Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Oh look. It’s an English demo for Deponia, the new point and clicker from the German developers behind The Whispered World. Weighing in at just over 700 MB, which used to be like an entire bedroom’s worth of space but is now more like a teacup for many, it contains some scenes from the first chapter of the game. It’s a comedy adventure set on a planet covered in garbage and with “one of the most unusual love stories in gaming history”. As unusual as the crossover I will one day create in which Garrett and SHODAN talk dirty in the cybershadows, and eventually elope to a distant star? Grab the demo here.

Gorgeous point and clicker Lilly Looking Through has passed its $18.000 Kickstarter goal with 16 days to go. Slightly confusing that, mainly because I’m becoming accustomed to Kickstarter projects reaching their target with hours to spare. They’re like the wired up explosive with a digital countdown readout of game development, counting down, ever down, but more for dramatic effect than any actual possibility of failure. Maybe that’s a little insensitive actually, considering the amount that do fail and the number of renegade cops whose last day on the job ends messily, hunched over a box, a pair of hastily procured nail clippers in hand. If you haven’t already, try the demo and read about streeeeeetch goals here.

Resonance, the forthcoming adventure published by Wadjet Eye next Tuesday, has already won over the heart of adventure hardcase, Richard Cobbett. Now you can see if the quad-charactered sci-fi adventure might appeal to your stoney heart too, via the magics of a demo (direct link). Thoughts and a trailer below.

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As appears to so often be the case, the Space Quest creators’ Kickstarter for SpaceVenture has managed to reach its enormous half million target in the last moments. With three days to go they were still close to $100,000 short, but a remarkable eleventh hour surge has seen it reach $529,175, with just three hours to go. So it seems there will be more not-Roger Wilco having more not-space janitor adventures in not-Space Quest.

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It was in a sockless state that I last wrote of Lilly Looking Through, my footgloves knocked off by the exquisitely animated Amanita style adventure that has shades of Miyazaki in its tale of inquisitive childishness and fantastical worlds. The demo is well worth your time if you haven’t already played it and now the three-person team are seeking funds on Kickstarter. It should be noted that the funds aren’t needed to finish the game, this is still a thing that will exist, but hiring extra personnel would allow for more speed without sacrificing quality. There’s an endearing video, with special effects and actual fence-sitting, and the now standard series of pledge tiers. Here’s the trailer again for anyone who doesn’t know why I’m won over by this one.

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So yesterday I posted about Symon, a procedurally generated adventure game from a couple of years ago. And I suggested that the potential was there to do something on a much larger scale, but they’d need to figure out a way that didn’t involve the ‘cheat’ of using dream logic. Well, one of the creators at Gambit, Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab researcher Clara Fernández-Vara, got in touch to point out that’s exactly what they set out to do last year, with Stranded In Singapore.

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I was recently pointed in the direction of Symon, a free experimental point and click adventure from Singapore-MIT’s game laboratory, Gambit. The idea behind it is to see if it’s possible to create a procedurally generated narrative adventure, with unique puzzles. Which is quite an ask. The results, they’re an interesting combination of cheats and potential.

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Adventure, ho! In the sense of heading out, of course, not issuing a demand to an unimaginative lady of the night. This latest pay-more-or-less-what-you-want bundle to hit the net is a pretty good deal, with seven games for the usual pay-more-or-less-what-you want, including Gemini Rue and a brand new offering called The Sea Will Claim Everything, a bit of charity, and an interesting way to help kickstart a new developer without spending a penny extra.

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The fancy remake of AGS point and clicker The Journey Down: Over the Edge is now available. It’s certainly a looker, with a style very much its own, and John proclaimed that the original was “a point-and-clicker that really understood the genre”. The story of gas station owner Bwana and his attempts to escape debt and explore a forbidden region known as The Edge also seemed to please John, so much so that he’s been sitting on top of a copy of the extended and beautified first chapter and growling at anyone who tries to play it before him. Expect to read his thoughts on the game later today. In the meantime, look upon this launch trailer.

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