There! After Alkis21 request I just had to give in!

I won't have any spoilers for the game, no, but probably others to follow will.

What I want to say is that the story is extremely well orchestrated. The scenario is well crafted, and dialogues are alive (and the voice acting helps very much to that). There is a constant tention rising towards the ending which is tremendous, imho.

The way that everything is revealed 5 minutes before the end and the fact that the while ending (with no clicking) is 18 minutes long, is enough to betray that there is a lot to be said about DITR company, Jason and other characters as well.

I haven't played many games with such detail in the story and such orchestration and well crafted scenario, in all honesty.

Plus it is something that I've never seen discussed in any game really. I've seen a few movies, but the issue(s) discussed are so real and so current that I can't help but feel that Alkis is... a political person and rightfully so! (political <> party/fan/obsessed)

Thank you alkis for such a game and such food for thought (and fear, since you mention that you took the information from various forums, which still gives me the creeps really...)

Nikolas, I have not yet played the game, but am curious if you are not the same Nikolas involved in the creation of the game eg. the music?

Ana

I finished the game after a marathon on it (with a little nudge here and there from Len Greens excellent walkthrough) & have since replayed it!

I thought it was an excellent AG altogether before you even get to the ending! After the dramatic opening scene I was compelled to keep playing - I just had to know the reason! After an initial period of exploration I found the game flowed along quite logically - I especially found the use of 'thoughts' & later on 'special abilities' both novel & interesting but it took me some time to get my head round it (hence the nudges!)
I would be interested to know Alkis - when you were researching 'special abilities' whether you came across anyone you thought might be genuine?

As for the ending - well! - there are a lot of very strong, highly offensive & shocking views expressed in the context of the game & more disgustingly no doubt reflected by members of the real life organisations Alkis 'infiltrated' for research.

As for Jason being a coward - no! - he really didn't have any choice if he was going to stay true to his beliefs.
I think you are brave Alkis to approach this subject in a game & pull it off as well as you have done. It is certainly thought provoking & I hope the game does well!

I was amazed the ending. I never thought of anything like this. As good as a murder mystery who did it, the butler?
It is different to all very many other games I played. I expected somebody who wanted to rule world or create a device to dominate everyone.
Its nice a change to get something real that is up to date and happens instead of witches and monster people and maniacs.

Ana,

Yes I am. I didn't think that people didn't know this... I go by the same nickname everywhere and just assumed... I did all music, sfx, etc (general audio that is) for DITR.

And so, I know how to add spoilers...

No Nikolas, we do not swear here, whether it be in spoilers or not. I edited your post accordingly.

Ana

Ok, no probs and sorry about that.

Hi Ana, saw that some of what I wrote was put in a 'spoiler link' - sorry! I would have done this myself but the thread title includes 'Spoilers' in it - I assumed only people who have finished the game would look here.

Chrissie -- it's a close call, I know -- I think it makes sense to add a spoiler tag even in a spoiler thread if the game has just released days ago (like this one has) and if the information is really, really spoilerish.

If that makes sense.

Thanks Becky for the explanation - I will add spoiler tags in future but I did think I was pretty evasive & coy in my post!

Coyness and evasion are much appreciated here. I frequently practice these virtues myself.

Let me start by saying that yes, Nikolas is indeed the artist who wrote the excellent music of DITR.



My research on that subject was not as complete as I wanted it to be because I couldn't find any people with such claims in Greece (no organized ones, at least), it was strictly online therefore I do not consider it to be scientific and I cannot give you any solid conclusions.
My personal opinion is that those people suffer from delusions of grandeur. However, I'm merely an electrical engineer, not a psychologist.

Personal belief follows:

I've never ever seen or experienced anything of supernatural nature to the least! I've seen a few "incidents" on BBC (I live in London) where people appear to have some kind of special skills... A blind man that could actually draw a building after he would touch it for some time! (imagine that! Mighty impressive). A guy who could draw a... (how do you call it?) whole round map of London, after taking a ride on a balloon for a few hours. A guy who could endure cold, so much that he run a marathon, or at least some miles, in freezing conditions (snow everywhere), bare naked with his genitals only covered and not only survived, but didn't have any frostbites, at least not serious ones (he didn't loose any fingers).

These are simply stunning if you think about it, but it does seem to me that it's more about preparation, practice and natural tendency, rather than some kind of miracle! Don't mean to talk about myself but there are musicians and composers out there who can "hear" in their head what is writen in the score, without playing it! There are composers who don't have any kind of instrument next to them and just compose... masterpieces! This is some kind of miracle as well, isn't it?

There are people who can RUN for 26-27 miles. Not walk, run! Ever tried it? The marathon, and it's plenty of them! Poor Greek guy who first did it, in ancient Greece, died... (I'm Greek btw... Just so you know). And now you get SO many people doing it!

Imagine that now: There are people who JUMP 7 meters. Around 21-22 feet. Can you even imagine that? There is a guy running, then jumps ABOVE the whole of your bedroom and living room and then lands on his... behinds and is fine...

I don't know if it's amazing to do the stuff mentioned in DITR, which seem somewhat unlikely, but the above are all true (numbers taken from wiki, and other sources, so they should be right. Either way, anyone can check on the numbers really).

Bottom line is that there are special abilities anywhere in the world, I find! And we just need to know that it's just the human nature that is capable of doing it, with the help of God/nature/family/education/whatever. (/fatherly Nikolas)

Alkis, in all honesty, no matter that I worked on the game (everybody: I didn't know what the game was about until beta97 actually (beta100 is gold)), I find the ending creepy and scary.

Very nice ending alkis and i really enjoyed the text at the end of the game in which you explained everything. You made this ending even more unique...

Ah, the ending, so much to think about! Yet, right now, I just feel sort of down, I'm missing Jason. I've enjoyed adventuring with him and now it is over. I guess I need time to say goodbye. The ending fits the story and I can go along with it okay, although when Sydelle rushed in at the end I did have hopes. I will bet everyone did.
I'm guessing there are people all over the world who would like to join DITR, but fortunately it is fiction. Such thinking has been around for a long time. At least in the story, Hungerton's sister had a reason that turned her in that direction. You could feel sorry for her. It is too bad her brother went along with her instead of talking her out of such thinking and feeling. But then there would have been no Diamonds In The Rough game. It is one that I am sure I will remember for a long time.

For those of you who are interested in trivia & fun stuff:

Wow... Thanks alkis.... You filled a lot of blanks... Fascinating...

I got 2/however many there were... heh...

I got the first one. How could I miss it since I almost never used the Esc key!
As for the second one:

I have to say that the encouraging e-mails I receive daily from make me very proud, some of them are quite touching. Thankfully there are no hate mails from "the other side"... yet.

That's truly wonderful Alkis!

Another thing I should add to the trivia list is that unless I'm mistaken, there is no 'Glenboro' in Kansas or anywhere else in the USA. There is one in Canada though.

Hi Alkis,

great game. I just finished it and I found the subject matter to be refreshing and up-to-date with our times. As for the trivia, that was awesome! Of course I did guess The trivia also shows how you put care and thought in the game. I have only one thing that upset me.... The hardest puzzle was not hard for me at all, which was kind of funny as I got stuck in other easier parts. Anyway congrats on the great . Anyway I am not sure what there is to discuss about the ending as I pretty much think we all see eye to eye about the subject matter here in this forum at least...however interesting

Jedi Valius:

Thanks for the comments in music!

The whole idea about this... path in music started on the demo. The demo was complete, but was lacking the changing music while reading Sydelles letter. I asked Alkis 2 days and made the track, which also gave direction to the rest of the music. I admit that some things are just too scarey, but they do add to the atmosphere!

Now on the eye to eye comment, here is a quote from another forum, which I even ashamed to quote almost: Edited out.