Hello everybody. Im starting a new game here i'm kinda wanting some opinions about the game story, so i thought this was the right place to post this. (And btw i really need artists for the game! Not much experience needed.)
THE STORY:
Our hero has just managed to get away from a bunch of bloodthirsty zombies by getting into an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. Our hero (Named Jack btw) manages to get down a hatch in the floor in this building and by using an all-armored bat mobile-ish car getting as far as possible from the zombies as possible he starts his quest trying to find the source of the horrible plague that has ruined almost all of mankind and trying to find something to stop the zombies.
Plz say your opinion about the story
(sry if this is the wrong place to post it but this seems like the best place to post :-\)
first of all, welcome to the forums.
second of all, i like the story but it sounds a bit cliche and sterotypical.
third of all, we're not gonna hunt you with dogs for this, but write in full, rather then ths stuf plz.
Again, welcome to the forums
--Blake
Hmmm... that story sounds awfully familiar...
Yeah, it's a bit cliche. *Hyde blushes
Doesn't really sound like an adventure game to me ...
It sounds more like a shoot-em-up FPS.
I wouldn't worry about the clichè part though ... most Zombie flicks/games these days are nothing but one clichè after another.
The trick is to find things to add that haven't been added before to make it somewhat original.
I think your biggest problem is going to be making it acceptable as an adventure game.
Perhaps you should ask Hyde about it ... he knows something about Zombie games and AGS ;)
:o
Zombies, sure... AGS, barely...
I'm gonna pass, give it to Eric.Ã, He's got the book, and he's actually finished a game.
Thank you for the reply folks. First of all i'm gonna start talking full ;) and second of all im gonna try to answer some of the stuff you said. This is not going to be a shoot-em-up game. It's made completely in ags and may actually not have any visual zombie smashing at all.(please straighten my typos. im norwegian) It may be we wont see any zombies at all in this game, but that they are only a part of the story. And what is this clichè talk about? Please tell me what adventure games that has a zombie story and i'll make my game as different as possible ;)
I meant clichè only in the zombie sense, not the AGS game sense.
Typical zombie movie fare:
Everything is fine and calm.
Attacked by Zombies.
Escape.
Meet up with other survivors.
Shore up for a bit.
Try and escape.
Fight zombies.
done.
That's what I meant by clichè.
And don't worry about your English skills and/or typos. Just avoid using txt style typing!
I think a game dealing with Zombies, and you don't actually see them, could be really neat. If done correctly. Keep working on the story and really hammer out all the details! The more time you spend working on it, the better it'll be.
Good luck!
Hey this game sounds interesting. I would be willing to do some backgrounds, and some possible inventory sprites. (I cant to character sprites ((except mods of others)). It seems my partner for IJHAA has abandoned me so i'm out of work, I'd love to help! If you have any more story ideas PM me.
Thanks for the enthusiasm! :D And if taffytom really wants to make some/all of the sprites this game may turn out somewhat good :P I'm not even half finished with the story so if any of you have any ideas it would be nice :)
Thanks again :)
As I email you Vict0r, I have an idea for the beginning.
I think it would be interesting if the hero (Jack) was an auto-mechanic who, in the beginning, was sitting around on a slow day all alone in the garage. A man burst through the front door, totally silent, then he come up to Jack and says that everyone is changing, and yadah yadah yeadah, and so on, until a super para-military soldier arrives in the doorway and blasts the dude away. Jack escapes with only the clothes on his back and a few meger items in his pockets.
I have made a 320X200 background for that occasion. Here it is, what do you all think? Crits please.
(http://img317.imageshack.us/img317/1863/garagebg0hz.png) (http://www.imageshack.us)
(Vict0r- In the email I meant an additonal artist to myself)
EDIT: I tried a few lighting effects in photoshop to make it more dark and dingey.
(http://img334.imageshack.us/img334/3450/garage28yi.png) (http://www.imageshack.us)
I could definetly use your help! :D The thought that he could be a car mechanic or something sounds good, but didnt really get the part about the soliders and stuff ;) Seen as im now at an internet kafè in italiy( := ) its pretty hard to send you anything really, but i m prolly back in norway in about two weeks or so, so im gonna send my all too crappy prototypes when i can. if you know of anyone who can make the characters please tell me. :)
I have made another Background for fun (possible for this game) It is supose to be an alley but I can't for the life of me make the dirt/gravel/grass part of the ground in the middle right. Could someone HELP?
I fixed the blocks and it looks much better. The gate is suppose to be wide enough for cars to pass. Thanks for saying I'm a good artist!
P.S. Any comments on the previous Pics?
(http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8568/alley0iq.png) (http://www.imageshack.us)
Hey, i see the door you've drawn in the upper right corner uses vertical lines, maybe you could do this for the cracks/bricks on the wall, i think it should help making it look straighter.
And the house in the background may be a tad too small compared to that door i mentioned but maybe it's just me.
I think your previous bg looks good, although i don't really like the lighting after effect. (not the same style)
Vict0r: Even if the story sounds very cliché, i wouldn't care too much about it, as long as the atmosphere's here ;)Ã, And it seems you've found a great bg artist, i wish you good luck with this project and hope too see more.
I'm especially intrigued about the idea of (possibly) never actually seeing the zombies. If I was making this game, THAT would be one of the things that I'd really be building on. I think it could be interesting to play the role of a survivor in a zombie plague who is doing his very best to avoid any sort of contact with the undead at all costs and survive while doing so.
While the subject matter would be a bit dry, I think that handled well, this could make for an interesting game.
As far as the "batmoblie" type vehicle, that sounds weird to me.
And in terms of the "finding the source and stopping the plage" thing, it's a little bit used, too. If you wanted to include that sort of thing, though, maybe it'd be best if the hero sort of stumbled on some information that could lead him to maybe help, but that he'd be really quite reluctant to do so, because it'd be pretty risky to even try anything. But eventually for some reason it'd come down to him having little to no choice if it meant surviving.
First of all i have to clear up in something ;) The thing about the batmobile-ish car was only a small part when i tried to make the game alone so forget about that. ;) Second of all i still really need a character artist! :-\ (ain't gonna be no game without characters) So if there are anyone interested please tell me :)
Oswalled: I have taken your advice and dropped the "find the source and stop the whole thing" :) This would not only make the game more (as you say) clichè but also remove the posibillity of a follow-up. And you said something about wanting to help(at least thats how i interpreted it) so please let me know if you have anything to contribute with! :)
Taffy: The background may be useful :P so just keep it.
Everyone else: Im actually using a nice thing called The Zombie Survival Guide( http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/zombiesurvivalguide/ ) to make my game as realistic (if there are anything as a realistic zombie game) as possible ;D
I made a dirt/road area in the middle! It came out surprisingly well. I also decreased the size of the gate.
(http://img328.imageshack.us/img328/7788/alleyblurpsd9un.png) (http://www.imageshack.us)
Your perspective on both backgrounds is a bit off ...
If it's an alley, there won't be many cars driving through, so I'd move the grass to the sides and dirt to the middle.
Taffy: It looks good but i think there should be a bit less dirt on the sides of the "alley". Tomorrow i can send you some ideas for the first rooms of the game :)
And again, I NEED CHARACTER ARTISTS :P ;)
I fixed the road its quite better, looking forward to seeing your sprites!!
(http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2326/alleyblurpsd7vt.png) (http://www.imageshack.us)
Nice background. I'm looking forward to seeing more. :)
Well I tried to improve the Garage but without any specifics I don't know if this is what you wanted.
(http://img302.imageshack.us/img302/1341/garagebg26hn.png) (http://www.imageshack.us)
I will start on an outskirt pic tonight.
Wow ... your perspective is totally off.
Thank you for your comment, if you know whats wrong, could you try to help???
Hmm... Could you try to add some shadowy effect, for example under the desk, the red "toolbox" thingy and the shelf. And maybe try to make the city outside the windows a bit darker. But other than that i looks good :)
Looking forward to seeing the outskirts pics :)
(no crappy sprites from me today either)
Thanks vic0r. I did some shadows and here is a beginning thing for the outskirts what do you think??
(http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/818/garagebg29ne.png) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4237/outskirt8dm.png) (http://imageshack.us)
Well, look at this:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v424/zor/pp.gif)
This most important thing to remember that all the items in an object that are coming towards us, or pointing away from us will spawn off a single line, as you can see in this pic. ^^ Tutorial (http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/pp__tutorial303.zip).
The shelf in the top left also looks 1-dimensional (as if it's painted on the wall) -- it needs some depth right.
Thanks a lot Zor!!! That helps alot, it made the room look much better.
(http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4414/garagebg31tg.png) (http://imageshack.us)
That does look a lot better :) I like the shadow effect but the shadow by the red toolbox thingy should be going towards us instead of away from the box since the light are coming from the ceiling and not the left wall.
The outskirts pic looks good! :) Looking forward seeing it finished :)
Zor: The thing you called shelf is probably a (dont know the word in english) thing to pin notes and stuff on.
this bg is about done but I need some ideas for the forground beneeth the cliff (white area). This is all you Vict0r.
(http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/9898/outskirt4ff.png) (http://imageshack.us)
I have to say, I like the enthusiasm in this thread for the game, and Taffytom, your backgrounds have a lot of heart and character to them. They may not always have the perspective correct, as Zor LOVES to point out, but they have a lot of detail and creativity behind them.
Sometimes, I get real sick of seeing nit-picking posts that simply say "Perspective is Off" and nothing else. I'm glad Zor posted a picture explaining what he meant, but I feel those nit-picking posts stunt creativity instead of inspiring it. Taffytom obviously has some talent, let's spend time encouraging people and helping them overcome mistakes, instead of making the self-concious about their work.
Bt
It looks good! :) I think that if you made a grass plain or something in the white area, and maybe a couple of houses (not skyscraperthingys but houses). Looking forward to the finished product :)
i think you should put a small village or a small cul-de-sac in the white area.Or better still a herd of cows grazing.
Bigmac
I dont know what a "cul-de-sac" is but i dont like the idea of either a village since, correct me if im wrong, there arent usually villages in the outskirts of a city, or cows grazing(i dont really see why there should be cows there. no cows outside my town:P). But just try out stuff and see what turns out the best taffy! :)
I put a farm in the space how does it look????
(http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/2127/outskirt25yg.png) (http://imageshack.us)
Well... It looks kinda good, but now it looks like the cliff edge is just a big gravel road or something. And the farmhouses look a bit wierd. If you could try to give the cliff edge a bit more depth and give the houses a bit more right perspective. But other than that it looks good.
Vict0r
The idea about having a farm there is good, but i agree that the cliff edge don't look like a cliff edge anymore, and that the roofs on the farmhouses are very much out of perspective.
What I would suggest to make the cliff edge look like a cliff edge is to put a house or an animal partly behind the cliff edge. Other than that it looks very good ;)
Hows this????
(http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/8935/outskirt30ix.png) (http://imageshack.us)
Looks alot better now. Only thing you have to fix is the farmhouse roofs as they are still out of perspective ;) But again, it looks very good! :)
I think that was much better!!
But if I were you, I would also add something on the top right part of the farm area, partly behind the cliff edge. This would make the entire cliff edge look like a cliff edge. I kind of lost the perspective when I didn't look at the farmhouse.
Great work with the other bg's by the way ;)
Could Someone give me a hand? ???
Its good now! :) You should just add some depth to the farmhouse roof. What do you need a hand with? :P
Well I dont really know what else to do, I guess it must be done then!
At a glance, I do hope that there'll be some animating to that smoke in-game.
Well I dont do animation so Vict0r will have to find someone for that.
Damn. (sry i havent answered in a while) Could you try to animate at least? :)
Sorry! Not my cup of tea. ;)
You will have to ask around mate.
Taffy...I haven't heard from you in a while. How's it going. I was really looking forward so see how your work was going. It is really great. Plaese post some of your latest works (if you have any). I'm really looking forward to it ;)
Nice idea. You could really make something awesome here. Nice job on the bgs.
sorry for not postin in so long, my internet is down and I am currently at my great-grandmothers house so in a few days I should have internet again. So I will post something then.
Hi all. My new email address is
indyisking@yahoo.com
Thanks people. so whats up viktor?
I swear to holy god above ... people simply cannot read anymore.
Taffytom - directly above where you entered the text for the sig image is text that states:
NOTE: If you include an image in your signature, it MUST NOT be more than 600 pixels wide or 50 pixels high. Failure to respect this may result in your signature being removed.
Your sig is almost 3 times that height. Either fix it or remove it!
Is it just me or does that farm look a bit as if it were on a beach. Because of the sand. Ok, it's may not be sand, rather some kind of hay, wheat, what's it called... You could probably add some depth on it, or if it was windy and the field would animate, it'd be very nice.
Just ideas, can't say I was to know any better, but think of it...
BTW. I love the subject, maybe because I'm living a zombie period at the time. I've watched several zombie movies in a few weeks. Started with the Night of the Living Death:D