I was 13 years old when I first encountered Brian Moriatry’s Loom. It was on a friend’s ninja PC that sported both VGA and AdLib cards and I was, understandably, blown away. The complex, whimsical story, the wonderful graphics, the unique musical interface and the amazing music itself were unlike anything I had ever seen. Or have seen since.
IAMJASON is a dystopian sci-fi point-and-click adventure about losing something. Well, everything actually, though it does let you fight and defeat corruption. The corruption to be exact, which is quite an honourable thing to do, especially when accomplished in resolutions as low and chunky as 160×90.
Having hidden a package delivered by a stranger, shot someone I never got to talk to, snuck into a hotel room and listened to lovely renditions of Chopin’s wonderful music, I can safely say that you will not get bored with Providence.
So you seem to have been cast as the grim hero who’ll save the distressed damsel once again, but please, worry not. Until I Have You, despite lacking in the plot department, is different in other ways. In this case it’s through the mechanics that the game differentiates itself, as it’s a platformer in which you move the mouse pointer to accelerate towards the direction of your choice, click one mouse button to shoot and the other to jump, and click on the scroll button to cycle through your weapons.
When Ruth Manning-Sanders retold the spooky, kids tale of The Old Whitch fifty years ago, she couldn’t have possibly anticipated it would spawn such a wonderfully odd interactive thing as Able Mable Gets A Job. Nor could she have expected that so many naughty little jokes could fit into something so short and so whimsical.
I’ve been looking for a decent, freeware 16-bit-esque racer in the style of Outrun for quite some time now and kept bumping into unfinished prototypes, bad ideas, boring implementations and short one-level offerings.
Thankfully and due to the wonders of the internets, I found a terrific one in the most unlikely of places: the Adventure Game Studio forums. A place where people are bound to talk about their mouse driven point-and-click adventures and not racing games of the Red Hot Overdrive variety.
Besides being one of the best looking games of Ludum Dare 30, The Lion’s Song also happens to be one of the select few that sport really great writing. And an excellent core storytelling idea; one that has made for some classical short stories and, finally, for a wonderful short game about the quest for inspiration.
Nobody knew about it, but Haunted Castle is a game that has been around since the 1970s and, apparently, this makes it beyond any doubt the oldest game this column/garden will ever cover. Most probably one of the oddest too, as the Haunted Castle really isn’t much of a video game. It’s a board game.
The annual AGS Awards are open for voting for a couple more weeks. That is, the awards for the best games of 2012 made using Chris Jones’ enormously popular engine. As the adventure genre enjoys a return to the spotlight, what better time to delve into highlights of the last year? NO BETTER TIME. That’s what.
Adventure supremo Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games has announced a new entry into the lovely Blackwell series. The fifth game of the ghost-n-detective adventures is called Epiphany, and once again has Gilbert writing, with Ben Chandler on background painting and sprites. Which is exactly as you’d want it.
We’ve already hosted a brilliant collection of Ludum Dare games but Indiegames.com have spotted another that I feel compelled to share. I know there are probably hundreds that I’d feel compelled to share if I played them all but sadly this is the first Ludum Dare for ages that I haven’t been able to dig into properly. On to Project M though, which is a fairly lengthy point and click adventure about mad science and not-dead detectives. Grab the competition version or an enhanced release with tweaks and soundtrack here.
RPS Feature Good vibrations
Mr. Vince Twelve’s magnum opus Resonance is finally upon us, but is it all adventure fans have been hoping for? We threw Richard a large bag of point and click friendly Malteasers, a brand new notepad and pen, and the chance to finally stop holding his breath for it.
The trademark infringement is strong with this one. Still, the Lucas Empire has been relatively forgiving of fan projects based upon its galaxy far, far over-monetised, so perhaps this here Han Solo Adventures will avoid a Carboniting so long as it remains a not-for-profit endeavour.
Not only does this star Star Wars’ most criminally (but also mercifully, as he retains mystique for it) under-served character, Mr Han Solo, but it places him in a recreation of the old Lucasarts SCUMM-engine point and click adventures.
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Mr Lewis Denby, he of Beefjack, occasional RPS postings and, well, all manner of gaming publications the land over, has made a game. It’s called Masked, it’s a room escape game, but it treads where that odd, deathless genre usually fears to – the realm of emotion. “You’re trapped in a room, for goodness’ sake.” he observes. “That must be one of the most emotional scenarios it’s possible to be in!”
Made in AGS, it constitutes a few haunting point’n’click minutes, it’s a creepy mystery with an all-knowing, all-seeing narrator in the SHODAN/GlaDOS vein (but a rather more human connection to to the player character) and, aside from a couple of stylistic wobbles, it’s a confident first effort from Sir Denby. Grab it here.
Who would make a game called ^_^ ? How am I supposed to refer to it in conversation? I suppose I’ll call it the werebunny game and hope that there aren’t hundreds more that I don’t know about. The chap who did make it is Ben Chandler, who seems to make at least one adventure game every time he walks past a computer. ^_^ is very short and not too difficult but it’s funny and strange enough that I enjoyed my half hour with it. It helps that biting and headbutting objects is considered normal. Most of the dialogue raised a smile and I’m in an afternoon slump so it must be doing something right to coax anything even resembling joy out of me. It’s made in AGS and you can download it for free here and loads more of Ben’s games here.
Another day, another games bundle? Yes… but more importantly, also no. The AGS Bake Sale is a collection of 14 mostly point-and-clicky games that even the most hardcore adventurer won’t have played yet, because all of them were written specifically for it. In addition, every last penny earned will be going straight to Child’s Play, possibly in a big blue collection plate. The developers are taking nothing. Not even chocolate money. That is how much they care!
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Any fool with a copy of AGS can make an adventure game, but only a select few come up with ones that are truly worth your time. Egress is a game about astronauts and disaster (I presume The Dig is in an inspiration, but it also evokes the likes of 2001, Event Horizon, Moon and Defying Gravity), and while it can err a little too much towards trial and error there’s a lot of clever stuff there, intermittently excellent presentation and an appropriately tense atmosphere.
Told from a claustrophobic first-person perspective, as well as delving into open sci-fi-horror and offering multiple endings, it gets across the anxiety and glacial slowness of lumbering around in a big suit in an unknown place really rather well. 50MB, free, from here.
Here’s five minutes of your life you won’t get back. Fortunately, you might rather enjoy them. Or you might be bewildered by them. Or you might be angered by them. I’m at a loss to accurately describe your likely reaction. Oceanspirit Dennis is a one-screen, non-complicated point’n’click adventure made in AGS, which seems to be gleefully ripping the piss out of other point’n’clicks, out of Final Fantasy, out of RPGs in general, and most of all out of itself. It may well have no purpose at all, and I kind of like it for that. I also have a headache, due to particularly sadistic use of sound. Ben Chandler’s happily stupid little creation can be found here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Via Indiegames
RPS Feature "the ol' skeptic/believer scale"
Here are three things you should know about Dave Gilbert, creator of the Blackwell games. He’s not in fact related to Ron Gilbert, writer of Monkey Island. He has indeed been informed how much more awesome this game would have been if it was The Blackwell Decepticon instead. Oh, and he’s one of the best writers working in adventure gaming right now.
Thinking about it, that last one is probably the most important. Need proof? The Blackwell Deception is hands-down his best adventure yet, and one of my favourites in a very long time. Even without a special guest appearance by Megatron and Starscream…
Before you even start Adventure: All In The Game, you’re asked whether you think your knowledge of adventure games is Minimal, Adequate or Extensive. I immediately quit and opened the Readme to see if it was made by Games For Richard Inc. It wasn’t. But it may as well have been. This is one of my favourite AGS adventures in ages, with great writing, solid design, and an excellent ‘behind the scenes’ premise that’s far more than just a cute gimmick.
