Dualnames' last post

Don't look at lazy SSH's cut-and-paste job, wallow in the splendour of the Dualnames formatted version.

Blackwell sale

Well, you have just 2 days left to buy the Blackwell bundle: all 3 Blackwell games so far for 10 of your earth dollars. So go buy.

Build a better background

Some tips on planning how you do your adventure game backgrounds over on Hardydev.

BEn + DavE + Regin = Bender

First blog from Singapore...

Prepare for utter awesomeness as Dave G creates the Blackwell Deception forum thread and Ben blogs about his part.

Dogs and Showgirls

CaptainD gets the scoop on the new release from Ali (of Nelly Cootalot fame): I was a Vegas Showgirl. Its also the first game released with DAGE, the "Dog Adventure Game Engine".

Sludge flashes by

Some of you may be familiar with Squinky, erstwhile Telltale intern and AdventureGamers writer (not the other Squinky with the eyepatch avatar). Anyway, she has a new game out: Life Flashes By, which was funded by Kickstarter and was written in SLUDGE.

They've already reviewed it on GayGamer.

Steam + Ivy + JA = Free

What do you get if you mix puzzles, robots, steam, Erin and Just Adventure? A chance to win a competition for a free Puzzlebots! woo!

Just the Story, ma'am

Enter the Story: Les Miserables is reviewed at Just Adventure.

ProgZMax has made a custom, "buff" edition of the AGS Editor. Back up your game first, then give it a spin and all your problems will disappear.

Babble on

HardyDev review Technobabylon

AG does October

Adventure Gamers continue their series mini-reviewing a months worth of freeware adventures.

Still alive

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm going to be moving country again, so that's my excuse. If only Dualnames were still here with his zany wit. Oh well.

Anyway,

• CaptainD review Snakes of Avalon
• Cosmos Quest 4 Demo is out
• Calin and others have made their custom versions fo the AGS Editor after CJ released the source.
• Dave Gilbert posted interesting stuff in his blog (like THATS news!)
• New poll: please vote!
  

AGS Editor source code available

CJ has put the editor source code up now. NB the engine and compiler are still closed, and CJ will not support custom editor versions or games made with them.

'ave a lon' look at the gnome

Gnome reviews Serpents of Westernesse, I mean, Snakes of Avalon.

BEST AGS GAME EVER OF ALL TIME WORLD UNIVERSE EVER I MEAN EVER EVER EVER EVER (Also Farewell)

Well, most of you are unaware of it. Shamefully. It's trully one of the funniest and best games I've ever played. Initially I judged the game and almost lost what would be the fun of my life. The Armageddon Eclair, The special XMAS episodes, the small "tutorials", this game oozes greatness and humor with a playable character unlike anything.

He makes Larry Vales seem like a jackass. He makes Trilby look like a cat burglar. Truth is Prick Peckard is what most AGS games would love to have. A character with depth.

Now, go here and play them all.

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR. REALLY.

PS: Ponch didn't pay me for this. He should though.

Also, some advice.

Freeware roundup

AdventureGamers' Steve Brown continues his awesome series of covering the latest freeware releases.

Back from down under

Well, after driving 2700km around Australia, I am back. And here's some stuff that happened while I was away:

• Gnome's Lair reviewed Blackwell Unbound and Convergence
• CaptainD reviewed Lightning Master
• CJ announced that he's giving up AGS development and maybe going to open-source it!
  

Create your own World

An article that I find great, has appeared in HardyDev. Derrick Freehand an ags forum member, being on the working of his game Collision, has written an article about how one should create his game world. It mostly scratches the surface, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have valid information. I feel its really worth checking out. Here's the topic of Collision and here's a link for the article.

Also on a side-note the first MAGS under the hosting of Atelier is over. See the results, here.

Shifter's Box in a Box

Here comes another review of Shifter's Box on Adventure Gamers. We apologize for the lack of posts lately. Personally I blame SSH.Anyhow, see the interview by clicking here.

Milestone

Well, since about 50% of my posts say the same thing, its appropriate that post #900 of this blog says it too:

There's another Dave Gilbert interview up. This time at the Gnome's lair.

Mmmm, zesty

Cultural Zest interviewed the Snakey Avalony people.

Dave is the future

Dave Gilbert gets a mention in an article by Richard Cobbett on TechRadar about the future being indie games.

The late Joey Malone

Gnome reviews Blackwell Legacy, like 1000 years after it came out. Tccch! You just can't get the garden ornaments these days.

Famous AGSers chat

CaptainD, an esteemed AGSer, talks to some other esteemed AGSers. I suppose you could call it an interview.

Review: Snakes of Avalon

Igor Hardy and Alex Van Wijst, initially released a very trippy game for the OROM (One Room One Month) MAGS competition. Having lost for a small number of votes, the game gathered some interest. However my initial concerns back then were that the game was plot-wise tied in a very random way. So Igor Hardy with the help of his old team, and with some great new recruits such as Thomas Regin on the music side, decide to re-release the game, adding some content in the meantime.

-Story:
You found yourself drunk in a bar, hallucinating in the meantime, being asked what happened. It's not clarified whether you talk to yourself, to the cops, or a pretty lady, or this is all just a dream, and that feeling is repeated throughout the game in a great way, so it's up to the player to choose what happened exactly. So the story goes into flashback mode, to explain what happened through the eyes of Jack (you) in that bar. I think Mr. Hardy sums up the story wayyy better than I could ever attempt to:

Snakes of Avalon is a dark comedy point & click adventure game about alcoholic incapacitation and people obsessed with murdering their other half. It mixes the style and atmosphere of Hitchcock suspense films with a surreal game world inspired by your favorite trippy movies.

The game is separated into 4 acts all tied between them in a great way.

The greatest part of the game is the additions though. Instead of somewhat vague and random events, now the game has a more easy storyline to follow. The cinematic scenes help greatly in both the understanding of the story as well as the artistic style of the game.

Also a great number of references appear, including my favorite Knights of the Old Republic, and if you come across one, they will make you smile for sure.

-Graphics:
The graphics initially may seem what one can normally expect. But instead they contain great animations and lots of close-ups for a what seems to be a very simplistic style. They get really great to the eye on some parts of the game, and they help the immersion greatly.

-Music/Sound:
And here comes Thomas Regin. The theme still played in my head while I was writing this review, and I think that pretty much means its bloody memorable. The whole soundtrack is very neatly done and fits the atmosphere and surrealism of the whole game. The ambient sounds help the atmosphere as well, especially on the "boss fight" sequence.

You can play the game here. Or else I'll find you and kill you.

Calin reinvents the wheel

So Calin has implemented AGS on the Nexus One. No, wait... he's inventing the AGS Games Database. Except its called Nexus. And with an awesome name like that, it must be good, right? Anyway, join the debate and take the opportunity to say nasty things about Dualnames while pretending that you are debating.

At last, Fully RSS-omatic

Well, it shows how often I was checking, but Yahtzee moved his website updates over to bloger/blogspot so you can now use RSS or Google Blog Follow to keep up to date with his ramblings. Yay!

One of those things mentioned on this is a Yahtzee interview by PC Gamer.

iPhone!

Clarvalon has managed to get Ben304's '!' working on an iPhone emulator, so all AGS creators should prepare to be inundated with money soon. Or something like that

Misc stuff

• CaptainD reviews Puzzlebots
• Dave G shows the evolution of art in his development process
• Theodor Waern talks about the art process of The Journey Down on HardyDev

All good stuff!

Ben again

You can tell that I'm not the blogger I used to be... over two weeks before I realize that Ben released a game!

Five dollar hero

But a whole set of robots for only $5 with Wadjet Eye's Puzzlebots sale!

Slow journey home

Slowdown interview the Journey Home's creator.

Down and Over

CaptainD reviews Over the Edge

Interview Part 12: Ocean-spirited away

Tonight, we host DDQ, famous for being the man behind Oceanspirit Dennis, a craze of some people that just couldn't stay at puns. I present you the interview and a link at the end for the next OCEANSPIRIT GAME IN THE MOST EPIC SAGA EVER MADE.

If you ask what is Oceanspirit Dennis, then damn you, look here.

1) What is your favorite AGS game to the date? And what's your favorite non-AGS game? (You may list more than one)

My favorite AGS game has got to be The Marionette. While it isn't necessarily perfect, the game is incredibly well-written and features an engaging story that personally has no competition. That's probably the best "experience" I've ever had with an AGS game. Honorable mention goes to Shifter's Box. Best one of late is definitely The Journey Down: Over The Edge. You should really be playing it right now instead of reading this.

For non-AGS games, I have a power trio. Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, Half-Life 2, and the Mass Effect series. While the games themselves are widely different, all feature universes that completely immerse me whenever I play them.

2) What in the name of holy saint does ddq means? And what kind of a quote is "F%$^ the hypotenuse"? How did you come up with each of those?

Ah yes... that's something I've lost many nights of sleep asking myself. I actually created the name while naming my save file for Need for Speed: Underground 2 by randomly smacking the Gamecube controller and ddq5 emerged. I've kind of dropped the 5 since then. As for any meaning, the only thing I know for sure is that the first 'd' stands for "Drew," my name, and the second stands for "Dennis," my favorite name. The 'q' could mean anything, but imagine it's along the lines of "quality," "quadratic," or "quadriplegic."

"F%$^ the hypotenuse" is a phrase that my brain conjured up from the ether. When I first thought of it, I thought it would be the kind of thing you'd see on an xkcd t-shirt. It might also be related to the TV Tropes page "Murder the Hypotenuse," which deals with love triangles. Either way, I just find it catchy.

3) How did you find AGS? Who are the forumites that dragged you in ?

My friend and I were looking to develop an incredibly ill-conceived idea for a game. I looked around the tubes and stumbled upon Adventure Game Studio and thought it looked fancy. One failed game attempt later, here I am.

This was right about the time that a little fellow named Calin Leafshade had posted an audio file of himself reading emo poetry. Pretty soon, I had found myself entering the community during the flurry of activity that surrounded McCarthy Chronicles. But in general, I'd say the whole community was pretty nice for not treating me like the overeager little dips^&t with a bad game idea that I was one year ago.

4) Who is the real Drew? And how much did Igor Hardy paid you to join his awful blog?

Haha. Well, I'll start by saying Igor's an awesome guy and I love working with him. I won't that you should shut up and his blog could kick your blog's ass any day because that would be rude.

The real Drew is studying electrical engineering and computer science at university and enjoys good films, games, and music. He plays the drums and still enjoys Lunchables. He also just got a new desk for free and he really likes it.

5) How did you come up with Oceanspirit Dennis?

Ooh, this is a good one. The concept for OSD was conceived by several people. In our good friend and comrade iceygames' thread on RPGs, he showed a design for his JRPG protagonist, "Dave." I told him Dave was a stupid name for a Final Fantasy protagonist, you know how they are, and suggested something like Ocean, or Spirit, or Dennis. The first two being parodies and the third being my aforementioned favorite name.

Snake then marvelously suggested the combination "Oceanspirit Dennis," to which I appended "Scourge of the Underworld." Then I spent five minutes to this drawing, which I released to widespread acclaim. Then the illustrious Ben304 actually adapted it to a game and others soon followed. Thus was set in motion the wonderful world of OSD.

6) How do you feel about creating the idea for a bunch of games based on a mocking of a troll? Some people even called it a RON revival! Comment on that.

Oceanspirit Dennis had a quick but significant boom of games in the month after Ben released the first one, but it died down pretty quickly. I'm literally days away from releasing the next chapter in the OSD saga but who knows if it will catch on? If so, I think we'd need a common set of sprites and sounds and such, walkcyles and all that. While I think so far all OSD games have been released open source, they've all had wildly different styles.

Still, that allows game makers much more creativity with their designs. Whatever happens with it happens, I guess.

7) So you created another OSD, why? Wasn't there enough? Was this one has to offer?

Well, of the 5 or so games released, the one I did was by far the worst. It was just a so-called "Special Edition" of Ben's original game with voices and added homosexual themes. Also, while some of the OSD games were intentionally stupid as parody, I thought I'd enjoy seeing where I could go with a semi-serious comedy game in the universe. That's why I started Blades of Passion: An Oceanspirit Dennis Adventure. It's really more of an exercise than anything else. It'll be my first real game and I experimented a lot in creating it. Thankfully, I was able to round up a really great team who wanted to continue the OSD saga as well. Plus, Blades of Passion has a sex mini-game.

8) So when are we going to see that game?

Monday August 30th, 2010. The promised is kept here.

It's nearly September, must be time for another DG interview

Dave Gilbert, the man who has been interviewed more times than... something quite frequent... is interviewed again.

Deceptive backgrounds

Check out this screenshot from Blackwell Decepticon in the WadjetEye forums.

Hard pickings

Progz's masterpiece Hard Space makes the Indiegames freeware pick...

Linuxage

XAGE now can run its output on Linux!

Free to be miserable

Mr Tolworthy has release Les Miserables for free!

Richard Hofmeier's Cart Life

And to think I was playing Jackyard yesterday, wondering where is Richard's game. Well, here it is, in a Trailer: Cart Life from INDIEGAMESBLOG. Click here to watch.

Don't Stop Believing

Well, Journey is one of my favorite bands and Indie Games Blog's favorite freeware pick is the Journey Down. You can read all about it here.

FRRREEEEEDOOOOMMMMM!

As the famous racist mysogynist once said in Braveheart, you can take our Release Candidates, but you can never take our freedom. And Pumaman has not taken freedom but given it to AGS 3.2... its now the official current version!

Down with AGS!

So, the traditional annual site and forum downtime is happening... always seems to be at Mittens time...

Dual hits the big time

Adventure Game behemoth AdventureGamers give their opinion on H2G2.

Interview Part 11: Long Live the Gene - Against All Ods.

And with us we have markbilly, also famous as Mark Richards, creator of the long-awaited Longevity Gene. An interview, I've found very interesting awaits you. May you see it.


1) Do you have a favourite AGS game? Or a non AGS game?

I don't finish many adventure games because I'm rubbish at them, so this should be fairly easy. For AGS it is definitely going to be the Ben and Dan games but I have a particular fondness for Shifter's Box and the most recent Ben Jordan (I was rather late to discover them). As for non-AGS, my favourite adventure is Beneath a Steel Sky and the one title that really solidified my love for gaming was Knights of the Old Republic.

2) How do you feel about releasing your first AGS game ASFAIK (Wall-E) and winning the MAGS as well?

It was a great feeling to actually release a game! I have been sitting on a project for ages, only showing it to a few people and so it was great to 'finish' a project and get some real feedback. Wall-E has a special connection to me anyway, because I originally made it for my girlfriend as a present, so that made sharing it with everyone even better. Winning MAGS was a nice bonus, I was really happy as there were some great games submitted that month.

3) When you first started posting artwork from a game you were working on, that being Longevity Gene, you said you didn't like the graphics, and you felt you needed some help. What really helped you into keeping the project and tutoring yourself?

I had no intention of ditching the project and I suppose the thread was a desperate plea for people to persuade me to carry on. After getting some feedback I went and re-drew a couple of backgrounds and posted them up on the Zombie Cow forum. What I had overlooked was lighting and, after some examples and little tutorial from a couple of the members (CaptainBinky & MashPotato) got that sorted and the rest is history, I suppose.

4) Tell us a bit about the game's production. How it reached here, and where did it actually start from.

Well, this latest version with the updated graphics started just under two years ago. The project is a lot older than that, though. It started off about five years ago as an idea for a text adventure and it had a totally different story. In fact, it has only been called The Longevity Gene for the last two years, before that (as the text adventure) it was called Tractus, which is was crap name frankly. Over those three years it developed into the game you see in this thread and ended up being called Planet 49 and of course later changed to the title I have now.

As for right now, the first part is playable from beginning to end and I'm just going through the stage of adding in all the gaps I left as I went along. Which takes longer than you might think!

5) What length is the game going to be?

The first part is a medium length game. The second part will probably be a little longer. I'm waiting on a secret play tester at the moment actually, so I will have a better idea then.

6) I've had this idea for a long time, but what role did Ben and Dan play in the Longevity Gene? Don't hide it from me, I can scent it.

I've talked about Dan's early role before in an article I did for HardyDev. The game, in its many forms, has always been present on both the Zombie Cow forum and its predecessor the Gibbage forum, both run by Dan and in some part Ben as well. Recently, I have sent builds to Ben and Dan throughout development for feedback. I just trust their judgment, I suppose. They've both always been really kind, even when I was a lot younger and more annoying.

7) Tell us a bit about the members of the Longevity Gene so far.

The cast? Or the crew? I'm not telling you about the cast, sorry! On the crew there is me, Matthew Brown and Peter Faizey. Matthew is doing the sound and Peter does the music. I wrote a little about Matthew in the game's production thread but Peter is one hundred percent not a gamer, so I don't think you'll ever see him on the forum.

8) Who is the real Mark Richards? What is his life like? Hobbies, Jobs, Girlfriends, Plans on taking over the world?

I'm a uni student, barely. I ended up doing a degree that didn't really suit me so I spend most of my time distracting myself. I make films, again with Peter and a couple of other friends. My other hobbies aren't really hobbies, though. I am interested in politics and secular issues and a member of the Labour Party in the UK. Half of my Twitter updates are about politics, actually!

I have a wonderful long term girlfriend, Maria and I work in a supermarket during term, so I think I tick all those boxes!

Oh and I'm building an anti-matter death ray in my garden.

9) What is the main plot of Longevity Gene affected and inspired by (movies, books, tv series, music, novels)

I wanted to make a game after playing Beneath a Steel Sky, so that is a major inspiration and I got my love of choices in games from Knights of the Old Republic. There are a few Blade Runner references in the game and the whole project is in the spirit of classic sci-fi. If I was OK with using unoriginal music in games, I'd definitely have The Great Gig in the Sky as the end credits music.

Masking Tape

Some guy in a mask does a video review of the Blackwell trilogy. Apparently he's called Underdog.

Rock the numbers

OROW winner By the Numbers now also featured on Rock Paper Shotgun

OROW locks!

Rowlocks is a great word. Say it out loud!

Anyway, Indiegames.com have picked recent OROW winner By the Numbers for their freeware pick.

Learn from the master

Ben304 has some AGS tips on his blog

Marionette AGo-go

AdventureGamers cast their eyes over the Marionette...

Deception

Mr Gilbert has been writing about deception... which is part of the title of his next game project Blackwell Deception and also about his encounter with a crazy lady who claims to talk to dead people...

Lantern shines a light on Eternally Us

New Adventure Lantern out

Play This Pan

La Croix Pan gets a mini review and recommendation over at Greg Costikyan's Play This Thing blog. Greg, you may remember, was part of Manifesto Games who help Dave Gilbert publish his first commercial game, The Shivah.

Pax Robota

PAX have chosen their top 10 games submitted... and Puzzlebots is among them! Go Daivy (that's short for Dave/Ivy)...

Interview Part 10: Beam Me Up Scotty - An inside view

Prologue:
Star Trek Fans ahoy! Non-Star Trek Fans ahoy as well! Upper Tier Studios (namely Matt and Kenneth or Tier and Disco if you like it more), have been working on an epic 3-part series based on the Star Trek Universe. There may be no Scottie, no Spock, no god-damn Cpt Kirk, but the game still proves to be great fun. So with no further s$%@ I present you the interview to Cpt James Tiberius Tier


1) First question. A very classic one for you. Do you have a favorite AGS game?
A tough question as always. I definitely don’t have a favourite AGS game but there are definitely several that I have really enjoyed playing over the years. Obviously the Chzo mythos and Ben Jordan series’ are nice to play. They have such engaging storylines. I’m definitely looking forward to the conclusion of the Ben Jordan series although it will be sad to see it end.

Probably one of the more memorable stand alone games I’ve played was Nelly Cootalot – Spoonbeaks Ahoy. It had such a great art style and comedy storyline. Mmm, I should play that again, good times. I’m sure there are many more games I’ve forgotten but that is because I have a brain like a sieve.

(Indeed you have, but we still put up with you.)

2) You've decided to make a Star Trek game, completely disregarding the famous crew of USS-Enterprise. Was there a reason you want to share with us?

I do love the original characters of the Star Trek series but I thought this was a great opportunity to introduce a new ship and characters. It never really occurred to be when I first started making it to use the original cast for my characters. Hopefully people will warm to the characters I have created for the series anyway. You will start seeing more of the new ones as the series progresses. The last time I checked there are about 18 characters drawn ready to be introduced, eek!


3) You've said that the whole Star-Trek Newton games will be 3 parts of a trilogy, has that plan changed or the ending of the series will indeed be given on part 3.

I am definitely still going to be making this as a three part series. The reason for this was to make the creation much more manageable since I am still getting to grips with the engine (after 8 years…that is bad). It is likely that we will be making future three part series’ with the same characters, but that is another story for another day.


4) Everyone really likes the style of the backgrounds especially when we can see intern parts of a wall or a tube or a machine. Where do you get your inspiration from? And how long does it take to make one?

They style was mostly born out of a lack of art skill. I have watched a lot of the Star Trek Original series and thought that the colors of the sets were quite flat so I thought I would carry that through to the games. It worked out quite well for me I think.

It can take me anywhere between 1 and 3 hours to create a fully working background depending on the complexity. In the first game a lot of the corridor scenes were quite easily reproduced but in part 2, I have tried to make every room look unique which has made the creation process a little longer.


5) Will episode 2 feature any Star Trek cameos? Like Scottie?

The closed nature of the story means that it is unlikely that there will be any cameos featuring in the three games. Maybe in future episodes it could be fun to bring some original characters in, as long as I could do them justice. I am scared I would completely ruin their characters! I’d really love to use some of them if I could though.


6) You're working on this with Disco. Is he a real help? Would you say that you guys have good chemistry?

Our mutual interest in Star Trek means we are working on the same wavelength. In the first game he mostly did animations (good ones!) but in the second game he has also been providing me with puzzle ideas and he also drew a character for it. I think we work quite well together and hope it will continue in the future (as long as he doesn’t show me tunabeard again).


7) Unless I'm mistaken you and Disco will go to Mittens 2010 in Italy, are there any plans on blowing the rest AGSers' mind with a playable version of Star-Trek Newton 2?

I’m definitely going to be blowing their minds with something (*hides shotgun*). I will probably bring a copy of the latest build to Mittens to see if anyone is interested in playing it. Hopefully I will have a little time to work on bits of the game while I am in Italy since I will be bringing a trusty copy of AGS Editor with me and a really bad netbook!


8) Is there an estimated date of release for episode 2?

Good question. Originally I was planning on getting it done a long time before I left for Mittens but things haven’t worked out that way. Since I have pretty much no coding background, it has been difficult learning ways to script the puzzles I wanted to include. Fortunately, the hardest part is behind me and I am now in the process of finalizing the coding and puzzles while Disco finishes animating. I would like to say it would be ready by October (Wow that is almost a year after the first release) but it depends on how hard we work on it. Don’t worry, loyal fans, it WILL be released eventually.

Epilogue: Have a play at the episode 1 of Star Trek Newton, by visiting this hyperlink! And have a look at the episode's 2 in production topic here.

VIVA ESPANA

Mi esposa es de espana, y espana estas campenones! VIVA!

Pick of the month moves on

Now you can blame someone else for picks of the month being late. After over fours years, Mr SSH has given up his imperium. Calin Leafshade has taken up the banner of picking as I'm too lazy busy these days. First up for July 2010 is "rein".

A non-non-AGSer view of working on ECC

So, one of the dudes who worked on Emerald City Confidential with AGS giant Dave Gilbert has written about the experience for GamaSutra.

Puzzle shots

Fan fiction, fan art and now fan booze! Puzzlebots gets some robot-themed drinks.

Ha ha ha ha ha

hahahahahhahahahah

Ben Jordan's Sorcey Review

CaptainD review the Sorceress of Smailholm, aka Ben Jordan 3.

AGS News

Go read Marky's latest missive

Someone removed the Joe Gould portrait? Call a psychic detective...

Interesting article about Blackwell Convergence from a very New York point of view.

Game Review: Polly want a Crack-er?

Last night I spent some time playing this game by R. Michalski, famous for Downfall. Having actually the chance of talking a lot with him, he told me that he released this game, and I actually will be honest, I didn't bother to play it.

The story starts with Lucas Zerko (you) losing your dad and parrot by a cult. You don't really care about your dad being dead, but more about your parrot being kidnapped, so your quest starts to find your friend Grim, and have him help you out. The whole town is one hell of a bizarre characters, all of them greatin my honest opinion.

The graphics have a charm and the animations mostly get by. The music and ambient sounds work rather well for me, and I loved the usage of some songs. The enjoyable factor is great especially if you're into Nirvana, Fool's Garden, Raemonn, Coldplay. The writing and dialogues will definitely appear to be rather crazy and random, but damn, the innuendos I could catch made me laugh badly.

The randomness and crazyness is where this game actually excels, and the very reason why I suggest it. It's also the only horror comedy you'll ever see from the author. It's not the best game around, but so far its number 1 in my list of AGS games for 2010. It lasted 1-2 hours top, but its very enjoyable, and the puzzles have a certain logic (even in crazy ways).

So yes, stop crying that you can make better games, and Go play it.

rein of reviews

An Occasional Player reviews rein.

Hardydev reviews Mental Repairs, Inc

CaptainD reviews H2G2

Talk of the town

Dave Gilbert blogs about writing dialogues and not being too wordy, or not being too unwordy... what a dilemma!

Hardy Hamster

Hardydev review Murder in a Wheel

5th time lucky?

CJ's fixed some more bugs and there's now AGS 3.2 Final 5!

Kickstart(er) My Heart

VinceXII or Vince or VinceTwelve back a while, started a donation thing offering the following:

• Never-before-seen screenshots
• Never-before-heard music tracks
• Some sneak peaks at awesome character animations.
• An amazing wallpaper
• A special video!"

With the help of Kickstarter, and those of course that pledged he got a fair amount that helped him pay some of his errands. Now you probably go boo! But just wait till you see a screenshot.

*Drum Roll*

One offer says this: For a 15$ Dollar or More, you can download the game for free when it's out!!!
And this time you can use the ol'PayPal account of yours!

More on the offers and certain info can be found at the XII Games Blog.

Panel poll

My commenter's wishes are my demands. Sometimes. New poll up on the fairness of the review panel. And I don't mean how attractive they are, as we all lust after Progz and LFish.

Free Google fonts

You may already know about these, but Google have some open-source fonts visible here and you can download the TTFs here.

Up against the Wall-E!

If you want some insight into the making-of the Wall-E fangame that recently came out for MAGS, then check out the Hardydev article on the same!

Knock knock joke time

Many of you will be fans of Doctor Who, I guess and may have heard of the free BBC adventures taht are coming out. Rock Paper Shotgun give a kinda-review-kinda-playthrough. Seems that its OK, apart from the puzzles which are very annoying.

Sorry for not posting more, dudes. Too busy IRL just now! And now Dualnames has gone off on one... ;)

Anyway, thanks to Dual for making there's at least one post a month and meanwhile, Dave Gilbert's been posting some of his programmer art and a sneak preview of a future game... kinda.

Forums...well?

Well, it's been bloody itching me the last few days quite a lot. Perhaps this should go on my personal blog, or on the gen-gen, but I rather have it here for reasons that don't really matter into being explained.

I've noticed that for the first time in 4 years I've been part of this community, the forums have been split. And for no reason.

-There are those who post and those who don't.

That's reasonable and it's the least thing that bugs me to be honest. However for the first time I can count the guys that post. And most of them are just the IRC guys. The IRC has grown and it's very active, but if those guys didn't post, the AGS forums would be seriously inactive for days. And that wouldn't happen the last June! I know Pumaman is terribly busy, and the times are hard...but..it just feels so weird.

-There are those who support the panel and those who think it should go down.

For those who support the panel, I think you're great guys, for those who don't, I'm seriously wondering.Would you bloody protest if you had 4 cups? or 5? And you were 100% sure you shouldn't have it? Why do you say that it's wrong getting a one man review on a game, when you a) don't protest when a site reviews your game well , b) you know that every panelist expresses his opinion when a rating is decided.

-Icey Games,Goldfish, Harg

Both of those guys would have been banned in terms of IP with half of their deeds in any forum. Why are we just expecting them to just go inactive? Goldfish went inactive, so did Harg(though some action was taken here), what's with IceyGames? Why do we let him roam and break the rules that we all know for any other member it wouldn't have taken a second thought to take some action?

-Can anybody share his opinion on what happened on August 2009?

After that month all the forum regulars have stopped posting.


These are my personal opinions, and have nothing to do with SSH, Leon and the BlueCupCritic.This is probably irrelevant to the AGS blog, but I respect its followers enough to post it.

OceanSpirit Dennis: OSD or RON?

Well, the AGS forums have had their annual share of trolls and ..yeah..anyway. Lately however icey games stroke back and this time from a joke originated from ddq and Snake, people have gone bananas, and stupid. Making 4 games so far, one concept art screen(look above, courtesy of ProgZmaX) and one fortnightly competition entry! The first game by Ben304 is even ported into an internet browser!! The topic behind it all can be found here, but i wouldn't recommend it.

So here for your sake in order of appearance:

Click on images
1)OCEANSPIRIT DENNIS: SCOURGE OF THE UNDERWORLD
by Ben304

2)OCEANSPIRIT DENNIS DX: The Definitive Version
by ddq

3) OCEANSPIRIT DENNIS: MIGHTY PIRATETM
by Ben304

4) OCEANSPIRIT DENNIS: THE RPG
by discordance

The Slowdown have a great review of the entire April MAGS...

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
  

Hardy Bots...

...and Nancy Drew. Anyway, Hardydev has a review up for Puzzlebots. And so does TIGsource.

And so does awesome AdventureGamers

Extreme MakeOver Deluxe: Troll Edition

Well, I good at games but i no that good games like FF crystal but with more feal. Some tell story's some tell tales, we tell all. Hear is OCEANSPIRIT DENNIS: SCOURGE OF THE UNDERWORLD.


Ben304 make great game! Though not as good as pub master quest i do along with square enix.

Rue the day

Borkydorky Rue features in a game mag! Woo!

Bot roundup

• Alternative magazine review
• Erin interview at Gaming Daily
• Zombie Apocalypse review
• Naggy nerd review
• Jay is Games review
• Dave also puts review links on his Press page
  

Harg As a Rock

Not played, but they look interesting	11 (10%)
Not played, but Harg is a numpty	37 (33%)
Played them. They suck.	24 (22%)
Played them, they're OK	14 (12%)
Played them, they are AWESOME	23 (21%)

Okay so pole question: Harg, and his games. An interesting thing, people rather not play them because Harg is being who he is. Which is what Harg has been trying to avoid. Well, the more you try, sometimes the more you stray from your real target.

I doubt he'll agree here.

Games for Sale

So some purchases you may be interested in:

• Puzzlebots is now available
• Zombie Cow's VD-fighting non-adventure game, Privates (available free in summer)
  
• Humble Indie bundle including Samorost 2 (pay what you want)
  

An interview that will leave you speechless

...

Puzzlebots again

Another PB review

More bot reviews

I can see there's going to be a ton of these in the next few days...

First Puzzlebots review!

Its not even released yet, and the first review is up at Gaming Daily.

Escape from the Chaotic Pick of the Month

Escape from the Chaotic City is the new pick of the month for May.

Eternally reviewed

CaptainD has reviewed Eternally Yours, the new Benin Leaf304Shade game.

AGS-love abounds

So the April MAGS games have attracted some attention:

• Indiegames freeware game pick
• Gnome's Lair
• Captain D
  

Vote MAGS!

GO and vote in MAGS, as there is a huge choice of famous brand names at low low prices!

LimpingFish Interview

Well, I can exclusively now reveal who Ali wanted me to interview as his "prize" for making my awesome logo: Limping Fish! And so here we go:

So, Mr Limping Fish, you are a game maker from Ireland. Do you want to tell us a little more about yourself by way of introduction, please?

My pleasure. My name is Chris Taite. I'm 33, a Virgo, and I enjoy long lurks in the undergrowth.

Where does the limping fish name come from?

Ooh. Way back in the pre-AGS days of 1989, I sent a letter to Computer and Video Games magazine - this was when it WAS an actual magazine - and I signed it "The Limping Fish of South Dakota", which struck my thirteen year old mind as absolutely hilarious! I had stolen it from a children's book written by members of Monty Python; the title of which escapes me. Uncle somethings Book of...something. Anyway, in the book it was The Limping Catfish of South Dakota. I dropped the CAT, and LimpingFish was born! What a terrible story.

And why the bald animal/rat/pig thing in your avatar?

The hamster? I have a soft spot for hamsters (is that old Richard Gere joke still alive?). And I generally find bald animals extremely endearing. So I totally dig bald hamsters. Not too many pictures of bald hamsters exist on the internet, so when I find one I usually make an avatar out of it.

So, you've been blazing the trail on using AGS for first person games. Why do you like that style?

Two reasons. The first is that I like the 1st person perspective in general. Whatever game I'm playing, whatever genre, if it has a 1st person option, that's the one I'll play in. I like the extra sense of immersion it brings, and it helps me feel part of the game world, rather than an observer. The second (and best!) reason is that it means I don't have to create an on-screen player character, or worry about animations and such. Yay!

Do you think some games are better as 3rd person than they would as 1st person?

Oh sure. Some things just wouldn't work, and I'm not saying that all games should be 1st person. But, conversely, a well-implemented 1st person experience can do things that might be lost with (in my opinion) the sense of detachment that can happen with a 3rd person perspective. Personally, I think there's a strong case for horror-themed games to use a 1st person perspective. Many people didn't like it, but the 1st person elements of Silent Hill 4 were extremely effective for me. More so than when the game reverted to to it's usual 3rd person perspective.

How do you do the artwork for your games?

I use a 3D package called Cinema 4D to do everything related to the CG elements of my games. Modeling, textures, rendering, etc. I try to model as much of it as I can myself, but sometimes it's just handier to use some royalty-free models if suitable ones are available. Then I usually run the finished render through Photoshop to add any post-processing effects it might require. Everything else (gui, titles, etc) is also done in Photoshop.

What's the biggest problem using AGS for 1st-person games?

Well, static 1st person games are pretty easy to do with AGS straight out of the box (as it were). But the panoramic effect is only achievable with the use of a specialized module (big shout out to Steve Mcrea for his excellent modules! Use them, people!), and coordinating nodes - interconnecting panoramic views of a single location - is pretty much trail and error. But I can't really complain. AGS is a great program, and modules are a big help to the code-illiterate such as myself.

So Heartland and Unbound were reasonably well-recieved but not the highest profile: are you happy with how they turned out in themselves and the response?

I'm extremely grateful for the responses people have sent me about both games. Good and bad. Of course, the good ones are my favourite! It's really satisfying when somebody says "I really enjoyed your game. Please make more.". I'm actually surprised at some of the nice things people say about them. They're pretty short games, and there's not much to do in them, but I tried to make both of them interesting experiences, and I'm glad some people say I succeeded. So thanks to everybody who took the time to download and play them.

What can we expect to see with Mobius? More of the same, something extra?

Ah, the short game that never arrives! Mobius is where I try to tie up the story arc in a satisfying way. It's the story of Alex Roland, and how he relates to what has already happened in Heartland and Unbound. There's actually a timeline running through the three games, I just never actually stated where each game is situated on it. But I can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that Unbound takes place a number of years BEFORE Heartland, and Mobius will take place a SUBSTANTIAL number of years AFTER Heartland. Which, if you cast your mind back to Heartland and the letter Lawson finds with Alex Roland's name on it...hints at were I might be going with all this madness. And which will hopefully hide the fact that I'm making all this rubbish up as I go along, in the hope that it looks like an actual story in the end!

When will Mobius be ready?

This year. I hope. No, this year for certain. I have to finish it before it finishes me.

Have you any plans for after Mobius is released?

I do indeed. People might have seen a thread I started last year on the Games in Production forum. "The Hallow" will be my first attempt at a full-length game. Scary, 1st person, 1024/768 resolution, non-panoramic (sadly), and completely unrelated to my other games. It's a big project, but a chunk of background graphics are already finished, so I hope to have something more tangible to share in the future.

What is your favourite AGS game?

Oh wow. There are a number of titles that could vie for that position. I don't think I could narrow it down to just one. Put it this way, I'll play anything by Ben304, Yahtzee, The Ivy, ProgZmax, Vince Twelve, Grundislav...oh, man...I could go on. That's the hardest question in this interview! Ummm...PMX!

Do you play many AGS games?

An unhealthy amount.

You're part of the review panel: do you find that rewarding?

Yes. And I'm glad I could, and continue to, help out with it. It's a great bunch of people (and me), playing games, discussing what we like, and what we don't. Sometimes we might have a friendly debate over a rating or two, sometimes we might have to deal with a disgruntled author or two...

What do you think about people in general (no names!) who don't like the review they get from the panel?

Oh, that What's-his-name, and Mr. thingy-face! I hate them so-...seriously, though, people who contact us regarding ratings we awarded their games are usually cordial and completely willing to listen to what we have to say. And we've had remarkably few people complain. Most game authors are behind the concept, and understand what it is the panel is trying to do. We're not trying to stop certain games reaching an audience, and we're not just throwing our weight around. We try to offer a fair and unbiased opinion. For those few who are more vocal in their resentment towards the panel...well, it's up to them how they want to behave. If they really feel that strongly about it...so be it. Removing their games from the database is really only hurting themselves. We'd rather people DIDN'T remove their games, but, again, so be it.

You also keep a blog about AGS in the media. What got you interested in that?

I do! At agscene.blogspot.com! Plugerific! I decided to attempt to keep track of when AGS games appear in print media, because I think it's a damn fine achievement, whoever the author, whatever the game. I also think it's because I can remember a time before the internet, when print was king, and only commercial games appeared in magazines. Maybe it's nostalgia. I'm so damn old. I'm largely limited to the UK media, but people have been nice enough to share items from more far-flung shores. I'll admit it's not the most active of blogs, but I try to get stuff up on it whenever it appears.

If you could tie CJ up and force him to change one thing about AGS, what would it be?

How can you improve on perfection!? One the one hand, AGS gives us lots of freedom. On the other, it limits us in some technical ways. I suppose I'd like to see future versions (AGS 4?) take full advantage of the available resolutions, media integration, and graphical prowess that modern PCs offer. Having said that, though, AGS is a free, fully-supported program, so it's hard to feel justified in complaining.

If you could change one thing about AGS forums and related culture in general, what would it be?

I add more breasts. Anything can be improved by adding breasts. I don't think there's much I would change. The forums are a great social outlet, despite the odd hiccup, run by people who are only interested in making it as friendly and accessible a place as it currently is.

So, that's about it. All that's left for me to say is thanks to SSH and the AGS Blog for giving me this opportunity to waffle. Thanks!

Puzzlebot preorder

Dave G has announeed that Puzzlebots will be a wee bit late, but also that you can now pre-order on a special offer! So go and send Dave your hard-earned cash!

Re-awakening

Clarvalon has updated his Silverlight version of Ben304's Awakener to use the lastest version which makes it faster and support right mouse button properly. Give it a whirl if you haven't already.

Finally final final

CJ has put up AGS 3.2 Final 3. Lets hope this one is finally the final final.

Lets decide this once and for all

OK, new poll up to try and decide whether Harg is justified in his upset about the game panel reviews of his games. Please be honest and vote on what you think and whether you have played them. NB this is not a poll on whether Harg has over-reacted, but rather on whether his games are good or not.

Narcissist Quest: To find a good review

Abandonia Reloaded have a review of Cosmos Quest 1. And Harg tells us here and here and how anyone who gives bad reviews is dumb.

Make an adventure in a day

Hardydev has a nice long tutorial about making games with AGS. What are you still doing here? Head on over and read...

When I survey the wondrous AGS

Andail has set up a google-docs-based questionnaire to gauge some things about AGS. Why? No idea, but if you fancy a go, check out the thread or go direct.

Leylines

Sorry for the gap on the blog. Very busy just now!

Anyway, Radiant of ATOTK fame, has asked for beta testers for his non-AGS game Leylines. Why not try it out?

MAGS: Vote or Die

The May MAGS needs a theme. After some public requests are made 5 nominees are chosen. Get voting!

1.Leon:
Title: No limits!
2.Ascovel:
Title: B-serious
3.ProgZmax:
Title: Complete your game (Title not a courtesy of ProgZ)
4.Dualnames:
Title:Demakes!
5.Crimson Wizard:
Title:Extreme NewbieGame Make-Over

Vote Here

Hardydev has an interesting article about making a super-genre game. I think its an unrealistic "utopia", but read it yourself and make your own mind up....

Another DG interview

That Mr Gilbert just spends all his time getting interviewed, it seems! Now it by an RPG site... is this an omen?

Ancient out-of-date interview

Many years ago I did an interview with Grundislav for AdventureGamers but for various reasons it neve really got around to being published, so I thought I would fish out the exciting raw chat log from my archives and let my blog readers enjoy:

Session Start: Thu Oct 12 20:25:42 2006
Session Ident: Grundislav
Session Ident: Grundislav (grundislav@ags-C3C24B44.mia.bellsouth.net)
(SSH) oops, I see
(SSH) can you quickly repeat everything you said so far, please
(Grundislav) but I like the idea of leaving little clues and things that connect in the end
(Grundislav) from which point?
(SSH) just the stuff about the dream
(SSH) up-arrow is your friend
(Grundislav) can you skype? or is it too late?
(SSH) sorry messed up the logging
(SSH) cant really skype
(Grundislav) ah well
(Grundislav) the game starts out with Ben having another dream
(Grundislav) one that is significant in answering a question that many fans have been puzzling over
(SSH) and it will be turned into a text article anyway
(SSH) and how is progress making the game going?
(Grundislav) slowly but surely
(SSH) just begun or some way in?
(Grundislav) the past couple of weeks I've been more into it
(Grundislav) I'm pretty far along
(SSH) which bits of the game do you do first?
(SSH) i mean, the story obviously
(SSH) but after that
(Grundislav) I started working on it around january of this year, maybe earlier
(Grundislav) but not consistently
(SSH) did you start it before you redid BJ1?
(Grundislav) yes
(SSH) in fact before you finished BJ5?
(Grundislav) I got the idea to re-do BJ1 in February when I went to the Everglades
(SSH) with nacho
(Grundislav) yeah
(SSH) did you see the skunk ape?
(SSH) or find any drugs?
(Grundislav) I started on it before I released BJ5, because there was a couple of months time between when I finished the actual playable game and when I had all the music
(Grundislav) hehe no, neither
(Grundislav) but I made a lot of skunk-ape jokes
(SSH) Is there anything more to add about BJ6. I see you have no GIP thread for it...
(SSH) I can guess why
(Grundislav) but going back to your previous question, I always write a story outline before I start the game work
(Grundislav) I write down locations and potential puzzles, and then I work on backgrounds on and off
(SSH) i guess it can change a bit as you work on it
(Grundislav) yeah
(Grundislav) I write all the dialogue on the spot, and if I don't like it I go back and fine tune it later
(Grundislav) and yes, there is no GiP thread because I don't want a repeat of what happened with BJ5
*Technical glitch here*
(Grundislav) hehe it's okay
(Grundislav) I can continue now
(SSH) fabulous
* Grundislav is being logged
(SSH) and logging is on this time!
(Grundislav) hooray!
(Grundislav) so where were we?
(SSH) so, I know you won't want to commit to a release date, but what do you think are the chances of BJ6 coming out this year?
* SSH takes Grundislav's pulse
(Grundislav) sorry, I was shaving for work
(Grundislav) I would say there is a 99.9% chance that BJ6 will not be released this year
(Grundislav) I am looking towards a 2007 release date, most likely before the AGS Meetings start
(SSH) okey doke
(SSH) now, other games...
(Grundislav) hold on
(SSH) BJ1++ was your last...
(SSH) oh
(Grundislav) I wanted to add something to one of my answers
(SSH) OK
(Grundislav) about the backstory explanation
(SSH) righty ho
* SSH feels he has lost control of this interview
(Grundislav) I want to be cryptic and say that in BJ6 we learn something very important about a major character
(SSH) We don't need your steeenking backstory!
(Grundislav) hehe
(SSH) Can I ask about BJ1++ now sir?
(Grundislav) sure
(Grundislav) why the double plus sign?
(SSH) Why did you feel the need to go back and redo it?
(SSH) apart from the compass/magnet atrocity, of course...
(Grundislav) because I felt the original release was not a good entry to the series
(SSH) ++ like C++
(Grundislav) ah
(SSH) any plans to redo any others in the series?
(Grundislav) compared to the other games, it was short, with terrible graphics
(Grundislav) so after going to the actual everglades, I became inspired and decided to remake it so it would be a worthy entry
(SSH) Did you enjoy the remake?
(Grundislav) not really, I thought about re-doing the second one, but I figured it was better to finish the whole series first
(SSH) making it, I mean
(SSH) Keep redoing them until they all win awards!
(Grundislav) yes, I enjoyed it
(Grundislav) haha
(Grundislav) I don't care about awards
(SSH) I felt that the deluxe BJ1 was a great game. What do you feel was the biggest improvement?
(Grundislav) the story expansion, mostly
(Grundislav) I thought I did a better job on the graphics too
(SSH) I found the voicework very entertaining. Are you planning do do voices for future BJs?
(Grundislav) I liked that I threw in little clues from the get-go too, like if you watch the intro, the first thing Ben says is "so you want to know how a regular guy ended up half a world away, unconscious in the back seat of a car of a guy he thought he could trust but turned out to be his worst enemy"
(Grundislav) so the player says "huh?"
(Grundislav) I'm seriously considering making case 8 a talkie, so they bookend the series
(SSH) that was a big giveaway. I guess it means that either Simon or Percy are EVIL!
(Grundislav) or maybe it's someone he hasn't met yet...
(SSH) or maybe Alice.... is a MAN!
(Grundislav) MAYBE!
(Grundislav) I like it when people come up with crazy theories :)
(SSH) Have you had any fan art/fiction/etc sent to you?
(SSH) RON and Dave Gilbert have had some, I know
(Grundislav) well, I had the cover art by dan lee
(Grundislav) for bj1 deluxe
(Grundislav) and two fangames
(Grundislav) but anyone is welcome to do some if they want
(SSH) of course the games
(SSH) DUH!
(SSH) WHat did you think of the fangames?
(SSH) the duh was to myself, btw
(Grundislav) heh
(Grundislav) I thought paranormal warrior within was pretty funny
(Grundislav) and buloght's sven gordan parody/remake was also amusing
(SSH) ANything more Ben Jordany to add?
(Grundislav) thanks to the fans for being so supportive
(SSH) I'll move on to The SHivah, for which you did the voice of the detective
(Grundislav) yes
(SSH) Apart from that and BJ1+, have you done any "serious" voice acting before?
(Grundislav) not really
(Grundislav) I did a talkie of one of my RON games, but that wasn't exactly "serious"
(Grundislav) oh, there was also Fatman
(SSH) ah yes, the infamous lost scottish accent of hooky mcpegleg
(SSH) The blooper reel has some good bits in it!
(Grundislav) in the shivah?
(SSH) yes
(SSH) you getting into character, etc.
(Grundislav) ah, yes, I wish I had a private jet, I would have flown to New York and recorded the voice with Dave
(Grundislav) that would have been fun
(SSH) maybe when you sell the Ben Jordan film rights...
(Grundislav) haha
(Grundislav) maybe!
(SSH) OK, err...
(SSH) The podcast!
(Grundislav) the podQUEST!
(SSH) It's now an irregular event, but have you any plans for another one in the near future?
(Grundislav) it's a clever pun, you see
(SSH) NO?
(Grundislav) I don't, but I know Zooty is planning on doing one from Bonfirittens
(SSH) oooh, I'll be there!
(Grundislav) you can be a guest host
(SSH) I'll try and get zooty drunk first
(Grundislav) you've been on the podquest enough times to qualify for one
(SSH) I'll be driving...
(SSH) so I'll laugh at his incoherence
(SSH) Now, if you could take 1 "normal" i.e. commercial adventure game to a desert island, which would it be?
(SSH) and compilation CDs dont count...
(Grundislav) would there be a computer on the island to play it on?
(SSH) well, yes
(SSH) but no net connection
(SSH) we dont want you going blind
(SSH) so Uru Live is out
(Grundislav) going blind?
(SSH) don't try and out-Rabbi me!
(Grundislav) this is a difficult question
(Grundislav) but I'll go with the game that I've played the most times
(Grundislav) which is Curse of Monkey Island
(Grundislav) which would be appropriate anyway to the island setting
(SSH) and if you could take one "underground" (i.e. free) game?
(SSH) not including your own
(Grundislav) hmm
(Grundislav) not to sound like an ass-kisser, but probably the shivah
(Grundislav) with soviet unterzdorfenglublewhatever a close second
(SSH) OK, I can't think of anything else to ask right now
(SSH) plus the wife wants me to clean the kitchen...
(Grundislav) and I have to go to work
(SSH) I'll have a grande latte!
(Grundislav) haha
(SSH) thanks
(Grundislav) thank YOU
Session Close: Thu Oct 12 21:37:52 2006

How to fake a Backstory

Hardydev has an article on creating the whole unseen history of your world and characters.

New logo chosen!

Hey, I know I never actually set a closing date, but entries have dried up now and Ali (of Nelly Cootalot fame) gave me a compelling entry. Huge thanks to Mr Beckett and also to the other entrants (some of whom you can see in the forum thread).

BJ2 review

CaptainD gives us his opinion on the Salton Sea escapade...

Truly madly truetype

Well, AGS has release AGS 3.2 Final 2 and in it he fixes the Truetype Antialias bug that has been the bane of many a game for aeons. What a star!

April's not cold for Helme

So this month's pick is Helme's Cold Meat after it won the poll here. But, to be honest, I've recieved so many other recommendations for it that I would probably choose it anyway. So, enjoy... and Helme... I hope you're encouraged!

No marching?

MAGS March had 0 entries. So, get your act together, folks, and make sure that the April MAGS has some entries.

Rushing media

In Russia, there's a magazine about games that has had a bunch of AGS stuff in it...