Chapter 1: The Book, the Box and the Key
Story:
Jeffrey Carter leads a happy though uneventful life: he has a good job, a beautiful fiancée and enough money to plug some micro states’ tax holes. All told, things couldn’t go better for him. Until he gets a mysterious message from his estranged sister that is. Flying across half the world to find some answers and to rekindle with his once close sibling, he gets himself into the adventure of a life time instead.
(http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4600/fcotw6.png)
Chapter 1 Coming 2010!
(http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/6599/fcotw1.png)
Lots of questionable retro-ish MS Paint art in all its 320x200 glory
(http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4963/fcotw2.png)
Meet a number of quirky characters of various degrees of helpfulness
(http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8711/fcotw3.png)
Solve head-scratching puzzles that will probably make your brain melt
(http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/4843/fcotw7.png)
On your epic quest you will travel to many interesting locations
Progress Chapter 1 (Updated):
Story 100%
Puzzle Design 99%
Backgrounds & Sprites 90%
Scripting 80%
Polishing 10%
Music & Sound 5%
With the backgrounds and most characters out of the way (for chapter 1) I am currently busy with scripting. I hope to have the game ready for beta-testing by early March. I will also need a musician for providing music and sound effects â€" I have added some temp tracks so far, but original music would be great.
For news about the ongoing development of FCotW and the upcoming release of chapter 1 you can follow my twitter @wbentoch (http://twitter.com/wbentoch). By the release of the first part I hope to have a website online with further information about the game and its development.
Update 01/10/10:
I am happy to announce that “Far Corners of the World†has now a musician: the talented DrWhite of Re-Agent Orange and Alpha Dog fame will provide the soundtrack! :)
In other news, the scripting is progressing well. We are currently going strong for a mid 2010 release. I am hoping to have a fully playable version soon. The rest of the time is scheduled for polishing the game to ensure the best experience possible when playing.
I am still looking for more beta testers. In particular I need native speakers for proof reading the English texts (both British and American English). I'll post these requests in the “Recruit A Teamâ€-thread soon, but if you are interested you can drop me a PM in the meantime!
Update 04/25/10:
I updated the description and screenshots of the project. The full title of the first game is "The Far Corners of the World - Chapter 1: The Book, the Box and the Key". Really long I know, but I quite like it. If everything goes according to plan this will be the first of a 5-part series. One chapter per year is the current release plan, but it might take longer.
Status: An alpha version of the game has been fully playable for some time now. It has most of the art and animations in place, but still lacks lots of polishing. Moreover I decided to add some locations that I first intended to cut for time reasons. But if I am doing this at all, I reckoned I better do it right. The new scenes really help the flow and add to the story, and one of them is quickly becoming my favourite location in the game.
So when will the game come out? Dunno, summer still looks good for a beta version with all the new screens, characters and puzzles integrated. Although there's a lot left to do, FCotW1 has come a long way from its inception and is slowly locking into its final shape. A release later this year should be a realistic goal.
The plot sounds intruiging, and the artwork looks great. Can't wait!
Is that a squirrel sitting on a snowflake???
Oh no wait, squirrels don't have pointy devil tails...
@ BlueCupCritic: Thanks for the kind words and your interest! I certainly hope the finished game will deliver.
@Mods: Very observant of you! Though a flying squirrel from hell might just fit into the story, who knows. ;)
Is that a pointy devil tail? I thought it was a fiery lightning bolt...
Anyway, I really like the graphics (especially the choice of colors) and the premise is very promising. However, the teaser of the head-scratching puzzle already makes my brain melt in fear.
How long will chapter 1 be?
What is the GUI? Is that monument in the first picture a reference to the statue from DOTT?
Looks lovely, can't wait! I'm not going to ask any questions, don't worry! ;)
@Ascovel:
Well yeah, it's supposed to be a tail. ;D You know, what has stopped me trying to develop an adventure game until now was that I totally suck at drawing. Still do, but I'm trying! I'm glad you still like the graphics.
Concerning the head-scratching puzzles: I love me a challenge in adventure games, but of course the puzzles still need to make sense and it should always be clear what you are attempting to do. Hopefully the beta-testers' feedback will allow me to fine-tune the difficulty.
Chapter 1 will be a medium sized game. About 20 playable rooms, several of them scrollable. It is mostly about setting up the story and the characters. Also, it's for me to learn what I can and can't do with AGS. :)
@ Cyrus:
I could now claim it was a clever, carefully planned reference, but in truth I didn't notice the resemblance until your post. But DOTT was one of my favourite old-school AGs, so it probably has influenced me subconsciously. The GUI is the standard AGS-GUI, repainted of course.
@markbilly:
You may ask questions anytime! I'm happy to answer them, as long as it's not about story or puzzle spoilers.
This looks AWESOME! Make sure there are loads of rooms.
Looks promising - you can almost feel the amount of care and man-hours that went into it.
And that's the beauty of homemade games - their flaws make them feel more individual, human and precious. The secret ingredient is love, and it looks like there's plenty of it here. :)
So good luck with the game, Wesray. I'll be looking forward to it!
@ Chicky:
Oh, I will!! Well, since the game is broken down in several parts (four or five is my current goal), the first chapter will be of moderate size. But there's more to come!
@Ilyich:
True, many hours of work have gone and will still go into making the game. Hope you will like the result!
Quote from: Wesray on Sun 13/12/2009 02:04:31
@Mods: Very observant of you! Though a flying squirrel from hell might just fit into the story, who knows. ;)
Excellent! Should make for a very interesting corner indeed! :)
First post updated with new screenshot and information about the progress of the game!
Looks really cool Wesray, it has that AGS feeling...
oh interesting
Sounds like an interesting premise.
Screenshots looks great too. I Particularly like the top one.
Looking forward to this. Good luck with it. :)
@miguel:
Thanks, I understand that as a big compliment. :)
@PuNKKoMmANDO77 & Find Therma:
Glad to hear you are both interested! If everything goes as planned the story & characters should be quite fascinating, in particular from chapter 2 onwards.
Regarding the uppermost screenshot, it is one of my most recent ones. So it hopefully means I'm getting a bit better at drawing. :D I plan to polish the backgrounds, animations etc. before the release and will hopefully further improve them. Also the hard work and practice will perhaps pay off in future games. We'll see... 8)
For the moment I'm really glad I've found a working compromiss between speed and adequacy. Speed is relative though, as I am still working days on a typical background. Hehe, persistence for the win!
Looks super cool. Really does. Like the earlier commenter said, you can genuinely feel the love. ;)
If you need any help at all please PM me. :)
@Goldfish:
Thanks a lot! Still looking for beta-testers and native speakers to look through my texts, so I am gladly accepting your offer. Will drop you a PM once the time comes! :)
Aces. Something about this one is deeply appealing to me, no idea why.
Status update on the first page! I also changed the description to fit chapter 1 better and added a new screenshot:
(http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/4843/fcotw7.png)
Everything is going well, better than expected even. Progress is slow but steady - can't neglect Real Life too much. :) My next update should be close to the game's release, hopefully in the not too distant future!
looking good, the scenery could uso some outlining or some shading, but i guess it works as a style beeing simple and all.
looking forward to this
Yeah, I want to keep the graphics simple, as there are lots of backgrounds and drawing isn't my greatest strength. I might still finetune them, but don't expect great changes.
Besides its praticability the art style of the game is also inspired by old SNES titles like SMW: bright colors, monochromic surfaces, little shading. But mostly, its easy to draw. ;)