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I finally forced myself to do the side walkcycles for both male and female characters. I HATE HATE HATE doing walkcycles. But I'm reasonable happy with the way these turned out.

 

I also have a hard time drawing women. There's a fine line between making them look feminine and making them look like blow-up dolls.

I'm also working on plopping different heads on them for the various characters. I decided that all the crew will wear the same uniform, since it's easier, and makes sense in the context of the story. There are two characters with different body types, so they'll need modified walkcycles, but that's not as bad as doing it from scratch.

I still need to do the front and back cycles, which I hate even more. Ugh.

You know, you could be right about the starfields. I think I will lighten them up a bit.

Of course, I'm missing the blasted original files. Ack!

By the way, what do people think about colored stars? I'm leaning toward adding a little eye candy, but very little.

My original inspiration for this game was years ago, and probably more related to Privateer and Aliens. Of course, it's changed design too many times to count. (Originally, I started it as an AGI game... eek) But I have to admit that the crew interaction of 7DAS did make me decide that my story could benefit from a crew, and then it took the story in a whole new direction. The first draft had the main character being alone. I liked the sort of lone "space big rig" driver idea. It's almost totally different now.

I will be the first to admit that the base plot couldn't be more cliche.  But I promise to make the game interesting. I've actually taken it to a Tolkienesk level of back-story over the last few years. So I have this grand idea of what happened before, and I'm sprinkling in the history in the form of logs, notes, books, etc. I love games like Ultima and Morrowind that have books with content that isn't necessary to complete the game, but makes it a more fun experience.

I  haven't decided 100% how the morale will affect the gameplay, beyond the ending, and conversations. I would like to code some different situations for playing one way or the other through the game, but with branching storylines, the coding becomes so much more complicated.

Oh, before anyone notices another parallel, I swear I thought up the "good/bad" answers for conversation trees before Mass Effect came out! I swear! (Although, I might have drawn a little on the dark/light path from Knights of the Old Republic. Darn you Bioware! Why did you have to think of the good stuff first?)

Introducing my latest (and longest) project, Conscript: The Apollyon Incident.

About the game:
I've been working on this game off and on for the last four years or so. That's not to say that it's been steady, actual work. A lot of it was just thinking about plot, fooling around with AGS, etc. Last year I spent some time putting together some of the scenes and doing some graphic work, and I decided that I might as well tell everybody about it. Especially since community interest might actually get my butt in gear and finish it!

Introduction to Conscript:
You play the role of a space freighter captain, Jack Ferrell. He and his crew of nine stumble upon a derelict spacecraft from the distant past. Hoping to claim the salvage rights, they enter the ship, only to discover that they are not alone on the ship.

Game features:
Morale system: The game will have different endings and character interaction depending on crew morale.
Logical puzzles: Puzzles are tailored to the setting, so they flow with the story.
Act based game play, where the situation and environment will change depending on the story.
Your crew will join you through parts of the game.
Graphics inspired by 80's Sierra games (16 color "look", but with a full pallet)

Screens:


Intro screen


Something went wrong…


On the way to the ship


One of the many puzzles



Progress:
Story: 100%
Graphics: 55%
Music and sound: 50%
Scripting: 20%

Expected completion:
Hopefully Summer 2008!

Developer's diary:
2/10/2008: The fun and excitement of announcing the game today came with a shock for me. I discovered that I seem to have lost ALL of my graphics files that I made up until now. All I have is rough draft stuff. Fortunately, the work I've done has been imported into AGS, so to get my backgrounds and sprites, I could always export them out if I need them. It's still really, REALLY annoying that I can't find the originals. Most of them had multiple layers and other graphics in them. BAH.

3/18/2008: Got some more graphics done, including some side walkcycles. Got some more of the backgrounds out of the game and back into files so I can work with them. Still haven't found the originals.

Not to make light of your situation, because being stuck in a place and dealing with crime is never a good thing, but be happy you don't live in Baltimore, MD, here in the US. It's just north of me, and good god, what a dump. This year is shaping up to be a record for murders. We've passed 200 reported murders already. It's likely that there are more, since they tend to report some murders as accidental shootings to reduce the tally. Keep in mind that Baltimore has a population around 650,000. Not huge by any stretch of the imagination. Just for reference sake, I looked up the crimes stats. For 2004, we had 11,000 violent crimes (against people), and 33,000 property crimes.

Like I said, what a dump.

But for your situation, I've found that when dealing with gangs it's best to stay out of their way, keep a low profile, and stay in at night. If you don't mess with them, typically, they won't mess with you. For property crimes, car alarms and police bars are the way to go. Or take the Baltimore method of car security. Leave your doors unlocked and take your radio inside at night. We have a joke here about that (it's probably everywhere, but here goes anyway). A person's car keeps getting broken into and their radio gets stolen over and over. Finally fed up with it, they stop replacing the radio and put a sign in their window that says "No radio" and go to sleep. The next morning, they wake up to find the window broken and somebody had scrawled "just checking" on their sign.

I'm sure it's not true exactly, but that's how it goes with burglary and theft.


By the way, love Tale of Two Kingdoms. The music is excellent.

edit by eric: don't double post, modify your post if you want to add something, thanks!

Not to pick nits, but the very first submarine was built in the 1600's, and the first time a sub was used in combat was in 1776, by an ehem American built submarine.  It wasn't successful, but it was a valiant effort.

On the Enigma topic, I thought the inaccuracy in the drawing was that it was an American sub's effort responsible for cracking the code.  As in the movie U-571.  I like the movie, but it's a complete farce.  I'm American and will be the first to admit that it was British efforts that cracked the code and recovered the first Enigma materials.

Okay, I'll stop getting off topic now.

Hey Don,

I'm happy that your game is almost ready.  I've been checking for new progress on your website over the last couple weeks.  If you'd like me to, I'd still be happy to beta test your game for you.  You helped me find a lot of bugs in Cougar's Quest for Freedom, so I'd like to repay the favor.  Send me a PM if you're interested.

Now see, you went and spoiled it for everyone who hasn't seen the movie!  j/k

Okay, actually, if somebody saw the movie and didn't figure out that it was him right away, they'd have problems.   

It's been a while since I played Loom, but isn't Bobbin the hero lead character?  Like Paul, in Dune, in other words.  Besides - the prophet is blind - no eyes. 

Or, if you prefer, for classic Dune fans:



Finally explains those blue eyes at least.   

Ah, these are really some interesting theories about my avatar ...

Well, it's neither the one nor the other. Actually it's not even an avatar as it simply shows ... me.

Klaus, I'd be pretty happy if I was confused for either Max Payne or Tex Murphy.   

Ghost - I was referring to Klaus.  It looks so familiar.  I kind of thought it was Tex Murphy myself.

I'm glad you like the theme!  I'm hoping there are some cool special effects coming out of this competition.

I modded the original post and added a link in the MAGS website mention.  Sorry 'bout that!   

I wasn't able to recreate those bugs, Jane.Ã,  I wonder what made them happen?Ã,  But thanks very much for letting me know about them.

I've uploaded version 1.11, which has a few more bug fixes.

I'm working on a little walkthrough, too.

Hey everyone!

Thanks for the nice comments, and I'm really glad you guys like the game so much.

As for getting points every time you tell Sheba that you'll do something for her, DOH!  I thought I took care of all the situations like that.

But thanks for posting the bug!  I'm going to fix the bugs people have let me know about and release a version 1.1 on my site.

Oh, and also, I'm glad that some of you like the music, but for the people that don't like it - it wasn't my idea!  I was looking for something kind of calm and jazzy, but my wife said that it needed cat music.  So she found some cat music.  After playtesting the game over and over again, I can tell you that it is not an easy song to get out of your head.  It can actually keep you up at night.  That's why included the music volume control.

But besides that, I'm really happy with the game, and very happy that you guys like it.  I'm working on ideas for a new game now, probably something science fictiony.

Klaus,

You're right, I should have read the last part of the PM more carefully, and I'm sorry for overstepping my bounds.  I just got a little overexcited about winning, I guess.  Thanks for understanding.

What I'm hoping this month is that people will make some cool animations.  Nothing is more rewarding than when you complete a puzzle and get to watch something fun.  It was mentioned in one of the puzzle design essays that I read somewhere.

By the way - what is your avatar?  It looks so familiar, but I can't figure it out.

[What is MAGS?]

What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.

For more information please visit the Official MAGS Website.

Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers (a.k.a n00bies).

MAGS is the perfect opportuninty to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the net month's rules, and all competitiors get the game placed on the MAGS website.

MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, you may get help for the competiton, but must not get anyone else to do any part of the game for you.

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This is my first attempt at directing other people to make a game, but I'm hoping that this will be a fun idea.Ã,  So this month's theme will be:

DESTRUCTION!

The game can be about anything you want, but I'd like the games to feature animations of stuff getting broken.Ã,  How about a bull in a china shop?Ã,  Maybe have a guy trying to escape from a building getting destroyed by a wrecking ball?Ã,  Or a scene at a demolition derby?Ã,  No, wait - that was done in Full Throttle already.Ã,  But you get the idea.

I'd like to see some cool animations this month.Ã,  As usual, graphical talent isn't as important as ingenuity and fun.Ã,  Let's just tear some stuff up.

Colors: any
Resolution: any
Inventory Items: any

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All entries need to be in on August 26th.

Please post a download link of your game entry to this thread, best with a screenshot. Thanks and good luck.

Okay, I think I've got it.  I'm posting a new thread with the August MAGS now.

Hi everybody!

I saw that other entries for the MAGS contest were entered here, so I figured that I'd post my game here too.  It is a finished game, right?

Here's the link.

http://www.dreamorb.com/ags/games/cqff.zip

It's about my cat and his quest to escape from my house.

Let me know what you think of the game!

The next MAGS will start Sunday, August 1st.

I actually am still looking through the previous contests.  I'm trying to come up with a good theme.  My wife has suggested something pretty funny, and I might go with it.