Messages

No and no.

I never noticed the dodgy compositioning of the effect before.

Ghostbusters II

Yup, Darth got it.

No and no.

No again

Surroundings are a bit too dark, but Out Of Sight?

No, by the way.

If you Google Image-search the picture along with "real genius", you'll find that it's Deborah Foreman (role of Susan Decker).

Let's look at some set design:

Real Genius. Didn't we just do this one?

[The future evolution of adventure games]

Yay, another dramatic reading! My paranoia instantly makes me wonder whether I was the bore who kept going on about Ben Jordan...

Regarding negative experiences on the AGS forums, it's probably something moderators see a lot more of, since we get the complaints. I didn't mean to suggest it has anything to do with "toxic gamer culture" â€" it's hard to generalize over what gets people upset, it's really individual (and often unpredictable). But you see people talking crap about the forums elsewhere on the internet as well, usually about us being too cliquish and standoffish, and you touched on it being intimidating. It's hard to tell from the inside what creates that impression (sure, with Mittens and other meetups, IRC etc. we're probably more tightly knit than many other online communities), and I don't remember feeling that way myself when I first joined the forums.

I've almost finished listening through the backlog of episodes, so there aren't going to be as many topic suggestions from me going forward. (Since it's listening to the podcast that tends to inspire topic ideas.) However, how about... ?

The future evolution of adventure games. You're both working on games that to some extent move away from traditional inventory-puzzle-based adventure gameplay, and many of the biggest titles these days do the same. Why do you want to work on "less traditional" games? Have adventure games finally got past being stuck in the 1990s? Does that mean puzzles are outdated? Are there other genre conventions we could stand to lose? What should a modern adventure game play like, today or five years from now?

Scream?

[When to give up.]

Bumpity bump...

OK, I now want dramatic readings of all my forum posts. Thanks!

Listening to an old episode (#56, I think), I noticed something relevant to my other topic suggestion. You addressed one pitfall of the AGS community: accepting the community's (freeware) standards and becoming a bit naive about what's required of a commercial release. (Vice versa, I'd argue that the rise of commercial AGS games is in danger of putting the threshold too high for newbies.)

I also had another topic idea: When to give up. You've talked about the skills needed to finish a game, you've talked about cutting stuff that isn't working, and you've occasionally mentioned games you never finished. But how do you know when it's time to walk away from a project? (Either your own projects or collaborations.)

Well, like I said it was a thematic connection: they're both absurdist anti-war comedies with scenes of harrowing tragedy.

Sure is! Just a shame that I didn't get a chance to post one of the finger-severing scenes (this film has several)...

Good solve, too. It's cool when people use clues and details to figure it out even if they haven't actually seen it.

No and no.



Hint: It's technically in the same genre as the last film, though at just about the other extreme of the budget range.

No

All right, let me try to think of something more in line with AGSers' viewing...