Walkthrough: Dream Chronicles 2 – The Eternal Maze walkthrough

It’s in! I’ll be adding images shortly, but for now, at least you’ll have maps. 😉

Get the walkthrough (and the game!) at minutegamer.org.

 

Walkthrough: Hidden Secrets – the Nightmare

It is DONE! You can find it over at the MinuteGamer.org site. I’ve linked it directly to make it easier to find.

The walkthrough includes all storyline solution videos, videos for all the harder puzzles, hints for the minor puzzles like pegs, images for all the traffic map puzzles near the end of the game, in a spoiler-free top page. Enjoy!

 

Casual Game Portals Compared

There are lots of game portals out there, and each offer some sort of loyalty program, discounts, coupon codes and so on. Instead of trying to cram all the information into a blog post, I’ve tabulated the features that most causal gamers care about in their portals, and added “perks” and “quirks” of each in a related article.

You can check out the article at minutegamer.org, under the GAMES section.

 

Cheat: Home Sweet Home

Go into your c:\program files\home sweet home\resourceFiles\ directory, and find the file gamedata.xml

1. Look for the word “=== WORKER DATA ===” by using edit > find.
2. There are three sections for the workers, under “Goran”, “Fat Guy”, and “Chick” – yes, I find that just slightly demoralizing. A “chick” goes around hammering nails in as fast as the other ones. Hmmm.
3. Change the Stamina to “999.9”
4. Change the build speed to “0.50”
5. Change the walk speed to “2.5”
6. Change the stamina drop to “0”
7. Do this for all three workers.

Once you’re done that, let’s tackle the global difficulty. It should be RIGHT ABOVE the worker data.

1. Look for the phrase “<DEFAULTS name=”THE_EQUATION”>” (Just use “edit > find” it’s easier that way)
2. Change value= to 0. <VALUE id=”per_furn_tools_inc” type=”float” value=”0.1″/>
3. Do this for per_furn_injury_inc, stamina_decrease_rate_inc, furniture_decay_inc, item_request_time_inc, as well as worker_injury_percent_inc.
4. Save the file.

Load up the game, and you should have workers that:

• Don’t get tired
• Don’t ask for things
• Don’t get injured
• Builds like absolute maniacs
• Walks faster
• Whose work “deteriorate” VERY slowly over time.

You can go ahead and fool around with the rest of the settings.

Come join us at Minutegamer.org to download my already modified XML file.

 

Announce: Save 40% on Big Fish Games

Save 40% off any game on Big Fish Games (for non gameclub members) from now until December 26th!

Come visit Minutegamer.org, our new home on the web. 😉

 

Minutegamer.org is LIVE!

After an entire week of late nights and hard work, the new web site is finally live. It’s not perfect, and I still have to optimize the database and do a bunch of backend work. But it is fully functional and I invite you to take a look at our new face. It will have a lot more in it and possibly organized differently than the way it is now.

I’ve added a painfully small parenting section, a news section (it is very cool, Ajax based and pretty) that updates with some great blogs everyday, a bunch of free flash games you can play right from the browser, and if you register as a user, I will never spam you (well, unless we move or something then I’ll let you know about it) and you will get updates on what I’m working on – which is mostly tests on new adventure games.

If you sign up in the next couple of days, you might find a surprise waiting for you in your user-menu. We shall see how well my microphone works on this new computer.

Visit MinuteGamer.org

 

Sally, what the heck are you up to?

Well, for one, I’m working on a new site. Then I’m going to move this blog’s content there, with better and easier navigation. That’s priority #1.

I’m also working on an adventure game. How exciting! The story phase is almost done, and it’s codenamed Anamnesis (That’s an – am – NEE – sis.) The story is pretty much fleshed out but it’s getting a bit too ambitious, so I might have to chop it in two big chapters. Some scenes are already being built in 3D and I’m testing render speeds quality vs. quantity. It’ll be 3rd person point and click; at first I wanted to 1st person slide-show, but it turned out to be too much work for the computer.

Unfortunately, I haven’t really tried writing a “tag paragraph” that doesn’t leak the entire story yet, and any attempts to write one seem to “spill.” So I’ll just tell you that most of the puzzles are going to be inventory / dialog based, and that there will only be a scant few mechanical puzzles in the game. The story so far only involve 3 large locations with sub-locations.

On top of that, did I mention that I have a from-home full-time job and a 13 month old? So yes, casual games have been put temporarily on hold. I just don’t have time for even them at the moment. When the sequel to Azada comes out though, you’ll be sure to see a walkthrough here, but I’m going to skip anything less than spectacular.

 

Hints: Chocolatier 2

Chocolatier 2: Secret Ingredients is essentially the same as the first game, Chocolatier. It’s a trading game, and while the game combines arcade elements to make chocolates, there is no actual time limit. You’re free to explore as long as there is enough $ to travel about. So rule #1: don’t stress.

• Check every building every time you’re in any town when you’re NOT on a mission. If you’re on a mission, they’ll just tell you to come back later (and sometimes they’ll say so even if they have no mission for you when you’re back) so why waste your time?
• Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Chances are that they’ll just rot.
• Keep a list of ingredients available in each town on a sheet of paper.
• The game does a really good job of keeping track of which factory makes what. When in doubt, just check your recipe book. Before flying off to an unknown factory and start making random chocolates, see if you’ve already got production in place in an existing one. It’s in your recipe book.
• Keep your inventory rotating. That means no stocking up anything other than basic cacao, sugar, and later on truffle powder.
• Don’t let anyone “inspect” or “tour” your factories. Ever.
• When you’re in your lab, trust your lab tech. He’ll give you hints on combining ingredients. There’s no penalty for trying out crazy combinations (it’s not Mastermind) so go right ahead and combine plantains with fire ants in an exotic.
• You don’t have to wait out a specific time period before going back to your lab. Just travel out and travel back to play some more.
• Your chocolates will also deteriorate in storage, not just your ingredients.
• When you’re ever stuck in the game, just revisit every port and talk to everyone.
• Some backwater towns don’t have chocolate shops to sell your wares in, so be careful not to get stuck with no money in a town. This becomes a moot point after you’re able to fly.

If there’s enough request for it, I’ll post an ingredients and shop list, but there’s really no need for one. Keeping track on your own is part of the fun!

Here’s my end save file – a bit messy but it’ll open up free play completely. You want to put it in your:
c:\documents and settings\your_user_name\application data\PlayFirst\
directory. Don’t forget to back up your own first!

 

VMN – not a game, but is it ever cool.

VMN Toolbox is a nice little utility that does all sorts of things.

• Screen capture and email
• Color picker
• Sticky notes
• Virtual Rulers
• Magnifier

All packed into a tiny little light weight utility. It’s easy to use, and great for sending screenshots. Nothing quite like sending me a link to a screenshot to solve all your gaming problems, eh?

I’ve recommended other screencap programs that are free before, but VMN goes beyond the usual screen cap programs by being intuitive and easier to use than any others I’ve seen. I’ve heard from many that they feel “uncomfortable” with the process of screen grabbing, but VMN throws it into a 2-click procedure that you can’t mess up.

As a graphic designer myself (yes, that’s the real job. This is just for fun!) I find the ruler / magnifier / color picker very useful, and the sticky notes is definitely a notch up from the little pieces of paper scattered around my desk. A thumbs up.

Download VMN Toolbox. (It’s freeware)

 

Review: Agatha Christie – Peril At End House

I was quite enamored with the first Flood Light Games’ Agatha Christie game, Death on the Nile. To be frank, enamored wouldn’t be quite the word – I loved it. I’ve also played it too many times to be productive in my other endeavors. It was a seriously groundbreaking hidden object game. It had puzzles, it had adventure elements, it was detailed, well-drawn, and it was everything a hidden object game ought to be. I’ll also never forget that it came first.

Peril At End House is a bit of a mixed disappointment, in that regard. It does a lot of things right – 1024 x 768 resolution that runs smooth as silk, lovely classical style music in the background, unobtrusive sound effects, a puzzle in every room. However, it suffers from a lack of innovation. I guess the problem is mostly me (as will be for other gamers who has played the first game) and I’m expecting too much. Instead of getting something new, I’m getting more of the same. While this isn’t necessarily unwelcome, the time between the last game and this one led me to believe that there would be more.

This second Agatha Christie game from Floodlight games is very much like the first one. You start off with Poirot deciding that he will pursue the case, go through the rooms of each of the suspects, look for objects, find clues, and the mystery is linearly solved for you along the way. What differs the Agatha Christie games from the usual run-of-the-mill hidden object games is the attention to detail. Everything is crisp and clear, scenes are very well composed with most of the objects in plausible places.

Death on the Nile was a great game, and Peril at End House is, at the core, the same game. There aren’t any surprises – the quality is there and the puzzles are there. Instead of the old videos in between scenes, we now get a comic telling the story instead. The “saloon” where you can interview the suspects are now replaced by “CLUE” cards. “Interviews” are one-sided and really just a card in the page.

If you’ve played the first one, you will want to play this one. However, the rooms feel a lot less populated and I cannot help but feel that the game was rushed. Peril At End House should’ve been an “improvement” considering how successful the first game was, but instead of the boost in production values, there has been a cut. It’s still worth getting despite of it all; the scenes are still beautifully composed, and the story is still quality Agatha Christie.