EMILY ENOUGH: IMPRISONED
by Logan Worsley
THE (back) STORY:
Emily Enough, child prodigy and daughter of wealthy entrepreneur Charles Enough, developed an appreciation for the niceties of life at a very young age. As an heiress to the Enough family dynasty, she ate the finest foods, cherished the finest dolls, and lavished in a lifestyle fit for a queen.
Emily was also blessed with the gift of intelligence. She learned to read at the age of four, enjoyed Dickens at age six, savored Dostoyevsky at age eight, and debated the merits of Plato's Republic at age ten. Her nearly encyclopedic knowledge of all things arcane stunned her tutors, and often intimidated her own parents.
In addition to money and intelligence, Emily was also cursed with an anti-social personality. She cared little for the well being of others. She took pleasure in torturing the family servants, both mentally and physically. Her love of luxury was matched only by her willingness to inflict pain and violence upon others. Her parents feared that they had given birth to an amoral monster, so much so that they sent her to a therapist at age seven. Her therapy abruptly ended following an incident with a dull letter opener. The child's irrational actions continued, and increased in frequency. Anything short of perfection, from the quality of her breakfast to the softness of her sheets, would result in a violent mood swing. As Emily's eleventh birthday approached, her parents contemplated institutionalization. But the Enough family hesitated, fearing a scandal and a tarnished reputation.
The family paid dearly for their vanity, for on her eleventh birthday, Emily murdered them all. On that day, Emily had received only three new ponies, instead of the usual five. Without hesitation, Emily stuck a dinner fork in her mother's throat, and forced a steak knife through her father's heart. A scene of unimaginable gore ensued, as Emily repeatedly stabbed her already dying parents. She then turned her attention to the servants, managing to slice the face and wrist of a scullery maid before a group of housekeepers and cooks pinned her to the ground. The staff was horrified but not surprised. The police were shocked, not only by the violent nature of the girl's crime, but by her complacency and disinterest in the incident.
Physical evidence and eyewitness testimony connected Emily to the crime. The local community was outraged over the incident and many called for Emily to be tried as an adult. The District Attorney, however, had been a friend of the family, and felt pity for this obviously disturbed child. The DA tried Emily as a child.
A jury found Emily guilty of all charges, and sentenced her to ten years in mental ward. She was sent to a newly privatized sanitarium owned and operated by the pharmaceutical interest Claxochem. The game begins as she is escorted to her new home...
You'll play the game as Emily, child deviant and evil mastermind, as she rages against her captors and tries to escape the terrible corporate confines of The Claxochem Center for Mental Wellness!
THE SCREENSHOTS:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/emilytvroompromo.png)
Fascinating Characters!
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/emilygirlsroompromo.png)
Scandalous Locations!
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/emilytvroompromo2.png)
Never-ending Drama!
Projected Release date: It's been pushed back more times than i can count, so I won't even try to guess.
THE PARTICULARS:
640x400 artwork, hi-color, guaranteed to take up more hard drive space than you can ever possibly imagine. I've completed all of the backgrounds, 95% of the sprites, and a fair bit of the programming. I've got some animations left to do, and a whole lot more programming to do. The story, back-story, and most of the dialogue is already written. And oh yeah, cut scenes. I still have to do those terrible cut scenes.
Soooo, let me know what you think of the graphics/back-story, and keep in an eye out in the coming months for a posting in the completed games forum
wow...very interesting story. It would be great to see where you go with this. Some nitpicking with the graphics: All the characters seem to be very pale, and Emily doesn't look nearly evil enough, even subtely evil. She looks sad.
What do I think?Ã, Wow!Ã, Are those backgrounds 3D rendered?Ã, Either way they're good.
As for Emily, I know most adventure game heroes are kleptomaniac vandals, but this is taking it to a whole new level.
By the way, I suspect the following to be a misprint:
QuoteShe pleaded not guilty, on the basis of insanity 1FEE .
You can plead not guilty on the basis of insanity, but she probably wouldn't, so I'm going to take that little line out.Ã,Â
No, it's not 3d rendered.Ã, I don't really know how to do that.Ã, On the opacity of the characters, they're all made to look that way...just a style thing I guess, I'm not sure why i decieded to do that...
and in making her look evil...i dunno, i feel like a character that doesn't neccesarily look evil but is, can be a bit more disturbing...but maybe she could look a little less sad...
I rather like Emily's downcast look, but it's your game, so do what you like. Maybe if she looked more sulky or petulant it'd work, after all that would fit with the backstory. The cute little shoes and dress simply must stay, though.
well there's always room for improvement, and i'm still working on the side views...i just can't get her hair to look right. i'm going to post in the critic's lounge one of these days.
Just some quick thoughts:
Disturbing story line (not saying that's it's "bad", just, ummm, very "dark").
Nice art, fairly professional looking.
Pulled off right, it could be a very unique and interesting game.
Good luck with it.
Wow, this looks awesome! I love the art style, it just gives the whole feeling that the mental institute is a terrible place that sucks the life out of everyone. It just makes you want to escape that much more. Very, very cool. I can't wait to play it.
I noticed you said you were having some problems with her hair, so I thought I would lend a hand (or try)
(http://members.cox.net/veradin/emily.bmp%3Cbr%20/%3E)
I made some minor cosmetic changes, primarily to her eyes (other people mentioned a disinterested look?). The original is on the right, and I apologize if altering your work upsets you. Just let me know and I won't do it again ;).
-ProgZ
I was talking more about the side view hair, but i like what you did with her hair in this view too.Ã, I think i'm going to keep her face the way it is, though.Ã, i like the anime-ishness of her eyes.
i love the look of this, very promising, and youve backed up your style with a solid plot, keep it up ;D
The color scheme used looks pretty interesting, it looks very depressing too.
Ah, this looks very good - The graphics looks cartoonish, but still very bleak and depressive... Heh, at least that's the impression I get... :) As I said, looks mighty fine.
The story sounds rather macabre, but that's just good, I'd say... I'd say it's a slightly more morbid version of "Little Johnny Evil"... ;)
Good luck with it!
Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone! I really appreciate it.
You all seem to note that it's a morbid story with dark graphics...which is exactly what i was going for. Though I should note, that the storyline as played in the game is a bit on the satirical side and comical, not just purely dark.
-Logan
It remidns me of Nuttin' Atoll from Escape from Monkey Island... it has that same sort of feeling of darkish backgrounds.
This looks ABSOLUTELY fantastic and interesting :o
Cant wait to play this little baby! I love the characters, they look really sick and spooky!
Are you from Berlin?Ã, I was living in Prenzlauerberg this past year when i started this...i was unemployed and spent about 12 hours a day playing around with pixels...i credit berlin's endless grey sky and a god-awful coal oven with inspiring the game's...um...spooky and depressing decor.Ã, Not to say that i don't love berlin...
I'm glad you like it!
-Logan
Quote from: ldw on Fri 06/08/2004 15:58:08
Are you from Berlin?Ã,Â
Yes, I am! Wow, after hearing that my hometown sort of inspired you, I even want to play Emily Enough even more! Good luck with it! :)
Daaaang, this looks freaky-fun. Can't wait to check out the final product :D
Just curious - what's the overall tone of this game (besides scary/freaky/goreyfun)? Is it dark comedy, drama, horror, or something else?
Really cool story! I really hope you finish it soon!
Yes. Any chance of a progress report? Please?
Ok...but for reference, should i put updates in the original post as a modification, or is adding another post like this ok? ???
Anyway, progress this week has been slow.Ã, I've rarely been home to work on it, though I have had time to finish up another sprite...that means there's only one and a-half left to do (if I scrap a character).Ã, The size of the characters makes it a bit challenging and time consuming to complete them. Plus, the more characters I complete, the better I get at it, and the more I want to go back and revize the old characters (you should see the old background/emily sprite...yikes!).
The biggest problem is animating Emily's walk cycle.Ã, I'm having more difficultly than I'd anticipated.Ã, I'm def. going to hit you all up in the critic's lounge for some help now that my desktop is connected to the internet.Ã, But seriously, you have no idea how much i wish i had drawn it all in 320x200 (or maybe you folks know exactly what I mean). I think the graphics will be pleasing to the eye, but as a solo developer, I'm just not sure that it's worth doing it in this resolution...it's one of those newbie mistakes I made last october that I'm just going to have to live with for the time being.
As for the story, it's a bit on the satirical side...it pokes fun at corporate America and its excesses...you might not get that from the backstory I've provided...but that's the deal.
I'm tempted to put up more screenshots and story, but I really don't want to give too much away before release...
I agree on the resolution idea, i too had considered using 640x480, but i thought the effort that would have to be put into animation etc just wasnt worth it, especially as im also doing all the graphics/animation for my game by myself.
Hi everyone,
I wanted to give an update.Ã, A lot of progress has been made over the past week and a half.Ã, Two more sprites have been drawn with animations, others have been cleaned up (but there's more clean-up to do).Ã, I've moved whole-heartedly into the programming phase, and it's going well.Ã, I've worked out the initial opening cut-scene dialogue after the intro (still haven't done the intro) and i've done two big dialogues with two characters, and i'm in the middle of another one.Ã, I've also been playing around with a lucas-arts style status bar...and it looks pretty good, though very simple.
I'm still working on Emily's sprite, trying to get it just right...i think i just have to be in the mood to work on it, and I haven't been yet.
Speaking of Emily though...i came across this article about "emily the strange" and i kinda knew about this character...does anyone think that's problematic...that my chacter would share the same name as this other disturbed child?Ã, I def. didn't do it on purpose...Let me know.
So that's all...I don't know how interesting it is...but the project is coming along very well, and I'm getting excited about how cool it looks...
-Logan
the mood ofyour piece reminds me not a little of edward gorey's drawings. do you know his work? he often featured morbid and morose girls leading desperate unhappily fated lives. and they're all hilarious! anyway, i'm extrmely jealous of your talent. can't wait to see the game.
Holy crap, has it been 4 months since my last update? That's sad.
I really wanted to have this game finished by now, but unfortunately I've been traveling for work off and on for two months, and have been unable to work on this. I got back a couple weeks ago and got back into the swing of things.
So, I would say that the game is coming ever closer to completion, with most of the dialogues done, most of the animations done (still some kinks with Emily, as some have seen) and nearly all the hotspots covered. I still have a few sprites to draw, and that whole ending to draw, but for whatever reason, I don't think that will take a long time to do.
I've got a week and a half off for the holidays, and I plan to work full days on this game. I would love to say that I'll have a beta ready by new years, but that's not really a possiblility. A demo, maybe. But I'm not sure that I'll release a demo...I think it would spoil the game.
Anyway, sorry to have said that I would release it soon, but I didn't count on being stuck in Iowa for weeks on end.
-Logan
Glad to hear you're back!
My fall's been crazy as well! I've been up to my nose in schoolwork and haven't had any time at all for any fun in two months at least. But like you I'm having some free weeks for christmas! Thank GOD! What would a man do if there was no christmas!?
Yeah, I wasn't even expecting to have more than a weekend off for Christmas, but my boss was in a generous mood.
I seriously think if I have 8 days to work on this thing, full days like when I started out on this project, it will be really close to completion.
My happiest day in a long time will come when I can say,
"Beta-testers needed..."
As I said before, I love the artowrk and I am so happy to hear you are making progress...
May I beta-test it? :D
Sure thing Totoro.
Iwant to beta test as well. I love the mood of the graphics, and I can really see that it's inspired from Berlin. By the way, I know this isn't the critics lounge, but I think the perspective in the first screenshot looks a little warped... Not a big problem, but not hard to fix either.
The tv room screen? The only problem I kinda see is the TV could be farther back...but I'm not gonna change it. I've got a lot to do to finish the game, and I've spent so much time on the graphics, that if I get any more nit-picky I'll never finish.
That's not to say I'm rushing it out, but it's already been more than a year and I want to work on something else...
Yes, I'm only nitpicking here. I think it looks great. The perspective isn't that much off. I'm really looking forward to this game, man.
Wow, this looks good! I'd much rather play the full game rather than a demo (especially since a demo would = a longer wait).
And, yes, f**k Bush!!!
Happy New Years!
Things are progressing very well. I spent most of my week and a half of vacation working on my game, though I had to change the date on my computer on Christmas in order to actually get AGS started (thanks CJ).
I created a new font that looks good, though does need a bit of tweaking. I'm also 95% done with the new GUI, which isn't really new at all, just consists of different graphics over the original sierra version. It's funny how much a good font and gui can add to a game though.
I got sucked into revising perfectly good background graphics again. It's like some kind of sickness. But I've moved on…for now.
Nearly all of the game's dialogues are completed. There's only a couple main topics to complete. I was writing them all in the program, but I've found that adding to options becomes confusing so I've taken everything out and put it into that dialogue editor someone created a while back. Although it's buggy as hell and often doesn't correctly save my documents, it saves a whole lot of time and headaches. I'm going to try and finish every dialogue and then dump it into the game.
I've also drawn all the inventory sprites. I initially wanted to write messages for every interaction between inventory and hotspots, but that would be a bit insane considering the number of hotspots I have per room. I'll have to find some kind of compromise.
What's left? Well, I need to finish Emily's walking animations, I need to make some interaction animations, I need to draw maybe three more character sprites, and complete some kind of intro sequence. I have one room that I definitely need to redraw into the current background style. There are also a lot of random things to finish, as is usually the case.
I've been working on the game quite a little bit each day so things are coming along nicely. Plus I've got a bunch of new DVDs to watch while working thanks to Saint Klaus. I'll plug along and share another update in a couple weeks.
-Logan
What's with the grey people. That's freaky. So freaky it makes me want to die.... :o
For whatever reason, i adopted a grey-skin tone for most of the game characters. I'm not sure why. I'm glad it looks freaky though, that's the idea.
The game actually looks/sounds good, but those grey people just scare me. And I do know how to use question marks. ;D I was so tired the other night when I wrote that... I'm amazed it was even comprehensible. But, like I said, this game looks pretty good. Great title as well... :=
Hey everyone,
I haven't died, or given up on the project. It's just taking longer than expected. But I've been working like crazy, mostly on the programming. I'd have to say that the programming---and for that matter the game, is probably about 75% done. It's pretty exciting because everything is coming together. I'm getting better at scripting so that's speeding things up quite a bit. The thing that is actually taking the longest is testing new code that I put it. I often have to play through most of the game to get to a point where I can test the code. It's a real pain.
This is going to be a fun game, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here's a new screenshot. Check out my font, I think it's pretty cool.
(http://www.geocities.com/princebusterlw/scrnshot.PNG)
Your font is cool, but a little hard to read in my opinion. I don't know what others say, but I suggest either making it thinner or using automatic outlines maybe?
Game looks good and I like the grey faces idea!
You shouldn't have to play through the whole game every time you want to test some new code. This is where some good de-bugging code comes in handy.
You can set the Main Character starting room to the room where you need to test the code. You can use a debug command to jump to any room. You can throw in some code of your own to quick set some Global Vars or get some Inventory items. If you put just a little bit of time into that, you won't waste tons of time going through the whole game each time you add something new.
By the way, LOOOOOOVE the screenies. Your style is excellent. Can't wait.
I told you before, but I have to say it again: I love what I see and read about it and I am really really looking forward to that!
Yeah, I mean I use the debugging stuff a lot. I start in different rooms and jump back and forth, but a lot of times you have to get through long conversations and to get through stuff. I'm not confident enough with scripting to add script that I don't know will work, so I'm just using the debugging stuff. It doesn't take that long, it's just annoying at times.
Thanks for the positive comments!
[ ... ], sorry if the font is hard to read, the outlined font is used for the entire game except for the status line. That is easier to read. I was planning on changing it a bit, but we'll see. I'm really trying to just focus on finishing the game so that you can play it from start to finish.
Hmm... your game appears to be really interessing. I especially like the character art - it looks just awesome! They're original, well-drawn and have theirs own depressing spirit.
QuoteThis is going to be a fun game, so stay tuned.
:=
I'm waiting for more... Good luck!
Thanks! I think I'll have a playable game from start to finish in probably a week or two. Then I just have to make an intro and ending animation, and add music. Then beta testing.
If you need someone for beta-testing... remember the pink rabbits please, they make awesome beta testers. That's because no girl wants to have a pink rabbit as a boyfriend so pink rabbits just sit at home and wait for a task to do which could be nice to do for a pink rabbit and... ARGH ... well I hope you get what I am trying to tell you ... ;)
Well, I've been testing the game for a few weeks now. I can get through probably half the game before encountering any major bugs. I did work last night that should get me through two thirds of it with any luck. I've added in all of the small animations and other little things that needed to get done---mainly various animations of her picking things up. I've also finally finished all of Emily's walking animations---side views, front and back. It's all looking pretty good.
Unfortunately, I've yet to complete the intro sequence and final cutscene, but the way I've planned them out it shouldn't take long. The only thing that might take a while is music, but hopefully it won't. I really just want to get this project done to A) prove that someone can create a big game for their first game and B) move onto something else. I've got tons of neat ideas for games.
Anyway, Totoro---you're first on my list for beta-testing.
Hooray Hoorah, I've played through the game for the first time without finding a single bug. The game is complete---except for the music. Sounds effects are done, but I have to record some songs. I've already written them, so it won't take long, but I'm stuck in Texas until at least tuesday so I can't record until then.
I think I'll have a beta version available for testing by the end of this week. No joke. I doubt that testing will take long, because I've been testing the hell out of it myself, and I think I've found most real problems. Of course, it folks play it and find that it doesn't make any sense, then I'll have some work to do.
Anyway, if you'd like to help test the game, please PM me. I'd love the help.
Otherwise, keep an eye out in the completed games section, and if you're in the Washigton DC area, I'll be having a god damn party once I release this thing.
Great news. I'm expecting a lot. I'll wait for the game, though. Won't even bother applying to beta-test.