The Marionette (02 November 2009: Final round of refinement)

auriond · Thu 16/11/2006 12:35:05

Minor update: I got bored with tweaking the game and decided the site lacks character art, so I did one of Martin, the protagonist.

http://themarionette.game-host.org/gallery/images/martin_full.jpg

Not that you see much of him in the game, since it's all in first person view.

Anyway the storyline is almost complete. That's a huge load off my back.

auriond · Fri 24/11/2006 13:29:34

New screenshot:

Do let me know if anything looks "off"... perspective is not one of my strong points.

thewalrus · Fri 24/11/2006 16:12:17

I don't know anything about perspective but the background looks awesome to me. All of your bg's look great to me! Keep up the good work!!!

i k a r i · Fri 24/11/2006 17:53:36

I think it looks very good!, very climatic.
I dont think much things can happen in such a small room though, and I would definetely make the text a lot smaller, and probably with another typography that goes more with the theme of the game.

auriond · Fri 24/11/2006 23:12:38

Hehe, I don't know anything about perspective either. But thanks!

It is a small room indeed, but I planned for the player to notice a few things here.

Hmm, yes, the point about the smaller font did strike me, but so far I haven't enountered any problems with fitting the text into the black bar at the bottom so I left it as it was. But I could change it when I'm done with everything else.

Do you think the font is not suitable? What would be a more suitable font for the theme of the game? I'm having trouble deciding on a good readable font to replace the default.

LimpingFish · Sat 25/11/2006 01:05:56

Looking very nice.

I like the muted colours a lot, and the story seems spooky.

I look foward to the demo.

auriond · Mon 04/12/2006 06:55:01

I'm looking forward to the demo too.

40-sec trailer posted - sorry that I didn't post it here earlier!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwiNFnISrdc

I'm hoping that the trailer will give you an idea of how the game's "cutscenes" and "movies" will work without animation.

Also, see the first post for a more detailed update.

[Cameron] · Mon 04/12/2006 07:39:38

Very neat. Love the look of it. Really dig it. Cant wait for the game to come out.

auriond · Sat 30/12/2006 01:33:12

Added a new screenshot to the first post, as well as a link to download a track from the soundtrack.

The new screenshot shows actual interaction with a character. The characters are not animated, so yes - in effect you are talking to a static image.

thewalrus · Sat 30/12/2006 15:08:56

Looking really good, Auriond!!! I'd like to wish you continued good luck on your project!!!

Peder 🚀 · Sun 07/01/2007 22:12:40

Again this is looking really good!!

I listened some of the tracks and I must say I love it!

.

Looking forward to the demo!

Peder.

auriond · Sun 07/01/2007 22:53:22

Thanks everyone

I've been swamped with real-life work, and it should take about a couple weeks for me to clear the stuff coming my way before I can get back to seriously working on this. However I am trying to do a tiny little bit each day

Stupot · Sun 14/01/2007 03:01:11

This looks really good... one of the sleekest looking games I've seen on AGS so far... I can't wait to play it.

auriond · Sun 14/01/2007 03:12:53

Thank you Stupot. I'm actually working on it right now as we speak.

My next update will be the demo, so until then I'll resist posting in here, and spend more time game-making.

auriond · Fri 19/01/2007 14:17:09

The demo, as promised.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=842

It's very, very rough. The open doorway in the living room doesn't work in the demo.

Tip: Move your cursor to both sides of every room - sometimes you can turn around or exit the room.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Fri 19/01/2007 15:38:02

Hmmm, could you choose one from these next two suggestions?

1) When text is displayed, hide mouse cursor OR use an "idle" pointer.

2) Make text behave more like the text in, say, LEC adventures, where text will disappear with time but you can still interact around.

I would find it a bit more appealing, especially 2).

Stupot · Fri 19/01/2007 16:40:32

Wow wee.Ã,Â Great Demo.
I didn't really notice a problem with what Rui said but one thing I did have trouble with was...

Spoiler

...reading Alice's diary.Ã,Â The text was very small, I think as well as having it in the inventory box, you should also have the text in the area at the bottom of the screen and the user can just click through the paragraphs.

[close]

I cannot wait for the full version... any idea when it'll be ready?

LimpingFish · Fri 19/01/2007 20:14:38

I was very impressed with the overall mood and atmosphere of the demo. Reminded me very much of the work of Cing, as well as the Silent Hill series of games.

I like the sedate pace of exploring the house, and the music adds a lot. You've said that the demo is rough, and I'm sure some you're planning some technical tweaks so I won't comment much on that side of things.

Although I've learned that getting text to display the way you want it to in AGS can be a little cumbersome.

One small problem, though. I didn't realise I could "look behind" me in the rooms until I clicked at the corner of the screen. Maybe having an arrow appear when the player moves the cursor to the edge of the screen would help.

Otherwise, really nice work. I'm looking foward to the finished game.

Peder 🚀 · Fri 19/01/2007 22:26:10

YAY!

Downloading!

My comments will appear here: FANTASTIC!!

This was really impressive!
This will for sure be one of my favourite games!
(one thing I noticed was that I managed to get over 10 points. last time I checked I had 14 and still had things left to do then!)

Spoiler

The door puzzle was fantastic!
With the "letter game" and how the mannequin? was giving you the numbers for the lock! fantastic!

[close]

I looking forward to the full game!
And this is just fantastic!!

Good luck!

- Peder

auriond · Fri 19/01/2007 22:56:51

Thanks, all of you, for trying it out.

This really is a very buggy version, but I thought in a way you could all be my beta testers and help me find all the problems in the game, which I can address all in one shot (or close to one shot).

Rui: Your first suggestion will be implemented in ver.2 of the demo if we can do it. However, I have no clue how to even start doing the second feature you mentioned... I'll ask the others if they know how to do it. It's our first AGS game and we're still learning the ropes.

Stupot:

Spoiler

Martin will read it out if you click the eye icon on the pages of the diary. At the end of it he will add in his opinion... this will happen throughout several other texts he will read, and I implemented points for it. How do you think I can make it more obvious/easier for people to realise they need to click the eye icon on the texts? Or should I make it totally easy for them and make the text appear automatically?

[close]

LimpingFish: I've got that same reaction from several people already - I'll be implementing the arrows in the final version of the game. In the meantime I mentioned everywhere where I put the game up for download, that you should always move your cursor to the edge of the room to check if you can turn around.

Peder Johnsen: Looking forward to your reaction

edit: Stupot asked when the finished game will be ready... I honestly don't know. However we can estimate somewhere around the end of this year or beginning of the next. It all depends on how busy I am and whether I can do the graphics fast enough, because I'm the only one doing that, whereas the scripting's done by several people.

edit2: made a games page for it: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=842