Journey To Hell

[Romeo]

After 1 year of hard work the game is in testing phase (thanks Tabata).

It's a fantasy game about sorcery and the first appearance of the crop circles phenomenon back in 1678 (the so called "Mowing Devil").
Here's The story: 

1678, England, south coast.
One night some strange symbols appear in the crop fields near the village of Newhell. As the population depends on his crops to survive, the damaged harvest is declared an act of Devil. Martyn Van Dalem is the last member of a Dutch sorcerers dynasty and the last chance for the local peasants to defeat the evil forces, save the harvest and the entire world...



Martyn at home



The inventory

My first game (A RainDog story) was a "tribute" to E. Hopper, hopperish paintings and Tom Waits music. This time most of the backgrounds will be Flemish paintings merged together. The music tracks will be chosen from classical and contemporary composers.

Story:       50%
Graphics:     20%
Music and sounds:   50%
scripts:      20% (the interface is an easy left/right mouse buttons (interact & look))
puzzles:      20%
dialogs:      5%

Two more images:



Riding the horse



The crop field

Release date: end of June 2012. I didn't find a proof reader so... sorry for the spanglish...
I hope you like the game's idea.

Cheers.

The game one year later:

- Artistic backgrounds
- A long game with more than 50 rooms
- Day/night cycles
- A lot of puzzles
- Magic spells to control the elements (water, earth, fire and wind) and create weird cretures
- 3 arcade sub-games
- A superb classical soundtrack (including Vivaldi and Bach)




The town square at noon



Dialogs interface



The harbour at dusk



The cemetery at night

[Hudders]

Somewhat surreal but appealing graphics. I look forward to it. 

[Tabata]

Initiallyonly looking at the first screenshot, I thought about The RainDogStory immediatly. Could it be, that ... it's the same style, so ...? Without reading the text, I changed to the profile, because it was Romeo, who ... - oh, what a disappointment - ... this Romeo never has worked on any finished game yet  :'(  but ... hmmmm.

Going back to the thread to read and â€" hey, he is it â€" yay  â€" Romeo is back with a very interesting new story and it sounds, like there are lot of possibilities for quests and puzzles.

I loved playing The RainDogStory, even if it was very hard to get through (for me) â€" but it was really fun (getting desperate, then sad, finally mad) while searching for a solution or an item - it was a game for adventurers.  8)

So I wish you a lot of luck with creating your new game and that you get great ideas for the puzzles again. 

[Romeo]

Hudders: Thanks for "appealing graphics" but I can't understand what you mean with "surreal". What could I do to avoid the graphics to be surreal?

Tabata: Thanks to you too. It's a pleasure to make a game for people like you. You're always very enthusiastic. I really hope you'll like this game and I also hope to have great ideas for the puzzles... that's the hardest task when you're making an adventure game.

[CaptainD]

To me the backgrounds look like they're scanned in watercolour paintings - at any rate, I think they look great!

The only perhaps "surreal" element might be that the items / characters stand out rather starkly against the backgrounds, but to be honest I don't think that's a problem.

[Hudders]

Hudders: Thanks for "appealing graphics" but I can't understand what you mean with "surreal". What could I do to avoid the graphics to be surreal?

I just mean the backgrounds look like they've been patched together from different scenes giving it a kind of weird inconsistency that nevertheless works. It's no bad thing.

They kind of remind me of MindMaze from Encarta 95 for some reason.

[cat]

They kind of remind me of MindMaze from Encarta 95 for some reason.

A blast from the past :o, I think we got the encarta 95 as an extra with our first non-second-hand pc back then.

I think it's surreal too because of the paper-cut look. I think it's not a bad thing, as it gives the game a unique, artsy style.

[Hudders]

They kind of remind me of MindMaze from Encarta 95 for some reason.

A blast from the past :o, I think we got the encarta 95 as an extra with our first non-second-hand pc back then.

Yeah, it came with our first PC too, (a 486). Sometimes it amazes me how long ago that was. I was just thinking to myself: "heh, 95, that's nearly 10 years ago... oh, wait."

Looking back at screenshots of MindMaze, it's not that similar to this game. But it still has the same cut-out feel. I'm also reminded of Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time.

[Technocrat]

They kind of remind me of MindMaze from Encarta 95 for some reason.

A blast from the past :o, I think we got the encarta 95 as an extra with our first non-second-hand pc back then.

Yeah, it came with our first PC too, (a 486). Sometimes it amazes me how long ago that was. I was just thinking to myself: "heh, 95, that's nearly 10 years ago... oh, wait."

Looking back at screenshots of MindMaze, it's not that similar to this game. But it still has the same cut-out feel. I'm also reminded of Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time.

Indeed, Terry Gilliam is the feeling I'm getting from the screenshots, which in my opinion is a good thing!

As mentioned before, it's because the elements of the picture look like they've been pieced together from other sources, but in such a way that they seem to work!

[Stupot]

I was also getting a slight Monty Python vibe from the screenshots, so I'm glad we're on the same wavelength.
This game looks worth keeping an eye on.  All the best finishing it and finding a name

[Romeo]

I think that you guessed right. Actually my first idea was to make a game based upon the Terry Gilliam's movie "The imaginarium of dr. Parnassus". Then I changed my mind but I have to admit that I love all Monty Phyton's and Terry Gilliam's movies. So it's possible that I've been unconsciously influenced by them. I hope so... it would be fine.
Cheers and thanks for posting your opinion.

[Takyon]

Graphics remind me of Encarta, looks good.

[Romeo]

>> UPDATE IN FIRST POST <<

edit by darth - removed entire first post quote (no need to quote all those images) - just an "update" notice to the first post is good enough, thanks!

[AdventureWhip]

That looks epic!