a lot of potential. If you can fix all the glitches, and add more levels, this would be a pretty fun game. One bug that I can single out in particular: sometimes when you die the momentum carries over when you respawn. This is readily apparent on level 2, because it would cause me to fall in the first pit continuously.
It also wouldn't hurt to auto-save during the level. You could also not stick mail just above pits that aren't visible below the bottom of my screen, causing me to jump down into nothingness to my death and feel tricked... but then again, it's a platformer.

Nice job, I really liked it.

Hilarious! Love it.