After a Shadow

[Canardo]

After a Shadow


Keith Night woke up in a gutter. Having no idea how he wound up down there, he had to trace his steps from last night so that he would be able to remember what he had been doing and most importantly, who  had thrown him in the mud like an empty box of cigarrettes and for what reason. But Keith had no idea of the events to come...

Features:
- A short comic noir -style of game in the vein of Grim Fandango and Discworld Noir
- Beneath a Steel Sky -GUI with some modified graphics, plugin by BuRRe
- Rain effects, plugin by Scorpiorus
- 3D-rendered background blended with hand-drawn sprites
- Original acoustic soundtrack composed and recorded by yours truly

Completion status:
Story: 100%
Graphics: 100%
Scripting: 100%
Music: 100%
Animations: 100%

The game should be out by the end of April, since I need to have some time to write the theoretical part of the thesis. Estimating by the progress I have made so far, the deadline is not going to be a problem. If someone is interested, the official development diary(The one I`m going to use as a reference in my work.) can be found here: http://afterashadow.blogspot.com. I will update parts of the progress reports here too. This is my first AGS-game that I will actually finish, so hopefully everything goes ok.

Oh and just to clarify things: The game has nothing to do with the short novel with the same title by T.S.Arthur 

It`s done. Expect to see the release somewhere after midnight GMT+2.

[Fleshstalker]

Looks interesting. I like the art direction.

[Stupot]

Yeh, This looks really stylistic, I can't wait to play it.
Good luck Canardo!

[esper]

Kind of reminds me of Grim Fandango...

  ...with a really long Johnson.

Besides my initial reaction, it looks like it might be pretty cool. Especially since it looks like GF...

  ...with a... nevermind

[m0ds]

Looks good, so good luck!

[Canardo]

Kind of reminds me of Grim Fandango...

  ...with a really long Johnson.

You, sir, have a dirty mind. 
On second thought he actually DOES look a little like a long Johnson though, but nevermind.

Originally I had an idea of writing a novel of which the story would be based but the game started
living a life of its own, so I ditched the novel for now. Who knows, after the game gets finished I
might consider finishing it. The mechanics of the game just didn`t co-operate that well with my
original text, so that I would`ve needed to rewrite the whole thing anyway.

The story is now finished nevertheless and judging by the script, the games lenght will be approximately the same with Cirque De Zale, but that we will see in a little over month 

[Akatosh]

Discworld Noir

You already got me there. Good luck!

[Canardo]

As the renewed title implies, here is the final official screenshot that I will release of the game before
letting it roam around the internet. The screenshot is still missing a couple of stuff and the rain is not intact, but you get the main idea. Only one background remains to be done as well as some of the item-graphics. Otherwise everything is going onward as planned, if not even a bit faster.

The only gripe so far is that I can`t get the Scorpirus' rain-plugin to work at all, I`ll put a post of it if I can`t get it to work before the end of the week.

[thewalrus]

     Well, glad to hear that you are almost finshed with this. Looks very interesting. Kinda remaniscent of spy vs. spy; just has that feel to me. I will be anxiously awaiting the release.....

[Akatosh]

*bump because this thread is not -too- old and I want to do it before it gets*

So, how's it going?

[Canardo]

Going well, thanks for asking

Had a recording session on Sunday, which went down the drain I`m afraid so the music`s aren`t ready until after two-three weeks. Anyway, I start making the cutscenes tomorrow(.avi -slideshow -format, easier for me to edit that way) and perhaps record the one and only voice-over I planned. The skeleton of the game is now intact, however. So now it`s only polishing the surface. I still can`t make the darn rain-plugin to work correctly, but now I`m wiser in the way that the problem isn't in the script but in the raindrop-sprite, which doesn`t want to show even though I have put the sprite in it`s own view and set that up in the script. A matter I can deal with later on.

I still have a month until my deadline, let`s see what I can pinch up.

Oh, I have to warn you though: the filesize of this is going to be huge considering it`s only a short-medium -lenght game. After putting in only 1 song that I tested the game with, the compiled-folder was nearly 12mb. I`d imagine that after adding the cutscenes and all the 6-7 songs in, the complete size will be somewhere around 100mb. Just so that you know

[Canardo]

Yep, the game is finally nearing it`s beta-status. We`re on tight schedule so here`s the deal: PM me on this weekend if you`d like to participate in a quick beta-test. The beta will be up on Monday and after that, the testers will have exactly a week to play the game and try to find crucial bugs, scripting errors and grammar mistakes. I will "hire" three of you maximum and what you get by participating is your name on the credits and if you wish, a DVD-boxed printed edition of the game.

What`s missing from the beta:
-Most of the musics
-A couple of hotspots
-Credits
-The cutscenes need some editing.
-Some of the graphics may still change upon release.
-Interaction animations

So, step boldly up and inform me within this weekend and I`ll give you the link to the game(will be approx 40mb) on Monday!

[Canardo]

The beta-offer is still open, so if you`d like to participate, PM me asap. We`re in a rush
since I need to have an RC out next week so any help is gladly appreciated. The beta is 27mb and the
editor-files are 29mb so the size should not be a problem at this stage.

Step right up!

[Canardo]

Hi again,

the beta-phase is now done and the RC is up and running. As stated in the "When your game is released?"(or something like that) -thread, the official release date is now Tuesday, 1st of May 2007. Be sure to watch for the Completed Games - forum that day 

Anyway, few things need still altering. I`ve had massive problems with the .avis and now most of them work as they should. I also ditched the SFX, since for some reason they didn`t work and I didn`t have time to figure out why. They weren`t plenty though and most of the are intact in the .avis so the loss is not very massive. Time is short, here`s a hoping that no more major problems confront me in the next 7 days

Oh, the filesizes are a bit on the huge side. Zipped size of the game is 52mb and unpacked size is 102mb. With an installer-program, the packed filesize dropped to 44mb so I guess I`ll stick with that, since I need to use an installer for the CD-version too of course. Of course if majority of you want the game to be delivered as a zip, I`ll do it. I just don`t see the point doing it anymore. The filesizes will alter a bit upwards, but we`re talking about 2-5 megs here, so no big deal.

Be keen!

[Akatosh]

the official release date is now Tuesday, 1st of May 2007.

Yay!

[Canardo]

The game is now officially released so moderators, do your magic.