Messages

I was walking down a very dark and narrow lane one night. A light approached from behind me. I was worried it might be a car. Then I looked back and saw it was just a bicycle. At which point I stopped being merely worried and became scared.

Why?

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Because "just a bicycle" must be ridden by an invisible ghost?

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And I am stuck again. 

Phil wants to play tug of war, and I guess I have to beat him. I have two leads, but none have helped me so far.
Training:

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The Fox thinks about swimming, and there is indeed a message about getting stronger after "swimming" a bit. As this wasn't helping, I went back to a saved game and tried not training until after losing a tug of war, but nope.

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Slipping:

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Phil mentions that I can challenge him again to make him slip up. Perhaps I can use the mud for this? I have made it runny, but not been able to pick it up.

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In addition, when I went back to replay, I noticed something being said about treasure being buried and a special technique to see the xs. Is this possible to do at the stage I am now? And is it necessary, or just a bonus thing?

Hi Heltonjon!

To answer your question, you will need the slingshot. You can get this by

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using your teeth. I take it that you have obtained the cup from the locked box and used it with water to clean the mirror, thus giving you teeth and tail in inventory.

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Thanks for answering! Unfortunately, I have tried doing that, but got the message "You have a feeling that you will need to use the slingshot exactly as it is." Ouch! I guess I've got to try going back to a saved game and try doing things in a different order.

I like both entries, but vote for Creamy.

NewwaveBurrito's entry was incredibly well interpreted by Creamy, so I don't have much to add there. It could well turn up as another strange location the portals send your characters into. I can see it as some eccentric's building. (I can't unsee that the statue is about to swat a fly, but that's probably just me.)

I like the contrasts in Creamy's picture. The apartment is filled with art, books and old items giving it atmosphere. The older woman/mother is clearly at home and thrives here, while the daughter looking out may give us the impression that she is the one longing to go out into the world, finding adventure.

Perhaps this could end up by the mother telling about her exploits as a young woman, explaining along the way how she came into possession of the items found in the apartment. You could even make this room a sort of entryway to different game areas by clicking on an item and having the mother go "Oh, the violin? Did I ever tell you how I got the violin?". Then the player could swap back and forth from the apartment and various situations from the mother's past.

Is it really possible to get the 800 points or the bonus disc?

Yes, it is possible. Ask yourself first, do you really want to win?

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Press CTRL+W (The joke is that you press CTRL+Q to quit, and change to W to win.)

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I am stuck in Sorrow of a Furry Father.

I am trying to find items for the kids to play pirates. So far I have found

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fool's gold, a hook, and an eye patch.

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What else do I need?

The slingshot is stuck in the mud. How can I get it? The Fox is already strong.

There are two icons to click on after selecting download. One is download, and the other is to report a broken link. This sounds like someone has clicked the wrong one by accident. Earlier, I believe this flagged a game's download link as broken immediately, but due to a lot of false reports, @AGA changed it. I guess it now needs to be verified by an admin before flagging.

I also tested it with no problems. It is not marked as a broken download in the database, either. You may ask the player if he can download other files from itch.io in case his account or supervisor has blocked it for some reason. What kind of error message he received may also be helpful.

It was also a close decision for me. In fact, I let my daughter play the games to have a second opinion, and she was undecided, too! In the end, I think what may tilt it slightly Durinde's way is that his story is clearly finished and wouldn't work in another format than the short game, while Cassiebsg and Blondbraid have made a game that could easily pass as the first chapter in a full length story about this unfortunate vampire. (Which I would definitely play.)

Two fine games.

It's also not present in the game database in this site. 

Noone wants to talk about it. 

Now I want that board game.

I finally played the demo, and it was just as great as I had expected.  Hilarious writing and antics, stunning art and animation, and music that serves as a tribute to the other franchises alluded to. Good work, nay, great work all around!

I did manage to crash the demo. I didn't manage to replicate it a second time, though. What happened, was

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that I entered the circuit minigame at once, in the chamber with the automat, and even if I solved it, it simply went back to the start. I got a congratulatory message only once. So I got stuck in a loop with no way to back out of the minigame.

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Congratulations on your release! Please also add the game to the game page/database (just link to the itch page where it says download link), and you may get some extra attention from the forum users.

I agree with Ali that one has to broaden the definition a bit. It stands to reason that the adventure genre have evolved, as have most other genres. Frequently the genres borrow from each other. There were action sequences in Sierra and Lucasarts adventures, too.

I believe that some changes in distribution and gameplay were better suited to other genres than adventure games, and it took some time to catch up. Shareware seemed more popular with games with defined levels, where you could play the first levels for free, then pay for the whole game. Casual mobile games, like hidden object games, have embraced this by now. Also online multiplayer doesn't translate easily for adventure games, at least not without incorporating combat, quests or roleplaying.

On the other hand, I would argue that it is common today that even games not remotely adventures have borrowed the cut scene story telling technique, be it a shooter or a Mario game, you are treated to movie clips telling the story between levels. So the influence works both ways.

In recent years, the Escape Room games have become very popular. Those are definitely adventure games, but often with huge amounts of moon logic and little or no story.

[The Distant Door]

Here's my thoughts this month.

The Distant Door

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The rpg style graphics are not my favourite style, but they work and fits the mood of the game. The writing is good, and the feel of both endings is that this may happen. The puzzles are mostly a result of having a realistic approach to inventory items instead of piling up everything that is not nailed down. As realism is a point in this story, I felt this choice worked well. Also nice voice acting.

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The long August longing

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Simply gorgeous looking, with easy, yet clever puzzles. The story is humorous, creating an intended clash between horror mood and comedy.

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I haven't decided who to vote for yet! But I will cast a vote. It is difficult because

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The games outshine each other in different categories. TLAL has far better graphics and puzzles, while TDD has the best character development/story and more emotional impact. It's also a case of apples and oranges to compare a comedic piece with a tear-jerker type slice of life story that invites to afterthought.

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Please keep the different versions available on your game page! I recently played the first point and click game and liked it a lot. I like seeing different takes on the same material.

The recent retelling is chronological, while the old game jumped back and forth in the timeline. While I understand that may be confusing, I thought it worked very well. I need to check out the first comic version, too.    I prefer your hand drawn graphics (you are a graphic novel artist, after all), but it's cool that you venture into different styles and try out different tools and software.

By the way, is the RPG Maker style Dread game translated to English, or is only French available?

Uhm, I just posted my game twice. Anyone can block/delete the latest entry?

Done.

The reason I did, was that after posting I got this error msg:

The file (/var/www/adventuregamestudio.co.uk/public_html/includes/gamesrss.xml) is not writable.

Game added! Redirecting in three seconds.

And then I reloaded the page...which resulted in a posting double.

I got the same error message when I disabled the entry.

Now that I´m here, how do I find the forum thread number? The url doesn't show it anymore.

I think we need the help of @AGA with that and the mysterious error message.

@Snarky, have you tried using the rubber chicken on the lockbox?

That's what she said.

_{Sorry everyone. I promise this won't become a habit.}

I guess that calls for a Frank Zappa song quote. In Italian.
Devi usare un pollo
Se me la vuoi misurar

I'm still looking for the keys to my lockbox, though. The problem is that I hid them somewhere clever, and I have no idea where that might be.

There is only one way to find them. Give up. Buy another lockbox. Put the keys in a good spot. The keys to your old lockbox is already there.