Messages

A... a... awesome! I never thought I'd see a Little Nemo-reference in an adventure game.

When will we get a release date?

Good theme. If I get the time, I'll definitely participate.

Spoiler

How do you get Chisholm to open the Cargo bay where the electrics have gone (after you replace the circuit board)?

When I try to ask him he says he's hasn't got time and we should be focussed on the murder. Is there a particular time or set of circumstances that is needed to get him to open the bay?

[close]

Hm. I never actually saw that part of the game, but I think you have to wait for later...

Spoiler

You have to wait until the time when Chisholm is in the engines room "trying to fix the communications error". When you talk to the person guarding the door (in my case it was normally Rathburn), you'll say that you need electricity on the cargo bay door, and they will say that Chisholm is busy and you should try fixing it yourself. After that, you can easily fix this problem with the control panel on the engines floor.

[close]

Also...

Spoiler

Can you only 'solve the mystery' if you don't kill Chisholm?

[close]

I don't think so:

Spoiler

I think that "solving the mystery" means "figuring out that Chisholm was the one who did it"; in other words, finding both the clue in crew room 3 and the clue in cargo bay 4.

[close]

It *could* be that I'm wrong, and that

Spoiler

"solving the mystery" also means that Chisholm must be arrested, but I don't think so.

[close]

Wow. My brain went spinning when I first read the rumors that a BJ movie existed, and though I at times felt that Ben wasn't really in character considering that he never stole random items from everybody, those thoughts disappeared when we got the newspaper-key-scene and the vast amount of notebook use. Yes, the sound could have been better, but apart from that everything was just awesome.

Mods: I want a DVD, but I don't want one for free (it's a noble gesture to give them away to everybody who participated in the film, but you'll be a broke man soon if you give free dvds to everybody in the forums who want one). So if you put me down for a DVD, I'll upload twenty pounds plus shipping to your Paypal account. Deal?

I see. Wasn't quite sure where you were in the game, sorry.

Spoiler

In Bianchi's office, there's a notebook with a strange symbol drawn on it. If you haven't already done so, go back there and use your own notebook on it to copy the symbol.

Go to Percy and show him the symbol. Talk to Percy about the Knights of St. Anthony. Go to Father McNamara and talk to him about the Knights of St. Anthony. If you go back to Simon now, you have an argument for breaking and entering that works a little bit better than "Bianchi eats babies".

[close]

I wish I hadn't set that stupid "one vote each" rule. I want two votes.

I vote for Jack Sheehan. But it's a very, very close call.

EDIT August 27th 12.52 GMT: Original post updated with information on who won. Congratulations, Jack.

Spoiler

On the item standing on the dresser, press the following buttons: The Fountain of Youth. The Ark of the Covenant. The galleon. The island in the middle of the Atlantic. No specific order.

[close]

Spoiler

* The guy smoking outside Bianchi's house says "au revoir", which is French. Is he supposed to be Italian? Does he think that Ben is French? An Italian would have said "ciao", "arriverderci" or "buongiorno".

[close]

Based on the commentary track, I would say it seems as if

Spoiler

this guy is French. Grundislav mentions that he's French, I think his accent is supposed to be French (but I wouldn't know, I can't tell the difference between a Texan accent and a Czech), and the guy even talks about how he moved to Rome for love. I thought he was Italian too until I heard the commentary track, but it seems pretty obvious that he's supposed to be French.

[close]

Let's see, games I really recommend (somewhat alphabetical):
- Art of theft
- Ben Jordan case 1 deluxe, case 2, case 3, case 4, case 5, case 6 and case 7 (in that order: The first two cases aren't really my favorite games, but they're worth playing through to get backstory for the rest)
- Cayanne Pepper
- Cedric and the Revolution
- Chatroom
- the Chzo series (5 days a Stranger, 7 days a Skeptic, Trilby's Notes, 6 days a Sacrifice - in that order)
- Meta
- Nanobots
- Odot Tamat On
- Once upon a crime
- The Vacuum
- Trance-Pacific
- Two of a kind

Awesome. Tomorrow at what time in which time zone?

Okay, so I didn't go to Mittens. That's not the point.

But I read Dilbert comics. And today's strip [for future reference: August 25th 2008] was so coincidental that it's scary, in an AGS way.

Here it is.

Okay, I hereby officially open for voting. One vote each, everybody can vote, two days. You know the drill.

(My own votes come when I've had the time to read both texts.)

I don't see why you couldn't just put the script that makes it appear on screen in an if structure that is only triggered if a variable, set by the user, is true.

Agreed, it's definitely possible. Another way of doing it would be to put the hotspot label in a seperate GUI and give the user an option to turn this GUI off.

Hi Alkis,

I really want to buy this game. The "thought board" idea at first glance seems very fascinating, and I basically love the idea that there are still people who make commercial computer games based on the good old adventure game formula.

But when I buy something, I really want to know a little bit about what I get. I must admit that most of the things I ponder over are things I could probably find answers to if I downloaded the demo (I haven't -- I think 100 megabytes is a wee bit much to download for a ten minute intro), but I have a couple of questions about the game, and I hope I'll get answers to them by posting them here.

First: The thought system. Is it intuitive and easy-to-use? While I immediately love the thought of having full control of the character's thoughts, I don't really like the idea of having a second inventory screen unless it's done really, really well.

Inventory items are great when used right, but in many games the way they are used are just ridiculous. I want my inventory items to have a certain amount of logic to them. For instance, I just played an adventure game where my player character wanted to know what another character was talking on the phone about. To find this out, I had to take a cellphone (which also worked as a dictaphone even though its description never mentioned that), use double-sided tape to tape the cellphone to a cat, feed the cat old pizza, salt the pizza so that the cat ran into the room where the phone conversation took place to drink water, go to a phone booth to call the cellphone so that its vibrate mode made the cat come out again (even though it was never explained that the phone was in silent mode), and then, when the cat climbed up in a tree, combine a plastic bag, a broken off bucket-handle and a broomstick to create a landing net to catch the cat in. Of course, when inventory items are meant to be used in that way, the only way to progress in the game without a walkthrough is an immense load of trial and error... And if your game is anything like that, the last thing I want is "another inventory screen", adding more options to the big and meaningless mix.

A related question: is there an easy way to scroll through the different thoughts, or do I have to go back to the post-it board every time I want to change which thought I present to people?

Second: From the reviews I've read, I get the impression that the interface is Sierra-inspired (they mention that you use the right button to cycle through the various kinds of interactions). If this is correct: have you picked that interface because you think it's the best available interface for this game, or for other reasons (e.g. nostalgia)? As Vince Twelve recently wrote an excellent article on, the Sierra interface more often than not really doesn't fit its games. In most games, there's only one way of interacting with 99 % or more of all characters/objects/hotspots/etcetera in the game: You talk to people, interact with large items, pick up small items, open drawers, and so on. So what I'm wondering is: Is your game one of the games where I have to scroll through many different mouse cursors just to avoid getting messages like "I don't want to talk to the doormat"  or "I think that woman would slap me if I touched her there" where a simple one-click interface would have worked a lot better, or do you have all the available interactions there for a reason, e.g. that it in several cases can be useful to try all different interactions on an object?

I'll check out "Other Worlds" to get an impression of your takes on story and gameplay (yeah, the graphics look great, but personally I don't care whether the graphics are made in Poser or MSPaint as long as the story sucks me in and the gameplay isn't too annoying), and most likely I will chip in with a couple of more questions here before I buy the game. Not because I don't really want to buy your game -- I really do. I just want to know exactly what it is that I'm buying before I buy it.

I'm stuck.

Spoiler

I've entered Bianchi's apartment once. Now all the items I've got are the keys, the glove, the costume and the note with faint image on it. Unfortunately I'm unable to enter the apartment for a second time. There's no option for taking Alice with me either. I've talked to everyone. What to do? Where can I find more evidences for breaking into the apartment?

[close]

Spoiler

In Bianchi's office, use your notebook on Bianchi's notebook. You get a symbol.

[close]

If you want hints on what to do with it, read on:

Spoiler

Show the symbol to Percy.

[close]

After that,

Spoiler

You need to talk to people about the Knights of St. Anthony, specifically, you HAVE to talk with Father McNamara about them.

[close]

On another note: I asked a few pages ago, but nobody has answered me yet, so I ask again...

About the cardinal sins you're able to confess to in the confession stand, can anyone tell me how to unlock pride?

Spoiler

How will the next case - if it will be a real "case" to solve like the others and not mainly about how to get out of the vatican, stop the villains and save the girl - begin? With Ben in the cellar, tied up again and having to rescue himself?

[close]

Spoiler

I bet Percy is really a good guy, who has been infiltrating the Knights of St. Anthony undercover to destroy them. That's also the reason why there's no relic from Smailholm anywhere.

[close]

Spoiler

And where did Alice go so suddenly after she had woken up Ben? Any ideas? Is Marcus Wilkins important for anything else than Alice's family history?

[close]

Spoiler

She's a witch.

[close]

Spoiler

And how is Ben going to do whatever it is he'll do ALONE? 

[close]

Spoiler

He did well in the first three cases ... but he's not alone, he has Alice and Percy. I refuse to believe that guy is evil! It's just too damn obvious!

[close]

Can anyone explain what I've missed here:

Spoiler

What I don't understand is why the Dead Sea Scrolls don't count as lost items. They've been found, but Ben has found the Galleon and Atlantis. Maybe Bianchi doesn't know this, but as a player I had no way of knowing.

Also I really don't understand how the mythical fountain of youth is any more lost than the mythical philosopher's stone.

[close]

Ah, well, that's one of the charms of Ben Jordan games:

Spoiler

You can't expect to find all puzzle clues IN the game. Some of them are hidden in the Paranormal Investigator's Handbook, that HTML document that was entangled in the zip file along with the game.

[close]

Looks fun based on the screenshots. I promise to try it when the English translation is out -- my French is a wee bit rusty.

I have the symbol and have talked to the professer about St. Anthony but can't seem  to trigger Simon to come with me to the apartment.  He keeps saying get more evidence.  Would appreciate any help.

Spoiler

Go talk to the Irish priest again.

[close]

Sorry for the late response, but off the top of my head I remember two ways of achieving that objective:

Number one:

Spoiler

You were given the choice of whether you dared to pick up the transmitter or not. Have you tried to figure out what happens if you choose not to?

[close]

Number two:

Spoiler

Were you aware that there's a gun in the game? After picking up the radio transmitter, go to the LEFT passenger shut-down compartment (rooms 5-6) and find the gun in the closet in room 5. You are given two choices with the gun: Whether you pick it up or not, and whether you give it to Chisholm or not. Try picking it up and giving it to Chisholm. If you do, it DOES make a difference for number of deaths whether you solve the mystery or not.

[close]

Okay, since the forums went down 24 hours or so before the deadline and we only have one entry (and a couple of people saying that they intended to entry), I suggest pushing the deadline a bit so that everybody who wanted to participate but couldn't due to downtime still have the chance.

How about Sunday August 24th, GMT Midnight?

Or we could end it here and now, but in that case I see no point in voting since there's only one entry...

(Apologies for double-posting, but it seemed appropriate in this scenario.)