The Knobbly Crook

[Bavolis]

Updated: 8/30/2014

The Knobbly Crook
Chapter One: O'Sirus the Snip
Website: http://www.knobblycrook.com

Open image in new tab if you want to see the full resolution:


The title screen.


The Paincutioner's Court


The Draft Horse


A Royal Guffaloon

An older background that will be upgraded to higher resolution:



O'Sirus first draft walk cycle:



Summary:  The Knobbly Crook is an 1024x768 game, a talkie, and is set in a completely original fantasy world.

Story: There are some big plot elements I don't want to spoil here, as well as some gameplay dynamics, so I'll keep it simple. You play as O'Sirus the Snip, a simple paper farmer who realizes he is connected to something much bigger. He'll struggle to join the Royal Guffaloon, the Crookian warrior police, he'll end up in the massive stronghold of the Bogold Empire, and eventually he'll be on the front lines of a huge war. I can't hide the rock, paper, scissors theme with my screenshots, so I'll say it has a big part of the way things work in the Knobbly Crook. Magic takes many strange forms, and O'Sirus controls those three elements (Tic is his paper bird).

Demo: The demo only features WIP rooms, but it gives a good example of the art style and the humor that will be in the final game.  You can find the demo at:

Download the Demo

Various images:

Our Hero
Tarsus Twotalk
The Paincutioner's Court
A Sea Prophet
A Bogold (unfinished)

[i k a r i]

This is one of the most interesting games in production I've ever seen, you have me totally nailed with it.

I'm downloading the demo right now, I'll edit this later, right now I can only say it's obvious this is going to be extremely creative, and I can see clearly that you're putting a lot of effort and "heart" making it.
Very detailed and beautiful graphics too. I'll make sure to play this one.
Can't wait...

[Nikolas]

Indeed!

Most impressive indeed!

hope you finish it (soon). All the best to all the production team (how many are you btw?)

[Leonard LePage]

This. Looks. Awesome.

[ManicMatt]

Woah!  :o

[Meystari F]

Those arts are insane. Very interesting game indeed. I will too look forward for this one.

[Buckethead]

Such amazing graphics!  :o I wonder how you pulled it off

[ManicMatt]

Played the demo!

Okay..

Excellent graphics, as everyone agrees. Nice humour, and it's probably a coincidence that you used the same joke as in my game, I can see it happening...

Anyway, I have one gripe only. The voice for the main character. Is it your voice? I mean no offence, but it isn't pleasing to listen to, and doesnt look like the voice that would come out of that character either, based on his appearance. The other guy's voice works though, even if it sounds like the same actor with a higher pitched voice. (Although I wonder if I could be accused of the same thing sometimes..)

PS - Having played again and heard two more voices in there, those two voices work fine! So yes, just the lead character.. but it's up to you and I apologise for the critiscm if it wasnt wanted.

[Nikolas]

Yup, there are 4 voices.

A detailed first room! Difficult dialogues. I was actually ammused by all 4 voices!

Also, a slow download it was...

I see you enjoy blood

Well a great first room as I said (a small bug: when I try looking at the junk, I keep getting points...).

Well done mate, well done!

[Bavolis]

Thanks for all the feedback! The team is just me for now (excluding the possibility of a musician). I don't see the game being finished soon, but I do think I'll be able to update the progress often. Now that I'm getting the swing of the engine, I can push the artwork harder.

As far as the voices - out of curiosity, did anyone else find the main character annoying to listen to? You can't tell from this demo, but the Crookians are quite small. I'm assuming you may have pictured him as some sort of "mean" sounding character from his looks. He doesn't look that way because he wants to, there's actually a good explanation that will come later.

About the coincidence of having the same joke as someone else - I think it's going to be inevitable since we probably all grew up with the same games and have similar inspirations.

For the points bug - whoops! That was an old test I left in by accident. The mass of heads in his junk bag too (obviously).

[Darth Mandarb]

I edited to actually include a second screenshot in your first post ...

The game looks/sounds interesting.  Good luck with it!

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I notice bloodlustsoftware in your link.  Were you the same person that worked on that beat-em-up game where you take on midgets and the Troma-inspired games?  The art style used here is rather similar and the link adds to the connection.

[Gilbert]

If it's the same bloodlust software, it was even more famous with the revolutionary Famicom emulator Nesticle and Mega Drive emulator Genecist.

[Bavolis]

Thanks for updating with the second screen, I should have done that!

And yes, I am/was the creative side of Bloodlust Software. Icer Addis (my old programmer) handled all of the code and, of course, the emulators, but everything else usually fell on my plate excepting a couple of musicians or voice actors. Bloodlust was a response to the big anti-violent gaming push in the early to mid 90s, and it was done by two highschool students. The style was very over the top, relying on big amounts of shock value, so it's important to note that The Knobbly Crook is being made under my new banner "Gnarled Scar Manipulations" to set it apart from Bloodlust style. Eventually, I may go back to doing another Bloodlust game, I certainly have a bunch in mind, but finding a coder dedicated enough for those is a real nightmare. With AGS, I can do everything pretty much on my own except the music. So, to summarize:

Bloodlust Games: Offensive humor (to some), tons of gore, dated (but loveable?) graphics
Gnarled Scar Games: Dark humor, less gore, polished graphics, unique fantasy universe

[voh]

First off, your graphics are well mad, and seeing the Bloodlust link made me go "well, that explains why"

Good luck on it!

[Bavolis]

Haha, thanks!

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

One of my favorite parts of Executioners went something like...
Player: "Tell me where all you midgets are coming from or I'll give you to HIM" (points to Reaper).

Midget: "Two blocks down, take a left!"

Great, I'm a big fan of the gory/dark humor you've done in the past so good luck with this!

[Bavolis]

Tell me where all you midgets are coming from or I'll disembowel you...   

[Kweepa]

Awesome, I loved Executioners. Except that boss that would grab you and puke on you.
I still have the game on a tape backup somewhere.
Looking forward to this one!

[Bavolis]

How am I ever going to bury that monstrosity if people keep confessing their love for it?

I guess once you get past the hideous music, art, sound effects, cinematics, AI, and gameplay, it's not so bad! It holds a special, cancerous place in my heart too.

Back on topic, I should have some shots from the Knobbly Crook intro soon (after we move this weekend and get set up again).

[EdLoen]

is it a glitch that I appear on the second screen still chained and unable to move or interact with anything but myself?

[Bavolis]

Nope - the glitch is more that the room is there at all. O'Sirus won't be bound to his prisoner transport pole when he's in that area either, so he'll have a regular walking animation.

[R4L]

Wow this is so awesome looking! You must finish this!

Good luck on this.

R4L

[EdLoen]

Nope - the glitch is more that the room is there at all. O'Sirus won't be bound to his prisoner transport pole when he's in that area either, so he'll have a regular walking animation.

Ah.  Okie dokie then

[Bavolis]

Ah, I know thread necromancy is against forum rules, but seeing as I'm still working on this project and it's my thread, I hope it's ok! I've updated the first post with some new artwork and even updated the demo with some slight changes.

What happened to the game and why is it over a year later? An infant daughter and a wife who works graveyard shift turned me into Mr. Mom for a year, but now I'm back to normal and working hard on the game. I've got all of the important parts of the story mapped out as well as several of the puzzles. I know which rooms I want to include and which NPCs, and now the big hurdle is the artwork. Every blade of grass in there was drawn by mouse, so you can imagine the time it takes to do one.

So... the Knobbly Crook hobbles it's way towards completion and don't be surprised when I start begging for help when I run into any coding hurdles

[The Suitor]

Absolutely amazing! Loved the graphics; that's some talent there. It's so trippy, and I can't wait for the whole thing.


I remember those blood lust games from YEAARRS ago. I loved 'em, even though I was only ten years old. (sorry I tried to resist mentioning).

[Bavolis]

Thanks! I love the Bloodlust stuff for nostalgia too, but it was intentionally offensive and gory. This one should be much more subtle about it. I'm still a hardcore fan of everything horror related, so that will definitely play into it - but I'm aiming more for a slightly darker take on the fantasy universes we grew up with (Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Legend). I have to remember to work a Crookianized Brian Froud into the game somewhere as thanks for the inspiration.

[Darth Mandarb]

Perfectly acceptable when it's your own thread.

I am really glad to see this still being worked on... it looks brilliant!

[ThreeOhFour]

Your graphics are amazing.

[Bavolis]

Thanks! Hopefully I'll have more to show soon.

[Anomaly]

awesome graphics.

how do you create your grass?
do you draw them blade by blade in photoshop or something.. or rubber stamp / clone them from a pic of just grass?

thnx.

-

[Dualnames]

Great to see this is bakc on track..

[Nikolas]

YAY!

[Gilbert]

I love the porn pong games and the emulators (these are history...) by Bloodlust software, so I'm more than happy to hear that this is still in progress.

[Matti]

Whoa. :o
I love this creative style, it looks amazing. I must have missed this thread somehow, but now I'm extremely curious how this will turn out. Gotta try the demo soon.

Thumbs up and good luck with further development. And again: Great and creative style.

[m0ds]

The game looks nice, the art style reminds me a little of Death Gate so it's definitely got my interest now. But that's also partly due to never seeing this thread before. Good luck with the game!

[Eggie]

That is just beautiful.

[Bavolis]

how do you create your grass?

do you draw them blade by blade in photoshop or something.. or rubber stamp / clone them from a pic of just grass?

Each blade is an individual mouse click and slash. I do a layer of dark lines, a layer of lighter lines, a layer of dodge, a layer of burn, and then I add color here and there. I do NOT recommend this method as my hand will probably be destroyed before the end of this project. People keep telling me to use a wacom tablet and pen, but my art is actually better with a mouse. I've just been using them for too long to change. Hopefully people will feel my pain in every background (especially those with grass). I'm thinking the Knobbly Crook needs more lawnmowers...

I love the porn pong games and the emulators (these are history...) by Bloodlust software, so I'm more than happy to hear that this is still in progress.

I actually have all the art assets for a re-made low res version of the first pong game but never found a programmer. Has anyone tried pong with AGS yet?

[Nikolas]

I actually have all the art assets for a re-made low res version of the first pong game but never found a programmer. Has anyone tried pong with AGS yet?

A musician talking:

If you check a game called Vendetta, very recently released, it's basically the same principal (with no sprites though). You get polygons, you shoot them they divide into smaller pieces and finally dissapear... Seems rather close to me, so, yes, a pong game would be doable with AGS (I think)

[DoorKnobHandle]

I love the porn pong games and the emulators (these are history...) by Bloodlust software, so I'm more than happy to hear that this is still in progress.

I actually have all the art assets for a re-made low res version of the first pong game but never found a programmer. Has anyone tried pong with AGS yet?

Yours truly. :p

[Bavolis]

Yay for pong! I'll have to keep this in mind for a quick project-between-projects thing. Thanks

[Kromagnon]

Awesome!
I love your graphic style :o
I try the demo as soon as possible!!!

[Bavolis]

Holy necro again. So The Knobbly Crook is back in full production with actual *team members* now so I'm not doing it all alone. We've got our design doc started, a plan for the full first "episode," a facelift into higher resolution, and a redesigned O'Sirus the Snip avatar. I was a bit busy working on slightly bigger projects in the past few years (i.e. Assassin's Creed), but I'm doing a big push now to make this thing happen. I find I enjoy the small indie project vibe to the 200+ team vibe (although I am still writing at Ubisoft - I've realized doing this at home is a great stress reliever!). Anyway, here's a preview of the new look. More soon, I promise. 

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/081/9/e/paincutioner__s_court_take_three_by_ringmasterbent-dycn76.png

[WHAM]

*begins to type something about "necroposts"*

*Looks at the first poster's name*

*Reads more closely*

Holy cows! A project seemingly dead since 2008 is BACK TO LIFE!? Now that's what I call dedication! First time I'm seeing this game and I've got to say: I'm curious!
Let me know if you need voice acting or beta testing at some point.

[Bavolis]

I'll certainly post here first when I have something ready for abuse

I'm making a note of the voice acting offer - it'll be a while, but I will definitely need some help on that end!

[The Suitor]

I was wondering what happened to this, and I'm glad to see it's back in production. I've been waiting for an update on something seeps, but this greater news, haha.

[Victor6]

I'm not sure exaclty what it is, but the art style reminds me of that used by New world computing for HOMM (the original DOS one). It's that mix of character style, detail, and shading.

[Takyon]

This looks incredible and sinister, looking forward to it.

[Bavolis]

Thanks for the motivational words. I've updated the zip file linked at the beginning of this thread to show off the new version of the game. Any feedback you guys have would be fantastic because I'm very rusty at AGS. A few disclaimers:

1. It's a 35ish meg download.
2. The audio is placeholder, so expect levels to be off and voice acting to be grating in places. I'm doing my best to give a mood preview with the files that are in there.
3. The cinematics are gone - that's because I'm reworking them and they didn't match the quality of the new look. I'll be updating this thing again a few times in the near future.
4. The UI and inventory system haven't been touched since the old version. They're functional, but not polished.
5. The second room is a stretched out, terrible, unplayable thing. Close the window fast when you see it, lest your eyes come away scathed.
6. The colon extractor's voice is my 5 year old daughter. She really wanted to hear herself in the game, so I put her in there for fun and forgot to rerecord it. Now that I hear it again, my god it's disturbing.

[arj0n]

Bavolis, I'm really glad this one is brought back to life!

[Bavolis]

I updated the first post with a new first room view, this new walk cycle:



And I've also uploaded an update for the .zip file with a more high res interface and some tweaks. The second room, however, is very much a placeholder with notes on it. It's going to be a wire-boat called the Draft Horse, complete with a bar in the back called the Horse's Ass. I've got the whole game now charted out on note cards on my office wall (expecting a lot to change of course).

I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the first post, but I intend this game to be 100% free. I'll likely be throwing it up onto Kickstarter soon to get some funding for proper voice acting and perhaps a stylish intro.

Anyway, it's hard to tell progress has been made, but I've got a LOT in the works. I also have an old design buddy from Strategy First and Ubisoft named Julien Fullum who is pumping out some great concepts (the early sketch of the Draft Horse is his) and coming up with weird gameplay ideas.

[Eric]

I'll likely be throwing it up onto Kickstarter soon to get some funding for proper voice acting

Please retain the services of your daughter. Even with your note, her voice still took me delightfully by surprise in the demo.

Looking forward to poking around the update, probably later tomorrow!

[Bavolis]

I'll likely be throwing it up onto Kickstarter soon to get some funding for proper voice acting

Please retain the services of your daughter. Even with your note, her voice still took me delightfully by surprise in the demo.

Looking forward to poking around the update, probably later tomorrow!

Hah. I'll probably end up trying to get a better take out of her and may even leave it in there for the shock value. I do plan to put both of my shrimps in there as tiny Knobcrookians with bigger (and less disgusting!) roles. 

[Bavolis]

A little bit of an art update to demonstrate the process from cool sketch to really ugly modified version of cool sketch to something more complete looking. I'll have a couple more steps to add in as I go along.

This is the Draft Horse. The thing to keep in mind is that the Knobbly Crook (and surrounding areas) was created by a giant explosion of animate magik, creating a chaotic wave of life that reconfigured (or brought to life) all the junk and wildlife in the area. This boat is technically alive, though it's not very "horse" any more. Once aboard, you can venture into the head of the thing, talk to the ladderman at the side, or head back into the Horse's Ass bar at the rear.The first series of puzzles revolve around getting this thing to stop and let you off.

The original concept for the Draft Horse came from Julien Fullum, who is helping me build up the world. It looked like:




I had some technical concerns with it. First, the zoom out was a little too far. I wanted to use this as a bit of an overhead "map" for this area, so I zoomed it in. I also started thinking about how to get you to understand where to go, so I dropped a couple of little blue men in there as placeholders. I definitely wanted one in the horse's eye and one to be a bit of a gatekeeper to get off the ship. The bar in the back - I planned an elaborate fan thing that would feel a bit like looking at the back end of a baboon. It's not there yet in this version:



Now it's starting to look more like the rest of the game so far. I tried to use the angle of Julien's horse head, but it kept looking more like a wolf to me and didn't have the creepy horse face I wanted, so I turned it. The perspective went down the toilet at that point, but that's OK. I've gone into this understanding that I'm not a trained artist and that my style relies on being weird and I think it benefits from being *wrong,* so you'll find my perspective is often mind-boggling and my light sources come from 2000 directions. You can see a bit of the baboon ass here, though it's still a placeholder sketch remnant. I modified the ladderman on the side (he'll be an animated character) to fit the theme of the Knobbly Crook - the Knobcrookians are all gobliny things mixed with junk objects. This guy is half ladder. Another major problem with realizing Julien's vision is that the sketch implies movement down the stream. I intend to keep that movement, but I think I'll have to greatly simplify what you can see to create the illusion. This isn't a cinematic ship on a set path, it's looping as long as the player stays there.



I've also been playing around with the team logo, which is based on the old song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." I mixed it with the old Gnarled Scar logo to see how well they mesh, but obviously I need to change the color schemes to match. I'm considering attaching the small logo to a blimp or something and having it sail by and I'll likely do some simple animations on the Devil part. I'm also working on an idea to make it more "logo-y" and less like a full screen painting that touches every edge



I try to keep the version of the game (.zip file) updated on the server, so if you ever want to check in on the progress, you're welcome to go grab it. The extremely WiP Draft Horse is in there now and functional, but I warn you - there's some *hideous* placeholder art if you venture into any rooms.

[Bavolis]

I've now got the Draft Horse itself pretty much finished and I'm trying to work out how to animate the sucker. I suppose I can have it rock using background animation and use moving characters for clouds/waves, but I haven't tried anything like that in the engine so far. It'll be fun to experiment at least. I dropped the "baboon butt" concept in the back to better show off the lore of this universe. Scissors trump paper, so they've created a Knobbcrookian engine using their physics - a sail made out of various samples of wallpaper. I'm going to add in an animating pair of snipping scissors on the back - which "scares" the paper and propels the boat forward. Fortunately, my wife is a graphic artist, so she's got a huge supply of wallpaper for my needs



If I'm violating any rules with the size of these images, please let me know. I'm trying to show the color/detail as it is in-game.

[Eric]

This is yet another lovely image. I'd love to see more of your rendering process, the in-between of the two images you posted above.

[arj0n]

Nice shot! Reminds me of the floating boat in Goblins 3 somehow 

[Bavolis]

This is yet another lovely image. I'd love to see more of your rendering process, the in-between of the two images you posted above.

I'll try to post some more inbetweens on the next big room.

Nice shot! Reminds me of the floating boat in Goblins 3 somehow 

That's fantastic if it's channelling an old style people enjoyed, that means I'm on track - I haven't played Goblins 3 yet (only the first one, if I remember right), but you definitely have me curious now

[Tabata]

WOW - that IS impressive! 

Can't wait to watch this being animated!   

Also looking forward to more "inbetweens" - always very interesting to study! 

[Bavolis]

WOW - that IS impressive! 

Can't wait to watch this being animated!   

Also looking forward to more "inbetweens" - always very interesting to study!

Thanks! I'll be sure to keep them coming, though I'm not sure if anybody would ever want to try my art method - it takes 10x as long and absolutely destroys your hands

[Bavolis]

I got the 5-frame background animation to work pretty well with the water motion. It looks like the boat is moving ridiculously fast, which wasn't my intent, but I kind of like it!

Edit: Made it much more convincing as water behavior:

Draft Horse Take 2

[arj0n]

It also looks like steam. A real steampunk boat 

[Bavolis]

I was playing with steam coming out of the tops of the "hooves" as well. Wasn't able to get it looking how I wanted yet.

[Bavolis]

Is everyone else getting the IMAGE BLOCKED error on the first page? Is that a forum error or a hosting error? I'm familiar with a red x, but have not seen a text message like that before. I've also used the same service for years and never seen anything blocked. Trying to figure out if I need to move them.

Edit: Posted in the forum upgrade bug thread. It seems to be impacting anyone using resizing tags in their IMG posts.

[Bavolis]

Here we've got a zoom in on the Gummerlung pens, which are the prize "balls" of the different champion Gummerlung teams. The handler has to take extra precautions because Knobbcrookians are part metal (linked to Scissors) and Gummerlungs are rocks. Rocks beat (in this case, *eat*) scissors, of course. So... the Gummerlung handlers feed them paper to keep them docile (because paper beats rock). One of O'Sirus' first puzzles will be to find a specific piece of small metal for each Gummerlung to get them agitated as he works to change the route of the Draft Horse.

[CosmoQueen]

Oh Lordy this looks AMAZING!! Please tell me this isn't going to be free! I'd feel quite terrible playing a game this high quality without paying you something for it.

[Bavolis]

Oh Lordy this looks AMAZING!! Please tell me this isn't going to be free! I'd feel quite terrible playing a game this high quality without paying you something for it.

Thanks! The goal right now is to release it free, but to set up a way where people who enjoyed it and would like to see a sequel can donate whatever they want. I'm also considering setting up a Kickstarter (once the first little "chapter" on the boat is done) to try to fund a nice little animated intro(which would take me forever). The hard part for me is I work on other games 9-5 at work, then come home and work on this game 7:30-midnight. I'd love to be able to work at home on just my own games full time and get these out faster, so maybe the kickstarter for a potential sequel could be "I need help paying MY yearly salary to make this game!"

[CosmoQueen]

That's a great idea!

[Bavolis]

The website/blogthing is now live. Still cleaning up some dust, but I plan to keep it updated often with characters, progress, and lore:

Website: http://www.knobblycrook.com

[Bavolis]

Here's a WIP shot of inside the horse's head. Yes, it's icky:



I had to flip it to make better navigation sense as you transition into it. Also, the teeth were WAY too small to be inside the mouth, so I've remedied that and made this just the mouth interior:

[LTGiants2000]

Here's a WIP shot of inside the horse's head. Yes, it's icky:

LOL this picture is very difficult to tell what I'm looking at....but it looks fun as heck!

[Bavolis]

LOL this picture is very difficult to tell what I'm looking at....but it looks fun as heck!

The detailed part is actually the rotting remains of the horse's tongue, which will be twitching. Yum.

[Bavolis]

Another in-progress shot. The next one will be the final one. You can see the ancient, crackled teeth in there now. I plan to have a peek outside the horse's mouth on the right there to keep with the theme of seeing moving water in all these backgrounds. The thing in the middle is going to be a periscope (and will also have a steering wheel) for the captain to show that this thing can submerge, too.

[EchosofNezhyt]

YOU DREW THIS. :O


YOU DREW THIS WITH A MOUSE :O


All jokes aside looks Beeeeeeautiful! Seriously in my top 5 favorite art styles.

All the best luck to you, Even if you don't need seeing as your so skilled!

[Bavolis]

Thanks! I may need a little luck in squeezing art time into my schedule

[EchosofNezhyt]

Fair enough

[Bavolis]

Finally done (other than the animated objects and characters in the room). You can now watch the waves going by through the side of the mouth. The captain's chair will be on the glowing circle.

[Edgar_España]

    
Well, this looks incredible!! I will have to closely follow your work!

Congratulations!

[Crimson Wizard]

This is utterly amazing. The graphic style is so original, I simply cannot remember I've seen anything like this in any other game, either AGS or not. Probably reminds me some surrealists art...

I wish you best luck with the project.

[Bavolis]

Thanks, both of you. The feedback I've been getting here is definitely huge motivation to keep moving forward.

[EchosofNezhyt]

Yeah, I'm still blown away. Original style, Original Story. So awesome.

[CosmoQueen]

O________O Are you freaking kidding me? Dude HOW? How in the heck did you do this??!!! No normal human being can draw something like THIS on a computer omg you must've used witchcraft or something!

[Bavolis]

I don't know about witchcraft, but many cans of coke are sacrificed each night to fuel this machine.

[Bavolis]

Third time's a charm? Mods, feel free to shut this down if I'm doing some sort of illegal fossil digging here, but I just wanted to let people know the game is in progress again full-speed. Basically, I got side-tracked working on another small game called Watch_Dogs

Now that things are calm again and I'm between major dev cycles, I can focus on my hobby and I'm convinced I have the time to actually make this happen for real, even though I may very well be the slowest dev in the history of devs. The demo has been updated significantly (linked on the first post).

Edit: I started this thread 7 years ago?! Man, where did all that time go? I need to make sure that doesn't happen again or I'll be an old man. Back to drawing.

[Fitz]

Yeah, I was wondering where you'd gone. Good to hear you're back to work, because man, these screenshots are mindblowing.

[Bavolis]

I added a screenshot of the opening cinematic in the first post. I should have the intro cin finished today and added to a new version of the demo by tomorrow.

[monkey424]

Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's fucking brilliant!!!

[Bavolis]

Thanks, guys! Thought I'd do another one of those in-progress comparisons. This is for the title screen, which has an up-scaled prisoner O'Sirus portrait.

[mkennedy]

The artwork kind of reminds me of "Where the Wild Things Are". Is the face on O'Sirus' vest able to talk?

[Bavolis]

That's a cool reference and definitely a childhood favorite. That story actually would make a pretty unique Point and Click game.

As for the vest talking, yes - it's actually part of the lore. There was a great wizard playing around with animation magic when something went wrong (we'll discover what) and caused a huge explosion. Everything in the Crook is a mix of objects found around the Wizard's mansion blended with animated inanimates - so O'Sirus is a mix of a chair, the wizard's spittoon (helmet), and the wizard's face, which will start talking to him once he meets other parts of the wizard.

[SilverSpook]

Super excellent!  Something about the look of this game feels very surreal-New Orleans for some reason.  Really looking forward to it!

[Bavolis]

Thanks! I think it's probably the bright colors/parade float puffiness. I do love Nawlens.

[Bavolis]

Little update (well, a big update considering the work involved) - The demo now features the animated Gnarled Scar logo, the intro cutscene, the animated title screen, the credits screen, the first room, the second cinematic, and a very WIP hub room with nooks as well as a few crannies. All in all, it's a great little snapshot of where I expect the full game to be quality-wise. The demo can be found here:

http://knobblycrook.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/KnobblyCrook.zip   (around 80 megs).

Here's a shot from one of the cutscenes:

[Bavolis]

I've added a quick demo playthrough (not exploring everything that's there so far) on Youtube. My formatting is a bit off, but it works if you fullscreen the video.

http://youtu.be/aWMcz8qQnKQ

[Kasander]

This is going to be a long post, and one can only blame Bavolis for this.

I second every single word of praise that has been written above. Can't believe how I could overlook The Knobbly Crook and lived in ignorance for so long I second what Cosmo Queen said. I know cursing doesn't suit AGS forum so to all the mods and sensible people here: please pretend you've overlooked... But this game looks and feels FAR TOO FUCKING BRILLIANT TO BE FREE. Honestly. I'm a financially-challenged person, but I'd consider robbing old ladies if that meant this game would be made.***

I sincerely hope you guys will get this thing completed. 7 years in the making is a bit long (now, that's the positive thing for me not knowing about the game earlier â€" the release date must be sooner rather than later). You should at least do yourself a favor and steal some Wacom from your Ubisoft co-workers. Gamers, unlike mouse-painted grass, won't stay green forever, you know?

I rarely play games anymore, but I know I need to have and play this one. A lot of other people need to know they need this game. Obviously Kickstarter needs it, too. So why not scratch the itch? There's so many poor-looking, and not-particularly-original games begging for one's buck, that it suddenly sounds refreshingly rightful if a great-looking unique game like this needs one, for a change.

You've certainly set yourself a crazy high bar with the art direction, Bavolis. I'd like to encourage you and your cooperators to do your absolute best trying to match the visual brilliance with dialogues (staying clear of cliches, whenever possible).

I agree with what one fellow AGSer said about the protagonist's voice â€" it doesn't suit him, but I understand it's only temporary solution until you'll do a proper voice over. IMO, you could voice a decent Simon the Sorceor or Guybrush-style character with your voice but if this little guy O'Sirius is (even if partially) made of metal, then maybe he should sound metallic? (whatever that means). I have some (a bit similarly, magically created) steel humanoids in my (WIP) comic book and I've always imagined them speaking with ‘metallic' voices. Not Transformers or Dalek-like but more human yet still somehow... metallic I'm sure you'll know better.

The world that you guys created sounds and looks so unique and original. Obviously people are seeing some references to this or that, but regarding the genre of adventure games, I've never seen anything like The Knobbly Crook and that is certainly a good thing. Lucasarts/Sierra-like games come and go, but this here has a chance to be one of a kind, just like Amanita Design games. Anyway, even if the writing is going to have 1/3 of the quality the graphics have, I think we've got an instant classic here.

One only wonders, how many more gems of game-creativity like you remain hidden out there among the pebbles of big studios, busy cutting out the Assassin's Craps of this world, instead of bringing forward works of art like this. *Sigh*

PS: As for the New Orlean association SilverSpook was writing about, I think it's because of the hat.

PS2: Fuck Ubi$oft and make it happen mate. I know it sounds easy especially when you have kids and I don't, but look at the guys here for inspiration: VinceTwelve, Dave Gilbert, Andail... they all have 'made it', so you can too.

I must admit some time ago I contemplated buying Watch Dogs or AC to choke my old PS3 with, like any regular console veggie devoid of raw point-and-click meat would... Please extirpate my (and possibly other people's) unhealthy tendencies by making me buy & play The Knobbly Crook instead! ASAP.

***I never thought that one day I'd volunteer to rob old ladies so I could pay to be allowed to hang out in Horse's Ass

[Bavolis]

Thank you for the huge compliments! Keep in mind the 7 years thing was only because I got distracted - it hasn't been *in dev* that long. I have been working on it nonstop for the past couple of weeks and the Horse's Ass bar is nearing completion (have a couple of little barflies left to draw/animate). Currently, it's just me working on the game, though I have one or two old sketches from Julien I'll use for inspiration later. As far as the WACOM tablet - believe it or not, I can't draw with a pen. My drawings on paper look horrible. The Crook's style is pretty much due to my poor drawing skills and my practiced mouse-sculpting burn/dodge abomination style. If I changed things up now, the quality would change. 

On the financial side - I'm currently one of those paycheck-to-paycheck types who doesn't really have the option to just drop things and take a risk - I wish I did. If Kickstarter allowed a "pay my salary for a year" option to get 'er done, I'd jump on that. However, Kickstarter is more of a "give me money to pay for __" type of deal. I did set up a Patreon, which is similar to a salary, bit I don't expect it to take off until I have at least the whole Drafthorse boat demo done. I plan to add 1-2 more rooms to it, finish the puzzles, and then polish. It's not a scary goal for me right now. Once I have a nice demo going too, I think it will be easy to find real voice acting. I do have some connections there. What I'll probably do soon is remove all the voices that are in and just leave the whole thing text until I have it more final.

I think once you meet the various people inside the Horse's Ass (ew), you'll realize this thing is going to be anything but cliche - my goal is to make each character someone you want to speak with because each one represents some universe lore. I know where things are going with the story, too - and they're going BIG.

I do have to say I enjoy working at Ubi and I think we put out some of the more artistic AAA games on the market, I just prefer the creative control of doing something on your own. Especially when you're a total weirdo.

Anyway, thanks for the ego boost - I hope I can find more people with your enthusiasm as this thing comes together!

[Kasander]

No problem, I'm just extremely happy to discover a game like TKC is in production. And being a creative person myself (well, like pretty much everyone here on AGS forum!;)) I know how important a word of appreciation can be.

Yeah, I know it's in the Crook's interest to stay mouse painted, I know it has to be consistent and better not to change things after all this time, but man... I'm a graphic artist too and just reading about you doing all these blades of grass with mouse made my right wrist feel the pain! I knew a guy once who was doing realistic fantasy-style illustrations with mouse but those were only b/w and it was in the previous millennium!
Sure, lots of people still do low-res pixel art with mouse, but the thing that you do is quite different cup of tea... I mean, how much more hardcore can one get? Kudos! And when you finally decide to Kickstart this, please do some video showing you at work with your trusty computer rodent. It would certainly make my day

As for the weirdos making/playing weird games, I'd say there are probably more of them than you think. Surely there should be enough of them on Kickstarter to fund TKC and spread the word. I'm not a PR expert, but I think people will know unique game when they see one, you just need to show them what you've got (and show them that sprained wrist, too!). There are few people here to turn to for a bit of advice regarding Kickstarter (you probably know a bit about it too, having the Ubi-connections and all).

You certainly have people here that believe in what you do and I'm pretty sure that once TKC gets spurred by Kickstarter the apologists of your work will grow in numbers. Well, I guess I better stop writing before I drown you in this sweet sea of TKC fanboyism Please, get back to work on your game and keep us posted.

Cheers mate and good luck... Can't wait to visit Horse's Ass!

[Bavolis]

Got a preview of some barflies in the Horse's Ass:

[Bavolis]

And, to go along with the shot above - video of O'Sirus talking to the bar's patrons!

http://youtu.be/jQQpUAB8PjU

[Bavolis]

New room under construction - it's a nice shot that demonstrates how I lay everything into the scene. I'm off to Disney for two weeks, but I'm hoping to do some artwork on the drive there when it's not my turn behind the wheel.

[Matti]

Good to hear this game is still in development. Nice new screens, keep it up!

[Giraffadon]

Such a fantastic looking game.
Good luck getting it finished.

[Bavolis]

Thanks, folks! Right now there is no luck involved - it's pure force of will and Netflix's ability to keep feeding me more bad movie fuel so I can watch as I work.

[SilverSpook]

Thank Gad for Netflix eh!  Although it would be kind of great if they could add some non-b-list flickage to the sci-fi/fantasy section once a Neptunian year.  Is that so much to ask, giant Blockbuster and movie theater-devouring megacorporation!?!?

Anyways, looks positively edible, sir.  Especially that giant chocolate Cadberry egg sitting atop the boulderey Hobbit-house prison thing.  Mmm mmm, why if I was 20 years younger and without type II diabetes....

[Bavolis]

I think you're going to find it less edible now. I hated to kill the chocolate egg, but it was really a doorway It does make me want to do a Willy Wonka AGS game though. Here's the final look for the entrance to the Horse's Ass room: 



One room, a short cinematic, and hooking up all the puzzles and then I have the Drafthorse puzzle hub complete!

[arj0n]

Amazing artstyle, Bavolis.
Love it.

[Bavolis]

Thanks!

[Bavolis]

Coogal the Calculator:

[Bavolis]

This weekend brought to you by meat. WIP, of course.

[Bavolis]

Update 2. (btw if I'm causing any problems doing the step by step posts, let me know. I find it interesting when other people do this online).




Update 3:

[CrashPL]

The graphics and the general art direction remindes me of an old adventure game, Cosmology Of Kyoto. And that's a grand thing, as I really enjoyed CoK. Everything looks great so far, keep up the good work!

[Bavolis]

Thank you! How did I miss this game? It looks like something that definitely would have inspired me, had I played it. I will fix that problem ASAP.

[Bavolis]

I've updated the demo - note that the sounds (other than music) have been removed, but many of the puzzles now work and their animated sequences are in order. Puzzles have not yet been hooked up to the Gummerlungs and once you figure out how to reach the stomach room, it's not ready yet (but you can certainly walk around in there and admire the organs). I expect to have the first "episode" ready by the end of January if all goes well - which has you finding a way off the boat. It will be 100% free.

Download the December Demo

[Bavolis]

I've added a walkthrough of the first episode, showing some of the conversations and puzzles (spoilers of course). A lot's been added over the holidays, including the contrast/colors. I think it looks even better now.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53lAznZweVQ

The Demo's been updated as well: http://knobblycrook.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/TheKnobblyCrook.zip

[AnasAbdin]

I just tried the demo. Loved it of course! The music, the style, the graphics... where should I begin! Keep up the good work, you don't need my best wishes cos I can't wish you better than what you did

[Bavolis]

Thank you I do wish I could move faster. I know exactly where I want to go and I work hours every night to get there, but it feels like running in slow motion.

[AnasAbdin]

It's ok take your time. From where you are standing now, you really did a great job in production terms. No need to compromise your quality to fulfill non existing deadlines! I can't even imagine how the game would look like as a finished product! Are you considering adding speech?

[Bavolis]

Yes - there will be speech (and sound effects!). I'm not sure if I'll get those in for the first free "episode," but definitely when I stitch the whole thing together.

[Kasander]

Thank you I do wish I could move faster. I know exactly where I want to go and I work hours every night to get there, but it feels like running in slow motion.

I was talking to a friend last night about TKC, so it's good to check back on forums and see that you're not slowing down! If only Mr Hyde could swap places with Dr Jekyll Also, we should all have life remote controls with slomo, pause, rewind and fast forward buttons... Oh well. Carry on with with TKC Bavolis, don't let life press stop!

PS: Man, gotta love that Horse's Ass! (sorry, couldn't help myself)

[Bavolis]

Not slowing down - just slow! Thanks

[ManicMatt]

We both started our projects in 2007! Little did we know we'd still be making them! I love the graphics! I watched the video, nice music! What's funny is I have a "Confess your sins" bit in my game too!

[Bavolis]

Go team slow-burn! I love confessions because, depending on the tone, they give the player permission to do naughty things.

[Bavolis]

One of the last puzzles in the Draft Horse episode, a pulley puzzle. Now I just need to figure out how to make a pulley puzzle work!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl8WaKEds-s&feature=youtu.be&a

[fischkopf]

Ever though about doing a kickstarter campaign? This looks too awesome to be a free time only project, why not do it with kickstarter money?

[Bavolis]

The problem is I am working on this mostly by myself, so any Kickstarter funding would be "pay my salary for a year." I don't believe they allow that. So instead, I've got a Patreon up for donations. I'm hoping after the first episode (soon!) is released widely for free, people will be so eager for the second episode that I'll see some donations

[AnasAbdin]

I'm hoping after the first episode (soon!) is released widely for free, people will be so eager for the second episode that I'll see some donations

Wrong. I'm already so eager

[Bavolis]

Ep1 would have been out probably this week, but I decided to add a room instead of going cheap. And then that room needed an into cinematic. And an exit cinematic

[Bavolis]

I've got a playable beta with a complete walkthrough of Episode 1 up now. If anyone does play it and finds bugs, I'd be very grateful to you for reporting them. The "official" release should come within the next two weeks. I still need to do a foley pass, the cinematic ending, and some UI/bug tweaking. If you do decide to play through - i'd love to hear an estimate of how long it took to solve!

http://knobblycrook.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/KnobblyBeta-1.zip

[Bavolis]

And here's a video sample of the Knobbcrookian language you'll hear throughout the game. Always glopa. Glopa glopa glopa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAmYWe7Kvj0

[arj0n]

Lovely vid, love your art style!

[Bavolis]

Thank you!

[NickyNyce]

I really really love your art, and the game looks great, but after watching the video, I'm wondering if I can handle hearing the music and the language and reading all at once. Will it be possible to turn the language off?

[Bavolis]

Thanks! Yeah, I'll have two versions so those who don't want the speech can avoid it

Once I have all the episodes done (3-4?), I'll compile them into a Director's Cut and might even kickstart some real English voice acting as another option. We'll see how it goes. Note that the sound levels are all over the place right now, too - which makes it harder to focus. Everything is quite LOUD.

[NickyNyce]

The language is actually very cool. I think you did a great job with it. There's a super fine line between it working, and possibly being too much to take in. This has to be very difficult to do, so I applaud you for trying. Maybe like you said, if the volumes are done right, it may work out well. I'm certainly interested to see and hear the final result.

[Cassiebsg]

Actually I love it just the way it is, only thing I would change would be setting the music lower, but I do that to all games (if there's an option to do that).
The voice and text don't confuse me at all and I think the voice fits right in with the feel of the game.
Of course, that might be because I am used to have subtitles on my movies and shows and have learned how to deal with it... Maybe it's more confusing for those that are not used to subtitles...

[Bavolis]

One thing I do try to do is keep mostly the rhythm of English when I record them. So even when the voice tends to wander off the English, I pull it back in for a few words to let the brain catch up. I'll probably go back and find the ones that don't flow as well to match them better. I dropped the music volume by quite a bit this afternoon and it does help!

[Calypso]

Very interesting project, Bavolis - not just graphically, but also in terms of music and sound design. I've enjoyed listening to those strange voices, the volume level is probably the only thing that I would tamper with. May I ask what software do you use to edit the voices and what is your workflow (what effects do you apply, etc.)?

[Bavolis]

Thanks! I've been using Adobe Audition (I have a creative cloud subscription) - I don't generally apply too many effects. Usually just a pitch shift and sometimes reverb on the stranger voices. I usually try to EQ out the hiss/rumble, too, because my mic is pretty cheap

[Calypso]

Wow, you're fast Thanks for your answer! I should probably take a look at Adobe Audition then.
Wish you luck with your game - I love unique fantasy worlds that go against the flow. It reminds me a little of the "underground" games/interactive movies made by The Residents during the 90s (not that much because of the artwork, but because of the general feel).

[Bavolis]

One more before release. I've just got to tie a couple of things together and finish the sound, then Episode I will be ready to go!

Gummerlung Attack!

[Bavolis]

I've got every part of of Chapter 1 ready except the last few spots of voice recording - sooooo ... expect a release this weekend! People are telling me it took them about 3 hours to complete, but you guys are experts, so who knows how fast you'll blitz through my months of grueling work.

Aiming to get Chapter 2 out by the end of the year!

[AnasAbdin]

Congrats to you for completing Chapter 1 and congrats to us for the hours of puzzles and fun

[Bavolis]

The Knobbly Crook: Episode I - The Horse You Rode In On, has been RELEASED!

http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/the-knobbly-crook-episode-i-the-horse-you-rode-in-on/59177/

[Darth Mandarb]

Congrats on the release!

Is this production thread just for Episode I?  Or is this for a larger project and you've just released Episode I?

The actual question; does this thread need to remain open (still in production) or is it lock time?

[Bavolis]

I suppose I should start a new one for Episode II once I have some rooms done. You can go ahead and put a bullet in this one - it's lived a long life. Thanks!

[Darth Mandarb]

Roger that.

Can't wait for episode 2!