Murran Chronicles 2: Talons of Terror *Updated Thread* [v1.1 Released!]

poc301 · Sat 04/04/2009 23:03:28

The Murran Chronicles Episode 2: Talons of Terror v1.1

STORY :

After the experience in southern New Jersey, you are moved to another division of the FBI and promoted to special agent status. This new division investigates the stranger cases, and this is one of them. Cattle have been mutilated, taken long distances from their farms and eaten by something. There have been sightings of large creatures in the sky and three unsolved murders within recent months. You are thrust into an investigation ripe with intrigue as you explore Montana while trying to solve the mystery of who or what is killing the cattle, and why three people have turned up dead. Could it be a creature thought extinct millions of years ago? Or do the Sioux Indians have something to do with it?

UPDATE LOG:
v1.1
-----
- Fixed crash problem if gun is drawn in the Sheriff's office.
- Fixed crash problem if gun is drawn with inventory window open.
- Fixed scaling issues with Arsay on some screens on Day 3.

INFO:

Talons of Terror is in 640x480 resolution, running in Hi-Color mode, and is a free download. This was my second game using the AGS engine, and is much better (in my opinion) overall than the first game. It is longer, more professional and polished and a much better experience overall. There was rather extensive beta testing on this (special thanks to all the testers who helped iron this thing out, add a few more puzzles, and make it a much more enjoyable experience overall).

The game focuses on the experience from a story-telling perspective. I try to be as immersive as possible (with some light hearted quips and such mixed in, along with a bunch of hidden and not so hidden references to Adventure Games of old).

I am really proud of this game, and hope you take the time to download and play it. The file size is about 25mb. No voice acting, but maybe in Episode 3.

WEBSITE / DOWNLOAD: http://www.billandnicole.net/games

SCREENSHOTS:

Dualnames · Sat 04/04/2009 23:06:09

Woot just now? Great, downloading promise to play..

Leon · Sat 04/04/2009 23:41:54

Congratulations! Finally it's there. Looking forward to part 3 ;-)

poc301 · Mon 06/04/2009 02:45:01

Thanks Dualnames. I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks also Leon. Couldn't have done it without you

Part 3 is underway, and I will definitely message you when Beta opens

-Bill

Leon · Thu 09/04/2009 13:51:13

The Murran games got a little promotion:

Escape24Games picked up on this.

xenogia · Sat 11/04/2009 00:03:47

I enjoyed your game immensly, and I do look forward to part 3. I would gladly help with voice acting, or even better film some characters on green screen to make the sprites more consistent.

poc301 · Sat 11/04/2009 02:41:02

Thanks for the kind words! I am glad you liked the game.

I might (probably will) take you up on the voice acting offer for game 3. The game is coming along nicely, and I AM planning on adding in voiceovers. I will post the open call once I finish the dialog scripting with it.

As for the green screen, I have no idea how to go about doing that and make a good sprite set animation from it. Art is not really my strong point, which is why I try to focus on having as intriguing and (hopefully) well told story as possible.

Thanks!

Bill

xenogia · Sat 11/04/2009 08:04:53

Awesome if you need help just PM me

Dualnames · Sat 11/04/2009 21:39:31

Just played and so far I'm still playing (that's good), when and if I finish it, I'll tell you my opinion on it. So far so good..

Snake · Sun 12/04/2009 04:08:19

Awesome goodness! I haven't played it or even downloaded it yet, but I will Monday - no time right now!

poc301 · Sun 12/04/2009 15:49:37

Dualnames : I hope you like it

Please do let me know how you like it when finished.

Snake: I see by your user tag that you are a fan of nostalgia

There are quite a few toss-ins saluting older Sierra games: Sheriff's name, the sign above the window in the vet's office, 'using' the fake tree in the police station, etc, etc.

-Bill

Leon · Sun 12/04/2009 19:18:02

I thought the sherrif had a familiar face as well...

poc301 · Sun 12/04/2009 19:30:52

Nope Leon, the Sheriff was an actual Sheriff. Not any throwback to yesteryear

In Episode 1, Larry Lowe in the library was Al Lowe's face, but thats about it. But I consider Episode 1 to be more of a "teach myself AGS" type thing because the character, portrait and animation graphics were very inconsistent.

Also, in Episode 1 I screwed up and imported an ENORMOUS version of Al Lowe's face as an inventory item, and couldn't change the image since it was off the screen. So I left it in there (not gettable, but in the game nonetheless). hehe.

-Bill

Leon · Sun 12/04/2009 20:41:28

He reminded me of Jim Walls....

poc301 · Sun 12/04/2009 21:56:35

Quote from: Leon on Sun 12/04/2009 20:41:28
He reminded me of Jim Walls....

Ah! Nope, no Police Quest stuff in there. There are a few things in the police station's pamphlets, but not the sheriff himself

-Bill

xenogia · Sun 12/04/2009 23:45:46

So Bill, how did you go about collecting images for the game?

poc301 · Mon 13/04/2009 02:18:06

Quote from: Xenogia on Sun 12/04/2009 23:45:46
So Bill, how did you go about collecting images for the game?

Some a take myself (I live in a small town, so a bunch of the small towney photos were really easy for me to get). The rest of the photos are public domain images I find on the internet. I never use anything which is copyrighted or has any kind of licensing issues about them. I am cheap and don't want to pay for images, and prefer to avoid lawsuits for copyright infringement (see cheapness clause above)

Hahaha

-Bill

SuperDre · Mon 13/04/2009 20:44:16

Just finished episode 2, graphixwise much more uniform than the first one, much better characteranimations as the first one.. great story background.. and this one was also just like the first one a lot of fun to play.. only problem I had was with the jellybeans (like others also missed some of the dialog).. next time I hope there will be less dialog clicking 'puzzles' and more itempuzzles, also the walking speed near the motel to the mainstreet was annoyingly slow, so maybe add something like 'the vacuum' did, pressing space to bypass the complete animation walkcycle..

But I'm certainly looking forward to playing the next game, and hopefully after that one even more episodes.. I certainly like the 'x-files' approuch..
So good luck with your next episode and thanx for creating these fun games..

poc301 · Mon 13/04/2009 21:52:04

Glad you liked it!

Thanks for the feedback too. I am definitely putting in something to skip the animations in game 3. I got several suggestions to do that, and I didn't realize how much people hate it

Or I could just disable the speed scaling from distances.. Either way..

I like the dialog driven puzzles because my fear is in putting in object oriented puzzles which don't "fit" the feel of the game. I hate games that put in inventory puzzles just for the sake of putting them in. Game 3 thus far has more inventory or 'quest' type puzzles than ep1 or ep2.

Thanks again!

Bill

SuperDre · Tue 14/04/2009 08:53:53

Great to hear about more inventory puzzles.. But I can imagine it's difficult to find the right balance (and preference of people) and I agree completely about not putting a puzzle in just because of needing an extra puzzle instead of actually adding to the story..
And I'm really looking forward to ep3 as I already felt a big progress between ep1 and ep2, so I gather ep3 will be even much better as ep1 and ep2 which already where some great games..
Thanx..