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Those vampire chicks are awesome HOT!  I say the more hands resting on bosoms, the better.  The finger in the mouth may be a nice touch.  These close ups will only be used in the final cutscene as the twins discuss Merrick's demise and their own escape from his explosion while travelling within the robot monster.  They will be a nice touch to reward the player and explain away loose ends, but besides talking to each other they won't be doing much.  So pose them in an interesting way and give them a few mouth movements for talking and I'd say they're pretty much done.

Cutscene backgrounds need not be very complicated at all, as the scenes will be dominated by foreground portraits talking (and only briefly at that, except for the lab ceiling for the beginning cutscene).  I wouldn't spend too much time on the cutscene backgrounds unless you really want to make a project out of it for its own sake.

In other news I've contacted the other BG artists and despite a few IRL setbacks they seem to be on track to deliver the rest of our in-game backgrounds.  I've got the rest of our assets imported into the latest Rough Copy Build .  Check out the new walking, the scientists idling, the exercise yard + patrolling guard, and the proposed smiley cursors.  Discussion on all aspects is welcomed, but do try to be constructive.

Moving forward, we're waiting on pick-up and biting animations before I can implement Tabata's fleeing and dying scientists, a robot probe (Studio3 has volunteered to draw it) for the banana gag to implement Ali's slipping and zapping of the guard animation.  Things we need that are still unassigned:

OBJECTS: umbrella, banana, probe (Studio3), restraining chair, poodle (?), fridge magnets (?), crucifix...  Also lighting "shafts" for the exercise yard (and hallway, guardroom once the rooms have been completed).

INVENTORY: design a standardized inventory icon and draw pictures of usable inventory inside.  What I can think of is a bag of blood (cheetah), carrots, alphabet magnets, solar probe, pine cone, banana (maybe), cockroach.

ROOMS: cutscene backgrounds -lab, night (Secret Fawful), pod interior

CHARACTERS: a generic guard character with gun ready for the final scene.  I suppose he should roughly look like Ali's guard.  We still need scientist close-ups, too.

CODING/AGS Assembly: I've been kind of puttering at this but I'd love if someone else was keen to take it on (I do have this other project I'm trying to make progress on....)

MUSIC DIRECTOR: Yes, still.  Someone to come up with a theme and very general guidelines (file format, instruments....) for the many musicians (5ish anyway) who are keen to do some composing.

I'm sure I'm still forgetting things -I'll go back over the design doc and update the first post when I get a little more time to myself.

[The Plot (So Far):]

The Swarm proudly presents: Draculator II

The Plot (So Far): Corporal Merrick awoke with a wicked headache and a bionic limb.  What the....?!?  He vaguely recalled becoming a vampire while on shore leave in order to hook up with two foxy vampire twins, but after that his memory failed him.  Fortunately an evil military scientist is around to fill in the blanks: he has been recaptured by the military and has been surgically forged into a vampire cyborg, a new super weapon.  One of the the qualities of vampires is that they assume the characteristics of the beings whose blood they drink, so Merrick will be made obedient with an IV of poodle blood.  Alarms sound, drawing the mad scientist away.  Now is Merrick's only chance to.... ingratiate myself to master -no, escape!

Can you guide Merrick out of the high security military compound?  Play our game!

Screenshots


The Method: This is an experimental game created by dozens of AGSers swarming the project.  Initially the idea was that approximately 60 AGSers would each spend only an hour each on the project.  We've since modified the rule to "one hour minimum commitment, more if you want" to accommodate folks who wanted to invest more time in the project.  The premise is that many people can collaboratively create something that no one person could ever have conceived: thus all aspects of the project have been collaborative, from art to plot writing and anything in between.  We are currently looking for background artists, object artists, coders and animators: check out the Swarm Thread if you are interested in joining the swarm or just learning more about how the project has unfolded.

Updated Progress:  We are roughly 90% done and are currently entering a beta-testing phase.

BACKGROUNDS: 100%
OBJECTS: 100%
CHARACTERS: 100%
ANIMATION: 90%
WRITING: 95%
CODING: 95%
MUSIC: 30%

    Wish us luck or cheer us on!  Any one interested in collaboration or critically discussing art/writing, etc. should do so in the Swarm Thread

[Edit:]

I don't really see the issue with non-linear numbering.  For two decades Star Wars started with episode IV, and then there was Douglas Adams' trilogy of four (which actually ran to five books..... ok, not a linear thing, but still an irrational use of numbers).  To be honest I didn't vote for Draculator II, but I think once the name's been around for a while we'll wonder that we ever contemplated calling the game anything else.

Edit: Draculator II GIP thread is now up with most recent screenshots (including Tabata's cursors and Ali's patrolling guard).

[ROUND ONE]

Polls closed!  Voter turnout is 72%, which means modern democracies should get their citizens to make more adventure games if they want to see more of them participating in the polls.

ROUND ONE
(Percentages are approximate and may not add up to 100)

Draculator II 29%
Byte 24%
Another One Bytes the Rust 15%
Chronicles of Merrick 15%
Blood, Sweat & Gears 10%
Vamborg 4%
VampeRage 4%
Compute Borgula 0%
Fang Drone 0%
Vambionic 0%

  Those strikeouts mean those options have now been eliminated, and their votes will be redistributed to the other names in the next rounds.  Remember a name must cross the 50% threshold to win -this is far from over!  Back in a bit with second round results....

ROUND TWO
(Percentages are approximate and may not add up to 100)

Draculator II 33%
Byte 24%
Chronicles of Merrick 19%
Another One Bytes the Rust 15%
Blood, Sweat & Gears 10%
Vamborg 0%
VampeRage 0%
Compute Borgula 0%
Fang Drone 0%
Vambionic 0%

    So Blood, Sweat & Gears is eliminated and Draculator II inches closer to clinching.... how exciting!  Round three coming up.


ROUND THREE
(Percentages are approximate and may not add up to 100)

Draculator II 43%
Byte 24%
Chronicles of Merrick 19%
Another One Bytes the Rust 15%
Blood, Sweat & Gears 0%
Vamborg 0%
VampeRage 0%
Compute Borgula 0%
Fang Drone 0%
Vambionic 0%

     Well, THAT was a pretty one sided round.  D2's lead looks like it is becoming insurmountable, but we'll play this out until we get to that magic 50% +1.

ROUND FOUR
(Percentages are approximate and may not add up to 100)

Draculator II 48%
Byte 29%
Chronicles of Merrick 24%
Another One Bytes the Rust 0%
Blood, Sweat & Gears 0%
Vamborg 0%
VampeRage 0%
Compute Borgula 0%
Fang Drone 0%
Vambionic 0%

     Looks like we're going to the final round after all!  There's an odd number of ballots so this process will end next round.  Drum roll: badda badda badda badda badda badda badda badda...........

ROUND FIVE
(Percentages are approximate and may not add up to 100)

Draculator II 53%
Byte 43%
Chronicles of Merrick 0%
Another One Bytes the Rust 0%
Blood, Sweat & Gears 0%
Vamborg 0%
VampeRage 0%
Compute Borgula 0%
Fang Drone 0%
Vambionic 0%

       So DRACULATOR II is our game name!  Awesome.  In the end there was one ballot that ran out of options, so it was discarded.  I don't see any way to combine the names, although Byte could be part of the subtitle I suppose (subtitles are common in sequels....).  Thanks everyone for adding your two-cents!

[LAST DAY TO VOTE!]

Sorry for the double post, but this is time sensitive:

LAST DAY TO VOTE!
I've heard from 50% of the eligible electorate so far, which isn't bad for only two days, but I'd really like everyone's voice to count.  Results to be announced in just under 23 hours!

[Another One Bytes the Rust]

Name voting in progress!  You are eligible to vote if you have posted in this thread at some point after the project got going.  If you didn't receive a PM then the gist of the process is this: rank your preferences of the following (1 being highest) and PM them to me by Saturday night.

Your options in alphabetical order:

Another One Bytes the Rust
Blood, Sweat & Gears
Byte
Chronicles of Merrick
Compute Borgula
Draculator II
Fang Drone
Vambionic
Vamborg
VampeRage

      May the best name win!  If there are two close contenders we will try to splice them (overall name + episode name, probably).

EDIT:
I played a bit with Merrick's back animation while keeping an eye on the hockey game this evening.  The old slapped together one:

And now my latest attempt:

Improvement?

So, for those of you who haven't seen the rough game mock-up, this is Merrick's proposed walk-cycle:


And here is the new sprite master (only leg shades have changed):

I think the best proof that we are still going strong is the on-going Swarm project. Now, that is something special!

And itself a reaction to the community blues.  Its success points to a latent desire of community members to be more involved, if only minimally.

On the other hand, it is one thing to complain about lack of enthusiasm within the community, quite another to commit a serious amount of time to doing something about it.  The ratings panel is truly a thankless task: a lot of time required, and often a vocal minority hounding you about your decisions (good training for an aspiring politician, though....).  However, should someone be enthusiastic about joining I see no reason to hold them back: they should be welcomed, and when their enthusiasm wanes the panel will be replenished anew, and so forth.  This is how you build an institution that will last instead of stagnating and fossilizing.

As I write I have this irksome feeling I've said this kind of stuff before, if somewhat in jest.  I don't mean to come across as the old fogey, but the proper way to organize a large group is through committees with revolving memberships, and a clearly stated set of rules that guides 1) their mandate, 2) how membership is replenished and 3) how members are removed, if necessary.  My town, which has about the same number of inhabitants as the AGS forums (with many about as active....) has a library board, an arena board, a trail committee, an arts board, an economic development committee, a fire board, a cemetery board, a police services board, a medical and dental board, a BIA, etc. etc., not to mention the elected council that oversees all the business of the town.  Now, I'm not saying that we need to formalize our interactions to such a degree (keeping minutes, regular meetings, etc.), but committees are the basic way of organizing and perpetuating corporate entities.  If things aren't moving forward we need to examine the organizational structures that have allowed initiatives to stagnate and redesign our organization to better meet the needs of the community in future. [/rant]

What this boils down to, in plain English, is a need for a website committee with a specific mandate to design, implement and maintain the new website.

I'm a lumberjack, and I'm ok!
I sleep all night, and I work all day!

For lumberjack weaponry there's all sorts of more interesting things than just axes: historical lumberjacks would have those boot spikes for gripping logs they jump on over the rivers and climbing trees, a peavey (kind of a speary thing for breaking up log jams), some sort of rope/cord used in tree scaling (wrapped around the trunk for grip), brush hooks, bucksaws, and almost certainly a bush knife of some sort.

Other woodland folks....  Well there's the stereotypical native.  Prospectors also spend a lot of time in the bush, as historically did hermits, huntsmen, voyageurs (canoe riding pelt traders), pilgrims and hippies.  More contemporary characters would include biologists, tourists and -my personal favourite- treeplanters.

[Edit:]

We've got four musicians at last count, but no one interested in Musical Direction yet.  I think it's important we get a bit of direction first (like Ali's artistic direction), just to keep all the musicians on the same page.

Edit:  On a completely unrelated note, what do people think of the name Fang Drone.  Fangs are the most distinctive bit of a vampire, while drone is one of the few synonyms for cyborg but also refers to the member of a swarm (slipped it in there!).  Sure, it lacks that double entendre element, but I thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone could make that work.

     I wasn't feeling my other project tonight so I put in a couple hours swarming: specifically plugging a couple of our assets into a very very rough game.  All you can do is walk from one room to the other (not even the correct one, at that), but at least you can begin to see an actual game emerging.  Truthfully I spent all of twenty minutes on the AGS part and the rest of the time tweaking Merrick sprites (including the creation of a very slap-dash backwards walkcycle.  It's still 99% Scarab's work, but I changed the leg colours of the side profile and meddled a bit with the cape and shoulder twisting in both the front and side walkcycles.  Comments & ideas appreciated.
     The real motivation for me to do this was to grab two in-game screenshots so that we can start a GIP thread and recruit more labour from there.  Unfortunately I'm too tired to do it this evening but hopefully tomorrow.  Just remember that this is the development thread where we can share and critique assets, discuss plot without spoilers and plan future initiatives, while the GIP thread will be only for promotional and recruitment purposes.
     

I'd also be interested in the content of the waver.  I agree with Calin etc. that you signed it under duress and that it should not be construed as an admission of guilt.  I also agree that you are the victim here, and that you should consider legal recourse (provided the facts are as you stated and you truly believe yourself to be innocent of piracy).  Basically the company has defrauded you of money and/or services and defamed your good name by labeling you as a pirate.  If you are contemplating legal action you should collect all correspondence on this matter and print it.

I must say it is unfortunate that you deleted the game in question, since it would be the only hard evidence of whether or not it was a pirated copy.  Presumably Lucas-Arts would be able to verify that if subpoenaed.  It may not matter: if it was legit then you've been wronged by Steam (fraud and defamation).  If it was pirated then you've been wronged by Steam (fraud and piracy on their behalf).  In fact, you could probably save money by reporting Steam as the purveyor of pirated goods and get their ISP to shut them down.  Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones....

There needs to be an exit to the cockroach-infested storeroom Merrick takes refuge in.

Easy there!  Let's not be adding extra rooms.  If he must take refuge it should be behind the debris created when the robot monster bursts through the wall, or some other pre-existing obstacle (the cockroaches can just be on the guardroom floor or swarming around a hole/crack in the wall).  So room requirements for guardroom as I see them are: exit to exercise yard (at left?) and exit to "beyond" where soldiers are fighting robot (never used, at top or right).  The guards might be up against the wall with guns ready (requiring some open wall space) or behind obstacles like tipped tables or in doorways.  There also needs to be a gas main out of reach, with a lever/valve for the probe to use to open (perhaps it is only viable because part of the roof will cave in letting in sunlight in a shaft between the vampire twins/robot and Merrck (the probe is still solar powered, correct?).  The pipe will have to break one side of the valve as a consequence of the robot bursting in, and the valve should appear to be "off" as a clue (maybe warning signs as well?  Although that would be hard at this resolution...)  This is the most complicated room since it will really be two distinct rooms: a guardroom and then a shoddy ruin of a guardroom.

There should be a puzzle where Merrick is blocked from going through a door because there is a crucifix above it.

The puzzle is solved by altering the sigil in some way so that it no longer resembles a crucifix.

Not a bad idea.  This could be in the lab where Merrick starts or in the hallway.  I think the solution would be to use alphabet magnets from the fridge door ("e", "x" & "i") which you can stick up next to the crucifix to make the word exit (once the cross becomes a "T" it is no longer a cross....).

@ SPRITE ARTISTS: The most recent sprites are all very nice!.  I agree that backing the hair off the evil eyebrows is probably a good idea.  I think the downward walkcycle is pretty good: the way he shuffles is kind of mechanical, but that's not necessarily a liability with this particular character.  I say we go with it until/unless someone finds an hour to improve upon it.  I definitely like the lighter pants too -If anyone is dead against this please say so (otherwise I'm going to change all sprites over to conform).

 

I am in favor of Baron selects a Title! 
Since he is the „daddy“ of this project, he should be allowed to choose the name of „his baby“ 
- and suggestions we already have many  8)

Ha!  I was just thinking today, the thing in life I need most is more parental responsibility!  Thanks.

Of course there's a point, as with the plot and the Merrick sprite, where someone has to put their foot down and make an executive decision so we can move on.  I don't think we've reached that point with the title ideas yet: I'm still getting a kick out of them.  There are several that would make pretty decent titles, but I'm still holding out for that true gem:  a double entendre that is way cool but also cryptically relates to how the game was developed.  Anyway, if we can't find such a title I'll pick the best ten and put it to a vote.

I thought about something like this, by using the little guy as application icon:

                                                 

Nice idea!  I'm not sure how well they'd register in 320x200 game (they are almost half the size of our main character):


Once we get a build together we'll try them out to see how they look, though.

This year the guys behind it have produced an animated short demonstrating why a towel 'is just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jNpyEhJldo

Awesome walkcycle!  I'm not sure the plot sells the whole towel thing though.....  Like all things, I guess they're only truly useful in moderation.

[Draculator]

Draculator -Dracula + Calulator
Twibyte - Twilight + Byte
Internet with the Vampire -I'm just getting silly now
Amp Ire -The rage of amperes!
Vamperage -Vampire + amperage
So Now I'm a Cyborg-Vampire... Simplifies marketing
Vionic Vampire + Bionic
Escape From Base 13 -implies plot objective
Trance Fusion -Snarky's idea with the foggy mindset of someone who wakes up after an operation
Blood-Debt & Gears Hudder's idea: not a lot of sweat in-game, but there is a theme of pay-back.

        Now that I've further confused the process by adding yet more options I will retire again to the shadows.  Muwuhahahahahahaa!!!!!

         

I'm not sure if you can listen to these podcasts abroad, but the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has this great show called The Age of Persuasion all about marketing (good and bad).  It's very informative and entertaining at the same time.  The episodes usually have a theme, which might help you sort.  The bulk of advertisements discussed are American, but there is a fair bit of global content too.

Sleep & peace are WAYYYYY overrated anyway.  Welcome to the team!

@ALI -Wayyyy awesome animation! 

@STUDIO3 -I have to say that I agree with most of the others that something a little more simplified is in order for the GUI.  It can be drop down (Sierra) or persistent at the bottom (Lucas Arts) or button activated -wherever whimsy takes you.  The verb-coin idea is intriguing as well....  But it shouldn't have more than the basics on it: walk, talk, bite, use, look, inventory and options.  My personal preference is to have talk & bite combined into one option since there will be very little overlap, if any, but suit yourself.

@CAT -I like your cursors, although I agree the eye could be tweaked a bit.  I think the consensus was that we needed a movement one too (if you haven't maxed out your commitment to the project  ).

@EVERYONE -I really feel as if we should be getting some of these wonderful assets into AGS so that we can see the fruits of our labour evolve into an actual game.  No one has thus far stepped forward with interest in importing sprites & backgrounds, but maybe this is due to the intimidating prospect of trying to gather the art from so many disparate sources.  So please, if you are posting an animation please also post the frames (or link to a file folder) so that whoever ends up with this job (probably me.....) can have an easy go at collecting everything.
       I know we played with the ideas of setting up character files and rooms separately and then trying to combine them all afterwards.  Is there still any appetite for this?  This would mean that actually implementing a character, say Merrick, would have to wait for him to be complete (instead of just partial views as he is now).  That could slow apparent progress, which could stall momentum.  On the other hand it would disperse the work load, which was the whole point of the experiment.....  Thoughts and ideas appreciated.

Is it ok to do another task although I already worked an hour on the project?

@ CAT -Yep, multiple hours are cool.  Just don't feel like you have to!

Don't join the swarm! You could be assimilated part for the future!
Don't read about the swarm! Risk of becoming assimilated happy!
Be warned about the swarm! You'll be assimilated part of it!
Stay away from the swarm or you may be assimilated involved!

@ TABATA -I like the stealth marketing campaign!  Just be careful of the 50 character limit for text under your pic -I think you're going to have to edit your message down to just the basics.  Maybe something like "You will be assimilated useful to the swarm." (of course even that is 51 characters including the period)

@HUDDERS -Nice exchanges: short and to the point, but entertaining as well.  Maybe the scientists can be talking before Merrick walks in, and then continue to sporadically converse until he pounces on them?  If they're going to return in the final cutscene I don't think the scientists will actually die -they'll just have their blood and knowledge temporarily sucked away.