Candace Grace: Bard's Blood

[DragonRose]

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!)

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.  

[Layabout]

Damn sweet idea for a game. i cant wait for this one!

[Quickstrike]

Great!  Is this going to be a serious game or is there going to be a joke here and there?

[Barcik]

Serious games can have jokes! Look at Grim Fandango - it was full of good humour.

[DragonRose]

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.

[DragonRose]

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.

[Vel]

A very nice idea. Why dont you show us some more screenshots?

[Matt Brown]

uh...all I see is a black square

[DragonRose]

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.

[remixor]

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.

[Squinky]

The game sounds cool....

[DragonRose]

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!

[Vel]

But how much progress is it?

[Rincewind]

Ok, it's in D Minor, but is it named "Lick my Lovestick" or not?

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.

[Matt Brown]

Whoa, teh drummer looks like me? thats kinda creepy...

* Mr.Panda wonders if he ever mentioned that the drummer looked like him, as he cant remember ever seeing a picture of him

* Mr.Panda hides in terror

[DragonRose]

Mr. Panda: You did! Right Here!

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...

[Dave Gilbert]

Hey man!  This sounds really deep and engaging - can't wait for this one.

-Dave

[Matt Brown]

whoops, so I did. carry on then!

[DragonRose]

Thought I'd mention that Vel was really really nice and previewed the game in the AGS Ezine.  Go Check it out!  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!

[Vel]

Dont mention it.