Life of D. Duck II - It's DONE, completed game thread: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=35960.0
D. Duck is a champion. Having won Duckcity (Duckburg) marathon, his only goal left in life is winning the heart of Daisy. When D. Duck comes home with heart medicine for his sick old grandmother, fat Uncle Jubalon arrives at his doorstep. Unable to stop his uncle from breaking into the house, D. Duck is witness to an appetite unlike any other. As his girlfriend flees the scene, she seeks shelter in the loving arms of lucky Cousin Anton (Gladstone Gander). Take control over D. Duck as he struggles to handle his biggest problems yet, and meet up with popular Disney characters such as Uncle Scrooge, Magica De Spell and his three troublemaking nephews.
All dialogue and artwork made by aspiring artist Bjornar B (http://www.bjornarb.com), which will provide the project with exclusive material. Game design, animation and scripting by yours truly, heavily inspired by the amazing art of this fine, young craftsman. The soundtrack will feature several Commodore 64 tracks recorded straight from the sid files to give them that authentic retro feel that should go well along with the game's unique, lo-fi graphical style.
Game trailer (NEW!)
(http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/4175/trailertx4.jpg) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f_qFs1NAgA)
(http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/4175/trailertx4.e1513f6544.jpg) (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=181&i=trailertx4.jpg)
(click image or this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f_qFs1NAgA))
Screenshots
(http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/2710/bearia4.th.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bearia4.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/1365/binml6.th.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=binml6.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8421/cousinnb0.th.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cousinnb0.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7812/escapehk7.th.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=escapehk7.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/4797/millfg8.th.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=millfg8.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/9576/riverru9.th.png) (http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=riverru9.png)
Status
DONE!
Finished game: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=35960.0
I loved the first game and am looking forward to playing this! Looks very cool!
Perhaps the newly added trailer could spark some interest? I have the feeling this kind of style might not be everyone's cup of tea. A nightmarish world of scribbles, indeed.
A nice trailer!
Good to know it's still in production!
The video has some really nice animation in it! I won't comment on the graphics other than to say while I'm not wild about the over-all style they are unique and interesting! But the life in the animation is really interesting!
Keep on keepin' on!
I didn't play your first game cause it looked too simplistic and childish. I thought the same when I just looked at these screenshots....
BUT:
after watching your little trailer I really think this game seems to be a lot of fun and action. The cartoonish animations are great and I'll give it a try when it's ready.
(the characters are drawn so strange I don't yet know if that makes the game better or worse)
The first one was brilliant and is still one my most favorite AGS games ever. And this one looks to be even better, so I can't wait for it to be finished.
I was put of by the graphics for the first game too. But I tried it anyway. I must say that after a while you get respect for the way it is made. And the game was quite fun aswell. I expect this one to be quite as good and probably better.
Unlike Buckethead, I found the artwork appealing! Looking forward to playing.
Quote from: matti on Tue 10/06/2008 16:01:54
I didn't play your first game cause it looked too simplistic and childish. I thought the same when I just looked at these screenshots....
BUT:
after watching your little trailer I really think this game seems to be a lot of fun and action. The cartoonish animations are great and I'll give it a try when it's ready.
(the characters are drawn so strange I don't yet know if that makes the game better or worse)
I actually agree!!!! Wow that was a fun trailer to watch!
Lots of sounds and cool design. Looks great!
Cool to hear you guys liked the trailer. Turns out Adobe Premiere is much more powerful than Windows Movie Maker... who would've guessed?!
The entire concept behind the art is that it is supposed to look simplistic and childish... When I think about it, the art IS simplistic and childish, that's the whole point! I think childrens art is really interesting, personally, and makes for a perfect game setting if done right. The "child" behind the art and dialogue, Bjørnar B, is a youngster with wisdom far beyond his years, and it's my duty to convey this wisdom through adventure gaming! In fact, people all over the web has said the first game's visual style literally gave them nightmares... both in a good and a bad way.
About the graphics, let me tell you guys it's not as simple as you might be thinking. Bjørnar might be good at drawing, but he can't draw a complete screen full of objects, so I had to piece them all together in Photoshop while maintaining the consistency of the graphics' looks. This was surprisingly hard when Bjørnar draws in all shapes and sizes using all kinds of pens and pencils.
On the subject of characters looking weird, well I guess you're right. Somehow they become parodies of the real Disney characters. For me, the biggest fan of his art around, they are a relief though. They're really fun and quick to animate, which makes it easier to throw garbage animations out the window and keep the good ones.
I'd much rather make a simple and stylized game that focuses on puzzles, animations and gameplay, rather than trying to imitate the visual quality that lucasarts did in the nineties. Cause guess what, I don't have the skills to do it! Therefore I chose a stylished look. It's really hard to find a good, solid team to work at an adventure team over the internet. Unless they are exceptionally motivated, I'd say any such project is doomed. While I may not make more Life of D. Duck games after this one, I'm intrigued by the thought of doing a game with a similar hand drawn look,with proper grammar using a talented pencil artist.
Oh god, this is turning into a developers diary!
Awesome trailer nice style love the way the characters move... make the game and stop answering to our posts. ;D
Wild style!
Hooray!
I loved the first game and I look forward to the sequel!
-Ali
I love that this game is using C64 tunes and I hope you'll include a sound mixer so I can lower the volume of sound effects- they were a little too loud for me to hear the music. Who is the musician/musicians?
Quote from: SergioCornaga on Tue 08/07/2008 16:28:22
I love that this game is using C64 tunes and I hope you'll include a sound mixer so I can lower the volume of sound effects- they were a little too loud for me to hear the music. Who is the musician/musicians?
A sound mixer is included. The trailer music is a little piece called Fruit Machine Simulator by Matt Gray who also did Last Ninja 2. Although the tune won't be in the final game, the game will feature relatively unknown, positively uplifting tunes by people such as Reyn Ouwehand, Steve Barrett, Ian Crabtree (and also a splash screen tune by Matt Gray). The game uses about 20 different tunes now.
If you like SID tunes, grab the High Voltage Sid Collection (http://www.hvsc.c64.org/). It's basically every SID track ever written, categorized.
Quote from: LeChuck on Tue 08/07/2008 17:39:09
If you like SID tunes, grab the High Voltage Sid Collection (http://www.hvsc.c64.org/). It's basically every SID track ever written, categorized.
Already have it, thanks ! Good to hear there's a sound mixer too.
Interesting choice of musicians too. Matt Gray I know, Reyn Ouwehand I know (I love his live Green Beret remixes) but the other two are totally new to me. I'm listening to both of them now and they both seem fairly fantastic despite having small bodies of work. Well, compared to someone like DRAX at least.
Quote from: SergioCornaga on Wed 09/07/2008 14:45:50
Already have it, thanks ! Good to hear there's a sound mixer too.
Interesting choice of musicians too. Matt Gray I know, Reyn Ouwehand I know (I love his live Green Beret remixes) but the other two are totally new to me. I'm listening to both of them now and they both seem fairly fantastic despite having small bodies of work. Well, compared to someone like DRAX at least.
While Matt Gray's Last Ninja 2 has to be my all time favourite SID score, I have to say no one could make a SID track sound as natural and warm as Ouwehand. Ouwehands tracks
CosMail-08, Easy Goin', Eye to Eye, Master Design Group tune 2, Stranger in a Strange Land, MacMagic Song 2 + 7 (worktunes folder) and of course
Last Ninja 3 are perfect examples just to name a few. Making music only using three channels must be really challenging, although that doesn't seem to have stopped the SID guys back in the days. Funny how much more listenable and enjoyable the game music was in the 80s and 90s than todays often boring, ambient stuff.
I've tried selecting music from titles I've never even heard of, but damn if I couldn't help myself from using Steve Rowlands'
Mayhem in Monsterland for one of the locations. I'm really ashamed of that one, but it's just too damn catchy... Besides, who really remembers C64 tracks these days?
Please excuse my insane ramblings.
I must admit, looking at still screenshots I would have passed this game over as probably not being terribly entertaining, but that trailer has made me think twice (and I'm sure many others too ) about passing over games that aren't full of eye candy.
Those animations are fantastic and made me and the missus laugh on a couple of occasions :)
Good job man, looking forward to this one. The blend of stylized animations, chiptunes music and puzzle solving is sure to please adventure gaming psychotics everywhere! \o/
I agree with snafu. I didn't think much of the screenshots at first, but the trailer was brilliant.
I agree with the above. The trailer had the same kind of zany greatness as Sam and Max.