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
Our previous game, Infested, was saspiritual sequel to Shadowgate, while Spectacle is an unofficial sequel to Uninvited. I highly recommend Shadowgate as it's an absolute classic and one of the best puzzle games ever made. I think the best way to play it is the NES port which can be found on the "8-Bit Adventure Anthology Volume 1" which came out on PS4 and Steam. Of course you can also get an original NES cart for like $8
A_M_A_Z_I_N_G game ! I think the only down side is the UX (many many clicks to get through the game). I understand thats the type of games, but nowadays, it always feels a bit tiring after a while
Thank you! It's a hobby/side project of ours so we wanted to make it for fun and for free just to make people happy and we would love to introduce this oft-forgotten sub-genre to a new audience or bring people back to the past whom grew up on these style games in the 80s :D
It's a point & Click Adventure game in the style of the cult classic "Macventure" series that came out on the NES made up of Shadowgate, Deja Vu and Uninvited. Essentially it's a sub-genre of Point & Click games in which you explore environment and solve puzzles using a array of command verbs and item inventory
Yours looks AND plays a hundred times better than the NES versions (controlling them with a controller was absolute trash back in the day, and it's even harder with an emulator and a keyboard). Your game actually seems much closer to my favorite versions, which were on the Commodore 64 . The graphics and animation, like yours, were far superior. There's something to be said for the black and white Mac graphics, too, which looked like pencil sketches. Really good job here, very well done and super nostalgia-inducing.
I actually made a mock up B&W Mac screen for our previous game, Infested, for fun. Might make one up for Spectacle one of these days. In a perfect world with more time, money and interest we would have loved to have made a retro Mac version :D
I finished Spectacle yesterday and Infested today, they are both wonderfull games. You made me discover this genre, I already had a try at Shadowgate on emulator a long time ago, but got quickly discouraged. Now I guess I will have another try on these nes classics, it will help me to wait until your third adventure game !!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed them. Shadowgate had always been one of my all-time favorite games, I think it's definitely worth a revisit. The Uninvited is also really awesome, but is a bit more convoluted. As for Deja-Vu, as much as I genuinely love the game, I usually recommend people play it with a walkthrough cause it's rather open ended and requires a LOT of patience and trial and error, but with a walkthrough it's good to simply experience the game straightforward
Thanks. I know that part. But did you guys build some sort of template . Where you just have to pop in different graphics and story lines. Or is each game designed from the ground up?
The directions are found written in a book in a library. The directions are cryptic, but if you wish for know the solution, then...
[SPOILERS]
The directions are written in the Blue Book in the Chamber of Knowledge. The song "Sacred Sons Enter Sun Weathered Sands Weielding Sourcerer Slaying Scimitars"
Further hint...
[SPOILERS]
The first letter in each word S S E S W S W S S S are the directions to take through the desert. The compass on the ground near the desert entrance will orientate you (as well as the sun rising from the East)
← Return to game
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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
Is there a 32 bit?
Sorry, I don't understand. Are you asking if there's a 32-bit version?
yes
No, there isn't, sorry
I played it for a bit. I must say it's great! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/664998334
I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. Hope you continue to have a good time. Thanks :D
I made some progress https://www.twitch.tv/videos/666086449
It took me many hours but I was able to win. Very nice game.
gamejolt trophies?
Sorry, I don't know what that means
gamejolt trophies its similar to playstation trophies or achievements
This looks RIGHT up my lane I am SO excited to play it!
Awesome! Hope you enjoy it :D
I streamed this on twitch last night. I don't think it's particularly my style, but I did enjoy the circus/carnival theme at the start.
Thank you. Sorry to hear it's not your style, but to each their own :D
Have you per chance played any of the games that this style is based on? namely Shadowgate, Deja Vu and Uninvited on the NES?
I've never played any of those.
Our previous game, Infested, was saspiritual sequel to Shadowgate, while Spectacle is an unofficial sequel to Uninvited. I highly recommend Shadowgate as it's an absolute classic and one of the best puzzle games ever made. I think the best way to play it is the NES port which can be found on the "8-Bit Adventure Anthology Volume 1" which came out on PS4 and Steam. Of course you can also get an original NES cart for like $8
https://raphael-hawk.itch.io/vicious try this if yoy can
A_M_A_Z_I_N_G game ! I think the only down side is the UX (many many clicks to get through the game). I understand thats the type of games, but nowadays, it always feels a bit tiring after a while
Thank you! Although it IS a "Point & Click Adventure" game, so plenty of pointing and clicking while adventuring ;)
Also there's controller support, so there's the option for plenty of "pressing" if clicking not your thing :D
In all seriousness, we're glad you enjoyed it
This game looks amazing! My mind can't fathom that it's free :O
Thank you! It's a hobby/side project of ours so we wanted to make it for fun and for free just to make people happy and we would love to introduce this oft-forgotten sub-genre to a new audience or bring people back to the past whom grew up on these style games in the 80s :D
Thank you, very generous! I love the genre :D
This looks awesome, thanks!
Thank you so much :D
What is this game
It's a point & Click Adventure game in the style of the cult classic "Macventure" series that came out on the NES made up of Shadowgate, Deja Vu and Uninvited. Essentially it's a sub-genre of Point & Click games in which you explore environment and solve puzzles using a array of command verbs and item inventory
Ooooh boy I'm sorry for you if you only ever got to play them on NES.
I've played them on every platform. I just chose to adopt the NES style
Yours looks AND plays a hundred times better than the NES versions (controlling them with a controller was absolute trash back in the day, and it's even harder with an emulator and a keyboard). Your game actually seems much closer to my favorite versions, which were on the Commodore 64 . The graphics and animation, like yours, were far superior. There's something to be said for the black and white Mac graphics, too, which looked like pencil sketches. Really good job here, very well done and super nostalgia-inducing.
I actually made a mock up B&W Mac screen for our previous game, Infested, for fun. Might make one up for Spectacle one of these days. In a perfect world with more time, money and interest we would have loved to have made a retro Mac version :D
I finished Spectacle yesterday and Infested today, they are both wonderfull games. You made me discover this genre, I already had a try at Shadowgate on emulator a long time ago, but got quickly discouraged. Now I guess I will have another try on these nes classics, it will help me to wait until your third adventure game !!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed them. Shadowgate had always been one of my all-time favorite games, I think it's definitely worth a revisit. The Uninvited is also really awesome, but is a bit more convoluted. As for Deja-Vu, as much as I genuinely love the game, I usually recommend people play it with a walkthrough cause it's rather open ended and requires a LOT of patience and trial and error, but with a walkthrough it's good to simply experience the game straightforward
Holy crap this game is good
Thanks :D
oooh thx!
:-o ... I, too, loved the Shadowgate style games. This looks incredible! Thank you for making it!
Thank you for playing it :D
I love the game layout and engine. I would love to use it for other projects. Would you sell the game engine?
Hi, glad you like it! The game engine is actually GameMaker Studio 2 by YoYo Games
https://www.yoyogames.com/
Thanks. I know that part. But did you guys build some sort of template . Where you just have to pop in different graphics and story lines. Or is each game designed from the ground up?
Designed from the ground up
How do you maneuver the lost desert
The directions are found written in a book in a library. The directions are cryptic, but if you wish for know the solution, then...
[SPOILERS]
The directions are written in the Blue Book in the Chamber of Knowledge. The song "Sacred Sons Enter Sun Weathered Sands Weielding Sourcerer Slaying Scimitars"
Further hint...
[SPOILERS]
The first letter in each word S S E S W S W S S S are the directions to take through the desert. The compass on the ground near the desert entrance will orientate you (as well as the sun rising from the East)