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It depends on the game. My current game is mostly about a journey, so I don't have map screens. All locations connect logically to each other, and it's also fairly linear so the places in act 1 are not available in act 2. If all (most likely around thirty when it's done) locations were available at any time, I'd be a fool not to use a map of some kind or I'd bore my players to death (even with the double click on exits to skip walk animation system I use).

DOTT (an excellent example of good design) has no map beacuse the geography is compact enough for it not to need one. As has been mentioned, Indy needs a map beacuse of the distances. The only way to avoid it would be to make a very linear game.

Adding locations as filler space is likely to be a bad idea. Even with something as good-looking as the Syberia games there were many complaints about the unused screens. (Also note that the Syberia story, being about a journey as it is, also is linear. Imagine having to run back and forth between all locations there!) What you gain in immersion is quickly lost when the game control becomes tedious.

So the decision to have a map or not should not be based on a poll "do you like maps?" but on the core game design. A map is not only a handy short-cut, it can also give a larger sense of space.

I am sorry if i am wrong but i heard that he worked on this project.Not from the start but worked.

You are wrong. There was talk about getting him involved (after fans became upset), but it never got anywhere. To quote Al: "I have not had, and will not have, any part in Magna Cum Laude." (follow the link to read all Al has to say about it).

Thanks.

If you visit the big adventure gaming sites, you can read a lot about it. (They've been writing about it for quite a while now.) There is also a demo available.

Word on the street is that it's a good game, except for the arcade sequences.

Anyway, there are several games which used timed puzzles/arcade sequences in there games.

And there are several games that get reviews like "great game, except for the arcade sequences". Of course it can be implemented in a better or worse way, but there will always be people who will be annoyed by it.

(Personally as a player, I'm somewhere in the middle. I didn't mind the BS3 sequences, but I'm against timed/arcade sequences as a rule. The GK2 ending is a good example of a game that became worse beacuse of it.)

[really hard]

The idea that a player who missed to do something early in the should be "punished" by getting a harder puzzle later has come up a couple of times in this thread. I find that strange. Isn't the player who failed to get that important object more likely to be bad at puzzles than the player who gets the object? It's the opposite of an adaptive skill level system. "Ah, this is a not-so-good puzzlesolver. A newbie adventurer, perhaps. Let's give him the really hard puzzles to make sure that he needs to use a walkthrough!"

I, too, felt a rush, until I found out that I could let the guy pummel me forever and nothing would happen. Which completly ruined the mood of the game for me. I didn't understand why they didn't just allow the guy to kill you and restart you before he was released.

Beacuse then you'd end up with a timed puzzle. When I want something like that I'll play an action game, not an adventure. Or they'd have to do things differently and never have a monster chasing April in the first place.

Yup, The Crow's Nest has had a facelift. If you haven't visited for a while there is also quite a bit of new content, including two articles aimed at adventure developers and a total of 309 games in the database.

(and that they had their own forum, so that they'd be easier to find)..

You mean like this one?

Oh, then apologies are due, the way you presented him made me think that these are "some words of truth from a professional-who-knows-how-to-do-it."

Well, they have shown some evidence of knowing how to do it, and for me who am still working on my first adventure game it gave some things to think about. Apology not needed, but accepted anyway.

Still, have you read the GTD topics? I believe that they deserve some wider exposure.

GTD? Is that one of the AGS-forums? (Looks at the forums index, becoming more confused.) I can't see which one it'd be. (Gets bright idea and searches the forums for GTD.) Aha!

I think I recognise some of those, but I have not read them all. Being an outsider here (Sludger rather than an AGSer) this is the only AGS forum I have visited and only infrequently. I'll read them later, thanks for the suggestion.

I don't know who is the guy who wrote this article

You haven't heard about the Apprentice games? Then you really should download them *now*. Top stuff.

The Crow's Nest now has its first article for developers, and it's written by noone less than Ian Schlaepfer. http://trumgottist.com/crowsnest/article.php?id=design1

Expect more to come, TCN is still evolving...

Heh, funny but true. I alwais get paranoid when double clicking on a *.exe file. You never know if there is a virus in there. But it looks more pro when the game instals in program files.

But you still have an .exe inside the zip/rar/whatever - the game itself!

Anyway, my experience is that an installer is a good idea. There are still many people who get confused by zips. If you want them to be able to play your game, you either have to provide a detailed explaination of how to unzip and play, or provide an installer.

TADS and Inform were the giants in IF-creation world, but it seems that most folks use Inform now.

I'd say they're about equal. Inform is going strong (and is the one I've dabbled with - the documentation is excellent!), but with the upcoming TADS3, TADS is better than ever.

Either of those two is a good choice. Using another may be less wise. Google the usenet groups rec.games.int-fiction and rec.arts.int-fiction if you want to know why. It always tends to get discussed in reviews of games created for the annual IF Competition. (Reading those reviews are a good idea for anyone wanting to write text adventures, btw.)

I'm looking for helpers. See http://trumgottist.com/crowsnest/forum/viewtopic.php?p=58 for details.

...and stay it will. Stay tuned to TCN for exiting changes, though! (One thing at the time, but things will change, and hopefully for the better...)

I need your help to make a decision. Please see the thread at http://trumgottist.com/crowsnest/forum/viewtopic.php and post your comments there (so that I get all comments in one place).

Thank you

Rikard Peterson
TCN Webmaster

It is a bit wide, forcing me to have a wider window than I prefer, but at least it doesn't force me to go full-screen (1024x768) with my browser. I really dislike that. Couldn't the two images be made to overlap so I could continue with my narrow browser window?

And that gorilla scene is just hilarious.

i hope that's sarcasm

Why is that? I laughed...

I think LucasArts is becoming the Disney of the computer gaming industry.

No. They was the Disney of the computer games industry. You could count on their games to be fun and to have excellent animation, acting, music etc.

I'm crazy enough to do voice-acting.  

I'm not particulary good with accents, but I believe that I have some talking skills and can find good intonation and rythm in a line. I have not done any acting for a game yet, but I am in the cast for one (which also happens to be the game I'm looking forward to the most at the moment).