Topics

[jwalt]

Have you ever had a feeling that there's some ominous space lurking behind that suspicious wall, perhaps accessible through a camouflaged door, a trapdoor, an ancient mechanism, a fake bookcase or a poster plastered on the wall. Well, you've just entered that hidden room.

What do you see? How did you gain entry? Why is it hidden?



Judging criteria:

Concept - Is the idea novel and intriguing?
Playability - Would it work?
Artistic merit - Is it visually impressive?

Let's accept entries until Sunday May 24th, followed by a week of voting until Sunday May 31st. Good luck!



And so we have our entries !

jwalt


TGames


kaizen101


Jack


Cassiebsg

[Here are the points in case you can't make them out:]

I'm currently doing an ags-unrelated project for a uni course that has got me interested in the nuances of adventure game interfaces. I'm not going to go into what the project is exactly about, because I can't be arsed, but I'm looking to go through a number of games in thorough detail to study the approaches of different developers.

Hopefully this stuff will be useful for you readers as well. I personally haven't seen anyone go through these yet, at least not with any great amount of effort. I would of course wish that others would do their own studies and share them here. They can be from famous games, your personal favorites or even games that you've made/participated in yourself. The main point is to get a nice variety of studies, from a variety of sources, so that indie developers can look 'em up when designing one themselves.

I've started with Curse of Monkey Island, because it's one of my favorite games and sports a nice personal interface. I tried to be as thorough as possible, so if you see any glaring errors, please bring them forth. The points have been divided into four different categories; interface, anims, menus and dialog - it seemed logical that way. I just back from the bars, so I can't be arsed to explain which items means what - you'll just have to figure them out for yourself . I think I'll be doing Full Throttle and Discworld Noir next, too. Anywho, thanks in advance for anyone who participates in this!

Here are the points in case you can't make them out: - off hotspot: cursor white - off hotspot click: move to mouse - off hotspot non-walk click: move to closest point in walk area - on hotspot: cursor to red, title at bottom of screen - on hotspot click: move to xy - on hotspot hold: verbcoin appears, cursor to white - on verbcoin release: move to xy - on verbcoin icon release: speak/do action - on exit: cursor = arrow - on exit click: move to exit, exit scene - rightclick: open inv - rightclick inv: close inv - on inv item: same as on hotspot - on inv item click: cursor = item - item on hotspot click: speak/do action - item on exit: item = arrow - item on exit click: move to exit, exit scene, arrow = cursor - item rightclick: item = cursor

- 8-way walking, left/right idles replaced by frontleft/frontright - right leg begins walkcycle, excluding right/upright/downright - subsequent walkframes used for turning, as char direction rotates - pickup anims often custom - some random direction-relative idle anims - SPACE pauses game - ALT+F4 opens quit dialog - F1 opens menu: settings and options - settings: effects/voice/music volume, voice/text/object line flags, text speed - options: save/load/return to game, quit - return to game/ESC closes menu - dialog mode opens by selecting mouth verbcoin icon while on char hotspot - while in dialog mode, everything except dialog options is inactive - on dialog line: dialog turns red - on dialog line click/rightclick: dialog options diappear, speak dialog line - dialog options disappear for duration of spoken dialog - ESC skips spoken lines - dialog lines usually disappear after being selected, unless important - lowest dialog line usually closes dialog mode after it has been spoken

[Skippable dialog lines/cutscenes]

I've always wondered if it would be possible to optimize an adventure game to a certain ideal, simply using a checklist of commonly-prefered features. What I mean is that during these couple of decades that we've had adventure games, we've grown to learn a number of ideal rules to combat the most cliched adventure game no-no's. Nevertheless, game companies and independent developers keep making the same tried errors year after year. By simple logic, one should be able to create quite an enjoyable game by nothing more than following the basic rules of adventure game-making, but for some reason, it just isn't happening. Usually these development decisions don't even require any extra effort to implement - more often than not, it's a matter of simply saying yes or no. I'm often baffled how even high-level developers are unable to follow the most fundamental adventure game rules.

So, I'd like all of you to help me compile a checklist of the basic characteristics of a successful adventure game. Hopefully, new developers can reference this thread in the future to check if their own game follows which standard. Feel free to add your own rules/suggestions, and if you want to discuss earlier ones, remember to quote what you're talking about.

Here's a quick list right off the top of my head:

• Skippable dialog lines/cutscenes: This has to be the stupidest mistake for devs to make - making dialog lines or cutscenes unskippable. It frustrates the player and is overall a huge waste of time. I remember one recent game that had a lot of dialog and all of it was unskippable. It made hotspot interaction feel like eternal hellfire, as you're forced to sit through the same lines over and over again. And God forbid you accidentally interact with something twice - oh, the horror. Tip: You can force a player to listen, but you can't force him/her to pay attention. If there are plotpoints that you absolutely have to get accross to the player, do it in a subtle manner or provide a way for the player to research earlier interactions/conversations.
  
  
• No pixel-hunting: There are only a few instances where pixel-hunting is justified. In the other 99%, it's downright insulting. There really is no reason why a game would be testing my eyesight, so why do it. It's not increasing the gamelife, because it certainly isn't quality time if you get completely stumped because you missed a single hidden pixel somewhere, nor does it test one's puzzle skills, since you usually only solve pixelhunts with a walkthrough or by sheer dumb luck. Tip: If you want to have a pixelhunt in your game, and you think it's justified and fits the plot, at least have something to point the player to the right direction, such as a sparkling animation for a hidden key or something.
  
  
• Unique hotspot reactions: Nothing's more annoying than having to hear "I'm not gonna do that", "That doesn't go there" or just simply "No", whenever the player experiments with interactions. It's not very motivating when 9 out of 10 times you receive a non-sequitor response just because the developers have been too lazy to explore unlinearity. Tip: For each scene, write up a multiplication table where one axis represents the modes of interaction and another axis represents the separate targets of interaction. This way you can actually see how much repetition there is and work on it. You could even plot out a 100% spontaneous response archive for your game, if you happen to have the patience and imagination for it.
  
  
• Quick-exit from a scene: In 3rd-person adventure games, always include the ability to exit a scene instantaneously, to avoid wasting the players time. I always hate it when developers leave this feature out and you end up using half of the gamelife watching the protagonist wander through different scenes. The Sinking Island for example didn't have this feature (though it did have running), so I for one got very annoyed while playing it, especially since there was literally zero interaction value within the individual scenes, and the graphics were very bland. Tip: Implement instant exit when player double-clicks on an exit hotspot.
  
  
• Clear exit hotspots/rollovers: This one relates to AGS especially, since most indie games in this community seem to utilize the walk-to-specific-threshold-to-exit mentality. This is when you have to walk extremely close to the side of the screen to exit a scene. Personally I find this very irritating especially since I play all AGS games in a window, so when trying to exit a scene, I often end up missing that specific spot and have to click multiple times to make my character finally exit the room. Tip: If at all possible, implement clear exit hotspots, where a rollover image indicates when you're on the correct exit spot.
  
  So, please try and add your own. I'm looking forward to learning something I haven't considered before .

[Limbo of the Lost]

Does anyone remember Limbo of the Lost, the game created with Wintermute and recently released commercially around the world? Well, you will now !

The team of behind LOTL is now accused of stealing assets (mainly art) from various AAA game titles, including WoW, Crysis, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Morrowind, Painkiller, Diablo II, Silent Hill 4, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and even some movies, currently at least Spawn the Movie and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Most notable however, is the blatant plagiarism from Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. They actually copied basically everything they needed for the game scenes by simply taking screenshots from Oblivion.

Although clearly it was a very crappy game, it happened to get publishers and distribution around the world, though in light of this 'incident', distribution has been halted. Legal action from at least Bethesda Software is pending, as they said their legal team was currently looking into the matter.

I can't get my head around how they thought they'd get away with this. Even so, it's very sad since these guys seemed to be so passionate building a game for more than 10 years, that they were blinded by their own ambitions. Nevertheless, I have no sympathy for this kind of idiocy, and I hope they are sued.

One of the comparison shots (Thief: Deadly Shadows):
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Limbo of the Lost

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbo_of_the_Lost#Controversy - Wikipedia
http://www.gameplasma.com/limbo_of_the_lost_or_oblivion - GamePlasma article, the guys who initially noticed the theft
http://kotaku.com/5015674/cheeky-pc-adventure-game-accused-of-grand-theft-assets - Kotaku article
http://forum.dead-code.org/index.php?topic=2746 - Wintermute forum thread for the game (currently ravaged by angry peers)
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53090 - Shacknews article
http://www.kentmessenger.co.uk/paper/default.asp?article_id=9644 - Article in the Kent Messenger just a month ago
http://www.quandaryland.com/jsp/dispArticle.jsp?index=795 - Interview from 2006
http://www.trisynergy.com - The main publisher
http://www.geocities.com/limboofthelost - The game homepage, now of course offline.

[CHARACTERS]

I don't have much time now so let's just get on with it .

OPPOSINGCHARACTERS

Objective:
Option 1:
Create two characters that represent opposing forces toward each other. This means that the two characters should have an inherent rivalry, visual difference, or opposite characteristic, that both connects and separates them. This may be a little confusing, so I'm not gonna be too picky about it. You can pretty much do any two characters and give a short description why there are opposing characters, if it's not apparent.

Examples: [Cowboy - Indian] [Pirate - Ninja] [Valet - Car jacker] [Black Spy - White Spy] [Businessman - Bum] [Boy - Girl]

Option 2:
Create an opposing character to another character in this Sprite Jam, one that someone else has created. Now, in case we don't have too many entries in the Jam at the beginning, I'm gonna provide you with a sample character you can use to create an opposing character. If this part takes off, we could get a nice chain of opposing characters similar in function to for example the MSPaint game.

Sample:



Restrictions:
Each character: 120x120 | 24 colors + bg color

Deadline:
Extended to Tuesday November 6^th 2007 @ 0:00 GMT

[EDIT:]

Arggh, I always feel like I'm bothering people posting a crit thread, and that's why this is my second such thing to date .

But I guess this is sort of an exception, because I feel like I really need crits. I'm currently compiling a portfolio and I'm trying to take my art towards more realistic paths. So I'm trying to learn how to paint realistic stuff and mostly humans, they being the most difficult subject there is .

So here's my first ever digitally painted portrait:

Done from scratch in Photoshop CS2 (without a sketch ).
No references used.
Layers: Background, face, jacket, scarf, hair.

Basically, I want this to be as good as possible, so I need to know if you see any big glitches. Do the colors still need adjusting? Are there any anatomical worries that I might've missed? Should I still add detail? Does the zipper look weird? Any suggestions for the background?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

New version:

[Deadline extended to the 13th of November!]

Deadline extended to the 13th of November!

Some of you may have noticed that this is already my fourth time in a row hosting the Background Blitz . This must be a bit annoying to at least a few of you. I know I'd be a tad critical of me at this point . So, I'm gonna take it a little easier from now on, and experiment with and try to learn new styles rather than gunning for the gold (not that it's been like that all the time). I would've offered the hosting spot to someone else and saved myself the embarrassment of doing this, but I was really really really looking forward to hosting a Halloween-themed Blitz . So, I guess this is it. My apologies .

Once again, I made the blitz one and a half weeks long. So if you need an extension to the deadline, PM me at any time and I'll engage and make it so, Mr. Spock. There's some confusion about which voting system we should use or if we should create some hybrid of the two. So hopefully we can come up with a solution before voting begins.

ALLÃ,  HALLOW'SÃ,  EVE

Inspiration:




Guidelines:

"The time of year for ghouls and ghosts,
It's here, the day I fear the most.
The night the world turns upside down,
When fiends rise up from under ground.
What can it be, this evil deed,
The act they call All Hallow's Eve!"

That's right!
Your assignment is to design a background that somehow portrays All Hallow's Eve, or in other words, Halloween. It could be a ghoulish graveyard or a spooky mansion, or something completely different. The main point is to convey the theme in the best way you can. Be creative, be creepy, be burtonesque. But above all, be afraid, be very afraid. You never know what's lurking behind the next corner...BOO!


Specifications:

Max resolution: 800x600
Palette: Unlimited.


Voting:

Voting will commence on the 10th 14th of November at 00:00 (GMT) and will be closed at 23:59 (GMT) on that same date.

Please give one vote in each of the categories. If at all possible, offer explanations to your judgements. Competitors and the host of the Blitz are also eligible to vote, and the only restriction is that the competitors cannot vote for themselves. You can only give one name in each of the categories. If a vote is ambiguous, it will be disqualified. So make your choices clear, and if you want to name runner-ups, be precise about it. If you want to, feel free to give the artists feedback on their respective entries. Feedback is always encouraged.


Idea - The underlying idea to the background. Doesn't necessarily have to coincide perfectly with the theme of the week, just strike you as interesting/amusing/inspiring; a place you'd really enjoy visiting within a game.

Atmosphere - How well the image manages to evoke a certain feeling or mood.

Design - The style of the picture, architectural, landscape design, etc. In essence, how the elements in the image are designed.

Composition - How well the elements in the image are positioned in relation to each other.

Functionality - How well it would work when adding sprites, including appropriate walking distances, a good angle for character sprites, clever walkway solutions, easily understood exits, etc.

Technique - How well the ideas are executed in form of rendering.

[The deadline has been extended to the 12th of October. That gives you a full week to finalize those entries. Get to work.]

The deadline has been extended to the 12th of October. That gives you a full week to finalize those entries. Get to work.

Once again, I made this blitz only one and a half weeks long. If someone does have a problem with the deadline, please just PM me. I'll be happy to give an extension, if needed. If there aren't enough entries or votes until the designated date, I'll extend the deadline as I see fit. I'm gonna extend the voting time until the number of voters at least equals the number of entries. I hope this isn't too strict.

In the previous blitz, some people were complaining about the so-called underdogs not getting votes, because of dominating entries. This time I've added a little twist that should emphasize the idea part of the evaluation and hopefully add a little fun to the competition. Let's just see how it goes this time around.

BAYOU BUNGALOW

Inspiration:




Guidelines:

I've noticed lately that there's a serious lack of swamp locations in the adventure game genre (although apparently Guybrush likes to visit a few ). Show the people what they've been missing all these years and create a background that in some way portrays a swamp location. It could be a small campsite near the bayou or even a high-tech biological research facility. It's all up to you.

The swamp has to show signs of human/humanoid life and preferably some kind of habitat. In addition, the background must contain these three things:

- An instrument (e.g. musical, surgical, etc.)
- A picture of something old (e.g. a photo of Grandma, a poster of an old boat, etc.)
- A broken container of some sort (eg. a box, a barrel, etc.)

Specifications:

Max resolution: 640x480
Palette: Unlimited.

Voting:

Voting will commence on the 9th 13th of October at 00:00 (GMT) and will be closed at 23:59 (GMT) on that same date. Please give one vote in each of the following categories:

* Best Idea - The underlying idea to the background. Doesn't necessarily have to coincide perfectly with the theme of the week, just strike you as interesting/amusing/inspiring; a place you'd really enjoy visiting within a game.

* Best Design - The style of the picture, architectural, landscape design, best mood, most evocative, etc.

* Best Functionality - How well it would work when adding sprites, including appropriate walking distances, a good angle for character sprites, clever walkway solutions, easily understood exits, etc.

* Best Technique - How well the ideas are executed in form of rendering.

Again, I made this blitz only one and a half weeks long. The deadline really does reign over than the amount of time given. Hopefully this won't be a problem for anyone. However, if someone does have a problem with it, I'll be happy to shove the deadline a bit further to make a full two weeks of dev time. And, if there aren't enough entries until the designated date, I'll extend the deadline as I see fit. The same goes for the amount of votes.

RAILWAY[/font]

[/b]
Inspiration:



Guidelines:

Create a background that in some way contains or represents the topic, railway. It could be a classic industrial revolution train station or even a futuristic space-age monorail. The only thing that matters is that the topic is represented as concisely as possible. And remember, creativity is a really big plus. It is possible to succeed even with only a great idea. So let your mind fly and let's make this bg blitz an exceptionally fruitful one.

Specifications:

Max resolution: 640x480
Palette: Unlimited.

Voting:

Voting will commence on the 6th of September and will be closed at midnight (GMT) on that date. Please give one vote in each of the following categories:

* Best Idea - The underlying idea to the background. Doesn't necessarily have to coincide perfectly with the theme of the week, just strike you as interesting/amusing/inspiring; a place you'd really enjoy visiting within a game.

* Best Design - The style of the picture, architectural, landscape design, best mood, most evocative, etc.

* Best Functionality - How well it would work when adding sprites, including appropriate walking distances, a good angle for character sprites, clever walkway solutions, easily understood exits, etc.

* Best Technique - How well the ideas are executed in form of rendering.

I apologize for the big delay. NeilDnuma wasn't able to host this, so he asked me to do it, since I got second place in the previous blitz. So, it took me one or two days to get it started . I decided to make the competition only one and a half weeks long, as I've found that with longer time periods entries tend to be made during the beginning and the very end of the given time period. I can extend the deadline if anyone has problems with this.

ROOFTOPS

[/b]
Inspiration:



Guidelines:

Create a background that portrays the topic, rooftops, in some way. It may be exterior or interior, a close-up or in the background, but the existance of rooftops has to be apparent. You may show a single rooftop if you want to, but multiple rooftops are prefered, seeing as were trying to get that urban and elevated environment.

Specifications:

Max resolution: 640x480
Palette: Unlimited.

Voting:

Voting will commence on the 8th of August and will be closed at midnight (GMT) on that date. Please give one vote in each of the following categories:

* Best Idea - The underlying idea to the background. Doesn't necessarily have to coincide perfectly with the theme of the week, just strike you as interesting/amusing/inspiring; a place you'd really enjoy visiting within a game.

* Best Design - The style of the picture, architectural, landscape design, best mood, most evocative etc.

* Best Functionality - How well it would work when adding sprites, including appropriate walking distances, good angle for character sprites, clever walkway solutions, easily understood exits etc.

* Best Technique - How well the ideas are executed in form of rendering.

I quickly drafted this character concept and colored it:



It's supposed to be a chef at a crummy diner. But the problem is it turned out way different than I envisioned it. I was trying to get a sam-n-maxy type of character, but this turned out less cartoony than I wanted. I was also shooting for a more timid face and an older appearance. The satired characteristic is supposed to be quiet, but alert - a recessive personality (think husband opressed by controlling wife for example). First I thought his slobbiness as a chef would be well portrayed if he was fat, but I already have too many fat people in my game.

I can't help but feel like the character should be shorter and the head bigger. Also, I'm not sure about the waist bands. They look like they're too low. I'm really stumped. I need to make him look cartoonier, more reflecting of his nature and basically more interesting. Suggestions are very welcome.

Here is some concept art from the fallen Sam & Max: Freelance Police. I'm trying to get a similar style:

http://www.samandmax.net/images/concept/freelancepolice/4.jpg
http://www.samandmax.net/images/concept/freelancepolice/6.jpg

Yes, it's true. Telltale Games, the developers of Bone, have secured the rights to Sam & Max. Development will start from scratch and the game will have no connection to the cancelled Sam & Max: Freelance Police -game. The team, consisting of a lot of former Lucasarts employees (who worked on Freelance Police), will work in cooperation with Steve Purcell in developing the game. The game is gonna be distributed in episodes, just like Bone. Here's some info on the statement:

http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=1061

http://www.samandmax.net/

I'm excited, how about you?

This question is directed to people who have completed a game or have fully planned a game

I'm in the stage of development for my game, where I need to plan the structure of my story and interactions within it. I have the locations down, and I'm trying to plan basically the whole gameplay from the beginning to the end. I've started with a plan and I'm at the very beginning of it. However, I'm stuck as I don't know if some events/objects/characters are final yet. So far I have a rough intro script done and a few lines for picking up objects.

How do you people go about planning events and interactions? Just to clarify, I'm talking about what happens first, what the player should pick up or use for some event to become available.

To further clarify (as I'm finding this extremely difficult to explain) here's a model of the plan I'm talking about:

//Game starts
//Cutscene
Policeman is talking to player
//Gameplay
Player picks up cassette tape
Player picks up piece of chalk
Player gives cassette and chalk to policeman
-> A new area becomes available on the map.
Player leaves area
//Cutscene
Player drives to new area
//Gameplay
Player talks to woman
...etc.