The Affair at Northbank

[KingMick]

So now that I found a place to host this huge sucker, it's time to promote it...

A very small demo is now available, the link is at the end of this post after the game info--please give feedback, it is my main reason for posting this here!

"The Affair at Northbank" will be my first AGS game.  Since I never like to do anything halfway, I am making it as good as I possibly can.  As a result, when it is finished the final product will probably be between 150 and 200 meg (and I thought I was having trouble finding a host for the demo...)

GAMEPLAY: I wanted to combine the best of two types of interfaces I always see in adventure games--the "King's Quest" 3rd-person style and the "Myst" 1st-person style.  The Affair at Northbank (A/N for short) is set in first-person but has a verb-cursor interface like King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, etc.  The cursor bar is located at the bottom of the screen.  When you have the "Go" cursor selected, the game operates like Myst, Riven, etc. in that the cursor changes its appearance based on where it is on the screen (i.e. turn left arrow, go forward arrow, etc.)  I'm telling you this so you won't get confused :-).  The cursor bar is down at the bottom of the screen rather than the top like the old Sierra games--somehow the bottom just seemed to make more sense for a 1st-person adventure.

STORYLINE: The storyline is based entirely on an old book-and-paper Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure I used to play with friends as a kid.  That adventure, for those interested, is called "Wizard's Challenge" and I have no idea if it can still be purchased.  Set in a fantasy universe similar to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and other similar stories, A/N is the story of a town which was founded by a famous Guild of Wizards.  When the leader of the Guild was banished from its tower, the rest of the Guild slowly crumbled and is now nonexistant.  Years later, the town is being plagued by the appearances of a strange, ghostly figure promising immortality...and killing anyone who refuses the offer.  Your character is a young apprentice mage who came to Northbank searching for the Guild.  When you learn how it has been disbanded, you end up staying to solve the mystery of the "Ghost Prince", a story closely tied with the old Guild history...

FEATURES:
*800 x 600 resolution
*Pre-rendered 3D graphics
*A face-making system so you can customize what the main character looks like.
*An interface that combines the best of traditional 1st-person and 3r-person adventure games
*Random background music while navigating the town, and specific music for apropriate parts of the game
*A very limited "combat" system
*Extremely nonlinear play--nearly all problems can be solved in more than one way, and there are several different paths to the end.
*A skill system reminiscent of games like "Quest for Glory".  Most puzzles can be solved either by use of an advanced skill, a special item, a spell, etc. etc.

OK, so that was all the promo stuff :-).  All that I am currently making available right now is atiny portion of the game ENVIRONMENT.  Please note before you download this that this is really not a game or even a game demo--it is a demonstration of the graphics, interface, face-maker and music that will be employed in A/N.  As you move around the town, you will find that there are many places where it looks like you can go, but when you click there, nothing happens.  This is because I have only included four or five locations in Northbank, since this file was already getting pretty huge.

The Face Maker is still buggy--the robes won't change color for some reason, I'm still trying to figure that out, and you cannot enter your character's name yet.  Once you pass the FaceMaker you will enter the game environment.

I really really *really* want feedback!  My main reason for submitting this is that I want to know what you guys think of the music, the interface, the graphics, etc.  I want to know that the game environment is going to be a good one before I make the full game.  Please feel free to offer both compliments and criticism.

Downloading instructions: In order to download this, you will need to download each file separately.  Sorry, it's the only way I could get it to work.  Also, the host I'm using apparently will not take exe files so I had to rename them .ex1.  After you download the two .ex1 files, rename them with the .exe extension and they should work.  NOTE: You do not need the music.vox file to play the game of course, but I picked the music out carefully and I think the environment really suffers without it.

Northbank.ex1 (10 MB)
winsetup.ex1 (48 KB)
acsetup.cfg (nil)
music.vox (15 MB)

Clicking the above links SHOULD download the files, let me know if it fails.

Whew, that was a lot of typing.  Looking forward to your feedback.

--Mick

[SSH]

a) I'd think that screenshots are not quite so important when there is actually a demo available, although yes it would be nice
b) you could help him by capturing some yourself, FlukeVillaAvonSurvilan
c) There are 5 stages of n00bdom:

1. Ask lots of stupid questions that show that you haven't read the forum rules or Beginners FAQ
2. Develop a persuecution complex when the moderators tell you off
3. If you haven't left in a huff, realise your mistakes and learn from them
4. Overcompensate by pretending to be a moderator and telling everyone else off for the things you did wrong yourself the previous week
5. Finally become a normal member of the community

just one stage to go!

[What a loser.]

Well not every one wants to download a massive demo just to see if this game looks worthy enough?

Just put up some screenshots, its the rules.

[SSH]

And having tried, probably they CANT download it...! It seems broken for me.

KingMick, why not try using the upload space mentioned here in: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=7920.msg260594#msg260594

also, I suggest that you ZIP your game before uploading it, that way you can bundle all the files in together and reduce the size! AGS games tend to compress a lot.

Alias, I know the rules, but obviously a game where there is something available should get a bit more slack than just someone saying "Hey, I'm making a Monkey Island fangame and I need a coder, artist, musician and story writer"

[KingMick]

Heh...yeah I guess I assumed screenshots were not needed if the demo was provided.  However, Alias has a point and I will post a few screenshots shortly.

SSH--the host I'm using wouldn't let me do ZIP files :-(.  Are you sure the links are broken?  I tested them myself and they worked fine...

Screenshots will be up later today.

--Mick

[Darth Mandarb]

I don't think the speed limit on I-95 is necessary.  I can provide a detailed explanation of why it's not necessary.  BUT if I don't obey it, I get a speeding ticket.

[ moderator ]

KingMick - yes, upload screenies ... soon.  Because your first post is so detailed I will, as SSH said, give you some slack.

Even with so much detail provided I'm not likely to download something without seeing what the game looks like first (the screenshots).  That's why the rule exists.  It's not a rule for the sake of being a rule, it's designed to specifically help you generate more interest in your game.

FlukeBlake - Your post was deleted because I told you before to stop acting as my proxy.  You said nothing about the game.

The #3 rule of posting here:
3. If you're not a moderator, don't pretend to be one. If a thread needs to be moved or locked, the moderators will deal with it.

[ /moderator ]

The game sounds very promising indeed!  I like the face generator idea.  This is something I thought about doing years ago when my brother and I were giving serious thought to going into game developement (but that's a whole other story!)

I love the D&D setting and the random music and non-linear nature sounds very appealing!

Good luck with the game!

[KingMick]

I'll have the screenshots up later today.  BTW I just clicked those links to test what SSH said, and I'm getting an error page about bandwidth error or something like that.  Says it'll be fixed within 12 hours so I'll try again then.  In the meantime it looks like the files will be unavailable for at least 12 hours--but as I said, if nothing else I will have some screenshots up later.

--Mick

[KingMick]

The links up top work now.Ã,  I guess my host was having some kind of trouble which is now fixed.

All right, here are the SCREENSHOTS.Ã,  Please remember if you download the demo (via the links in the first post of this thread) that you need to rename the .ex1 files as .exe.






Any feedback would be much appreciated!

--KingMick

[SSH]

Not working again: I guess you have a very low bandwidth limit on that account which you have exceeded. The pictures are broken too...

[CoffeeBob]

Not working. A small piece of advice, use photobucket.com for screenshots and xthost.info as a secondary host for the demo.
BTW, The game sounds very promising. Can't wait to try out the demo.

[KingMick]

Uggg, this is ridiculous.  The links work, then they break, then they work, then they break.  I could see the screenshots before, but then later SSH couldn't, and now I can see them again.  Largo, I'll take your advice.  Hopefully soon I won't be having these problems.

[SSH]

Ooh, I actually managed to see some screenshots now and they look great!

Quick, I'll try and d/l the demo! yup, got it!

EDIT:

Well, its a good start and not many ppl have done 1st person AGS games. Your right-click doesn't inlcude the walk verb as part of its cycle, which is a bit of a pain, and I couldn't find anything to interact with, just walk around.

Also, the face maker is excellent, needs a bit of refinement  but was fun. The cursor should be a generic arrow there or "select" or something rather than "look", though.

And if you zipped the file and renamed it to .zi1, your file would be about 65% of the size and thus use less bandwidth and your site would stay up longer!

Did you design Northbank village by yourself? Looks good!

[KingMick]

SSH--thanks for the info!  Ironically, I now cannot see the screenshots anymore.  I am definitely getting a different host.

Thanks for the note about the cursor in the Facemaker.  I hadn't noticed that bug, though I have noticed a few others--for example the robe-changing aspect doesn't work which is frustrating.

The right-click doesn't include the walk verb?  That's annoying.  I have no idea how to fix it though.  Anyone have any ideas?

Yes, right now you cannot interact with anything, just move around.  BTW I forgot to mention in the features the transitions--if you go to the Control Panel (The A/N button does it) then you can adjust the transition level.  "None" gives instant transitions from room to room, "Quick" uses Dissolve, and "Quality" uses Cross-fade.  Just one more page from the Myst book (pun intended...)

Did I design Northbank village?  Yes and no.  The layout of the village is identical to that found in the map of "Wizard's Challenge", the book-and-paper adventure this is based on.  The graphics themselves were created by me using the free downloadable Map Editor for a game called Etherlords 2--a great RPG that for some reason almost no one has heard of or played.  So basically I put together the map on the E2 map editor and picked out the graphics I wanted for each building, in some cases combining several graphics to make the building unique, and then went through and took pictures of different parts of the 3D map.

When finished, Northbank will include at least the following:

Boatright, Zoo, Jewel Store, Herb Store, Cloth Store, Woodcarver, Inn, Blacksmith, Supply Store, 2 Warehouses, 2 Docks, 3 wizard's houses, Abandoned House, Haunted House, Mayor's House, Church.

And that's just the town itself--there will be several "outside" locations, including Old Northbank (the old poor section of town), a hermit's cave, the old Guild Tower, an alchemist's house, and a wilderness area.  As I said, when its done this will be a pretty hefty download.

Glad you like it so far!  I'll get a better host...

--Mick

[Ashen]

The right-click doesn't include the walk verb?  That's annoying.  I have no idea how to fix it though.  Anyone have any ideas?

That's because you've got the player character hidden in all rooms (it being a 1st person game) and AGS deactivates Walk mode in this case. You may have to use one of the other, unused modes for 'Walk to' - just be sure to check 'Standard Cursor mode' so it's included in the right-click cycle. Or, more simply, have a transparent sprite for the player, and un-hide them.

About the look mode on face maker thing - you can actually cycle through all the cursor modes, provided you're not actually on the Face Maker GUI. Maybe you should disable the other modes (or disable right-clicking) for that room.

It seems a little .. laggy ('jumpy' cursor movement, slow to respond) to me, but that could just be because I had other stuff running in the background. Apart from that, and the lack of interacts so far, it's a really nice looking demo.

[Jay]

Igreiga.org has a free hosting plan that should work well for you if you're still having problems.

[KingMick]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys!  Sorry I don't have more of a "game" yet but I wanted to see what people thought of the whole navigation system first.

The jumpiness happens on my personal laptop too--it's an issue of computer speed, it's not jumpy on my friend's computer which has a much faster processor.  That's why you can change the transition, type, btw--for slower computers use "Quick" or "None" transition type.

I'm going to change my host soon so that this is easier to download.  As for progress so far, I've finished all of the "rooms" for the area included in the demo now.  I still have to finish the rest of Northbank--it's not even a quarter of the way done--but once that's finished, the game itself will be about 50% complete.  Just building the environment is going to take the biggest amount of time.

Once I've finished the game environment I'll put out a real "game demo" which will probably cover all of Day One (the game is divided into fourteen days).  Day One will mostly involve getting acquainted with the town and its residents and becoming introduced to the mystery.

[KingMick]

Wanted to make a progress report and a request.

FIRST: The town environment is now about 33% done.  There will be other locations besides Northbank itself but since Northbank itself is much much larger than all of the other locations combined and is where most of the game takes place, this represents a pretty big progression for the development of the game.

SECOND: I'm looking ahead here and there are still some considerable graphics that I need, don't have, and do not have the tools to make.  So I am wondering if anyone is interested (or knows anyone else interested) in making and contributing some backgrounds for the game.  I could not pay, of course, but I would give you credit at the beginning of the game, so you'd get some publicity in return for your work (how much depends on how successful the game is).

Here's what I still need:

2D or 3D graphics for the interiors: twenty-something background scenes that would be the interiors of each building.  Only one or two of the buildings will be fully navigatable (is that a word?) 3d environments--most will be single scenes and I'm just as interested in well-rendered two-dimensional pictures / paintings as I am in quality 3D artwork.

Locations outside Northbank: Four major locations need to be built as 3d environments.  Each of these will need somewhere around 5-10 scenes, and they really need to be 3d graphics that are at least as good as those used for the town itself, to maintain consistency.

Is anyone willing, or does anyone know anyone else who would be?

--Mick