2011 AGS Awards are here

Bicilotti has posted the official 2011 AGS Award threads on the forum. You can recommend a game for consideration (as I did with my game for this year) at : http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=45061.0

You can also check out the main discussion topic and timeline for the awards at : http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=45060.0

Make sure to play everything and vote for your favorite.

life. sucks. again

Okay, not really, but that's a motto for a fantastic game released. I shall clap for 2 hours just for the remake of Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge.

Well done, lads.

GET THE GAME, HAPPY NEW YEAR

I promise more stuff as soon as possible.

SPACE QUEST: Vohaul Strikes Back

Well, these news are nothing short of amazing. A fan-game more than 10 years in the making, is finally out. And it looks motherf@#@%ingly gorgeous. Drop your jaw at the screen below, and point-click at the hyperlink.

GET THE GAME AND SAVE TEH UNIVARSE

Blackwell is Steaming Hot!

Literally. Blackwell: Deception has now acquired the standards of pointless gaming. STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS. A testimony of this lies below..


I'm not sure, if the games got on STEAM, are on STEAM, will be on STEAM, but I have failed to find them there, yet.

I did however found a topic, on a certain forum, that explained that the pages for the games will be up on 13th of January. So, those are great news!

Well done, Dave, congratulations ! ! !

Blackwell Unbound gets reviewed.

Despite the uneventful lateness of this particular review, it's not of least importance, that Blackwell Unbound, gets reviewed by the amazing Cassandra Khaw of Indiegames. I'd be an absolute liar, if I didn't mention, that I successfully caught this on time, thanks to Dave Gilbert's facebook. Right.

So here's the standard look.
ROLL THE IMAGE AND LINK.

GLANCE AND PEEK, THE REVIEW IS HERE TO SEE.

Quasar or how much Wonkyth loves Radiant

Yeah, well, in-joke, you're not going to get it.

In the meantime, concerning things you CAN get, here's a link to the game. And as regulations go, here's a screenshot to accompany it.

GET THE GAME, BE A SPACE CADET

AGS Bake Sale Deadline Looming!

The AGS Bake Sale is just over the horizon. Those of us doing games for the charity project received a reminder that the deadline to get our games submitted is about two weeks out.

For those who aren't aware, the Bake Sale is a batch of 13 games sold in a bundle pack. The sale will begin on (or about) January 15, 2012 and all money raised by the sale will be donated to Child's Play, a fantastic charity that seeks to enrich the lives of unfortunate children in hospitals around the world. Child's Play is a charity that is uniquely suited to gamers like us, as it is funded almost entirely by gamers and the videogame industry.

The bundle of games will be sold on a "Pay What You Want" basis, where you can get the bundle of games for the price you are able to donate to the charity. The games in the bundle will not be released to the public for an agreed upon one year period. During this time, you'll be the exclusive owner of the amazing titles being produced.

More info on the Bake Sale can be found here : http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=44684.0

BAFTA

Kind of old news, but well, busy bee. Nikolas Sideris has won a BAFTA award for his musical score, for PRIVATES a game created by two people familiar with AGS, Lemmy and Binky.

So congrats! !

Nikolas commented and I quote:

I would never have guessed a PW thread would end up in here... but I should have mentioned it here! After all all four of us are from AGS somehow... Lemmy (Chris), Binky (andy), Dan and Nikolas are all AGS members...

Thank you all!

And yes, we've been hired to do the next Nancy Drew game (Actually Thomas is in lead of that, while I'm keeping myself busy with Resonance and JOI (though I need to commit a tiny bit more to the latter.)...

I do hope to be in GDC this year, along with Dave, Thomas and Vince XII among other people and perhaps score some more games! ^_^

More trolls on the forums lately? Maybe we're more popular than ever?

Is it me, or have there been more trolls on the AGS forum lately? We've got people starting flame wars about rape, the holocaust and more, but why? I first joined the AGS community in 2004, and over the last (almost) 8 years now, there have been a few trolls that showed up now and again, but lately it has been overwhelming.

There are people with very few posts (that I am assuming are trolls based on their posts)discussing how adventure games are dead, how the holocaust never happened, and how rape is acceptable in a game, seemingly just in an attempt to rile people up.

Could it be the recent acceptance of Gemini Rue to Steam? Could it be Dave Gilbert's accolades with his most recent Blackwell game, or some other combination that is bringing more people to the AGS community or the adventure game genre in general?

With popularity and exposure comes the good and the bad I guess, but I am hoping that this community I have grown to love over the years doesn't suffer the same fate that has fallen other smaller communities due to people being dissuaded by trolls. I guess the best advice to give is, "Don't Feed The Trolls."

That Butler Finally Did It!! *Fist Shake*

On the AGS forum, a relatively new member (only 4 posts) made a post about adventure games being dead. He claims that the 'Butler' did it. We all know if anyone was responsible it would be the maid, not the butler. But I digress... It is a thought provoking thread with lots of thought put into it, and has induced a bit of discussion on both sides of the line. Since I enjoy these kinds of posts, ones which bring forth discussion while not causing flame wars or arguments, I decided to post here so you can check it out and maybe put in your two cents if you feel so inclined.


EDIT : Looks like the thread got out of hand and the moderators on the forum deleted it. :(

Egress: Or How Did We Miss That?

Personally I blame the AGS forums being down. Cause we missed, well, I did at least, Egress. Dane Krams, or Sughly, made this FP adventure game, very similar to the MOON (Sam Rockwell movie plx), but generally affected by all kinds of sci-fi greats.

I won't lie, I just started playing the game, cause I just noticed. But, some people, probably with accounts like IRNOTREPORTER or LURKER12 did. And they posted for their blogs/sites.

So yeah, ROCK, PAPER, SHOTGUN and IndieGames.

And GNOME'S LAIR

GET THE GAME HERE

The Last And Final Word

Yes, the title makes no sense, even by my low standards, but it's a very fascinating thing I discovered, thanks to Gnome. To explain myself, it's a blog/tumblr/collection of Fifty interviews from Fifty developers.

Including Ben Chandler (Ben304, you dorks!) and Shane Stevens (ProgZMax)

Speaking of fantastic stuff, forums are up.

Adventure Treff Interviews Remigiugz Michalski AKA the maker of Downfall

Pointed to me from Igor Hardy, and well done so, I present you this interview of Remigiugz Michalski also easier called "Remi", or Grim in the forums (STILL DOWN BTW).

An interview about the much awaited Cat Lady. It also talks about me at one point *wink* *wink*

About the comments, I have no rights on approving them, and several people complained about it. So yeah. That. Also link to the interview, much forgotten,

HERE.

We don't post as much as we used to.

Not wanting to sound any nostalgic, cause well I find all my earlier posts a bit mediocre and crazy, and all that. But, it's just a nice statistic. The blog has been getting the traffic that was considered unimaginable, in fact since 2010 or so, we have quantupled the total viewership.

Now onto a graphic. Roll the clip, Steven!


So do you think it's better that the posts are getting less and perhaps of bigger quality? I say perhaps, so take the sentence with a lot of salt. Also despite SSH isn't posting as much as he used, he still owns the record of most posts per month, and that is 54 and just on his own. That equals to about 2 blog posts per day.

I will also like to thank poc301 for increasing the viewership by a considerable amount. And increasing the content.

Turn To Stone

-CHORUS-

I turn to stone
When your are gone
I turn to stone
Turn to stone
When you comin' home
I can't go on

In case you feel like listening to it as well. A great song by ELO. Kind of stuck in my head.

Oh, yeah, also the forums are down. OMG SURPRIZED FACE. I should take a picture of my surprised face. It's such a big deal!

EDIT: They just went up. What a bad timing ! ! !

A ridiculous post indeed, but I've been in a weird mood today. So yeah, take it as it is. Plus zanny posts are nice. I also promise you an interview.

AGD Zine: Issue 4 - April 2001

And here is the promised 3rd issue of this web-like magazine, by Mark m0ds Lovegrove, Ben Yahtzee Crowshaw and whoever Todd Johhson is. And Eric Mr Colossal Feurstein, as a time traveler.

This happens to be the last AGD Zine with Yahtzee, and one of his last efforts with this community, except his games.

READ THE WEB MAGAZINE
that we gracefully uploaded, thanks to Peder Johnsen.

Thank the HEAVENS!! The forums are back!!

YAY!!!!!


Yep, you've got it straight. The AGS forums are back online and roaring away. Looks like a problem with the flux capacitor caused the headlight oil to burn out, resulting in a johnson rod malfunction within the webserver itself.


It's a good thing CJ is such a nerd, and could diagnose and fix such a troublesome and problematic issue.


Well, don't just stand there, get over there and do some posting!

Fly me to the Moon...

The entire AGS site may be down, but that didn't stop Dave Gilbert announcing a new game for Wadjet Eye Games. Well, a friend's game. Anyhow, I don't care much about such stuff.

The important fact is that, you need to go here, and check this amazingly amazing game called To The Moon. A tale of epicosity and well, really worth it and glad Dave picked it up. The music is fantastic, and the game is quite an experience.

Guests will be guests.

Forums will be just down.

Guests will arrive shortly at my house, so I must write this fast and all. Well, the forums are still down, surprisingly, and well, you're probably here wondering if they are. So yes, our plan has worked.

In the meantime play some good music and browse this blog, or else.

AGS Forums are down!

Yeah, those. They are. Down.

Forums? They are down. In the meantime, nothing interesting, but feel free to join the AGS irc, that actually is up.

Server: irc.bigbluecup.com
Channel: #ags

Anyhow. Forums are down. In case. This is what happened. True story. Typo on the date, it meant 2011.

Snakes of Avalon on Alternative Magazine Online

Jamie Downes has written a very wonderful review on Snakes of Avalon, created by well, Igor Hardy, who is just plain fantastic, and Baron, who is plain impossible and a bunch of other talented people, especially Thomas Regin.

Anyhow, here is the review, I hope you like it.

As for who is Jamie Downes, he keeps this wonderful blog, that he probably will come back to, I cross my fingers.

AGD Zine: Issue 3 - January 2001

And here is the promised 3rd issue of this web-like magazine, by Mark m0ds Lovegrove, Ben Yahtzee Crowshaw and whoever Todd Johhson is.

Anyhow, it's an interesting view to the past. Larry Vales II: Dead Girls Are Easy was just out in this issue, and there's also a review on Gabriel Knight III.

READ THE WEB MAGAZINE
that we gracefully uploaded, thanks to Peder Johnsen.

Bad Graphics? Adventure? Say It Ain't So!!!

On the AGS forum a really insightful thread was started by Iliya about the term "Adventure Game", and whether in the current culture of big budget games with HD graphics and years of development, our AGS made games should even be called "game".

Iliya argued that instead we should call our creations "Adventure Stories", and Mark (m0ds) Lovegrove pointed out that he'd ask for "point and click adventures" at a store while omitting "games" since the employees would likely laugh at him.

Iliya then went on to post some comments that were made on Dave Gilbert's blog post on nygamedev:

• "Wow - are the graphics really as bad as those screenshots depict?"
• "I couldn't stand playing this for even 10 minutes ... the graphics are terrible! Looks like it was written over 20 years ago."
• "It is like giving yourself crossed eyes for the fun of it. HORRID. My eye sight is still blurry."
• "I can't see a game developer releasing a game that looks this bad and is so hard on the eyes"
• "HORRIBLE!!!! I wouldn't take this game if it were FREE."

Iliya then went on to post two lines that really struck a chord with me, and I felt compelled to bring attention to this post/thread.

Iliya said, "Why is this happening? Are these comments comming from classic adventure games fans? I don't think so. And of course we don't care if they don't like classic adventure games. But these comments are ugly thing.

I don't want the games that we are making to be judged by wrong people. They are giving their comments, because we say that we create "games". No! We create stories!"

I would argue that while we do create stories, they are indeed games. The modern point-and-click genre is essentially a thing of the past with the evolution of the FPS with wonderfully rendered 3D graphics, but there is something beautifully simple and elegant about low-res or (GASP!) hi-res 640x480 resolution games.

I for one, think that Dave's creations are gorgeous and speak for the time and effort that we put into our hobbies. Yes, hobbies. We surely don't do this to get rich...

See the thread: http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=44796

Dave's blog thread about budgets and games: http://nygamedev.blogspot.com/2011/11/graphics-and-budget.html

Silver Lining Ep. 4 Released! King's Quest fans rejoice!

In a post that is exactly opposite of my last one about the death of Hero6, Phoenix Online has released the 4th episode of their Silver Lining series, taking King's Quest fangames to a whole new level. This features the favorite cast of characters, with two of them playable.

While not an AGS-made game, it is a beautiful romp into a classic game-world made famous by Sierra Online. It is free to download at http://www.tsl-game.com/episode_iv.php

You know what's hot?

1) Well, of courze ze bait of ze dracoolator, numbbberr too.
(I apologize at very bad attempt at imitating a romanian accent.)

Anyhow, indiegames featured it.

2) Oh, and before i forget, something a bit old, but well, Dave needs to know :D. Indiegames's Cassandra Khaw, reviews The Blackwell: Deception.

Clickity clicky.

3) And lastly, a radio podcast with Dave Gilbert.
As he had to say "If you care to hear me ramble about game development, I was interviewed by the Geekfist podcast during New York Comic Con. We talk about Blackwell, comics, and assorted nerdery."

Quest For Glory fans mourn the death of Hero6

What began in 1999 as the unofficial 6th game in the Quest for Glory franchise after Vivendi put the series into retirement, had evolved over time into a complete standalone original RPG. If I remember correctly, I think a cease and desist order was issued, but that is just my feeble memory, so don't take it as gospel.

Hero6 was the holy grail to diehard Quest for Glory fans like myself, and the official message was released from DeltaMatrix on the AGS forum as well as on the Hero6 page, that it was officially dead: http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=44704.0

Instead of putting it to rest as some people do, the Hero6 team decided to release the entire source code of all work to the public to do with as they please: Download link : http://s153599580.onlinehome.us/files/Hero6_src_0302.rar

If some industrious team were to pick it up, perhaps it will some day see the light of day, though there is apparently a lot of work to be done with it. As a true fan of the Quest for Glory series, I will be offering a moment of silence for the demise of this most wanted game.

AGD Zine: Issue 2 - December 2000

And here is the promised 2nd issue of this web-like magazine, by Mark m0ds Lovegrove, Ben Yahtzee Crowshaw and whoever Todd Johhson is.

Anyhow, it's an interesting view to the past. This one shows some engines that were at the time better than AGS or up to par, or who knows, but most importantly, it features an INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS JONES ( CJ ).

There's also an article from mr. Lovegrove, on how to make text adventure games. And a walkthrough to Larry Vales.

READ THE WEB MAGAZINE
that we gracefully uploaded, thanks to Peder Johnsen.

AdventureX 2011: Armageddon It?

I am directly quoting m0ds/Mark Lovegrove, so here is what he said.

AdventureX is a humble gathering for fans, players and designers of adventure games - with previews and games to play, special guests with interesting talks and general tomfoolery as we open the world of point & clicks up to the public.

This year is the birth of the event, so it's a little smaller than originally planned.

So, if you are interested, please visit http://adventurex.eventbrite.com to get a ticket!

So what's happening at this years AdventureX?
» Chris Bateman, designer of Discworld Noir is coming to give a talk on Saturday
» Alasdair Beckett, designer of Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy speaking on Sunday
» Yahtzee - delivering a special adventure game audio message on both days
» Over 25 new adventure games, free & commercial - for you to preview, play & take home
» Various daily debates about 2d & 3D art, selling games, audience psychology & more
» Plenty of space to work on your own games, meet other developers etc
» Licensed bar with beer, wine, tea & coffee
» Mince pies and an afternoon buffet for free

If you're not ready to get a ticket yet and just want to know more, you can find plenty of info on the AdventureX website:

screen7.co.uk/adventurex/

If YOU have your own game, or if you feel you have an interesting talk to give - get in touch! I'm happy to showcase any adventure game and would welcome anyone who feels they can deliver an interesting speech.

That's about it. Thank you for reading, and hopefully see you at AdventureX 2011!

Character Development

Greetings everyone, and welcome to my first post on the AGS Blog!

I was brought on board to help with the general game, industry and forum based stuff, but also to do articles about game development and writing a good game. I’m going to focus this article on a very important aspect of writing/creating a good adventure game: character development!

Without characters that are well developed, the game becomes tedious for the player. Who cares whether Jack climbs the beanstalk and defeats the giant if he has the personality of a cardboard box? It is when the player builds a ‘relationship’ with the characters in the game, and come to actually care about what happens to them, that the most immersion happens and the game seems to take on a life of its own. It is in these instances that an adventure game can really shine.

I did a lot of research on this topic in 2009 when I released Murran 2 and a lot of the reviews come back saying the game lacked any real character development. I made sure when the sequel was released this year that I had spent as much time as possible trying to turn the pixels on the screen into a living, breathing person with feelings, desires and motivations. I would like to think I accomplished this task, and here are some tips I can share for developing a character:

Make sure before you begin writing any dialog that you plan out each character. What are their back-stories? What happened to them in the past to make them the way they are now? What motivates them? Do they desire money? Fame? Power? Are they just a drug addict willing to do anything for their next fix of drugs? Make sure the back-story for the character SUPPORTS and helps along the flow of the game.

Delve further into the character… Do they have any pet peeves? Does something really irritate them? What is their daily schedule like? If they are a busy person, maybe their character will always be in a rush. Maybe they will be forgetful because they are always rushing around.

When you write dialog, write it “as” the character. Put yourself into the shoes of that character, and design the speech and behavior as that person would. Keep in mind their history, desires, quirks and their feelings on things.

Make your character question themselves. Some good drama can be had by introducing a twist which can cause the character to question who they are.

One arc or two? There is the arc of development which comes over time as the characters experience things and learn. There is ALSO a more subtle arc that characters can experience as they SEE the other characters doing things. A good example of this is character A getting jealous of character B when they are seen going to visit character B’s ex-girlfriend. Character A is developing through the outer arc as he learns about the stolen jewelry she has, and Character B is developing through the inner arc as he perceives some kind of affair going on. It is unfounded, but he doesn’t know it.

Emotions. Learn the five stages of grief : http://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/ Nothing ruins the immersion in a good game like characters who don’t have realistic responses to events. We all know that if someone is killed during a moment of high drama, the main character shouldn’t laugh. But what might not be so obvious is that the character, to be believable, should follow a staged and set path of dealing with this event. It shouldn’t be “I’m pissed off! “, then 10 minutes later be acting like nothing happened.

So to sum it all up, there is a lot that goes into character development, and well developed characters will make for a more fun and immersive game for the person playing it.

The Star Trek team gets a new member

Well, I believe we were always like the USS Enterprise. Just, well not that awesome. So if SSH is Scotie, I am probably and definitely Captain Kirk, then we just got our Spock. Yes, so please all welcome our newest addition:

POC301

We are very happy to have him aboard, and he'll be doing some very interesting blog posts. You'll see. I joined this blog on 26 of November 2008, so yeah, that's a nice sign.
Also not to forget the man, made the Murran Chronicles, so you should check them out, like now!

Anyhow, I'm sure he'll have some great content here as well.

THE LEGEND OF LEKSUTIN'S EDGE

From the AGS Dictionary:
LEKSUTIN, COURTLAND
(Leksutin, C-Lex, C) AGS-veteran and strong profile despite the lack of produced games. Often referred to as "the hitman", or other terms related to violence and bad-ass attitude, but still known as a considerate and sensible character.

A man, a myth, who knows. All that matters is that his name is the 13th reason, why this blog gets traffic. Is it an elaborate plan to justice? Let's see some specific posts about c.leksutin, before we explain a finding, that might as well, be the best thing ever, since sliced bread.

-GilbetV7000a:
"Or, to make it simple for people (that the target of this post is obviously one of them):
Don't double or triple post. Edit your posts, or else c.leksutin is after you (this is called auto-banning from life)."

-Babar:
"People better not mess with c.leksutin.

Otherwise HE MIGHT COME BACK! "

-A certain topic about his whereabouts

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is obvious that the man has disappeared. CJ rumors the fact that CJ is just waiting in the shadows, lurking, and waiting for the perfect moment in which he will strike. We can all wonder.


D.

BYTE OF THE DRACULATOR II

PLOT: Vampire + Mad Scientist + Terminator + Hot Twins. Do you need more?

MORE INFORMATION: This game is the fruit of the Swarm, an experimental collaborative project of the AGS Community to prove that you can Zerg Rush the f#$^ out of a game.The list of credits is impossible as many AGSers collaborated on this project. Along with the game, a fantastic voice-pack is included, that will totally crack you up. Especially Merrick's voice by ShiverMeSideways, is a reason alone to play this game.

GET TEH GAMEZ HEARS

AGD Zine: Issue 1 - November 2000

Well, frankly I should say nothing. This is the pilot issue of a web-like magazine, by Mark m0ds Lovegrove, Ben Yahtzee Crowshaw and whoever Todd Johhson is.

Anyhow, it's an interesting view to the past. It features articles about How to make a Good Adventure Game, two previews of games I haven't even heard of, and an article about whether Point & Click adventure games are dead. Oh, and Yahtzee has an article.

READ THE WEB MAGAZINE
that we gracefully uploaded, thanks to Peder Johnsen.

Don't Shoot Shotgun...

*insert Def Leppard riff here*

In the meantime, this is all about the fact that Rock Paper Shotgun, has talked about Oceanspirit Dennis. Yes, we're a bit late to the party, but what matters is that we got there. I guess.

-Anyhow. Linky, here.

-Also, previous article here.

-Also, more and sadistically collected information, by none other than Ponch. Oceanspirit Omnibus

In case it wasn't that obvious.

GEMINI.RUE.ON.STEAM.

Obvious Point is Obvious.

Also I've known this for a long time, cause well, Dave informed me, but i kept my silence cause I had to. :P

Well, what?

Gemini Rue is the 2nd AGS game, to have been placed on the Steam market, so WOOHOO, for that. Congratulations to JBurger, he must be really proud, and the Wadjet Eye Games, that probably helped a lot to place it there. More later on.

That would be the initial post. But well, no luck. You can read some of what really happened here.
Several places in the internet have condemned Valve for taking such action, I hope that means that eventually the game will be on Steam.

This would also be the initial post of the initial post. I am losing grasp of things. But I have a feeling Gemini Rue will get released on STEAM. Okay, that's all. Keep an eye.

AGS Bake Sale gets some fresh coverage

Yeah, well, here's an article on INDIEGAMES.

Also Darth Mandarb, has taken a very fantastic task to keep all the games in one topic and update the links and stuff.

So. Well, here

Have a nice day!

Are you kinky enough?

Well, a great blast from the past, Kinky Island, a game about sex and boobs (you're probably already hooked), in the works for the last 12 centuries, finally gets a WIP topic. It almost feels like April's Fools. This may seem like a shameless plug, cause well, yours truly is coding this, but well it's not; take my word for it.

Read the hilarious topic by m0ds.

AGS Bake Sale: The Lucky Dozen + few more

Rumors have been spreading around from some newspaper, with the absurd and uncatchy title, AGS TODAY, but dear readers, this is a serious blog. We have inside information, of what appears to be a very inspiring movement from the AGS community.


The members of a close circle called AGS Bake Sale, have decided to release a bunch of games, that will be -pay-what-you-want- in order to gather some money for a great cause, a new AGS server, namely.

I'm going to have to keep this article very short in size, but here are the links to each game.
-Calin Leafshade's - Murder on the Lady Titania
-Cat's - Escape the Barn
-WHAM's - Undead Hangover
-ddq's - SCOUT
-Grundislav's - Ben Chandler -Paranormal Investigator - In Search of the Sweets Tin
-tzachs - 9 Months In
-Ponch's - BARN RUNNER - The Rich Dame Who Cut the Cheese
-Ben304's - Falling Skywards
-Ghost's - Mythamautology

Nostalgia, here we go!

We're gonna take you back to the past, for a journey unlike any other. The mysteries of love shall be revealed, your life will gain meaning. Every Friday, we will give out a link to a rar or/and zip, that will contain an issue of AGD Zine from 2000-2001. An online magazine by m0ds, with certain contributions from Helm, Mr Colossal, Dave Gilbert, Cornjob and well, YAHTZEE.

Reviews, Previews, Interviews, News.

A very fantastic peak to the old days that shaped the AGS community to the sh%^hole it is today, stay tuned.

Близнецы улице

Yeah, welcome to MOTHER RUSSIA. I am having a fantastically bad day, so I'll jump to the point. Gemini Rue appears to be getting translated to Polish. Then again the title is in Russian, cause, well, blame google translate. Anyhow, screenshot.

Review: Blackwell Deception

Today, Wadjet Eye Games has released its newest game, which happens to be the franchise that Dave Gilbert himself, is to blame for.


-INTERFACE

The changes towards some directions that Dave Gilbert has made, only feel natural and correct. The mouse cursor changing color to indicate which character you are controlling, is just one sprite, but really works magnificent. The control interface is basically the same, and takes zero time to get adjusted to - and if problems arise, Dave has integrated a tutorial so neatly in the start of the game. I am really impressed by how easily and naturally issues, that would bug you in the previous games, have been solved here.

With that said, I found the menus a bit generic to be frank. Perhaps I am nitpicking, but they felt a bit uninspired, graphically. I am quite possibly nagging for nothing.

-GRAPHICS

Hiring InCreator and Ben304, is probably the greatest team-up you could come up with. The background art and related animation, is definitely fantastic, and really raises the bar. A mix between 3D and 2D, really shows attention to detail, and makes every background worth it. About the character art, what can be said about Ben Chandler, that has not be said before? The animations are extremely fluid and retro-like, and there's a lot of diversity in terms of character designs. Initially one can rush to the conclusion that the character art and the background art, don't match, but I feel they give a graphical boost to the series that was perhaps needed.

-STORY

Well, I don't want to spoil much, in fact I'd rather not say anything, but since I am forced to, by Scottish supermen, I have to say that the story is definitely bloody brilliant. It's probably like watching a nice movie, it kind of stays with you for a bit after it's over. I think also a sequel is due. The conversations between Rosa and Joey are still fantastic, and perhaps even more amusing this time.

The best thing about this game is that it plays like a standalone game. You don't have to play the rest first, though that would be nice. And unless I am mistaken Wadjet Eye Games offers all the Blackwell games in a DVD.


-EXTRAS

The music and voice work are still top notch, with the voice work feeling more natural than it did for Gemini Rue. It probably has to do with the fact that the team has been stabilizing a bit, but regardless this has to be noted. I also found the best part of the game to be the Developer Commentary. Unlike Gemini Rue where frankly I hated it's implementation, here, in Blackwell, it's simply fantastic.


-INFO

The official Wadjet Eye Games, Blackwell Deception page.
A demo straight from the AGS Database
The Blackwell Deception topic, at the AGS Forums

The game is available for $14.99 (download) or $24.99 (limited edition DVD version). Note that the DVD will only be offered through this Sunday, October 16.



-CONCLUSION

Blackwell Deception, the fourth installment on the series, has just one flaw for me. It leaves you begging for a sequel. The game is certainly the best of the series, hands down.


-NOT LIKING THIS REVIEW:

You can always read the same opinion, expressed in a more coherent and verbally correct way.
So, here's two of them.

-Adventure Gamers-
-Gnome's Lair-

Old projects that withered and died.

Darius Poyer, the man behind rein, decided to turn his webspace, as a theme park for all the projects he has started and failed to finish. I have to say that all of them look and sound fantastic, but the reasons explained by himself, make me nod in agreement.

Feel free to read and look, it's totally interesting.

HERE PLX

Interview Part 18: The Unfolding Discordance.

I'm returning shortly to the standard format, not because I am lazy.

Well, okay, fine, it's that, you got me. So I am lazy and I am returning to the old format of interviews, but the quality still remains the same, or perhaps more. You'll be the judge of that. So this time, we feature, discordance, in probably what is one of the most interesting interviews, I've had the chance to conduct.

1) This is a typical question asked to all interviewed people. So, how did you find AGS?

Wikipedia binge, I think. I was looking up some adventure games I remember playing as a young child (KQV, specifically) and ended up stumbling upon AGS. That's a boring story, so let me tell you about the time I fought a dragon.

(It was awesome.)

2) Do you have a favorite AGS and/or non-AGS game?

I played a bunch of classic AGS games soon after I found it - Jessica Plunkenstein, the Apprentice games, the KQ remakes (because I get a nostalgia kick from KQ, mostly). Trilby's Notes is pretty good. 5 Days a Stranger is terrible. As for non-AGS games, I'm a big fan of the Portal and Half-Life games.

3) A certain fan of yours, has obliged me to tell you "Don't ever stop making good games, UNDERSTOOD?". How do you react to that?

Sounds pretty serious! If I ever decide to switch to cooking or something I'd better watch my back. (I am not going to switch to cooking. Calm down, certain fan of mine!)

4) People have commented that the only flaw in your games so far, appears to be in the graphics department. Comment on this, please.

It's true! I can't draw at all, and I have no interest in getting better. If I put in a lot of effort I might be able to move myself up from "terrible" to "mediocre", but I'd rather focus on things I actually enjoy, like writing and music. I've worked a little with other people who actually can draw, but it's really hard keeping even two people interested in a single project, especially since I like to move through ideas so quickly. Maybe at some point I'll team up with an artist and make a game with pretty pictures! Or maybe other people will just remake all my games and save me the trouble! Who knows.

5) Apart from the sequel/prequel to "How they found Silence" is there any other project you're involved with?

I'm always doing like twelve things at once, most of which will probably never be finished. I have folders full of part-finished projects that have been subsequently abandoned. I imagine most amateur game makers could say the same thing. The HTFS sequel is my only AGS project right now, though - I'm also messing about making roguelikes, and I've recently taken an interest in writing some IF. You don't need to be able to draw to make IF! It's perfect.

6) Was the whole vagueness behind the Unfolding Spider, an intended thing, to allow players to shape their own side of the story? And if so, what inspired you to go towards that direction?

That's exactly it, yeah. I mentioned that I like Portal, which does a similar thing - it implies a huge, mysterious backstory, but leaves most of it to your imagination. That's a big part of what makes it so memorable. Of course, my game is much better than Portal.*

I've always liked stories that don't feel the need to spell everything out, the kind where you think about them afterward and suddenly see something you missed before, some connection or explanation or motivation that you hadn't thought of. The Unfolding Spider takes this to an extreme by making no sense at all, of course.

*

7) What exactly shaped up Unfolding Spider into what it became, what was the initial goal?

I like making games, but sometimes doing things like thinking up puzzles and structuring them into a consistent and engaging story gets boring and frustrating. I just felt like screwing around and making something that didn't require too much planning or, you know, "effort".

What I mean is, I came up with a brilliant artistic vision and knew I had to share it with the world, so I spent months putting all my ideas together and forming a cohesive whole. It's a work of art, goddammit!

The actual truth is that I wanted to play around with some things - playing with the old amnesia gimmick, making a game without puzzles, making a game with a heavily ambiguous narrative, giving the player character a sense of history and direction via atmosphere and actions, rather than exposition. Also to have fun making a game without doing all the hard bits.

8 ) Knowing this would spoil my and probably everyone's idea about the Unfolding Spider, but is there an actual story ? Or is the game simply about madness?

I don't think it's a case of "the hero is just a nut having a bad dream in his padded cell," that would be kind of lame. There's definitely a story in there. Different people might have different ideas about what it is. That's all I'm going to say.

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY, THEN PLAY THE UNFOLDING SPIDER. CAUSE YOU MUST.

Maniac Mansion is Awesome!!!

A bit non-AGS stuff, but still fantastically worth it. Three comic strips based on Maniac Mansion. It craves me for more. I believe I saw this from Gnome's facebook. So cheers to mr. Gnome.

Check those little tykes here.

AGS Forums are a bit broken for now.

I doubt it's just me. But whenever I'm trying to access any board/topic/post I get to have a message that says Database Error. Click on the image below see it zoomed, or use ctrl + mouse wheel.

Anyhow, just letting you guys know. Well, time to play some Portal 2, then.

Ben There Deluxe That ! ! !

It seems that Ben There Done That, has got a major revamp. Whilst the non-deluxe version still remains free, this deluxe version that includes all sorts of fantastic things (including ringtones for your phone) is a pay-what-you-want-get-the-game bargain.

However if you have been smart, and lucky, and got it on Steam, then your copy will be updated. I am in a bit of envy.


Anyhow, more info here.

Saturday Night Fever 4: Shake that ***

I'm gonna rant a bit before I get to the interesting part. Well, I have a fever as we speak, so I believe I'm typing really weird stuff. You must excuse me.

Anyhoo. Francisco Gonzalez, the creator of the fantastic series called Ben Jordan, has let's played and commented on the fourth installment of his game. Which he didn't accept as the masterpiece it is. Watch the 2 hour long thing, uploaded by himself, on the Tube.

AG's Freeware roundup

AdventureGamers present again their excellent monthly freeware roundup. As usual, it includes a bunch of AGS stuff!

Deceptively previewing

Hello, long time no blog. Thanks to Jim for keeping some kind of content appearing here. AdventureGamers have a Blackwell Deception preview up. Meanwhile, give all your money to Dave in the Wadjet Eye pre-order!

Interview Part 17: Wretched!

Tonight we have another interview, this time we feature the man behind the Wretcher. Yes, that fantastically looking game. Yes, this one. So, Alan V. Drake, dear readers!

The guy that brings you this:


We had him work on this:

Get the INTERVIEW, PLAY THE INTERVIEW.

On a sidenote, Grundislav's interview is included. Everything used in the Wretcher interview was made entirely by Alan V. Drake.

Concurrence joins the 31I7|57

Elitist. Yeah, you probably can't read leet (1337) at all. Well, I pity you, but you probably grew up in the 80s. When things were a bit more sexier, cooler and less weird. On something far more important about your background is that the Indie Elitist, a fantastic blog about Indie Games, reviews Concurrence only praising it for being such a fantastic tribute to Another World, and so much more.

Get the game here.
See the mini-review here.

Blackwell Deception: Trailer

Well, don't read, just watch !
You can also pre-order the game. Check the Wadjet Eye Site for more info.

Also a preview is promised soon, as we have hands on the demo and the beta. Spoiler free of course, with extra cherry on top.

Post of the Week: Why is this so awesome?

Grundislav or Francisco Gonzalez, whichever you like really, has released a trailer for the always upcoming Ben Jordan Case 8 - Relics of the Past.

Does it make me anxious? Yes.

---

It appears that Technocrat has some news about the fourth part of Technobabylon.
If you don't know what Technobabylon is, then shame on you, kind sir, and you're missing a great series of short sci-fi games.

It appears that Part IV will be a tad late, because the character art got some amazing and utterly fantastic overhaul. Well, cheers to that, you made me incredibly jealous.

---

And to finally conclude this, Radiant seems to be expanding his OROW entry, which to be utterly frank, is a waaaaayy better platforming game, than what made by yours truly. So I leave you with a screenshot, that if you click on, will get you to the game. SO CLICK ON IT.

Unipicked by indiegames

Indiegames picked one of the three challengers for the August MAGS as the Freeware Pick. The rest two being OROW entries that got more content. It's also made by Duzz. Anyhoo, check the mini-review here.

The game's name is UNICATED.

Bright lights - big city

Ben's upcoming game called City, is a bit cheered upon on Indiegames, and of course the best part that gets cheered is the fact that City, is a living and breathing world. Which is what Ben304 himself, is working on.

Oh and i forgot the link. Dumb me.

Journey of Iesir gets a peak

Indiegames has taken some time to shed some light, on an AGS game in-production, Journey of Iesir. Take a nice look, by magically clicking this word.

Oh rowly?

The official 7thOROW competition hosted by yours truly, has finished about 5 days or so. But I forgot to give you guys the results!! The winner in each category is in BOLD.

ENTRANTS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:
AJA - Barrier
BICILOTTI - RapSqLud
CAT - Apple Farm
DDQ - Aeterna Duel
DUALNAMES - Requiem
FSI - De_Haunt
PMARTIN - The Devil Got My Woman
PONCH - ODR3
RADIANT - One Room One Cheese
SHIVERMESIDEWAYS - Procrastinator
TZACHS - Office Shenanigans
WYZ - Entrapped

---

GET THE GAMES

---

Results:

Best Game
34% BARRIER
18% OFFICE SHENANIGANS

BEST GRAPHICS

44% BARRIER
18% ODR3

BEST CONCEPT/WRITING

15% ONE ROOM ONE CHEESE
23% THE DEVIL GOT MY WOMAN

BEST SOUND/MUSIC DESIGN

15% BARRIER
15% REQUIEM
21% ONE ROOM ONE CHEESE

BEST PROGRAMMING/CODING

18% AETERNA DUEL
26% ONE ROOM ONE CHEESE

---

And the winner, by what can be called an OMFG UNEXPECTED reaction, AJA!
For an eternity in a row!!!

Cat Lady, where are you?

Well, it appears that the second trailer for the upcoming game, by Remigiugz Michalski, that brought us Downfall, is here, and this seems a bit normal. Well, you'll disagree with me, but I have played some portions of this game, and this is normal compared to what happens in the game.

Trust me, reader.

Mind you there is a bit of not-under 18 content!!

Clock Towered.

Domithan puts up another of his video reviews, this time Deity.
Article by HardyDev.

OROW VII

RESULTS AND GAMES HERE.

BBC down?

Looks like BBC is down for the moment. Now, watch me abuse this blog to get free money... Why not take this opportunity to download my current addiction, football game Kick It Out for your Android phone and when you register your free account use my ref code EBTLXT and both you and I will get free money! (Please note, free money is only in-game money and this is Android only)

Saturday Night Fever

It appears Francisco Gonzalez, aka Grundislav, will be playing all his games LIVE, and commenting various stuff and answering questions as well.

He's already done Ben Jordan 1, 2 and the Deluxes.
You may watch the first one here, uploaded by ShiverMeSideways, recorded by Nihilyst.

What can you do with 3.5K ?

Well, I created very much nothing with 3.5K. And most of us, have done the same. But there is SteveMcCrea. What a man. He created a raycasting first-person dungeon crawler with RANDOM LEVELS, for the VIC-20 out of 3.5K, which nowadays equals to thin air.

But I personally expected nothing less, than PURE awesomeness. Check the very fascinating video below.

Ghost gets his chance.

Ghost's newest game after a long silence, has been chosen as freeware game pick by none other than INDIEGAMES.com. So read the article here, and get the game, will you!


Games about zombies, how can you not absolutely LOVE em?

PUBMINISTER MASTER QUEST is Released.

Above lies the worst title this blog has yet to offer. Below lies the best game with the AGS Engine, with the initials PMQ.

Do your Wednesdays feel joyless and empty now Parliament’s in its summer recess? Does 12 o’clock pass without event, leaving you deflated and depressed?

Prime Minister’s Questions is every political nut’s favourite time of the week and we all deserve to enjoy it whenever we want.

Play as the prime minister in this satirical, retro style game as he faces his weekly grilling from Her Majesty’s Opposition.

Go Download the Game.

ALSO A VOICE OF LOGIC: WHAT THE F@#%!!1

PMQ may not mean what you expect

Not the infamous Pubmaster Quest, but in fact Prime Minister's Questions: The Game! markbilly has thrown out this gem using some of the PixelPolitics stuff he's been doing for a while. If you've always wanted to get inside David Cameron's shoes (or pants) then go and play!

The Release Something POST-MORTEM

Important Notice: YOU ARE LATE FOR THE PARTY.

Now, that's out of the way, let's talk about what this is all about. Icey games/Studio3 had the idea of an AGS Show equivalent to E3. While that may sound a bit silly, and perhaps you're right, it actually is kind of silly, Ben304, in all his enlightening insanity, actually made it happen.

So, let me use the amazing powers of copy-paste to show you what Ben304 actually did.

We used to have these under the guise of a "Release Something", and while I never participated, they were great fun, it's amazing to see all the different members of the community showcase little parts of their projects. I think having a date, an event in which you know people will be interested in this sort of thing and all your buddies will be doing it, really motivates one to tidy something up for people to look at it. And, if nothing else, it gives you somewhere to finally show off those couple of screenshots that you know aren't going to be in a game anymore, but you spent hours working on and might as well do *something* with, even if it does just mean posting them for people to go "oooh, I wish that was a game!" over.

As far as I can tell, the last Release Something was February 2009. We had something a little in the vein of this last year in May when ProgZmax set the mags topic to "Release Your Game" and the comp was clearly a great success - 6 entries in a MAGS comp is a great showing by anybody's standard, so the interest is clearly there.

That was over a year ago - perhaps it's time for another release something?

With no objections having arisen, I'm going to go and set the deadline for this activity as the 10th of July. You have one month to polish up your games/tech demos/demos/prototypes/vertical slices for release! Keep the sweet stuff rolling in guys, it's awesome to see!

So there. And I will also as a kind sir that I am, give you 2 things.
-Firstly, the link to the topic.
-Secondly an amazing GIF with (Almost) everything released. There are some games and demos in the topic, so check em out.

Gesundheit! gets ready to storm the App Store

Gesundheit, yes, that really promising game by Matt Hamill, has kind of abandoned the AGS platform, but will be released under publisher KONAMI for the iOS. The price is totally endearing for 40 levels of awesome. 1.99$

We can only hope that the game will eventually gain success and be ported for the PC. As for what happens to the AGS Build.. No idea.

Anyhow, here is Matt's personal website.
And below follows a trailer of sorts. Looks definitely worthwhile. I only wish I had an iPad/iPhone to get a chance to play this. I wonder if it's playable via Android Phones though.

And to quote directly the source of information: Gesundheit! is currently in review at Apple, and could be available on the App Store as soon as next week.