An epic horror/thriller game with a story that spans centuries, Prodigal is the tale of two estranged brothers thrown into a world of darkness and deceit beyond anything they could have ever conceived. Will they reconcile their shadowed and twisted past and survive the night?

Prodigal features in-engine FMV, a first for an AGS game! It also features a soundtrack containing a wide range of music from horror beats, to classic blues, to the featured goth music band "Shadowplay." It also features a wide range of beautiful character art created in the Sierra style, drawn by the endlessly tallented Edgar Rocha.

10/19/07 - We continue working on Prodigal 2, even though the webpage hasn't been updated in many months. Right now the game is stuck in a constant grind of rendering animation frames. But bit by bit, frame by frame, it is coming along. At the beginning of production here it is obviously the worst as new frames have to be rendered for all the basic movements and animations. Things like picking up an item off the ground, the same animation can be recycled and used over and over, but it must all be rendered the first time it is needed, and that takes a while.

On a happy note, I'm throwing a couple of screenshots up for a couple areas, so go check them out and let me know what you think! These are, of course, work in progress pictures, so expect the actual game to look different, blah blah blah.

3/17/07 - Well, it has been a while, but finally I'm announcing that Prodigal part two is in the works! I'm buried in work on the 3D renderings for all the locations in the game, and am very pleased at the results so far! Just one area of Prodigal 2 has more polygons than all the areas of Prodigal combined!

I'm working on real world reference material as much as I possibly can, rather than just rendering off the top of my head like I did for Prodigal. The results are evident!

Andrew Edmark and I are also working on developing a new form of animation for the game. We have a theory we'll be working out in the coming weeks to see if it is feasible. If it works, expect smooth, expressive sprites that far surpass my efforts from the first game!

As I've said before, the story for this sequel was written before the first game even came out, but it has been worked on a bit by Nathan and I. Once I've got some backgrounds and sprites together, we'll begin storyboarding out the game.

Shadowplay's music will be returning for the sequel! They have just finished mastering their debut CD, and have given me permission to use two of their songs for Prodigal 2! I've always felt that the song "Alone" is the heart and soul of Prodigal, and I took alot of my inspiration for the look and feel of the game from the song. I'm overjoyed that I'll be able to use their music again! Folks in Europe/Australia, you owe it to yourself to pick up their CD! Help support an amazingly talented indy group!

Anyway, look for screenshots in the coming months, as well as more news on development!

Later all!
Ben

3/13/2006 - Abandonia Reloaded Interviews Trisk:

Head on over to the interview page and check out DeathDude's interview on all things Prodigal! Learn how the Prodigal team formed, and all about Prodigal's humble beginnings! Learn what the influences were in game design, and a bit about creating the game's rich audio environment!

It's all there, waiting for you to check it out!

1/26/06 - Reloaded.org has posted a review of Prodigal on their website! You can check it out here.

They really liked the game!

"With Prodigal it is very clear how much effort and time went into developing this very excellent adventure game, in such things as the different graphic styles seen in the game." -reloaded.org

"The story itself really drew me into the game and really made me want to keep playing." -reloaded.org

They close the review saying: "If you are looking for a lengthy adventure title, that really has had a lot of effort put into development, look no farther than Prodigal, a worthy adventure game that you should definitely check out." -reloaded.org

Sounds great guys! My thanks go out to the Reloaded team. They were fun to work with and easy to communicate with! Want to see what the buzz is about? Why not check out Prodigal today? Just click on "Download" over to the left, and start your adventure today!

11/08/05 - Prodigal Shooter released. Look for it on the download page!

11/08/05 - Prodigal version 1.1 is released. Now with 50% less fat!

11/08/05 - Prodigal version 1.0 released! At long last, the game is done! Go download it now from the downloads section of the website!

Just run the file, and uncompress to the directory of your choice. I suggest C:\Prodigal.

I already have the game configured to the way it should be, so you shouldn't need to run WinSetup, unless you have a less than 2.0 GHZ Pentium, in which case I recommend dropping the resolution to 320x240.

If you like the game, spread the word! Feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts, or to report any bugs.

Trisk

7/25/05 - After slowdown for a few weeks due to RL conflicts, Prodigal has resumed production! We are entering the home stretch to an alpha build! With only one area left to render in the game, things are coming together! I also took a time out and went back and inserted all the cutscenes that I hadn't done yet, and added some game logic to places that didn't have it yet.

So what is left? Well, I need to render the final room, then put it into the game, add all the sprites for it (with the help of the incredibly talented Edgar), render the end cutscene, and put in the credits! Not much left at all!

The game now stands at:

• Over 3100 sprites
• Around 150 rooms
• Around 100 sounds
• 27 Music tracks

The compile is over 60 megabytes of gaming goodness! Yeeha!

I probably won't update again till we hit alpha...which shouldn't be longer than a couple of weeks!

In the meantime, I've added some juicy screenshots of areas in the game! Go take a peek!

6/23/05 - Work is continuing at a feverish pace! It won’t be long before Prodigal hits alpha state! The biggest thing I’m missing now is animation sprites.

If you’ve played Prodigal 0, and think you could draw sprites in the same style, please drop me a line! I need a plethora of monster sprites. You must, however, have at least worked on a project that WAS completed, and NOT have quit the project before it was completed. I’ve gotten burned several times already by people who have NO drive to work on a project.

Edgar has all but finished with drawing the multitude of close-up artwork for the game! His work has improved this game’s quality incredibly, and I just can’t possibly thank him enough for all his work! He is a really great guy! :) Now I’m hoping he can transfer over and help me with sprites. :)

I also decided to convert over to 16bit color for the main game. There were a multitude of special effects that I just couldn’t do with 8bit color…plus light plays such an important role in the game, and 8bit color can hardly cope with it. The downside is the game will be much larger because of it…but most people seem to have broadband these days. Am I the last one on the planet who can’t get broadband in any way, shape, or form?

I’ve already converted a large number of sprites over to 16bit color, and have reinserted some of Edgar’s beautiful artwork in full 16bit, making the colors much smoother and more striking.

I have, however, decided to leave the vast majority of the game’s areas 8bit color. For one thing, unless a room uses a wide variety of colors and subtle shading, 16bit just won’t look that much, if any, better than 8bit. Not only that, 16bit color rooms take up a VAST amount of storage space, and I feel this just isn’t really worth it for many of the game’s areas. Finally, the game would more than double in size if I convert everything over. If Prodigal ends up being incredibly popular, I may decide to release a special edition high color version, but for now, it’s an 8bit core. :b