Messages

Guys, don't take it so serious. Second Apprentice's interface is very-very good. With all respect to magazine, Inventory reviewers can say anything. Including that they didn't notice soundtrack in Flight of the Amazon Queen or how Last Express' gameplay compared to Syberia's.

Eh, it's not like I'm offended or anything. It's more like, I'm interested how they thought we could've improved it. A learning kind of thing, you see.

Hi there and congratulations for the award and congratulations for making a great game. As for the interface, here comes my personal opinion and kind of out of my head (cause it's been a couple of months now since I played Apprentice 2). There was only one icon (the magic wand) for all actions. This made it necessary to look at the bottom of the screen every time you wanted to see what you were about to do, which was rather cumbersome. Another feature that could be improved is the inventory. The scroll book looks nice and it is pleasant in aesthetical terms, but it is not very efficient, because you can only look at 4 of your inventory items at any given time. I think it would be better to be able to see and interact with many more inventory items in one screen (especially if you bear in mind that there are a lot of items to be collected throughout the game). It is also not so user friendly to have to bring your cursor all the way down to the bottom of the screen and right in the center to bring up the inventory (it's sort of pixel hunting in itself). Imo the inventory should come up if the player brings the cursor on the bottom of the screen (even if not exactly in the center) or by pressing right click. That's just my opinion of course.

The Inventory Adventure Awards 2004 PDF booklet is now available for download from www.theinventory.org . In the 35 pages of the booklet you will read which adventures won one of the following awards:

Best Story
Best Male Character
Best Female Character
Best Dialogues
Best Graphics
Best Backgrounds
Best 3D models
Best Cutscenes
Best Soundtrack
Best Acting
Best Gameplay
Best Interface
Best Developer
Best Publisher
Best Indie Adventure
Best Adventure Game
Most Awaited Upcoming Adventure


Feel free to post comments on The Inventory Awards 2004 booklet by either replying at this thread or sending an email to info@theinventory.org

[Best Story Best Male Character Best Female Character Best Dialogues Best Graphics Best Backgrounds Best 3D models Best Cutscenes Best Soundtrack Best Acting Best Gameplay Best Interface Best Developer Best Publisher Best Indie Adventure Best Adventure Game Most Awaited Upcoming Adventure]

Dear Adventure fans,

This week you can vote for The Inventory Adventure Awards 2004! You can choose the best adventures in 17 different categories. The winner of each category will win our Readers' Choice Award in The Inventory Awards PDF book that we will be releasing by the end of next week. Here are the awards that the nominees will be competing for:


Best Story
Best Male Character
Best Female Character
Best Dialogues
Best Graphics
Best Backgrounds
Best 3D models
Best Cutscenes
Best Soundtrack
Best Acting
Best Gameplay
Best Interface
Best Developer
Best Publisher
Best Indie Adventure
Best Adventure Game
Most Awaited Upcoming Adventure[/i]


Each category has 5 nominees, except for Best Adventure Game, which has 6 and Most Awaited Upcoming Adventure which has 18. The polls will close on Monday the 13th of December, 5 minutes before midnight GMT. Feel free to also post your comments on each award category. We will choose some of the best comments posted and we will add them in The Inventory Awards 2004 PDF book. So choose your favourites for 2004 in the polls at our forum (www.theinventory.org/forum) .

Read and drool

http://www.theinventory.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=357

Just wanted to add that Future Games, the developers of Black Mirror and the upcoming Nibiru are going to attend as well today at 18:00 GMT. AGDInteractive changed time from Tuesday to Monday 20:00 - 22:00 GMT.

We request that those who plan to take part in the conversations register as soon as possible. We are affraid that too many people might try to register at the same time, which ... well we have no idea what it might result into and if there are any registration problems we will be able to fix them before the beginning of the party if you notify us in time.

[- Al Lowe]

On Monday the 29th and Tuesday the 30th of November, the monthly PDF magazine for adventure games The Inventory (www.theinventory.org) will be holding the biggest online event the adventure games genre has ever seen. More than 20 well-known developers within the adventure community will be attending the forum party that will celebrate 2 years of The Inventory, to discuss with their fans.

Here comes the list of developers that will be attending the party:

- Al Lowe (Developer of legendary titles such as the Leisure Suit Larry series and Freddy Pharkas)
- AGDInteractive (Developers of the King's Quest and the Quest for Glory remakes)
- Autumn Moon Entertainment (A team of talented developers that used to work in Lucasarts for great titles such as Curse of Monkey Island and The Dig and are now working on the point and click adventure A Vampyre Story, that won our most awaited adventure award)
- DTP (The biggest European publisher of adventure games)
- Frogwares? (Developers of Journey to the Center of the Earth and the two Sherlock Holmes games. Due to the latest events in Ukraine where they are based, their presence is not absolutely certain but they will do their best to attend)
- GMX Media / Artematica (The publishers and developers of the upcoming adventure Martin Mystere which is based on a popular European TV and comic book series)
- Gnosis Games (The developers of the 3D adventure game Broken Saints, based on the award winning online flash comic)
- Himalaya Studios (Developers of the upcoming western adventure Al Emmo)
- House of Tales (Developers of The Moment of Silence and Mystery of the Druids)
- Josh Mandel (Developer of legendary Sierra titles such as Freddy Pharkas and Space Quest 6)
- Ken & Roberta Williams? (The well-known duo that started the legend known as Sierra will be on vaccation during our party, but they said they will try to log in if possible)
- L'Art (Developers of the upcoming comedy adventure Boyz Dont Cry)
- Legacy Interactive (The producers of Law and Order: Justice is Served and Law & Order: Criminal Intent will be there to talk with their fans)
- Microids (The developers of the exciting 3rd person thriller adventure, Still Life)
- Pendulo Studios (Developers of the award winning point and click adventure Runaway, currently working on its sequel, Runaway 2)
- Phoenix Freeware Online (Developers of the unofficial King's Quest IX, the 3D sequel to the popular fantasy series)
- Prograph (Developers of the comedy adventure Tony Tough, currently working on its prequel)
- Razbor Studios (Developers of the sci-fi point and click adventure Legacy)
- Step Creative Group (Developers from Russia working on a first person 3D adventure game with RPG elements called Star Heritage)
- Tale of Tales (Developers of the 3D fantasy adventure 8 that we interviewed in our latest issue)
- TellTale Games (The team that consists of ex-Lucasarts employees who were behind the now cancelled Sam and Max 2 and who are currently working on a new secret title)
- White Birds Productions (Benoit Sokal and his team have worked on the award winning Syberia series and are currently developing the upcoming point and click adventure Lost Paradise)
- Wicked Studios (Developers of the exciting upcoming fantasy adventure Keepsake that we previewed in the 19th issue)

The party will start on Monday at 18:00 GMT and it will take a pause at 24:00 GMT. It will start again at 18:00 GMT on Tuesday and finish at 24:00 GMT on Tuesday. Each developer will have their own section in the forum. All sections will be open for posting from the very beginning of the party on Monday at 18:00 GMT. To avoid confusion and traffic however we have split the party in timeblocks of 2 hours each. Developers will attend the party throughout the timeblock they booked. This does not mean however that they will not be present during the rest of the time, it just means that if someone wants to be certain that a developer would be present he or she would better visit the developer's forum section during the timeblock that this developer have booked. Here comes the schedule:


Monday 29th of November
18:00 - 20:00: Tale of Tales, White Birds Productions, Legacy Interactive
20:00 - 22:00: Josh Mandel, Step Creative Group, Microids
22:00 - 24:00: Autumn Moon Entertainment, Al Lowe, GMX/Artematica


Tuesday 30th of November
18:00 - 20:00: Pendulo Studios, Gnosis Games, Prograph
20:00 - 22:00: Wicked Studios, Razbor Studios, L'art, AGDI/Himalaya
22:00 - 24:00: House of Tales, DTP, Phoenix Freeware, TellTaleGames

*All times are GMT
**Timeblocks might change before the even starts, check our forums for possible changes in the schedule

Ken & Roberta Williams as well as Frogwares could not guarantee a timeblock for reasons mentioned earlier. The Birthday Party forum sections will remain open on Wednesday as well, for those who will not be able to attend the party during Monday or Tuesday (for one reason or another) and if developers have the time they will answer some questions then also. Then on Thursday the forums will be locked.

To be up to date with the latest news on the party, check out our forums at:
http://www.theinventory.org/forum/


Everyone is welcome to our party. Hope to see you all there!

Yeah, yeah ok the third radio adventure station then ... whatever  :

Heh, listening right now. Excellent.

Do you have a list of the songs somewhere? I'd really like to see it... I might even be able to give something new...

There's a list of all the songs in our forums in The Inventory section. But right now our radio plays only some of the songs that we have available for some reason that I am not aware of. Our webmaster is kind of busy right now preparing the forum party (check the other thread about that) so he will take care of it as soon as he finds some time. We will also be featuring a special programme this coming week (probably) presenting the soundtrack of Runaway.

What new were you thinking of submitting?

The Inventory Radio is now live! You can listen to adventure tunes all day long. Head over to the front page of www.theinventory.org and click on Tune In (above the news). What's next? Inventory TV maybe? We'll see More news to come soon on our birthday party, that shapes up to be the biggest online event the adventure community has ever seen.

P.S. If you have a soundtrack of an adventure game in mp3 or ogg format, that you would like to submit to our radio station, don't hesitate to contact us at theinventory@yahoo.com

I check all forums where I post and I always read all the comments made on the issues. But if you need a faster reply theinventory.org is the place to write, in that case. And as for The Inventory's identity, I wouldn't be worried. There are no plans for adding anything else that's not directly adventure-related and the articles that are already added are not added in cost of some other adventure-articles, they're just a couple of extra pages that some of our readers might find interesting.

I wanted to write a purist column this month too, but in the end I ran out of time. I might have had some time to write a little piece but it would be in a hurry and the article would probably turn out rubbish, so I just didn't write it at all. I'll try to write one for next month.

Nice work... which reminds me... I've missed reading the last 8 or so issues, I really should get to reading them...

Better late than never.

@GarageGothic

Thanks for the comments on the new issue . The Al Lowe jokes are not available on Al's site, he sends them out on your email every day, and some people like to keep their emails for other stuff than jokes, so see it as an alternative way to read those jokes. As for the bits and bytes column, although I do admit that the last one was not connected to adventures in any way, we have had a lot of readers who asked us if we could add a hardware section and Oliver proposed to write one. He's got a lot of knowledge around hardware issues, and he's very good at research. As for the hardware columns being dry... well it's hardware he's writing about, it's not that easy to talk about hardware in a funny way.

And regarding the comparison of action/adventure coverage and hardware coverage, a) hardware is not in competition with adventure games b) an adventurer in order to play an adventure game would have to have some basic knowledge of hardware but to play an adventure game he/she doesn't have to play action/adventures Anyway these articles (Al's jokes, Bits and Bytes) are what I like to call 'light' articles, meaning that it is easy to add them (doesn't take so much time to layout) and it doesn't increase the mag's filesize a lot since there are 2 or 3 light size screenshots for both.

If we were to cover an action/adventure title we'd have to use screenshots that would take more than 50K each which could increase the filesize of the magazine quite a lot, thus making it harder for modem users to get. So it's more like something extra for the readers if they feel like reading more

You can read an interview with Himalaya Studios and take a look at some new screenshots in the 19th issue of The Inventory that you can download at www.theinventory.org

[- Information on our birthday party that shapes up to be the biggest online event the adventure genre has ever seen - Preview of the new fantasy adventure Keepsake- Preview of Quest for Glory 2 remake- The Moment of Silence Comic Part 2 - Interview with Himalaya Studios, developers of Al Emmo - Interview with Tale of Tales, developers of 8 - Review of Wanted - Review of Aura - Review tribute to The Last Express - Bits and Bytes - Article about Digital Cameras - The Al Lowe Show - jokes from the legendary developer]

Now the 19th issue of the monthly PDF magazine for adventure games, The Inventory, is available for download from www.theinventory.org and www.justadventure.com . In the new issue you will get to read:


- Information on our birthday party that shapes up to be the biggest online event the adventure genre has ever seen
- Preview of the new fantasy adventure Keepsake
- Preview of Quest for Glory 2 remake
- The Moment of Silence Comic Part 2
- Interview with Himalaya Studios, developers of Al Emmo
- Interview with Tale of Tales, developers of 8
- Review of Wanted
- Review of Aura
- Review tribute to The Last Express
- Bits and Bytes - Article about Digital Cameras
- The Al Lowe Show - jokes from the legendary developer


Feel free to post your comments/suggestions/complaints on the new issue.

The 18th issue of the monthly PDF magazine for adventure games, The Inventory, is ready for download. You can download it either at www.theinventory.org or at www.justadventure.com . Some of the features that you can read in the 18th issue are:

- The Moment of Silence Special: First review of the game in English, 4-page Comic based on the game, and interview with the publishers in the UK
- Reviews of Legacy: Dark Shadows, Myst IV, BeTrapped and Broken Sword
- Interview with L'Art, developers of Boyz Don't Cry

We hope that you will enjoy our magazine and that you will join our new forums at www.theinventory.org where you can socialize with other readers of The Inventory. We're looking forward to your feedback.

The 17th issue of The Inventory is available for download. Good news is that The Inventory is still for free. You can grab the new issue at:

http://www.justadventure.com/TheInventory/TheInventory.shtm

In the new issue you will find:

A preview of Law & Order: Justice is Served
A report on Games Convention 2004
An interview with Craig Brannon, producer of Law and Order: Criminal Intent
An interview with one of the biggest European publishers, DTP, talking about their upcoming titles (Tony Tough 2, Nibiru, Moment of Silence, Sherlock Holmes)
Reviews of Sherlock Holmes: Silver Earring, CSI: Dark Motives, Apprentice 2 and Dark Fall: Lights Out
And a new hardware column - Bits and Bytes

Feel free to post comments, complaints, suggestions etc...

Today the German publisher DTP announced these two new titles for release in Germany. Here comes the press release:

*******************************************

Dear colleagues, 

dtp has just signed Nibiru, the new adventure by the developers of The Black Mirror, and Tony Tough 2. 

GC: dtp press release 08/18/2004 

dtp signs new adventures Nibiru and Tony Tough 2 for German-speaking territories 

Hamburg/Leipzig/Prag, 18.08.2004. The German publisher dtp has just signed two new adventures: Nibiru, the new title by the developers of The Black Mirror, and Tony Tough 2. The contracts have been signed right before the Games Convention in Leipzig, at which dtp will show the new line-up. Both adventures have classic, puzzle-based gameplay and point & click interface. Tony Tough 2 will be a prequel, Nibiru a totally new story, a mixture between Black Mirror and Indiana Jones. Both titles will be out in the German-speaking countries in Q1 of 2005. They will be technically enhanced compared to their prequels and will be published in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with an excellent localisation. 

dtp has the leading role in the adventure-genre in the German-speaking territories. Tony Tough, The Westerner and The Black Mirror are milestones in the genre. On 1st of October 2004 dtp will publish The Moment of Silence, the new breathtaking adventure by the developers of The Mystery of the Druids. In Q2 2005 the long awaited Runaway 2 will be published in the German-speaking territories. 

Greetings from Hamburg 

Christopher Kellner
PR Manager
********************************************


More info on all the above titles in the new issue of The Inventory, due to release on the 10th of September. 

In the last issue of The Inventory before our summer break, available from www.justadventure.com you can find:

- The top 10 upcoming adventure games feature (Big surprise for Lucasarts fans inside!!!)
- In-depth interview with the developers of Microids' Still Life
- Preview of Martin Mystere
- The second part of the Black Mirror comic
- Preview of Sam and Max: Case Gilbert and interview with Britton O'Toole of No-Action Jackson
- Review of Dark Fall

We hope that you will enjoy the last issue before our summer break. Feel free to post your comments on the magazine.

We have conducted an interview with the talented Rebecca Clements (Kinoko) which you can read in the latest issue of The Inventory (PDF magazine for adventure games). You can download the latest issue as well as older ones for free here:

http://www.justadventure.com/TheInventory/TheInventory.shtm

[- Black Mirror comic strip]

The 15th issue of The Inventory is available from the front page of www.justadventure.com. In the 15th issue you can read the following:

- Black Mirror comic strip

- Interviews with:
The Martin Mystere developers
Rebecca Clements, developer of Cirque De Zale
DTP, one of the biggest publishers in Europe

- Reviews of:
No-Action Jackson, a DOTT-like AGS adventure
Midnight Nowhere, a creepy 3rd person adventure
Schizm 2, a brain-busting 1st person adventure

- Previews of
Legend of the Lost Lagoon
Great Journey


And much more. If you want to download previous issues you can do so here: http://www.justadventure.com/TheInventory/TheInventory.shtm

Feel free to post comments/questions/suggestions on the issue.

[Interview with Chris Jones, 'father' of the AGS engine Interview with the development team behind King's Quest IX. Preview of Bad Timing Review of the month: Cirque De Zale Talking dead article by Mark Lovegrove Reviews of Syberia 2, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Case of The Crabs and Sofia's Debt]

The 14th issue of The Inventory is available for download from www.justadventure.com

The features of this issue are:

Interview with Chris Jones, 'father' of the AGS engine

Interview with the development team behind King's Quest IX.

Preview of Bad Timing

Review of the month: Cirque De Zale

Talking dead article by Mark Lovegrove

Reviews of Syberia 2, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Case of The Crabs and Sofia's Debt

and more in over 40 pages full of adventure games.

[1) What processor do you use?2) What graphics card do you use?3) How much RAM does your computer have?4) What operating system do you use to play games?5) Do you think you are going to upgrade your system or buy a new one within the next two years?6) (If upgrade) What part of your system do you plan to upgrade?]

We are developing a 3D point and click adventure game called Sealed Lips and we would like to have some feedback from gamers. Our questions concern the PCs you use to play games. You could be of great help if you answered the following questions.


1) What processor do you use?

2) What graphics card do you use?

3) How much RAM does your computer have?

4) What operating system do you use to play games?

5) Do you think you are going to upgrade your system or buy a new one within the next two years?

6) (If upgrade) What part of your system do you plan to upgrade?


Thank you in advance


Dimitris Manos
Editor of the PDF magazine for adventures The Inventory
Project Leader of Sealed Lips