StarTrippers: Episode 1 (ADULT CONTENT) Updated: May 29th

[cheeba]

StarTrippers
Episode One: Our Friends Electric (working title)

Working status:
- graphics 39%
- puzzles 45%
- scripting 60%
- sound fx 20%
- soundtrack 20%

Devteam: 1 (Me, a penniless games development degree student. Hello)
Members needed?: Not at the moment, I'll wait until the demo's finished until I see about expanding or not. However, if you're interested in helping, drop me a PM!

Plot:
Meet Jack. Sometime courier, occasional bounty hunter and all around roister-doisterer. Together with his best mate Cipher, an AI construct hooked into the system substructure of the good ship Shutterbug. Which brings us to the ship, an old ex-military scout/light recon interstellar craft that's seen considerably better days.

We join our intrepid crew as they return to New Trachtenberg for a simple little deal with the local lowlife (sorry, 'indigenous entrepreneurs'). However, as with most things these days, simple little deals never quite seem to work out that way for Jack and Cy.

Latest blurbage:
Okay, I've got a feeling this might be a controversial one, I was a little hesitant about posting status on this one at all due to some of the more 'colourful' subject matter. It's a sci-fi comedy adventure, with some occasional swearing and mild violence, but it also contains quite graphic sex scenes in its current alpha build. These might be toned down a little for public demo/release (most likely there'll be two versions for the less open-minded), but it's always kinda ticked me off that people go up in arms over two people having consensual sex in a game, when you can run around in counterstrike shooting people in the head all day and nobody bats an eyelid. But that's a soapbox I'll save for another time.

Progress is coming along nicely so far, slowly but surely, mainly thanks to the massive amount of hi-res graphical elements and animations needed for the project. It'll be played mainly in the first person, with occasional cutscene interludes played out in a cinematic style to give things a little more life. And thanks to some really quite spectacularly messy scripting, I've implemented a weapon targeter, which can punch location-specific decals into the background and the like (metal dents, glass cracks etc). I'm a musician as well, so further along the line I'll be adding an optional custom soundtrack, but that can wait until the final stages.

I realise I'm probably aiming way too high for my first project, especially for a one-man team, but so far so good. I'll keep you all posted with updates and a demo as soon as they're available. With any luck, the demo should be forthcoming in the next week or two.

Some screens from the first finished scenes. I've edited these for content, but let me know if any need removed.





You can start screaming 'PERV!' at me now if you like

UPDATE (5th May): FINALLY finished a ship design I'm happy with. Here's pics of the ShutterBug's exterior, and a close-up of the pinup on the ship's nose (well, you GOTTA have one of those ). These scenes are all taken from the intro:




On a technical note, the larger pics here are actually fullsize shots, as the game's being developed in 640x480. Partly to save on filesize, and also because some of the tricks using alpha channels and fullscreen background animation would've caused massive slowdown on less powerful machines.

Oh, and If anyone wants uncensored sample images from the racier scenes, PM me. You're only getting a couple though, no point spoiling the game for yourselves

UPDATE (7th May): Finished a rough mix of the intro theme. You can download it and check it out for yourselves here (1.84MB 192kbps Mp3). It's a rough mix at the mo, but let me know what ya think. I'll probably overdub some ambient live guitar along with the synths before release, to give it a bit more depth.

UPDATE (12th May): Just a quick piccy for you all, just so you know I'm not dead yet (it's worse, EXAM time ). It's a pic of new Trachtenberg, again from the intro. Ingame it's a slow pan across the city, but you'll have to make do with a screengrab 'til the demo hits in a few weeks . Also, I finished a couple more tunes, but I'll leave those until I'm a little more conscious. Anyway, here's the latest shot:



UPDATE (29th May): After a brief hiatus due to exams, work continues on graphics and scripting. There's still a massive amount to get done, but it's slowly starting to come together, especially now the story's a lot more near completion. Anyway, new screens time, first one's a better pic of Jack (having some trouble with a little local colour), and the second's a pic of NTPD receptionist Becca:

[Nacho]

Sex, porn exist... Denying that would be hypocrital. It was normal to, sooner or later, seeing a game with this kind of content.

The screenies look terrific, go on with the work. It's not going to be me the one who is going to attempt yo dissencourage you. Good luck. 

[Chicky]

Yeah nice one, looks great.


we need some versions without the blur.

[Nikolas]

All I can say is WOW! It looks magnificent, and not because of the porn (where ARIA, as Farl knows rules)

Looking forward

[Nacho]

Correction: Aria RULED. Now she is 15 kilos away of ruling again...Ã,  :'(

[Barbarian]

You Damn Pervert!Ã,  Ã, :=Ã,  This looks awesome so far!Ã, 

Story line seems quite interesting. I love a good sci-fi adventure, and it seems like you're off to some great ideas.

Did you do the art-work yourself?Ã,  If so *Bows* my hat's off to you. Truely amazing artistic talent you have *envy*.Ã,  Ã, I hope the overall gameplay, puzzles, music, story, etc.. can also match up to the great looking sample art you've shown us so far. If so, I think this game will be fantastic.

Yes, I agree with what you mention about why is gratuitus violence quite acceptable in a game, but a little bit of "pr0n" and so many people get up-in-arms and hysterical (BTW: Best hope "Inquisitive Stranger" or "Jack Thompson" doesn't see this threadÃ,  , else you'll get the beat-down put upon ya. Hehehe. )

But really, go ahead and make the game the way YOU want to make it. I for one, hope you make it fully un-censored and with as much sex and/or violence as you want to put into it.Ã,  Heck, it's about time we see more game creators like you "pushing the edge" and introducing more, uhhh, "mature" elements like this into adventure games. I applaude you and much look forwards to seeing your project in action.Ã, 

Best wishes, and keep up da good work.Ã,  Oh, and welcome to the AGS community. Nice to see a "newbie" following da rulez as well as presenting us with such a wonderful looking project.

[Disco]

Quite interesting indeed. I love space games, though I'll have to play this late at night when everyone is asleep.

We join our intrepid crew as they return to New Trachtenberg for a simple little deal with the local lowlife (sorry, 'indigenous entrepreneurs').

New Trachtenberg? This indigenous entrepreneur wouldn't happen to Harriet the Spy, Mona, Wendy, or Dawn would they?

[cheeba]

You forgot Penny and Casey Carlysle

New Trachtenberg's the name of the city they're going to, and yeah, it's a reference to the lovely Michelle. Sorry to disappoint you, but na, she's not in it... I think. Plot details are a little sketchy on the specifics, as I like to go with the flow of the story and see where the characters take themselves. And I haven't ruled out a faux-cameo or two, they can be a laugh when they fit the story.

Coincidentally, before I started work on StarTrippers, I was planning on a Buffy adventure game centered around the continuing adventures of Dawn, but it never got further than a few concept sketches. And no, it didn't have any porn in it . It's not ruled out, just on the back burner for now.

@Barbarian: Yeah, that's all my own art, scanned in from sketches and digitally coloured in PSP. At the minute I'm learning my way around a few old animation shortcuts to keep the filesizes from getting too outrageous, but there's definitely going to be a decent volume of in-engine cutscenes, multi-angle scenes etc. I must be some kind of masochist . I gotta say, working on such a huge project does wonders for improving drawing and animation skills, I've shook off a lot of rust since I started, and learned a few tricks I could never have done before that.

Thanks to everybody for the cool welcome and great feedback so far, I can tell I'm going to like it here

[ginanubismon]

Freakin' awsome, Cheeba, a hentai game. Too bad not many had even concive the idea to make one despite it is one of my favorite genres (in fact it could be my very few favorite genres on the computer).

The screens look great, and the story sounds kind of cool too.

Keep up the good work and ignore anyone that goes "tht Po4n, you 6ist person ever" when they come.

[Sinister]

Ha hahahah!.. Fantastic.. it's about time someone did this. A few years ago i was going to release a Leisure Suit Larry type game, with comic relief, nudity sex and random violence.. but as life would have it, other projects took place and now it's only an idea in the back of my mind.

Anyways.. go ahead with this very interesting project and surprise us (not just porn-wise). It's nice to have someone rattle the cage once in a while! 8)

Waiting for this game..

Sin.

[Haddas]

MORE!

[Afflict]

Schweet, now this looks awesome.

...but it's always kinda ticked me off that people go up in arms over two people having consensual sex in a game, when you can run around in counterstrike shooting people in the head all day and nobody bats an eyelid. But that's a soapbox I'll save for another time.

Make love not war...

Anyway the game looks awesome cant wait for it to be released!

Keep up the good work

Afflict.

[Squinky]

I have to go to the bathroom for a bit now....don't bug me...

[skw]

Nice! Can't wait... um...

Can you PM me some uncensored shots please?

[buloght]

Can I be part of your research team    hehe. ... or wait I don't need to work on your game for that ...

The graphics quality looks amazing!!

[cheeba]

Phew, just had a narrow escape there. Was working through a new scene when my external HD crashed, and stayed crashed :'(. I lost a massive amount of old artwork and music, but luckily I'd backed up my AGS project folder (including all raw images and everything) only a couple of hours before on a hunch, so only one short scene was lost, which should be easily enough replaced

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to have a fit in the direction of the swines who sold me a bad HD...

[Barbarian]

Good saving that Cheeba! *Whew* Yes, I'm sure many of us here would feel about as upset as you if you lost all your work. *Desperately hoping to see more of your juicy screenshots soon - perhaps *uncensored*?Ã,  ).

But yes, one thing I've learned about using computers is to make regular backups of work. I for one, when I make significant additions or changes to a project I'm working on, I regularily make a backup copy to both my external and internal HD's.

Now, make sure you get a good working HD this time.
Best wishes, and good luck with your project.

*Barbarian goes and saves your game's screenshots to my "Sekrit AGS Fantasies" folder*Ã, 

[LimpingFish]

All us irish people are perverts. Its a little known, but very believable, fact. 

LimpingFish puts on his Gimp costume

[cheeba]

My Gimp costume's in the wash, I'm afraid

Update time again, with a rough mix of the title theme for you to check out. As usual, check the bottom of the top post for more.

[mastag83]

I would never expect someone to make a game like this, that's a good thing.

Also I really like the style of it, big anime fan here also the added features like making dent's on the wall from shooting sounds awesome and the story sounds very intresting. I can't forget those colorful scenes they only sweetin the deal.

This will be like a interactive anime but better.

All in all it will truly stand-out and I'm really looking forward to it.

Keep up the great work.

[Afflict]

Its looking good however i think the pin up needs some work  the legs look wierd.

[Ishmael]

I usually dislike everything even a little animeish. Just out of principal... But... I think I might even like this game.

[cheeba]

Cool, hope I don't disappoint ya there . Although the visual style's very anime, the characters and writing are going to be much more western in style.

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last couple of days, I've currently got my head buried in FL Studio, working on the soundtrack. So far it's been coming on pretty well, I'll have some updates on that front within the next day or two so you can judge for yourselves. As I always wanted the game to have a full soundtrack and don't fancy getting sued, I'm writing some original songs to go with the actual ingame score.

And afflict, yeah, you've got a point about those legs, the feet don't quite sit right . It'll be fixed one way or another for the first release demo.

[Cluey]

This game is foul, digusting and morally corrupt.

Naturally I can't wait

[HillBilly]

If you can match sex with a good story and gameplay, I'm impressed. Hopefully it won't end up like Lula 3D.

Right now I'll just wish you the best of luck.

[Kaelem Gaen]

Ooo, Nice looking game, same as Above,  and it would be nice to see a game like this that had a Censored version... like Knights of Xentar, and I'd be getting that...

Unless you have some hot Yaoi scenes in there....

If not. yay Censored.... and followed up by... "Where the Yaoi Cyberpunk Adventure games at?!"

But I digress,  The Art looks good, and I hope to play this game at sometime

[deftonesrule]

GET RID OF THE BLUR !!!!! SEND ME NON BLURRED VERSIONS !!!

[Disco]

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last couple of days, I've currently got my head buried in FL Studio, working on the soundtrack.

FL Studio? For most of the scenes you'll only need a guitar and autowah pedal .

I agree with Ishmael in that I find anime completely uninteresting..however, this game does look and sound just the opposite. I'd quite like to take this for a spin.

[ManicMatt]

"StarTrippers across the universe!"

Is "our friend's electric" a Gary Numan reference?

I'm not into the whole hentaii yaoi whatever you wanna call it stuff, but the artwork looks so good that I might check it out anyway.

[cheeba]

Yep, well spotted on the Numan reference there. I thought it was a catchy title.

And though the game does have some explicit sex/hentai scenes, rest assured that it doesn't revolve entirely around it. I hope . And unlike quite a lot of hentai, it's gonna be very much consensual, none of that nasty 'forced' stuff.

[Kaelem Gaen]

-blinks reading the words in one of the screen shots-  Okay,... I just noticed the "You said it sister   
Is that like an incest shot, or like that "You said it dude." cept calling her sister cause Dude is mainly ment for guys?

[Squinky]

It's slang. It dosen't always mean a sibling. She appears to be some sort of sex-android from the shots, so I doubt she is anyones relation.

[cheeba]

Pretty much exactly right. It's just slang, and yeah, she's a sex-bot of sorts (or at least starts out that way when we first meet her).

[Kaelem Gaen]

Ah okay then. 
I'm hoping again, that the game has more meat than sex, just cause you can find Porn games easily with some searching, but most of them have little to no story, and that is probably one of the larger Down falls of the the Adult Entertainment Industry.

[Afflict]

Like six of nine in tripping the rift

[Theeph]

Love your art cheeba. Just out of curiosity, what sort of time would you put into each cell?

I'm working on that anime feel atm, and the time factor really bites. Would love to know what it takes a pro like yourself.

Can't wait for the game. Sounds awesome. Story all the way.

[cheeba]

Time-wise, it's been a strain, yeah. The main "front standing" frame for an ingame chara usually takes about 20-30 minutes for a principal 'brainstorm' sketch (to settle on the basic look/build, jewellery/accessories and costume design), an hour for a refined inked sketch, and maybe another 2-3 hours for the colouring (although to be fair, a good portion of that time is spent deciding on the colour schemes for the chara). Full animation would take me the rest of my life, so for the conversation/interaction scenes the charas usually just have a static frame with 'talk' and 'blink' overlays, with cutaway and alternate angles here and there to take away the static feel. Where it's needed, animation is done using a mix of moving/scaling/rotating limbs, except where alternate frames are really needed (such as the case of hmm, bouncing bewbs or similar ), where they're drawn and coloured as individual sections and edited in place. I've played a lot of older commercial japanese anime games where charas do little more than blink and change expression occasionally, but I wanted a wee bit more than that. Backgrounds tend to take longer, as I'm not as well practiced and find it a real drag doing them, but still want to keep the layout interesting and not too generic.

As for cutscenes, I usually have one or another in mind mind for most of the day, thinking on camera angles, scripting tricks and shortcuts to get the point across with a minimal amount of resources. For example, when you first see the ship Shutterbug, it's crawling slowly across the screen, with an animated starfield in the BG blurring past, and alpha-blended speed/thrust lines blazing past the front of the camera at an ever faster rate. Coupled with some looped engine fx and a little bit of camera shake, it gives a fairly good illusion of speed without having to bog the filesize down with loads of extra frames or a pre-rendered animation.

And for people worrying about the sex getting in the way of the story, don't. In it's current state the game has one (quite lengthy) sex scene fairly early on, the rest of it's dedicated to the story and characters. It's highly unlikely to end up a 'sleep your way across the stars' kinda game, the sex in-game is more of a "look, it doesnt have to be a porno to have sex scenes" statement. I've played a few adult games before, and believe me, I'm taking care to avoid the common pitfalls there. Though luckily, most of them were so utterly, irredeemably awful that I'd be hard-pushed to do much worse

[ManicMatt]

I bet you like Red Dwarf, Cheeba!

As for sex scenes did you see the one in Fahrenheit?

Bouncing boobs? Like in every other videogame since dead or alive came out? I always "sigh" about such things and then find myself drooling.

[cheeba]

Yeah, quite a big Dwarf fan, especially the older series. Most of the 'nods' currently in the game weren't actually deliberate, until I stood back and noticed I had a ship called something-bug and the protagonist's dead best friend as a hologram, aiiiegh . So Cipher's being rewritten as a living, breathing crew member now, not least because I was kinda stuck with what to do with a holo that red dwarf hadn't done (and done better) before, and I couldn't make him a cyber, as another one joins the crew fairly shortly in, and it wouldn't really work.

I haven't actually played farenheit yet (though I've been dying to). About the only other sex scene in a mainstream game I could think of was in (the quite excellent) Mafia, though that was pretty brief.

Finally got a plot/story arc I'm happy with now anyway, and been keeping myself busy working on a massive amount of lineart for the first few scenes (new shots soon, once they're CG'ed). Most of the settings and narrative flow are in place now (at least in my head), I've just gotta work out a few more links between scenes in the intro and it'll just be a matter of getting it all done.

I know the demo's taking a while, but I wanted to give a good indication of the gameplay and style, and not just your typical quick "two rooms and a prayer" alpha test. At the current rate, the first release demo will be a beta version containing a good chunk (if not all) of the first episode. And once the script's refined enough, I'll start scouting around for voice talent. Provided, of course, that I can find someone game enough to play Cheri

[cheeba]

Minor update with a couple of new screenshots. Really getting stuck into development now, as there's still no end of stuff to trawl though. It's times like these you start to regret having a one-man team

[Squinky]

The newer art looks better, even without the pornage. How are things going on this?

[MalleTheRedPhoenix]

Yammi! 

Well the game looks good so far. But I hope that the pornography won't be the only reason to play this game. I hope that the story will be good also. I look forward for this game.

[cheeba]

It's on hold temporarily while I catch up with the backlog of stuff I've got to get through after returning from vacation. Initial release estimates may have been waay off track, but rest, assured it hasn't been scrapped. If there's much in the way of further delays I'll probably get a demo fixed together and released in the interim, just to avoid "nice screens, shame about the vapourware" syndrome.

[BunnyMilk]

I was looking forward to this

[cheeba]

Don't worry, it'll still be coming out . It's just with this being my first game, and quite an ambitious one at that, I really had no idea of the timeframe this kind of project takes to reach completion. Certain rooms, scenes and characters are already in a near-finished, playable state, but at the moment it's a little disjoined as the story elements and transitions between events have yet to be fully intergrated into the game.

[.Sklate.]

Hey Cheeba! Just take your time and work at it at your own pace It's not a good thing to be pressured into completing something resulting in an unpolished work and leaving you feeling too stressed out to enjoy the game-making process.

We'll wait for this game, wont we?

Cheers!

[nick.keane]

MORE SEX SCENES!!!
MORE SEX SCENES!!!
WHOOO-HOOO!!!


Looks like it's going to be a cool game. I love the anime artistic feel, especially the picture of the city, and of that shady guy in the corner, and of.. um... yep. Looks good. Looks good to me

[Arcangel]

What happ with this game??

[Privateer Puddin']

Gonna be released any day now..

(Hi Darth)

[Darth Mandarb]

Hi Puddin'!

This might be a record. Almost 12 years between posts.

cheeba you haven't logged in to the forums in almost 11 years but if you want to post an update do let me know!

Arcangel pretty please check the dates on threads before posting to them, k thanks!