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Well I've finally finished the first big puzzle mechanic, which I plan to reuse twice more with different graphics. I've finished all the audio for the intro section and have got most of the 'server' structures working in AGS. Currently trying to weave in more subtle narrative and make things a little less tedious, oh and I now have full keyboard control - Huzzah! I had a problem with my sprites being huge, but I was being dumb and have now fixed that thanks to Gilbert's help.

Your entry is looking great WHAM, I'm guessing these screenshots are cropped? Good luck with the puzzle implementation

How's everyone else doing? vertigoaddict, PlayPretend, Ponch? C'mon guys, don't give in to OROWC's temptation

*Edit: A couple of screenshots for those who've missed my updates on www.clicknpoint.co.uk



Seems I also crop my screenshots WHAM, LED screendoor looks awesome when I take a close up photo.

Ah, excellent! Thanks for the speedy reply Gilbert, can you tell i've not released many games?

I did check the help file and found the bit about splitting the resources into different chunks but somehow overlooked compression option. My game file is now down to 364MB, which is much more reasonable.

Panic moment over! Thanks again

cChicky.Say("Hello!");

I'm having some trouble with the size of my MAGS game, i've only just noticed the colossal size of the sprite file - It's 818MB!

I may have been a little ambitious when exporting animations from After Effects but I have gone through and removed any frames that could be editor handled (repeated frames etc).The game is running in 640x400 in 32bit, I'm using 32bit because there are some alpha dependent animations for GUI overlays etc.

The thing that has me baffled is that my actual assets folder (from which I import my sprites) is only 255MB, is the AGS compression adding that extra 563MB?

This is made worse by the fact that i'm not even finished with the game, plus who wants to play a 818MB+ MAGS game? Finding hosting would also be a pain!

Is there anything I can do? I've checked my sprites in AGS and only the essential ones are there.

Give this man the internets! Haha, Mandle i'm going keep that one in my bag of tricks for next time

[16]

Guys it's the 20th! We only have 16 days left to finish our entries!

I leave for Norfolk on Monday so I only have 8 days, eek!

Luckily today I took a day off work to code

Cool style Blondbraid, it reminds of Valient Hearts. Maybe this screenie will help you with colours in those backgrounds. I really like the rough lines in your characters, would fit nicely into simplistic flat coloured BG's.

Your acting was great Matt

Overlay's and alpha channels Gurok, the crt warp and text are baked into the background image, there's a few fun screen glitches that are pre-rendered. There's not much fancy coding going on though

Thanks for the kind words WHAM, i'm excited to see a new release from you

*Edit: Just noticed the competition runs until the 5th September! That's excellent news, I forgot we started late.

You live and learn Matt Good luck with the next film and do show us this one once it's edited!

You might be able to redub the audio using a computer mic, this can be a bit tricky to get sounding right though.

Haha Mandle, how can you be sure it's not designed to hypnotise you!

Here's a shot of what i'm working on.

Heh I feel like a celebrity Mandle I've not heard of this 'Hello Kittens' - sounds fun! Count me in if you have another meet up

I don't think the female avatar helps my cause.

Quick update: First puzzle tree is designed and a large portion of the graphics have been completed. Will be putting together the first puzzle in AGS tonight.

Well, you're growing a beard so you've clearly got the most important bit under control It looks cool Matt!

Do as much pre-production as you possibly can. You'll want to organize roundtable script readings with friends/crew (reading the lines aloud is very important), rewrite the script a couple of times, re-draft the better script, rehearse lines with the actors, storyboard camera angles (remember the 180 rule!), think about shot duration and write a shot list, write a kit list, familiarise yourself with the kit, make sure your crew are fully briefed and understand your vision for the film, do a location recce, do some sound tests on location, consider what time of day your scenes will take place, be aware of any potential continuity errors that could occur (location/set/wardrobe), understand any technical errors that could crop up (memory card space, batteries etc), consider any potential health and safety hazzards and make sure you're friendly with the crew - making a film is a lot of work!

Are the two cameras identical? There is a lot of variety in picture style between different camera sensors, besides the obvious HD/UHD/SD differences, this will make editing the footage together a lot harder. I guess you are going to be using consumer style camcorders that have a built in zoom lens and mic input? Do a test to see if they edit well together.

Do you have extra batteries for one of the cameras? Having spare batteries is a lot cheaper than hiring/buying two cameras and could stop the need for trying to source two of the same camera, as mentioned above.

It's good to hear you're using an external mic, have you tested the compatibility with your camera, or will you be using an external recorder? It's often easier to plug the mic into an external recorder such as the ZoomH4 which has headphone output and a monitor lcd with level bars, you also get to use a film slate to sync the audio Does the mic have a wind sock/deadcat (fluffy cover), this will be pretty important when shooting outside.

I've mentioned 'crew' a few times, this doesn't have to be an army but having two or three extra people to help out will really help you make the most of the time you have filming, that shotgun mic won't be much use if it's always tethered to the camera. Most filmmakers would advice against acting in your own film, but who am I to stop a star in the making

Feel free to dismiss any of this advice, I don't want to ruin the fun! It depends on how serious you want to take this, most of the points don't cost a penny and can significantly add to the quality of your film, things like storyboarding and script readings are super helpful. It's also very easy to overlook audio, which is one of the most important aspects of film making.

I've watched a few of your videos on youtube and they're good fun, so I think having fun making this film is the most important aspect

I've drafted up ideas for a simple hacking game and made some funky animations. I'm not going to promise an entry because I have holiday booked for the end of this month (yay!) but i'm going with theme of 'drowning in the bitstream'

Let's see how this plays out.

Aww Matt, you never cease to impress me with your pimp pixels. Downloading now!

*edit: Finished, you didn't disappoint with the graphics. The game had a really cute Ghibli vibe and the puzzle pacing was nice, just the right amount of backtracking. The animations were fantastic, the Bubblecat made me giggle

This looks absolutely fan-doosey-dastic! I made that word up but I assure you it's the topdog of fantastic based words. The gif's on your website are insane,the Carnival parallax thingy is like eye drugs. Will we be able to play with a gamepad this time? I sucked with the mouse.

Seems you've both made a crazy amount of progress since MAGS, that alone is really impressive.

I really enjoyed this xil, you did a cracking job with the low res aesthetic and the game is genuinely creepy! I was stuck for quite some time but I powered through.

Loved the death screen! Made me jump multiple times

Thanks for the Happy Birthdays I went stand-up paddleboarding and ate trifle

Happy Birthday to all my fellow June babies

Looks like another fantastically non-conventional game from you Hoffmeier, again with a killer art style Much like your website, which leads me to a lot of login prompts!

[first Devlog]

Hello all

First I would like to say a huge thank you for all of your kind words and support so far. I left it too late to reply before but I really appreciate each of your comments. I've got lots of friends on Twitter now and everyone is constantly producing really inspiring stuff. It's like a little app I can go to whenever I want to get pumped for making Guard Duty. Oh and Fitz I totally agree, it's a shame the studio split.

Anyway, i've written up the first Devlog, it covers the game's art direction and history over the years. Lots of fun old screenshots from the various revamps of the game. You'll have to excuse my daft sense of humor.

You can check it out on www.clicknpoint.co.uk It's just a tumblr page so you can probably follow it or something

Oh and something new, here are a couple of stills from a flashback sequence we implemented recently. They only appear on the screen for a second and are cropped, so they're not mega detailed.





Until next time!

Not fussed on the dates, so i'll forgo voting but... YAY OROWC! ^^