A small demo and "realistic graphics"

[Mouth for war]

So I've been toying around with my very limited 3D skills and came up with a little something. I decided to put it here because I want some feedback and I'm not ready to post in the Gip thread yet. It's a short demo so you could probably play it till the end in no time It's supposed to be a horrorgame in the style of the 80's slasher movies(Friday the 13:th etc)
First a screenshot (Maybe a little too dark but it's for the atmosphere )


Hope the download link works!!!

http://rapidshare.com/files/1568639211/Horror.zip

[Ghost]

I'd put the download somewhere else- I need to sign up for downloading? Never good...

But the screenshot really looks intriguing; nice atmosphere you got there!

[Mouth for war]

ohh thanks for telling. Changed to http://rapidshare.com/files/1568639211/Horror.zip instead!

[an Urpney]

It says the download has been disabled.

[Mouth for war]

OHHH MAAAAN!!!! Gonna look into it but I'm not sure how to fix? It's uploaded and all...

EDIT: AHA I hade to check that little box...now IT SHOULD BE WORKING GOD DAMN IT!!!!!

[an Urpney]

It says the uploader has to enable downloads.

[Tabata]

yepp - for me, too

Please, try it again Mouth for war 

[Mouth for war]

But i did that damn it...GAAAAAAAAAHHHHH

[Anian]

Character's head is a bit too small and his feet too big. Things in the rooms are not proportionate (first thing that stuck me was the size of the wine bottle but there's a lot more). You need to watch the textures for 2 reasons - you keep switching between drawn and realistic textures (for example when you exit the building, suddenly the textures look a bit cartoony, doesn't help that windows on the outside have no frames) and you need to check texture sizes (like on the walls in the lobby where the texture is way too stretched).
Shadow on the picture on the right wall in the living room is very long, you should try to control your light sources and my advice is to do a few renders without any textures applied (or maybe some gray/white material over everything).

On the gameplay aspect, well it all kind of happens quickly, but I'm guessing this is a wip, so don't really know how it'll look in the end.

You are taking on a challenge, horror 3d takes experience in detailing and a quick render every so often (like after you model, after you set each light (try to do add gradually), after you texture etc.), so keep at it, you'll work it out. 

[Mouth for war]

Thanks for your input There will be sooo much to redo if I care about the character's head and feet but the other things...I guess I could delete all rooms and have the game start at that night time scene and keep what you said in mind about the textures for future bg's...hmmmmm...oh and about things happen quickly...maybe you're right but I thought, going back and forth in your apartment before anything happens seems a little boring...might as well get into the story right awaaaaaaay hehe, but if you have any ideas for how to improve the gameplay you're more than welcome to share it

[Anian]

Oh, I didn't mean gameplay wise, I meant "happening quickly" in a way that somehow there's not enough emotional involvement in characters. Maybe changing that photo on the wall (instead of photo of friends) into a photo of the main character and sister on a holiday somewhere as kids or something like that, to pull the heart strings and show that they care for each other (or did and now they're estranged etc.).

[Armageddon]

All I can say is do not use 16-bit, use 32-bit.

[Khris]

That default poser sideview walkcycle is so damn creepy, I can't stand it.

But there are some actual problems with this.
First of all, reading the text is a pain. The letters are really small compared to the screen size, the messages are displayed at the very edge without any padding, and the font is unreadable. For instance I completely skipped over the newspaper articles, there was no way I was going to read all that. I caught myself squinting at the screen several times.
The other thing is the cursors. Even if I didn't loathe all cursors that aren't crisp, clear icons that use as few colors as possible, having no hotspot indication at all combined with relatively huge cursor images and small hotspots is a no-go. At no time should a game require the user to guess where to click in order to do something. Keep in mind that this is all they do during the entire game: click on stuff. Picking up the key for instance required me to move the mouse about until the hotspot description appeared.

I'm sorry, but I have to put it this bluntly: the interface is completely broken.

Also, using the 4/5 cursor interface is tempting and easy, the question is, is it useful? I'd wager that 90% of games using that interface would work much better with a two-button interface.

[Mouth for war]

Ok thanks for that input :-)i agree with the cursors! I'll change the font as well

[selmiak]

but the eye cursor looks cool and fitting for a horror game, but yeah, the usefulness is rather not there.

[Mouth for war]

Yeah, 32bit of course. Forgot to change that hehe. Is this more readable? Oh I also changed controls to only left/right click

[Calin Leafshade]

Urgh, Why do people go to the trouble of making 3D models which have perspective and lighting information built in to them only to then flatten them and *remove* that information to put them in AGS?

If you want to use 3D models then I cannot recommend enough using a 3D capable engine like Wintermute or Unity. Yes, the learning curve is steeper but if you are capable of using 3D modelling programs then you are probably capable of using a simplified 3D engine. The gains are simply huge in the visual quality of your game.

[Mouth for war]

I actually want to learn something like that but for now AGS will have to do I think. I have a friend/old neighbour who's been working profesionally for many years. He worked on Just Cause 2 Chronicles of Riddick etc. If he opens his own studio, which he wants I'm totally gonna be his apprentice