Next Blackwell game: Blackwell Epiphany

[amylucio]

I'm really excited for this game, I want to test it out!

[Kashi]

Count me among the excited crowd! I can't wait for the witty banter again ( I have played all the games at least twice and I spend forever switching between Joey and Rosangela when I can just to hear the different lines).
Of course the new plot twists will be amazing too, I am certain of it. You have my best vibes for this!

[immosi]

"Epiphany will be the last Blackwell game"- I really hope not to hear these words.

[Yinsho]

I know I'm reviving a bit of an old thread here, but I just now registered on here so I could come and say: The Blackwell games are some of the best adventure games I've played.

I'm playing through Deception right now, and I'm loving everything about it.
Saying this prior to beating Deception, so far Convergence has been my favorite entry. It took so much from the first two games and tied it all together.
And I loved the fact that the Minetta, Joseph Mitchell, and Joe Gould were all real! That caught me off guard in the extras menu, and I had to go look them up to make sure.

And the Joe Gould painting on the wall! The "real life" painting was taken down from its place in the Minetta. Nobody there seems to know where it is now, so I've decided that Rosa has it.

Having only recently learned who Joe Gould is, that makes me frown. I wonder what could have happened to it.

I'm curious, how long does it take to write the story for a game and do you type it as a script or different system?

I'm curious about this too. :3

Sorry for this post being so long, especially for a post bringing a dead thread back to life.
I guess I just created some internet work for Rosa and Joey, huh? 

[DaveGilbert]

I know I'm reviving a bit of an old thread here, but I just now registered on here so I could come and say: The Blackwell games are some of the best adventure games I've played.

No worries at all! And thanks.

I'm playing through Deception right now, and I'm loving everything about it.
Saying this prior to beating Deception, so far Convergence has been my favorite entry. It took so much from the first two games and tied it all together.
And I loved the fact that the Minetta, Joseph Mitchell, and Joe Gould were all real! That caught me off guard in the extras menu, and I had to go look them up to make sure.

Heh. Gould and Mitchell are fascinating people. I didn't have to do very much to make them interesting. I was obsessed with the book "Joe Gould's Secret" for a long time. There's also movie based on it with Stanley Tucci and Ian Holmes.

And the Joe Gould painting on the wall! The "real life" painting was taken down from its place in the Minetta. Nobody there seems to know where it is now, so I've decided that Rosa has it.

Having only recently learned who Joe Gould is, that makes me frown. I wonder what could have happened to it.

I think the original owner of the place nabbed it before the bar was sold. Nobody working at the bar now seems to even be aware that the painting existed in the first place, which is just sad.

I'm curious, how long does it take to write the story for a game and do you type it as a script or different system?

I'm curious about this too. :3

It always depends! Legacy and Unbound took me about four months each. It's hard to tell how long Convergence took, since I made Emerald City Confidential in the middle of it. Deception took about a year. I've been working on Epiphany full time for about seven months so far. It's about 80% scripted/written. It usually depends on how focused I can be. This year with our baby being born, trying to find a new place, selling our old one, etc - I've been MUCH less focused than usual.

Sorry for this post being so long, especially for a post bringing a dead thread back to life.

Not a problem at all.

[Yinsho]

This year with our baby being born, trying to find a new place, selling our old one, etc - I've been MUCH less focused than usual.

Oh, congratulations.

[Yinsho]

I just finished Deception, and it's not tied with Convergence as my favorite. ;A;
The ending was so great. It was tense, and there was so much going on.
And what gets said right at the very end is a great setup for the next episode.

The only problem I have is that this time, I didn't get a code for any extras menus or anything. The game closed itself after the ending, so I wanted to ask if it was supposed to do that, or if it maybe crashed. Or maybe Deception just doesn't have an extras menu? o3o

[DaveGilbert]

It does, but it's tied up with the commentary mode. So if you replay the game with commentary on, you'll see all the extras as clickable icons on the screen while you play.

[NicolasBahamondes]

It does, but it's tied up with the commentary mode. So if you replay the game with commentary on, you'll see all the extras as clickable icons on the screen while you play.

Sounds like a VALVe Commentary Mode. :F

[Yinsho]

It does, but it's tied up with the commentary mode. So if you replay the game with commentary on, you'll see all the extras as clickable icons on the screen while you play.

Oh, okay. Cool. :3 So it's like the commentary mode in Primordia.

Also, my last post was supposed to say that Deception is NOW* time with Convergence for my favorite. :v
I hit the wrong key.

[SirPrimalform]

Hey Dave, I was wondering are you sticking with the mixed-resolution thing for Epiphany?

Gemini Rue, Resonance and Primordia run at 320x240(or 320x200) and therefore I can use the x3 scaler to fit them nicely to my screen, but the Blackwell games all run at 640x480 for some reason even though the actual game art is clearly 320x240. This stops me from fitting the games to my screen quite as well because even the x2 scaler is too big (1280x960 is too tall for my monitor) and 640x480 is a bit on the small side.

Also, the mixture of resolutions was pretty jarring in the first three Blackwells (even when it was mostly just the fonts) but having just started Deception I'm finding the high resolution portraits even more jarring. Is this the direction that Epiphany is heading too or is it going to be more like Resonance and Primordia (since they're more recent)?

Sorry if I'm being rude, you obviously have reasons for the resolutions you pick, I'm just curious about the direction Epiphany is headed (the images in the OP of this thread aren't loading for some reason).

[Rissa]

You can see more pictures up at the AGS-forum:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=47682.0
Maybe this will already answer your question, SirPrimalform.

Dave, is there a chance that you'll upload these here, too? These pics are just too well done not to show them here at your own place, too! I really like the character portraits, way better than the ones in Deception.

[DaveGilbert]

Funny that those pictures weren't loading here! I adjusted the URLs and they seem to be working now.

I am aware of the "issues" regarding the Deception portraits and we're going low-res this time. :-D Check the first post. And Rissa - you are so right. I should upload them to this forum.

[SirPrimalform]

Ah yeah, it's looking great! I do really like Ben Chandler's sprite work and the portraits and text blend much better now. Not only that but it looks likely I'll be able to play more or less full screen, hooray!

[Sunaia]

I would really like to say that I am beyond crazy about the Blackwell games!
I have played them all through within a week and right now (about a month later) I am playing them again. It is a lot of fun to play them twice as you know the (current) story and can relate to the earlier games more easily that way.
They're such interesting games and I just love the storyline and puzzling 'quests' for Rosa! That and the fact that I am ever so amused by the humourous conversations and remarks make these games so great.
Never have I been so keen on a game before!
So when I found out the next one was in the make... I was overjoyed
I hope you'll be alright working on this *and* having your baby right now.
And speaking of which, congrats!