About time I do the official "OMG we have left AGS" post, I guess.
Yeah it's true. We've decided to build our own home-grown tech (http://www.skygoblin.com/2011/meet-gobby/) for the HD release of The Journey Down. Why? Because building the engine from scratch turns out to be more fun, put simply. Also, if we build it from scratch we'll be the masters of our limitations, something we much prefer compared to being at the mercy of someone else's. Our current goal is to release chapter one HD in Q1 2012 on Pc, Mac, iOS and android - Something that would have been pretty much impossible if we were to cling to our old AGS ways, for very many different reasons.
For those not familiar with TJD, chapter one was released last year as a free AGS game and can be found here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1344). Since then, me and my buddies at SkyGoblin (http://www.skygoblin.com) have decided to re-release chapter one in HD with speech and added story and puzzles, but this time as a commercial project, not built in AGS.
Our hope in releasing a HD version of chapter one is to set the bar at a level awesome enough to ensure the commercial viability of keeping up the work on the coming chapters. If that works or not though, remains to be seen!
The sales pitch:
The Journey Down is a classic point 'n click saga with a black African twist, owing much of its character and pattern design to traditional central African arts such as carvings and masks from the Makonde and Chokwe tribes. Mixed with an all original jazzy reggae soundtrack, feedback-oriented puzzles and tons of hand painted environments, the unique cultural fusion of The Journey Down is bound to draw you in.
In the first part of four, Over the Edge, our hero Bwana and his trusted sidekick Kito struggle to make ends meet at their run-down gas station. One day their lives turn upside down as they're thrown into a twisting plot of corruption, laughs and brainteasing adventure.
Follow the development of The Journey Down on skygoblin.com (http://www.skygoblin.com), and check out more screenshots over at the official webpage (http://www.skygoblin.com/the-journey-down/).
(http://www.skygoblin.com/the-journey-down/jdscreens/jdscreen2.jpg)
(http://www.skygoblin.com/the-journey-down/jdscreens/jdscreen3.jpg)
PS. Do you guys mind if I use this thread to spam updates about the game's progress? I realise the information is not as relevant now that it is no longer an AGS project, but the more channels we can spam, the bigger the odds we'll actually be able to reach out with this huge pile o pixels.
Peace. :D
Me likes! You have some serious viewport wireframe on the top left of the last picture, it looks like.
Sounds cool. Can't wait to play on it my sidekick.
Also I feel like I asked this before but is there a direct link to the 720p res plug-in for AGS?
I feel like I should shout "Traitor!". ;) But after seeing your images, I'll make do with shouting: "Hey, this looks great! Me wants!"
Seriously, that looks quite amazing, and I see how cool it must be to develop your own engine. Best of luck for both that engine and the HD remake!
It looks gorgeous. Like the former version. But nicer on my HD screen.
IM SO FREAKIN JEALOUS. Whats your middle name, guys...? Talent...? :o
Looking sleek. All the best :-)
Looking good Theo!
Must be great working on a AG as your job! :)
Great stuff! Good luck. Are you going with a particular publisher?
Great work. What can you say when a magnificent work becomes even more beautiful?
OMG, this looks absolutely droolingly awesome Theo & Team!
Looking awesome!
(http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/userpics/12962/you_rock.gif)
Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words and asspats a lot. It pushes me and my fellow SkyGoblins along beautifully. ;D
armageddon: heh, well spotted. I mocked up the whole bend in 3d to ensure that the train would zoom off in the distance with correct perspective, and some of the wireframe stuck. Me lazy. ::) The whole horizon has been repainted too, come to think of it. This is an old screenshot.
m0ds: We are currently hellbent on self publishing it 100%. We've been doing it with our other title "Nord" the past few years so we are getting used to the concept. (That doesn't mean we're any good at it though, but we prefer our own incompetence rather than other people's.) But who knows what happens in the end...
zyndikate: You have no idea. Ever since me and my fiancée got our daughter (half a year ago) I've had zero free time. But thanks to the fact that we took on TJD as a commercial project, I get to work with it almost eight hours a day. Pretty much as awesome as it gets. Our financial situation is gasoline-ass volatile though, but that's the way its been for well over five years now, we're used to it. 8)
I hope to be able to post a couple new screens this week, so keep your eyes peeled.
Thanks again.
Hey, theo. Please still carry on dropping by. I'm kind of glad you've found a way to do this, and well kind of sad at the same time for leaving AGS. Regardless, you still own the record of most awards in one night.
heh don't worry duals, you'll see me haunting these forums 'til the end of time. 8)
Some new screenies!
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10215391/smaller3.jpg)
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10215391/smaller2.jpg)
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10215391/smaller1.jpg)
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10215391/smaller4.jpg)
(http://www.skygoblin.com/the-journey-down/)
See them in higher-res over at the official webpage! (http://www.skygoblin.com/the-journey-down/)
Look great, especially the close-up image of the characters.
I love it, though the city water reflections don't look as cool as the original, the new boat is amazing though. :D
Yes, these look awesome as usual. It doesn't really matter even matter at this point, though; I am going to buy this game regardless.
For the new water reflections, I assume you're modeling them in your 3D modeling environment? But how did you do the ones in the low-res version? That animation was really nice.
I'm pretty sure the water waves were just a module in the original.
The reflections were one of the things I remember most from the original, they looked so, amazing I guess. Now they look more realistic, which is good I suppose.
The low res nostalgia is absent from this game but I think it's for the better. I love pixel art and the 320x200 resolution, but these backgrounds and characters look infinitely better in high res than they did in their low res, anti-aliased to the bone, counterpart, especially the characters, that character close-up background is stunning.
No biggy about the engine switch. I guess AGS's next goal will be portability over Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. It's an extremely important market for many indie games, adventure or not. Unless this happen, I'm not surprised if some developers going commercial decide to switch engine.
Thanks y'all! ;D
Most bodies of water in the original were in fact not animated. Where they were though, the following technique was used:
They were animated by me first painting what I thought the reflection should look like in still, and then mirroring it upside down and uploading it to any random "generate awesome water effect on my image" website (http://watereffect.net/) and then cropping away everything but the water. It worked beautifully and was truly effortless. I recommend this process to anyone who's working on a low-res animated backdrop.
The problem with simply applying the effect on what you want to reflect, is that it becomes too clean, and simply looks too "generated". You would likely get the same problem with a module that does the job for you. The positive thing with using a module I suppose, is that in theory you could make it reflect your character and other dynamic items too. Needless to say, thats cool and enhances immersion. (Like those kickass waterpuddles in mccartthy).
-
In the HD release though, we are indeed using 3d tools and raytracing to achieve more "realistic" reflections. They look rather mundane in still but look absolutely gorgeous when in motion. The tricky bit has been making them loop over time seamlessly, while also keeping down the amount of frames to something bearable performance-wise.
blueskirt: I'm glad you agree that the whole "brand" works better in HD. To me it's mindboggling how often people cling to low-res stuff "just because". It does serve many brands well though, but for TJD, I didn't really feel it was the best way to go. I was losing so much detail it hurt me just looking at it.
I totally agree with you that from an independent developer's standpoint, being stuck with technology that only works on one platform is a bit of a bummer. Let's hope AGS sees changes on these fronts in the future!
these new screenies look great. I was already stunned by the images you posted before you downsized them for the pixely version. Now keep you watermarks out of them please and let someone take them and code TJD HD in AGS ;)
Did that bouncerguy on the ship always look like he could easily change his red jacket with a brown one ;)
Quote from: selmiak on Mon 19/12/2011 14:55:43
Did that bouncerguy on the ship always look like he could easily change his red jacket with a brown one ;)
ehrm. That USED to be up to the imagination. :P
He's got a french accent though so don't get any ideas.
Quote from: theo on Mon 19/12/2011 15:30:23
He's got a french accent though so don't get any ideas.
That's no excuse for not having a shadow. :P ;D
Don't worry anian, there will be shadow. ;D
Here's a new screenshot featuring the full main cast if anyone is interested. :D
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/pumpzoom.jpg) (http://www.skygoblin.com/the-journey-down/)
In other news we just wrapped up voice work on Bwana. Feels good as bananas having that wrapped up. 1350 lines in the bag. 8)
That looks so much better than the previous close up images. Still can't wait to play this! :D
It looks amazing Theo :o, great work!!
I'm looking forward to playing the game..... again ;D ;D
Regards
THanks for the kinds words guys! I'm glad the stuff we push out there is getting your approval! ;D
We recently wrapped up implementation of all the core puzzles and key interactions of chapter one of The Journey Down (http://"http://www.skygoblin.com/the-journey-down/") and have now moved over to the actual polishing of it all. This phase should by no means be underestimated though, just the sheer size of the task of making bwana move to the correct location, turn to the correct angle, and play the correct animation on every single interaction we've got - is a gigantic one.
In short, we seem to somehow magically still be on schedule and are still geared for a PC and Mac release some time by the end of March.
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10215391/linaplane.jpg)
Here's a pic from inside Bwana's dented old airplane. I've spent the last week working on implementing Lina's different animations into the scripts, and this is one of the scenes I wrapped up yesterday. The actual animation work is done by my colleague Henrik though, I'm just standing in as script-monkey.
I also did some ranting on the dev-blog (http://"http://www.skygoblin.com") today about implementing emotion in characters, if you're curious, please check it out here (http://"http://www.skygoblin.com").
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/matoke.png) (http://"http://www.skygoblin.com")
Just updating to say we pretty much wrapped up voice work on our last major character, Matoke, and that this means we're practically finished with ALL voice work for chapter one of The Journey Down (http://"http://www.skygoblin.com/the-journey-down/"). It has been one heck of a project to get all these actors and lines to do what we want them to, but finally this gigantic project is starting to wrap up.
If you're interested in hearing some voice samples from Matoke or any of our other characters for that matter, be sure to have a peek at our dev blog (http://"http://www.skygoblin.com"), where every major character in the cast have their own spotlight.
I'm updating to say that we've now started chronicling our development on twitter, so if you're curious about more behind the scene type info such as how we develop stuff, be sure to follow me, @theowaern on twitter. (https://twitter.com/#!/theowaern)
It's good to see so many of you AGS'ers there. I expect getting tons of nice AGS game-building-spam in the coming future!
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10215391/bwanalights.jpg)
Above is a pic from a short video Henrik made while working on a short little cinematic for the Journey Down, watch the whole video on his twitter at @Henrik_Englund (https://twitter.com/#!/Henrik_Englund)
If you're more interested in the techy, real nerdy stuff, @skygoblinmarkus (https://twitter.com/#!/skygoblinmarkus) is the one you should follow.
Hope to see you on twitter!
I love your backgrounds! Have you ever considered to make a tutorial to demonstrate your technique? Or is it classified? :-X
Just wanted to add, that while I totally love your background art and the story sounds interesting too, the character design drives me absolutely up the wall... This is one reason I've never played the original game, despite its excellent feedback. I know this isn't the Critics Lounge, and this isn't even a very constructive criticism at all, but just felt I needed to get that off my chest. I don't even understand why I don't like these characters so much...
I am full of admiration for how professionaly you handle production of this game and how you've even cranked up the engine to make the game better...
I guess I should add that I'm not a racist and I don't feel this way because of that strong African-Carribbean theme. But it could be the fact that they look like Sideshow Bob, maybe?... Don't know. Sorry... :-[
Looking great as always Theo. You guys are killing this, really looking forward to the HD release
Quote from: Sughly on Sat 18/02/2012 06:23:34
You guys are killing this,
I most certainly hope not. :-X I liked the animation, besides the little camera swing at the start. I kind of heard that Grim Fandango cut-scene start sound. :P
Quote from: Armageddon on Sun 19/02/2012 07:12:39
Quote from: Sughly on Sat 18/02/2012 06:23:34
You guys are killing this,
I most certainly hope not. :-X I liked the animation, besides the little camera swing at the start. I kind of heard that Grim Fandango cut-scene start sound. :P
But... but... killing this as in, doing an awesome job. I'm not sure if you're having me on or not now :(
Grim: Sorry the character design is not your cup of tea. I guess either you think the whole mask thing works, or you don't. Most masks in TJD are pretty much faithful to the original carvings, if african masks freak you out, I'm totally cool with that. :) I personally, am afraid of cats. ;D
In other news, we finally released our teaser trailer. Please check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_czCnC1zJI&feature=youtu.be&hd=1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_czCnC1zJI&feature=youtu.be&hd=1)
oh and please spam absolutely everyone you know with this trailer. 8) Reaching out and getting seen is ridiculously difficult. Thank you, internet!
That... looks... way better than I ever imagined!
Seeing it all in motion makes all the difference!
That 3D ped-down shot at the beginning is gorgeous! (Though there's some aliasing going on at the horizon.)
I take it you projected your 2D drawing onto a 3D model, and then filled in the blank faces? Are you using actual lighting or just the shading from the drawing? I tried to do something similar (in Google Sketchup, maybe not exactly a pro-tool), and while the result was good enough for me, it looks like puke compared to this.
Strangely, the characters still look a bit blurry in some of the closeup shots. Are they not rendered at the full game resolution?
Right, I know this isn't the final version; I'll stop criticizing now. Looking forward to the release!
My face just melted off my face! I hope the volume of music and voice are controlled separately, those voices were WAY too loud for my eyes. :P
Quote from: Armageddon on Wed 22/02/2012 08:20:18
My face just melted off my face! I hope the volume of music and voice are controlled separately, those voices were WAY too loud for my eyes. :P
That's just because your eyes/ears melted. :=
This looks great!
Me wanna play the new version. NOW! :D
Quote from: Armageddon on Wed 22/02/2012 08:20:18
My face just melted off my face! I hope the volume of music and voice are controlled separately, those voices were WAY too loud for my eyes. :P
heh yes don't worry, there are separate controls for music and speech volume. :)
Quote from: Snarky on Tue 21/02/2012 22:08:03
I take it you projected your 2D drawing onto a 3D model, and then filled in the blank faces? Are you using actual lighting or just the shading from the drawing?
It's almost all shading from the drawing. Only thing lit with "real" 3d lights is the airplane. And that was lit with 3d lights in the original as well. Glad you enjoyed the boomshot, it's actually a lot longer than that, the camera pans down from far, far above the city.
Quote from: Snarky on Tue 21/02/2012 22:08:03
Strangely, the characters still look a bit blurry in some of the closeup shots. Are they not rendered at the full game resolution?
They had to be downsampled for performance reasons actually. They're pretty close to 1:1 though. I'm guessing we'll get away with it with some sharpening in post. :)
Found this today, thought you might enjoy seeing the second character.
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=24453.0
Thanks Armageddon! I had seen the pic before but didn't know who made it until now. ;D
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10215391/planeflight.jpg)
I'm just updating to say we just started blasting out our preview build to the press, so if you're an author of internet propaganda, be sure to send us an email at info ät skygoblin . com and we'll be sure to hook you up with a copy!
Chapter one is coming to PC and Mac in mid May 2012, with releases on iOS and Android to follow shortly thereafter. Read me rant about our development on @theowaern (http://"https://twitter.com/#!/theowaern").
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/bkcropped-250x300.png)
We finally have a release date! Get ready for MAY 18 when we go live on a bunch of different digital stores. Spread the word plz 8-)
I'll spam y'all as soon as pre-orders go online. I realize you're all going bonkers from not having the chance to order it yet. (roll) Kickass new smilies btw.
Kind of weird question, it's just that it is easier to follow the narrative - so when is the episode after this one coming? (I'm not looking for a precise date just like a general week, month, year general plan)
Dualnames/AGS blog is internet propaganda!
Best of luck with teh release, mon.
Anian: lol I wish I had an answer, it totally depends on how well we do with this financially. Odds are we're going to spend a very large part of 2012 doing contract work to stay afloat commercially = we won't be producing part two at a very high pace. I'm guessing you'll see part two go gold somewhere between six and nine months from now. But this is one hell of an assgrab. But the more people who buy part one, the more we'll be able to focus on part two... which handsomely leads me into the next point:
HOLY CRABS!!!! PRE-ORDERS ARE NOW AVAILABLE!!! (http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-JDC1/the-journey-down-chapter-one)
Please show us struggling suckers your support. We need your dough so bad, and you know it! ;-D
m0ds: Thanks, man, we're going to need all the luck we can get. Selling a game appears to be one gazillion times more complicated than making one. Oh and honest, anyone who writes for anything about games, will receive a review-copy. Just send an email to info ät skygoblin.com
Theo, will there be a boxed version or just only a downloadable version?
There are currently no plans for a retail (physical) version and I don't see any such release materialize any time soon. But dude, you shouldn't pay for your copy. I owe you one. I'll try and squeeze a freebie-code for you somehow (or maybe just dump the gold build on your personally, for whatever that's worth.) But I'll have to get back to you on that later when the storm settles a bit.
Cool stuff!
I noticed you're Göteborg-based, that's a quality mark if anything!
Quick question, will it be on Steam?
Sure thing Andail, bättre blir det inte!
Armageddon: I wish. We have managed to sign with lots of stores, but not with Steam. Who knows what happens in the future though, we'll keep on pestering them!
Quote from: theo on Sun 13/05/2012 21:44:08
Sure thing Andail, bättre blir det inte!
Armageddon: I wish. We have managed to sign with lots of stores, but not with Steam. Who knows what happens in the future though, we'll keep on pestering them!
Might be worth talking to Dave Gilbert (Wadjet Eye) about it?
I looked at the pre-order site, but didn't feel like signing up to another online store. Will it be available somewhere you don't have to sign up (or somewhere I'm already signed up, I guess)?
And the game is out! Has anyone else played it yet?
On a (fairly underpowered) Windows XP machine, the cursor is a bit laggy and the game choked on the opening cutscene, but apart from that it's pretty glorious. The graphics are just as excellent as they look in screenshots, the voices fit great, and the music (new and old) is superb. The game is its old award-winning self so far, with just a couple of little changes to the puzzles.
I got it through GamersGate, and have to say the whole purchasing/download process was a bit painful. But it was worth it in the end!
Can't find it on the app store. Is it iPad only? :-\
Quote from: Snarky on Sat 19/05/2012 10:31:50
And the game is out! Has anyone else played it yet?
Yep... not thirlled with the interface to be completely honest, but the puzzles, characters, humour are all spot on, the visuals are lovely and the music is great.
Hey guys, sorry for not replying sooner. The past few weeks have been insane.
THE GAME IS FINALLY RELEASED! (http://www.desura.com/games/the-journey-down-chapter-one)
(http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/jd_largeposter.png)
And I would never, ever have done something so balls out bananas as building it if it weren't for the great confidence I had felt after getting so much love from you guys, the AGS community. So a big thanks goes out to all of you who gave us asspats along the way. Oh and of course thanks cj for creating the tool that got me going on this track in the first place.
Fun fact: TJD started out as a test project me and Mathias did just to evaluate AGS as a platform. We liked it so much we just kept on building and building and building and building. :grin:
To clarify: The game has been released for Pc, Mac and Linux (http://www.desura.com/games/the-journey-down-chapter-one) so far. Our iOS and android builds are still in the making and will both probably not see the light of day until some time mid-summer.
Sslaxx: We have talked to everyone, believe me.
Snarky: If you bought it early from gamersgate, odds are you got the börked DRM'ed version. It lagged, especially in the intro. Simply download the game again from gamersgate and you will get the patched lag-free version. I hope the lag didn't mess too much with your experience, I'm sorry if it did!
CaptainD: Thanks for the kind words! :D
If any of y'all are considering sponsoring our humble little venture by purchasing a copy (http://www.desura.com/games/the-journey-down-chapter-one), maybe some of these reviews help nudge you in the right direction:
Adventuregamers.com 4/5 (http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/21332)
Gamezebo.com 4/5 (http://www.gamezebo.com/games/journey-down-chapter-one/review)
Indie Game Magazine 87% (http://www.indiegamemag.com/journey-down-ch1-review/)
Thank you once again everyone for making this possible.
theo, I don't think I downloaded it all that early. I'm pretty sure I saw the tweet that the version had been patched before I downloaded it. Is there some way to tell the version?
I can't download it again, anyway. After I downloaded it the first time, it disappeared from my gamersgate account. Honestly, the whole purchasing experience was pretty fucking painful (though part of that may be PayPal's fault; it didn't like me making a purchase from a friend's computer in a different country).
lol sorry about that, Snarky. I agree, gamersgate could CERTAINLY give their purchase-process a bit of a rehaul. It bothers me that it disappeared from your gamersgate account though, that sounds genuinely broken. If you want to: Send me a PM and I'll get you a code for downloading it off of desura instead - that's where we prefer to do our business now. Also we've got better control over the packaging there and know more about what's going on behind the curtains. Thanks a TON for supporting us and sorry for the bumps in the road. :grin:
Wow looks great! The light-change animations in the background images are really cool mon!
Just a quick advertisement! We've got a contest running on hardydev.com with 5 copies of the game destined to be won and treasured:
http://www.hardydev.com/2012/06/10/the-journey-down-iv-contest/
Who'd like to test their luck in answering the correct questions?
Looking grand Theo! I'll get it one way or another.
Why don't you just sell "options" on the whole series! (That thought kept lingering
while watching your developement of TJD and might sound like twaddle, but I'm quite serious).
I for my part won't think twice about such an opportunity. Pre-buy the whole series directly off
SkyGoblin amd get it some day...makes me sound like an idiot, now that I come to think of it... :tongue: