The Darksiders Part I - The Curious Case of Mark Idalo

[Cluey]

After a four year hiatus from really doing anything, I decided to restart one of my long dead games, The Darksiders. Before I begin I shall explain that the new thread is mostly down to the fact that after talking extensively with various people (RickJ and my Brother in particular) the game is pretty much completely different than it was 4 years ago. The story is similar, but ultimately less farce and more wit.

Anyway, without further ado, I (and hopefully when I get my graphics all done, my team) shall present to you:

The Darksiders - Part I - The Curious Case of Mark Idalo

Story

Detective Inspector Mark Idalo is brilliant, well, that is to say he WAS brilliant. For Idalo, life has taken a bit of a plummet. World War II is kicking up a storm, all the good London bars are closed, rationing means he can't get a decent Full English breakfast anymore and to top it all off, through a series of unlucky co-incidences, he's found himself deceased.

Undettered by this he sets out on his spectral way in an attempt to solve his murder, and uncovers something that could send both the afterlife, and the living world, to hell.

Figuratively speaking of course.

EARLY Screenshots
These screens represent what the graphics of the game will be like, only one of them is really "ingame", the rest are backgrounds, use your imagination to impose Idalo and a cursor on them for now 


I tried to capture the bleak feeling of run down London



Noir films and Jazz are one of my key inspirations



Life is a stage, or rather it was...



Inconspicuous murders await!

Gameplay info
As my attention is currently focused on graphics production, this is all subject to change later on due to mood swings and the ebbing of the tides.

-Medium length game
-Verb coin GUI
-A system that measures your reputation with certain people, making them more likely to give you clues or hints on what to do, non essential, more of a fun help system.
-320x200 resolution, though may up it for a constant inventory on screen (think R-09 style)
-Explore the Underworld! (screens of that coming later)
-Meet a diverse cast of spooks and mobsters
-I'm going to locate a jazz musician if it kills me, and have some awesome music to boot.

Progress
Ah my least favourite part of the pitch:

Story: 80% - Working out certain characters and dialogue, other than that I've got the story down

Graphics: 35% - Done a good number of backgrounds, about 7 in all, only 2 characters done and fully animated so far though. Hoping to get all of it done by mid July, I can (if I put effort into it) do a background in a day, characters take longer. If I put that much effort into it I could have it all done by the mid June. But I can't because of other commitments at the moment.

Scripting: 0% - Seeing as I'm not counting my mock up as scripting, it's not going to get started until most of the graphics are done.

Sound/Music: 0% - Again, going to wait until the end to get this bit done, the musician I find will have a better idea about what's needed.

ETA- 2009 - Slipped due to work and uni


Feb 29th - March 7th: I will be working on at least 2 new backgrounds, one of which will be an Afterlife scene. I'll also work on my Grim Reaper character and get an animation done for you lovely folks. Until that time, adieu.

[m0ds]

Ahh, yay, the boat interior game Looking forward to this one a lot! Very nice style, good luck!

[Layabout]

The graphics are awesome, the idea is awesome.

Only issue is the theatre background. The other screens are mostly cut off. The theatre is full screen. Is there a reason? Theoretically, you could incorporate the gui in the black spaces. I prefer 16:10 resolutions anyway cause i have a widescreen. It just seems really odd to me...

Anyway, good luck, hope to see this done.

[CosmoQueen]

This sounds and looks great! I love detective games. I can't wait to see what the main character will look like.

[tube]

Nice graphical style, and the premise sounds fun and quirky. Somehow I'm inclined to believe that the writing won't let me down either. Go Cluey!

I can't wait to see what the main character will look like.

I thought that was him in the first screenie, next to the lift.

[Cluey]

Only issue is the theatre background. The other screens are mostly cut off. The theatre is full screen. Is there a reason? Theoretically, you could incorporate the gui in the black spaces. I prefer 16:10 resolutions anyway cause i have a widescreen. It just seems really odd to me...

Well that background is used in the opening cut-scene, so it's ok to have it take up the whole screen. Thanks for the compliments.

As far as the main character goes, the one you see in the first screen is him in his living state, the afterlife parts are going to be a bit more twisted and baroque, and the character will reflect that.

I'm going to whip up some sprites this afternoon, as soon as I'm done resurrecting Yog-Sothoth (ok, I lie, I'm going to town to buy No More Heroes).

Also, if out of curiousity you want to see the original game, you can see the old thread here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=11743.0

I shouldn't have to say this but DO NOT REPLY TO THAT THREAD FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

[Cyrus]

What will be the picture on the GUI? (for example, in CMI it was a gold coin).

[i k a r i]

Pixel art with shiny light effects, just beautiful.. too bad we have to wait so much 

[miguel]

Nice graphics and mood from what you've shown. I really like detective games and am a jazz fan.
good luck

[Dixon]

Your artwork is a huge improvement. If the rest of the game is as good as the graphics then this will be an amazing game for sure. Good luck!

[stevetheblack]

I think this looks and sounds awesome   Definitely one I'll have to keep my eye on, good luck!

[bicilotti]

Beautiful palette choice. Looking forward to that, good luck!

[Rd27]

Looking forward to this one.
I really like the story and the graphics looks good too.

Good luck!

[robotsquid]

LOVE the backgrounds.

[Cluey]

I'm going to reply to my thread sooner than I'd planned to at least ensure it doesn't fall off the first page because of a certain troll.

Anyway, thanks for all the compliments on the game, I've been working on the Grim Reaper sprite when a grand idea hit me for it.

The Afterlife parts of the game are much more cartoony and twisted than the real life parts, I drew the Grim Reaper like this for the real world parts of the game:

(x3)
Terrifying no? I'll draw the scyth in later. This sprite is only going to be on screen for a few seconds, I'm going to animate the purple haze and make him float a bit, some dripping blood wouldn't go amiss as well.

In the afterlife parts of the game, he'll appear a lot less terrifying, kind of like his appearance depends on the reality that he is in at the time. Originally I was planning to use just the cartoony sprite for his appearance to the deceased. But I think using a more serious sprite just for the apparition will add a bit of depth.

[[Cameron]]

Will this version of it get released Cluey? I've been waiting for it for years Good to see something happening.

[Mr.T]

I love the Noir look you did! I really love the style, can't wait to play this one!

[ThreeOhFour]

This is the fourth time I've looked at this thread, and only just now did I realise that the guy is investigating his own murder.

Now this is an idea I love. I look forward to the game!

[Cluey]

Will this version of it get released Cluey?

Hah, I know what you mean, I wouldn't want to get your hopes up.

Anyway, I've got alot more drive to finish things now. I also have alot of free time, well, at least until I go to university, but hopefully by then the majority will be done so it won't take so much time. As most will know it's the graphics that take the longest, and I've got a pretty steady production rate on those.

[Snake]

Wow, this looks and sounds amazing!
\
Good luck, I'm looking forward to this,


--Snake

[Cyrus]

When are you going to post the Afterlife screenshots?

[Cluey]

When are you going to post the Afterlife screenshots?

Later this week when I'm happy with them. Expect Friday-Saturday.

[Stavaas]

Hey there,
really looking forward to this game. I'm actually in the works of doing something in the same time period and artstyle. Mind telling me what program you used to create the art for the game?

-Stavaas

[Mr.T]

This is the fourth time I've looked at this thread, and only just now did I realise that the guy is investigating his own murder.

Now this is an idea I love. I look forward to the game!

I couldn't agree more, the plot seems great, I want to play

[vertigoaddict]

I think I saw a game with quite the same plot, this guy gets beaten up to death and he has to find out why, something called 'Shadow Quest' or something; I don't remember.

Anyways, this looks great, can't wait!

[Cluey]

So yeah, I spent a few days working on this shizzle, it's an afterlife background, hopefully should give you an idea of the style.




Could use anti aliasing maybe...

I'm aware that there is a way to get effective anti aliasing quicky, drawing the image twice as big and then shrinking it, but I always forget lol. Something to remember for Part II....


Anyway, the place will look busier with some NPC's bustling around.

EDIT:- In response to Stavaas, I use GraphicsGale for the main part, and then I tweak the colours and certain things in PS (I'd do it in GraphicsGale, but the lack of adjustment layers is a bit of a bummer)

http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

It's in my opinion the Photoshop of the pixelart world. Really good (and free).

[Mr.T]

Looking great Cluey! 

[ThreeOhFour]

Yes, Gale is very cool, and yes, wonderful background!

[sergiocornaga]

Glad to see this revived from the dead. I think it looks better than ever.

[Cluey]

Ok, this is just an update post to say that with the planned downtime tomorrow-sunday and my two week holiday to Japan on Monday means I won't be updating after today until April 1st. Just incase you think the project's died. Best to have this one post than any number of potential posts asking me where I am.

TL;DR:- BRB

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Looks like a great game! Can't wait to hear some more progress.

[Cluey]

Japan was awesome. I'd talk about it more but this isn't a blog site.

I will however bump this thread back to the top, with a new background:






Streetlamp needs work, other than that, it's the outside of the ship I poster earlier.

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Ooh! Nice! You've got great lighting effects in your scenes...

[Cluey]

Ooh! Nice! You've got great lighting effects in your scenes...

Thanks, it's only the living world backgrounds that will have the "stage set" look, the afterlife ones will be a bit more bright.

Also, these backgrounds look much better on a TFT, if you think they look too dark, tweak your gamma a bit.

[miguel]

All you screenshots look very good, very professional. It must take you some time getting to that perfection of lines, perspective and color choice.
Keep it up!

[Dualnames]

I was about to notice that the lamp's lightning not correct but then i noticed your comment about and that stupid boat looking kind of awesome and cool.

[JuuJuu]

This looks very good! Great screenshots! I really like the style. Hopefully all goes well, and I can play it. 

[dirk delshire]

Looks good, and your perspectives are unique for most 2d adventure games. The way you have the real world looking noir and the afterlife colorful reminds me of The Corpse Bride. If you watch the special features on that movie Tim Burton talks about that stuff. I of course always watch them because I'm studying to become a director.
Anyway I hope you finish this game it's a nice idea. I was disappointed when the movie The Missing didn't follow up on it like the trailer implied, but not many movies live up to their trailers anyway. Best of luck chum.

[Puddleglum]

The graphics are perfect. I am so excited for this one!  good luck !!

[Cluey]

The way you have the real world looking noir and the afterlife colorful reminds me of The Corpse Bride. If you watch the special features on that movie Tim Burton talks about that stuff. I of course always watch them because I'm studying to become a director..

I've not seen Corpse Bride, but I love Nightmare Before Christmas's style, and it's heavily influenced the way I draw the dead characters. I'll upload some sketches tonight if anyone's curious.

I'm currently working on the Police Station reception (40%) and the Death Ferry (80%), then I'm going to move onto getting a few more characters done so I can think about assembling a demo.

[Cluey]

Well after some diversion (GTA IV) I got round to finishing those two backgrounds this week, I shall now be moving onto some character sprites (something which I've been sorely lacking). If anyone wants to help out don't a'fear hollering.







The character sprite work I'm doing is in the simplistic vein, similar to the backgrounds in a sense, little texturing and flat shading, it looks very good with the backgrounds bleak feel.





Those two are both fully animated for their roles, obviously Idalo has 4 direction walking, talking, idle and pick up. Danny has only got standing, talking and idle due to his static nature in the game (he just stands there)

[CosmoQueen]

Looks fantastic!

[Zyargeikunn]

I'm not a regular in this Forum yet, but the last week I came looking each day, waiting for you to post updates on  this game. I really adore the style, I can't wait to play it.

[Jeopardy]

I'm awaiting this game more than most commercial ones.

[Buckethead]

The backgrounds look great! But isn't the main character going to hit his head when walking that stairs?

[JuuJuu]

The more screenshots i see of it, the more excited I get!!

[Cluey]

Thanks for all the support guys, the graphics production hit a slowdown recently as my dear old Great Aunt passed away unfortunately so I've not had a lot of free time on my hands. I should get back into full steam soon though.

[Angel Dust]

Man, for a second there I thought this was the 'Completed Game Announcement' Forum and when saw this game at the top I almost passed out from excitment!

Anyway the new stuff looks great and your backgrounds are so unbelievably sexy! Thanks for the tip you gave me in regards to shading too!

[Jeopardy]

Well, I'm sorry about your loss Cluey, I hope you're doing well.

But I have to be honest, I've never been so excited by a hand full of screen shots so you need to finsih this game. I will love you for it.

[Alarconte]

It seems Like can be a classic!! Good ambient graphics.

But one thing... These... Officine Reception? Seems a lot with Hospital Reception in Blackwell legacy

Grettings!

[Cluey]

But one thing... These... Officine Reception? Seems a lot with Hospital Reception in Blackwell legacy

Well it's a small police reception. I just name  my files weird.

Erm, the similarities to another game's backgrounds could be bad, especially a commercial one, any screen shots? I've not played Blackwell Legacy.

[Alarconte]

Don't worry, it only made me remember the psyciatric reception.

I imagine is only a casuality, I assume a lot of receptions in the world were equal xD

[Cluey]

Ah, that's not similar, just evocative.

Anyway, I've only got 5 backgrounds left to do! I think I'll celebrate with a little dance.

Well, I'd have 6 if I had to do the police chiefs office. Which is only used in a cutscene. And since I'm going to tell most of the story cut scenes in comic form (like Max Payne, only without the cheesy voices) I'm not sure if it's needed. It'll also mean an extra character to draw.

Can someone tell me, if it's possible to have a branching conversation over an image, with the AGS text on top. Maybe do it with rooms and blank the characters. I'm not too concerned about my ignorance because I'm not going to be the one coding the game in the engine, but I don't want to come to the coding of the game and find out I need to draw another background when I'll be busy organising the team and thinking up witty jokes to add in last minute.

Decisions, decisions...

[Cyrus]

Could you post any of cutscene scheenshots to let us know what will it look like?

[Jeopardy]

Yeah, I'm with Cyrus, that would be awesome, I'm blown away with evrything you've shown us so far,

[Cluey]

Could you post any of cutscene scheenshots to let us know what will it look like?

Well, I would but I've not started on them yet, my production queue is backgrounds>characters>objects and misc>cut scenes.

In the initial build there'll be placeholders for the comics until I've done them, then the game gets released. I like to think of it as something to do towards the end because there's much more important things for me to be focusing on, like game graphics and stuff. I know what the cut scenes are going to be, and so will the team.

I can do comics quite well I think, but doing it at a low resolution, well, that's the challenge


Here's a horror/fantasy comic I draw when I have the time. It should give you an idea of what type of comics I read. The Darksiders obviously isn't drawn in Manga style. In fact, I need to get those sketches up for a bit of fun.

[Cluey]

Crikey, long time no see guys.

I've had alot to sort out lately. Also I got this new PC which of course slowed everything down for a few days.

As proof of life, have a new background:

[Dualnames]

AWESOME, stop wasting time showing screenshots and start working on it... 8)

[Cluey]

AWESOME, stop wasting time showing screenshots and start working on it... 8)

Lol, these aren't screenshots, these are what I'm working on. Finishing off the backgrounds then going onto characters.

[Angel Dust]

OMG, your backgrounds just keep getting better. That latest one is just flat out amazing and so prefectly realised.

[ma2003]

Wowzer. Great graphics mate, I love the noir style and smooth detective style. Would be great to hear some slow jazz in the background of this game. Can't wait to play it.

[Matti]

Yeah, the backgrounds are really good and have a great atmosphere..

Cluey, it seems you like to put blurry rectangle silhouettes in the corner of your images  

[Jeopardy]

I love how the reflection in the floor looks like perfectly normal hallway. Everything is just awesome, I can't wait to play this game.

[yarooze]

Winrar is you man!
It looks spooky and I like it more and more with every new screenshoot!

[Cluey]

Holy shit, I remember this!

Joking of course, I'd not forgotten about it, but I had ALOT to sort out lately (I love that excuse), to do with Work, and applying for university (which I'm at now) and I just didn't have the time to work on it.

Ah well, back to work I guess.

Have a fairly uninspired background, I'll do a more interesting one later this week if I find time:




Red point left in because it's not quite finished (just adding more details and such).

[markbilly]

Glad to see this is moving on nicely! I like the clean, simple style you have established. More people (I, for one) should aim for that.

Good luck at uni, I go on Saturday!

[Jeffers]

I'm very excited about this game 

[dirk delshire]

It looks nice the grafic style reminds me of The Shivah by Wadjet Eye.