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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Jarosław Kuczek

Set in 2099 Shanghai Butterfly is an independent cyberpunk adventure game to be released as freeware Winter 2009. It’s an ambitious project with striking graphics and many of the cyberpunk genre’s more hardcore staples. The author of the game Jarosław Kuczek – passionate about android-related projects and the constantly evolving technology, with experiences of such vastly different cultures like Polish, Japanese and Chinese – promises to deliver much more than a traditional adventure game with a few sci-fi gimmicks. Below is everything he told us about his project – from its origins to major attractions – coupled with general thoughts about sci-fi and adventure gaming. (more…)

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…)

Pavel Černohous

Tale of a Hero is a heroic fantasy adventure game with lots of charm, storytelling depth and adventure gaming goodness, that was all finished and ready to fall into players’ hands nearly a year and a half ago. Unfortunately, while the Czech developer and publisher Future Games immediately prepared an English, fully voiced version (voiceover-less demo here), there are no set release dates for the biggest international markets yet. I live in one of the few lucky countries where the game is readily available and I must say that Tale of a Hero went on to become my favorite adventure title from recent years (look up my full review for details). Being so fond of the game, I’ve asked its lead designer Pavel Černohous to take part in an interview about it. He not only did agree, but also brought along Jan Kavan (the creator of Ghost in The Sheet). (more…)

There is progress to report. Lots of it. And I can back up my words with all kinds of progress bars, progress gauges and recorded line counts (currently at 15.06%) that are now available to see at the official website here and here. The important news is that from dozens of applicants we have now finally chosen an actor to play Bob (the guy dancing on the right). The lucky person gave a performance completely different to what we discussed for the character’s traits, but still somehow won us over. The second important news is that we have publicly released a sort of WIP or demo of a patch that gets your copy of Secret of Monkey Island 100% voiced (but you’ll be grateful only for the aforementioned 15%)! (more…)

Things just got more complicated, partner!

Somehow almost all my entries seem to go along with cartoony pictures. It’s hard to stay serious in such circumstances. Thankfully I have now dabbled in a realistic, gritty, FMV whodunit adventure game series called Casebook and am able to offer you a taste of something much more dark and realistic for a change. Dedicated especially to fans of solving crimes through methodical clue and evidence gathering and patience-demanding forensic work.

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aka Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People (SBCG4AP) – Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective - REVIEW

One thing is certain – cheap, gritty, home-made creations by groups of enthusiastic friends (or one-person teams) are slowly taking over the world. (more…)