G’day everybody

The Double Fine Game Club is a community run weekly event where interested gamers play through and come together to discuss what they do and don’t like about a particular game (sort of like a book club, but for games). We usually aim to play two or three hours a week, and we normally have somebody streaming the current game so that those who don’t have the game or don’t feel like playing it again can still feel involved.

Starting Saturday 6th October, we’ll be playing through Beneath A Steel Sky a few hours a week and discussing what we do and don’t like both here in this thread, and in the #DFAdventure IRC channel on Foonetic.net (if you’re not sure, just click this link to access webchat from our stream page). The game club is a very informal weekly chat, and everyone is welcome!

We are planning to have a stream running at the regular time of Saturday 12:00pm noon PDT (click for your timezone). If you’re interested in helping out with streaming, let us know!

Previous game: The Journey Down

6th October, 12:00pm noon PDT (click for your timezone): Start of game (Stream 1)and general discussion (log)
13th October, 12:00pm noon PDT (click for your timezone): Second game session (Stream 2) and general discussion (log)
30th October, 12:00pm noon PDT (click for your timezone): Final game session (Stream 3) and general discussion (log)
...
Next game: Sam & Max Hit The Road

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ABOUT THE GAME

Synopsis:
Robert Foster is an innocent outsider stranded in a vast city where oppressed civilians live and work in soaring tower blocks while the corrupt, covetous and rich lie underground, shielded from all pollution. Alone, save for a robot circuit board, Foster must fight for survival and discover the sinister truth behind his abduction…

Where to get online (Beneath A Steel Sky has been released as freeware):
Official Website
GOG (Windows)
ScummVM (Windows)

Note that users of Linux, MacOS and other platforms can run the game using ScummVM (a separate download from the game).

Remastered edition (not as free)
iTunes (iPhone, iPod)

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The chat can be found here:
IRC Server:  irc.foonetic.net
Channel: #DFAdventure

Or click this link to chat in your web browser!

And here’s the game club title card thingy (or a bigger version)

<3 BASS! No time for another playthrough right now unfortunately, but the game is still pretty fresh in my mind. One thing it (and Lure of the Temptress before it) attempted that few adventures do was giving other characters their own activities and movement in the world, which I think breathes life into it, and I’ve always thought that angle could be pushed a lot further to create a more dynamic experience over the generally static worlds and characters of many adventures, where the non player characters can appear more like static, dialog dispensing props.

I just played through this recently. Fantastic game.

Nice community run! Game is installed, so ready here. Run Foster, Run Joey!

I remember when I first played it… being a kid, and having a mum who was pretty strict about language at the time, hearing Joey say “That’s bull[poop], Foster” made me pack bricks and hurriedly find some headphones, which I wore at the PC from that day forth. For years. Lol. It was probably the first voice-acted instance of swearing I ever heard in a game.

Edit: Aww, censorship :|

I just finished my first playthrough. Some of the voice acting is a little rough (would have been nice to hear some more Australian accents too), and the final puzzle with the tongs/cable/etc. didn’t really make much sense to me, but it’s an enjoyable game nonetheless

The stream is live, check it out and come chat with us at http://double-fine-game-club.github.com

It was interesting to have a look at a game I’ve meant to play for 16 years now but never got around to. I’ll have to try to remember joining in next Saturday to see the continuation.

Once again, thanks for the excellent stream, Mr. Cheeseness.

Great stream, it was my first experience with a community run and I enjoyed it, so thanks (again) and looking forward to the next one.

Thanks to everybody for tuning in, and sorry once again about forgetting to record an intro!

I’ve updated the first post with a link to the archived stream and chat log from our first session

It was nice to see some new faces (or IRC handles ^_^ )

We’re live! Come join us!

takarayama - 06 October 2012 01:41 PM

I’ll have to try to remember joining in next Saturday to see the continuation.

Oh noes, Yama! You forgot ^_^

The first post has been updated with a link to the archived stream and chat log. I reckon we’ll get one more stream out of Beneath A Steel Sky.

We’d like to play through The Last Express next if we can find anybody willing to volunteer to stream

I could probably stream some time. What do I need to do it?

Fireflower - 18 October 2012 02:49 PM

I could probably stream some time. What do I need to do it?

If you’re running Linux, then I’ve been having decent experience with ffmpeg (I’m planning to write a howto).

The Twitch.tv site suggests XSplit, Flash Media Encoder, and Wirecast, but anything that can stream via RTMP should be able to do it. I’ll nudge Syd and see if we can get some additional suggestions for Windows.

We’d want to try and maintain the normal time slot though.

Edit: And you’d also need a copy of the game ^_^

I personally use Xsplit. It’s quite intuitive and very easy to set up, but you have to pay for a license. The best (and most popular) free streaming solution I know of for Windows is Flash Media Encoder combined with SCFH DSF. There’s lots of guides out there on how to set them up, but it can take some trial and error.