I didn't know about this, is another way to purchase it ?

I finished playing it for the first time, was really cool. Too bad we only played with 2 more people (there were 3 but one disconected the fists minutes of the game).

Really refreshing, the setting and that you don't know anything about anyone makes it really engaging, it's a play in the sense you have to "act" the character you are, but you don't know anything else, you are pretty much left nude in the middle of the boat, pretty good.

I bought it on thursday, I have to wait to sunday to play. I guess in the future you can make your own plays at the time you want and people may join in, but still if it doesn't get enough people that back this game it will be out of service in less than a year :S, specially since you will have to wait a couple of days only to play an hour, let's hope not, but it's a little going against the flow.

I voted them in greenlight, if it's on steam probably more players will come.

I quite liked the experience, the music transitions were really good, the atmosphere is amazing and I actually had a really nice experience with the bot (never found someone).

But I felt some things "off", like the "cutscenes" when you pick an appeareance, seems very psx (reminds me of old games that "showed" you something you have alredy seen or that you will be seeing it a lot), stiff, an atmosphere kill.

Also the "mechanic" of an appeareance everytime you exit the coffee place, it seemed like the feeling of discovery was drowned after a couple of tries (specially since most of the stuff appears next to the coffee house and you can see it just closing your eyes).

I also found a bug (I guess is nothing that will come very often), but at the start of my second game I was pressing B randomly and a "cutscene" triggered (just white) and the pick up animation also triggered, then I could walk into the water and never come back.

The developer knew that but he thought it was the best way to portray the hardlife of the cartlife.

While he can have a point, in the game there are some strategies to make the game easier (but pretty much not a single clue), and the feeling of always being loosing, or that I'm doing everything wrong turned me off.

Some people got the "poetry" of making it that hard, I didn't, just a matter of perception and opinion I guess.

I was in doublefine forum and I remembered this thread.

I couldn't get into this. Far too many clichés (JRPG, retro graphics, stereotypical characterization, childish text, old-fashioned adventure interactions, etc) for my feeble gamer-soul to climb over.

It's a very low-budget game, made in rpg-maker, but "jrpg" ?? The game just have 16 bit style jrpg graphics (pretty much what you said about retro graphics), the game even makes fun of jrpgs. The text at the beginning is bland, but is nowhere near being childish at the end of the game (specially since the thematic of it is something a little hard to swallow). Adventure interactions, that's relative, the game is VERY straightforward, but then again, is a very low budget game, made in a very restrictive engine, there are some puzzles that are just made for the casual player so they don't say "there's no gameplay at all here" (although it happened).

Something that I didn't like was the "comic relief" character that's in every jrpg (in that I grant you everything), is a little flaw of writing (they tried to make him become more and more serious when the story starts getting more dark, but it was such a cliche writing that it lost a lot of effect).

promote the idea of removing game mechanics entirely from story games

The thing is that adventure games are not "story games" adventure games are adventure games. People that play graphic adventure is because they are expecting that, and there are memorable puzzles in these kind of games.

I agree that sometimes it's just too much, putting puzzles just to stretch things out, puzzles that don't make sense or make you progress, but it's the kind of flaws that Ron Gilbert says. Puzzles should be part of the story and make you feel like you are the guy actually experiencing things, of course moving a chair to pick something that is higher isn't a good puzzle and should be avoided.

I guess Shenmue is an example of a adventure game without puzzles or classic adventure mechanics (well, more like a Jrpg with QTE, and 3d beat them up), or Blade Runner.

The problem is that the guy pretty much says "inventory and/or classic puzzles are boring, needs more action like a RPG or just skip everything", and that is just a matter of opinion: If I don't like FPS it's valid to say "Half Life has too much action, it should be like Dear Esther" ??, and so on, I can say that to any genre, like "LA noir should be a graphic novel" "The Path should be a hack N slash" etc etc. For example (like he talks about jrpg) I LOVED FFXIII visuals and atmosphere, I just didn't want to spend 40/50 hours of my life with turn based "filling" combat just to see a couple of minutes of CGI.

And it's a touchy subject because "story games" isn't anything, it's like saying "visuals game", you can also say that Dear Esther is a "story game" and it would be so much better in a movie format, but we like the interactive medium, some people would say that walking around and a narrator isn't good gameplay, but you can enjoy it or not, same goes with classic adventure mechanics, if you think it suits the "point" of the game isn't an absolute quality and every person can have their opinion.

Pretty much all that he said could be written as "I dont find graphic adventure games fun", Im a big fan of old graphic adventure games, the fun of it was how the game actually plays in your head rather than on screen. Yes, there are bad examples of puzzles, bad pacing, and times were its plain obvious that the game is "a game" that makes you do X thing to continue, but its a problem of design and not mechanics.

I can say "shooting things is stale and boring", and its just an opinion, like this:

Unlike the adventure game, roleplaying games usually have a fascinating game engine of levels, powers and resources to keep the play brain occupied. While the mid-game of The Walking Dead might involve searching a train carriage for a bottle of whiskey, the mid-game of Diablo is hitting things and using spells. It’s simply more active.

It almost enrages me, grinding is one of the worst stuff I can think in videogames, but hey, everyone has their own tastes.

Most of the people think like this guy, and thats why adventure games are not as appealing as killing 200 guys with a gun or run around doing chores for a little reward in most Wrpgs. One thing is a poorly done puzzle, another thing is saying that killing random stuff is "better" because it has more action. If you dont like turn based combats, you wont like most of the jrpgs.

Look at a game like The Last Express, its great storytelling, replayability, and dynamic enviroment, then look at grim fandango, both great games with a different approach to puzzle solving.

http://grumpygamer.com/2152210

Thats a good article about adventure games and their flaws, written by one of the big fathers of the genre.

I played the game a couple of days ago. It´s a good game, but it doesn`t have a very clear gameplay direction in my opinion.

There are a couple of mechanics that are pretty much the basis of the game, none of them are very interactive or much fun, but for a 3 or 4 hours long game it doesnt end up being stale.

The thing is that it didnt go for a "artsy game" nor to a simple platform game, its too gamey for a not game, but its too easy for a platformer and too simple for an adventure game. The game holds your hand too much, even in the "puzzles" (all are fairly easy)you have optional tutorials that tells you what to do.

The story is OK, the game tries to play with symbolism, but at the end trows everything at your face saying "yo look what we did" treating the player as an idiot that cant unite two points. And again, it has some cutscenes that breaks the flow in the game because they are not very well developed (a couple of those, then they forget about it, and goes explaining everything in the game).

The art direction is simply beautiful, you want to play to see what else is there to see, probably the best point in the game.

I had a good time playing it, but it just so self aware of itself as a game, and ends up being a poor gaming experience and a bland "experimental" experience.

I guess they tried to make it "more appealing" to masses, but actually thought that the people that will play the game would not be "intelectual" enough to understand a very VERY simple story.

A little bit off-topic but I was looking at this craftstudio engine( http://www.indiegogo.com/craftstudio ), and I was thinking how broader could be making games with today technology and be a lot more friendly to "one man" developments, we have all kinds of that let you easily create a character, games like LBP demonstrated that guys with absolute no knowledge can make nice platformers (and other genres with a little bit of practice), AGS have a nice engine for doing graphic adventures quite easily (in "programming" terms).

Wouldn't be great for people outside of the game development realm to find a engine that mixed those assets ??

I tried this game a couple of years ago, I think that all the "levels" were based in your choice of what you "bump", they divided the game in 4 moods and the places were generated from there. Never found something compelling about it, it made me more nervous than relaxed.

Mike Oldfield (the musician of tubular bells) had a couple of games similar (they didn't generate the levels, but also is based on exploring and dreamy landscapes.

I was hoping bill viola's game to come out, seems like it got canned, looks like it was going to be something like these games.

I really liked this game, the music, and the atmosphere was amazing, also for moments the game looks like a moving painting.

But I think the "gameplay" became old and a little repetitive (go to the strange place, hold the button, fly), you can't get tired of it because the game is so short (I think that's a BIG plus, everyday I get more frustrated with stupidly long games), and the cinematics between the chapters are fine, but at the end it's nothing really special.

Anyway, I really liked the game.

This is pretty much the best game I played in 2011.

It´s more or less a story-driven adventure game with the rpg perspective. It is very linear (like most AGs), but it has great story line, a little bit over melodramatic.

I really liked it. I don´t mind the "lack of gameplay" is was really nice for me to just keep enjoying the story with some interaction. It´s not a visual novel that you just have to keep pressing next, so "lacking of gameplay" is a little misleading.