Demons in the Forest

Gilbot has announced that Mazoliin won the interrupted Sprite Jam with his devilish appearance. Ghost and Paper Carnival were runners-up.

Lettuce Pray

Now is that title an awesome link between Salad and the theme of BJ7 or what?

Anyway, Yesterday's Salad have reviewed BJ7. They're slightly critical, too! OOOh!

Stat time

Top referrers:

1. Google
2. bigblucup.com
3. ssh.me.uk
4. gnomeslair.blogspot.com
5. indieboyblog.blogspot.com
6. blogger.com
7. wikipedia.org
8. wadjeteyegames.com
9. agdiforums.com
10. adventuregamers.com

Top keywords:

1. ssh ags blog/ags ssh/ssh ags/ssh blog/etc
2. ags
3. "ben jordan" cardinal sins/ben jordan 7/ben jordan 7 hints
4. "dave gilbert" "howard sherman"
5. qfg2vga
6. ags forums/ags forums down
7. "vactions to pay" ags
8. colourwise bicilotti
9. ssh ags mail
10. ags wiki

Top cities

1. New York
2. Hialeah
3. Julich
4. Perth (Australia)
5. Talinn
6. Vancouver
7. Milan
8. Bunbury
9. Geldrop
10. Athens

Top pages

1. /
2. /2008/04/top-10-best-ags-games-series-ever.html
3. /2008/04/unsung-heroes.html
4. /2008/07/one-or-five-days-until-qfg2vga.html
5. /2008/08/air-jordan.html
6. /2008/07/ben-jordan-exclusive-spoilers.html
7. /2008/06/questaculous.html
8. /2008/05/mayflowers.html
9. /2008/02/2008s-ags-games-so-far.html
10. /2008/05/your-dream-becomes-adventure-game.html

Bottom pages (unlucky 13, all only 1 visit :( !)

1. /2008/07/two-tune-win.html
2. /2008/07/shagadelic.html
3. /2008/07/mamma-media.html
4. /2008/07/is-this-way-to-stickamarillo.html
5. /2008/07/brittens-imminent.html
6. /2008/07/200-perfect-posts.html
7. /2008/06/vidbucks.html
8. /2008/06/june-tune-boon.html
9. /2008/05/what-lies-beneath.html
10. /2008/03/more-anagrams.html
11. /2008/03/bless-you.html
12. /2008/02/well-what-really-inspired-me-to-start.html
13. /2008/02/i-met-cj-once.html

Mine's a half

Yes, its now 6 sweet, beautiful, happy joy-filled months of blogging on this here site and I know you all want to leave me congratulatory comments...

Ben Jordan: the MOVIE!

Fresh from Mittens, prepare to be shocked by Le Chatueax (sic) Macabre...

Ballot stuffed

Well, the screen7 vote for game of the year has been extended as the AGS games DB was down. You have until Saturday to get your votes in on the screen7 website. GO. PLAY!

Mitten media mania

All those people lucky enough to go to Mittens have been sharing their photos in the return-from-Mittens thread. Why not go and look at them, pretend you went and reminisce on good times (in your head)?

85.4M of heroism

As I said, QFG2VGA came out Sunday, although it looks like it was pretty late on and probably already Monday in some places. Anyway, it can be downloaded from their new site (this takes you straight to download page ratehr than having to click through two other screens first). Enjoy!

Cooper Scooper

Dave Gilbert introduced the new CFO of Wadjet Eye, Cooper, over in his new Vidcast. Cooper helps Dave present some "audience statistics", including the fact that 65% of Dave's fans are middle-aged women. Janet better get ready to beat them off!

I'm so happy!

Yes, the forums are back! Woo. We love you Ceej. We forgive you. etc. etc.

Queue for Glory begins Sunday

Well, after teasing us for a while, AGDI have finally announced the release date for QFG2VGA: Sunday. Of course, with timezone issues that still only narrows it down to a 48-hour window, but by Monday morning you should be able to get it for sure. So, join the Q!

A review of AG tools

The occasional player (not to self: must find out a better way to refer to the author of that blog) has begun going over recently-updated AG creation tools, and AGS is first on the list! He/she/it also links to my blog, so they're obviously a person of taste.

It's the Zorst report...

If any of you get that reference you're watching way too much kids TV. Anyway, IndieBoy has released his game "Space Pirates" which you may have missed, what with the games DB and forums down and all. This was part of his self-made challenge to make a bigger game than his hour games that he'd made so far and despite setting himself 48-hours as an original deadline it took more like a week, but still it done and that's the important thing. Head over and check it out.

Occasional vacuuming

The occasional player has taken occasion to review new AGS game "The Vacuum", so go and see if its your cup of tea and custard cream.

CJ knows all

I'm reliably informed that via a chain of phone text messages, CJ has been informed of the forums current ill state. However, he reportedly wasn't going to cut short his Mittens holiday just to go and find a cybercafe in France somewhere where he could try and spend possibly days fixing it. Selfish git. THE FORUMS ARE MY LIFE!

Swept under the rug

Over on "Strange Horizons" they've an article on the evolution of the adventure game. You probably know most of it already, but its a nice read.

One update more

Well, QFG2VGA still ain't out, but they've just put up update 5 out of 6, and it promises a release date of "Very soon". Nice of them to be so precise. You can also download a fan kit with concept art and banners so you can advertise for them all over the web.

Ups and downs

Well, CJ goes on holidays and the AGS forums promptly crash with some kind of database error. Ho hum. In better news, the 14th August saw my blog getting 91 unique visitors, the most ever in one day. Woo. This is what comes of linking to it in the Ben Jordan release thread. I must piggyback on major releases more often...!

Chat review

"An occasional player"'s blog has reviewed AGS OROW entry chatroom and suggests it might have been done better in an Interactive Fiction tool rather than AGS, but hey.

Soon to be downloadable as an Ogg...

Dave (15/08/2008 16:09:10): i am a demagogue?
Andrew (15/08/2008 16:13:23): or maybe a synagogue
Dave (15/08/2008 16:14:16): hah
Dave (15/08/2008 16:15:04): demagogue in the synagogue
Dave (15/08/2008 16:15:16): that's a great title
Andrew (15/08/2008 16:15:17): well, you appeal to the popular
Andrew (15/08/2008 16:16:28): perhaps you can be a demigod demagogue in the synagogue
Dave (15/08/2008 16:31:26): sure!
Dave (15/08/2008 16:31:26): if I went to synagogue.
Andrew (15/08/2008 16:32:08): if you did, I'd be agog
Andrew (15/08/2008 16:32:41): and make sure you take your dog...
Dave (15/08/2008 16:33:02): he'll be sleeping like a log
Dave (15/08/2008 16:33:13): better off with a frog
Andrew (15/08/2008 16:33:23): take Janet and you can have a snog
Dave (15/08/2008 16:33:50): in temple? Only if there's smog!
Andrew (15/08/2008 16:34:27): and this joke is a dead horse that we like to....
Dave (15/08/2008 16:35:58): of this conversation you should blog
Andrew (15/08/2008 16:36:44): Maybe you're right, I'll upload the log

Up from the depths...

30 storeys high, breathing fire, his head in the sky.. Velislav, Velislav (and Veluki)

Ahem. Anyway, the AGS Ezine has returned with a Ben Jordan 7 review, so head over and digest Vel's opinion.

Nanoo Nanoo

No, Mork is not back on TV, but Ivy's Nanobots IS! Check out the bytejacker.com video.

Vote of the year

So, finally m0ds has got his "Game of the Year so far" voting page up, about a month after it was supposed to be. Never mind. Anyway, go play the games and then vote on the best at the screen7 website.

Top 20 positions in the Gama Sutra

AGS hero and demagogue Dave Gilbert has made it into GamaSutra's "20 2008 Breakthrough Developers" and that's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Air Jordan

Ben Jordan 7 has finally hit the virtual shelves of Grundislav's free download emporium. This much anticipated adventure sees the Paranormal Investigator head to Rome after being called by a man accused of killing a priest. But is there something more sinister going on? OF COURSE THERE IS, DUH! Download now and find out who is behind the whole series of strange happenings... and then get all tense because you'll have to wait until part 8 to find out the end of the story.

Skip the light fantastic

When I'm not modulating, I enjoy cool flash game Fantastic Contraption, another of those physics games where you build machines to get from A to B, but I prefer it somewhat to Crayon Physics or Armadillo Run. Anyway, feel free to also get addicted.

New competitions

Gilbot won the last sprite jam with his self-and-cat-portrait, so he's set a new theme of a forest encounter. Entries in by the 20th August.

Also, a new tune contest is up with no theme at all! Entries close 1 September.

Algorithm is a dancer

The last of the bad rhythm puns as the Tune Contest draws to a close. Nobody voted, you lazy lot, so Magician chose the winner himself: Twinmoon. We await the new competition and hope that someone votes next time.

Attacked by bagpipes

The skirl of the pipes didn't warn off Ken and they leapt on him. Just after this photo was taken the bagpipes grabbed his face and implanted on of their eggs inside him. We're expecting it to burst from his torso any minute...

What's in your Sporran?

Woo, for about 35 minutes we had the biggest gathering of AGSers in Scotland EVAH! Yes, three of us met up in thrilling Livingston to eat burgers and talk about adventure games... but then Indieboy had to go to work :( To follow... Disco dressed up in silly clothes!

Sporrans ahoy!

Well, tonight Disco arrives in Scotland for the second ever Sporrans! Its just a weekend but no doubt much geeky humour will entail before Ken heads off to Mittens afterwards. Maybe I'll even get him to make a blog post. Woo!

Olympic Poll vault

Well, seems you guys like the polls but don't like silly meta-polls, so the new poll up is about what the best game of 2009 will be. Vote and enjoy!

I'm on my way...

...from misery to happiness today. Uh-ha Uh-ha Uh-ha Uh-ha. Time for another look at the games that are Proclaimed to be coming soon:

Schattenreise

No, not a story about a bought of diarrhoea brought on by some dodgy basmati, but rather about two brothers who discover an amulet that lets you travel between dimensions that are joined by light. Silhouettes abound in abstauber's project.

The Vacuum

No, not a cleaning game, ("While we’re emptying the vac-u-um, it’s such fun to hum a happy working song") but rather a sci-fi adventure where two students trying to leave Aberdeen (and who could blame them) find the passenger compartment of the ship they're on torn asunder by a terrible explosion and have to investigate what is going on.

A Pirate's Tale

shayavr's debut game is announced as arriving in October and featrues the usual one expects from a buccaneering barney: "Nathaniel Goofellow (sic), a deckboy onboard an English merchant ship. One night the ship harbours at Nodha island, at the Caribbean sea, for a stop. There Nathaniel learns of a great treasure hidden beneath a mysterious island belonged to a notorious undead pirate. Along with a fellow crewmate and and a beautiful brave archaeologist Nathaniel embark on an adventure to find the mysterious island, get the plunder and become a great pirate. The game takes you through exotic abandoned islands, dark alleys, ancient monuments! Along the way you will meet cutthroat pirates, outsmarting them or fighting them to get to your goal".

Thanatus - Death from the Stars

Multi-OROW winners AJA and MadRezika's game is Armageddon meets King's Quest as you play a guy who has a premonition/vision of a huge rock heading towards the Kingdom so he goes to hire Bruce Willis and his crack team of Mages. This game features live acting for the characters so is quite unusual and looks to be very well done, so I'm looking forward to this.

Once Upon A Crime II: Gumshoe Odd Ventures

Yes, this IS the follow up to Ghost's brilliant fairy-tale detective game sees Red trying to track down the Chess King's abducted daughter against the clock. Was it the Gingerbread Witch, the dwarves or the Jabberwock? Or something altogether more sinister? As bicilotti says of the author: "He is Ghost. He can."

Can you beat a six?

That would need one of those wierd D&D dice. Anyway, AGS 3.10 beta 6 is out with some fixes for the editor's native co-ordinate glitches in beta 5.

Most august releases

Time for a round up of what gems and germs have been popping out of the AGS games machine. And yes, I know not all (or even most) of them arrived in August...

Wasted

Drunkard Chuck needs to find his way back into his parents house without waking them up. Nice looking first game from new chap Neo.

RoN: The Murder of Adrian Elkwood

Murder on the Reality Express as you play the policeman trying to (rail)track down the killer and his weapon in this detective game.

Alles Euro

This Introduction-of-a-new-currency themed game is part of Abstaubers ongoing mission to inflict ancient AGS games on us. This February 2000 game will probably need DosBox to run on new PCs.

Chatroom

The last OROW threw up a few interesting games and this is one that's taken a while to arrive in the games DB. It's an IRC-simulator with some good AI work from TheJBurger.

Crash! Evade! Destroy!

A July MAGS entry from Aka-"Me go"-tosh, this Gameboy-style platformer has a few glitches but may still be worth a brief look.

Cosmos Quest III: Mines of Isagor Demo

With possibly the longest descriptive text of any game demo ever, this demo carries on the Cosmos Quest saga from Bulgarian developer kinanev. The series has always shown promise and has some great graphics although some have said that its puzzles are difficult and illogical.


I've also already mentioned Super Pitstop Racing and Colourwise which are both award-winners!

Ooops, she did it again

Britney wallpaper available over on the latest QFG2VGA update page (number 3 of 6). No, not THAT Britney, the Anonymous Game Developer one. There's also some inside info on how the battle system was coded and another production video, so head on over.

I've got algorithm, I've got music

Yes, these algorithm puns will continue until this tune contest is over. Voting is open on the four tune contest entries. Listen, post your vote in the thread, then do a little democracy dance.

Jam today

New Sprite Jam is up with the theme self-portrait. Last Jam was won by Evil with his medieval princess-snatching robot.

The Perils of Super Pitstop Racing

Hayelp! In fact, there's no perils, as Rocco's Super Pitstop Racing won the Retro-themed July MAGS by a landslide. To quote June's winner ProgZMax (who set the theme): "One of my favorites of this competition. The title screen was awesome and I'm a big fan of the old overhead racing games. That said, the vehicle controls are really unwieldy at this stage and could use some tweaking, especially for turns. The car turns like a tank, and it makes the race harder than it should be (though this could be a design choice). The vehicles and map design looked particularly good, so nice work!"