City of Fortune - the 2nd attempt

Bernie · Thu 26/08/2004 15:32:39

Some time last year, I announced a game called 'City of Fortune'. I spent loads of time making backgrounds and such, but didn't do enough planning, and the project went down the toilet.

I've been thinking wheter to announce this game or not, fearing that I might drop it again at some point, which would make this thread look pretty damn stupid and a waste of space.

(A note to the moderators... please delete my old COF thread. The game has changed a lot, so i didn't want to use that thread to announce this - Link: http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?topic=8647.0 )

Well, anyway - as you can see, I've decided to announce this despite the fact that I suck at completing games. So let's get on with it, shall we?

Features:

- Lucas-Arts style gameplay - a GUI with cancelable actionsÃ,Â and right-clicks for predefined actions
- Three main characters
- About 35+ playable rooms
- The ability to sneak and hide (For one character)
- Halfways decent NPC AI

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Story & Character info removed due to rewrite.

DanClarke · Thu 26/08/2004 15:45:25

Wow, this looks fantastic, not to dismerit the rest of your work but i thinbk your characters in particular are fantastic!!! Keep it up

Russtaccio · Thu 26/08/2004 15:47:26

Looks awesome. Ã,Â Original plot and I especially like the ability to sneak and hide in the shadows... Ã,Â This game looks like it could be a contender. Ã,Â Nice graphics by the way, they make the game look like a late 1800's Sherlock Holmes-esq story.

Darth Mandarb · Thu 26/08/2004 15:54:47

Most excellent!

I have been waiting some time for you to make a game.

That said, if you don't release this one, I shall hunt you down and throw strawberries at you.

As DanClarke stated, your characters shine!

I look forward to seeing how the sneak/hide works and testing out the AI.

Bernie · Thu 26/08/2004 17:05:54

Darth - How convenient, I like strawberries!

Regarding the Sneaking Ability: You can change modes by hitting space or by clicking on a GUI button. This works on the fly, too. There's also a 'HIT'-hotkey, so you don't have to do it through the menu. (You can hit and knock out people if you manage to sneak up to them. Works only on bad ones though, heh.)

I made the characters smaller for this game as I don't like working with big sprites - easier to animate, and I can draw them at a reasonable speed, too. Glad to hear you like them, anyway!

EDIT -Ã,Â I had one more screenshot, but forgot to upload it - anyway, here it is:

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Fri 27/08/2004 08:12:56

The whole package (backgrounds and sprites) works together. A fine job indeed.

pixelcat · Fri 27/08/2004 13:37:04

Beautiful work, though i'd expect nothing less from you. I really like the concept, and the characters seem really cool as well. Only crit I can think of is the GUI... the green text seems a little hard on the eyes, probably just me though. Good luck with the project.

Bernie · Fri 27/08/2004 14:43:41

Thanks for the comments!

pixelcat - do you have a suggestion for a better button text color? I'm always open to suggestions. It's never good when a bad color mix hurts someones eyes, gotta mend that!

And since we're talking about colors already, do any of the screenshots look too dark or too bright? My monitor doesn't have a standard setting, so I'm having a hard time getting the brightness right. Thanks

Well, I'd like to use this opportunity to also discuss a game design issue I'm not sure about. I realized today that there's this one bit that might turn off some gamers:

In the game, when you're caught by someone, the game would be over. However, an immediate game over like that might be quite frustrating (you'd start out at the beginning of the current room again), so I was thinking to give the player a chance to fight the pursuing character when caught, with a simple energy bar and such, using either hotkeys or a button.
This is might go a bit too far and make the game too actiony and will scare off some adventure gamers, so I'm not really sure about this one. (Also, note that the main character should never be able to kill anyone, that's really important to me, and required by the story. This makes all this even harder, though.)
I can still implement this fighting thing easily, but I'd like to hear a few opinions of other adventure gamers first. Any other ideas to prevent an immediate game over would be welcome, too. Something that isn't too easy to do, to give you some more time to run for it.... hmm.

Another solution could be getting locked up in jail and having to escape, or just being kicked out of the current place, depending on where you're doing your sneaky thievin' business.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Snarky · Fri 27/08/2004 15:13:10

If I can offer some advice on another issue, it's better to arrange the buttons in a 3x2 grid than 2x3. Like this:

(Ignore crappiness. It's only to demonstrate what I'm talking about.)

You want the buttons to be as tall as possible, because the cursor will usually be above them on the screen, and therefore their effective size as targets is determined primarily by their height:

You see how the effective size is increased by about 50%.

The size of a button determines how long it takes to click it, according to a rule called Fitt's law. Making this change will make your interface feel less cumbersome.

Bernie · Fri 27/08/2004 15:40:53

That's a good suggestion, I'll do that, thanks!

EDIT:

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Sat 28/08/2004 06:40:35

There are at least two methods that you could easily implement for the getting caught part of the game:

1. Use a fight system similar to Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. It was extremely basic, just allowing you to press a button and slug away until the opponent's stamina or yours was gone, but it got the job done.

2. Introduce the option to buy things in a shop, like daggers (or banana peels if you want to be comedic), and allow the person to use one of those items on a guard or whatever when they get attacked. You'd probably want a steal feature as well so they can get money, but that would add to the fun also, and also the challenge of them keeping a decent stock of whatever type of item you want to use against guards. I think this option would be more interesting to players (I found the combat in Fate of Atlantis to be tediously designed at best) but it's up to you.

Bernie · Sat 28/08/2004 13:40:35

I really like your second suggestion. I'll be doing that, it pretty much solves my problem. Thanks!

I already have a few ideas for throwable objects.

I've also decided to keep game overs'when caught at a minimum, in most cases you'd either be thrown into jail or thrown out of places. (Which you can re-enter if they're important to the main quest.)

Sam. · Sat 28/08/2004 14:39:32

if you did get them thrown in prison, youd have to have loads of different ways to escape becase if they had ot just do the same thing voer and over it would get dull. it looks really good though!

Bernie · Sat 28/08/2004 16:46:55

Good point. I've already thought up a few interesting things for that. I plan to add a puzzle that requires you to get thrown in prison, and more.

Here's some concept art (may look a bit squashed because I drew it at a 320x 200 ratio):

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Sat 28/08/2004 20:07:27

you can use [img width=320 height=200] to have it display properly. If you want it larger just double the dimensions

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Sat 28/08/2004 20:09:36

If I had someone like you to do backgrounds for me, I would probably make a game with ags myself..ho hum, looks good

pixelcat · Sat 28/08/2004 23:28:25

I may have overexaggerated by saying it was hard on the eyes...

I think the new version looks a lot better... the dark background and larger buttons are a nice improvement. Lookin' good.

lightman · Sun 29/08/2004 13:04:24

I think black text on the buttons would be a better choice, with white or yellow as highlights.

Or perhaps white text (possibly with yellow as highlights).

Blackthorne · Sun 29/08/2004 14:44:10

What a great looking game!

Good luck with it's production! I cannot wait to see it completed!

Bt

Bernie · Sun 29/08/2004 18:48:21

Thanks for the comments!

Blackthorne519 - Thanks! I need all the luck I can get, I'm really bad at finishing games. In theory, it shouldn't take too long to complete, it's aimed at medium length.

lightman - Thanks for your suggestion, but I'd prefer a lighter color than the button itself. As for white, it hurts the eyes quite a bit - already tried it.

Pixelcat - Thanks, I like it much better, too!

ProgZmax - Thanks. As for the picture thing - I meant just the ratio, as in the value you get when you divide 320 by 200. I draw everything for the game on a bigger resolution with a similar ratio to get it to look right. Drawing for 320x200 is kinda hard with a square pixel ratio, couldn't do it very well.

Additionally, I've decided to add an immediate action GUI, so you can do stuff like hitting and throwing with just a click instead of going through the menu, or with a hotkey. Should make things easier.