Starting out on my first game: Advice/etc welcomed

[Emperor Justin]

First of all!

Apologies if this is the wrong place to put this.  I didn't have enough content to post in the "In Production" forum, and I'm not looking JUST for C&C (though by all means if you have some, go nuts, all is welcome), so I wasn't sure about the Critic's Lounge so...here we be.  Mods, if this is wrong or bad, please feel free to move or destroy at your discretion.

Now, with that out of the way...

I have never made an adventure game before, but love them dearly.  I've drawn casually for decades, but I'm nowhere near pro level, and I've only just recently gotten into using sprites and pixels as a medium (as is evident by my using a Phoenix Wright sprite as a guideline for my PC), and I've never animated anything in my life.  I've programmed flash and html websites before, and briefly fiddled with an RPG maker (but not THE RPG Maker) ages ago. 

What that all boils down to is, I'm completely green at this so ANY advice or insight or wisdom you have is welcome.

To the game itself:



STORY: Aloysius Lupone is a professional investigator working in San Francisco.  When he's contacted by Mira Voll, the wife of world-famous artist Eric Voll, to find her missing husband, he's all too eager to take the case.  however, upon arriving at the Voll's posh San Francisco Victorian style home, Lupone finds more than he bargained for: a handful of people looking to capitalize, investigate, or insure Mr. Voll's disappearance. 

Things take a turn for the strange when one of the house guests is found horrifically slaughtered, and everyone is a suspect.  Worse, the house itself becomes mysteriously sealed, with Lupone and the other guests unable to even touch the doors or windows, and the people on the street seem to take no notice of them through the windows. 

As night descends on the house, the bodies continue to pile up, and a feeling of unearthly dread begins to pervade every room and hall, Lupone is left with only his wits to save himself and the survivors from a preternatural terror that threatens them all.

PBBBTTTTT

Okay here's what I got so far (all on paper): dialogue, characters motivations, maps, story arc, and character designs.  I'm having a real problem coming up with puzzles.  I'm a writer (not professionally, baaaw T_T) so the story and dialogue aren't an issue, but coming up with puzzles to naturally insert into the narrative is a stumbling block.  the house is going to be reasonably large, and locked door puzzles are a no brainer, as well as finding clues to what is going on, but beyond that *shrug*

I've got a template room that can be adjusted to fit various needs (hence the weird light placing and sparseness, those are each on their own separate layer in PS so they can be duplicated and moved as needed) and the forward facing sprite for Lupone:


So I guess have at it.  Questions, comments, clever insults, crits, whatever.  Anything and everything is welcome except outright idiocy.  I've got that angle covered, thank you.

[Anian]

Story seems interesting, depends on how you'll pull it off. It does look nice...from what you've actually shown. Critique might be that, although I've seen rooms with such high ceiling, the doors are definitely bit too big (height).

[Emperor Justin]

I was thinking the ceilings were disproportionately high.  The doors are that high because I wasn't sure if I would be able to make the character shrink ever so slightly the further they moved away from the camera to match the door height farther away or what.

[Calin Leafshade]

If you're going for a minimalist gui approach (to sort of simulate a movie I guess) then perhaps you should consider a different aspect ratio.

A widescreen, letterbox look always seems to work very well with static camera adventure games.

It gives a cinematic look and gets around the problem that rooms are almost never cubes.

[Igor Hardy]

The main character's sprite is waaay to detailed to fully animate - mostly all these irregular shades on his clothes are nuts.

I'd recommend to either simplify the sprite or give up doing full walking cycles and animated actions.

[Emperor Justin]

If you're going for a minimalist gui approach (to sort of simulate a movie I guess) then perhaps you should consider a different aspect ratio.

A widescreen, letterbox look always seems to work very well with static camera adventure games.

It gives a cinematic look and gets around the problem that rooms are almost never cubes.

This is really good advice, thank you!
On a mildly related note, I just finished part I of the McCarthy Chronicles and it was awesome!  Make another one!

[Calin Leafshade]

..I'll get to it eventually  :

[Ali]

The main character's sprite is waaay to detailed to fully animate - mostly all these irregular shades on his clothes are nuts.

I'd recommend to either simplify the sprite or give up doing full walking cycles and animated actions.

I don't agree, I'm afraid. For someone who's never animated before this character might have too much to keep track of, but I think the use of one-tone shading is quite suited to animation. As a relatively high-res pixel animation, it reminds me of Roger Wilco's sprite in Space Quest 6.

Plus in an anime aesthetic a lack of animation is quite justified!

Storywise, I love detective plots but I think it's often interesting for the 'detective' to be a non-professional who is drawn into the mystery. That's something you could consider if you want your story to be more distinctive at the outset.

[Jared]

It's dubious for me to give advice, having not yet completed any finished games as they say, but the one that's come the closest (and been in indefinite hiatus for 2 years) is one where I wrote down everything I wanted to do, starting with a simple goal then working backwards, writing a walkthrough, and then working out what rooms I wanted, what I wanted in each room and drawing it, then starting to put it together. The main reason it isn't done is because I have spent too much time re-writing all the dialogue...

[Technocrat]

The first time I was reading through, I switched off at "professional investigator". I'd agree that making them something else is a good way of making the story more interesting, adding elements of "fish out of water" help show how a character is.

I'm going to have to say that I don't think shading for that character would be too complex on a walkcycle - once again, anime style, fairly straightforward.

[Khris]

Heh, the story reminds me of 5 Days a Stranger; on the off chance you haven't heard of it yet, go play it