(http://www.tayannastudios.com/media/AGS/TayannaStudios.png)
Presents
(http://www.tayannastudios.com/media/AGS/CalmWatersLogo.png)
A MYSTERY THRILLER
FULL INTRODUCTION VIDEO CAN BE SEEN HERE: http://www.facebook.com/calmwatersgame
UPDATE OCTOBER 6TH 2013
Demo available - Complete with speech: http://tayannastudios.com/demo/CalmWaters_DemoBeta.zip
"I needed this holiday. I needed it bad. I'd hired a little private plane and a pilot to take me to the island of Thereus. It was a small port with very few tourists and little distractions. It was perfect. I was in heaven.
I was wrong."
About Calm Waters
'Calm Waters' is a commercial point 'n' click adventure game to be released on the PC and then hopefully the Android and iPhone.
The Plot
The game is centered around Peter, a man who visits a quaint Greek port to relax for a week. What he encounters is the exact opposite. Strange sounds and local tales emerge about an ominous island roughly 2 miles out to sea. With constant warnings to avoid the island and to stop asking questions, our holiday-maker soon realises that something's not right. Especially when the locals begin slowly disappearing one-by-one...
Screenshots
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/PeterBeachPose2_PNG.png)
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/MichellePreview.png)
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/PosterProm_PNG.png)
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/1.png)
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/2.png)
EXCLUSIVE! FIRST GLAMEPLAY TEASER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecmY789sNbk
UPDATE: 28th JULY 2013
New Screenshot:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/1001072_557987187592522_160616681_n.png)
Production/Progress/The Team
Scripting - 30%
Background Art - 55%
Sprites - 50%
Music - 95%
3D Backgrounds and Rendering - DazJ
Music Composers - Doc_Savage & Joshua Ide (Joshy)
3D Character Artwork/Animation - DazJ
I'll be uploading voice samples from the main character some time soon.
In the meantime you can check out the Calm Waters Official Facebook Page here: https://www.facebook.com/calmwatersgame
Super! Great graphics! Looks really very nice!
This looks great DazJ, the character fits in nicely! Do you have different renders for the changes in lighting?
Looking good! I agree about the character. It'd be nice to see what the inventory looks like, what happened to that cog and bag icon? :)
Do you want to have those artifacts on the walls (especially the interioir of the restaurant)? Because that looks like a render quality issue otherwise.
But yeah the character looks fitting, glad you found you artist.
Thanks guys :)
Chicky: So far no, just relying on the good old brightness area changes.
m0ds: The bag and cog icon were actually a test for the Android (touch screen and all that), although I may bring them back in, I'm in 2 minds about it.
Anian: The artefacts on the walls are indeed caused by the rendering, especially when a lot of varying lights are used. I personally don't mind it though - it seems to give it a certain quality although if people think they're distracting I'll fix them up.
New background added:
(http://www.tayannastudios.com/media/AGS/screen5.png)
Nice ! That Looks gorgeous!
Cheers :)
Here's a sneak-peak at the GUI. Basic, very Broken Sword-esque. The items need some cleaning up, I'm aware of that.
m0ds'll be happy to know that the 'cogs' are back.
(http://www.tayannastudios.com/media/AGS/screen6b.png)
Cool screens. I like that inventory style.
I cant wait to solve the "Open door with soap" puzzle ;)
A introduction video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdipiaXDvO8
You'll also get to hear the voice artist for the main character, Peter, along with a section of the game's music.
This sounds so familiar like I've seen it in a movie. Is that where you got the inspiration for this? And the graphics are stunning by the way!
I usually say it's a cross between Twin Peaks and Lost, with a dash of Alan Wake thrown in there for good measure.
The story itself hasn't been done before (at least what I'm aware of).
Thank you for the compliment :)
New screenshot added. I'm experimenting with a film-like noise/grain overlay as you can see from the image below:
(http://www.tayannastudios.com/media/AGS/screen8.png)
Looks amazing! I usually don't like 3D-ish games cuz they tend to look very bland and cheesy. But this, looks so professional I love it!
It's looking great Daz! Really nice progress, can't wait to play it! :-D
I'm assuming either you didn't receive my last email or I haven't received yours?
There may be an issue with one of our email accounts.
Hi Joshy
I've just sent you your email my friend - it was my fault, I got distracted :/
No worries! I just didn't want you to think I'd bailed on you, so I figured it would be worth checking.
Plus, I'd forgive you for getting distracted: the new screens look amazing!
For those interested, the full opening introduction video to the game has now been uploaded to the Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/calmwatersgame
It's pretty much the whole video although I'll probably make a slight edit when I have the time to the music/change just after the main title card.
Looks AMAZING!! This is so well done I would have thought there was thousands of dollars backing it! Bravo!
Wow... VERY impressive! Could almost have been the intro from a Deep Silver game.
Any chance you could throw this up on Youtube of Vimeo sometime? Can't embed the video from Facebook, I'd like to feature your trailer on my blog.
Intro looks great, nice work!
Quote from: CaptainD on Mon 21/05/2012 23:42:32
Wow... VERY impressive! Could almost have been the intro from a Deep Silver game.
Any chance you could throw this up on Youtube of Vimeo sometime? Can't embed the video from Facebook, I'd like to feature your trailer on my blog.
Here you go buddy - it's HD too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdipiaXDvO8
Music is really good and the atmosphere of the trailer/intro is very enjoyable as well. Strangely though the art changes in style in almost each scene and the camera shakes in places for no reason. But yeah, it's wip, so I'm still looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
Yes there's 2 people working on the 3D design which could explain the changes - Micamic, and myself. I'm actually rather happy with the final render. I think Micamic said it was rendered with the 3D software's own renderer. I reckon otherwise we'd have been waiting months with all the water animations and lighting.
But... Has this been done using AGS?!?
It's all been built and coded within AGS yes.
A new background has been added:
(http://www.tayannastudios.com/media/AGS/screen11.png)
Looking very, very nice!
Looking extremely good so far! Any plans on a demo release soon?
There's no solid plans on a demo release BUT I am toying with the idea of releasing this in Chapters, ala TellTale Games. If this is the case, I doubt I'll release a playable demo.
GET BACK TO WORK AND LET US KNOW WHEN WE CAN SEE MORE!!! :)
It's been a while since the last update.
There's been a lot of changes to the game, especially the main character, Peter, as you can see from the promotional pictures below.
Also, the 720p HD aspect has been dropped in favour of good old 640x480-style as it was proving a problem when it was coming to porting. So far, I'm very happy with how it's all coming together.
There's a also a new inventory system that's been created which can be seen at the very bottom.
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/PeterBeachPose2_PNG.png)
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/MichellePreview.png)
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/PosterProm_PNG.png)
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/1.png)
(http://www.halldesigns.co.uk/CalmWaters/2.png)
Hey, thanks for the update - I'd been wondering what had happened to this one!
It went through so many changes it's unbelievable but it's still going strong :)
Happy to see more on this one, keep it up DAZ!!
I've been plowing through now and it's really making progress. I may release a playable short demo in the next week or so.
Good to hear!
Love the Intro especially the camera work. Brilliant 8-)
slasher
Looking forward for this one!
UPDATE:
Added an Exclusive Gameplay Preview Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecmY789sNbk
Enjoy :)
Hi Daz, i'm not normally a fan of pre-rendered adventures but that preview was very well put together. Absolutely screaming with atmosphere thanks to the sound design and the parallax effect works really well. Keep it up!
Thanks, Chicky.
Yes, the atmosphere plays a huge part in the game so I'm glad that it's translated across successfully :)
UPDATE:
Updated design:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/1001072_557987187592522_160616681_n.png)
this looks amazing. i love the atmosphere in the video sneak peak
Thank you :) It's really really taking shape now.
I think I saw something about a demo on the Facebook page. Are you going to be releasing a demo?
Yes, after the advert reaches 50 likes on the page :)
Quote from: DazJ on Fri 30/08/2013 18:26:04
Yes, after the advert reaches 50 likes on the page :)
Come on then, everyone... Clicky here (https://www.facebook.com/calmwatersgame/posts/573496439374930)
16 more likes to go.
Cheers Stu :)
We've now got a mention over on adventuregamers.com - http://www.adventuregamers.com/news/view/25232
It's now officially set for a Summer 2014 release.
Demo now online and first post updated: http://tayannastudios.com/demo/CalmWaters_DemoBeta.zip
Thanks for the heads up, downloaded and going to play a bit later if I feel well enough. No calm waters in my stomach today...not after last night ;) But well done Daz looking forward to it!
Looking good so far, although I'm no fan of this graphics style at all. I love the videos though, and the voice acting is pretty good so far. Great Job!
A few things I noticed:
Spoiler
-the walk speed, while being too slow in general, is really off in some screens. Particularly while walking horizontally outside the hotel and walking down in the corridor, the animation is much faster than the movement.
-the game doesn't always properly hide the interface. At the title screen, you can't click anything while the title fades in, but the buttons are already there from the start. And during blocking scenes, the mouse cursor remains the usual crosshairs, but the game naturally doesn't react to clicks.
-is there a reason why you can't skip speech with a mouse click? I was eating something while playing the demo and had to move my hand between the keyboard and mouse constantly.
-I also got this when I left the restaurant screen via the right exit, but only after having been to the beach:
in "room10.asc", line 45
Error: Error running function 'room_Load':
Error: Null pointer referenced
Hi Khris
Thanks for the notes. I actually fixed the error bug with a new upload so I'm presuming you downloaded the first one.
The walking/animation has been the biggest problem. I'm thinking of cancelling diagonal view altogether as this is where most of the issues come from.
You can't skip with the mouse because it's easy to accidently skip things. That's why it's keyboard only, like Monkey Island does.
I downloaded and tried out the demo. It really does show potential. I look forward to the full game, nice one.
Hi Daz, that error is occurring for me too, so I re-downloaded and was able to exit the bar area, but this time, after visiting beach, exiting bar and then trying to reach the crying woman, game crashed with "room 14, line 43, null pointer referenced."
This *may* have happened because I loaded my previous save game and just tried walking around to make sure I could reach everywhere without a crash.
It'd be great to be able to skip speech. More often than not I've read it long before the actor has spoken. I don't think I can handle sitting through it all again for a third time :P Also something was apparent during the intro - deaf/hard of hearing people are going to struggle as there's no text there, but it's certainly some nice narration.
Other than that I've enjoyed it all so far, good atmosphere, and the "past tense" approach is pretty cool, I'm enjoying that. I'm half and half on the walk speed, I don't mind it. But because of the errors and having to replay, I'm now finding the speed frustrating. I think if it was still my first play through though I'd be fine with it, but maybe there is room for a quickened pace/run on double click?
Beside that, good job! I'm enjoying it :) Oh, and isn't it "Michal Michalski"? He's credited as Michael in the intro. But it's good to hear some of his new work :)
PS. I like the diagonal view myself, I don't see the need to remove it..?
Hey Mods
Thanks for reporting those issues. I've gone ahead and recoded how the music is executed - the problem was using Channels for the different audio elements. It worked fine on the systems I tested it on but obviously isn't on everyone else's.
I've gone ahead and re-uploaded the download file anyhow from the same link.
Regarding speech, it CAN be skipped be simply pressing any key on the keyboard. Monkey Island used this exact same style.
About the double-speed - I'd already toyed with is before but it just looks comical and that'll take away from the atmosphere - that's the last thing I want to do. The option to increase game speed is in the Settings though so that's an option I suppose.
I'me just playing the demo now. The presentation is really top notch. Nicely done. The voice acting is pretty good too. Although, what the actors say doesn't always match the text at the top of the screen, which bugs me probably more than it should.