Topic: Karl the Karmite: Bad Karma (Updated 01/24/06) (DEMO)

[ScottDoom]

karma (noun):  The effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny...

In Karmaland, not too far from here, live the Karmites who long ago established the laws of Karma. The Karma Police uphold the laws of Karma and reward or punish those who tilt the scale of Karma too far in one direction.

Karl, a new recruit among the Karma Police, is assigned his first duty the day he signs up. It’s up to Karl to make sure the force of Karma is served with justice. Karl must punish John Doorong for his recent actions, but also remind Mr. Doorong of why he is being punished, else Doorong will blame his misfortunes on that of Bad Luck, and the Lucky Charms do not take kindly to the Karma Police when they are angered by such an event.

Karl the Karmite: Bad Karma is a classic point & click adventure where the player will take the role of Karl, and guide him in his adventure as a Karmite. Unlike traditional adventure games where the player will interact with objects by picking them up, using them, etc. the player here will use Karl’s abilities to affect the world around him in positive and negative ways, and perform other tricks as well.

Features:
-320x240 resolution with scrolling 640x240 backgrounds.
-Unique puzzles that are solved using Karl's abilities as a Karmite.
-No inventory full of random objects!
-Background art that defies proportions and perspective, lacks correct lighting and shadowing, and avoids detail!

Downloads:
Karma Police: Unit Training
This is a small test demo so that you can become familiar with the game controls. Please test for bugs and also comment on the GUI and anything else.
Also, credit goes to Gilbot V7000a, Ashen, and others in the Beginners Technical Forum for helping me, Scorposer for providing the music track, and A1 Free Sound Effects for the sounds.

Main Progress:
Art - 15%
Story - 70%
Programming - 15%
Puzzles  - 30%
Music/Sound - 0%

Mini-Game Progress:
Art - 100%
Story - N/A
Programming - 100%
Puzzles - N/A
Music/Sound - 100%

The game will be completed by May 15th, 2006. Possibly earlier. A demo is currently available.

Background art:



Character art:



Screenshots:


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Update Log
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01/24/06 - Progress has been slow (read: none) on Karl the Karmite due to class work, although I hope to make more progress this coming weekend, and possibly Friday. However, I am also waiting on feedback for the GUI and interactivity with the environment as seen in the demo.

01/22/06 - I have halted progress on Karl the Karmite because AGS no longer works. I have no idea why it stopped working. One day it worked fine, the next day I go to load it up and I recieve an error. I cannot even play my own demo, because I get the same error. All other programs on my computer work.

Added: I fixed my AGS problem and am now working on Karl the Karmite: Bad Karma despite my lack of feedback from the demo.

01/20/06 - The demo is finished! Sort of... I have one piece of code left to do and I can't figure it out, so please see my latest thread in the Beginners Technical Forum if you want to help me with that. The demo uses free sounds from the web and also a music track Scorposer made for me long ago for use in another game idea of mine that was never finished. modgeulator is willing to make music for the full game of Karl the Karmite: Bad Karma so the full game will have a nice soundtrack.

Added: The code from Gilbot V7000a worked and now my crazy demo is ready. See above for link. If you have any trouble downloading please PM me.

01/19/06 - It's early on the 19th here and I have finished coding some more for the game demo. The game demo is called Karma Police: Unit Training and basically allows you to become familiar with the controls and the way you interact with the environment, and has no real story or puzzles behind it. It's also a way for me to test scripts without screwing up anything in the real game, so although while working on the demo doesn't allow me to progress with the real game, I learn techniques that will help make the production of the real game go faster.

01/18/06 - I have started coding for the demo game and I have uploaded a screenshot of the demo room that shows off my rather large and amazing graphical user interface (GUI). I have made no progress in the actual full game development other than the fact that I can simply transport the fully coded GUI over to the game when I am ready to start there.

[Damien]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but the two mandatory screenies have to be taken in game.

Using player's abilities to solve puzzles sounds innovative, and you mentioned Karl will be able to affect it's surroundings in negative and positive ways. Does this mean that the game will have multiple endings?

Good luck with it.

[ScottDoom]

I didn't know the screenshots had to be taken in the game. I will work on that soon, after I finish the GUI.

The game will not have multiple endings, although there will be multiple solutions to the same puzzle. It's not the normal positive/negative done through conversation or direct actions, but rather a Negative or Positive Karma Force applied to objects. Depending on the object something different will result, sometimes for the better or sometimes for the worse. Sometimes what you do can be reversed or corrected, but sometimes its forever.
 
As I write this, I have PSP7 and AGS open in the background and I'm working on making a tech demo which will feature a unique background (which I've just finished) so that the way in which you play will be made more clear.

[Kinoko]

That's quite simply a fantastic idea!

I imagine, say, a vase. If you apply good karma, the flowers inside grow and flourish, if you apply bad karma - perhaps the vase breaks or the flowers die.

You can do SO much with this concept! Can't wait to see more

[ScottDoom]

I imagine, say, a vase. If you apply good karma, the flowers inside grow and flourish, if you apply bad karma - perhaps the vase breaks or the flowers die.

You nailed it! I'm glad you like the idea, and I hope I can make it all work. I'm currently working on the tech demo which will actually be a sort of stand-alone mini-game called Karma Police: Unit Training where you'll just play around and do things like you described.

Since my art isn't fantastic, and I have absolutely no skill in music/sound, I figured I would do something neat with the GUI and scripting because I am a fast learner when it comes to scripting and I already have some experience in manipulating the code. I like to make functions do things other than what they were intended for. 

[Kinoko]

Honestly, your art's pretty good as it is. You can always ask someone to help you with music seeing as there are SO many musically-minded people on these forums. If you really want to tweak your art a bit, I suggest plopping a few BGs in the Critic's Lounge. I really like the style of your art, it could do with a bit of a change here and there just to give it that polished look.

[ScottDoom]

I have posted a request for help with the music and sound, but I haven't recieved any offers yet. Once I had Scorposer help me with music for a game that I unfortunately never finished.

I also dropped a bit of art into the C&C section and got a few pointers, but I guess to be honest I'm happy with my art even though I know it's not the best. As long as objects can be recognized by the players then I'm content.

Anyways, I've just finished coding the basics of the custom GUI and now I will be starting the process on finishing the programming for the demo/mini-game (I already have all the graphics drawn unless I think of more).

[Theme]

that karma stuff reminds me of my name is earl

o/

[The Ivy]

Earl the Earmite?  Ouch, sounds painful. 

Good luck with your game, ScottDoom, I love to see creative ideas around here and like other people have said, you can take this one as far as you want.  I also find Karl very cute.  There, I said it. 

[scourge]

This looks super! Goodluck.

[ScottDoom]

Well the demo was up early today but I'm just posting to make a few more statements...

Known bugs:

When the player sets the fire alarm off twice in a row the carpet gets some weird interaction results. I'll need to fix that.

Other issues:
I forgot to mention the Hook feature in the "tutorial." I meant to explain it and I'll probably update that after class today. Basically it allows Karl to "suck" an object into the hole at his lower region, and "spit" it back out again. Useful for pulling things upward, or moving them from one side of the room to the other.