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[Trumgottist]

Congrats & all the best to Trumgottist! ...of 'Frasse'-flameboyance & and 'Kejick'ulous fame!

Looking forward to the next installment of your series! Hopefully with even more wacky ideas!

[1st Hour:]

Didn't see your questions, your editing & my posting seem to have overlapped:

Question 1: One tester has pointed out that immediately after the accident I jump ahead to the point where   Gordy's leg has already been bandaged.  Is everyone okay with this?  I idea was to skip ahead to character-developing scenes.  Does this work, or should I include a bit of dialogue about patching up Gordy's leg?

In my opinion definitely the latter, as it is a very neat and unobtrusive opportunity to introduce all characters. You could e.g. implement a simple dialog puzzle in order to be able to aid Gordy. (situations of "crisis", however small, are always a great opportunity to show off human character traits)

Question 2: Should more of the game have "look" and "interaction" respones?

Let's put it this way: it's good way of enhancing and conveying atmospherical cues, to get the player 'on the edge" so that your shock effects have the most impact. (For example emphasizing how lonely and desolate this place is geographically & so on)

Just re-checked first two Hours, I don't think there're not enough responses actually.

A few more things:
1st Hour:
- looking at the 'swing' + comment quite difficult - probably because it's moving? no eye interaction on seat.
  (To be honest, the swing looks slightly awkward as it's angle would be like that during a raging hurricane. Besides, I think it would be far more atmospheric, if it was moving only from time to time and in a much slower motion - it's kind of hectic right now and  slightly kills the ambience)
 
- standing in front of the house, it would be nice to still be able to observe the door seperately, because:

Spoiler

...to be able to use axe on door while standing in front of the house (Jack walking there and opening the door would feel more natural, as the door is in plain sight.)

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2nd Hour:
- illuminated living room: during discussion SAL passes in front of couch but BEHIND the two people sitting on it.

- generally: In front the house, on it's right and left side: you can see the shed and swing-area respectively, however clicking there you always end up walking towards the house. Walking to the house should be confined to the house itself?      

@Baron
Speaking as a fairly new member (...at least as registered member) of this community, I can only say Baron's observation concerning Newbies in reference to the forum and AGS itself is really spot-on. That is exactly the predicament for most newcomers! I mean not everyone has icy's happy-go-lucky, maybe partly insane attitude and plunges right in (which takes a lot of courage nevertheless (seriously !)). Personally I'm sure I'll grow into AGS in time by helping out here and there and working with you guys.

All I can contribute to this discussion is that by playing the games AGS members have produce over the last couple of years I can see a more open minded approach towards the definition of what adventure games are and a tendency to experiment with AGS, try out new stuff and so on. AGS is a powerful tool, a lot of your games have shown me just how powerful, and I couldn't care less if they're 2-D, 3-D, whatever-D, if they're adventures or hybrids, if narrative or experimental, as long as they rock! (And while hanging around here, I hope to learn how to make 'em that way!)
As Ponch and ddq mentioned before me, I reckon open mindedness is a key element in pretty much everything and will prevent AGS from stagnating and let's face it: there'll ALWAYS be one of you freaks who wants to create insane games with AGS - it might even be me some day...                      

DAMN! I can't help it!
I've this compulsive urge to come back to this thread's initial post, with the futile attempt not to drool all over my keyboard! Those graphics...really, I can't put my finger on it - some of us called it 'vibes' - which is actually spot-on!

I know, it's probably a bit early for that, BUT if you need play testers at one point or another - DEFINITELY count me in if you want!!!
All the best and much energy for this intriguing project of yours!

Good to see you guys are up and running! Great website! Congrats.

MM. - my first adventure game ever, back when I was ten on my 'powerful' C-64.
Didn't even know what PUSH & PULL meant at that time - but the wooden gargoyle taught me eventually

Perhaps your amazing graphics will help to open up this almost ancient
classic to a new generation of players.

Can't wait to give it a spin! All the best!

1.  Without Warning:  Jack Palance (!) takes on a bubble-headed alien that can throw pancake parasites in this direct-to-video Predator knock-off.

This was a decent film, surprisingly, with good performances all around.  I expected Palance to phone in his part but he actually put some effort into it and made his character a bit more memorable as a result.

DAMN! Without Warning! Probably the first "horror"-thriller I ever watched! Aside from Jack Palance, starring Martin Landau and an almost prepubescent David Caruso, no?!
Great campy suspense-horror movie. The image of that blue alien and his ravenous flying tentacle-pancakes stayed with me for quite while - mainly due to the fact that I was only five or six years old when I saw it for the first time. Nice one ProgZ, thanks for reactivating a fond childhood memory!

Glad to hear Cogliostro, looking forward to the 6th hour!

No worries, as Tabata pointed out as well, the ghost hunter and Jack NOT being one and the same person is quite obvious (...except if the Greenroom sequence is a schizophrenic projection of Jack's twisted mind, the ghost hunter being his alter ego in this collateral dimension of his mental reality?...nah! )

The truth: ...while posting, I was just too lazy to restart the game and re-check the notes I jotted down with each time segment...meh :

What I hinted at was:
I realized the player encounters the observation "It's a door" quite frequently throughout the game so far (except in the 3rd Hour) .
Changing the tag from "It's a door" to e.g. "The door to the shack"/ "That's the kitchen door"/ "That's the door to the dining room", after visiting those locations would serve a double purpose in my opinion.

As a mental note of the character it helps to enhance the level of immersion for the player, I think (in a sense of: "I have been there/ I know this place/ I become familiar with it" etc.)

At the same time, the heightened sensation of the player's "being there" ("the house/world" acknowledges my presence/ my being there) might help to reaffirm the mood of impending danger and threat.
Just a thought...and sorry for rambling!

tramp    

Finally came around to try your game Technocrat. I can only say WOW!
I'm really impressed how well you integrated those mood enhancing textual passages and subtle comments
hinting at the dystopian background of your minimalist setting.
At no point during this short game I felt forced upon by useless information, or
patronized by unnecessaryly obvious clues. Rather every bit of observation/interaction in Technobabylon added up to a surprisingly coherent image of it's world (despite it's length!).

Brilliant atmosphere, very, very well implemented puzzles, great graphic - I enjoyed every second of it!

The only minor detail really tzachs has already mentioned:

Spoiler

...the reappearance of those e-mails even after 'harvesting' the virus.

[close]

PS: This is what you do "in between" to get your mind off Operation: Forklift??? I mean, JESUS F*** CHRIST!! MORE!!! MOOORE!!!

Spoiler

3rd h:
~ about Trampolines post
  the descriptions of the doors during watching the video is okay (in my opinion), because the ghost-hunter  may know the rooms already (in my eyes it isn't Jack - or has he cut his hair?

[close]

Of course you are right Tabata. I seem to have confused the time segments & character I was playing. Consider this point redundant.

About the hand/ eye cursor: As rascal mentioned, at some points it is quite difficult to postion those cursors over objects, especially if they're fairly small. Maybe adding a reference pixel to each cursor would be of great help as to know how/where to position the cursor over an object to trigger the interaction.   

Very nice! I really like it so far Cogliostro.

Especially, I've to agree with Tabata, the part...

Spoiler

...during the camcorder recording sequence, while entering the dining room freaked me out quite a bit! Really well done!

[close]

some minor stuff I've found:

Spoiler

- 1rst time with Jack in the (illuminated) living room:
  The description of those two doors reads 'kitchen' and 'dining room'. (which the player actually doesn't know yet)
  Later on in the game it just says '(It's) a door'(or sth. similar?)
  Might be more logical to reverse those descriptions?

- while playing with Sal (Fourth Hour?), I wasn't able to go back to the living room through the connecting kitchen door for some reason

- (with Astrid in the dining room) I was able to observe both paintings at the same time --> zoom on both paintings overlapped, which was kind of awkward (not sure if that is true for all playable characters?)

- (Astrid, hunting for the tuna) While standing in front of the house and trying to walk to the left side of the house (swing & generator) I received a message saying: "That's not the way to the cars.". This message got stuck, didn't vanish even after several mouse clicks, and I had to reload a save game.

[close]

One question though: All characters seem fairly 'clear cut': the 'prick', the 'intellectual', the 'airhead' etc.. As I don't know your concept for further events in the game: is that intentional, to break with certain clichés of stereotypes later on in the game?
Please don't get me wrong, I'm only asking because you've mentioned character development as one of your focal points and to achieve this IMHO it is quite important that we care about those characters. And it is by far easier to care about a protagonist if he/she doesn't stay one-dimensional, as in "too prickish", "too airhaded" and so on...?  

Anyway, really looking forward to your next update, to get spooked again!

You received some sound advice, icey and I've to agree.
I just found a link about a project that got C&D'ed by SE not too long ago!

Honestly, this is not to put you down or anything, but rather to put things into perspective. As Calin said, keep on doing your stuff, just don't use their proprietary assets!

Lick it and see.

You just made his Wi-Fi work again...

Woot! Back on-line! 8) Thanks guys!!!

Dude, you've got an utterly-powerful wifi antenna!

Yeah, I had it surgically integrated into my my body...I won't tell where though. For some reason it's only working when I'm 'excited'...

edit: Now that I think of it, coincidentally, this provides me with the most ridiculously outrageous excuse for watching internet porn, EVER!  

YAY! You guys are INSANE! I love it here!

Exhibition #1: Cave Monkey



Taken after a 5 hour climb at an altitude of 2200m.
As you can clearly see, I was more than euphoric, to say the least...

I'm still stuck in this cave... ...right now.

I have to go, I can hear some tourist group entering my lair...*limp into the dark*

Oh, and a small detail that was negected in this thread and not so visible in the main site:

I "neglected this small detail" as you say, because I just wanted to inform you about the release.
And because I personally dislike threads, that spam you with info. I much rather prefer to search
for information on my own account on such matters, like anian did.
Otherwise they ofton tend to end up sounding like promotional ads. Didn't want that. Wanted
you guys to make up your own mind, if you were interested. Call it a very personal preference of mine.

PS: Gord, it's a 'total conversion mod', that's slightly different from a common mod. They only use the 3D engine as
     base - if it wasn't proprietary, you wouldn't need to buy Dungeon Siege at all.  
     They needed an engine and that was the most appropriate available at that time (9 years ago!).
     For non-commercial projects to build a 3D-engine from scratch would be a little much to ask for.
     DS costs around 5$ anywhere on the net!

  Exactly. Then I might have misread your earlier post and I do apologize.
My response was never intended to be too much on the serious side anyway
(...no one gets my kind of humor... :'() Now we almost hijacked Kaio's thread, sorry K.)

Very true, besides, it doesn't have any impact on out criticism of how to improve the image, anian.
Please, let's not succumb to the yahtzee-phenomenon on a subtle scale here, ladies and gentlemen.
We're a community, not a contramunity.

 :o Jesus! Where do all of you guys get your skillz from!! Amazing! Well done!

The only thing I recognized, the overall shape might be somewhat leaner.
The section between eyes and nose seems somewhat 'clin(t)ched' (sorry stupid, I know, couldn't resist! :)
I think it's the nose, it seems slightly out of perspective.

edit: the overall pespective is perfect. I just realized what it is: if he would rotate his head slightly to his left side, then I'd picture the nose looking pespectively correct. I guess it's got slightly too much profile to it - but that's vereery nitpicky on my part.

Like it a lot! I have to say, I especially like the watercolor-like look of it.
It would be the perfect setting for an adaption of a children's book story!


PS: Would it maybe be possible to setup a collective thread about graphic tablets in general? I know there're some, spread all over the forum, but they're fairly old. It would be nice to have some short & comprehensive feedback on different versions of tablets you people are using - and I mean professionals and newbs alike!
That would be most helpful! What do you think? (apology for off-topic remark IndieBoy!)  

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a 800-page full collection of all SH novels.
Love it!

Hey InCreator, do you have an edition with all the original illustrations from the 'Strand Magazine' by Sidney Paget? They're stunning!
Love Sherlock Holmes! Bought "The Original Illustrated 'Strand' Sherlock Holmes" hardcover from Wordsworth about 20 years ago. The cover art is perfect. Hope image is ok (?)- just had to show you guys. Unfortunately this version is not in print anymore. The most precious book I own. Must've read it around twelve times.


1126 pages of bliss...