A Tale of Two Kingdoms - Deluxe Edition

[JarlFrank]

It's some awesome freeware adventure game created by the AGS [Adventure Game Studio] freeware program, and it's awesome. Really. Totally reminds me of the old Sierra adventures. And it's fucking non-linear, with several different solutions to some quests, and so you might screw up at one solution but that's not that big a problem as there are other ways to solve it.

http://crystalshard.net/atotk.php

Download it and play it, it's fucking amazing for a freeware game and it even looks pretty professional graphics-wise, and has a pretty okay soundtrack, too.

 

[JarlFrank]

I finished the game now and it's been pretty awesome, really reminded me of the old Sierra games with those beautiful backgrounds. The story is pretty nice, and there's a shitload of stuff to discover. I discovered many of the side-quests quite accidentally, and they actually had an effect on the ending even though they were completely optional. That game has a great amount of non-linearity, it's great. The puzzles were mostly logical, but sometimes you had to think a bit harder to figure stuff out. Befriending the giant was one of my favourite riddles. [And optional, too.]

I can really recommend you to download and play it.

 

[Longshanks]

It does sound interesting (mostly for the non-linearity), I'll give it a go when I've finished with Still Life and The Last Express.

 

[Redlands]

I finished it a couple of days ago. It was very good. It's actually quite shocking, in a way, when you start noticing that so many adventure games have practically no choice whatsoever.

Is it possible to complete without getting the flute? For some reason, I ended up in Chapter 5 with no way of getting enough money to get the flute, and since I was in a hurry to start playing The Last Express I decided to restart the game so I wouldn't feel compelled to restart it.

 

[JarlFrank]

Nope, I guess the flute is essential.

 

[Erebus]

It's a very entertaining game, with good characters, atmosphere and setting. The perils and the puzzles we get to face are quite imaginative. It reminded me a lot of King's Quest VI (the only KQ game I really know well).

The game has two flaws in my opinion :

- The puzzle to enter Fairyland is long, boring and unfair ; it relies only on your patience, not your wits ; the first time I played the game, the right combination was the very last one I chose ; the second time, I decided to skip the ordeal by making the appropriate wish.

- How many people figured out who the murderer was and what his motives were without resorting to a walkthrough ? Seriously ?

Other than that, it was a very enjoyable game, made all the better by the fact it is freeware.

 

[Guillaume777]

The game has two flaws in my opinion :

- The puzzle to enter Fairyland is long, boring and unfair ; it relies only on your patience, not your wits ; the first time I played the game, the right combination was the very last one I chose ; the second time, I decided to skip the ordeal by making the appropriate wish.

- How many people figured out who the murderer was and what his motives were without resorting to a walkthrough ? Seriously ?

Let us not forget that most of the sidequests depend on one particular item that:
(1) Can only be acquired during the introduction(!) and somehow cannot be found/bought anywhere else, even if extremely mundane.
(2) Is very easy to miss, or think you can not pick it up.
(3) Does not make thematic sense to acquire (you are here on an very important diplomatic mission, so why would you risk everything by stealing your host) .
(4) Requires a ridiculous, far-fetched plan to be obtained.

 

[Fizzii]

Major necro from me:

Crystal Shard is officially working on a deluxe version of A Tale of Two Kingdoms!



A Tale of Two Kingdoms is a graphical adventure in the style of the classic Sierra games. Set in the world of Celtic mythology and fairy tales, it features many sidequests and alternate endings. For this new release, we are doing a Deluxe Edition with a new interactive prologue, several graphic updates, and professional voice acting.

The ancient kingdom of Theylinn is beset by enemies. Within the castle walls, nobles vie for the old King's favor, and not everybody is happy with the sole heir to the throne, princess Rhiannon. Meanwhile, danger approaches, in the form of an invading army, a hostile giant, and a mercenary troop who are ancient enemies of the Theylann king...

ATOTK was named Game of the Month by PC Zone UK, Game of the Year by Screen 7, and won four AGS Awards including Best Animation and Best Puzzles.

"If ATOTK came out during the genre's heyday, we'd probably be waxing nostalgic about it today in the same breath as King's Quest." - Games for Windows

"It's a well-crafted game, evocative of those old point-and-clicks." - PC Zone

"A Tale of Two Kingdoms simply blew me away ... This game is a great achievement ... Final Grade: A" - Just Adventure

Please support us and help to get this game Greenlit on Steam:
http://crystalshard.net/steam.php (to open Greenlight page in Steam client)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=861490245 (web link)

(And yes, we're trying to get this game Greenlit before Steam Greenlight is ceased. At this stage we don't really have enough money to pay to submit each game to Steam Direct especially if it ends up costing between $1000 - $5000. The deluxe version itself is well underway so we always intended to get a Greenlight page going after the release of Leylines, but obviously the Steam news has brought this forward a bit).

 

[Outlander]

Voted :D

 

[Crooked Bee]

So you still have to go through Greenlight despite having two games on Steam already? Sheesh.

Also, retweeted for the greater good.

 

[Fizzii]

So you still have to go through Greenlight despite having two games on Steam already? Sheesh.

Also, retweeted for the greater good.

Thanks for the retweet! And yeah, we don't have a way of bypassing Greenlight. That said, Greenlight is our preference over paying a Steam Direct fee since we don't have many funds available for game development (even with the sale of the Crystal Shard Adventure Bundle, because it's so nichey, plus we're admittedly not very good at marketing). Hopefully we'll have some more funds after we release Leylines and A Tale of Two Kingdoms as they have a bit more broader appeal

For anyone that is curious, here are examples of some before and afters in A Tale of Two Kingdoms:

 

[ghostdog]

Holy shit, AToTK is one of the best adventure games of the last two decades.

voted

 

[Aeschylus]

Voted.
You guys definitely deserve to make some money off AToTK, it's one of the best adventure games ever made, regardless of era.
The new backgrounds look quite nice. The new portraits... could still use some work.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Posting so I remember to vote. One of my favourites.

 

[JarlFrank]

Voted.
You guys definitely deserve to make some money off AToTK, it's one of the best adventure games ever made, regardless of era.
The new backgrounds look quite nice. The new portraits... could still use some work.

The portraits look like they're in reverse.
Like, the left one is the new one the right one the old one.

 

[Jaesun]

Fizzii can I assume the Deluxe version will have a price, and won't be free (obviously with the new art and VO)? I just want to support you guys because this game IS fantastic! Looking forward to new graphics!

 

[Fizzii]

Fizzii can I assume the Deluxe version will have a price, and won't be free (obviously with the new art and VO)? I just want to support you guys because this game IS fantastic! Looking forward to new graphics!

Yes, it will have a price because we need to pay the voice actors (also, making some money off it will give us more flexibility to continue to pay for quality composers and voice actors for other projects). And we'll also need to back pay some artists (many others allowed us to retain their work for free which was very kind of them). After that, if ATOTK sells enough, maybe Radiant and I will see a bit of pocket money

(Also, shameless plug: We stuck Sub Terra Draconis, a puzzle game onto Greenlight, and it needs some help: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=864103923 . It's a bit ugly at the moment, using old graphics from the original Sub Terras, but because of Steam Direct, Radiant wanted to try to get it past Greenlight in its current state).

 

[Infinitron]

Fizzii You got greenlit!

 

[Fizzii]

Yes! Thank you! I was just about to come here only to find that you beat me to it

 

[Fizzii]

So a little update is overdue

We released the original A Tale of Two Kingdoms 10 years ago today. Please enjoy this box art painted by Rochelle McKelvie, who did the goblin portraits in the game:

(We'll include a box template in the download for anyone that wants to print off their own box)

The deluxe edition is basically asset complete now; there are very small things here and there to fix (e.g. minor repaints etc), but it's basically all testing and debugging from here.

We still don't have a firm release date in mind yet (I mean, I thought it would've been cool to release it today, but alas, things got dragged out a bit longer than that) - I've mentioned to Radiant that we should see if GOG is interested in distributing the game as well, so we need to talk to them once the game looks a bit less glitchy. We're getting there; the good thing is that most of the bugs are more to do with how animations are implemented (e.g. character positioning), so the puzzles should all continue to work and not need to be tested over and over again (though I will check over the whole game to the best of my ability).

I'll also look at getting another trailer together to show how some of the voices sound; I just need to work out what footage and voices/lines to include.

So basically we're getting there; very close to wrapping things up

 

[Infinitron]

New trailer?

 

[Fizzii]

New trailer?

No, that one has some updates to the graphics, but is otherwise the same. I just didn't want the old one with obvious outdated graphics being used / linked to (because I've seen it happen before with other games and old screenshots being used).

I do have another one coming, I'm just waiting for Radiant to check it out and let me know when he's ready for me to start making announcements regarding release date.

 

[Destroyerr]

Wow, trailer looks awesome

 

[Fizzii]

A Tale of Two Kingdoms is coming 31st October!

Here is the new trailer I was talking about:



The game will be available on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/603870/A_Tale_of_Two_Kingdoms/) and Itch.IO (https://radiant.itch.io/two-kingdoms)

 

[Fizzii]

A Tale of Two Kingdoms is now available for purchase!

It is 15% off on Steam, and non-Steam copies are available from Itch and Humble Store. Please support us and spread the word!

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/603870/A_Tale_of_Two_Kingdoms/
Itch.IO: https://radiant.itch.io/two-kingdoms
Humble Store: https://www.humblebundle.com/g/atotk