Adventure Game Studio

STORY
After the suspicious death of our mother, I, Ethan Scott, and my sister Rachel, launched seperate investigations into the cause of our mother's demise.
Disappointed by constant dead ends, I eventually stopped looking for answers, whilst my sister, angered by my giving-up, continued to search for answers.

That was one year ago.

Since then, I've started looking for resolutions to other people's problems with my own PI agency. That is, until my sister turned up with news of a mysterious trip our mother made two weeks before she died. A trip to the small town of Dark Lake.

Despite this new revelation, I refused to get caught up in it again, fearing further disappointment. My sister went to Dark Lake alone.

Two days later, I got a phone call. It was Rachel, desperately afraid for her life.

Now Dark Lake is my destination. I may have lost my mother, but I wasn't going to lose my sister too.

SCREENSHOTS
(http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/8083/journalxh6.png)
Your journal updates constantly with clues and pieces of useful information

(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/4681/screen1gn2.png)
A scene from the introduction sequence

GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS
-An involving storyline featuring investigation, puzzle solving and plenty of mystery.
-Journal system keeps track of progress through the plot.
-Diverse and colourful characters.
-High quality true-colour graphics are 320x240 resolution.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS
Story: 98%
Graphics: 90%
Scripting: 80%
Sound/Music: 50%

PRODUCTION DIARY
   19/01/07: First post. Three rooms completed. Fully implimented custom menu system.
   Main character graphics completed aside from some quick animations.

   11/02/07: Production on hold whilst I'm out of the country for a week. Almost all of the puzzles finished, and all of the spriting/backgrounding is done up to the finished bits. Current room count (including menu and intro): 19

   19/02/07: I'm back in the country, so production continues. Just the final push now before testing can begin.

   21/04/07: Added a dream sequence to flesh out the story a bit, and finished all but two or three backgrounds. General bug fixes through alpha-testing.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Please be aware that the production team for this game totals 1: me. Because of this, announcing a final release date would not be appropriate at this time. However, I do fully intend to complete this game. I have plans to split up the story into about three episodes, which will speed up the production time as well as put less pressure on me to create a full-length and enjoyable adventure game in one go. I hope you look forward to future updates.

DEMO NOW AVAILABLE:
 Download (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?category=5&action=download&game=847/)

i can't wait for this!
sounds great!

I love the name of the game meself!

Reminds me of Silent Hill for some reason, minus the horror. And the 3D graphics. And the guns. And the stupid puzzles. And the... ( Okay i meant the storyline premise!)

Heheh, thanks for the feedback!
The Silent Hill series are a major influence on Dark Lake. As for the guns, I had originally planned for survival-horror style combat to be included, but after poking around it was just too fiddly to implement. I may add selected combat using simpler commands, though.

The graphical style seems nice ... why not show the first screenie without the big book covering it!!  I want to see it!

Sounds like you've got a great start and a solid plan for this.  Good to hear!

Thanks for [clearly] reading the forum rules.  Welcome and good luck with the game!

Looks nice, can't wait to play!

Anything influenced by Silent Hill is a-okay in my book. :) The story sounds cool -  would love to see how it develops.

I love these types of games! Very Ben Jordan-ish ;D

Looks a bit scary though. Will you be able to die in it?

     Poor Cosmo, she's always sooo afraid of dying.....LOL!!!  ;D Anyhow, it looks like you have a solid start here. The graphics look really nice and the story sounds excellent. I can't wait to play this.... Also, welcome to the forums and our great community!!!

Reminds me of an adventure game I bought once. I think it was called Mystery of Loch Ness Monster or something. I quit pretty quickly because it was reeeeally hard, lol.
Anyway, looks cool.

A couple more screenshots, including a room I've just finished drawing. These are from the Hill Hotel, which is the first location Ethan goes to in Dark Lake.

(http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/9948/screen2xt1.png)
There you go, Darth: The Hill lobby, without the journal GUI :)

(http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7599/screen3zp0.png)
The new room: A corridor in the Hill.

Thanks for the kind words to everyone who has replied.

Quote from: CosmoQueen on Sat 20/01/2007 09:06:26
I love these types of games! Very Ben Jordan-ish ;D

Looks a bit scary though. Will you be able to die in it?

Hmm, that's a tricky one. I usually dislike adventure games that kill the player without due warning, so I'll probably include the ability to die, but not a lot, and not without it being pretty obvious that the situation is potentially dangerous

Quote from: thewalrus on Sat 20/01/2007 15:04:42
Poor Cosmo, she's always sooo afraid of dying.....LOL!!!  ;D Anyhow, it looks like you have a solid start here. The graphics look really nice and the story sounds excellent. I can't wait to play this.... Also, welcome to the forums and our great community!!!

Thanks :) I really appreciate the positive feedback: It's a great incentive to finish the project.

The room design and the athmosphere reminds me in Yahtzee games.
Could it be, that you got your inspiration from one of those?
Anyway, looking good!

how far from completion is the first episode (prediction)?

Quote from: Thomas VoàŸ on Sun 21/01/2007 12:11:00
The room design and the athmosphere reminds me in Yahtzee games.
Could it be, that you got your inspiration from one of those?
Anyway, looking good!

I was wondering how long it would be before someone noticed the Yahtzee influence  ;) I love 5/7 days and Trilby's notes, and I think they stand as Hallmarks in thriller adventure gaming. So yes, inspiration did come from playing them :)

Quote from: Hammerite on Sun 21/01/2007 12:26:51
how far from completion is the first episode (prediction)?

Oh boy, uhm... I've been working on this in my spare time solidly, so I'd say a few weeks. It doesn't help that I have some college exams coming up, so that's taking up my time too. Still, I'm working at a pretty fast pace, and have a quite good idea of where the story is going, and that always helps, heheh.

     Wow, great to hear. Mostly when people put up these in progress threads it is months/years till the game is completed. It's refreshing to see someone who is almost finished with there game when they posted. It looks fantastic..... Can't wait to play..... Keep up the good work and good luck!!!

Here's a new screenshot for all you lovely folks

(http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/5176/screen48gi.png)
An alleyway

Excuse it being a bit dark, but it is a dingy alleyway. It also looks brighter in-game :)

Also of note: A demo featuring the first puzzle will be out soon, hopefully. It's just a bit heavy on the animation.
And! My good friend and general very talented music-maker Mr Scientist has agreed to do the music for Dark Lake. He's sent me a preview of an ambient track, and it's sounding very atmospheric.

Awesome! I can't wait! ;D

Nice graphics and good plot! :=

Looking very good! :)

And, if you need to fill up that n/a slot, pm me.

Hey, everybody

Just thought you'd like to know, the DEMO is available over in the demos section (of course ;)).

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated :)

     I'm having a problem d/ling the demo, can't get it started.... Any ideas why???

Nice looking game!  But I'm having a little bit of trouble, which could just be me being an idiot. 

I've gotten the room key, looked at it so I know which room it is.  So I'd expect I should be able to use the elevator to go to that floor (or at least be able to ask the receptionist which floor it's on) but that's not possible. 

So instead I go outside and do the hat-rack puzzle to get into the room and end up talking to a disembodied voice about something I've never heard about. 

Other Improvements I would suggest:
- Change the in-game font!  (it especially hurts the ambience on the title screen when the 'start a new game' text appears over the stylised font of the main menu)
- Left clicking meaning to look and right clicking to exit isn't the most intuitive way to play, given I'm used to doing the reverse
- Having an open door in the hotel that leads nowhere is fairly annoying - just adding a "closed for the evening" or "employees only" sign helps.

Quote from: thewalrus on Fri 26/01/2007 06:16:20
I'm having a problem d/ling the demo, can't get it started.... Any ideas why???

Other people seem to have been able to download it... What exactly was the trouble you were having?

Quote from: FrancoFranchi on Fri 26/01/2007 11:08:04
So instead I go outside and do the hat-rack puzzle to get into the room and end up talking to a disembodied voice about something I've never heard about.

Did you talk to the detective so he lets you into the room? It shouldn't be possible to get into the room before talking to him.

As for the open door, it will lead somewhere, but it wasn't relevent to the demo. I guess a simple way of stopping the player going in there would have been a good idea, hehe.

I'll reverse the mouse commands :)

The player's room/corridor is what I'm working on next, so you'll be able to go there in the same way you can get to the other floors.

Thanks for the feedback!

Quote from: Milo87 on Fri 26/01/2007 12:17:38

Quote from: thewalrus on Fri 26/01/2007 06:16:20
I'm having a problem d/ling the demo, can't get it started.... Any ideas why???

Other people seem to have been able to download it... What exactly was the trouble you were having?

If it's the same as the trouble I'm having, the download just won't start. When i click the 'Download' link on the Games page it just reloads the same page over again. The 'downloaded XX times' counter goes up, but the download doesn't start. It looks like the link is a bit weird (if I search for the game, action=search&sterm=Welcome+to+Dark+Lake is included in the link). Browsing the Demos section didn't work either, until I'd tried this link (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=847).

I don't know enough about php or how the game pages are generated to know why it's happening, but that link seems to work. Perhaps you could but it into the first post, so others don't have to mess around with the games pages?

Right, now I've managed to download it, I'm off to play the demo...

EDIT: And now I've played it.

- Very short, but then it IS a demo.
- From the Intro (and the 'Story' bit in the first post), shouldn't it be 'my sister and I', not 'I and my sister'?
- Am I just being dense, or is it not currently possible to get into YOUR room once you've booked in? The only options on the Lift are 'Lobby' and (eventually) 'Rachel's Floor'. (Part of the same issue as FrancoFranchi had, I think.)
- For the SECOND part of Franco's comment:

Spoiler

It's possble to use just the Hat Rack (not the Hat Rack / Powercord grapple) on the open window, and Ethan still throws the grapple. Meaning Franco could've gotten into Rachel's room WITHOUT having spoken to the Detective, or even knowing that it was Rachel's room, not the one Ethan booked into.

On a related note, the 'Open Window' hotspot is too near the top of the screen, I keep opening the Inventory when trying to interact with it.

[close]

Quote from: FrancoFranchi
Left clicking meaning to look and right clicking to exit isn't the most intuitive way to play, given I'm used to doing the reverse

For the Exit to the alley behind the hotel, I agree. Left-Click should be Walk, not Look at (i.e. it shouldn't be treated as a hotspot). Everywhere else though (e.g. Hotel Doors), Left-click Look, Right-click Use works fine, once I figured out that's what it was.

Other than that, a good (if short) start. Get it finished!

QuoteDid you talk to the detective so he lets you into the room? It shouldn't be possible to get into the room before talking to him.

I couldn't get up to see the detective - I was expecting to run into him when I went to my room, so not being able to visit it, despite having the key, threw me!

(I actually went into the ally, found the hat rack, clicked on the window and climbed up in my very first play without even entering the hotel.Ã,  Maybe you should make the hotspot only appear after you know which room it is - or have all the windows originally highlighted then have 'Rachel's window' appear when you know what room she's in).

Very interested to play more, though.

Right, I've read all of your comments, and have fixed the following issues:

> The hotspot for the window now extends a bit further down the screen, so as not to conflict with the inventory Ypos.
> You can now only use the correct inventory item on the window to climb up (stupid me forgot to put a "if inventory item was used" conditional in ::))
> Modified the mouse commands i.e.: Left click is now interact/talk, right click is look.
> There's now an explanation for the go-nowhere corridor.
> And one for your floor.

I will also try uploading the demo files to a different server (I was using a freewebs site I had, and it's file manager to upload, then linking to that). I'll peruse the server thread on this forum, and put a new demo up.

I hope this fixes everyone's qualms :)

I'm still stuck:

Spoiler

What do you do after you get your roomcard, hatrack, and try the button to your room?

[close]

Speak to the Receptionist about everything :)
He gives you more clues.

Thanks! All in all, a good experience. I might download the full thing when it's released.

A new screenshot!
(This is where that mysterious corridor goes from the Hotel lobby)

(http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/9992/baseto3.png)
The hotel bar

Also:

-Progress continues on the storyline
-Fixed a few more bugs

Very nice work Milo87.

The yatzhee influence is notable, but thats not bad at all. Infact between the two of you and these horror/mystery games your on your way to start a STYLE/GENRE of game.

I wish you the best of luck on this, everything is looking great. Loved the demo.

Sinister.

Damn i love that fish! 8D

Quote from: Milo87 on Thu 25/01/2007 21:38:20
Hey, everybody

Just thought you'd like to know, the DEMO is available over in the demos section (of course ;)).

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated :)

I just completed the demo and I like it.

I recommend adding demo's link to your original post for the benefit of new members. Not all members would know about actual game site.

Good luck in finishing it!

I downloaded the demo, and I was enjoying it thoroughly... till I got stuck.

Spoiler

I got the hat rack and discovered that I couldn't get to my room. I figured that the demo ends there. Then I came back and read all the posts here and discovered that I seem to be missing out on quite a bit. I went back and spoke to the receptionist repeatedly about everything, but all I got was a repeated history of Dark Lake and its places of interest.

[close]

I also couldn't figure out how to save the game... :(

Hope this is useful when you're refining your game. Otherwise, it was very good and quite professional-looking.

auriond:

Spoiler

Talk to the receptionist about Rachel - he says you need ID.
Go outside and Look at your car.
Use the Drivers License on the receptionist.

[close]

Also, pressing Escape brings up the Save/Load/Quit menu. I expect the full game will come with documentation ;)

Thanks muchly Ashen! I actually pressed every button from F1 to F12 and A-Z, but I never ever thought of pressing Esc to bring up the S/L/Q menu. Hehe... I feel dumb now.  :P

Milo!
This game's sounding pretty good, my friend! I love the sound of the story.
I may have missed it, but is it a horror type game, or?

I'll go find the demo and play. Afterwords I'll edit this post with some feedback :)
The screenshots are great, btw!
Could you make a link in the first post directly to the demo? Either I'm too lazy or it'll be more convenient for people :) Anyhoo, I'll get back to you.

Rhyme not intended.

--EDIT--
Hey, great game so far, I'm liking it! Where does the demo end, does it say?
--END OF EDIT--


--Snake

Quote from: Snake on Tue 30/01/2007 14:08:05
Hey, great game so far, I'm liking it! Where does the demo end, does it say?

It ends after you get back into the hotel room and take a look around :)
Thanks for the great feedback!

No problem, Milo, Dark Lake looks pretty good so far. Keep it up!


--Snake

     Very nice demo, the game seems like it is going to be most enjoyable. Will the completed game have music(I hope)???

The game will definitely have music. I already have three offers, including the great m0ds (which was a real honour when you look at his previous projects).

Just thought I'd share a new room I've just finished.

(http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9707/basehl8.png)
  The Red Light District

I'm particularly pleased with this background.

DEVELOPMENT:
>Another puzzle planned, and overall storyline for chapter 1 finished in semi-rough form.
>More character animations (specifically Rachel and Deckard's missing walkcycles, as well as the barman from the Hill)

Hello there!

I played your demo and I have to say: Wow! Great job. You really created a nice atmosphere there. I'm really looking forward to the completed game. Thumbs up!  :)

And this new background looks really good, too. You have a pleasant and consistent style! Love it ...

Good luck with the game!

Just played and finished the demo!

Nice work!

One thing I would like to point out is in the elevator.
When you go into it from the lobby and choose to go to the lobby it plays the moving animation, you should remove this when you chose to go back into a room that you just came from.
At least I think so :P.


Looking forward to the full game!!


Peder Johnsen.

I tried to make it do that, but I couldn't figure out how to. If you have any ideas, then I'd gladly listen to them :)

Thanks for the feedback!

Played the demo last night. Really enjoyed it. The drawings are really impressive. Looking forward to the completed game. Good luck with it Milo.  :)

Aargh! I downloaded the demo, and it opens OK, but it won't let me start a new game!! :@

Quote from: TheVintageDemon on Fri 09/02/2007 18:18:36
Aargh! I downloaded the demo, and it opens OK, but it won't let me start a new game!! :@

For now, you have to right click on the menu items. That's a bug that's been fixed now :)

Quote from: TheVintageDemon on Fri 09/02/2007 18:18:36
Aargh! I downloaded the demo, and it opens OK, but it won't let me start a new game!! :@

Thanks a lot :D It shouldn't be too long coming now!

Ok, here's what's happening.
Production will be on hold for a week, because I'm going on a college trip to Venice, Florence and Rome. I was hoping to have the game finished and ready for beta-testing before I left, but that's not going to happen, I'm afraid.

I've updated the production diary and the percentages, to give you some idea of the progress so far.

See y'all later, folks :)

Quote from: Milo87 on Fri 02/02/2007 18:47:20
Rachel and Deckard's missing walkcycles

Are you sure you want to go with such a blatant Blade Runner reference for the names? Could be a bit distracting...

Quote from: Snarky on Sun 11/02/2007 14:53:31
Are you sure you want to go with such a blatant Blade Runner reference for the names? Could be a bit distracting...

Up until this point, I'd forgot that Rachel was also a Blade Runner character, oops. Deckard's name is supposed to be Decker, sorry. It's supposed to be a reference, not a complete rip-off, heheh.

Just to stop this thread from dropping off the edge of the world, I thought I'd drop by and say that Dark Lake is still in production, just at a much slower pace than before.

There's not really a lot left to go, but what with college work and such I haven't had the time to work on it much.

Anyway, I've updated the production diary once again.

Thanks for reading

- Milo87

I have played the demo. The game looks really promising :) Good luck!
*Does the demo ends when...

Spoiler

...we enter the elevator? I couldn't find anything else to do after getting inside the elevator. A "This is the end of the demo" message would be good (in case you hadn't already put it and I couldn't walk through there).

[close]

*You really don't have to include your "Documents and Settings/ Robin Westbrook.ROBIN/ Desktop " folders inside the package files :P  (I think you put them by mistake?)

Nope, you have to find a way to get to other places in the elevator :)

And yeah, I'll fix the whole folders thing when I release the full game. I keep forgetting it does that XD

Thanks for the feedback!

Hey, I played the demo, and I must say it looks quite promising indeed. Here are some of the points I made:

- Decent graphics, with nice animation. You definitely need some more animations, though/walkcycles in particular/
- Gripping plot/thus far/
- It's somehow too quiet, some music would enhance the atmosphere of the game immeasurably, and the introduction sequence in particular[Edit: I see you've answered that already, go m0ds!]
- If you can make talking portraits sierra-style, that would also add a lot to the gaming experience.
- Simple and effective interface, keep it like that

I wish you luck with the game and hope you'll take those crits/and praises/ into consideration.

Thanks for the feedback :)

I've got a friend making the music for WtDL, now. It's all mp3 quality, too!
Talking portraits is an interesting idea, actually... I contemplated it right back at the start, but decided against it. Knowing it would be appreciated I might return to the idea :)
The BASS interface has always been one of my favourites; I'm glad you think it's good, too :D

Quote from: Milo87 on Sat 21/04/2007 20:40:27
Nope, you have to find a way to get to other places in the elevator :)

Oh, it is my bad... I have finally managed to finish the demo. Really nice work; now this is one of the games I'm looking forward to get completed :)

Wow. Good game so far! Can't wait to see where it goes!

One thing, it wasn't apparent that the main character left his driver's license in the car. It could be helpful to the player to have some sort of indication of this.

Yes, this game is full of promise. Demo was great and really looking forward to it.

I just played the demo and I have to say that its so far a good game. Funny way to end it too. Can't wait for it!

BTW how long is it going to be? Medium or Full length? or short?

Hmm, length wise, I'm not too sure. I'd said on the medium side of short. It was my intention to make a short series of shorter games rather than attempt a huge long one straight off. I've had a couple of friends alpha-test it and they took about an hour max to complete it. Hope no one is disappointed by the length it ends up being!  :-[

Fantastic. I Loved the demo, I think the graphics are perfect. I think it's a good idea to do a few smaller games rather than one huge one. Looking extremely forward to the completed project, best of luck ! :)

Just played the demo. Excellent. One of the best I have ever played! I love these style of games. Is this game going to be a series of games like part one, part two etc? Or just one medium length game? I liked medium to long length games.

Can't wait for the full version.

Scalad - read the forum rules before you continue posting.