Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback, I've fixed some bugs and added some things, this is for all intents and purposes the final demo before the final game, although I will continue to post screenshots of Our Darkest Hours progress
http://www.stateofdecay.net/odh/Odh.rar
(http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/2527/10bj2.th.jpg) (http://img260.imageshack.us/my.php?image=10bj2.jpg) (http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/1594/26ah.th.jpg) (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=26ah.jpg)
Our Darkest Hour tells the story of Derek, a reporter investigating the suicide of his brother and the occult occurences linked with it. you will learn spells, run the risk of becoming insane, and meet and greet several monsters out of HP Lovecrafts books. and of course, no Cthulhu story is complete without an evil cult in the background :)
- Story 100%
- graphics 35%
- puzzles 10%
- scripting 40%
- music/sound 50%
Hope you enjoy it
I have unlocked this ... please update the post with the proper information.
Your welcome to use these.
Great game BTW
(http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/7007/image17tu.th.png) (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image17tu.png)
(http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/4183/image28wy.th.png) (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image28wy.png)
Awesome game. I really love it. ;D Does he get to go outside the house in the full game?
Yup, the entire game takes place on a small island so you'll get to explore a variety of locations, the ones currently in production are: a graveyard, a forest, ruins of a stone temple, and planned are an asylum, a church a library and more :)
Really nice, can wait till it is done.
I like how the major puzzle in this demo (opening the safe) is identical (well, slightly inferior even) to a puzzle by those "idiots" who made Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.
Also, when does this demo end? Am I supposed to get a "game over" message? Because I seem to have run out of things to do and nothing happens...
Yeah, I did'nt put in an Completed the Demo screen, if you obtained the book, then you've pretty much done everything thats to be done (did you check the sofa?)
i heard somewhere that the new call of cthulhu game was more of a fps-rpg (like deus ex or thief) with quite a few adventure bits, have you finished it?
To be honest I have not, and yes Dark corners of the earth does have adventure "elements", but make no mistake, they seriosly botched on the genre, while creating the world and story far better than I ever could, they've made it a "console" game, this generally means, that the interest lies in shooting dodging and killing things, and while that is a relevent aspect of call of cthulhu it is NOT the central one, for me at least it is about investigation and forbidden knowledge, and trying to cope with that knowledge in a fragile state of mind. Dark Corners has a lot too recomend it, dont get me wrong, but it has a few things that bring it down as well.
Wow... This all seems very promising! I like the demo very much. Keep up the good work! :D
Just downloaded the demo.
For someone who hasn't played or heard of Call of Cthulhu nor the Darkest Hour, I'm rather intrigued with this game's storyline. The demo serves its purpose of drawing one to the story and game, and I do hope that the final game would really be able to tell the tale. :)
I must ask though, if you're basing this game off another, are the graphics ripped or something? And if they aren't, wouldn't there be some copyright issues especially if you're using trademark characters and stories from a knowned game? Not trying to be discouraging, but I've seen enough potentially great games all reduced to nothing or closed down due to copyright issues. :'(
Now on to the bugs ;D
Spoiler
1. When in the studio in the basement, before I had even chipped off the wall, just looking at it made the character say " I have chipped away the wall and found a book under it " . You might want to fix that.
2. Reading the journal entry on the computer 5 times ALSO generated 5 entries into my notebook.
Hope to see more!
@.Sklate I think that Cthulhu is a creation of HP Lovecraft (1890-1937) and that there is some confusion (?) about who really ownes the copyrights to his work or if some of it is copyrighted.
The story, characters and art are all mine :) Call of Cthulhu is a roleplaying game, meaning they give you a rough universe, in which to set your games, the monsters, spells and General Lore belong to Chaosium Inc.
The world is based on the stories of HP Lovecraft, who I think either had no copyright to his work or its expired, because what Chaosium does'nt own, seems to be pubilcly available on the web.
If that's the case, then I must commend you for the excellent work you've done on the graphics and interface ;D
thank you :) it does'nt hurt that I'm a graphic designer/3d animator by trade, but on the flip side you should see my scripting, it's abysmal :D
3d animator by trade? really?
anyway, nice looking game. i like the gui.
Looks swell! Plays lekka. ;)
Hey there keep it up it really looks good thus far I am on the short list to play...
Just played... The game looks nice... I love the graphics. Also what is the title of the book, I didn't get a chance to read the title.
The title is Secrets of the earth, now that I've released the demo, I will most likely keep the rest of the story secret, not much point in playing if you already know whats going to happen :)
I didn't want to open a new topic in Hints and Tips for a
demo so I'll ask here: what day is Valentine's day?
(OK I'll admit that I don't have a girlfriend!)
The game looks nice though, nice atmosphere. I've been meaning to read The Call Of Ctulhu. Keep up the good work!
My only complaint is that the walkcycles seem not to fit the movement of the character. He seems to slide too much. Other than that it's very nice!
---
Edit: never mind about Valentine's day, I found out about the date. But:
Spoiler
If you're goig to include a year into the code for the safe, it might be wise to tell the player which year it is when the story takes place. If they play it next year or 5 years from now, they'd be guessing wrong.
---
Edit 2:
Doh! Never mind about that first edit, I've read the paper
properly now.
Hey! I finished the demo. IT RULEZ! Great cinematic by the way.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention. Read the NEWSPAPER in the kitchen. It has a date on it. And when you examine it, the charater sayis it's today's newspaper. So the demo is 100% working. He did tell you the date, and valentine day is on February 14. Its simple. so once again..GREAT GAME...looking forward to the full version. And since I told you this game is great, that must mean it really is since I am a bitt of a critic. :D
Hehe thanks. I've done a LOT more since the demo, but got distracted with the arrival of elder scrolls obivion. once I get back to it I will already have a bunch of new screenshots to post for you
Hi The_Creep,
I just completed the demo and it great.
What the purpose for duck-tape?
Maybe in the full game, you will need the ducktape later. If he tells us now, were is the fun in figuring out for yourself. :P Oh yeah I forgot to mention the fact that this game has great puzzles. The fun in figuring out a the answer to a puzzle is the fact that it isn't exagerating dificult. I playied some games that were imposible to finish without a walkthrou but in this one, you wount have that mutch trouble with the puzzles, you just need to think. You should be able to figure them out eventually.
Veeery promising! I'm waiting for the finnished game!
Quote from: The_Creep on Thu 27/04/2006 13:18:08
The story, characters and art are all mine :) Call of Cthulhu is a roleplaying game, meaning they give you a rough universe, in which to set your games, the monsters, spells and General Lore belong to Chaosium Inc.
The world is based on the stories of HP Lovecraft, who I think either had no copyright to his work or its expired, because what Chaosium does'nt own, seems to be pubilcly available on the web.
Strange, I saw that game on store shelf today but I will double check the who owns what.
Questions:
Are there any dying or fighting in your game as in HP Lovecraft version?
uh... can someone put up the demo as a .zip or .exe file because I've got a rubbish WinRAR
Uhh, not sure what you mean by HP lovecraft version, but there will be death, but I'm not doing any arcade or first person sequences with guns, Cthulhu is ideal for adventure games because it is primarily investigation based, your characters are fragile and require more running away than fighting to survive :)
I dont have time to upload a zip file, just download the latest winrar or wait for the full game,
The game plays great. It reminds me of the heist, which uses a lot of 3D animation.
Oh, and by the way, what kind of insanity effects will you use?
Awesome! The graphics are very impressive. Looking forward to it's full release.
quite good, but in the safe, I tried to put in the date of valentines day several times.
i tried:
140206
14206
14022006
1422006
but it didnee werk!
Hammerite:
Spoiler
Re-read the journal on the computer. I've got to give props to this clue, as it can be confusing in other games. Oh, and remember to read the paper.
Love the demo and I can't wait to play the final version! Excellent high res graphics.
Bugs found:
Spoiler
When I looked at the dust it gave me a description without the normal bounding box, and then the game crashed. Also, if you could limit the input for the safe combination to six characters, it would make the puzzle a bit easier, that is if you want it to be easier.
Wow, so much positive feedback, thats awsome guys thanks!
That said let me start answering the questions, Exceeding low or high sanity will limit your access to locations and dialogue, I'm also looking at (although not in anyway practical as of yet) changing the visuals and what you encounter and how you encounter it in relation to your insanity.
As for the bugs mentioned in the last post, I am aware of them, in fact I had thought I had fixed them in the final demo version, I can say that in the final version the weird text crash bug and the safe combo has been limited to six characters. and yes the duct tape is for use with a later puzzle beyond the prologue.
As for the puzzles being straighforward, in fact someone even noticed the connection with the safe puzzle and the Dark Corners of the Earth game, both of these were intentional, it has been my experience that if initial puzzles are to difficult, the player fails to be drawn into the game and is more likely to abandon it, hence the straightforwardness, but be warned that the puzzles are going to get more challenging.
For those of you watching this with interest I promised you screenshots, and I will get them up soon, as for the first time in ages, I have time to work on the game again, a quick progress report as follows, the prologue (demo) is completed and bug free, chapter 1 is 90 % done and remains to be beta tested by people other than me, once it is complete. at the rate I am completing chapters, I hope to have the final version up for release by mid-october, and I will keep updating with every significant increase in content. should you guys have suggestions and comments above and beyond the positive feedback, I would love to hear them.Ã, so thanks all and talk to you soon