COLLISION: Pater Proxima UPDATED 11/01/11

Derrick Freeland · Sat 04/09/2010 04:48:41

At long last ( $:-\$ come to think of it, it's only been a few weeks) I am ready to post my first game here. It's a sci fi thriller called: Collision (I wasn't sure if the GIGANTIC title graphic was legible enough.)

The Experience:
You will be playing a number of characters caught in the wake of a massive accident that takes place in a lift station (space elevator station ala 'The Fountains of Paradise' [Arthur C. Clarke]). As events unfold, you discover the true nature of the accident, and must deal with its repercussions.

The Screen Shots:

Game Play:
Collision is a traditional adventure game, but played through with scrolling profile. Rather than having a number of static images for the different areas, I'm making a few large areas that you'll get to explore (namely in and around the station). It's going to be light on puzzles, but heavy on character interaction and story.

Progress so far:

Writing 100
Design 100%
Areas 30%
Animations 1%
Sound 0%
Music 0%

I'm an AGS newb, so there's still a lot of stuff to work out, but I've got a working play through for the first area of the lift station. All the walkable areas & walk behinds are done, so if any one is interested, I can post some YouTube of a walk-through. Any comments or suggestions are very much welcome (hint: I really need to figure out how to get rid of the chunky pink line around my character).

UPDATE: Here's a link to a walk-through video for area 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D2-1KXurQ8

UPDATE: Here's some more footage of Area 1 with a new room attached and some new character animation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es9yrMQQrcU

Technocrat · Sat 04/09/2010 05:27:49

The pink line comes from the outer edge of pixels on your character being semi-transparent, and AGS filling in the rest of transparency with pink. Depending what you're using for drawing, there are a few ways you could get rid of it, from simply shaving off the semi-transparent area, to using alpha channels to make it partially transparent in-game.

It's a very nice concept though, I like the backdrops a lot! How much Clarke are you drawing on for inspiration?

david · Sat 04/09/2010 07:16:44

very nice, one point however, the guy looks like he is wearing crutches :o

Derrick Freeland · Sat 04/09/2010 13:08:17

@ Technocrat:

Thanks for the advice

. One thing I might try is making my animation frames much larger and put a black border around them. I think that would make the edges solid and get rid of the transparency. Do you think that would work? Otherwise, I'm not sure which img format to use that gives me an alpha channel.

As for the Arther C. Clarke thing, I'm only using the concept of the space elevator. My story's a bit more 'soft' science fiction than his work.

Buckethead · Sat 04/09/2010 15:35:29

You should delete the background and then save as .PNG. AGS should then ask you if you want to use the alpha channel.

Keeping an eye on this project!

Derrick Freeland · Sat 04/09/2010 22:26:41

Huzzah! No more pink chunkies. Using PNGs for the animation frames did the trick. I swear I tried that before, and it didn't work, but that was on my old computer. Seems to be working now.

Derrick Freeland · Sun 05/09/2010 03:50:46

In case you don't see it up top, here's the footage I mentioned before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D2-1KXurQ8

Chicky · Sun 05/09/2010 12:13:03

Looks fantastic derrick! I love the environment and camera angle. Shame he has a limp

Dualnames · Sun 05/09/2010 13:32:22

It reminds me a lot of Space Odyssey 2001 (the movie) though one could tell I'm wrong, but I just get the vibe from the backgrounds. And that is excellent. I look forward to playing it.

The footage is very impressive, but it begs for a better walkcycle. I'm sure you know that. Just force yourself to re-do it. I know how hard that can be.

Derrick Freeland · Sun 05/09/2010 13:50:50

Yeah, I'm working on the rest of the animations right now. That particular walk was the first one I did, so it's just placeholder at the moment. I spent a lot of time on it, so I keep trying to fix it (which is, of course, impossible $:-\$ ), so now I'm giving up on it and moving on.

COMING SOON:

Character portraits
More Areas
Non-Limping Characters!
And More...

Thanks for all the interest and support.

CaptainD · Sun 05/09/2010 15:15:35

Looks like a very interesting project, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

Igor Hardy · Sun 05/09/2010 15:40:01

Quote from: Dualnames on Sun 05/09/2010 13:32:22
It reminds me a lot of Space Odyssey 2001 (the movie) though one could tell I'm wrong, but I just get the vibe from the backgrounds.

All sci-fi remind you of Space Odyssey 2001, Dual.

But the style of the locations, with all the complex, abstract patterns seems indeed very interesting.

Kweepa · Sun 05/09/2010 17:55:11

Interesting... the backgrounds read much better in the video than in the still images. It's still a bit confusing where the up and down staircases meet, because I can't see the floor at all.
I had a peek at your website and I love your art style - I would much rather see the backgrounds in that style than in the cut and paste look you have here.

Derrick Freeland · Thu 09/09/2010 03:07:06

Here's a line up of the playable characters in the game.
They're all dealing with events that take place in the lift station Pater Proxima (more on this in my next post).

From left to right we have:

Roland Haste Roland is what he would refer to as an "Inter-Species Pharmacologist"; others would say "drug dealer". History will decide. Roland is in Pater Proxima to purchase a new drug from one of the locals.

Lydia Byrne Lydia is a peace-keeping officer/emergency responder at the lift station. Her job gets very complicated, very quickly after the 'incident'.

Imguay Imguay is one of the local colonists on Urdan Proxima. Imguay is selling a drug to Roland Haste, one that both of them are terribly misinformed about.

The Android This is one of the service droids in the station. This particular one plays into the story in a way that I can't reveal yet (I should leave a few surprises for the game

)

Porter Droid This is a porter droid. They carry luggage and other things around. Players will have one of these little fellows following them around at different points in the story for various reasons.

Dualnames · Thu 09/09/2010 03:15:15

IT LOOKS SUPER GREAT! I barely post twice on a GIP expressing the exact same feeling, unless I get too excited! I'm bloody waiting for it! Looks very imaginative!

Pixelton · Thu 09/09/2010 13:45:04

I agree, this really does look superb in design. Keep it up man.

Derrick Freeland · Tue 27/09/2011 19:29:10

Aaaaaaaaand I'm back.

For any of you who might have been following the production of this game, sorry for the delay. I'd like to say that I was abducted by aliens or inducted into some sort of goat-worshiping cult, but all I have is the usual excuses about school, work, life, blah blah blah... Anywho, production has picked up in earnest this time around. I've learned a lot more about working with AGS, and I have the game mechanics worked out for what the player experience will be. Also, there's some more footage up on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es9yrMQQrcU

You'll probably notice that the animation still sucks, but trust me, I'm hard at work on a worthwhile animation technique for the characters. At least he's no longer limping

About the game play:

My original idea was for the game to be a vehicle for the story, but I've come to notion that I would much prefer the story and game play to be one and the same. To this end the game experience will be as follows:

Players will choose a character from 4 character choices at the beginning of the game and play through the main story arc as that character. Apart from a few major events, the story will be primarily non-linear and experienced through interactive scenarios that the player comes across while exploring the game world. Each scenario that the player encounters will have a different outcome or 'solution' based on the character that they are playing. Mechanically speaking, the game will be somewhere in between an adventure game and an rpg. Players will run into the same types of puzzles you would find in a standard adventure game, but there will also be skills, skill combinations, and knowledge to use in making your way through scenarios.

I'll be putting up more video as these features develop. STAY TUNED...

Alarconte · Thu 06/10/2011 01:12:20

The game seems incredible, hope you finish it the way you liked, I will very forward to play and love it!

Grim · Thu 06/10/2011 02:27:31

I think the animation is all right.

But I have one word for you: PARALLAX..... It would look so fricking awesome with a touch of PARALLAX!

Also, make sure you speed up that chap's walking- it's a major turn off for a lot of people to have slow walking characters like that. Onec you've seen the animation and the backgrounds it gets really boring when you have to spend hours trying to get from point A to B. This is not what games are about.... unless someone makes a game called "A Sunday Afternoon Stroll in the gardens while Nothing is Happening".....

Seriously. I'd say double the speed.

Derrick Freeland · Thu 06/10/2011 18:58:45

Yeah, parallax would be freaking sweet (that was my original plan), but I don't think I have the technical hoo-hah to pull it off. As for the walking speed, I'm going to try to fix that with future animations. For that particular animation, it was only speed that didn't give me serious glide issues. But, yeah, he walks painfully slow.