DGC Ep 492: Alone in the Dark (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on 1992's Alone in the Dark. We discuss the ending of the game, where we needed cheats, and turn to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
To or near the end (T/B)

Issues covered: restarting the game, getting blocked, a full inventory, blocking the enemies in the attic, looking up hints, camera angles and spacing, experimenting to success, the text adventure lineage, how they rendered the 3D stuff vs the rooms, characters that chase after you, attempting to fully realize the mansion, the limits of simulation fidelity, finding clues in books, cluing the suit of armor, an identical sword, feeling unclued, everything being bespoke puzzles without connective tissues, good moments, the ancient evils below ground, Harold the tree, the end encounter, a non-obvious weapon, a potential clue, a game whose reach exceeds its grasp, working cinematically, survival horror mix, putting puzzles in context, the creeping dread of cosmic horror, needing consistent rules, supporting action elements properly, the mix of game design elements, the audio archive, putting the podcast on vinyl. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Ian Livingstone, Sid Meier's Pirates, Plundered Hearts, Zork, Colossal Cave Adventure, Resident Evil, Fallout 3, Gothic Chocobo, Tomb Raider, H. P. Lovecraft, Darkman, Edgar Allan Poe, Trees Hate You, Googlymoogly, Final Fantasy IX, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
?? TBA

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com