Topic: [RELEASED] BSG78 - Unexpected at the Rising Star

[Cassiebsg]

Okay, it's time to commemorate my finding AGS 2 years ago and thinking "YES! This is just what I wanted to finally do that game I started back in 98!"

No, this is not that game, yet. But this is a short game and will double as tech demo for the bigger full size game. anyway, no more blah blah, you guys want more than me babbling .

BSG78 - Unexpected at the Rising Star

    Based in the original TV series Battlestar Galactica from 78/79, comes this short story where you control Starbuck who will soon fly a solo mission to test a new viper and has a reward, he got "dinner" for 2 in the luxurious liner Rising Star. After Athena declines the invite due to her being on duty, Starbuck not one to eat alone and miss opportunities, invites Cassiopeia who accepts. You take control of Starbuck as he just got a private room for him and Cassiopeia unsuspecting that Athena is on her way to surprise him, after being relieved of duty... can you be cunning enough to not be caught dating 2 girls at once?
    This scene was taken from the episode The Long Patrol as I always thought it was a funny scene (even if some stuff make little sense)...

    Screenshots:

x1 x2 x4 x8

x1 x2 x4 x8

    Progress (beats me how one measures this... ).

    Story: 100%
    Scripting: 95%
    Graphics: 99%
    Sound: 95%
    Music: 90%

    Features:
    - Resolution: 1024x576 32bit
    - Alternate endings (after unlocking game)
    - 2 playable characters
    - 4 Playable rooms
    - Scumm VerbCoin GUI v1.7.1 Verbcoin v1.1 (by monkey0506) Custom right click VerbCoin based on part of monkey0506's code.
    - Easter egg
    - 2 lovely ladies
    - Selection of sound track to use: Default (by Eric Galluzzo ), MP3 or Audio CD.
    - Almost full Keyboard control.
    - Save of game settings.
    - Hopefully some fun play even if you know nothing about Galactica.

     Help wanted:
        I'll be opening a thread in the appropriate forum and then link it here. Say tuned!
       
        Currently looking for: Translators (any language), Beta testers

    Expected completion:
        Soon... Probably, hopefully, Mid ? 2017...
       
    Voice acting cast list:
    Narrator: Mandle (80% ?)
    Adama: Mandle (90% ?)
    Starbuck: Captain D
    Cassiopeia: Xanthippe
    Athena: DuckLady (95%)
    Waiter: Haggis (Done)
    Deimos: CaptainD (Done) - Thanks to Michael for great effort, pity we couldn't get the sound quality up.
    Master Jarl: Danvzare (Done)
    Annoncer: DuckyLady (Done)
    Anya: Ana Neves (Done)
    Easter Egg: CaptainD (Done?)

    Music: Eric Galluzzo
    SFX: CaptainD


    UPDATES
    12 May 2017: Intro movie added:
   

    8 Jan 2017 : New voice for Anya.

    1st & 2nd December - Yeah...am still not that good with these thing called "updates".
Anyway made a small teaser showing the first couple minutes of game play.  Enjoy!

[

    18 September: Uhm... I seem to have hibernated during August, sorry about that. I'm back at doing missing animations and have now started to add them to the game... So work is again going forward! And welcome aboard to Eric Galluzzo, who has agreed to work on the sound track!

    5th June: Oops... still no Beta, but after a break doing MAGS I'm now back in the saddle, hopefully with renewed blood.
    Here are the highlights from thread updates:


    25th March: Added support for walking with keyboard (Keyboard Movement 102 module), Read/Write in game settings to file (IniFile module by Wyz), Tween module is also installed, but haven't really done anything with it yet (besides making the top GUI drop down). There's still a few technical issues that need to be fixed/added/patched, but most of the "behind the scenes" seems to now be in place. Game play wise... don't think it's even reach 50%... but probably close to that. Now that most of the "bottle necks" are solved, then I expect game play coding to move faster. So lets hope Blender is in cooperative mode, so I can add some animations to go along.

    21 March: New screen shoot for the hallway with VerbCoin in action.
   
     
    27/February & 10 March:
   

[CaptainD]

Haha awesome, looking forward to seeing what you do with this.

[NickyNyce]

I loved Battlestar Galactica. Looks and sounds very interesting. Good luck with finishing this.

[Stupot]

Looking good. I'm not familiar with BSG though. Should I watch the show before playing this?

[AnasAbdin]

This would be great. A good looking short game that is a teaser for a longer one

Progress (beats me how one measures this... ).

It shouldn't actually be that hard for a short game! How many rooms is the game? How much have you completed? Average sprites per: room, character, objects.. etc. See how much you've done. Same applies for sounds, story line, code.

We know the numbers are not very precise, but they give us an idea how much you are dedicated to the project and how big is the project itself
The number usually increase by updates, however, sometimes things happen like additional puzzles and rooms which may cause the progress percentages to decrease. For example, if the game is 4 rooms and you completed 3, then later you decide to add 5 more rooms in the design

[SilverSpook]

Looks cool!  Good luck with it.

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks guys.

@Stu, no need to watch the show, if you don't feel like it, hopefully I can make it so it's still fun to play even for non fans or people that don't know the show.

@Anas, I get the "theory", which I tried to apply, but it's hard for me to judge exactly how much scripting and graphics amount, since I'm one of those "on the fly" and to add to injury, also inexperienced... I write as I develop the game, and do the animations I need when I'm coding. As well as inventory items and such... It's like "oh, I need a xyz here...!" then open Blender, make it (if not done yet) render, get the sprite in and then code. Story is in my head, so even dialogs get developed on the fly (which means that sometimes my characters get "alive" and take the story another way than I originally thought. I've gotten my self into a corner more often than not when writing fanfic.... ). But fear a not, I got a friend that promised to help out with dialogs, so hopefully he's better at writing than I am.

Here's a little animation that you might not even see in game, depending what options you choose...

[Mandle]

Great to hear you're working on your dreams, Cassie...I'd forgotten that BSG had these kind of "Love Boat" side-dramas going on, as I watched it as a kid and only cared about the space battles.

I must ask though: Was your Starbuck model originally a female model that you tweaked? His hips/thighs look a tad feminine to me, and his pecs look a little like breasts. Or has our swashbuckling ladies' man just put on a little weight?

Disclaimer: No, I'm not saying that women are fat. Just that if a male has the more rounded lines of the female form it often means they are slightly chubby.

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks Mandle.

No, he was always a male, complain to Make Human, since I used their program. I mostly just tried getting the face right, though it's not that right either. Was originally planning to project paint the actors face but after a somewhat first failed attempt, I decided not to do that - cause I was afraid I would get into trouble. I know thata Realm Press, who did some BSG comics some years ago, they had actor likeness and after a few issues, they were ordered to stop using character likeness.

But yeah, I didn't bother much modeling the body, just put the mesh at 100% male adjusted height and such and then went on to try and getting close to the face as possible. I might suck a bit at this.

[SilverSpook]

Yeah, I do have to say the model was slightly androgynous.  Actually, I thought it was a female Starbuck TBH.  I think the soft curvy roundness of the thigh area, shoulder-to-hip proportions, and boobly chest are what did it.  Oh, and maybe lack of the Area, as in the 'David Bowie's Area', area.   Just make sure the voice actor overcompensates with an extremely testosterone-filled, baritone-register performance.  I mean really, your character has a fever, and the only cure for it, is a whole lotta cowbell.  And by cowbell I mean unbridled machismo. 

I mean other than that the animation looks good.

[Gurok]

Cassie, this looks so wonderful. I'm so glad it's finally taking shape.

I think the models (even Starbuck) are fine. To me, he looks a little stocky but not feminine.

I really like your choice of resolution too.

Good luck with the production! I'd love to help test the beta when it's ready.

[Cassiebsg]

@SilverSpook, now you're the 3rd person to call him a she... I'll see about tweaking the model before the final release, I have to redo his walk cycle anyway, cause am not 100% satisfied with it, just like 90%... Also need to do redo Cassie's model slightly, her breaths are a bit too big. (not that any male will complain... )

Thanks, Gurok. I'll sign you in as Beta tester.

[agentbauer]

Looks very promising. I just watched the episode "The Long Patrol", and that game might be really funny
I'd also love to help testing.

[Cassiebsg]

Cool!
Thanks agentbauer.
Consider yourself signed up as tester.

[SilverSpook]

I am definitely into Cassie's huge boobs and badonkadonk. 

[agentbauer]

I am definitely into Cassie's huge boobs and badonkadonk. 

I thought about writing that, but, well, you've been faster

Will there also be C.O.R.A. in the game (the female Viper computer) ?

[jwalt]

I'd signed on to help Cassie by modeling 3D things like pots and pans. She's been fiarly easy to get along with, until she asked for a specific axe. Took several tries to get it past her quality control, and I am now wondering if this might be an indication that Starbuck's date doesn't end well. 

[Cassiebsg]

LOL
Nothing as violent, am afraid...

@agentbauer, no flying in this little short game/demo, sorry to disappoint you. It's actually only that scene that takes what? 5 minutes long? Game ends when Cassiopeia and Athena meet in the hallway...

And a little update (no pictures though). Have now redone Starbuck, Cassiopeia, Athena and the Waiter's sprites. Not sure if Starbuck's front view improved anything, but Cassie is much better (in my eyes anyway ).
Spent most of the weekend trying to get the verbcoin working the way I wanted... trashed the Scumm Verbcoin away cause I was unable to figure out the code and change it, and am now using Monkey0506's Verbcoin instead. Almost have it working like I want, but can't seem to figure how to set up the graphic to change over the selected option... any help out there?

Ps - Let me add that jwalt is doing great as the man with all the room decorations!

Edit: Figured out the verbcoin graphics, just regular buttons.

[Cassiebsg]

Just a little update.

And so enters Athena all of a sudden into the scene:

x1 x2 x4 x8

I seem to have misplaced her star... Hope to find it again before the release... maybe I'll also find their shadows by then!
Progress been a bit slower than I had hoped, as I've been struggling to get the Verbcoin working like I want. There's still a few default actions annoying the heck out of me cause I can't locate the code... think I may have found some of it though. But since what's left doing are mostly minor irritations, I'll leave it like this for now and go back at it at a later time. Soon the easter egg is more polished than the rest of the game...

Doing (hopefully final render for 3 of the 4 rooms), added a bunch of useless hotspots and some if/else if/else conditions, fine tuning the code for the first private room. Need to render a few items and make a few animations... Hopefully will have those done tomorrow. Progress is slow, but moving sure & steady. Also made a Help menu... though for your experts out there, there's not much help to get in the help menu.

Voice acting has now two offers. So still long way to go, since I doubt they wish to do all the voices...

Still looking for help.

[SilverSpook]

I guess I could try voicing something but I have difficulty not sounding like either a gangster or a programmer.  So unless you have Ice Cube churning out Killer Apps in your game, you're outta luck. 

I can also do a rather convincing Billy Corgan impression, though.

Also, Athena looks cool, real stompy!

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks SilverSpook.

Well, Billy Corgan is not on the cast list... But I do have 2 male voices that have no actors, since they are made up characters. So they can sound just like you want them to.

[AnasAbdin]

Code tweaking, rendering rooms, animations, "useless" hotspots...
and then you say production is slow??
maybe in slasher's terms this is slow but seriously I'm impressed with your work so far.

[Cassiebsg]

Sounds more than it is, honest.
It would go much faster if I knew what I was doing and stopped wasting time trying to understand code I didn't write.

Anyway... got a brand new animation thanks to jwalt's work.

Anyone hungry for mushies?

[Cassiebsg]

Sorry for the lack of updates, but am still busy with the "behind the scenes", made my own VerbCoin, since I was unable to strip monkey's code to remove the default actions. Still need to thank him, cause I used his code snip from a reply to get started. Then changed here and there to fine tune it. It's almost perfect, only missing to get the @hotspot@ name to work, kind of forgotten about that yesterday. Also big thanks to Gurok, as you can now decide between playing the game with the default music, choose your own mp3s or use your our audio CD.

Besides, if I post every new sprite or animation, there won't be anything left for you to discover.

Anyway, here's the Hallway in a new and improved rendered version, with the VerbCoin visible over some of jwalt's great work and the infamous axe.
Also some tweaking at the top interface.


Still thinking about changing the portrait to a diagonal view, but that will imply some fancy coding that am not sure it's worth it at this time.

[SilverSpook]

Looking good!

I just blow off the diagonal walking animations, myself.  Sometimes I throw out the up and down walk cycles too, for certain characters.  One issue on my end is I'm having to hand-paint characters in Photoshop at 1366x768 so that's a whole lot of time that doesn't have a big return-on-investment unless it's a main character who you're going to see all the time.

I like Dave Gilbert's advice: you can invest money or you can invest time.  And I'm all outta money.  So you've got to spend that time wisely.

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks SilverSpoon... well... yes, that is right... but when you're running for love and want to make it as perfect as possible... then time is only an issue of "I want to get this done yesterday!"... But I still want it to be as best possible.

Anyway, a quick update: Original ending is now fully playable from start to end. There's still some glitches, probably buggs and a bunch of missing animations and character adjustments... but it's playable!
Meaning I'll now start working on making the alternate ending playable from start to end.
Sorry about the lack of images... but again, can't possibly show everything right?

[SilverSpook]

Sure you can show everything, Cassie, don't be a tease like that! 

Yeah since you have 3D models, it's actually a total sinch I would think to get 8-direction walking animations.  Just rotate the camera and render out a new set of frames!  Drawing out eight hand-painted animations takes pretty much literally eight-times as long, though.  I've heard Ben304 complain about that a bunch on Blue Cup Tools Podcast and it's totally true.  So in your case, it's a total time-saving advantage!  You gotta use that leverage!

[AnasAbdin]

Drawing out eight hand-painted animations takes pretty much literally eight-times as long, though.

Specially if you change suits in the game 

[Cassiebsg]

Okay a little update.

My tribute to AGS... the "always hot blue cup" in the hands of Master cook Jarl:

(yes, I realize that smoking hot smoke is a bit overkill, but hey, blender wasn't cooperating and doing that was already a win! for some odd reason it either would not render or just ignore every single setting I try to change ).

Take notice that I have solved the shadows!
Now I just need to add the node to the other characters and re-render every thing. Hopefully fixing up some small personal annoyances that have little or no influence to the game.

Also, voice acting cast is starting to take shape and sounds now much more plausible!
Am still missing one female (which I'll do my self if I have to! But I suck at it, so...) and 2 male voices!

[Cassiebsg]

Small update.

The kitchen is now fully operational with all "puzzles" in place!
I just need to add sfx and render some few animations (computer isn't cooperating), make the ending for kitchen action, add a some descriptions and such to inventory items, and then fix a bug or two I'll probably stumble into while adding those things.

Anyway... and because you guys demand pictures! Here's a GUI BG...

[Cassiebsg]

Uhm, guess it's been a while since my last update. The good news: My new work computer is now "super" fast! Unfortunately I'm as slow/fast as I was before.

Here's what is suppose to be the final version of the kitchen BG:

Now I'll have to re-render my "objects" in this low light level (as I decreased the level of lighting in relation to the previous version) before I declare this room "done", but it's almost done in terms of coding. I added a few stuff to the events in the kitchen (just to add to my headache and my "why can't you keep this small and simple?" problem. ).

Anyway, my hope is to reach beta stage by the end of the month, let's see if I can render and code the few stuff that is missing to get a flowing story in place instead of chunks of events with no connection.

[AnasAbdin]

Wow that is one awesome kitchen background Great work Cassiebsg.
Take all the time you have to re-render and fix lighting touches and so on. It's worth it

[SilverSpook]

Looks great!  Keep up the good stuff. 

[selmiak]

This is cool! I love the colorful flicker on that screen on the right! Please say it will even be animated...

[Gurok]

I tried an early alpha and I'm looking forward to the complete game now. Cassie's done an amazing job of capturing the feel of a BSG episode. It feels very well directed.

The kitchen background looks even better than I remember seeing last time.

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks guys.

Yes, selmiak, that screen is animated. Not that it's that big a deal, though, only 2 frames.

[Cassiebsg]

Thought I would put up a tease for 2 animations I did the other day.

Here's Deimos demonstrating how to use a fire extinguisher correctly:

Spoiler: ShowHide

x1 x2 x4 x8

And here's Deimos demonstrating how NOT to use a fire extinguisher!

Spoiler: ShowHide

x1 x2 x4 x8

Oh, yeah... no animation? Sucks, I'm so lazy! Yes, only a single frame from each animation... for the full thing (and context) you'll have to wait and play the game.

I can add that the kitchen scene is now almost completely coded! There's only a small thing that Blender is being a pain with (as usual!) for a "simple" animation, and I am now re-rendering the sprites for the master cook, plus will also create a new small animation for him so I can rap this bit of story. Then I may add a few more useless hotspots, we know you guys love to look at those!
Other than that, then it's adjusting x,y,z coords, - hate this part!

[jwalt]

And here's Deimos demonstrating how NOT to use a fire extinguisher!

At the risk of making my one and only Beta Tester mad, I want to point out that there actually could be an instance where an extinguisher, with trigger locked open, might be thrown into a room with an active fire.   

And you can add me to your Beta Tester list, if you want to.

[Stupot]

That kitchen looks gorgeous. Keep up the good work :-)

[Cassiebsg]

Well, been a while since I updated here, progress been a bit slow I must admit, but am now in the process of play testing what I have, taking notes of bugs, oddities, forgetfulness, polishing up missing descriptions/hotspot actions and re-rendering the animations, now with shadows... Only the cooks had shadows. Also, thanks to Problem's "miracle" script, rendering a walk cycle is now a one click process, after some fine tuning! So... diagonal views for all characters are now a reality!

Here's the Rising Star's waiter/concierge:

PS - I still have no offers for his voice... can YOU do it?

Yes, I realize I need to re-render it again... for some odd reason his left arm is not fully swinging forward.

Anyway, the game is currently playable to the end in both the locked and unlocked mode. Still need to script the alternate end a bit better, and render some new animations before it's done. Also the end "splash screen" is pretty weak... but at least it's there!

Deimos is currently being voiced by Michael, but it'll sound pretty silly if Master Cook Jarl has no voice...
Any takers?

He's a middle aged man, talks fast (or is in high gear), loves and is highly proud of his spotless clean kitchen... He has only 23 lines! All you need is: Speak clear english, a mic and a little bit of quiet time for recording. Doesn't matter if you have an accent! There are people of 12 colonies squeezed into these tin cans, who's to say which colony Jarl belongs to, and which accent he may have?

[Cassiebsg]

Hey guys!
Just a quick update to say that Michael is still going string and adding voice acting lines to Deimos.
I've taken a "break" to do MAGS, but am back now, so back to work.

Still looking for 2 male voices! See post above!

EDIT2: Help with voice acting has now been found! Who knew that people actually read this thread! Thanks.
I'll post the cast list soon. But right now am trying to fix my MAGS entry... removing the few bug that are still there (some minor, one not so minor)...

[Cassiebsg]

Was hoping to post the intro, but having a bit of problems with it... in the mean time you can look at this picture...

Model by Richard Dyke, rendering and exhaust fumes by me:


Now I "just" need to "move" the model to the scene and animate it.

Oh, and voice cast list is up on the first page.

[AnasAbdin]

this is one awesome 3D model! I can't wait to see it moving in space!

[Cassiebsg]

Okay, another of my "picture-less" update posts.
Just wanted to say that most of the technical (and more "pseudo"-complicated code is now done!)
Finally I have a functional blaster! Always wanted one and now I do!

So, now all it's missing is coding the 2 alternate ends, connect code to a couple puzzles (they are in, but just not entirely sewed to the "action"), and... yes, re-render my characters and create new animations to complete the fun.

So... let's see how much I can do this week. I honestly hope that we'll be seeing the first beta by the end of the week or during next week!

*note to self* Do NOT keep adding stuff!

[CaptainD]

You do only mean you have a functional blaster in the game, right?  RIGHT?!?

Looking forward to seeing this.  Will it be relatively obvious how to trigger each of the alternate endings?

[Cassiebsg]

Right!

And no, well, some will be obvious, but you'll have to work for others (unless you do it by accident).

in locked game you have: End as in the episode, or a variant but with same result.
In unklocked mode: You still have the two above, plus alternate end and Easter egg end.

I just wrote 2 paper napkins worth of text for the Easter egg end at work. Now I just need to add it to the game.

[Cassiebsg]

Sorry for the delay guys!

I'll just add that 1st Beta is almost ready for our brave testers. Only problem right now is a bug on my verbcoin that is crashing the game.

So please be patient, your regular program will soon be ready for public eyes!

EDIT: I seem to have now crushed all major bugs and the various endings seem to be all working. Tomorrow (or today, since it's already past midnight over here) I'll do a couple more play run tests and if nothing major shows up, Beta 1 will be build, uploaded and released to our brave Beta testers!

[Cassiebsg]

Good news everyone!

Beta 1.0 has been sent out to our brave team of testers... and a few minutes after I fix it, and sent 1.1 out.
Already fixed a number of small and problematic bugs, so testing is serving it's purpose!

Anyway, if you're suppose to be on the beta team and I missed you, send me a PM or reply here, and I'll send you the link (and sorry for missing you)!

[SilverSpook]

Nice starship there!  I'd test but unfortunately got way too much on the plate at the moment outside of gamedev x.x 

Good luck on it though!

[Cassiebsg]

Oh look! It's a pillow! How fluffy and soft!

[Jack]

Oh pillow, you're so much better than other pillows. I won't let them take you from me, pillow.

[SilverSpook]

Nice work I like the pillow   and the pillow lighting.

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks guys.

I'm still working new animations, and fighting with Blender to do what I tell it to do...

Anyway, here's an idle animation. Decided to go with just a bit breathing movement... and blink (sorry for the white BG, but Corel sucks for making gifs).

[AnasAbdin]

I love it 
Just hope he's not blinking every nano second in the view 

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks
Am still trying to figure out the correct rate for the blink, but the gif does blink faster than the view.

[AnasAbdin]

Nah I know it's a gif thing.. it'll be easy to implement in the character's view. Usually I have 4 different speech sprites. I create a 13 frames loop with the speech sprites looped 3 times.. and throw a blinking view in between 
I like to put the blink sprite before mid way though to make sure it would be used for single words..

e.g.
speech sprites: 1 2 3 4
blink sprite: x
[ 1 2 3 x 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 ]

[Cassiebsg]

Okay, after having some trouble with Starbuck (yes, he's a bad bad boy!) I have now solved it, so am now rendering his animations!
In the mean time I've worked on the Easter Egg, and must say I'm fairly happy/proud of it... but I don't want to spoil it, so not showing.

I'll post a new animation later on.

EDIT: Okay... I finally remembered to do a gif.
You can thank jwalt for this one, as he's the one that gave me the inspiration for this scene!

x1 x2 x4 x8

[SilverSpook]

Good work there!  He's a mad hacker! 

Is he reaching over something to do the chopping?

[AnasAbdin]

I can hear him! Lovely animation  I need to learn 3D character modeling 

[CaptainD]

Looks like I'm going to have to voice him going "HIIIIIIIIII-YAA!!!!" to go with this action?!!?

This game just looks better and better.  Great work!

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks guys!

No, but I've deliberately left out what he's chopping at... don't want to spoil the beans.

@CaptainD, sure go ahead! Must admit I hadn't thought of a sound for this one.

[Cassiebsg]

Quick update to say progress is back moving forward after some hibernation during August. Did a bunch of the missing animations and have now started adding them to the game. There are now not many obvious missing, but I'll only know exactly how many are missing once I add the batch I've made in the past few days in.

On a brighter note, Eric Galluzzo has agreed to work on the music score for the game! And by the sample tracks he's shown me, I have every confidence he will add great value to the game while still maintaining the original BSG feel. And I expect 99% of the players to play the game with this music score.

[CaptainD]

Great news!  Eric is a fantastic composer (and a jolly nice chap too )!

[AnasAbdin]

Sounds awesome
hope to listen to some of the samples too!

[Cassiebsg]

Guess it's been a while since I lasted updated this.
Mostly it's cause I've already shown "everything" there is to... if I show more there won't be anything to explore in the game...

So... today I decided to make a small video (little did I know I would spend the "entire" (read as: my free time) day doing it.

Anyway.... hope it was worth it (sorry for the low quality video, but I really wasn't in the mood to upload 3GB of uncompressed video to youtube, and the codecs I currently have installed suck).

Music: Eric Galluzo (based on original sound track by Stu Phillips)

Voice acting is still missing... But hopefully I'll soon finish adding all the missing animations and fine tunes... here's me hoping at least.

[AnasAbdin]

I believe I'm going to enjoy your BSG... A LOT

[Stupot]

Looking really good, Cass. Keep up the good work

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks guys
Sorry it's taking so long.

[Cassiebsg]

Okay, little update today.

Just sent the last scripts to the voice actors a few minutes ago.
I've been actively and very methodically play testing and fixing any bugs and glitches I find. Can say that finally my bugs list is starting to become slightly smaller.
So game is progressing, slowly but steady.

If all goes well, I hope to get next Beta out before the end of the year (preferably before next weekend).

[SilverSpook]

Looks pretty great! All the moving parts are in place!  Nice work there.

[Cassiebsg]

Unfortunately, every time I try something "new" I find a new bug, then I fix it, and create a couple more...
Due to this fact, I have yet to finish the beta, so my hopes to send it to the testers this year is now pretty much gone... let's hope 2017 will bring the end of my buggy game.

And Happy New Yahren to all!

[Cassiebsg]

I've finally seem to have been able to remove most bugs (I don't want to jinx it and say "all"), so Beta 0.1.6 has just now been dispatched to our hero Beta testers!
Since some of the testers seem to suffers from lack of feedback, I could use one or 2 more, if you have the time and will.

[Cassiebsg]

After the unstoppable jwalt breaking the game in multiple ways and finding the weirdest of bugs, 0.1.7 was quickly dispatched to all testers. I'm now slowly patching known bugs and trying to patch those weird bugs, without breaking the game.

Voice packs for the waiter and Athena have been added to the game now, and got a new voice for the intercomm receptionist (cause I sucked ).

Wednesday I'll be returning home, and I'll then work out the sprites that need replacing.

[AnasAbdin]

I want Wednesday to be now
I can imagine the amount of work and frustration of this stage of production. Good luck

[Cassiebsg]

Brand new character! Well...

x1 x2 x4 x8

I guess he's neither "brand new" nor "new"... but I just made him after 3 failed attempts.
And his uniform still sucks, I know. But I may not change it, since he's only got a few lines and only has a portrait sprite anyway... And I need to leave room for improvement for the next game anyway.

[Danvzare]

Eek, those mouth movements are scary.

The model itself though, looks absolutely gorgeous. Good job.

[SilverSpook]

Looks pretty good there!  He looks kind of like old Michael Fassbender.

[jwalt]

Brand new character! Well...

x1 x2 x4 x8

I guess he's neither "brand new" nor "new"... but I just made him after 3 failed attempts.
And his uniform still sucks, I know. But I may not change it, since he's only got a few lines and only has a portrait sprite anyway... And I need to leave room for improvment for the next game anyway.

If you do improve him, I'd keep this one. You might find other uses for him, particularly if you pull the ears out a bit:

Spoiler: ShowHide

[Cassiebsg]

LOL

[Cassiebsg]

Improved Adama's portait a little bit. Am fairly happy with it now.


Portraits with Speech animations done today:

Starbuck , Cassiopeia, Deimos & Master Jarl

[Gurok]

The portraits look great next to each other. It's coming along well, Cassie!

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks Gurok.
I've actually been wondering if Jarl is that small and white when compared with the rest of the cast.

Decided to add an achievements page for those that like to keep track of what they have accomplished and are still missing (considering there's a bunch of multiple choices that lead to slightly different outcomes).

[AnasAbdin]

Improved Adama's portait a little bit. Am fairly happy with it now.

Me too
I like how the others turned as well. Gives me a push to made a 3D game

[Cassiebsg]

Last 2... sorry for the delay, but haven't done much since last post.


The waiter and Athena (hope it's better now Jwalt? ).

[jwalt]

The waiter and Athena (hope it's better now Jwalt? ).

Both look great to me. My complaint about Athena was never about the modeling, just about the shadow beneath her chin, which is now gone. :-)

[NickyNyce]

Looking good. Better yet, they look great, especially the girl.

[AnasAbdin]

Looking good. Better yet, they look great, especially the girl.

I agree, Athena looks great the light angle is cool 

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks guys!
Though, now that I look at her, I realize I lost her star again...

[SilverSpook]

Great job!  Yeah I agree, very interesting lighting choices.

[Mandle]

RIP Apollo (Richard Hatch)

[Cassiebsg]

Ewwww....
Not the kind of news I was expecting to find when getting home.

RIP

[Mandle]

Ewwww....
Not the kind of news I was expecting to find when getting home.

RIP

On the brightish side though, it sounds like he had a great time in his life:

"In my case, 'Battlestar Galactica' was a milestone," he wrote on his personal website. "It afforded me the opportunity to live out my childhood dreams and fantasies. Hurtling through space with reckless abandon, playing the dashing hero, battling Cylons, monsters and super-villains -- what more could a man want?"

As well as being a role-model hero for a generation of children (he sure was for me!) what more could one ask for from life really?

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks Mandle... thinking about adding a "in memory of" at the end of the credits... too corny?

Anyway, just finished coding a brand new feature... looking forward to see how my testers will break it (yes, I'm looking at you, jwalt ).

x1 x2 x4 x8

[CaptainD]

Too corny?  No.   

I've nearly got my voice back properly after this cold virus messed it up so should have Starbuck's voicing finished soon.  (Just in case it's me that's been holding everything up!)

Will one of the achievements be upsetting the waiter? 

[Cassiebsg]

Don't worry, not you that it's holding it back, it's me... or better said, my work that drains all my energy... and then my son drains what's left once I get home...

Well, he will be a bit upset yes... and yes, one achievement has to do with the waiter... Been reading the script, I suppose?

[Danvzare]

I agree with CaptainD, that isn't too corny.
Go for it!

[Skeevy Wonder]

On the brightish side though, it sounds like he had a great time in his life:

"In my case, 'Battlestar Galactica' was a milestone," he wrote on his personal website. "It afforded me the opportunity to live out my childhood dreams and fantasies. Hurtling through space with reckless abandon, playing the dashing hero, battling Cylons, monsters and super-villains -- what more could a man want?"

Thx (from a lurker and voice) for posting the quotation, Mandle. It's awesome when performers are able to live their dreams and childhood fantasies.

Heya, CaptainD/Starbuck!   

Cassiebsg: if you'd like another beta-tester, I'm open. And not corny at all IMO; a dedication would be great. 

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks Xanthippe, I'll add you to the next Beta. 

For those helping out with the game, please send me your "credits" name. If I don't get it, I'll just use your forum nickname. 

For those following this thread... I've been busy getting the 3 space cut-scenes done... I would have never had guessed that making a star-field was such a complicated thing... guess I always thought it was just a bunch of dots in a black canvas...  You can follow this marathon in the critics lounge topic here: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=54610.msg (and feel free to criticize!)

Next beta will be first out after I've gotten all voice files in game, cut-scenes are finished and I've polished a bit on the story/dialogues.  So, if anyone else wants to test at that point, feel free to get your ticket here. 

[CaptainD]

Heya, CaptainD/Starbuck!   

Sorry, delayed reaction here - hi Cassiopeia / Xanthippe!  Nice to meet one of my in-game lovers! 

[Cassiebsg]

Hi all, small update to show you the Intro as playing in game...

There might be some slight change to it, but probably not much more.

[CaptainD]

Wow that's pretty awesome Sandra!

[Skeevy Wonder]

Hiya, Starbuck (CaptainD)!

It looks brilliant, Sandra. Fabulous grasp on cinematics, IMO!

Hopefully this is appropriate here: your enty in the recent AGS activity regarding underground facilities blew my mind.

[Danvzare]

Oh wow Cassie, that looks amazing!

[agentbauer]

awesome Cassie, looks wonderful 

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks guys and gal 
I'm now assembling video 2.

OT: @Xanthippe,

Spoiler: ShowHide

You can comment on the appropriate thread.  And you can also vote on your favorites (not necessarily mine), any forum member can vote, even if they haven't participated with an entry. 

[Stupot]

Great stuff, Cass. Great to see this coming along.
There's a weird glitch in the last 5 seconds. I take it that's not delibrrate?

[Cassiebsg]

I know and have fixed it, was 3 frames that got rendered wrong, tks.  Just didn't bother fixing the YT video.

Thanks for the comments

[SilverSpook]

Awesome!  Now you just need the trapezoidal text-scroll... Oh wait, wrong franchise!

[Cassiebsg]

So... last weekend I finally did a big run of play testing, and during this week I've been fixing bugs and glitches like crazy... adding missing SFX and voice files... I can now announce that this project is almost done!

What is missing? A few (very little graphics, it's really just polish), 3 lines of voice, 1 (maybe 2) track of music... play test to make sure I did not break the game since last weekend and all I've added since are working as expected... and proofreading and some beta testing (with eventual fixes)... That is it!

So beta testers, get ready to get the link for the new beta (which will be as close to a release candidate as it'll get)... I'll be packing, uploading and sending you the link as soon as I have run the game and played it in all it's interactions (either today or tomorrow)...

Then I expect to release the game ASAP... so hopefully that'll be before the end of the month.

Backups have been made!

And so you don't feel you wasted your time looking in here here's a litte animation:


And a bug I introduced while trying to fix a bug:

Almost makes me wish my game DID look like that.

[SilverSpook]

Awesome job on those animations!  Glad to hear that this is almost finished.

[Mandle]

Yay! I can't wait to test this baby out!

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks, I'm testing and bug fixing... it's amazing how many bugs I introduced since last weekend... plus a bunch I keep finding that I thought I already had fixed...

[AnasAbdin]

Great animation! Love the foot slide

Then I expect to release the game ASAP... so hopefully that'll be before the end of the month.

My heart

[Stupot]

So close I can smell it. All the best, Mama Cass.

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks.
The new beta is out, so now I'm polishing, adding stuff that I just got and waiting for beta reports.

[CrashPL]

Thanks, I'm testing and bug fixing... it's amazing how many bugs I introduced since last weekend... plus a bunch I keep finding that I thought I already had fixed...

Heh, we all know how it is.
Anyway, really great to hear it's going to be released soon!

[Skeevy Wonder]

Awesome so far, haven't found any bugs, just couple of things I've found puzzling, one of which has been addressed. Talking of confusing, my uber-slow delivery as Cassie is being corrected by a re-recording. Many apologies! Advice: don't read extra slowly if you're on a muscle relaxant.

All the best,

Xan

[Cassiebsg]

Hi all

Just a little quick update.
Game is virtually finished, I was hoping to release it before the 20th os this month, but since my portrait enhancer is going on vacation tomorrow, I doubt I'll be able to release it (since I rather wait until it's "perfect").

So, you might be wondering what is missing? Not much really.
    - 1 music track,
    - enhancement os the portraits (since he offered I decided not to say no )
    - me testing the game from start to end (for the 1000000th time), to make sure I did not break it since the last Beta and that I fixed the bug that existed in the Achievements.

That is it!
So, see you in early August.

[Stupot]

Woohoo! Well done, Cass. Man, those portrait enhancers are all the same. You just can't get the staff these days

[horusr]

If still looking for translator, I can try to translate it in Turkish.

[Cassiebsg]

Sure horusr
Drop me a PM with your email, and I'll send you a translation file sometime tomorrow.

EDIT: Well, don't really want to bump this at this point, so just a little info for those who might see this.

Release date is pushed again , as I'm still waiting for the last music track and Creamy is having fun improving the portraits (and more)...
So... until I get the music track, I'll keep this on hold, and not risk announcing a new release date.

[Cassiebsg]

Rejoice! The final music track has arrived and sounds great.

So now I just need to add it to the game and do some small adjustments and (if MIA jwalt doesn't jump with huge bugs in the next few days) this game will be released very soon (something in between this weekend and the next at the latest).

[CaptainD]

Woo-hoo!

[SilverSpook]

Yay! Can't wait to play this, been waiting a while!   Gonna have to go back and binge-watch a bunch of Battlestar beforehand.

[Danvzare]

Awesome, I've been looking forward to this for quite some time.

[AnasAbdin]

Glad to hear! Preparing my point and click-y solving tools

[Cassiebsg]

With so much enthusiasm I'm now wondering if I should hide under the bed after release...

Thanks for the cheers.

[AnasAbdin]

With so much enthusiasm I'm now wondering if I should hide under the bed after release...

Thanks for the cheers.

I know the feeling! This is what I do:

Spoiler: ShowHide

[Cassiebsg]

This game is now released.

Get it here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=55375.0#new

[Danvzare]

Yay! Congratulations on the release Cassie!

[Darth Mandarb]

Congrats on the release!

I kind of hate to lock this... gonna be weird not seeing it pop-up in the GiP from time to time.

Guess you better start working on the sequel