Adventure Game Studio

I announced this game about a year ago, but got off track for a while. But now I am back on track and have made lots of progress. Originally I had wanted to release the whole game at once, but I think it's more realistic to release chapters instead. Chapter 1 is coming along rather well at the moment. I'd say it's around 50%.

In "VAMPIRES QUEST" you play the role of a newly created vampire named Lazireth. After the intro scene which gives some details into how you came to be a vampire, you take control of Lazireth after he emerges from the grave he was buried in, in a foreign town. Your immediate quests include finding victims to feed on, fending off a nearby coven of vampires, and searching for knowledge about your existence. Your ultimate goal is to be returned to your former self so that you can be reunited with your family, but that feat will not be accomplished in Chapter 1.

The game plays most similarly to the kings quest series... probably most like KQVI. Also, I am doing my best to make the puzzle system complex. You wont find keys on the ground to unlock doors, etc. It should be pretty challenging. The game also features a cumulative type of puzzle... a strength gauge. In order to overcome particular scenarios, Lazireth will need to have great strength. With each victim, your strength will increase, and allow you to overcome more difficult obstacles. There will be plenty of victims available, but you will not simply be able to click on some man walking down the street. Taking victims always requires some puzzle solving.

Wow! Looks great!

Heh. Skingrad.
Oblivion makes pretty pictures!

This looks awesome, and sounds promising! :o

The only downsize in my eyes is the blurry type of sprites and backgrounds, it makes it a bit harder to distinguish what's background and what's not. But still: it looks great.

Keep up the good work,
~Yurina

Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Sat 08/07/2006 09:26:01
Heh. Skingrad.
Oblivion makes pretty pictures!

Haha! Didn't notice on the first pass. It works very well.
I'd say the bluriness works well. But why is he non-blurry in the first and blurry in the other two pictures?

Anyhoo, as long as you complete this.

This looks like a great game! Hope to play it soon.

The reason two of them are blurry and one is not is because the game is in 640x480, fullscreen. But when I took the pictures and pasted them into photoshop, they look too clean because they are not full screen. So I pixelated them a bit to try and give them the effect they will have in fullscreen. They don't really look blurry in game, just pizelated like KQ5 or something.

Progress updated. Things are coming along quite nicely. It's looking like I might actually finish an AGS game. There is still a ways to go, but I am enjoying the work... I may even extend chapter 1 a bit.

Another scene, + the GUI, which needs a bit of tweaking, but is almost complete.
(http://www.thispastyear.net/promoimages/courtyard.jpg)

Is the portrait to the left decoration, or has it some function? I'm really curious about that...

Looks great, I hope you can finish it, I love the vampire's games

Well, to be fair, the vampire concept that I am using is mostly derived from Anne Rice's portrayal of vampires, which tend to be a bit on the goth side.

Also, the portrait doesn't serve a function at this point. I just wanted to have a bit of a different flavor for my GUI, and I thought a portrait would be nice.

I dig the portrait. I'm sure it's just a matter of taste and if you like it, it's a good choice, right?

I'm looking forward to this game. I'm especially intrigued by the idea of having a persistent blood meter that can be increased by feeding from victims of the player's choosing via puzzles toward that end.Ã,  :D

Quote from: Josh R on Tue 18/07/2006 21:26:22
Also, the portrait doesn't serve a function at this point. I just wanted to have a bit of a different flavor for my GUI, and I thought a portrait would be nice.

Awww.  I'd been so sure you were going to say that the face's "paleness" correlated with the blood meter.

It looks interesting; keep up the good work!

Quote from: Josh R on Tue 18/07/2006 21:26:22
Also, the portrait doesn't serve a function at this point. I just wanted to have a bit of a different flavor for my GUI, and I thought a portrait would be nice.

I was just wondering... But what about that blood meter you mentioned, is it going to be another GUI?

~Yurina

I'm still trying to decide on that. At this point, your blood level will not decrease. You start as a very weak, starved vampire, and there are victims scattered throughout the land, whom you can only feeding on by solving puzzles (finding a way into their house while they are sleeping, for example). With each victim, your strength increases, and as a direct result, you are able to overcome new situations. A vampire who has fed many times will be able to scale certain walls, or move certain objects, as a direct result of their strength.

But there is no system in place which requires you to feed on any particular time scale. You never get weaker. As a result, I could leave the blood/strength level as an invisible attribute, but I think it might be nice to make it part of the GUI so that it really stands out, and the player is fully conscious of his strength at all times.

I actually did consider making the portrait serve as the gauge, based on the expression, but I'm not sure at this point.

Also, just a bit of a teaser... there will be plenty of other vampires in the game... many who are an enemy to you. Drinking the blood of another vampire yields a larger strength gain... especially if you victim is an elder vampire. But as I said, you are weak in the beginning, and will lack the strength to take out any strong opponents for a while.

I just love the idea of this game, It's better for me that the blood level doesnt decrease, I dont like to be rushed in adventure games, even if it doesnt affect the gameplay, I dont know why (but that's just me).
Are we going to have superpowers?  ;D. I would love to transform into a bat.

PS: Are you still part of ROTHS?

ROTHS?

You will not be turning into a bat, but you will gain new powers as you get strong, althought I'm not sure if "powers" is technically the right word. Basically, you will become stronger, more agile, more acrobatic, more stealthy, etc. And these abilities will help you solve a lot of issues.

Quote from: Josh R on Thu 20/07/2006 06:33:07
ROTHS?

You will not be turning into a bat, but you will gain new powers as you get strong, althought I'm not sure if "powers" is technically the right word. Basically, you will become stronger, more agile, more acrobatic, more stealthy, etc. And these abilities will help you solve a lot of issues.

Wow that's enough for me  ;D

Sorry about the ROTHS thing, I've mistaken you with Josh Roberts =P Here (http://www.chapter11studios.com/)

Progress updated 10/18/06

It looks like I might actually finish this thing. I'm not gonna project any date, because it's more enjoyable for me to just work on it a little at a time, which also increases my chances of finishing and not burning out on it. But I'm so happy with the results thus far that I'm really motivated to finish it. Since the previous update I have have figured out almost all of the plot, and most of the puzzles for act I. The only remaining plot elements are the specifics of the dialogues that will be involved. My next task will be to finish off the scenery work, and have all of my rooms completed. That really just leaves all the schematics of making the puzzles work, plus animations, sprites, and figuring out how I want to display dialogue, and if I should do a text parser.

Thanks for anyone who has provided encouragement for this project thus far.

     Congrats on continuing your work on this awesome looking game! I have no doubt in my mind that you will finish it (why waste all the hard work you put in to it already???) The concept sounds quite original and I love the graphics.... Best of luck!!!!

Looks very cool. :)

I think if you were to go in real time (as far as blood decreasing goes) it would ruin the sense of it being an adventure game, where you unlock new things as you progress. It would also remind me too much of the game Soul Reaver- which was fun, but often frustrating in a repetitive way.

Looks nice so far, even if I am more partial to pixel art graphics.

I'm glad this is coming along, and I'm very pleased you're enjoying it. I feel compelled to point out that the title needs an apostrophe. It should be, "A Vampire's Quest".

I hope you don't mind me pointing that out!

Certainly not.  :)
I'm actually still trying to figure out what the real title will be, but hopefully it will be grammatically correct.

Also, I definitely don't plan to implement any real time blood thirst or anything. It will just be progressive as I mentioned before.

Anyhow, thanks for the comments. I'll update with some new info/screens pretty soon.

 :o
honestly i think you are doing a great job with your project, and i encourage you to keep up the good work. however, you are going to have to rethink your title to your game. please let me explalin.

i do not want to deter your honest work, however i am the owner of vampires quest at www.vampiresquest.com

i am also the holder of patent, trademark and copywrite of that game, and respectively the game name vampires quest and online turn based vampire games.

i see below that you are still trying to figure out what the real title of your game will be, and i hope that you pick something fitting to the theme. if it were not for budding game artists and coders online gaming would not exist, so cudos to you!

keep up the good work, and good luck to you -
evilgenius, vampiresquest administration

according to the whois for that domain it was registered in July 2006, this game was first announced in 2005, i'm no law expert but it seems to me he was using the name first and would probably be entitled to use the name provided he includes a disclaimer saying that the game has no affiliation with your site.
he could also stick an apostraphe in the name making it Vampire's Quest.
do you actually hold the patent and whatnot for the name, the game, the name AND game and ALL turnbased online vampire games, or did you just stick (c) or TM at the end of the name thinking that was all you needed to do?

why not just have a different name like just 'Vampire'.
The 'Quest' is pretty much useless.

Let me rephrase Hammerite, as he is as blunt as his name suggests.

Y'know, a hammer.

I think what he means is that it's A)Obvious a quest of some kind will be involved and B)"Quest" is an overused and now cheesy title, and conjures up memories of old Sierra games.

Quote from: BOYD1981 on Fri 10/11/2006 06:44:09
according to the whois for that domain it was registered in July 2006, this game was first announced in 2005, i'm no law expert but it seems to me he was using the name first and would probably be entitled to use the name provided he includes a disclaimer saying that the game has no affiliation with your site.
he could also stick an apostraphe in the name making it Vampire's Quest.
do you actually hold the patent and whatnot for the name, the game, the name AND game and ALL turnbased online vampire games, or did you just stick (c) or TM at the end of the name thinking that was all you needed to do?

not to poster: actual copywrite and trademark holder.

Let's get back on topic here ... any more messages not about this Vampires Quest will be deleted.