Miskatonic - A point and click adventure (Windows)

[jackslawed]

Hi all,
I was talking to the admins, and they suggested that folks on this board might be interested...
I've made a Lovecraftian point and click set at Miskatonic. It's kind of a mystery/comedy, in the style of a Monkey Island or Syberia. There's no fighting, just exploration and puzzle solving. It's set in the present day, and I moved the campus to a more bucolic setting on the edge of Arkham.

I'm not really familiar with the RPGs, but I'm a huge fan of the stories, and I've tried to capture the unwholesome character of the campus, and the stressed out/ nutty faculty dealing with a fairly high mortality rate. It's a bit wacky at times, both because of the genre (point and click) conventions and because I always imagined actually working at Miskatonic would be fairly absurd. I know some people might prefer their adventures to be horrifying rather than humorous...your mileage may vary.

Anyway, decency demands that I cap the brazen promotion here. There is a free demo available at the site, so you can make your own mind up about it.
www.miskatonicgame.com

[trevlix]

Wow! Very impressive! I'm downloading the demo as I type this.

[PoC]

- and here's the trailer:

[LoneKharnivore]

Heh... why do all point-and-clicks nowadays have to feature hot chicks as the playable character?

Jus' wondrin'.

[nclarke]

Cos they have a target audience of teenage boys?

[LoneKharnivore]

Ah yes...

[jackslawed]

...teenage boys.
I guess it would be nice to have some young folks interested. It would be flattering to think that I have any knowledge or success whatsoever in marketing demographics! FWIW, the protagonist in part 2 is a dude(could be considered "hot" if you're into hirsute but well-groomed types). As I said, your mileage may vary.
Cheers

[cjearkham]

Honestly, just judging from the trailer, the protagonist is not really a "hot chick". She's a female college student, it looks like, dressed appropriately and of normal proportions. If you find her hot, okay. (Looks like she has red hair, possibly the only concession to intended hotness.)

And if you want females to play your game, I'd think a female character is a must.

[LoneKharnivore]

Woah, hey, I meant nothing bad by it, it was merely an observation/rhetorical question - Syberia, Gray Matter etc all fall into that category. I meant to put hot chicks in quotes, as well; my bad.

With regards to needing a female character to lure female players - uh, really? That is the attitude of a large proportion of the games industry, but I think it seems a little sexist. I play games that look interesting, whatever the sex of the main character; why wouldn't women?

Anyway, enough derailment; I'm gonna go play the demo...

[gatherer3]

If you liked Broken Sword, or are looking for a change from replaying the Lurking Horror from Infocom, this is for you. I loved it. It's humorous and creepy with the individuality I expect from a little independent game. Well done.

[Ebonrook]

I was actually thinking of doing something with the Adventure Game Studio, possibly adapting Lovecraft stories in some way into a game. Or CoC scenarios possibly.
This looks cool though.

[Cthulhudude]

Cos they have a target audience of teenage boys?

By and large teenage boys do not play point and click games, they play Call of Duty and other shooters instead. Point and click adventures are made for old school gamers like me. Admittedly I am a teenage boy at heart…

For what it’s worth, I played the first part of this game a liked it lots. My full thoughts on it can be found here: http://lovecraftzine.com/2012/05/31/...inhuman-stain/

[Ebonrook]

By and large teenage boys do not play point and click games, they play Call of Duty and other shooters instead. Point and click adventures are made for old school gamers like me. Admittedly I am a teenage boy at heart…

For what it’s worth, I played the first part of this game a liked it lots. My full thoughts on it can be found here: http://lovecraftzine.com/2012/05/31/...inhuman-stain/

If that's not stereotyping, nothing is. I've always played Point and Click adventure games, from when I was younger, through my teens and even now. To claim teenage boys don't play these types of games is ridiculous.

The games industry is still almost totally directed towards males of all age groups. That's why it's a girl, they assume that guys only want to look at women.

[Cthulhudude]

If that's not stereotyping, nothing is.

No, it's called sales statistics. As someone that works with marketing and PR firms that handle video games, who monitor these trends very carefully, that's a fact. Just because you did something doesn't make it the rule.

[JuliaQuenton]

As a teenage girl very in to gaming of all types I've gotta say having a male or female protagonist doesn't worry me that much, though it is nice to have a female heroine of more realistic proportions who's not just there for eye candy >.<
As for the teenage boy thing, I think it depends a lot on the boy in question. My brother's a major league gamer and he does play point and click games, though most of his time is spent on the x-box. If you can prize him off it it's a miracle xD

Anyway, I'm off to try this demo. It looks awesome