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Alright I will think of a theme and post it tonight or tomorrow!

I counted three votes my way, but that probably works out in the end because Id rather write and not pick the next competitions theme 

I like Anian's. It feels like it could be fleshed out to be a novel or even an adventure game

I hope the company isn't chewing more than they can swallow. I can imagine in the distant future that if these games do turn out to mildly successful than Activision will soon buyout Telltale and that usually is not a good thing either. But I cannot lie that im excited about the walking dead game!

Alright folks after thinking of what I could possibly do with this topic, a wild idea formed in my head so I frantically started writing. I am the only person that reviewed it so i apologize if its eye bleedingly long



The thing in the water.

One may ask themselves what triggers in a man’s mind to do the valiant and the insane. Wither it be the first to fly an airplane or being one of the first expeditions to the moon.  For Caspar Hollenstead it was to transcend into what most people had considered a well traversed yet vastly unknown plane. Hollenstead and a select crew were to set sail and traverse into the uncharted area only known as the Bermuda triangle.

Many people didn’t question as to why Caspar chose to go on this presumably fateful expedition. Many people attributed it to his blind passion for adventure but the most common fact was that four months prior his father and navy sailor, Hubert was lost at sea when trying to charter an isle by the Caribbean. After the people of Caspar’s town declared that Hubert was missing, they instantly put blame into the eerie and foreboding area of the Bermuda triangle, or the devils triangle in smaller circles.

Many stories were placed upon that body of water. It has been told from the natives of the Caribbean that Twenty disappearances had been documented in the last fifty years and even more rumored a mere hundred years before that. Nearly all incidents had the same motif, that the subjects had set sailed for fishing or for travel and accidently ran off course into the triangle.

The most recent case for the Caribbean isles was a mere ten years ago. The natives reported seeing a vast and almost angelic storm that spread all over the isles. The villagers claimed that during the magnificent storm, two orange like orbs were in the distant sky seemingly from the direction of the Bermuda triangle.

These disappearances and stories did not deter Caspar and his crew when they decided that they wanted to take action. Most of his crew were only acquaintances and he had summarized that they only wanted recognition and glory. Caspar’s second in command and longtime friend, Troy Tetherlan was the main and final driving force of the expedition.
Troy had known Caspar since he was a young boy and was also a friend of his fathers. He had gathered nearly all the other men that were to brave into the triangle. He was an adventurous man with even some previous military experience. Caspar was more than confidant when he decided to set sail and pick Troy as his second in command.

Caspar’s expedition of five men had set sail on May 12th, 1978 in an old military ship as a favor from one of his father’s military friends. It was a custom built vessel. It had two floors and two harpoon guns located at the front of the ship. It was also fitted with a makeshift machine gun on the second floor next to the control deck. The crew quarters were located in the back of the ship on the main floor while the captains were in a back room on the control deck.

The crew did not see anything of interest for the first few days. All five men were constantly on the lookout, they knew that it would not be a long voyage before they would reach the ever infamous triangle. They were intercepted once by an American vessel. They were greeted and shared a few stories about the nearby waters. They wished Caspar’s crew luck as they knew where they were headed and soon departed. Troy stood by Caspar’s side most of the time during the daylight hours to insure everything would go well and that they were on course.

It was over a week and a half when it happened. The daylight was beginning to dwindle and Caspar, Troy and another crew member known as Danvers were playing cards in the control room. The wind was starting to pick up as the hours drug on but not enough for most of the crew other than the remainder out on the deck to notice. The last of sunlight seemingly faded in an instant, making a sudden change of light in the control room.

The latest card game finished when Danvers looked up and exclaimed, “Jesus would you look at that…”

The look of wonder and fear formed on Danvers face as he said these words. A slight fear trickled in Caspar as well, a fear that told him he didn’t want to look over and see what he was talking about.

Troy stood up instantly as Caspar slowly rose to take in the scene he was seeing outside the windows. The sky had formed into a grey and green like blanket. The clouds seemed to be traveling at an unrealistic amount of speed due to the high winds that began to pick up.

Caspar made his way to the door that lead to the outside deck when one of the crew members rushed through instead.
   â€œSir we must have went off track, there was no warning for this storm and it’s about to pick up something fierce”
   â€œThat’s impossible, this ship has hardly even steered in any direction other than east since we left shore”, replied Troy with a look of concern toward Caspar.

More fear had formed into Caspar as he realized what was going on. A storm like the ones the Caribbean natives were talking about was beginning to take shape and he was foolish enough to take himself and a handful of people into this seemingly death trap.  He wanted  more than anything to discard these as nothing more than wives tales to scare children.
Caspar began to reclaim himself. He wanted to find his father above all else. Adventure was never a problem for him even in the face of apparent danger. This storm could have happened no matter where he was at in the sea and we has not about to let it overcome him.

Caspar made his way toward the card table where he had laid his compass at. If he were to check the device, it should say that they were going in the direction of east. Caspar picked up the compass and gazed at the direction of the little red hand. He to a slight surprised, had to confirm his crew members suspicion, the red hand was pointed north.

   â€œWe are either in an area with strange interference to compasses or we are indeed off track”, said Caspar to Troy and his crew members. A somber look formed on each of the men’s faces as they did a silent mental check of what they must all do now. They must attempt to steer their way from the storm and get themselves back on track.

Caspar, Troy and his other crew members made their way out onto the deck were the rest of the men were at. The sky was getting worse as large waves were beginning to rush against the ship, rocking it back and forth. The men were running around making sure that the sails were tightened and bracing for possible high force wave impact.

A sound of a long hollow horn could be heard through the bellowing of the wind and raging water. The men screamed as a large wave the size of the ship came toward them from the right. Most of the men other than one managed to make it toward the other side of the ship in time. The water hit the man that didn’t manage to make it with a strong whip like force, knocking him down towards one of the harpoon guns.

The crew scrambled to recover their comrade after the wave subsided. Lights could be seen through the clouds in the distance. Lightening was hastily approaching. Troy made a movement with his hand toward the crew as he walked,
“Come on men, grab him and get to higher ground.”

All the crew followed the command other than Caspar, as he made his way toward the front of the ship gazing out toward the lightening and clouds.

Another hollow deep sound from a horn could be heard all throughout the open barren sea. Caspar looked through the grey green clouds toward the flashes of lightening. Danvers and another crew member ran down to meet Caspar at the front of the ship.

“Sir we need to get back toward the control deck before that lightning storm approaches.”  Danvers began to grab Caspar’s arm, directing him back toward the deck. Caspar stood his ground.

“That’s not lightening.” said Caspar sullenly.

The light began to pulsate, unnaturally, unlike a lightning storm.  An orange light began to take shape as it formed into two orbs and began to shine toward the ship and the open sea.

Danvers tried to tug harder than before in fear of the new light. Another hollow sound, louder than before erupted from the direction of the two orbs. All the crew tensed up as they noticed a large pillar like shape coming towards them. The shape was coming at them at an insane amount of speed, giving the crew little time to react.

The pillar like shape formed into a small arc as it got closer. Danvers let go of Caspar as a large turbulent force, harder than the large wave, hit the ship. The object hit and tore at the right part of the hull shaking the ship violently, sending people and chunks of wood into the air. Through the midst of the terror and confusion, Caspar realized to his horror that the large pillar was a monster like tentacle.

The screams from the crew subsided into whimpers as they attempted to recover from the unknown attacker. Caspar looked out toward the ever shaking sea. Two crew members were seemingly missing one of them was Danvers. Troy took little time to react, he ordered the other remaining crew member to man the machine gun as he attempted to steer the ship away from the dark force they were advancing into.

The two orange lights glowed brighter as the hollow howl like sound boomed louder than before. Gun fire erupted from the machine gun, piercing through the darkness toward the orbs. The light grew bright enough that Caspar could finally see out into the direction of the light. A large horribly disfigured creature the size of a large mountain could be seen. The skin was deep crystal and gem like. The orbs of lights that once pierced the darkness were apparently the things eyes.

A scream from one of the crew members could be heard through the gun fire as a second force hit the ship only this time it was not a tentacle. The sea itself seemed to have attacked from under the ship. The deck shook violently as the machine gunner lost balance and fell forward into the barrel. The last few gunshots echoed into the air as the bullets hit the crew member and fell over dead.

Panic and dread filled into Caspar’s soul as the creature bellowed its horrid hollow noise. The mouth opened nearly as wide as the mountain sized creature itself. Thousands of rock like jagged teeth could be seen as the sea rumbled harder than it did ever that night.

Gun fire erupted into the night again as Caspar saw Troy take point, in a final last stand. Troy screamed to match the ferocity of the creature. Caspar with a sudden thought ran toward the nearest harpoon gun in hopes that they were close enough. He aimed the harpoon at the orb like eyes and fired. The gun kicked back with forceful recoil but fell aimlessly into the sea.
The failure did not deter Caspar as the ship gloomed closer to the monster. He ran to the opposite side of the ship to the other harpoon and aimed more precise than before. A tentacle rose out from the sea to make another final attack on the ship. The tentacle was unlike the rest of the things skin, it was not crystal like but a sickly oozing green like color. Caspar took the opportunity and fired upon it. The harpoon crashed into the tentacle and green like blood blistered into the water as it stuck into the skin.

The machine gun fire was still barraging the open mouth of the creature and the harpoon stuck ever still into the creature. A feeling of victory was seemingly in the air. The orange eyes of the creature appeared to have dimmed slightly. The creature hesitated but the storm continually raged on.

The moment of triumph ended abruptly and a few things happened at once. The creature’s eyes began to glow a dark red as the creature made yet another familiar hollow like roar. The harpoon fell from its puncture wound and caused the tentacle to come careening down onto the ship. Troy made a final war cry as the Tentacles final blow fell upon the captain’s deck and onto the machine gun. The ship tore apart in two and Caspar was launched into the air.  Caspar could see a large island that stretched miles beyond behind the monster as he fell into the ever shaking sea.

The island and the mountainous creature disappeared from sight as Caspar landed and fell into the watery abyss. He helplessly moved his limbs around trying to resurface out of the water but sank ever deeper. Caspar’s sight began to refocus and made clear of what was underwater. Various dark like objects were moving frantically in the water and he made out the squid like under body of the sea monster. Eight large tentacles were moving around a large scaling body making a vortex like motion.

Utter realization and terror filled the last thoughts of Caspar as his life ebbed. Below the sea creature was many vast objects that resembled ships, aircrafts and other unidentified objects. He recognized the insignia of the broken ship closest to him as his fathers.

The secret of the Bermuda triangle along with the loss of his father and old friend overtook him. The Natives of the Caribbean were right to fear and blame disappearances and strange occurrences on the seeming devils triangle. The eyes of the evil creature could even sometimes be seen by the islanders if they happened to be looking toward one of the wild storms.

Caspar’s muscles tightened as he embraced his impending doom. The creature made a movement to go underwater, its large mouth opened revealing once again its cavernous array of jagged and stone like teeth. Closing his eyes, Caspar embraced, possibly like dozens before him, his end knowing that the knowledge of the cursed sea would die with him.


     

Three coffees and a couple of cigarettes seem to do it for me... Not recommened. 8)

No coffees and no cigarettes (well occasionally some), but good music does it for me.

Good music is what does it for me as well

Alright I edited the previous post with links.

Someone I know did the painting of the background but I did the character art seen in the picture. Messing with art as a whole let alone on photo shop is kinda  new thing for me.  

This is probably a nublet kind of a question but is the purpose of having 32 bit images basically mean upscale my game resolution as a whole and in the end make the game art look better?

EDIT:  Alright i have a few links to the pictures:

This one is the original painting but only scanned into the computer
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o227/Dayne007/scan0012.jpg

This one is just resizing it into a 320x200ish, format;no photoshop or smudge tool effects
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o227/Dayne007/Conceptgameart.jpg

This image link is the right after using the smudge tool and adding a few different things(portriat mans beard) before I put the image into indexed mode(which is probably the reason why it looks like that clunky gradient style)
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o227/Dayne007/Conceptgameart-2.jpg


I hope this is what you were looking for!

Thanks  Anian.  This was indeed scanned and then edited via photoshop. The paints that were used were Acrylic paints.

Hey folks I was wondering if the background itself and the character art feel like they go together or if they outlandishly clash?




Thanks for any input!

I would vote for Jimbob as well. I felt pretty uncomfortable after reading his, which doesn't happen all too often.

I would say the movie adaptation of Dream Catcher but they screwed that up. The only thing I could ever find that matched the feeling of stand by me was  the Goonies. The only other thing that comes to my mind is the movie, My girl. But good luck on your findings!

Edit: Ohh yeah try looking up the movie The Cure

Im looking forward to this. The McCarthy games dark feeling is right up my alley. One day ill have to hire your background artist 

Holy ****!!! Thats a pleasant surprise to say the least!!!! :o

While I am not much of a poster on these forums, I really do like the concept of having scenarios and having the more experienced people go through what they would do to get from point A to point B via AGS scripting.

But then again most of the problems I have ever had got solved by looking through archived forum topics.

I am definitely  bookmarking this tutorial for when my creative muscles decide to flex again 

When it comes to movies, I would say the Hannibal Lecter series as others have mentioned. But I am surprised that no one on this topic has mentioned Jeffery Dahmer yet. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer

I would love a system that would be like or similar to steam!

Im curious to see if there are any background artists that are around and would like to help me speed up the slow process that is of making backgrounds.  






These images are a work in progress but if you can match this art style or better feel free to PM me and ill give you more details.

The games resolution is 320x200
The game theme is going to be on the darker side and the inspirations that come to mind while doing this game is Alone in the dark or Eternal Darkness but minus all the intense action.

Thanks!

I have only finished one game but Ill tell you how I did my process.

I sat down and came up with a story(which was generally while I was bored out of my mind at work). I fleshed most of it out and whenever I reached a point that I thought could be a puzzle situation, I would put a question mark around those areas and would get back to them later.

Once I finished all of the basics of my story and most of the puzzle elements of my game, I started with what I thought would be my biggest downfall of me not finishing my game, and that was my background art. I knew that once I did most of my art that I would have enough motivation to continue the rest of the game making process in which I find most fun.

With the visuals came importing them into AGS and starting the scripting and dialoging, bringing the game some breath. This I thought was the most fun. Most of the script issues and challenges I went through many people before me had and thankfully were archived on these forums. During this phase I also figured out the final versions of puzzles and most of the art.

Once I managed to get the game playable from beginning to end I imported music, added anything else that I thought would make my game a little nicer looking (custom display text, custom icons, messages ect ect).

Next and nearly last phase I left my game alone. May sound weird but I figured getting my mind off of it may help me identify problems and spelling mistakes later on when I came back.


Well that was basically how I made my Game, I hope this helped and didnt seem like crazy ramblings. I also found it immensely helpful if you listen to something that gets you in the mindset of your game, which will obviously depend on what genre of game you are making.