Hey, just a heads up that the Mac build is i386, and Apple dropped support for 32 bit executables in Catalina. All the other titles I've tried are good.
> ./MacOS/Alluvium
zsh: bad CPU type in executable: ./MacOS/Alluvium
[127] > file ./MacOS/Alluvium
./MacOS/Alluvium: Mach-O executable i386
PS: I've been so enjoying playing all the PowerQuest titles on itch, and looking forward to Drifter! Thanks so much for putting such quality work out. ❤️
5/5 - I really liked the game! (However the tasks at the end were really not that intuitive, and I had to resort clicking randomly everything, accidentally conquering the game.. or it could be that I am just stupid :D)
It crashes for me every time when I return to the beach and go through the plane and the cut scene starts. It's a great, beautiful, dramatic game but sadly totally broken at that point.
I was able to finally finesse my way past the crash. Aside from the numerous crashes - Very well done!
Hmm, unfortunately it's probably not likely. I'm thinking of eventually updating it and maybe trying to bundle them together for a release as a collection. But it's probably too much work trying to maintain it on latest mac before then. Updating to a much later version of Unity is probably involved and that's always a mess :/
The voice acting in this game is superb! Made me feel likeI was living in the story. I'm also thankful for the low graphics and the simplicity of the game cause I don't think I would be able to play the gore scene of the map if it was more detailed. Great work.
There may be some spoilers in this review, but the game is free, so there's really no reason not to play it before reading.
Powerhoof's Alluvium was not at all what I expected going into it. From the thumbnail with the bright colors and flying plane, I thought this would be some sort of futuristic vaporwave adventure. The bright, vibrant colors of the game itself were on point to my initial expectations, but as for the story, maybe its lesson is that you should always be prepared to have your expectations subverted.
In the case of Alluvium, subversion of expectation leads to surprise after surprise as the plot marches forward. Even with all these twists and turns, I did not feel distanced from the story at any moment as Powerhoof's characteristically great storytelling shines through.
Normally point-and-click adventures are text heavy, and while I don't mind that, other people might. Alluvium's solution to this is exciting and at times emotional voice acting from Adrian Vaughan, detailing Ian's internal thoughts and external conversations, his potential deaths from wrong moves and his return to reality, showing the last action to be in Ian's imagination (a concept that I've only seen a few times before and absolutely love rather than a game over or simply limiting the player's actions to the right choice).
Sally Beaumont portrayed Anna's creepy cannibalistic touch of insanity excellently. Speaking of, cannibals on desert islands are usually portrayed as otherwise uncontacted natives, but a corrupted crew drunk on mysterious berries, attempting to corrupt the last (debatably) sane crewmate is a thrilling change of pace. Ian's reentry into insanity and his resistance to it as he approaches the former campsite harkens back to the subversion of expectations when first setting out on this adventure. Ian's disgust and revilement of the rotting flesh of his comrades seems to show that he is reformed from his cannibalistic ways, which is confirmed in his moment of self-sacrifice as he destroys the dam with the (seemingly) last remaining cannibal atop it.
After the credits, I was left with just one question: Was the Russian captain truly there, left behind by his crew? Or was it perhaps just some random person that Ian hallucinated was the captain?
The story seems complete and self-contained, but the more I keep thinking about this game, the more ideas I have for a continuation of this island's tale. Perhaps Ian is flushed out to sea, but washes back ashore, awakening to find a cannibalistic society of the crew and their progeny that worships the evil fruit. If Ian is truly dead, perhaps the Russian ship comes back with someone to investigate, and that detective would be the main character. The main character would seek to put a stop to the society's atrocities - farms where humans are raised as livestock, prisons where people are kept in pits, and fed human flesh, but no berries, so they regain their sanity, but are driven mad again as they're forced to eat their fellow man. Perhaps the story ends with the main character blowing up a volcano on the island, destroying himself, all the cannibals, and all the berries in the process... And in a post-credits scene, a few stray berries would be seen floating across the ocean...
Of course this is just rambling at this point, and I'm much more eager to see a continuation of the Telwynium series, but there is definitely room for a series of two or three games to be made out of this one. Perhaps someday after the Telwynium series is complete, we'll see a return to Alluvium.
No, I don't think he survived. At the end, he talks about things going red. Which is the same thing he speaks of when he imagines options that would lead to his death such as attacking the crew back on the ship. I'd say he's almost certainly killed once the dam collapses.
I love everything about this game, it's only flaw is being too damn short. I'd gladly pay 20 bucks (adjusted for inflation) for a feature-lenght version. Wish you the best, I'll be following your work!
While some of it's story can't compete with it's stylish visuals, and the gamepaly needs work, it is none the less interesting enough to be seen to the end- which won't disappoint.
Dang. Sorry about that! There was a known crash bug if you quit and then continued the game at certain places (usually on the boat). If you think that's the problem, and you're keen for more you could try just playing straight through from the start without quitting (mash esc to skip through dialog you've already seen).
It crashes when I returned to the island, between the lady zombie spot and when I try to get an item from the waterfall. I can't recall it very well, and now I can't open the game to see for sure.
No worries though, I will try to reinstall the game and see how it goes.
Just wow. So much better than a game like this has any right to be! My ONLY suggestion would be to add a button to show objects you can interact with as there were a few items I didn't notice. 10/10
I'm working on a longer thriller adventure game in the same style, but not specifically a sequel to this or Peridium. Working on longer stuff is hard though! It's taking me ages compared to the gamejam style ones, so don't hold your breath ;)
I'm still plodding away on it, but it's slow going so don't hold your breath! That said, it's almost time for Adventure Jam again, so I might do another quick one for that!
Thanks! I don't think we'd ever have the energy for a kickstarter though, everyone I know who's done one aged about 10 years over the month it was active :P
We're lucky enough to be able to self fund our own projects at the moment. At least until we decide to make a huge Triple A MMO of course ;)
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this is amazing
The story 10/10
The voice acting 10/10
The visual 10/10
I cant belive this is a free game,it's a masterpiece
Good stuff!
Glad you're enjoying all of these ;)
What a great way to tell this story! It had me sitting on the edge of my seat for the entire run! Amazing job!
Hey, just a heads up that the Mac build is i386, and Apple dropped support for 32 bit executables in Catalina. All the other titles I've tried are good.
> ./MacOS/Alluvium
zsh: bad CPU type in executable: ./MacOS/Alluvium
[127] > file ./MacOS/Alluvium
./MacOS/Alluvium: Mach-O executable i386
PS: I've been so enjoying playing all the PowerQuest titles on itch, and looking forward to Drifter! Thanks so much for putting such quality work out. ❤️
Thanks for the heads up! I'll see if I can rebuild for 64bit easily. And glad you're enjoying my stuff :D
5/5 - I really liked the game!
(However the tasks at the end were really not that intuitive, and I had to resort clicking randomly everything, accidentally conquering the game.. or it could be that I am just stupid :D)
what did you use to make the pixel art? great game btw
Barney does all his art in Photoshop since he's been using it forever. I can highly recommend Aseprite though
thank you!
It crashes for me every time when I return to the beach and go through the plane and the cut scene starts. It's a great, beautiful, dramatic game but sadly totally broken at that point.
I was able to finally finesse my way past the crash. Aside from the numerous crashes - Very well done!
oh sad it doesn't work on mac big sur... Is there any chance to have an update in the future ? Looks fantastic
Hmm, unfortunately it's probably not likely. I'm thinking of eventually updating it and maybe trying to bundle them together for a release as a collection. But it's probably too much work trying to maintain it on latest mac before then. Updating to a much later version of Unity is probably involved and that's always a mess :/
Yeah i understand. Updating unity is still one of my biggest fears. Now that's a good reason to find a pc somewhere :-) Thanks for your reply !
The voice acting in this game is superb! Made me feel likeI was living in the story. I'm also thankful for the low graphics and the simplicity of the game cause I don't think I would be able to play the gore scene of the map if it was more detailed. Great work.
There may be some spoilers in this review, but the game is free, so there's really no reason not to play it before reading.
Powerhoof's Alluvium was not at all what I expected going into it. From the thumbnail with the bright colors and flying plane, I thought this would be some sort of futuristic vaporwave adventure. The bright, vibrant colors of the game itself were on point to my initial expectations, but as for the story, maybe its lesson is that you should always be prepared to have your expectations subverted.
In the case of Alluvium, subversion of expectation leads to surprise after surprise as the plot marches forward. Even with all these twists and turns, I did not feel distanced from the story at any moment as Powerhoof's characteristically great storytelling shines through.
Normally point-and-click adventures are text heavy, and while I don't mind that, other people might. Alluvium's solution to this is exciting and at times emotional voice acting from Adrian Vaughan, detailing Ian's internal thoughts and external conversations, his potential deaths from wrong moves and his return to reality, showing the last action to be in Ian's imagination (a concept that I've only seen a few times before and absolutely love rather than a game over or simply limiting the player's actions to the right choice).
Sally Beaumont portrayed Anna's creepy cannibalistic touch of insanity excellently. Speaking of, cannibals on desert islands are usually portrayed as otherwise uncontacted natives, but a corrupted crew drunk on mysterious berries, attempting to corrupt the last (debatably) sane crewmate is a thrilling change of pace. Ian's reentry into insanity and his resistance to it as he approaches the former campsite harkens back to the subversion of expectations when first setting out on this adventure. Ian's disgust and revilement of the rotting flesh of his comrades seems to show that he is reformed from his cannibalistic ways, which is confirmed in his moment of self-sacrifice as he destroys the dam with the (seemingly) last remaining cannibal atop it.
After the credits, I was left with just one question: Was the Russian captain truly there, left behind by his crew? Or was it perhaps just some random person that Ian hallucinated was the captain?
The story seems complete and self-contained, but the more I keep thinking about this game, the more ideas I have for a continuation of this island's tale. Perhaps Ian is flushed out to sea, but washes back ashore, awakening to find a cannibalistic society of the crew and their progeny that worships the evil fruit. If Ian is truly dead, perhaps the Russian ship comes back with someone to investigate, and that detective would be the main character. The main character would seek to put a stop to the society's atrocities - farms where humans are raised as livestock, prisons where people are kept in pits, and fed human flesh, but no berries, so they regain their sanity, but are driven mad again as they're forced to eat their fellow man. Perhaps the story ends with the main character blowing up a volcano on the island, destroying himself, all the cannibals, and all the berries in the process... And in a post-credits scene, a few stray berries would be seen floating across the ocean...
Of course this is just rambling at this point, and I'm much more eager to see a continuation of the Telwynium series, but there is definitely room for a series of two or three games to be made out of this one. Perhaps someday after the Telwynium series is complete, we'll see a return to Alluvium.
omg did he survive in the end?
Well, sppoilers, but ...
==
==
==
No, I don't think he survived. At the end, he talks about things going red. Which is the same thing he speaks of when he imagines options that would lead to his death such as attacking the crew back on the ship. I'd say he's almost certainly killed once the dam collapses.
The art is amazing, and the game is so fun
I love everything about this game, it's only flaw is being too damn short. I'd gladly pay 20 bucks (adjusted for inflation) for a feature-lenght version.
Wish you the best, I'll be following your work!
This game is outstanding! Everything from music to gameplay are so amazing that I almost forgot everything around me.
Btw, the game is better enjoyed if playing yourself, but you can watch my 4K gameplay if you don't have time to enjoy it.
it is very beautiful thank you for making the game and leaving it at 'give what you want'price !!!
amazing
There is no ammo in the pool, so I can't finish it. I'd really like to.
Try using the gun on the girl
Thanks!
It swallowed me whole, like a delicious spine-tingler found in a dusty old bookshop.
3.75/5
While some of it's story can't compete with it's stylish visuals, and the gamepaly needs work, it is none the less interesting enough to be seen to the end- which won't disappoint.
great voice acting, really love the color pallet. This is just as good as Scriptwelder's games, if not better.
damn! the colors look awesome! best game ver bro!
This game is awesome! But I can't finish it though, it crashes and exit...
Dang. Sorry about that! There was a known crash bug if you quit and then continued the game at certain places (usually on the boat). If you think that's the problem, and you're keen for more you could try just playing straight through from the start without quitting (mash esc to skip through dialog you've already seen).
It crashes when I returned to the island, between the lady zombie spot and when I try to get an item from the waterfall. I can't recall it very well, and now I can't open the game to see for sure.
No worries though, I will try to reinstall the game and see how it goes.
Just wow. So much better than a game like this has any right to be! My ONLY suggestion would be to add a button to show objects you can interact with as there were a few items I didn't notice. 10/10
Hey Powerhoof! I made a cringe video on this game but it was very entertaining nonetheless! I love this style of games!
We might be a little dumb and took a bit longer to figure some things out but we super loved this game! We'll be looking out to see what you do!!
I'm working on a longer thriller adventure game in the same style, but not specifically a sequel to this or Peridium. Working on longer stuff is hard though! It's taking me ages compared to the gamejam style ones, so don't hold your breath ;)
Any update? This is honestly in my top 5 point and click games ever and I would love to play a full fledged one from y’all
I'm still plodding away on it, but it's slow going so don't hold your breath!
That said, it's almost time for Adventure Jam again, so I might do another quick one for that!
You should make a kickstarter! I’d totally pay my support ahead of time if it helped make it happen!
Thanks! I don't think we'd ever have the energy for a kickstarter though, everyone I know who's done one aged about 10 years over the month it was active :P
We're lucky enough to be able to self fund our own projects at the moment. At least until we decide to make a huge Triple A MMO of course ;)
What an awesome game! The plot was gripping! And the narration was spot on! All together one of the best indie games I have played in a long time!!
hello from France! pretty interesting work but it do crashes for me on ubuntu 18.04 when reloading the saved file .
This is is so good, but it crashes on ubuntu 18 when you enter the camp and meet the ships captain
wooow...
This game is Berry Squeezing Good. Get it, Do it!
This was just the funniest thing, had me cracking up frequently with each surprise. Nice job, top game.
What a trip this game ended up being! It went exactly where I wasn't expecting. Great work :D
Gave it a go...