"In Space". Good? Bad? Scary?

[Dan_N]

Feel free to judge me or my game.
Also feel free to ask me anything about myself and my game

Hello.
Yep. I'm still working hard on my game, "In Space".
Let me remind you about what this game is supposed to be about:

The action takes place in our future, near the end of the XXIst century.
The EFSS [note:Earth Federation Space Ship] Voyageur, the first Earth ship sent on an exploration mission will launch today to explore the outer regions of our solar system and try out the first hyperdrive engine that will allow the exiting of the Solar System.
You are doctor John Flannighan, the ship's psychologist. This is your first mission on boad a space ship.
In Space is supposed to be a horror Sci-Fi adventure game in which a psychotic man, who's no more than a victim of a cruel society, who has arrived here from another dimension (who's story will be revealed during the game) terrorises the Voyageur. The weapon I chose for him is the double barrelled shotgun, but I can change it if I get any better sugestions.
More details will be revealed later.

Now, for some artwork...
I'm now going to show you John's apartment, which is just a room in which the intro begins. I promise to work on it if I get any sugestions, but keep in mind that I tried to make as "in perspective" as I possibly could.



And I would also like to state, for the record, that naming the main character John, making him the ship's psychologist and other coincidences with 7 Days a Skeptic are intentionally put there to bring tribute to Yahtzee (who's to me the best adventure game creator) and to enforce the following statement:
"I was inspired by Yahtzee's game, 7 Days a Skeptic."
I don't and never did intend to rip off the game. Ok?

[Theeph]

Hi. Your idea sounds cool and I loved 7DAS too.

My crit:

Voyageur is actually spelt "Voyager". Unless of course you mean it as the French word Voyageur meaning "traveller". If this is the case you should change EFSS to VSFT (vaisseau spatial de fédération de la terre), otherwise it might just look mispelled. Or include some backstory to dodge this. Anyway, just sayin.

The weapon - I think one of the scariest things about 7DAS was that you're on board a big ship with loads of tech, but you're being hunted by some crazy guy with a massive knife. It might be hard for you to get him to terrorise with a shotgun, because it's kind of immediate. Loud bang = dead. Might be worth investigating other things that the crazy guy would use. He's from another dimension so a double barrelled shotgun might be a bit banal.

What about some sort of wild extradimensional sword that can cut through anything? Or if you want to use a gun, how about a funky looking handgun that hurts like hell but needs two or three shots to kill someone, so they can complain before they die? Just a thought.

As for your art, I like the room and I'll get to it but first a tip - I'm pretty sure you shouldn't post it with such a huge black space. And also it's in jpeg which, due to compression, messes up your nice crisp image and makes it hard to edit.

Anyway, here's a quick repaint of your room. I'm pretty sure I left your drawing as it was (I like it). I just changed the colours to give it a more 'gritty' feel. It should still be under 256 colours - I hope you're not using a pallete less than that. If so then ignore

If you're using ms paint, you can define your own colours by double clicking on a colour you don't use and redefining what colour that is (I think. Haven't used it in a while).



x2



Hope this is helpful! Keep it up

[ThreeOhFour]

Yeah, I second the motion for cooler weapon. If I were a pyschotic person, I would wanna use a cool weapon that is so much freakier than a double barelled shotgun. Using a double barrelled shotgun is so... ordinary. Chainsaws have been done to death but are still cool... an old plank with nails hammered in the end with a couple of bloodstains would do the trick - I think for psychos crude is pretty cool. Why can't he just get an old fence picket, load it up with nails and then go crazy? No reloading, no ammo, and having someone shoot the character in the back will be way less freaky than a naily-plank weilding psycho dropping through the ceiling onto their head, knocking the character to the floor and then bludgeoning him to death. Extra points if he licks the blood off his weapon once he's done.

Artist's Impression:



Oh wow. I am bored, aren't I? I really should be working on my game. But, anyway, when describing this guy to you I just HAD to sprite him - I call it practise, but its really just more proof that the potion of life getting + 7 that I had such faith in probably wasn't as effective as I'd hoped. I'd change the pastel colours for darker ones - for examples of VERY excellent colouring, refer to examples by the likes of ProqZmax, Big Brother, Krysis (and he's getting very damn good too!), Mordalles and MashPotato. There are heaps of other good colourers out there as well, so keep yer blinkers peeled.

[Mikko]

According to your perspective the corridor went to wrong direction. I tried to correct it and in the same time recolor the image a bit (you have used quite strong colors which might lead characters and objects being distracted by bg).

One thing to point out is that you have quite a little floor space and that will make placing things (like the table/bed) and your character in the room. That is easy to fix though, since you have space for extra room.

300%

As you can see, I didn't touch the objects in wall, so now they strike out too much, but that is up to you to correct if you find my image usefull.

[Dan_N]

Ok, I appreciate all sugestions and comments, but I would like to explain myself. Theepf, I did indeed mispell, but you gave me an ideea. I wanted to put in some foreign characters, so I'll make this ship an american-french effort. Thus the name "Voyageur" not "Voyager". Now, that brings me to the ship's background:
Because the Americans had the most money (yeah, that's right, those guys still have all the freakin power) they kept NASA alive and extended it to ISP (International Space Program) and then to IPSP (Interplanetary Space Program) that produced common space ships for transport. Anyway, after countless years failed prototypes, the ship was almost completed, but there was just one thig missing: the hyperdrive engine. Fortunately, the French had, in secret, built a working hyperdrive engine. So, all the French wanted in exchange was to name the damn thing and to have one of their own on board (although I don't know yet who it'll be yet, please help...). Hence "Voyageur".

Is that sufficient for an explanation?

Now, for the psycho.
I'm going to spoil my revealing in the game about this guy, but here's his story and keep in mind that other dimensions can be very similar to our own:
He was nothing more than policeman, serving and protecting in a dimension ravaged by war. The humans and the korgyn, an alien race, are at an all-out war, Earth being destroyed (sucks, huh?). So, back to our cop. He served on a high-tech space station which housed almost 100,000 colonists, some good, some bad. Anyway, long story short, he's framed for murder of the station's magistrate. He goes into hiding, he's discovered by the korgyn and forced into slavery. AFter this, he's forced to fight in the Korhal Games (kind of the games of the Romans). Keep in mind that the korgyn are much less technologically advanced, they're kind of at the level where we are today. He keeps fighting for almost ten years and during this period he goes insane. After one game, his last, when he murders all the other gladiators and kills the korgyn emperor and the guards sent after him, he steals a double barelled shotgun and enough ammo to last him about two AGS games . He then is caught and shot into space through a hyperdrive portal. After that he ends up near some freak event (kind of something like a black hole) and then ends up (somehow) in a crate in our dimension and falls asleep. That crate was labeled "Computer parts" and was on an american transporter which will dock a certain ship after it's computers go on the fritz .

And that's his story, that's why he's a psychotic man that sees everyone as a korgyn, and why he uses a shotgun. Still think I should change him?

And now the room.
That corridor in the back shouldn't have been a corridor, but a kitchen that heads to the right. Besides that, does the rest of the perspective stuff sit well with you guys?
Oh, and the bed is the rectangular thing in the front. And John doesn't need space to move because all he's gonna do is sit there, turn arround a bit, say some stuff, and then exit and enter the title screen.

[jetxl]

Maybe you could add more frensh crew members, so there is a conflict and distrust between nationalities.
And instead of a policeman you could turn it into a soldier who uses a tool to remove an organ out of the victims, which is part of his death ritual back home.

[Dan_N]

Ok, I've noticed that, lately, nobody's been paying attention to this topic, but I got new stuff and a new change of story.
First of all, here's a new room: the shuttle that's going to take John and his crewmates to the Voyageur. (GIF)

Notice that I've left a point in the middle of the screen so that you can evaluate perspective more easily. Almost everything goes kind of to that point, right?

I've also got a new character, the shuttle's pilot, who's actually a long lost friend of John's and will ask him to search for the crewmates.
1x

2x


I also have a completely new story.
How about this:
SPOILER:
The crew dawns the Voyageur. Everything's fine for the first day (they don't find anything in space - at least not yet ). During the night, two of the crewmembers fall in love and have, well... you know (but I won't show that! God no!) I'll show them on the bed, completely clothed and not talking "dirty stuff", and lift up the view to two strange beings on the roof, thus what the two lovers will be doing will be completely hidden and the game won't be labeled dirty (I assure that no sex scenes or nudity will be present, mayb ejust some mild suggestive dialog, but that's it). What the crewmembers are doing disgust the "visitors" and then they head to another quarter. There, they see a crewmember playing a very violent video game and this two disgust the "visitors", thus they label the human race as being worse than animals and completely worthy of extermination.
These visitors are aliens, of course, a race I like to call korgyn, although very similar to the Aliens (the movie) and Abuse's (a platform pc game) aliens.
The korgyn visitors then call for "backup" and start laying eggs all over the lower decks. Then, they expand and start killing crewmembers. By now, of course, the crew, including John, have suited up and are ready for action. This brings us to somwhat of a shooting scene that I'll try to make, if I won't succed, then I'll make it a cutscene.
End spoiler
That's the new story, what do you think? Good? Bad? Scary?

Oh, and by the way, as I'm sure some of you have noticed, sometimes large quantities of blood and gore make the some players quite squemish and easy to scare, so they'll be plenty of that. And to add to that, they'll be a scene (SPOILER) where one korgyn will taste human blood (this will be at the beginning) and then all the aliens will develope quite an apetitte for human blood and organs, if you know what I mean (yuck! bad game maker, bad!). (End spoiler, phew!)

I've also added into the story crew mates of different nationalities so as to add to the conflict, I've even made the helmsman cybernetically enhanced, so that the others (who feel a bit inferior) always argue with him.

Oh, brainstorm, brainstorm!
Here's the crew (the main crew, without security gooms, or maintenance people, 'cause they'll die quickly) - no images (Spoiler?:
Captain Paul Streizer (American) - The captain graduated top of his class, but now, as he is close to retirement, tries to get buddy-buddy with the crew and sometimes (very rare) acts quite senile (doctors fear it's a condition). All his relatives (including wife and kids) have died in strange accidents, so he's ready to sacrifice himself to save the young crew, because, they're "just starting out" and have "all their lives ahead of them".
First Officer Michael Steinhardt (German born in America) - A rigid fellow who won't stand for disobediance. Rumors have it that on his previous assignment, he shot two crewmates who had breakfast on the command deck and left bread crums on the floor, despite direct orders from Steinhardt. The Federation court dismissed the charges, due to lack of evidence from the accusation's lawyer (although rumor has it that he was heard on his way to court saying that he finally had the last nail for Steinhardt's coffin).
Security Officer Sara Lab (American) - Sara also graduated top of her class with the highest grade (10/10), but she is less of a stiff than senile (sometimes) Paul. She is known to fall easily in love due to this. Her nature is also very squeamish. Those who envy her say that that's probably why she's became a security officer, to send other people do the killing and protecting.
Helmsman Conner Reilly (British) - This fellow had more steel in him than a bullet has led! Conner was born disfunctional (hideous even, some might say), and, although his parents accepted this, he did not and after they died he went out and had numerous modification made to his body including giant, cybernetic parts implanted. The other crew members look at him and think that the operation marks on him are from seeing to much action, but they do not know that it's actually from implants and plastic surgery. Although he is 200% efficient, the others often argue with him and mistreat him. john think that this is because they feel inferior.
Communications and Lingwistics Officer Lara Robertson (British) - Lara cares very much about languages, because she knows almost all the Earth languages, most of the Martian (and by MARTIAN I mean people, humans living on Mars) dialects and some alien dialects too. She is quite a studdy bug and spends most of her free time reading books, either human or alien. She quite reserved and Paul can't stand that so he often tricks her into spending more time with the crew.
Engineer Alex Johnson (American) - Alex is quite the clown, despite his excellent abilities. He started out just like a mechanic, fixing regular and hover vehicles on Mars, with dad a miner and mom a cooking lady at the miner's canteen. Then, young Alex got a break and went to Earth to a study a bit at a University, but was kicked out for tricking the dean into eating something really nasty (I won't comment on this further). When he returned to Mars and told his parents, his dad died of a heart attack and his mother was deeply dissapointed and fell into a depression. She later commited suicide. Alex, after that worked and studied his way out of Mars and forgot the pain he lived. That's how he landed a job on the Voyageur.
Engineer Jean Rene (French) - The French engineer sent down, and the only one who knows how to operate the French hyperdrive. The other engineer tries to learn more about the French equipment but Rene (which is called by his family name - Rene, not Jean) doesn't let him and even sleeps next to the drive. In turn Rene also tries to steal the Americans' secrets and bring them back home, so that the French can start their own Federation. This brings much mistrust among the American and French crew, so the two engineers often get into arguments.
Physician Lyn Martia (Japanese born in America) - Lyn is a top physician and knows everthing there is to know about the human condition. She also studied psychology but didn't persue a carrier, so her and John seldom have a type of argument where they test each other's limits and abilities. Actually all the other crewmembers say that if John wasn't here, they'd all go to Lyn for help.
Counsellor John Flannighan (Scottish born in America) - John's past is a little hazy, because his ancestors were the Scottish clan McFlannighan, but they moved America circa 1900s and changed the family name to Flannighan. It is said that the family experienced many deaths in Scotland due to some curse that left only one child for each generation despite efforts. John's childhood was a troubled one, as his father abandoned him and his mother when he was only 8. After that, at the age of 10, he lost his mother to cancer (yes, in the future the dang thing still isn't cured). He lived in an orphanage until the age of 16 when he ran away to Mars with his brother, Mark who was 12 at the the time. They both worked in the mines, John extracting ore and Mark delivering water to the workers. Then, when John was 18, his brother died in a mine shaft collapse. John then joined the high-school for "gifted" children and received a merit schollarship at 21, going to the Martian University of Psychology in New Washington. He studied psychology thoroughly unti lthe age of 25 and learned, in four years, what others would've learned in ten years. He then started to go from ship to ship, assignment to assignment and earned much respect and prestige as a top psychiatrist.
He then met a girl, they fell depely in love and married, but on their honeymoon, while they were flying to the Bahamas, a cabin depressure accident caused the death of Linda, John's wife, although he survived. She was bearing their first child.
The other crewmembers say that it's because John experienced so much grief in his life, that he's a top and trusted counsellor.
That's it.

Please commment.

And I also have a question: how do I animate GIFs so that I may post the walkcycles?