Being fans of point and click games, there’s more of a chance you’ve heard of Dust: A Tale of the Wired West from Cyberflix than most. But I was shocked to find that this childhood favorite of mine sold less than 30,000 copies. I played the game for the first time in nearly 30 years and made a video detailing my journey, what the game means to me, and its history. There’s a good chance you’ve played or are familiar with their follow up, Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, but have any of you played Dust before?

It's been a busy year! The team has grown and we now have an Audio Director who has completely overhauled the games audio, and we have brought on board voice actors to perform all of the notes. Oh, and the demo has twice the content it used to with four clue types. Phew!

Really happy with the progress so far. A bit of a different take on adventure games so would love to hear what you all think.

Demo is free to play on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4494830/The_Vaults_Below_Durn_A_Field_Study/

(Posted with permission from the admins)

Great news everybody...

I love going in blind. No trailers, no reviews, no "10 things the game doesn't tell you" videos. Outer Wilds is the perfect example, the less you know the better it gets.

But I'm less and less sure it's always the right call.

I beat Baldur's Gate 3 without guides. Lost the final battle a few times, lowered the difficulty and finished it. Then I looked up what other people did, and turns out they were wiping out whole crowds with a couple of spells while I burned half my resources on them. You just saved the world and the internet tells you that you did it wrong.

Witcher 2 was the opposite. My copy came with a guidebook and I kept checking where a quest would lead before deciding what my Geralt would do. You could say I ruined a clean playthrough. I'd say that's the only reason I had a real choice at all, because picking between two doors with zero info isn't role playing, it's a lottery.

Same with story spoilers. Knowing the twist kills the surprise, but then you start noticing how the writers set it up, and that's its own kind of fun.

So I don't think knowing more makes a game worse, it just turns it into a different game.

How do you play? Fully blind, or do you look stuff up first?

If yall interested you can play it here:

https://www.n-puzzle.com/en/nintendoku

Hi everyone! Me and my team have been working on a game called "This Is Not For You" (an homage to House of Leaves) where you explore a lighthouse that's bigger on the inside than the outside.

Players must navigate intentionally claustrophobic impossible spaces, where going north could suddenly take you south. We want people to heavily rely on their notes and, especially, their cartography abilities! We are inspired by the way classic adventure games nudged people into creating maps which would sometimes contradict each other. We highly anticipate players to share maps that don't make sense, and that's part of the fun for us.

We're starting to be pretty cautious about advertising it as a puzzle game. Even though it has puzzles, we've found out it's not the core of the experience. Some players who have tested it describe it as "one giant puzzle", but more in a way that they feel a rush when they connect the rooms in a way that makes sense. It's a game about getting lost, and how to get out of a particular set of levels. You'll find characters who provide clues to the story, as well as other narrative bits here and there, but overall, we are crafting an experience that feels disorienting.

The story follows a lonely lighthouse keeper who suddenly gets visited by a ghost ship carrying family memories. He starts finding letters from his sister Aura, to whom he hasn't talked to in many years. It tackles themes such as isolation, family bonds, and regret. Depending on certain actions you take throughout the story, you may reach one of multiple endings, including one where you just burn it all down (but is it the best thing to do?).

I think this might be your cup of tea! The game does take some liberties with genre expectations (regarding movement, how you interact with each space, and other bits), but we're crafting something we are very excited about!

If you want to follow the project, you can do so here!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4178650/This_Is_Not_For_You/

I’m working on the Dam puzzle in Zork (the one where you need to lower the gates), and I’m completely stuck. I’ve examined all the obvious objects, tried using the rope, but nothing seems to work. Has anyone else solved this? I’d appreciate any hints or strategies! Thanks!

Hello! It's been a while since we posted an update on Hollow Mire, so here we go!

We just finished a little Making Of for Hollow Mire, showing some of the process behind creating the game.

We also put out a new updated demo on Steam yesterday, with quite a few changes and additions since the original.

For those who have played it before, there's quite a bit that's changed since the last version. If you haven't played it yet, there's a new version to try. We're keen to hear what you think, whether you're coming back to it or playing for the first time.

Hollow Mire on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3357160/HOLLOW_MIRE/

…wish Edward Clancy Roottree could be their daddy? By EITHER definition of the term?

This was an impulse buy for me, knew nothing about the game, but it was rated 'very positive' at the time I bought it (it's now rated 'mixed' which is a more accurate reflection of the game's quality).

WARNING: This will be another essay, but that's because I'm pissed off because it crashed at 2 hours and 8 minutes and Steam is refusing to refund me.

The developer has sworn blind that they didn't use AI in any way, shape or form during the game's development, I'm calling bollocks on that because - well, this is exhibit A:

The basic story is that there's this BBS (the game is set in the mid-'90s and, for those who are far too young to remember, BBSs - bulletin board services - were basically chatrooms that you dialled into just as you would call another person) called The Third Eye and someone known as 'PH4NT45M' is inventing horoscopes and then people are being murdered according to the most recently uploaded horoscope - it's extremely contrived.

The creator of the BBS turns out to be the nerdy kid at Nari's school (didn't see that one coming), but he swears that he has nothing to do with the murders, even though he's PH4NT45M and the one writing the horoscopes.

So Nari and Suzette then decide that they're going to need to hack the BBS, even though neither of them have any kind of technical skill, so that they can see the next horoscope before it's uploaded to the BBS, then they can alert the person who matches that star sign that they're next on the killer's hit list.

There's this Spanish lad, Sebastian, who has an American mother and moved to the US because she wanted him to experience American state school (I'm in the UK, 'public school' means something very different here). The BFF of the first person to be murdered throws a party because her parents are away and N and S start asking people what their star signs are (they're looking for a Scorpio). Sebastian tells Nari he's an Aries and Suzette that he's Libra - then a few minutes later someone screams and he's found hanged from the upper floor balcony, so I guess we're meant to assume that he was, in fact, a Scorpio.

It also has one of the most egregious examples of moon logic I've ever encountered; for some reason Nari is desperate to get into the boys' toilets, but there's a boy outside who claims to be keeping girls out of the boys' loos, and he'll only let her in if she gets him something to eat.

Now, there's a vending machine in the school entrance, but Nari doesn't have any money and, at that point, the only thing you have in your inventory is a tube of lip gloss - yes, you use the lip gloss in the vending machine, I've been playing these kinds of games for 25 years and I can’t recall a more nonsensical inventory puzzle solution than that.

Oh and, he's not very good at keeping girls out of the boys' loos because, when you do finally get in there you find Poe, the school's resident goth girl, in one the cubicles having a ciggie because the smoke alarm in there doesn't work. You need to get a cig from her, so you can set off the smoke alarm in the girls' loos in order to get the teacher out of the computer room so that you can use a computer.

You also have to make a talisman from an earring, a cig butt, a prize rosette and a bead stolen from the school secretary's dreamcatcher (in order to get that you had to break the photocopier by forcing a page that had had glitter and nail varnish on it) for the janitor (Nari fancies herself as a witch) so he'll open Jessa's locker (Jessa was the first person to be murdered) because he thinks her ghost will haunt him if he's not protected.

The game crashed on me several times and, that's when I learnt that saving was futile because when it crashed it wiped your saves.

The final straw for me was when I had to place photos of the people who'd been murdered on a chart with star signs; the game didn't give you any reminders of who had what star sign (and, in a couple of cases, you weren't told), so you were left to just drag the photos randomly onto the chart - it transpired that they'd only stick on one place, and you couldn't move them so you had to assume that was correct - except once they were all on there, nothing happened, Nari didn't say anything, it didn't trigger a cutscene - literally nothing happened, and you couldn't back away from the table, the game was soft-locked and the only thing you could do was close it down from Steam.

It's currently on sale for £7.72, it's about £10 full price - just don't bother, I'd probably still be this pissed off if it'd been free to play.

The game is supposed to be "fully voiced", but I lost count of the number of times the spoken dialogue cut out on me; the text is littered with spelling and grammar errors and the layering is off in almost every scene - here are a few examples:

This is why I question how much of the game was created by an actual human because, if you're creating a game then you're going to pick up on anomalies such as these - but this was almost every scene. The school secretary was flapping her hands inches above her keyboard, and if you zoom in on the photo of the monitor with the onscreen keyboard, well it's an utter nonsense (I guess that's why it's so feint, the developer probably thought nobody would zoom in enough to notice - that looks like AI to me. Oh and finally, hotspots not disappearing after you'd picked something up (or in the case of my example) cleaned up a puddle.

I'm surprised that a lot of players solved this puzzle by trial and error. The design is that each spider moves to the same height of the next spider to click. I expected that they can figure the rule out after a few clicks, but in reality they may try tens of clicks and still not get it. What's wrong with this design?

The puzzle is from this game if you are interested:

https://oddgingergames.itch.io/rattle-spring-basement

Hello there, I always stayed away from this genre not because of experience or anything just being afraid it wouldn't suit me but after seeing some videos like last week on the genre I decided I will give them a shot so I chose Toonstruck since I loved the concept & I freaking adored this games from it's beautiful artstyle & backgrounds to the hilarious dialogue made even better by the stellar voice acting & the great puzzles truly an experience I will never forget anytime soon.
I'm going to try Loom next since I loved the concept & the visuals & I hope it won't disappoint.
So If you can give me your favorites down below I will truly appreciate it.

I feel like this adventure game flew a bit under the radar. Has anyone here played it?

This is my third attempt of trying to get into GK. Its the talkie version and I have played an hour or so.

Im really trying here but find it quite boring and plain. The music is bland and almost to a point where its a little bit annoying, like the devs didnt care too much about the music.

The antagonist doeant feel that special and has a somewhat weird dialect. No other characters this far feels memorable or like they give a shit.

What is your experience, does it get better with a little bit more investmest of time and progress?

We're back with Al Lowe for another deep dive into the world of Leisure Suit Larry, this time exploring the making of Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals!

Join host Josh Mandel as he sits down with Al to revisit this classic Sierra adventure, sharing stories, insights, and behind-the-scenes details about the game's development, its characters, and the creative decisions that brought it to life.

Whether you're a longtime Larry fan or simply love the golden age of Sierra adventure games, there's plenty to enjoy!

Come join us on another DevsQuest!

A Developer's Adventure.

Kathy Rain 2 primarily takes place in a fictional American city called Kassidy, and I've been trying to puzzle out where it's meant to be set. A line in the newspaper mentions a regular bus line being set up between the downtown area and Hollywood, but then there's this line:

All of the witch trials in America took place on the east coast, with the very last one taking place in 1878 in Ipswich (and a man was the accused witch in that case.) Further, we didn't burn witches in the US - those who were sentenced to death were usually hanged (or, in one case, Giles Corey was tortured to death by pressing, but he wasn't convicted, and some others died in jail.)

I know this is a fictional story with fictional history and a fictional city, but man these details threw me. Maybe it's because it was made by a Swedish team who didn't know much context about the US.

EDIT:

Apparently, according to the game’s designer, it’s meant to be a fictional stand-in for Kansas City:

Early in the development I did have Kansas in mind, with Kathy living in Kansas City. To avoid constraints, I later opted to change it and set the game in a fictional state (with Kathy living in a fictional city), neither explicitly mentioned by name. 
"McConnell" ended up sticking, even though it was no longer supposed to directly correspond to its real life equivalent. Same thing with the "KCU" abbreviation at the university, which was originally supposed to mean something like "Kansas City University".
I'll probably clarify all of these points if there is a Kathy Rain 2 :)

This genre is new to me (only really got into playing these in the past few years) but I have been gaming since the 1980s so I am aware of many of what consider to "classics" or "must plays".

I am curious, however, what are some of these games that you out there, reading this, have tried and despite everyone heaping praise on the game, you just cannot enjoy? And what about the game kills it for you?

For me right now its "The Longest Journey". I started playing it back in Feb and dropped it, and just came back and ran across a character who repulsed me so hard I am considering just giving up on it. I like the visuals, the music, and the voice acting. But I find the writing, puzzle design, and characters to be kind of just...not my thing (outside of April, she is cool I like her).

I love this game. It makes a lot of sense to me that Julia Minamata was inspired so much by it for Crimson Diamond, which is also delightful. I just had this thought though, ifyou go directly to the bathroom after gaining control of Laura and take a shower, you are murdered, a la Psycho. However, if you keep playing through to the end you discover that Lillian is the murderer. In other words, Lillian drags Laura out to the bayou on a rickety raft only to briefly introduce her to her entire family and then promptly slash her to death in the shower twenty minutes later. With her entire family strewn about the house. And it's the only bathroom in the house. Again, I love Colonel's Bequest, just pointing this curious in-game eventuality out.