Interview: Jay Ziebarth - The Ballads of Reemus 2

I've mentioned previously that I receive a lot of emails from game developers and promoters. Most of them want me to review their latest game for the blog, which is not something I'm willing to do (it would distract me from the underlying goal of The Adventure Gamer). Occasionally one catches my attention though, and I find myself wanting to do my part to help. Jay Ziebarth's message was one such email, partly because he gave me a copy of his first game The Ballads of Reemus, but mostly because he'd clearly read some of the blog and understood how things work around here. After looking into the game, I found that the sequel is on Kickstarter right now, and it's touch and go as to whether it will get the funds needed. I felt compelled to find out more about it and its creator, which resulted in the interview below. Do check out the Kickstarter campaign if you get a chance, and if it looks like something you'd like to play, well you know what to do. Oh, and if anyone has any questions, I'm sure Jay will pop in at some point to say hi.

Who are you and what’s your background in gaming?

My name is Jay Ziebarth but I've been known as "Zeebarf" online since 1999. I started out making cartoons and flash movies on sites like Newgrounds.com. I'm primarily an artist and writer. My background in gaming is only that of a fan. Everything I've done has been self-taught.

Jay (Zeebarf) Ziebarth: The only Canadian point and clicker on Kickstarter

How did adventure games become your weapon of choice?

I've been an adventure fan since first discovering "Maniac Mansion" on the Commodore 64 in the 80's. Adventure games combine all my passions into one. I love storytelling and writing, characters and puzzles. I always wanted to make one but never really had the tools or skills to do it.

It wasn't until I learned how to use the program Adobe Flash that I was able to do anything about it. I played a flash game called "Samorost", I loved it and realized that I could probably make a game like that myself. My goal was to eventually make a full Lucas Arts style adventure game, so I just started making point and click games in flash, all free to play in the browser. Each game I tried to teach myself a little more. I've since made 15 flash adventure games. I finally realized my Lucas Arts dream last year when I completed my first commercial adventure game "The Ballads of Reemus".

 Samorost: Damn that's a beautiful game!

What made you decide to start making your own games and how would you sum up the experience of the early years?

I had gotten quite good using Adobe Flash for art and animation and I had a pretty solid understanding of basic action scripting. In 2007 I found myself with a bunch of free time and I had always wanted to make a game, so I started teaching myself some more advanced programming concepts using "Samorost" as a template. I created a simple horror adventure game called "The Visitor" where you play an alien worm terrorizing a cottage. People really loved it and it went viral, I ended up getting offers to make games for other sites like Comedy Central. So I ran with and here I am six years later still creating games.

The early years were all about pushing my skill set. I started out having no clue how to do anything and each game I tried to add a new programming concept to my tool box. Those early years were probably the most fun since I really had no pressure to create a hit game. I just made whatever I felt like and let the reviews from players shape my future games. It was all trial by fire. Make a game, find out what people loved and hated about it. Tweak the ideas based on feedback and make another one. If you play my games in chronological order you can see them grow and improve.

The Visitor: I played about five minutes of this and had to tear myself away. Very addictive!

You were previously heavily involved in a TV show called Sons of Butcher. How did that happen and is it any good?

Depends on what you consider "Good" :) It's a really weird animated series about three guys who run a butcher shop by day and at night they're in an over the top KISS type, spandex clad rock band. It's fully animated except the three main characters have real heads on cartoon bodies. I was one of the real heads. It was a late night adult cartoon, so the content isn't for the faint of heart.

How it happened was basically luck. I was working in TV making props for "The Red Green Show" in Canada. The production company that made that show was looking for something new and we had already been working on the idea as a web cartoon. So we pitched it to them, they liked it and helped us get a meeting with Teletoon, who was the main animation broadcaster in Canada. The unique style sold them and they gave us a shot. We had zero experience making a TV show so naturally we made ourselves the head writers and lead actors. It was just one of those serendipitous moments in life. We ended up creating 26 episodes over two seasons, we got nominated for a Gemini Award and then they canned it. I rank it as the best job I've ever had in my life.

Every episode is currently online at www.sonsofbutcher.com - If you like your cartoon characters fat and dirty then you'll probably love it. Otherwise, you've been warned.

Sons of Butcher: If it's anything like Metalocalypse then I'm in!

How did ClickShake Games come about?

At the time I was looking to take my games to the next level, my programming skills weren't as sharp as I needed them to be and the programmers I had been working with were doing it for me in their spare time. I really wanted to be a full time game developer and I knew to do that I'd need a full time programmer to work with. I ended up meeting Steve Castro during a Newgrounds.com game jam, we worked really well together and he was looking to go full time into game development as well. He lives in Ohio and I'm in Ontario, Canada, so we did a couple client projects together to see if a long distance partnership could work. When things went smoothly we decided to make it legit and formed ClickShake Games in 2010. We worked with each other for four years and only ever met in person twice.

 Oooohhhhh...mixed messages! What should I do!!!!????

What can you tell us about The Ballads of Reemus. Was it everything you hoped it would be?

The Ballads of Reemus is about a medieval exterminator named Reemus who along with his sidekick Liam the purple bear try to legitimize "extermination" as a heroic career path and find their 15 minutes of fame. It’s classic point and click adventuring with a few optional side quests, like hidden bug squishing thrown in for fun. It has all the bells and whistles like full voice acting and animated cut scenes.

As far as being everything I had hoped it would be, I think it is definitely close. We did it with an extremely tiny budget, working on it between client work. It took two years to complete. Overall I wish I could've made it longer and expand on some of the ideas but for a first crack at a commercial game I think it turned out pretty good. The people who've played it all enjoyed it, and it had good reviews and even won "Best Story" at the Casual Connect conference this year in San Francisco. So I'm proud of it. Could I make it better? Definitely but that's what sequels are for...

 The Ballads of Reemus: Well it sure looks better than David Gray's first effort.

The sequel (The Ballads of Reemus 2) is yet to reach full funding. Why should the adventure gaming community back this project?

If you're a fan of 2D, outlandish and funny adventure games then you'll definitely enjoy my work. This new game will be a beefier tale with more focus on exploration. If the first one was my Maniac Mansion, then this one will be my Day of the Tentacle.

At the end of the day I'm an adventure fan trying to do my part to keep the genre alive and kicking. With your help I can make a new notable adventure game that expands Trickster's playlist and keeps him point and clicking.

 You can back the game on Kickstarter here

But why talk about it, when you can just play my games now and decide for yourself:

The Several Journeys of Reemus series - http://zeebarf.com/the-several-journeys-of-reemus

The Ballads of Reemus demo - http://www.clickshakegames.com/reemus/ballads/demo.php

or try some of my other adventure games - http://www.clickshakegames.com/games/

Game 36: Hugo's House of Horrors - Monkey See, Monkey Do

Hugo Journal Entry 1: "I've broken into the creepy house in search of Penelope! Things are much worse than I imagined too, with a bunch of freaky monsters, an aggressive dog, a murderous butler, and some truly horrible decor! I haven't found where they're holding my girl yet, but I've gathered a bunch of useful stuff and distracted the dog long enough to check out that part of the house. There can't be many places to hide someone in this damn place!"

 So I just need to find the key to get insi....oh sorry, wrong game!

I’ve finished Hugo’s House of Horror! It was all done and dusted after a single hour and a half session, which is by far the quickest game so far on the playlist. Despite it being very short, it would be too much of a rush to get through it all in one post. I'm therefore going to split it into two, and will try to get them out as quickly as I can so we can move onto something more challenging. The game started in exactly the same fashion as Maniac Mansion, with my character standing outside a creepy looking house, pondering how they would get inside to save their girlfriend. Straight away it was apparent that the graphics and movement in the game were going to be primitive, but there was a kooky fun to the visuals that promised at least some entertainment. The introductory music felt like a cross between the fun of Leisure Suit Larry and the unpleasantness of Manhunter’s PC speaker based theme. I was pretty stoked when it stopped after about thirty seconds, leaving me in complete silence. Moving my cursor around the screen caused labels to come up on certain items, such as the pumpkin, the bat flying in the sky, and the door. I typed “look”, the way I would in any Sierra adventure game, and found that I could get a description of the environment as I’d hoped. “You are in front of the house where Penelope was last seen. If you are to rescue her, you must find a way inside, no matter what lies ahead...!”

 It doesn't really look very big. I figure I could have this sorted in a few minutes.

I set about getting inside, unsurprisingly finding that the door was locked. I looked under the mat for the key, the way I had in Maniac Mansion. “Nice try! Nothing under there, though!” The pumpkin seemed rather conspicuous, so I typed “look at pumpkin”. The response I got was “You don’t have it!” Well there was my first sign that the parser might not be completely friendly in Hugo’s House of Horrors. I couldn’t investigate things until I had them in my possession. On the other hand though, it pretty much assured me that I was going to be able to pick up the pumpkin, so perhaps it could be seen as a hint. I typed “get pumpkin” and received the message “Picked up the pumpkin ok” (2 points). Huh!? At least now I was able to look at it, after which I was informed that “There appears to be something inside it”. I then “opened” the pumpkin to find the house key (5 points), which I eagerly picked up (5 points). So far, so good! I unlocked the door and entered the house (11 points), noting that I already had 23 points out of the possible 190! Once inside I witnessed an old man dressed in white walk along the second floor hallway and then into a room. Could that have been the mad scientist? It seemed likely, but I decided to investigate the ground floor entirely before heading upstairs to follow him.

 

Grammatical inaccuracy ok.

The family's pet bat is clearly their pride and joy

There were two things that caught my attention on the ground floor, being a candle on the table and a small door in the wall. I walked up to the table and typed “get candle”, only to be told that I wasn’t close enough. I had to position myself on the exact right side of the table to be able to pick it up, which was an unnecessary annoyance (3 points). I then walked up to the small door and looked at it: “I don’t see anything much in here... Wait! There is a little penknife lying in the dust on the floor and next to it is a little silver whistle.” (8 points) I picked up both the whistle (6 points) and the penknife (6 points), incredulously noting that my score was now 46 out of 190! If it continued at this rate I was going to be done in a matter of minutes! I saved my game, and took the door to the right of screen, reappearing in a dining room. There were five monsters sitting around a table eating dinner, while a butler wandered around! “A feast is in full swing here in the dining room. Some of the guests look rather ugly! Something tells me this is not a good place to be unless, of course, you want to end up on the dinner plate!”

 Just reach across the table buddy!!!

Alright, who invited the jawa!? How many times have I said it!? They're always stealing shit!

Before I had a chance to do anything, the butler approached me and asked me if a cared for a chop! What could I do but respond with “yes”, to which he responded with “Very good sir. Ere! Just a moment! You’re not one of us, you’re a bloomin’ interloper! Come ‘ere you little blighter, I’m going to chop yer ‘ead off!!” To my great surprise, the butler did indeed chop my head off with a carving knife! So much for family friendly!!! I restored my game, deciding to avoid the dining room for the time being. I instead took the exit to the back of the screen, reappearing in a horribly green kitchen. There were a bunch of cupboards, an oven, and a broom leaning against the wall. Strangely, there didn’t appear to be anything in any of the cupboards or the oven, and I wasn’t able to pick up the broom. “Gonna do some sweeping are we? Hey! The broom must be gripped by some magical powers! Despite your best efforts you can’t budge it!!” That was weird, and I couldn’t be certain whether there was actually magic involved in the game or whether David simply hadn’t wanted the player to be able to move the broom so made up a lame excuse as to why they couldn’t. I figured the latter was likely, so let it be.

 Yes, that's my head on the floor next to my still-upright body.

If Zak McKracken taught me anything, it was never to judge a broom by its appearance!

I took the right door out of the kitchen, but found myself back in the dining room. I backed out, and instead took the northern door, leaving the house and finding myself standing in a yard with a shed at the end of a path. I wasn’t able to leave the path, so I followed it to the shed and tried to enter. “The door appears to be locked with a combination lock. What’s the combination?” I didn’t know of course, so tried a random number. “I’m sorry, that combination doesn’t seem to work!” I made my way back inside and took the only remaining door out of the kitchen, to the left. As soon as I entered the next room, a dog charged me, killed me and ate my remains! I restored my game, and had a think about how I might avoid the dog. I did have a whistle, so that seemed a likely solution! I prepared the sentence “blow whistle” before entering the room, as there was no way I was going to have time to type it once I was in there. Hugo did indeed blow the whistle, but it didn’t stop the dog from rapidly ending my game. Nothing else that I’d picked up so far seemed likely to avoid death, although I did try using the knife, so I endeavoured to check out the upstairs area to see what I could find there. Hopefully I would find a combination for the shed and some way of avoiding being killed by the butler and the dog.

 It must be 300, given the importance of that number today. Can anyone guess why?

Oh bother! Never mind. I guess the poor thing was hungry.

The first door upstairs accessed a small bedroom. There was nothing more there than a bed and a closet, and after finding I couldn’t interact with the bed in any way, I opened the closet. There was an item inside, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Thankfully, when I moved my cursor over it, the word “mask” appeared on the screen, so I typed “get mask” (4 points). “It appears to be a Halloween mask looking somewhat like a grotesque monkey’s head!” I figured the mask could very well allow me to enter the dining room without being killed, but put that thought aside while I continued to check out the upstairs area. The second door on the second floor accessed a bathroom, within which there was a bath, a toilet and a sink. I wasn’t able to do anything in the bathroom as far as I could tell, but there was something on the mirror that made the trip very worthwhile. The number “333” was written there, which was clearly the combination I required to gain access to the shed. Things were going very well indeed, and there was still one more room to check out on the floor. It was the one I’d seen the old man enter when I first broke into the mansion. I saved my game, and went through the door. A strange message appeared!

 An ugly monkey creature mask. It's apparently all you'll ever need!

Why would anyone do this?!

“The high frequency cosmic radiation emanating from this room knocks your mask onto the floor! (You can pick it up again when you come out!)” Really?! The radiation coming out of the room was so strong that it knocked the mask out of my hands? That can’t be good for me! I soon found myself standing in a machine room of sorts, with a large contraption wired to a console. The scientist was there, as was an ugly green monster. It immediately reminded me of Maniac Mansion, where Dr. Fred had played around with similar looking technology in his laboratory. If David Gray really hadn’t played Maniac Mansion prior to making Hugo’s House of Horrors, the coincidences were pretty huge. Anyway, the professor spoke to me on my arrival: “Ah! There you are! I’ve been looking all over the house for you! Look, you’re late and we haven’t much time! Step into the box and we’ll begin the experiment!” What experiment? Had the professor mistaken me for someone else? I looked around the room while I still could, discovering a “little table with an assortment of odd-shaped items on it” in the left upper corner. I looked at the table, and was told that “the only thing you recognize is a useful looking rubber bung!”

 Sorry, I was trying to find the bathroom!

Never leave home without a "useful looking rubber bung".

The professor seemed to be waiting patiently for me to comply to his request, so I spent some time trying to get the bung. Unfortunately, it was behind the glass door of the box, and I didn’t seem to be able to get to it. I thought I might be able to press one of the buttons on the console to close the door, but any attempt was met with “I think you’d better leave that to Igor!” With nothing else to do, I entered the box, wondering what the hell the crazy old man was about to do to me. The glass door slid shut, and the professor said “Good! Ok, Igor, press the BLUE button!” Apparently Igor was colour blind, as he pressed the RED button instead, shrinking me to half my normal stature! This infuriated the scientist, who stormed out of the room for a lie down. The door of the box opened, so I walked out. I wondered whether I might now be able to squeeze behind the glass door to retrieve the bung, and found that I could (11 points)! Well that told me that I was supposed to allow myself to be shrunken, but was I really expected to play the rest of the game in the body of a small child? I went to leave the room, only to find that I couldn’t! “Too bad! In your current state you can’t reach the door handle!”

One can only wonder what the professor was actually trying to do to me

Once again Hugo's inability to reach his arms away from his body threatened his chances of rescuing his girlfriend

That was unexpected. I looked through my inventory, but couldn’t find anything that assisted me in reaching the handle. I figured I would have to increase myself back to my normal size, but still wasn’t able to press any of the buttons on the console. I didn’t appear to be able to talk to Igor either, as every attempt was met with “Igor is good at taking orders but is not much of a conversationalist!” I soon began wondering whether there was something I needed to take into the room with me, so decided to restore back to outside and see what else I could achieve. Instead of entering the lab, I made my way back downstairs and out into the backyard. When asked for the combination to access the shed, I entered the code 333, after which the door opened (9 points). Going inside did not however take me to a new screen, meaning I had to explore without visibility. Typing look gave the following message: “The shed seems to have fallen into disuse and is pretty much full of garbage, either broken or rusted to pieces. You are just on the point of leaving when you notice an oilcan sitting on a shelf.” It goes without saying that I picked it up (4 points).

Damn it! I'd really hoped to find a prosthetic arm in here somewhere.

Once back inside, I typed “wear mask” to prepare to enter the dining room. Hugo put the scary looking monkey mask on, so I entered the dining room and accepted the chop that the butler offered me (8 points). This time he didn’t pick up on the fact that I was an intruder, clearly used to a whole range of monstrous visitors coming for dinner. I spent a bit of time trying to achieve something else in the room, but wasn’t able to interact with anything or sit down at the table. I had a fair idea what the chop was going to be useful for though, so I left the dining room and made my way back to the vicious dog. Typing “give chop to dog” resulted in “Seeing how ferocious he looks, you may well be better off throwing it!!” I typed “throw bone to dog" instead and watched as the dog chased the piece of meat into the corner of the room and began eating it. That was great and all, but I hadn’t actually considered what I was going to do once the dog was out of the way. The only obvious thing in the room was a mouse hole, but looking inside only revealed a "medium sized pile of mouse droppings", which I wasn’t able to and didn’t want to pick up. I figured that I hadn’t risk my neck to get the chop for nothing though, so there had to be something useful within these four walls. Join me in a day or two to find out what it was.

 Surely I'll be accepted now that I look completely ridiculous!

 That's not a chop! That's a bloody torso!

Session Time: 0 hours 30 minutes

Total Time: 0 hours 30 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

Game 36: Hugo's House of Horrors - Introduction

This is the version I think I'll be playing...maybe

As pleased as I am that I have no more MacVenture games to grit my teeth through, there are undoubtedly loads more terrible adventure games waiting for me on the playlist (particularly if Canageek has his way!). As strange as it might seem though, I know from experience that it’s not impossible for a terrible game to still be somewhat enjoyable, particularly when it comes to blogging. I’ve had a think about it, and I’ve come up with four things that need to be in place for a truly bad game to be tolerable, if not a complete delight to play. 1. They mustn’t be too buggy, 2. They must be reasonably short, 3. They must at least make sense (I’m looking at you Captain Blood), and 4. They must be really, really bad (yay for Psycho!!!). I’m therefore a little bit excited about the 36th game on the list, as the small amount I know about it gives me hope that it might be all four! Hugo’s House of Horrors was released by Gray Design Associates on the 1st day of January, 1990. It’s a game that has a surprising amount of fans (despite rating rather poorly) for one particular reason. You’ll have to read on to find out what it is, but first, let’s go back to the beginning!

David Gray

In 1988, David P. Gray was writing air traffic control software at Raytheon, Massachusetts. He’d previously written underwater weaponry software for the UK Ministry of Defence too. This might sound like exciting stuff, but David wasn’t completely convinced that his future financial success was assured. He wanted to start his own business doing something, but he wasn’t entirely sure what that something would be. In 1989 he had a chance encounter with a gynaecologist (at a party I might add), who informed him that he’d been developing programs using BASIC on his home PC, and was now selling them all over the world for a stack of cash. This inspired David to try his hand at creating his own software, and since he was a fan of computer games (we’ll discuss which ones a bit later on), decided he’d try to make one by himself. For three months, he banged away at his computer, programming an adventure game using Microsoft Quick C, with graphics created in Z–Soft Paint, and sound that was transcribed by hand. Despite noting how many names there were in the credits of his favourite games, David required no help at all, and eventually named his creation Hugo’s House of Horrors!

He made a game with this? Respect!

The plot of Hugo’s House of Horrors was pretty straight forward. The protagonist, named Hugo, must rescue his girlfriend from an evil scientist living in a haunted house. Sound familiar?! That’s likely because Maniac Mansion, which came out three years prior, had exactly the same plot. In that game, the protagonist, named Dave, also had to rescue his girlfriend from an evil scientist living in a haunted house. The only differences between the plots on a high level were the names of the characters and the method in which the girlfriends arrived at the house (Penelope was babysitting in Hugo’s whereas Sandy was kidnapped from school in Maniac Mansion). Despite the very obvious similarities, not to many numerous articles claiming otherwise, David remains adamant to this day that he never played Maniac Mansion, and still hasn’t. He wasn’t even aware of the LucasArts classic when he made his game! If he’s to be believed, and I see no particular reason why he shouldn’t be, the biggest inspirations for Hugo’s House of Horrors were Leisure Suit Larry and a shareware game called Captain Comic. The horror theme hatched from his love of Hammer House of Horror (hence the haunted house and the evil mad scientist named Hammerstein). Perhaps I’ll have more of an opinion on all this once I’ve played the game myself.

Captain Comic: Another shareware classic

Now to the reason why so many people played Hugo’s House of Horrors back in the early nineties. It was free! Well, it was shareware anyway, meaning you were supposed to pay for it, but you didn’t have to. Many people don’t realise that the game was actually released commercially as well, but David made six times more money through the shareware avenue than the commercial one (at least initially). The game was also family-friendly, which meant that lots of parents could play it alongside their children (unlike its main inspiration, Leisure Suit Larry, which was very adult focussed). Dozens of shareware distributors picked up the game and started selling it in mail order catalogues, and more and more vendors began selling it commercially (giving David a royalty for each sale). Finally in 1992, a company called Sofsource released the game into retail stores, resulting in more sales than ever. By this point David was earning twice what his day job was paying from the game’s sales, so decided to become self-employed. More games would follow, but they’ll likely be discussed another time.

The cover doesn't exactly scream quality

I didn’t actually own a copy, so solving Canageek’s recent Escape from New York riddle got me one…or so I thought. Unfortunately, David appears to have put a time limit on downloading purchased copies of the Hugo Trilogy on his website, meaning it’s no longer possible to download the copies that Lars-Erik purchased for the blog. I decided I could afford the $10 it costs to purchase it myself, and have done so. However, I now realise that this got me the Windows version of the game rather than the DOS version! There may or may not be many differences between the two versions, but cranking them up made a few apparent on the very first screen (the music is vastly better and moving the cursor over items reveals what they are in more instances). I've therefore decided to play a downloaded DOS version anyway (I'm sure David will forgive me). This version contains a text only manual, but there really isn't anything in there worth mentioning. The Windows version contains a hint guide, but I have no intention of looking at that, so can't comment on it. Enough chat though! It’s time to enter the haunted house to save Penelope! Since no-one actually forced me to play this game (it qualified all on its own), I'm not going to pressure anyone. I hope some of you will join me for the ride though. Anyone?

Wow! It really does look like a cross between Sierra and LucasArts!

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it's an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won't be able to solve a puzzle unassisted (see below for an example). If you get it right I will reward you with 150 CAPs in return (it's going to keep going up until someone beats me)! It's also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.

Example Bet:

Sebz gur ynaq bs vpr jr tb

Jvgu Fpnaqvanivna va gbj
Naq lrg vg frrzf jr’er abg nybar
N zbafgre evcf bhe syrfu naq obar

Jub nz V sbe 20 PNCf?

Extra Note: Once again, Lars-Erik will gift the next readily available game on the list to the reader that correctly predicts what score I will give this game. So, if you predict the right score (or are closest), you will get 10 CAPs and a copy of Loom from Steam! How awesome is that!? Good luck!

Game 35: Deja Vu II - Final Rating

I was feeling very disgruntled when I completed Deja Vu II. So much so that I thought it best to take a couple of days off before writing up the Final Rating post in case the last few unhappy hours discoloured the entire gaming experience. Now that the crankiness has subsided (a bit), I still don’t think it’s going to rate very highly, but I’m interested to know where it rates in comparison to the other MacVenture games. Let’s find out!

Puzzles and Solvability
I really was enjoying the puzzle aspect of Deja Vu II until about three quarters through. Prior to that I’d had to work hard to make progress, but the solutions were found through logic and thoroughness, rather than any sort of blind luck (or assistance). I did miss the envelope hidden within the vacuum cleaner bag due to what I consider to be unfair misdirection, and applying the magnet as a fifth floor elevator button is certainly difficult, but neither of these puzzles was unsolvable. Unfortunately, things went pear shaped towards the end, with absolutely no guidance as to what’s required of the player. Even though I was on the right track myself, I was continually put off the scent after receiving no responses to my attempts at getting the mob bosses to take each other out. Even when I’d read all of Zenic’s hints and spoilers, I still found it extremely difficult to finish the game, to the point where I could almost call it unsolvable. I say almost, because I imagine someone with a lot of time on their hands and a penchant for self-harm might find success eventually unassisted. It wouldn’t be much fun though! I would have given the game at least 4 (probably 5) for the first three quarters, but the horrible conclusion means I can’t go higher than 3.
Rating: 3

I don't mind puzzles that are challenging (like this one), but not giving the player any sort of motivation for what to do next is inexcusable.

Interface and Inventory
I’ve never liked the interface used in the MacVenture titles. If I didn’t complain about it much while playing, I guess that has more to do with me simply being used to it than any improvements. The small area at the bottom of the screen for dialogue means the player forever has to expand the window to read conversations in full. The exits system works well enough, but is only there due to the inadequacies of the graphical interface. The action interface is also clunky, particularly when every click counts (literally), making the player click multiple times to do simple tasks. Finally, there’s the inventory. Man, do I hate the inventory system in these games! The idea isn’t actually a bad one, allowing the player to drag items into the inventory and organise things as they see fit. Yet the small amount of space available (without overlaying the critical parts of the screen) and the necessity to keep items within other items makes for a really frustrating and at times game ending experience. It would all be more bearable if the player was given time to actually organise things, but taking time out to do that generally results in the time limit coming to get them. I gave the interface a 3 for the first game, but its five years later now, so it gets a 2.
Rating: 2

 It doesn't help that there are dozens of reasonable items found along the way that have no purpose (such as the Mercedes Benz keys, the perfume and the pencil).

Story and Setting
Any game that starts in exactly the same way as its predecessor better have some decent surprises up its sleeve! Deja Vu II feels like a rehash, with the player waking up after being knocked out, then catching a cab around Chicago collecting items for no apparent reason, before finally trying to put it all together towards the end. Sure, there’s Las Vegas to explore too, but that’s made up of only three locations. Letting the player gamble in the casino there was an obvious yet nice touch I guess. As for the story itself, maybe it’s my lack of crime story experience that made putting things together so difficult, but I still don’t understand how I was supposed to gain a clear idea of the correct path towards the game’s conclusion. I read all the ledgers and letters multiple times, but just couldn’t make much sense of it. As mentioned above, even if I had of figured out with any certainty what I was supposed to do, there was no indication while playing that the time had come to plant evidence rather than to look for more, nor was there any indication of where stuff should be planted. I’ve already punished the puzzles category for this, but the story category also has to be held accountable. As a final note, I think the first game benefited from the main character gradually regaining their memory. The sequel has no such device to forgive the confusion generated throughout.
Rating: 3

 Can someone actually explain to me exactly what I was supposed to make from all the ledgers?

Sound and Graphics
There is very little sound to speak of in Deja Vu II, which is really disappointing. Sure, the small amount of effects there are have of a much higher quality than they had in the original, but given everything previously sounded like a dying animal behind a wall of white noise, that’s not saying much. We’re in 1990 now, so I’ll have to punish games that make no effort when it comes to music and sound effects. The graphics however are ok. One of the things that made all the other MacVenture games so daunting was the low quality CGA graphics, which made the required pixel hunting all but impossible at times. I never had that problem this time due to the superior VGA graphics, and while I always wished that the main window would have filled more of the interface, each item is attractive and detailed enough not to draw much criticism. There’s next to no animation though, so Deja Vu II didn’t really push the envelope on the technology front. I gave the first game a 2, but pixel hunting through entirely blue and pink screens was like scratching my own eyes out. I’ll say 4 for this one, but that’s very generous.
Rating: 4

 Sure, it's a big step up in quality...

 ...but it's really just more of the same.

Environment and Atmosphere
The environment in Deja Vu II is so similar to the one found in the first game, that it often just feels like a graphical upgrade. It doesn’t help that the game starts in exactly the same way as the first one, and that a fair portion of it occurs in and around Joe’s Bar, with exactly the same locations and angles. I’d been looking forward to seeing St. Louis, New York and Los Angeles, but as the game went on, I realised I was going to be limited to very few locations across only Chicago and Las Vegas. Given the game involves trying to get out of a very sticky situation within a harsh time limit, with goons constantly on the watch, there should be heaps of atmosphere. I felt very little, which I can only put down to the constant restores, the sound deficiencies, and the lack of clarity around what I was supposed to be doing at any particular point. The laundry is a good example of a scene that should have been exciting, with the player having to escape from captivity and then probe the area without being recaptured, but the huge amount of trial and error involved just made it a chore to get through, with no easily-discernible payoff.
Rating: 4

The one really mysterious character in the game disappeared with no answers

Dialogue and Acting
One positive thing I can say about Deja Vu II is that the language used is fitting for the time and genre. There’s plenty of gangster talk, with threats and slang all over the place. This use of slang at times made it hard for me to figure out exactly what authors of certain documents were getting at, but a quick search on Google confirmed my opinion on each occasion. The downside to all this is that pretty much every character comes across as thicker than Glottis. “Wow, lookit that, Moose. A letter to the Big Boss, and a pitchuh of him too!” Oh well, who wants smart goons anyway! The room and item descriptions are fairly well done, with a nice mix of relevant info and humour, although nothing stood out as particularly funny throughout. I gave the first game a 6, but there’s no doubt it was a step up from the likes of King’s Quest at the time. In 1990, it’s not so impressive, and is treading the same ground the first game did five years earlier.
Rating: 4

 The designers tried to inject humour into proceedings, but it was generally too obvious to be really funny

3 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 20, divided by 60 equals 33.33, which is 33 when rounded down. That's the same score I gave Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess. More importantly, it leaves the game above Uninvited yet below both Shadowgate and the first Deja Vu game. I feel OK about that. All of those earlier games were more representative of their time, and even quite groundbreaking in the first one's case. Uninvited had very little to enjoy throughout, whereas Deja Vu II certainly had its moments. There's no easy comparison between this game and Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess, so I think I'll leave it at 33.

Did anyone pick that? Wow! Everyone, apart from Dave_the_Turnip with 32, predicted much higher ratings! I don't believe anyone had actually played the game previously, so perhaps no-one knew about all the flaws or how similar it really was to the first game. Or maybe I've been harsh! Either way, congratulations Dave_the Turnip. You win a copy of Loom, or the Hugo trilogy if you'd prefer. Let me know which you'd like and I'll send you the code.

50 CAPs for Zenic Reverie

• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game release on GOG
• True Companion Award – 20 CAPs – For playing along and finishing
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on GOG
• Request for Assistance Award – 20 CAPs – For giving me no less than nine hints that I needed!

40 CAPs for Charles

• Technical Assistance Award – 10 CAPs – For informing me of the patch for Deja Vu II
• Shining Award – 10 CAPs – For finding my Shining reference
• True Companion Award – 20 CAPs – For playing along and finishing (or near enough)

35 CAPs for Laukku

• Kickstarter Award – 10 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure Kickstarter campaign
• Play List Correction Award – 5 CAPs – For informing me that the game order was incorrect
• Future Prediction Award – 5 CAPs – For telling it how it will be in the year 3245 AD
• Iron Maiden Award – 5 CAPs – For figuring out the band that played Deja Vu
• SCUMMVM Version Award – 10 CAPs – For telling me again (and being right) that I have an old version

35 CAPs for Ilmari

• Reader’s Choice Award...um...Award – 10 CAPs – For coming up with a great new category
• Atlantis Award – 20 CAPs – For solving my Atlantis riddle
• Chambermaid of Sci-Mutant Dada Award – 5 CAPs – For drinking while surfing

25 CAPs for Lars-Erik

• Sponsor Award - 20 CAPs - For sponsoring the blog with free games
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game release on Steam

25 CAPs for Canageek

• Game Giveaway Award – 10 CAPs – For giving a game away, even if no-one wanted it
• Kickstarter Award – 10 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure Kickstarter campaign
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on GOG

25 CAPs for Kenny McCormick

• Thieves Guild Membership Award – 5 CAPs – He knows why
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game release on Steam
• President of the Theodore Defence Club – 5 CAPs – For sticking up for Theodore’s everywhere
• Fur Balls Unite Award – 5 CAPs – For taking on one of the greatest battle-cries known to man
• Myotonic Kitten Award – 5 CAPs – I shouldn’t laugh, but I did!

20 CAPs for Elanarae LP (1 CAP per dollar)

• Cash Collection Award – 20 CAPs – For explaining how I could pick up all the chips in the casino

15 CAPs for Schide

• TAG Trooper Award – 10 CAPs – For reading through all 250+ posts on the blog to get up to speed
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on Steam

10 CAPs for Draconius

• The Golden Question Award – 10 CAPs – Finally someone asked me!

10 CAPs for Andy_Panthro

• The Longest Journey Award...um...Award – 10 CAPs – For coming up with a great new category name

10 CAPs for Dave_the_Turnip

• Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – For predicting the score I would give Deja Vu II (closest)

10 CAPs for Jarikith

• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game release on Steam
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game release on Steam

5 CAPs for Aperama

• Feels Like I’ve Been Here Before Award – 5 CAPs - For figuring out which Iron Maiden song I referenced

5 CAPs for Corey Cole

• Typo Pickup Award – 5 CAPs – For picking up an important typo in my Year That Was post

Game 35: Deja Vu II - Won!

Ace Harding Journal Entry 6: "Malone and Ventini are dead! The papers speak of a double hit, with the mob bosses going down as part of a "Gangland Gunfight", but the truth is I set them both up for a fall. After discovering Ventini's secret office, I finally had enough information to plant on each side of the fence. It worked perfectly, with both of them assuming the other needed to be taken out as soon as possible. I'm finally free to go home, although it seems only a matter of days since I last thought that. I think I'll get some serious locks for my apartment!"

 After an unfortunate delay, I was finally going to find out what was held within the secret room!

As regular readers would be aware, I don’t allow myself to use walkthroughs when playing games for the blog. Having the ability to ask you guys for assistance means I a) get hints instead of outright spoilers and b) try much, much harder than I otherwise might, as I’d hate to appear an idiot on a public forum. Deja Vu II fooled me into thinking that I might just be able get all the way through it without needing help. The first few sessions were not without challenges, but applying logic combined with very thorough investigation continued to keep me moving forward, seemingly on track for a fine victory. However, things got seriously nasty after gaining entrance to the laundry, and I have to admit that I was forced to to turn to Zenic's hints to get through! I honestly don’t think I would have finished the game without them, at least not without putting weeks and countless tedious restarts into it. But as usual, I’m jumping ahead of myself, so let’s go back to where my last post finished. I’d just managed to enter the secret office in the laundry by throwing a dart found in Ventini’s office at the dartboard. This was a great achievement, but unfortunately I ran out of time at the exact point that I got in.

Apparently I come back as an undead PI anyway, which is far cooler!

I restarted, and rushed my way through everything that had happened to that point. This rushing caused a horrible dead end, when I stupidly decided the train schedule wasn’t something I needed to keep in my inventory. This resulted in me not being able to get Gabby to take me back to the train station in Chicago, and I could think of no other way to get there. My second restart did do the trick though, and I entered the secret office with what I assumed was heaps of time up my sleeve. There was nothing more than a rotting banana in the wastebasket, which I decided was pretty unlikely to be useful, so I moved onto the desk. Inside was a photo, two documents and yet another ledger. The photo ended up being the one of Siegel and Ventini shaking hands in front of the laundry, and one of the documents was the letter from Bondwell to Malone that suggested Ventini might be muscling in on Malone’s territory. I quickly realised that these were the documents that the goons had taken from me in the laundry room, but where were my weapons!? I’d expected to be able to get them back somehow, but now I wondered whether I should have put them aside before entering the laundry dumpster. I decided it was better to be safe than sorry, and to restore back to the dumpster and leave my weapons in the hall, but not before checking out the other items in the secret office desk.

 What this room really needs is some sort of suggestion of what I'm supposed to do next!

The second document was a list of Chicago based companies with the words Accept or Terminate written next to each of them. I wasn’t able to see the actual list of companies, but I assumed it would be another piece of evidence that would prove how dodgy these criminals were. I then turned my attention to the ledger: “The ledger lists all of the payments that appear in Siegel’s diary. “I wonder if these are the real books?” you mutter to yourself.” I sat back and tried to piece together what I was supposed to make of that information. My thoughts were as follows: 1. Joey Siegel’s diary that I’d found in the slot machine had a list of payments he’d been making to Malone through Ventini. 2. Bondwell had found a ledger in Joey’s office that contained none of those payments, which led him to believe that Ventini was muscling in on Malone’s territory (I couldn’t really understand why that might be) 3. A ledger I found in Ventini’s office had a full list of all payments made to Malone via Ventini, including the ones made from Siegel. 4. A ledger in the secret office, which I assume belongs to Ventini, appeared to be the real ledger belonging to Joey Siegel, and included the payments in question. I felt like I should be able to figure out something out of all that information, but I was struggling to make much sense of it!

 I did?! Actually, the thought never crossed my mind!

I restored back to the dumpster and left my weapons on the floor this time before getting into the dumpster. This allowed me to go back and get them after my exploits in the laundry, which I felt much happier about. However, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t really have any leads left! I still couldn’t travel to Los Angeles, New York or St. Louis, and I had no other addresses I could check out in either Las Vegas or Chicago. There were no locked doors to get through, and no obvious puzzles to be solved. I’d always had something remaining on the “to do list” to this point of the game, but now everything was crossed off! Was I supposed to do something with all the evidence I’d collected? I tried going to the police, thinking they might give me a warmer reception now that I had so much useful stuff. They weren’t, and it resulted in a game over message the way it had previously. Was I supposed to be leaving items in specific locations that would cause Ventini and Malone to go at each other? This seemed possible, but what would I leave where? The solution I came up with was to leave all the documents (including the ledgers) that had anything to do with payments in Malone’s desk. Perhaps that would make him go after Ventini, although I still couldn’t understand why.

 I wasn't sure about this at all, but had to try something.

I made my way back to the hotel with the intention of going back to level five, only the button to level five was no longer there! Huh?! Don’t tell me I was supposed to remove it before getting out of the lift!!!??? I saved my game and loaded an earlier one just to see whether I could remove it after using it. I could, which meant it was very possible that I might have to play through a fair portion of the game again! By this time I was getting a bit concerned. Actually, I was starting to get the shits! I seemed to be running into dead ends all over the place, and since I didn’t even know what I was supposed to be doing, playing through large sections of the game over and over seemed unbearable. I decided to request assistance, and it was Zenic that responded with numerous hints and spoilers. The first thing I noted was that one of his hints was titled “Hint for Missing Item”. If I was missing an item after playing through several times, I probably wasn’t going to find it! The hint was “You haven’t searched through all items, and according to the posts didn’t touch it at all.” I really didn’t think there was anything I hadn’t checked out on any screen, so I read on: “Say you lost something, maybe left it on the floor, but it’s not there anymore. Where could it be?” Hmmm...if I left something on the floor, and yet it wasn’t there when I returned, I’d think that someone else must have it. That didn’t help!

 

Man, that's a lot of hints and spoilers! It concerned me that Zenic thought I would need that much help!

I was committed now, so I moved onto Zenic’s spoiler for the missing item’s location. “You glossed over a number of item at the Cottage.” What Cottage? I thought of all the locations I’d been, but none of them could be considered a cottage! I read the “Complete Spoiler for Missing Item”, which was as follows: “Did you check the contents of the vacuum?” You mean the vacuum cleaner in Sugar’s apartment?! Well, yeah, I’d found a vacuum bag inside, but examining it told me that “it’s a full vacuum cleaner bag. It certainly didn’t clean this room, there’s still filth everywhere.” I wasn’t able to open the bag, and the message had convinced me that I wasn’t likely to find anything useful in it anyway. Was there actually something required inside!? What was it and where did it come from if not from Sugar’s apartment? How would I get it out? I restored back to the apartment and picked up the vacuum bag. I still wasn’t able to open it, so I tried operating the knife on it. It worked, and I found a letter inside addressed to Sugar. I felt a bit ripped off about this! The game had made a point of suggesting the vacuum cleaner hadn’t been used in the room, yet it clearly had. I realise now that the message had likely contained a heap sarcasm, but it had put my off a scent I was supposed to follow.

 I'm not sure what type of vacuum cleaner would suck up a full envelope containing a letter.

The envelope had the following written on the outside: “Sugar, if I’m knocked off, give this to the Chief of Police. Make sure Captain Carlston doesn’t see it.” I opened it up and read the letter contained within, which had apparently been written by Policeman McMurphy. “Consider this as a death bed testimony, cause if I ain’t dead now, as soon as word of this letter gets out, I will be. I might be going down over this, but I won’t take the fall alone. Joey Siegel’s been paying off Captain Carlston for protection for some new racket he’s settin’ up. All I done is act as bagman, but I guess that’s enough. Siegel gives the dough to some two-bit thug with a scar running through his eye, this thug gives it to me, and I give it to Carlston. Don’t ask me what Siegel’s up to. Like I said, I’m only the bagman.” Well I’m sure the police would be pretty damn interested in seeing this letter! It didn’t tell me much that I didn’t already know, but it did give me the name of the two corrupt cops that were involved in bribery and corruption. I quickly played through up to the hidden office, only to find that collecting this item hadn’t really assisted me in knowing what to do next. Was I supposed to take it to the cops now? I hopped on a train to Chicago, and then got a cab to Joe’s bar. Next door was the police station, so I tried entering. As expected, having the letter made no difference at all, and I was arrested and eventually killed.

I still have no idea what the cops have against me. I cleared my name at the end of the first one!

By now I really just wanted Deja Vu II to end! It was time to read Zenic’s “General Hint for What to Do”! It read as follows: “You’re on the right track. Need to set someone up to take a fall, and not you.” OK, so at least my thinking was right. I had to plant evidence somewhere, but what and where!? At this point I probably could have had one last go at solving the problem myself, but I was a bit over it, so went to Zenic’s next hint. “You should have all the items/evidence you need to create suspicion between the two mob bosses. Where are the best places to leave it to reach their eyes only?” I’d considered that already (as you can see above), but hadn’t managed to put the plan into action. I now considered what might make each of the bosses attack the other one. Well, it seemed likely that the ledgers were the key to getting Malone to go after Ventini, but what would make Ventini go after Malone? The letter from Bondwell had informed Malone of his concerns about Ventini. Perhaps putting that in the desk of Ventini would do the trick? I tried doing exactly that (in both the secret office and his office in the hotel), and then put the ledgers in Malone’s. Absolutely nothing happened! Was there a trigger that would make them find the items and read them? I couldn’t think of what it might be. I’d been given a constant flow of leads throughout the game, yet now they’d just stopped! There was nothing to tell me what I was supposed to be trying to do!

 

Even dumping every document I had into Malone's desk didn't appear to do anything, even after I'd left the building.

It appeared as though I was going to have to read Zenic’s spoiler, but before I did that, there was one last hint. “Hint for Hidden Dart Room: “This is DV’s special room. You should have found some valuable evidence, but who is DV going to blame when he discovers it’s missing?” Malone obviously, but since leaving the ledger in Malone’s office had achieved nothing, I didn’t know how to make that work. I gave up! It was time to read the spoilers: “If you’re completely stuck for what to do, then you need to make DV think Malone is on to him. Also, you need to provide Malone evidence that DV is running a racket behind his back. Malone’s office desk is the best place to leave evidence of that. In the GBC version, I had to leave only three items: two letters and a diary. Any more or less showed I knew too much to live. For DV’s office, the cigar rings will cast suspicion on Stogie being the one who took the records.” So I was supposed to put the cigar rings that Stogie had been leaving behind in the hidden office, and then leave the ledger stuff in Malone’s office in the hotel?! That’s brutal! I never considered Stogie to have anything to do with the solution! And why the hidden room and not Ventini’s office in the hotel? I did what Zenic suggested I should, and then stood outside the hotel. Nothing f$#%ing happened!

 Should I put the cigar rings on the desk or in the desk? The game gave me no information to go off.

Eventually I stumbled on the solution, but not without much gnashing of teeth. All I had to do was hop on a train to Chicago after planting the evidence. How I was supposed to know that is beyond me! I only discovered it after trying to go back to the police, just to rule that out. The game gave me no clues that I was doing anything right at any stage, so I don’t know how anyone could finish the game without a huge dose of blind luck. Even though Zenic had handed me the solution on a platter, I still couldn’t make it happen for two whole hours! Anyway, as soon as I caught the train, the following occurred. “Saturday, September 6th, 10:32am: Suspected gang kingpin Anthony Malone enters the Lucky Dice Hotel and Casino.” A spray of bullets hit the hotel wall, presumably killing Malone. “Saturday, September 6th. 11:05am: Alleged mobster Daniel Ventini arrives at the suspected mafia laundering operation.” An explosion then blew the door and window out, presumably killing Ventini. “When you get to town, the newspapers are full of the Great Las Vegas Shootout. Your strategy of telling Malone and Ventini about each other worked perfectly. When the dust settled, they were dead. They had gotten each other before either could get to you. Congratulations!” I received my second Deja Vu certificate, with this one being in the form of a cancelled contract for my murder. I should have felt extremely satisfied with my win! Instead, I felt angry and disappointed. Prepare for a pretty negative Final Rating post.

 I can't believe I didn't even get to use my gun in the whole game!

 Congratulations is in order...

 ...so why do I feel so depressed about it?!

Session Time: 2 hour 30 minutes

Total Time: 10 hours 30 minutes