Shadowplay (updated 27 Jun. 2005)

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

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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?

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