Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy! is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Alastair Beckett. It was created as an indie game

Independent video game development

Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...

 using the Adventure Game Studio

Adventure Game Studio

Adventure Game Studio is a free software development tool that is primarily used to create graphical adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an Integrated development environment for setting up most aspects of the game with a scripting language to process...

 engine and released for free on the Internet on March 6, 2007.

Overview

Spoonbeaks Ahoy! was created by Beckett as a gift for his girlfriend, and the pirate

Pirates in popular culture

In American and British popular culture, the modern pirate stereotype owes its tradition mostly to depictions of Captain Hook and his crew in theatrical and film versions of Peter Pan, Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in the film Treasure Island, and various adaptations of Sinbad the...

 protagonist Nelly Cootalot is modelled after her. In the fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

al, insular

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 Barony of Meeth, the player investigates the disappearance of a fleet of spoonbeaks (the game's term for spoonbill

Spoonbill

Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the Ibises.All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side...

s). A few minigame

Minigame

A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...

s must be completed to reach the ending, including decyphering

Decipherment

Decipherment is the analysis of documents written in ancient languages, where the language is unknown, or knowledge of the language has been lost....

 a coded message and winning a "hook a duck" carnival game

Carnival game

A carnival game is a game of chance or skill that can be seen at a traveling carnival, charity fund raiser, amusement park, or on a state and county fair midway....

.

The game's ending scene alludes to a potential sequel

Sequel

A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

, which development was officially announced by Beckett in September 2008.

Reception

The game was praised for its story, music and humorous setting, though a few puzzles were considered difficult. While reviewers felt the game was inspired by Monkey Island series for its setting and dialogues, they acknowledge the originality of its art style and play experience. It was rated 80 out of 100 by the magazine PC Format

PC Format

PC Format is a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication since 1991, it is part of Future Publishing's Format series of magazines that include articles about games, entertainment and how to...

.

The game won five awards on the Adventure Game Studio website for the year 2007, namely "Best Game Created with AGS", "Best Gameplay", "Best Dialogue Writing", "Best Player Character", and "Best Character Art". It was also named one of the 20 "Best Freeware Adventure Games" of 2007 by Think Services' IndieGames.com.

External links

• Game entry on the Adventure Game Studio database
• Game entry on Mark Lovegrove's website
• Game manual
• Official 1.6 Spanish version