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[seregrail7]

From the creator and co-creator of Gibbage comes Ben There, Dan That!, an adventure game following the story of the two titular characters.

Very much in the vein of old Lucas Arts adventures you'll be barraged with witty dialogue from the off and right up until the end. The graphical style works great, all scribbles and out of the lines colouring in, fitting perfectly with the game's laid back, non-serious tone.

One thing it doesn't share in common with the Lucas Arts adventure of yore is the mind numbingly difficult and obscure puzzles. Every puzzle in the game will be solved without the need of trying everything with and on everything, it's all very logical. So even if you're rubbish at Adventure games you should be able to get through this one easily enough.

Best of all, this title is completely free and can be downloaded from Dan's newly launched Zombie Cow website right here.

Happy Adventuring.

[gummikana]

I played it a little while and it surprisingly fun. The "This is where adventure games died" -joke had me LOLling!

The biggest issue I have with the game is that it hides the mouse cursor every time somebody says something. It's really fucking annoying. It makes all the jokes and dialog seem like the annoying kind instead of funny kind. The Lucasarts adventure games didn't do that. They only hid the mouse cursor when there was a cut-scene or special animation...

[gummikana]

Also just to make this thread a bit more interesting to the casual observer.

[thezombiecow]

The biggest issue I have with the game is that it hides the mouse cursor every time somebody says something. It's really fucking annoying. It makes all the jokes and dialog seem like the annoying kind instead of funny kind. The Lucasarts adventure games didn't do that. They only hid the mouse cursor when there was a cut-scene or special animation...

Hello! This concerned me, because I don't remember this happening in LucasArts games whatsoever. I started a thread about it, asking top men if this is what happened (well, Ben's a pointy-clicky expert) and so far no-one remembers that happening. Have we misunderstood what you were getting at, or are we wrong?? Anyone?

Glad you liked one of our jokes, though. Let me know how you get on with the rest of it

[captainbinky]

The biggest issue I have with the game is that it hides the mouse cursor every time somebody says something. It's really fucking annoying.

Hmmm... It makes sense to me to hide the cursor since the conversations are blocking - i.e. you can't click on another object or character during conversations. Attempting to do so would simply click through the dialogue.

To me, displaying a cursor during these moments would be more annoying since cursor == interaction, therefore you would start clicking around mid-conversation and end up missing humourous / important dialogue and then end up having to re-trigger the conversation in order to read it all.

The compromise is maybe using an hourglass cursor, but I don't really see the distinction between an hourglass cursor and no cursor, they both mean that interactions are temporarily disabled.

One thing for definite though, I don't see how a cursor disappearing is that annoying really but I guess it's the little things that wind people up differently

CB

[gummikana]

First of all, I have to say that I might have come on a bit too strong. I really like the game and the jokes are really well written. I'm an old Lucasarts adventure game fan and I think you guys captured the feeling of the games really well.

I think I was a bit misunderstood. What I meant was that when you look at an object or try to interact with an object, the characters usually say something to respond. Like the generic "I can't use that with *insert_item_here*". This was the type of dialog that I was referring to.

So when you try to do something and characters respond with a witty dialog, but the game hides the mouse cursor I get the feeling that I (as a player) have no control over the game. This is especially annoying when you get the same response twice in a row. I know I can click my way through the dialog, but for me it was still the biggest turn off in the game.

Anyway here's proof that old Lucasarts' adventure games don't behave like that:


(Btw. Dan, I'm glad to see that you're back making indie games. I was wondering a little while ago what had happened to you. I loved Gibbage! )

[thezombiecow]

I think I was a bit misunderstood. What I meant was that when you look at an object or try to interact with an object, the characters usually say something to respond. Like the generic "I can't use that with *insert_item_here*". This was the type of dialog that I was referring to.

Hmm. That's really weird. So what happens if you try to interact with something mid-dialogue? It just stops and moves on?

It's not something I've coded specifically myself, it's something built into AGS I think so it never even occurred to me to do anything differently...!

Is it something that happened in SCUMM games but not later games like S&M or Full Throttle? I'll get Ben to do some 'research' and play them through again

(Btw. Dan, I'm glad to see that you're back making indie games. I was wondering a little while ago what had happened to you. I loved Gibbage! )

Thanks, I'm glad I am, too. Exciting times!

[gummikana]

Hmm. That's really weird. So what happens if you try to interact with something mid-dialogue? It just stops and moves on?

Yeah, it just stops and then moves on... I can't remember how S&M and Full Throttle worked, but I have a feeling it was the same way. (My S&M and Full Throttle CD's are at my parents place, so I can't check them out right now).

I did some researching and I found out that the mouse cursor is still there in Ben There, Dan That!. It's just hidden. And you can get it to show up again, if you move your invisible cursor up so that the inventory bar opens up and then down again. After that you have a cool little half-invisible cursor while the characters are responding!

Anyway I'm happy to know that I managed to get both Dan and CaptainBinky to join up for TIGS' forums. I hope you guys stay and hang around.

[thezombiecow]

Hmm. It might be nice if it's a relatively-simple hack to do, I'll look into it. I can appreciate that being forced into watching dialogue could be a bit pissy...

Thanks

[thezombiecow]

As someone just pointed out on my forums:

"In BTDT it looks like the cursor disappears pretty much anytime there's dialogue. Which is great, because then I know when you're done yammering or just put in a pause for, like, effect, or something."

Which is an important point; there's a lot of pauses for comic timing etc in the game. It's a tricky one...

Making games is sometimes complicated.

[bateleur]

Making games is sometimes complicated.

And in fact that seems to be what's needed here: more complication.

Because really there are two types of character speech. There's the kind where the character is engaged in conversation, cannot do anything else and therefore the cursor should be hidden. And then there's the kind where the character is making some incidental remark, possibly even addressing the player. In which case the cursor should stay shown.

[Cymon]

Eh, I just beat the game and it didn't stop me being the way it is.

Best moment, tho, was right at the beginning. The lucas arts chalk outline in the floor.

[Farbs]

I went in to work on Sunday, started procrastinating, and played this game right through. The irony was strong that day.

Anyhow, I've been meaning to send a gratz. This game is shit hot. If the average adventure game was even half as good as this back in the late 90s the genre might not have imploded.