Very Slick Myst-Like game demo - "Amarhys"

The developer of this "game-in-progress" posted at the Myst-Online forum to solicit feedback about his game.

Use the attached link to download an easy to install demo of Amarhys (English and French - choose language at setup).

http://www.amarhys.com/amarhys.php?lgid=GB

I found the game environment to be beautiful. One suggestion; consider raising the Brightness to around 75% to be able to see into the shadows a little better.

I have no idea when the game is scheduled to be finished, but I like what I see.

Cheers,

Dadguy

PS: If there is interest I'll start a little "demo hints" thread on the appropriate forum.

Thanks dadguy! I love anything Myst-like! Demo hints would be appreciated!

Thank you, dadguy. I'll take a peek

Thanks dadguy, very nice this, downloaded and installed great, managed to get into the little hut with windmill. beautiful environments, mouse only just like the old Myst games. Will look forward to this!

Thanks, dadguy!

Thanks dadguy, I got the portal now just have to go through it. Really a great demo.
Richard

Thanks Dadguy! It's like a drop of rain in a long drought, much appreciated.

Thanks for the info Dadguy. Anything Myst like I know will be good. Will download now!

Bernie

Just went through the portal. Looking around. Nice demo.
Richard

What a great demo. beautiful graphics, smooth engine. Anything "Myst-like" always gets my attention; cant wait for this to be released
edit: I've entered the windmill house; is this the end of the demo, or is it possible to go through the portal?

Geo, I moved your question and its replies to Hints.

Ana

Thanks Ana.
Richard

I also added a brief "help" post with hints and total spoilers in this HINT topic, which can be found HERE

Dadguy

Wow--excellent! Thanks for the pointer, dadguy!

As a fan of first person games, and the Myst series in particular, I was glad to learn about this game. I'd never caught word of it before. It looks very promising. Thanks dadguy for passing the news along!

I just started the demo - I love it already.

I hope you guys have some kind of virus check on your PCs with this demo. Norton's on my PC was extremely wary of this one and would not allow me to even attempt to open it. It may just be overly sensitive, I don't know...

Apparently some others are discussing this with the developer.
Myst online Uru forum Amarhys thread

Well I guess we shouldnt get our hopes up too high... I went to the game's website to find out more; the game has been under development by a single designer for 7 years, and he has no idea as to when it will be released, or even if it will be relased. sigh....

Those screen shots are beautiful, but my Norton absolutely shut down my download of the demo also; wouldn't even let me choose.
I hope this gets cleared up since it looks like my kind of game.

Hello,

First I would like to thank all of you for your encouragement, it's motivating to move forward .
I am very happy to see that there are still many fans for myst-like games.

To answer some of your questions :

Indeed it seems that there're some problems with the demo and Norton. I found this topic on Norton community support :
http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/WS-reputation-1-threat/td-p/398034

I have submitted the demo to Symantec white-list as recommended, I am still waiting for the answer, but not very optimistic, I didn't receive any confirmation email from my submission yet .. I will try to submit-it again. I guess I don't have priority because I don't pay anything ..

Here's a work around proposed by one of the member of Myst Online URU forum :
http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25285&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30




I've been working on this project for a long time, and I had to stop for 5 years because my real job was taking me too much time, but the situation became better and I spent the last two years to improve graphics and to work on music and sound FX. Most of my spare time is dedicated to the project, but for sure, nobody knows what does the future hold.

amarhys

Thank you for stopping in amarhys and to GameBoomers. I hope that you will find the ti9me to finish. I know it must a labor of love and I can imagine how difficult it is. Kudos to you!

Ana

amarhys.

The game looks spectacular. on your endeavors.

Hi amarhys! There are many fans of this style of game here at GameBoomers! You will make many people happy when you finish the game.

Thanks for this warm welcome

I will do my best to finished the game before 2020 .. jocking
In any case I won't give up while I already spent 7 years to work on this projet

Hi Amarhys

As a HUGE fan of MYST & Myst style games, my heart skipped a beat when I heard the news of your game. i played the demo the other evening & enjoyed every minute of it!! If the demo is any indication of what's to come I think I can speak for all of us @ GB when I say we're all exceited!!

Good Luck my friend!!

Enjoyed the demo.

Nice graphics

Thanks Dunn

Sorry to say that Get Right doesn't like the download and caused all kinds of problems.

I will wait a while for an updated demo.

Good luck with the game, I'll be waiting for a beautiful Myst-like game to play.

sarahandus,

I've just sent you a PM (to avoid too much technical details on this thread) to try to help you to download.

thanks
amarhys

amarhys,

You're links worked perfectly.

Thanks~

Thanks for the demo... I enjoyed it looking forward to the full game.

I tried to download the game the other night: IE did not even want to open the web page, but after several tries I finally got there. Downloaded the game; took 40 mintues with DSL and seemed to install OK. However, when I tried to play it, Windows immediately shut it down with a "Fatal Error" message. I tried a couple times more and finally uninstalled it. It was very disappointing, as this sounds like my kind of game.(This was with Windows 7.)

Sumac,
If the game isn't working, the developer wants to get in touch with you about fixing it. Here's what he says on the Amarhys website:

THAT is a very generous offer by the developer !!

That demo was very slick, and so Myst like. The graphics are gorgeous, motion is very smooth.

And, when does the full game come out amarhys??? You've done a superb job.

Thanks for the tip/. The demo is a pretty environment,but my question: I have "sea waves" set to "enabled". Yet,the ONLY animation I see is the flag moving and the windmill turning. I have a pretty good PC,so it's not my PC. Is the water SUPPOSED to be moving? If not,it's just a pretty slideshow of a game. No animation in this day and age is pretty old-school,in my opinion.

Well robedits, I believe you're missing the whole point of this game. It's a "MYST" style, slideshow game & yes, that's "old school" & in my opinion if the game has good graphics, challenging puzzels & somewhat of a story or overall goal & is fun, is animation really that important? I think it would be refreshing to play a new MYST style game but the bottom line is...If "old school" isn't your cup of tea....DONT DRINK IT!!

robedits, what you're seeing is a demo of a game that's in the process of development. Everything to be placed in the final version may not be seen in the demo, since it really isn't necessary at this point in time.

Perhaps the waves you wish to see will be seen when the final version is released.

UNderstood....thanks...just needed to know if my computer wasnt taking advantage of the animation,especially since I had that box checked!

No I am not "missing the point". I was simply asking if the moving water animation was or was not working in the demo.
The demo looks like a pretty slideshow otherwise.
I've recently purchased some "old school" games from GOG, so it's obvious (at least to me) that top-shelf grfx are not my only criteria. OR else I'd have a newer-than-six-yrs-old PC.
However,a "new game" nowadays that's being advertised as a graphical adventure should have at least state of the art 2d/3d grfx,in my opinion. The demo shouldn't have "water animation" as an option and not have it animate...the box just shouldn't BE there to throw folks off.
Riven in its time had great grfx.THis seemed like Riven,with less animation.I understand it's a demo...but my question simply was whether or not the "water animated."
Animation in NEW games is important to me,but old-school is ok,if it's not passed of as new-school,so to speak. My opinion.

Your question was a valid one & I completely understand the question, it just seemed to me there was a lot of negativity attached to the question. Maybe I'm wrong & I misconstrued your post as being negative & if so....my humble apologies. From what I know of this game, it's a 1 man project with limited resourses & i think AMARHYS could use all the positive feedback we can give in hopes he keeps progressing forward & completes his game so we all can enjoy the journey thru AMARHYS.

That being said.....

This is a open discussion forum & everyone has a right to post their comments & opinions. My post was just my rebuttal to your post with no ill intended.

Keep up the good work AMARHYS!!

NO offense taken. I actually enjoyed the look of the game,and yes I understand it's a herculean effort by one person. Which I can appreciate.

Hello,


It should .. unfortunately you're not the only one not to see the waves. I use Pixel Shader function of 3D video card to simulate sea waves but it seems that is does not work properly for everybody .. I am investigating the issue. Thanks for your feedback

In any case all kind of feedbacks are welcome, they will help me to improve the final game and to make it satisfy as much people as I can .. within the limits of a game based on pre-calculated renderings (which means for example that the number of animated objects is limited) .. for sure it won't become a real time rendering game like Battlefield

-amarhys

Bonjour!
Good luck finishing your game. I spent so much time figuring out how to get the windmill running,I bet the rest of the game will be a challenge to compete as a gamer! And even without a lot of animation,it looks pretty inviting. A lot of work,a true effort which looks to be paying off! I had no idea until reading further that it was the work of mainly one person!
Je me rejouis de la plein jeu! (Did I spell this correctly,,mon ami?)

A very good-looking game for a one-person operation.
I enjoyed it, though, it did involve a bit of pixel-hunting..

What I can see of the game looks beautiful. However I am having trouble with jerky transitions and yes I have e-mailed Amarhys about it. It's nice to be able discuss problems with the developer.

I finally managed to download and play this demo. I found it stunningly pretty and great fun. I really does remind me of MYST and be assured that that is a very good thing. I too didn't get the 'wave motion' but at this point I really didn't care. I loved the scenery and the music.
I did have one oddity which may be due to a glitch in my computer (Which desperately needs replacement!) The game would not play in "Full Screen" mode, but as soon as I unchecked that option it ran flawlessly. That's not complaint, but it is a new piece of info.
I do have one request: please don't wait seven more years to finish this. I'll be seventy two then and at the rate I'm deteriorating, I won't be able to play it then.
Thanks for the demo.

Hi Amarhys,
I have not been able to start the demo. I get the configuration screen, but when I hit "OK", all I get is a BLACK screen. I HAVE downloaded the patch you sent to me, but the same thing happens anyway.
I HAVE been doing e-mail with you and you asked me to send you a certain "debug.txt" file, but it does not exist on my WIN XP computer.If you are able to come up with more suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks
Sandy

Hi Sanford,

I've just sent you a PM with more information to locate the debug file.

Cheers

and HAPPY NEW YEAR to everybody !!!!!

-amarhys

Happy New Year, amarhys!

sanford, it sounds as though the developer is doing what they can off the board to help you and this forum is for game discussions only. Either please continue to discuss privately with the developer or post in glitches.

Ana

OK. Not a problem, Ana. A happy and healthy New Year to you.
Sandy

Hi, fellow Boomers,
Because of AMARHYS, I was able to run and finish this absolutely short but sweet Demo. I publicly want to thank him for being so patient with me and
sending me so many "fixes" until the game "worked".
I am now "hungry" to play the FULL version.
I also thank our fellow Boomer, "DADGUY" for his great "hints" which was the reason why I was able to get to the end of this fantastic demo.
Sandy

Thanks so much for posting the link for this! I tried it last night and it worked like a charm! It made me realize how much I've missed "Myst-style" games and I hope that the guys/gals that made this will be putting out the full game soon!

Tracy