2014-07-13 15:05:08 (edited by micco67 2014-07-13 15:06:22)

NEW RELEASE: She Noire, the new audio game from TiconBlu and Nebula is now available in English for PC and Mac, at the special price of 14,90€ just for a few days!!! Visit http://www.ticonblu.it/audiogame/shop/s … l?lang=eng to purchase.

We at TiconBlu are glad to announce "She Noire", the first Hidden Object Adventure Audiogame!

TEASER:
A policewoman with no destiny. An unscrupulous killer.
And the fate of the world is in her hands.

Explore over 40 splendid scenes, find the hidden clues in each one; discover Sophia’s forgotten past, to protect the future of Trinitatis and the entire world.
Reveal the evil schemes of the Jaws, and defeat the mysterious Apophis!

GAME DESCRIPTION:
The mysterious homicide of Eva Lumenis sets the scene for She Noire, leading us to the Trinitatis police station, where our investigations begin.
We will soon discover how our leading lady, Sophia, is not just any old policewoman: she is also a thief and a killer, but above all a woman hunting a past that was stolen from her.
In over 5 hours of gameplay, you will explore 40 settings, divided into 7 chapters, packed with rich dialogues that will slowly but surely reveal the complex story behind this game.
You can also play in “skill” mode, where the settings are generated with different hidden objects every time, and you must work against the clock to find all the hidden objects.
Developed for PC and Mac (soon for iOS), She Noire is produced by Nebula and TIconBLU.

GAME INSTRUCTIONS:
She Noire can be played on PC and MAC, exploring the settings using the arrow keys.
Players have to explore the setting, guided by sounds, to find a list of hidden objects while avoiding any useless ones.
Then they must work out which ones are needed to solve the puzzle and proceed with the story.
Press SPACE or ENTER to generate a sound that will tell you how many useful objects are nearby.
Press SHIFT to repeat the list of objects you still have to find.
CONTROL will make the character describe the place they are in.
Press ESC to open the menu and quit the game.

PRICE: special "Early access" at 14,90€! Just for a few days!

WHAT TO DO: visit http://www.ticonblu.it/audiogame/shop/s … l?lang=eng to purchase your licensed copy.

Also visit http://www.ticonblu.it/audiogame/index.html?lang=eng to stay up to date with the latest news on audio games from TiconBlu.

You can join our mailing list here: http://www.ticonblu.it/audiogame/register.html?lang=eng

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TEASER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oan1u_br2Lc

DESCRIPTION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f82za4bzTo

2014-07-13 15:35:33

This actually sounds great! I like the idea of having to find different objects.

I wonder if deciding to buy the games from  Ticonblu on Ios was a mistake, sinse it seems I'm missing a lot of titles, and unfortunately now I'm in the position of waiting for Inquisitor's heartbeat, Inquisitor 2, audio speed and maybe she noire as well to come out on Ios before I pick them up.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-07-13 17:17:56

I liked this game, but it seemed rather short. The game advertised five hours of gameplay, and I was able to complete it in just under two hours (I did listen to all the cutsceens and descriptions). I personally wish that there had been more focus on the puzzle elements, as I found that the object finding was rather repetitive. One idea I had was that there were more sounds, in which the objects were hidden rather than just moving around, hitting space, then finding the object based on that tone. Apart for that the sound effects and voice acting were extremely well done. Are there any sequels planned? The game did not go into detail about how the main character reached her status as an assassin, and how she evaded detection etc.

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

2014-07-13 22:46:50

If I remember the original news about the game she noire is supposed to be a series just like inquisitor is a series, so there are very likely going to be more games.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-07-14 14:18:48 (edited by pelantas 2014-07-14 14:20:40)

hi,

may i ask what a vat id is? i am rather interested in the game.
i want to buy it for the mac should i also select this option or will i get two links in my inbox for mac and for the windows installation packs?

greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
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2014-07-14 16:20:19

Hello pelantes!
I'm Marco Agricola, the author, writer and programmer of She Noire!
The VAT ID is a tax identification number to complete your invoice information. Not all countries have it, so it's optional. You will get the PC and macosx download links regardless from that option!

About the sequels: I'm working on the game alone, so right now I will focus myself on an update with all your suggestion, and on the iOs version of the game. After that, I hope to continue the series by introducing many new features, variety and improvements!

2014-07-15 08:39:06

Hi.
Yesterday, I recieved a nice review of the game, describing more how it works. I'll buy this game for sure.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
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2014-07-15 12:55:38

Glad you liked my review, and that you like the game if you purchase.

2014-07-16 08:41:21

Hi.
Here are my first impressions after 15 minutes of gameplay:
Nice, really nice audio and voice acting. The gameplay is too easy.
It's too easy to find the objects, but it might just be me who's good at searching. smile I like the way you have to open the panel though. Nice puzzle. I look forward to play the game some more.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2014-07-17 08:45:10

Hi.
I completed the game yesterday. wow, just wow, what an epic story! The gameplay got a bit more challenging later on, but I still find it quite easy. I'll highly recommend the game mainly because of the story and the great audio, and I think it's worth the price.
I'll write a more detailed review if anyone is interesting in reading it, and if I can get my audio recording software to work as planned, I might record a short gameplay, so people know what to expect. I hope that'll spret the words more about the game, which would be cool!

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2014-08-15 08:50:51

I just bought this game. I read the review posted in the articles room and grabbed it. Apparently, PayPal says 19 EU is equal to $27 and some change, so I hope it is worth it. I have followed the link in my e-mail to get the PC version. Mac and iOS versions will be tested when I can do so. It's downloading at 1.77 MB/S, so it should be here soon! I can't wait! I was going to purchase Shades of Doom 2.0, but I'm glad I got this one instead.

My opinions are my own. I try not to state them as facts and if I'm not sure about something, I do whatever research I can. I feel everyone should consider doing the same.

2014-08-15 10:32:46

This review is not a review, BTW it's more like a description. Well, as most games from audiogame.it, or every game, too short and easy. If you are expecting hard puzzles to solve, and something more complex, it'sn't for ya. Every tgame where it says "5
hours" to finish the game or somnething basically it takes 1.5 H or 2, for that high price, really nothing special.

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2014-08-15 10:38:35

@seal The time to finish we declare is an estimation made upon an "average" gamer, and this does not appear to be your case :-) Could you please make a reference to other audio games at a similar price point with a higher time to finish? Would be interesting to know to better understand our competition. Thanks for your comments!

2014-08-15 12:11:57

Well based upon inquisitor, I would disagree on time involved and puzzle difficulty, also when you have a game with a hints system then completion  time can  vary.

I believe inquisitor took me four hours to finish, which is okay.

@Mico, the problem with rating games on completion time is that you are very  much dependent upon game type. rpgs, and other  exploration games will have a long completion time due to the explioring and possibly the battles if the turn based battles take a while even if their  story is less than an adventure  title. similarly, a puzzle game such as inquisitor's heartbeat will vary according to how good at mazes the player is.  I find the game quite challenging, but that is me. My only objection on price terms in inquisitor's heartbeat is that the variety in the game is rather lacking, sinse while the atmsophere is good,  there isn't a lot else to listen to whenb lost in the maze, and also the instructions could be better organized particularly for the Iphone version, for example  the tap middle of the screen doesn't work at all and I physically need to one finger flick to move. Equally I don't know how to bring up the menbu  on one occasion even managed to restart the game by mistake.

I also will say in adventure game terms I'd rather have a game that was possible to finish than one with puzzles so random it was impossible, which is what has put me off  playing interactive fiction for quite a while.

I've not tried she noire yet, but I certainly will be getting it in the future along with inquisitor 2.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-08-15 15:00:27

Yeah, Dark is right in the last post. Inquisitor's heartbeat simply bored me after a while without anything besides bumping in to every wall like a crazy to find a passage rather to hear it. What can be fun, I am playing video games if these are playable, and i am doing similar things there because I can't see the passages, so I must memorise. Why audio game is forcing me to doing the same blind moves like in video games where I must search like aq blind. I want feels the same like everyone who is playing video games. See things around, interact with everything, with my ears ofcurse. I can imagine Inquisitor's heartbeat as an video games with few extra layers of audio and luckily it can be playable after a while and practicing / memorising. There are few examples where video games are fully playble for the blind more or less accidentally.

Regarding adventure games, I love this genre because years ago my brother played a lot of these. From monkey island, to broken sword series, every game he played was long, great, and interesting because game was long even if you knew the puzzles. If you'll play inquisitor and will everything correctly, you can beat these two chapters really really fast [Plus, Inquisitor 2 seems to be shorter than one].
These games contains bugs, many bugs sadly. I found for example one house in inquisitor 2 where I was stuck everytime when I entered that area. These bugs are frustrating and these bugs are taking the fun instead of giving.
What is funny, I read reviews of the video game version of inquisitor one where people are saying similar things and sadly, their aren't taking really high reviews. Problem with audio version is in puzzles. I hate when game is doing evrything for me, and This one is doing that too often.

Sometimes Game just used the item from my inventory on something automatically when I used the object. Most interesting puzzles are solving automatically and I must sit here and listen for 20 sounds one after another where main character is turning something, pushing etc. These are essential parts of most adventure games as You know, and this is what I am missing. Many of You can disagree ofcourse with this whole post, but as always, my point of view only.

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2014-08-15 16:28:57

Interesting point about inquisitor's heartbeat, I'd actualy never considdered that the required logic of navigation  is forcing everyone into the same position as a vi gamer playing a video game.

I will say however there is a flip side to that, sinse sighted people do  not! have to engage in that sort of audio logic which makes the game quite unique. AFter all games like papasangre did well precisely on this  angle, so on that basis I can see the need for a game like  Inquisitor's heartbeat where the environment itself, a dark dungeon   requires an equal gaming experience for everyone, I just wish the audio had a few extra sounds and items to keep things interesting in the game's  soundscape.

As regards adventure games I agree on plusses in the genre sinse I've sat with friends and played through broken sword and both monkey island one and two, indeed monkey  I have a full game script for secret of monkey island that I sometimes read just for a laugh! big_smile.


I disagree however that just because you  can go streight through a  game when you know everything that makes the game automatically too easy. heck, one major cryticism of the first monkey island was that the player needed to spend so much time wondering,  and rowing around the various island maps,  rather than just going between locations, which took a fair degree of time on it's own.

The completion time I would estimate based on a person going  around, examining everything, and trying lots of different ways to complete the puzzles.

I can't speak of bugs as I  didn't notice anything too bad in the inquisitor, however inquisitor chapter 2 might require some work on that score.

Regarding puzzles though, I disagree  that the puzzles are automatically solved most of the time, unless you use devine help by mistake (which I do admit I   managed to do on a couple of occasions, sinse that cross gesture seems a little random).

Beware! posible inquisitor spoilage below! do not read on lest your game be sp spoiled! 

My only problem with some of the puzzles is that there were  some portions of the game where it wasn't clear what you actually needed to do to progress.

For example  when you had ko'd the librarian, it wasn't clear that you needed to gag and tie him up, so I ended up having to use devine help at that point just to work out what was needed. similarly, there were so many random bits of cloth kicking around that knowing you needed to use the tapestry as a gag was more  a matter of trial and error than anything else.

I also agree that the section in the cellars with  eymerich doing a   Devinci code was rather irritating, particularly because of the long time I had to spend while  eymerich sat and pushed things and  worked out what was obviously supposed to be a coplex lock puzzle.

A minigame of some sort there, say a trial and error mastermind with sounds wouldn't been much more satisfying.

All that being said, I do think inquisitor is an awsome game!  I personally enjoyed the puzzles, particularly sinse many of them required me to think  more like a blood thirsty, ultra zealot inquisitor than I normally would. Tthat bit in the underground library where Eymerich needs a light to read the books and says "I need something that burns like a heretic! in the flames of hell!" was hilarious!

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-08-15 18:59:54

hi,

she Noire is a good game. the method the complete it is a bit easy. but i think i also pay for a good story. and indeed it is a very good story. with lots of twists. i was listening to the story together with my girlfriend and we both got ideas what were wrong at the end and the story ended with a surprising plot. so our oppinion was that the story from she Noire is worth it. i played it on my mac-book and she came along and listens together with me.
just to avoid the idea of handing out copies wich i will never do.

about the inquisitor, my girlfriend owned it on her iPhone and i bought it for my mac-book at first. and she warned me that it will require another way of thinking. i had to think and remember more than i was familiar with with games.
the only problem with my mac-book was, that i reached the corpse at calcaras before i entered the square of the ruined city. but i am trapped in the discoveries of father emeric. and when i knew for sure that the discoveries had ended i was in the middle of his discoveries again, with in fact no way out. yes, pressing escape and turning back to the game again, but that didn't help, cause i had to listen to his research of the corpse again. i couldn't enter the square.

so i bought it for ios. especially for my iPad, and i finished the game without any trouble. but i spended a few ours to it. perhaps 5 to 6 hours. but i can tell, like the story of she Noire, the story of the inquisitor is worth it too.
perhaps micco can write a patch for the mac-book so i can enter the city after going toward the corpse. actually i have payed twice the money for the inquisitor. one time for mac, and the second for ios. and the mac doesn't work in it's entirity. and as i said. hopefully micco can write a patch, cause when this doesn't happen it will be a waste of money for the lisence i bought for my mac.

this were my oppinions.

greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
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2014-08-15 19:59:09

Well Mike that bug isn't  good.

I must confess I do sort of wonder sometimes how much  time Ticonblu spend hunting for in game bugs, and how much developing new titles, sinse the speed and frequency of their releases is really impressive (especially developing for so many different platforms), but I am sometimes a little concerned  as to whether   the cracking pace of this release schedule gies the developers  as much time as needed to make sure everything in the games works correctly.

Still, as I said I'm definitely going to buy  the rest of their games for  Ios, and certainly  I'll be writing up entries for the db on their other games as soon as I can.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-08-15 21:12:17

Yeah @dark: Monkey island 1 is weird but I love Tim's games and his fallen company. Humour and fun from MI games is fantastic for me and i am  launching from this everytime big_smile

The bug in the village in first Inquisitor is happening on PC also, what you must to do is press left mouse click to progress. Stupid, but it's only one solution and weird solution. These games are reallu bugged and this is sad.

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2014-08-15 21:35:44

Well, I have gotten to the bedroom in SheNoire and found most everything in there, but when I switched focus away from the game, came back and hit shift to see what I had left to find, it said I had to find items that I had already found. Also, the instructions being given to you as the game progresses rather than all at once is nice, but I have found no way, as of yet, how to save my game and that is very frustrating! If anyone could tell me how to save my game, I would be greatly appreciative!
Regarding finding things. I hear a wind noise and my footsteps go from center to left/right kind of without me doing anything, and the wind noise gets lower and higher, lower I'm assuming means that the object you're looking for is behind you, if that is indeed what the wind noise is trying to help you locate. Sometimes I think I've got the idea of how to follow it, but then it doesn't seem like it sometimes. I'm just very confused on how to reliably find objects. I've only gotten this far because I've just walked around randomly long enough to find each of the items I needed to. I like the way it makes the story unfold after you find each set of items and also how you have to use some items with others to make new ones. If someone could just help me with reliably finding objects and saving a game, I would definitely consider it worth my money!

My opinions are my own. I try not to state them as facts and if I'm not sure about something, I do whatever research I can. I feel everyone should consider doing the same.

2014-08-16 10:35:53

I didn't take issue with Inquisitor's Heartbeat. I mean, the ambience was excellent, and for a maze game. Sure, the story could've been better developed with more to do, and it could have used sound better to expose the surroundings, but would that not have distracted from the maze aspect? Really, my complaint if I'm honest is that too many levels were devoted to each "World" leaving the player in suspense for too long a stretch at a time; otherwise, it was fine, and "Infinite" mode provides a time killer.

Just myself, as usual.

2014-08-16 14:15:02 (edited by pelantas 2014-08-16 14:17:08)

hi

@kg4ardf

how i completed the game in each section was simply walking to the bottom and from there move left. till i reached the boarder and walk back to the right to the boarder. just move up once and walk left again. and then move one up again and walk to the right. each room is a square and you don't have to be affraid for bumping into objects apart from the wall from the boarders. and if you missed some objects just walk from up to down. you know move the room in verticallines and pick up the missing objects.

on the mac-book you save the game by just exitting it and the game will continue from the scene you last visited when you continue the game. i don't know if this is also the case for windows?

but i asume.

hth

greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
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2014-08-16 17:03:42

ANd if you will load last played game, the game will run without the music, or atleast for long.

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2014-08-17 13:12:38

Good, because that music is annoying. Wish I could turn it down. Anyway, I'll figure this out. I still think that wind noise is supposed to be useful somehow, and Mike, thanks for your suggestion, but that takes forever so I'll try to figure out the wind but if I still have issues, I'll try that fine-toothed comb method. Starting to regret my purchase. I found a couple of very nasty bugs. 1. Press shift to find out what items you still need to find. Before she's done speaking, hit shift again. Instead of interrupting and starting back over, the file plays on top of the first one, causing stuttering and general annoyance. 2. If you press control to get the description of where you are, the game resets all your items in that area, forcing you to find all the objects again. So, when I switched focus away then back the other day, I hit control at some point. I kind of wish I could get a refund, but we shall see. I could get it back through PayPal, actually. Hmmm. There's an idea...

My opinions are my own. I try not to state them as facts and if I'm not sure about something, I do whatever research I can. I feel everyone should consider doing the same.