The Random Adventure Game News Thread

[Ninja Destroyer]

In Subject 13, players will take on the role of Brian Fargo, a famous game publisher. Fargo leads a solitary and bitter existence following the death of his company, Interplay, during a robbery that looked like a deal that could save the firm . One morning, he wakes up in an abandoned underground facility with no external contact other than a mysterious voice with a french accent. The voice calls him"Subject 13." As Brian Fargo, players will interact with the 3D environment around them by collecting, using, and manipulating objects to overcome a multitude of devious barriers to the publisher's escape. Fargo’s goal is to not only set himself free but discover the true reasons for his misfortune — can he escape from the prison of his past?

 

[ghostdog]

 

[trustno1code]

That Summer Sale everybody's talking about has both AGON games (The Mysterious Codex and The Lost Sword of Toledo) at -70%. Demos gave me a really positive first impression of the series.
The Lost Sword of Toledo is also part of the current Groupees ShinyLoot bundle, for 3 bucks with 7 other random games.

In other news, creepy Amanita clone with the added value of being

potato:

Bulb Boy

Pics

The playable demo shown in the vid is available here; they're gonna Greenlight and Kickstarter in July.

 

[Blaine]

Untitled isometric adventure game, looks pretty interesting:

http://lucernalgames.tumblr.com/

 

[Crooked Bee]

Episodic Myst-like adventure game with riddles instead of puzzles? The episodic thing is scaring me off, but otherwise this could be interesting - as long as the "riddles" are not just a watered-down cop-out, as I suspect they might be.

www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/06/23/for-each-our-roads-of-winter-trailer/

Noctuelles make monochrome glitchscapes littered by ghostly megastructures. Hunting Anubis married that to far future dogfights, but their next project is called For Each Our Roads Of Winter and it’s about Myst-inspired episodic exploration. As much as it needs to be ‘about’ anything. Come watch its prettiness.



There’s an instinct as a game journalist – or there should be – to put each new videogame under the microscope and start dissecting. What can you do in it? Is that good and why? I’m interested in systems and mechanics and enjoy the process of breaking them apart to see how they work. I’d like there to be more insightful work focused on doing that.

I’m also torn by the impulse, because the other thing I like is worlds. I enjoy spaces, places, architecture, landscapes, and I don’t need all of it turned into an obstacle course to enjoy being somewhere. I don’t need to look at every video and screenshot and ask, yeah, but what do you do? (Not every video and screenshot).

Noctuelles’ are so far undecided and/or coy about what you’ll do in For Each Our Roads Of Winter:

For this type of game I’m not sure puzzles are the best choice. I understand the need for something for the player to do that will shape how they see and think of the world, and to drive them around both the environment and narrative (I’ve done experiments to this end and found that horror works really well for this, but I can’t reconcile horror with what I want to do with this game), so why not instead of puzzles: riddles?

But that hardly seems to matter. I’ve enjoyed spending time in each one of their self-described “strange places” purely because they were strange places. I enjoyed watching this trailer and looking at its screenshots purely because, gosh, look at it.

You can follow the game’s development at TIGSource, find a lot more high-res screenshots on Flickr, and hear in-progress tracks from the game’s soundtrack at the Orihaus’s Soundcloud page. Oh to be so multi-talented.​

 

[trustno1code]

www.goldenwake.com

 

[SCO]

Someone put a bullet into their art budget it seems.

 

[Redlands]

Someone put a bullet into their art budget it seems.

Actually, if you paid attention you'd see it was a Grundislav Game, and so the art's pretty much what you'd expect.

 

[Infinitron]

KQ6 commentary with Jane Jensen: http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/04/pc-classic-commentary-kings-quest-vi-with-jane-jensen/

 

[Turjan]

Groupees has again a Build a Microids Adventure Bundle going. Atlantis II and III and Dragon Lore are on gog.com, Draculas 1-5 on Steam. I was told to stay away from Dracula 1-3, as the Steam versions are mutilated tablet versions.

 

[evdk]

The complete Deponia series is on sale on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/292910/

• Deponia: The Complete Journey features over 4 hours of Developer's Commentary, a Deponia world map that allows for selection of each chapter of the game, a comprehensive graphical questlog help system, minigame help screens, a new launch menu, new hidden collectables, Linux support, plus 6 new songs written and sung by Poki and Behind-the-Scenes videos
• Developer's Commentary is featuring game creator Poki and the voices of Rufus and Goal
• Experience Deponia's story in full length
• Challenging puzzles, more than 40 hours of playtime and bizarre dialogues
• Bonus content, extras and making-of features include 'How to draw Rufus & Goal' and 'The Art of Deponia' videos, Developer's Commentary Soundtrack (6 new songs created and sung by Poki) and papercraft models
• From the creators of the award-winning games Edna&Harvey: The Breakout, The Whispered World, A New Beginning, Harvey's New Eyes, Memoria and Blackguards

For four euros it is a steal, if you do not have the games already.

 

[Turjan]

The complete Deponia series is on sale on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/292910/
For four euros it is a steal, if you do not have the games already.

Well, for me it shows €27.99 at 30% off. Probably a glitch.

 

[evdk]

The complete Deponia series is on sale on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/292910/
For four euros it is a steal, if you do not have the games already.

Well, for me it shows €27.99 at 30% off. Probably a glitch.

If it is a glitch, they did not bother to fix it for a day at least:

EDIT: unless it gives you a bigger discount if you own the games already, which I did know Steam did.

EDIT2: It seems to be 30% off per title owned.

 

[Turjan]

EDIT2: It seems to be 30% off per title owned.

Ah, that's a cool feature. I only have Deponia on Steam, from some bundle. I have the whole series on GOG, so no dice.

 

[Sceptic]

Ron Gilbert posted a few scans of design scribbles he did on Manic Mansion 28 years ago.

http://grumpygamer.com/maniac_mansion_design_1

I'm quite surprised to find out the game had a "reputation" mechanic in its initial design.

 

[tuluse]

Meridian 4 bundle 90% off on Steam http://store.steampowered.com/sub/44455/ includes Syberia 1 and 2. You can also buy each Syberia game at 90% off individually, and a pack with just those two.

 

[JudasIscariot]

My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant is now on Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/312970

 

[Modron]

Someone page Jaesun.

 

[Jaesun]

I already own it. I liked it.

 

[Boleskine]

They could have just said, "An adventure game is like a Telltale game but with puzzles and challenge."

More people will understand that description.

 

[Infinitron]

Sierra's Gold Rush! released on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/308000/



(see here for more information: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/gog-com.69065/page-162#post-3261715)

Kind of expensive for such an old game, though, isn't it?

 

[Infinitron]

Sierra's Gold Rush! released on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/308000/

(see here for more information: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/gog-com.69065/page-162#post-3261715)

Kind of expensive for such an old game, though, isn't it?

Ah, and Cobbett has done a Saturday Crapshoot on it: http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/26/saturday-crapshoot-gold-rush/

 

[Astral Rag]

The Neverhood can now be played with ScummVM:

A year has passed and ScummVM 1.7.0 is here.

With this release we have added support for 45 completely new games. These are:

The Neverhood
Mortville Manor
Voyeur
Return to Ringworld
Chivalry is Not Dead

Also, we have updated the MT-32 emulator, added an OpenGL backend, improved many aspects of the GUI, enhanced the AGOS engine, made Urban Runner's videos less CPU-demanding, fixed tons of bugs in dozens of SCI games, improved sound in Loom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and improved platform portability for the Tony and Tinsel engines.

But this is not all. We have added experimental support for the OUYA console (we couldn't add GCW-Zero support simply because sev still awaits his console from Kickstarter), made major improvements to the PS2 port and merged the Bada with Tizen ports.

The full list with all changes mentioned can be found in our release notes and the release can be obtained as usual from our downloads page.

Everybody Way Oh!
http://scummvm.org/news/20140721/

 

[evdk]

Be very afraid:

http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/8/5981675/activision-sierra-entertainment-gamescom

Activision teases return of Sierra brand at Gamescom

Activision may be reviving the Sierra Entertainment brand, the developer and publisher best known for games like King's Quest, Space Quest, Gabriel Knight andPhantasmagoria, based on a teaser website and video that recently went online.

In what capacity Activision plans to exploit the Sierra brand is unclear. The teaser website features only a modernized Sierra logo, a cinematic of an explorer running toward a mountain shaped like the Sierra logo and a hint that more information will be revealed at Gamescom 2014, which takes place Aug. 13-17 in Cologne, Germany. Polygon will be reporting live from Gamescom next week.

Sierra joined Activision in 2008 when Sierra parent company Vivendi Games merged with Activision to become Activision Blizzard. Sierra published Valve's early games, like Half-Life and Counter-Strike, and later published the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon franchises.

Last year, Telltale Games announced it was no longer working on a King's Quest game it had in development as part of an agreement with Activision.

 

[evdk]

So strange. Most people would have no idea what Sierra was, and anyone familiar with the brand would know that it no longer exists in any meaningful form under Activision.

I think you underestimate the gullibility of the general public.