Heartland Deluxe (Ver 1.1 Available Now!)

[TheCheese33]

I really like the game. Nice work!

And by the way, if you're looking for voice acting, why not buzz the people of Valve? They have always supported the freeware community, so (though it sounds crazy) maybe a few of them would like to help. I know from their games that the voices are always top-notch, so I think it would be really cool to do so.

Also, what I think you should do is form one huge game, and maybe sell it. Put it on a CD (or DVD if nessacary). That way, you could make the backrounds at a higher resolution, add more music, more special effects, and more things to do in the game, without people ignoring the game because it's too big of a download. Although, you could make a CD AND downloadable version, for people who don't mind downloading the massive file size and for people with dial-up, so they don't have to deal with the massive file size. Also, I may be able to try and record voices. I don't have any experience in the field, but I could invest some of my money into a high-quality mic and give it a go. I've always felt like a freeloader in the community, taking games and not giving any in return. And, since I'm not a very good artist, coder, or script writer, I need to think of something to do, don't I? I could send you a sample that I record and you could decide for yourself. For pricing, I'd say $10-15 would be good. Especially for how scary and immersive your game is. I've seen blockbuster titles with worse quality!

Before I say anything else, I would just like to assure you that I am not being sarcastic. If I remember correctly, there was a little misunderstanding last time we met.

Also, I would like to add that you could also go the way that the people at TellTale Games have, releasing episodic content for a low price. Or, maybe not for this kind of game, since continuing it for 100 episodes would be a stretch of content, wouldn't it? This game freaks me out, too. And honestly, besides the Yahtzee series, a game has never made me turn on all the lights in the house, blasting The Beatles through my small speakers, looking around anxiously to make sure no invisi-person comes to get me. I'm starting to sound like that insane guy now, aren't I?

I actually wrote this much? Incredible! I hope I didn't break a forum rule I forgot, for fear of Darth Mandarb. 

I should probably finish this one up, so thanks for making such a high-quality short game, and I hope to see any future work you pump out!
-TheCheese33

[LimpingFish]

Thanks for your enthusiasm, TheCheese33, I'm glad you liked my game.

When adding voices was first brought up I was pretty into the idea but, as both Nikolas and Rui said, maybe I should focus more on what I was going to follow up HD with (I'm working on it right now! ) rather than devote more time to a "finished" game.

I would certainly like to progress to a commercial game, episodic or otherwise, and I've a few ideas in the pipeline that might make the jump.

Thanks too for your offer to record a voice. I'll keep you in mind if the next game requires speech.

[Kweepa]

You may not have noticed that Heartland Deluxe is on mobygames:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/heartland-deluxe
Along with a bunch of other AGS games:
http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/adventure-game-studio-games
Time to get that company incorporated!

[LimpingFish]

I did indeed notice Steve, but I forgot to bring it to the attention of the community. Thanks for reminding (and for doing it for) me.

[prelubodey]

Hi
Thank's the site owners

[Maverick]

I hope there's some more!
The graphics are awsome!
Great work all round.

[Lee Newman]

 :o :'(

[Candle]

Hope you like it. was bored so made this for your game.

[LimpingFish]

Nice one. Groovy.

[Candle]

Thanks man.

[Fleshstalker]

Heh wrong post on wrong topic.

I should point out however that I downloaded the original version and the deluxe and that panoramic view is awesome.

[Ali]

This was a tiny burst of concentrated fun. I really enjoyed it, and eagerly anticipate the rest of the story.

I've played the Deluxe Version, does that version have an improved lock puzzle? I ask because I liked the lock puzzle a lot, but I wasn't sure if I played the controversial version.

[LimpingFish]

Thanks, Ali.

The lock puzzle was initially fairly random in version 1.0 of Hearland Deluxe.

People complained a bit, so I added the aural clue of the differing sounds representing "locked" and "unlocked" in the 1.1 version. Seemed to work a whole lot better.

Thanks again.

[proximity]

Congratulations LimpingFish.It's ver nice. I have couple of questions ?

- Did you use 3d Studio Max for background graphics ? If not, which 3d program did you use ? If you used 3d max, is it possible you used V ray for rendering ?
- Which light did you use in rooms ? I guess it's sun light but i'm not sure.

  Congratulations again. I like the game.

PS: I looked carefully, it's not sunlight sorry But it's photometric light for sure

[LimpingFish]

Thanks, Proximity.

To answer your questions:

I use Cinema 4D XL, which uses it's own proprietary render engine. You can learn more about it here.

The lighting is actually faked. I positioned one omni light directly in the middle of the scene, and adjusted it's fall-off until the light was distributed evenly to the entire room.

I then used a number of small keylights to simulate light bounce and such.
It's a very loose way to light a scene, but much quicker than using global illumination.

Plus I could adjust the various elements as much or as little as I needed, without the need to recalculate the lighting for the entire scene.

All the lights use soft shadows, to give a diffused quailty to the lighting and allow the light and shadow to blend nicely.

Hope this helps.

Thanks again. 

[proximity]

I understand. I don't know Cinema 4d's working order, in 3d Studio Max, you can simulate photon bounces with mental ray global illumination. So, you don't need to put small lights around the room. May be Cinema 4d has also plugin like that

[LimpingFish]

Yes, later versions of Cinema 4D offer such effects as standard, but I am limited to using an older version (6 XL).

The current version is R10. Expensive, though.

[proximity]

  Yeah very expensive I hope you can make some money from this game and upgrade your Cinema 4d to  latest version   By the way, my demo (Would you be my Lover ?) was published in Level Turkey and Electronic Gaming Monthly Turkey. Just like you Little advertisement You can also make your own in my topic