Amateur To Commercial
Independant adventure developers start earning
Foreword
The latest fad for amateur adventure developers seems to be to release their games for profit, rather than as freeware over the internet or similar. It wasn't that long ago that Prelusion Games released "Gilbert Goodmate". Very few people had heard about them, and their game was much sought after once it was announced. Only to get a barrage of mixed reviews, it was quite a shock for Prelusion, as indie adventure developers to get such poor feedback.
Lately, I noticed several other games that are being made by indie adventure developers. Are they being too ambitious?
Roger Foodbelly
Atle Ragnar JarnĘs and his team from AdventurePit recently began work on a game named Roger Foodbelly. "Roger Foodbelly wakes up, and he'll be told that his enemy Boris Beard has kidnapped the daughter of "Lady of the woods" who's a kind witch. Roger's goal is to rescue her, and defeat Boris." The game, which rumour has it is having art tips from Bill Tiller is said to feature quality MP3 music, excellent background and character art and animations and full speech. However, there's currently been very little sign of this. Another worrying fact, is that the makers of Roger Foodbelly started off by saying they'd sell the game for $5, but the latest rumour suggests this has risen up to $60.
Gilbert Goodmate looked good when it was in development, but we haven't even seen anything of Roger Foodbelly yet, the RF website isn't up yet, there's no demo available and no screenshots, yet we're being told it could be sold for as much as or more than any other commercial game. Is this wise? We'll have to wait for the demo and see! The game is being made with AGS and has a team of about four people. The game is to be 16bit 640x480 graphics, the same as many standard adventure games are these days. Is AdventurePit's game's plot perhaps a little to cliché? It's all a question waiting and seeing how the players react.
It has now been stated that the game will cost $20.
Fatman Adventures
Mike Doak, (of Old School Productions) has been working his backside off for the past couple of months on his LEC style point and click adventure. Mike, who has dedicated tha past couple of years creating freeware point and click adventures with AGS is soon to release a game he hopes will help encourage him start a business - to make professional point & click adventures. "This is what I want to do later in life" says Doak, and who can blame him. But how will his game do once it's released?
Mike doesn't intend to make millions, he's not even selling the game for very much, no more than $14.99 (plus shipping). He says this price may even go down. "How is someone supposed to create a great adventure game knowing that his hard work and effort will go unrewarded? Creating a commercial adventure game of any quality takes a lot of time and effort and sucks up all your free time. I would know I'm creating one. I plan on charging $14.99 + shipping and I have been pouring my heart and soul into it, because some day I would like to do this for a living. But from the sounds of things that maybe quite impossible if everyone wants something for nothing." Mike says.
Fatman Adventures is an LEC style game, in 320x200 res mode. Mike has always been fond of this lower resolution, but as many of you may be aware, there hasn't been an adventure game release in this resolution for years. Does that mean people may not buy his game? We don't think so, Fatman is a comical spooof of Batman, and has all the elements that'll make you remember DOTT and other LEC classics when you play it. Perhaps something so retro is what the industry needs again. There's undoubtedly hundreds of people out there dying to play an adventure game that's so similar, (yet in many ways so very different) to the old classics. Mike promises a demo soon, and a website also.
Sherlock Holmes & The Curse Of The Mummy
In early August, FrogWares Games released their demo of Sherlock Holmes & The Curse Of The Mummy, a new first person point and click made by these indie adventure developers. The game, according to the manufacturer, is to contain 5 levels in over 35 very differently designed areas. There are more than 7 (?) - which means - perhaps 8? - animated characters and many animations. One can collect or use more than 100 objects and 30 puzzles with different degree of difficulty must be solved. The designers indicate an average game length of 20 hours.
20 hours of gameplay doesn't seem like an awful lot for a commercial first person adventure, does it? However, FrogWares gurantee us that we'll enjoy it. The problem is, will this game ever make it to the shelves or internet distribution - there has been some concern over the licensing of "Sherlock Holmes" and whether they'll get away with it.
After the release of the demo, (screenshot on the left) there were several issues raised by the players to the developers. "Was it just me or did anyone else find this thing blurry as hell? I was getting a headache. The guys voice was horrible. Not much else to say, except that I won't be looking foreward to this one." one player said, another stating "I got eyeache and motion sickness or something...".
But don't let that put you off, because the team are undergoing some changes to the game, replacing some of the voices and working generally on improving it. Some of the players agreed and said, "I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's Sherlock Holmes. And it's an adventure game. And that's good enough for me. It's not like the final product is guaranteed to be just like the demo; maybe with enough feedback they'll consider changing the voice. I wasn't bothered by the slight blurriness, though.".
It's currently uncertain as to how much they plan to sell their game, but if you're going to ECTS you'll be able to meet them and possibly offer to be the team's publisher, which is their main reason for going.
Conclusion
So there you have it. A bunch of games that we could see on the shelves, or if not, being distributed over the internet for a price. But will people pay?
"If you produce a full-length, good quality adventure game I'd be willing to pay about 20 quid. I'd definitely have to see a demo, though, to see how good it was."
"I think for a quality and lenghty amateur adventure 20$ would be a fair price (that's the money for which you can buy great Humongous adventures for kids (Freddy the Fish, Put-Put, etc.) in shops- with box and manuals)."
"I think I could stretch to £20, maybe £30 if the game seemed really good."
"I doubt I would pay full price for an amateur adventure. Unless it got good reviews and had great artwork. I just might go as high as 29.99. I've looked into things it seems that the cost of bandwidth on a web site is MORE expensive than the cost of creating the cd. Especially when you start getting the size a high resolution game could become."
"If it's CMI quality, then hell yeah I'd pay it! But let's think for a minute. It took a big team a couple of years to make CMI. And they were doing it full time. Do you have the means and dedication for this? Just make sure you realise what you're getting yourself into. On the other hand, I'm sure a lot more people would be willing to put up 15$, knowing that they are supporting an amateur, and independant product."
I'm positive we're going to see more independant adventure developers selling their games in the near future. These three could very well be a good start. But there's no need to worry, there are still hundreds of freeware adventure games being created, so we'll never run short of them. It often takes someone very determined to create an adventure they wish to sell commercially, so perhaps we should accept it and support them as best we can. Afterall, it'll sure show people that the genre is alive!
m0ds
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