Star Trek Adventures:Year One :Demo Released

[anthonyjmf]

I'm very impressed with the work you've undertaken and it is exactly what is missing from current adventure gaming, a link between an original series and reliving it through adventure, with the opportunity to introduce new episodes. Well done!

It all seems too good to be true, so here's the potentially disheartening question...when is the first episode estimated release date?

Anthony.

[mkennedy]

Will Bones McCoy be speaking his famous phrases?

"He's dead Jim!"
"Damnit, Jim, I'm a doctor! Not a brick layer!"

[anthonyjmf]

And 'she cannoo take it captin" scottie!

The last post on this game was couple months back, can anyone confirm an Estimated Time for Publishing? will it be commercial or public?

[Matti]

The last post on this game was couple months back, can anyone confirm an Estimated Time for Publishing? will it be commercial or public?

September 22nd is hardly a couple of months back, isn't it?

Since it's a Star Trek game, it can't be commercial without serious copyright violations.

[jamesreg]

I have been on vacation for a couple weeks I will update and answer all your questions and emails when I get settled back to real life here later today or tomorrow.

First off thanks for the support or interest any of you following this project has shown we wanted to have a website out and forums and some special fun stuff for everyone to check out with a project blog and such but we did not want to take away from working on the game itself so that part feel behind but about a month before release of the first mission pack you can expect to see a website launched which will have its own forums, progress blogs for upcoming missions. A chance for each of you to vote on you favorite episodes, comics, novels and such you would like to see adapted in a future mission.

as well as a chance to submit your own fan fiction or ideas for a mission pack.

Mr Matti

The game matterial is copywrite

so we can not make any money from it it will be freely distributed for anyone who wants it and is meant to honor the opriginal series and its cast crew and fans.


Also to answer question of mkennedy

Who asked if Bones will be doing his signature slogans such as "he dead Jim"

I want everyone to know everyone in this project has a love for these characters and grew up with them they are our friends and heroes as well.

I am the one doing most the scripting and dialogs and such and I will tell each of you that "Bones" is my favorite character.

In the first few mins of gameplay you will see a classic argument between spock and bones.

You will be able to play as each of the characters at various points of the game and talk to each other.

I encourage you to ask your crew for advice and such as you play the game as you will get classic responses based on the personality of each crew memeber.

Spock will give you a scientific answer bones is liable to give you a grumpy smart ass answer.

so Yes we are in tune with the characters and what they are supposed to do and say.



anthonyjmf
Thanks for the kind comments about our project it makes us know we might be doing something right or on the right track.

to answer your question in regards to release date.

That is the magic question isn't it lol.

As most people know around here to promise anything about a specific release date is not wise there are always problems to  overcome, real life and other issues to get past.

I would love if my full time job was to make video games but this is not the case.

The project only has about three people working on it at the moment.

Myself doing scripting
another doing music and sound effect and menu graphics
and another doing sprites and backgrounds.

each of us are completely new to AGS but are picking it up quicker then we thought.

each of us have worked on projects here and there but this is our first full project thats completly our own baby so to speak.

But this is what this project was supposed to be about also a way to make new friends, learn some new skills, have fun giving back to a community of fans something we enjoyed and got alot our of in our lives and most important to have fun doing it all.

With all that said I truely believe we have accomplished a lot and are well underway in creating something that will be enjoyable for all trek fans and non trek fans alike old fans and new fans.

if  I had to give an estimate I would say about 2 to 3 months without any life events getting in the way

most the time on this one is being spent getting the interface and sprites and all created which most will be able to be used though out the project.

so mission packs after this should not take as long as the initial one as we are trying to keep in mind that it is an ongoing project and trying to create an interface and set up that can be used for over and over and not have to be re-created  with every game pack.

this will provide consistency in each mission pack as well as make releases much easier and faster from here on out.

We just ask for a little patience getting the first one out to you and you should be able to enjoy updates to the game much more frequent from there.

[Dualnames]

Did the graphics just became Ultra good? At least they seem to!! Way to go, James!

[anthonyjmf]

Thanks James, the more I hear about the game the better it gets.

The website seems a great idea, since feedback from fans/gamers alike can only enhance the game, and as for possible story lines/plots from fans, that's definetly a new aprpoach that will generate allot of interest in the game.

You were saying that the game production was also based on the journey to the end, of meeting people, making friends, and sharing a united fascination and passion for the star trek world, perhaps you could create a social forum on the website which could meet up for throughout the year - depending on location - to network and dicuss same in person. Of course the AGS is not based on location of its members, it would be great to actually meet with fellow members to talk about the star trek game, whilst also getting an insight as a touris of their culture etc. when its up an running.

[jamesreg]

Did the graphics just became Ultra good? At least they seem to!! Way to go, James!

I wished I could take personal credit for the graphics myself but I can not.

I may not have explained or introduced the rest of my team here so I would like to take a moment and do that.
As everyone has had an equal amount of time invested in the project.

I myself am James Regalado

The project started with myself basicaly I simply wanted to make my own game never had done it
never even coded anything before.

But I wanted to learn I started out trying to figure out what I wanted to make and being a life long trek fan all my life
the new movies popularity as well as the amount of new fans I was running into just kind of made trek a good idea.
Besides I never cared much for the shoot em up space battle games that most trek games are based off of.

Judgement rights and 25th anniversary remain some of my favorite trek games and had wished they had done more
with the series.

So my original intention was to create an old style space quest sierra classic graphics type adventure something simular to what the other guy making the trek game that was just announced is doing.

But the problem was I knew i could learn how to code it and use AGS.

But I am the type of person who can not even draw a stick pig so my dreams of game design was about to come to an end real quick if I could not do that.

Thats when I stumbled onto the website www.xcalpro.com which is owned and operated by Tony  Oliveira.

If your a trek or classic sci-fi fan you might enjoy his site its a community based site like AGS here but they specialize in making 3d models of classic sci-fi scenes with poser and other 3d programs. You can almost find all the rooms of the enterprise there along with many clothes, hairstyles and props from trek.

Much of those 3d items are what will be used in this game series.

even though our game is classic 2d like most other adventure games here the backgrounds are well thought out ahead of time.

I used my limited knowledge of drawing basic scenes with paint and created a storyboard and laid it all out on a design wiki for tony then he took those sketches and created an entire 3d scene for our two planets which will be used in the game.
which we then rendered into various 2d shots.

The sprites them selfs are being done the same way 3d figures rendered into 2d sprites with faces of the original actors  added to that later.

much of our sprites for phasers, communicators, tricorder and basic trek props already existed in Tony's site as well as most Enterprise rooms which will be used.

so Tony has been in charge of all backgrounds, sprites, and objects.

Along the way I meet up with DrewCCU (Andrew Smith) from this forums who was stationed in Iraq at the time and needed something to keep his mind off of well being in a war zone.

So he joined the team as our sound effects and music guy. He has created almost an entire soundtrack of Music that is new and done from scratch but also sounds like it came from 1960's Star Trek.

so that is one thing that is taking some time and that is nothing is borrowed in this game its all being created from scratch and original even if its a classic sound we could rip anywhere we are doing it ourselves.

along the way Andrew also helped with much of our interface for save, load, settings, exit scenes and such and gave them a very classic trek look and feel which can be seen in the snapshots I posted above.

As I mentioned before Arena will be the first mission pack released if any question to why Arena it made the perfect adventure game format to get started with I am interested in keeping classic cannon as much as possible but the game series will focus on one year of the mission at a time and will be set up where you can later play them in any order you want.

so we will not go by stardate or original air date all the way though I mean there is a point you can be to anal about something and even the original episodes were not always aired by stardate order when they appeared on TV.

but other then that we are going to try to stay as close to the original source material as possible.

If you have watched Arena before you will know the episode featured two locations Cestus III an outpost that had come under attack and a Battleworld which kirk faught for his life from a godzilla want a be lol.

we have 99 percent of the backgrounds completed for both those locations  with the exception of doing some last moment re-renders to improve on an idea that we had last min.

One thing which slowed the project down just a notch but will have a product in your hands faster in the end.
Is that we original was going to have the game as 8 mini episode in one long commercial style game format.

we decided instead of having a few games like that we would make it the format it is now and release mission packs and allow the game to be an ongoing growing game that will have player input as it grows.

doing it this way allows us to concentrate on making each mission pack the best it can be without rushing or cutting things or sliming back because of space requirement in a larger game. This has allowed us to do a much better project then we original intended or thought we could do.

anyway right now concentration has switched to finishing the character sprites and coding of actual game play we are still tweaking the interface layout a little but the project has had significant advancement since my first post about it and I will not give a time frame on first release only that it will not be to many more months less then 6 months I can probably say that pretty certain.

and in the end the player can choose how large the game will be or how much space they want it to take up as you can collect only the missions that interest you and still access them from the game launcher.

anyway I may have gave some repeat info or info thats not important to anyone else but wanted to credit my team a little and let everyone know about their hard work they deserve it very much.

also wanted people to know we will be launching a site which will be based on games made by fans of old tv shows and movies that will attempt to help bring project teams together to work on games based off everyones fav tv show or movie of the past. I will give more detail on that later as our main focus is to get this project done without distractions.

take care all and thanks for those who have followed us

[DrewCCU]

Well first of all i would like to thank James for his kind words about me in his previous post.  I am working on the music/sound for the game as well as creating the space scenes and menu interfaces (as well as promotional banners and such).  This is a fun project and we are getting closer and closer to a release date but there are just a few things that are bogging us down at the moment. 

ANyway, i just wanted to echo what James said and let you guys know we appreciate your support and you are keeping us motivated with th is project.  So keep posting your questions and we will do whatever we can to keep your interest alive. thanks.

[Dualnames]

Well first of all i would like to thank James for his kind words about me in his previous post.  I am working on the music/sound for the game as well as creating the space scenes and menu interfaces (as well as promotional banners and such).  This is a fun project and we are getting closer and closer to a release date but there are just a few things that are bogging us down at the moment. 

ANyway, i just wanted to echo what James said and let you guys know we appreciate your support and you are keeping us motivated with th is project.  So keep posting your questions and we will do whatever we can to keep your interest alive. thanks.

I'm probably getting too much repeated here, but I just want to state my enthusiasm on this game, and I find Jamesreg effort and your effort as well Drew to be heartwarming. I'm just gonna sit and wait for the game now.

[jamesreg]

Request for sprite artist.

This is a word sent out there to any talented sprite artist.
We have the talent needed to complete this project but
at the moment we have one person working all art in game
backgrounds. objects, sprites etc.

It would be more beneficial to us and help each person stay more focused
and do a better job in each area if we recruited an additional sprite artist to assist
us in the creation of our character sprites.

This would be the sole and only job of the new team recruit and they would be credited fully.

what we have done so far is use poser back models and we have created uniform morphs for them
we have hair styles as well and each character is saved as a seperate file and ready to begin animation work.

we are creating animation cycles from there and rendering these cycles into 2d sprites which we plan to photoshop
the correct faces onto and clean up from there.

we do not have to stick with this process if someone is talented enough with sprite creation in another way and can
match and make them blend into the background we have just as well they will have creative freedom to do this in any
way they see fit and not take our approach.

recruiting another person is not dependent on us finishing the project we have enough resolve to finish this on our own and with the talent we have but the recruit of another person will speed up the project considerably as well as leave each person on the team free to work in the areas they specialize in best and make each of those areas the best they can be.

Thanks in advance for any offers I recieve.

this does not have to be long term as this is an ongoing project if someone simply wants to assist with this first mission pack
this is acceptable.

AGS if I should have posted this in another place i figured the thread in which people was following the progress was suitable.

[anthonyjmf]

Hi James,

Any update on the game?

Cheers,

Anthony

[jamesreg]

We have started construction of a website for the game which will be located here

http://www.startrekadventures.com

The site should be up soon so keep checking up on it.

We will be having videos, forums, wallpaper, mini games, demos, polls for future games and much more.

All information about the game will be handled though this site from now on I will announce on here once
it is fully active.

thanks.

[DrewCCU]

ATTENTION ALL!!!!

Our website is up! www.startrekadventures.com

It is not completley functional yet as we are still working on updating some of the pages.  However, this site is where the majority of our new game info will be posted.  The site gets updated almost daily so keep checking back!

ALSO, If you want to be notified when their are major site/game updates then please sign up for our E-Mail Updates list and
get updated via email whenever there is a major update! Simply e-mail us your name and a valid return e-mail address
to startrekadventures@gmail.com

[Dualnames]

ATTENTION ALL!!!!

Our website is up! www.startrekadventures.com

It is not completley functional yet as we are still working on updating some of the pages.  However, this site is where the majority of our new game info will be posted.  The site gets updated almost daily so keep checking back!

ALSO, If you want to be notified when their are major site/game updates then please sign up for our E-Mail Updates list and
get updated via email whenever there is a major update! Simply e-mail us your name and a valid return e-mail address
to startrekadventures@gmail.com

Great news,great news indeed there folks!

[DrewCCU]

I know i told you guys that all game updates would be made on our website (www.startrekadventures.com) from now on (and the site is being updated everyday with updates) but for those of you who have yet to make the journey over to the site and check it out i thought id let you guys know our official game progress here ... so take a look:

[jamesreg]

FAQ

Below you will find a list of frequently asked questions.  If you
have a question that is not on this list then please contact us at:
startrekadventures@gmail.com

-Why a bunch of smaller games called "Missions" and not just one BIG game?
-Will these missions follow exactly the story of the episode they portray?
-When will the next full mission download be released?
-When will the next mission demo be released?
-How much is the game going to cost?
-Are you currently looking for more people to join your team?
-What program do you use to make this game?
-How closely will the game resemble Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek?
-Will the game use a scoring system?
-Will the game offer replayability?
-Will you be able to fire hand phasers and/or fight space battles?
-Will "Bones" McCoy be speaking his famous phrases?
-Are you planning to release a Star Trek game with an original story/plot in the future?
-As the focus seems to be year one of the five year mission why was "Arena" chosen to be the first mission as its star date is not the earliest mission?



Q: Why a bunch of smaller games called "Missions" and not just one BIG game?

A: How many times have you ever played a game and finished it hoping there would be a sequel? And how many times has the sequel if it came been a disappointment to you? Maybe they changed the interface or controls. Maybe the game just doesn't have the same feel as the original you came to love. Our series is designed to be just that: a series of ongoing adventures. We will use the same interface and control system (at least very similar) for all our games so that players do not have to learn a new set up every time there is a sequel. We will be able to get new games out to you much quicker then you would ever had to wait for a commercial sequel.


Q: Will these missions follow exactly the story of the episode they portray?

A: With any movie-to-game (or in this case television-to-game) conversion there must be puzzles and things added to have an enjoyable game experience. As a movie was meant to be watched a game is meant to be played. We have all played games based off of movies that had nothing to do with the movie or there was too much stupid stuff added. We are working hard to make sure our puzzles and game play stays well in tune with the episode while remaining an entertaining game to play.


Q: When will the next full mission download be released?

A: Our First Mission Arena is currently in the coding phase and is estimated out sometime by the early part of 2010.


Q: When will the next mission demo be released?

A: Hopefully if all stays on schedule the first demo will be completed sometime in November or December of 2009.


Q: How much is the game going to cost?

A: Star Trek Adventures: Year One  is a FREEWARE point-and-click adventure game that is created strictly for entertainment purposes and we in NO WAY intended to receive profit from this fan-based game.  We understand that Star Trek is copyrighted by CBS/Paramount and we are not them nor are we affiliated in any way with them or hold any license to produce a commercial Star Trek game.  We simply are creating this game to honor the original vision of its creator Gene Roddenberry, The actors, staff, all its fans and all those who made this wonderful series possible. We wish for this game series to be a way to give something back to for all the enjoyment it has given us over the years and we wish to keep its original vision alive for a new generation who are just now starting to see Roddenberry's vision for the first time.


Q: Are you currently looking for more people to join your team?

A: We could use some sprite artist right now but would not turn down any form of help given as the project is an ongoing project there will be many stages of game development going on at any given time so there is always work to do. Email us if you are a sprite designer, coder, background artist or any other talent that might be beneficial to us. The only thing we do not need help with at the moment is music.


Q: What program do you use to make this game?

A: We are using AGS (The Adventure Game Studio.) Which can be located at www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk


Q: How closely will the game resemble Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek?

A: As this series of games is currently set in the first year of the original Star Trek series and is planned to remake the entire series you can say it is as close as anything you have ever seen to keeping with that vision. All involved have been life long fans, know the stories, know the characters, know all the lore and history. So there is a lot of attention going into making the game remain true to its roots.


Q: Will the game use a scoring system?

A: We will be adding a scoring based system in which will be similar to many adventure games where certain actions will gain points and there will be a max number of points attainable by the end of the game. The point system will not effect game play very much. However, we do have secrets and unlockable content planned which will be reward for high scores.


Q: Will the game offer replayability?

A: The games are being designed to be fun to play and will capture the feel of Star Trek as you have loved it. So that alone will give most trekies a reason to reload the game up from time to time for a replay. With the ability to have unlockable content and special hidden items as well as a point system the game will offer many reasons to replay the missions more than once.


Q: Will you be able to fire hand phasers and/or fight space battles?

A: All of the equipment such as phasers, tricorder's, medical scanners, hypo sprayers will be able to be used. There will be an option that allows each playable character to set their phaser to stun or kill. There will also be opportunities to have space battles as well. When there is a plaque or sickness to cure you will be able to take over Doctor McCoy's lab and develop the cure. There will be many such surprises in store as the game missions progress.


Q: Will "Bones" McCoy be speaking his famous phrases?

A: The first scene of the first mission ("Arena") features a famous fight between the Dr. McCoy and Spock. We are very mindful that dammit he's a Doctor not a moon shuttle conductor. Much care is being taken to look at every possible interaction in the game and make sure it is something that fits with the established history and personality of the characters.


Q: Are you planning to release a Star Trek game with an original story/plot in the future?

A: One is in the story witting phase right now which is titled Star Trek: Beginning's which will feature The first mission of Kirk and crew together and tell much of their back story. It will have some trace elements of the new movie but will tell more the story of the prime universe without the altered timeline or reality. It'll tell the real story of our heroes we have loved. It is also being designed to feature use of all the main characters, each in one of their own mini missions which will seem to not connect but will all connect by end of the game.

We also plan to do more then just the episodes. We will dive into comics, cartoons, novels, our own original stories, and even give you, the players, an opportunity to have your own fan fiction turned into a game. We will conduct polls and let players also vote for the next episode to be featured as a game.


Q: As the focus seems to be year one of the five year mission why was "Arena" chosen to be the first mission as its star date is not the earliest mission?

A: Our games will be created and released as separate mini missions each one playable on its own right. You will be able to download only the ones you want to play. Doing it like this allows you players to collect only the missions they want. Even the original air dates and the star dates did not match at times. There comes a point where one can be too picky. Our games will encompass the first year of the mission and you the player can decide to play them in whatever order you deem fit.

[jamesreg]

Hello everyone here is a treat as we get closer to a demo thought I would release a teaser video not much here just the opening credits but hope you guys enjoy we are nearing a demo stage soon so project is still very much on track and alive

enjoy the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4NpWmO4Oj0

[PolloDiablo]

I loved the Star Trek adventures and will be keeping an eye out for this project 

[DrewCCU]

Just wanted to let everyone see the latest progress updates: