Thank you very much. Glad you enjoyed it. To save the animal, go back and retrieve Roc (your falcon buddy) and have him with you when you beat the game
Hey GrahfMetal, this might be asking for too much, but I think it would be cool if you made for your Infested and Spectacle games make them look like Mac, Apple II, and Windows 3.1x Screens for them like the graphics and also user interface, I even wonder what the Items would look like in the Inventory Window if that was ever implemented.
That would be awesome, but it's a bit too much work for a free game. It would have to be built from the ground up. I'm remaking Infested in 16-bit, and if it comes out on Steam, and I can make money off of it, then Mac-style B&W filter w/visible item menu is definitely an option I'd like to impliment. If InferstedX does well on Steam, then a Spectacle remake would be next.
in your infested remake, will the slime monster get a close-up jumpscare if it kills the player same with the flying creature outside the spaceship, or the creature that lives in a hole on the alien planet?
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.
1. How did you get involved with beyond Shadowgate? Did Zojoi see your work with infested and spectacle and contact you?
2. I saw that the spooky mansion was named "Themeire mansion" was that going the be the theme of the Themeire game you had planned before you canceled it?
3. any other projects you have planned in the future?
1: That is correct. Zojoi played Infested and Spectacle and messaged me about us working on Beyond Shadowgate.
2: That is also correct. The design notes for Beyond Shadowgate had a blank area between the river and the desert, simply labeled "Ruins, maybe?!?", so I used the mansion found in Themeire, and reworked it to fit into Shadowgate lore. So the swamp and mansion were lifted directly from our defunct game.
3: We're working up post-production on Beyond Shadowgate (patches, feedback changes, additional options, possible console porting, etc.) and then we'll be beginning work on another project with Zojoi, that will be announced in a couple months :D
Was craving something Macventure-ish, and someone in a classic gaming group on Facebook mentioned your games. Started with this one and thoroughly enjoyed the experience! Going to check out Infested next and look forward to your Shadowgate sequel!
I know you're busy with a billion other things and this one's pretty minor, but if you use EXAMINE on either of the Genie's options, it will give you the descriptor text and then send you off to the choice you looked at. I'm not sure if this was intentional?
Hi Grahft. Are you still working on that macventure game that was announce back in 2020-2021 (forgot the year) started with a T i think? haven't heard anything about that game lately.
Oh, Themeire. I cancelled that because I had 2 other games to work on, in an official capacity, including Beyond Shadowgate, the official sequel to NES Shadowgate, due out in a few months. The other game is still secret. The reason I cancelled Themeire, and not just put it off, was because a lot of the assets, ideas and puzzled for the game were used in making one of the sections in Beyond Shadowgate, aptly named Themire (spelled slightly differently)
Oh that's too bad, but it is what it is. Beyond shadowgate should be good though looking forward to it. But i have a few more questions:
1. Does this game take place in another world entirely that is inspired by Arabia or do you just get sent in the distant past?
2. Did you come up with all the puzzles and deaths yourself or did you have to brainstorm with a team?
3. When you watch a stream or a let's play of someone playing Spectacle, what's the funniest way you've seen someone trying to solve a puzzle knowing that it wouldn't work?
Another world entirely. A fantasy land inspired by Arabian and Greek mythology. I made it an unofficial prequal to The Uninvited, where the origins of the supernatural creatures and events that occur in the Uninvited mansion originated in the magical kingdom. The unknown sorcerer who owned the house and trained apprentices, including that games antagonist, was the same sorcerer from Spectacle. Of course I added around 10 other direct references and links to The Uninvited.
I came up with everything myself.
Probably the Hyleg Well puzzle, in the Azure palace, where you have to line up the moon and throw in a coin to make the gust of wind destroy the Yajna upstairs. A LOT of people wanted to go down that well. I'm like "Oh yeah, you go down a well in Shadowgate. That's why they're so determined to try and go down there", lol
Is this game as hard as Uninvited or Shadowgate? Just wondering because I had to use a guide throughout each of those and even though I loved the vibe, needing the guide the whole time kind of sucked the joy out of it for me.
To be 100% honest with you, I have no idea how to gauge the difficulty, even compared to those adventure games that inspired me, because it seems like 1/2 the feedback that I receive is that it's too hard and the other 1/2 say it's too easy.
If it helps, I don't have any moon logic or overly obtuse puzzles and I designed this game as someone who isn't particularly good at these kinds of games. Worst case scenario I do have a step-by-step walkthrough [link below].
I hope you try it anyway and let me know what you think. I'm always happy to hear feedback, even if it's negative.
Hello I really like very much your 2 games, I would like just make some minor comments (minor bugs I think but which for me are unlogical) :
- there is a bug that often happen at the Gate of Xor, there is sound continuing of writing text until the end of game, the only way to end of the sound is to quit.
- You can't travel to desert and go South if you don't read the book even if you know how to. Same for oasis, if you don't examine the map. Why ?
- If you freeze time on a Cicada screen after he flies away, if you go back when the times is still freezed to the screen it reappears.
Otherelse I'm very fan and for your next game I will make a donation :)
- We were not aware of that bug, but I'll take note of it
- We decided to make the player read the book/floor first in order to navigate the deserts cause otherwise there was sequence breaks that cause issues in the game, but I understand where you're coming from. Good point
- I don't remember the Cicada freeze time one, I'll have to look into that
Glad you enjoyed it and I'm always happy to receive notes like this, so thank you very much :)
One last thing that may looking strange I forgot is if you play without talking to the cloaked stranger you can see him still on the other location, so it's like he is at various position at the same time
Also, the stranger is a she. It's actually an astral projection of the Ringmaster's assistant at the circus in your world. She uses the cloaked avatar to help guide you so that you bring the magic instrument back to her, so she can use it on the evil wizard/demon. She was the Princess of that land, hence why her father (the Shah/King) appears beside her as a ghost at the end :D
I just finished both games and I can't stop smiling. I played Infested first and it's amazing to see the jump in quality, especially considering I was already enamored with Infested. The visuals and music are absolutely enchanting in Spectacle and I loved the story. It played out like a short, classic book I would have read over and over as a kid. There is so much love and skill poured into these.
Infested is a ton of fun, but this is something else. It's a complete, polished package and now I'm so much more excited for Beyond Shadowgate! Jeff, Orie, and Jason should all be incredibly proud. You guys are still fools for not charging me anything! Thank you for these experiences and I wish you all the best.
Thank you very much. That means the world to us. I'm really glad you love the games. I actually designed Infested in the mid-90s and never did anything with it until I was on sabbatical in 2015, when I decided that there was a serious lack of Shadowgate-inpired Indie games (read; none). As for Spectacle, I actually originally wrote it as a short story called The Great Spectacular. On top of what you see in the game, It also involved a village being turned to stone and a hunter that turned out to be the evil Wizard's emotions run amuck without the presence of the Wizard. When I turned it into a game I removed some of those plot points and replaced them with direct references to Uninvited in order to make it an unofficial prequel.
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!
Love this game! It and Infested capture the atmosphere of the old Kemco games perfectly.
First, let me say how much I LOVED the keyboard hotkeys to select actions. This little quality-of-life tweak makes playing the game much more enjoyable. Much as I loved Shadowgate, Deja Vu, and Uninvited, the slowness of having to move the cursor around and click on verbs definitely made actual gameplay more cumbersome, so this was a really welcome feature.
I'm also really impressed with how well you succeeded in coming up with a completely original story while still capturing the feel of the NES Kemco games. Well done!
I do have a couple of pieces of hopefully constructive criticism for future projects: [SPOILERS]
I completely missed the fact that the fruit regrows in the same spot over time. Unless I'm overlooking something, there wasn't any hint that this was the case in-game. After obtaining the first piece, I wandered around for ages trying to find the second piece – I figured there was another tree south of the desert or something. It never occurred to me to revisit the screen with the fruit tree since I thought I'd collected everything that screen had to offer, which led to a lot of frustrated wandering around. I eventually had to check out a walkthrough video on YouTube to find the solution. Maybe a bit of text along the lines of "You notice a bud already beginning to regrow from where you cut off the fruit. Perhaps fruit trees grow faster in this magical land?" after you take the first fruit?
The cicada puzzle was also a bit opaque. I could tell it was supposed to be a clock face, but I thought the solution must require a specific time, since that was the case with the earlier puzzles for the sun and moon. I eventually managed to brute force the solution, but didn't realize that the solution is the current time whenever you happen to be trying to open the lock. A cryptic inscription hinting in that direction would have been a good addition. I'll acknowledge that this one is more subjective, though – perhaps the solution was more obvious to other players, and just didn't click for me.
All in all, though, I thought the puzzles were generally very well balanced – just enough hints in-game to point the player in the right direction without holding their hand completely and making the game boring.
Thank you so much for the kind words and I'm very glad you enjoyed the two games. Those criticisms were most definitely constructive and helpful. Very good point about the fruit. I can 100% understand thinking you needed to find a different fruit somewhere else. The Cicada puzzle could have used a hint somewhere, for sure. I'm currently working on several projects at the same time, but one of them is another Macventure, so I hope to get even more balance in the puzzles and gameplay, so thanks for the insight into your playthrough.
Not sure if you are aware but there is a Kemco/MacVenture compilation on Steam where you can use a mouse. It's called 8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume I. It's only 8 Bucks.
I like the look of the game, but am really turned off by how the name is taking up space right in the middle of the screen. Also, theres something about the writing sound I can't stand.
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
Hey there. I played this and Infested. Really good job. I had lots of nostalgia playing both. And loved the particular reference to Uninvited. Found little bugs in both games, but not a big problem. I'm also curious about your third game. Can't wait to play it.
You are a real source of inspiration to create retro or pixel games
I really appreciate that, thank you. Spectacle is an unofficial prequal to Uninvited with a total of 7 references to the classic game.
Hopefully we'll have news on the 3rd game soon. We're doing a Kickstarter for it and we're just getting the preliminary showcase and logistics in order so we have a solid foundation to begin crowdfunding. I can't wait for all of you to play it!
Thank you. It's even funnier (in a morbid way) to think of just how gruesome that would be if it was in realistic third-person. Goes to show how perception and perspective makes all the difference :D
No doubt! These types of games leave a lot of room for comical aspects.
Just the way it's done and the perfectly timed CRASH splits my side LOL. Awesome stuff.
Overall, the attention to detail to replicate the ICOM/MACventures experience is spot on. This is one hell of a game (some puzzles are a little questionable in terms of ability to figure out on one's own, but, that too was the nature of those types of games).
Massive kudos overall -- the only feedback I could possibly give would be if there ever is a 3rd installment of these types of games, the modernized music (while the tracks themselves are AWESOME nonetheless) doesn't fit the game type.
Maybe go with infested style music next time, or even possibly run the modernized tracks through an 8-bit sampler and offer a switch option between modern and classic-style?
Idk - just my 2 cents that probably many wouldn't agree with. I personally played Shadowgate 2014 through all 3 difficulties with the NES music and it was such a better experience in my view.
Thank you very much for the kind words and thank you for the feedback. With this soundtrack we were actually experimenting with something more soothing over the 8-bit music of all the predecessors because this is technically the longest of all the "Macventure" games, so we wanted something that would not feel tiring and have an epic feel to it to give weight to the land. For our third game we we're actually hitting the middle ground and doing a hi-fi 8-bit soundtrack, so it will be 8-bit music, but with a higher quality, so somewhere in-between Infested and Spectacle. I think you'll like the soundtrack to the 3rd game :D
Anyway, thanks again for the awesome feedback and take care
"For our third game we we're actually hitting the middle ground and doing a hi-fi 8-bit soundtrack" -- WOOHOO - you are actually doing a 3rd game? Nice!!! That's great news. I look forward to it. You should look into boxed versions for this soon-to-be trilogy - id pay to add them to my NES/Famicom/GBC macventures shrine I have collected over the years.
The idea for the soundtrack does sound good and I am very, very looking forward to it's release. This is cool stuff. Thanks for sharing! I won't bug you for a release date -- I'm sure you must get that enough already.
If I could borrow a moment of your time for a slight nudge -- I seem to have forgotten a lot from my first playthrough. I have reached the "Vasir" and am following the desert "map" to try and find the special water that was indicated in the painting story, but I keep dying. Is it possible I am too far ahead and not ready for this section yet?
I really liked this game until you got to the part where you were tested for the Magic Lamp and when you attempted to take any of the treasures in the vault. You ended up spending the remaining of your ending of life trapped and surrounded by treasures but there is more to this review. The main core of this review is after you got the Magic Lamp the genie came out and would grant you a wish and both of them meant a "GAME OVER" If you chose to be a ruler you ended up being the ruler of a sad dead kingdom with a useless life. Also if you chose wealth you ended up trapped in a vault surrounded by treasures that you could not take with you.
Hey GrahfMetal, I downloaded the game when I was an unregistered guest a couple of days or weeks ago, so I couldn't post a comment until now. I very much enjoyed it. I have gotten all of the Challenges except for the Well Traveled one. Can you post a step by step Walkthrough or Guide for the Well Travelled Challenge? It is the Last Challenge I Need to 100% the Game.
I thought I was searching all of the Mystical Land Thoroughly and examining every area of each screen and dying every death, but as the Challenge was neither unlocked nor completed, I don't know what I am doing wrong to not accomplish it. Do I also have to explore the parts of the desert that only lead to death or is that part not necessary for the Challenge?
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it, that's awesome! For the Well Traveled Challenge you'll need to visit each room twice. This DOES NOT include the circus, the Desert or the Lamp Cave, so just the North Field, South Field, The 3 Palaces and The Tower. If you've done that and it still hasn't/doesn't unlock than it might be a bug. I have received reports that various different Challenges aren't unlocking for different people. The Challenges gave us quite a bit of headache when implimenting them in game, so we did it as best we could, but unfortunately a few bugs slipped in and we can't isolate exactly what triggers them. Hopefully exploring each room twice works for you, if not I'm very sorry about that. As a completionist I know how frustrating it can be to see an incomplete task in a game
I visited each area of all of the places twice except the desert and the lamp cave and guess what? It worked. I finally got the Well Traveled Challenge. I now have all of the Challenges completed and achieved. Thank you GrahfMetal, you really answered my Question and I appreciate it.
Not gonna lie, I don't even have a ballpark at this point. I'm really sorry about that. Putting aside work and family priorities, there are certain directions with the game itself that I'm not 100% happy with, so a few major things have gone back to the drawing board.
This is one of the most fun games I've played in quite a while, I'm definitely enjoying it. It's quite difficult but that's fun, and the artstyle is always on point.
I finished playing this game today and much like with Infested, it is fantastic to see a solid, well-made game in this style. The art is even better this time around, the music is fantastic again, and the game difficulty is higher, about on par with Uninvited. The whole thing took me about ten hours, and I was really stuck three times and had to go around clicking on everything.
As far as bugs go, I only encountered one, and it was quite early in the game. There is a loose object that opens with the "Use" command and not the "Open" command, and so even after finding out that it was loose, I walked away and didn't figure out how to get into it until much later. I only figured out how to open it up when I misclicked while trying to use an object on it.
Thank you so much for the feedback and the kind words. So happy you enjoyed it and I definitely understand about the USE vs. OPEN, I've gotten a couple people mention that, so I'll look into implementing both for a future patch/ games :D
This game's graphics are really good for its low resolution. Every scene is colourful and object distinct without appearing cartoonish. Secrets are subtle enough to blend in at first glance but don't require a pixel hunt to locate (and often come with contextual clues). Plus there's the visible day-night cycle that ties into several puzzles. The atmosphere and readability is seriously better than a lot of paid point and click games.
I haven't finished Spectacle yet so I can't comment as strongly on the puzzles; so far they're good. I'm just happy to find another polished adventure game that's focused on exploration and intuitive puzzles rather than NPC dialogue and pipe mazes or whatever. Thank you, devs, for your work.
Minor gripe: Please allow text writing to be sped up or automatically skipped in your next project. Double clicking everything to read at a comfortable pace is a nuisance.
Thank you very much for your kind words. We really appreciate it. So glad you're enjoying yourself. As for that minor gripe, that's a solid criticism that we'll definitely look into for future projects. Thanks for all the feedback :D
First off, I love playing this game. It is a fantastic concept will amazing graphics, wonderful music, and a game that makes one feel they are in the game! I have to ask one thing... I have almost completed all achievements that the game has to offer. I'm puzzled by an accomplishment titled, Nice Try. I have tried everything and, I still come up short. Please help..., What am I missing why this reward hasn't been completed? Above all, this game is wonderful! As always, have a fantastic day!
Thank you for your kind words, I really appreciate that and I'm glad you enjoyed the game so much.
As for NICE TRY! It involves trying to escape the magical kingdom early on in your adventure
SOLUTION: Try using the ALAKAZAM spell (reveal hidden doors) on the wall in HESPERIDES PATH where the door that spit you out in the magic land used to be before it vanished
Thank you for replying. Out of all that I tried, that was not one of them lol! Thank you again for this Outstanding game! As always, have a fantastic day!
Thanks you so much. Yup, we're working on our next MacVenture game, Themeire, which takes place in a settlement in the new world. It's not really "coming soon", but hopefully it won't take too long :D
Hi. I loved the game, the art, the mechanics, the sound and the gameplay.
But something that has fascinated me has been the cursor that is used in the game. Is there any chance that I can get it so that I can adapt it for use in windows 10? Thanks.
Thanks a lot! Today i'm gonna play your other game, INFESTED (I'm really Hyped :D). Anyway thanks again for the cursor pack, i'm using it now as my cursor for windows, was easy to convert as the size fits perfect.
Ah, another thing, i saw some days ago about your new incoming game called Themeire, there is not a release date still, im correct? Im anxious to try it out too.
I've completed this game (also wrote an article on it on TV Tropes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Spectacle) and I'd say it's amazing, feels just like the NES ports of MacVentures without the hardware limitations affecting the graphics/sound/gameplay and with more modern design principles.
Kinda wish there were some extra lines for stupid actions like "TAKE SELF", though, just for laughs. Also kinda disappointed there's only one savefile, but I get it was done to not make the challenges too easy. I will play Infested as well. It'd be interesting to see how a third GrahfVenture could top this one someday.
Thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed it and I hope you have fun with INFESTED. Thanks for the article as well. It was really fun reading all of the tropes found in our games :D
Also, "GrahfVenture" genuinly made my day. That's awesome!!!
We started work on our next GrahfVenture game, so I'm really excited for you to play it!
Hey, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your games. They are absolutely pitch perfect pastiches of the classic ICOM NES adventures. This one reminded me a lot of Uninvited, which was my personal favorite of the three. I can really tell a lot of love went into this. Do you have any plans for sequels or a third game?
Thank you so much, we really appreciate it. I'm glad you were reminded of Uninvited cause we made this to be an unofficial prequel to the classic with a few obvious tie-in's and some not-so-subtle implied connections between the two :D
There's a couple of ideas for a 3rd game, with one being in the early [literal] pen & paper stages. I wish we could make these games more frequent, but we only do this part-time for fun and we also work on non-itch,io titles as well, on the side.
If there's any concrete plans for a 3rd game we'll definitely post some ideas on here :D
I can certainly give hints on here anytime. Otherwise I just posted the complete step-by-step walkthough in the comment section on the "Welcome to the Spectacle" page. Thanks for reminding me :D
Thank you! Yeah, back in the day they were very easy to get immersed into for hours. My friend and I would play them for hours and find all the different ways to die and then we'd try to beat the games faster than each other :D
ok sure! i met the hooded stranger in the palace and they told me to head south. i have scroll 1 and 2, moon coin, sun coin, broken instrument, eye gem and red key. tried going south in the desert but i keep dying. and the piranhas keep eating me by the waterfall
Your next big step is getting rid of Yajna, the blue flame beast and entering a secret room. You have everything you'll need, but you'll also need a few spell hidden in the palace and out in the field. It involves the Hyleg Well
Solution (SPOILERS):
Step 1: USE ROSETTA STONE on the wall scribblings behind the tapestry hanging up in the spiral staircase (Sorcerous' Spiral) to get the NIAHC spell
Step 2: USE ROSETTA STONE on the Scribblings found on either side of the stone structure outside (where you first appeared in the world) and Learn the SAF and O. CLOCK spells
Step 3: Move around outside until the moon in the night sky is glowing bright (USE SAF to speed up time by 6 hours). USE O. CLOCK spell to freeze time while the moon glows and go the room with the well and the moon will be lined up with the lunar phase mural on the wall in the back
Step 3: USE NIAHC spell (Chain spelled backward) on the chains to lift up the well cover and USE the MOON COIN on the glowing well to have a gust of powerful wind blow
Step 4: USE ROSETTA STONE on the wall in the Scholar's Repose (the room with the Red Book) to learn the ALAKAZAM spell
Step 5: During the day head up the stairs and Yajna will be blown away by the well's gust of wind
Step 6: USE ALAKAZAM on the outline door on the back wall to access a hidden room
← Return to game
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I had such a great time playing this game and I’m psyched to hear you’re working on an Infested 16-bit remake!
I do have one question: How is the “Save the Animal” Challenge supposed to be cleared?
Thank you very much. Glad you enjoyed it. To save the animal, go back and retrieve Roc (your falcon buddy) and have him with you when you beat the game
Do you by any chance plan on releasing an open source engine someday so people can make their own MacVenture-style games?
Not really, but that's a fun idea I can always visit some day down the road
Hey GrahfMetal, this might be asking for too much, but I think it would be cool if you made for your Infested and Spectacle games make them look like Mac, Apple II, and Windows 3.1x Screens for them like the graphics and also user interface, I even wonder what the Items would look like in the Inventory Window if that was ever implemented.
That would be awesome, but it's a bit too much work for a free game. It would have to be built from the ground up.
I'm remaking Infested in 16-bit, and if it comes out on Steam, and I can make money off of it, then Mac-style B&W filter w/visible item menu is definitely an option I'd like to impliment. If InferstedX does well on Steam, then a Spectacle remake would be next.
in your infested remake, will the slime monster get a close-up jumpscare if it kills the player same with the flying creature outside the spaceship, or the creature that lives in a hole on the alien planet?
Every monster in the game (including the new monsters) will have an attack animation that eventually ends in a close-up :D
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.
i just finished this game and it was amazing!
But i have a couple questions:
1. How did you get involved with beyond Shadowgate? Did Zojoi see your work with infested and spectacle and contact you?
2. I saw that the spooky mansion was named "Themeire mansion" was that going the be the theme of the Themeire game you had planned before you canceled it?
3. any other projects you have planned in the future?
Thanks for playing.
1: That is correct. Zojoi played Infested and Spectacle and messaged me about us working on Beyond Shadowgate.
2: That is also correct. The design notes for Beyond Shadowgate had a blank area between the river and the desert, simply labeled "Ruins, maybe?!?", so I used the mansion found in Themeire, and reworked it to fit into Shadowgate lore. So the swamp and mansion were lifted directly from our defunct game.
3: We're working up post-production on Beyond Shadowgate (patches, feedback changes, additional options, possible console porting, etc.) and then we'll be beginning work on another project with Zojoi, that will be announced in a couple months :D
Was craving something Macventure-ish, and someone in a classic gaming group on Facebook mentioned your games. Started with this one and thoroughly enjoyed the experience! Going to check out Infested next and look forward to your Shadowgate sequel!
Awesome. Thanks for playing. I really appreciate it :D
I know you're busy with a billion other things and this one's pretty minor, but if you use EXAMINE on either of the Genie's options, it will give you the descriptor text and then send you off to the choice you looked at. I'm not sure if this was intentional?
Yeah, it was intentional. It's a cheap death. The Genie's just being an impatient jerk :
LOL that's fair 🤣
Hi Grahft. Are you still working on that macventure game that was announce back in 2020-2021 (forgot the year) started with a T i think? haven't heard anything about that game lately.
Oh, Themeire. I cancelled that because I had 2 other games to work on, in an official capacity, including Beyond Shadowgate, the official sequel to NES Shadowgate, due out in a few months. The other game is still secret.
The reason I cancelled Themeire, and not just put it off, was because a lot of the assets, ideas and puzzled for the game were used in making one of the sections in Beyond Shadowgate, aptly named Themire (spelled slightly differently)
Oh that's too bad, but it is what it is. Beyond shadowgate should be good though looking forward to it. But i have a few more questions:
1. Does this game take place in another world entirely that is inspired by Arabia or do you just get sent in the distant past?
2. Did you come up with all the puzzles and deaths yourself or did you have to brainstorm with a team?
3. When you watch a stream or a let's play of someone playing Spectacle, what's the funniest way you've seen someone trying to solve a puzzle knowing that it wouldn't work?
Another world entirely. A fantasy land inspired by Arabian and Greek mythology. I made it an unofficial prequal to The Uninvited, where the origins of the supernatural creatures and events that occur in the Uninvited mansion originated in the magical kingdom. The unknown sorcerer who owned the house and trained apprentices, including that games antagonist, was the same sorcerer from Spectacle. Of course I added around 10 other direct references and links to The Uninvited.
I came up with everything myself.
Probably the Hyleg Well puzzle, in the Azure palace, where you have to line up the moon and throw in a coin to make the gust of wind destroy the Yajna upstairs. A LOT of people wanted to go down that well. I'm like "Oh yeah, you go down a well in Shadowgate. That's why they're so determined to try and go down there", lol
What's the best way to get notified when the secret game is un-secreted?
I don't use social media anymore, so probably the Beyond Shadowgate Discord, or on here. I sometimes give updates in this comment section
Sounds good man, I've been lurking in that discord since like day 1. Hopefully I catch the update when it comes.
Is this game as hard as Uninvited or Shadowgate? Just wondering because I had to use a guide throughout each of those and even though I loved the vibe, needing the guide the whole time kind of sucked the joy out of it for me.
To be 100% honest with you, I have no idea how to gauge the difficulty, even compared to those adventure games that inspired me, because it seems like 1/2 the feedback that I receive is that it's too hard and the other 1/2 say it's too easy.
If it helps, I don't have any moon logic or overly obtuse puzzles and I designed this game as someone who isn't particularly good at these kinds of games.
Worst case scenario I do have a step-by-step walkthrough [link below].
I hope you try it anyway and let me know what you think. I'm always happy to hear feedback, even if it's negative.
https://grahfmetal.itch.io/spectacle/devlog/145212/welcome-to-the-spectacle
Hey grahf can you make more games just like point and click games but are easier? I'm new to Spectacle btw so i'm just asking if you can, thanks
The game we're working on now has a hint system, so it'll be more accessible/approachable
Also, the comment section of this linked page has a step-by-step guide, if you'd like some help with the game :)
https://grahfmetal.itch.io/spectacle/devlog/145212/welcome-to-the-spectacle
Hello I really like very much your 2 games, I would like just make some minor comments (minor bugs I think but which for me are unlogical) :
- there is a bug that often happen at the Gate of Xor, there is sound continuing of writing text until the end of game, the only way to end of the sound is to quit.
- You can't travel to desert and go South if you don't read the book even if you know how to. Same for oasis, if you don't examine the map. Why ?
- If you freeze time on a Cicada screen after he flies away, if you go back when the times is still freezed to the screen it reappears.
Otherelse I'm very fan and for your next game I will make a donation :)
Thank you for your feedback.
- We were not aware of that bug, but I'll take note of it
- We decided to make the player read the book/floor first in order to navigate the deserts cause otherwise there was sequence breaks that cause issues in the game, but I understand where you're coming from. Good point
- I don't remember the Cicada freeze time one, I'll have to look into that
Glad you enjoyed it and I'm always happy to receive notes like this, so thank you very much :)
Thank you for your reply,
One last thing that may looking strange I forgot is if you play without talking to the cloaked stranger you can see him still on the other location, so it's like he is at various position at the same time
Oh yeah? Good catch, thanks again.
Also, the stranger is a she. It's actually an astral projection of the Ringmaster's assistant at the circus in your world. She uses the cloaked avatar to help guide you so that you bring the magic instrument back to her, so she can use it on the evil wizard/demon. She was the Princess of that land, hence why her father (the Shah/King) appears beside her as a ghost at the end :D
I just finished both games and I can't stop smiling. I played Infested first and it's amazing to see the jump in quality, especially considering I was already enamored with Infested. The visuals and music are absolutely enchanting in Spectacle and I loved the story. It played out like a short, classic book I would have read over and over as a kid. There is so much love and skill poured into these.
Infested is a ton of fun, but this is something else. It's a complete, polished package and now I'm so much more excited for Beyond Shadowgate! Jeff, Orie, and Jason should all be incredibly proud. You guys are still fools for not charging me anything! Thank you for these experiences and I wish you all the best.
Thank you very much. That means the world to us. I'm really glad you love the games.
I actually designed Infested in the mid-90s and never did anything with it until I was on sabbatical in 2015, when I decided that there was a serious lack of Shadowgate-inpired Indie games (read; none).
As for Spectacle, I actually originally wrote it as a short story called The Great Spectacular. On top of what you see in the game, It also involved a village being turned to stone and a hunter that turned out to be the evil Wizard's emotions run amuck without the presence of the Wizard. When I turned it into a game I removed some of those plot points and replaced them with direct references to Uninvited in order to make it an unofficial prequel.
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!
this is awesome.
Are you working on a new game or anything?
lol Oops just read your other comment. Well it's January now so can't wait to hear and see what it is. Will defietly back your kickstarter.
Oh man, another great game. I loved Infested and then this??!! This game is a masterpiece. Keep making these MacVenture style games!!
Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. Our next MacVenture game should be announced early January next year.
I think fans of the genre are REALLY gonna love what we're doing with this game. There's going to be a Kickstarter and even physical copies too :D
Awesome!!
It's kind of a small niche genre but I love that people are keeping it alive!
Love this game! It and Infested capture the atmosphere of the old Kemco games perfectly.
First, let me say how much I LOVED the keyboard hotkeys to select actions. This little quality-of-life tweak makes playing the game much more enjoyable. Much as I loved Shadowgate, Deja Vu, and Uninvited, the slowness of having to move the cursor around and click on verbs definitely made actual gameplay more cumbersome, so this was a really welcome feature.
I'm also really impressed with how well you succeeded in coming up with a completely original story while still capturing the feel of the NES Kemco games. Well done!
I do have a couple of pieces of hopefully constructive criticism for future projects: [SPOILERS]
All in all, though, I thought the puzzles were generally very well balanced – just enough hints in-game to point the player in the right direction without holding their hand completely and making the game boring.
Looking forward to your next project!
Thank you so much for the kind words and I'm very glad you enjoyed the two games. Those criticisms were most definitely constructive and helpful. Very good point about the fruit. I can 100% understand thinking you needed to find a different fruit somewhere else. The Cicada puzzle could have used a hint somewhere, for sure.
I'm currently working on several projects at the same time, but one of them is another Macventure, so I hope to get even more balance in the puzzles and gameplay, so thanks for the insight into your playthrough.
Glad to have been helpful. I love Macventure-style games, so I'll be looking forward to your next project!
Not sure if you are aware but there is a Kemco/MacVenture compilation on Steam where you can use a mouse. It's called 8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume I. It's only 8 Bucks.
Thanks for the heads up! I had already played the remake of Shadowgate they did a few years back, but missed this one.
I like the look of the game, but am really turned off by how the name is taking up space right in the middle of the screen. Also, theres something about the writing sound I can't stand.
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
Love this game. It takes me back to the days of struggling to play Deja Vu or that castle one where the ghost would always kill me. LOL.
Hey there.
I played this and Infested. Really good job.
I had lots of nostalgia playing both. And loved the particular reference to Uninvited.
Found little bugs in both games, but not a big problem.
I'm also curious about your third game. Can't wait to play it.
You are a real source of inspiration to create retro or pixel games
I really appreciate that, thank you. Spectacle is an unofficial prequal to Uninvited with a total of 7 references to the classic game.
Hopefully we'll have news on the 3rd game soon. We're doing a Kickstarter for it and we're just getting the preliminary showcase and logistics in order so we have a solid foundation to begin crowdfunding. I can't wait for all of you to play it!
Any new news? Looking forward to this one!
Just waiting on the box art. We hired an artist to make the box/promo art for the game that we need for the KickStarter page ;)
HUGE news coming soon regarding our next game. I'll post it on here and on my Twitter @GrahfMetal
Still waiting! :)
Just getting the Kickstarter sorted out with our expanded team. Sorry for the wait. It's a huge endeavor ;)
Playing through this again after about a year and a half to see what I can and can't remember.
The "CRASH" death (to prevent any spoilers) is still one of the funniest things to date. Well done. XD
Thank you. It's even funnier (in a morbid way) to think of just how gruesome that would be if it was in realistic third-person. Goes to show how perception and perspective makes all the difference :D
No doubt! These types of games leave a lot of room for comical aspects.
Just the way it's done and the perfectly timed CRASH splits my side LOL. Awesome stuff.
Overall, the attention to detail to replicate the ICOM/MACventures experience is spot on. This is one hell of a game (some puzzles are a little questionable in terms of ability to figure out on one's own, but, that too was the nature of those types of games).
Massive kudos overall -- the only feedback I could possibly give would be if there ever is a 3rd installment of these types of games, the modernized music (while the tracks themselves are AWESOME nonetheless) doesn't fit the game type.
Maybe go with infested style music next time, or even possibly run the modernized tracks through an 8-bit sampler and offer a switch option between modern and classic-style?
Idk - just my 2 cents that probably many wouldn't agree with. I personally played Shadowgate 2014 through all 3 difficulties with the NES music and it was such a better experience in my view.
Enjoy the weekend!
Thank you very much for the kind words and thank you for the feedback. With this soundtrack we were actually experimenting with something more soothing over the 8-bit music of all the predecessors because this is technically the longest of all the "Macventure" games, so we wanted something that would not feel tiring and have an epic feel to it to give weight to the land. For our third game we we're actually hitting the middle ground and doing a hi-fi 8-bit soundtrack, so it will be 8-bit music, but with a higher quality, so somewhere in-between Infested and Spectacle. I think you'll like the soundtrack to the 3rd game :D
Anyway, thanks again for the awesome feedback and take care
"For our third game we we're actually hitting the middle ground and doing a hi-fi 8-bit soundtrack" -- WOOHOO - you are actually doing a 3rd game? Nice!!! That's great news. I look forward to it. You should look into boxed versions for this soon-to-be trilogy - id pay to add them to my NES/Famicom/GBC macventures shrine I have collected over the years.
The idea for the soundtrack does sound good and I am very, very looking forward to it's release. This is cool stuff. Thanks for sharing! I won't bug you for a release date -- I'm sure you must get that enough already.
If I could borrow a moment of your time for a slight nudge -- I seem to have forgotten a lot from my first playthrough. I have reached the "Vasir" and am following the desert "map" to try and find the special water that was indicated in the painting story, but I keep dying. Is it possible I am too far ahead and not ready for this section yet?
Have a good rest of the weekend! :)
Hmm, shouldn't be. The path to the oasis should be open as soon as you dispel the curse on the Vasir.
I really liked this game until you got to the part where you were tested for the Magic Lamp and when you attempted to take any of the treasures in the vault. You ended up spending the remaining of your ending of life trapped and surrounded by treasures but there is more to this review. The main core of this review is after you got the Magic Lamp the genie came out and would grant you a wish and both of them meant a "GAME OVER" If you chose to be a ruler you ended up being the ruler of a sad dead kingdom with a useless life. Also if you chose wealth you ended up trapped in a vault surrounded by treasures that you could not take with you.
If you TALK to the Djinn himself he'll give you a third option ;)
Hey GrahfMetal, I downloaded the game when I was an unregistered guest a couple of days or weeks ago, so I couldn't post a comment until now. I very much enjoyed it. I have gotten all of the Challenges except for the Well Traveled one. Can you post a step by step Walkthrough or Guide for the Well Travelled Challenge? It is the Last Challenge I Need to 100% the Game.
I thought I was searching all of the Mystical Land Thoroughly and examining every area of each screen and dying every death, but as the Challenge was neither unlocked nor completed, I don't know what I am doing wrong to not accomplish it. Do I also have to explore the parts of the desert that only lead to death or is that part not necessary for the Challenge?
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it, that's awesome!
For the Well Traveled Challenge you'll need to visit each room twice. This DOES NOT include the circus, the Desert or the Lamp Cave, so just the North Field, South Field, The 3 Palaces and The Tower. If you've done that and it still hasn't/doesn't unlock than it might be a bug. I have received reports that various different Challenges aren't unlocking for different people. The Challenges gave us quite a bit of headache when implimenting them in game, so we did it as best we could, but unfortunately a few bugs slipped in and we can't isolate exactly what triggers them. Hopefully exploring each room twice works for you, if not I'm very sorry about that. As a completionist I know how frustrating it can be to see an incomplete task in a game
I visited each area of all of the places twice except the desert and the lamp cave and guess what? It worked. I finally got the Well Traveled Challenge. I now have all of the Challenges completed and achieved. Thank you GrahfMetal, you really answered my Question and I appreciate it.
That's fantastic. Congratulations! :D
any idea for a ballpark estimate release of the new game?
Not gonna lie, I don't even have a ballpark at this point. I'm really sorry about that. Putting aside work and family priorities, there are certain directions with the game itself that I'm not 100% happy with, so a few major things have gone back to the drawing board.
oh cool, no problem. can't wait until whenever it comes out as you guys always put on quality games
This is one of the most fun games I've played in quite a while, I'm definitely enjoying it. It's quite difficult but that's fun, and the artstyle is always on point.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate that. Glad you're enjoying it :D
I finished playing this game today and much like with Infested, it is fantastic to see a solid, well-made game in this style. The art is even better this time around, the music is fantastic again, and the game difficulty is higher, about on par with Uninvited. The whole thing took me about ten hours, and I was really stuck three times and had to go around clicking on everything.
As far as bugs go, I only encountered one, and it was quite early in the game. There is a loose object that opens with the "Use" command and not the "Open" command, and so even after finding out that it was loose, I walked away and didn't figure out how to get into it until much later. I only figured out how to open it up when I misclicked while trying to use an object on it.
Thank you so much for the feedback and the kind words. So happy you enjoyed it and I definitely understand about the USE vs. OPEN, I've gotten a couple people mention that, so I'll look into implementing both for a future patch/ games :D
This game's graphics are really good for its low resolution. Every scene is colourful and object distinct without appearing cartoonish. Secrets are subtle enough to blend in at first glance but don't require a pixel hunt to locate (and often come with contextual clues). Plus there's the visible day-night cycle that ties into several puzzles. The atmosphere and readability is seriously better than a lot of paid point and click games.
I haven't finished Spectacle yet so I can't comment as strongly on the puzzles; so far they're good. I'm just happy to find another polished adventure game that's focused on exploration and intuitive puzzles rather than NPC dialogue and pipe mazes or whatever. Thank you, devs, for your work.
Minor gripe: Please allow text writing to be sped up or automatically skipped in your next project. Double clicking everything to read at a comfortable pace is a nuisance.
Thank you very much for your kind words. We really appreciate it. So glad you're enjoying yourself. As for that minor gripe, that's a solid criticism that we'll definitely look into for future projects. Thanks for all the feedback :D
Will there be a demo for Themeire?
Probably not, but we'll see :D
First off, I love playing this game. It is a fantastic concept will amazing graphics, wonderful music, and a game that makes one feel they are in the game! I have to ask one thing... I have almost completed all achievements that the game has to offer. I'm puzzled by an accomplishment titled, Nice Try. I have tried everything and, I still come up short. Please help..., What am I missing why this reward hasn't been completed? Above all, this game is wonderful! As always, have a fantastic day!
Thank you for your kind words, I really appreciate that and I'm glad you enjoyed the game so much.
As for NICE TRY! It involves trying to escape the magical kingdom early on in your adventure
SOLUTION: Try using the ALAKAZAM spell (reveal hidden doors) on the wall in HESPERIDES PATH where the door that spit you out in the magic land used to be before it vanished
Thank you for replying. Out of all that I tried, that was not one of them lol! Thank you again for this Outstanding game! As always, have a fantastic day!
Awesome game dude!
Do you have another games in the works or something coming soon?
Thanks you so much. Yup, we're working on our next MacVenture game, Themeire, which takes place in a settlement in the new world. It's not really "coming soon", but hopefully it won't take too long :D
Hi. I loved the game, the art, the mechanics, the sound and the gameplay.
But something that has fascinated me has been the cursor that is used in the game. Is there any chance that I can get it so that I can adapt it for use in windows 10? Thanks.
Thank you. So happy you enjoyed it :D
Sure, here's the curser/hourglass spritesheet. Hopefully you know how to turn that into a custom curser, cause I've never tried doing that before
Thanks a lot! Today i'm gonna play your other game, INFESTED (I'm really Hyped :D). Anyway thanks again for the cursor pack, i'm using it now as my cursor for windows, was easy to convert as the size fits perfect.
Ah, another thing, i saw some days ago about your new incoming game called Themeire, there is not a release date still, im correct? Im anxious to try it out too.
Best regards, Volpest.
Cool, glad that worked :D
Hope you enjoy Infested
No release date yet for Themeire, but probably late next year.
I've completed this game (also wrote an article on it on TV Tropes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Spectacle) and I'd say it's amazing, feels just like the NES ports of MacVentures without the hardware limitations affecting the graphics/sound/gameplay and with more modern design principles.
Kinda wish there were some extra lines for stupid actions like "TAKE SELF", though, just for laughs. Also kinda disappointed there's only one savefile, but I get it was done to not make the challenges too easy. I will play Infested as well. It'd be interesting to see how a third GrahfVenture could top this one someday.
Thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed it and I hope you have fun with INFESTED. Thanks for the article as well. It was really fun reading all of the tropes found in our games :D
Also, "GrahfVenture" genuinly made my day. That's awesome!!!
We started work on our next GrahfVenture game, so I'm really excited for you to play it!
Hey, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your games. They are absolutely pitch perfect pastiches of the classic ICOM NES adventures. This one reminded me a lot of Uninvited, which was my personal favorite of the three. I can really tell a lot of love went into this. Do you have any plans for sequels or a third game?
Thank you so much, we really appreciate it. I'm glad you were reminded of Uninvited cause we made this to be an unofficial prequel to the classic with a few obvious tie-in's and some not-so-subtle implied connections between the two :D
There's a couple of ideas for a 3rd game, with one being in the early [literal] pen & paper stages. I wish we could make these games more frequent, but we only do this part-time for fun and we also work on non-itch,io titles as well, on the side.
If there's any concrete plans for a 3rd game we'll definitely post some ideas on here :D
Are you still planning on posting a walkthrough and/or giving hints through this page?
I can certainly give hints on here anytime. Otherwise I just posted the complete step-by-step walkthough in the comment section on the "Welcome to the Spectacle" page. Thanks for reminding me :D
https://grahfmetal.itch.io/spectacle/devlog/145212/welcome-to-the-spectacle
Thank you! Yeah, back in the day they were very easy to get immersed into for hours. My friend and I would play them for hours and find all the different ways to die and then we'd try to beat the games faster than each other :D
Are you planning on releasing Linux version? I'd love to play it. It looks very unique and reminds me of my childhood at the same time.
There's currently no plans for a Linux or mac version, sorry about that :(
Looks amazing! Will play when I get home from Work !
epic gamer old school styled game
any walkthroughs or hints?
We're going to post a walkthrough shortly, in the meantime I can give you a hint on here, if you'd like
ok sure! i met the hooded stranger in the palace and they told me to head south. i have scroll 1 and 2, moon coin, sun coin, broken instrument, eye gem and red key. tried going south in the desert but i keep dying. and the piranhas keep eating me by the waterfall
Your next big step is getting rid of Yajna, the blue flame beast and entering a secret room. You have everything you'll need, but you'll also need a few spell hidden in the palace and out in the field. It involves the Hyleg Well
Solution (SPOILERS):
Step 1: USE ROSETTA STONE on the wall scribblings behind the tapestry hanging up in the spiral staircase (Sorcerous' Spiral) to get the NIAHC spell
Step 2: USE ROSETTA STONE on the Scribblings found on either side of the stone structure outside (where you first appeared in the world) and Learn the SAF and O. CLOCK spells
Step 3: Move around outside until the moon in the night sky is glowing bright (USE SAF to speed up time by 6 hours). USE O. CLOCK spell to freeze time while the moon glows and go the room with the well and the moon will be lined up with the lunar phase mural on the wall in the back
Step 3: USE NIAHC spell (Chain spelled backward) on the chains to lift up the well cover and USE the MOON COIN on the glowing well to have a gust of powerful wind blow
Step 4: USE ROSETTA STONE on the wall in the Scholar's Repose (the room with the Red Book) to learn the ALAKAZAM spell
Step 5: During the day head up the stairs and Yajna will be blown away by the well's gust of wind
Step 6: USE ALAKAZAM on the outline door on the back wall to access a hidden room
edit: sike i got it all! thank you so much!! love the game!! :D