Adventure Gamers - Forums

rtrooney - 17 August 2021 10:35 PM

There is always the obvious. The first game was a birthday present to his, then, girlfriend. And then came the second game with Nelly being excellently voiced by that very same girlfriend. Now I have no way of knowing this, but suppose the author and his girlfriend had a less than amiable split. Nelly would not be Nelly without her voice. Would author really want to create a new game, even if it was financially feasible, if it required working with your ex?

I have no reason to believe any of the above is true. Merely pointing out that there are reasons, other than financial, why pursuing a sequel might not be attractive.

I think that’s the most logical reason. It makes sense completely.

Adv_Lvr - 18 August 2021 10:15 PM

rtrooney - 17 August 2021 10:35 PM

There is always the obvious. The first game was a birthday present to his, then, girlfriend. And then came the second game with Nelly being excellently voiced by that very same girlfriend. Now I have no way of knowing this, but suppose the author and his girlfriend had a less than amiable split. Nelly would not be Nelly without her voice. Would author really want to create a new game, even if it was financially feasible, if it required working with your ex?

I have no reason to believe any of the above is true. Merely pointing out that there are reasons, other than financial, why pursuing a sequel might not be attractive.

I think that’s the most logical reason. I makes sense completely.

I suspected something like that, but I decided to be prudent about it.

AliBK - 19 August 2021 09:12 AM

The Dutch names are deliberate. A fair number of nautical / piratical words were originally Dutch - freebooter is the first that springs to mind. As I mentioned before, I think, knowing that the game was in the shadow of Monkey Island, I wanted to make sure that the tone and language was different. So instead of being about the Caribbean and voodoo, I tried to pick up on odd corners of pirate history that I didn’t learn about from Ron Gilbert!

Nice! I think you succeeded pretty well in that regard.

Good luck with your writing gigs. I hope you’ll also dabble in puzzle design at some point, because this game had a couple great ones.

AliBK - 19 August 2021 09:12 AM

Hey, I thought this was all over! Looks like some people are still playing and have questions. Let me know if I miss any!

First of all, good news - we didn’t break up! But the Fowl Fleet was the only time I’ve been the project lead. And even on a small indie game, it’s a huge, huge amount of work. I’m doing quite a lot of other comedy writing work now, and I wouldn’t want to give it up to make another game. Maybe if the game had been an enormous smash hit the publisher would be throwing money at me, and I’d have no choice. But it’s more fun to help other people with their games at the moment.

The Dutch names are deliberate. A fair number of nautical / piratical words were originally Dutch - freebooter is the first that springs to mind. As I mentioned before, I think, knowing that the game was in the shadow of Monkey Island, I wanted to make sure that the tone and language was different. So instead of being about the Caribbean and voodoo, I tried to pick up on odd corners of pirate history that I didn’t learn about from Ron Gilbert!

Just because it’s unhooked does not mean it’s all over. People are more than welcome to keep posting comments about the game, especially good ones like this. Voting takes weeks for the next CPT so I try to unhook in a timely manner to allow for that.

So, stick around please.

I’m so glad it was reason B, not A. Wish you would have made tons of money, we’d love a second game. Sadly, lack of sales seems to be common with indie games.

I did go back and replay the ending. Took me a few tries, but I succeeded in retrieving the last piece of stalactite and melted the bridge. A certain sense of accomplishment overwhelmed me.

A wonderful game.

Thank you Adv_Lvr for taking the lead!

Thank you AliBK for joining us and answering our questions!

..and a final thanks to all participants, this CPT was a good time!

rtrooney - 20 August 2021 02:51 PM

I did go back and replay the ending. Took me a few tries, but I succeeded in retrieving the last piece of stalactite and melted the bridge. A certain sense of accomplishment overwhelmed me.

A wonderful game.

I felt the same way. Wonderful ending to a wonderful game. Great wrap up. We still have a few people who are finishing the game so, let’s keep the conversation going about this simply wonderful game.

Good news for y’all. Within 6 months I will be complete transitioning to my next generation systems - Alienware PC and Nintendo Switch. I have 42 unplayed PC adventure game I bought from half price books for 3 dollars each and I am loading them as we speak. And yes, THEY LOOK AMAZING.

So, the future is bright for me, my signature change will come about shortly.  I do need to finish some IOS and PS4 games also.

Not that this is a place to discuss this, but the subject, and its variants came up, so I thought I would ask. Because this is something I know nothing about. And I need to know so I can respond correctly when the topic comes up again. Please respond in Spoiler, or better yet PM me. Or even better, point me to a link where this is explained.

1. How does an indie developer value his/her time? If you are doing this for “the love of the game,” that’s one thing. If you are billing your services to other entities at $100/hr, then that is the minimum rate you should value your time, since you have other overhead expenses you need to pay over and above paying yourself a decent wage.

2. What is the Kickstarter “split” between the platform and the entity looking for funding?

3. Same topic. What is the “split” between distribution platforms, e.g. GoG or Steam, and the game developer?

Alasdair has said that he can make a decent living writing jokes for other game developers. He is not alone. Good friend, Josh Mandel, has transitioned from being a game creator to a game-content guru, and seems to be doing quite well.

I don’t consider the six of us that played this game a “market,” but all of us have expressed interest in a Nelly3. There have to be others. But there is no way to know who, or how many there are.

So, the question is, what would it take to undertake making a sequel?

Don’t feel as if I’m zeroing in on this game. I’m not. I could as easily ask what it would take for Josh to undertake a spin-off of Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon.

walas74 - 19 August 2021 08:26 AM

I suspected something like that, but I decided to be prudent about it.

I feel a need to ask Sebastian what he thinks about walas74.

Nico2021 - 11 September 2021 02:40 PM

I know i m kinda late to the party but i finished the game today. Real life and other games kept me busy so couldnt play the game together with you.

I really enjoyed the game. What i liked the most was the difficulty level. Puzzles werent hard but at the same time they needed some thinking. Also even if they were traditional adventure puzzles there was a big variety of them. I did not have any problem with any puzzle as some of you posted. I did the anatomy puzzle pretty fast after i understood how it works. Also i m pretty average adventure player and managed to finish the game without looking at a guide or walkthrough. So i strongly recommend it for people that dont want a high challenge but at the same time have some fun with solving puzzles.

Story was ok, nothing exceptional but it did the job. Secondary characters were interesting and witty. I didnt completely liked Nelly at the begining but while the game was advancing i started to like her jokes and the acting. Graphics and music were great, no complain at all.

I did enjoy the posts by the creator as it gave insights of what he wanted to do with the game.

Final verdict: 4 out of 5 stars, very good
Pros: Humour, graphics, dialogs, puzzles
Cons: i cant really find anything bad to say about the game, except that it feels very traditional as an adventure which is not even a negative for some.

If you havent played the game and you like adventures, Nelly Cootalot wont disappoint you, so go play it.

I’m so glad you liked the game. It’s a true classic point and click adventure game. Some very funny moments and when we get lucky and we can get the games developer to join in that really helps make the CPT special.

So, I haven’t read through this entire thread yet, but I juuuuuust completed this game a few minutes ago.

It made me laugh a lot and think a little (ie, there was some challenge but I wouldn’t call it difficult at all). Nelly is great (even if she is sometimes, a wee bit too transparently, just a vehicle for the writer’s cleverness), and I’d love to play more games about her. Some of the witticisms and puns were so clever that they had me thinking ‘wow, why didn’t I think of that?’ before realizing that such a thing would be impossible, by virtue of their being too clever for my tiny brain to fathom on its own.

On the flipside: The game seemed very short. Perhaps this is a homage to its obvious inspiration (although it is *not* an imitation by any means), The Secret of Monkey Island, which famously taught us to never pay more than $20 for an adventure game. Well, I only paid $20 for this adventure game, and I *still* think it’s short. As in, barely longer than its freequel game, Spoonbeaks Ahoy. *However*, since Spoonbeaks ahoy is usually being given away for free or less than $3, which is an absolute bargain, I consider them a package deal, which makes the ~$20 you’ll pay for ‘em both a very good price.

My only other complaints are small. Nelly walks too slowly, even with the ‘double click to automatically exit the screen’ feature. The interface is also strangely…unsatisfying. I think it takes the system an extra half second to load up the descriptions of objects you hover over, and there seems to be a delay all around between your clicking and the game’s reacting. You get used to it, but it’s definitely worth noting. My brother experienced the same thing playing on his pc or device, so it’s not just limited to my system.

All in all, a very good game that is well worth any adventure game fan’s time. I’m a litte disappointed, since, based on the strength of Spoonbeaks Ahow, I was expectin the full length follow up to be an absolute classic. The Fowl Fleet is not quite that, but it is still excellent. A very solid 7.5/10, and that’s using the full rating scale.