Red Dwarf: The Game - DEMO NOW AVAILABLE!

[Blobby 101]

thanks guys - I'm working on Rimmer at the moment - If anything he's a bit harder to make recognisable, He's not very distinctive xD

[Blobby 101]

Sorry about double posting but I have a question about copyright for you, Do you think it's best i email Grant Naylor (the company) about whether it's OK to carry on with this game, just to make sure it's all cleared before i've gone too far with the game or should I just leave it and get on with the game?

I mean, there are advantages either way - If they do clear it, I'll know that I'm fine to make it and i'm not going to be stopped, but if they say no then that's the end of the project right there and then. If I just leave it then I get to make more of the game, but I could get a C+D order at a later date :/

What do you guys think?

[Ali]

This question has come up again and again, I guess you read about the King's Quest fangame business?

My feeling is that they ought to be pleased to stumble upon a tribute game. LucasFilm is wise not to go around shutting down every StarWars tribute. They should be particularly pleased since the show lost its way to such an extent in the last two seasons.

*Shakes fist at new Kochanski*

On the other hand, what ought to happen, and what actually happens... well. Incidentally, I would have expected the BBC to be the copyright owners, rather than the writers or their company. But I could be wrong!

[markbilly]

As long as you aren't planning on selling it just carry on. Make sure you put a disclaimer saying "this is a freeware, independent fan game. I do not own any of Red Dwarf. I love Red Dwarf!" at the start of the game.

Chances are they won't spot it at all, or at least not until it's released. In which case, you loose nothing even if they do decide to shut it down.

[Blobby 101]

OK, and that's a good point Ali, I think i would contact Grant Naylor first and i I get a reply saying to contact the BBC instead then I will, but i'm not too sure - I mean, a new series has been commissioned by Dave (the channel behind the Back to Earth specials)  And not anything to do with the BBC :S

Oh, well - We'll just have to find out I guess - I'll just plough on with the game.

[Ali]

I'd forgotten about that, for some reason I'd suppressed my memory of the few dreadful minutes I watched of the Dave version.

Nonetheless I suspect the BBC still owns some of the rights. The Dave episodes were released on iTunes by BBC Worldwide according to this press release.

[EnoRed]

Sorry for the lack of progress recently - this spriting is harder than i thought
I'm getting it done though, no matter how long it takes

P.S: Just to demonstrate how bad I am at pixel art 

Maybe try widening Kryten's head a bit, making the chin and the top of the head a bit less narrow. Also, the arms could do with lengthening and maybe straighten his posture, since the bent legs don't quite look right for Kryten who is usually a lot more upright and stiff.

The armour detailing is pretty good though, and the subtle shading on his head does a pretty good job making it look angular without it being too distracting.

[Mr Flibble]

Don't email Grant Naylor. I did with my project and I guarantee you they won't support it.

[Blobby 101]

Don't email Grant Naylor. I did with my project and I guarantee you they won't support it.

Oh, That's a shame Lets just hope i can finish this before anything gets out

[Jared]

On the other hand I can guarantee the BBC Legal Department won't send a response back.

Well, not entirely, this was perhaps eight years ago when I naively emailed to say "You won't C&D me if I do who a Doctor Who game, right? Cos otherwise I won't bother!" They might have sharpened their game since 

[AnalogGuy]

No room for Mr. Flibble?   :

[Dualnames]

Don't email Grant Naylor. I did with my project and I guarantee you they won't support it.

MrFlibble, can I really ask you to publish parts of their e-mail to the AGS forums? It would be really interesting to see what it's like.

[Mr Flibble]

I don't have a copy of it any more, but it was from some underling, not either of the big cheeses, and it was along the lines of "we could not permit or condone unauthorized use of Red Dwarf even for a non-profit."

Actually, now that I remember this, they actually said it was because an official Red Dwarf game was under consideration. I doubt it was very SERIOUS consideration, but they wanted to keep the market clean and clear for themselves.

[Blobby 101]

Urgh, Education.

It has a really bad habit of getting in the way of good, adventure game development time!
As you can tell, progress is sub-snail slow at the moment, thanks to a few minor setbacks and other commitments but I AM still carrying on with this. I know this is perhaps more of a critics lounge type question but as I'm not really asking for crit and more just asking a general question of opinion, it should be fine here;
Which of these background styles do you prefer?

Old/classic 2D:


New/3D:


I'm not sure myself, 3D makes it easier to work with for me (I'm a 3D modeller generally before a 2D artist) but seems to come across as a bit more tacky. It also leaves me in a similar position as I was in before with not being able to model humans very well - The upsides though is that I can animate things easier in 3D than in 2D.

So, please post your opinions

I've made my mind up to carry on with the old style (but you will see the 3D background in it somewhere )

[roll]

Can you put a real red dwarf in this game please?

[Blobby 101]

Ok everyone, It's here at last, The first demo


DOWNLOAD


A few things to point out:

*Very few backgrounds are final, I'd say maybe the quarters one is and possibly the drive room. Most of the others will be replaced or at least touched up. The elevator is the most rushed there is - I know how out the perspective is so don't worry

*Same goes with the character sprites really, Kryten is probably the most complete - either him or Holly but these will hopefully be redone at a later date.

*There are NO walking animations. Due to a lack of animation skills, No walk cycles are in the game so the characters just glide at the moment.

Because of these things, the game may not feel particularly smooth, and I apologise. Hopefully having a demo out may increase interest in the game/belief that it will be finished and persuade someone into helping out

Either way, Enjoy - there's 1 full puzzle in this demo which I felt was a reasonable difficulty for the beginning of a game, although some hardcore adventure gamers may say otherwise! Oh, and a little bit of background - The game's full intro (after Holly's finished speaking will show Lister, Rimmer and the Cat heading off to investigate a meteor heading for the ship - That's why they're absent at the moment.

Cheers!

[Captain Lexington]

Man, so after a long while of loosely knowing about Red Dwarf, a few days ago I noticed the whole thing was on Netflix On Demand. So after watching four series in as many days, I remember "Didn't I see something about a Red Dwarf game a while back?" so I head to the search thing and find the thread. After downloading and playing the demo (which was great! I laughed out loud at the twenty minutes/five hours joke) I head back to the main board and make my rounds. Upon going to the In Production board, I see that this one...is third from the top. -_- After almost a month of inactivity! Updated the very day I started watching Red Dwarf!

Anyway, I like it.

[Blobby 101]

haha, brilliant! thanks

you have no idea how good that is to hear to be honest - after reading the same jokes several times throughout testing you stop finding the at all funny and I was worried that no-one else would find it funny either xD

As you're the only person I know of so far that has played it through, how difficult/easy did you find the puzzle? were there any bugs that i need to sort out?

Cheers for playing anyway

[Captain Lexington]

The puzzle wasn't too difficult because there weren't that many hotspots, but as for what specifically to do I did feel a little lost. Maybe some more direction from either Holly or Kryten's internal monologue? I don't know, however you feel is best. I knew that I was supposed to be communicating with Spacebug, but as to how I was supposed to, I only guessed because there were about two different things to click on in each room.

[Blobby 101]

OK, thanks - I'm adding more responses and things at the moment, trying to make sure there aren't any actions you can do that just return silence any more - hopefully I'll be able to add some helpful comments in with these