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Here are two short time related adventure games for you to play today.

The first is called Vicious Cycles, it's a light interactive fiction, no typing involved, hyperlinks do all the dirty work for you, don't let that detail fools you into thinking the game will be easy because it's not. In the game you work for a time travel agency and your task is to prevent a bomb from exploding, every time you die however, and it will happen a lot, your mind is extracted from your body and injected in the body of another bystander, moments before the bomb explodes, ready to give your mission another go. The particularity of the game is that every time you die, you lose your current inventory, but the in-game knowledge your character acquired in your previous, failed attempts, stays with him, which leads to some interesting puzzles. You can play it here:
http://bloomengine.com/cycles/

The second one is called I Have 1 Day, it's a point and click adventure game made in flash, a wizard cursed you and you have exactly one day to reverse the curse, otherwise you die. Although traveling between locations costs you precious hours and all your moves must be carefully calculated in order to reverse the curse, the game comes with a journal that records where you were and what you did every hours of the day, and you can rewind time at your leisure to solve puzzles differently and travel more efficiently to save time. This little game with a nice Last Express vibe can be played here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/567595

I never fooled myself and knew Steam could pull the plug on my account anytime they wanted but I couldn't be arsed to do anything about it, after reading your story, I think it's about time I start using it as little as possible.

Canada actually. And yes, they do. Took me a while to discover that. Maybe they charge you too and you don't even know.

I know how you feel, I've been there the last 8 months.

Get rid of TV if you have one. Pirate everything for a while and redeem yourself when you'll have a diploma, a job and a pool of money.

If you've got electricity to pay, turn off everything anytime you're not using it. If there is one more winter before you get your diploma, turn off the temperature a little bit and sleep with socks, extra blankets or a gown. Also, seal your windows and every other holes where heat escapes. During summer, hang your clothes, don't dry them.

Avoid restaurants. Look out for sales at grocery and always compare prices. Whenever something you eat a lot is on sale, stock up for when it is not. Also stick to cheap stuff, eggs, bread, flour, potatoes, pasta, etc. If you're still not saving enough, reduce food to a meal per day, or alternate between a meal and two meals. Eat before you go to the grocery store. No more juice or soda, drink water. Avoid the big brands, buy your grocery's home brand instead. Shop too if you can, don't stick to one grocery store.

Pork mince is cheaper and a good substitute to beef mince.

Don't buy anything at convenience stores, ever. Everything is overpriced there.

Don't drink when you go to bars (just say you're the one who's driving tonight). If you need beer badly, buy it at grocery store, twenty bucks is what, four beers plus tips in a bar? It's twelve beers at grocery store, more if you fall on a sale.

Roommates are great to split lodging and food bills, if you can find a friend or an honest roommate.

Like Ponch said, banks leech you whenever you use your debit card, which is quite stupid since you're saving them time by using it and not going there in person. Generally you are allowed to use it a certain number of time per month, if you blow the limit they suck you fifty cents to a dollar every time you use it. Use it once per month, get what you need and hide the card away 'til next month.

Get rid of your cellphone if you can without penalty, get a phone at home, it's much cheaper.

Pay your bills on time to avoid useless interest.

Sell the stuff you don't need anymore. If you want to get rid of games and consoles, avoid crap stores like Gamestop and EBgames who think you're a moron and sell them on eBay instead.

Edit: Moar!

Wait three months before you buy something totally useless. Chances are you won't want it anymore then.

Got a collection of soda and beer cans and bottles lying around? Bring them back to the store.

I missed it, but I found exactly 42 cents in my car when I picked up the grocery bags yesterday. Coincidence? I think not!

Lume is finally out!

http://lumegame.blogspot.com/

I've gone this approach in a few of my games and I seriously couldn't recommend it.  A majority of tester feedback has been negative because it's an issue of quantity -- or too much -- on the table for the player to have to try and guess WHERE an attack will come from, and with high/mid/low you've got a 33% chance of getting it right.  The only real alternative, then is to take it into the cartoony realm of a game like Punch-Out and have an enemy telegraph their specials, but since we're dealing with direct hit-or-miss situations here rather than a dynamic animation that can be interrupted (as you can in Punch-Out), you're looking at them telegraphing EVERY punch.

Well, there's no guessing in FOA and TLC, if you pay attention to your opponents' fists, you will know exactly where to block since they move their fists high/mid/low to indicate where they will punch next. The difficulty with blocking is you gotta pay attention to your opponent' fists, block, punch, retreat and step front, all this in split seconds. But with an enemy sufficiently slow you could easily block every punches, there was no luck involved. I guess it all depend just how fast battles happen if FOY, which I why I suggested they play TLC instead of FOA since battle speed in TLC was rather balanced, while in FOA either CPU cycle in dosbox is too fast and you don't have time to see the punch coming, or it's too slow and the controls are unresponsive.

But I won't deny that successfully blocking was tough in these games. Personally I preferred to delay blocking until it became inevitable, by punching and retreating until I could no longer, then I started to pay attention to the opponent fists and attempted to block, throwing a punch every two seconds or so. I did suggest a more simple high/low system earlier, instead of high/mid/low, but it's hard to see how it would play or if it would be too easy or not without playing it. But I guess lack of difficulty could be compensated with tougher enemies.

I back up entirely your bit about cinematic fights.

[Replicate:]

The demo fighting did reflect the SCUMM combat system very closely, however, so I'm sure the aforementioned SCUMM FoA purists would be very upset if we ended up changing much about the classic fighting mode in FoY... As a sidenote, I have to admit I always thought that fights in SCUMM sucked incredibly hard (about the only thing that did) - so, any ideas in particular? Maybe we could get away with just changing the blocking functionality? Maybe you can block high, mid and low and have to choose the right section in order to block (then turn down the animation speed so you can, if you are quick, actually react in time)? I will also have to play the FoA fights again for reference.

I don't know if I'm a purist. I prefer the sobriety (no kicking, no jumping) of the SCUMM mode that's for sure, and I defeated all the mooks but the sober Biff in the Last Crusade and the prison guard in Fate of Atlantis (yes, I beat the zeppelin ticket taker and that giant boulder nazi), but I also spent countless hours daydreaming how iconic fights in the Indy movies would feel if they were remade in the SCUMM fighting mode, like the bar fight at the start of Raiders, where you must beat a handful of progressively tougher enemies in a row but you can grab bottles scattered around between or during fights to use as improvised weapons, or the fight with Pat Roach, where the guy would be nigh impossible to beat with your fists, but the trick would be to simply make him retreat into the giant propeller, which is why I liked the cheap trick button in the FOY demo, for the cool fight potential it could bring to the old SCUMM fighting sequences.

You say you want to replay the FOA fights again for reference, may I suggest you play the Last Crusade instead? Fighting was smoother and more balanced in that game, plus you can spar in the gym at different difficulty levels right at the start, keyboard controls are enabled by default and Indy doesn't flee when you step back too much.

As a fan of the SCUMM mode, I say, simply replicate the Last Crusade fighting mode and throw in some improvement:

Replicate:
You and the opponent can punch and block high, mid and low.
You must observe your opponent' fists to guess where he will attack next.
Reintroduce the green and yellow health bar.
Bring back keyboard controls, fighting difficult enemies with the mouse was suicide in FOA.
If it's possible, reintroduce health carrying over in between fights, unless you find a first aid kit or something else to replenish your health, or unless you reach a new chapter (like in The Last Crusade where your health is replenished between Castle Brunwald and the airport).

Improvement:
Being able to escape from unwanted fights was a nice feature in FOA, however there should have been a button just for escaping because the most basic technique to defeat opponents in the SCUMM mode involves throwing a punch at full strength and stepping back, waiting for the opponent to step forward, throwing another punch and stepping back again... And in FOA it was too easy to accidentally escape from a battle by stepping back one time too many.

Cheap Tricks and other additions:
Keep the cheap tricks. They are great.
Cheap tricks should become available only when you lose half of your starting health during a fight (the yellow health bar).
There could be several cheap tricks, with different effects, like I suggested in my previous post.
You can use only one cheap trick per fight, so you must choose wisely.
Some enemies could be immune to some cheap tricks (tackling a bulky opponent should have no effect, sand in eyes shouldn't blind an opponent who wears goggles, etc.)
Some special enemies could use cheap tricks of their own.
Some special enemies could use melee weapons. Melee weapons deal damage even if you block the blow, the only way to avoid damage is to step out of the way before the enemy attacks, not unlike Biff's and Arnold's punches in TLC and FOA. Another cheap trick idea: disarm your opponent during a fight.

Don't worry too much about purists. If the FOY SCUMM fighting mode plays more or less like it did in the Last Crusade, I think most purists will be happy. Those who don't like the cheap tricks can simply ignore them during fights, like this dude who beat Biff without giving him the trophy full of ale.

Will you do the same for the SCUMM mode, with a demo to showcase how it will play in the full game so we can help you finetune it? I ask because I found the SCUMM mode in the v1.2 demo unbalanced and easy with the right mouse button that blocks every punch.

BTW, giving us the choice between both modes is a real cool move!

I completely agree. I've been following this project for a few years now. This seems really out of place.

My opinion also. I envision Indy fighting sequences to have the sobriety of the first Prince of Persia fighting sequences, minus the sword, plus combat pragmatism.

Take the old fighting sequence from the demo, slow down the punching animations to reduce commands spamming, and introduce a slightly simplified version of the fighting sequences from The Last Crusade (punch high, punch low, block high, block low, step back, step forward.)

Keep the cheap tricks, it's an awesome idea and you should add more:
Sand in eyes when you're close to the enemy (Enemy is temporary unable to block)
Tackle when you're away from him (Push enemy some step back)
Grab improvised weapon if there is one close to you (Extra damage and/or range)
Etc.

Some enemies could be immune to certain cheap tricks, some enemies could use cheap tricks of their own... Environmental hazards during fights would be nice too, remember the satisfaction you got when you pushed a tough enemy off a ledge or into a trap in Prince of Persia.

If you can re-create the Last Crusade fighting engine, with a simplified high/low instead of high/mid/low, and spice it up with all this stuff, I think figuring out how to defeat nazi in combat will be just as fun as figuring out how to bluff your way past them.

What I would have given to have a program like that four months ago... It was the third time I tried to play Grim Fandango, every time the game crashed at the start of Year Two, the first time I blamed it on a pirated copy, the second time on my broken graphical card, since then I got a legit copy and a better computer and it still crashed.

I was on the verge of downloading the pirated copy that's all configured to run on WinXP and say good bye to the totally rad french voice acting when I found the solution by accident: Turns out I had to turn on hardware acceleration at the start of the game (else it crashed in the office), then turn it off before the beginning of Year Two.

It's truly one of LucasArts' masterpiece.

Stupot: I hope you'll find a new copy one day.

Ben304: If you manage to finish Grim with it, can you give us a report? I'd love to replay Escape From Monkey Island before playing Tales.

Using the same logic, 1000 men could hammer a nail in 1 nano second if they nailed it together.

I don't believe this will change the way games are created but it could result with a funny game, if somewhat inconsistent in every aspects.

The Out Of This World/Another World remake is sold for 4$ on GOG, today and only today.

No no, it's Lifification of games, the talk starts at 3:05, if you can't be arsed to watch it all, the most important bits are written below the video.

But yeah, what Khris said.

Blueskirt:

Which two characters do you mean? 

Spoiler

Since Azriel and Delta Six are one and the same, I was thinking Azriel/Delta Six and Sayuri/Epsilon Five. But like I said maybe I got it all wrong.

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Just finished it, it took me a while since Minecraft, Heroes Of Might And Magic, Prince Of Persia and Firefly got in the way between the start and finish, but it was without a doubt one of the best AGS game ever made and I can't wait to replay it with commentaries soon.

There is one thing that bugged me however,

Spoiler

if the game was about these two characters, how come there wasn't more interactions between them? I don't know, maybe it's this Lifification of Games video that GG linked in that other thread that got to my head but, the only thing that prevented that game from transcending a whole bunch of boundaries for me was there was not enough small talk between the two of them and interactions and a hug button or something. And when the credits were rolling, I was wondering, if that story was told through another medium, book, film, anime, would lifification have been a problem?

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Or maybe I got it all wrong, anyway, it's late and I'm sleepy, off to the bed.

Thanks again for Gemini Rue, JBurger, it was amazing.

http://lumegame.blogspot.com/

I found this little gem with stunning visuals earlier today, it looks like another game we'll have to keep an eye on.

In King's Quest, when rooms aren't completely useless, they tend to have at best one object to pick up, one puzzle or one character to talk with per room maximum, try not to do the same. Sometimes it's better to have ten or fifteen important rooms that have lot of interactions than thirty rooms that are largely useless. Unless your game feature an exotic world that requires a lot of scenery porn/gorn to give the player a certain impression, try to get rid of rooms that are mostly useless or combine them with other similar rooms to minimize your workload.

I get it you like exploration in adventure games, but like some pointed, I doubt exploring photo backgrounds will be much fun unless you put a whole lot of effort in them, and you risk losing players with your art choice, so for what it's worth in the long run, it might be better to reduce exploration.

Give this a thought before you switch to photo backgrounds, because you obviously have a lot of talent when it comes to animation and background, and it'd be a shame not to use it.

Haha, it looks so cute and childish, I love it!

Thanks, GG! I just watched Maniac Mansion and Prince Of Persia while playing Minecraft. Fun times, I'll probably watch more if I have the time.

POP Post Mortem Spoiler:

Spoiler

The part where it switched from Robin Hood footage to the final fight with Jaffar was totally priceless.

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Anian: Two years ago, there was this whole debate over the web about whether games had to be fun. The debate was bogus as both sides were using a different definition of the word "fun":
Games have to be fun (i.e. engaging, compelling to play)
Games don't have to be fun (i.e. meaningless, escapist, power trip fantasies)

Games are sets of interesting rules, goals and decisions, fun is an emergent aspect of making decisions and accomplishing goals through sets of rules. A game can be meaningful, thematically sad, depressing or dead serious or touches touchy subjects, if the rules, goals and decisions are interesting and engaging, players will have fun and will keep playing.

A common mistake some art game makers do is to not make their games engaging enough or remove rules, goals and decisions entirely then blame the cold reception their games receive from the non-art-gamer crowd on the lack of escapist theme, gunfights and explosions, saying they just want mindless fun and shit blowing up when the problem is not the presence of a deeply serious theme or the lack of gunfights and explosions, but the lack of engaging mechanics to keep the player interested.