Deja Voodoo - work in progress

[vurt]

Deja Voodoo

The Story

Set in the Monkey Island universe (but in the present day), Balthazar Marley is a lowly graduate working as a technician at a research facility in the Caribbean jungle. His company's been working on ways to make consumers more consumptive but there are stranger forces at work than anyone realises...

Some screenshots

I'm not sure what people are going to think of the approach I'm taking at the moment... this may change but it's the way I'm working around my lack of artistic skill...







Development Progress

Part 1:
Story: 100%
Graphics: 30%
Scripting: 50%
Sound/Music: 0%

Rest of Game:
Story: 75%
Graphics: 0%
Scripting: 10%
Music: 0%

Development Diary
Things are progressing nicely. The first couple of sprites are all but done and I'm hoping to have a demo of the first few screens up within the next few weeks.

[ciborium]

No problem with your use of graphics, my beef is with your character's name.

A complex Babylonian/Persian name like Balthazar with a simple western name like Marley?  (Well, at least you shortened it from Belteshazzar!)

I know you're trying to make a tie-in with Elaine Marley so we'll leave that alone, but why don't you try a two syllable name like (in keeping with Balthazar,) Balto, Balta, Hazar, or Hasgar  Or, use a western name in the same idea as Elaine, Stanley, Herman, LeChuck, or Carla.  You did say present day, right?
 

[vurt]

Yeah, I'm not completely sold on the name either... I just wanted something slightly unwieldy as his first name (he'll have a nickname, but still). Thanks for the advice - I'll try to come up with something better

[ciborium]

Are you going to recycle MI sprites as well?

Given that you said you artistic talent is limited, you may be able to give your game your own feel by modifying the MI sprites by changing clothing color, hair styles, and/or using an obscure NPC as EGO.

Then you could keep the MI flavour and make an original character without drawing him from scratch.

[CaptainBinky]

I don't think your graphics are an issue... or your character name. Name them something you're personally happy with and go for it, I say.

Make the game cool, make the story cool, and you're sorted. Hell, let's be honest, Guybrush Threepwood isn't exactly a perfectly normal name either. Call your character Beltbum Weethrush for all I care - I'm not going to judge your game on the basis of your character names!!! 

Sounds interesting! Keep it up!

Cap'n Binky

[Fapster]

It looks good from here!  One thing that hits me strange though is that it just doesn't look like Monkey Island!

Okay, not really, the thing that gets me is the seating in the cafeteria.  It looks too polished for Monkey Island and looks more like something you'd see in DOTT or something.  Needs more gritty.

Other than that, you just got me excited about the MI universe again.

The visuals look great, that tunnel scene is ABSOLUTELY ripped from MI2, I love it.

The name is fine, you can always shorten it down to something smaller.  I am a bit disappointed that he doesn't have Mr. Threepwood as his last name, but I guess I can get over it, I mean, Mr. Ballhandler Marsupial can always be a swashbuckling - something or another.

Good luck though, I hope this game turns out great.  Always here to support anything MI related.

Edit:  Actually that gets me thinking... Is this a lovechild of Threepwood and Elaine Marley?  Or is it another branch from ol' HT Marley's younger days as a crazy old pirate...  Hmm..

[monkey0506]

Just so long as his last name isn't "Monkey" I'm okay (there's actually a rather disturbing story I read once about Timmy and Elaine...I'd rather not talk about it ).

Aaaaaaannnnyyywwwaayyyy....it sounds like an interesting perspective. I'd like to see a demo, any word as to when we'll see one? (I r n00b! )

Can't wait to see that demo!

[vurt]

Thanks for the interest - I've been in two minds about the graphics, veering between carrying on down this path or trying to do completely new backgrounds from scratch. What I'm finding is that I'm learning a lot from tweaking existing stuff and hopefully by the time I've finished this game I'll be a lot closer to being able to do something decent under my own steam.

As for all the MI-related mythology questions - the answers should be contained within the game (though not all in the demo) so I won't give anything away now - save to say his last name won't be "Monkey"

Edit: A few notes about the MI universe and how it relates to my game

1. This is in the Monkey Island universe but many years after the original games so you won't find lots of old characters floating around (although descendants are another story).
2. The main character isn't a pirate.
3. Very few buckles will be swashed (at least in the demo).
4. LeChuck isn't the bad guy.

What I'm hoping to keep is the spirit and style of the original games (plus lots and lots of voodoo). Hopefully what I'll keep is the adventure, humour, horror, islands, puzzles and, of course, monkeys.

The demo's still on track and should hopefully be done in a couple of weeks so you should see what's going on then.

[fovmester]

Call your character Beltbum Weethrush for all I care

Hey I like that! Beltbum Weethrush... It's got a certain ring to it!

[ciborium]

And it's still a two-syllable two-syllable name.

[CosmoQueen]

I gotta agree witht he others. While everything else looks perfect, the name doesn't exactly fit. Maybe you could either change the first or the last. Just a suggestion

[calacver]

Looks great, don't mind the bgs at all!