Al Emmo's Postcards from Anozira - New HOG on BigFish

Todays game for Club Members , tomorrows game for all.

You can download El Emmo's Postcards from Anozira here.



As always, please remember to come back and tell us what you think.

Happy Gaming,
Ana

It looks like the developers of the Al Emmo adventure game have made an HO game using similar environments. Kind of surprising, for some reason.

Nice concept,but I don't like timers in my games.
I wonder if you can turn it off ?

I played the demo and it caused me nostalgia for the old times when I had not missed a single adventure game. Now I'm a IHOG fan and play adventures occasionally in between the IHOGs. This particular Al Emmo adventure game was very good. It's not a bad idea to use the old adventure games for making the casual games IMO. It was nice to see all familiar characters and hear their original voices in this demo.

Cathy1, this game has a relaxed mode, I played without a timer.

Oh I remember the adventure game that was ace tho I remember some of you on here thought it was rather rude. [blip] them always moving on to hidden object.

I haven't tried the game yet, but my initial reaction was disappointment that this was not a true adventure-game sequel to Al Emmo.

Having said that, a lot of developers are finding that there is more money to be made in casual games than in adventure games now (the Tex Murphy people, Agatha Christies ending up as HOGs rather than adventures), and I think what we are seeing here is the result of market realities.

I will trial the game, though.

It's a shame tho.
What is the title of the casual game the Tex Murphy people have done?
There's so many of these casual games coming out it's hard to keep track.

3 Cards to Midnight and 3 Cards to Dead Time; both games are on Big Fish. The games have a continuing story and 3 Cards to Midnight is the first one.

I agree with you that it is too bad that the Al Emmo developers and the Tex Murphy developers haven't continued on with their adventure games. Casual games also for the most part require a lower budget than a full-length adventure game. I imagine they would both prefer to be doing adventure games.

Hey guys and girls,

I'm Chris, one of the developers of Al Emmo's Postcards from Anozira from Himalaya Studios.

Fear not, we haven't abandoned adventure games in favour of Hidden Object games! In fact, right now we are hard at work on a brand new Adventure/RPG hybrid game, very similar to King's Quest and Quest for Glory. We haven't publicly announced any information about this title yet, but rest assured, steady progress is being made and it's coming along really well!

There are several reasons we decided to release a HOG based on Al Emmo. First up, I wanted to challenge myself to see whether this could be done using the Adventure Game Studio (AGS) game engine. I don't believe a HOG has ever been created using this game engine before.

And secondly, it costs quite a lot of money to develop a decent 2D adventure game these days. If it fails commercially, then there is a lot to lose, so it's always a risky endeavor. This has always been a major stumbling block for us, as it's nearly always more cost effective to make ANY other kind of game than an adventure title! But we love the Adventure Game genre, and we will always continue to create adventure games. The reason we released this HOG was mainly as a way of helping to fund the adventure game we're currently developing.

We do have a fully written design document for an Al Emmo sequel (adventure game), but unfortunately, the first game didn't do as well as expected so we had to shelve the project for now. We'll focus on medieval and magic themes in our next games (like KQ and QFG), but who knows, we might revisit an Al Emmo sequel at some point in the future. I guess time will tell.

In conclusion, yes, HOG games have been known to generate money for developers, but don't worry - we're not going to ever forsake adventure games, which are our main priority and our major interest.

If you'd like to support us, though, please give the HOG a try and tell others about it. That would be appreciated, as it will help us to develop more adventures. And if you'd like to know more about our forthcoming Adventure/RPG game (when info becomes public) be sure to visit our site and join the Himalaya Newsletter.

Happy gaming!

Chris

www.HimalayaStudios.com

www.AGDInteractive.com

Bonito,

Thanks for the update. Good luck on the HOG and the forthcoming Adventure-RPG game.

Hi Bonito -- thanks for the info!

That's very informative, Bonito, and also great news! I will be first in line to play a game that's like King's Quest/Quest for Glory! I actually live where those two games were made and my neighbor was the character model they used for the fighter/thief/magician in Quest for Glory. I've met Lori Cole, too; she and Corey live around here.

I really loved Al Emmo and The Lost Dutchman's Mine.

Thanks so much for posting.

Marian, yes we traveled to Oakhurst back in 2005 and met Lori Cole too. She actually took us around the area and showed us all the sites, the old Sierra building, Half Dome, Ken and Roberta's old house etc. We also met up with Corey Cole who was working in Santa Monica at the time. It was a blast! Here's an article on the AGC site about our experiences:

http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/403/

It was kind of sad to see that nobody we asked in the area (local businesses etc) knew much about the former Sierra company... or even that one of the major worldwide game developers of the 80's and 90's had even existed in their very own town!

Oh, well. We'll try to keep the classic Sierra spirit alive with our games a least.

www.HimalayaStudios.com

www.AGDInteractive.com

Thank you for the information and also for the link to the interview; that was a lot of fun to read.

I didn't know that the Sierra company was in Oakhurst, although it makes sense.. (Sierra, duh!)Cool! Thanks for the info....loved those games.

When Ken and Roberta Williams first moved up here from the Los Angeles area, they first lived in Coarsegold (which is where the Sierra game Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist is set). After that, they moved to Oakhurst. Oakhurst and Coarsegold are roughly 3 miles apart. I enjoy the references to my local area that I find in Freddy Pharkas.

Thanks, Marian, I was going crazy thinking that Sierra was located in Coarsegold, CA and I didn't remember anything about Oakhurst and thinking maybe I imagined Coarsegold from one of the games, like Gold Rush. Never thought of Freddy Pharkas, which was an Al Lowe game for Sierra. Played both games and enjoyed them and so many other Sierra games, which is why "sierra" is part of my username! Anyway, thanks for clearing up my confusion and keeping me sane, sort of, and yes, I will be buying Postcards from Anozira (Arizona, anyone?) as soon as I finish some games already in progress and piling up on my computer.

Bonito, I am loving the HOG with Al Emmo and the "gang." I'm perfectly happy playing with my familiar characters and places until your next game!

Ah, Sierra... thank you for keeping the spirit alive!

I've got lots of Sierra games around here in my collection, and if I remember correctly, depending on what you were dealing with in terms of Customer Service numbers/mailing addresses, they were directed to both Coarsegold and Oakhurst. So, you are not crazy and that's probably what you are remembering, sierramindy.

When Ken and Roberta moved to Oakhurst, my mother took a tour of their house at one point, and they had a swimming pool, the tiles of which were scenes from King's Quest games/characters. Later on they moved to Bass Lake, which is about 15 miles away from here, and then after that they moved up to the Seattle area.

Jonathan Bock (the designer of Lighthouse) has a store in Oakhurst that sells paintings and arts and crafts. I met him when I went to Sierra to beta-test Quest for Glory 4--a really nice guy who had LOTS of ideas for other games but unfortunately never got to implement them. He sells some of the stuff (also toys and games) from his store on eBay, as well.

whats the name of the store in oakhurst??

edit....
this is really Winfrey

Williams Gallery West. Open Thursday through Monday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.