Woodlands - Updated (2008-01-23)

[seaduck]

This looks great!Ã, 

I wanted to try out the demo, but the link is broken... Can you fix it, please?

[fovmester]

Thanks for telling me!

It works fine now. Please download (and tell me what you thought about it)

[seaduck]

I played the demo and I liked it very much!

I noticed only two small technical problems:

- for some unknown reason it is necessary to switch the mouse cursor into "use" before you can select an inventory item
- in the opening menu when you click away from the floating buttons, the cursor changes from crosshair to a "look" icon

Other things noticed:
- at times I would notice by your English that you are not a native speaker (neither am I), with some misspells and a few strange-sounding expressions. But it's nothing serious and didn't spoil my gameplay.
- it might be just me, but I didn't like the Growling sprite, it just didn't look as good as the other characters
- the scene where Tom confronts the wizard would really benefit from some dramatic/evil music
- there aren't actually any puzzles in the demo. I hope to see some good puzzles in the full game!

Overall:
I love the charming and original graphics, and the fairy-tale story. I got instantly swallowed-up by the game's amazing atmosphere. Please make the full game stand up to this demo, and I'm sure it will be one of the best AGS games made so far!

[fovmester]

- for some unknown reason it is necessary to switch the mouse cursor into "use" before you can select an inventory item

It's actually meant to be like that. This is because you might want to "Look" at something in your inventory, or maybe later to "Eat" something. That's why you need to "Use" the inventory items to select them. If you can think of a better solution then I'm all ears!

- in the opening menu when you click away from the floating buttons, the cursor changes from crosshair to a "look" icon

Yes, this is a stupid bug that has been fixed after the release of the demo.

- at times I would notice by your English that you are not a native speaker (neither am I), with some misspells and a few strange-sounding expressions. But it's nothing serious and didn't spoil my gameplay.

I'm doing my best here! For Frank 2 I got a lot of help from my great native english beta-testers which hopefully corrected most of the grammar mistakes and strange expressions in that game. I hope to get the same help with Woodlands!

- it might be just me, but I didn't like the Growling sprite, it just didn't look as good as the other characters

That's too bad. What didn't you like about him? Was it the style, or was he badly drawn?

- the scene where Tom confronts the wizard would really benefit from some dramatic/evil music

That's the plan, but the music wasn't ready when I released the demo. (It's still not ready, but it will be there in the end)

- there aren't actually any puzzles in the demo. I hope to see some good puzzles in the full game!

You are right that there aren't any real challenges in the demo. That's because it is merely the introduction of the game, and it is meant mostly to present the story and the characters. The puzzles appear shortly afterwards. You WON'T be disappointed!

I love the charming and original graphics, and the fairy-tale story. I got instantly swallowed-up by the game's amazing atmosphere. Please make the full game stand up to this demo, and I'm sure it will be one of the best AGS games made so far!

I bow in honour, and instantly continue making the game...

Thanks for the feedback!!

[fovmester]

2006-05-23:

It was over a month since my last update, and I have been waiting to get something big to show, but I thought that I have to give you something NOW, big or small. This month I have completed a lot of the puzzles of the first day, well in fact ALL puzzles.

I also made the cut sequence that end the first day, but I didn't quite finish it before starting to draw new backgrounds for Day two. In day one you keep to the west side of the Woodland stream. But in the second day you will be able to cross the river and several new areas will be available, among which are two villages with new characters to interact with.

All but one of the woodland rooms for the east side of the river is already done, and right now I'm painting the last of them. I have made sketches of the two different villages, which I showcase below (I decided that right now). So the next things I have to do is to finish the cutscene  I've been working on (about 1-2 hours of work) and then start putting color on the village sketches.

Last weekend I visited my family's summerhouse (a 150 year old house in the woods), to relax and record sounds for Woodlands. I made a list of sounds I needed before I left home and returned with almost all of the sounds I needed. Woodlands is starting to sound great, from birds singing and wind blowing in the trees, to interaction sound effects like climbing trees and bouncing balls...

All in all, the game is coming along fine, although I once again have an exam coming up that I have to study for, leaving precious little time for game making. Some people hoped for a summer release...All I can say is that I will work hard on the game this summer . Whether I will finish it or not, is to early to say. Probably not.

[Mats Berglinn]

The sketches looks great. The houses of the water village looks sort of like mushrooms (or somekind of fungus), is that inspiration or is it just a coinsidense?

You said that you're almost done with the backgrounds of Day One, how many days are there in the game?

Keep up the good work and try to get the game finished ASAP!

[dsg_charly]

Great ! Great !

I love your style. Tell me, are you developping/drawing all alone ?

[fovmester]

The sketches looks great. The houses of the water village looks sort of like mushrooms (or somekind of fungus), is that inspiration or is it just a coinsidense?

You said that you're almost done with the backgrounds of Day One, how many days are there in the game?

Keep up the good work and try to get the game finished ASAP!

The fungi reference is mostly coincidence, but it's a actually quite appropriate considering the village is located in a swamp.

How many backgrounds there are in the whole game? I tried to count and got it to 33 different backgrounds. The total number of rooms (with reused backgrounds) is about 56. I have 16 more backgrunds to draw, but I have made sketches of five of them. So I'm halfway there on those.

16 more, wow! That sounds like a lot to me!! This would mean that I am a little more than halfway through. But I don't know. There is more to a game than just backgrounds. I'd say I'm about 70 % done.

Great ! Great !

I love your style. Tell me, are you developping/drawing all alone ?

Yep. I'm all alone!

[Petra]

Really can't wait for this fantastic game...
The graphics are so cute....

Have not downloaded the demo, as I want to wait for the
"Highlight"

This will be just great

Keep on doing the good job!!!

[pslim]

Awesome demo, can't wait to see the finished game.

I have to agree with whoever said the Growling doesn't quite fit in, but I think it's just a matter of its lacking contrast. Its features are hard to determine in a way the other characters' aren't.

Love the atmosphere, though, and the art is really neat. I especially like the cinematic camera change at the end of the wizard sequence.

[fovmester]

Awesome demo, can't wait to see the finished game.

I have to agree with whoever said the Growling doesn't quite fit in, but I think it's just a matter of its lacking contrast. Its features are hard to determine in a way the other characters' aren't.

Love the atmosphere, though, and the art is really neat. I especially like the cinematic camera change at the end of the wizard sequence.

Thank you all for the appreciation!

I have decided to look into the Growling, and see if I can redo the design of him. I have started to think that he doesn't look evil enough as it is. Growlings are supposed to be quite evil creatures, but in a way Urgauf looks as cute as the junies (but in an orchish way). That the Growling looks a lot like an orch is also something I want to change. Look out for new images in the critics lounge.

[fovmester]

Since I already showed you the sketch I might as well show you the finished background:

[Petra]

Wow,

This is even better than I expected!!

Would like to give this cute creature a kiss

Nice backrounds and lovely details!!

[big brother]

Would like to give this cute creature a kiss

I would feel better not knowing this.



It's cool that you're keeping everyone up to date on the progress.

[fovmester]

2006-06-16: I have now finished designing and animating the creatures of the swamp, which live in that village on poles seen in the swamp screenshot. I have also completed the cut scene between day 1 and 2 as well as drawn the close up background of the swamp village, put all the characters in and created some REALLY cool fire effects that I just know you will love.

Besides this I have written a couple of long complex dialogs which are quite crucial to the story. They still need polishing, but that is the way it always is when I am writing dialogs. I always go back, test new things, correct errors and so on.

I also made a map which you can use to go back to places you have visited before. I decided it would be wise to have such a function since the forest is quite a big place, and you might need to go back and forth many times to solve some puzzles (hint?). Without shortcuts that would become boring I think.

The next step will be to complete the swamp village (1 more background) and then start on the mountain village (3 backgrounds). All the forest backgrounds are now finished so you can actually go through the whole of the Woodlands now.

[MashPotato]

This looks great, and that last background looks very... magical!  Good luck with your last few backgrounds ^_^

[TheCheese33]

Sounds like a great game. I really liked Frank the Farmhand, though I got in trouble for playing it for the racist stuff in it. 

Here's hoping this one won't get me into any trouble.

[fovmester]

I guess your parents missed the point, then. The game is ANTI-racist, NOT racist. The scene with the KKK and the one with the white trash kids are there to ridicule racism. To show what inbred fools racists really are! But yes, the n-word does pop up several times in the game, but if it hadn't the racists wouldn't sound very racist, would they?

Here's hoping this one won't get me into any trouble.

No I'm quite sure Woodlands won't contain the n-word.

[fovmester]

 2006-08-02: This has been Sweden's warmest and sunniest summer in a hundred years, so the time I've spent indoors is short. But I have some somethings since last time: I finished up the marchee village, with cut scenes and dialogs, have drawn two of three backgrounds of the last village, a third background is half done. I also made some animations for the inhabitants of the last village. I have recorded some sounds, as well as fixing a couple of bugs. So although things aren't going super fast, it is going forward at a steady pace. I have updated the sketch of the second village to the real complete background (see below).

[Petra]

Thank's for reporting the progress on your game!

The latest background is even making me more nervous

Hope the summer will end in Sweden so that you may finish this game

Can't wait for this one to come!!!