the Journey Down development blog

theo · Mon 21/03/2011 10:03:12

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!

mode7 · Mon 21/03/2011 11:10:41

Very nice theo, these dev blogs are always very insightful for me.

Snarky · Mon 21/03/2011 12:33:58

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 Kaonandodoâ€™s Gas and Charter. Might be worth taking a look at for voice actor inspiration.

Baron · Tue 22/03/2011 01:28:18

I too love the insight into the development process behind your work -please keep it up!

theo · Wed 23/03/2011 09:08:04

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 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.

Armageddon · 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.

theo · 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

markbilly · Thu 24/03/2011 16:20:11

I really like the idea of 3D characters. Especially the low(ish) poly, bold designs you are using - very nice!

Armageddon · Sun 27/03/2011 07:21:29

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.

David Ostman · Sun 27/03/2011 14:24:27

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

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

theo · Sat 02/04/2011 15:21:10

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.

Armageddon · Sun 03/04/2011 22:56:11

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.

Igor Hardy · Sun 03/04/2011 23:05:26

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!

David Ostman · Mon 04/04/2011 17:28:50

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

). 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!

Armageddon · Wed 06/04/2011 02:37:14

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.

theo · Thu 07/04/2011 14:15:36

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.

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!

theo · Wed 13/04/2011 09:51:40

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?)

Armageddon · Wed 13/04/2011 23:00:03

Hi there Chuck.

theo · Thu 14/04/2011 11:31:15

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.

My instinct too would be to hover and see if there's a chuck hotspot.

theo · Wed 20/04/2011 09:42:49

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:

Also, here's your chance to listen to the wonderful voice of Anthony Sardinha, who is also cast for the role of Bwana.

Comments, as always, are appreciated! Thanks.