AdventureX 2014: Still going strong!

You know, I'll save the formalities, this an expo of sorts full of nice people from the AG crowd, conducted by Mark Lovegrove. It's amazing really, and it has begun to grow to a much bigger thing. Today's schedule includes Dave Gilbert, Theodor Waern and others. Sunday also looks out to be great  (I've sent something bound to change history) There's also high chance there will be streaming of the event, so it will be nice to watch.

And there's that. Not sure if it was also seen on AdventureX, but here's a fantastic trailer of Nelly Cootalot.

Where is Primordia 2?!

You know, I could write my personal reasons and explain them, and bore the living heck out of you, or the writer could do it for me. And he has. Everything is explained by Mark Yohalem, on why the world never got to see a sequel to Primordia, even a spiritual one.

So clickity here, I promise, amazing screenshots will make you want this even more.

Our work takes long, and time is fleeting.

I've come to understand something that is profound for everyone around the AGS community and generally the developing community, whether you're a coder, or a writer, or an artist, or a voice actor, or an animator, or any other job that is deemed useful in the game/product making process, that no matter how good or great you do that job, there's always space for improvement.

Same goes for games.

Something you could do differently, something you could improve upon, I don't know anything. At that moment, when you've delivered your quest, you are usually stricken with confidence that you did a good enough job, and that it's final, then after you revisit it, you know, stand behind and observer your labor with a more objective point of view, it is then that you realize you were completely wrong. The best way to prove myself is to find a project you've kept the first version of, and compare it with the one you released for the public. You'll probably catch yourself remembering you were quite satisfied with it back then, perhaps at that, or a later time, you thought "this is it". 

I mean, look at it.

But the more light you shed in your project with feedback either by testers or team members, or anyone practically bothering with it, and sending you his opinion about it (If I recall correctly Vince Twelve had his mom play the game (Resonance) to see if she would be having troubles with the interface), the better your game gets. 

Provided you're willing to go through feedback and process it accordingly. I mean look at any AGS game out there, take for example Technobabylon, I'm sure Technocrat thought when he first released it, "this is the most I can do with this game" and now he's turned it into a bombastic super-pretty indie game, that I would be willing to pre-order so hard.

I've been working on Primordia with Wormwood Studios these past few days (we're going to patch it everywhere (Steam, GOG, wherever it is available) as soon as we're done), and I've personally come across several things that bugged me now, but at the time I was okay with them. You tend to overlook faults over the rush of completing the core parts of a project. But when you look at the details, see deeper, that's what we call polish. And it needs to be done. The more time you devote applying small partially insignificant fixes and improvements to your work, the better.

Free Adventure Game? Sure!

While it comes with the need to register on Steam, I think the service is popular enough to make the post here:

Serena, a short adventure game about a man dealing with his past (to say the least) has been made available as a free download over here. It's a simple game, more like Myst than classic Point-and-Click, but it does explore its small tale to the fullest and should give you a quiet hour or so of gameplay.

Fun Fact: According to their blurb it's really a collaboration game- with Senscape, CBE Software, Infamous Quests, and Guys from Andromeda all credited for adding to it.

So if you are on Steam you may already have the game and not yet noticed. If not, I suggest you try it out, it's unsettling and rich!

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.

Steamwell.

It seems as though Wadjet Eye Games' Blackwell Quadrilogy finally found it's way on Steam. Now it's finally there. Congratulations to Dave Gilbert and everyone on Wadjet Eye Games, who helped.

Blackwell Legacy, Blackwell Unbound, Blackwell Convergence, and Blackwell Deception can be purchased individually or in a $19.99 bundle.

Each Blackwell game has achievements, optional developer commentary (including a brand new "Five Years Later" commentary track on the series' first installment, Blackwell Legacy), and Steam cloud save support.

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 ! ! !

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."

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.

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.

Puzzlebots for $1.25

Over on Steam, you can enjoy Puzzlebots for the vast sum of $1.25. So hurry and give Dave your hard earned 5 quarters...

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!

Steam Gentlemen Please

Yep, TGP is now available via Steam, a first for AGS I believe.