(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/dragonrose_1/TITLE.png)
IIIiiiiiiiiiintroducing my first real game (Wanderer does NOT count)!
The game is entitled "Candace Grace: Bard's Blood." You play Candace Grace (in case you couldn't guess by the title), a high school student and the lead singer in a small rock band called "The Imposters."
While preforming at a local Battle of the Bands, where she sings original songs in public for the first time, an apparently freak accident causes the furnace to explode. She and two of her band mates- the guitarist and the bassist- get out of the building safely, but the drummer, Patrick, is not as lucky. A burning portion of the ceiling falls on him. He makes it to the hospital, but doesn't survive the night.
Candace begins having horrible nightmares, in which the fire and Patrick's death were all her fault. She tries to convince herself that the accident was just that- an accident... but what if it wasn't?
A combination of Celtic myth and Rock and Roll, and inspired by the Gabriel Knight games, P:DA and Mercedes Lackey's "Urban Fantasy" novels, I'm certainly hoping that Bard's Blood will be a thoroughly enjoyable game.
The image above will not be appearing in the game anywhere, but I felt like making some sort of promotional material.
Will include:
-GUI specifically developed for this game (not just different pictures on the template)
-Three completly original songs written and vocally preformed by me!
-74,839,215,743,801,334 monsters and bosses! (whoops! wrong game!) ;D
Status: 12 rooms basically programmed, story 100% done (again), art 7% done, music 0% done
Update June 22, 2003: Updated the status line, made a disclaimer post. Enjoy!
Update August 3, 2003: Added some pretty screen shots. Enjoy them as well!
Update October 18, 2003: After reading post by Garage Gothic, I've begun to rethink the way that the game is set up, so the amount of story done has gone down. Sigh.
Update March 2, 2004: The story's all rewritten- 100%, no going back on it this time. It's the way it is and I'm NOT TOUCHING IT ANYMORE!
However, I realized that it took me a month of solid work for me to do one measly walk animation. In one direction. Drawing over a template. Then I tested it in the game and realized it didn't fit the graphics I'd drawn. I was about ready to kill something.
So I'm trying a graphic style I haven't seen in an AGS game. Each room is a still image, complete with characters and everything drawn in. No animations. I lose some sense of interactivity (and the chance of winning the "Best Animation" AGS award :'(), but I gain some story telling power. I can make a scene look like anything I want. I can put the lighting and the camera angle anywhere. I can change the character's clothes with a heck of a lot more ease.
I also can do the backgrounds a lot faster, because I don't have to worry about angles or walkable areas. A couple of vanishing points and I'm golden.
Damn sweet idea for a game. i cant wait for this one!
Great! Is this going to be a serious game or is there going to be a joke here and there?
Serious games can have jokes! Look at Grim Fandango - it was full of good humour.
Quikstrike89: The game in general will be pretty serious, but there will be jokes thrown in. I honestly don't think I could be serious long enough to do a whole game without any jokes.
Mr. Panda: The drummer dies because, when something bad happens, he will A) be sitting down, whereas the rest of the band will be standing, and B) he has to get around the entire drum kit before fleeing, and the rest of the band can just drop their guitars/microphones/marraccas/etc. and flee. It's also part of a big important puzzle.
Czar: No. Helm will live a long and fruitful life.
A bit of an update. I'm almost finished with fixing all of my previously done crappy background art, but characters are still just place holders.
Also, the GUI is almost finished, I just need to design a three more icons and fix up a fourth that looks like poo, and I need to do some scripting. But other than that it's good.
I've come to a bit of a standstill on the story, with two important sub plots not fitting together like I hoped they would, so that will require major tweaking.
Mostly I'm updating just to remind everyone that I am still working on this, though.
A very nice idea. Why dont you show us some more screenshots?
uh...all I see is a black square
Yay! Got the picture working again!
Anyway, on to comments:
Vel: I can't show any screenshots because I don't even have completed characters yet. That and it's a major hassle to get files from my computer in my room (that doesn't save png's and isn't connected to the internet) to the computer down here that DOES save png's and IS connected to the internet. I have to take each picture on a seperate disk, and frankly, I'm extremely lazy. I am not looking forward to trying to upload my game.
Mr. Panda: Bask in the pictury goodness.
Rabbit With Fangs: You could also cary the guitar with you, but that's a matter of personal preference.
Honestly, being a drummer in a rock band must be one of the most dangerous professions on earth, judging from their historical track record. I hope our drummer has come to terms with the risk...
Dragonrose: Rock! This game should be pretty awesome. I mean, combine ROCK, a good looking girl, psychological introspection, Celtic myth (I really can't wait to see how this fits in), PDA influence... :o I think my head is going to explode from all the awesomeness. Once again, can't wait.
And in regard to dropping guitars: I would NEVER drop my guitar, fire be damned. Pete Townshend may well be one of my heroes, but he's got to have been a bloody looney to smash up his instruments like that.
Oh, and one more thing. Crazy dreams are cool, just don't put in some crazy monster-face-Candace-nightmare bit a la PDA. That game truly rules, but I swear to God, that thing scared the bejeezus out of me. Almost fell out of my friggin chair.
The game sounds cool....
Bit of an update once again!
First off, I have only recently seen This is Spinal Tap. I swear I wrote the majority of the plot without having seen the movie. The dead drummer is really a coincidence. And it is also a coincidence that the sad theme is in D minor. :-[
Second, I have no intention of killing Mr. Panda. It is also a coincidence that Mr. Panda is a drummer and looks like the drummer in my game. I've never even seen a picture of Mr. Panda.
Third, I have 12 backgrounds done and the rooms basically programmed (meaning all the interactions that never change have been programed). The story is completely completed, and I'm finishing writing the lyrics to the songs. I still need to finish my character art- I've just got place holders for now, and I've got almost all the inventory items left to draw. Other than that, the game is turning out really well!
But how much progress is it?
Ok, it's in D Minor, but is it named "Lick my Lovestick" or not? ;D
No - Sorry, I shouldn't have started the whole Spinal Tap-thing in your thread anyway... The game looks like it could be really good, btw. Looking forward to it.
Whoa, teh drummer looks like me? thats kinda creepy...
/me wonders if he ever mentioned that the drummer looked like him, as he cant remember ever seeing a picture of him
/me hides in terror
Mr. Panda: You did! Right Here! (http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=5480;start=msg66007#msg66007)
Vel: I finished three more rooms, 25% more story (making it 100%) 2% more art, and I added that I have no music done because I'm a loser.
Rincewind: No, it's not called "Lick My Lovestick." :-*
Aww... back to one page without the Spinal Tap jokes...
Hey man! This sounds really deep and engaging - can't wait for this one.
-Dave
whoops, so I did. carry on then! ;D
Thought I'd mention that Vel was really really nice and previewed the game in the AGS Ezine. Go Check it out! (http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/AGS_ezine2.zip) I'll post the screenshots seen in the preview in this thread next month. It'd be kind of silly for him to have "exclusive" screenshots that I posted all over the place.
Thanks again, Vel!
Dont mention it.
Just read Vel's preview of your game Dragonrose - and it looks absolutely ace! This is one game I'm going to be playing for sure. The plot sounds great, the graphics rock and I've always liked the GK-type interface.
Good luck with it! :)
One question that is slightly off topic:
I have found the AGS ezine issue 2, and I don't remember where from I downloaded it. So, how can I find the AGS ezine issue 1?
BTW great job Vel :) Thank you
Thanks!
Browse through the Adventure chat board.
PS: M0ds, see? People DO need a sticky.
Just so that I have some proof in this thread that this game will eventually exist... screenshots for your viewing pleasure!
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/dragonrose_1/COMPUTER.PNG)
Candace's computer desktop. Note the very pretty icon not in line with the others!
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/dragonrose_1/MAP.PNG)
The city map that lets you travel around from place to place. It works the same as the ones in Gabriel Knight and P:DA.
And just a quick explanation about how the GUI will work:
The BOOT is used for walking, and that's just what it'll do.
The LIPS are for conversation and regular speech.
The OPEN HAND is interaction (push, pull, feel, etc.)
The CLOSED HAND is taking things.
The EYE is for identifying an object (i.e. "That's the door to your bed room.")
The MAGNIFYING GLASS is for getting greater detail, such as the condition an object is in or emotions connected to it.
The POCKET icon takes you to the inventory, and your currently selected inventory item shows up in the black box next to it.
The NOTE icon takes you to the song index, which works just like the inventory- you can select songs to sing directly at people or things.
The GUI is always visible at the top of the screen, except during cutscenes, and the cursors are identicle to the icons, but they have little blue cross-hairs.
I'm done.
Edit of DOOM!: There were more pictures here. Now I've realized that if I keep doing graphics the way I was, with animations and all that, this game will be released just about in time for my grandchildren to play it. So the old style graphics are mostly gone. Good-bye. Nice knowing you. These two are the only ones that are staying the same, though the GUI is probably changing.
Great!
Ah, cool screenshots! I dig the GK interface - But will there be a dialog-tree-interface similar to the one in GK1 too?
And I had no idea that Larry Vales could play the violin... ;D
Long time, no update, ladies and gentlemen!
I recently read a post by Garage Gothic that got me rethinking how my story is going to be set up. The puzzles and obstacles I was using were not really fitting in with the story. So it's back to the drawing board- er... writing desk. I'm going to try for what GG called "optional depth," where instead of having the goal "solve all puzzles!" you have the goal of "find all story lines." It's sort of like in The Colonel's Bequest- you didn't need to find out who else was using the secret passages or where the treasure was hidden to complete the game. It just made it more fun. This unfortunatly means that my lovely little status bar has gone down.
Rincewind: I'm going to try for the GK1 dialog interface. I found a very nice tutorial, but I'm very bad at scripting. And that Larry Vales remark deserves a big fat :P.
Ugh, I hate posting right after myself. In a horrible twist of irony, I only seem to update this when I go back. Check the first post for updates (downdates?).
I like your idea of non-animating screens Dragonrose! Saves a lot of work and allows for unique angles for every scene. Reminds me a bit of the Dynamix approach in Heart of China and Rise of the Dragon. Are you doing first person views like those games or are you keeping the on-screen character?
Really looking forward to this game.
This game looks and sounds so darn sweet and I guess it will work very well without animations. Keep it up,