(http://www.slxgames.com/wp-content/uploads/jdlogo.png) (http://www.slxgames.com)
(http://www.slxgames.com/wp-content/uploads/makenassmaller.jpg)
(http://www.slxgames.com/wp-content/uploads/inventorytest2.jpg)
Hey all!
Just droppin' a line to say me and Henrik (the animator on the commercial release of the Journey Down) have just started some form of development blog over at www.slxgames.com. For you who are curious about our JD progress and/or our general bantering regarding our other projects/tomfoolery, please, drop by! If people visit the damn thing we might actually bother keeping it updated too! ;D
Very nice theo, these dev blogs are always very insightful for me.
Yup, I always love these dev blogs (when the game looks promising). All the excitement of game making, none of the work!
Very happy to see that JDHD will be more than just a rehash of the first game, with new scenes and puzzles and so on.
You mentioned on another thread that the development was currently bogged down due to graphical performance issues with AGS. Do you think you'll overcome that problem and move forward in the near future? At least the blog makes it sound like progress is being made in other areas.
Oh, and from playing Beyond Good & Evil HD recently, just thought I'd mention that Mammago Garage, the lakefront garage staffed by Jamaican-accented (or West Indies somewhere, at least--my ear for accents isn't great) rhinos that services your jet-boat/space ship, reminded me a lot of Kaonandodo’s Gas and Charter. Might be worth taking a look at for voice actor inspiration.
I too love the insight into the development process behind your work -please keep it up!
Quote from: Snarky on Mon 21/03/2011 12:33:58You mentioned on another thread that the development was currently bogged down due to graphical performance issues with AGS. Do you think you'll overcome that problem and move forward in the near future? At least the blog makes it sound like progress is being made in other areas.
Honestly, right now I'm just ignoring the problem and dutifully saying my prayers every night to the powers that be, hoping that my wishes will come true in a not so distant release of AGS. Fortunately, since much of the work we are doing is not resolution dependent (until we actually start rendering stuff and inserting it into the project) we aren't quite as gridlocked as I thought we would be. It is however still an incredibly serious issue (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=42690.0) that may end up making us leave the AGS platform if there is no other way around it. I certainly hope it won't go that far though.
Oh and thanks for the Beyond Good and evil tip, I'll look it up! I've heard many people praise that game, silly of me not to have tried it out yet.
I really don't like the 3D character at all, I liked the stylized outlines on the 2D characters.
Quote from: Armageddon on Wed 23/03/2011 20:14:14
I really don't like the 3D character at all, I liked the stylized outlines on the 2D characters.
It's still work in progress. Hopefully, as we get things in order with our experiments, we will be able to change your mind:) I gotta admit though, the 2d style is cool, it is however incredibly inconsistently implemented and VERY, VERY,
VERY tedious to work with. I'm very glad to more or less throw that old dented pipeline out the window :)
I really like the idea of 3D characters. Especially the low(ish) poly, bold designs you are using - very nice! :)
Quote from: theo on Thu 24/03/2011 15:36:55
Quote from: Armageddon on Wed 23/03/2011 20:14:14
I really don't like the 3D character at all, I liked the stylized outlines on the 2D characters.
It's still work in progress. Hopefully, as we get things in order with our experiments, we will be able to change your mind:) I gotta admit though, the 2d style is cool, it is however incredibly inconsistently implemented and VERY, VERY, VERY tedious to work with. I'm very glad to more or less throw that old dented pipeline out the window :)
I hope you'll at least consider painting over them or adding a nice outline.
I made the same choice you did, theo, going the 3D way with my characters, and I don't regret it one second.
If I had to draw everything by hand it would probably take me a few years to finish my project. For a stupid reason I recently had to go through and change one of my main character's shirts and his hair, and that meant a total of about 300 frames that needed to change. Because of how the 3D scene is set up I can go in, change the colour, hit a button and render out 150 frames, then automatically automatically crop files, tweak the levels, sharpen them up slightly, and re-import them AGS.
The sad thing is, it's the re-importing into AGS that is the real time sink :P
There's however the tradeoff that Armageddon mentions. It's difficult to get that lovely handcrafted look in 3D animation without a really clever rig, and talented animation. I'm not that talented, but the result I get is good enough.
I feel you with the resolution issue, though. I've put my initial project on hold partly because of that (the art style didn't lend itself well to the low resolution I had to use), but also because having whiteboarded the game 80% through, I realised I can't make it in time, so I went to plan B, a smaller scale game.
Don't mean to rant off too much about my own game, I like reading what you've posted so far in your blog. Post more :)
EDIT: I see you went with Rapid Rig. Good choice ;)
markbilly: Thanks! Yeah, we're still going for that nice sharp carved look. I'm trying not to deviate from the original style too much. Priority one though is to get all characters feel coherent, which they certainly don't do in the "prototype" of JD.
Armageddon: There will be outlines:)
David Ostman: I hear you, man. The tedious part is the actual import into AGS. A nice juicy "update" button would be very, very nice when working on frame-heavy characters, etc. But the pros of going 3d are becoming clearer and clearer to me. There is of course the tradeoff you mention, let's hope it doesn't become too much an issue. I trust Henrik to do a good job with the character animation, he is a very talented and experienced artist and should -with the sufficient amount of pain inflicted upon him- deliver excellent quality. Regarding resolution, yes, all I can say is that I hope my campaigning and general whining about the issue will somehow win through. The AGS community has nothing to lose from turning the platform into an alternative for making fancy, high-res games.
What was this game you canceled? I'm intrigued.
I love the new inventory items, but for some reason the fish looks strange? I always imaged his front fins to be more triangular and his lips to be thinner. All the otehr stuff is great though, I really like how you did the wood.
Wow, really impressive and interesting updates on the game's blog.
Also, a fish should be a required inventory item for all adventure games! Preferably a live one!
I prefer the lower resolution graphics of those inventory items, but I'm a sucker for more pixelated graphics (also, I actually like dithering in 2D graphics mainly because it makes a nostalgia gland or something inside me squirt a little, something my previous art director was totally befuddled by). The risk with increasing the resolution is that it can take some of the magic away for people like me, who like to fill in the blanks with the imagination, a bit like when reading a book. Definitely not a reason not to do it, though! It all looks good :)
QuoteI trust Henrik to do a good job with the character animation, he is a very talented and experienced artist and should -with the sufficient amount of pain inflicted upon him- deliver excellent quality.
I'm certainly looking forward to seeing the result!
QuoteWhat was this game you canceled? I'm intrigued.
I hope you'll find out before too long as I haven't cancelled it completely ;) It's just on ice for the time being, while I focus on my backup project (which is on ice while I spend 1 week making a prototype :P). Having done more art tests I think I'm okay with the low res in AGS, I just wish I had more OPTIONS, or designed for a specific resolution (e.g. iPhone, DS, etc)... or a 3D equivalent AGS! :P
I like the inventory system, for some reason I don't remember seeing out lines on the objects though. And I always hate seeing a gradient cut off like you ave at the bottom of the screen. It reminds me of the Machinarium style.
EDIT: That gradient just looks more out of place when I look at it. I kinda liked the black background it used to have. Of course you won't see this all the time so this is probably fine.
Armageddon: The fading gradient is just something I threw together, I agree it looks kind of out of place there. I'll likely wind up changing that a million times before release. Thanks for your comments:)
Ascovel: I couldn't agree more. Fish in pockets RULE. ;D
David Ostman: I know what you mean about low res vs high-res, it's a very good point. I only really see it as an issue with people who have played the prototype though, which quite frankly, isn't that many. It's a bigger problem for bigger brands such as MI, when doing their SE releases. So many details imagined differently by so many different players. I try not to see low-res art as a style in it's own right, but it's hard to ignore that the low-res style carries a certain awesome vibe with it. Had Gemini Rue had the same rating success if it were a high-res release, looking like, say, a cheaper version of the new DEUS EX game? I don't think so. The retro-vibe helped lift the game to indie-retro-loving heights. So there's no doubts that low-res has a lot going for it, in many ways. Man I could rant about that forever.
:=
Thanks for the comments y'all! Keep 'em coming. They make a difference to keep things pumping!
(http://www.slxgames.com/wp-content/uploads/cockpit.jpg)
Just spamming with a quick update from the dev-blog. Don't forget to tell everyone you know to follow the damn thing! :=
I've d1cked around quite a lot with this backdrop. I hope you who have played the "prototype", find the changes as improvements and not the opposite. (unprovements?)
Hi there Chuck.
heh, I'm actually doing my best not to implement in-jokes such as having chuck allover the place, but if you chose to see a plant as chuck, and not just an ordinary plant, I don't blame you. ;D My instinct too would be to hover and see if there's a chuck hotspot.
Hey y'all!
Henrik just updated the blog with a first pre-render of our new fancy 3d characters. Please note that this is NOT what the final scene will look like. Lighting, shading and other fancy shizzles still needs to be put in place, also the backdrop is going to be animated and obviously there will be music and more sound effects. This is merely a sneek peak at a work in progress. If you're curious, check it out on the devblog through the link in this picture:
(http://www.bubasub.com/playblast.jpg) (http://www.slxgames.com)
Also, here's your chance to listen to the wonderful voice of Anthony Sardinha (http://www.antfish.webs.com/), who is also cast for the role of Bwana.
Comments, as always, are appreciated! Thanks.
At 0:05 (when the character pulls his knee up to step on the door) it looks weird. Right around the top of the bat, something weird happens to the leg area that's just behind the bat. It's no big deal, really hard to notice.
It looks good, looking forward to seeing the textures and what I'm guessing is supposed to be cel shaded renderings.
Hey anian thanks for the feedback. I hadn't noticed that little leg-glitch, I'll nag Henrik about it ;D As for textures, I think we're going almost 100% texture free, we will however do some form of cel shading, how exactly that turns out is still up to the gods though. Stay tuned, I say.
We've just updated the devblog with a little sneak peek at the Dockmaster's voice. Click his non-rendered portrait to check it out over at the slxgames website:
(http://www.slxgames.com/wp-content/uploads/dockmaster-140x140.jpg) (http://www.slxgames.com)
As always, feedback is mucho appreciato. :)
Quick question: Do you intend for the eyes, mouths and other bodily orifices to remain pitch black? I think the characters might look more alive with some "inner light" coming from "behind the masks" (so to speak).
That's actually still sort of unspecified. All I know is that I want them all to follow the same look, whatever path I may choose. I agree that the pitch black look does kill off quite a lot of potential emotion. In short: We'll see:)
I was expecting a more old man croaky type voice.
Armageddon: Heh, well I'm afraid you won't always get what you expect in the HD version, let's just hope we come close enough to keep everyone happy:)
Here's another new screenie from the devblog. I'm happily painting away on the new room backdrops while Henrik keeps playing around with our rendering pipeline. Mathias has started scratching his head delving into the spaghetti code of the AGS engine, and Markus is, well, busy with other things. 8)'
(http://www.slxgames.com/wp-content/uploads/freezerroom4_medium.jpg)
Man I'd love to give Bwana unique frames in here sort of squeezing his body together against the cold. What a truly bad idea. ::)
NEW BACKGROUNDS! :D
I don't remember that room in the game, so it is new? :=
Quote from: The Journey Down development blogThe freezer room is one of what I think will end up being five separate completely new rooms for the HD version of the Journey Down.
Mostly keeping to myself here but thought I should drop a quick line and mention that stuff is moving along nicely on the Journey Down HD project (http://www.slxgames.com). Here's one of the more recent pictures I've been working on. It's the updated version of the Gas n charter interior. Hope you like it! I did quite a lot of changes to it, all for the better if you ask me.
(http://www.slxgames.com/wp-content/uploads/bwanasinterior.jpg) (http://www.slxgames.com)
This is the only room in the game that has gone through such a hefty rehaul. Most other rooms have just been cleaned up, but with this one I even changed the camera's angle. Madness!
Your positive comments are as always, appreciated and your gripey ones are (as is my tradition) ignored!
In other news I have recently become a father and am spending most of my sapient time changing diapers. I'm already seeing a shift in pooping-patterns which allow me more time for drawing though, so maybe this whole father business isn't so cataclysmic to my work on the JD as I thought it would be. :)
I love everything about this so far! Keep it up.
Quote from: theo on Sat 28/05/2011 17:52:52
Mostly keeping to myself here but thought I should drop a quick line and mention that stuff is moving along nicely on the Journey Down HD project (http://www.slxgames.com). Here's one of the more recent pictures I've been working on. It's the updated version of the Gas n charter interior. Hope you like it! I did quite a lot of changes to it, all for the better if you ask me.
(http://www.slxgames.com/wp-content/uploads/bwanasinterior.jpg) (http://www.slxgames.com)
This is the only room in the game that has gone through such a hefty rehaul. Most other rooms have just been cleaned up, but with this one I even changed the camera's angle. Madness!
Your positive comments are as always, appreciated and your gripey ones are (as is my tradition) ignored!
In other news I have recently become a father and am spending most of my sapient time changing diapers. I'm already seeing a shift in pooping-patterns which allow me more time for drawing though, so maybe this whole father business isn't so cataclysmic to my work on the JD as I thought it would be. :)
Congratulations man!
As for the background I'm not really a huge fan of the plants. And the lighting looks more yellow than the original. I'm glad you shifted the perspective, I spent at least 10 minutes trying to leave this room because I couldn't find that door. Also the fan looks way more detailed than the rest of the room.
I want to say I am very glad you are making a hires version. I remember that characters looked not very good (too much pixelated) on some scenes where strong scaling was applied to them. Also hires suits better for your drawing style.
There's one guy around here, known as Pinback, who draws amazing steampunkish art; I really hope he will follow your example ;D
Not sure about 3d characters though... but we'll see.
Joseph DiPerla: Thank you. Your encouragement is appreciated!
Armageddon: The "leave room at bottom of screen" issue you mention is one of the key reasons why I detest one point perspective rooms. Thanks for agreeing with me here! As for yellow, yes, this version is brighter than the original, and hence, more yellow. The old version of the interior was a lot darker and gloomier, especially at the back. I wanted more of a "home sweet home" feeling, so I added more warmth. As for the plants, I agree, they could use a brush up some day if time permits.
Crimson Wizard: Yeah, I too would like to see Pinback, and another couple of artists around here, go all high res suicidal like me:) As for 3d characters.... the first person I gotta convince is myself.
If anyone is interested, I just posted a preview of Bwana's voice over at the dev-blog! Please check it out and leave some feedback! Your opinion is asked for!
Aaaand today we posted a sample of what Kito sounds like. Please head on over to the devblog and check it out! (http://www.slxgames.com)
Love the voice samples Theo, great casting!
Thanks Chicky, appreciate it! We've spent A LOT of time finding the right actors for the job. I'm incredibly happy to have landed with such a competent team. They are delivering way beyond my expectations. Glad you like the sound of 'em.
Just read through a couple of months worth of the dev blog - I've been out of the AGS loop for while - and I have to say this is coming along BRILLIANTLY. I love the 3D animation work you've done.
Thanks Markbilly! Glad you find the blog interesting, we're doing our best at keeping it updated and at least pseudo relevant :=
We've updated the blog today actually with a sneak peek of the voice of Lina. Check it out (http://www.skygoblin.com) and tell us what you think!
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/linabook.png) (http://www.skygoblin.com)
I've gotta say, I'm very impressed with that Bwana model. I know it's not finished but here are a few nit picking things I noticed.
-His hair isn't exactly looking right at the top, and it doesn't curve around.
-His torso looks too strong, and it looks like it's from Nord.
-Pants cuffs at the bottom are too thick.
-Doesn't have a curve to him.
-Doesn't look as tall and fore head is less bulging.
I love the shoes, and didn't even notice the pocket was on the wrong side. :)
Just noticed the models and I must say its amazing how well the 3d Bwana resembles the 2D one. Way to go!
Indeed, Bwana looks amazing.
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/bwana_2d_3d-214x300.png)
Your blog notes that you have made AGS 720p compatible.
Doesnt the license under which AGS was released require you to release those source changes to the public?
Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Tue 28/06/2011 22:02:03
Your blog notes that you have made AGS 720p compatible.
Doesnt the license under which AGS was released require you to release those source changes to the public?
It doesn't say when. So he can release the game as a showcase and then release the Modified AGS Engine.
Armageddon: Hey thanks for the detailed feedback, it's appreciated! The model however is basically set in stone by now though. But we have done some hair-tweaks and worked on his pose to make it more curved etc. Don't worry about the jaggedness of his hair now, it's smoother once we do the real render. Also the lighting is still kind of lame.
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/bwanarender.jpg)
mode7 and Dualnames: Thank you! We're very glad to have landed in a style so close to that which we had on the 2d characters. It's basically the same look, but with higher res and wayyyyyyyyyyyyy better animation :)
Calin: We certainly intend to release any line of code that may be of interest to other AGS developers. I need to warn you though, we are building everything very JDHD specific. As I hinted about earlier - we are not interested in any form of backward compatibility whatsoever. The only thing our new version of the AGS editor is built for, is loading and running JDHD, and the only purpose of our acwin.exe is to run JDHD at our desired resolution, with our desired settings.
Also, when I say 720p compatible, all I mean so far is that the editor works with a 720p game canvas and that we can initialize the game in 720p. This looks gorgeous on a widescreen monitor and works great, but since we still haven't had the time to implement any form of letterboxing, it's still all bonkers stretched on a 4:3 screen. But this will come in due time :)
So again, we will share all "tech" we develop for JDHD but I need to stress that it may be tricky for other developers to simply "one click" apply it to their own projects.
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/customres.jpg)
A peek into our awesome version of the AGS editor.
Hey, great news about the 720p and Bwana's 3D model looks stunning and very close to the original.
I bet your biggest challenge will be using the 3D characters in the major cutscenes with all those close-ups and exaggerated facial expressions.
You guys are doing some amazing works!
The model looks great!
Bwana looks great.
I was afraid of a loss of life by switching to 3D but the pose of that still image is very natural. :o
Ascovel: Yes, that will no doubts be a challenge! Thanks for cheering us on :)
zyndikate and Darkdan: Thank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that we are keeping this in style!
Btw, the custom resolution tech we've integrated in AGS can now be poked at by anyone who's interested, read more about that here.
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/agswidesmall.jpg) (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=43955.0)
Here's a fresh look at what Kito, our chunky sidekick looks like in 3D!
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/3dkitobig.png) (http://www.skygoblin.com)
Hope you like how he came out. Also, check out the devblog (http://www.skygoblin.com) to read up on some of the roots of the artwork in TJD!
I'm hoping to make a little series of posts about the artistic origins, and the one I posted yesterday, is the first of what will hopefully be a collection of such posts.
Note to moderators: I realize I should create a GIP thread for this instead. Will do so as soon as we have a couple of solid screens to decorate it with.
Wow that looks better than Bwana! The skin could use a few more tones. And hit shirt doesn't look the same.
Long time lurker here! This game looks amazing!! :o
I really hope you can release the 720p for the community too, and that someone else here can re-integrate that to AGS so its available to everyone in a generic sense (and not just JDHD specific!).
Congrats, following WITH GREAT interest!! :o ;D
As always Theo loving all the updates. Really can't wait to see how these new models look walking around in pretty 720p with all their funky new animations.
Armageddon: Yeah, I know he's a bit flat here. This is just a viewport look at Kito, and not a render. Once we put him in our render scene he'll get a wider range of lighting, I promise :) Glad you like the look of him anyhow!
Kooky123: Thanks for the kind words! If you're a bit of a hacker, you can download the "custom resolution" version of AGS from: https://gitorious.org/skygoblinags/. Whether this stuff will ever become an official part of AGS though, is anybody's guess.
Sughly: I can promise you that it's looking great :) I don't know if we'll be able to keep them all, but right now Bwana has over 10 different talk animations to act out his dialog with. It's awesome seeing him ooze of emotion that way! Only heavy part is actually implementing them all. There are SO MANY lines of dialog I feel faint just thinking about it, heh.