The Tanglewood (update: oct 18 2004)

Started by stuh505, Mon 18/10/2004 22:23:26

Previous topic - Next topic

stuh505

When Wistan accepts a dying fugitive's wish to deliver an item of great value, he has no idea that it will lead to the unearthing of an historical secret that will change his life forever.

Branded as an accomplice to the fugitive, Wistan sets out on a quest to find the mysterious recipient of his burden with little more to go on than a name.

The answers he seeks are hidden all around him, and danger faces him at every turn.Ã,  Everything seems to draw him deeper and deeper into the mysterious haunted forest known as the Tanglewood.Ã,  Does Wistan possess the determination and wit to succeed?Ã,  Play the game to find out...


What you will find
•   Original plot and expansive history of medieval game world
•   Original poetry, riddles, and rhymes
•   Mentally challenging word and logic puzzles
•   Fantastic colorful hand drawn backgrounds
•   3D rendered sprites and items
•   Numerous different character animations
•   Arcade style combat
•   Findable weapons and equipment
•   Character creation where individual strengths and weaknesses are chosen
•   Carefully selected musical accompaniment from real composers and musicians featuring such artists as Patrice Deceuninck, Faith and the Muse, and Cocteau Twins
•   A surprising conclusion with plans for a sequel
•   Ability to export character for use in the eventual sequel

What you won't find
•   Limited mindless fetch puzzles
•   Impossible to be a dead-man-walking
•   Enough direction and clues will be given so that completing the game should not necessitate a walkthrough for a determined player
•   No annoying MIDI music
•   No encouragement to engage in fights (no experience points)

Project start date: 12/03
Expected completion date: None yet
Accomplices: none
Progress report:

The plot and game history is basically all done (although subject to minor changes as I continue with the dialogue).  Basically I have a lot of background art to draw and then a number of characters to model, and then it should be smooth sailing.

Contact: sheinric(at)uvm.edu (hidden for webcrawlers)

Screenshots:







Barbarian

Some of the game features you mention are interesting, and the artwork you've shown so far looks amazing!  Good luck with your project, I look forwards to seeing the completed game in action.
Conan: "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!"
Mongol General: "That is good."

Blade of Rage: www.BladeOfRage.com

stuh505

Thanks.  I know what you're thinking --  puzzle, adventure, RPG, arcade...which is it?

The mechanics were chosen for a specific reason.

Mainly I want it to be an adventure game, but my definition of an adventure game is more of just a relaxed game where you can search around and find clues and use logic to put them together...not something where I'm wandering around aimlessly without direction, or find apuzzle with no logical solution.  It's going to be based around logic pure and simple...so if you need a walkthrough, it's because you weren't smart enough, not because you didn't happen to find the randomly hidden skull for example.

I only put in the RPG elements such as statistics, customizeability, and equippable useable weapons because I want the player to become attached to their character, and I find this only happens when you feel you have had a part in developing who the characvter is.  I don't feel this in KQ, but I do feel it in QFG.

Also, I don't want the magic items to just feel like worthless "plot" items..I hate that in a game.  But the player only values and respects items which help them in combat...so that's what I'm doing.

But just because there will be combat doesn't mean the combat has to be boring dice rolling like a typical RPG...I wantthere to be some skill involved.  And this is where the arcade comabt style comes into play...so combat (which won't be the focus) will be fun when it happens.

You also feel greater satisfaction when you defeat an opponent and you had a hand in it.  I have basically chosen every element out of what I think will satisfy the player the most...and that goes for the entire plot as well...I am trying to borrow the same kind of 3 act structure and thematic elements that make movies successful IMO.

So...hopefully you will all enjoy it.  It has gone through a lot of changes since what I was working on last year.

evilspacefart

man, that's nice. looking out for this one. ags rocks.

big brother

I like your style of backgrounds -- very moody.  It will be interesting to see what style you choose for your character art. One piece of advice: please draw your own title page background. You have the skills, leave the Hildebrandt stealing to someone else. :)
Mom's Robot Oil. Made with 10% more love than the next leading brand.
("Mom" and "love" are registered trademarks of Mom-Corp.)

eddy

Beside the graphics I found breathtaking, I am really impressed by the ambitions of the game!
Is it really possible to do some "Arcade Style Combat" with AGS ?
If it is, I really need to do it in an other game!

(And if I knew it sooner, I would have done it in my current developpment!)

Good luck!


fovmester

Those backgrounds are wonderful!

Is there any chance of seeing some characters?

Developer

Are the characters semi realistic? Like photos or something? Or is it 3D rendered?

stuh505

I am doing every piece of the artwork based on the most efficient method that will look the best.

I had originally planned to do the entire game in 3d, and have actually rendered 20 or so backgrounds in 3d already (which some of you may have seen)...but they were too time consuming (taking a minimum of 24 hours labor each), and I wasn't able to get the same kind of grandeouse effect that I can get from one of these hand drawn backgrounds that I can do in 1-10 hours.

The items and characters will be modelled and animated in 3d.  This is the only viable option because I can get a high level of detail in the items (many of which require visual inspection for clues so a high level of detail), and because the number of sprites in character animations will likely be in the thousands...in addition to walking animations, there will be animations for many interactions between characters and the game world, as well as all of the combat animation.   

I have made a few characters previously for practice, but I will be starting all over because since I picked this project back up I have much higher standards.  So, there are no characters completed at this time and I don't plan to start making them until the majority of the background art has been completed.

Here is a rendering of one of the items I made this afternoon:


fovmester

QuoteThe items and characters will be modelled and animated in 3d.  This is the only viable option because I can get a high level of detail in the items

I can see what you mean (judging from that extremely detailed amulet-pic)! :)

Great work!

I'm worried though that the characters will stand out off the backgrounds. Will they be modelled in the same style or will they be ultrarealistic?

splat44

Hi,

Those graphics are absolutely,

So far Stuh505 mention about arcade combat and character creation in "what we will find" and He also mention that No encouragement to engage in fights (no experience points) in "What we won't find"

Those areas seems to conflict each others.

Stuh505, Can you clarify that?

Vel

Woah! That art is absolutely incredible!
The game itself sounds interesting too, though I don't quite understand whether it will be an RPG, or like QfG.

stuh505

The characters will undoubtedly stand out...since one is in 3d and the other is drawn.  I don't see any way around this because I do not have the inclination, the patience, nor the skill at drawing sprites to do thousands of frame by frame drawings.

QFG is itself a combination of RPG elements into an adventure game...I liked how it turned out.  It will be less like an RPG than QFG is, because I'm not going to have all of those stats...any stats that you do have will be selected for at creation and remain static.  To describe it...think of QFG had a plot similar to Broken Sword...

I thought the combat in QFG could be improved because there wasn't much skill to it...the best strategy seemed to be to hit the "jab" button until the fight was over.  Instead of fighting in an arena like that, you'll be fighting in a side view like mortal combat and I'll try to have the fighting use a little bit more skill.

I know I just said I wasn't going to start on the characters yet...but...okay...I might as well.


Developer

What font did you use on the first screen shot?

Damien

Quote from: stuh505...No annoying MIDI music...
Annoying? MIDI format doesn't make music annoying or bad, repetition and weird noise does.


Anyway, good luck with the game, those screens and your item render look great.

Keebo

What font do you use on your banner? the one in the strange language?
Space Quest 2 Remake Coming Soon!

RaccoRVA

Dude! this is amazing. I would definatly go with adventure, puzzle type.
This is one of the best games that i have seen here. keep at it!

poc301


SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk