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Maybe you heard of it. If not, there is a new movie about a red army female sniper. Could be a good inspiration for you

Great to see that Lyudmila Pavlichenko finally have her own movie! I've read a bit about her and she has served as a source of inspiration for the sniper in my game. Thank you so much for this tip, it sound like an exciting movie!

I definitely prefer the the bottom image, but the perspective looks a bit off in both of them.

Several others have already said it, but it looks beautiful and the higher resolution is really neat. I'm also curious if the male/female protagonist option will be two different characters or a gender-swapped version of one character.

Following from here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52586.msg636532051#msg636532051

Spoiler

I guess, in the end, it depends on what type of game you want. If the game is to be more puzzle oriented, as in solving the puzzle and not just "fast at the trigger", then I have no problem with this solution. Seems to have a nice balance to it as in not to frustrate the player. Just don't over do it, so the player won't get bored either.

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Good advise! All in all it is't a very long sequence,

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Only three snipers spread out over a large room. I don't want it to get too repetitive.

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While the player can get killed in various ways, there is no timed puzzles or similar stuff in this game.

Because I'm asking about something you put in spoiler tags, I'm going to put my question in spoiler tags.

Spoiler

You say you need to look for and click on the enemy snipers, thus creating a Where's Wally type of gameplay. But won't that be really easy with how the sprites pop out from the background?

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You have a good point, I suppose I didn't want to make it too hard seeing as it may take a few tries for the players to figure out what to do. I do however think that this and similar issues wold be better suited for the critic's lounge, and I already have a thread there devoted to this game. http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52409.0;all If I make any new sprites for the characters, I'll put them there!

You say "Commandos" and once again I instantly fall in love with your project forever!
I am excited to see how you visualize that the player is in an enemy crosshair. Will it be like in Commandos with a cool shaky animation of the scope's view in front of the character or will you surprise us with another ingenious idea? Or is it actually realistic and you get hit all of a sudden? I sure wanna know that, ideally while experiencing this neat game in the (hopefully very) near future

I'm happy to hear that! If you are curious about more details regarding the gameplay,

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The actual game-play mechanic is rather simple as you must click on the enemy snipers when you see them, and then your sniper companion will shoot them. Rather than lining up crosshairs, the challenge lies in seeing the enemies in a large landscape full of ruins and clicking on them before you accidentally walk too close and get shot. You can actually see one German sniper in the screenshot!

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Another game which has inspired me is La Croix Pan which I found on this site years ago. It has a quite good sniping sequence as well as an interesting atmosphere and depiction of WWII.

Wow, that background is incredible. I wish I could draw backgrounds that good.

Thank you!
It took me a while to make this background, but I often find that drawing small things repeatedly can have a calming, almost meditative effect after a while. Well, at least until I suddenly discover that I just spent hours working on the wrong layer in Photoshop and need to rework half the image. But apart form such missteps, drawing can be a fun and relaxing experience!

That horizon
This is really shaping up amazingly.

Why, thank you!

Epic bombed-out cityscape there!  Very wartorn.

I wonder what the game mechanics will be like as you're trying to get through a warzone like that in an adventure game.
To go into deeper detail regarding the gameplay:

It will certainly not be without danger, I'll tell you that! I suppose that I might have drawn some inspiration from the old Commandos games, but I also wanted to do a new twist to empathize that you play as a spotter.

Spoiler

German snipers hide in the ruins, but rather than killing them yourself it will be the players job to spot them so that the sniper can shoot them. Think of it as Where's Waldo, but where Waldo shoots you if you can't find him!

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This is a screenshot of the background which I've been working on for so long, and rest assured you haven't seem half of it!

Literally, since it it is a rather wide image and the 1024 x 768 resolution will only show half the image at the time in the game, so players will have a bit of exploring to do in order to get the whole picture.

The water and foliage look very beautiful, I like the water animation!

This game looks simply marvelous, and I loved the style and humor in the trailers!

Now I cant decide weather to try the beta or wait for the full game on steam, but I sure want to play this game!

Wow, sounds like a real fascinating character, I'm already curious to know more about him and how he will fit into the story!

Noah Goertzel lost his tenure, had all his research stolen from him by an asshat businessman, and had to take a public high school teaching job to make rent.  He may or may not be doing some "alternative economy" work in his off-hours to supplement his income.  And I'm not talking about driving uber.

That, and the yellow jumpsuit, a reference to Breaking Bad?

I agree with moloko, and I also didn't initially recognize the white object as a skull. The nose-hole should be a bit bigger, and maybe the teeth as well. As it is now the nose sort of disappear behind the pink stream and is easy to confuse with the other gritty lines on the skull.

Hate to be a nitpick, but I couldn't help but notice that the text in the screenshot says Ava Braun, but the name of Hitlers spouse was Eva Braun, first name spelled with an E.
Nevertheless you have an interesting premise, and as I have quite the interest in WWII myself I wish you best of luck with your project!

Toy Story 3 pulled it off though

Yes, a few movies did manage to do this in a good way that didn't feel like an obvious cliché. I think tropes are to movies what pig-guts are to hot dogs, and integral part for the structure, but you shouldn't constantly remind the consumer of their presence.

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It grinds my gears when movies end with the hero, being a hero, tries to save the villain, only for the villain to try to back-stab the hero immediately after so that the hero is forced to kill the villain anyway, rendering the whole scene pointless. So, instead of showing how good and compassionate the hero is, the writers just ended up with the moral of the story that you shouldn't forgive your enemies, and that showing any kind of mercy is a stupid thing to do that will only backfire.

And all those writers apparently thought that this was a way better and more original end than I don't know, have the hero defeat the bad guy in a fair fight? The hero openly admitting that the bad guy is evil and must be put down? Have the villain genuinely repent?
No, the antagonist pulling a gun on his rescuer while he's being rescued is way, way more clever!

It's been some time now, partially because I'm currently working on quite a large background with lots of details, and as you can see a lot of work remains (Yes, that squiggly line up top is supposed to be the horizon!).

Not to say I haven't had the time to draw a silly little picture of the heroes of the story as well. The sniper sure is a strong female character...
It doesn't really have anything to do with the game, but I thought it was funny.

The stark colors against the black and white background really reminds me of Sin City. Anyway, that title alone was enough to pique my interest, I wonder weather this game will have psychological horror elements...

Man this took three days!  I have no idea how to animate complex gowns / flowing clothing.

I agree, it looks beautiful and the level of detail is impressive. It's cool that you can sort of see the shape of her legs move beneath the dress.

Such lush and picturesque backgrounds, they look lovely!
And the screenshot from the cutscene looks interesting, reminds me about that trippy scene from 2001: A space odyssey.
The cutscenes I've seen from the trailers so far looks awesome, I'm really curious about the process of making them!