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[CLICK ME!]

In case you've missed it, here's a reminder



I tried to make the image clickable, but no luck. So, you'll have to click on the link to the right, instead -> CLICK ME!

Ah, right, we are still figuring out a rough plan of things to do on each city in Italy.

Haha, yeah, there's so much to see in these cities, you do need a plan!

With the forums down, I forgot to add more votes! Fixing it now!

Ah, nice! It usually pays to book plane and train travels earlier, you might get a discount if you're lucky!

I hope you managed to book the places to stay too!

I'm happy my post helped you! Public transport abroad can often be confusing, with its own rules.

One thing to remember about train tickets here is that they need to be validated at the machines at the station before boarding the train. I've seen some tourists in the past that didn't know that: they got on the train and showed the train conductor a non-stamped ticket. If you don't stamp it, they can fine you, although if they're smart they'll just explain the mistake to you and that's it.

If you buy the ticket online, instead, you get emailed a pdf document with a QR code that gets scanned on board, so no need to stamp or print anything. It would be quite hard to stamp a phone anyway!

[Long-distance trains]

Hey eri0o!

Passenger trains in Italy have different categories. The big ones are:
- Long-distance trains (treni a lunga percorrenza)
- International trains (treni internazionali)
- Regional trains (treni regionali)

Each train is identified by a 2-3 letters acronym and a number (e.g. REG 18492 or FR 8311).

Long-distance trains
Trains that travel through different regions, usually on longer journeys, skipping most of the small stations and only stopping at big city ones. These often need booking in advance, but not always, and have different classes with different features. They're more expensive than regular regional trains and booking is recommended.
They're good if you want to go from a big city in one region to another (e.g. from Florence to Rome). Which one you choose, probably depends on availability (day/time and how long it takes to reach the destination), cost, and which stations it connects.

- Freccia: these are high-speed trains and come with different names. As far as I know, is better to book them in advance, as they might be full. Frecce are:

- Frecciarossa Alta Velocità (FR AV): painted in red (rosso = red). Fast, expensive trains.

- Frecciargento (FA AV): painted in grey (argento = silver). Slightly slower than the previous one.

- Frecciabianca (FB): painted in white (bianco = white). More of the same, slightly slower than the previous one.

- Italo (NTV): a competitor to Freccia, probably a good alternative to travel quickly between big cities. Never took it myself, but I heard good things about it.

- InterCity (IC): something in between a regional train and a Freccia. Slower than a Freccia (but cheaper), faster than a regional train, with fewer stops.

- InterCity Notte (ICN): same as the Intercity, but during the night (notte), with beds you can sleep in.

Regional trains
Regional trains are the ones I'm more familiar with since I used to commute with them every day some years ago. They're the least expensive ones, do most of the stops, they come in different shapes and forms, but they mostly travel locally, in a specific region.
They're good if you want to move between cities/towns in the same region (e.g. from Florence to Pisa), although a bit messy (they can be very full, especially during peak season).

- Regionale (REG): the regular one, does most of the stops (including smaller stations).

- Regionale veloce (RV): similar to the one above but does fewer stops, so it's a bit faster.

There might be different names for other regional trains, depending on the region.

International trains
They connect with cities outside of Italy. I don't know much about them (I believe I only took one years ago to France and don't remember a lot), but the most important seem to be:

- EuroCity (EC): this one seems to connect to Basel too.

- EuroNight (EN): same as the one above, but works at night.

---

If you have an Android phone or tablet, one thing I've found extremely useful in my days as a commuter is this program, Orario Treni: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.paoloconte.treni_lite

I don't know if it can be set in English, but it's really easy to use. With it, you can look up trains, the platform they're going to stop at, book them and buy the tickets online (through the official sites they send you a QR code to your email, no registration required). It also shows you which trains are late in real-time, warns you about strikes (they can happen often, but they usually don't affect long-distance trains like Frecce), shows you the journey, and so on. Very useful and better than the official Trenitalia program.
You can also drop me a line and I can help you with it if you have any trouble. As I said, I'm not sure if it's only available in Italian or if it can be set to English too.

Your travels seem to be between big cities, so it shouldn't be too hard to find trains for them. Probably the quickest way is by using Frecce/Italo, but it can get more expensive. I've never used a train pass, but there is some information in English here: https://www.trenitalia.com/en/offers/trenitalia-pass.html
They seem to be valid for Frecce/Intercity trains.


Also, I hope you'll enjoy your visit to Florence: one of the most beautiful cities in the world, despite my living in it

I hope my information is correct/useful, I have mostly used regional trains and sometimes Intercity, taking very rarely the high-speed ones. They weren't even called Frecce at the time!

Yeah, it's off-topic until you decide to include it in the game.

Spoiler

Perhaps as a solution to a puzzle with regards to breathing in space or on a planet with a toxic atmosphere.

[close]

That's a fun idea for a puzzle! I think the line was originally only a description/joke for one of the boxes, so I don't know if something similar could be added. But it could make for a neat puzzle.

Anyway: [offtopic]I actually know a guy who, for a joke, posted a bag of "glacier air" on ebay. (He works with tourists doing glacier walks.) To his astonishment, someone actually wanted to buy it, for a stiff price.[/offtopic]

[offtopic]Haha! Got to have that fresh glacier air during the hot summer! [/offtopic]

[cat:]

cat: haha, that's crazy! If some social media celebrity passed by Hallstatt and happened to breathe near the place where they make the air in a can, we could have the same product as in the game

Hey, this looks good and sounds good, a nice pairing of humor and art here. Also a good motivation for me to read Timelike Infinity. 

I haven't read Timelike Infinity myself, so if we don't like it, we can blame CaptainD and his reading choices 

Spoiler

I like the idea of hidden Lorenzo characters in the backgrounds in different places, it could be a fun easter egg. Maybe clicking all of them gives an achievement

[close]

Spoiler

Like Ilaria and his family stuck in a space highway jam with their ship .

[close]

It's always fun to have those tiny details that fans will recognize but look completely normal to outsiders. It's not even necessary to have interactions there, more a visual wink.

These are good ideas! Let's see if I can sneak in some of those characters somewhere in the game 

[cat:]

Hey, everybody! Thanks for the kind words on the game!
The demo is coming along nicely, it should be ready soon (if we manage to stop us from adding more things to it  ).

cat: we discussed a hypothetical game with both Captain Disaster and Clotilde, but nothing concrete yet. Who knows, maybe we can find her later in the game, shipwrecked somewhere. 

I want to give it a try! I haven't played that one, but I played other games in the Rusty Lake series: Rusty Lake Hotel, and Roots. Not my favourite kind of puzzles (including some that I didn't like at all), but I enjoyed them for what they are.
In general, I like short and fun games, so I'll keep an eye on this thread!

That looks like a nice, relaxing game, thank you Frodo!

> Well, if it's fancy where we're heading, put on the top hat and dance through the doorway Fred Astaire style to get a laugh from our sister.

+1 for me too, haha! 

[For your consideration:]

For your consideration:

LINK!





After being stuck on an asteroid with a decrepit, gabby hermit for a week, Clotilde has had enough!
She must find a way to call for help and hitch-hike a ride out of there!

Please consider this game for:
- Best Freeware Game Created with AGS (it's free!)
- Best Background Art (the background with all the objects was nice enough)
- Best Character Art (there are aliens and they move!)
- Best Animation (see Best Character Art)
- Best Writing (at least one joke must've been funny)
- Best Character (Clotilde is definitely a character)
- Best Gameplay (you click with your left mouse button and sometimes with the right too)
- Best Puzzles (the puzzle where you have to do the thing to grab the thing without disturbing the thing is pretty good)
- Best Short Game (is it short or medium length? who cares, vote for it anyway!)

LINK!




A pilot descends on a planet where something strange is going on. When he arrives at a scientist's camp, there's no trace of humans. Only robots are left and their behaviour is strange. Where did the humans go?

Please consider this game for:
- Best Freeware Game Created with AGS (you don't pay for it, so it's free!)
- Best Background Art (for any faults in them, I use the excuse that the game was made for a game jam)
- Best Character Art (see: Best Background Art)
- Best Writing (there are characters and they talk)
- Best Character (see: Best Writing)
- Best Short Game (it's not too long)

Thank you for the list, CaptainD! It's really useful!

I can only guess what he went through to find those gifts. 

Haha! I didn't think of that! It could be a fun plot for an adventure game 

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everybody!

Something quick I did for the occasion:



Guess it could look a bit weird unless you've played my games

> Turn on the headlamp, slightly open the door and shine some light in the room to see what's inside before entering.

I tested this game and it's a really fun short adventure!
Nice graphics with some really cool particle effects, funny characters with good voice acting, an enjoyable story, and puzzles that are fun to solve and sometimes tricky. Definitely worth playing!

[eri0o]

That cat is so cute, thank you for the picture eri0o!