Some time last year, I announced a game called 'City of Fortune'. I spent loads of time making backgrounds and such, but didn't do enough planning, and the project went down the toilet.
I've been thinking wheter to announce this game or not, fearing that I might drop it again at some point, which would make this thread look pretty damn stupid and a waste of space.
(A note to the moderators... please delete my old COF thread. The game has changed a lot, so i didn't want to use that thread to announce this - Link: http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?topic=8647.0 )
Well, anyway - as you can see, I've decided to announce this despite the fact that I suck at completing games. So let's get on with it, shall we?
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/citytitle1.gif)
Features:
- Lucas-Arts style gameplay - a GUI with cancelable actionsÃ, and right-clicks for predefined actions
- Three main characters
- About 35+ playable rooms
- The ability to sneak and hide (For one character)
- Halfways decent NPC AI
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Story & Character info removed due to rewrite.
Wow, this looks fantastic, not to dismerit the rest of your work but i thinbk your characters in particular are fantastic!!! Keep it up :)
Looks awesome. Ã, Original plot and I especially like the ability to sneak and hide in the shadows... Ã, This game looks like it could be a contender. Ã, Nice graphics by the way, they make the game look like a late 1800's Sherlock Holmes-esq story.
Most excellent!
I have been waiting some time for you to make a game.
That said, if you don't release this one, I shall hunt you down and throw strawberries at you.
As DanClarke stated, your characters shine!
I look forward to seeing how the sneak/hide works and testing out the AI.
Darth - How convenient, I like strawberries!
Regarding the Sneaking Ability: You can change modes by hitting space or by clicking on a GUI button. This works on the fly, too. There's also a 'HIT'-hotkey, so you don't have to do it through the menu. (You can hit and knock out people if you manage to sneak up to them. Works only on bad ones though, heh.)
I made the characters smaller for this game as I don't like working with big sprites - easier to animate, and I can draw them at a reasonable speed, too. Glad to hear you like them, anyway! :)
EDIT -Ã, I had one more screenshot, but forgot to upload it - anyway, here it is:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofshot5.jpg)
The whole package (backgrounds and sprites) works together. A fine job indeed.
Beautiful work, though i'd expect nothing less from you. I really like the concept, and the characters seem really cool as well. Only crit I can think of is the GUI... the green text seems a little hard on the eyes, probably just me though. Good luck with the project.
Thanks for the comments!
pixelcat - do you have a suggestion for a better button text color? I'm always open to suggestions. It's never good when a bad color mix hurts someones eyes, gotta mend that! :)
And since we're talking about colors already, do any of the screenshots look too dark or too bright? My monitor doesn't have a standard setting, so I'm having a hard time getting the brightness right. Thanks :)
Well, I'd like to use this opportunity to also discuss a game design issue I'm not sure about. I realized today that there's this one bit that might turn off some gamers:
In the game, when you're caught by someone, the game would be over. However, an immediate game over like that might be quite frustrating (you'd start out at the beginning of the current room again), so I was thinking to give the player a chance to fight the pursuing character when caught, with a simple energy bar and such, using either hotkeys or a button.
This is might go a bit too far and make the game too actiony and will scare off some adventure gamers, so I'm not really sure about this one. (Also, note that the main character should never be able to kill anyone, that's really important to me, and required by the story. This makes all this even harder, though.)
I can still implement this fighting thing easily, but I'd like to hear a few opinions of other adventure gamers first. Any other ideas to prevent an immediate game over would be welcome, too. Something that isn't too easy to do, to give you some more time to run for it.... hmm.
Another solution could be getting locked up in jail and having to escape, or just being kicked out of the current place, depending on where you're doing your sneaky thievin' business.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! :)
If I can offer some advice on another issue, it's better to arrange the buttons in a 3x2 grid than 2x3. Like this:
(http://members.lycos.co.uk/snarkibartfast/cofshotfitts1.jpg)
(Ignore crappiness. It's only to demonstrate what I'm talking about.)
You want the buttons to be as tall as possible, because the cursor will usually be above them on the screen, and therefore their effective size as targets is determined primarily by their height:
(http://members.lycos.co.uk/snarkibartfast/cofshotfitts2.gif)
You see how the effective size is increased by about 50%.
The size of a button determines how long it takes to click it, according to a rule called Fitt's law. Making this change will make your interface feel less cumbersome.
That's a good suggestion, I'll do that, thanks! :D
EDIT:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/setup.jpg)
There are at least two methods that you could easily implement for the getting caught part of the game:
1. Use a fight system similar to Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. It was extremely basic, just allowing you to press a button and slug away until the opponent's stamina or yours was gone, but it got the job done.
2. Introduce the option to buy things in a shop, like daggers (or banana peels if you want to be comedic), and allow the person to use one of those items on a guard or whatever when they get attacked. You'd probably want a steal feature as well so they can get money, but that would add to the fun also, and also the challenge of them keeping a decent stock of whatever type of item you want to use against guards. I think this option would be more interesting to players (I found the combat in Fate of Atlantis to be tediously designed at best) but it's up to you.
I really like your second suggestion. I'll be doing that, it pretty much solves my problem. Thanks! :) I already have a few ideas for throwable objects.
I've also decided to keep game overs'when caught at a minimum, in most cases you'd either be thrown into jail or thrown out of places. (Which you can re-enter if they're important to the main quest.)
if you did get them thrown in prison, youd have to have loads of different ways to escape becase if they had ot just do the same thing voer and over it would get dull. it looks really good though!
Good point. I've already thought up a few interesting things for that. I plan to add a puzzle that requires you to get thrown in prison, and more.
Here's some concept art (may look a bit squashed because I drew it at a 320x 200 ratio):
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/thiefart1.gif)
you can use [img width=320 height=200] to have it display properly. If you want it larger just double the dimensions ;)
If I had someone like you to do backgrounds for me, I would probably make a game with ags myself..ho hum, looks good ;)
I may have overexaggerated by saying it was hard on the eyes... :) I think the new version looks a lot better... the dark background and larger buttons are a nice improvement. Lookin' good.
I think black text on the buttons would be a better choice, with white or yellow as highlights.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/lightman/buttons.jpg)
Or perhaps white text (possibly with yellow as highlights).
What a great looking game!
Good luck with it's production! I cannot wait to see it completed!
Bt
Thanks for the comments!
Blackthorne519 - Thanks! I need all the luck I can get, I'm really bad at finishing games. In theory, it shouldn't take too long to complete, it's aimed at medium length.
lightman - Thanks for your suggestion, but I'd prefer a lighter color than the button itself. As for white, it hurts the eyes quite a bit - already tried it. :)
Pixelcat - Thanks, I like it much better, too!
ProgZmax - Thanks. As for the picture thing - I meant just the ratio, as in the value you get when you divide 320 by 200. I draw everything for the game on a bigger resolution with a similar ratio to get it to look right. Drawing for 320x200 is kinda hard with a square pixel ratio, couldn't do it very well. :)
Additionally, I've decided to add an immediate action GUI, so you can do stuff like hitting and throwing with just a click instead of going through the menu, or with a hotkey. Should make things easier.
Hey didn't realise you were the same Bernie from Fallen Angel Ind. This game looks great and good luck with it. It's great to see Klikkers using AGS aswell. Keep up the good work. :D
Oi, thanks! You know, your name sounds familiar, I think I heard it before... maybe at www.create-games.com ? I'm pretty sure I saw you there. :)
The one and only. ;)
Ahh, "Klikking", Im so crap at clickteam products, can never be arsed with all the make your own movement crap.
Anyway, CoF looks ace, give up, and you may find a horses head in your sheets, but that may be due to an unrelated matter, so you may not...
Wow! How cool is this!? I really love the sneak and hit things! They really make this game something special. I'm writing this one down on my Longing-To-Play-list. Good work!
Clueless3 - Thanks for the comment! The problem with clickteams' game makers is that the inbuilt movement stuff is very limiting and buggy. If you don't make your own movement, you won't get satisfying results. Other than that, MMF is powerful enough to make a 1:1 clone of Super Mario World for the SNES.
fovmester - Hehe, thanks! :D
Here's another concept pic, this time it's the second main character:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/anna.gif)
A small progress update:
I've pretty much finished the enemy AI. They react to sounds now, too - when you're not sneaking they might hear your footsteps and look for you for a while. You can make sounds to distract enemies, as well - to lure a guard away from his post, and so on.
Can I just say i am a great fan of your work. Your art is to die for and this game is suddenly all I ever wanted.
Excellent work with graphics bernhard.
I certainly cannot wait to game's completion.
Regards
Wow! Beautiful! Good to see this one, but sad to see the old game die. I REALLY liked the GUI in the old game. Is it too late to hint that the old GUI (to my eyes at least) fits the style of the backgrounds and character art better?
cheers.
Thanks for the comment but... sorry, it's too late. :) I'd have to redo the backgrounds in a different size, and I don't really want to do that. I've been thinking about making completely new GUI graphics for the current one - not sure about that yet, though.
Hi Bernie,
When is it expeceted to complete that game?
Excellent graphics though.
splat44
Can't really tell... my progress on it varies too much to even make a rough estimation.
OMG WTF THOSE GRAPHICS RULE!!
I am deadly serious, thos graphics are just awesome. I'd suggest the GUI buttons back to their small size. IMO it looks better.
Thanks! About the GUI - I've been working on a new design for it:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/newgui1.jpg)
Excellent-looking game.
Thanks! ^^
Recently, I grew tired of the current character designs. So I've decided to redesign them, and like them much better now (they're also easier to animate, done walking cycles and talking anis for all 3 of them).
Here's a pic:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofshot10.jpg)
loving the new character styles. the gui i have problems with. maybe its just my aversion to ovals. mybe connect the top two together and the bottom two together with another horisontal. not really sure what it is about it.
i actually really like the ovals. very unique, pluis theyre pretty. wonderful job so far. i like how, at least it looks like, that since you last posted yesterday, you have remade the three characters completley and you say its much easier to animate them. maybe you did remake them all within a day, of course we could all get into that motivation, but i just thought it was funny. "I didn't feel that they were perfect, so I completly revamped them, within a couple hours. Is that too long?" ;)
Haha, thanks! :D
I've actually gotten quite fast at spriting and making walkcycly things, and they only have 6 frame cycles and 4 directions too, so it really wasn't as much work as it may sound. I took me about 2 days to make them. I've been thinking about redoing them for a quite a while, though.
Zootyfruit - Connecting those ovals might look nice, kinda like in the middle... gonna try it out. :)
I excitedly await the realease of this game.
Those new characters were really good! They fit into the backgrounds much better than your original ones. Keep on going!
first of all great work so far, i really like your grafics and the new gui looks really good.
but wasn't there a sneck/normal button before?
you said that guards react to noise so how do you switch between normal/sneaking in the current gui?
Thanks for the comments! :D
yaron - The reason for this is that I'm thinking of making a special action GUI. I still need to see how I'm going to implement this, that's why there's no button present at the moment.
For testing purposes, space switches modes for now. In any case, it will definately be switchable through a GUI of some sorts in the future.
Parabéns pelos cenários, estão muito bons.
This is an English speaking forum, so if you can provide a translation to cure some of us of our ignorance?
Quote from: Vinnicius on Sat 18/09/2004 21:38:43
Parabéns pelos cenários, estão muito bons.
Congratulations for the scenes, they are very good
Portuguese
Hi! No update in a while, but I'm still working on this game.
I recently moved into a new house and didn't have any time left for computer stuff, but now I'm all set up again!
Here's some artwork and a bunch of sprites. So far, all those characters have at least walking and talking animations.
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofsprites.jpg)
I'm redoing a lot of the story, but more on that some other time.
WOAH!!!
I absolutely love those! Exceedingly good work, the best I have seen on these forums- EVER!
Glad you like them! :D
By the way, the characters were drawn for 320x200 res, so they may look a little squashified.
ya man, your graphics looks awesome, the drawing skills that's what i'm lacking the most... i would give everything to have you at my side.. lol...
anyway, i have to agree those images just look great, i really hope you may crat the well interesting plot, otherwise the graphical beauty won't make you well known... i wish you the best in story writing and scripting the game...
If you need any help in, do not hesitate to ask me.
Best regards,
Cyberion
Thank you! :D
I already have most of the story done, but still, thanks for the offer.
As it is now, the game will have several chapters staring 3 different characters with special abilities (sneaking and cooking spells would be the more notable ones), who'll end up having to work together in the end.
As for the scripting part... the engine is complete, I just need to make the actual game now. Since a lot of the old backgrounds won't fit anymore, I'll have to redo a lot of them. But the game won't be super huge anyway, so that's not too bad (seems to be at about 30-40 playable rooms at the moment).
When everything is set (when story & puzzles are done), I can make up to 4 backgrounds per day, which, I think, isn't so shabby. :)
Also, a picture:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofart1.jpg)
A colored sketch:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofart2.gif)
A tax collector:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/taxman.gif)
By the way, I was wondering if a post still counts as a double post when you post it below one of your posts after 6 days of no posts? :)
Some shading on his coat, and that tax collector would be finished.
A double post around here is generally defined as either if a post is not about to fall off the first page of a subforum, or if a poster reposts within a day.
the back view of the tax collector looks as if he's pulling his arms back or something..he also looks a little flat..no other criticisms tho 8)
Thanks for the feedback! :D
I can't change the tax collector anymore because he's already animated. I'd have to change a lot of frames, and my time budget is very limited at the moment.
A quick progress report: The puzzles are 40% complete, and the story is finished.
I also drew some backgrounds. Here's one:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofart3.jpg)
Dude, you fricken' rock!!
Im no gonna judge a book by its cover though (even when it looks this good) and hope the quality of game matches the awesome visual realisations.
I love the fantasy setting, its so unique yet it doesn't seem wierd (FFX anyone?).
Great work!
Thanks! :D
Quality of game, you say? Hmm, depends on what you mean by that... I doubt I ever could reach the overall quality of, say, Apprentice 2.
Maybe you're talking about technical factors, like the controls and gameplay mechanics? The GUI should be easy and fast enough to handle, it's pretty much like, say, DOTT or Monkey Island 2, with right-clicks for standard commands and cancelable actions.
The character needs 3 seconds to go from one side of the screen to the other. That's a bit slower than DOTT, but a lot faster than Simon the Sorcerer.
The first part of the game is split into chapters which you can play in pretty much any order you want, and later on, the main characters form a team. I think the technical side of games is what I can handle best.
Or maybe you mean the story. While it can't be too super big for a ~40 room game, it should be interesting enough. Then again, I'm not really much of a writer, so I can't promise you'll like it.
Or maybe it's the puzzles? This is probably the most important and also hardest part to do for me. I'm having a hard time to judge if they're hard or easy, especially since they're still on paper. I guess I gotta make some of my friends beta-test once I've implemented a few puzzles. :D
Solid work as usual, Bernie.Ã, I presume some of those images (like the collector) are a bit squashed since he looks rather wide on the front and back views?
Thanks for your reply. :) The game runs in 320x200, that's why my art looks squashed to you. I'm making most sprites and backgrounds in a resolution with a similar ratio so they'll look okay in that resolution. If I drew the sprites under a resoultion with a normal ratio, they'd look kind of stretchy ingame.
Oh hey, buncha updatings! :)
Special features in the final version:
-Got rid of some not-so-adventury things, only sneaking left, which is non-adventury enough anyway
-Notebook with addable entries and pages
-Cooking spells (not sure if this is a special feature, as it is used in a lot of games)
-Switchable characters & team-ups for different answers/replies in dialogues and other things
Those features are coded in already, and I'm making the actual game now. It's about friggin' time, eh?
Story: 95% complete, minor details left
Puzzles: 60% complete
Graphics: 10% complete
Town map:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofshot17.jpg)
Annoying tax collector:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofshot15.jpg)
Smelly zombie:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofshot16.jpg)
Okay, I'm done.
well ... congratulations Bernie ... you've done it.
You've moved to the top of my 'most anticipated games' list!
Just amazing ...
Thanks! I'll just go and work on it some more, then! :D
It's great when you're done with all that engine stuff, because then you can focus on the actual game, and that's much more fun.
jiminy cricket that's nice!
Thanks!
Here's the last screenshot for a while - don't wanna spoil the game for you (they're all screenshots from stuff you get to see in the first 10 minutes, so they probably don't spoil too much):
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofshot22.jpg)
My little virtual world is getting some actual population now. Hooray!
The percentage-o-meter for finished artworkings goes up to 15%. Hooray once more!
You are truly a gifted artist. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to your game. :o
looking real nice. Moved up one notch on my anticipate-o-meter. I like the new graphics style especially.
Discworld inspired?
Thanks for the comments!
Discworld inspired? I played the adventure games, and they probably do influence my work, but so does every other adventure game I've played, including RLatBtaT. Too bad that one keeps crashing on me towards the end...
I too played Discworld.
You mention you've also played "RLatBtaT"?
What game is that?
Richard LOnghurst and the box that ate time.
Obviously
Hey, don't mind some of my critic:
Um... looking at your screenshots, I don't understand what the verb "Normal" means. What is normal? does it mean you can drag and drop files around like in Windows? :P
The graphics are pretty cool... I like the lighting. I like how it's not your standard color tinting, like everyone else likes to do.
Judging from the screenshot, that "normal" button doesn't look like the same group as those "action" buttons, moreover, that tiny figure icon behind the "normal" text suggests to me that it's probably use to toggle between walking mode and running mode (or sneaking mode, depends on what the game will provide).
Furthermore, as the game is WIP, everything is bound to change, I'll say don't mind so much on what the screenshots show at the moment.
Yep, that button switches between walking and sneaking. It's also possible to switch modes by hitting space.
Damn, this looks really awesome man! The art is beautiful and consistent.
Thank you for your kind words! :D
Here are some colored sketches:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/cofsketch2c.jpg)