Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

KickStarter Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
Patron
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
27,089
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
Still "Coming Soon", but the devs are livestreaming a playthrough right now on Steam, so it's probably more Soon-Soon than Soon.
 

Curratum

Guest
Some 4-5 days ago dev replied to me on Steam, saying the game is practically done and they are just doing a few playthroughs to make sure there's no serious bugs, and it should probably go up for sale in another couple of weeks.
 

Mr. Underhill

Stuck In Attic
Developer
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
27
Location
Targu Mures, Transylvania, Romania
Hey all! Gibbous dev here. I've always known about the Codex, but I had no idea there was a big adventure subforum in here, and it's cool to see a thread about Gibbous. Yay!

I've poked around here for the past couple of days and was pleasantly surprised to see Primordia devs, BT... I got caught up reading the entirety of the Thimbleweed Park thread--- I'm sort of ashamed I had no idea this place existed. Also, I'm glad you guys are interested in the game! I've read through the comments, including one that suggested that I was a normie defiling Lovecraft's legacy :D I don't want to come across as condescending, because I understand how a quick look at Gibbous might make it look like pandering, or just not getting it. I just want to reassure Lovecraft fans that we're treating the source material with the respect it deserves, and I think once you play the game those suspicions will be put to rest.

It's understandable to be reticent when it comes to mixing up comedy and cosmic horror. Anyway, I've made this explainer three years ago when we Kickstarted, hope it will help shed some light on how we're approaching the subject:



...It's been three years since I've made that video, and some of it is a bit cringe even to me, but overall the idea stands.

Anyway, I'll be lurking around, if you have any kind of questions or anything of the sort, I'll be happy to answer them, or just talk adventure games and/or Lovecraft in general.
 

Mr. Underhill

Stuck In Attic
Developer
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
27
Location
Targu Mures, Transylvania, Romania
Yes! Recently replayed it, actually (last year), but I had to give up on it because boy oh boy was it not fun dying randomly. If you manage to get over the awkward controls, strange almost copyrigh-infringing portraits and completely unfair deaths, it's one of the most solid Lovecraftian games out there.

I still feel Dark Corners of the Earth is as close to what I feel when reading HPL as we've come in video games. 2018 Call of Cthulhu was Ok but felt uneven. I know it's not supposed to be AAA but the character designs and facial animations were jarring. Also, should've stayed an adventure, I didn't enjoy the stealth or shooting sections at all.

Really looking forward to playing The Sinking City, bought it already but I am heroically not touching it until after we've released Gibbous.
 

Mr. Underhill

Stuck In Attic
Developer
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
27
Location
Targu Mures, Transylvania, Romania
Holy crap, one day left to go!

I'm not gonna lie, we are scared pantless. I've started thinking of this game back in 2014. It's been five freakin' years. We've put all our savings, energy and free time into this.
It's.. scary. But exciting!

6a9rA4G.gif


And some reviews:

Softpedia - "All in all, Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure is a game that no self-proclaimed point-and -click fan should overlook, as it will definitely find a place in your gaming library, comedy movie collection, and finally, your heart."

Powerup Gaming - "I haven’t shouted, cheered, or laughed this much at a point and click adventure in a very, very long time."

GamersGlobal.de - " Definitely a recommendation to all adventure fans"
 

Silentstorm

Learned
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
885
The game is already out on GOG and Steam at least, it costs 18 euros at least and, i am downloading it right now, not much to say since i just bought it but i am just so glad this game finally came out!
 

Pyke

The Brotherhood
Developer
Joined
Nov 29, 2011
Messages
1,196
Location
South Africa
Holy crap, one day left to go!

I'm not gonna lie, we are scared pantless. I've started thinking of this game back in 2014. It's been five freakin' years. We've put all our savings, energy and free time into this.
It's.. scary. But exciting!

6a9rA4G.gif


And some reviews:

Softpedia - "All in all, Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure is a game that no self-proclaimed point-and -click fan should overlook, as it will definitely find a place in your gaming library, comedy movie collection, and finally, your heart."

Powerup Gaming - "I haven’t shouted, cheered, or laughed this much at a point and click adventure in a very, very long time."

GamersGlobal.de - " Definitely a recommendation to all adventure fans"

Congrats!
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
Holy crap, one day left to go!

I'm not gonna lie, we are scared pantless. I've started thinking of this game back in 2014. It's been five freakin' years. We've put all our savings, energy and free time into this.
It's.. scary. But exciting!

6a9rA4G.gif


And some reviews:

Softpedia - "All in all, Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure is a game that no self-proclaimed point-and -click fan should overlook, as it will definitely find a place in your gaming library, comedy movie collection, and finally, your heart."

Powerup Gaming - "I haven’t shouted, cheered, or laughed this much at a point and click adventure in a very, very long time."

GamersGlobal.de - " Definitely a recommendation to all adventure fans"
Our mutual translator Eduardo says it's easily adventure game of the year and that Kitteh is a greatest of all time sidekick. I'll be grabbing it this weekend!
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
Early reviews are a bit contradictory.

Adventure Gamers:
The Good:
  • Incredible art design and animation
  • Wacky sense of humour
  • Good voice acting from two of the three main characters
  • Some clever, satisfying puzzles
The Bad:
  • Story is convoluted and hard to follow
  • Dialogue can sometimes sound unnatural
  • Grating voice acting from the third protagonist and some supporting characters
  • Entirely unsatisfactory ending

Directly contradicted by God is a Geek: "A solid first effort from the Romanian outfit, a good narrative just let down by some overly simple puzzling."

Softpedia:
The Good
  • EXTREMELY funny
  • Beautiful hand drawn animations
  • Wonderful backgrounds
  • Enchanting soundtrack
The Bad
  • So many objects to interact with it makes the game a speed runner's nightmare
  • Way too short

Everyone seems to agree the art is spectacular, the humor is top notch, and Kitteh is a great sidekick.
 

WallaceChambers

Learned
Joined
Jul 29, 2019
Messages
311
Game is good so far, some of the dialogue comes off unnatural. Not sure if it's a translation thing or what. But it kinda has that feel of a slightly off translation. It's very noticeable in chapter one but gets a bit better afterward. Really just in the dialogue trees, too. The item response lines are all solid to great.

Overall I'm really liking it, the plot is solid, the artwork is astounding and the puzzles aren't too challenging but they're still clever and fun to solve. Buzz's Romanian accent took some getting used to but it's grown on me. Kitteh is consistently awesome, although I do hope she starts showing a bit of genuine affection toward Buzz. The snarky responses between the two of them are very funny but too much snark can begin to grate after a while.

Don is my favorite character, though. All his hard boiled detective parody stuff really cracks me up and his segments have had the best puzzles so far.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
I completed the game.

Let's start with the bad part. I'm getting more and more bored with all these games cut into 3 screen sequences. It kills any attempt at any cool inventory puzzle sequence, just use the 4 available items on each of the 4 available spots (well in the case of Gibbious I'm exagerrating concerning the number of spots but not really concerning the number of items), and that clearly ranks the game below games with long puzzle sequences as far as I'm concerned.

That said the game's alright anyway, "unfortunately" the puzzle sequences are not worse than in your average recent adventure game, the game is longer than average I guess, the story is cool and the game mostly manage to be funny especially when it gets fun of its own world instead of precisely referencing other stuff (don't worry the game is not saturated with references), the voice acting is good.

Overall the backgrounds are good and the animations even better. I think the look of characters is uneven, or to be more precise I don't like the square look of the protagonists but fortunately most characters have a very different, great, round, Disney look. Some animated parts also look cheap for some reason, like those Lucas Art filtered remasters, but it's really not the majority, and some screens including many characters look really great, Deponia or Sadwick great.

So yes you can go for it, just don't expect hard puzzles.
 

Mr. Underhill

Stuck In Attic
Developer
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
27
Location
Targu Mures, Transylvania, Romania
Thanks guys! Things have been insane since release, but I've popped in here to say we're both very proud to have released a game on Steam and GOG, people seem to like it, and we're also very aware that there's so much we need to learn. And this has already been a great learning experience.
If we do get to make another game, it will be heaps better than Gibbous, but we'd still appreciate you checking it out.

Thanks! Back to putting out fires.
 

Silentstorm

Learned
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
885
Don't really care that much about the puzzle part, maybe it's because over the years i have gotten more used to playing easy adventure games and Visual Novels, but sometimes i appreciate just having simple puzzles that don't make me get stuck for hours, even if they are really simple puzzles.

Besides, i play adventure games for the plot, characters and a world to explore and interact with, not puzzles themselves, they are just an extra, but i guess not everyone thinks the same way?
 

WallaceChambers

Learned
Joined
Jul 29, 2019
Messages
311
Don't really care that much about the puzzle part, maybe it's because over the years i have gotten more used to playing easy adventure games and Visual Novels, but sometimes i appreciate just having simple puzzles that don't make me get stuck for hours, even if they are really simple puzzles.

Besides, i play adventure games for the plot, characters and a world to explore and interact with, not puzzles themselves, they are just an extra, but i guess not everyone thinks the same way?

Well I'd say a part of the reason I play adventure games is definitely the puzzles. But I can appreciate both hardcore and lenient puzzles depending on what I'm in the mood for. Either can be fun of they're well designed.
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
Very strong user reviews [edit: just broke 100 on Steam; that's considerably faster than Whispers of a Machine] thus far and 250 players off the bat. Good signs.
 
Last edited:

Durq

Novice
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
35
I bought this game and have spent about three hours playing it so far. I am enjoying it quite a bit! It's not perfect; there are a lot of typos and subtitle-voiceover discrepancies, but the art and atmosphere are making me love it! It has charm and heart.
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
Ugh -- looking at Steam reviews, it seems like Mr. Underhill got defrauded by a bad translation company, and basically every negative review the game is getting is from Russian/Asian players who are disappointed in the translations.
 

Pyke

The Brotherhood
Developer
Joined
Nov 29, 2011
Messages
1,196
Location
South Africa
Ugh -- looking at Steam reviews, it seems like Mr. Underhill got defrauded by a bad translation company, and basically every negative review the game is getting is from Russian/Asian players who are disappointed in the translations.

This is my personal nightmare come true.
 

newtmonkey

Arcane
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
1,725
Location
Goblin Lair
That's sad to hear. There are a lot of absolute shit translation companies, even large ones, that push out garbage. Avoid using cheap translation agencies in China and India that handle "every" language—they're either outsourcing the work to amateurs who speak neither language fluently, or just throwing the text in a machine translation engine and (maybe) having a non-native speaker of the target language "fix it up."
 

Mr. Underhill

Stuck In Attic
Developer
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
27
Location
Targu Mures, Transylvania, Romania
Hey guys. Yep, a localization company screwed us, but good. I've gone into a lot of detail in this update.

Lesson learned: never, ever contract someone without some kind of recommendation in advance. It was really tempting to be able to provide so many languages at a fair price, and little did we know that entailed what we could do in an afternoon, that is running the text through Google Translate and calling it a day.

Not only does it not enhance the game in any way, not only are these assholes refusing to give us even a partial refund, the shitty translations are actively hurting the game. I've stopped checking, but more than 50% of negative reviews written in languages other than English just mention that the localization is bad enough that the game is unplayable.

I totally understand that the consumer doesn't care that it's not our fault, and that they payed for something that is translated in a terrible way. We're doing our best now paying other people to correct the translations (and in the case of Russian, which is particularly terrible, re-translating it from scratch). We now have a 3.9% refund rate, which isn't bad by Steam standards, but in refunds' case it's even worse: the overwhelming majority claim the bad localization as the reason they are returning the game. And, again, we can't fault them.

The only reason we are not saying who these localization hacks are publicly is because we might have to take some kind of action against them, and it might be unwise, but I have no problem telling devs who reach out in private.

So, yeah... It's a nightmare.

On the other hand, the game is doing pretty good so far sales-wise, and reception has been overall really positive. We're now aware of a lot of first-time devs mistakes that we've made, and that will not happen in the next game. Some work voice is iffy and technically subpar (doing my best to fix that at them moment), the game is very wordy, and conversations drag on... I might invoke Lovecraft's prolix tendencies, but that doesn't really fly for gamers :) We're learning a lot from the game's reception. And it's neat to still be able to learn so much when you're fast approaching 40.

However, all goof-ups and missteps considered, we're proud of what we've managed to pull off in what largely was a 3 person team, and we're only hoping we do well enough to make a next game and prove to the fans that we're all about improving and making the next project way better than the last.

So, thanks again to everyone who purchased Gibbous, both because you're supporting a bunch of peeps from Transylvania who really want to make awesome games, and for the vote of confidence, which is even better.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom