Topic: My Burden to Keep - A novella-length adventure game [Still alive!]

[CoffeeBob]

15th of August, 2012: MBTK is still alive and well! Check the third page for visual goodies!


MBTK is a novella-length, point and click adventure game that revolves around the murder of a smaller city's mayor in the early 1940's.

The mayor has been shot dead and the prime suspect is his closest friend, Gottfried Heinrich, whom was supposedly seen fleeing from the mayor's mansion very early in the morning. You take on the role as renowned detective Francis Dale and the murder suspect's son, Gabriel, as they both search for the missing soup kitchen cook Gottfried.
What really happened after last night's cocktail party at the mayor's? Did the kind, caring and tragic Gottfried really murder the only person in town who showed him any respect? Who will find the murder scene escapee first, and what is in that hidden safe?

Find all of this out in this short but story-heavy adventure game, available free to download soon!

SCREENSHOTS:



PROGRESS:
Story: 100%
Scripting: 90%
Graphics: 80%
    Revised backgrounds: 6/9 finished
Audio: 25%

The game is actually more or less finished, interaction and scenery-wise. It's just missing these two (very important) things;
 * Final character sprite designs and animations to go with them.
 * Some ambient music to make the game less eerily silent.
If anyone would like to lend a hand with these things, I'd appreciate it greatly! The game's not far from release, but seeing as how I'm not an expert in these last two areas, a helping hand would bring release day closer than just "when it's done."

For regular updates on the game's progress, keep a lookout in this thread, or visit the blog on my website; http://perdiv.com/news-blog/

[Timo.]

I must say that this game sounds and looks deliciously interesting to me! Looking forward to its release.

(Anyway I really wonder how you got the name Gottfried, was it purely random? Or was it out of inspiration? It sounds awfully familiar but I just can't put a finger to where I saw it before)

[CoffeeBob]

Thanks a lot, Timo! I'm glad you like what I've got so far!

Gottfried was picked partly out of the blue, and partly because of its meaning. I think you'll find in the finished product that it fits the character pretty well.

[Matti]

This looks very nice! Looking forward to it.

[Buckethead]

Very nice. Those character sprites look great already.

btw

Francis York Morgan, best game character ever.   

[Anian]

Looks nice and as mentioned, you could keep those sprites as they are.
Are those painted over 3d modeled rooms?

[Stupot+]

Gorgeous backgrounds, and the sprites are ace too.  The GUI could do with some tarting up, though.
All the best getting this polished off, man.

[CoffeeBob]

Thanks a lot for all the comments, guys! They're greatly appreciated.

Buckethead: Thanks! I'll probably spice them up a bit and use them in the game. Animating will be a different story though...
Francis York Morgan is an awesome character.

anian: They sure are! I rendered the scenes in Maya with an ambient occlusion shader, then reduced the colors and painted over it, for a classic-ish feel.

Stupot: Many thanks! I'll see what I can do about the GUI.

[Cleanic]

A pleasant suprise

[TheRoger]

My favorite AGS style  , though, I don't don't do anything in it. Nice screens, waiting for more news.

[Dualnames]

It looks really good, the graphics are made in 3d of course, but I believe they fit the characters in a quite awesome way. So well done for that.

[cianty]

Very cool! The style fits the 2D character spritely suprisingly nicely.

[CoffeeBob]

Another bunch of great comments, thanks guys!

I'm glad you find that the styles don't clash with each other. I'll do my best to keep them in harmony.

Not a lot of news to report yet. I'll try to get some sprite work done during the week. I've gotten used to using my tablet for pixelling, but of course I left it at my apartment..

[J.H]

Love the look of this, story heavy is like music to my ears (well, eyes). I feel many adventure games strangely lack an immersive narrative.

[theo]

Story sounds cool and the sprites look great!

Mind those floor reflections on the first screen, they're all bonkers. (why not just render them?)

[CoffeeBob]

Slightly: Thanks man! It'll be a short game, but hopefully it'll satisfy peoples' story hunger.

theo: Thanks a lot!
Oh yeah, I totally forgot about the floor, thanks for reminding me! I just threw them in there to give the scene a bit more depth. I think I'll replace the floor entirely with wooden boards.


A quick update for you all; I haven't had the chance to work a lot on this lately, what with the last course of the year starting last Monday and all. I did get the chance to do just a little bit of pixelling characters today though. Here's a mockup of what the interrogation scene looks like with proper, sitting characters.

Some things are still a bit wonky, like Gabriel's arms (guy on the right side). At least I have a base to work with now for the rest of the scene.

[splat44]

Great graphics!

I am wondering what the character is holding in his hand?(third screenshot)
It looks like some kind animal(rabbit or something else)

Regards

[CoffeeBob]

Thank you, splat44!

That's no rabbit though, I just happened to place the 'Walk To'-icon right by his hand. It does look a bit funny now that you mention it.

[Arj0n]

Great artwork, impressive!

[Mods]

Looks wonderful, best of luck with your game!