Shadowplay (updated 27 Jun. 2005)

Started by GarageGothic, Mon 01/09/2003 08:29:43

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GarageGothic

While acquiring some rare prints from the estate of a deceased collector, film archivist Dinah Burroughs stumbles upon a disturbing but strangely hypnotic silent film by Conrad Gray, a long forgotten director of the 1930's and 40's. What begins as a routine assignment becomes a waking nightmare in the city of dreams, as Dinah's obsessive research into the film and the fate of its enigmatic creator brings her deep inside the dark mirror image of Hollywood's glamour and glitz.

The mystery soon engulfs her, turning Los Angeles into a paranoid twilight world of sunshine and noir, where seeing is no longer believing. A mirage of false memories, where the border between authentic and imaginary is disintegrating, forcing Dinah to question her eyes, her mind, and the medium of film itself.


The gameplay takes the form of investigation, research, and interviews, as you move through dilapidated Sunset Boulevard mansions, tomb-like studio vaults, dusty newspaper archives, and a rundown Hollywood hotel, its former glory long gone. The puzzles will be firmly embedded in the plot: Scrutinize clips from Gray's movies on the editing table and analyze film stills with computer aid. Gain access to the director's personal notes in the library's restricted collection, and track down his few still living co-workers, to expose two terrifying secrets; one fifty years old, another spanning centuries.

Game Features
• Ã, Full length mystery adventure in the Gabriel Knight tradition
• Ã, Well researched storyline blends fact and fiction, weaving threads of film history, philosophy, and esoteric religion into a rich tapestry of horror and suspense.
• Ã, A cast of 15 highly developed characters to interview and befriend, to suspect and seduce.
• Ã, More than 30 locations to explore in a contemporary, real world Los Angeles as strange and magical as any fantasy or sci-fi setting.
• Ã, Unique visual style employing the rough look of set design and costume sketches.
• Ã, Original approach to sound and music inspired by the audio design of David Lynch.

Technical features
• Ã, Hi-color backgrounds in 640x480 resolution.
• Ã, Fully animated characters with hand-drawn dialog close-ups.
• Ã, Custom GUI similar to the expanded Sierra interface of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
• Ã, Digital music and ambience tracks.


Ã,  Ã,  Ã, 

Scheduled release dates: Demo, cancelled. Full game, winter 2005/2006.




28 June 2005

Check out the end of the thread for a couple of screenshots of the game interface.

1 September 2004

Oh look, it's already time for my twice-a-year update to this thread :P
I have absolutely no idea where the last seven months went. And it's quite obvious that Shadowplay is in no state to be released this Christmas as promised - if the demo is out by then, I'm happy. Hence, you might have noticed that the release date has been postponed another year. Let's hope it's not quite that bad, but better be realistic.
If anything, the time spent away from actually coding and animating Shadowplay strengthens the actual storyline and design of the game, as the little free time I have, whenever I'm working abroad, is dedicated to research and pen-and-paper scripting. Thinking and rethinking the game countless times should help to catch the worst design flaws before they are implemented, and generally make the whole process more structured. If I don't have a computer near me, I'm not tempted to start scripting a situation just to see how it would look in-game.

Check out my recent post at the bottom of this thread for more progress info. Thanks to Vel for reviving this thread :)

12 February 2004

The last few months have been pretty crazy. As you may know, the adventure fanzine The Inventory wrote about Shadowplay in its last issue (sadly it looks as if it will be the last issue ever :(). When Dimitris Manos contacted me about the preview, I had actually decided to stop development while finishing my thesis. But all of a sudden I had to whip up a batch of new screenshots along with a detailed press release. A month or so later, I'd casually mentioned my game to an acquaintance who writes for a Danish gaming magazine, and all of a sudden he wants me to write an article on amateur game development! From there everything just went insane. Now they want me to write two more articles this month, and the same acquaintance offered me a job as game tester for Electronic Arts. So now I'm travelling to Sweden for three weeks next month to playtest the translated version of the third Harry Potter game! This is part fantasy come true and part surreal nightmare. Everything is just moving so fast, and I don't have much time for neither my thesis or Shadowplay.

Oh yeah, Shadowplay, that was what I'm supposed to talk about here, right? I've got a lot of backgrounds done. The movie star's mansion was the hardest part. I wanted it to resemble the house from Sunset Blvd. so I grabbed hundreds of screens from the DVD for reference. The film is black and white though, so what color should it be? By a coincidence I discovered that the derelict mansion in Rebel Without a Cause - which is a color film - was shot at the very same house, so that solved the problem.
The drawing style of the characters has been finalized. I think I've found a good compromise that removes most of the Poser look from the characters while still making my work much easier than animating by hand. Several of the characters are now designed. I only need to paint the special textures. Using 3D allows me to do some very cool things, like giving the sidekick character Lucas a different shirt to wear every day. without having to redo every single frame.

Apart from that, amazingly I just keep on researching. I've found so many new facts and rumors from the old Hollywood days, that I just have to include somewhere. So I plan on rewriting the story yet another time. I promise you, it will be nothing like you've ever seen in a game before.

7 October 2003

My monitor broke down a few weeks ago, so currently I'm working on my old 14" in 600x800 resolution, which sucks. I did manage to color a background for my tutorial in the latest issue of the AGS Ezine though, so production hasn't halted entirely. But I've given up on doing anything in Poser until I get my new 19" monitor, because the interface takes up so much screen space that it's impossible to work with in low resolutions.
The same technical difficulties have delayed the website now that I can't test how the tables look in 1024x768 - but I'll probably put together a temporary one before the end of the month. Some new screenshots - I'm currently working on the Sunset Blvd. mansion - should be released along with more story and character info on the website.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot to mention. I've purchased a video-grabber card, so now it'll be much easier to gather reference pictures of Los Angeles. And I won't have to wear out my video tapes or my VCR while sketching architectural details or constantly rewinding when trying to grasp the geography of some location (thank God that Hollywood filmmakers are so cheap and lazy that they never leave town. Once you realize exactly how many Los Angeles landmarks are used as movie locations, you'll never search for still photos again).

1 September 2003

Shadowplay is now officially in production. I've been developing and researching the story for more than two years, and the time has come to turn the rough storyline and all the pieces of dissociated knowledge, as H.P. Lovecraft used to call them, into a real design document complete with puzzles and dialog. I'm quite surprised how all the plot elements - fact as well as fiction - are falling nicely into place. At times it seems as if I've actually come across a real mystery similar to the one in the game.

For the last few months I've experimented with different styles of art, and have now settled on a sketchy pencil-and-watercolor look, a bit like the style you see in set design sketches for movies (there are some incredibly pieces on the Se7en and Fight Club DVDs). I think this will work very well for the atmosphere of the game. Technically, I draw the backgrounds by hand, then scan them and color them digitally - it beats trying to cover up mistakes in water color, and it allows me to create differently lit versions of a scene without redrawing the entire background. Characters are created and animated in Poser 5, then output with the program's sketch renderer and colored frame by frame in Photoshop. Faces may be drawn by hand - like the dialog portraits, and a few static characters - and then merged with Poser bodies, if I don't find the original renders expressive enough.

While finishing the design docs, I'll be drawing dialog portraits and "establishing shots" of locations (exteriors shown when visiting a location for the first time). The walking characters and interiors will have to wait until I know exactly which animations and which background elements I'll need for the interaction.
Further down the line I'll need someone to help out with the music. I'm recording the David Lynch-style ambient sounds myself, but there are at least Ã, two pieces of real music in the story - at a party and as a movie score - and it would be nice with a theme/credits piece as well. It'll probably have to wait until the demo is finished though. Until then it'll be difficult to convey the atmosphere I'm looking for.


Shadowplay is © 2003 Camera Obscura

remixor

Nice, GG!  It sounds like this is going to be one pretty damned well-researched game.  Christmas 2004, though?  Curses!

BTW, I remember that second background from the Critics' Lounge (I think) some months ago.  Glad to see it's being used in a game :)
Writer, Idle Thumbs!! - "We're probably all about video games!"
News Editor, Adventure Gamers

GarageGothic

#2
The screenshots are examples of the visual style, not final versions from the game. The carnival picture which, as you say, was posted in the c&c forum  a while ago, was the image that established the look of the game. It will however be remade - after watching a documentary about surfers in LA, I decided that it should be on a pier instead.

I hope to have more backgrounds and character sketches up within the next few weeks, along with a website.

BTW: Can anyone tell me how to change font size in forum posts (for headlines etc.)? And is it possible to "left align" images (not just [ left ]image.gif[ /left ], but so that the text following it goes to the right of it rather than below. Is this making sense?), like you can in html?

Vel

Wondeful! It is one of the projects I am looking forward to.

Minimi

Absolutely Cool!! I love your drawingstyle, and the dialog-closeups. I might use that style myself one day. A question about that style. Is it a GUI with pictures and that you change the pictures everytime a dialog comes, or is it a complete level for each conversation?

I'm not the biggest fan of horror, actually I really hate the genre, (gives me the creeps, or is that normal??) but when I only see these screenshots and read how much effort you put in this, then I can't block myself from looking forward to the gamerelease! ;)

Good luck with the production!

GarageGothic

#5
QuoteA question about that style. Is it a GUI with pictures and that you change the pictures everytime a dialog comes, or is it a complete level for each conversation?

EDIT: Ok, I re-read your question and I realize that you're probably asking about how it's done technically in AGS? Is that it? I'm using Dorcan's excellent AGS version of the GK1 dialog system. which uses a separate room and switches the character sprites into dialog closeups whenever you enter conversation mode. See his tutorial at

http://membres.lycos.fr/digitalmindstudio/script.php?id=2&____ord____=1062411613

(I just wish he'd translate the last part of the tutorial too :))


I'll keep what I first wrote in case somebody else wonders about the interface:

"I'm not sure what you're asking here. If you're familiar with GK1, this interface is very similar. Moving around and interacting with the environment is done through Sierra-style icons - they pop up in the top part of the screen when moving the cursor over it. Text appears in the black area below the main image, somewhat like subtitles on letterboxed movies.
Whenever you talk to someone, two things may happen: If it's a minor character, maybe a street vendor who you ask for directions, conversation takes place in a LucasArt style with dialog options appearing as text in the bottom part of the screen. When conducting more complex interviews with major characters however, the background is replaced by a black screen with portraits of Dinah and the NPC, and dialog topics appear as in a list in the middle of the screen, as seen in the picture on the left. QFG4 had a similar interface (except no hero portrait). Certain topics lead to a list of further sub-topics, but you can always return to the beginning by picking "Something else".

I hope this clarifies things, although I'm not even sure if it's what you were asking about."

QuoteI'm not the biggest fan of horror, actually I really hate the genre, (gives me the creeps, or is that normal??)

Isn't that what horror is supposed to do? ;)
Shadowplay isn't "horror" in the popular meaning of the word. There are no vampires, werewolves or zombies. Not even a serial killer on the loose. It is much more of a psychological suspense story in the style of Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now and Polanski's Rosemary's Baby with just a dash of Thomas Pynchon for that paranoid feel. The first 40 minutes of Lost Highway - but not the rest! - should give you a good indication of the atmosphere and genre.

Vel

It aint horror. Its like saying that GK games were horror. They were all mystery/suspense.

Goldmund

 :o
the screens look terrific, GG!  l love the style of drawing on the dialog one! (although Donna has the same haircut...hmmm...)

I'm really, really waiting for this game! I'm sure it will be great, what with the real research... damn!

Hobbes

Wooooooow!

(And that's no exagerating!)

I actually typed a very lengthy response to this, and then my connection went haywire. So, in short:

1. The GK interface makes this game instantly stylish!
2. The graphics so far look terrific.
3. The fact that you've been labouring on the game for so long already shows great promise! I bet you know the ins and outs of all that happens.

It just looks terrific! (And it makes it clear where all the surveys were about :) )

Squinky

This looks like it will be neat. The two screens you've shown us make me wanna check it out....

-Connie Chung

Rincewind

GarageGothic, I've been waiting for this thread for a very long time now... All I can say is that Shadowplay looks like it's going to be terrific game. Great of you to use the GK1 Dialog-GUI as well!  Really looking forward to play it.


GarageGothic

#11
A minor update:

7 October 2003

My monitor broke down a few weeks ago, so currently I'm working on my old 14" in 600x800 resolution, which sucks. I did manage to color a background for my tutorial in the latest issue of the AGS Ezine though, so production hasn't halted entirely. But I've given up on doing anything in Poser until I get my new 19" monitor, because the interface takes up so much screen space that it's impossible to work with in low resolutions.
The same technical difficulties have delayed the website now that I can't test how the tables look in 1024x768 - but I'll probably put together a temporary one before the end of the month. Some new screenshots - I'm currently working on the Sunset Blvd. mansion - should be released along with more story and character info on the website.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot to mention. I've purchased a video-grabber card, so now it'll be much easier to gather reference pictures of Los Angeles. And I won't have to wear out my video tapes or my VCR while sketching architectural details or constantly rewinding when trying to grasp the geography of some location (thank God that Hollywood filmmakers are so cheap and lazy that they never leave town. Once you realize exactly how many Los Angeles landmarks are used as movie locations, you'll never search for still photos again).

Edit: Uh oh, I'm having some nasty premonitions here. I was just reading an article on Jane Jensen's new as-of-yet-untitled project, and I'm beginning to worry that we're working with some of the same paranormal/philosophical themes. I'm sure that Jane is going in an entirely different direction with it, but still...
What will set the games apart - I hope - is the way that I treat these themes as metaphors for everything in the game rather than just the solution to the mystery. It's much more focused on the characters and their growth. And as such, the supernatural serves as a frame and an abstraction rather than THE enigma essential to the player's enjoyment. Maybe this sounds obscure, but I'd rather not reveal too much. Remember how the idea of bloodlines ran throughout GK3, not just in the mystery but in the details as well, how Grace's mother were trying to set her up with a boy, the connection between viticulture and genetics etc. THAT's more or less what I'm trying to do with Shadowplay - tying everything to the main theme, but on different levels of abstraction.

Vel

Hey GG, how's the game going?
I'd really like to hear what the progress is.

GarageGothic

Hey Vel,

Sorry that I hadn't noticed your post before now.

The status of Shadowplay is that I'm still in the design phase. I want it to be 100% scripted out before I start coding more than the interface. After reading through Al Lowe's design docs for LSL5, 6 and 7 and Freddy Pharkas, I'm really trying to make the screenplay as structured an professional as possible. Even though I'm only writing it for my own use, I know I'll need it, or I'll get lost in a game this big

The art finished so far are mostly non-interactive or pass-through screens where I don't have to worry too much about interaction with the scenery. Don't worry, it's nothing like all the empty screens in Syberia. It's just that I've added exteriors for most locations, so you'll get a sense of the area and the architectural style. I though it was a major problem for GK1's New Orleans atmosphere that you never actually saw the wonderful French Quarter buildings except in cutscenes. I want to capture the feeling of Los Angeles/Hollywood, and that's hard to do if you show nothing but offices and living rooms.
I'm about to re-import most of the backgrounds and sprites. The new 32-bit color mode and its support of alpha channels allows for so many new effects that I have to take into consideration. Things like out-of-focus and semi-transparent foreground objects as well as interesting light and atmosphere (fog and smoke) effects.

For more info, as well as a bunch of new screenshots, see the next issue of The Inventory (no. 11), which should be out tomorrow, or at least that's what dimi tells me. Without revealing too much, I can tell you that I've hidden many clues to the plot within the screenshots I sent him.

Vel

Its really good to hear that Shadowplay will be previewed in the Inventory!

quintaros (at work)

Just read the preview in the Inventory.  This game sounds great.  Very intriguing story and atmospheric graphics.  I like your puzzle design philosophy too.  Can't wait for this one.

Vel

I read the preview too, and I must say that this got me even more excited. The only thiing I can complain about is the main character. Before I read the article itself, I thought that she was male.

GarageGothic

Vel, I somewhat agree, but Dinah is meant to look androgynous. She's not your typical computer game heroine. I did realize though, that there is no shading at all to suggest that she might have breasts, and I'll correct that. But don't expect more than a very subtle shadow on her sweater.

Vel

GG, Im not expecting you to make Pamela Anderson or Lara Croft. But it'd be nice if her face had some accessories like earrings, lipstick that show the gender.

GarageGothic

#19
Quote from: Vel on Sun 28/12/2003 11:33:47But it'd be nice if her face had some accessories like earrings, lipstick that show the gender.

Not trying to offend you or anything, but I hope you can hear yourself how ignorant that statement sounded. Still, Dinah is a pretty gender-atypical person with short cropped hair and big chunky Doc Marten's boots, so earrings and lipstick would be totally wrong for the character. I hope though that when you see the animation, you'll be able to tell she's a female (and I think she looks at least SOMEWHAT feminine in the dialog closeup).

Eero

Interesting project... And an androgynous main character is a nice idea.

Vel

GG, I may tell for sure whether this is a good idea or not when I see the game, or the demo, at least.

m0ds

Ignore Vel, the game looks great, GG. Can't wait to see some more screenshots and play something playable!

DragonRose

Aw... the reapearance of this thread go my hopes up.  I thought there was a minor diary update!  But nooooooo... m0ds is just playing with my head.  Still excited about the game though!
Sssshhhh!!! No sex please, we're British!!- Pumaman

GarageGothic

#24
I don't want to disappoint Dragonrose, so here's a real update. Thanks for bumping the thread m0ds ;)

12 February 2004

The last few months have been pretty crazy. As you may know, the adventure fanzine The Inventory wrote about Shadowplay in its last issue (sadly it looks as if it will be the last issue ever :(). When Dimitris Manos contacted me about the preview, I had actually decided to stop development while finishing my thesis. But all of a sudden I had to whip up a batch of new screenshots along with a detailed press release. A month or so later, I casually mentioned my game to an acquaintance who writes for a Danish gaming magazine, and all of a sudden he wants me to write an article on amateur game development! From there everything just went insane. Now they want me to write two more articles this month, and the same acquaintance offered me a job as game tester for Electronic Arts. So now I'm travelling to Sweden for three weeks next month to playtest the translated version of the third Harry Potter game! This is part fantasy come true and part surreal nightmare. Everything is just moving so fast, and I don't have much time for neither my thesis or Shadowplay.

Oh yeah, Shadowplay, that was what I'm supposed to talk about here, right? I've got a lot of backgrounds done. The movie star's mansion was the hardest part. I wanted it to resemble the house from Sunset Blvd. so I grabbed hundreds of screens from the DVD for reference. The film is black and white though, so what color should it be? By a coincidence I discovered that the derelict mansion in Rebel Without a Cause - which is a color film - was shot at the very same house, so that solved the problem.
The drawing style of the characters has been finalized. I think I've found a good compromise that removes most of the Poser look from the characters while still making my work much easier than animating by hand. Several of the characters are now designed. I only need to paint the special textures. Using 3D allows me to do some very cool things, like giving the sidekick character Lucas a different shirt to wear every day. without having to redo every single frame.

Apart from that, amazingly I just keep on researching. I've found so many new facts and rumors from the old Hollywood days, that I just have to include somewhere. So I plan on rewriting the story yet another time. I promise you, it will be nothing like you've ever seen in a game before.

Edit: Oh joy, The Inventory is coming back after all.  I just noticed it in the Just Adventure forum.

modgeulator

Hi, are you still looking for someone to create the musical pieces for the game? I could imagine doing some stuff like this, but perhaps with a more somber feel:

http://www.mp3.com.au/track.asp?id=67881#

BTW, I'm a fan of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti too.

Hueij

Damn!! This is THE game I'm looking forward to. And the reason is that you have picked a subject that really interests me plus the fact that all your posts on Adventure Games are really thought out (sorry, I'm trying to say something else here but my english isn't good enough  :-\).

I'm not at all surprised they want you to write about amateur games or want you to test commercial games, because what I know about you from these boards is that if there is someone qualified to do so it is you...

But whatever happens, please finish Shadowplay, maybe not this year, maybe not next year but please finish it.

...I should have paid more attention in English class in highschool  :()

Goldmund

Ha!
GG is THE person that should stand behind new commercial adventure games!
And me, but I have no friends in the industry.
Also Las, because he helped me greatly some time ago and I don't want to enrage him.

Have my jealousy cake.
Do you want sugar with it?

Bionic Bill

Yes, simultaneous congratulations and fist-shaking from myself and most other budding game designers. Just promise to be our connection. Then we'll call posting blather on the forums "networking." It will be good times.

GarageGothic

Thanks for all the nice words. After a week of testing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on the Game Boy Advance, i'll have to say that I truly doubt that this will be a stepping stone into the industry. A monkey could do it. A monkey with spelling skills at least. But it's pretty cool to see how the industry actually works (and doesn't work :)).
Maybe I should rather bring about the end of the commercial gaming. I'd just have to leave a typo in the phrase "LICENSED BY NINTENDO", and they'll sue the crap out of EA. A few well placed errors and the game industry as we know it would come rumbling down. And all the amateur game designers would be there to pick up the pieces, unleashing our warped minds onto the world of gamers. (for any paranoid EA employee reading this, it was a joke, read my lips, a JOKE!)

As for Shadowplay status, modgeulator has joined the team and composed a kick-ass theme for the game - a really creepy mix of Kurt Weill and Angelo Badalamenti. His style is absolutely perfect, and I hope this will mean more music in Shadowplay than first intended. Especially in the cut-scenes.

Goldmund

As for disrupting the industry: by all means oh please do.

Great news about music. Is it possible to listen to this piece modgeulator composed?

modgeulator

Here it is if you're interested:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~snderson/Shadowplay%20-%20themetest3.ogg

May or may not be used as the main theme, maybe somewhere else. It's up to GG.

Goldmund

um... how do you listen to it? My lazy WinAmp doesn't want it.

buddha

Quote from: Goldmund on Sun 29/02/2004 13:15:21
um... how do you listen to it? My lazy WinAmp doesn't want it.

It's not an MP3 file it's an Ogg Vorbis file. You need to install a plugin for Winamp to be able to play oggs. Depending  on which version (2.xx or 3.xx or 5.xx) of Winamp you have do a search on google for:

ogg vorbis plugin winamp

And lookup the plugin for your version of Winamp.

Good luck

modgeulator: Very nice moody dark theme! Hope to hear more of that! Keep up the good work!


AGA

There's OGG support by default in WinAmp 5, I'm pretty certain.

Lazy Z

Yep, you can listen to it in Winamp 5 without the need for any plugins. And it's lovely, btw! I love how it turns darker and moodier as time passes.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogroves and the mome raths outgrabe.'

Top-5 Games

modgeulator

Oops, I thought all versions of WinAmp supported Ogg Vorbis. Here it is in mp3:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~snderson/shadowplaythemev3.mp3

Fathamburger

I've been very intrigued by the art style and premise since I read about it in The Inventory but had no idea how I might get a hold of you!

It's a game I do want to see, don't feel bad about taking your time on it. It looks like you should. I'd be surprised if you didn't find a publisher for it when you were done though.

Congratulations on your good fortune. It's my dream too.. and I go to a game development school :P

GarageGothic

Thanks for the kind words Fathamburger. I've tried to keep a low profile and limit my announcements to the AGS forums rather than put up a website, which would need constant updates and bring on lots of question about a release date. I'm working on the game at the pace that job and school allow, and now that modgeulator is on the team, my first priority is to finish the demo, so that we'll be able to show off his music along with the interface and animations. I might open a website along with the release of the demo, if only to let people download it and find more info about the full game. Keep checking The Inventory. Dimitris will be the first to know when the demo is out.

Vel

GG, how is Shadowplay progressing?

GarageGothic

#40
Hey Vel, thanks for reminding me of my true calling while I toil for the Dark Gods(tm) of the gaming industry. Ok, so maybe the 19th floor of EA's Black Box studios in Vancouver isn't excactly the 7th circle of Hell, but I'm kicking myself for not buying a laptop computer, so I could sit and work on my own stuff back at the hotel. Especially after I found out that my room has free high speed internet access. Well... perhaps next time around.

I did bring a lot of paper though, and I plan on doing a lot of artwork, as well as working on the structure of the game. Things got a bit unbalanced after I introduced interactive flashbacks to the otherwise very linear 10-day structure of the game. Maybe it'll be good to work away from the computer, to get a birds-eye-view of the story rather than seeing it a screen at a time. The other day I went out and bought a pack of index cards (which to me has always been this mysterious American phenomenon as they are always mentioned in books on screenwriting, but aren't very common in Europe - or at least not in Denmark), and I've started filling them out with a scene or event each and spreading them all over the floor of my hotel room, moving them around, trying to visualize the flow of the game.
While I'm at it, I'm coming up with more puzzles (most of them optional) to add content without adding new locations. And to tie things together more organically. The original script had many events that just happened, or options that were unlocked on certain days (somewhat like the Laura Bow games), but now I'm letting one thing lead into another - for example, instead of a person suddenly responding to your previous phone calls, you will meet him at an event triggered by your previous actions (sorry for being vague, but its a big plot point, and I don't want to reveal too much).
And then there are, as I mentioned, the flashbacks, which have yet to be designed. Originally they were just dialog, then they became cutscenes, and now they'll be interactive - mostly just for the hell of it, but it also adds an ironic edge to the Rashomon/Citizen Kane-aspect of the story. How do you play the protagonist in a false memory?

I hope to return from this month-long trip with a complete script for the Shadowplay demo, and will start coding it as soon as I get home. Modgeulator has written the coolest theme music for the demo - nothing like his dark, dark theme for the game itself, but a very upbeat Pixies-style ditty and he even had a friend play the guitar and bass parts on real instruments. It captures the character of Lucas, the demo's player character, perfectly, and I really hope that the rest of the demo will live up to its audio. The demo isn't actually part of the game. It's a comedic spin-off featuring Lucas, the sidekick character of Shadowplay. It's a silly little story made to introduce the characters, show off the interface (which still isn't perfect as I'm waiting for a text box positioning feature to be added to AGS - if not for the demo, at least for the finished game) and give a small taste of the story to come.

With my current working schedule, a month abroad and a month at home, the release date could easily be postponed another year. Hopefully less if I get a laptop computer before my next assignment :)

Edit: See the first post in the thread for another short update.

Vel

Sounds great, I am quite a big fan of optional puzzles. Can't wait for the 1st day.

darkx5

one word

KEWL..

i definitly want to give this one a try
~Raven

Grim Ripper

Can GG send me GK1 script ? I can find it anywhere on net... (and I don't understand Franch ) PLEASE

Darth Mandarb

I have a great idea, let's dig up a thread that hasn't been posted in for almost five months.

I don't suppose anybody reads anymore ...

GarageGothic - if you're still working on this let me know and I'll unlock the thread.

Grim Ripper - read the FORUM RULES before posting.  I know they're hard to find, so deeply hidden right at the top of the board in bold print in all caps saying "FORUM RULES - READ BEFORE POSTING".

Goldmund

Darth, I understand that sometimes a mod has little to do and yearns for some action (it must be hard for a sith, dozing in torpor) -- but why locking promo threads?
Somebody might find it, I don't know, through Google or just browsing this forum, and this somebody might post some encouraging & praising message, resulting in a heightened motivation for the developer.
It's always nice.
And it might happen even after five months.
Why this locking?

GarageGothic

The locking was fair enough, it was a long time since I updated this thread. There was a lot of reason to think the project dead - I know a lot of people in other forums do. And as soon as I asked Darth to unlock it, he did. Thanks Darth!

There has been quite a bit of progress made on Shadowplay, but not in an entirely positive direction. I've had to make some big decisions on the future of the project, and I'm sure that some people will be disappointed. I can't say too much about it right now, but expect another update in a week or two.

hms

Thats sounds nice!

(Ive read your articel i >pcplayer thanks a lot man! Whitout that articel i woulnt be here!)
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It takes 42 muscles to look angry, but it only takes 6 to slap the idiot down!

GarageGothic

Nice to hear that my article had some effect.  I've actually been wondering if it inspired anyone else to try their hand at game making.  Good to hear that it did.

When Shadowplay is released (somtime in the distant future), we'll probably run a follow-up article.

hms

#49
Loads of people have read it! And effect it relly has!

Nice to hear there maybe comes anthoer one!


Looking forward to your game too!
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It takes 42 muscles to look angry, but it only takes 6 to slap the idiot down!

Queen Kara

"There has been quite a bit of progress made on Shadowplay, but not in an entirely positive direction. I've had to make some big decisions on the future of the project, and I'm sure that some people will be disappointed. I can't say too much about it right now, but expect another update in a week or two."
Uh - oh , that doesn't sound good.
I hope things won't be TOO bad as I was / am looking forward to seeing the finished game too...the screenshots looked / look great and although its been a long time since I've seen this thread it seems like it would be a great game if you can find some way to pick up and finish the way you intended....but it sounds like maybe you aren't going to be able to....Hmm...*worries*
( sorry if I'm not making much sense...I'm trying to.
I know ...I know...I probably shouldn't be posting when I'm grumpy and tired and stuff....and I know some people are going to think..."if you're tired...sleep" but I wanna stay up / can't sleep either...lol )
Klaatu Verata Niktu?

GarageGothic

Don't worry Queen Kara. The game will be finished. Only in a somewhat different shape. I've had a talk with Modgeulator who is doing the music, and I'm happy to report that he's still part of the project, despite the changes. And he's been very supportive in making these difficult decisions.

Expect a proper update in a few days' time, including some new screenshots.

Andail

Yay, new screenshots! I really loved that themepark background

GarageGothic

As I was just reminded by Zooty, I'd promised an update. I'll do the full update later, but for now, here's what's going on:

Most of my recent posts in the forum were intended as a setup for an April's fools joke we were going to pull about Shadowplay switching engines to SCI .  However, Grundislav beat me to it with his "BJ5 goes Wintermute" announcement, so we decided to cancel the joke at the last moment :( (you can expect to see the screenshots and hear the midi in the special features section of the finished game).

However, everything that was said, was true in some way or another. Shadowplay has changed a bit, because we decided to pull the interactive flashback scenes from the design, and possibly insert them again once the game is finished. That way, we'll have a finished game, even if the flashbacks turn out to be too much work.
In other news, a demo will be out sometime this month. I had hoped to have it ready for 2 April, but it wasn't - so that's even more reason for cancelling the joke. The interface has evolved a LOT during the last few months, and I'm really looking forward to showing it off. Among the features that I'm most proud of, is the searchable conversation log.

hms

Im rellay (!) looking forward to play the demo!!
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It takes 42 muscles to look angry, but it only takes 6 to slap the idiot down!

GarageGothic

I'm also rellay looking forward to releasing the demo ;)

The first demo (which was supposed be out in late April) is a pure interface/technology demo without any actual puzzles or gameplay, and I'm only releasing it because the full demo - an actual stand-alone game - may take a while longer.
I had promised to release the full demo in April, but due to work and my long overdue thesis, I ended up postponing it and calling off a planned interview with The Inventory. Then, I thought I'd better release the interface demo instead, to follow up on my promises. However, I started coding a really cool game feature and decided that it would be nice to show that off as well in the demo. So... it'll be a while more, unfortunately. I do hope something can be released within this month though.

Sorry about the empty promises.

Cyberhead


GarageGothic

Nope, no website.  And there won't be one until just before the release of the full game. It would probably never be updated anyway :)

Cyberhead


GarageGothic


Flop

I must say I'm very excited about this game. I first heard about back when I read that article i pcp about a year and a half ago, but had forgotten it untill recently. I'm glad to see you're still working on it.

I hate to be a pain in the ass, but I don't suppose you could give us an update or something? I'd love to see some screenshots and/or get some more info about the game. And how is that demo coming along?

I'll stop bugging you now, I just had to ask. :)

GarageGothic

You're not a pain in the ass ;). It's perfectly true that I've take much too long with the demo and made a lot of empty promises about a it's release date.

The current status is that the standalone demo has been put on hold - I simply wasn't able to come up with a demo design that I was satisfied with. For some reason I find it extremely difficult to write "comedic gameplay" a la LucasArts, which was the style of the demo story. If Modgeulator hadn't written all that cool demo music (which doesn't really fit the full game), I'd just drop the concept altogether.

However, I DO intend to release something quite soon. Not a full demo, but more of a "tech demo" which shows off the interface and some of the techical features of the game. I won't promise anything, but if you've looked elsewhere in the forums, you'll know that a "Release Something! Day" has been announced very soon...

ildu

Stand by your game, man. I, too am very excited about this game. I don't really care if/when you release a demo, just that you stick with the project. If you have troubles making up a premise for the demo, just make it the a sequence from the actual game, so when the demo is done, you have a headstart to completing the game.

My own project is split into three acts, so that I release them separately. But before any release, I'm going to release a demo of the first act. This gives me some hope of getting the whole thing finished some time in the future. If you're having trouble writing your own story structure or dialog, get someone to do it for you. I'm betting many would be interested.

Flop

Don't worry about the pushing back of release dates and what you call empty promises. As long as you're still working on the full game, I'm satisfied, and I could do without the demo since I rarely play those anyway, preferring to wait for the full game in all it's glory(although if you already got someone else to make music specifically for the demo, I can see why you'd want to release it).

If nothing else, it's good to see that big business hasn't monopolised the concept of pushing back release dates (yet!). :D

Anyway, I hope you're getting some work done on the full game, as well as the demos, and that you're not completely neglecting your studies. :)

GarageGothic

Thanks for the support guys.

ildu, the reason for making the demo as a stand-alone game was that I myself, just like Flop, usually prefer to "wait for the full game in all it's glory". Releasing just the first day of the game as a demo would mean that people would have to wait 6 or 8 months for the rest of a story they've begun . Plus, the first couple of hours with the full game would be spent on something they'd already played. That doesn't seem very satisfying to me. For the very same reason I gave up the idea of publishing Shadowplay in acts - it needs to be one whole package.

I'm currently in the "general systems" stage of development, where all the functions that are re-used throughout the game, are set up with as wide a range of functionality as possible. The tech demo will show off some of these features, the most recent of which is the html-like system used for the in-game computers.

Regarding the "Release Something!" day on the 25th (which is tomorrow), I realized that it's a Saturday I won't be able to get online. I hope to upload something on Monday though, even though it's a bit late.

ildu

The way I'm making my game and demo is that the whole game will be made in 3 parts, for each day of the gameworld. Each part will be released separately and there will probably be no full release in the end (if I ever get there). Each of the parts will have a intro and outro video, and the intro video for parts 2 & 3 will include a 'what happened previously' -sequence. The first two parts will have a big cliffhanger in the end, so that people are able to anticipate the next installment with more ease.

The demo will be the first scene of the whole game, somewhat of a storybase and a moodsetter. So it's gonna be the start of the first day (not literally). But what I'm going to do is I'm going to add stuff into the demo scenes in the first day release, so it feels fresh to gamers.

This is pretty much the same idea that was used with the game Still Life. It had a huge cliffhanger in the end. Some people complained, but I was very happy with it and I'm awaiting the next installment.

Splitting the parts will not only help organizing my workload, it will give me somewhat realistic midpoints to achieve in the whole development process. This way I won't get so easily discouraged and I won't switch to new projects. If you're planning to release the full game and it's a long game (I presume) it will be a huge huge undertaking to complete fully. I'd hate to see this project die with all the other important projects I've seen fail miserably in my 5 years as a modder and gamemaker in different communities.

Snarky

Quote from: ildu on Fri 24/06/2005 12:03:03
This is pretty much the same idea that was used with the game Still Life. It had a huge cliffhanger in the end. Some people complained, but I was very happy with it and I'm awaiting the next installment.

Didn't you hear? Microids sold their Canadian branch to Ubisoft. The people who made Still Life will be (may already be) working on Ubisoft titles. There is no one to make the next installment.

Kweepa

Quote from: Snarky on Fri 24/06/2005 14:37:58
Didn't you hear? Microids sold their Canadian branch to Ubisoft. The people who made Still Life will be (may already be) working on Ubisoft titles. There is no one to make the next installment.

http://www.microids.com/newsdetail.aspx?n=68
"This agreement does not cover any of MC2-Microids intellectual property or projects currently under development."
Interesting. They bought the employees. How Victorian.
Presumably the IP is still held by Microids proper rather than Microids Canada. So if there's a sequel in the works, perhaps the development will continue elsewhere?

So, err, Shadowplay! Yay! Looking forward to the demo!
Still waiting for Purity of the Surf II

GarageGothic

#68
Frankly I hated the ending of Still Life and those responsible should be eviscerated with a rusty blade. But on to the Shadowplay related stuff...Ã,  ;)

I didn't manage to wrap up the tech demo for today, but on the other hand I thought it was lame just to apologize for the 100th time. So I decided to post some screenshots instead, showing the interface. Click the links below the thumbnails to view full-size shots. I also threw in a dialog picture of Lucas, player character in the demo, sidekick in the game. If I cancel the demo, this picture will probably not be used as his asymmetrical hairstyle prevents it from just being flipped.
Oh yeah, please disregard the spelling errors in the conversation log. It was just some text I wrote for an interface demo I showed Modgeulator.








And this is Lucas, the sidekick character
in the full game, and supposedly the player
character of the demo.

Edit:Ã,  All right, the pics and links should be working now. It turned out that only file in the first of the three selection boxes on Neole's upload page works properly. Strange...

Edit 2: I should note that these are interface screenshots only. Background is unfinished, hence the off-perspective bench.

Hobbes

Wow, this looks wonderful! The GUI is stylish and easy to understand, which is absolutely perfect! :)

And you've very script-wise sorted the dialog... looks very neat and goes with the theme of the game very well.

Keep up the great work!

GarageGothic

#70
Yeah, the conversation log is in screenplay format (except it should be "EXT. CINEMA - DAY", but this way works better in game terminology). The log interpreter even adds "(MORE)" and "(cont.)" if a piece of dialog is split across a page break.

Edit: By the way, seeing the features that CJ added in the new beta, I'm glad that I didn't rush the demo finished for today.

ildu

#71
Wow wow wee waa. It looks super stylish, not to mention great. It seems that you've put a lot of effort into getting down the style you want. This one just moved up to my most anticipated indie game list. I'd say it's pretty high on the mainstream game list as well.

EDIT: You should really change the thread title to "Shadowplay (updated 27 June 2005)". This amazing update has generated only two replies in 2 hours. Or am I being too hasty?  :D

Vel

That looks classy, stylish, nifty and whatever synonyms there are in the thesaurus. Keep up the good work, GG!

Flop

This is great stuff. Thanks a lot man. And I'm glad to hear about the unfinished backgrounds (well, the bench was my only grudge, and it's not as if I couldn't have overlooked that :)). Anyway, it looks really good, and don't worry too much about the demo (although maybe an "it's done when it's done!" disclaimer would be in order :D). Looking forward for the full game. :)

GarageGothic

#74
Thanks for the comments guys. Funny thing is that I'm myself getting a bit fed up with the look of the gui (the windows, not the icons), so I actually intended to change it again for the finished game. We'll have to see...

Another thing that I should point out about the interface is that those "DAY 1 - EXT. CARBON ARC" plus the time/date, are default savegame names generated by the game if the player doesn't enter a savegame name of his own.

Flop

Well, I kind of like the GUI the way it is (although it's a difficult to say, based only on a couple of screenshots), but I did actually suspect that the save names were autogenerated. I usually like it when the saves are organized like that, but I tend to prefer having the option of adding a remark to the savegame as well. I that a possibility? And why can you switch off the "append date and time to description" thingie? Not that I mind having that option, I just can't see any reason for using it.

GarageGothic

#76
The toggle box for date/time doesn't affect the auto generated names. It's for custom names only, and it allows you to input longer savegame namesÃ,  (I think its 18 more characters, when time/date isn't used).

There's not enough space to add a remark to the generated names, but as you can see the location in the thumbnail, it should be enough for most people to write names like "DAY 1 - after talking to police dude" or similar. My main reason for including auto generated names was that I've become too lazy to name savegames myself. Especially when playing AGS games I end up calling my savegames "1", "2" and so on. So I thought this was a good solution.

Flop

Okay, I didn't realise you could still alter the names as you like. In that case, I think it's a pretty good solution. I have the same problem as you with naming my save games (except I usually call them Flop1, Flop2, etc. :D), but it's still nice to be able to name them yourself at critical locations (savegames you might want to load later if everything goes wrong).

Flop

*bump*

Any news? It's been a while, so I thought I'd ask.

Sorry for doubleposting btw.

Darth Mandarb

Good lord ... this is becoming an epidemic.

Flop - do not post in here again until you read the forum rules.  You know ... the thread that says, "READ FIRST BEFORE POSTING"

GG - how 'bout a little update now that, after 4 months, your thread has been dug up.

GarageGothic

#80
Sorry for the lack of updates, guys. I won't come up with bad excuses, just try to explain what's going on in my life and why I haven't fulfilled my promises of releasing a tech demo yet.

As some of you know, I'm currently in Canada working as a language tester at EA's Black Box studios.  Not surprisingly, the project end date was postponed, which has meant a 2½ month stay for me in glorious Vancouver. I knew this would happen, which is why I bought a laptop computer for the trip, so that I could work on Shadowplay in my spare time. Then something very unexpected happened: I met the coolest, most amazing person I've ever known, and for a wonderful period of five weeks, I had the time of my life. Little time was left over for Shadowplay, but we all have our priorities.
However, this person's reponse as I told her the story of Shadowplay made me even more motivated to finish the game, and after she left for her own country, I was dedicated to devote the rest of my time here to coding a rough version of the full game, using temp art for the backgrounds that hadn't yet been finished. This is still the plan. But remember that I'm also here to work, and for the last three weeks we've beein doing serious overtime to make sure that the product is shipped on time. After this weekend though, it seems that the workload will lighten up a bit, so we might get off at 6pm instead of past midnight, and I'll get some more evenings back at the hotel room, which I can spend on Shadowplay.

Another reason for delaying the tech demo is that CJ has been implementing quite a lot of my feature requests in the latest betas of AGS (thanks CJ!). This means that many of the effects I wanted for the game now actually are possible. The most interesting one (for the sole reason that I've never seen it done in a 2D adventure game before) is probably the dynamic shadows. The ShadowBox script module will allow a character (currently only the player character, but that's a trivial matter to change) to cast a realistic shadow from a light source positioned anywhere in the room. I've attached a few screenshots below, to show you what they currently look like in my test room. As soon as I get a few glitches ironed out, I'll release a tech demo showing the effect in action.





(and yes, the light source was moved between those two screenshots were taken, as someone else pointed out)


ildu

What a cute story. Congrats. And this dynamic shadows business looks awesome.

Snarky

Didn't Still Life have dynamic shadows? It's been used in several 2.5D games.

That doesn't make it any less awesome, of course!

GarageGothic

Still Life was 2.5D as you put it, it uses 3D characters on 2D backgrounds. What I meant was 2D sprites on 2D backgrounds. To the best of my knowledge, this is a first.

fovmester


Vel



TheCheese33

The lighting effects are amazing! I've never seen this in an AGS game before. Keep up the good work!
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need...More...WOUND!

Mozesh

Really great I can wait to see that in action.

Death_is_upon_us

Happy New Year everyone , just wondering if there are any news about the game's production...
Shadowplay is one of my most anticipated games for
quite a while now and thought reviving this post would be nice.
Looks great GarageGothic , can't wait to get my hands on it :)

Proud author of the "How to Get Published" guide. If you want a copy contact me for a pdf version, it's not published yet..

ildu

Once again I thought there was a real update here. Now I'm left disappointed like so many other times when threads get bumped for no reason.

Darth Mandarb

Good lord in heaven ... the world has lost the ability to read.

Death_is_upon_us - don't post in here again until you've read the forum rules.

I'm locking this.

GG, let me know when you want me to re-open it.


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