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http://www.geocities.com/colintheriot/

It's kind of a strange quantum webcomic thingy.  33 panels, 6 threads, a robot, a monkey, a monster, a plague, a war and a volcano.  

Please let me know what you think.  Also, is there a game in here?  Somewhere?

http://www.geocities.com/colintheriot/numbahthree.zip

This is a zip of an ogg file.  It's made from a Mozart sample.  I have no musical background whatsoever, so be gentle.

NOTE: It's been pointed out that the link might not be working right.  If you copy and paste the URL into your browser's bar, you should be able to get the file.

This isn't a question, but more of a tip.  Classical composers write better music than you, and they didn't copyright their work.  

http://www.classicalarchives.com

Has TONS of MIDIs of Classical pieces.  They let you download up to 5 a day for free, and if you know how to clear out your cookies, you can pretty much leech as much as you want.

I've found good stuff here.  For my game, I'm taking samples from the midis and looping them with royalty free phat beats I also found online, but I imagine that the straight classical pieces will work well with a lot of games.

Just wanted to share.  

http://www.geocities.com/colintheriot/

I've been drawing and re-drawing the characters for Minion 13, trying to accomplish a couple of goals.  I've tried to reduce the shading that I normally do to three shades per item.  This'll make it much easier on me for doing animations I think.   Also, I've been trying to make a more solid style than my normal "scribbly" look, as I think it'll work better for the material of the game.

This is from left to right Doctor Destruction, Commander Goodness, and the player character, Minion 13.  

After reaching this state, I think I'm happy with the way the characters are turning out, and I'm going to proceed from here with the backgrounds and items.  I'll show some of those too when they're finished.

P.S. I know the outline is a bit jaggy around the Commander.  He was the first one I did, and is less refined.

So I've hit that age where I'm getting nostalgic for games I played "back in the day" and wishing that the genre hadn't up and died.  So, like most of you, I've decided to go ahead and make my own game.  While doing so however, I've made a few design decisions based on an examination of myself as a target audience.  I thought I'd share them and see where people agree/disagree.

1. I remember challenging puzzles that required all manner of lateral thinking and hours of trial and error to solve pre-internet before I could just look up the answer.  Now, I don't have the time to play it out anymore, and with the info at my fingertips, I'm more likely to just google it if I'm minorly stumped.  So, goal number one, make it easier to solve the puzzle than it it is to just look it up.  The way I intend to do this is to make the puzzle respond well to any attempts to solve it.  Give hints, and have at least two methods of solving every puzzle.  Judging from my own experience, I'm not really going to care if the puzzle is too easy if I get a decent reward for solving it.  That leads us to:

2. Rewards for Effort - I intend to reward efforts to interact with the game with multimedia rewards, sounds, animations, etc. in addition to raising your score and completing the game.  I'd like to the design the games to have some degree of replay value, and challenge for those who want it.  I intend to have a total score of say 100.  You can finish the game with a score of 50.  All the rest of the points are rewarded for extra interactions not necessary to completing the episode.  Just getting the high score isn't enough of a reward, so there will be unique animations and puzzles, possibly even hidden items and locations for the dedicated gamer who HAS to get all the points.  Thanks to Apprentice's bonus puzzle for giving me this idea.

3. Integration of puzzles with the story is a good way to both keep the game internally consistant, and have them not require insane leaps of logic to solve.  The puzzles should advance the plot, not hinder the advancement of the plot.

4. So, tying in with availablity of time for games with work and living and such, I'd like to make my games in serialized episodes.  Bite-sized chapters that when played in sequence would make a complete game experience.  Obviously, this will compartmentalize things somewhat, in that you will probably close off the earlier areas of the game from the later areas, rather than having the whole to explore.  However, this isn't uncommon in adventure games anyway.  The episodic nature will allow people to play only as much as they want, when they have the time to do so.  

So, in closing, keep it short, keep it entertaining and responsive to every interaction, and make the puzzles ADVANCE the plot of the story rather than being obstacles to the advancement.  The game's solution should come naturally during the process of playing it, rather than needing to reference some outside hints.  If the player has the items to solve the puzzle at hand, the solution should be clear.

ANyway, this isn't so much a criticism of games out there, but more of a development diary I can reference as I progress.  To me, if I accomplish these goals and end up with something aesthetically pleasing and fun to experience, I'll have met my goal.  Thoughts, likes, dislikes, comments and arguments welcome.

After reading a few of the threads on here about commercial vs. free release, it seems people are fairly divided, and I think I have a workable solution.

What I plan to do is break my game into a number of episodes (3-5 depending on how the plot pans out).  The intro and a minimal demo (showing off the caliber of art, 1 or two puzzles and the interface) will be free to download.  Each episode after that will be $1.00 to download, payable via PayPal.

If you don't like the demo, don't buy the game.  If you don't like chapter 2, don't buy chapter 3.  If o one ver buys chapter 2, I won't have to spend my time making chapter 3 or 4.

Does that make sense?  I'm pretty much betting on the idea that gamers like me are willing to pay a couple bucks for a few hours of interactive entertainment, especially if it comes in bite-size chunks.  Something you could get into during your lunch break or just before bedtime.

Eventually, if sales of the game are supportive enough for me to finish it, I'll probably make a "Deluxe" version, with all episodes in one game, with some nice bonus stuff thrown in that will go for full retail.

Does anyone think this is workable?

http://www.geocities.com/colintheriot/interface.html

This is the interface I'm developing for my game, and I currently have it set to scroll up from the bottom of the screen, kind of like in Apprentice.

This GUI comes up in the center of the screen.  What I'd like to know is if it's possible to have a sub window popup on the left when you click the inventory button that would then let you interact with your inventory.

Options on the right would do the same.  If it is possible, what approach do you recommend when I start to code it.

Thanks.

http://www.geocities.com/colintheriot/interface.html

This is what I've designed to use as an interface for my game.  Left clicks move you around, but a right click will bring up this inteface, kind of like the Verb Coin concept.  I'm not looking for coding tips yet.  Just from looking, I think I can cobble this together by combining parts of the default interface and the Open Source Verb Coin.  

However, I'm not at the coding stage.  I'm still drawing everything and doing design, so my question is this:  Is this possible?  Are there any problems with what I want to do with this interface that I'm going to run into later?  If so, I'd like to modify the design now, rather than later.  Once I have all the art for the sprites, I don't want to have to enter that phase again.

Thanks for the help.

http://www.geocities.com/colintheriot/interface.html

I intend for this to work like the CMI Verb Coin kind of.  Be default, you walk everywhere, but if you right click, this interface will appear, allowing you to change modes, open the inventory menu, or save/load/quit menu.

2 questions:  Is this going to be very complicated to code?  And is it clear and simple?

Thanks for the feedback.

http://www.geocities.com/colintheriot/

I added a character sketch of (left to right) Minion 13 (in uniform) Minon 7, and Doctor Destruction.  Also have another painted background.

A question:

I realize that I'm doing domething different here with higher res graphics and the painted, high color style.  Is there an audience for this?  I notice lots more people use the 256 color pixelated look.

With AGS, I'm basically looking for a way to bring my artwork to life as a game, rather than trying to re-create an old-school graphic adventure game.  Is this an effort that will be accepted or frowned upon?

Has this style been tried before?

Thanks in advance for any comments and suggestions.

I only downloaded AGS a couple of days ago, but I'm already knee-deep in it.  I've started doing some backgrounds and character animations.  I also have a loose plot that I may put into a complete game.  

These are from an as-yet nonexistant game called "Minion 13", about a supervillain's rebellious henchman.

Whaddya think?

Edited: Apparently my free web space don't like direct links.  Here's some URLS:
http://www.geocities.com/colintheriot/