next »

[Paul Eres]

I'm pretty sure there are no strings, besides the things I mentioned -- that you won't get patches for future updates to the game, and that it can only be installed during this time period, and afterwards you can't install it again.

[Inane]

Ah, quite awesome! Sorry to say I never scraped up the cash for it before.

[Inane]

ARRRRRRRRGH. DAMN FETUS! How the hell do I beat this steam-shooting fetus guy? I've tried 4 or 5 times, never got him below half his health.

[Paul Eres]

Because I'm almost falling asleep, instead of a direct reply I'm just going to refer you to the appropriate thread on the game's forum:

http://studioeres.com/forums/index.php?topic=113.0

[Alex May]

Use the sleeping dragon!  :D

[Inane]

Dude. I love this game. Chapter 5's story really got me down though, I feel like a bad person. Just got into chapter 6.
Great fuck'n job, Rinkuhero. I'll definitely be buying once there's more in the 'official' version.
If ya' want to do an interview with us TIGsourcians, just give me the werd.

[sega]

Uh oh.  I guess this means I shouldn't be skipping text like I have been.

[Paul Eres]

Thanks, Inane. As long as the interview is by email I'll be happy to do it, the last two interviews I've done (one about Immortal Defense) were via IM/IRC and over those I felt as if I didn't have enough time to word my answers the way I would have wanted to word them. My email's rinkuhero at gmail.

Yeah sega, anyone who skips the story is really missing the point, because the game's so story-centric; it'd be like skipping the story in Xenogears or Final Fantasy 6 and just enjoying the battles.

[sega]

it'd be like skipping the story in Xenogears or Final Fantasy 6 and just enjoying the battles.

Ah, that's why I don't play RPGs much anymore.  I think the game part should be enough .  And so many RPGs expect you to go through unfun grinding and random battles hoping to progress the story eventually.  That's not a good enough motivation for me.  I should want to play because it's fun.  But so you know, just the game part of your game is doing the job for me so far.  I'm going to start over based on Inane's advice though.

So you know what style I'm coming from, I really prefer my game stories to be based on actions, and to be left up to interpretation.  I'm not too wild about being spoon-fed screens of text.  But there are exceptions.

[Paul Eres]

That's understandable, people have different styles of play and not all games appeal to all people; I'm just saying to keep in mind that what most people praise the most about ID and remember the most after they're done is the story.

If you don't normally care about stories and don't have interest in good stories then getting what fun you can out of the game makes sense, but I've never really known anyone who had never in their life been caught up in a storyline, I think it's basic to our nature, and it really disappoints me when a game doesn't have a story. I don't play games for their stories, and I believe games should be centered around their central gameplay mechanic, but without a story a game seems hollow and empty to me.

[moi]

I've just finished it and I must say I loved it, definitely one of the best indie games I've played.
I was intrigued by the tale about the king carrying a torch and walking to a city. Could you tell a bit more about it?
I'm pretty sure it's a metaphor but I don't understand it, it sounds almost as if it a metaphor for a physic law or something like that. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it?
I've been promoting the game on a few forums BTW. Too bad the tower defense genre seems a bit overcrowded right now.

[Paul Eres]

Thanks thanks ^_^

The writer of the game wrote that part; I can guess what it meant but it'd be more accurate for me to ask him to explain what he meant next time he's online and then paste that here or get him to sign up on this forum.

[Inane]

GOD some of these levels are hard to get 100 percent on. Like the first one with those damned squids... DAMN YOU SQUIDS!

[glambourine]

Okay, here's the explanation of the king/torch story (as much as I remember of it):

It's about Nietzschean eternal recurrence and the consequences of actions.  In Nietzsche's cosmology, eternity means the everlasting repetition of events.  Since you have to live through what you do over and over again, eternally, you should live in a way that you personally approve of.  If you lie, cheat, or steal, you'll feel the guilt and exhiliration of that forever.  If you build something, you'll feel the strain yet pride of building that forever.

The metaphor went along with the game pretty well, since you choose to defend something early on and have to do it forever: the city is eternally destroyed and eternally regenerates, and the old king becomes the new king.  It also owes a lot to Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities", which I highly, highly recommend.

[moi]

You don't see that sort of things often in an indie game, do you?