By the Numbers (OROW VI winner)

AJA · Wed 04/08/2010 15:19:35

Wow, thanks everyone! I guess I'll seriously have to think about how to make this thing feasible for a bigger game.

edmundito · Wed 04/08/2010 16:54:13

This is pretty outstanding work. It'd be super cool if made a behind-the-scenes video showing the composition of a particular shot from concept, shooting, editing, and then transfer to AGS...

Update: Wait, you did that! I should read whole posts more often...

Update 2: That video was great! Thanks for making that...

Snake · Wed 04/08/2010 18:10:38

AJA! Thanks for filming a "Making of" video. I just got done watching it - it was a lot of fun and very interesting!

I loved watching the filming of Lieutenant Timothy Orman's lines

AJA · Wed 04/08/2010 18:46:40

Thanks, guys! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Dualnames · Wed 04/08/2010 18:47:30

Also, the game is rated!
I added mine two days ago..and yours is one hour there or so and rated!

Thank god, the comment agrees with my Another-World thingie !!

AJA · Wed 04/08/2010 23:28:06

It's a conspiracy! :o

ddq · Wed 04/08/2010 23:31:37

I thought it was a really fancy game, indeed. With all the work that went into the motion capture and the script, I can understand the lackluster gameplay. Still, the behind-the-scenes video was really nice; it was good to see just how you managed to process all that dialog footage.

Anian · Wed 04/08/2010 23:35:55

Heh, leaving everything till the last moment? That's my kind of work ethic.

Jimbob · Thu 05/08/2010 09:50:43

Yeah, awesome stuff.
I was hoping that the 'signs' would be something related to the motion capture, like an arched eyebrow, twitch or similar sort of 'tell' whenever he was telling a lie or he was getting impatient.

That said, I did enjoy it. Good stuff.

On the first time people played it did you choose the Lieutenant's home address just because of that last bit of dialogue?
It caught me out...

Igor Hardy · Thu 05/08/2010 10:40:16

My PC is in pieces right now, but from the videos it looks amazing.

However, now you're bound to make another Another World, AJA. There's no escape.

qptain Nemo · Fri 06/08/2010 15:51:32

That was really impressive and enjoyable and not only because of the techonology but of interesting concept too. Though I did enjoy mocking chin motions of lieutenant. All in all, well done, victory well deserved.

But sadly I must admit that I didn't get the logic behind the choice of location.

AJA · Sat 07/08/2010 03:14:52

Thanks! Thanks a lot! You broke my internets, you hooligans... After five years, 20 GB transfer limit suddenly isn't enough.

Seriously though, thanks for your interest! 12 GB of game downloads and 8 GB of making of downloads. Makes me feel all special. But that'll probably wear off in a minute or so.

I'll see if I can get the limit increased next week. In the meantime, if somebody is willing to put their websites at risk and host a mirror, I'd be very grateful. I should probably try out some of the free upload services too. In any case, a working download link should appear by tomorrow.

Ryan Timothy B · Sat 07/08/2010 03:34:34

I can offer a temporary mirror for the game. I'll just keep it on my server for as long as you need it there.
~~By the Numbers - Mirror~~ Edit: Mirror has been removed.

I'd offer a mirror for the making of video, but I never did actually save it.

Darius Poyer · Sat 07/08/2010 06:26:26

The game is really beautiful. even though the writing and plot are not that interesting the animation really makes up for that in a big way.

I'm not going to say I want you to make more per say, but perhaps that the technology sure would be interesting if it was in an actual game as a dialogue mechanic. Although, after watching the making of video... for a larger project there must be a faster pipeline to get the vertex data in there just for your sanity's sake.

great work AJA, everything, the game, video, all good.

tzachs · Sat 07/08/2010 14:13:37

Awesome! Really impressive!
I wish I could see the video as well, damn that bandwidth!

AJA · Sat 07/08/2010 15:09:00

Okay, new download links and mirrors are up! Check the first post! Let's hope they last the rest of the month.

Thanks for the mirror, Ryan Timothy!

hedgefield · Sat 19/02/2011 23:29:24

I just got around to playing this game when browsing through the AGS Awards nominees, but man this game is great! I'm so glad to see someone try something new with (facial) animations, and it really paid off, for a game that primarily relies on dialogue the motion capture really took it to the next level. I hope we'll see more use of this technology in the future.

Concerning the gameplay,

Spoiler

I feel more could have been done with figuring out the location of 'number nine'. When the kidnapper dropped hints about the location being around the corner I first suspected it would be near or in the police station, and considering the adresses he already gave you the first thought that popped into my head was 'I gotta find out what the adress of the police station is!' A little map-based puzzle at the end perhaps would have really driven that point home, since you could pretty much rule out the two adresses the kidnapper named himself. But overall very well written! I loved the twist at the end.

[close]

AJA · Sun 20/02/2011 14:38:55

Thanks! And thanks to everyone for nominating By the Numbers for the awards!

Sadly, I haven't had time or energy to start a new project featuring this technology but it's just a matter of time. What I'm hoping for is to make it a bit more 3D-ish, allowing the head to turn and so on. Actually, I did some tests shortly after finishing this game and the head movement looks pretty good. I also found out that there's no way I'll be able to reduce the number of facial tracking points without sacrificing the overall realism of the animation. So, no way to reduce the workload. Plus, to make things a bit more complex, I would have to render a 3D face instead of a 2D one in AGS. Such fun.

Well, we'll see what happens once I'm finished with this.