That’s why I understand Ron’s recent comment on the game business. There are so many other developers who try their luck, because everyone grew up with computer games and has his own personal vision of what might be a great concept for a game.
About 15 years ago, I tried AGS, too, and created a little private-use-only demo with Guybrush. But, it seemed to be too time-consuming for me, and I had different things in mind back then. Maybe this was a mis-belief. I regret it somehow. It would have been a nice hobby!
Well, it’s never too late for something like this. Now, I’m burrowing into Visionaire, because of its functionality. If it works efficiently, maybe I’ll create my own game, too.
But, in my opinion, the elaborate development of TWP shows that one single guy like me would never be able to create a game comparable to the SCUMM games. Balancing the difficulty would need too much playtesting.
It IS time consuming. I made my game all in code, no engines, but even not considering the time I spent building my code basis, it’s the game design per se the biggest part.
In my opinion, the main problem with adventure games is that you constantly have to tweak reactions so that the game flow feels natural. It’s quite easy to just program the sequence of interactions that make you win the game, but you end up with a game that just says “that doesn’t seem to work” every time you do something wrong. That would be horrible.
But still, I think they’re also the most fun to design.
I think that the “Ask me about Loom” was a very funny way to do product placement.
I wonder how much these tactics actually contribute to sales, especially if the games used to advertise other products have been played only by a small quantity of users.
I’m still waiting to find the time to play it one question though, is it suitable to be played with a 4y.o.? Because I’m trying to get my daughter into adventure games and older games in general, so she grows up respectful to the graphics, the sounds and the loading times of the past
If you are referring to Caren: I would not play it with a 4 y.o. actually, though people that did gave me positive feedback. My 6 year old loves the main character but a bit later in the game, we have a beheaded corpse. No blood but the story evolves around it.
If you play it ahead, 95% of the game are fine for young kids if you can prevent or at least prepare that scene.
I bought them some time ago in a bundle, I played Spy Fox and she liked it (and I liked it too ) so I could try. Having to translate wouldn’t be a problem, that’s what I did with TWP and what I’m doing right now with Tales of Monkey Island
Well, THAT would be something. I’ll take a look.
It’s incredible how much you lose by not being an English native speaker. Stupid world.
Finally, I played your game. I’ve always liked Italian, even though I don’t speak this language.
Though, it’s not easy for me to play a game in Italian, so I wasn’t able to finish the demo. I talked to the waterfall until the first entry in the notebook was checked (the notebook reminded me of TWP! ;)) and picked up everything I could pick up. As far as I understood the next entry, I have to find out the reason for the rubbish now.
By the way, I appreciate the artworks! The visual style looks very similar to CMI. It’s a pity that the development has remained unfinished!
@Gabarts: I played the (seemingly) very first demo of your Indy game. Is there actually any wallet hidden inside of the house?
Oh thanks! I don’t remember: the demo was already dubbed or without voices?
It was an educational game. The waterfall (spirit) is weak because of the water pollution. You have to find why, and a solution.
Same for the rubbish: one of the sentences Woaky says is: “All we throw away, sooner or later we eat it.”
Sorry. I’m not so active here recently (i’m working on 2 projects on Visionaire also -not a real work🙂-). It’s more a completed 1st short chapter than a real demo, but I cannot proceed further for the moment. Hint: the wallet is reminiscent of the tape pixel in Henry room in Last Crusade. Not really a pixel, you have to pull the curtain to get it.
(you will find my Visionaire scumm template on the official forum once ready, it’s inspired by Thimbleweed Park and is good to learn the basics)
Sorry, I completely forgot to answer on this thread (yeah, I’m getting old. :)) But I have to answer to this:
That latter one is the point: DFA had earned 3 Million Dollars. They made no promises. From a experienced company like DFA I expect that they now what they can produce with 3 Million Dollars. If I have “only” 3 million dollars, I can’t produce a AAA like game. Before I start with the production I have to calculate what I need for food, salaries and so on. If I need (suddenly) far more money for a project, I would fire the producer/project manager immediately.
Who said something about suddenly? Tim just didn’t want to cut any more stuff from the game, and he is the boss. Also back then they could afford it. (They did get into financial troubles later when a publisher of another game bailed out and Tim had to lay of people the first time in their company’s history.)
Still people are bitching about the costs because they would have made the same game a lot cheaper…
(btw. backer complaints back then were 1. mostly about the delays, and 2. that it’s no oldschool point’n’click)
Ah. I am a boss of a company and I didn’t knew that this works. Cool. Next time I say to my customers: I liked these two additional functions where you can microwave a hamster. I wanted to have that in the app. So you have to give me more money.
That’s illogical: When I have the money, I can make the game. If I haven’t it, I can’t make it - or I have to cut parts of the game (content). When I start a new project I have to make a business plan, a calculation. So what has the publisher and the other project to do with it? That were two different projects. It sounds that DF had used the backer money from the game for another game? If this is true, it’s bad management.
I am not bitching about the costs. I just can’t comprehend why the 3 million dollars weren’t enough to make an adventure game. We are talking about some adventure game.
I am a backer, and I like the result, btw. Broken Age has some weak puzzles, but overall it’s a good adventure game.
My opinion is that in DFA the economic aspects weren’t well planned, but I just wanted to point out that from my point of view backers are not customers and they don’t have the same rights that customers have. Backers on Kickstarter are more like donors and if they donate money to someone who makes unpopular decisions… that’s part of the highly risky crowdfunding world.
one question though, is it suitable to be played with a 4y.o.? Because I’m trying to get my daughter into adventure games 
and older games in general, so she grows up respectful to the graphics, the sounds and the loading times of the past
) so I could try. Having to translate wouldn’t be a problem, that’s what I did with TWP and what I’m doing right now with Tales of Monkey Island 
