Nataly Buchannon and the Amulet of Kings

[Ishmael]

I can't put my mind to words. This game looks awsome, is all I can say

And I wonder if I might get a beta too maybe? It'd be cool.

[Phemar]

I. Love. The. Graphics.

I liked the old name better though. You should consider changing it.

[Kweepa]

Looks terrific!
Really looking forward to it.

(The "sidewalk" looks like it's floating a few inches above the road. And the road is a little featureless. But otherwise, perfect!)

[Darth Mandarb]

Here are some characters from the game:

_{(Nataly Buchannon, Avery "Hawk" Hawkins, Wilson Buchannon III, Alan December, Bartholomeux LaCroix, Inphitrion, and Domitian)}

[wickedwing]

I've been lurking on this board for years, mostly just to get inspired for my own work.  Never have I seen a game in production that got me as excited as this one.  As a huge adventure game fan for the last 20 years, that's hard to do.  Keep up the good work!

[Sam.]

I'm glad that we're making that game. That was the intention when we started out on this game, to make a game that is worthy of this community and produce something at a proffessional standard. Also, to prove that adventure games DO NOT cost big money to make, if four guys can make one in their spare time..

Watch this space for more previews and updates in the near future.

[calacver]

i think apprentice II has already answered that specific question, and they were two people

No seriously, your game looks awesome, some excellent background art. Very good attention to detail. If that doens't inspire people, i don't know what will.

[Ashen]

At long last, it's here:

TechDemo (~ 2MB)
(click above to download)

The Demo:
The demo isn't actually part of the game. It's just a preview of the interface we'll be using in Amulet of Kings - a chance to work out any remaining bugs, and show off a little.

The story of the demo: Nataly has arrived in London and is on her way to meet Alan December, at his antiques shop.

Download the Amulet of Kings Tech Demo

The Interface:
Left-Click anywhere, to make Nataly walk.
Right-Click to bring up the interaction menu (Look, Use, Talk, Use Inventory), and secondary inventory.

Press Tab to access the main Inventory with 'Combine' function - use items together to make others, or solve puzzles.
F3 brings up the settings menu - change game speed, volume, even the colour of the display.
F5 and F7 access the save and Load dialogues respectively. See the date and time of your saves, as well as screenshots.
Ctrl-Q to quit.

[Nacho]

Weeeeh! Downloading! I was waiting for this till DM told me there was going to be a TD soon ^_^.

How does that link work?

[Ubel]

I took the freedom of mirroring this demo, so that it's easier to download.

Here

Very nice job on that interface!

[SSH]

Mirror removed, becuase they keep fixing things and I aint got the time to keep it updated!  ANyway, Darth's site is good.

[i k a r i]

I've just played the game, looks great!!..
I have a few suggestions if you want to read them...

- When Nataly walks is like if she wouldn't move...(like the moonwalk of Michael Jackson)..I know we can change the Gamespeed but it still looks like if she would be dancing instead of moving, maybe you can make her move more with every step?..

- The GUI is great and comfortable but maybe you can add a "that won't work" reply instead of making the character walk to the place where you wanted the action..because when she arrives she doesn't do anything and it could be disturbing after playing for a while..

Nothing else to say, I know this game will be one of the best, I love the graphics and the way we can move around the background!..please finish it soon 

Oh..and I almost forgot!...The music!..woo

edit2: I've just finished the demo..

[Ashen]

Thanks Pablo and SSH for the mirrors - I was having problems with the upload, but wanted to get it out as soon as possible. Darth should be adding it to the official site soon, and we'll change the link then (and get the first post edited).

ikari:
The thing to bare in mind here, is this is just a (fairly early) Tech Demo -  be grateful she doesn't float from place to place. The animations and interactions (including "That doesn't work" type responses) will be taken more care of before we release the final game - we just felt it was time to get the demo out there and see how it did. Which seems to be quite well - thanks for your kind words.

And yes, the music is very woo.

[Darth Mandarb]

Yes!

I have updated the opening post (as well as Ashen's latest) with the updated link to the Demo

Download the Amulet of Kings Tech Demo

Thanks for the mirrors guys!  That's awesome!

The 'incomplete' feel of the animations will be resolved ... we just really wanted to get the tech demo done, so we could move on to working on the real game!  Fear not, the final product will be incredible!

[SSH]

Can I point out that London tends not to have building numbers in the thousands, and doesn't have drains going under the "sidewalk" but rather more like this:



Love the dialog system: great!

btw, you used a slightly old version of 2.71 to make this, didn't you? The game doesn't quit properly for me, but CJ seems to have fixed this in the latest RC...

[Darth Mandarb]

Can I point out that London tends not to have building numbers in the thousands, and doesn't have drains going under the "sidewalk"

Excellent information!  Having never, unfortunately, been to London I didn't know that.  I've been doing actual research to keep things accurate, so this is very helpful!

I will update the backgrounds immediately!  Thanks!

** Darth wonders why Zooty and Ashen didn't point this out ... **

[ildu]

I like it a lot. But I gotta give some crits. Firstly, the side view of Nataly was odd-looking. Also, the walking-up animation for some reason hides the back of her coat. In addition, it was quite annoying that the interface comes up when you right click on areas that aren't hotspots.

And I found some bugs:
- opportunity is spelled wrong in the letter from the shopkeeper.
- in a conversation with Bert, he misspells thirty and actually says thity.
- the pipes in the sewer aren't included in the walkbehind areas.

Many of these issues are probably related to the status of the game, but nevertheless I thought I'd point them out. Otherwise a really nice-looking game.

[i k a r i]

...the side view of Nataly was odd-looking.

What do you mean with odd-looking?, I think she is not very young..maybe that's why she looks like that from her side view..
What I think is odd-looking are her eyes, she's got cat eyes!  :o


I think this game is PERFECT for facial animations, because the characters are very close..(at least in the demo)..it could be a great addition..

[Darth Mandarb]

What do you mean with odd-looking?, I think she is not very young..maybe that's why she looks like that from her side view..
What I think is odd-looking are her eyes, she's got cat eyes!

She's about 28 years old.  The side view is being worked on still, we just used the one we had to release the tech demo (for you all!) so we could move on with the game!

I think this game is PERFECT for facial animations, because the characters are very close..(at least in the demo)..it could be a great addition..

Wait till you see what we've got planned ...

[aussie]

I was soooo looking forward to this one!!!

EDIT

Played it for a bit. I love the graphics and the interface (particularly dialogue-wise.

One small comment: you may want to consider tweaking the speed/animation speed settings for Natalie, IMO she walks far too slow, and the animation frames do not seem to match her pace.