Silver Brand - A Mini-Adventure

[MiGo]

AGWEII: “Silver Brand”

The Story:

While out scavenging in the forbidden epicenter of the “Metal Graveyard”, Princess Ta’Meryl Fawx is separated from her friends and protectors. On her own, she finds herself trapped in an ancient Sky Carrier, which still shows the battle-scars of a conflict already hundreds of years past. With no food, no protection and nobody to do the thinking or fanning for her, the young Princess may soon find an even more forbidden shiny thing or two, which could alter her own destiny… forever!

Screenshots:

Title Screen


*FONT TEMPORARILY EDITED - due to suggestions*




Background 2:

Thinking this would be the perfect place for a Parallax background! Once I figure out how to do that... And it looks like there's a module perfectly for that! Lucky me! 8D

Protagonist - Princess Ta'Meryl Fawx:



Development Progress:

Story: 100%
Scripting: 10%
Graphics: 60%
Cutscenes: 10%
Sound/Music: 25%

Expected completion date: May 23rd 2011

PLANS: Well, I actually created a blog (www.migoart.com) a little while ago when I started digging into this project officially! While working on a bigger adventure game however, I thought it would be best to uh... be smart, and make something shorter first to experiment with animation and get a strong grasp on how to schedule the whole process. I mean, I have used this engine to make a game before, but nothing ever completely FINISHED. (It did have a start and ending, but I never inserted more than filler graphics.)

Update taken from Blog

So, with that, I decided to make this Mini-Adventure in 4 WEEKS time. That leaves me this week, and the next to complete it. I'm thinking it will take me the rest of this week to finish the base graphics and program it, so I can try my hand at making an animated opening sequence and ending sequence in my final week. My brother-in-law is even helping with the music for this little Adventure!

The game takes place 150+ years before my main game, and will probably be the first of several mini-stories before I get to the main one. The protagonist of this game is actually the young, equally immature, protagonist of my main story. Luckily, I can use her after such a huge span of time, due to her being an Elf!

Ta'Meryl Fawx, at over 300 years of age.

Thank you for your time: I'm off to get some more work done. Tomorrow. After sleep.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to make them! Also, if the moderators find this post a bit... Heavy, let me know and I'll slim her down.

www.Migoart.com
.+.

[WHAM]

Holy heck. You've got this in just a few weeks? I salute you!
The graphics are pretty, the story sounds pretty good... Overall, this could be pretty darn great.

If you get near the finish and realize you're running out of time, PLEASE don't rush the game just to meet an arbitrary deadline. I did that, it isn't pretty!

[Monsieur OUXX]

Looks promising. I know this is not critics lounge, but be careful with all "tacky" stuff (especially the font)

[Hudders]

careful with all "tacky" stuff (especially the font)

I have to agree. The font used for the dialogue is bordering on unreadable.

[MiGo]

@WHAM It's been slightly painful to do, but yes! And... yeah, I'm worried that if I push the schedule too hard, I'll accidently squeeze some goodness out of the game. And we want to keep all the goodness! So, I may extend my deadline a week or two at the max!  This is supposed to only help me schedule future projects afterall, but that doesn't necessarily mean I want this project to suffer! Thanks a lot for your super kind words: They will help me out a lot!

@Ouxxey &  Hudders You're both right! I was kind of experimenting with fonts when somehow colors got in the mix, so then I added an outline temporarily... which... may have made it worse. Any good font suggestions? I'm thinking ANIME ACE since it's so legible at a good distance. I realize that since the game is text-based, this is SUPER IMPORTANT! As is the GUI, which I am considering trimming down to almost non-existant.... Thanks guys!

[Hudders]

Any good font suggestions? I'm thinking ANIME ACE since it's so legible at a good distance.

I prefer Digital Strip if you're set on comic-style fonts. But Anime Ace is readable too.

[MiGo]

Any good font suggestions? I'm thinking ANIME ACE since it's so legible at a good distance.

I prefer Digital Strip if you're set on comic-style fonts. But Anime Ace is readable too.

Ooooo. Then I shall seek out this "Digital Strip", when I get on my actual PC. Thank you, Yes.

[Sslaxx]

http://www.dafont.com/digital-strip.font

[MiGo]

Wow! Super helpful guys. Thanks! I actually looked it up earlier, but found that it's Free for "Personal Use", so instead I found one labeled as just plain FREE. Just in case. (This project is FREE, but I want to TRY and pick a font that I can stick with to use on a bigger project later on to maintain familiarity.)

If my thinking on this is wrong, and it's really as free to use as anything else, then feel free to correct me!

I'm "anal" when it comes to the "fine print".

Oh, and UPDATE! I'm totally almost completely done coding the first room! Then I'll script the second and lay down all of it's items and animations. As is, I'm thinking now would be a good time to try the Parallax plugin, or try and learn that I should have done that FIRST. We'll see!

I've got some Gangster Gophers to animate! >8D

[Hudders]

Wow! Super helpful guys. Thanks! I actually looked it up earlier, but found that it's Free for "Personal Use", so instead I found one labeled as just plain FREE.

Anime Ace says "free for personal use" on that site too.

If you aren't selling the game, there shouldn't be any harm in it.

Also, I've just realised I was thinking of "Creative Block" not "Digital Strip".  : It's what I use when drawing stupid comics.

[Sslaxx]

Creative Block: http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=2858

[MiGo]

Thanks again guys! I'll try out this font tomorrow, and hopefully have some character interactions to show in my next screenshots!

Now, if you wanted to be SUPREMELY awesome, you could come on down and program my game for me? 8D

Yes?

No?

Ok then. Sad face.

[MiGo]

Wow! Super helpful guys. Thanks! I actually looked it up earlier, but found that it's Free for "Personal Use", so instead I found one labeled as just plain FREE.

Anime Ace says "free for personal use" on that site too.

If you aren't selling the game, there shouldn't be any harm in it.

Also, I've just realised I was thinking of "Creative Block" not "Digital Strip".  : It's what I use when drawing stupid comics.

And just noticed there was an actual LINK hidden in there! They're not stupid. More like, Stupid Funny.

That's a compliment!

[Darth Mandarb]

I split/moved your post to the Critics Lounge.  Please keep C&C requests out of the production thread.  Thanks.

New Link:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=43526.0

[MiGo]

I split/moved your post to the Critics Lounge.  Please keep C&C requests out of the production thread.  Thanks.

New Link:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=43526.0

Oh! It was actually more of a passing thought as I updated, but thanks! While I was quite surprised, I can understand nipping the small things in the bud before they can be misinterpreted by others and become bigger "things". If that makes sense (It comes with Management of any kind.).

Anyway, I'll split my update out of the C&C and bring that back over here. That way as to... well, keep things as you ask and make things easier. Besides, your setup does make a lot more sense, although I did not think about it at the time.

I will do as you ask in the future.


I've programmed and animated another character into the mini-adventure, and now have to make:

LIST:

PORTRAITS:
Snickers
Chuckles
Kerra
Trevor

BACKGROUNDS:
A big picture of something
A special hallway
The special room
A sky

ITEMS:
Something shiny
A tall object
A toy of some kind


ANIMATIONS:
Flirting
Playing
Opening
Ending
A Story
Picking Items Up
Squatting Down
Survived!
Crawling


And THAT'S IT! 8D

Next Week is devoted to the animations. This week is everything else, and finalizing of the programming.

It's going to be a LONG WEEKEND.

Oh, and here's Fawx in a bikini:

Don't say I never contributed anything.;P

[Dualnames]

Wow, this is getting better

But on a serious note, I like robots and elves, and the art style seems to be very influenced by animes, which is nice. I cross my fingers hoping this will be as a awesome as I expect it to. 

[MiGo]

Wow, this is getting better

But on a serious note, I like robots and elves, and the art style seems to be very influenced by animes, which is nice. I cross my fingers hoping this will be as a awesome as I expect it to. 

Thank you! Actually, I'd say I'm mostly in love with the art style found in DANGER GIRL. Although yeah, I was influenced by anime at one time.

UPDATE:
PRIMARY PUZZLES PROGRAMMED
FIRST TWO SCREENS COMPLETED

TESTED
TESTED
RETESTED

New Portraits!

And now I have 2 more rooms to do!

So, off to sleep I go! CIAO!

[MiGo]

Unfortunately, I'm having to postpone the Game's release for a maximum of 2 more weeks. The animating is taking all of my time away from adding the music and sound effects! Without the 3, the game feels like it would come out pretty lame next to what it CAN be.

Do note: I will also be taking the time to work on how I make the next game, since this one starts out more puzzle-centric... which is a personal peeve of mine that I fell into due to the necessity of PRACTICE! I needed to know I could program almost everything I need to later... and now I know.

I'll update with animation snippets later, and some new screenshots since I revised all of the backgrounds. (There are 5 in the mini-Adventure.).

Ciao! And thanks!

[MiGo]

Wow! So, that's all six weeks. I've done just about everything that needs to be done... except there are presently two issues keeping me from just going ahead and releasing it: The guy that was helping me do the music has been too busy to actually make me any music, and I spent the last two weekends hanging out with my girlfriend and family (Since my GF was leaving for the entirety of this week, and soon for almost an entire year!

So, my ending animation is not complete!

However, to show just how much I've gotten done, without "giving too much away", here are a dozen or so screenies:

OPENING ANIMATION:









ANIMATION 02


IN-GAME:




So the sad fact is: I may need another week to find some good music, or just plain find a new composer, animate the ending and another scene I'd just LIKE to put in to help move the story forward.

And with that... I'll probably need to go put in a request for composition help won't I?

(BTW If anyone knows WHERE I am supposed to ask for music help, or could just help with the music, let me know!)

Any questions?

[ThreeOhFour]

Looks very stylish

(BTW If anyone knows WHERE I am supposed to ask for music help, or could just help with the music, let me know!)

Those requests go here!