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He looks great! I was about to ask in the other thread if he was asian, guess he is! So well done transmitting that into the character.

I like the Temujin character concept visually and the background story.  Russia is indeed massive, and that will be a nice touch to give the player a sense of its expansiveness, and cultural / ethnic diversity. 
The right eye / cheek area might be just a little bit off but it could be part of the aesthetic.  You can definitely tell he's got the high Asian-ish cheekbones there!

Thank you both for your comments, I'm happy to hear that you liked the character and that I managed to convey his ethnicity in a successful way.
Here is the in-game sprite I made of him, what do you think?

Simon may just be the cutest cat I've ever seen in a video game!
The teaser sure have me intrigued!

Thx Blondbraid.

About 1984: it's the must in the dystopia genre (and there is at least one direct reference* to it).
Still, U-ROPA is more an uchronia.

Spoiler

refering to WWII

[close]

*There is another reference based on a must SF novels.

Yes, I saw the quote on the plaque on the wall! The game did a great job of creating a totalitarian atmosphere as well as making me curious about the outside world, and I was hoping that the protagonist would make it out safely by the end of the game. Rooting for an indoctrinated servant of a dictatorship is a rare thing in games. You say that the story is inspired by historical events, and it really shows (Especially with the names!). If there ever is a sequel, I'll be sure to play it!

I just finished the game, and I must say that I rather liked it's story and atmosphere. Gotta agree with the previous comments that the instant deaths and the locker code puzzle was a bit unintuitive though.
Has 1984 been a source of inspiration for this game?

The trailers look awesome! Man, am I excited about this game!

Cool...I hope some of my tracks prove useful. Looking forward to seeing your game when it's finished!

So do I! I've already found a few tracks that I think fit quite good!

This is great, as I'm currently working on a project (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52586.0) and I have been thinking of adding music to the game for a long time! I haven't listened to all tracks yet, but what I've heard so far sounds great and I hope to use some in my game! Besides, it'd be nice to have a name other than my own in the credits!

I have started working on concepts for a new character design!

If anyone is interested in sharing their thoughts, here is a link to the critics lounge. (You may have to scroll down a bit...)
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52409.40

I have a new concept for a character!

This is supposed to be a soldier from the eastern end of the soviet union, not far from Mongolia. He's meant to be holding a PTRS-41.
story:
His real name is Temujin, named after the medieval conqueror. The other soldiers just call him Tim though. He grew up in a yurt on the steppe, and originally volunteered to take care of the red army's horses, but since they kept getting slaughtered and eaten he ended up fighting with the soldiers on the front line instead. To him this has been his big chance to see the cities of Europe up close and he wants to see as much as possible before it gets destroyed, and unlike his namesake, seeing the widespread damages and destruction truly saddens him.

I thought it would be fun to empathize the vastness of the soviet union, spanning all the way from the Baltic sea to the pacific.
As much as I love the 1940's cartoon aesthetic though, nearly all Asian characters are pretty terrible caricatures, reflecting the attitudes at the time. I wanted this character to be a subversion of those stereotypes while still compelling in his own right.
If anyone has any thoughts or opinions on this character, or notice anything that needs to be changed in the picture, let me know!

I view your screenshots every once in while to get inspired by your characters. They are very.. hmm.. alive? Sometimes I feel they are talking to me.
I need to sleep.

I sure had a lot of fun drawing and writing those characters, but I don't really start with a full idea, but rather a few details and let it branch out from there. I'm also fascinated by psychology and I often try to ask myself what a character would think or do based on their experiences and personality. Sometimes I have my characters do things or have opinions that I don't agree with, but which are logical to them and their personality. I also take some of my inspiration from classic litterature and real-life history. That, and tvtropes.org.

I know this is not the critics lounge, so please excuse the little comment about Maria...

No problem, I guess I could post a link to the critics lounge tread here the next time I make new character sprites. I'm just happy to see that my game has got people invested and I do think you were right in your comment, and I have made changes accordingly.

I love the combination of the different artstyles between the backgrounds and the characters. All the characters have very expressive expresións lol. You nailed That . this is going to be so fun to play.

Thank you! I certainly hope that this game will live up to everyone's expectations once I have finished my work on it, I currently estimate that it's about 75% complete, though it may depend on weather I decide to cut or add a few things I've not quite decided on.

I have finally completed the dialog-puzzle I was working on as well as finished a new background, it took me a couple of hours.
Here is the spotter alongside Maria, whom he must ask for directions towards the Lenin statue.

And I've also included a second screenshot for those who doesn't mind minor spoilers!

Spoiler

Maria and the spotter discusses desertion and the fact that a deserter risks having his family punished if he deserts...

[close]

I rather like the beautiful golden gui/inventory menu, many games have great graphics but but extremely boring and even downright ugly menus.

I must say that your backgrounds are very beautiful and imaginative, but they also fit seamlessly with the characters and everything really looks like they are the same style and part of the same world. It really bugs me when games and animated movies have inconsistent design, like exaggerated cartoon characters against realistic backgrounds or half the characters are caricatures while the other half looks like uncanny valley. These screenshots however, are some rally great work, an that ort of detail you could stare at for hours on end!

Please take the graphical discussions into the Critics Lounge so we can keep this thread on track!

Yes, and this feels especially dumb since I already started a thread about this game in the Critics Lounge months ago!

Uhm... one would think a giant statue should not require a puzzle to be found.

Yes, and especially so since the protagonist is a spotter, it's literally his job to scope out the surroundings!

As for the development of the actual game, today I took up work on writing a dialogue-puzzle involving the said statue, and while it may not yield any exiting new images to post, it's progress none the less.

The lightning effects look simply dazzling!

Now that makes totally sense! Maybe you should leave a red area between the c and the fold to make that clearer. I actually didn't think of "Marx" because the Marx of the soviets has been Lenin . Marx was more an idol of the former GDR.

Better? I was worried that trying to draw letters partially warped by the flag folds might make them hard to read.

And reading your comment, I do realize that Marx might not have been the most relevant choice, what with being a German who had been dead for decades before the revolution even started, but I thought it would bring some fun variation as there will be a puzzle centered on finding a giant Lenin statue.

Seems to be an anniversary banner or something with "Tarko/a" or "Marko/a" (town name maybe?) and the abbrevation of the soviet republics (CCCP).

It's supposed to say "Marx", as in Karl Marx, the founder of communism, but I'm not sure if all the letters right since I don't know Russian or Cyrillic.

...and now I'm really curious about the puzzle(s) in this room
Is someone hiding in the box?
Someone behind the door?
What broke the metal railing?

Good questions indeed, and I'm afraid to admit that I don't know the answers to the myself!
I can however promise you that the puzzle will be a very patriotic one indeed, although the
screenshot didn't include two things decorating the wall which the sniper picked up...