WadjetEye Games 50% off everything! This weekend only!

[ThunderPeel2001]

For anyone who has yet to grab a slice of Dave Gilbert Indie Game adventure goodness, now's your chance. This weekend only he's having a 50% sale on all his games!

http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/

Hardy Dev have some reviews which some may find useful:

• The Blackwell Legacy - First part of the Blackwell Trilogy
  
• Blackwell Unbound - Second part
  
• The Blackwell Convergence - Third part
  

I personally would also recommend the excellent Shivah.

Sale ends on Monday! Just enter "labor" into the Coupon box on the checkout screen.

Update: Emerald City Confidential isn't included because it's not sold by him BUT! It is only $9 on Steam at the moment, I believe... which is better than half price I think!

Edited September 4, 2009 by ThunderPeel2001

[Noyb]

Ooh, I've been meaning to pick up the Blackwell games. Nice find!

[SignorSuperdouche]

I've been meaning to get The Shivah and Emerald City Confidential for a while now. Thanks for the heads up.

[toblix]

Blargh, I have to buy them one at a time?

[Noyb]

I was able to buy multiple games at once by putting a 1 in the quantity field for each game in the main store screen, and then clicking the checkout button at the bottom of the screen, not the individual buy buttons next to each title. Pretty unintuitive. Must have been the first puzzle in the metagame.

[Tanukitsune]

I already had all of them, even the Adventures of Fatman (which I bought just before Socko closed), except for Downfall, the other recommended game they have there....

I'd buy them on CD, but Plimus CDs are so bland and ugly, they have no cover art on it, so why bother?

[ThunderPeel2001]

Downfall got a pretty interesting review at HardyDev. Definitely made me want to play it...

http://hardydev.com/2009/07/10/downfall-review/

So we must now conclude. Does Downfall have faults? Undoubtedly. Some bugs need to be ironed out, the lack of voice-work is a real shame, and the game could easily be misunderstood for the majority of its play-time. Some combat sequences stumble, as do other attempts at action-style moments. But for those who stay the course, this is masterful storytelling at its absolute finest. And for all my typing, I have only hit the tip of the iceberg with regards to what will happen. Whole subplots have gone without mention here to ensure your unsullied enjoyment. Stephen King would be proud. In fact, I am proud. Indie gaming, I salute you, and shall never underestimate you again.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I was able to buy multiple games at once by putting a 1 in the quantity field for each game in the main store screen, and then clicking the checkout button at the bottom of the screen, not the individual buy buttons next to each title. Pretty unintuitive. Must have been the first puzzle in the metagame.

Ah! Well spotted... Here's the link for those who were struggling like me:

The WadjetEye Store

Pretty lame shopping system, but at least it's cheap

[toblix]

So I've played through The Blackwell Legacy and Blackwell Unbound, and I just started up the third (and last?) game, The Blackwell Convergence, and holy shit, this is like stepping into a time machine and going back to the awesome days of sweet 90s Sierra graphics. The two first games had passable graphics, but this one looks absolutely beautiful. It's low-res, but highly detailed, with fantastic shadowing and colours. Suddenly I pause to look at everything.

I don't know what caused the shift in graphics quality for the third game, but I hope it continues. I mean, look at this:

This is how adventure games should look.

[brkl]

I like my 320x240 games to look less blurry. These days people often do the levels in a higher resolution and then resize to the lower resolution. In a way it's smoother and prettier, but it's not very clear and it's not sharp.

[toblix]

I like my 320x240 games to look less blurry. These days people often do the levels in a higher resolution and then resize to the lower resolution. In a way it's smoother and prettier, but it's not very clear and it's not sharp.

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you talking about those images?

[brkl]

Yes. It's the anti-alias effect. Great to smooth out the edges of higher resolution graphics, but when used for such a low resolution it looks like you've smeared vaseline on your glasses.

[toblix]

Do you wear vaseline-smeared glasses or something? Those images are awesome.

[Chris]

Do you wear vaseline-smeared glasses or something? Those images are awesome.

I know what he means. The lines in those screenshots are quite blurry. They're antialiased to such a degree that in some cases objects seem to almost blur into the background around the edges.

[toblix]

Yeah, I also understand what he's talking about, but I don't see it. I mean, I see the antialiasing (which I guess I insinuated I didn't), but I don't think it hurts the graphics at all.

[Jayel]

they do look somewhat blurry - if you look at old lucasarts games for example they were careful to use anti-aliasing only on sloped edges to keep them crisp.

looks very appealing from afar though.

[Chris]

they do look somewhat blurry - if you look at old lucasarts games for example they were careful to use anti-aliasing only on sloped edges to keep them crisp.

looks very appealing from afar though.

That's what I always loved about the LucasArts pixel work. It looked like it had been designed for its resolution, rather than simply scaled down. Obviously in the case of the hand-painted backgrounds it HAD been scaled down, but it was already retouched in a very crisp way.

I don't mean to say that Blackwell Convergence stuff isn't attractive, but it does feel maybe one or two degrees too soft.

[toblix]

Well I think they're fabulous. I get a Simon the Sorcerer vibe from the first one, and a Police Quest III vibe from the second one. Maybe I'm just too in love with huge pixels to see clearly.

Anyway, anyone else play the Blackwell games? What did you think?

[toblix]

That's what I always loved about the LucasArts pixel work. It looked like it had been designed for its resolution, rather than simply scaled down. Obviously in the case of the hand-painted backgrounds it HAD been scaled down, but it was already retouched in a very crisp way.

Totally. I still think LucasArts made the best adventure games in every respect. It's like they were operating on a wholly different level of quality than anyone else. It's not like Sierra, Kyrandia, Simon the Sorcerer, Broken Sword are bad at all, but LucasArts really were the Valve of adventures.

[syntheticgerbil]

...Kyrandia...Simon the Sorcerer... are bad at all, but LucasArts really were the Valve of adventures.

I'd say these two series get really close and even tend to top a typical LucasArts background or animation many times, especially the earlier of both series and compared to the earlier of LucasArts, but in terms of constant quality throughout the years in terms of graphics, animation, and general creativity with good design, I don't think anyone had LucasArts topped.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Anyway, anyone else play the Blackwell games? What did you think?

I play 'em! I agree! Me likey.

[brkl]

Hey, I don't mean to critisize the art. It's terrific. It's more of a technical issue that I've noticed in other games too I'm trying to bring up.

[toblix]

Right, sorry for being all defensive about it. Do you know of other games that has this same style of art, though, since you mention there being others? I was really impressed with this, especially since the two previous games looked like this:

... which isn't bad, but more like the various amateur adventure games I've seen around. This last one really screamed pro at me, and I'd be interested to play any other games with the same background artists.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Wow, that IS a big difference. I'd forgotten how basic the first games look! You should check out Emerald City Confidential (if you haven't already), the quality is definitely on par with the images you posted. I just read it's $9 on Steam... if not, you can get it here for $9.99, too.

Edited September 15, 2009 by ThunderPeel2001

[toblix]

Uh, I posted that last one from my phone. Looking at it now, it's obviously being filtered. Let's see...