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| 17 JUL 2005 at 3:51pm | |
IviniaGuild Master  Posts : 4459 Joined: 7 JUN 2003 Location: US Status : Offline | Hauntings of Mystery Manor is the independently developed game by Cindy Pondillo of the Mystery Manor website fame. The game takes place in the rooms that make up that website, although no internet connection is necessary - the game is self contained. The object of the game is to free up restless spirits in the various rooms located in the manor. Each spirit has their own unique story to share which adds a bit of interest to freeing them instead of just checking them off a list. The graphics are a uniquely drawn colorful stills with lots of detail making them enjoyable to look at and go over. The game engine is done with AGS. A free Adventure Game engine for independent developers to create their own games. This system is very dated, but for this game, it works. There are no puzzles in Hauntings of Mystery Manor. Everything is inventory based and their are a LOT of objects to work with. As you explore the manor, you'll pick up objects and either combine them or use them by themselves to free up ghosts. Often times freeing up a spirit will result in them rewarding you with a new item. The game is extremely non-linear in that you can get to nearly all the rooms and see all the ghosts right from the outset. Some rooms are locked, but you never really get 'stuck' in any one place. If you can't figure out one, you can easily work on another and come back to it later. There is no voice acting. All dialogs are done in text. These are rich in story and give you a great feel for what happened to a particular spirit - and clues as to how to free them. All in all, I really liked this game because it never pretended to be something it wasn't. It wasn't much of a mental challenge but gave the players lots to do and was just plain cheesy fun. It's supposed to take up to 5 hours to complete, but took me around 2 hours. Reading various posts/reviews seems like most people are clocking in at 2-3 hours. It's easy to accept this games shortcomings but for one thing - the price. Considering there was no voice acting, the game engine is freeware, and the graphics are pretty much straight from the website, it boggles my mind how Cindy can justify selling this game for $15. If you include shipping, that cost moves pretty close to around $20 depending on where you live although you can download it directly since it's only 53 Megs and avoid the shipping costs. All things considered, since most Indie games have been packaged with DVD cases and getting this game in a plastic jewel case with no cover, you can't help but feel that the cheap route was taken every step of the way in making this game. To me, a more reasonable price would have been in the $10 range considering what you got, the game length, freeware game engine, no voice acting, and reused graphics - and even that may be too high a price. Grading this game on its own I would have given it a JA grade of B-, but considering the value for the money, I'd have to give it a final grade of D+. :-/ PROS - Interesting characters - Consistent gameplay - non-linear - fun/unique graphics CONS - Way Overpriced - Short game length
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| 17 JUL 2005 at 6:18pm | |
GhostladyIntergalactic Janitor  Posts : 72 Joined: 14 OCT 2002 Location: US Status : Offline | |
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| 17 JUL 2005 at 8:31pm | |
IviniaGuild MasterPosts : 4459 Joined: 7 JUN 2003 Location: US Status : Offline | Ghostlady - The review wasn't based on how much money you put into it. I really enjoyed the game, but when it was done and I checked the clock, the one nagging feeling that kept me from posting all over the place about how much fun it was to play was the cost. It just seemed high when compared to other titles and what you get. If the game was longer and more immersive then the cost issue wouldn't have even surfaced. When it does, you try to justify it by looking at what the developer put into it. In this case the perception was that there wasn't anything to support it, but the contrary was true. Again, this is the perception. :-/ Many gamers have limited budgets. If they had $15-$20 to spend, my guess is that they would go for the commercial title unless the indie title was of commercial quality. You'll always get the people like me who snatch up practically every AG that comes out. We're not the ones you have to try to sell to, we're a guaranteed sale, but we are also very few. Based on some indie sales numbers, we number around 100, with another 200 or so that wait it out until they see some reviews. You are sitting on a golden opportunity to create extremely fun 'filler' AGs that can be played in an afternoon and tap into a potentially lucrative market. Your game was a LOT of fun, but in the wrong price range. Would you rather sell 100 items at $20 and make $10 profit on each or sell 1,000 items at $10 and make $5 on each? [smiley=shrug.gif] I could be way off here and I hope this comes across as constructive. I really am looking forward to your next title and hope it is just as much fun, if not more, than your first.
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