Messages

I had to delete something like 20 "hahaha, it's April Fool's!!!" posts from this thread. Why do people feel the need to spoil a good thing? Next time, either play along, or shut up!

You're right of course, I'm sorry. I simply didn't think anyone would fall for it.

I haven't played a new game in two years, and now that I finally have some time I decided to give ATOTK a try. My first impressions are extremely positive. I will post more comments after I've played it for some time.

I finally got around to adding the game in the Full length games category.

The following AGSers contributed greatly to the making:

nikolasideris (current nick: Nikolas): Music, sound effects, sound engineering
Ashen: Additional scripting
KhrisMUC: Additional scripting
monkey_05_06: Additional scripting
SuperScottishHero (current nick: SSH): Additional scripting

Their real names are listed in the game's manual.

I didn't know the adventure advocate members get it together? Where ? When ? How?

Well, it's almost never a group gathering, but I do see Elessar and Fallen Angel now and then. They were in my house last Saturday. Would you like me to let you know next time we go meet?

Splat and everyone else: Please contact me by e-mail when you have a question because I don't always have the time to follow all the discussions in every forum.

What exactly do you mean by "unverified address"?

Good job Nikolas. As you probably know there are more strikes in Greece these days than in the bowling world championships, but I might be able to get something going by the end of the week.

I agree with Nikolas. If someone can prepare a list for me, I'll be happy to have my lawyer contact him.

I wanted to offer free shipping to everyone but it was impossible (or should I say, too expensive for me). I managed to do it for non-EU members thanks to a logistic trick and favorable exportation laws. Please understand that this is an offer to non-Europeans, not a 'punishment' for Europeans. You know how a game is sometimes sold for $20 in the US and â,¬20 in Europe because of different publishers? It's basically the same thing. I didn't think people would take it the wrong way.

Dimitris (is that right?) I don't have a license to sell our product in our office but if you want to contact me in private it would be great if you joined us next time the members of Adventure Advocate get together. I can give it to you then.

The game is officially released. I trust you will find it was worth the wait.

You may order it today.

If he won't listen to reason, I doubt he will respond to threats. But I promise to try soon.

[Monday, March 17 2008]

Release date: Monday, March 17 2008

The first review of my game is on line chaps.

Has anyone tried the polite approach? Something like, please remove all AGS related games from your site?

It's a partial copy & paste of the JA review.

I see several "essays" in their game descriptions, all probably leeched from one web site or another. They have one for The New Adventures of Zak McKracken too.

Interesting thread.

The arguments presented here are the exact reason I didn't want to team up with anyone during the making of Other Worlds. I couldn't trust a stranger to remain devoted to something he wasn't getting paid for, and I couldn't trust myself to do the same either.

As DITR is a professional game, I had to work with professionals. We signed contracts and NDAs, but let's face it, if an artist from Uruguay disappears on you there is little you can do, no matter how many signed papers you have. My way of dealing with this was to hire people who at least looked trustworthy, as in they had a professional web site and had worked on actual projects before. Then I tried to be as punctual with my payments and other responsibilities as possible - you know, if you want people to act like pros, you have to treat them as such. I was very lucky with this project as almost everyone I worked with delivered everything they had promised, apart from one actress whom I had to let go. I also found that the possibility of a long term cooperation is something that makes people try their best; they know that if you are satisfied with their services, you will hire them for future projects as well.

Ah, I didn't know we had discussed this before. Feel free to delete/lock this thread dear mods.

I ended up in this site by accident while I was searching for screenshots of the 256 colors version of Deja Vu.

It's one of the dozens of sites that offer games for download under the pretense that they're 'abandonware' (let's not go there). I clicked on 'O' and Other Worlds was there. I then clicked on 'download' to see if the site hotlinked to either AGS or my web page, and I was prompted to enter my credit card number to cover for their "increasing service maintaining costs".

I didn't search the web site for long, but I saw 'The New Adventures of Zak McKracken' there and I'm sure it has more AGS games.

The question is: should we do something about it? Or is it better to not fight a war you can't win?

How long is it, roughly? How many hours of dialog/music/cutscenes/etc. is there?

The music amounts to almost 42 minutes. Jason's lines alone are about 30 minutes.

I should probably add something like "the game is about 30 hours of gameplay" but to be honest I've never figured out how this is calculated in games. Let's just say that it's about average to long-ish size, I don't think anyone will find it too short.

There is no shame in me admitting that I got the Thoughts idea from Discworld Noir, which is one of my favorite games. I was glad to notice the coincidence of several new games using something similar, but I want to make it clear that I had no idea when I wrote most of the story of DITR in 2005.

As for what makes the feature good, personally I've always wondered what was going through my character's mind while playing a game. Some titles features diaries and notepads which are good, but not interactive. The access to Jason's thoughts seems to make him more 'human'. I like the way the description of a thought changes as the story progresses, and that I can combine two thoughts together to see how they are related. The use of them as inventory objects enriches the gameplay and makes it rather impossible for the player to give up thinking and solve the game by brute force (using everything on everything) as the possible combinations are just too many.

An example, hmmm.. I don't want to spoil anything so I recommend that you play the demo to understand. Let's just say that if the protagonist does not know what to do with a particular situation, or is reluctant to do it because it's out of character, you can use deductive thinking to help him make the right decision.

Thanks for playing along.

What in your opinion makes the game good?

I believe that the storyline is its best feature. It's an 'adult' story, and by that I don't mean sex or violence, I mean that although it has a fantasy theme it deals with a very real and serious issue. As far as I know, this is probably the first adventure game that deals with that particular issue, and I expect it to raise some controversy. The characters should seem very real and anything but paper thin, and the puzzles are more reminiscent of a 1990 game than a modern one (which in my book is always a good thing). The voice acting and music are on a par with any expensive commercial game.

What are its main features?

It's a 3rd person point & click adventure, with a Black Mirror-like inventory and a LucasArts-like dialog system. It also features the 'Thoughts Panel', a notice board that has the main character's thoughts displayed as post-its. Not only will that give you a chance to gain access to the protagonist's line of thought as the story progresses, you will also be able to use these thoughts as inventory objects, which is to say combine them together and click them on other characters or hotspots.

How is it different and how it is similar to 'Other Worlds'?

The may look like two completely different games, but they both rely on a deep storyline and puzzles that vary in difficulty. They both have a plenitude of inventory items and an 'extra' feature; in OW, it was the spells. In DITR, it's the Thoughts.
Of course, DITR looks better (duh) and like I said it has a much more serious theme, whereas OW was a cartoonish, humorous adventure.

(Slightly unrelated) I've never played OW but I will in the future, can you send me a PM, telling me about it?

I can do better than that (and no need to do it in private, either).

Official page

Review 1

Review 2

Some comments from AGS members

DITR is NOT in full 3-D?! Wow you could've fooled me; then again I once got sodium hydroxide into my eye when I was younger so... :o

Well of course all the graphics are 3D objects, but everything is shown in a 2D display.

Poor joke...

Well it made me chuckle... But then again I don't go out much, being a programmer and all.

Thing is, as harsh as they were, they were also kinda right, you know.

OF COURSE they were right. Just like you are all right to want a download option. I never said the opposite. I just have trouble coping with the idea that no matter how I try to explain my reasons I seem to be making matters worse.

EDIT - BTW, I have to say I admire your attitude, alkis, up until the previous post where you seem to have lost some of your cool (understandable if you feel accused, I'm not sure you *were* accused but if you felt accused then why shouldn't you lose some of your cool?). Calm, quiet, dignified. Always a big plus.

I never lost my cool. Just my appetite, but as I can definitely lose a few pounds that's not a big problem.