A Hardy Developer's Journal

Of late, the monthly adventure game studio competition or ‘MAGS’ has caught my eye. Participants take part my making a game with Chris Jones’s Adventure Game Studio engine in just one month – restricted by a specific theme set by the previous month’s winner. (more…)

Making games. Sometimes a hard task. Sometimes it is made to look like it’s not. What about trying to make again what’s already been made? Yes, this is an article about remakes. And it’s based on my HHGTG experiences.

But what is HHGTG (aka H2G2)? These are acronyms for ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. A book (and radio play) written in the early 80′s that became and still is a cult phenomenon for Science Fiction fans, very much like its author Douglas Adams. Shortly after the book, Douglas alongside Steve Meretzky, a programmer from Infocom, created a text adventure based on the book’s universe. One of the most successful and clearly one of the most remarkable games ever. (more…)

Patrik Spacek's (MISP's Captain Smirk) remade MI1 background from way back (click for more of his work)

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I haven’t written about Frantic Franko for quite a while, but it doesn’t mean my work on it doesn’t move forward at a crazy pace! I didn’t make it with the demo in May as originally intended, but it is pretty much ready now – just undergoing some testing. The big premiere is next week! It’s quite a large demo by my standards. It covers about 33% of the whole game, has both alternative puzzle solutions and special features not required to finish it. It also offers plenty of opportunity to get to know the main character – the grumpy psycho that he is. Hopefully the experience will be something truly memorable for the players. (more…)

Franko stands in the pale moonlight unaware of what awaits him

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Finally, there has come the moment that I was waiting for a very long time – I can start a production diary for my own adventure game! Not because I have just put together a loose concept or created the first artwork, no. It is the right moment to begin writing about the game because I have now finished a working version of one of three acts of the full project – to be tweaked and released soon (next month) as a WIP demo. So, while much much work still needs to be done, even on the demo, from this moment on there will be always  some solid virtual entity to refer to. In other words, Frantic Franko now lives! (more…)

There is progress to report. Lots of it. And I can back up my words with all kinds of progress bars, progress gauges and recorded line counts (currently at 15.06%) that are now available to see at the official website here and here. The important news is that from dozens of applicants we have now finally chosen an actor to play Bob (the guy dancing on the right). The lucky person gave a performance completely different to what we discussed for the character’s traits, but still somehow won us over. The second important news is that we have publicly released a sort of WIP or demo of a patch that gets your copy of Secret of Monkey Island 100% voiced (but you’ll be grateful only for the aforementioned 15%)! (more…)