Between the Pillars of Creation

Started by Cogliostro, Tue 08/05/2012 04:34:04

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Cogliostro

I think I finally have enough done to justify a posting under GiP.



   

   

Something I did for the April MAGS competition, where the theme was "Distorted Senses".  I thought I'd go back and do it right now.  WAY TOO MUCH had to be dropped in order to make the deadline.

The game can currently be played through to an ending... but it just doesn't work the way I envisioned.  Rooms were dropped, a side plot was dropped, puzzles were dropped.  You get the idea.

- Cogliostro

P.S. For the record, the Pillars of Creation are a real formation inside the Eagle Nebula.
"First things first, but not necessarily in that order." - Dr. Who

CaptainD

Anything featuring the Eagle Nebula deserves a look!  :-D
Great title - lovely graphics - interesting concept.

So even if it isn't quite what you originally had in mind, it's looking very good already!
 

Cogliostro

#2
"Between the Pillars of Creation" is back in active development.  Creating entirely new GUIs had been a MAJOR hassle and slowed progress to a crawl.  Anyhow, I will need a few beta testers to give the new GUIs a thorough look-see.  Please PM if you're interested.

For the record this was part of the April 2012 MAGs competition, so it does have an ending â€" but the arc, challenges, story, et cetera will grow beyond what is currently shown in the DEMO.

- Cogliostro

EDIT: I have the beta testers I need... for the moment.
"First things first, but not necessarily in that order." - Dr. Who

Cogliostro


I *think* the GUI / Interface is good.  Game was moving along until I realized that in order to internal conflict, I needed to show a strong contrast between the dialog of the characters and their actions.  Which meant a ton of animations!  And - no real surprise here - the game grew longer.

- Cogliostro
"First things first, but not necessarily in that order." - Dr. Who

kaput

This game looks quite gorgeous. I'll be looking forward to it ;)

Cogliostro

ARGH!

After bashing my head into a wall in order to get animations done, I've discovered one little nightmare.

The game is 340MB which becomes 109MB when compressed, fairly large.  If I include three animations that I spent some serious time on, it goes up to 631MB which becomes 175MB when compressed.  (All three animations are full screen PNG files, each containing 50+ shots).

109MB vs. 175MB

I think that I'll release two different versions and see how people react.

Anyhow, the game is still in progress, and here's a screenshot to prove it...



- Cogliostro



"First things first, but not necessarily in that order." - Dr. Who

CaptainD

Just speaking personally, the larger file size wouldn't put me off at all.  I think the largest AGS game I've ever downloaded was 1Gb!
 

frenzykitty

I agree, 70mb is not worth stressing about! Make it as big as it needs to be for you to be happy with it! :)

CaptainD

Besides, now that you've told us, we're going to feel that we're missing out on a great animated sequence if we get the smaller game.  8-0
 

Crimson Wizard

#9
Not sure what kind of animation is being spoken about here, but what about making a video file instead; will it be smaller (if the compression is used)?

AGS stores everything as uncompressed bitmaps actually, regardless of what was the imported sprite.

Cogliostro

There comes a moment when you sit back and enjoy the satisfaction that comes from having completed another step!  The code works, the graphics are good.  Then you just have to ask yourself is **ANYONE** going to like this damn thing at all?



What *WAS* I thinking when I created this puzzle?!

- Cogliostro
"First things first, but not necessarily in that order." - Dr. Who

Andail

Is that a puzzle?
I thought I was looking at a farming sim :) and was getting a bit intrigued, actually...

CaptainD

Quote from: Cogliostro on Tue 17/09/2013 19:07:15
What *WAS* I thinking when I created this puzzle?!

Um... is this is trick question?
Were you thinking about becoming a vegetarian?
 

cat

There definitely need to be more puzzles about nutritional value of crops ;)

Ghost

It lacks pumpkins. But hey, it looks like edudainment, and learning is PHUN!

KodiakBehr

Quote from: Cogliostro on Tue 17/09/2013 19:07:15Then you just have to ask yourself is **ANYONE** going to like this damn thing at all?

I would say about 30% of my subconscious at any given point in time is devoted to this question.  I will partake in your crop optimization minigame.  Will there be a bacon scenario DLC?


Lt. Smash

You could try http://tinypng.org/ to reduce the size of your png images. If you use lots of pngs this can reduce your game size more than the half ;)

Anyhow, really interesting game you are creating. I'm looking forward to it :)

Adeel

Going good so far, Cogliostro! Good luck with completing your game. :)

Quote from: Lt. Smash on Thu 19/09/2013 22:32:53
You could try http://tinypng.org/ to reduce the size of your png images. If you use lots of pngs this can reduce your game size more than the half ;) [...]

That is really a nice website! Thanks for sharing. :)

selmiak

from crop optimization minigame to png optimization, well, wasn't there something about AGS using its own algorithms to store graphics and it doesn't matter if PNGs are optimized or not? If it works to reduce game filesize this would be nice though.
I use png gauntlet to optimize pngs.

Cogliostro

#19

OPTIMIZATION:  Yeah, I never found any real appreciable difference between the the size of the game if I compressed the PNGs before adding them to the game, or compressing the game after having compiled.  So, I think I'll create a LITE version for those who are "bandwidth challenged" and a full blown version for the rest of us. 

PUN: I met this vegetarian the other day and she insisted she knew me from college, but I swear, I'd never seen herbivore.

FARMING SIM: Also, I apologize for creating a mini-game just like Farmville but with less excitement, and if an apology is going to mean anything it should come with a redhead.  So, here's another screen shot of a billboard you find in the game.



- Cogliostro
"First things first, but not necessarily in that order." - Dr. Who

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