Overclocked and Moment of Silence

I had no idea Overclocked was so deep and so good. It was not as gory or violent as I thought it would be. I would like to thank Inferno for the review on GB, I only had to read it was from the same people who did Mystery of the Druids and Moment of Silence and that was it. Have they made any other adventures I might have missed? Are they preparing a new one?

I'm sorry to say they are no longer making games... the studio got bought up by publisher dtp and made one more game, 15 Days, and then stopped existing. The original founders of House of Tales, Martin Gantefoehr and Tobias Schachte, have left dtp and are not interested in making games anymore.

Any reason why? It has been four years since Overclocked, maybe they're ready for Kickstarter? It would be a shame that such talent should go to waste. Critics were unfair to Overclocked, I feel...

The other problem with Kickstarter is that one must be a US resident to start a project, any idea when it will be international?

I believe they were just hugely disappointed with how things went with being overtaken by a publisher, not having as much influence on their own games as they wanted and being forced to work on other types of games (that the publisher saw as being more profitable). Perhaps indeed something like Kickstarter (or more international similar projects such as Indiegogo) would be an option to create something of their own again.

While it's probably wise to never say never, I don't see any of us founding a new development studio in the foreseeable future.

And honestly, even IF I were considering it, I wouldn't want the entire operation to depend on the success of a kickstarter or indiegogo campaign.

Anyways, I'm glad you guys liked (some of) the games. We liked (some of) them, too.

Best
Martin

Martin!
Nice to see you drop by.

We do love your games; so we're waiting for another great game from you.

Martin Moment of Silence was incredible. One of my all time favorites.

Ana

Martin, I'm so pleased you keep an eye on what is being said about your wonderful and imaginative adventures, you do care! The idea of having to interview those kids one after the other in Overclocked, having to prompt them to get more in overlapping stories, was nothing short of genius in the genre. And the complexity of a well research developing story, just like for Moment of Silence, is simply a treat missing in most adventures. I love personal drama, how the hero must deal with having lost a kid or a drinking problem leading to a divorce and professional issues. All in such quality environments and well-designed graphics.

What are you working on now? What is your team doing now? I hope you do get to make another great conspiracy adventure game on that kind of scale. And if it is not via Kickstarter, maybe one of the new studios dedicated to adventures that were financed lately, like Pinkerton Road, will contact you once they are in cruising speed. The industry is in dire need of your talent. Kickstarter has shown that it was far from being dead. And never be discouraged by negative reviews from people who usually love RPGs and FPS games, there are many of us out there who love adventures.

Now I’m going to try to install Mystery of the Druids on Windows 7. If I could have played it again recently, it would have made my top 20 this year. And if I had discovered Overclocked before I voted, it would have been near the top of my list. Moment of Silence is my 8th favourite of all time on the List for 2012, and Martin I saw many others who have voted for your adventures in their top 20.

Moment of Silence is simply perfection on every level, I played it every year since it came out, and again recently (I had trouble getting that UK DVD to work on Windows 7, I had to buy a different version in the end).

Oh, so 15 Days is another one I missed. Thank you PolloDiablo for letting me know, it looks fantastic with yet again a most original story line. I see it can be bought and downloaded from the Adventure Shop for a tenner. I know what I’ll be doing now…

Martin, I found your website, the one page jpeg: http://gantefoehr.com/

Frankly, you should update this with a few interesting things about the games you made and loved. And present as a pitch a new concept for an adventure game that could potentially be picked up. Just a suggestion…

Hi Martin. Nice to see you stop by.

I liked all of them except for the most recent one, 15 Days.
My favorite is Moment of Silence.

30 minutes before 15 Days finishes downloading. But what is this anti-fraud validation 8 hours wait from the Adventure Shop before I get the key to install the game? I don't remember having to wait when I bought Culpa Innata Uncut. Would it have been instant if I paid with PayPal instead of a Visa Debit Card?

A shame there won't be a sequel to Moment of Silence. I liked Overclocked too.

Just got validated and I have the key. It didn't take that long. Phew!

The only website that gives me instant validation is the DRM-free GOG. The second my debit card is validated, I get a notice to go get my game. With extras. It's wonderful.

Gil.

I buy from both Gog and the Adventure Shop, but at this time I think Gog is not selling 15 Days.

And neither of them are selling Mystery of the Druids or Moment of Silence. Martin, perhaps you should look into that?

Not a bad idea, rmt.

GOG just ran a summer promo contest between Scratches and Sanitarium, resulting in reduced prices for both. Sanitarium won, so is the most deeply discounted but look how old that game is and it garnered a lot of votes. Scratches isn't exactly new, either, but the interest in both is renewed. If a developer is still in business, that can only mean good things: at least some profit from games that seemed to be "dead" and possible interest created in games yet to come.


Gil.

I thought Mystery Of The Druids was a great game. Unfortunately, I can't get it to run on my Win 7 64 bit computer. I would love to play it again.

Uncle Reg, you can check in the Glitches forum and they may be able to help you get it running.

Ana

I agree, a sequel to Moment of Silence would be great. It's too bad there won't be any more House of Tales games. They were some of my favorite developers.

I am as impressed with 15 Days as I was with Overclocked. I can't believe it took me so long to discover these games.

I still have to finsh 15 Days. I like what I've played so far, which unfortunately isn't very much yet. I'm just so behind in all my games. Oh, well, there are worse problems to have.