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[Igor Hardy]

@Gnome

Ad.1 To be honest I wouldn't like any more hotspots in the game. Conversation choices - maybe. I kept those that I felt were meaningful.

Ad.2 The infinite variety of uses the fish had was meant as a "monkey-wrench" kind of joke and was also meant to make the player love his evil conscience even more. But I admit it somewhat spoils the serious puzzle-solving side of it .

Ad.3 The lamp puzzle is mentioned by quite a few players as the only puzzle they had problems with. I still haven't fully figured out why it turned out so difficult for some.

@Sir Raptor

Nice to see you so confused by the story . I hope you don't want me to now spoil your experience by explaining it all?

@willbefast

Thanks very much for all the positive comments, as well as feedback and criticisms, but could you hide the puzzle and storyline spoilers in your post like Sir Raptor did? They might ruin the plot for new players.

- it took me a while to figure out the the inventory is accessed by pointing the cursor at the bottom of the screen.

I tried to make it as noticeable as possible - when Bob tells you to pay him at the very beginning of the game, the inventory at the bottom of the screen blinks at the player for a few seconds. Also the readme mentions how to access the inventory.

- it's hard to "point" at things precisely with the fish.

Yeah, sorry about that - the fish item has a rather irregular shape. But like all items it has this little pink pixel that shows you exactly which area on the screen are you pointing at. And the best indication if you're correctly pointing at a hotspot is the fact if its label showed up or not.

- most of the lines are very characterful, but "I'm rubbing them together but they won't stick" is VERY generic.

A total lack of generic responses is never my goal, or a feature that impresses me that much as a player. Secret of Monkey Island 2 is still one of my favorite adventure games ever.

Is this intentional or a glitch?

Intentional.

Anyway, expecting this to earn you riches and frame - lucky bastard (but you deserve it)  

Cheers! So far we've made the astonishing sum of 0,00$ in donations... But I'll be fully content as long new players will keep coming to play the game, and old ones won't forget about it.

@jotapeh

Good to hear that trailer manages to win people over.

[wilbefast]

I "fixed" the post, perhaps fittingly. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me 

[Igor Hardy]

I "fixed" the post, perhaps fittingly. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me  

You've turned hiding spoilers into true art form.

[Gnome]

@Gnome

Ad.3 The lamp puzzle is mentioned by quite a few players as the only puzzle they had problems with. I still haven't fully figured out why it turned out so difficult for some.

To be honest, it wasn't that difficult to figure out (if you've played enough adventure games), but I still don't understand why it made sense. Felt a bit like a Myst puzzle to be honest. Still, what a lovely lovely game.

[Igor Hardy]

Actually the puzzle is more of a homage to Monkey Island map puzzles - especially popular in Tales of Monkey Island, but also to be found in all the others.

[Igor Hardy]

Hey, if anyone would consider voting for Snakes in this year's IndieDB's comp, we will be most grateful:

http://www.indiedb.com/games/snakes-of-avalon




Also, GameZebo seemed to really like the game a short while ago. Have a read, if you're not yet convinced to try it.

[wilbefast]

Hey, if anyone would consider voting for Snakes in this year's IndieDB's comp, we will be most grateful:

http://www.indiedb.com/games/snakes-of-avalon

Hell yeah :-)

[Igor Hardy]

Thanks for the vote. In the end Snakes didn't get into the Top 100, but I'd like to think at least it was close.

[wilbefast]

I think you deserved at least a top 100 - quite surprised actually 

Didn't get it either  Course, my game isn't nearly as awesome as Snakes. Yet

[Igor Hardy]

Thanks. I thought we had a fairly good chance to get into the Top100, but I guess things like the fact I started an account on IndieDB only very recently and I'm not known for any other game (yet!) worked against it.

On the other hand Alex van der Wijst, who created Snakes with me, has made some great and highly regarded point & click adventure games in the past, like The Winter Rose, Charlie Foxtrot and The Galaxy of Tomorrow, or Besieged. But he doesn't invest time in publicity and spreading the games around the net, so I fear his work isn't that well remembered anymore.

[wilbefast]

That's the trouble isn't it? The internet is a big place, and if you're not at least a little bit of a -excuse the French- media whore, you'll slip through the cracks. Well, it seems that way sometimes. You look at Wolfire games: they may have some clever programmers and artists, but the reason they're so successful is that one of the team does PR full time and isn't afraid to make a fool of himself in front of the camera. No offence to John, quite the opposite in fact, but you see what I'm getting at.

It's difficult when you're working alone to find the time to sell yourself. You really need to at least be on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube (this big 3) and then you should participate in a few indie websites (tigsource, indieDB). And finally, you need to find time to spam online publications. There's a tipping point somewhere I'm sure, but when you're nobody it's a bit of an uphill battle.

Or perhaps it's better, to just make your games as good as you can and forget about publicity... but if that worked, would big companies be putting billions of dollars into marketing when they could be making better productions? The free market model assumes that the consumer has perfect knowledge, but nobody does.

Sorry about the rant I do think Snakes is worth a lot more interest than it's been getting though.

[Igor Hardy]

I think that's a good rant about indie game PR realities. Quality and originality doesn't necessarily make your game widely visible and desirable - it's not like the players are short on things to spend their free time on.

However, small-team independent development still seems like a totally fair deal to me. You retain full freedom and ownership, and don't need to view the games as "products" (if you don't want to). Sometimes a game can even catch on and spread naturally (largely due to a lucky designer/audience chemistry).

I guess there aren't that many people that are playing and discussing Snakes, but I'm still satisfied with its reception. It got a decent number of reviews - all very positive, including a 4-star one at Gamezebo. It also ended up on the newest PC Gamer covermount - surely a sign it's a well-liked game.

[wilbefast]

If it makes you feel any better, only one of my games has every been reviewed anywhere, and that was by a friend 

Still, I haven't made anything on a par with snake. Yet 

[Igor Hardy]

Happy holidays, everyone! Here's a little something we've created for people who want an additional memento to remind them of our game:



Includes such contemporary hits as Blood Blood Blood, Evil Fishes, Life Flashes by Before The Alcoholics Eye and The Salty Aftertaste of Revenge. As well as the most controversial song of them all - Girls Are Bitches by Ashley Johnston

Most of the music was created by Thomas Regin known for his soundtracks to Dave Gilbert's Blackwell games and Emerald City Confidential. Overall, almost 30 minutes of suspense, jazz and other kinds of horror.

Grab it before the fish melts!

[Igor Hardy]

Here are 3 interviews we did about Snakes of Avalon. Each one is very different.

The interviews feature both of us - that is myself and Alex van der Wijst (The Winter Rose, Charlie Foxtrot and The Galaxy of Tomorrow). And Thomas Regin - the composer - shows up for a second too.

on Captain D's Blog
on Cultural Zest

and on The Adventure Game Studio Blog

That last one is the latest one (posted 2 days ago).