King's Quest 4 remake Demo

[Karens]

The remake of KQ4 Demo; The Perils of Rosella is out;


http://unicorntales.org/kq4-perilsofrosella-remake/2013/kq4-general-category/fully-playable-demo/playable-demo-v11-released/

[Shadow1000]

I've been playing for a bit now; I have 9/30 points in the demo.

This really sets a new standard for AGS games, at least with regard to the environment and interface (I haven't seen enough of the puzzles yet to comment intelligently).

Great job

SHADOW

[Radiant]

Looks good, Karen! Those graphics are very nice! Good luck with the next part of the game

For some reason your download triggers a content warning from Chrome; you may want to look into that.

[CaptainD]

For some reason your download triggers a content warning from Chrome; you may want to look into that.

Pretty much everything that hasn't been downloaded by a decent number of people does that - once there have been a stream of people downloading the demo without flagging it as safe, that should disappear.  I think.

[angelle1]

Too much commentary, and Rosella (up close head shot anyway) is honestly quite creepy and looks like a sim.  Otherwise, not bad

[Marquillin]

I agree that Rosella's portrait is horrifyingly creepy; are you trying to make it 3d or something?  Maybe plain painted is the better way to go.  Otherwise it's all beautiful, and I like the enhanced puzzles.

[Andail]

Ok, the demo is a bit old by now but I still thought I'd offer some comments.

I'm really impressed by the level of detail - all the animations must have taken forever to make.
I'm not personally a fan of 3D-rendered graphics, but I can still appreciate how well made this was.

I think you should cut back on some of the commentary, especially the "witty" ones, because that kind of comedy can easily become exhausting. I also dislike it when the narrator talks directly to Rosella and vice versa, as it totally breaks my immersion.

I accept that the protagonist can die (only been killed by the shark so far), because that's the spirit of Sierra, and furthermore I did get some warning, so it was avoidable.

Really good work, so far, with only some minor issues!

[Karens]

ANgelle, Marquillin; it's true, we've gotten a few complaints about the portraits, though some seem to really like them and others, well, seem to hate them. I don't know if it's because they're 3d and people in here seem to prefer 2d talk portraits, or if it's something else.
I personally don't think they're that awful and Im not sure about mixing a 2d portrait with 3d backgrounds, especially since we're using closeups and cutscenes later on, all in 3d, so it's probably better to keep it more consistent, (or else people might not recognize the models and characters),
plus painting all that in 2d would be a big chore since my 2d painting skills pretty much suck *lol

Can I ask though what makes them creepy, like too much detail, or,, glossiness or,, too pretty/ugly/weird?
thanks,



ANdail, we actually discussed that some time ago in the kq4 game forum, and I think most of us agreed that having ROsella talk to the narrator and back again is a bad idea,! like you said, it does break the immersion. So that's something we will defin. try to avoid in the final release!

[xil]

Hi, just thought I'd chip in with my 2cents about the portraits since a lot of people I think are being a bit harsh. Personally I think there are a few very minor things which are causing people to use such heavy words as ugly, creepy etc and with a few small tweaks the portraits wouldn't warrant a bad word from anyone!

1. I think the eyes are slightly too far apart.
2. The jawline is perhaps a tiny bit large on the front on view (middle of the top row) - this change might affect the other views though.
3. The nose is slightly more 'cartoon' compared to the realism of the other features, I reckon a tiny bit of resizing down should solve any issues with it.

I'm not too sure of the work involved changing that and trying it out but I'm sure it would help solving most of the negative opinions.

In any case I think all of your work looks stunning and I wouldn't have an issue if it stayed exactly as it was, it's just your style at the end of the day and you don't need to change it, gameplay is far more important.

[cat]

I think the problem with her portrait are the eyes. They are glossy and red, so unless she is really ill with high fever, I'd change that. I agree with calicoreverie that they are too far apart.
And I think the teeth are creepy, especially in the top middle portrait.

[Karens]

I did a test, shortened the chin, narrowed the eyes by 2 pixels, took away some redness and glossiness to the eyes and shrunk down the nose.
She may look more 'pretty' now, but I also think she looks a bit boring :/, or too 'perfect', like there's not a lot of personality left, and the eyes seem a bit dead also, I dunno,

[xil]

Well I make websites for a living and I am forever and a day telling people that some people will love their website and some people will hate it, you'll never please everyone! That's why I always say, do it for yourself, don't pander towards what other people want and go with what you think looks good.

That being said, yes, she has lost a bit of personality and looks a bit prettier, but you are bound to get less people focus on how she looks as opposed to how good the game is, so it's an interesting debate. Would you rather she lost a bit of your personal touch and quirkiness but that means more people focus on the game, or would you rather people played the game but were put off by what they deem a 'creepy' portrait.

I'd rather pander a little bit towards the majority and change her so that more people focus on the game, but again, that's purely personal opinion and there simply is not a right or wrong answer in this case

[Knox]

I would have to agree with all of calicoreverie's comments in regards to Rosella's face, however the update you just posted is MUCH better than what you had before (in my opinion).

Perhaps to add more "personality" you could give her slight imperfections, like a gap in her teeth (à  la Madonna, hehe) or less makeup, shorter eyelashes, freckles, etc?

The hair looks perfect though, awesome lighting and the skin shader looks pretty good too!

[Karens]

Yeah, that's true calicoreverie, but I guess we should listen when the criticism is this severe, like people saying she looks really creepy, I think that isn't just a subjective opinion,
so I will do the portraits over again with the new mods, even if I do think she looks like a sex doll now, *lol,, but then again, she did look like Barbie in the original game too, but yeah, I do agree that she's probably more classically beautiful now, and I guess that's what most people want.

[dactylopus]

She did look rather creepy before, but you've made improvements.  I like the new portrait, it's a step in the right direction.

Overall, everything looks very nicely rendered!

[Meystari F]

Rosella face look almost like she could be Joffrey's sister from Game of thrones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jack_Gleeson_(August_2012)_(headshot).jpg

[Karens]

Just to update on the portraits, here are the new ones, personally I liked the old ones better, the gloss is almost completely gone from the eyes now leaving them flat and lifeless imo,
but hm, these are probably more pleasing overall maybe,

[Meystari F]

Looks fine. The eyes are still too big and scary. And you need to adjust a little bit her cheekbone. Then she would look better.

[kaput]

I think it looks good. It's funny, it's exaggerated. But what would we expect? It looks good and the render is nice

[LimpingFish]

Seeing as this thread is pretty much redundant, due to a similar thread being currently active on the GiP board (not to mention the fact that the CGA board is for completed games), I'm going to lock it.

Karens, I suggest you copy/paste any important information contained in this thread into your GiP thread, so as to avoid any confusion.

Good luck with your project.