Swarm Development: Postmortem

[ShiverMeSideways]

We are still waiting for ShiverMeSideways to finish up, but to be fair his part was pretty massive.

Still waiting for your reply on the last message I sent you ;o

[Jackpumpkinhead]

Well i am back...what did i miss


what pieces of music do i need to do again?

[Hudders]

b) The mad scientist just seemed to disappear after the intro. Maybe there could be DOTT-style cutscenes showing what he's up to interspersed with Merrick's escape progress.

Hey Hudders, are you up for writing a bit of a cutscene for this and then voicing it?  It would be only the Mad scientist talking, probably about 5 lines max so it doesn't slow the pace down too much, explaining that the base is under attack by a robot monster commandeered by vampires bent on liberating Merrick?

Hello! I've been on holiday so I only just saw this. I'd totally be up for writing such a thing and will probably do it tomorrow if I get some spare time.

[ddq]

Hello Swarm. Here are the voices for the robot that kconan and I did that I sent to Baron. Feedback! Give it to us!
http://www.mediafire.com/?nrsv3e59dclg6h7

[Tabata]

Feedback! Give it to us!

    -  Coooool!

[Baron]

Feedback! Give it to us!

Yes, I think that will do nicely!

In other news, I've spent all of 10 minutes playing with this:


No one came through with a cockpit, so I just poached it from an old game of mine.  As I was attempting to change the palette to something compatible with this game I realized I'm no good at pixel backgrounds anyway and I've got better things to work on (New GUI at the moment).  So can somebody do a quick paintover of this (or something else) so that it fits into the game.  Remember, it will probably only be on screen for 15 seconds, mostly hidden by the vampire twin portraits, so don't expend a lot of effort here.  Thanks!

[Ponch]

I put together a few sounds. Here they are if anyone wants to use them.

Sound Pack

* Exploding dog
* Guard gets electrified
* Alarm / Siren

Hope this can be of some help to the project. 

[Buckethead]

I finally got around uploading my sounds:

Click

They include:

*Gaurd trip over
*Laser
*A longer laser
*Lightswitch

[Snarky]

1) Merrick hand emerging from wreckage (animation)

I'll do this one.

[Jackpumpkinhead]

New Music

this is the Vamp Twins theme
and should be placed before the music at the end when Merrick has to fight the robot

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35944169/Draculator%20II%20-%20Vamp%20Twins.mp3 - MP3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35944169/Draculator%20II%20-%20Vamp%20Twins.mid - MIDI

[Baron]

New Music

this is the Vamp Twins theme
and should be placed before the music at the end when Merrick has to fight the robot

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35944169/Draculator%20II%20-%20Vamp%20Twins.mp3 - MP3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35944169/Draculator%20II%20-%20Vamp%20Twins.mid - MIDI

Nice, it really suits the scene.  About that music at the end, though -you're composing that?  Or do you want your original theme music there?

I put together a few sounds. Here they are if anyone wants to use them.

Thanks for the sounds Ponch & Buckethead.  Keep them coming!

STATE OF THE PROJECT ADDRESS:  So we're obviously not releasing on schedule, but it's literally day-to-day.  I think the most optimistic scenario is that we'll be ready to go in a week: I'm still waiting on voice work, and Snarky's hand animation, more sounds, and I've got to implement the credits.  There also might possibly be more music and a short cutscene featuring the mad scientist to offer more narrative as events unfold (Hudders?).  Oh, and there should be one more test round when things are finalized just to be sure.  But none of that is very steep considering what we've done so far.  Remember, patience is a virtue.  Unless you owe me work -then it's a liability!

[Hudders]

Sorry, I need some help on this. I'm not convinced I really understand what you want regarding the information that should be conveyed.

Is this an off-screen conversation with an unseen colleague? Where would this scene fit in the current game?

[Jackpumpkinhead]

@Baron:

i am composing music for the end

[Baron]

Sorry, I need some help on this. I'm not convinced I really understand what you want regarding the information that should be conveyed.

Is this an off-screen conversation with an unseen colleague? Where would this scene fit in the current game?

I think the Mad Scientist will just have to monologue it alone (they're good at that, anyway).  I think somewhere mid-game, like right before Merrick makes it to the exercise yard, for example, we'll just cutaway to the Mad Scientist talking out loud about what is happening.  Things to include:

1) News that Robot Monster is attacking the secret base (called a "Robot Destructor Unit" elsewhere in the game)
2) Supposition that it must be those vampire twins that he (the Mad Scientist) had stolen Merrick from
3) An announcement that all active guards are to remain at their posts, while all the rest are to report to muster point A (or whatever) to fight the robot.
4) Some deranged ranting to flesh out the Mad Scientists' character more and give the player a laugh at the same time.

Let me know if you want me to collaborate on the writing bit.

[Hudders]

I feel like I'm letting people down taking so long over this! So, yes, some collaboration would be welcome.

I thought I'd try and flesh out the backstory a tad in order to organise my thoughts and figure out what the maniac should be shouting about. My ideas run like this, (excuse the rambling):

The doctor didn't actually create Merrick as such, he merely placed his brain inside a vampire. This means that the vampire body must have come from somewhere to start with, presumably stolen from a crypt by someone and then illicitly sold onto the mad scientist black market, (this is actually quite a good idea for the plot of the original Draculator wherein the protagonist is an employee of one of the world's leading body snatching companies... but I digress).

If you woke up from a 1000 year slumber to find that your on again off again boyfriend and vampire sire was missing, you'd be a bit pissed off. Particularly if you'd been kidnapped yourself and were about to be spliced into a sexbot by a sweaty teenage mad science student. With the aid of your "twin" sister, you steal a mint-in-box collectors edition Robot Destructor Unit and track down your boyfriend's kidnapper to a secluded facility somewhere in the Swiss Alps to stage a prison break.
But when you get there, the man you loved doesn't recognise you - he's not the vampire you once knew. They've cut him open and stuck the brain of an inept soldier inside. The body of the man you adored and worshiped is now being paraded around like some sick puppet. Understandably, you're pretty angry.

----

I had the idea that the mad scientist would get a phone call from the guy who had abducted the vampettes. This is how our Dr Science learns about the robotic monster come to rescue Merrick. You would only hear one side of the conversation:

*phone rings*
"Hello? What? Walter, slow down. Walter, I can't... WILL YOU CALM DOWN YOU ASTHMATIC LUNATIC! That's better, now explain to me... escaped? What? How did that happen? Dear God, man... can't you keep it in your pants for five seconds!? Well... I'm not going to worry. I'm sure one of your toy robots isn't going to give me any trouble, even if it is piloted by a pair of vampire twins. I'm perfectly safe inside... No that isn't an alarm you can hear, that's just the, uh, microwave. I'm having a baked potato... yes, they are better done in the oven but... look, Walter, I'm a busy man... Yes I'll let you know if I see them but really I have better things to do. Yes. Goodbye, Walter."
*puts phone down*

Muttering to self: "Grad students... give them a chemistry set and a brain in a jar and suddenly they think they're Victor Frankenstein!"

Over loudspeaker: "Attention all guards. This is not a drill. Execute Giant Robot defense plan Alpha immediately. I repeat: this is not a drill... and someone turn that damn alarm off!"

[Ghost]

I like how there's both serious, hard facts being passed to the player AND a good amount of humour (baked potatoe = epic grin). Also fits the story, I really think this is spot-on.

[Jackpumpkinhead]

Final Ending Music:

Robofight - MIDI


Robofight - MP3

[Lumpupu]

*phone rings*
"Hello? What? Walter, slow down. Walter, I can't... WILL YOU CALM DOWN YOU ASTHMATIC LUNATIC! That's better, now explain to me... escaped? What? How did that happen? Dear God, man... can't you keep it in your pants for five seconds!? Well... I'm not going to worry. I'm sure one of your toy robots isn't going to give me any trouble, even if it is piloted by a pair of vampire twins. I'm perfectly safe inside... No that isn't an alarm you can hear, that's just the, uh, microwave. I'm having a baked potato... yes, they are better done in the oven but... look, Walter, I'm a busy man... Yes I'll let you know if I see them but really I have better things to do. Yes. Goodbye, Walter."
*puts phone down*

Muttering to self: "Grad students... give them a chemistry set and a brain in a jar and suddenly they think they're Victor Frankenstein!"

Over loudspeaker: "Attention all guards. This is not a drill. Execute Giant Robot defense plan Alpha immediately. I repeat: this is not a drill... and someone turn that damn alarm off!"

That was the best bit of a script i've read in two years. I pissed myself! And now i have to clean it! And even so i'm happy!

[Baron]

@HUDDERS -Yeah, that covers all the bases and it's hilarious as well!  I say go with it.  Go ahead and record the lines and I'll insert the scene.

@ARTISTS - I now need a hand holding a phone sprite, and a hand holding a command centre microphone sprite.

@JACKPUMPKINHEAD - Nice.  I'll have a listen and plug it into the game.

@SNARKY - Hand?

@EVERYONE -  Slight delay due to the illness of one of our main voice actors -it's a hard job to do if you don't sound healthy.  If I had all the material in my hands that people owe me it would take me 2-3 hours at the most to have our final version circulating for one last round of beta tests.  Soon, my precious brood, soon.....

[Armageddon]

I hope you added that inventory icon in the corner. I didn't see it in the last beta.