Messages

It's pathetic and it annoys me.

Add to that how exhausting it is to read your posts because there's no structure at all in them, and it's perfectly understandable that people lose their calm over the twentieth "your" instead of "you're".

Actually, no, it's not understandable at all why you keep deliberately knowingly reading something that annoys you and then complain about it. I love to read things that annoy me now and then, but then I don't bitch about what I consciously did to myself for whatever reason. You want to bitch about what you think is wrong with what Icey has done again? Fine. Turns out to be largely bullish,  pointless and boring, but fine, freedom of speech, nothing wrong with voicing criticisms, fine. But actually complaining about the mere idea that you somehow just have to involve yourself in this despite all the suffering it gives you? Aw, you little poor thing. Give me a fucking break.

You have repeatedly tested the patience of the people who still listen to you to the breaking point, don't you see that?

Wow. Fuck me. You... really went there? You may've as well written "HELLO I'M YOUR BULLY". I sure hope Icey ignores this atrocious deluded bullshit.

I was debating whether to write this post (which says the same thing for the fiftieth time), but I'm hoping that people who read this and don't know all the history will stop feeding your trolling. Because that's all what this is, even if inadvertently.

No? Obviously, it most certainly isn't trolling. Trolling involves deliberate intent to mislead, trick or tease. Proper trolling involves cleverness, subtlety and playfulness. There's just no way in hell you can meaningfully label (arguably delusional) naivety as trolling. And no, saying "inadvertently" doesn't make it any less absurd. You can't accidentally troll someone, because the whole point of trolling is the perpetrator's enjoyment. It's like saying "you've accidentally planned and executed a successful armed robbery of a bank".

Also it's extremely cute that not only you pose yourself as Icey's saviour, you're also everybody else's saviour and protector from Icey's "trolling". Thank you. I can sleep soundly only thanks to you.

I'm getting my games together and stuff, I don't need to post here to prove a point all the time.

That is very correct.

Quit spewing out everything you fantasize about and stick with telling us stuff you've actually achieved, not what you dream to achieve.

If you want to show us that it really is like that, why not PROVE it? Stop posting every little story idea and drawing, and MAKE A GAME.

I know actually prototyping your ideas and making them reality at every opportunity is a good advice. I'd give it myself. But I don't think this is the right way to put it. There's no reason it has to conflict with sharing ideas and drafts. People start game discussion threads about design theory and preferences all the time, but if Icey shares his dreams in a single thread it's like a crime? What about Ben's Release Something thread? Should we shut down it too, while relentlessly mocking everyone who's participated? This is an absolutely disproportional reaction to somebody simply posting their ideas and drawings.

I agree with Tabata.

Two things:
-A Wii U dev kit apparently costs about $5000.
-Getting one does not mean you work as a developer for Nintendo.

This is just Icey being Icey again. Let's not forget that he only made non-games so far, before showering him in encouragement for his Nintendo career. I mean, really?
It's all talk, and not a shred of anything else.

Sorry Icey, but that's what this is in my book. Don't take it the wrong way, I'm all for seeing you finally make something that can be called a game. But your Mythical Gambit stuff is just a lot of hot air and a few screenshots so far.

I have plenty of assumptions too, but I'm much more curious whether anything of what Icey said is actually true or not. Frankly I don't care how successful his (or pretty much anyone else's for that matter) Nintendo exclusive developments will be, but it'd be so infinitely cute if Nintendo actually licensed him, that I'm genuinely hoping that there's some possible truth in it.
Besides, simply lying about that would be so profoundly pathetic, so I'm hoping it's not the case for that sake too.

You're definitely right in a way that he's not characterized properly.

I don't know about you but I've played the Mario vs. Donkey Kong. I also played Wario game (can't remember the name exactly). I were also a fan of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (a very original rpg-sorta game). Same goes for: Mario Golf (can't recall its name properly too). There was also the Mario Party series and much more (each and every game can be downloaded for free from any rom sites). In short, I've seen many variety of Mario games (with different concepts) other than the traditional one too.

And no, Nintendo's bound to not to kill him because: apart from being profitable, Mario has the status of Classic Heroes whom cannot be killed (even if they don't make profit anymore).

Judging from the above, I believe that Nintendo is indeed making different and fresh type of Mario games apart from the traditional platformer.

You are looking at Mario world from the Adventure Game Developer and / or Player point-of-view. MW and Adventure Games are two different things, in my opinion.

Ok, the games may be nice and, ironically, quite diverse as games. But the question is, does Mario have anything to do with any of the nice aspects of those games or is he just put there for the sake of appearing in a game again? You admit yourself that despite all those games being enjoyable and different, Mario himself isn't characterized properly. Which means he's merely a generic mascot, whose only role is to appear again in a game for the sake of appearing in a game. And as such, I'd argue he's long overstayed his welcome and lost any conceivable appeal he could possibly bring to anyone who isn't a Nintendo fanboy. I'm not a Nintendo or Mario game expert, so I'm not gonna argue about the worth of each particular game, but to me a choice between a new nice game, that is clearly product of free creativity, and a new game, that features Mario again for no reason, for the sake of featuring Mario, even if it's nice, will always be an obvious one.

And no, I'm looking at it from the general narrative, creative, artistic, ludic etc standpoints. Nothing to do with adventure games. I perfectly understand that Mario and his narratives aren't really supposed to serve the role similar to, say, Gabriel Knight, but still, even for his role, I think it's an absolutely ridiculous devotion to the "hero".

I am currently working on a new version of PMQs: The Game for mobile platforms and after that TLG is back on.

For a good minute I was genuinely thinking you mean pub master quest and being astonished.

Good luck with all your things.

Sounds like it'll be fun.

Crimson, Calin has opensourced the game so you can look for yourself. Here it is.

I'm sure that Ryan is jealous of Icey. He's wondering why on the Earth Nintendo didn't call him and chose to call Icey instead?

So it would seem!

You mean Mario is a freak or Mario games don't have a quality? Yes, that's the most reasonable thing I heard!

I mean that reusing the same bleak character in the same concept for decades without even bothering to properly characterize him or do anything genuinely fresh about him, preferably just dumping him altogether already for the sake of something original, interesting and meaningful, doesn't feel like striving for quality to me. Super Mario Bros was a nice platformer game, but infinitely cashing in on that fact and paranoically tastelessly clinging to the character involved isn't chasing quality. It's chasing something else, if it deserves to be called chasing at all, since the process is much more reminiscent of stagnation.

[were]

You took that way too literally.

I meant it in terms of quality, not genre. Icey releases nothing but unfinished games riddled with terrible UI mishaps or laziness, below mediocre and often sloppy graphics, with more spelling and grammar mistakes than one could believe possible.

Based on Icey's fantasies, which is to have a developer randomly contact him saying "You're perfect! Work for us!", Dave and other successful AGS game creators stand at a much greater likelihood. But at the same chance of winning a comfortable amount in a lottery.

Well, I certainly see your point, still, regardless of your comparison, my point stands: as much as we'd like quality to be the defining factor, it's often not. Sometimes genre is. Sometimes the audience is. So I'm just saying, I wouldn't be surprised if an amateurish silly JRPG got much further than an adventure game of Primordia quality. As a person who often finds himself begging fellow adventure gamers to play certain titles that shine with quality, I can easily imagine it as a realistic possibility that a JRPG could easily flourish in a bigger, less discerning and more enthusiastic audience. I mean, look at bloody first person shooters. If you have a 3d renderer and the guns shoot you have a marketable product. I'm oversimplifying, but you get the point, you could say FPS audience is the most forgiving.

And I don't know how figuratively you wanted me to take it, but we actually were talking about specifically Nintendo, and Nintendo certainly would care more about mass public appeal than about what some quaint adventure gamers would consider to be "quality". I mean, Nintendo is still making games about freaking Mario, and you're talking about quality?

Chirp Chirp Blazing Crew?

Tsk, tsk, tsk, miguel, trying to win by bruteforcing the title with the video game name generator is cheating!

If they aren't knocking on Dave Gilbert's door (at least I haven't heard of this) or the doors of nearly all of these amazing AGS indie game creators, they certainly won't be knocking on yours.

Dave Gilbert makes and releases adventure games, though, not japanophiliac JRPGs. Nintendo for sure won't ever knock on the door of a traditional PC adventure game developer, that I'm sure of! Their target audience is much closer to Icey's. Which is to be expected because you could say they actually brought up Icey culturally, and he's in love with that culture and a part of their audience, so he already belongs there. So, I'm afraid your comparison doesn't quite make sense in the way you want it to.

Also Dave Gilbert is a publisher anyway. What would other publishers knock on his door for, exactly? Other than to buy him out and eliminate him as competition, or republish the games he has rights to in countries outside of his area of influence, I see no reasons. Neither there is a huge adventure game-centric company like Nintendo anyway.

You mean this one?

I LOL'd. This is hilarious, we need more of this kind of thing happening. 

Yep I'm about to become a Nintendo developer!!!!! They've contacted me and they're gonna give me a call back soon.

I can't help my curiosity, could you elaborate? What prompted them to contact you? How did they contact you? What did they say? If you could share any details of your success story with fellow indie developers it would be nice.

I fell in love and started laughing the moment I saw the poster and kept laughing until I reached the end of the description. Totally hyped about this now.

ONWARDS TO EXPLORE THE PORN!

Very well written and the animations were fun! *slap*

Ta!

You guys need to make more games,please!

That's the plan. We will make many more games.

You've got the gift of knowing whats funny and how to apply it to games.

That's an incredibly nice thing to hear. Thank you.

This was an entertaining game, but I actually did poorly at it.  I suppose I played the game in the wrong frame of mind.
I did well with the shooting mini-game, though.  That was entertaining.  And I'll admit, like most people I enjoyed the slap.

Thank you. To be honest, I'm puzzled by what exactly do you mean by doing poorly at it. If you mean simply getting negative score, then you could say it's by design.

Runaway 2?

Also stop this non-comformist silliness and provide a picture D:

Here's my clue:

Clue?! I'm utterly distracted by all the sexiness and as the result am completely clueless!

It is a dark and mysterious tale in the spirit of Jane Jensen, set in London using embellished real world locations.

You better give it your best after such claims! 
I love the vertical interlacing.
Good luck.

I can confidently say that my very personal favourite when it comes to structure and gameplay was reached and embodied in The Vacuum. I'd want all or most of adventure games or even games in general to be like that. Exploration, very logical decisions with consequences (including consequences for inaction and missing things!) rather than arbitrary artificial puzzles, non-linearity and optional rewarding interactivity.

Technobabylon series also comes very close to my ideal of design in a good adventure/story-driven game.

If we're to talk about the very classic old school puzzlesque point and click design, Wadget Eye and the developers published by them, as deservedly as they are mentioned, aren't the only people who are to credit for its survival. If we're to talk about anyone who has preserved that kind of game best, it'd be necessary to mention companies like Revolution software, Pendulo studios and Daedalic entertainment. I don't know anyone (in the big business) who'd care for the genre in quite the way they do: both incredibly protective and incredibly creative and daring. Well, and Jane Jensen of course.

As a game designer, I'd love to design a couple of cozy traditional adventures, but generally speaking I find interactivity, experimentation and exploration tremendously more interesting than gameplay entirely driven by inventory puzzles.