The Third Circuit - Part One (now with a couple of new photos)

[Adder]

‘THE THIRD CIRCUIT - PART ONE' 
Mystery and Adventure amidst the skyways and neon glow of a concrete future
   
   

In the sprawling vertical city of Ultraville, Johnny Cego is looking for a box of chocolates and a bottle of wine with which to surprise his girlfriend, Eve.  Little does he know that this harmless surprise visit will completely alter his life forever, plunging him into a web of corporate espionage and robotic crime he'd previously only read about in his pulpy magazines.

‘The Third Circuit' is a cyberpulp murder-mystery.  The game features:

• Proper 320x200 resolution, without the jarring mixed-resolution issues I'd accidentally originally worked into it
• Hand painted backgrounds
• Which have been heavily pixelated.
• A ‘classic-though-hopefully-still-with-new-bits' sci-fi setting
• A split-inventory system which allows the player to collect the odd bottle of wine in addition to more ephemeral things such as ‘clues'
• An evocative, loopy soundtrack
• And what the creator hopes is an enjoyable level of humour.

‘The Third Circuit' will be released in a series of chapters over the coming, well, let's be honest, 'while' (is that honest enough?).

This game has been in-production for almost two years and I thought it was high-time I posted it on the forum â€" the first part (including what I hope will be the steepest part of the learning curve) is almost ready.  Having said that, I've been saying that to myself for almost two years now so…  Soon, I hope.

Progress:
Story: 100%
Backgrounds: 95%
Character animations: 90%
Music: In my only properly successful delegation to date, I've got a talented artist working on this and I'd estimate it's about 50%
Sound: The above-mentioned artist is also working on the sound FX, let's say 30%
Scripting: 90%

I hope to have a website live in the very near future.  In the meantime,

I've set up a facebook page, where I'll be posting a few things: The Third Circuit on facebook


I hope I've piqued your interest.  Thanks for reading.

UPDATE 9/12/2013
I've added a couple of new photos to this post.  I'm still working away on the game - all the backgrounds now have moving bits, woo!

[ThreeOhFour]

The mixed resolution is a bold decision, and one which will probably gain you some heavy criticism. I personally think it looks ok (though would be interested to see what the game looks like at pure resolutions of either 320x or whatever the chars are at).

The colour palettes are absolutely stunning, and I really love the atmosphere they bring. Beautiful work. Cyberpulp is an excellent genre that needs more games, and to see this one so close to completion has me very intrigued!

[Armageddon]

Looks amazing. Was wondering when I'd see those backgrounds again. I agree, the mixed resolution is weird but could work okay.

[Secret Fawful]

What a unique art style! There needs to be more games that look this good!

[Adder]

Thanks for the encouragement guys! 
I'm afraid I'm so new to this (bar a couple of years of chipping away at this project) that I didn't even think of mixed resolution - I just scan it in and pixelate it a bit.  This does mean the characters get a little (sometimes a lot) less pixellated as they scale down but I couldn't think of a way around it.  Also, the sprites are still unfinished in these screens, so perhaps it will improve...  Thanks for drawing my attention to it.

[ThreeOhFour]

It could be because you have "smooth scale sprites" option on - although the hotspot text and cursor image betray your game's actual resolution anyway. If you're not too worried about it, leave it. Cart Life has mixed resolutions on purpose and looks magnificent.

[JSH]

Wow, looking great, love me a cyberpunk game Looking forward to this!

[Ilyich]

LOVE the look of it - excellent, interesting colour choices, intense amount of detail and a charming hand-painted feel. And there can never be too many cyberpunk games. Colour me excited!

[Eric]

I don't even fully understand what mixed resolution means, but I know that this looks lovely. Moreso than the art is beautiful, it's atmospheric. I get a sense of your world, just from these two images.

[Stupot]

Looks wicked, Adder.  Consider my interest piqued. Best of luck, man.

[Trapezoid]

Thanks for the encouragement guys! 
I'm afraid I'm so new to this (bar a couple of years of chipping away at this project) that I didn't even think of mixed resolution - I just scan it in and pixelate it a bit.  This does mean the characters get a little (sometimes a lot) less pixellated as they scale down but I couldn't think of a way around it.  Also, the sprites are still unfinished in these screens, so perhaps it will improve...  Thanks for drawing my attention to it.

So your game's at 640x480, but you're "pixelating" it to low-res quality before loading it in AGS?

[Armageddon]

Thanks for the encouragement guys! 
I'm afraid I'm so new to this (bar a couple of years of chipping away at this project) that I didn't even think of mixed resolution - I just scan it in and pixelate it a bit.  This does mean the characters get a little (sometimes a lot) less pixellated as they scale down but I couldn't think of a way around it.  Also, the sprites are still unfinished in these screens, so perhaps it will improve...  Thanks for drawing my attention to it.

So your game's at 640x480, but you're "pixelating" it to low-res quality before loading it in AGS?

Yeah that sounds kind of not good. You should let AGS scale it up with nearest neighbor.

[Adder]

Haha - I see what you mean now!  I'll see what I can do.  Whoops.

Also, Armageddon, I wanted to say thanks for remembering the sketches from all that time ago.

[qptain Nemo]

Personally, I don't like the palette of the game much.
BUT
I still very much appreciate the unique look and looking forward to discovering more of it in the game. There's little I like more than games that look, feel and play like nothing else. And to me cyberpunk and adjacent genres are like home. So you've definitely piqued my interest. Good luck with finishing it.

[RetroJay]

Hi Adder.

I love the look and feel of your game.

I am with Eric

I don't even fully understand what mixed resolution means

Can someone please enlighten us?

Jay.

[Trapezoid]

The backgrounds and NPCs seem to be pixelated, but the main character, text and cursor are not. Those screencaps are 640x480. The backgrounds are 320x240, scaled up x2, which looks jarring against the elements that are not x2.

[RetroJay]

Thanks Trapezoid.

I see it all now... some of it.

Jay.

[Adder]

Thanks again for the feedback everyone.

Thanks Trapezoid for the explanation, I now work to fix it - let the learning curve continue!

[Wicked]

wow looks great kinda reminds me of that cartoon heavy metal

[Adeel]

Excellent artwork, Adder. Looking forward to play your game. Your backgrounds look close to reality. Btw, I have a question: Will your game be commercial or free?