Kickstart the Himalayas

Himalaya are just short of their Kickstarter stretch goal with under 12 hours to go. If you want to support the Initiation of  a Mage, go and help them out!

Remember the Al Emmo?

Himalaya,  the militant wing of AGDI, have put forward an enhanced version of their first commerical game Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine on Steam Greenlight. If it gets enough votes, it may be accepted. But the key thing for me is this:

"The major changes will be completely new Al Emmo character vocals (by new voice actor) and 2D animated cutscenes to replace the original 3D ones"
"You probably heard the old Al Emmo character voice, which was quite whiny and high-pitched. His new voice is much lower, but still retains the essential comical qualities."

So, finally we're getting rid of the whiny voice! Woohoo! Its one of the things that put me off the original. For full details, and to vote, head to their Steam Greenlight page.

Adventure Gamers: King's Quest III

Well, the title summarizes the whole deal. Anyhow, here's the review to the 3rd installment to the remakes by AGDI.

And here's a pretty picture. Perhaps the review will change your mind, and you'll finally get your hands on KQ III. Or perhaps you're not that hardcore.

3 posts left

Gorgeous gnome generates Kings Kuest Kritique

Gnome's lair reviews KQ3.

Whine fit for a king

Read here for a whine about AGDI's Kings Quest 3 remake.

What do two threes make?

Or is that three threes? Kings Quest 3 may ring a bell or two: Sierra and Infamous Adventures released it. But now AGDI have announced it as their final game, to come out next month.

In other news, about.com have previewed Gemini Rue.

Some AGS web snippets

Time for a google trawl for AGS stuff:

Shall we make a (AGS) game?

Eckyman starts making an AGS game

Asian girl gamer review Nelly Cootalot

Asian girl gamer also look at QFG2VGA

Quid pro quo

Himalaya Studios have not just got their game on Dave Gilbert's site, but they've got his games on theirs! Check out the all-new Himalaya website and shop.

Remember the Hertz

Another fortnight, another AGS indie game on Dave Gilbert's site. This time, remember the terrible pun and whiney voice but gorgeous art and huge gameplay of Himalaya Studio's Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's mine.

AGDI: Remaking the past

-King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones (by the way the title's meaning always bothered me):

Has been remade from a diamond in the rough, to a diamond indeed. It seems that with AGDI working on their projects without ever stopping for a break, that smile from my face will take a while to be removed. As done with KQI, they decided it was time to do it with KQII. The job done here is really tremendous and wonderful, and it's really a need to express my gratitude and joy and hysteria feelings here to the team.

So what's changed? Gazzook, it's not only the graphics and music...no..it's the puzzles, the plot, the dialogs everything. They decided it was best to deepen the plot more, give some depth to the characters, and involve some really cool puzzles in a game enviroment that would literally take your breath away.

-To quote them:
"Saturday 14 March, 2009: We're proud to announce that King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones (v3.0) is finally available for your gaming enjoyment. And this time it looks and feels better than ever!"

They got the glory...

The underground "Aggie" from AdventureGamers has been announced and it goes to QFG2VGA. Winner of the readers award went to Broken Sword 2.5, a non-AGS title. Ben Jordan, Nanobots, Barn Runner and Ben There, Dan That were runners up.

AGS Award results

Here's the full list of winners, or download the ceremony ZIP or self-extractor.

Lifetime Achievement Award
ProgZMax

Best Innovation
Colourwise, by bicilotti

Category Best Game Created with AGS
A Second Face - The Eye of Geltz is watching us, by Le Woltaire

Category Best Gameplay
Nanobots, by The Ivy

Category Best Original Story
A Second Face - The Eye of Geltz is watching us, by Le Woltaire

Category Best Dialogue Writing
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator Case 7 - The Cardinal Sins, by Grundislav

Category Best Puzzles
Nanobots, by The Ivy

Category Best Player Character
Limey Lizard from Limey Lizard: Waste Wizard! by ProgZMax

Category Best Non-Player Character
"Magic Smiling Cat" from Little Girl in Underland, by The Ivy

Category Best Background Art
A Second Face - The Eye of Geltz is watching us, by Le Woltaire

Category Best Character Art
Once Upon A Crime, by Ghost

Category Best Animation
Quest for Glory II VGA: Trial By Fire, by AGDI

Category Best Programming in an Adventure
Nanobots, by The Ivy, programming by Vince XII

Category Best Sound Effects
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator Case 7 - The Cardinal Sins, by Grundislav

Category Best Music
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator Case 7 - The Cardinal Sins, by Grundislav, Music by Pete Gresser

Category Best Tutorial or Documentation
ColourWise, by bicilotti

Category Best Short Game
Beauties And Beasts, by MashPotato

Category Best Demo
Dust to Water (DEMO), by Le Woltaire

Category Best Non-Adventure Game Created with AGS
ColourWise, by bicilotti

Category Best Programming in a Non-Adventure
ColourWise, by bicilotti

Category Best Voice Work
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator Case 7 - The Cardinal Sins, by Grundislav

AG (no S) Nominations out

This year, AdventureGamers are doing awards and their 3 nominations for "Best Underground" (which is what they call freeware games) are all made in AGS. Head on over, check it out, and leave a comment if you wish.

Remake my game, AGD.

AGD Interactive has released King's Quest I remake, apparently of the classic Sierra game, doing again an awesome job on every part. If you see the comparisons in the graphic part of the game, it's really outstanding..hope they remake more of those classic adventures most of us loved back then... So grab your crown, King Graham wannabe and go here to get your free copy of the game.

-WOW behold Zork will pawn you, noob!:

Remember the text adventure Zork? Yes, the infocom one. No?! Well, nevermind me. A groip of certain individuals are making what appears to be unexpected. A version of the Zork as a browser based MMOwhatevery.. I'm not lying..check this out.

Q 2 Review

By the magic of blogger's scheduled posts facility, here I am posting when actually at this very moment I'll be waiting for two hours in a line with my two daughters at Eurodisney for a chance to meet a lady dressed up as Sleeping Beauty.

Anyway, there was great fanfare back in August when AGDI released QFG2VGA but the reaction in the AGS forums was perhaps somewhat muted. There's a kind of historic animosity between AGDI fans and AGS fans. Anyone who doesn't drool over AGDI games can expect a mauling from fans. Al Emmo was particularly badly received, although that could entirely be down to the voice acting of the main character (see Richard Cobbett's comment on his own QFG2VGA review).

So, here's my brief review: Graphics look great, its entirely unclear what you're supposed to do or how to get anywhere in the game without looking at hints or a walkthrough. Full of mazes, very hard combat and I gave up after playing for a few hours as there seemed to be no point. Other reviewers have said that perseverance is rewarded but I don't see why I shouldn't be rewarded a bit earlier. It's a game: its supposed to be fun! They even tell you to go and play QFG1 first, despite the fact its pretty unobtainable without pirating. I also realise that I've gotten used to the awesomeness of tutorials. Most games on the web with an slightly unusual control mechanism explain themselves fully: Dave Gilbert's Blackwell games do this, too. But no help here until you get the walkthrough and manage to find the adventurer guild where you can be taught to fight. By taught I mean get stuck in an unexitable loop until you guess the right nanosecond to hit the correct one of 5 dodge buttons. Sorry folks, this is too much like hard work.

Oh, and postpone your hate mail since I won't be online for a week after this is published anyway...

QFG21.1

AGDI have put out a few bug fixes in QFG2VGA version 1.1 and opened a contest to win some related goodies.

AGD Inundation

AGDI seem to be everywhere, not surprisingly given they finally released QFG2VGA. Richard Cobbett covers the release, as does Adventure Classic Gaming. Have a peep and enjoy.

85.4M of heroism

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

Queue for Glory begins Sunday

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

One update more

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