Highland Spirit

[ddavey1983]

Highland Spirit - a traditional point-and-click adventure by GOC Games
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2646-highland-spirit/





Becky Speed is an aspiring novelist who is seeking to break her writer's block with a relaxing solo trip to the Scottish Highlands.

However, Becky is about to discover that in her idyllic cottage, she is not alone at all...

Made in one month for MAGS November 20222

[bicilotti]

This game is extremely good, so much that I am taking notes while playing it for a review:

Code: ags

- funny
- brief pause not funny
- graphics are functional and at times quite good to look at too
  especially inside
- becky is slow walking and when interact slow transition
- dialogues and characters funny
- good retro without nostalgia
- lots of interaction
- history is a nice touch
- new places popping up, a library, excellent
- lovely rain effects
- puzzles make sense
- some cliky puzzles

Alas on my platform (Linux, with the AGS engine) saving apparently did not work! I wonder why, and if that is the same on Windows too... I will investigate if my version of the engine is too old or broken.

It is a superb production and I am having much fun playing it, bar the main character being a tad slow and taking a pause at each interaction. Congratulations!

[Ian Aloser]

Yes, brilliant game !
Unfortunately, the Save/Restore Function doesn't work.
I played it for a while and before I left, I thought
it might be a good idea to save the game, so I pressed the
"S" button. Since no save game dialogue appeared, i thought
that there was only one save possible.
But when I restarted the game and chose the option "Load",
there was such a dialogue, but it was empty.
Once it's fixed, I will definetely play it over again, it's really worth it.

Spoiler

On the graveyard,the Hotspot for the bottom right gravestone reads "Hotspot 8".

[close]

[ddavey1983]

Thank you very much to you and bicilotti for your kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying the game.

Sorry about the save/load thing. It turns out I hadn't actually assigned the save and load buttons on the inventory bar to anything! Blame the pressure of a deadline!

They work now and I've updated the package on GamesJolt.

Happy playing!

[Ian Aloser]

I just finished this lovely game, great atmosphere, nice puzzles, nice graphics,
simply very well done !
Thanks so much for this great piece of entertainment !!!

[bicilotti]

I have finished it and I agree with Ian, this is lovely game and it is remarkable that it was done in just a month! I do suggest to release a v1.1 where

• the main character walks a little bit faster
• transitions from screen to screen are faster
• there is no "pause" before interactions (`look at` replies, etc.)

A really sweet production, hope to see more from you!

[ddavey1983]

Thank you very much for your feedback and kind words. I agree with all of it, if I'm honest. It's all stuff that would have been ironed-out if I hadn't been working to a deadline (with the possible exception of the character walk speed - I tried faster and it looked weird). Very glad you enjoyed it, I enjoyed making it!

[SarahLiz]

Ok, this was an awesome little game.  Great setting, great sense of humor, great graphics, all greatness.  It's shocking to me that you made it in a month!  More please!! 

The ending was really cute, btw.  Maybe in hindsight I could have guessed something along those lines, but it made me giggle anyhow. 

[heltenjon]

I finally got around to playing this one today. I'd gathered from the feedback from other players that I was in for a treat, and I was not disappointed!

Great to see Sophia Becky in her own adventure!  Pointclickaddict had noticed links to your earlier games, and I'm afraid I don't have them fresh enough in memory to be sure what he's thinking of. But, walkcycles aside, is she working in the police station in one of the other games, perhaps?

The game looks and plays great. I was not bothered by the walking speed at all. The characters feel alive (even the ghost), the writing is brilliant and funny, taking the time to give each character an own voice and their own problems and interests. That's some really good world building! Also kudos for including intelligent use of a library during the research.

The puzzles were really fun to solve. They were the right kind of multiple-steps-puzzles that I felt good after progressing, though it never seemed too difficult or too easy.

I found a couple of minor bugs.

Spoiler

One of the gravestones is named Hotspot 10 (or another number). And Becky could walk behind her dripping coat in the cottage.

[close]

This is a very good game. As a MAGS entry, it's outstanding. I applaud the use of fading in and out to remove characters from the screen without doing a full walkcycle.