I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (1995)

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  • I'm playing this at the moment, and am really enjoying it. I can really see the possibility in games as creative as this being made using the Construct 2 engine, too.

    The game opens with this:

    The supercomputer, AM, has destroyed humankind, save for 5 poor souls he has kept alive deep in his gut, being tortured, for 109 years. You play as each of the last humans in different times and locations, confronting their past and uncovering more about your captor as you do so. Multiple endings and the dark storyline of each character have drawn me in and inspired me to create something just as dark and bleak.

    Has anyone else played this? If you wanted to, what game in a similar style would you make, in C2?

    It's available on GOG and Steam.

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  • Haven't played this, but heard it's a masterpiece so I want to give it a try if I can

  • Has anyone else played this? If you wanted to, what game in a similar style would you make, in C2?

    Somehow I didn't get around to playing this in 95, even though I was a fan of the genre (although by 95 they were becoming passe, before a later revival). Probably for this reason and the fact that I wouldn't have thought that a classic Harlan Ellison story could be done any justice (guess I was wrong). Or maybe it wasn't released locally due to its content. Most likely I was too busy with (Edit:) Doom 2, Dark Forces, Descent, Full Throttle (a brilliant graphic adventure), Wing Commander 4, Command & Conquer, Tie Fighter, SYSTEM SHOCK, etc. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy">

    10 years before I had immensely enjoyed a series of classic sci-fi/fantasy novels made into graphic adventures, including Rendezvous with Rama and Fahrenheit 451, so it's not like I wasn't into the genre. Warning: very dated graphics and DOS!

    http://www.myabandonware.com/game/rende ... th-rama-6f

    http://www.myabandonware.com/game/fahrenheit-451-3x

    I'd say that without that powerful story, it would be a pretty standard point and click adventure. At least one review of the time also commented on this. I have not played it though, so I'll stand corrected.

    So I guess the second part of your question could read as, "what story do you have to tell?". While I do think it would be fun creating a graphic adventure in C2, I just don't have a story up my sleeve (although I used to fantasize about being a sci-fi author) <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile"> I guess I would have to steal a story line from a favourite novel or short story.

    I don't think the game mechanic would be difficult to do in C2. So if you have a great story and artistic ability, I'll happily put in on the engine side <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy">

  • Apologies for my late reply, I've mostly been using my work account for a few weeks, so missed these

    codah I'm going to check out both Rendezvous and Fahrenheit 45. Thanks! I missed both of these. I was a bit young for some of these games at the time, so discovered the genre a bit later, in around 1997-1998 with games like Simon the Sorcerer and Monkey Island 3.

    You may well be right about I Have No Mouth being relatively average without its superb story. The actions you take in the game are not different to those in other games, although some of the player verbs are. I've since completed the game, and actually, this was one of its weaknesses - often, you wanted to take a simple action such as giving an object to an NPC, however you wouldn't be able to find the right verb to do so.

    In contrast, I also recently played the Blackwell series, of a similar genre. This game augmented regular Point and Click adventure mechanics through its use of two characters; one being alive and one being dead, whilst simplifying the "player verbs" to simply "look at" and "action" (appropriate to each individual object or person).

    Combine the story of I Have No Mouth with the mechanics of Blackwell, and you'd have a winner

    I do have an idea for a game which could work in this format. I spent last summer writing it, but decided to put the project on hold until I had a team to work on it with.

    I'd love to make a smaller scale prototype, though. To prove the mechanics, and test whether they would scale up into a full game. I am about to quit my job, so this may be something viable for me to work on full time in a few weeks. Let me know if you really are interested in helping out with the engine side I am quite serious.

  • Haven't played this, but heard it's a masterpiece so I want to give it a try if I can

    $6.49 on GOG.com, .

  • > Haven't played this, but heard it's a masterpiece so I want to give it a try if I can

    >

    $6.49 on GOG.com, .

    And worth every cent!

  • Is the game written by Harlan Ellison? The short story is phenomenal, AM is one of my favourite villains in literature.

    Fun fact, Ellison wrote it the night before his deadline, necessity truly is the mother of invention!

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