Space Voyage: Episode I - A Big Soviet Adventure (Demo available!)

Started by Licht61, Sat 23/01/2021 14:50:24

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Licht61

About the game:
Click on cover!

Space Voyage is a retro-style adventure that tells the story of a simple Soviet cosmonaut stranded on the planet Akmola, inhabited by alien capitalists.

Take on the role of Sergei Pugovkin, the man who was entrusted to be the USSR ambassador to another planet. Your task is as clear as the vision of a pioneer: get into a rocket, arrive on a planet called Akmola, meet with new comrades and sign an interplanetary agreement. But will the task go so smoothly? Will Pugovkin's steel character bend from the abundance of goods on store shelves? Do communists dream of virtual virgin lands?

Find out all this and more by purchasing and completing the first episode of "Soviet answer to Space Quest"!

Features:
* Feel on your own skin what it is like to be a Soviet man, surrounded by a thousand temptations of the capitalist world;
* Musical accompaniment from the legendary #sovietwave Mayak project;
* The plot is inspired by science fiction and comedy works such as: "Kin-dza-dza!", "Solaris", "The Mystery of the Third Planet", "Dunno on the Moon", "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! ", "Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession", "The Twelve Chairs" and other masterpieces;
* Use all your ingenuity and resourcefulness in order to successfully complete your mission and return to Earth.

Demo in Itch io here!

And now some artwork and some test teaser of first version, when game called Space Komandirovka: A Big Soviet Adventure.





Progress:
Graphics: 100%
Puzzles: 100%
Scripting\Tech Magic: ~30% maybe. I was watching and reading tutorials and other stuff about working in AGS (and it was pretty easy materials wich is awesome)
Music/Sound: Have all SFX and Music already. Just need to put it on final steps of development.





Joseph DiPerla

:-O This looks great! Is this a commercial project? I am glad you decided not to abandon this.
Joseph DiPerla--- http://www.adventurestockpile.com
Play my Star Wars MMORPG: http://sw-bfs.com
See my Fiverr page for translation and other services: https://www.fiverr.com/josephdiperla
Google Plus Adventure Community: https://plus.google.com/communities/116504865864458899575

CaptainD

This looks absolutely fantastic! All the best with the c. 95% scripting you have left to do  ;-D
 

Licht61

Quote from: Joseph DiPerla on Sat 23/01/2021 23:34:37
:-O This looks great! Is this a commercial project? I am glad you decided not to abandon this.

Yes, this is a commercial product.  :)

Quote from: CaptainD on Sun 24/01/2021 14:28:37
This looks absolutely fantastic! All the best with the c. 95% scripting you have left to do  ;-D

The visual design really worked out really well, judging by all the comments we've received over the time and attempts we have in developing of this game.

A funny fact that I forgot to write about: initially the visual style was more similar to the first two parts of the Space Quest, but to convey all the beauty of the concept art, the resolution was increased and the style began to resemble Space Quest 3.

mkennedy


TheFrighter

QuoteBut I decided to try not to parody Star Wars and so on for the millionth time, but try somehow "meet" worldwide players with Soviet and post-Soviet fiction, drawing inspiration from such films as, for example, the cartoon "Mystery of the Third Planet", the movie "Kin- dza-dza!", "Solaris" etc.

Not Aelita?

What resolution will it have? Looks a bit small...

_

Licht61

QuoteNot Aelita?

Unfortunately, I didn't see Aelita, but the concept artist probably did.


QuoteWhat resolution will it have? Looks a bit small...

320Ñ...200. This is a more or less convenient resolution so that I can do animations and work with pixel graphics. Higher resolution - I do not have enough skills for this (especially in terms of animations), and smaller - it does not look pretty.

Quote from: mkennedy on Mon 25/01/2021 00:27:06
Is that Gorbachev as one of the portraits?

Yes, it's him. He appears literally for a couple of minutes at the beginning. :-D

Licht61

#7
Some little updates about game:

Changed the name to a more euphonious (although the word Space occurs too often);

Add a poster lol;

Now, seriously:
Sorted out with almost all the basic things (audio for some actions, various animations, how to pick and use inventory items, how to make cutscenes, changing rooms etc);

Was able to attach the name of the hotspots at the cursor via GUI+ text label and @OVERHOTSPOT@ thing (but I need to somehow make text smaller and and come up with something so that the text does not "leave" off the screen when hotspot nearby screen's edge);

Found pretty font wich resembles font from Space Quest and other Sierra titles from 80's. This thing even support russian language!

I neet to add actual music and somehow make the main menu and boom - demo is ready! For a full game I plan add dialogue portraits but I need to redraw them in smaller size  because it's to big (on Unity I just scale them, but here I, apparently, cannot) + learn how to properly display main hero portrait when he look (and comment) on something, because now his portrait is always drawn in the upper right part and sometimes overlaps the things that the hero (and the player) is looking at





Licht61

Finally finished the demo!

This is a very small piece of the game, but I think players will be able to understand what the project is going to be, what kind of humor it will have and what type of puzzles I intend to do.

I would be super grateful for your feedback!


sthomannch

Stumbled upon it for the first time. Downloaded the demo and I liked it. Good jokes, especially if you remember the good old communist times as a regular visitor from the other side of the fence.

I wish you good progress and a lot of fun crafting this. Looking forward to an interesting story.

heltenjon

The demo was funny, I just wish more descriptions were implemented when examining things in the demo. The hero is likable and witty, and the story...you know this is not going to work out how it is planned.  (laugh)

In the finished version, please let the player talk to Gorbachev!  (laugh)

There is a bug: I went through the first door (back to my apartment), but ended up in the space ship. Both doors lead there.

More of an Easter egg (but maybe not intended:
Spoiler
After finishing the demo, when I get the choice of quitting or playing, if I select to keep playing, the game tries to restart, but the character is invisible. So when I click on the door, we arrive in the space ship. And there the hero lies sleeping on the sofa.
[close]

Licht61

heltenjon, these are bugs, but I have fixed it now. Thank you for reporting them!

Test this demo about million times and still miss some silly bugs.  :-D

But all the same, I get great pleasure, realizing that I am making the game a little bit better on each step.

About descriptions: I don't want to heavily load the players with walls of text from the start. I want to give time to get used to game.

Moreover, when the main character arrives at Akmola, he (as well as the players!) will definitely have something to inspect and comment on.  ;)

sthomannch, thank you!

heltenjon

Quote from: Licht61 on Sun 02/05/2021 11:11:04
About descriptions: I don't want to heavily load the players with walls of text from the start. I want to give time to get used to game.

What I meant is that some objects don't have a response to "look" at all. How about making a standard response that sounds a bit communistic, like "That seems to adhere to party standards"? Beats "I see nothing special".  ;) Some of the best humour in the demo is in the descriptions, I think. I liked the books, the table, the cupboard  and the radar a lot. Best of luck!

Licht61



QuoteWhat I meant is that some objects don't have a response to "look" at all. How about making a standard response that sounds a bit communistic, like "That seems to adhere to party standards"? Beats "I see nothing special".  ;) Some of the best humour in the demo is in the descriptions, I think. I liked the books, the table, the cupboard  and the radar a lot. Best of luck!

I have same idea about more comedy\communistic responses, but I thought that every time answering in this spirit would quickly get players tired, so I saved this kind of jokes for selected moments. I don’t want to make the protagonist a completely stereotyped communist.
I'm trying to follow the example of the well-known Roger Wilko - it's a silly character? I think yes. It's a one-dimensional, funny dumb character? I think not and that's why I love this character - according to the plot, he is a loser, but somehow he gets out of the most difficult situations and it means he has a head on his shoulders.


FormosaFalanster

There are games with a Communist background. Recently there was a point and click called Irony Curtain: from Matryochka with Love. It was okay, a bit too much of a "Guybrush Threepwood in the Warsaw Pact" kinda vibe for my taste, a bit too derivative of old games. But it had interesting depictions of early Bolshevik rule with a humorous flavour, that can inspire you.

There's also the classic "KGB" game by Cryo, the ambiance was much darker but it was not devoid of humour as well.

These can inspire you a bit maybe?


Licht61

Quote from: FormosaFalanster on Wed 05/05/2021 02:45:54
There are games with a Communist background. Recently there was a point and click called Irony Curtain: from Matryochka with Love. It was okay, a bit too much of a "Guybrush Threepwood in the Warsaw Pact" kinda vibe for my taste, a bit too derivative of old games. But it had interesting depictions of early Bolshevik rule with a humorous flavour, that can inspire you.

There's also the classic "KGB" game by Cryo, the ambiance was much darker but it was not devoid of humour as well.

These can inspire you a bit maybe?

Played both.   ;)
Irony Curtain doesn't finish, but I plan to return someday. In terms of references, it seems to me that there are too many and too "wide strokes", but story and gameplay was nice.
KGB played long time ago, maybe 8 or even 10 years. I remember the game very badly, but I really liked the art and the idea itself.  Now I looked at the screenshots and realized how similar the game is to Dune (1992), wich also developed by Cryo.  :-D

Big inspiration for me was russian game Иван Ложкин: Цена свободы (Ivan Lozhkin: Price of Freedom) from 1998.

It was very hardcore pixelhunting mix of Space Quest 5 visuals\ideas and gameplay of Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender with fighting elemets (classic Prince of Persia style?)

Fun(?) nerdy fact about this game: Space Quest series has non-official translations to russian (even first 3 parts with parser command's was fully translated!), but biggest popularity get's parts 4 and 5(like in other countries).
And for russian speaking gamers name Roger Wilco resembles word "Wilka" ("Fork") and hero of Price of Freedom are student of Space Academy named of Roger Wilka's. Also his surname Lozhkin - it can be translated to "Spoonin" and it's a parody on Roger's surname.

Sadly it doesn't have English translation.  :(

Licht61

I'm alive!

Corrected the russian translation (there was a bug when some lines of text were in English, although the translation was written in the file) and corrected the English text.

Also redraw all background images for first episode. Hope to start coding them soon.

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