I registered just to post a comment. I'm one of the backers on Beyond Shadowgate and I just wanted to give a huge shoutout! Really enjoyed Beyond Shadowgate as well as Infested and Spectacle!
Since your remaking Infested, I was just gonna throw it out that you should make something on the level of Spectacle. I really enjoyed that open feel in Spectacle, its partway between linear and non-linear and its a great way to make an adventure game.
Being inside of something massive like a spaceship, something a little more vast and semi non-linear like Spectacle would be quite appropriate. Hell you could even have a crazy maze or two in there, like wandering through maintenance tunnels or inside the alien planet perhaps.
More room for space horror too, like some nasty surprises we don't see coming. Things following us waiting for us... ever played the Cursed trilogy? If you have you probably know what i mean. Imagine if finding the cure for the disease at the start of the game had a much longer time limit and was much more involved. The answer is not as simple as taking a pill. It would make it more like the original macventure series with the time limit and the threat of death looming over us. You could probably do something like System Shock 2 or Doom 3 where the player is unraveling via messages and logs the mystery and the horror of what the hell went down here.
You've proven yourself so talented with Spectacle and Beyond Shadowgate that a much bigger Infested would be the next logical next step. Hell i'd even buy it on steam if its big enough.
Thanks for playing these games, and thanks for sharing your ideas for an Infested game. InfestedX is just a nearly 1:1 remake, but if we ever did an Infested 2, then I'd definitely make it huge, like what like you're saying.
I love Shadowgate, DejaVu and Uninvited and you absolutely nail every aspect of those games.I see now too that you worked on Beyond Shadowgate as well which is super cool and also a really great game. However, I did encounter a game breaking bug just now (I see it was mentioned in a comment from 2 years ago below as well, prior to the newer release). The only thing I can say is that I saved and quit once or twice since having used the items mentioned below *SPOILERS BELOW*
I have the space suit and mag boots on, but throwing the rock at the door latch still sucks me out of the ship and I get game over. Have to start over as i'm completely soft locked now. Still loving the game but hope you find a fix for it at some point
Yes, the 16-bit art is all done, I'm just waiting for my programmer and musician to be free, so they can finish it up. It'll be the same as the original, but with a few new rooms, a couple new puzzles, a few fixes to existing puzzles, and better writing.
really cool to see the macventure formula in a sci-fi setting. My favorite parts of beyond were the random non-fantasy locals so this was an absolute treat.
Just a reminder that Beyond Shadowgate, the official sequal to NES Shadowgate, is now available on Steam and GOG. I really hope you enjoy this love letter to the franchise and hopefully a console port is on the horizon.
you can get it on steam as part of 8-bit adventure anthology volume 1 (which also includes Deja Vu and Uninvited the NES versions) with mouse support (I don’t know why it’s called volume 1 when it released the whole kemko catalog of MacVenture NES ports or why they don’t make a bigger deal out of having mouse support for these games)
sorry misunderstood you, thought you were looking for a convenient way to play the original Shadowgate which I also thought was getting a remake this year
Only one problem - I think the handle in the cave should respond to OPEN as well as USE. I actually had to look up a walkthrough for this, even though I knew what I needed to do, just not how to do it.
No, unfortunately, but when I complete the remake soon, I'll be making a Nintendo Power-style walkthrough. In the meantime, YouTuber Cranky Templar did a detailed step-by-step walkthrough on his channel
This is such good news. The only issue I ever ran into with Infested was it was over too quick. I can’t wait to re experience it with all these new goodies!
I really enjoyed this game, thank you! It ran perfectly on Steam Deck. I found a small number of minor bugs, but I take it you have a remake upcoming so I suppose it doesn't matter. I'll give Spectacle a try as well eventually. I also came here via the Shadowgate Kickstarter, and I'm really looking forward to it!
This was surprisingly a great experience! Like many others, I heard of this through the Beyond Shadowgate kickstarter. (I can't believe you're working on it!)
I like how many of the puzzle elements played out (especially with the recorder, I thought that was neat) and forging the flame thrower definitely harkens back to when we first made The Staff of Ages. The music is something I can easily hear Kemco doing back in the day. Despite the short length, you can clearly see the passion you have for this genre and I can't wait to see what you do in the future, both in Beyond Shadowgate and your own original projects.
I do have exactly just one complaint: The Deaths.
Most of the deaths are read something like this: "creature ate/attacked you, you died"
I personally found this a little boring or unsatisfying. The thing that made Shadowgate, Uninvited and even Deja Vu's deaths memorable weren't just how creatively dumb your character can bite the dust, but also how morbid and gruesome the details that were given.
To this day, I remember when I first read the Shark death in Shadowgate. Compare having to read "Even before the life has escaped your body, the lake will be filled with your blood" with "you touched the slime, it takes seconds to cover your body and you died painfully" Did it dissolve me like the slime trap in Shadowgate? Is it a living creature that suffocated me? How did it actually kill me? (Especially when I had to collect a sample of the damn thing to solve the plant puzzle)
The environment, the monsters and the item deaths were well thought out (I specifically found the teleporter death to be very creative), but the description of the deaths left a lot to be desired. Even the simplest of the many ridiculous deaths in Shadowgate explained that you couldn't survive, whether it was because you had broken every limb after you fell, or the glass shards from breaking the wrong mirror tore through you.
That being said, I cannot wait to see how the remake of this game improves. I very much look forward to more of your work in the future. Keep up the great work!
Thank you very much. I 100% agree with you about the Deaths being boring. I wrote the game and I am NOT a writer, lol. I admittedly was a tad hasty in my descriptions because at the time I underestimated both the importance of the deaths and the amount of people who would actually play the game.
The InfestedX remake has a professional writer/Shadowgate fan on board (Chris M. from our Beyond Shadowgate team), so he will definitely understand the assignment and make the deaths MUCH more colorful :D
Oh, thank you. They're free simply because I really wanted to get these out there for people to enjoy. We made them on our free time for fun and thought that Shadowgate-style games are a bit too niche right now and what better way to help rekindle the subgenre than to get as many people as possible to play and [hopefully] enjoy them
Coming from the "Beyond Shadowgate" kickstarter here. Glad to discover there is more adventure games to be played here!!!
Unfortunately, I'm running on a Mac, and although it seems you support it for "Infested" (unlike "Spectacle"), it seems that at least for the latest macOS major release (macOS 13 Ventura) it doesn't work. When double-clicking it to launch it says "The developer of this app needs to update it to work with this version of macOS.".
Available for testing to help you solve this! FYI I'm a Mac developer too so I won't shy away from any tech stuff you might throw at me.
Thank you for the heads-up. We may update Infested, but we're currently remaking Infested from the ground up at the same time as Beyond Shadowgate, so we may just focus on that release. We'll try our best to get a Mac version, but the problem is that the neither of us own a Mac and analytics for Infested's Download numbers show that approx. 4% of DLs were on Mac, so that's why we didn't bother with Mac for Spectacle. Either way, we DO want to have as many people as possible play these games, so we're definitely looking into Mac, but it's sadly not a priority right now. We'll let you know if we need anything. Thanks again
I can FINALLY announce the project I've been secretly working on: Beyond Shadowgate, the official sequel to Shadowgate on NES. We'll be launching a KickStarter soon, so stay tuned!
I'm sorry to hear about that happening, but thanks for letting me know about that. Not sure what could be causing that, but I'm sure that won't be an issue in my remake of Infested coming out next year
UPDATE: For anyone curious about our 3rd MacVenture game, Themeire, we've actually cancelled the game indefinitely, BUT that is ultimately for the better because we are working on 2 bigger and better games. One is a top secret project that is an official game that will have a KickStarter launching soon and the other game will be announced this Saturday on my Twitter @GrahfMetal
So, I must say -- I am playing through infested again and I think there is one very vital aspect that goes unnoticed quite a bit that I highly appreciate the effort put into.
The movement screen transitions actually adjust to where you're moving. Like when I moved from the viewing area to the door before the blood monster, move one showed a straight transition upwards and then it showed a leftward transition before releasing the player back to the interactive gaming screen. This is exactly how the character would have moved and it's a neat little "polish" so-to-speak :).
I just had to share. Even the original 3 MacVentures didn't go to that level of attention to detail :). I may not have the exact screen-movement-direction nailed down, but just wanted to let ya know I see what you did there :D
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I registered just to post a comment. I'm one of the backers on Beyond Shadowgate and I just wanted to give a huge shoutout! Really enjoyed Beyond Shadowgate as well as Infested and Spectacle!
Since your remaking Infested, I was just gonna throw it out that you should make something on the level of Spectacle. I really enjoyed that open feel in Spectacle, its partway between linear and non-linear and its a great way to make an adventure game.
Being inside of something massive like a spaceship, something a little more vast and semi non-linear like Spectacle would be quite appropriate. Hell you could even have a crazy maze or two in there, like wandering through maintenance tunnels or inside the alien planet perhaps.
More room for space horror too, like some nasty surprises we don't see coming. Things following us waiting for us... ever played the Cursed trilogy? If you have you probably know what i mean. Imagine if finding the cure for the disease at the start of the game had a much longer time limit and was much more involved. The answer is not as simple as taking a pill. It would make it more like the original macventure series with the time limit and the threat of death looming over us. You could probably do something like System Shock 2 or Doom 3 where the player is unraveling via messages and logs the mystery and the horror of what the hell went down here.
You've proven yourself so talented with Spectacle and Beyond Shadowgate that a much bigger Infested would be the next logical next step. Hell i'd even buy it on steam if its big enough.
Thanks for playing these games, and thanks for sharing your ideas for an Infested game. InfestedX is just a nearly 1:1 remake, but if we ever did an Infested 2, then I'd definitely make it huge, like what like you're saying.
sounds good i look forward to playing it.
I love Shadowgate, DejaVu and Uninvited and you absolutely nail every aspect of those games.I see now too that you worked on Beyond Shadowgate as well which is super cool and also a really great game. However, I did encounter a game breaking bug just now (I see it was mentioned in a comment from 2 years ago below as well, prior to the newer release). The only thing I can say is that I saved and quit once or twice since having used the items mentioned below *SPOILERS BELOW*
I have the space suit and mag boots on, but throwing the rock at the door latch still sucks me out of the ship and I get game over. Have to start over as i'm completely soft locked now. Still loving the game but hope you find a fix for it at some point
Oh, that would be super cool.
any plans to do Spectacle? And possibly maybe a port for Beyond Shadowgate? *fingers crossed*
Are you really making a 16-bit remake of "Infested"? Will it be much different from the original?
Yes, the 16-bit art is all done, I'm just waiting for my programmer and musician to be free, so they can finish it up. It'll be the same as the original, but with a few new rooms, a couple new puzzles, a few fixes to existing puzzles, and better writing.
Will I get to play it?
I want to play it too.
Wonderful game! Just found out about you through Beyond Shadowgate. Awesome work with that too!
now off to Spectacle!
Awesome! Thanks a lot for playing our games. We really appreciate it! :D
10/10, honestly just as fun as beyond shadowgate! I guess just missing a map but the small size didn’t really need one.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it :D
really cool to see the macventure formula in a sci-fi setting. My favorite parts of beyond were the random non-fantasy locals so this was an absolute treat.
Just a reminder that Beyond Shadowgate, the official sequal to NES Shadowgate, is now available on Steam and GOG.
I really hope you enjoy this love letter to the franchise and hopefully a console port is on the horizon.
hi! I was wondering if the remake is still a ways away or if I should just wait? I just discovered this after playing beyond shadowgate!
The remake won't be finished until early next year. I had to put it off for now in order to work on several official titles in the meantime
is the remake still set for this year?
Yes. It's practically done.
woahhh for real? Drop that ish!!!
Love the original, I just hope you added a map :)
are you putting on steam btw?
That's the plan :D
you can get it on steam as part of 8-bit adventure anthology volume 1 (which also includes Deja Vu and Uninvited the NES versions) with mouse support (I don’t know why it’s called volume 1 when it released the whole kemko catalog of MacVenture NES ports or why they don’t make a bigger deal out of having mouse support for these games)
but that isn't the remake? its also not even infested... it is the original shadowgate, the uninvited and deja vu.
sorry misunderstood you, thought you were looking for a convenient way to play the original Shadowgate which I also thought was getting a remake this year
no it got an amazing sequel - beyond shadowgate.
there is a shadowgate remake as well
Only one problem - I think the handle in the cave should respond to OPEN as well as USE. I actually had to look up a walkthrough for this, even though I knew what I needed to do, just not how to do it.
Good point! Noted for the remake. Thanks :D
Oh yeah? That's unfortunate, but we're remaking the game from the ground up, so it'll be an updated, 16-bit version that will work, for sure
This is really cool. What engine did you use to make it?
Thanks! We used Game Maker Studio.
Will these be on steam?
The remake I'm working on now should hopefully be on Steam. Fingers crossed
is there a walkthrough somewhere
No, unfortunately, but when I complete the remake soon, I'll be making a Nintendo Power-style walkthrough. In the meantime, YouTuber Cranky Templar did a detailed step-by-step walkthrough on his channel
InfestedX, coming out in 2024!
It's a 16-bit remake of Infested, with updated graphics, tons of animations and featuring new rooms, reworked puzzles and multiple ending.
This is such good news. The only issue I ever ran into with Infested was it was over too quick. I can’t wait to re experience it with all these new goodies!
I really enjoyed this game, thank you! It ran perfectly on Steam Deck. I found a small number of minor bugs, but I take it you have a remake upcoming so I suppose it doesn't matter. I'll give Spectacle a try as well eventually. I also came here via the Shadowgate Kickstarter, and I'm really looking forward to it!
Awesome. Thank you for playing and I hope you enjoy Spectacle :D
This was surprisingly a great experience! Like many others, I heard of this through the Beyond Shadowgate kickstarter. (I can't believe you're working on it!)
I like how many of the puzzle elements played out (especially with the recorder, I thought that was neat) and forging the flame thrower definitely harkens back to when we first made The Staff of Ages. The music is something I can easily hear Kemco doing back in the day. Despite the short length, you can clearly see the passion you have for this genre and I can't wait to see what you do in the future, both in Beyond Shadowgate and your own original projects.
I do have exactly just one complaint: The Deaths.
Most of the deaths are read something like this:
"creature ate/attacked you, you died"
I personally found this a little boring or unsatisfying. The thing that made Shadowgate, Uninvited and even Deja Vu's deaths memorable weren't just how creatively dumb your character can bite the dust, but also how morbid and gruesome the details that were given.
To this day, I remember when I first read the Shark death in Shadowgate. Compare having to read
"Even before the life has escaped your body, the lake will be filled with your blood"
with
"you touched the slime, it takes seconds to cover your body and you died painfully"
Did it dissolve me like the slime trap in Shadowgate?
Is it a living creature that suffocated me?
How did it actually kill me? (Especially when I had to collect a sample of the damn thing to solve the plant puzzle)
The environment, the monsters and the item deaths were well thought out (I specifically found the teleporter death to be very creative), but the description of the deaths left a lot to be desired. Even the simplest of the many ridiculous deaths in Shadowgate explained that you couldn't survive, whether it was because you had broken every limb after you fell, or the glass shards from breaking the wrong mirror tore through you.
That being said, I cannot wait to see how the remake of this game improves. I very much look forward to more of your work in the future. Keep up the great work!
Thank you very much. I 100% agree with you about the Deaths being boring. I wrote the game and I am NOT a writer, lol. I admittedly was a tad hasty in my descriptions because at the time I underestimated both the importance of the deaths and the amount of people who would actually play the game.
The InfestedX remake has a professional writer/Shadowgate fan on board (Chris M. from our Beyond Shadowgate team), so he will definitely understand the assignment and make the deaths MUCH more colorful :D
??? Why are these games free? Is that a mistake or are you really that cool?
Oh, thank you. They're free simply because I really wanted to get these out there for people to enjoy. We made them on our free time for fun and thought that Shadowgate-style games are a bit too niche right now and what better way to help rekindle the subgenre than to get as many people as possible to play and [hopefully] enjoy them
FINE. I just pledged for Beyond Shadowgate. Best wishes for the future and be well!
Coming from the "Beyond Shadowgate" kickstarter here. Glad to discover there is more adventure games to be played here!!!
Unfortunately, I'm running on a Mac, and although it seems you support it for "Infested" (unlike "Spectacle"), it seems that at least for the latest macOS major release (macOS 13 Ventura) it doesn't work. When double-clicking it to launch it says "The developer of this app needs to update it to work with this version of macOS.".
Available for testing to help you solve this! FYI I'm a Mac developer too so I won't shy away from any tech stuff you might throw at me.
Seems others are having the same issue with Gamemaker Studio: https://forum.gamemaker.io/index.php?threads/steam-games-wont-launch-on-macos-13-ventura-but-do-work-on-macos-12-monterey.99348/
Thank you for the heads-up. We may update Infested, but we're currently remaking Infested from the ground up at the same time as Beyond Shadowgate, so we may just focus on that release. We'll try our best to get a Mac version, but the problem is that the neither of us own a Mac and analytics for Infested's Download numbers show that approx. 4% of DLs were on Mac, so that's why we didn't bother with Mac for Spectacle. Either way, we DO want to have as many people as possible play these games, so we're definitely looking into Mac, but it's sadly not a priority right now. We'll let you know if we need anything. Thanks again
Just heard about the Shadowgate Kickstarter. The money is now yours. Can't wait, and the Uninvited bonus fills me with joy. Thanks for all you do.
Thank you. I really appreciate that :D
Really liked this game, I'm looking forward to your kickstarter
Thank you very much :D
I can FINALLY announce the project I've been secretly working on: Beyond Shadowgate, the official sequel to Shadowgate on NES. We'll be launching a KickStarter soon, so stay tuned!
Awesome
Just backed this on KS, loved the original, can't wait to play Beyond Shadowgate and to try out Infested and Spectacle!
I think I've encountered a bug! It has to do with the space suit and boots and opening the door for the monster? **SPOILERS AHEAD**
I am wearing the space suit and mag boots, but when I throw the rock at the hatch control I still get sucked out and game over? What gives?
I'm sorry to hear about that happening, but thanks for letting me know about that. Not sure what could be causing that, but I'm sure that won't be an issue in my remake of Infested coming out next year
UPDATE: For anyone curious about our 3rd MacVenture game, Themeire, we've actually cancelled the game indefinitely, BUT that is ultimately for the better because we are working on 2 bigger and better games. One is a top secret project that is an official game that will have a KickStarter launching soon and the other game will be announced this Saturday on my Twitter @GrahfMetal
I am just finding out about this now. What game was announced? I'm trying to search through your twitter to find it.
Really enjoyed this game! Even though I was extremely dumb throughout it XD Look forward to playing Spectacle some time too uvu Great job!
Thank you so much, I really appreciate that. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Spectacle :D
So, I must say -- I am playing through infested again and I think there is one very vital aspect that goes unnoticed quite a bit that I highly appreciate the effort put into.
The movement screen transitions actually adjust to where you're moving. Like when I moved from the viewing area to the door before the blood monster, move one showed a straight transition upwards and then it showed a leftward transition before releasing the player back to the interactive gaming screen. This is exactly how the character would have moved and it's a neat little "polish" so-to-speak :).
I just had to share. Even the original 3 MacVentures didn't go to that level of attention to detail :). I may not have the exact screen-movement-direction nailed down, but just wanted to let ya know I see what you did there :D