Neofeud

[AnasAbdin]

Just shows all the love, research and hard work you put into this!

I totally agree
I also like to see the 'cancelled' stages as well. Keep up the good work

[SilverSpook]

Thanks Cassie and Anas!  More to come for sure.

[Blondbraid]

The last GIF looks cool!
Saving up material for a complementary art-book for the game?

[SilverSpook]

@Blondbraid: I have actually been considering creating a graphic novel / comic book version of Neofeud.  It's been a ton of work and a whole lot of it has been creating these unusually large art pieces.  I have heard from some fans that they may not have the time to play the entire game but love the Neofeud artwork and concept, and I'd like to be able to let them experience the story and visuals without necessarily having to install and play a Sierra/Lucas Arts-style point-n-click adventure game. 

An art book sounds like a cool concept actually, and I am planning to create some prints / stickers / merchandise for an upcoming comic book convention (which has a rather sizable, and always growing artists' alley).  In all sincerity, I am taking suggestions for ideas of potential uses / products that could be made using Neofeud's two years or so of work.

One final thing: is anyone interested in starting / doing / helping me figure out this whole podcasting thing?  I have recorded a lot of videos, music, etc. in my time, but never done a podcast, and it seems like an awesome thing to do nowadays, both for fun and exposure for your projects.  I understand a lot of these podcasts are 'two-person-duo' type affairs, and so if anyone is interested in potentially being a partner with 'ol Silverspook, let me know.

Oh, and here's a repost of the sky palace 'process gif', for context. 

[CrashPL]

A graphic novel/comic book based on a video game is always welcome. Besides, ever thought of doing such comic/novel with some background information/story/world and places description and bundling it with the digital version with the game? I always loved this kind of stuff, especially in Ultima games - reading such included things made me excited, before even installing the game! And seeing the game's story and setting is already interesting, I'd love to learn more about it.

Art book (or a digital art dump) is a great idea as well. You already have lots of different material to work with, including drafts, sketches, finished backgrounds/characters, as well as step-by-step screenshots, plus I bet there's much more behind-the-scenes stuff. I'm sure it would be exciting to look at too.

[SilverSpook]

Thanks for the feedback CrashPL!  I'll look into the graphic novel and the bundling of Neofeud-related world materials with the game for sure.  Perhaps the extras could serve as a reward for pre-ordering.

[SilverSpook]

"There are no flawed people in paradise!"

Neofeud, coming to a fascist-topia near you.

Anyway, here's another process-piece to show development of yet another scene.  Don't want to give too much away to avoid spoilers but let's just say you don't want to wind up in this particular facility. 

[Blondbraid]

How fun to hear that you are making a comic as well!
I think this game looks fantastic and can't wait to try it out, but I know people who,
still to this day and age, think games are just stupid kid stuff and probably won't try any game any time soon,
and I think a comic or book could be a great way to reach them and show this world and story.

Best of luck to you!

[Cassiebsg]

Oh, hope you do make that comic! Make sure you announce it, so I can pre-order it with my comic-book pusher!
Looking forward to that!
And that new BG... Looks scary just by the looks of it. Definitely not some place I would want to be! But looks great.

[SilverSpook]

Thanks guys!

@Cassie I will be sure to give you heads up and the special premium 'pre-alpha tester' option for buying the comic or whatever it ultimately turns out to be.

@Blondbraid: Yeah, I might be a snowflake staging a rebellion in hell, but I kind of hope that Neofeud might push the envelope a little towards making games less about 'kiddie' diversions and content and something more 'adult' (as in 'deals with complex relevant issues' not 'X-rated titilation').  I'm not going to be so hubris-filled as to put Neofeud at the level of The Watchmen or Gaiman's Sandman series, but I have already snuck in a humblebrag just now, so there you go.   

Yeah, I am actually a little worried kids might pick this game up and be traumatized / scared / bored by Neofeud due to some sort of accidental mis-marketing, the way some parents were horrified, taking their kids to Deadpool, thinking it's "another one of them kiddie comic book movies, he looks like that Spiderman guy!".

Then again, I played Mortal Kombat at age 7 and I turned out ok.  Ostensibly.

[SilverSpook]

"This is your fault we're in this secret offshore prison, robot John Connor!"

"Bite me, Syrian Bruce Willis!"

The big news is, Neofeud's official alpha is very, very nearly finished, with essentially all background scenes completed, and most all of everything from art to writing to programming vanquished, with exception of voice acting, which will be the final stage.  I'd hesitate to say the work is "Finished" with a capital 'F' since any game developer or programmer knows, testing and debugging is half the battle. Contrary to GI Joe's advice.

Still!  Much much work has gone in and there is again much thanks to be distributed.

Before I get into it, once again, credit where credit is due:

THANK YOU!

Thanks to @ssmigiel again for contributing a staggering 11 tracks to the Neofeud soundtrack. <a href=https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/neofeud/Loop2-MIX.wav> Here's a sample of some of the fresh, and appropriately industrial music.  </a>


For more awesome tunes from the producer, Scott, you can go to grievous.bandcamp.com or find him on Twitter at the above-mentioned handle.

The other half of @minxilla, @bittersweetdb has also given some great auditions and will likely be doing Neofeud voice acting in the near future, schedules permitting. so look forward to her vocal talent on a future Neofeud trailer.

Thanks also to Noirjyre for continued support and helping with figuring out how to do this merchandising thing! We're learning micro-business skills to keep the work going all the time nowadays, so thanks for the help!

One last thank-you to Ian Ruotsala (Xenophile), who is currently looking for programming work.  As the other coder who worked with me on the Deus Ex-based game Terminus Machina (which received 9.5/10 on Moddb) I can say that Ian has the programming chops, so do hire him! 

All of this is above and beyond their official monetary patronage, so, truly, a huge thank you from yours truly for supporting me and creators as a whole.

At any rate, here's a full status report on Neofeud:
-Backgrounds: 100% done. Some animations remain but scenes at this point are pretty set.
-Story: 95% done. Just need to write prologue(s).
-Programming: 95% crushed. Just need to flesh out the final levels.
-Characters: 95% finito. Just a few more animations of chestbursters exploding from the liquid metal entrails of the US President. 110% of character portraits completed -- counting additional portraits painted for Neofeud Patreon supporters.
-Music: 95% complete. Again, big shout out to @minxilla for helping out with awesome tracks.
-Voice Acting: TBA -- Going to finish everything else and test enough to get an absolute cut of the script before getting in the global virtual soundbooth with voice talent.
-Sound: 60% but this is a minor mole hill compared to the rest of the Mt. Everest-worth of work.


Here is some additional work that has been completed over the past month:



The G-8 Economic Summit



"Prosperity has never been greater.  The flourishing of all of our houses remains at all time highs.  Gross Celestial Product is up 30%, and dynastic employment amongst titled, fully-documented sentient species is at 99%. The outlook on luxury good consumption is remarkably bullish: geosynchronous resort cities are booming, luxury skycraft and spacecraft are churned out by labor-free robotic plants by the dozen.  Our Martian Colony has broken ground on a second private resort-city with Venus terraforming coming along smoothly, and profits from asteroid mining has taken off."

"We have never been more prosperous, our future has never been brighter, in all of history.  Dare I say, we, the Neofeudal elite, are doing God's work.  Now, I'm not one for self-congratulation, but I think we all deserve a round of applause."



The Fulcrum Palace



"The Fulcrum Palace. Constructed by my father, Warren Clington-Busch, this 'crown jewel' above Coastlandia is estimated to have costed as much as the entire Stratoplex city below it -- a living symbol of wealth inequality."

"It contains millions of carats worth of diamond and is adorned with ten times the gold ever mined from Earth, harvested from a rare 'auric comet' captured by lightspeed spacecraft half-way to Alpha Centauri. My father purchased the most prized artifacts of the Louvre and the Smithsonian when the United States and European Union went bankrupt as their economies withered up, installing the Mona Lisa and the Declaration of Independence smugly into his personal galleries."

"The heart of The Fulcrum is classified, but conspiracy theorists suggest it is powered by a massive black hole."

"I like to joke that the 'black hole' powering it is the unfillable void in my father's ugly, loveless heart. He doesn't find that funny."

[CrashPL]

The big news is, Neofeud's official alpha is very, very nearly finished, with essentially all background scenes completed, and most all of everything from art to writing to programming vanquished, with exception of voice acting, which will be the final stage.  I'd hesitate to say the work is "Finished" with a capital 'F' since any game developer or programmer knows, testing and debugging is half the battle. Contrary to GI Joe's advice.

Awesome, congratulations! Keep it up, my friend, as so far everything looks great!

Heh, 'testing and debugging is half the battle' - oh man, tell me about it. Sometimes it can take even longer... best of luck with the bug crushing too!

[Blondbraid]

All the new screenshots look awesome, just awesome!

All that's missing is one of the 1% making a "Let them eat cake" joke.

[SilverSpook]

@Cassie: Thanks, and I'll be sure to give you a call when it's time for stomping them bugs.

@Blondbraid: Ah, yes of course, there will be a Marie Antoinette reference of three included.  The French Revolution and Sophia Coppola movie were major inspirations for Neofeud.

[SilverSpook]

[embed=1000,600]http://youtu.be/ABL8kjlhhyU[/embed]

Neofeud: now with 200% more star wars and coup d'etats than your average AGS game!

This particular scene took a while to coordinate and animate in the AGS engine, but well worth the effort.

[Cassiebsg]

Looking great!
Is this just a cut scene, or does the player have some control over a ship?

[SilverSpook]

Thanks Cassie

The player does control a 'skycraft' during this chapter of the game, yes.

[AnasAbdin]

Man watching videos of Neofeud is just another experience
Don't get me wrong, you know how I love seeing screenshots and reading your deep stories about the events and rooms.. but a short clip gives an amazing view of the game. MAKE MORE OF THOSE!

[SilverSpook]

@AnasAbdin: Thanks man, I'll see about cooking up some more videos

For now, just some screens of progress in the sci-fi horror department

[AnasAbdin]

Man that background is MASSIVE how many years did it take you to complete?