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Adventure Games Thread 2019 - The Liveliest Dead Genre There Ever Was

frogmeetsdog frogmeetsdog We'll just have to see how far they intend to go in terms of "streamlining." If they're saying those comments in relation to the old 90's classics, then that's to be expected. My guess is that it will more or less be in line with the current indie design standard. About 4-8 screens per area, self contained puzzles, fairly limited inventory and mostly sensible logic. Enough variables to turn you off from brute forcing as a first resort but not enough to be frustrating for less seasoned players.

I'm thinking along the lines of games like Gemini Rue or Kathy Rain. Going full Telltale would surprise me considering there is inventory and a verb coin. At some point the distinction between touching something and operating it will matter lol.

Clearly they have to think about sales and of course they won’t go full TellTale (choice game). But nowadays their are so many simplified adventures out there - Was more a figure of speech in the vein of hoping they won’t water down puzzle difficulty tooo much.

Sometimes I’d like to see the return of an easy and a veteran mode like they did for some PnCs in the 90s.
 
Just read about Saint Kotar. There apparently is a free demo on Steam

The game is still a little rough around the edges (no voice overs, translations) but I’d especially dig the atmosphere (horror PnC).

There are two trailers/early game footage out there:






The game was first announced in 2016 and the last steam entry is from 24th November 2018. Apparently they’re just now planning a Kickstarter so I don’t know if or when the game ever comes to fruition. With the Kickstarter PnC hype being rather down atm I’d wager they’d need a slightly more appealing trailer for a successful campaign but maybe that’s just me.

In any way, I’d never mind more PnC adventures so all the best to them.

Guess it’s wait and see, just wanted to share the game info.
 

Fuz

Banned
Just read about Saint Kotar. There apparently is a free demo on Steam

The game is still a little rough around the edges (no voice overs, translations) but I’d especially dig the atmosphere (horror PnC).

There are two trailers/early game footage out there:






The game was first announced in 2016 and the last steam entry is from 24th November 2018. Apparently they’re just now planning a Kickstarter so I don’t know if or when the game ever comes to fruition. With the Kickstarter PnC hype being rather down atm I’d wager they’d need a slightly more appealing trailer for a successful campaign but maybe that’s just me.

In any way, I’d never mind more PnC adventures so all the best to them.

Guess it’s wait and see, just wanted to share the game info.

I like the art style. Reminds me of Broken Sword.
 
So, I took a little break from Mage’s Initiation to delve a bit into Toonstruck.

Fuz Fuz : Thank you so much for giving me the kick in the pants I finally needed to play this game. Just saw it in a best adventures of all time list 2 days ago and then your post, guess it was fate :)

The game is really amazing. The game world, the characters, the visuals, the music, the humor, the puzzles, the pacing, the production value and of course the incredible Christopher Lloyd - Everything is top-notch and right up my alley. I’d say I have about 20% finished by now but if nothing major changes I couldn’t think of any major critzism to have about the game. Once more goes to show that even the best games can have meager sales figures.

Also read the day before yesterday that the second part was about 90% finished but that Virgin despite initially claiming otherwise shelved the sequel after all. Now I found an article which claims that there has been a lot of talk about a second part a few years back. Now chances are rather seem slim to none for that still to happen but even though I haven’t finished part 1 yet I already know that I’d want a sequel :D

Anyway, thanks for mentioning the title Fuz, can’t believe that - especially as kid/teen of the 90s - I haven’t played it sooner.
 
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Futaleufu

Member
The last couple of weeks I played:

Tex Murphy Overseer: Very streamlined compared to the two previous games and actually a better game because of it. Doesn't resemble Mean Streets at all, except for some story. Got stuck in a couple of places due to pixel hunting. That Slade sequence was a PITA. Decent game overall.

Tex Murphy Tesla Effect: Big disappointment. Story starts strong, by the end it's a mess full of plot holes, others never resolved. Plays more similar to the mid nineties games. At least now there is a flashlight mechanic to help with the pixel hunting. You can choose paths that barely shape the story, I'm glad I picked the Alice path because
I'm tired of Chelsee friend-zoning Tex for the last games and after watching her ending on youtube she now looks like a grandma

Yesterday: Now this was a pleasant surprise. After the bait & switch of Runaway 3 and the kind of mediocre The Next Big Thing, Pendulo did an incredible PnC. Great story, dialogue and good plot twists. The only thing against the game is that it can be completed in 5 hours or less.

Now playing Mata Hari. Starts very slow, picking up the pace by chapter 2.
 
The last couple of weeks I played:

Tex Murphy Overseer

Speaking of Tex Murphy. It certainly got very quiet about Tex Murphy: The Poisoned Pawn atm. Originally slated for release in 2018 the latest trailer is from July 2017:




But they’re still shooting for a release date late this year, maybe a trailer with more gameplay footage is around the corner.
 

Fuz

Banned
Anyway, thanks for mentioning the title Fuz, can’t believe that - especially as kid/teen of the 90s - I haven’t played it sooner.
You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it. See? Our tastes aren't so different :messenger_winking_tongue:
I too overlooked it at the time and it's strange I never got to play it until now. Guess the game is kind of cursed.

Yesterday: Now this was a pleasant surprise. After the bait & switch of Runaway 3 and the kind of mediocre The Next Big Thing, Pendulo did an incredible PnC. Great story, dialogue and good plot twists. The only thing against the game is that it can be completed in 5 hours or less.
Yesterday Origins is even MUCH better.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
I've been working through Technobabylon and honestly it's an absolute blast. It's well-written, puzzles mostly make some kind of sense and the cyberspace elements are well-used in fun ways. The voice acting is sometimes a bit off but overall it's a really awesome game.
 


Cool new video from ArsTechnica's "War Stories" series. It's an interview with the director of Westwood's 1997 Blade Runner about the technical hurdles they had to overcome while developing the game. Some of that environment art is just plain awesome. It's too bad the game is a bitch and a half to get running on modern PC's because I'd love to play it. One day I'll make it happen.

I've been working through Technobabylon and honestly it's an absolute blast. It's well-written, puzzles mostly make some kind of sense and the cyberspace elements are well-used in fun ways. The voice acting is sometimes a bit off but overall it's a really awesome game.

Nice. Technobabylon is my favorite Wadjet Eye game and that's saying a lot considering their stellar catalog. Always cool to see more people get into it.
 
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Cool new video from ArsTechnica's "War Stories" series. It's an interview with the director of Westwood's 1997 Blade Runner about the technical hurdles they had to overcome while developing the game. Some of that environment art is just plain awesome. It's too bad the game is a bitch and a half to get running on modern PC's because I'd love to play it. One day I'll make it happen.


Vampire On Titus Vampire On Titus I absolutely adore Bladerunner, it's such an amazing game, honestly the first game I ever played in which I cared about the characters. The good news is it's not a bitch to run at all. https://www.replaying.de/files/blade-runner-patch-windows-vista-7-8-x64/ - Enjoy.

Hariseldon is correct, just played the game last year on Win 10.

Also nice, the game isn't owned/sold by anybody anymore (abandonware) - You can download the game legally and free here: https://abandonwaregames.net/game/blade-runner

Just follow the instructions at the end for 64bit system, iirc the patch is already included in this.

--

Edit: Despite it being cool that Blade Runner is available legally for free this great piece of gaming history would have deserved much better treatment: The saddest part is that it will never see a remake or a successor because all its source code was lost when Westwood moved their studios from Las Vegas to LA.

It still runs pretty well patched on modern systems (despite the occasional stutters and crashes) and the visuals are amazing for a 1997 game. I remember trying to play the game 1998 on my cr@ppy Pentium with 16MB RAM . I think I got 5 fps back then :D
 
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Vampire On Titus Vampire On Titus I absolutely adore Bladerunner, it's such an amazing game, honestly the first game I ever played in which I cared about the characters. The good news is it's not a bitch to run at all. https://www.replaying.de/files/blade-runner-patch-windows-vista-7-8-x64/ - Enjoy.

Hariseldon is correct, just played the game last year on Win 10.

Also nice, the game isn't owned/sold by anybody anymore (abandonware) - You can download the game legally and free here: https://abandonwaregames.net/game/blade-runner

Just follow the instructions at the end for 64bit system, iirc the patch is already included in this.

lol I'd actually been struggling with that very same patch right after watching the video. Troubleshooting for an hour or two with no success. The game wouldn't load, then I got it to run but it was running in 1/4th of the overall screen for some reason. Luckily right after I made that post I decided to reinstall it for the 4th time and it miraculously worked. No idea why but I'm about 40 minutes in now and loving it so far. Gonna continue playing tonight.
 
lol I'd actually been struggling with that very same patch right after watching the video. Troubleshooting for an hour or two with no success. The game wouldn't load, then I got it to run but it was running in 1/4th of the overall screen for some reason. Luckily right after I made that post I decided to reinstall it for the 4th time and it miraculously worked. No idea why but I'm about 40 minutes in now and loving it so far. Gonna continue playing tonight.

Glad you got it running and I‘m sure you‘ll like it. It‘s not very big on puzzles but by far the best choice heavy adventure I ever played.

Before Telltale "came up" with different story branches in adventure games, Westwood had already released a game where choices really mattered 15 years sooner (not only for some different dialogue lines and a handful of slightly altered scenes). The story is a real nailbiter and the game can take you in so many different directions, iirc there are over a dozen different endings!

Enjoy!
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
lol I'd actually been struggling with that very same patch right after watching the video. Troubleshooting for an hour or two with no success. The game wouldn't load, then I got it to run but it was running in 1/4th of the overall screen for some reason. Luckily right after I made that post I decided to reinstall it for the 4th time and it miraculously worked. No idea why but I'm about 40 minutes in now and loving it so far. Gonna continue playing tonight.

Glad you got there, enjoy it. It still holds up brilliantly today, even if it's a bit pixelly. It's a truly spectacular game.
 

Scopa

The Tribe Has Spoken
I still own Bladerunner. Never played more than an hour or two of it though. I plan to get it off my backlog this year.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
I still own Bladerunner. Never played more than an hour or two of it though. I plan to get it off my backlog this year.

Do it. It's one of my all time favourites. It has its clunkiness obviously but it's a road not travelled in game design, a branch that offered so many possibilities but which nobody really followed up on.
 

Scopa

The Tribe Has Spoken
Do it. It's one of my all time favourites. It has its clunkiness obviously but it's a road not travelled in game design, a branch that offered so many possibilities but which nobody really followed up on.
I tried to about 2 years ago. I installed and got it running with the patch on an ancient, hand me down laptop I had, with the intention of playing it through. Unfortunately, the laptop is a pain to use. Battery is dead, power cord is dodgy, runs like ass generally.

I try not to install third-party patches and mods on my main gaming PC, but now that I’m due for an upgrade, I’ll set up my old PC in the spare room and go to town with this game.
 
I tried to about 2 years ago. I installed and got it running with the patch on an ancient, hand me down laptop I had, with the intention of playing it through. Unfortunately, the laptop is a pain to use. Battery is dead, power cord is dodgy, runs like ass generally.

I try not to install third-party patches and mods on my main gaming PC, but now that I’m due for an upgrade, I’ll set up my old PC in the spare room and go to town with this game.
Alas, third party patches are necessary with this game as the developers abandoned it a long time ago. I can assure you they aren't nefarious though coming from the right site.

I downloaded and installed the game with the instructions from the abandonware site last year - No spyware, adware, malware, virus or trojan in it - and everything went smoothly. If you're going to use your old PC all the better of course.

Besides there being no alternatives in this case, third party isn't necessarily bad. Especially if one - just to be safe - has the right cleaning and protection software.
 

Scopa

The Tribe Has Spoken
Alas, third party patches are necessary with this game as the developers abandoned it a long time ago. I can assure you they aren't nefarious though coming from the right site.

I downloaded and installed the game with the instructions from the abandonware site last year - No spyware, adware, malware, virus or trojan in it - and everything went smoothly. If you're going to use your old PC all the better of course.

Besides there being no alternatives in this case, third party isn't necessarily bad. Especially if one - just to be safe - has the right cleaning and protection software.
Yeah, I know it’s safe 99% of the time, but I tend to be cautious as I cbf dealing with a virus these days. Especially if my PC is new. Of course, as it gets older I tend to care less and be less cautious.

Things are much better nowadays though. It was the wild west back in the 90s/early 2000s. I guess those times left me traumatised, lol.
 
Yeah, I know it’s safe 99% of the time, but I tend to be cautious as I cbf dealing with a virus these days. Especially if my PC is new. Of course, as it gets older I tend to care less and be less cautious.

Things are much better nowadays though. It was the wild west back in the 90s/early 2000s. I guess those times left me traumatised, lol.
Lol, yeah I know what you‘re talking about. When we traded Floppies in the early 90s, every second one had some sort of virus on it and later a lot of genuinely looking download sites were full of malware too.

Today the tactics of attackers only have changed a lot. Just cleaned a PC of an acquaintance of mine which had 143 (!) trojans, viruses plus adware running on it and he installed next to no new programs. Just very busy on social media, cleverly clicking every link, "video" and opening every mail attachment he got sent "from friends" ...

Of course you’ll never know but thanks to Google and good anti virus/malware software it’s much easier to spot and skip malicious content nowadays.

But I understand the paranoia. Especially as a 90s kid myself ;)
 
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Salix Games announced the release date for Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey for april 5th. Unfortunately the trailer is a scene that's already been released. Hopefully they drop a little more footage before the game comes out. Looking forward to this one.

Edit:
Throwing in some extra info for people who haven't been following this game.

Wikipedia said:
Du Lac & Fey: Dance of Death is a point-and-click adventure game seen from a third-person perspective, using an action hotspot system with three playable characters. The player is to be able to swap and chose between the characters and their different abilities. The developer promised "a multi-branching story where in-game decisions impact on each character’s resolution."
Wikipedia said:
Set in the 1888 London, the game is to feature the legendary figures of Lancelot and Morgan le Fay as well as the historical Mary Jane Kelly in their joint hunt for a mysterious serial killer known as the Ripper.

ss_f5ab2fbcececf655af97707e6d14e86550fcffbe.1920x1080.jpg
ss_5d1209e8ac431c55405f6d3a2c3e491659b90e7c.1920x1080.jpg

ss_e6b804c205ea1c5fc3483b24b26f5cbf4369957a.1920x1080.jpg

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1st person adventure game "STARDROP" came out recently and just released a demo. Hadn't heard of this one until today and I haven't played the demo yet either, but right out of the gate the visuals impress. Apparently the dev has plans to continue supporting the game post-release. With extra areas and side quests yet to be added on. The demo is available on the game's Steam page. I'm gonna play through it when I get some free time.

  • Four full fledged chapters that concludes the main game's narrative.
  • An engaging story enthralled by a captivating mystery.
  • Explore multiple spacecraft, Outposts, Stations and more as a salvage & rescue operative.
  • A small but diverse cast of characters brought to life by incredible voice talents.
  • A range of light environmental puzzles and a touch of stealth.
  • Exploration mixed with narrative driven gameplay.
  • SRO side missions
 
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Hi guys,

great news (if true), according to gamepressure Trüberbrook is going to be released on March 12th (on PC) - Only 22 days away :)

Alas still no updates on Gibbous ETA. As they had initially planned to send out their beta months ago, it seems the accident of one of their main voice actors has delayed their schedule quite a bit.
 
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I like that Wadjet Eye and Technocrat Games are stepping out of their comfort zone and working in 3D. But those screens are looking pretty rough, even for indie 3D. Certainly not awful but I consider it a downgrade from the top notch pixel art of the first game. I'd rather have a top tier retro aesthetic than a middling attempt attempt at modern graphics. I hoping they give it some more work and that the game will look better in motion.

That's just the visuals, though. I'm still hyped off the prospect of enjoying another adventure with the story and game-play of technobabylon. Some more time with those characters and in that universe will be a real treat.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
I like that Wadjet Eye and Technocrat Games are stepping out of their comfort zone and working in 3D. But those screens are looking pretty rough, even for indie 3D. Certainly not awful but I consider it a downgrade from the top notch pixel art of the first game. I'd rather have a top tier retro aesthetic than a middling attempt attempt at modern graphics. I hoping they give it some more work and that the game will look better in motion.

That's just the visuals, though. I'm still hyped off the prospect of enjoying another adventure with the story and game-play of technobabylon. Some more time with those characters and in that universe will be a real treat.

It might be wise for them to go lo-fi with their 3D in some ways but I agree that the pixel art on the original is lovely. A lot of modern pixel art isn't actually that good tbh, where in the past we had the best available guys working to limitations imposed by hardware doing ridiculously good things but now with it being something of a niche pursuit we mostly have hobbyists, but these guys get it.
 
It might be wise for them to go lo-fi with their 3D .

I agree with that. Something a bit more stylized that plays better to the limitations of a small team and low budget development. To my knowledge Ben Chandler is doing most if not all of the visuals himself. On top of that it's his first substantial 3D work.

I don't think something quite this cartoony would work for Technobabylon. But Roki is a good example of nailing a simplistic style that's more doable with a small team.



Rather than a game that wants to look like Mass Effect but misses the mark.
 
I like that Wadjet Eye and Technocrat Games are stepping out of their comfort zone and working in 3D. But those screens are looking pretty rough, even for indie 3D. Certainly not awful but I consider it a downgrade from the top notch pixel art of the first game. I'd rather have a top tier retro aesthetic than a middling attempt attempt at modern graphics. I hoping they give it some more work and that the game will look better in motion.

That's just the visuals, though. I'm still hyped off the prospect of enjoying another adventure with the story and game-play of technobabylon. Some more time with those characters and in that universe will be a real treat.

this is typically one of my biggest issues with indie 3d games. it requires a very high level of style/detail or else you wind up with very basic/amateur 3d imagery. i would much rather have beautiful pixel art, or even average because your imagination makes up for the lack of detail etc.

also personally, PnCs just work better in 2d for me. i dont think i've met a 3d PnC that i've enjoyed significantly more than a 2d one.


on a different note - im a little surprised more indie PnCs havent been ported over to switch yet. would love to see some make the jump
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
on a different note - im a little surprised more indie PnCs havent been ported over to switch yet. would love to see some make the jump

Given most of them are made in Adventure Game Studio, I'm pretty sure that's quite a limited tool in terms of what it can output to which probably limits people a bit.
 
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More Technobabylon 2 screens. This time some WIP environment art from Ben.

on a different note - im a little surprised more indie PnCs havent been ported over to switch yet. would love to see some make the jump

I'm preeeetty sure I saw Dave Gilbert tweet that he was porting Unavowed to switch. I'll try to find the post to confirm that later but if I recall correctly that's happening.

Edit:



Doesn't mention Unavowed specifically but goes on to say they're porting their "AGS games." So basically the entire WEG catalog up until this point would be included in that.
 
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So I finished Westwood's Blade Runner last night and I enjoyed it a lot. I think my appreciation for it has upped significantly after playing through various parts again and seeing just how many different actions have consequences. One major discovery was that you can keep secrets from certain characters by not uploading your findings to the clue data base. It never occurred to me that'd actually have an impact during my first run.

Westwood completely nailed the atmosphere in the visuals. Really remarkable especially considering this was 1997. Released the same year as Final Fantasy 7 which get heaps of praise for its early CG yet Blade Runner's cinematics are a clear cut above. Pre-rendered environments of the 90's were typically beautiful but woefully static. Blade Runner's are full of life, awesome looking animated elements that track on to how your character is lit and colored. The game was just great to look at, especially since I love retro graphics. Even with retro aesthetic indie titles you never get to see the style and techniques of this era applied with so much effort behind them anymore.

Some sacrifices are made in regard to the stories clarity due to the variation. There's also some important plot points that get unceremoniously introduced. The game gives you ample resources to go over clues but I found myself wanting journal entries to keep track of the various characters and plot developments. I would listen back to interviews in the KIA to remind myself of the plot at times. Story wise my favorite moments were the voight kampff tests. I loved every single one, really great bits of characterization. In particular the one with Lucy toward the end of the game.

Blade Runner is a real gem. A genuinely cool approach to investigative gameplay, trying to figure out who's a replicant, whether or not you side with them, etc. I keep liking it more the more I play it and I intend to do a few more runs.

In case anyone's curious, I got the ending where you and Lucy escape through the tunnel and it's ambiguous as to whether Ray was a replicant or not.
 
New screenshots for post apocalyptic sci-fi adventure, Beautiful Desolation:

The graphics are shaping up very well. The Brotherhood (BD's developer) also put out some new story and gameplay information recently:

ABOUT THIS GAME
BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION is a 2D isometric adventure game set in the distant future. Explore a post-apocalyptic landscape, solve puzzles, meet new friends and make powerful enemies, mediate conflicts and fight for your life as you unravel the secrets of the world around you.
FEATURING
P&C Puzzles and classic adventure gameplay.
An 80’s retro technology look and feel.
A story-driven adventure set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future.
A unique tribal punk aesthetic and 2D isometric rendered environments.
African landscapes captured with photogrammetry and scale model elements.
Bizarre creatures, animals and vibrant characters await.

FIND YOUR BROTHER AND GET HOME…

Mark, a man out of time, searches for his lost brother Don, in a far-flung futuristic era ruled by highly advanced technologies which are both revered and reviled.

Your surroundings hold echoes of a desolate past, and glimpses of a dark future that has yet to be written by your actions. Be prepared to face many tough choices that will shape this land long after you complete your journey.

The inhabitants of this world will help and hinder you, as you make new discoveries and navigate the spectacular African-inspired landscape. Negotiate your passage with local leaders, healers and warriors, or find yourself embroiled in a battle against nanite swarms, enormous scorpions and rocket-equipped robots.

From thriving villages to crumbling cities, petrified forests and bone-dry ocean beds, this strange new world holds a multitude of terrains to uncover, beautifully rendered in 2D isometric art.

The score is masterfully crafted by composer Mick Gordon, known for his work on Wolfenstein®, DOOM®, Prey®, Killer Instinct® and Need for Speed®.


BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION™ is brought to you by THE BROTHERHOOD™, the studio behind STASIS® and CAYNE®.
 
Fuz Fuz Finished Toonstruck and the game is absolutely amazing. Thanks again for mentioning. I'd put it at the very least near DotT in terms of puzzles, humor, visuals and overall quality. It's a pity that the ending is hinting so strongly at a second part but we never got one. Actually it's said that the game was cut into two with 90% of the second part already done. Still, luckily the ending is not really a cliffhanger and stunningly the game's still pretty long with about 10 hours, even w/o the 2nd part.

The game is an absolute masterpiece and it really sucks that sales went so bad despite having been released in 1996, still in the Point'n'Click golden age. But even when searching for good ScummVM suggestions it's virtually never mentioned. After I finished Toonstruck I hoped to maybe find some other previously overlooked hidden gem for ScummVM to play and people seriously recommended stuff like Ecoquest or Pajama Sam. No word of Toonstruck, which is miles better.

And I guess Virgin's marketing back in 1996, including their terrible hardbox cover had something to do with the bad sales too:



P. S.: Vampire On Titus Vampire On Titus : As you've finished Blade Runner, you should really give Toonstruck a try one of these days. The game should be mentioned with the greats, alas it has faded into total obscurity instead.
 
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I'm really afraid it's gonna have watered down gameplay to appeal to the masses. I hope I'm wrong.
After having watched the dev interview I'm also not overly optimistic about gameplay and puzzle difficulty. Hope I'm also wrong :D

That's why I'm looking forward to Gibbous even more but they seem to have grinded to a halt atm. Mr Underhill hasn't posted here for quite a while and instead of the 2018 beta and the 2019 Q1 release there doesn't seem to have been too much progress and updates lately. They say voices are 99% done, they've refined some animations and had more times to look for bugs due to Don's accident. His surgery was scheduled for January but nobody has an idea if it has happened yet or if he hopefully already has recovered.

At least 8 days ago in the KS comments they'll announced there'll be another update soon (last one from 24th October 2018). Hope it's good news regarding soonish release date and Don's health of course. I loved the game's demo and it seems to have a lot of potential - Hope Q2 is in the cards.
 
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I think Truberbrook will roughly have the puzzle difficulty of a Blackwell game. Something along those lines. Personally, I wouldn't consider that watered down but your mileage may vary. I never expected it to be a DoTT/Thimbleweed Park style game with dozens of concurrent puzzle chains and a huge inventory.

We'll all find out in a few weeks but my bet is less Ron Gilbert and more Dave Gilbert on the spectrum of adventure game design.
 
New interview with Liviu Boar on the upcomming Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure. There are many questions asked that give some insight into the development and inspirations behind Gibbous. Also frogmeetsdog frogmeetsdog , some new info relevant to your interests. Looks like they're shooting for a spring release.

Adventure Gamers.com said:
Ingmar: What's left for your team to do before Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure is released, and when can we expect the game to launch?

Liviu: We are very close now! We're waiting for a couple of translations and the final batch of voices to be delivered – other than that, the game is done. In the following weeks, once we are content-complete, we'll do a backer beta to make sure we squash any bugs that we might have missed, and we're doing everything in our power to release Gibbous this spring. It's not entirely up to us – working with so many different contractors in different countries with different schedules is very tough on planning, but spring is what we are aiming for.
 

TripleSun

Member
It's good to see the Blind Prophet exceed their Kickstarter goal. Man those backgrounds are super gorgeous and I'm loving the dark and grimy atmosphere. Hopefully we see it release this year!
 
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I played the demo for Blind Prophet yesterday. They could be on to something really cool if the developers pull off the story. I love the dark and gritty vibe. It's really easy for games with this tone to dip over into overly-edgy corniness but so far Blind Prophet walks that tightrope adeptly. The game pulls of the comic book aesthetic better than any other I've played. It legit feels like playing a graphic novel.

One thing I will say is that the puzzle chains are very micro managed and linear. That was my only problem with the demo. You can almost never pick-up or fully interact with an object until the particular moment the story calls for it. I get wanting to avoid the adventure trope of the protagonist who randomly rifles through a scene, picking up everything that's not fastened to the floor. But honestly it just makes for a better game and imo that sort of thing is well within the bounds of suspending disbelief.

Regardless, the demo is a good introduction to a promising game. There's good world building -- setting up some mystery -- and the protagonist is grim, laconic, yet likable. A good mix for a game like this, so I'm looking forward to more of it.
 
Hey guys, Gibbous dev here, with some news on the game. As frogmeetsdog correctly assumed, Don's health issues have delayed us a bit, but I'm happy to report we're about to receive our last batch of voices from him, so that's going to be a huge relief. I have no news on his surgery, I assume it's been delayed, but he's been through enough already that I really don't want to pester him about the health issues. I pester him about the voices, plenty :)

We've also been delayed by the fact that we're localizing into 11 languages (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Arabic), and with such a huge script (~100k words) and many different translators at work... You can imagine :) All going well, Gibbous is still slated to release this spring, after a backer beta.

Other than a tricky, a bit unorthodox puzzle that we're finalizing implementation on, 1% voices remaining to be received and implemented, and the translations, the game is done. It takes me about 6 hours just to click my way through it full-speed, so I imagine an exploration-minded player could easily spend 10-12 hours in it. It's seven chapters long + a prologue, and I can't wait to share it with the world. Not long now! Thanks for your interest, guys. Reading about the game being anticipated is what's been keeping us going strong for the past three years.

And just so I don't leave you with just words, here's an exclusive work-in-progress piece of promo art I'm working on for the launch :messenger_beaming:

WUjsWFg.jpg


PS: There's a reason I haven't been posting here. A very dumb reason. I didn't realize you guys had moved on to the 2019 thread, and I kept idiotically refreshing the 2018 one, bewildered that nobody seemed to be posting anymore. Aaaaaayup.

PPS: Played the demo for Blind Prophet, too, AMAZING graphics! I just wish the MC moved, but I understand why they went with it.

PPPS: Beta tested Guard Duty a bunch, had fun with it!

PPPPS: Playing some Detective Gallo whenever I get a half-hour to myself, definitely don't sleep on it, it's amazing to see what these two brothers pulled off all by themselves and on a measly budget!
 
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Fuz

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Welcome back, Mr Underhill Mr Underhill
Glad you found us!
I played the demo for Blind Prophet yesterday. They could be on to something really cool if the developers pull off the story. I love the dark and gritty vibe. It's really easy for games with this tone to dip over into overly-edgy corniness but so far Blind Prophet walks that tightrope adeptly. The game pulls of the comic book aesthetic better than any other I've played. It legit feels like playing a graphic novel.

One thing I will say is that the puzzle chains are very micro managed and linear. That was my only problem with the demo. You can almost never pick-up or fully interact with an object until the particular moment the story calls for it. I get wanting to avoid the adventure trope of the protagonist who randomly rifles through a scene, picking up everything that's not fastened to the floor. But honestly it just makes for a better game and imo that sort of thing is well within the bounds of suspending disbelief.

Regardless, the demo is a good introduction to a promising game. There's good world building -- setting up some mystery -- and the protagonist is grim, laconic, yet likable. A good mix for a game like this, so I'm looking forward to more of it.
Trying the demo now, thanks for the heads-up. Just started, feel pretty interesting. BUT... god, I fucking hate flash-game graphics. It's like a curse on P&C games. Also, don't like dragging items from the inventory, I rather have a click-move. Makes the game more cumbersome. Probably designed for tablets. Scourge number 2.

About what you said on items and progression... on the very first screen if you try to take an item the character says it pretty clear: "I can't begin collecting every single thing I see". Kinda funny.
It's a design choice that adds to the realism, let's hope it wont detract from the experience with too much backtracking or - worse - things like when you completely figured out a puzzle but the game doesn't let you take the item you need until it wants.
 
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Welcome back to Adventure GAF, Mr Underhill Mr Underhill ! Thanks for your informative post. It's cool that you guys are working hard to release the game in as many regions as possible. The promo art looks great and I'm looking forward to finding out what that unorthodox puzzle is.
 
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