penguinfan

Armikrog = Zany sci-fi adventure in claymation, can't wait!

Derelict is now only 5 backers away from a stretch goal for adding a 2nd story! Did I mention the ebook is available for just $1? Don't be embarrassed to pledge that tier if you're low on funds or just not sure whether a couple of short stories from a new author are worth more...

Those who like reading sci-fi and have (literally) a dollar to spare should go check out this short-story project http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/647049806/derelict-a-short-story/

Some people have been wondering about The Realm gameplay since the devs said they want to try something different than inventory puzzles, new update video on this topic: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/995134339/the-realm-game/posts/470701?ref=activity

To expand on a couple of these from Serena's list: The Realm Beautiful adventure set in a strange magical future What do you get when you cross a Studio Ghibli movie with a classic point and click adventure? According to the creators of The Realm, you will get a "blend of epic western fantasy art, captivating narrative and heart warming character relationships, influenced by Japanese creators like Miyazaki." This intriguing game project is a joint effort by an award-winning animation studio and a game development company. One could say the tables are turned in this partnership because Atomhawk Design, the animation studio, provided the initial creative vision. The game setting looks fairly unusual: a far-future earth without either interplanetary politics or post-apocolyptic gloom -- the age of high tech has been followed by an age of nature, magic and mysticism. The gameplay is centered around two characters that cooperate to advance in their quests: a human girl and a stone golem. The Realm team promises to bring us a full-fledged adventure with challenging puzzles built around this mechanic (it is not a kid's game or casual game despite having a youthful protagonist). Also, we need to back this because the kid co-star is named Serena, or would be if she knew how to spell properly ;) Among the Sleep Surreal spooky adventure starring a two-year old child In common with The Realm, this game has a child protagonist but is not aimed at child gamers. Both atmosphere and gameplay are being designed to take advantage of this unusual hero. The environment is viewed through the lens of a child's active imagination. The gameplay involves both strengths and challenges from being small: being able to fit into small places, needing to climb in order to reach normal heights, hiding from threats rather than direct confrontation.

Doh, time is almost up on this one, sorry for the late notice... Worlds of Magic http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/304725524/worlds-of-magic-a-new-classic-4x-fantasy-game http://myworldsofmagic.com/ Worlds of Magic is a fantasy strategy game aiming to be a worthy successor to the classic Master of Magic. In fact, one of the Master of Magic artists has joined this project as lead artist. Platforms: Linux (yay), Mac, Windows, Android and iOS Paypal link, for those who miss the (quickly approaching) kickstarter deadline: https://store6.esellerate.net/store/checkout/CustomLayout.aspx?s=STR2943433056&pc=&page=OnePageCatalog.htm

I don't think it's too rambly

I consider Zork Grand Inquisitor to be an oft-overlooked gem of an adventure game. Last couple people to whom I recommended it were pretty enthused (and one wasn't even a Zork fan previously). Tends to be available pretty cheap on GOG too.

Nice new trailer with scenes from both parallel worlds: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/28/full-trailer-for-dreamfall-chapters-released

I think so... * this was not a conscious attempt to abuse the stereotype, "Hey what can we do to get more funding? Need more cheesecake in the box art!!" * because examples as bad or worse abound in current pop culture, you guys were genuinely surprised that some percentage of real adventure gamers (as opposed to professional activists) would be disappointed * running a kickstarter is super hectic, so coming up with diplomatic responses to criticism is extra hard right now fair enough, but hopefully you'll eventually pass on this feedback to the team, to be taken into account for future projects. It seems fair to say that the appeal would have been broader if the Priestess had been written differently, since you've lost a few potential backers just among the gamers active on sqnet, while it is likely that all of your current backers would *still* be backing even if that character never existed. After all, most of them were enthusiastic Hero U backers too, and they didn't seem to mind the lack of beautiful tiny-bikini-clad characters in either the game or box art ;)

I read it! I don't click "like" on every post worth reading, only a few that are particularly insightful, trying not to "devalue" it I suppose.

When it comes to giving impressionable young girls (and boys) ideas about women's power, the former sounds way worse than the latter, unless the point turns out to be that trying to gain power by being physically beautiful and going around mostly-naked in public is generally a bad idea. I wouldn't recommend it even for people who can pull it off. If I recall correctly, Princess Leia was temporarily under control of a bad guy when she wore the metal bikin+skirt; her normal competent (if grumpy) self didn't go around trying to get by on looks. I take it all of you here are old enough to not be as impressionable any more, so go ahead and enjoy whatever fantasies you like. Enjoying Larry games doesn't brand you as a woman-hater either, I have examples to the contrary ;) However, it would be nice if game devs cared a little more about providing "family-friendly" stories that weren't *just* for kids. Lots of kids are really bright while still being rather impressionable to cultural forces. I have been planning to give a copy of Hero U to my bright young niece to play with her dad, assuming it does turn out to be suitable (ha, how could I forget about buying games for my niece? I knew there was a better example than my cousins now). This game looked like a close miss, which is why I was frustrated enough to comment. Even if the current game is too advanced for the devs to be open to feedback, perhaps they would consider making their future games more friendly to girls by leaving out the stereotypical scantily-clad female character (who is reportedly not a main character)? Seemed worth a try. I'm going to try to avoid saying any more in this thread -- don't want to turn someone else's thread about a project they are excited about into arguments about more general side topics (whether games people play as kids actually influence their cultural views, whether using looks to gain power is a net gain for the people who can get away with it let alone those who can't, whether the costume is really in line with the bikinis typical girls wear to the beach,etc etc). I am sorry if the sarcasm I used in an earlier comment put people on the defensive; that was really not my intention. Just a clumsy attempt to get people to think about making games more suitable for pre-teen and teenage girls with minor alterations that would not turn the whole thing into a sissy girly game. P.S. my reference to Larry was taken backwards -- I was trying to say that it would be stupid to assert nearly-naked women in Larry games are unnecessary since that's the *main point*. A standard RPG-ish game can be just as good with sensible armor instead of chainmail bikinis; whereas Infamous Quests might make it a key part of the story. Now do you see the point?

Yes, we get that she's in the actual game, not just box art. The actual game is much more significant than the box art, especially since more people will get a digital copy than the box anyways. All the more reason why I wouldn't want to be giving a copy of this game to a teenage girl (not that my younger cousins are teenagers any more, but you get the point). I have no idea how much feedback you get to offer on story and art stuff (perhaps none) but it would be neat if you could work in a polite suggestion to avoid this sort of thing in future projects that aren't specifically intended for the Larry crowd. There was no peep from me about Quest for Infamy, because they made it plain that it was a not-for-kids twisted take on Quest for Glory; if this was intended to be the same, it was fairly hard to tell from the kickstarter page. This particular character who appeared in a couple places was the only clue, if so.

Lots of games that have scantily-clad females can claim this to a certain degree, that the look is just right for the character being portrayed. Funny how many of those AAA titles end up needing to work in such characters, isn't it? I'm sure it's very inspiring to teenage girls who play games -- at least the ones who look like supermodels and consider little strips of cloth to be stylish every-day attire.

I almost put this under existing thread of "kickstarters that need help" but I think this one is a little too big and successful to fit that topic. I've recognized a few SQ fans who are also backing Dreamfall, and it occurred to me there might be still others who would appreciate it but haven't noticed yet. Dreamfall has much less humor than a Space Quest, but it does have a strong story-line which is about half fantasy and half sci-fi. It is not the stereotypical fantasy at all, with wizards and so forth, so perhaps even those of you who disdain the usual fantasy might bother to take a look. Also anybody who tried the previous Dreamfall and threw up their hands in disgust at the clunky mechanics should take a look, because this one will not be tainted by an engine more aimed at consoles. http://www.kickstart...longest-journey Early prototype video (not of the cyberpunk sci-fi parallel world, but does preview level of art and control style) http://www.kickstart...ey/posts/406161

Hey Frede, not sure why you're talking about whether directors had previous experience on similar movies, because I didn't see anyone raise that as an issue. Only the writer, so bringing up Lawrence Kasden is definitely on-topic. He had a talent for exciting action movies given that he also did Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it wouldn't have been obvious to fans of the day since Star Wars was his first. So I can hope that something similar happens with the upcoming movie. Will definitely be listening to reviews from friends when it comes out, to see whether the old greatness is back or not.

Update just went up! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-spaceventure-by-the-creators-of-space-que/posts/387826 "shooting for a mid-year release"

My impression of the typical game development process is game designers, artists, and programmers working in parallel, and puzzles being tweaked iteratively as they get programmed and are able to be play tested. I think the only time it might be "all programming" is after the game is released, and they are just doing updates for reported bugs... PCJ would be the one with most insight as to actual reality for TGA team however.

150kB isn't really enough res to print a poster; a source image for a poster should be more like the GB files e1ven scanned. I thought about trying to clean up one of those in gimp, since gimp is fun and it's been a while since I've done anything with it, but my system is rather old and I suspect editing a 1GB file would be painfully slow.

erm, isn't dialog bubble for a red-suited space villain the ONLY legal usage for Comic Sans??

It looks like Nockgeneer is right, but how could such smart people have missed out on this opportunity for a cool name...? Anyways, I'm changing my (largely irrelevant) vote, "google plexer" is too good a name to waste.

The backer-only area is at a different URL : http://svrewards.com PCJ is the one to make sure your account gets set up there. Sometimes the email informing a backer that they have the account has gotten lost, but then the 'recover password' link on the login screen can work using the same email address you gave in your backer info.

http://www.kickstart...adventure-game/ The Red Queen of Oz is currently in-progress as a graphic novel, but this project is for expanding the story into an adventure game, which the project creator has been hoping for all along. Those who don't like any combat will be happy to know it's completely optional, and those who just don't like the twitchy stuff will be happy to know that combat is turn-based if you don't skip it. Supported platforms: Linux, Mac, Windows (mobile will probably be a stretch goal, if stretch goals become relevant)

I think that term is reserved for people who actually work at the GooglePlex? Don't have an account myself, but I'd vote for GPlusser. On the other hand, Troels might also answer to GCusser ;)

Newish author, so probably most people haven't read any of them yet... first 15 chapters of one of his books available as pdf: http://quillings.com...s-of-khalakovo/