TestGame (working title) -- UPDATED 10/11/08

Started by Lizo, Wed 28/06/2006 01:42:31

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Lizo

The story:
Paul is a typical young man who, as far as he knows, has never once traveled outside his own universe.  A young woman who awakens Paul in the middle of one stormy night, however, seems to think otherwise.  This strange visit soon leads Paul to stumble out of his front door and right into the middle of another world, with the promise of adventure and self-discovery in store.

The game's actually much more interesting than I've just made it sound, but saying more than I already have would give things away.  You can expect to see plot twists in the future, involving Paul's identity and his relationships with the characters around him.  As for the title, I've been referring to this game as "TestGame" since its beginning, when it really was a "test game," though it has since evolved into something much bigger.

Screenshots:







Progress in first 1/4 of the game:
  - backgrounds 95%
  - animation 80%
  - scripting 100%
  - puzzles 100%
  - music/sound 40%

Progress in second 1/4 of the game:
  - backgrounds 70%
  - animation 50%
  - scripting 90%
  - puzzles 100%
  - music/sound 0%

Progress in the rest of the game: 0%

Projected length: Medium/long.

Release date: Indeterminate.  I've been working on this game in the background for over two years now (make that close to four years), and it has certainly come a long way, but is nowhere near completion.

Try the game out and read my monthly game production journal here, on GameCola:
http://www.gamecola.net/7-10/testgame.htm

jetxl

#1
Wow, that looks impressive. I'll read your articles when I have some time.
I hope that you're not making the game into a monster, being a "testgame" and all. But that doesn't matter as long as you're having fun making it.

I see that there is a black button in the gui that changes the cursor in the active item.
manual
Quote
The default option is the Sierra-style pop-up inventory window, which is popped up by clicking on the Bag icon on the icon bar (which uses the text script InventoryScreen function to display it). You can also have the current inventory item displayed in its own button on the icon bar by creating a button on the GUI and setting its text to (INV) which stretches the item picture to the button size, or (INVNS) which draws the inventory item picture straight onto the button with no resizing. Finally, (INVSHR) , probably the best option, will draw it at actual size if it will fit, or shrink it if not.

Lizo

Thanks for your interest. :) This monster is a lot of fun to work on--I would've stopped a looong time ago if it wasn't.

Quote from: jet on Wed 28/06/2006 11:36:45
I see that there is a black button in the gui that changes the cursor in the active item.

That's actually something I was just wondering about!  I only recently changed the gui icon bar to have my own buttons on it, and I knew that's what that box was for but hadn't had a chance to look too far for a solution yet.  Rest assured it'll be fixed in the next installment. :)


Sam.

This looks really good! A really great start.


PS. Are you Lizo off of newsround?
Bye bye thankyou I love you.

Steel Drummer

Wow! Looks LucasArts-y  ;). Welcome to the forums. Hope you release this soon.
I'm composing the music for this game:



m0ds

Looking good! I'll be testing this the first chance I get :)

Lizo

#6
Woo! More responses!  Thanks everyone, this place is cool. :D

Quote from: Zooty on Wed 28/06/2006 13:36:43
PS. Are you Lizo off of newsround?

Nope!  I must ashamedly admit that I acquired the name Lizo after my friends heard about that Lizo though....


Quote from: yodaman11111 on Wed 28/06/2006 16:36:24
Wow! Looks LucasArts-y  ;). Welcome to the forums. Hope you release this soon.

It's funny that you should say that--I'm a big fan of LucasArts games, but I've only actually been playing them for a few years.  I'm a Sierra girl at heart, and I've been trying to make this game a mixture of both worlds (LucasArts-style dialogue and humor, Sierra-like deaths (a la KQ7) and interface design).

I wouldn't get your hopes up about the game being released any time soon, but I update regularly every month and will update here as well. :)

Domino

Nice work on the graphics, i'll be looking forward to playing this one.  :)

m0ds

Music is at a pretty low percentage - who's working on it?? :)

Lizo

Quote from: m0ds on Thu 29/06/2006 17:42:06
Music is at a pretty low percentage - who's working on it?? :)

Haha, I was wondering if someone was gonna ask me that.  Technically, I am!  I just haven't started the actual "working on it" part yet. ;)  I'll push it towards the top of my todo list though, so hopefully there'll be something resembling music before the summer's over.

Darkmaster400

This looks like Monkey Island with a Super Eagle version ran in ScummVM.. :P
Good work!! Really looking forward to it..  :)
Games Process :
---------------------
Mick Fitz Episode 1 :

Story : |----------| 0 %
Graphics : |----------| 10 %
Sound/Music : |---------| 10 %
Scripting : |----------| 0 %

----------------------------------------

BunnyMilk

#11
Wow...That's looking slick! I really hope you complete this 'cause it's looking hella nice!...I mean all I can see right now is screenshots, don't have time to try out the link but it's looking very proffessional so well done with that. OnceÃ,  I get home I'll be checking that link out though...

EDIT:
Right well I downloaded and played it but there's a few things...Firstly let's say something nice. The graphics are downright sleek and they look bloody excellent.

Now onto a few things I didn't particularly like. Inconsistencies in the voice acting. Also whenever someone spoke you could hear the on off of the microphone and the feedback/squeeling whatever was going on which did my head in a little bit at the beginning. I got used to it but I still thought I should mention it...

Lastly, Paul walks at a complete crawl. Games get a bit tedious when it takes 10 minutes to make your way from one end of the room to the other and of course I am exaggerating but still I think you get the idea. There's just a "Find the difference between walking unnaturally fast and unnaturally slow."

Other than that..."Great!" I still hope you complete this because it looks nice.
Love x

Lizo

First off, thanks so much for your feedback!

Regarding the voice acting: I know the sound quality isn't exactly top notch, and the squealing, as you put it, is definitely something I've noticed, and have basically just learned to live with for now until I can figure out how to fix it.  Some of the inconsistancies you noticed probably have to do with the fact that the files have been recorded over a period of a year, using various recording devices.  Other inconsistancies within a particular character's voice (Artie and the Vine, for instance) come from one person recording all the lines in one session, and the voice changing as the session progressed.  Ideally, I would like to get well-prepared voice actors into a recording studio and have them produce multiple takes of each line so that I could pick and choose what worked best.  This is pretty much always the case with Paul's lines (except for the recording studio bit) but I've quite frankly been scrambling for voice actors recently, with Artie, the Vine, and Thurston all being recorded quickly and added in the last month.

Regarding Paul's walk: If you think he walks slowly now, you should've seen him last year.  I've definitely had this complaint before, and I guess it's time to up Paul's speed again ;).  You can also hit ESC while Paul's walking to make him jump to his destination.

And thanks for the compliment about the graphics. :)  They're only gonna get better from here.

BunnyMilk

Ahh I didn't know about hitting ESC. And understandably this is an independant game so my comments on the voice acting...I'm not trying to say "OH MY GOD HOW UNPROFFESSIONAL OF YOU!"...I understand that it's not easy to pull something like that off. If it didn't come across in my last post I am actually saying that this is a very cool game.
Love x

Lizo

Haha, yeah, I understand what you mean.  Well, we'll see what happens!

Also, I guess it's time to make a readme file; the hitting ESC thing is probably something I should be telling people about.  But I'll still make Paul walk faster. :)

Lizo

A new update of the game is now online.Ã,  Significant improvements include the addition of some music, prettier GUIs, and the ability to go farther in the story (including a new puzzle).Ã,  See the original post for a progress update and a new link to download the game so far.Ã,  :)


Josh R

This looks very nice. I like the art style.

A�rendyll (formerly Yurina)

I really like what's on the screenshots (especially the Pirates of the Carribean-like poster :P).

I will download the demo right away, I definitly like to see it!

Good luck with this game,
~Yurina
Yuna: Give me a Y!
Rikku: Give me an R!
Paine: Give me a break...
~Final Fantasy X-2

I've been

Lizo

Another updated version of the game is online (still far from finished as you can see, but it's trudging along).  Additions include two new cutscenes, a quasi-puzzle, and work on the backgrounds.  See the original post for a current link to the game.  Feel free to ignore the bulk of the production article this month--it's a little... bizarre, to say the least.

Lizo

Today is the day of updating.  There's hardly any new stuff (some new music, background work, and some more bonus dialogue).  I'm seriously considering taking the voice acting out, so if anyone has any input with regards to that, feel free to let me know.

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