A Hardy Developer's Journal – as written by indie adventure game developers

Franko stands in the pale moonlight unaware of what awaits him

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Finally, there has come the moment that I was waiting for a very long time – I can start a production diary for my own adventure game! Not because I have just put together a loose concept or created the first artwork, no. It is the right moment to begin writing about the game because I have now finished a working version of one of three acts of the full project – to be tweaked and released soon (next month) as a WIP demo. So, while much much work still needs to be done, even on the demo, from this moment on there will be always  some solid virtual entity to refer to. In other words, Frantic Franko now lives! (more…)

They say there is only one true pirate adventure game/game series, the rest just tries to take a piece of its glory for themselves. They are a little bit more forgiving, though, when the game in question is intentionally a love letter to the classic adventure games of yore. Yet there also exists a certain title that is a piratey love letter in both this and a quite different meaning of the expression.

Yes, it’s all true! Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy! – the game in question – was made using the freeware AGS engine specifically for the girlfriend of its creator Alasdair Beckett (but don’t worry, YOU can play it too)! Well, actually Alasdair doesn’t really try to hide who is the game’s primary addressee any more than the fact that it was heavily inspired by the Monkey Island series. How could he do that anyway, when the game even borrows the icon coin interface known from Curse of Monkey Island. A very heartfelt tribute to Monkey Island then? (more…)

When I started this blog I thought I was a bit late too include references to 2008 holiday celebrations, but it appears that I can – on the pretext of  others being late too.

The talented team behind Indiana Jones and The Fountain of Youth DEMO, which is still working on the full version of this very promising adventure game in the style of the classic Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, have just released a very special (if a bit late) Christmas/New Year’s Greetings surprise making adventure fans happy all over the world. By doing so they prolonged (or at least brought back a little) holiday atmosphere far into January, which makes the experience even more nice. (more…)

As of January 2009, I played a fair amount of indie adventure games released in 2008 (well, just a few of those that were heavily lauded actually). While there are still some last year highlights out there waiting for me, Mental Repairs Inc. is without any doubt the best one I came across. What’s more, although it’s completely freeware it matches (and in some areas surpasses) the technical quality of games that require some kind of financial investment before playing. (more…)

2008 was an interesting year for adventure games, but none of the new releases I played was truly groundbreaking. The adventure game scene seems to be still heavily marred by the desperate  struggles to get funding and publishing deals and then to make the freshly assembled teams and  engines work. Even such “sure bets” of current adventure gaming as A Vampyre Story and Gray Matter suffered from flimsy marketing (GM), shameful bugs (AVS) and huge delays in production (both).

Germany is the biggest source for new titles in the genre now. However, (more…)