SAM'S PROFILE

Seeing as I've not heard from DemonDestiny all wekk, I'm going to go ahead and give my feedback on the games released for the Halloween contest that I recently ran.

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Elegy's Eve

First of all, we have Elegy's Eve, by Rei. Downloadable here

Elegy's Eve was also entered into a similar contest over at Gaming World, where it won first prize. The core gameplay is very simple, you're a cat (a pirate cat at that - complete with eye patch) who must make their way around their master's mansion avoiding various ghosts and ghouls, performing tasks such as collecting invitations.

Some of the ghosts wander a preset pattern and are relatively simple to evade. Others will chase you down relentlessly once you get within a certain range. You get three pieces of health, and nine lives (because you're a cat, get it?). Lose your lives, lose the game.

I, personally, never made it past the library section of the game, which is depressingly early into the game. The learning curve is steep, but I felt as though the library section was a little cheap. The ghosts charge you from multiple directions at the same speed that you move. Because there's no noticable knock back effect, and the ghosts don't back off after hitting you once, you commonly find that one touch saps all your health immediately. Coupled with the fact that there are multiples of this same ghost, chasing you at such speeds and trapping you in corners, it will be a while before you leave the library.

I did note, though, that which invite the librarian asks you to retrieve seems different each time, so there's at least an attempt at replay value.

As I said, for me, the library signalled the end of the game as I got cornered time and time again by the ghosts. It would have been a welcome challenge, had it been placed later into the game, but when it was put in so early on, it felt like the learning curve was too steep.

The graphics were well placed, I'd like to give particular praise to the way in which the chipsets were used. The maps exuding a certain atmosphere whilst retaining structural integrity. The maps never felt boring and nothing seemed out of place.

The ghosts wandering round all seemed eery, fitting and mischevious - as you'd expect, though the cat itself seemed to clash. That is, however, my only complaint concerning the graphics.

The plot seemed alright at the start. It's immediately obvious that we seem to be inside one of the girl's stories, but there's something about a pirate cat that doesn't quite appeal to me personally. It seems nice and quirky, it's simply not to my tastes.

I've no complaints about the music either. Overall, it's a very nice game, and I'm amazed Rei managed to put a completed game together. With it's bugs ironed out and an altered difficulty curve, this could be really good fun.

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Ruptured Souls

Ruptured Souls, our second entry from Max McGee, followed a detective on the case of missing girls. It led him to London, England, where he planned to obtain some medical records and documents from a warehouse.

The game reminded me very much of Broken Sword. Everything was based upon logic and puzzles, there were no battles, but plenty of ways to get killed. Unfortunately, the gameplay resembled Broken Sword a little too much, in that getting started took a moment, but once you figured out the first part of the game, everything fell into place very quickly. It was almost too easy, and disappointingly short.

As stated, everything you did had a consequence, but it was usually very easy to figure out. At points, it was down purely to chance as to whether you survived a situation. For example, near the end of the demo, you have to hide from a man with blonde hair, and the options presented leave you with a simple case of trial and error that took me but two attempts to get right.

The graphics and music really helped to immerse the player within the game world. It felt like an old, gritty, detective movie, which I loved about it. The lighting effects were both subtle and effective, with the music and sound effects working up a sense of fear. As though you were being watched and weren't alone. And it was true, you weren't alone.

I actually replayed this one a few times o try and see all the different ways you can die, which would give it more replay value, if you weren't simply going from A to B once you knew where to go and what to do.

If this were longer it'd have been brilliant, but it is just a demo, and, as stated, was horrendously short. I really do look forward to a full version though.

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I'll wait til Monday to see if Demon posts his feedback. Otherwise, I'll just declare a winner.

Hey guys, can you give me a hand? Finally got an ethernet cable for my PC, long enough to reach my router so I don't hafta keep relying on either my shitty wireless adapter or my laptop for the net, but it turns out my motherboard doesn;t seem to recognise it's onboard ethernet ports...

It's an ASUS K8N4-E Deluxe (old, I know) and this is the first time I've been able to test it out with an ethernet cable so I don't know if that port's ever worked. Tried the cable with my 360 and had no problems so it's not the router or the cable.

I've decided we should have a Halloween game making contest! Listen carefully, because I'm about to explain all the rules:

All entries must be posted on the 31st of October!
That's from 12am GMT (London, UK) 31st of October, right through 24 hours to 12am, 1st of November (again London, UK)

Games must have a Halloween theme
This means it can be anything from kids trick or treating to something that's just plain dark, creepy and spooky. From something fun, right the way through to a true horror, as long as it embodies the spirit of Halloween and has an immediately obvious relevance to the theme.

Games must be playable without the program used to create them
If I can't play them, I can't judge them. Simple as.
(Though I do have full copies of RM2k3 and XP)

Judging
Judging can take up to a week depeding on two factors
1 - The amount of entries
2 - The amount of judges

I also aim to review each game submitted. There are open spots for other judges, apply within this topic.

Prizes
... Me love you long time?

Confirmed Judges
- Me
- Demon Destiny

Confirmed Entrants
- I Am Not
- Chaos Productions
- Nobleman Nick
- Verified Rasta
- Max McGee
- Rei
- You (I'm hoping)

So, let's have some fun with this! Sign ups are, of course, in this thread. Just reply stating you want in.

Hey, I'm gonna be away for two weeks or so while me and my housemate get a new internet connection sorted out.

Here's a selection of my artwork, fresh from the scanner, coupled with some older stuff that members of Gaming World might be familiar with.

Now, this topic is image heavy, so dial-up users... What the hell are you doing on dial-up? This is 2008!

To start things off... It's Charizard!


On a less "Rawr!" note, here's some concept art for a webcomic I'm trying to get off the ground called Still Life
These are of the main character, Dan.




The leading, May.


A sketch for a background character


All the avatars I made for use on the site with the newsposts


A few of the finished issues:





Some weird, elongated alien dude who looks like he should be in Mass Effect.


GW fans will recognise this. It's my first ever 3D model! I made it for my end of year assignment back in May.








And to finish up, an old favourite of mine from back then, the most retarded fish ever!