Well it is nice to see you again.

Grab a chair and make yourself at home. We got coffee brewing, lots of beverages and a nice ale selection as well.

If you are really lucky, you will get fed too..

Great to have you here

Hugs

Tig

Yoo-Hoo, where ARE you????

We are all interested in finding out what you will be up to next...

Hey guys give him a chance - he won't be here til tomorrow.

Save him a few drinks too

Hey the place sure is looking nice. The new fireplace and couches are really comfy. Ahhhhh

Just a very swift message to say, thanks for having me and I'll be along tomorrow. If I'm a little later than the times advertised it's because I've got a secret meeting in the morning and during the afternoon I'll be spending some of the time taking an important call. But you know how it is for us high-flying independent freelance creative types...

Umm yup, and Some of us understand the time difference

Make sure there are plenty of crates lying around to give Steve something to do just in case he becomes bored

Bernie

bernie,

I'm sure we will have Loads of beer crates needing moved from the Memorial celebration in Mixed Bag.. anyone know where the recycler is??

I can see that the tone is going to be something special.

Well I heard tell of a guy who self-crated himself off to Houston,

Hmmm Bernie... Have you ever really really examnined a crate from the inside?? It is a once in a lifetime thrill and ohhh look at these bananas in here.

Come on Steve, I'll stand you to a free pint.

Is that a free virtual pint?

Welcome to the board, Steve! I do have a question, why were there so many crate puzzles in the latest Broken Sword game? Any answers?

Because we put them there. Seriously, that's the reason. What we didn't do was take the time to evaluate them and ensure the balance was right. Not enough time at the end to do a lot of things we should have, unfortunately.

Steve,

Will Old Peculier do???? I'm quite sure it would stand the travel distance

Gator, just watch out for the spiders!!!!

Looking forward to details of your future projects Steve!!

Hugs

Tig

Old Peculiar would be spot on. Or Bishop's Finger, or Speckled Hen or...

1698?????

Don't know that one.

I liked the crates in the game. I wish there had been more

I'll put lots more into the next game I work on.

Oh, no!!! Not more crates!

Hi Steve,

Just for the record. Have you, in any way, involved in another adventure game besides Broken Sword series?

And, what was your contribution in Broken Sword?

Thanks!

I thought the crates were the best part of the game (really) It was a lot better than trying to sneak past those guards
I hope the next game you make will be called Crates and more Crates...it would make a great puzzle game

Elven King

In the interest of starting off some actual questions, I copied your two part question and pasted them up as two new thread starters.

Now we have some bright inquisitive people here already. Surely you got questions for Steve other than "Crate boy - myth or reality??"

I'll go and look at the other questions.

Some of the crate puzzles were used in the wrong context and I understand people's frustrations at them. I don't think they were bad in themselves, just out of place. So a crate pushing puzzle game...

Steve,

Broken Sword 3 was a great game that just did not sell well. Do you have any opinions on why the sales were below expectations? Poor marketing? Poor word-of-mouth.

Question #2

Why is it that everyone complains about too many crate puzzles in BS3 but I never see action gamers complain about too many guns in a game or too many corridors - is it because adventure gamers expect more?

There were certain UK stores who hadn't even heard of it....

There he is. Hi Randy.

I don't know what Steve thinks - but I never worry about guns it's running out of ammo that freaks me right out. Never such a thing as too much ammo.

Randy, are you after killing my career?

Marketing was a part of this, which is illustrated by the fact that The Adventure Company have just re-designed the box cover. It certainly wasn't a cover that stood out on the shelves, originally. The European cover was even worse.

Competing with so many other titles just before Christmas really hit its potential sales hard. It's insane that so many games are released in the same short time-period. BSTSD failed to gain any momentum that might have done well for long-term sales.

One of the reasons for the complaints about crates is that some of the puzzles weren't placed in a proper context and appeared to be just bolted on. Another one is probably because there's a pretty big one just before the final confrontation and it takes something away from the tension we'd built up at that point. If we'd had more time to polish we would probably have realised that ourselves.

I enjoyed the crate puzzles myself. I thought the puzzles by itselves are well designed and as Steve stated the context insertion needed work. I agree that in playing the game and following the logic of the story - the appearance of misplaced crate puzzles distracts the whole story line.

Hi Steve!
Hi Randy!

Old Peculiar a familiar brew of use in the Martha Grimes murder detective series I have read.At first I thought it was just a faked name until I was at my sisters hose in Wash DC when my brother in law offered me one to drink. I do love MacEwens Ale tho

Hi MaG.

McKewan's Eighty Shilling is delicious.

Hiya Steve!

Ive been starting to notice a shift in the marketing of adventuregames lately. It seems that more and more developers are opting to go the way of smaller episodic adventure that are to be paid for and downloaded via internet only. Do you think that there is a future for this stratetgy? What do you think it would take to get gamers over the negative "Pay-per-download" stigma?

I honestly think that it could be a good business model if you could get the marketing and "distribution" right. Lots of people order their games online anyway, so what it you cut out the publisher and went straight to these sites with some kind of distribution deal. Particularly if they're not holding warehouses full of games, it must pay them to help you sell the game. With the higher royalties for both parties it will make games easier to hit the break-even level for the developer and the distributor has more of an interest in its success.

The trick is getting the game into development in the first place, though.

If the development companies offered mail-orders of their cds, I could live with that. Especially if you could send them a money order.

Susan

One of the biggest hurdles in online distribution seems to be getting gamers to pay to download a file. Shoping online isnt really the issue as most people seem fine with it as long as they are mailed a physical product in return. Asuming the game has already gotten past the development phase, how would you convince people to pay to download a file?

Admittedly, that is an issue. Perhaps we still need to produce the discs until people get their heads around paying for a download. The key could be to offer the game at two different prices to encourage the download option.