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I haven't made as much progress on this as I would have liked.  Had some real life stuff come up.  But I wanted to make an update so here's what I do have.



I have Glee's basic walk cycle roughed out.    She needs more movement in her upper torso,  the neck needs to move slightly (or the shading at least)   and the hand position is all wrong so I need to tweak it a bit. 

I also uploaded some of the concept sketches I have been doing.   So introducing first looks at 3 characters.     I guess if you don't want some minor spoilers don't read below.  But these three will be introduced early in game   so I don't mind showing them.

http://www.tfsnewworld.com/game/aoglee/clown.jpg

This guy has no name yet.  Basically the ringleader's yes-man and gofer.

http://www.tfsnewworld.com/game/aoglee/prof.jpg

The professor.    He's booked passage on the carnivals ship.  (His pose is off,   and I will probably tweak his design a bit, mostly in the body and clothing)

http://www.tfsnewworld.com/game/aoglee/ringleader.jpg

And the ringleader.  He runs, and owns the carnival.  His outfit could use a bit more detail work,     and he looks a bit to insane, rather then aloof and sinister in this picture. 


I also spent some time playing around with music programs,  and coming to the conclusion that I have no musical ear.  Whatsoever, at all,  trust me.    So I will probably have to seek out help with that at a latter time.   

anyway, I'll post another update in a week or two.

I'm not sure yet.    I guess it depends on what constitutes full length. it should be signifigently longer then Which witch at least.   My current draft calls for 14 rooms and 6 characters (including the playable ones, I'll put up some concept art latter).     But that's not set in stone or anything and probably going to change as I get further along and see what areas need more or less space or spread for puzzles or the story sake. 

The adventures of Glee

This game is still in the early stages, but I thought I'd get this started.

Story â€" you play as Glee and alien “working” for a traveling space carnival.  She was raised from a young age by the ringleader who took her in because she belongs to an unknown race, and the unknown draws customers.  It was only latter when her psychic abilities developed that he new what he had.


Game play-  basic adventure game fare.  You use a verbcoin to interact with the world and your inventory (both have been improved from my first game immensely, I spent most of my time so far figuring out how to get it all to work right.) with an added action of Psychometry which can be used to get psychic impressions and memories from objects.  I also hope to add a second playable character with a unique ability you use for a segment or two of the game.

Anyway the pictures.



and

I gave the demo a play through.  It was quite a bit of fun.   The puzzles were logical and the video's fit in seamlessly and were a nice touch to the game.

The only complaint that comes to mind is with the consul thing.  The idea behind it really makes a lot of sense,  but I found myself tapping arrows and f3 and such trying to recall the last command I typed.  Since retyping it all over again because of a typo,  or if you need to run the same command a few times, like the dossier command,  it can get a little tedious.   I don't know if it's actually feasible to include something like that though and it's a minor problem anyway.

Looking forward to more of this one.

I remember freddy pharkas.    it's been a long long time since I played that.  but I don't remember and dead end sistuations in it.   the other two I'm not familure with so I can't say.

thanks for the comments.  some of them were helpful.

just to touch on a few points.   I have lots of art background and theory and training.   most of it focuses on 3d, characters, animating characters, and so on.   The problem is I have very little practice with environments.  And I have a hard time with inorganic objects in general outside of a 3d environment.


the "new" character is an old one I used in the first game...   I'm putting her into the game right now just as a visual test.  she's in the right style, and since the characters I will be using in it are still trapped in my sketchbook (around 7 or 8 in total, one, maybe two, playable. 

I find that I learn the most by doing my own thing... with side of tutorials.  I never really do them I just look them over and pick out bits here and there that look useful about perspective or layouts or line weight or what have you. As I found with Maya, and with character drawing.  there are as many different how's, as there are artists.   So I don't really try to copy specific technique to much.  Just learn from it.

As for working pixel by pixel,    whew.  if I was working at a lower resolution I might be able to manage that.

I did two more quick tests based off a new sketch.

http://www.tfsnewworld.com/game/circus2c.jpg

test one,   the character definitely fits better,  but I still don't like the lack of detail,   I don't think it is going to work overall.   this is the style I used for my first game.

http://www.tfsnewworld.com/game/circus2b.jpg

This one the character fits better... without black lines... I think it's the crisp edges that do it.     But my attempts at detail were going horrifically so I aborted it...  I was using marquis select to fill areas of color then going in and trying to shade in painter. The results were kind of... not good.  But it's closer to what I would like.    I'll take another crack at it latter.  Cept without painter,   and more cell style...  probubly a diffrent layout sketch to.


edit,  ahha  I think I got somthing.

hows this look?

Whatever I do.  It's always the backgrounds that give me a hard time.    I'm commutable working on characters, and animating in 2D and 3d.  But when it comes to drawing out backgrounds… it just   flops.

In my first game I went with computer line drawing with water color it was simple, and it worked out rather well I think.  http://www.tfsnewworld.com/game/hallway.jpg  but it was only doable because of the 3 rooms being indoors and relatively baron.  I would like to have a slightly more organic and detailed look to the backgrounds in my next project and after a few hours on it this morning… I came up with this.

http://www.tfsnewworld.com/game/circus2A%20copy.jpg

The perspective is a little off, and it could use more detail… but over all It doesn't look to bad on its own.  The problem is when I drop a character in it just doesn't mesh… at all with the style I draw them in.  http://www.tfsnewworld.com/game/charinsamp.jpg   

I think it has to do with the lines… the characters are crisp while the backgrounds all fuzzy.  I'm going to try tracing the objects in Photoshop tonight and soften the colors.  See what happens, but I'm open to ideas.  I really need to make better backgrounds.

Lets see…

I look at the 360 and I see….  Let's make a pretty graphics box with a hard drive and rush it out on market before anyone else is ready.

I look at the ps3 and see.  Oh crap,  Microsoft is releasing a new prettier box,  we have to beat them at the pretty and power.   So there rushing there system to market.

Both of which's key selling point is high def graphics and higher Polly counts.    Which has negligible impact when you don't actually have a high deaf tv to play them on.

Then there's Nintendo.  There not even trying to compete for the pretty prize.    There going with a whole new control system.  And a much lower price point.   Hoping that it will grab the pore gamers attention.

Will it work?  Who knows.  Is there new control system actually a good thing?  Who knows.  But it definitely has people looking.   Whether they think it's a good thing or a bad thing people are paying attention right now.    Same thing with the name change.   I guarantee if the Wii had stayed the Revolution, and they used the same old controller no one would be talking about it right now.

I'm probably going to get a Wii,  mostly for Zelda, metroid, and cause it's actually affordable and not making me want to buy a 500 dollar system 150 dollars in games, 40 for an extra controller, 20 a month for there online service, and a 1000 dollar tv so it's actually worthwhile.

that and the intagrated emulation stuff.

ok,  just mentioning here that I'm putting up an updated vershion of the game with the following fixes.

V 1.1:  taking into account many comments I have made the following changes.
   -the intro sequence is now skipable by pressing escape
   -fixed the sisters room so you can no longer walk through the wall randomly
   -fixed many spelling and grammar errors. (thanks name!!!)
   -fixed the staircase and window at the end of the hall so you now walk towards them when clicked rather then a fixed spot.  Making ending the game easier.
   -Added basic, they don't work together catch all text for using items with items, hotspots on so on.  Before it did nothing.

you can download the new one at
www.tfsnewworld.com/game/whichwitch1.1.zip 

I hope this clears up most of the isues.  or at least helps with them.    sorry about the premeture release,  I should have waited till I got some more feedback.

ok,  just mentioning here that I'm putting up an updated vershion of the game with the following fixes.

V 1.1:  taking into account many comments I have made the following changes.
   -the intro sequence is now skipable by pressing escape
   -fixed the sisters room so you can no longer walk through the wall randomly
   -fixed many spelling and grammar errors. (thanks name!!!)
   -fixed the staircase and window at the end of the hall so you now walk towards them when clicked rather then a fixed spot.  Making ending the game easier.
   -Added basic, they don't work together catch all text for using items with items, hotspots on so on.  Before it did nothing.

you can download the new one at
www.tfsnewworld.com/game/whichwitch1.1.zip

thats not a bad idea.   a couple of short games before getting into somthing huge might be a good idea.    let me learn a bit more about AGS and all that.   I'll take a look.

sorry about the invintory thing.  I didn't put in item respnsess for all items and hotspots.  I should have taken the time to go through and put in at least generic "you can't do that" type responsess...  I totaly forgot... sorry.    I can go through and fix that problem latter.  but in the mean time if you dont get a mesage or have somthing happen,  those items don't don't go together.

I also noticed the invintory ocashinaly breaks when you get a new item when it's open.    I have no idea why. but leaving the invintory and rentering it fixes the problem.

fun fact.

if you right click on items in the invintory you can look at and interact with them.

Thank you all for the welcome.

As for the game.
There's only a few places that I think someone might get stuck in the game. 
I like to think I put enough clues in game so they can be figured out.  But let me know if you need an extra hint or anything.

As for my next game… I'm not sure what it will be yet.  I have a few ideas derived from the test's story.  And a few ideas for things completely unrelated.  I don't know yet. It will probably be a bit strange and involve magic though.  It's just fun to write and draw the bizarre.  Anyway I will definitely post something when I get things underway on a new project.

Last week I was poking around the internet.  I don't remember what I was looking for,  but I stumbled into the AGS site.  I grew up playing this sort of game so I had a bit of a neat moment and downloaded a few games… then a few more, then nostalgia hit and I downloaded the program and started messing around with it.

A week latter and this is the result.   It's a short test things figure it out game. A mere 3 rooms and one npc. Coupled with a pointless storyline and events are random and weird.    But it was a blast to make.    But take it for what it is, I learned a lot about what works… and what doesn't work in this one.   And I will use that towards my next attempt.. Something a bit more ambitious but I still have to work that out.

Also, please excuse the spelling and grammar errors.    I wasn't checking them when I was typing them into the game and even though I ran the whole batch through a spellchecker latter I know from experience that there are probably still a whole slew of errors, and right spelling wrong word problems.


There is less animation in game then I like.   Several events would have looked so much cooler with a little fidgeting animation,  or a poke, or a take thing.  I just didn't want to spend all that time on a trial game.  Even the walk animations are simple layer move scales in photoshop.  I do however like the style that came together… with the watercolor sort of backgrounds and the character art.    The backgrounds could use more refinement though… anyway   enough rambling.  Some screenshots, and the download.







New Vershion Avalable

V 1.1:  taking into account many comments I have made the following changes.
   -the intro sequence is now skipable by pressing escape
   -fixed the sisters room so you can no longer walk through the wall randomly
   -fixed many spelling and grammar errors. (thanks name!!!)
   -fixed the staircase and window at the end of the hall so you now walk towards them when clicked rather then a fixed spot.  Making ending the game easier.
   -Added basic, they don't work together catch all text for using items with items, hotspots on so on.  Before it did nothing.

you can download the new one at
www.tfsnewworld.com/game/whichwitch1.1.zip 

well,  there it is.  let me know whut you all think.