Calm Waters - Demo Now Available

DazJ · Wed 09/05/2012 11:17:04

Presents

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

EXCLUSIVE! FIRST GLAMEPLAY TEASER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecmY789sNbk

UPDATE: 28th JULY 2013

New Screenshot:

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

Iliya · Wed 09/05/2012 12:26:32

Super! Great graphics! Looks really very nice!

Chicky · Wed 09/05/2012 12:30:02

This looks great DazJ, the character fits in nicely! Do you have different renders for the changes in lighting?

m0ds · Wed 09/05/2012 12:42:10

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?

Anian · Wed 09/05/2012 13:12:57

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.

DazJ · Wed 09/05/2012 13:53:07

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.

DazJ · Sat 12/05/2012 11:17:41

New background added:

Doc_Savage · Sat 12/05/2012 20:38:35

Nice ! That Looks gorgeous!

DazJ · Sat 12/05/2012 23:54:53

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.

Big GC · Sun 13/05/2012 01:46:03

Cool screens. I like that inventory style.

I cant wait to solve the "Open door with soap" puzzle

DazJ · Sun 13/05/2012 14:19:10

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.

CosmoQueen · Sun 20/05/2012 12:24:05

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!

DazJ · Sun 20/05/2012 12:28:21

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

DazJ · Sun 20/05/2012 21:45:22

New screenshot added. I'm experimenting with a film-like noise/grain overlay as you can see from the image below:

CosmoQueen · Mon 21/05/2012 03:25:34

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!

Joshy · Mon 21/05/2012 06:52:55

It's looking great Daz! Really nice progress, can't wait to play it!

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.

DazJ · Mon 21/05/2012 08:50:22

Hi Joshy

I've just sent you your email my friend - it was my fault, I got distracted :/

Joshy · Mon 21/05/2012 12:20:19

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!

DazJ · Mon 21/05/2012 18:42:39

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.

LTGiants2000 · Mon 21/05/2012 21:20:56

Looks AMAZING!! This is so well done I would have thought there was thousands of dollars backing it! Bravo!

CaptainD · 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.

ThreeOhFour · Tue 22/05/2012 02:22:19

Intro looks great, nice work!

DazJ · Tue 22/05/2012 08:01:13

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

Anian · Tue 22/05/2012 09:01:08

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.

DazJ · Thu 24/05/2012 16:28:02

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.

Monsieur OUXX · Fri 25/05/2012 14:17:34

But... Has this been done using AGS?!?

DazJ · Fri 25/05/2012 14:18:30

It's all been built and coded within AGS yes.

DazJ · Sun 12/08/2012 11:37:41

A new background has been added:

LTGiants2000 · Mon 13/08/2012 17:35:34

Looking very, very nice!

CaptainD · Mon 13/08/2012 19:06:23

Looking extremely good so far! Any plans on a demo release soon?

DazJ · Tue 14/08/2012 11:55:35

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.

LTGiants2000 · Fri 24/08/2012 18:43:58

GET BACK TO WORK AND LET US KNOW WHEN WE CAN SEE MORE!!!

DazJ · Wed 27/02/2013 16:31:45

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.

CaptainD · Thu 28/02/2013 08:43:08

Hey, thanks for the update - I'd been wondering what had happened to this one!

DazJ · Thu 28/02/2013 15:42:00

It went through so many changes it's unbelievable but it's still going strong

LTGiants2000 · Thu 28/02/2013 23:36:40

Happy to see more on this one, keep it up DAZ!!

DazJ · Wed 10/04/2013 10:34:17

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.

CaptainD · Wed 10/04/2013 11:23:42

Good to hear!

Slasher · Wed 10/04/2013 14:45:07

Love the Intro especially the camera work. Brilliant

slasher

an Urpney · Wed 10/04/2013 15:43:36

Looking forward for this one!

DazJ · Sat 27/07/2013 13:41:48

UPDATE:

Added an Exclusive Gameplay Preview Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecmY789sNbk

Enjoy

Chicky · Sat 27/07/2013 22:54:23

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!

DazJ · Sat 27/07/2013 23:18:42

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:

shaun9991 · Tue 30/07/2013 17:08:44

this looks amazing. i love the atmosphere in the video sneak peak

DazJ · Sat 03/08/2013 21:15:57

Thank you

It's really really taking shape now.

LTGiants2000 · Fri 30/08/2013 18:11:36

I think I saw something about a demo on the Facebook page. Are you going to be releasing a demo?

DazJ · Fri 30/08/2013 18:26:04

Yes, after the advert reaches 50 likes on the page

Stupot · Fri 30/08/2013 23:17:54

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
16 more likes to go.

DazJ · Sun 08/09/2013 21:23:00

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.

DazJ · Sun 06/10/2013 18:52:44

Demo now online and first post updated: http://tayannastudios.com/demo/CalmWaters_DemoBeta.zip

m0ds · Sun 06/10/2013 20:22:48

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!

Khris · Sun 06/10/2013 21:31:06

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

[close]

DazJ · Sun 06/10/2013 21:36:47

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.

kaput · Mon 07/10/2013 02:09:39

I downloaded and tried out the demo. It really does show potential. I look forward to the full game, nice one.

m0ds · Mon 07/10/2013 02:18:39

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

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..?

DazJ · Mon 07/10/2013 09:35:59

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.

Stupot · Fri 11/10/2013 01:57:36

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.