Zniw Adventure - coming 06.11.2020 on Steam!

Started by CrashPL, Sun 22/06/2014 20:49:54

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SilverSpook

Looks fantastic!  Yeah definitely reminds me of old frame-by-frame animation, almost retro-Disney.  Really cool stuff.

CrashPL

Thank you so much for the kind words, everybody! :D

Quote from: NixxonMy kids (and I) will love this. Have been watching this project for a while!
That's what we're hoping to achieve with ZA - a game enjoyable for both older and younger players. ;)


Alright then, now something about the game - while we're still adding some new stuff and wrapping things up location-wise (it's more than 90% complete, now with 83 unique rooms), we also decided to revisit the old rooms and check if we could fix and polish this or that. We actually found a lot of such things, including some tweaks in the backgrounds, additional animation frames, or some totally new animations.

For example we decided the good ol' Hesperonychus should appear more than once (or twice), definitely not having any shut-eye anytime soon. All thanks to one pestering yellow dinosaur!



Some portraits also got tweaked a little bit, some are brand new:



The item cursors also got a complete overhaul. Rather than displaying the bulky item icon, which was not really that comfortable to use (plus it obscured smaller hotspots/objects directly under it), we decided to keep the standard "cross" cursor, along with the miniature version of the selected item on the lower left. The hotspot of the cursor wasn't changed (it's still the center of the cross), thus it's much easier to use or give things now!



But enough with that, let's take a moment to talk about the music in the game, as I believe I haven't covered the topic enough. You might already know our friend Problem is the composer of Zniw Adventure, but you might not know a lot of tracks are already composed, produced and placed in the game! Let's have a listen to some of Problem's fine guitar tunes, but first of all - the album cover:



And now for some acoustic tunes:

The bank of Rivenn-na (west side)
Scattered Woods (night ver.)


Whew, and that would be all for now. Thanks yet again for all of the comments and kind words, stay tuned for more updates. :D

CrashPL



That's a weird place to take a nap, no?

And for some less optimistic news (because hey, these are also a part of the dev cycle, aye?) - while I'm doing everything I can, the 2016 release date is less and less likely with each passing day. Mostly due to fact that a whole lot of testing (and bug squashing) is still ahead of us, and I don't really wish to rush untested and unpolished things out. So while it's still not an official announcement, I'd say Zniw should be expected around the first quarter of 2017 (January/February perhaps), not November/December 2016, as I initially thought (and wanted). Sorry to dissapoint some of you. :(

CrashPL

EDIT: also updated the title and the very first page.

Here's a little linguistic update regarding the Polish translation of Zniw Adventure, as I'm currently working both on the endgame, as well as the Polish version. While it won't be very exciting to the non-polish AGSers out there, it's a feature that was repeatedly asked for among Polish gamers.
First of all - kudos for anyone, who handled the encoding - it's really great how AGS handles the Windows-1250 encoded fonts. I didn't really have any problems using Polish diacritics (Š‚, ó, Ã,,…, Ã,,â,,¢ etc.), both as the in-game fonts/translations, as well as data files.



However one thing I've been scratching my head over is the complicated orthography and inflection in Polish. While the @overhotspot@ text in English is as easy as [actionName] + [targetName] ('Look at sign' for example), the difficulty ramps up while translating it. Sure, I could settle with something like [actionName]: [targetName], but it looks quite unprofessional imo. I ended up with creating a dictionary script, which transforms each name to a correct form. Thus now we have
Code: ags
tagetName = Š»óŠ‚wica (Elder turtle)
Look at elder turtle = Spójrz na Š¼óŠ‚wicÃ,,â,,¢
Take to elder turtle = WeŠº Š¼óŠ‚wicÃ,,â,,¢
Talk to elder turtle = Rozmawiaj z Š¼óŠ‚wicÃ,,…

targetName = Znak (Sign)
(...) znak
(...) znak
(...) ze znakiem
etc.


Oh, an translating/writing for a game intended mostly for younger players automatically makes you an expert in euphemisms. ;) (especially when creating dialogue for grumpy/angry characters)

SilverSpook


CrashPL

Thank you very much, SilverSpook! :D

Anyway, more animation goodies. This screen, with the very first serious decision, will greet you each time you run the game:



We're also two screens away from creating every room in the game!

CaptainD

From your screenshot 3 posts up, somehow Polish looks far more angry than English! :grin:
 

Blondbraid

I love it with the flags when you change language, so cute and clever,
and it is a rare treat to see games go the extra mile and do interactive animations in the menu! ;-D


Cassiebsg

Looks awesome! Great animation and cleaver idea for language selection. (nod) :-D

May I just point/request/suggest you add a 3rd button?
Spoiler

Load/Continue would be nice right from the start. ;) If there's a saved game, then you assume that the player has already chosen his favorite language and just wants to continue with the game.
I've recently run into this very same "problem" while testing another game, and thought it was annoying I had to choose every time I turn the game on.

Or alternatively, save the default selection to a file, and load it at game run, if it's defined then just move directly to the start menu/game intro.
[close]
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

CrashPL

Thanks CaptainD, Blondbraid and Cassiebsg! As for the "quick load" suggestion - we'll look what we can do. :)

No moving pictures this time, sorry. :( As we finished up all of the rooms in the game, Twarda decided to revisit some of the older locations (hey, we're doing ZA for almost 3 years now, so some parts may have gotten a bit dusty!)

The Undercave was the first one to receive such treatment. Some rooms were cut, some added, some slightly remade, some merged into one. We felt the caves might be a bit boring, so we decided to polish up things a bit.

Example of a new room:


Two merged into one:


Twarda also added some literal depth to the cave. ;)


And, if you're feeling like it, you also might listen to some cool music, done by our good ol' Problem!


Blondbraid

Wow, those caves look good, with very fascinating shapes and I like the glowing sparkles!


Danvzare

Wow, three years. I bet there's a lot of stuff which could use revamping. Just don't end up in an endless cycle of revamping and improving in skill. (laugh)

Also, those backgrounds look absolutely gorgeous. Am I right in thinking that the hole in the last background is a new puzzle?

Bavolis


Nixxon


AnasAbdin

Quote from: CrashPL on Mon 23/01/2017 14:33:36
No moving pictures this time, sorry. :( As we finished up all of the rooms in the game, Twarda decided to revisit some of the older locations (hey, we're doing ZA for almost 3 years now, so some parts may have gotten a bit dusty!)

Oh been there! I love the improvements a lot. The glowing "ore?" looks yummy!
Music is on spot. Denis is out of this world.

CrashPL

Thanks Blondbraid, Danvzare, Bavolis, Nixxon and AnasAbdin! Really glad you liked it!

Quote from: Danvzare on Mon 23/01/2017 15:10:48
Wow, three years. I bet there's a lot of stuff which could use revamping. Just don't end up in an endless cycle of revamping and improving in skill. (laugh)

Also, those backgrounds look absolutely gorgeous. Am I right in thinking that the hole in the last background is a new puzzle?

Haha, worry not, we just revamped the cave and a little bit of the very first location (Scattered Woods), and that's all - the rest is feature-frozen, as we don't want any feature creep, especially at the end of the production. ;) And yup, the chasm is a part of the puzzle. :)

Anyway, while I'm fixing the Polish translation and debugging here and there, Twarda's doing all of the missing animations and action/event still pop-ups. You may now enjoy Zniw getting hit with a pinecone...



...or nearly getting hit with a log. Glad she evaded that one, as it would result is some serious ouchies.



I believe Zniw being (nearly) hit with different objects will be a running theme in this game...


Cassiebsg

Have a feeling this will be a "classic" in a couple years. (nod)
Love it! Great work on the animations and stills.
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

CrashPL

Thanks AnasAbdin and Cassiebsg!

Quote from: Cassiebsg on Mon 20/02/2017 18:25:15
Have a feeling this will be a "classic" in a couple years. (nod)

Heheh, you think so? I believe there are better games for that title out there, but nevertheless that would be a dream-come-true for us!

So, how's the game going, you ask? Strill wrapping things up, I'm patching all the minor and major bugs (along with the translation), while Twarda still works hard at replacing the placeholder animations with the final ones. The past two weeks were especially slow for us, as we had a 'little' (and unexpected) home renovation, which had to be taken care of as soon as possible. The joys of after-work game dev, ladies and gents!

Here's the question for today - who would like to have a fake fish?



Hint: probably not the Deinosuchus guy. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you have to.



Just kidding, nothing has changed in the ZA game design - there are no player deaths, so explore and experiment all you want!

Here's also an example of a part animation, which is still not added to the game. Yeah, some larger animations come in parts, it's easier to manage and play them, rather than timing a huge one-part sequence.



And just for the kicks, here's a gif from one of the conversations. As you might already know, every prehistoric creature you'll have a word with has at least 5 different speech portraits, reflecting the current mood (Zniw, being an expressive dino-lass, has more than 20)



Now, let's hope I won't run into another game-breaking bug...


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