The Cat Lady

[Grim]

Demo & pre-order now at: http://www.thecatlady.co.uk

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It's Halloween. Midnight... It seems like a good time to announce Harvester Games' new project. Here goes

The Cat Lady


  FIRST TRAILER

  SECOND TRAILER

click on above link to watch on YouTube









Susan Ashworth has woken up to a beautiful dream... She's in a field of barley, at a strike of dawn. Warm wind blows in her face, her hair waving as she stares at the sunrise. She's dead. Through her dream she can barely hear the sounds of reality breaking through- the screaming of a friend who found Susan's body on her bedroom's floor, the ambulance crew resuscitating her on the way to the hospital. She has taken an overdose, and willingly at that. Life has been tough on her lately. After her husband's death everything lost its meaning, her world was empty and grey and she decided to end it once and for all.
And for the first time in a long time she is happy. Not really aware of what is happening... but she's enjoying being in this strange beautiful place on the edge of life and death.

What she doesn't realize is that it's all a trap, an illusion, a road to hell.
She'd fall for it, she'd go through the fields into an abandoned tunnel filled with wrecks and further into the darkness, if not for something that happens. Somebody's tricked her again- she finds that someone wants her to live after all...
So she's back in the land of the living. Accused of wanting to kill herself she has been assigned a Suicide Watch. They'll keep a close eye on her... But for now she's back home, in her two bedroom apartment where neighbours know her as the Cat Lady. She has a thing for cats...

She decides to give it another go, try to find her happiness again. The only problem is that she brought something back from that other world- a warning. Something bad is going to happen and she'll have to fight to survive. Five people will come into to her life. One of them will change her life and make it better. But the other four have nothing but cruel intentions. They'll have their own reasons to hurt her...



Team:
story, scripting, graphics: Grim Reaper
soundtrack: Micamic
technical help & GUI: Dualnames

Overall progress: 100% complete, Testing in progress, VA in progress

Will post more info soon. For now, Happy Halloween everyone:)...

[david]

Hey Grimm, happy Halloween to you 
nice project
looking forward to this 

she looks like Agnes from the downfall, especially her hair 

[ThreeOhFour]

I'm not really a horror fan, but I have to say you introduced the story in a very beautiful way. Really gave me the chills, nice work

[Dualnames]

From all I can say,apart from that the interface is my BIATCH, I think you should make an in-game footage,because it's really difficult to notice the smoothness of the animation and movement from just screenshots. I myself, was little wowed with it. Comparing it to Downfall its 200% more smooth. Anyway, the game's really sureal and all, and well good luck with it!

[Cryxo]

Absolutely bloody brilliant!

I wait with anticipation.

[Chicky]

Hey, this looks like the Bland Street Bloom video by Sikth.

Awesome!

[Midian Design]

Beautiful!

[arj0n]

wow!

[Crimson Wizard]

That looks terribly intriguing and atmospheric!

BTW, still waiting for Akella to begin distributing your Downfall CD I failed to understand how to buy things online, sorry 

[Frodo]

Looks lovely.  Awesome graphics.   

And happy halloween, Grim Reaper.   

[CosmoQueen]

Oh my! I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before! All I can say is wow.......just wow.

[Grim]

David: Thanks:) She looks like Agnes? I don't know, maybe? I see Agnes every day, it's hard to get her image out of my head. ( did I forget to mention that 'Downfall Agnes' was based on my real life partner? So anyway, I did now!:)) Susan Ashworth is much older though. In my battle to fight gaming stereotypes I decided to make her a woman in her fourties.

Ben304: Not a fan of horror, eh? What's the matter with you?! Ha ha, I guess I should mention it's not yout typical slasher horror ride. There isn't going to be a group of overly sexualised college students who die one by one... or monsters from hell... or an ancient curse...It's a different kind of horror.

Also, the description was never meant to be the, well, description advertising the game. That's what I emailed to my brother to give him an idea of what sort of music he should be making for it, to make him feel the atmosphere a bit better. But I guess it works:)

Dualnames: a bit too early for a trailer... But I'm really happy with this new way of doing animation. It works well, and it's something different too. In comparison, Joe in Downfall had six frames of walking animation. Susan's walkcycle consists of 21 frames( +21 frames of running animation) SO you were quite right about that 200% Thanks you so much again for your continous support ( you clever clever man:))

Cryxo: Thank you very much!

Chicky: Never seen it, but I do take inspiration for art design from music videos actually. The main sources are as usual Porcupine Tree and Tool.

Cosmo Queen: Thanks, all I can say now, it's going to be a very different adventure game. Interface, camera view, themes... More info soon, when I get some more time to type it:) Right now, I'm already late for work!

[Snake]

Grim, I'm loving that screenshot of the town with the sky... very atmospheric.

When will there be a demo or trailer?

[Igor Hardy]

Is the hair of the lady going to be animated as that one screen suggests? If so I'm very impressed.

The atmosphere of the images reminds me greatly of a Polish animated film The Labyrinth by Jan Lenica. Maybe you know it, Grim?

[Grim]

Grim, I'm loving that screenshot of the town with the sky... very atmospheric.

When will there be a demo or trailer?

Thanks Snake. In original it's about 2500 pxls wide, so it will look a bit different in game. Most backgrounds are scrolling. But this one, I think, deserves a full shot in the game. If only I could figure out how to smoothly pan camera in/out... but I'm working on it.

There won't be a demo for quite a while yet. I'm thinking about a short trailer...

Is the hair of the lady going to be animated as that one screen suggests? If so I'm very impressed.

The atmosphere of the images reminds me greatly of a Polish animated film The Labyrinth by Jan Lenica. Maybe you know it, Grim?

Yeah, it is, but only when she's outside. ( triggered wrong idle animation on that screen, so it is animating inside too in that location)
I'm not familiar with the film you mention, I'm afraid... I've left Poland a long time ago, you see.... But I do recall an old soap opera In The Labyrinth ( lol). Also- Pan's Labyrinth- good film, good film...

[ThreeOhFour]

I may not be a horror fan, but I am a Tool fan, so you can't totally pick on me for my tastes in entertainment

BTW, meant to say this before but the photo style actually works surprisingly well!

[Firmar]

It looks really good, I played just demo of DOWNFALL and I really enjoyed (gotta load up some money and buy it !) so I am sure this game is gonna be awesome as well ! So, yeah I am really looking forward it good luck with it

[Grim]

When Downfall got released it surprised me that a lot of people felt like sharing their thoughts about it. And not only between us, AGSers- we must feel by nature inclined to comment and criticize because... because most- if not all of us- make games. We're in the same business, really, so it is easier for us to understand how things get done. When we play AGS-made games we see more than the maker would want us to see. It's not just about the story and the graphics. It's about scripitng tricks, work-arounds and pushing what the editor is capable of, testing its boundaries. I felt it strongly while playing Dave's latest Blackwell game. I felt that sometimes, if even for a brief moment, I was almost inside his head, understanding why and how events were happening...

So, my point is, and I'll better get to it before I get completely stuck in my track(), that we share something in common here, but it is also quite interesting what people from the "outside" feel when playing AGS games.

I'm really glad I had this opportunity to get feedback from the broader audience. In emails I received upon releasing Downfall few issues kept getting back to me constantly.

DOOR TO ROOM 666- a lot of people wanted to know if it can be entered. I was reluctant to give the answer... because it was a little experiment I had done there. It's the only door within the hotel you can't open. And yet, even though there is absolutely no reason to go there, everybody wanted to! I've learned something there- you can play with people's minds easily. And this joke was on me.

CHOICES- everyone enjoyed being able to make choices in Downfall... and yet regretted it in the same time, because it was so easy to make a wrong one. Not all of them affected the story, but they all affected how people felt about themselves somehow...

CAT- I couldn't count how many times the bloomin' cat came up! Was it really so shocking? It's a game, after all. I killed over 55.000 zombies in Left4Dead( and even got achievement for it!), and felt nothing. Nothing! And yet, a single black cat stirs so much controversy? Why is it so? Are we, as players, not used to killing animals? What about Lara Croft killing tigers? Or spiders? Or whatever other animals she bumped into.

So, before I'll get told off for not sticking to this thread's topic, I'll better draw to conclusion. These issues I mention above, are some of the lessons learned from my previous project and they are in one way or the other will affect The Cat Lady. If there's a door, does it have to opened? Or is it better to make player forever think that they've missed out on something? If making choices is popular with the players, should the game be based on them? Where do you draw a line between videogame violence and bad taste?

But, spending a lot of time thinking about these and other aspects of game development, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm gonna do...
 Just as before, I'll do as I like. I don't give a damn if some pussycat lovers get offended. It's a story, and in a story anything can happen. Hundreds of people across the world killed that damned cat, and if they felt sorry for it... then good for them. But I'll continue making games where young girls get offered cigarettes and pussies are stabbed. Not because I'm a nasty person, but because I love this feeling of being in control of the world I created, telling my actors what to do and say and pulling all the strings. If I was a god I guess I would be a scary Cthulhu kind...


Well, I'll keep posting my thoughts here, 'cos I've got no one else who'd want to listen about this stuff. It might as well be my little dev's blog. I posted another screen on top of this to attract your attention to all this text:) It's a good example of what I'm doing- a mixture of photography, digital painting and rendering. Playing with colours. It's actually an object from the game. I've never quite mastered colours, but I'm getting there... Maybe 5 games from now I'll be able to make candylike fantastic worlds full of vibrant colour... But not yet. Besides, I guess it works at the moment.

As for now, shut your doors and shut your windows, as no pussy cat is safe while I'm around...

[CosmoQueen]

Very well said. I look forward to this game. And I do intend on purchasing Downfall as well

[Dave Gilbert]

I felt it strongly while playing Dave's latest Blackwell game. I felt that sometimes, if even for a brief moment, I was almost inside his head, understanding why and how events were happening...

I'm glad one of us knows what goes on inside my head!

Anyway, Remi, this game looks awesome.