Episode 1
It is a turbulent time within the Solician Cluster, with trade routes between Solstice and Capricorn becoming increasingly dangerous. Piracy is rife throughout the labyrinthine collection of islands that lie between the two countries, not to mention the smuggling operations and black market trade of relics from an ancient civilisation. But all that is about to change...
Rumours of conspiracy and regicide have been whispered throughout the Kingdom of Solstice since King Constantine came to power. The Church of the Unseen Gods fear upheaval, the various Guilds face government control, and the new King's pledge to stamp out organised crime and piracy has left the Thieves Guild (including the nautical branch) sweating under the collar. For the most part nothing has changed, but a general sense that something nasty is about to happen lingers in the atmosphere.
Somewhere in the middle of this all is Oswyn, a self appointed art thief and obtainer of rare antiquities who has turned his back on an aristocratic life. He's relatively unconcerned about the surrounding events, because he is on a mission. A year ago one of his many exclusive clientèle approached him with an old manuscript hinting at the location of a magnificent and potentially lucrative idol, carved by a mysterious and extinct race and hidden away on an uncharted island.
Now Oswyn is nearing the end of his journey, having finally located the island where the artefact lies. But as all casual observers of the universe will know, things aren't going to go quite according to plan...
(http://www.aoqk55.dsl.pipex.com/oswyn1.jpg) (http://www.aoqk55.dsl.pipex.com/oswyn2.jpg)
(Work-in-progress)
What funky features do you have lined up?
* Context-sensitive verb menu. Inspired by Lure Of The Temptress, interactivity takes place in the game through a pop-up menu that will contain verbs relative to what you can do with an object, person or inventory item. It takes away the staleness of only being able to "look", "interact" and "speak", but also doesn't clutter things up with useless methods of interaction.
* A dynamic soundtrack that works not unlike Lucasarts' fabled iMuse system. It's not as elegant as iMuse of course due to not having any sequencer built into AGS, but all the important functionality is there to bring the fully orchestrated score to life!
* All the other standard gubbins you'd expect from an adventure game!
Oh no, not another Episodic game!
Yes yes, I know, but the decision to do a series of games rather than a huge one means that I can happily beaver away at nice and easy-to-handle self contained episodes at my own leisure, and you'll occasionally get to play them! Quality over quantity is what I'm shooting for, I've had to learn the lesson of planning overly ambitious games the hard way!
So how long will episode one be?
I'm hoping for somewhere in the region of 4-6 hours, but it'll probably turn out much shorter. I'm more interested in creating an immersive world that you want to spend time exploring and mucking about around in, rather than make a long-winded chore of a game.
Who is helping you to achieve this grand vision?
I've managed to rope various friends into lending me their talents, and the quality of the final game will be in no short part due to their awesomeness. Scotch is the brain behind the gorgeous backgrounds, and keeps me motivated when I see the random scrawlings and notes I send him turned into art that captures the atmosphere I'm going for perfectly. Constantly peering over my shoulder offering suggestions, better dialogue and generally keeping things in check is the ever-lovely Becky, and Helm has supplied the initial character sketches and prototype art. Much love goes to them!
When do you plan to have this finished?
Summer 2008 so as not to make any unrealistic promises, but due to real life commitments of the people assisting me in making this (not to mention my own) it could turn up at any point next year. Even though we're now quite far in there's still a lot left to do, and it won't be released until it's polished up nicely!
I'm glad this has finally been announced, scotch has been teasing us for a while!
Looks really good, I'll see you in 2010 for an update.
Well I must say it looks and sounds interesting.
Good luck to you, and all the other makeing this beautiful game. I just love games that looks like commersial ones (I do hope this won't be one of those :))
This looks truly promising! I wish you the best luck in producing it and am anxious to hear/see more from it! :)
This LOOKS great!
I don't know how it SOUNDS yet, but I'm sure that you will share that bit as well, when the time comes.
It certainly FEELS that it will be a brilliant game!
And I can't TOUCH it or TASTE it, unless it's made of chocolate, for which I'd pay quite a lot! ;D
I'm really looking forward for this game mate. :)
Wow, this project sounds really promising. I wish you good luck with it.
Oh wow! This looks amazing! :o
Looks amazing... With Scotch's graphics and Adam' s music will be a fantastic game, I am sure" :)
Wow! This looks truly atmospheric and great! :)
Well, I'm still waiting for the full release of Byzantine, but by Jove, this sure does make up for it's absence. ;)
Looks absolutely brilliant, anyways. And nice to hear that somebodys trying to make use of the LotT-styled gui for a change. :)
So, went ahead and announced it, did you? ;)
I offer all the support and encouragement I possibly can for you to finish this project, because what I've seen looks amazing.
Goodluck! (http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s229/buloght/worship.gif)
This looks absolutely stunning. I'm getting a Monkey Island vibe with a hint of an original art direction. Nicely done!
The darker tone of Monkey Island 2 is certainly something of an influence (and anything set on an island is pretty much inescapable of comparison), but don't expect any "drink up me-harties yo ho ho yawn" pirates-of-the-carribean antics going on in this game. We're much to cynical for that! :)
Many thanks for the words of encouragement!
*gawks at artwork*
*absentmindedly wipes drool from chin, then remembers to blink*
Daaaaa-
-ayumn.
Adam, the only thing I can possibly say right now is, "WOW".
This game not only looks beautiful but sounds like a great series to look forward to.
My best of luck, man,
--Snake
along with rise of the hidden sun the best art i've seen in ags! looks really amazing.
i love the colours!
will this be commercial?
really looking forward to it! good luck with the project. ;)
This game looks gorgeous! I'm getting an erection just looking at these awesome graphics (okay, that was an exaggeration)- these are some of the best graphics I've ever seen in an AGS game, looks almost like screenshots from an abandoned LucasArts MI sequel! I'll be putting this on my 'Waiting-to-play' list! Keep us posted, Adam.
(while backing away from Steel Drummer) I agree that the graphics are nice. If the rest of the game meets the same quality, we'll be in for a treat!
Wow Summer in 2008 is quite a bit away. But this game looks like it's worth the wait. Take your time! It'll make it all the better ;D
Quotewill this be commercial?
QuoteI just love games that looks like commersial ones (I do hope this won't be one of those )
I'm not going down the route of charging money for the game, although the finished article will hopefully feel like a commercial product!
If I was going to do a commerical game I'd want to do it for the Wii as well... it seems like the perfect platform for the adventure genre. Hopefully someone with a knack for good design will take advantage of the Wiiware thing in the future, it could be a great way to make a bit of profit :)
Absolutely gorgeous graphics. I love the character sprite, too; he's got such personality. An art thief as a main character sounds pretty wicked, as he's not your typical hero type. Can't wait to see these graphics in action. :)
Wow! Thats all I can say! I'm adding this game to my list of anticipated games to play. Did you do those in photoshop, and did you draw them then scan them to computer to draw in colour? Well done! You've got talent and I mean real talent with these graphics. I will be keeping my eye out for your game.
Im crying of excitement :'(
This is too much, ohh lordy lord!
;D Cant wait, really, it looks great.
These are the most beautiful backgrounds I have laid eyes on in a long time. I hope the gameplay will be equivalent, and I very much look forward to seeing more about this game.
Looks pretty great. Still, you should consider not using .jpg, but .png as file format. The lossy comprimation didn't seem to do anything to your screenshots, but still.
Images that have heavy pixel variation, like with anti-aliasing, are more logical to compress with .jpg, since the algorithm with .png makes the image size quite large for a complicated image. In the case of these images, there probably isn't any loss in detail, and the least lossy .jpg format is probably still smaller in size than the standard .png compressed image, both having the same image quality. Don't take Scotch for a noob :D.
The bgs look great by the way, as I've kept saying every time they've been shown to me :).
What do you use to make those graphics?
Talent.
An army of well-trained slaves.
Absolutely stunning - I'm really looking forward to this!! ;D
This looks terrific. The story/world sound interesting and the artwork is very atmospheric. And did I mention I love the name? Looks and sounds like the real deal!