The Journey Down - FINALLY RELEASED check last post!

[theo]

Thanks y'all! 

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 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!

[selmiak]

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

[theo]

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. 

He's got a french accent though so don't get any ideas.

[Anian]

He's got a french accent though so don't get any ideas.

That's no excuse for not having a shadow.   

[theo]

Don't worry anian, there will be shadow.   

Here's a new screenshot featuring the full main cast if anyone is interested.



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)

[Armageddon]

That looks so much better than the previous close up images. Still can't wait to play this!

[Zenger]

It looks amazing Theo  :o, great work!!

I'm looking forward to playing the game..... again  

Regards

[theo]

THanks for the kinds words guys! I'm glad the stuff we push out there is getting your approval! 

We recently wrapped up implementation of all the core puzzles and key interactions of chapter one of 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.



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 today about implementing emotion in characters, if you're curious, please check it out here.

[theo]

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. 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, where every major character in the cast have their own spotlight.

[theo]

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.

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!



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

If you're more interested in the techy, real nerdy stuff, @skygoblinmarkus is the one you should follow.

Hope to see you on twitter!

[Blue]

I love your backgrounds! Have you ever considered to make a tutorial to demonstrate your technique? Or is it classified? 

[Grim]

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...

[Sughly]

Looking great as always Theo. You guys are killing this, really looking forward to the HD release

[Armageddon]

You guys are killing this,

I most certainly hope not. I liked the animation, besides the little camera swing at the start. I kind of heard that Grim Fandango cut-scene start sound.

[Sughly]

You guys are killing this,

I most certainly hope not. I liked the animation, besides the little camera swing at the start. I kind of heard that Grim Fandango cut-scene start sound.

But... but... killing this as in, doing an awesome job. I'm not sure if you're having me on or not now

[theo]

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. 

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

oh and please spam absolutely everyone you know with this trailer.  8) Reaching out and getting seen is ridiculously difficult. Thank you, internet!

[Igor Hardy]

That... looks... way better than I ever imagined!

Seeing it all in motion makes all the difference!

[Snarky]

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!

[Armageddon]

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.

[Igor Hardy]

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.

That's just because your eyes/ears melted.