Atapi - Advice for the Sequel?

MoodyBlues · Mon 22/06/2009 15:50:13

I'm going to start Atapi 2 pretty soon, and I want it to be the best it can be. So, for those of you who've played Atapi - what advice can you give me? What worked well? What could be improved? What would you like to see in the sequel?

Babar · Mon 22/06/2009 18:15:10

I gotta say, I loved the atmosphere of your game, the feeling of it, etc (and this is in spite of me not getting very far as yet).

But there WERE a few things that showed through, and while they didn't in any way make me want to put down the game, or anything, I *noticed* them.

-The savegame/restoregame/quit dialogs- you used the default one for that (I suggest you customise it some more, you are able to edit Savegame/restore/quit GUIs in the new version of AGS)

-The walkbehinds and walk "gimicks" didn't really go well with the swampy background atmosphere, since there was so much undergrowth, grass, vines, some of which you could go very close to, some of which you could walk in front off, etc., it sorta showed up. Also in beautiful portions of the swamp/lake with all its reflections, where you went in knee-deep, the effect was somewhat spoilt by the fact that the character didn't reflect in the water as well. There are some examples on the forums (perhaps even a module?) for you to be able to do this.

-This is up to personal taste, but the 3Dish looking blocky characters on photorealistic backgrounds didn't work for me (but neither does it in numerous commercial games I've played either). I don't know about your artistic ability, but perhaps as part of the "sequelness" you could make sequelish graphics

Basically some minor things that a lot of scripting could fix

Takyon · Mon 22/06/2009 19:38:26

I'd say change the background style, it looked nice but photo backgrounds really take away from the adventure imo.

Ubel · Mon 22/06/2009 20:04:55

I personally really liked the 3D-character/photorealistic background mixture.

I haven't finished the game yet but some things that should be fixed:

- Don't make the character's say "..." when they're being quiet. It looks really stupid. Use the Wait()-function instead.

- Use a pointer cursor in the main menu (first room) and disable cursor mode cycling for that room. Makes it seem a bit more professional.

- The way inventory item graphics were stretched in the current inventory item -button in the main GUI looked really ugly.

- I personally think it's a good idea to hide GUIs during at least the intro cutscene and any other major cutscenes.

So far the game feels very atmospheric and adventurous. Writing is good and so is music. Some of the graphics are very inconsistent though so you might wanna work on that, although it's not a major problem.

Babar · Mon 22/06/2009 20:25:50

I thought you don't need to use Wait? I thought using ... (without the quotes) automatically makes the character pause for a second?

And yeah, the stretchy inventory was another thing. It would require more scripting, but I'd also suggest a completely customised GUI, not the default one.

MoodyBlues · Mon 22/06/2009 20:51:18

Actually, I automatically numbered the lines for voice acting. That's why it says '...' instead of remaining silent.

Thanks for the advice so far, guys! I think next time I'll try to find someone to help with the artwork. I'm fine with 3D characters and photographing, but I'm not very good at creating painting-like graphics.

Ubel · Mon 22/06/2009 21:52:01

Quote from: Babar on Mon 22/06/2009 20:25:50
I thought you don't need to use Wait? I thought using ... (without the quotes) automatically makes the character pause for a second?

That only works in dialog script, not with Character.Say()... I think.

cosmicr · Tue 23/06/2009 01:13:49

Quote from: MoodyBlues on Mon 22/06/2009 15:50:13What would you like to see in the sequel?

EIDE? SATA?

sorry - couldnt help myself.

MoodyBlues · Tue 23/06/2009 02:11:17

Quote from: cosmicr on Tue 23/06/2009 01:13:49
Quote from: MoodyBlues on Mon 22/06/2009 15:50:13What would you like to see in the sequel?

EIDE? SATA?

sorry - couldnt help myself.

Wait, what? XD

Snarky · Tue 23/06/2009 15:35:51

Computer interface humor!

(ATAPI is a type of internal computer connector used to connect CD-ROM drives, and EIDE and SATA are other connector types.)

MoodyBlues · Tue 23/06/2009 16:52:15

Ah! I should have known!

cat · Tue 23/06/2009 18:00:38

The title has confused me too, with the name I would have expected SciFi, not a game with lots of nature.

Galen · Fri 10/07/2009 19:39:37

Trace the backgrounds or have them traced.
The images are nice and all but photographs don't work well at all with super low resolutions.

At the very least I'd suggest using a photoshop filter to reduce the number of colours.

Dualnames · Fri 10/07/2009 19:43:00

I'd say if you hire someone to do some bg art, you really can't fail with it.

Helme · Fri 28/08/2009 15:13:18

I hope it's not to late for some input.

I had problems with the backgrounds, too. I found one 'room' very late in the game, because I didn't expect there was a way. I think things like that would happen with well-disgned bgs.

I don't know if you want to use the same main characters, so the idea might not fight.
But I like the idea of learning the language of the atapi. I mean to start with only a few symbols/words and learn new ones with the progress of the game.