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I didn't get as much time to play it yesterday as I wanted, but I did clear off a bit of the first few rooms this morning, and I thought you'd like to hear some early impressions before I head off to school:

1. Your animation looks GREAT. The sprites are all cleaned up and that opening title sequence look amazing. I wish I were this good in 2D.

2. Hey! You upgraded Tiny Jerrod! I can't call him Tiny Jerrod anymore.

3. Your SQ4 throwaway gag is actually pretty well implemented. It's funny to think that NPCs are running around hiding behind cloth racks whenever I walk into a room.

Will return to this game later, but it's looking great so far!

Really enjoying the game so far. I love the feature where you can change the amount of knowledge you have about adventure games. Really makes it applicable to both adventure fans and the adventure-curious alike. Even thought I know most of the lore I leave it turned on anyway because it's fun to read the extra info. All-around this game seems more polished than the previous title so far. Very nice work, Akril! I know this is pushing it but please make this a trilogy!

Ha ha - I'll help make a trilogy if I can clear off everything else I'm working on! This is shaping up to be one amazing game!

I'll still wandering through the game, just a little stuck at one part, but I'll figure it out. But I have to admit this is a superb piece of fiction. I like the characters and situations, and the story itself eerily follows along a similar idea I thought of for this sequel - but it's done on a far cooler level.

And as far as illogical puzzles go, I'm a little with impressed with myself that immediately after picking up the wheat, my first thought was "I should go stick this is on the altar and see if I can get Sledge to stomp on it." I have been playing these games for far too long.

Just finished it... and wow.

Wow.

...

Wow.

Graphically, this game is on par with, or even surpasses a lot of the old traditionally-animated adventures. In many ways, it looks like I'm playing a professional game. I remember watching those old videos where Sierra employees go on about all the animators they used to create games like KQ7 and Torin's Passage, and here's Akril doing the whole thing out of her own home with brilliant results. Even though a lot of graphics are borrowed, her original art and animation looks amazing. The timing, the poses, the tweening - and on top of that, she's having 2D and CGI characters mingling seamlessly. My mind is blown by how much work must have gone into even the smallest scenes. I'd just as soon compare this level of sprite work to "Toonstruck."

And then there's the story. I love how it exists separately from the first game, so anyone can pick up on it without playing the other first (this will make it a lot easier for me to recommend to other people.) The twists and turns give it an exciting Hollywood feel, and fittingly, there's always an action break at the right time, so the story pacing works perfectly. And the final showdown - I was laughing my butt off at how well everything came full circle. This is an all-around feel good game.

I did hit a bug or two and have to restore at one point (I'll PM you, Akril) but otherwise, the game works great. It was very fun, there were lots of cleverly-inserted references, some wicked awesome action scenes, and everything looks so polished - it's beautiful, and well worthy of a portfolio. I was this close to tears - it was so good.

Akril, I grovel at your feet.

MusicallyInspired wrote:Does this game use a MIDI soundtrack as well? I'm on Windows 7 now and working with MIDI programs is a pain. Just wondering if I have to mess with it. Currently I hear no music on the menu screen.

The game's music is a mix of MIDIs, MP3s and the occasional OGG Vorbis, and there's no music on the menu screen.

MusicallyInspired wrote:Really enjoying the game so far. I love the feature where you can change the amount of knowledge you have about adventure games. Really makes it applicable to both adventure fans and the adventure-curious alike. Even thought I know most of the lore I leave it turned on anyway because it's fun to read the extra info. All-around this game seems more polished than the previous title so far. Very nice work, Akril! I know this is pushing it but please make this a trilogy!

Thank you! I thought including that feature would be a good idea since launching into a lengthy explanation every time a more obscure game reference had to be explained would leave more experienced gamers rolling their eyes and thinking, "Yes, yes, I know that already", while leaving the explanations out would leave the less "into it" people pretty confused.

I don't currently have any definite plans for a third game, but I suspect I'll end up making one eventually.

And thank you very much for the lengthy feedback, Datadog! Sorry for not responding to your earlier posts (I was out of town). A couple of people on the AGS forums have alerted me to a couple of bugs, so if you could PM me so I could get rid of any remaining ones, that would be great.

EDIT: Whoops, never mind, I just noticed that you already sent me a message.

Just finished. Simply brilliant. I thought I had the game figured out but it just kept surprising me with these cool additional plot elements and characters. Very well done, Akril. Masterful work. I stand by and reinforce my original request for a trilogy!