Adventure Game Studio

In short, Heartland of Darkness is a psychedelic horror adventure with a few psuedo survival horror elements.
The story revolves around a young man who finds himself within the bowels of a hellish nighmare.
Not sure who to trust and dogged by horrific apparitions at every step, he must escape at all costs.  
Largely inspired by the delapidated corridors and decaying ballrooms of a huge train station built before the turn of the century,
it's going to be a medium length game of around the 40-50 screens mark. Full soundtrack.

I don't want to give away much of the plot yet, I want to get my box art done and nut out a few more details first.

- graphics 45%
- puzzles 35%
- scripting 20%
- music/sound 50%
- story 40%

Here's a trimmed version of the opening cut scene.


(http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1946/picd.png)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOYszUnT-N0)

A small in game trailer.


(http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4531/seyqay.jpg)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y_bbEjyH34)

(http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/7590/title3g.png)

(http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/751/test4g.png)

(http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/7238/test7.png)

(http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6259/test6x.png)

(http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/1096/test8t.png)

"The curtain has been lifted. Time now to play your part in this tragedy! Smear the greasepaint over your face and whimper.
The Chamber of Horrors is simply a wooden box my friend. It's all just a mirror, not a miracle. Just think of this as therapy...
'The words rang inside my skull and then subsided. I lifted my eyelids and saw nothing but faces swirling,
jutting forth from every surface, stabbing at me like needles thrust into a straw doll.'"

I'm hoping to have it done by new years eve. Will post updates.

Update 14 Nov: Incorporated a BASS style control system, code thanks to Helme. I like the simplistic approach.

Update 20 nov: New screenshots added, old ones updated. The more research I do, the larger this game gets. The dark arts are going to play a central and crucial role, and not that wussy Harry Potter stuff. It's quite unnerving to make this game so hopefully it will be at least a little freaky to play. Expect some black humor to perk up the mood, which at the moment feels like somewhere between Hellraiser and a David Lynch film. NYE release is seeming a little too optimistic now.

Update 6 Dec: Finished the spell creation system and quickslot system to use them, more story and gameplay work done. Placeholder box art done.

Update 10 Dec: Teaser trailer and opening cutscene coming along very nicely. Pure eyecandy, yes. But this will be one of the few areas where I can really just focus on my forte, graphics.

Update 18 June: Production Halted.

Well, it's been a long time since my last update- the reason being; I haven't worked on it for months. I think I overreached my second game project idea a little. I had in mind a sprawling horror title filled with cults and monsters. A complex spell system, which is the only thing I finished completely really. Although I have like 20 spells meticulously programmed with varying ingredients etc, but what in the hell do I use them for in game? I have no idea! I have no story! There never was one! I just winged it and hinted at HP lovecraft in my intro! ARGH!!!

Ah... I feel a little better now. Anyway, I've decided to shelf this project for now. I may pick it up again at some point, but for now I really want to finish my second game, so I can move onto my third and fourth, and hopefully make something decent by then.
I'm not going to announce my next project until it's at least 75% finished.  However, I have started work on it. I'm going to focus on quality- not quantity, this time.

To anyone who was looking forward to this game, sorry to let you down.

The game has been axed (for now)... Or cleavered. Whatever.

(http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/1506/ghoulcookhack1a.gif) (http://img708.imageshack.us/i/ghoulcookhack1a.gif/)

Very nice bg-artwork Pinback!

Nice one! Scores bonus points with me for including trains- I've always found them dark and evil... Sounds weird but it's true. Good luck on this project- I'm sure gonna play it when it's done! :)

Woo, really looking forward to this one! :)

Nice style with great atmosphere, lookin' forward to it.

Good luck.

Thanks guys, I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with different perspectives on this project. And doing the eerie soundtrack is a blast too. The gampley should be the usual fare with some extra unique zestyness to it.

Yeah trains are scary, ever since I saw a train suicide up close they've had a macabre aire. Also I once got held at knifepoint at a train station, so yeah, train = pain in my book!

Fantastic screenshots :)

Why the resolution choice?

Since your work seems to be largely freehand and very stylistic, wouldnt a higher resolution show off your art a  little better?

It seems like you are taking high resolution images and shrinking them down.

Its a good look imo, good luck with this one!

This looks great Pinback! Good luck with it.

Hey, this is looks like a cool project, I kinda liked theToSS and overall the dark and steampunk style of yours is awesome, so looking forward to this.

Looks like you're going for a similar interface, as a suggestion mind making the hotspots more visible, that was mine only little bug with ToSS...not really that big of a problem but still.

Man, this looks so good, like ToSS.
Do you want to use the standard Sierra-Gui?

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Thu 12/11/2009 18:14:37
Why the resolution choice?

Since your work seems to be largely freehand and very stylistic, wouldnt a higher resolution show off your art a  little better?

It seems like you are taking high resolution images and shrinking them down.

Well, the low res choice was made for several reasons. Firstly I'm used to animating at 320x200, I know I can get it all done within a reasonable time limit, double the size equals double the work basically. And I want to include a lot of animation, it's one of the things I had almost no time for in my MAGS entry, ToSS. Higher res BG's take a fair bit more work too. But the main reason is I simply prefer a retro look, my influences for this project are games like Dark Seed and Elvira 2: Jaws of Cerberus.

Another thing is, I only use a mouse to paint, so in higher res all the flaws in my BG's glare out.

Quote from: anian on Thu 12/11/2009 20:14:17
Hey, this is looks like a cool project, I kinda liked theToSS and overall the dark and steampunk style of yours is awesome, so looking forward to this.

Looks like you're going for a similar interface, as a suggestion mind making the hotspots more visible, that was mine only little bug with ToSS...not really that big of a problem but still.

This game is going to be very different from ToSS. While ToSS focused on machinery and technical problems, Heartland is going to revolve more around the characters. Although I do like my little mechanical puzzles, you won't have to repair a diesel engine to escape or anything. Probably not anyway. I'm going to address all the other niggles people had with ToSS too. ToSS was like a roughly cut stone, Heartland is really going to have some polish.

Quote from: Helme on Thu 12/11/2009 22:28:53
Man, this looks so good, like ToSS.
Do you want to use the standard Sierra-Gui?

Yes, it's basically going to be a trimmed down Sierra-GUI. I like the simplicity of just having walk/talk/use/look, also I want to focus on the story rather than try to overcome scripting hurdles, until I have a few more projects under my belt anyway.

Wow, I'm definitely likin' the atmosphere of these screens. The resolution is fine by me. Looking forward to playing this and wishing you luck&inspiration.
And put in the game as much psychedelic stuff as possible please.  :=

Wow, I love the backgrounds!

Another great looking game, Pinback.  Looking forward to it.

Updated my screenshots,  plus a snippet of the 'spell casting' system, although it's not going to be the usual fare in this regard, it will be largely, if not entirely based on real mysticism. Also after stumbling across a vast cache of reference materiel for the setting, it seems 30-40 screens won't really do the game justice. I'm going to shoot for the 60 mark although in all likelyhood this will likely become a full length title.
It makes me wince now to think how my first game 'Trial of the Schnellerparrow' compares to this, man, this makes it look like a piece of crap! I came close to 'killing' Pinback and making new Psuedonym to realease Heartland with, but I suppose you have to walk before you can run. Besides I did make ToSS in 7 days, this I can really sink my teeth into.
Oops, I'm prattling. I'll be back in a month with a trailer and some dope box art.

Still looking great. So spell casting is more of a druidic/potion thing, that's cool, that means it probably won't be so combat intense (which is fine by me).

I love the fact you misspelled the name of the last game, beacue it took me a few seconds to understand what the hell is "schnellersparrow".  ;D

Yeah schnellersparrow is hard to spell at 3am :)
I doubt combat will play any part at all, the 'psuedo survival horror' will be more along the lines of using cunning to elude or defeat your adversaries.

best of luck with this...loking forward to it   :o

Wow, this looks great. The style and atmosphere in the screenshots remind me a lot of "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" - which can only be a good thing. Good luck with the project!

This looks utterly amazing!

If the atmosphere score as I imagine it should and will be, I think I'm going to end up playing this with lights open.. :D

i love horror's games !!

Looks interesting - dark detailed backgrounds and fine interface. It's going to be game worth waiting.

Looking great! The graphics remind me of Beneath a steel sky. I hope you get to finish it.

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it.

Here's my latest update, a trimmed down version of the opening cut scene on Youtube.


(http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1946/picd.png)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOYszUnT-N0)

The sound and video quality are pretty bad, but it should give you at least some idea of what Homunculi is all about.

Bricks were shat. Very creepy although I must admit I couldn't really make out the voice, if I was intended to be able to then you should tone down the effects on it (or add some subtitles for people like me who are rather bad at making out what people are saying).

Yeah it's a rough version, I had to rush it as my bandwidth was about to expire. Over christmas I'm going to get together a longer/clearer version that also showcases the spell system and gameplay.

The voice says:
That is not dead which can eternal lie
And with strange eons, death may die

So this is directly in the Chu mythos (I'm just looking at the quote)? I thought it was just inspired by it...I wanted to say that much can be achieved in horror by the "less is more" but if you're going directly with Lovecraft, then my guess is this goes good with the decriptivness and images of his style...anyway, looking forward to the polished version.

I'm really into this game! It looks ..ah..well I've said it so many times already! ;)

I'm really excited to see this when it's out.  I can't wait!  It feels so complete, not merely a throwaway plot thrown in for the sake of art, nor simplistic visuals that are thrown in to accompany a story. 

Background and character art is pretty good! I don't like too much survival horror games (just the FPS ones), but i like horror >:B

Thumbs up for this.

It's been a while since my last update, so I thought I better let anyone interested know production is still in full swing.

Here's a small in game preview.

Oh yeah, sorry the quality blows, I had to butcher the framerate to get it uploaded... I hate Aus internet!


(http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4531/seyqay.jpg)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y_bbEjyH34)

I did not know it is supposed to have RPG elements!
That bag of ingredients reminded me Ultima VIII Pagan for some reason, there was such bag for making necromancy spells.

Wow. SO good.

Interesting stuff.
Hope it'll come out soon. Reminds me of Prodigal for some reason.

Well, it's been a long time since my last update- the reason being; I haven't worked on it for months. I think I overreached my second game project idea a little. I had in mind a sprawling horror title filled with cults and monsters. A complex spell system, which is the only thing I finished completely really. Although I have like 20 spells meticulously programmed with varying ingredients etc, but what in the hell do I use them for in game? I have no idea! I have no story! There never was one! I just winged it and hinted at HP lovecraft in my intro! ARGH!!!

Ah... I feel a little better now. Anyway, I've decided to shelf this project for now. I may pick it up again at some point, but for now I really want to finish my second game, so I can move onto my third and fourth, and hopefully make something decent by then.
I'm not going to announce my next project until it's at least 75% finished.  However, I have started work on it. I'm going to focus on quality- not quantity, this time.

To anyone who was looking forward to this game, sorry to let you down.


The game has been axed (for now)... Or cleavered. Whatever.

(http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/1506/ghoulcookhack1a.gif) (http://img708.imageshack.us/i/ghoulcookhack1a.gif/)

No trouble pinback. Shame really,but I usually deal with that as well, lack of a good story but lots of elements worth playing.

Yeah, even now looking at all I did, some good stuff, but no meat there. I didn't really plan this as much as my first game, and just bit off way too much, two majorly noob mistakes I think. Plus I'm starting to realize whatever you plan to make, it will end up being at least 30% bigger by the end. Shoot for 10 screens game you end up with like 15. Try for a big game and you end up trying to make a huge game. Damn my brazen foolishness!

Shame really. Though you could've asked for help, somebody with experience in storytelling would've helped out surely.

Argh, that's heartbreaking, the screenshots had almost driven me to orgasm. Oh well. Good luck with other stuff. But I really wish you'd return to this one, maybe with some help of others, yeah.