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[Igor Hardy]

Hey drunken adventurers!

We would love to hear some feedback on story and puzzles for our new adventure game Snakes of Avalon!

Was chosen as one of 6 best freewares of September by PC Gamer UK.

Was one of the IndieGames.com Freeware Game Picks recently

And its currently one of the 3 featured games on GameJolt



Created by Igor Hardy, Alex van der Wijst and Thomas Regin

Snakes of Avalon is a dark comedy point & click adventure game about alcoholic incapacitation and people obsessed with murdering their other half. It mixes the style and atmosphere of Hitchcock suspense films with a surreal game world inspired by the most cult trippy movies.

Jack, a hopeless drunk, becomes an accidental witness to a nefarious murder plot. So what can he do about it being who he is?

Features a great suspense+jazz soundtrack by the award winning composer for Blackwell Convergence and Emerald City Confidential!

Download the full game here

for more details visit: http://snakes.hardydev.com/



A trippy teaser trailer from June:

[Evan Balster]

   Jolly good show.  We need more point and clicks around here.  Stay a while, will you?

[Igor Hardy]

Sure I'll stay. Especially if people will play my games.

Here's a vid from the beginning of Snakes as an additional encouragement:

[maxwell]

My power supply died while I was playing snakes of avalon! That is how hard it rocked.

[Igor Hardy]

My power supply died while I was playing snakes of avalon! That is how hard it rocked.

Thanks very much! If Snakes had a retail version we would put that quote on the box.

[Zaphos]

I played this when it was posted on indiegamer blog ... it's quite good I think!  Afraid I don't have much in the way of feedback besides 'I liked it' -- the only thing coming to mind is I was a bit confused by the way it seemed to loop around from the end to the beginning again.

[Igor Hardy]

Hey Jimmy! Well, you know how the entire game is very much about confusion and loopiness...

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it and played through to the end. If you'll think of any more comments about how it played, don't hesitate to tell me everything.

In the meantime, here are example reviews the game got so far:

http://www.wingdamage.com/review-snakes-of-avalon/

http://www.slightly-deranged.com/?page_id=1389
(this one is for a shorter, early version of the game)

[Igor Hardy]

Snakes of Avalon has just been featured in the newest choice of freewares on Adventure Gamers.

Also, if anyone would like to read some more player comments before deciding about trying Snakes for himself, I suggest having a look at the game's thread in the AGS forums.

There are many more great comments about the game scattered around, which I wish I could permanently stick to the game for everyone to see. For example, I really like this concise description of the game put on MetaFilter by someone with the nick jet_manifesto:

"In turns funny, sad, and bizzare"

[VomitOnLino]

Hey just checking in here to say I played the game yesterday in some downtime between work.

I think I took me a little bit over an hour to complete, without looking up any hints. (Which makes me proud! ) I guess that means your puzzles were well structured & understandable. I think the limited, not in a bad way, scope also helped.


Overall I quite liked it, I think the storytelling is quite good - especially so that it actually goes beyond classics like Monkey island and others, this partly comes down to the more adult-themed storyline (without just cheaping out with sex or gore), and that certain feeling of dread/uncertainty wether you are doing the right thing. I especially loved the "good conscience" and the time travel parts.

The ending, I found, was a wee bit corny, but still well done.

Graphically I ended up being so/so about the style, sometimes I felt that the slightly crude-ish character animations got in the way of immersion. This changed in ACT III, where it really came to its own and carried the creepy vibe of the game well. Maybe experiment with other artistic styles in the future? Note: I'm not saying "pixel art" here....

Overall a very good effort that I can easily recommend to my friends!
Looking forward to more games from you.... 

[Gnome]

As I've already told you dear Igor I really thought that Snakes of Avalon is both unique and excellent. After I finally publish my review on the thing, I'll get back to this very thread and try to be a bit more useful in my feed-back. Truth be said, just saying 'well done' isn't that constructive. Not that I have much more than that to add.

Anyway, welcome me to TIG Forums!

[Igor Hardy]

Big thanks for your feedback, VomitOnLino, end even bigger ones for recommending the game to your friends.

Good to hear what you liked, what you liked less, and that the puzzles worked out for you well.

As for graphics, the crude-ish style was both intentional and necessary - we didn't really have a lot of time to develop the game + I wanted the look to showcase the bar's ugliness and cheapness. Also, the graphic work was split between two people - I did the backgrounds (rather time-consuming without a tablet) and Alex did the animations.

In the end, I'd love the bar to be even more murky and discolored by filth, and the characters' faces even more twisted, but I'm very satisfied how it worked out given the time limitations we had.

Anyway, welcome me to TIG Forums!

Welcome to TIG Forums, Gnomey!

[Gnome]

Having already posted my (glowing) review of Snakes of Avalon, now is the time to come up with a few suggestions/gripes.

Here goes:

1. You could have added a few more clickable objects, a few more descriptions and a couple more dialog options. After all the gaming world is quite restricted and this would have made it even livelier.

2. I do believe that little fish is overused as a puzzle solver.

3. Didn't care much for the coloured lamps puzzle. I just did it due to having played far too many adventures. Never quite understood why it worked.

4. I HATE COCKROACHES. No, really.

[Sir Raptor]

I don't entirely see why using a fish three times makes it qualify as overused, but maybe it is considering the relatively small size of the game.

I will admit it; the game confused me. I was hoping that the questions would be resolved by the end, but after playing, I still don't understand how I was able to talk to my father and apparently save his marriage when he died while I was a kid. Or was the marriage I saved my own? Does that mean I died long before the events of the game? Great snap, this is confusing.

[wilbefast]

Hey, great game

Makes me want to go back and play the Chzo Mythos - there's something charming about adventure games. That is, once you've developed a tolerance for frustrating "clicking on everything with everything" situations. SOA avoids these for the most-part though, and the puzzles make sense in a "hallucinating alcoholic" sort of way. You really have to put yourself in Jack's shoes and think like a crazy person, which is a lot of fun and something that not many games do (apart from almost anything by Cactus).

I saw "Shutter Island" just a couple of days before playing this - it has a lot in common with the game. I like these kind of trippy... "stories" very much  

A few minor criticisms would be:
- it took me a while to figure out the the inventory is accessed by pointing the cursor at the bottom of the screen. Now that I think of it this is fairly standard adventure-game fair, but I'm not too familiar with them and it's not explained anywhere.
- it's hard to "point" at things precisely with the fish. There's nothing more annoying than spending 10 minutes trying to use a fish on a handbag, concluding that it can't be done, trying every combination of item of everything, giving up, consulting a walk-through and finding out that you were supposed to do what you were already doing  
- most of the lines ware very characterful, but "I'm rubbing them together but they won't stick" is VERY generic. I get the feeling I've heard that in several other games too, and I don't even play many adventure games.
- the "I'm not leaving while I can afford to stay" makes sense the first time, but subsequently doesn't really work, because Jack can't actually afford to stay.
- at the end of the game the bodies seem to be lying in the air. Is this intentional or a glitch?

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

PS - music and voice-work was great!

PPS - I felt very sad when the fish was eaten 

[jotapeh]

Heh, I really like the teaser vid. Unfortunately haven't quite found the time yet to try this out but it looks ace... it'll be on my list

[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.