Donald Dowell and the Ghost of Barker Manor

AprilSkies · Sun 11/11/2012 09:40:19

Hi Everyone,

I'm a new entry in the Forum.

Our first game made with AGS 3.2 is called "Donald Dowell and the Ghost of Barker Manor". English version it's not yet complete.
Months ago we made a Short Demo (we call it "MINI-DEMO") to present the game ... and we are proud to present it to you!

[imgzoom]http://apemarina.altervista.org/alterpages/0000a_main.gif[/imgzoom]

Description:
Donald Dowell is a nice old man in his eighties, retired for many years. Donald s life, except for his "intolerable" wife, is quiet. But Donald feels empty. He has the socalled retiree's syndrome : he s bored to death! The only way to cure his boredom is TO GO BACK TO WORK. After many hours spent in his city, trying to get hired for various jobs, he finally finds his calling: to be a GHOSTBUSTER!
Donald will try to become Bob Delano s assistant (the most famous occult detective in Ireland), be involved in the investigation of Barker Manor and, hopefully, solve the mystery.

2D old-fashioned, hand-drawn graphics
Third-person
Interaction with multiple characters
Multiple-choice dialogues
Languages: Italian / English

Overall Progress of the game: 100% (Italian Version) 100% (English Localization)

Some Screen Shots:

Others ScreenShot here: http://apemarina.altervista.org/donald-dowell.html

Mouth for war · Sun 11/11/2012 12:07:23

Hey! Love the look of this and it sounds like a fun game! Good luck with it

Frodo · Sun 11/11/2012 13:00:12

Love your graphics style. And the game sounds brilliant.

The old man's office looks wonderfully creepy, with the bat, skeleton, and gargoyle etc. Even the painting of Dracula on the wall.

EDIT: Just played the demo - love it!

If you need testers, I volunteer.

Tabata · Sun 11/11/2012 14:40:17

Played your demo and loved it!

Can't wait for it to be released

Please don't let me wait too long â€" time's running

Edit:
I have been so facinated about the game that I forgot

to the AGS-forum!

AprilSkies · Sun 11/11/2012 17:26:01

Thank you all for your appreciation!
The game will be finished in 2013; it takes time to draw backgrounds (they are handmade) and to color them.

@Frodo and any other who want to help us: yes we will need testers... of course you can test only english version ... We are going on with italian version and then we will transalte in english. The most difficult thing for us is to find Translator who can work for free.

If there is someone who knows italian and who can help us in translating, we will be grateful.

Peder 🚀 · Sat 17/11/2012 19:06:36

Love the art style!
Another game for my "games to watch" list.

AprilSkies · Fri 14/12/2012 14:57:02

Hi everyone again.

We are going on with the game.
We finished writing the story and puzzles' concept and we created new rooms.
At the moment the game contains about 40 rooms. We expect that the complete game (that we exitemated will be finished in the middle of 2013) will contain about 120 rooms (more or less).

Here's some new screenshots (just to know what do you think about graphics):

OG · Sat 15/12/2012 15:06:21

This looks really nice, loving your cartoony illustration style. I'll be keeping my eye on this one for sure.

Grim · Sun 16/12/2012 04:59:37

Actually, the more I see of this game, the more I like it;)

Your background artist definitely deserves praise!;) Keep up the good work!;)

selmiak · Sun 16/12/2012 05:48:50

yeah ane stuff.
If your walkcycles keep up with all the cool bgs I'm so sold

AprilSkies · Sun 16/12/2012 16:46:35

Thank u everyone.
The graphic is totally (more or less) hand-made; I made drawings on paper and then I developed them with computer. I scanned them (black and white gifs) and coulored with a pixel-art software. This way has made making animations and cycles a bit difficult, but I managed it some how

AprilSkies · Wed 13/02/2013 12:03:06

The game is almost done ... In a couple of month we'll be probably ready for Italian Language Release.
We hope we'll be able to translate it in english in a little time.
Here's some new screenshots:

Frodo · Wed 13/02/2013 12:50:47

Looks fantastic. I love your art style.

Can't wait for the English translation

WHAM · Fri 15/02/2013 10:14:49

Beautiful visual style and a nice setup storywise. Pretty unusual to set the game in Ireland, and I like that as well.

looking forward to giving this game a try!

SarahLiz · Sat 16/02/2013 22:21:28

Just tried the demo and I loved it...great story and I'm anxious to get inside that mansion and explore! Looking forward to playing it! I liked the Santa Clause looking secretary...

Sarah

Shadow1000 · Sun 17/02/2013 04:18:17

Quote from: SarahLiz on Sat 16/02/2013 22:21:28
Just tried the demo and I loved it...great story and I'm anxious to get inside that mansion and explore! Looking forward to playing it! I liked the Santa Clause looking secretary...

Sarah

Sarah:

If I'm not mistaken, that secretary was Karl Marx, based on his name, age, face and some of the things he says (mentioning capitalism/proletarianism)

SHADOW

AprilSkies · Sun 17/02/2013 10:15:52

Yes. it's Karl Marx.
The game will be full of quotes from movies, tv-show, comics, books, etc.
That's a quote form a famous italian comics: Dylan Dog (a paranormal investigator) with his assistant Groucho Marx. Here there are: Bob Delano and his secretary Karl Marx.

Stupot · Sun 17/02/2013 15:45:07

This one looks great. I'm digging the art style. I'm gonna download the demo later today. All the best bringing this one to fruition :-)

SarahLiz · Sun 17/02/2013 16:08:37

Quote from: Shadow1000 on Sun 17/02/2013 04:18:17
Quote from: SarahLiz on Sat 16/02/2013 22:21:28
Just tried the demo and I loved it...great story and I'm anxious to get inside that mansion and explore! Looking forward to playing it! I liked the Santa Clause looking secretary...

Sarah

Sarah:

If I'm not mistaken, that secretary was Karl Marx, based on his name, age, face and some of the things he says (mentioning capitalism/proletarianism)

SHADOW

Whoops! Haha, my mistake...well I never said he ACTED like Santa Claus...

But seriously, enjoyed playing the demo & was disappointed when it ended. I don't usually go for the cartoony-like graphic style but in this game it seems appropriate and it's really done quite beautifully, imho.

Sarah

Shadow1000 · Sun 17/02/2013 22:25:51

Quote from: SarahLiz on Sun 17/02/2013 16:08:37
Whoops! Haha, my mistake...well I never said he ACTED like Santa Claus...

LOL...this is true. I think it takes remarkable talent to cartoonize a face and make it recognizable. Compare Karl in the game with the original picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Karl_Marx_001.jpg

Quote from: SarahLiz
But seriously, enjoyed playing the demo & was disappointed when it ended. I don't usually go for the cartoony-like graphic style but in this game it seems appropriate and it's really done quite beautifully, imho.

I completely agree. I think that the graphics and animation are very smooth and polished and provide a perfect atmosphere. I'm very impressed with the detail and consistency of the backgrounds and the light-hearted environment is executed superbly. The demo only has a bit of background story intro and two simple (and identical) puzzles so it's hard to tell at this point how the game will develop but it certainly looks promising!

Buona fortuna to the authors!

SHADOW