Free Open Source Point-and-Click Adventure Fan Game Review: Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder

I compiled Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder, gave the game an ending rather than a call for volunteers as the project had long closed by that point, and added some inventory art. Other than that, I had no input in the actual game design. Because of this, like Open Quest before it, I have decided to give this one a full review instead of a retrospective.

The game uses the sixth version of the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, one version above the one used in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Because of this, the game art is inspired by, and mostly uses art lifted from and used by or slightly modified from that game. It has no music, but it has one sound effect in the form of a lightning strike. This is a quick and dirty little example that puts the ScummGen fan compiler to its full use, and excludes features that were not supported by it.

The game is a simple two room game that works like a point-and-click escape room adventure game. Indiana Jones has been driven to a cave entrance. The game begins with the classic Indiana Jones title card as the adventurer walks into said cave. He has come for an artifact, and has difficulty exploring do to a lack of light.

The objectives are simple, yet the puzzles themselves aren't as simple as they seem on paper. Indy needs to find a light source, find the artifact, find a way to extract it from the cave, and finally, find his way out of the cave. The game uses the classic text verb buttons with an icon-based inventory system that were used in classic LucasArts adventures of the early 1990s. Inventory items can be used on objects in the cave or combined with objects in the inventory to create a new inventory item.

The game is straightforward, but there are a few places that could use some improvements to make it easier to know what to do next. The biggest one is that there is no lever graphic for a lever puzzle. The puzzle can still be solved, but it can be difficult to determine which way to use the lever without the graphic assistance. The second main issue is Indy's partner, who is waiting at the truck used to bring Indy into the cave. It is not obvious that he can be interacted with, as he is completely off-screen and is only accessible by pointing the mouse pointer at the top of the screen at the cave entrance.

Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder is a fun little game, although it is rough and unfinished due to its status as a work-in-progress project at the time of its release. Its flaws make it more of a demonstration of the ScummGen compiler than a game in its own right. However, even though it has since been left stagnant, but what is there can still be played through from start to finish. Your mileage may vary based on how much you able to enjoy what is essentially a tech demo.

Final Verdict:

2½ out of 5

Free Open Source Point-and-Click Adventure Game Review: OpenQuest

I converted Michael Sheail's tutorial game to Wintermute from Adventure Game Studio, so I could learn how to use the engine, in 2016. However, I have decided to do a regular review rather than a retrospective. I had no hand in the actual game design, which was released in 2007, almost a full decade before I even laid eyes on it.

OpenQuest is a two-room adventure game about aliens searching an office for an artifact. There is only one person in the vicinity with which to communicate, the cleaning woman Carol, as well as Zif, your commanding officer.

The game was created by Michael Sheail as a tutorial on creating an adventure game. It accomplishes its goal so well that it was converted from Adventure Game Studio two times. It was converted to SCUMM with ScummC in 2008, and then to the aforementioned Wintermute Engine eight years later.

It contains all of the traditional aspects of graphical point-and-click adventure games. There are objects that can be found by opening a storage container, combining objects in inventory, talking to the cleaner to get access to somewhere you weren't previously allowed, objectives that are only available if an event is accomplished, a door puzzle to get in the other room, and finally, a jigsaw-style triangle puzzle.

All of the conversions of the game contain these aspects, except for the SCUMM version which contains everything except the triangle puzzle. In that version, once you access the monitor, the game goes straight to the point in the game after the triangle puzzle would normally be found.

The game also has three music tracks that work well for the game's atmosphere, suitable sci-fi sound effects, and one instance of a vocal track when one of the aliens laughs. The SCUMM version includes the sound effects but doesn't include the music.

OpenQuest is short and bittersweet, as it contains only two rooms, however, it works well in its purpose as a tutorial game. The music and sound effects work well with the game, and the puzzles are well done, and, depending on your skill level with adventure games, can even be a bit challenging. It is a fantastic look into how to make games for all three platforms to which it has been converted. However, if you just choose to play the game, go for the Adventure Game Studio or Wintermute versions as those are the most feature-complete.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Animated Comedy Short Film Retrospective: The Cupcake Topper

I've been thinking about how to handle my projects, as I'm listing them in the Adventuress database. It wouldn't be right to do a traditional review, so instead, I'm going to do a critical retrospective for each project, listing the things I liked about them and the things that could have been done better.

The Cupcake Topper, the first short cartoon that I finished outside of shorts I made in Klik 'n' Play in high school, was released on July 14, 2009. It was created using Microsoft Paint, Paint Shop Pro, and Windows Movie Maker. The music was a waveform audio conversion of a tune in the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, MIDI format. The MIDI was public domain as was the tune itself, the 1902 ragtime medley by Scott Joplin, "The Entertainer". Although it was released after YouTube's December 2008 addition of 720p videos, it was started prior to that addition. Thus, it was created in the original YouTube video resolution of 320 x 240. With the higher resolution, I would have also added things in the background to give it depth, as there was nothing in the background except whitespace.

Obviously, the first thing that would be different if this animated short were created today would be the resolution. The original resolution for YouTube videos was very small and incredibly restrictive. YouTube has since supported high-definition videos, so this animation would be created in an HD resolution.

It was also created with a restrictive paint program, Microsoft Paint. The rotated images were created with another paint program, Paint Shop Pro. This made each frame look very pixelated, with the exception of the frames with rotated images. The latter were blurred, which created a disconnect between those frames and the rest of the animation. 

On the positive side, I do like the way it turned out. The chef could have more expressions, but what is there works well as she gets upset at the bird. My mother couldn't tell what the original object was, a large pushcart with cherries on it, so I simplified it to cherries on a plate. That solidified the short and moved it toward the finish line. It works quite well, with each cherry being pecked away until there were none left. It is matched up with the music well, and The Entertainer is the perfect song for this short.

One of these days, I want to go back to this and make a high-definition remake of it. However, I'm still proud of the original. It does a lot with the technical limitations that were in place on YouTube when I first started the short.

Addendum: The short is still up on YouTube here. The short (not including any future remakes) is licensed under Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0. Basically, do whatever you want with it, as long as you credit me (and let me know, I'd love to see what people come up with). Have fun with it. :)

Blog Subjects Broadened

As you might have noticed, I've been reviewing a lot of games other than adventure games recently. I used to have another blog where I posted these, but I barely update the other one, so I decided to consolidate them all into my main blog - this one.  It will still be named The Adventuress, though, so there will not be any stand-out changes, really.

A Host Master Carol

The first game out the gate for the Coding for COVID Coronavirus fundraiser is a sequel to Host Master and Host Master Deux titled A Host Master Carol.

It is a mix of my favorite Charles Dickens novel, A Christmas Carol, and one of my favorite Tim Schafer games, Day of the Tentacle.

To donate to the fundraiser, click here: https://donorbox.org/coding-for-covid.

Coding for COVID Fundraiser for Coronavirus Relief

I'm doing a fundraiser titled "Coding for COVID", wherein I code games while raising money for Coronavirus relief.

I'll be creating games based on my comics, Jenni and Doug the Ogre. I also received generous permission from Double Fine to create games based on some of their properties.

90% of all donations will be split up evenly among Doctors without Borders, Direct Relief, and Actions Against Hunger. The remaining 10% will go to the West Elmira Computer Museum. The latter is my non-profit charitable organization through which this charity drive is being handled.

You can donate to the cause here: https://donorbox.org/coding-for-covid

OpenQuest Converted to Wintermute

I've been learning the Wintermute engine, which I used to create my last few adventure games. I decided to learn more about the engine by porting the open-source game, OpenQuest, to macOS and Linux, as well as Windows, via Wintermute.  Every part of the game is in place, including the triangle puzzle, which was in the original AGS version but wasn't included in the SCUMM conversion.

OpenQuest for Windows, macOS, and Linux, including source code, is available here.

My Games

For the past month, I've been working on some open source adventure games as part of a Game Jam that took place while the Double Fine Forums were down during an upgrade. I also just completed a new, small, one room adventure game called Dreamcat. It is meant to serve as a template to make your own low resolution games using Wintermute. All of my available games can be played through the links below.

Fables Court - The Wolf Among Us Night Court Mashup

I decided to get back into video editing, and thought of a fun idea. Both The Wolf Among Us and Night Court involve trials held in the 1980’s, so I thought it’d be fun to mash them up.

Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder Fangame Released

I finally got myself familiarized with ScummGen, the compiler that takes C-style code and compiles it into resources used by the actual SCUMM engine (used by LucasArts for all of their adventure games from Maniac Mansion to The Curse of Monkey Island, and by Humongous Entertainment in most of their games until 2003). I polished up the ScummGen test game, Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder.

The original team (Dominik Haslinger, Jens Doblies and Sebastien Ronsse) did the majority of the work.  It was originally intended to be a much longer game, but it was cancelled.  I finished up the ice cavern sequence so that it could be released as a completely playable game as I thought it would be a shame if no one got to play it.  Their sourcecode was playable up to the point where you complete the mechanism in the cavern.

Here are the changes and fixes that I made to that source code:

-Replaced LucasArts logo with a ScummGen logo.
-Made a few grammar corrections to the original script.
-Created icons for inventory items that lacked them (all instances of the stones and the gas can).
-Programmed an if/then statement regarding the gas can that was referenced but not implemented in the source.
-Fixed the mechanism puzzle to require both objects, as before it was possible to complete it with only one object.
-Added dialog to facilitate the change in the mechanism puzzle.
-Fixed the lighting so that the cavern stays lit when you move to the cavern entrance and back.
-Enabled the usage of the item used to exit the cavern, as referenced but not implemented in the source.
-Changed the description of the macguffin as it was originally used as a joke related to the game being unfinished (but kept it humourous to suit the tone of the original).
-Added dialog necessary for the ending sequence.
-Added an ending screen.

You can download it at my itch.io page if you want to try it out.  It includes the sourcecode.  It doesn't include an executable though, as it needs ScummVM in order to run (and I figured I'd cut out the middle man and just let people run ScummVM on whatever system they wish to run it on).  It's detected in ScummVM as Day of the Tentacle.

My entry to the first Femicom Game Jam is Joy

Joy is a game that I created as part of the first Femicom Game Jam: "Here's To Theresa Duncan". It is a story book game that follows a transsexual girl named Jamie.

Due to an unexpected death in the family, I had to cancel my first Kickstarter for a children's show and game in memory of my father, called Mr. Mac's Rainbow Greenhouse.  This game brings the ideas of the game portion of that project into reality.

My Project on Kickstarter: Mr. Mac's Rainbow Greenhouse

My dad passed away 15 years ago today. He was a special education teacher and substitute principal who made a point to teach his students (and my sister and I) that differences should be embraced, and I've begun a Kickstarter project to seek funding to create six 11 minute children's cartoons and a family friendly adventure game in the spirit of the Humongous Junior adventures.

My dad left his greenhouse to his school and his students picked the name and dedicated it "Mr. Mac's Rainbow Greenhouse". The name is going to live on in this project to honor his legacy.

My New Game: Doug's Moai Adventure

I'm going to be part of a project that is going to use the Moai engine, so I decided to get myself accustomed to the engine by create an adventure game with it, using Sandy Maguire's adventure engine as a base. So, for the past few months, I've been learning the ins and outs of Moai, and Doug's Moai Adventure is the result. It stars Doug the Ogre from the Jenni webcomic and the Doug the Ogre Collaborative Comic (which is completely open for anyone to participate in, as it's licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license). This is the first adventure game I've created since 1997, so even though it's short (as was the aforementioned game), I'm proud to be able to release it into the wild.  Enjoy!

The Adventures of Gus and Rob G|C Edition

I have finished a demo for a Dreamcast version of my adventure game that also has demos available for Windows and Neo Geo Pocket, The Adventures of Gus and Rob.

It was created for the Games Convention in Germany, and I have given it to Max Scharl to be shown at the Dreamcast Scene booth.  I'm happy to have this occasion to give something back to Dreamcast-Scene, as they have been the biggest supporter of the Dreamcast since Sega dropped support for the system in every territory other than Japan last year.

My Development Site Has A New Home

I've decided to move my devsite to ConsoleVision, as I'm developing for consoles, so that only makes sense. :)

I'm going to pick up NGPC dev again, so stay tuned. ^_^

The adventure of Gus and Rob page can be found here.

Pengo doesn't have a page yet, but it will.

The Adventures of Gus and Rob For Neo Geo Pocket Color Update

Now has a title screen. Room 1 has 3 objects, Room 2 still has only the bed, but the description is different.

The Adventures of Gus and Rob For Neo Geo Pocket Color

Update: I've been working on this some more, as ideas popped in my head, and I now have the whole framework for the game there. The A button, the action button, does all the necessary things expected in an Adventure game, look, pickup, and use. The B button is for the inventory. You choose an object from the list in the inventory using up and down, then press the A button to select it. Press the B button to exit the inventory. Now the object that you chose can be used with the action button so you can use it with other objects. To get your normal A button use back, re-enter the inventory by pressing B and choose Nothing. That's all there is to it :) If you want to see the new game engine at work, download below. Now I'll start working on the game itself. :P


The inventory system is in place.

Thanks to the tutorial by Chris Ahchay, I now have figured out enough to actually get something to show to you.

This is the very early stages of a classic graphical adventure game, starring two characters I created in High School, Gus and Rob.


The action button in action. ;)

Cafe Calavera is back in full swing

Cafe Calavera is back in full swing. I forgot to put up the links to the GrimLibs and GF Concentration games when I switched to the new format.

I restarted the Grim 2 Petition because the first one didn't do any good (we need more names), and with Tim Schafer gone, we really need to show that there is good reason to make a 2nd Grim. So come on my fellow living dead, let's band together and let LucasArts know what we really want!

It was bound to happen

 

LucasArts is not my only interest, and frankly, it was getting stale. It is hard to make updates from nothing. Well, now this site deals with everything I like - Futurama, Weird Al, LucasArts, and my own creation - Gus And Rob.

MIC will be down until next Wednesday

My hard drive crashed, and I am accessing this via a remote server.
Sorry for the inconvenience.