Is it a bird? Is it a ten ton hamster with giant haemorrhoids? No! It's Ignac trailer (first part of intro). Go check it out here:
http://maniac.adventuredevelopers.com/trailer.htm
Sadly, the music in this trailer is only temporary, but hopefully it will be soon replaced with new one (the mood will be very similar anyway). Ah, and here are some more character sketches from game:
(http://maniac.adventuredevelopers.com/img/sketch5.jpg)
Enjoy!
I'm just downloading it, but did you notice that your main page is not showing up(or is it just me?)...
Pa sredi to, ba! ;)
downloading.... :D :D :D
Yeah, i know about main site. I'm redesigning it right now and i'm just too damn lazy to upload back the old one till the new one is finished ;)
>Pa sredi to, ba!<
Ocu ;D
Right - Igor - let me make this absolutely clear: this is a forum for AMATEUR adventure makers. That trailer was anything but AMATEUR. What are you doing here? ;D
Gobsmacking ... bowelturning ... better than sex ...
Incredible!! (http://web.ecomplanet.com/X2923/ServerContent/MyCustomImages/X2923CustomImage0111057.gif)
I can't wait to play this! Hurry up and finish it. ._.
finish it, but dont hurry :p want it to play as well as it looks :)
OMG! Igor, this is great, miez said it, this is only for amateurs. It so great, and in the style of the 60ties, pink panther & co.
btw. is nadja you sister?
EXCEPTIONAL!
Igor(or anyone else), do you know where to download P.D.?,cuz when i try to dl it from the games section, the link is broken...
Miez is right.......go Aaaawwwwwwaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!!!
INCREDIBLE,SUPERB,OUTSTANDING FANTASTIC,DIVINE!!!! :-*
(i'm quiting making games now,...well done Igor........) :'( :'(
:'(
EDIT:Is it going to be talkie?
That is UNBELIEVABLE, better than a Hollywood movie trailer, easily
First words after it played were too vulgar to be mentioned here. But let me say that they were mentioned out of pure enjoyment and in awe of this Freaking amazing trailer. The poem styled of Dr. Seuss was amazing. The depths in backgrounds were executed superbly as were shadows and lighting. Holy jeez Igor, you da man and you are going to clean up on the award ceremonies which would only be just.
Oh yeah, i forgot, the music was totaly putting the right mood, a pity it wont be the same :(
*LF prays for a German localization* :D
I bow before you a million times for such a great (and fast) feedback!
OTG- cool smiley :) Thanks!
Danny: thanks! :) Game most probably won't be talky (except for intro and cut-scenes). The main reason for this is, that i just can't decide how should Ignac sounds like. Another solution, i was thinking about, would be to use the same style of speech as in The Neverhood (only noises that wouldn't mean anything (you'd have to read speech text to understand), but would illustrate the characters mood- i think it'd be fun, and would create nice surreal atmosphere :) )
Chez: Music won't be the same, but believe me, it will be better- Marcus (the guy, who is composing it), already put out some "sketches", and they are fabulous!
PD is sadly down at the moment (AD deleted all files). Anyway, you are not missing much, as it's *very* short- it's just interface demo anyway (but i got some great suggestions that were very helpful in Ignac). Btw yeah, Nadja is my sis. She thought out most of the puzzles and is now taking care of some scripting.
I remember playing the old tgf Ignac demo when I was into Klik and Playing.. I know that doing a point n click game in tgf wasnt easy! In Ags, you dont have to build up the entire engine from scratch so if this is going to be anything like that demo its gonna be great!
You can find PD here: http://www.juncmodule.com/AGSgames.php (http://www.juncmodule.com/AGSgames.php)
This looks amazing! I am so excited about this.
Everything is just...perfect.
-junc
Igor - feel free to ignore this question, if you want to keep your secrets of the trade ;) - but how was the trailer made? flash?
Yeah, i wanted to ask the same question,and its not chez its czar :), but nevermind call me however you want ;D( maybe i should change my nick to chez ??? ;))
Anyway, you have a good narratorr too, where did you find him?
btw thanks junc
Miez, no secret here :) Hand animation, scanned and colored in Flash
>>and its not chez its czar<<
Czar, of course, what was i thinking ;) Anyway, Roderick kindly offered me to do narrator voice for Ignac himself and after hearing his examples, my jaw droped of :)
:o
...I...
MAKE A MOVIE!!! :o
That animation is better than any commercial cartoon game I can remember - Discworld, KQ7, LSL7, Duckman, Ace Ventura, Tony Tough, CMI included!
And igor, you better be planning to do a LOT of tutorials about EVERYTHING... ;)
anyway, i played PD, and i must say i havent seen such clean (and beautiful) backgrounds in any AGS game....How do you manage to do that???
*downloading*
i'm expecting much from you! ;D
everything you do looks really great..
will edit this post when i've sene it..
Also downloading. Are you gonna charge for this game? :(
Well, im downloading.. and if he's gonna charge some bucks.. im willing to pay it.. cause this game is really worth it!
One question : With what are you drawing? pencill, pen, black inkt or blue... or with a fineliner? And what is your scanner? Cause I am planning on buying one, so what is a good choice?
you could theoretically draw the basic character animations with a crayon on a brown paper bag then scan it in in a fairly good scanner, then with a great computer that can run Macromedia Flash well finish the rest. Import the saved scanned picture. Then add another layer and trace above the other one your new character and then add color. Just cause you have the best tools in the world, wouldn't mean that you will have the best art. Igor just makes it seem that way ;D
Quote from: Czar on Thu 10/07/2003 17:46:38
And igor, you better be planning to do a LOT of tutorials about EVERYTHING... ;)
anyway, i played PD, and i must say i havent seen such clean (and beautiful) backgrounds in any AGS game....How do you manage to do that???
One word... Vectors... ;)
Igor, can I buy you another drink?
Excellent! But take your time while making this game, we surely don't want to see the rest of the games be like your april prank :P
Thanks again!
Neole- now that's one of the biggest compliments you could give me! Thanks :)
Yufster- no, it will be freeware :) I much rather see more people playing the game, than to get a few bucks from selling it. There's a small chance it might get sponsored... but for now i won't be too optimistic about that (it's not even worth thinking about it until the game isn't fully finished).
Minimi- for animation, i'm using Staedtler Pigment Liner. It gives very accurate results and lets the hand flow nicely. As far as scanner goes, it's not really that important for animation itself, because you'll use only 2 "color" black&white scan anyway. Just be sure to have high enough DPI (to convert scaned bitmap pic in vectors, it's good to scan at lest at 600 DPI) and most importantly- to be *fast*. I'm using Umax Astra and while it's far from perfect (it could be even faster), it does its job nicely.
Evilspacefart- oh goody, another virtual beer. Sure thing! ;)
Petteri- hehe, now you gave me a good idea! j/k
Wow! Incredible! I am mighty impressed by your work! It's not close to professional, it IS professional! You must be making yourself a living from drawing stuff, right??
You've really caught the style of classic cartoons, almost exactly the same style as old Hanna Barbera stuff. And the coloring is excellent! I love the scene with the cop and the thief.
Please finish the game!
heh, I use Staedtler pigment liners to, they sure come handy. And whats best with them is that they are cheap..
Eh...
:o
Holy shit, Igor... That is HUGE!!! That is amazing. I love it!
I feel the very same way about it as I did when I saw "The Incredibles" trailer last week.
Keep your magic going, man. It's completely stunning. ;D
Heh, what can I say that hasn't already been said? Fantastic is an understatement!
--Erwin
Oh, wow... this stuff is just *too* good to be true. :o
You rule!
Damn! The whole AGS community wishes they could draw like that. It TRULEY TRULEY is proffesional..
I think it would be great if you could put up a few tutorials in the future about your sprite/background construction from paper to ags engine.. Im sure that would benefit many many ags'ers.
WOW.
Should I continue?
WOW.
Has CJ graced this page with his presence....I'm sure he'd love to see what beauty will be placed together with his amazing engine.
Edit* Okay, so he has and he absolutly loves what you've done. Great job Igor and your sister too.
Igor, this is incredible! Fantastic! Superb! Extraordinary!
Ooh... I think my nipples explode with delight.
Well, maybe not, but leaping labrats - Ignac 2 is high on my waiting list!
Way to go! I take my fedora off for you, man.
Wow! I must have watched the trailer about 25 times already. I even loaded it into Virtualdub to watch it in slow motion. The animations are so smooth and "suave". It's amazing how you can convey a whole movement in just two frames. I think the music fits very well, and is really quite excellent. If I may make one small criticism, knowing absolutely nothing about art as I do, my first impression of the woman carrying the tea-tray was that she looked slightly "two-dimensional". I don't know why, because I have an untrained eye. maybe it is the fixed angle of the head in relation to the body. Also, the "-10%" sign is kid of plain compared to the rest of the shot aroundit. Just something I noticed. I love the spirals, kinda like Tim Burton meets DOTT. And the wipe with the streetlamp is so cool. I can't wait for the full game!
Whoa! I bow another million times for all the feedback!
Mätzyboy- Thanks! I'm a big fan of classic cartoons, so i'm really happy if i managed to incorporate some of that feel in intro :)
Pessi- I'm *really* glad to hear it from you!
Necro- I promise i'll do a few tuts as soon as i'll have some more time (this last few months were hectic (heh, can't wait to finally go on vacation :))).
Rookworm3- Thanks! Trained or untrained... you have a really good eye for those things! :) Never really noticed the problem with "10 %" sign, but you are right- i think the problem lies in font i used for "10%" (and too strong color of it), will certainly fix it !
:o
I think everything I have to say about it has been said by everyone else. Lovely jubbly! I can see why this has taken you ages to do :)
Do you work in proffesional animation?
Because if you don't, I suspect you soon will.
Quote from: Eggie on Sun 13/07/2003 13:35:06
Do you work in proffesional animation?
Because if you don't, I suspect you soon will.
Are you flirting with Igor or something :P
Anyway, I can't tell how much I love Ignac and this amazing trailer! It's one of the best looking games I've ever seen! I wouldn't have any problems paying a large amount for this game :)
Get ready for an interview soon ;)
Oh, btw... Could you upload that ad for Ignac2 for me, or send me the stuff you've published so far (sketches/images): jannar85@yahoo.no
Just making a surprise for ye.. ;)
OT yeah jannar while youre here, you said you made a ftp server open for all agsers,is that working?
Quote from: Czar on Sun 13/07/2003 22:01:08
OT yeah jannar while youre here, you said you made a ftp server open for all agsers,is that working?
It's gone atm...... :P
This is fantastic, I await the game :) There's not much I can say that hasn't been said, but here's another amazing fan anyway :)
Just make movies ;D
how can I notice this trailer 5 days after it came out? this is too good.. I may just quit making games :( but then Igor would be sad and quit making the game too :P so I SHALL BATTLE HIM TO THE DEATH!
To igor, two questions I have:
Bugbrain studio? is that the "animation studio"? where did Maniac Ent. go?
oh, and e-mail me about that monkey ;)
Thanks everyone for comments! I'd bow another million times, but my back started to hurt... ;)
Jannar- thanks :) I'll e-mail you the ad.
Netmonkey- Yes, Bugbrain is small animation studio i'm freelancing for. I sadly won't be using Maniac Ent. name anymore (i'm redesigning website in more of personal-portfolio style). Well, except for the name, nothing else has changed :)
Hi there,
Would just like to add praise for this work. What I have seen clearly grasps at a character depth not often reached. Each character within the opening is clearly distinguishable from the other - in manner of movement and subsequently linked personality.
The narration is brilliant and very fitting - I do understand the need to replace the music though - as although it is good - it really needs to be part of the animation - be symbiotic with it... so they play off each other and move the interest of the scene along seemlessly (it feels a little stop/start at present). I've studied/written/performed music for 16 years so I am aware of the mechanics involved with your piece.
Again - the introductory animation is brilliant - evident of a great talent and natural ability in not only animation, but conceptual thinking!
=A=
Oh hell that was great! Good thing you picked the old cartoon style. If it would be in Anime/manga style I would curse you to the lower parts of hell!!!
Great job!!
Quote from: Igor on Tue 15/07/2003 17:48:20
Jannar- thanks :) I'll e-mail you the ad.
Still waiting :)
Quote from: netmonkey on Tue 15/07/2003 06:45:59
To igor, two questions I have:
Bugbrain studio? is that the "animation studio"? where did Maniac Ent. go?
One, two... three? Oh right the monkey thing... ;)
I dont know what else to say but... MAKE A DAMN MOVIE!!1
Aurynnz- thank you for your kind comments!
About music: exactlly, you sumed it very well! At the moment it's not completely linked with animation and i think that should be fixed.
Mad_Reizka- hehe, no need to worrie about me diving in anime/manga waters. If there's one style that isn't my cup of tea it's that one :)
Jannar and Netmonkey- emails are on its way.
I feel sorry that I only noticed it now! It's awesome! The animations are beatiful! And that screenshot rocks!
I DLed it a while age and have been in awe ever since
I watch it at least once a day
Now one question
you animate by had and then scan them?
how do you get them to work in flash?
tweening would be my guess. each part has their own layer, and then tweening between parts
Thanks again :)
Cpage- it's a rather tedious work: you need to scan every single frame of animation at least at 600 DPI in 2 "color" Black&White. You then convert bitmap scans in vectors with Adobe Streamline and import vectorized animation frames in Flash (it's good if you save scans/frames as 01.ai, 02.ai, 03.ai, etc., as Flash will automaticaly recognize animation and will import all frames at once) and color them... that's it :)
Scummbuddy- sadly it's not really possible to use Flash's tweening option for that kind of animation. You can use it for camera movements or if you are doing paper-like animation. Classic animation still requires you to draw every single frame... bummer.
Hi Igor,
wow wow wow. As everybody else I love this movie and the screenshot! I don't know if you already answered this but: how long did it take you to create this trailer? I keep watching it over and over ... wondering how long you are doing this already?
As for the game: are you planning to use *.mid or *.mp3 for background music? I think such a great game deserves an mp3 sondtrack - doesn't it :-)
And finally I want to offer my help to you and your game-creating team. If at any later point in the production process you need the help of a musician, german-translator or even a foreign-sounding voice for a character in your game I would be honored to offer my services to you!
Bye, Stefan.
here is a kinda dumb question
how does one scan at 600 DPI?
You can get a scanner that scans in pictures in better than 600 dpi, or just adjust the scanner settings/properties when you have the scan program running ready to scan.
TheMagician: Thanks for your compliments and offer to help- i really appreciate it and will certainly let you know if we'll need help! :)
I can't exactly say how much time did this first half of intro take me to finish, as i was working on it on and off (sometimes not touching it for a month or working on in-game graphics instead).
But if i take in account "pauses", i'd say there was around month or better month and a half of pure developing time (not counting the storyboard and script- which were *very* time consuming too, as the whole animation depended on them).
Btw, the game will have mp3 music. Agree, that the difference is just too big, to use midis :)
Cpage: as Scummbuddy said, you just need to adjust the scanning setting (there must be an option like "Set resolution of image" or something like that).
:o , :o and again :o
thats absoloutly fantasticly so proffecional!! i cant wait to play this!!!
( ( ( <( -_-)> ) ) )
hmm for resolution all I have Is normal, fine, and super fine
is that possably because I have a cheap wal mart bought scanner?
I don't think the scanner is a problem here. It's probably just the program that is trying to be too user-friendly... Btw, which one are you using?
I'd say "super fine" is probably 600 DPI anyway... but you can also try to search for some "Advance" option, or something like that, where you'll be able to adjust DPI resolution manually.
However, "super fine" will most probably do the trick :)
okay thanks
This is amazing. Great stuff, Igor. Looking forward to the game. I wouldn't mind paying full retail for this either.
Well, if he doesn't want it to be commercial, you can always donate some money to him anyway... 8)
:o Wow, that's absolutely gorgeous bud!!! Wow, wow, wow..
It is incredibly well-done and very professional. It is definitely worth of being an animated movie. It really reminds me of early 90's animated movies and "children movies" (like Roald Dahl's movie adaptations), and that's a good thing!
How long do you think the game will be? and, of course, the inevitable question: when can we approximately expect it?
Igore, Igore, Igore... lud si 100% majke mi :)
I was expecting anything but that what I saw! Sure miez said that it looked proffesional, sure all this people sighed and wowed in their replies, but even that didn't made me think the trailer will look the way it looked. AMAZING!!!
What can I say? Superb, briliant animation! The music is just great! The voice talent is excelent! And the direction is AWWWW!!!! Don't be nuts, and release this game commercialy. I'm sure some European company like Ubi Soft or Eidos will like to buy it and publish it.
With graphics that is cousin to Day of the Tentacle only 10x better, I wonder who wouldn't want to publish such game?
And also the art style reminds me of Balthazar a little bit :) Tell me, are you Croatian? And have you studied animation at the Zagreb animation school? ;)
Igor, when you said you dont want only a few people to play the game if you release the game commercially, I think you were wrong. Many more people play a commercial game than a freeware game (if released by a known company). Not that Im suggesting you release it commercially, only pointing out that fact.
The only thing against the game being a commercial release IMO is the length, as I remember there were supposed to be 17 rooms in the game, as opposed to 50-100+ locations expected in commercial games.
If nothing else, you could strike a deal with Adventurecompany to package your game along with their commercial releases for free (i.e. the buyers get it free along with games they purchase, and adventurecompany pays you something to buy that sort of rights).
On the other hand, I have nothing against getting to play a great game for free!
Quote from: Neole on Thu 24/07/2003 06:09:36
Igor, when you said you dont want only a few people to play the game if you release the game commercially, I think you were wrong. Many more people play a commercial game than a freeware game (if released by a known company). Not that Im suggesting you release it comercially, only pointing out that fact.
We should hear from Ionias on this cause he's got the fatman experience. I would buy ignac 2 if it were comercial, but to make something comercial you need $$$.. unless you wanna sell it through cafepress, which only costs you to send the master cd to them:
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/cds.aspx
I'd say it's a good way to start....
Making a game commercial is pretty simple, there are a lot of CD duplicating and selling companies which only need you to send a master CD and they do all the work for you. They handle everything from credit card processing to individual distribution, both as downloads and as mailed CDs. You only need to market it.
From what I hear, independantly distributed commercial games sell around 200 or less copies in 6 months. Which would be considerably less audience than if it were released freeware. Fatman was made lo-res which IMO would have affected the sales quite a lot. Its good Ionas' next adventure is hi-res!
Perhaps you could sell it at first, and make the cheap folks wait a whole year before you put it up for free download. Eh?
Abandonware. :P
No, it just means it's a free game, but paying customers will get the game up to a whole year early, with packaging. :)
I was rather hoping its released for free on this forum first before being made commercial ;)
Svetac, hvala za kompliment! Mmg, sem iz Slovenije- stara jugo braca :)
As far as i'm concerned, Balthazar was (and still is) one of the best cartoon series- freaking geniuses!
Thank you all! I was never really thinking about going commercial with the game. As Neole said, selling the game on our own or over internet-publishers most probably wouldn't really pay off.
As for bigger companies... i don't know. There's Humongous Entertainment (Put-Put, Spy Fox, Freddy the Fish...) which, i think, could be a perfect publisher for Ignac and they might be interested (while Ignac isn't strictly intended for kids, it still fits nicely in their concept of low-budget point&click adventures).
But then again, if there won't be some really tempting "numbers" involved (or Bill Gates won't knock on my door with big sack of money), i'll rather keep this game freeware... in good ol' AGS spirit.
YAY, I gladly would have paid... but free things smell so much nicer :P
Don't use Cafepress.com whatever you do! I've ordered some samples from there. They charge a buttload and the quality is pure crap. :P
I released Fatman in May, and it's sold a little over 100 copies so far. Not bad for a low budget, low res game. But truth be told, it cost me more to make (paid voice actors etc...) then I've earned. :)
However, a game with graphics like your's Igor would sell like hotcakes! Even faster if it was made for kids. You wouldn't get rich, but the profits you would reap could help make your game even better. (ie paid voice actors, soundtracks etc ...) And you could invest money into your game confident that you would be earning that cash back and perhaps a profit. But it is a large undertaking and there is a lot more pressure on a commercial project, and you have to hype it up etc ... but if it works out this could turn into your full-time job, creating adventure games. Heck that's my goal! :)
It's great to hear your experience Ionias!
For me, working on adventure is a pure free-time hobby and must say i like it this way best- no pressure and completely free hands to do whatever you want.
Of course, if i'll find a way to get some fair money out of this, without alienating a larger group of players, i'll go for it without thinking twice (if nothing else, it would be nice to pay something to people who are puting their talents in this game without expecting any profit)... But there's no point to even think about that, until the game isn't completely finished :)
Well, I work at a commercial printing company, and we can get beautiful full color CD stickers, and we can print the CD inserts too. Just gotta get some high quality CD-R, and a CD Stomper. That way you only actually expend the cost for the CD when it is purchased.
A way I thought to "copy protect" my game was to make each copy have an individual unique number inside the game EXE, then you know who pirated it when it gets out. :)
Great stuff.
WOW, I really love it, I think it's great that you keep it free and yours, if you go with a big publisher they would probably start pushing you with dates and stuff, if you keep it for yourself you can work at your own pace..
the whole intro reminds me of the early Tim Burton Movies and Shorts, Specially Nightmare Before Christmass with the narrator and Vincent (if you havent seen vincent, go see it, it's in the nightmare special edition dvd).
Please keep us posted on the status of the game, i can't wait to play it!
Thanks Dagooh!
Quote from: dagooh on Fri 29/08/2003 02:30:09
Specially Nightmare Before Christmass with the narrator and Vincent (if you havent seen vincent, go see it, it's in the nightmare special edition dvd).
You want to tell me there's another short on DVD in TNBC style?! If so, i'm gonna buy it right away! :)
yeah! Vincent was the first Tim Burton short and was never really shown in theaters (it was a little too creppy for little kids I think), in TNBC DVD special edition they have Vincent and Frankieweenie (frankie is burton's 2nd short, but it's not stop motion), go and get that DVD now, it's the most beautiful work of art I have ever seen.
Vincent is fantastic! I think it's the first thing Burton directed and it also had the same designer, Rick Heinrichs as TNBC. Having paid for Vincent Disney wouldn't release it, but when I went to the cinema to see a late showing of The Nightmare, they showed it! It's a blend of Edgar Allen Poe, Doctor Seuss and campy (Vincent Price style) horror.
Dagooh's right, the trailer really reminded me of Vincent, the style of rhyming is just as bouncy as Doctor Seuss. It's great!
I'm not sure how I forgot to post about this, since I saw it when it came out and it caused my jaw to crash through the floor. Igor, this rules. Holy crap, it rules. I got shivers the first time I watched this because it rules so much. I want this game. As others have said though, I want a movie even more. Make something fast! Now!
I just ordered special edition of TNBC DVD :)
Btw, anyone saw that short puppet animated movie (in style of TNBC) called The Periwig Maker? I catched it on one of the animation festivals and must say technicaly it's one of the most beautiful puppet movies i ever saw. In short: fantastic!
Remix0r: Thanks! really appreciate it :)
Quote from: miez on Thu 10/07/2003 12:46:08
Right - Igor - let me make this absolutely clear: this is a forum for AMATEUR adventure makers. That trailer was anything but AMATEUR. What are you doing here? ;D
Gobsmacking ... bowelturning ... better than sex ...
Last time I checked this was just a forum for Adventure Makers. Not all of us are amateur as you so boundlessly annouced. ;)
hehe subspark, take a look at the backgrounds he did for Fountain of Youth and you will see that miez is everything but an amateur himself ;)
Igor, I think you've given alot of inspiration to fellow AGSers. I salute you. When I did my diploma in Computer Graphics & Animation I did a short 2D animation course required to get into 3D. My teacher did very similar flash animation sequences to that of your trailer. I can see you getting sufficient work in 2D concept design / animation/ background imagery.
I recomend fleelancing yerself if not already, working in the games industry is fanstastic. I'm getting plenty of 3D work however unfortunately most 2D games have dropped back to the children's catagory. Have you ever considered working in this area of the industry?
(sparx finishes salute)
Speak 2 u again soon. Keep up the great work, Igor.