Adventure Gamers - Forums

Hello adventure gamers forum,

We (me, my brother, and my girlfriend) are currently working on a brand new “point-and-click” adventure videogame called “Alum”, and we thought this would be a great place to share about it. We are new to this forum/community but we have been following the adventure game “scene” for years and have been playing, and loving it since we were kids (starting w/ space quest 1 on our old 386 comp), and we thought this forum appropriate to share our kickstarter project with.

Anyway, we have just launched the kickstarter for it, and are looking for any and everyone we can to help back it, and to spread the word about it. It (“Alum”) will be in the same vein as the classic sierra/lucasarts classics (monkey island, kings quest, ect.)... but w/ our own original world, a more serious/intense story (but not too serious… given the nature/feel of these games and low res graphics), puzzles, etc. So if you’re a fan of those 90’s era adventure games, we feel you’ll definitely love our game.

We are doing hand-drawn backround artwork and animations, and my brother, Micah, is doing programming (AGS), additional art/animations, and everything else… and we are all collaborating to make the music in the game as well (including live instruments, singing, ect.). The game will be made available exclusively for digital download on PC, but we have a host of other rewards to go along w/ the game/kickstarter. Anyway, being that we are a newly formed “studio”, we are going to need all the help we can get to get the project funded… So check out the kickstarter and help our vision become a reality!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11227813/alum-a-sierra-lucasarts-style-pointandclick-advent

thanks so much in advance for anything you can give.

cheers!

- crashable studios -

Gabe - 04 June 2013 03:23 PM

Good thing that you pointed out it’s a sierra-lucasarts-style-pointandclick-adventure
otherwise we’ll never know.

Yeah, we wanted to let people know that’s the “vibe” we’re shooting for. Thanks for checkin’ it out!

I wouldn’t give them any grief for how they are advertising the game. It is smart of them to do it this way, IMO. There is no “adventure game” filter on Kickstarter, and it is often hard to locate adventure games on the site. Anything that will help these kinds of games succeed on Kickstarter, I support. Advertising the game this way helps ensure that the right kinds of people notice the project.

I wish this game lots of luck, and I will be backing shortly!!

Not sure I’ve ever seen such an unnecessary cash-grab of an adventure game Kickstarter before.  Why on earth does someone need $10,000 to make an AGS game that looks about the average freeware level?  Why not release a small free game to show off some talent and get people interested rather than try to make a quick buck?

OneFlesh - 05 June 2013 05:01 AM

Not sure I’ve ever seen such an unnecessary cash-grab of an adventure game Kickstarter before.  Why on earth does someone need $10,000 to make an AGS game that looks about the average freeware level?  Why not release a small free game to show off some talent and get people interested rather than try to make a quick buck?

This project looks commercial level to me, and it takes A LOT of time to do all the programming, art and animation. A 10K budget is really nothing.

I would interested to know, though, what sorts of projects they have already completed.

Maybe they could release a demo?

Quest1 - 05 June 2013 05:34 AM

I would interested to know, though, what sorts of projects they have already completed.

It says it’s their first game on the Kickstarter page - that’s why it looks so greedy. 

Check out some of the great work on the adventuregamestudio.co.uk website to see the sorts of things hobbyists have done for free because of their love of the genre and desire to actually improve their gamemaking skills.  I’d happily contribute for some of those guys to have the time to work on longer/expanded versions of some of those games; not for anyone who hasn’t even tried at all to show they know anything at all about game design.

I don’t think “greedy” is the right word at all. A lot of time goes into the art, animation and programming, and expecting someone to do it all for free is really asking a bit much. We have been lucky that many have given us freeware, but now with Kickstarter we can fund new studios and make it so that, hopefully, game development time is much shorter. A new development team would be crazy not to take advantage of Kickstarter and the many gamers who want to support new talent. Maybe this campaign hasn’t convinced you to back them, but to insult them for using Kickstarter to jump start their new studio (which is kind of the point of Kickstarter) seems a bit unfair.

Perhaps they will have a demo at a later date.

Quest1 - 05 June 2013 07:30 AM

A lot of time goes into the art, animation and programming, and expecting someone to do it all for free is really asking a bit much.

Plenty of people write novels or make music for free - if they’re good, they get publishers (or a fanbase now, thanks to Kickstarter ) to pay them to do something that’s worthy.  Being expected to get a big payday to make a first attempt seems very entitled.

While I support the idea that anyone should be able to make an attempt with a Kickstarter, this project really seems to be several steps away from being something that I could see being successful.  As someone else pointed out, this game (at least from an art standpoint) looks decidedly worse than a lot of freeware AGS games.  I’m of the opinion that you really need to be able to step it up if you’re going to try and get people to pay you for your work.  This really seems to me like a case of trying to run before you learn how to walk.

Still, I wish them luck in their endeavors.  If the kickstarter is successful, I hope they can deliver what their supporters are expecting.

Lambonius - 05 June 2013 04:43 PM

As someone else pointed out, this game (at least from an art standpoint) looks decidedly worse than a lot of freeware AGS games.

It actually looks decidedly better than most freeware AGS games (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/allgames/ ).

Iznogood - 05 June 2013 03:28 PM

I think i would like to know a bit more about what kind of story it will be, before i finally make up my mind. Perhaps some updates will contain more information?

I agree. They can definitely get this funded, but I think they will have to work for it and answer the concerns.

Quest1 - 05 June 2013 08:40 PM

It actually looks decidedly better than most freeware AGS games (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/allgames/ ).

Only if your standards for art quality are really low.  There are literally dozens of freeware AGS games that look significantly more professional than this.

Note: I said “a lot of,” not “most.”  I agree there are a ton of shitty looking freeware AGS games.  But there are also a lot of really high quality ones, too.