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I can see how much you've improved since the last time you posted a 3D render here!

The lighting is nice, I particularly like the honey jar. My only suggestion would be that you smooth the bowl more. The facets seem more noticeable than they should be, particularly around the hilights.

[EDIT:]

I think there is a decent contest somewhere in this thread, so I've done a little pruning to keep it on track. I don't mean to cause offence to anyone whose posts I've removed. Your objections to the original sprite were fair, but with Krysis's contribution I'd like to see this contest given a chance.

And on that note, American Gothic:


EDIT: I have changed the template a bit too much for it to count as an entry.

Zooty: the template needn't be a blank sprite. It could have been a backdrop or any other kind of image.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I followed your instructions and re-coded it using hotspot properties, a hotspot pointer and an integer as you suggested.

It works perfic now!

[mis-en-scene]

You've made some interesting points, though I suspect that improvements in graphics and sound were probably primarily motivated by technological advances.

I'm not sure that, as graphics and sound improved, the story needed to catch up. To borrow a cinematic term, the mis-en-scene of a game is made up of graphics and audio. With modern graphics it's more possible to achieve subtleties in mis-en-scene which means that game makers can communicate narrative and atmosphere more delicately. This doesn't mean, though, that the narratives themselves have become more subtle or delicate.

You are right about puzzles though. The much maligned adventure-games-committed-suicide moustache puzzle in GK3 would have worked alright with the mis-en-scene of the first game or of DOTT. Because a clear attempt had been made at realism had been made with the graphics and sound, the puzzle appeared ludicrously unlikely.

I don't think it's the case that 'better' graphics require 'better' puzzles though, it's simply that the style of the puzzles must be in key with the style of the graphics.

[Johnson Butterworth Smith goes to sleep under an apple tree. When he wakes up he is dressed as a pirate and surrounded by robots of all shapes and sizes. He learns from the robots that the Ironville féte starts tomorrow, but none of the carnival floats are finished and no one has made any cider. Being a generous soul, JB offers to help. Building himself a float-cum-galley he sets off on a quest to save the Ironville féte and win the heart of Baron Boron's beautiful daughter Nancy.]

There's no need for the asylum or the cyborgs. With a little pruning you have a potentially genius plot.

Now this is a story:
Johnson Butterworth Smith goes to sleep under an apple tree. When he wakes up he is dressed as a pirate and surrounded by robots of all shapes and sizes.

He learns from the robots that the Ironville féte starts tomorrow, but none of the carnival floats are finished and no one has made any cider. Being a generous soul, JB offers to help. Building himself a float-cum-galley he sets off on a quest to save the Ironville féte and win the heart of Baron Boron's beautiful daughter Nancy.

...Maybe not. My point is, you have too many themes: robots, pirates, madmen. Trim them down to your favourites and try writing another synopsis.

Hello,

I have created exit hotspots that call 'Mouse.SaveCursorUntilItLeaves()' before changing the cursor to the 'Exit' Cursor.

I call the CMI-style inventory by right-clicking, which works fine unless I right-click while over an exit hotspot. The inventory opens, I can pick up items, but as soon as I leave the GUI my cursor returns to the cursor it was before I went onto the exit hotspot and I lose the item.

Is there a way of erasing the game's memory of the saved cursor at the point of right-clicking?

Thanks!

-Ali.

[Garage Gothic:]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys.

It's interesting that you picked up on the colours. The game's pallete is really limited but I think you've identified a few areas where I could improve.

Garage Gothic: The cloud shades have been set out in the style guide, so I can't change them, but I will attempt to reshape them to look less like buttocks!

I used the purple shade for the nearer buildings to try and create a distinction between the city proper and a shanty-town. Being tinted blue does look like I'm using aerial perspective backwards though. I might try tinting them a dirty sand colour.

fovmester With limited colours and no gradations/aliasing I found it really difficult to change the track's colour as it gets further into the distance. I might attempt something, but I'm not sure how well it will work.

MashPotato You're right, it is dingy. I think I'm dingy by nature, though. I think it should be somewhat industrial and smoggy, but I'llÃ,  consider altering the hue/contrast if it doesn't fit in with the core team's idea of Heliopolis.

Lovely graphics and a nice example of how a game with very little story but plenty o'puzzle can hold the attention.

This is a real shame. Without knowing anything of the dispute, I hope that it can be resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned. Would that it was possible to abandon the unwanted baby of 'abrasive' to the elements, as did the ancient Romans, and start again.

Will Russell Stone have any special abilities like Rabbi Speed or Rabbi Jump? No... I'm thinking of Jedi.

This looks really good, just the kind of interesting story I'd expect from you. I love games full of research and asking questions, and the graphics look effective too. Roll on June 30th!

-Ali

I agree with Garage Gothic, a more flexible dialogue editor would improve workflow.

Minor use of scripts

I want also a inventory system where you could prevent the player from picking up something until you drop an item

If you didn't demand the former you could surely achieve the latter.

This is an image hopefully bringing the Massive AGS Project a step closer to massiveness:


The backdrop is for a cutscene introducing the city of Heliopolis, a modern city strongly influenced by Ancient Egypt. The over-all style has been defined by Big Brother here.

The Egyptian influences in this image may be too suble, but I tried to draw upon the Egyptian revival in Art Deco styles.

The trainline in the foreground is the Dead Line, which travels through the Necropolis. You can see the fringe of the Necropolis at the bottom of the image.

For the background to the story check out the SPHINX Wiki.

I'd like to know how well you think it suits the narrative. In light of the project's open nature, paintovers are more than welcome!

Thanks for the feedback guys. Currently it's hosted by the contest organisers, we should have an alternative version up and running soon, spreading piratey glee across the web.

I don't know what youtube or google video is. How might one submit one's pirate opus?

* SSH  nominates Ali for an oscar

[tearful] I graciously accept. I'd like to thank Tim, and Jim and whoever invented eyepatches... [/tearful]

My friends and me recently entered a contest where you have to make a film in 48 hours. We were given the theme 'Ambition', so we made 'Swashbuckle your Seatbelts'.

Out of 27 or so entries we came joint 3rd. We were surprised at that really, it's immensely shoddy.

We had huge fun making it though. The mp4 is just over 40 megs to download, but I believe you can get it podcast. I don't know how that works though.

Link to film:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thepocketcinema/The_Pocket_Dojo_Cinema_7.mp4

Link to podcast website:
http://www.podfeed.net/category_item.asp?id=3663

Let me know what those of you who have the time to watch it think.

I thought I'd have a go at a concept-ish sketch for one of the backdrops for the cutscene in Episode One. It's very rough and I'm unsure of how Heliopolis should look, but I thought I'd post it to see if it was worth me continuing.

This looks really exciting, but is there a way of making sure contributers don't end up working on the same backdrops for example?

Also, it would be useful if, in addition to the style guide, you linked to reference material like pictures of Cairo or New Orleans.

use sun tan lotion (rather than e.g. "apply sun tan lotion to me")

whereas I use with using use in there for that for example, and generally not carpet-using 'use' for an IF engine, I can use of a lot of obfuscated uses for sun tan lotion in an adventure game, so that uses for something as far as 'obvious' uses goes. Obvious in real life sure, but adventure games are not real life. The game design has to gentle use the themes of the game and the appropriate commands to be used. In real life I don't 'use bed' either, nor do I use 'north' but it's an IF convention for a reason.Ã,  It uses and uses some things (inventive and specific usages of things) and it uses some others (pointless-clickery-type USE MY MOM ON DOOR LOL). Exceptions use where an application of something can IFingly be use by the generic USE, but exceptions don't use a strong case. YUS.

I feel used.

I do agree though. I felt some of the classic IFs should have allowed me to 'use key on door', but I wouldn't want the flexibility of a text parser to be stripped away by disallowing exciting verbs like and examine, exhume and crunch.

I love the snow coming in the door on the bath-house screen and the white sheet in the attic room. Lovely details.

If you did have the time to work on a tutorial, then it would be interesting if you concentrated on a small part of a scene like that. These scenes are so rich I think a broader tutorial might skip over the most interesting bits.

-Ali.

[very]

These characters are pretty strong, though I see two key problems with them.

The first is simply the disturbing size of the breasts. Shape is far more important than size when it comes to breasts and these characters look like they have jelly moulds* under their sweaters. If you do as ProgZmax suggests and post a version without arifacts I'm sure people will be able to help you with that.

The second, more significant problem is that they look basically like humans with animal heads and tails. If your game only featured animals that wouldn't be a problem, but If you're planning to have humans and toons co-exist then you'll struggle to create a distinction between the two.

I'd recommend you either re-think your concept, or redesign these characters with this in mind:



This is a very rough sketch of a human and his little squirrel friend. It's full of mistakes but it demonstrates a clear distinction between man and toon. Since I knew I wouldn't be able to draw a photo-realistic human I made his squirrel friend much more cartoony: Smaller with looser curvy lines, and crucially, no genitalia.

I hope that's useful.

-Ali.

*jello molds, for Americans.

I thought I'd have a go at shading this guy while retaining a youthful cheekiness:


I've made no major changes but I think it works a little better. Drawing a skullcap at this angle is tricky, but I think I've just about managed it. Also, I added a pupil and a sparkle to his eyes.