Stranger At Midnight - Upd: 29 July 2005

fivetrickpony · Sun 14/11/2004 17:08:17

STRANGER AT MIDNIGHT

Story
This is the sequel to "Stranger By Night". Two years have passed since Katrina's encounter with The Stranger; an encounter which almost left her dead. Having quit her job at the New York Times, Katrina finds herself working for a small, local travel magazine. When her editor asks her to review a quiet, isolated island resort, Katrina is more than happy to oblige.

However, things take a turn for the worse when Katrina finds out that her ordeal with the Stranger is far from over. Now trapped on an island with no way out, Katrina must once again do battle with the deranged serial killer who's trying to finish the job he started two years ago.

Features

An adrenaline-pumping storyline to keep you on the edge of your seat
Solidly developed characters with a wide and deep backgrounds
Multiple endings for replayability
How you treat characters will change the outcome of the game
Cut-scenes done in horror comic book/graphic novel style
New Lucas-Arts based GUI to remove the pixel hunting problem in the first game

Screenshots

newest screenshot: Katrina's second outfit!

Other Screenshots Here

Updates

29 July 2005: Short update. I just finished coding some really cool dialogue. I'm excited about the amount of dialogue in the game. So far it's just the first two conversations in Act One, and I've already reached 400 lines of conversation so that's exciting. (by comparison, in Stranger 1, the total amount of conversation [ie, Katrina actually speaking to another character] was about 20 lines .... shocking I know) I'm discovering that dialogue is an excellent tool for fleshing out characters, and hopefully I will be successful in giving each NPC their own personality. I've also implemented a little 'Nice/Rude' system, wherein being nice or rude to characters reveal different consequences - sometimes minor, sometimes major. It's tedious to code but it's also kinda fun.

09 July 2005: I've just finished a second set of sprites for Katrina. It was something that wasn't really necessary but I thought it would be cool for her to have a costume change in the game so she wasn't wearing the same thing the whole time. Now that that's done I can continue working on the core elements of the game again. Woo!

25 Apr 2005: Added a new screenshot of the (revamped) introduction cutscene. I didn't like the how the first one looked so I changed the style a little.

21 Apr 2005: Prologue now 100% complete. Had a crap ass time trying to code a textbox GUI, am glad I finally figured out how it works.

20 Apr 2005: Back!! Sorry for the disappearance. The game is far from dead. The Prologue is now 95% done, which leaves me with Act I and Act II to finish. AdventureDevelopers.com has been kind enough to provide hosting, so you can find the official FiveTrickPony website at http://fivetrickpony.adventuredevelopers.com

17 Nov. 2004: Added two screenshots. I'm developing the game one part at a time. The opening cutscene/introduction is finally completely done, graphics, scripting and sound. The game will be divided into three distinct parts (Prologue, Act I and Act II) and right now the prologue part of the game is about 35% done, so long more way to go towards a finished product. I've finally managed to make my own Save/Restore GUI, it was a lot harder than it looked (I'm kinda dumb that way) but I'm happy with the way it turned out.

14 Nov. 2004 : The game is still pretty far from done, but I feel that I have done enough to comfortably post a thread here, and I hope to get it done soon, but there's no estimated release date since I have lots to do. There are lots of changes from the first game - as you can see, Katrina has a new sporty look, and also, there's a new interface that will hopefully remove some of the problems and complaints people had in the first game about how they had to do pixel hunting. I have most of the story mapped out with some minor kinks to work out and puzzles to put in. I'm really excited about this sequel and I hope that you guys are as well. Peace!

Snarky · Sun 14/11/2004 17:26:07

Neat-o!

I look forward to playing the sequel. If you need beta testers at some point, I'd be up for that.

fivetrickpony · Sun 14/11/2004 18:11:25

Thanks, Snarky, I'll definately let you know once it gets to that point.

qptain Nemo · Sun 14/11/2004 20:00:11

Oh, I liked your Stranger by Night game! So I'm looking forward to play your game too! And if you wish I also can beta-test it.
Good luck. I recomend you to make more interesting characters in game. Keep working.

fivetrickpony · Mon 15/11/2004 10:41:08

Thanks, Nemo, I'm definately going to add deeper characters and develop them more.

fivetrickpony · Wed 17/11/2004 13:12:07

More screenshots:

This screenshot is that of Katrina's office at the travel magazine she works for.
A small portion of the game will take place in the magazine's head office before
the main plot takes over, as a sort of an introduction to the game.

A snapshot of the opening cutscene, I've tried to make it look like a mixture
between some old film noir story combined with the feel of a handpainted comic
book, trying to keep in style with the cutscenes from the first game.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Thu 18/11/2004 01:12:57

The cutscenes look good. Is it just me or has her breast size improved significantly from the original

fivetrickpony · Thu 18/11/2004 05:07:43

LOL

Lots of things can happen in two years

qptain Nemo · Thu 18/11/2004 19:31:27

Well, that's really good emprovement.

Make it interesting, interactive (by the way, it was good that in SbN she was patiently examining and commenting house things while escaping from Stranger

).

fivetrickpony · Fri 19/11/2004 06:41:04

Yeah, and not to mention she takes a leisurely stroll all over the house instead of running.

That was one thing that bugged me but making a run animation would have looked weird in an adventure game like that, since she would be running, stopping to look at something, running again...

There is going to be more interactions this time around, I'm going to try to make all objects and rooms as detailed as possible.

Seba · Fri 19/11/2004 15:36:47

Yes that stranger game looks very good... By the way I played stranger 1 and it is very good and ""thril"" I hope to those serial killers dosent come from here to my house!! ... And stranger 2
looks very promising... Good work I say

qptain Nemo · Sat 20/11/2004 12:27:59

Did you make soundtrack by yourself? Anyway it was very good. I wonder why death music is from Bestowers of Eternity? But the best of all I liked music when talking with dying girl. Make music in sequel as good as in SbN!

fivetrickpony · Sat 20/11/2004 14:08:57

Hi, no the soundtrack in the first game was not made by me, I downloaded various MIDI files from the web. For the sequel, Scorposer was kind enough to offer to compose some music, so that's gonna be really good. I also composed a short track I planned to use in the sequel but I'm not sure if it's gonna be in it yet.

Thanks for the interest and I hope the second game does not disappoint!

qptain Nemo · Sat 20/11/2004 20:50:21

Quote from: fivetrickpony on Sat 20/11/2004 14:08:57
Hi, no the soundtrack in the first game was not made by me, I downloaded various MIDI files from the web. For the sequel, Scorposer was kind enough to offer to compose some music, so that's gonna be really good. I also composed a short track I planned to use in the sequel but I'm not sure if it's gonna be in it yet.
Thanks for the interest and I hope the second game does not disappoint!

I figured that.

Well, I hope music'll be as good as in first part or better.
May I have some demo-tracks?

fivetrickpony · Sun 21/11/2004 09:56:32

The music tracks aren't done yet, though

Maybe when Scorposer is done he'll let you have a sneak peek...

Queen Kara · Mon 21/03/2005 02:12:20

Gaaaaame. Ommmm.
( I can't wait to play it! woohoo! ...ack I still haven't finished the first one.... but it looks like it will kick butt! )

Abisso · Wed 23/03/2005 10:40:19

The game sounds cool, but I need to say that the way the char fits with the background is HOOORRRRIBLE!

I suggest you to blur it a bit, at least. (but the problem is also her graphic style).

vpresrufus · Wed 23/03/2005 17:06:56

looks sweet. wish i cud do graphics like that:P

the character does look a little too bright for the background however

fivetrickpony · Wed 20/04/2005 18:16:37

Finally updated! I moved recently and lost internet connection, but thankfully I'm back now. The Prologue of the game is 95% done, so that means I'm roughly about 1/3 through with the game, still a long way to go. AdventureDevelopers provided nice hosting facilities for me (Thank YOU) so the official website is at http://fivetrickpony.adventuredevelopers.com
Some of the site is not complete yet, excuse the broken links that you may come across .

Thanks to all those who have been interested in the game. I know the graphic style has turned off a few people but I kind of like the graphics this way. I don't know why

I've uploaded a new screenshot of Katrina in the office with a Tech Guy

It's in the first post of this thread.

Thanks again!

Nine Toes · Wed 20/04/2005 21:46:15

I think the graphics look great they way they are. They're detailed, yet somewhat comic-book-ish, and simple.

BTW, very nice work, this sounds like an interesting game. I know I'll be waiting for it.

Keep up the good work.

~Hyde