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[The Cockatrice]

Ah fuck, The Cyanide & Happiness is just around 2 hours..wtf.. not be mean and I know it's a trilogy, supposedly, but thats just stupid af. What the fuck have they been doing for the last 3-4 years? It's going to be 18 euros for each game aka what, 40 euros for 6 hours of a point and click adventure? Rofl, fuck that, refunding it. Bunch of assholes. Their kickstarter is a scam.

 

[TripleSun]

Ah fuck, The Cyanide & Happiness is just around 2 hours..wtf.. not be mean and I know it's a trilogy, supposedly, but thats just stupid af. What the fuck have they been doing for the last 3-4 years? It's going to be 18 euros for each game aka what, 40 euros for 6 hours of a point and click adventure? Rofl, fuck that, refunding it. Bunch of assholes. Their kickstarter is a scam.

Damn. Saved me some money. Thanks man.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

20 bucks (when the launch sale expires) for 2 hours is... yikes. Seems like they're feeling it in the reviews, too.

Bit of a shame because I saw a friend streaming the start of it and although some of the jokes tended to drag on imo, I thought it looked pretty good overall.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Demo for Neurodiver is available now. Gonna be checking this out soon. Very excited for this game.

 

[Fuz]

Demo for Neurodiver is available now. Gonna be checking this out soon. Very excited for this game.

Any idea how the gameplay is? Steam videos tell NOTHING.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Any idea how the gameplay is? Steam videos tell NOTHING.

Just finished playing through the demo. Control wise it's standard 1st person point and click, everything is competent. There's a white outline around all interactable hotspots, so no pixel hunting, and the whole game can be controlled via mouse with optional keyboard shortcuts for opening your inventory and horizontal scroll.

The puzzles seem to be based around diving into people's memories and fixing corrupts memory fragments. The demo only goes through a very early tutorial-ish segment so all that consists of so far are simple inventory puzzles. I suspect there'll be more mechanics in the full game, though, because the trailer shows a part where you can select from various different abilities.

I really enjoyed the art and overall vibe of the game. The protagonist, ES88, has a lot more personality than the semi-blank slate character from 2064, the art is better (really expressive character portraits) and the writing is a lot less long winded. Seems like it's basically taking everything I liked about the first Read Only Memories and improving it all across the board. Looking forward to the full game.

 

[rkofan87]

Ah fuck, The Cyanide & Happiness is just around 2 hours..wtf.. not be mean and I know it's a trilogy, supposedly, but thats just stupid af. What the fuck have they been doing for the last 3-4 years? It's going to be 18 euros for each game aka what, 40 euros for 6 hours of a point and click adventure? Rofl, fuck that, refunding it. Bunch of assholes. Their kickstarter is a scam.

thanks i will get it when its all out and cheep.

 

[rkofan87]

Just finished playing through the demo. Control wise it's standard 1st person point and click, everything is competent. There's a white outline around all interactable hotspots, so no pixel hunting, and the whole game can be controlled via mouse with optional keyboard shortcuts for opening your inventory and horizontal scroll.

The puzzles seem to be based around diving into people's memories and fixing corrupts memory fragments. The demo only goes through a very early tutorial-ish segment so all that consists of so far are simple inventory puzzles. I suspect there'll be more mechanics in the full game, though, because the trailer shows a part where you can select from various different abilities.

I really enjoyed the art and overall vibe of the game. The protagonist, ES88, has a lot more personality than the semi-blank slate character from 2064, the art is better (really expressive character portraits) and the writing is a lot less long winded. Seems like it's basically taking everything I liked about the first Read Only Memories and improving it all across the board. Looking forward to the full game.

is there vo or just reading?

 

[Vampire On Titus]

is there vo or just reading?

Just reading atm but I assume the full game will have VA like the first one did (after a patch at least).

 

[rkofan87]

Just reading atm but I assume the full game will have VA like the first one did (after a patch at least).

thanks.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Played through a random ass game on a whim, Bubblegum Crash! 2034. It's an adventure game for the PC-Engine/Turbografx-16 based on the anime of the same name. It tells a separate story that takes place after the anime, or so I've read because I haven't watched the show. Honestly this game is nothing special. It's a pretty bog-standard traditional Japanese adventure, none of the puzzles frustrate but they're nothing to write home about and the story is very plain. For some reason, though, the game was still somewhat enjoyable to me lol. There's just enough retro anime charm to make the quick 3~ hour playtime a decent experience.

It was also pretty funny that the mysterious tech you're tracking down is named "Boomer." That lead to a lot of unintentionally hilarious lines of dialogye. Bubblegum Crash has you investigating a series of mysterious bank robberies that turns out to be a plot to steal a new A.I technology. The worst part of the game by far is the end where you confront the robbers, but not before going through a dumbass 1st person 3D maze (thanks, Portopia). For some reason the developers thought this was the perfect time to add a horrible turn based combat mini game, which interrupts (and disorients) you randomly. So it makes what would already be a tedious slog into an even more tedious slog. Thankfully I (mostly) bypassed it by abusing save states to avoid the battles and eventually grabbing a map online.

So, as far random games I've decided to play through for no reason; I've done way worse. Playing through this reminds me of playing through Rise of The Dragon. Interesting enough as a historical curiosity with some aesthetic charm. Just enough to last a short run time but overall it's an unremarkable game. Also, like Rise of The Dragon is jam packs a ton of it's lamest moments right at the very end lol. Wouldn't recommend but I don't regret the playthrough.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Sometimes jokes can go too far.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Life is Strange: True Colors announced and it actually looks promising, so far. Basically everything the leaks said was correct. You play as Alex Chen trying to uncover the mysterious circumstances surrounding her brother's death. This game's supernatural power is psychic empathy! Which means Alex can see, absorb and manipulate other people's strong emotions. I can already think of interesting uses for that mechanic in terms of branching paths and mystery solving, so we'll see how they utilize it.

The environments look gorgeous, what little bit of Alex's personality I could gleam from the short presentation looks fine and I'm glad this is a return to a paranormal mystery story after LiS 2's disaster road trip where the powers felt completely tacked on. It's worth mentioning that the game is being developed by Deck Nine, the people who made the prequel game Before The Storm, not DontNod.

There's not too much to go on, as is the nature of reveals, but Im happy with what they showed. Giving a whole separate role out for half a cover of Radiohead's Creep was a bit cringe, but then again it wouldn't be Life Is Strange without some cringe; would it? Also the game is not fucking episodic, so that alone is cause for mild celebration. Cautiously optimistic about this one.

 

[Fuz]

Life is Strange: True Colors announced and it actually looks promising, so far. Basically everything the leaks said was correct. You play as Alex Chen trying to uncover the mysterious circumstances surrounding her brother's death. This game's supernatural power is psychic empathy! Which means Alex can see, absorb and manipulate other people's strong emotions. I can already think of interesting uses for that mechanic in terms of branching paths and mystery solving, so we'll see how they utilize it.

The environments look gorgeous, what little bit of Alex's personality I could gleam from the short presentation looks fine and I'm glad this is a return to a paranormal mystery story after LiS 2's disaster road trip where the powers felt completely tacked on. It's worth mentioning that the game is being developed by Deck Nine, the people who made the prequel game Before The Storm, not DontNod.

There's not too much to go on, as is the nature of reveals, but Im happy with what they showed. Giving a whole separate role out for half a cover of Radiohead's Creep was a bit cringe, but then again it wouldn't be Life Is Strange without some cringe; would it? Also the game is not fucking episodic, so that alone is cause for mild celebration. Cautiously optimistic about this one.

 

[The Cockatrice]

I'm with Fuz on this one but then again I'm also one of the few who hated BTS, due to how bad the voice acting was and how the plot was far from what I'd call a prequel but w/e. Anyway just finished Tell Me Why and uhm for the 8 bucks I payed I suppose it was worth it. Would not pay any cent higher. The mystery and main plot was honestly average, no risks, no really bad stuff. Just some bad memories and thats it. Kinda meh on it.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Fuz]

Tell Me Why

Any time anyone mentions it this plays in my head.

pls stahp.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

I actually really hated Before The Storm and it was only by the abysmal comparison of Life is Strange 2 that I gained a low level of appreciation for it at least not being that bad. I really enjoyed Tell Me Why and hated Twin Mirror (not to get DontNod's track record mixed in with Deck Nine's) Suffice it to say I don't have much reason to think this could be good, pedigree wise.

But the trailer actually looks good imo and the fact that the power to manipulate emotions could work so well for a amateur detective/mystery story makes me curious to see what they'll do with it. There's a good chance the game will end up crap but I'll probably give it a shot.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Well its 60 fucking euros so I'm def giving it a pass. No way I'm paying that for little to no gameplay.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Does anybody know how profitable adventure games have been in the last 5/10 years or so?
Is there some data somewhere that shows sales numbers for adventure titles?

I ask because it seems to me the number of adventure game titles has increased over the past few years, and in the 2000s there were very few adventure games in comparison.

They are somewhat average on sales I think. Most indie ones that get kickstarted are doing fine but others not so much but I suppose its their own fault for not pushing the gameplay genre forward. We get so many cool unique stories but god damn if they bothered adding some engaging gameplay it would be so much better.

 

[Fuz]

its their own fault for not pushing the gameplay genre forward.

Double edged sword.

Tell Me Why

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Does anybody know how profitable adventure games have been in the last 5/10 years or so?
Is there some data somewhere that shows sales numbers for adventure titles?

I ask because it seems to me the number of adventure game titles has increased over the past few years, and in the 2000s there were very few adventure games in comparison.

There's honestly no great way to tell. You can look on SteamSpy but their numbers aren't as accurate since Steam changed their API. There were the Playstation and Steam player data leaks that gave some indication but a lot of that wont be up to date and, obviously, won't cover all platforms.

My general sense is that they're doing better than the 2000's but still comparatively niche judged against other more popular genres. It also varies by production value. A "hit" for a pixel-art indie (Wadjet Eye/Spooky Doorway/Etc) seems to be like 50~100k. A little more for indie games with HD art styles that tend to have broader appeal (Daedalic/Amanita Design). Forgiving outliers that do extremely well like Machinarium or Fran Bow.

There's not great numbers to go on for Mid Range/AA-ish games like Blacksad, Dreamfall Chapters or The Council. I know that DFC did half a million and was profitable for Red Thread Games. My sense is that they sell more than the indies but idk if it's enough ROI for the jump in production costs. A lot of games in this tier are made by devs who receive grant money from their respective countries. Cant say for sure how much of a factor that plays, but it's something I've noticed.

For the few mainstream/AAA adventures there are they can certainly do well. Like 1~5 million, depending. Which is still niche compared to genres but a sizable niche. However, there's like 3~4 developers in this space total and many of them have dropped the ball. I cant imagine DontNod has released a profitable adventure since Life is Strange 1, which did 3+ million. The ycould be profitable, the audience is clearly there with Detroit clearing 5 million last year, but it's not gonna happen with them releasing horrible games like Life is Strange 2 or Twin Mirror.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

maybe the local gibbous dev can share their insight - i did see its at a new low on sale for the switch this week

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Fuz]

Fact: The best P&C of the last 10 years (and more, for me) is Thimbleweed Park. Which is as classic as can be.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Thanks Vampire On Titus !

But for AA devs they probably feel forced to do something better than indies, but at the same time they cannot afford to compete with AAA. I think there are exceptions, but I've noticed some of these games usually look very rough around the edges, especially in the visual department.

Yeah, this is very true. There tends to be a lot of rigidity in the animation department, Blacksad & The Council were guilty of this. Also technical issues at launch are also a commonality. Blacksad was a mess at launch and buggyness hurt Beyond a Steel Sky as well.

Because I've noticed a lot of developers nowadays seem to be trying too hard to design interactions that are different from the usual "get item, use item" for the sake of it.
I believe there was a game that mixed some sort of Sudoku puzzle with visual novel dialogue segments, it was just so out of place.

I'm ok when games make it so it feels natural (e.g. Ace Attorney), because when done right it really makes the game feel unique.
But more often then not, in most games the "unique interaction" usually feels either underdeveloped or out of place.

Ace Attorney's mechanic was very clever because it's basically a traditional inventory puzzle except you use the items you collect on a witnesses statement rather than objects in the environment. So a really adept balance of fresh and familiar. It's no wonder so many games have ripped it off.

I really like bespoke puzzle mechanics in adventure games. One of the things they have to get right is complimenting the narrative. If the logic of solving a puzzle is independent from the narrative it's more of a "puzzle game puzzle" than an "adventure game puzzle." Which tends to clash with the experience the same way forced mini-game set pieces do.

Some examples of games I think got it right would be:
Heaven's Vault's language deciphering puzzles. They added to the game's rich world building because as you solved each puzzle you got a tidbit of the lore. Very unique to adventures.

Red String Club's emotional manipulation puzzles. As a bartender you serve people special cocktails which alter their emotions to get information out of them. Each person has their own personality thus respond differently to the emotions you decide to make them feel. Choosing the right one comes from a deeper understanding of the characters.

Detective Grimoire/Tangle Tower's sentence construction puzzles. I do wish that these were a bit more challenging. But even still, it's just an awesome way to make logical deductions in a detective game. You're given a screen of various topics and ideas that you must place together to form a logical answer. Great balance between having the freedom to arrive at the wrong answer but also enough context to push you along.

Loom seems like another good example from the fair bit of it I've seen, but I still do need to play it. Likely very good.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

Vampire On Titus you're like an encyclopedia of adventure games, didn't knew about these other games.

I played Loom a long time ago, it was quite fun. Though I got stuck at some point because I forgot how to play a song.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Thanks Vampire On Titus !

I guess at the end of the day it's the AA devs that get less return.

For indies the budget is small, so they probably don't expect high sales numbers
For AAA they usually get a lot of marketing money, so it usually does considerably well (Detroit, Heavy Rain)
But for AA devs they probably feel forced to do something better than indies, but at the same time they cannot afford to compete with AAA. I think there are exceptions, but I've noticed some of these games usually look very rough around the edges, especially in the visual department.


Just out of curiosity, do you believe it's a dealbreaker if a developer makes an adventure game with a very "traditional" design?

Because I've noticed a lot of developers nowadays seem to be trying too hard to design interactions that are different from the usual "get item, use item" for the sake of it.
I believe there was a game that mixed some sort of Sudoku puzzle with visual novel dialogue segments, it was just so out of place.

I'm ok when games make it so it feels natural (e.g. Ace Attorney), because when done right it really makes the game feel unique.
But more often then not, in most games the "unique interaction" usually feels either underdeveloped or out of place.

I believe it's probably something really hard to get it right, so I wish (some) developers would at least try to get the basics right first before attempting to innovate.

Not a deal-breaker for me. I still play them and review them accordingly but I will always show my frustration in regards to the gameplay. I doubt I'll ever stop playing them but it wouldn't fucking hurt if maybe once I can get a 3D game like say TWD/LiS but with 3D puzzle mechanics of classic p&c games or something to actually engage my brain rather than just pressing forward. Classic point and click games really should not just stick with pixelated or hand-made art-style. Hell, I'd even take a Myst type of gameplay with a Life is Strange narration type of game, why can't we have that once in a while?

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Not a deal-breaker for me. I still play them and review them accordingly but I will always show my frustration in regards to the gameplay. I doubt I'll ever stop playing them but it wouldn't fucking hurt if maybe once I can get a 3D game like say TWD/LiS but with 3D puzzle mechanics of classic p&c games or something to actually engage my brain rather than just pressing forward. Classic point and click games really should not just stick with pixelated or hand-made art-style. Hell, I'd even take a Myst type of gameplay with a Life is Strange narration type of game, why can't we have that once in a while?

For the first criteria, the King's Quest from 2016 fits the bill. Besides the fact that the episodes are somewhat uneven (especially the 4th) I enjoyed the game a lot. But I can't really speak to how faithful it is to the series since I've only played King's Quest 6, as far as the classic games. I know some people felt Graham's personality changed too much but from everything I've seen of the older games there wasn't much personality to speak of.

For the second, last year's Call of The Sea is basically that exactly. I enjoyed it a lot but Fuz really disliked it. It got pretty good reviews and it is available on gamepass if you've got it, so I'd say its worth a look.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Dreampainters Software just released a gameplay video for their upcoming 3D adventure: Nascence. Technically the 2nd Anna's Song game they've made but the first in a new trilogy if I'm gathering the description correctly. This game's visual fidelity is what caught my attention at first. Unfortunately the video for this demo is pretty compressed but in other videos you can see that the game looks quite nice.

Funnily apropos to the previous conversation, the puzzle solving looks fairly traditional and decently involved. Especially for the start of the game. I don't really like the new click & hold on hotspots thing, though. I hope you can turn that off. Otherwise, it looks pretty good so far.

 

[Fuz]

Just stumbled into this:

Inspector Waffles

Murder. Nothin’ nice about it. In this old school detective adventure, step into the boot

www.gog.com

Totally new to me. Do we have any info about it?

 

[The Cockatrice]

For the first criteria, the King's Quest from 2016 fits the bill. Besides the fact that the episodes are somewhat uneven (especially the 4th) I enjoyed the game a lot. But I can't really speak to how faithful it is to the series since I've only played King's Quest 6, as far as the classic games. I know some people felt Graham's personality changed too much but from everything I've seen of the older games there wasn't much personality to speak of.

For the second, last year's Call of The Sea is basically that exactly. I enjoyed it a lot but Fuz really disliked it. It got pretty good reviews and it is available on gamepass if you've got it, so I'd say its worth a look.

I played both. Call of The Sea is far from what I'd call a puzzle game. It has puzzles but their very limited and easy in scope. The Kings Quest from 2016 completely skipped my mind. Yeah I liked that one, and it should've been the first step in the right direction but alas.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Just stumbled into this:

Inspector Waffles

Murder. Nothin’ nice about it. In this old school detective adventure, step into the boot

www.gog.com

Totally new to me. Do we have any info about it?

I've seen it around here and there. A demo was available during the last Steam festival IIRC but I didn't get around to it. Seems to have a Darkside Detective-ish vibe with a similar era of pixel art and a similar comedic tone. Except with a cat. I still need to play the DD games, myself. So I'd probably jump into those before Inspector Waffles. Curious to know what it's like if anyone does decide to play it, though.

Also released today is Chronicles of Innsmouth Madness:

This game looks cool. I think TripleSun may have been looking forward to it? Gonna get around to playing this eventually after I clear some more backlog. Might play the first in the series beforehand (since this is the 2nd game) but idk if that's required for the story.

 

[Fuz]

I've seen it around here and there. A demo was available during the last Steam festival IIRC but I didn't get around to it. Seems to have a Darkside Detective-ish vibe with a similar era of pixel art and a similar comedic tone. Except with a cat. I still need to play the DD games, myself. So I'd probably jump into those before Inspector Waffles. Curious to know what it's like if anyone does decide to play it, though.

Also released today is Chronicles of Innsmouth Madness:

This game looks cool. I think TripleSun may have been looking forward to it? Gonna get around to playing this eventually after I clear some more backlog. Might play the first in the series beforehand (since this is the 2nd game) but idk if that's required for the story.

Looks fantastic. What's its predecessor?

 

[The Cockatrice]

Oh great more Lovecraft. We don't get many of those in adventure games huh? Looks fine but cmon, so many other horror book artists out there.

 

[Fuz]

Oh great more Lovecraft. We don't get many of those in adventure games huh? Looks fine but cmon, so many other horror book artists out there.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Looks fantastic. What's its predecessor?

Style for this one is more MI/FOA era LucasArts complete with the classic 9 verb layout.

 

[Fuz]

Style for this one is more MI/FOA era LucasArts complete with the classic 9 verb layout.

Ah, right. Nice, nice.

...


WHY YOU NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT IT BEFORE?!

 

[TripleSun]

Yeah I’ve been waiting for the second one to come out. I enjoyed the first one bar a few negatives like some pixel hunting and able to be “stuck” in the game, along with whatever the hell the last 15min of the game were. (you’ll see) The voice acting is great, and wasn’t originally in the game so was happy to see it added. It’ll probably take you like 4 hours to beat, but it’s worth it if you can pick it up cheap. Definitely gonna pick up the sequel. I love me some dark PnC games for sure.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Upcoming FMV adventure that looks dumb in a lot of the ways I want an FMV game to be dumb. No voiced lines in the trailer so I couldn't tell how cheesy the acting is, but I think it's safe to say fairly cheesy.

 

[Fuz]

Upcoming FMV adventure that looks dumb in a lot of the ways I want an FMV game to be dumb. No voiced lines in the trailer so I couldn't tell how cheesy the acting is, but I think it's safe to say fairly cheesy.

Hey, that guy has my face mask!

 

[TripleSun]

Lol, found another PnC coming out in 2022. It's made by a dev who made a NSFW Steam hidden object game like kinda Hidden Folks (which is SFW though). So I'm assuming the PnC will have nudity or maybe they'll tone it down since it seems like a bigger release than their previous project. Definitely don't see too many adult-aimed PnC games that's for sure.

 

[Fuz]

Lol, found another PnC coming out in 2022. It's made by a dev who made a NSFW Steam hidden object game like kinda Hidden Folks (which is SFW though). So I'm assuming the PnC will have nudity or maybe they'll tone it down since it seems like a bigger release than their previous project. Definitely don't see too many adult-aimed PnC games that's for sure.

Larry's true heir?

Planned Release Date: 2022​

​

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Genesis Noir is out today, a somewhat experimental jazz-y noir-y (obviously) adventure game about a love triangle between cosmic beings. I played a demo for it a while back and it was certainly interesting, although I can't say I was completely sold. Seems to be getting some good reviews so far, for what its worth.

 

[TripleSun]

Larry's true heir?

​

​

We can only hope. The dude’s art has always been clean. Didn’t think he would actually do a full fledged game.

Maybe he'll do a demo this year or something. I would really like to try a bit of the game out.

 

[TripleSun]

Wow, now this is a game I thought was long dead.

Seems The Mystery of Oak Island got a new update. New website is out with up to date info added. Good to know the game is still in development but who knows when it’ll come out. Don’t see it coming out this year. Covid/lockdowns seem to have demolished the development.

The Mystery of Oak Island

Thrilling adventure game with challenging puzzles and 3 playable characters.

www.oakisland-game.com

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Some stuff from the Future Games Show Spring Showcases:





There was also a ID@Xbox stream showcasing upcoming indies where 12 Minutes was featured. Some interesting insights into the development process and vision behind the game. I think of it as a game based entirely around the first scene from Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy. Where you have to hide the body and there's a bunch of different ways to mess up or get away with it. One interesting tidbit the dev dropped was that playtesting yielded a 12~15 hour playtime. Was not expecting that from 12 Minutes, especially with how little we've seen of it outside of the prototype gameplay demos. Now I'm thinking this game must have its fair share of surprises under the sleeve, to go on for so long.

Wow, now this is a game I thought was long dead.

Seems The Mystery of Oak Island got a new update. New website is out with up to date info added. Good to know the game is still in development but who knows when it’ll come out. Don’t see it coming out this year. Covid/lockdowns seem to have demolished the development.

The Mystery of Oak Island

Thrilling adventure game with challenging puzzles and 3 playable characters.

www.oakisland-game.com

Nice to see that this is still chugging along. This devs got a cult fallowing that I find interesting despite not being tapped into their work myself. Def gonna give Oak Island a shot when it comes out.

 

[TripleSun]

Vampire On Titus Yeah, I had been following that game for a while but it just went silent. Glad to see them back.

I’m looking forward to the new Kathy Rain upgrade. Enjoyed the original, looking forward to seeing all the new added content.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

WEG celebrating 15 years in the business. Complete with a group shot of characters from all the games they've developed and published over the years. For some reason I love cheesy group shots like this lol. Definitely get a rush of nostalgia looking at Azriel, Mandala, Roseangela, etc. I really enjoyed that the old guy on the bench from Strangeland was hanging out with the old guy on the bench from Shardlight.

Also, a little late, but last week Scarlet Study put out the patch for the next chapter of Great Ace Attorney 2. They also reiterated their position that they're not going to comment on the Capcom leaks (which suggested an official translation of Great Ace and the development of Ace Attorney 7 are in the works). But if you read between the lines it seems like were Capcom to make an official announcement that Scarlet Study would pull the plug on their project. Which I wouldn't be happy with, personally, but I understand.

 

[Fuz]

So, I recently played

And

Quick review 'cause I'm lazy, feel free to ask for details.
The first one is a typical Monkey Meets Lovecraft. The animations, the music (the map music feels a lot like Melée map music), the details all are Monkey. It's a short game, so the SCUMM-like interface is basically never used as it should. It's a good little adventure, quite amateurish, but WAY overpriced for what it's worth.
The second one is bigger and more developed. Sadly, it loses the SCUMM interface, but it won't have been used as it should neither in this sequel. Gorgeous backgrounds but the characters aren't on par, their style remind me of Zak. Not bad, just... not awesome pixel art. Dialogue can sometimes feel juvenile and forced, but overall it's well written and the story is interesting and compelling. Also some good puzzles, but it's really an easy game, you're warned. All in all, I really liked it, especially the alchemy between the 3 main characters and the part in the camp. Reminded me a lot of my old Call of Cthulhu P&P games.

Now I just started

Inspector Waffles Purrluxe Edition

Murder. Nothin’ nice about it. In this old school detective adventure, step into the bo

www.gog.com

Feel kind of weird. Not completely sold on the pixel art, but it's a pure matter of taste. Hate the interface, but it fits the game. One thing to note: the character is not animated, when you exit a scene he doesn't walk to the exit, it just switch panel. But again, I just started it, take my words with a grain of salt. I have a good feeling about it, actually.