Messages

Zombies, Lunatics, and Ghosts. Great fun.

Don't forget the giant demon baby from clock tower! 

Clock tower was definitely my favorite horror game so far.  Right behind is trilby's notes/silent hill 2/ and silent hill: shattered memories.

I think that horror has several things that are important to accomplish it's affect.  The first foundation of horror is breaking someones reality.  What I mean by this is that whatever happens in the story, whatever actions, should be such that the can conceivably happen but it's not the way things are supposed to go.  For instance, I think No country for Old Men did this wonderfully when

Spoiler

The main character that the movie had been following for the entire thing dies off screen and is suddenly gone.  Not to mention the fact that ultimately the bad guy won.

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We all have expectations and stereotypes ingrained in us for everything about another person.  This includes gender, skin color, job, nationality, age, hair length, whether they wear glasses, physique, and really anything that can possibly be seen or understood about a person.  Anyway, what I'm talking about here is that if you can change someones stereotypes, which is in fact their entire reality. (Since social reality is mentally constructed and different for everyone.)  Then you will not only make them very uncomfortable because of their inability to make what they deem as accurate judgments but you will also create fear from simple things.  The reason for this is that if one stereotype no longer makes sense because of evidence in a game/movie/story, then other ones could be wrong.  Each person will respond differently but I've known people who have had nightmares for weeks and are not comfortable being anywhere UNFAMILIAR.  The reason that is in bold is because usually people in this situation will seek familiar locations and people.  This is because as I have said people want to make predictions that they believe are accurate, and the better you know someone the better you can do that.   After a while this starts to fade when you don't see the stereotypes breaking as severely.  (I.E. a very kind person doesn't out of nowhere kill 3 people.)

The second base as far as I understand the element of horror is realism as several people here have said.  If something makes you say, "Well, I don't think that could ever happen."  Then the movie/game has failed.  However, even over the top things like magic and demons and such can make sense to a viewer/player if it is explained within the reality of the movie and it no longer "sounds crazy."  I think the reason why realism is so important is because it supports heavily the first and third bases of horror.  I've already discussed what I believe to be the first base of horror and the reason why realism is important to this one is obviously because if something doesn't seem realistic then nothing really seems realistic anymore and therefore the stereotypes that would have been broken are left either untouched or strengthened. 

I think that the third base of horror is the sudden finality of life.  The fact that you and anyone around you can suddenly be gone in a second.  The example I gave from No country for old men applies here as well.  Once again this is altering someones reality.  No one expects to die, it's what allows us to go from day to day, and that is why the fear created by this will not be persistent for too long.  However, there are few things that can cause as much fear as understanding just how fragile life is.   The second one once again supports this one because the more realistic it is the more you can associate yourself with the scenario in the movie.  If someone inherits a house that turns out to be haunted then you can get a little bit from that because it is after all a house and most people live in a house but the situation can't tie too closely to you.

A final fourth base that I see as heavily creating fear is the idea of being alone.  If you can create the feeling from this quote (Which I have no idea where it's from) then people will be afraid.

" You are left alone in this world,, Everybody is died, You are sitting in you room and somebody knocks at your door"

The idea here is that while obviously not everyone in the world is dead  in any situation you should feel utterly alone when the story is being told because people like to rely on each other whether they will admit it or not and help from another is a VERY comforting thing.  If you feel alone and then someone else walks in you have no idea what to expect.  The person could kill you or say hello, would you like some food?

I hope all that makes sense I was sort of just writing my thoughts down as I went so for all I know it could contradict itself at some point. 

Congratulations if you finished reading this post! 

Nathan needs to take a closer look at the indentation first.

Wow, it's great to know that there are people still playing this game!! 

Edit 1: Am I supposed to be able to pick up

Spoiler

That orange thing on the desk in the library?

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Nope, i believe that was supposed to be a pencil.  And yes all the grammatical issues bother me too.  I don't know how I made them all or when I learned the correct way to use English.  (Considering that I'm American and should know better.)

Yeah, specially when

Spoiler

the orange robed monk appeaed out of thin air, that just screamed 6DAS

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[/quote]

To be totally honest I hadn't thought of that, even though I played 6DAS about 3 times...  In any case, Yemen is VERY different from what's his face from 6DAS, although you don't know much about him from this game. He plays a pretty big role in the sequel which is coming eventually I promise!

Nicely put Ethan, ill be downloading your game for that it must be good

I appreciate the support but fear you may be disappointed.

I had very little understanding of how to make games when I made ANTR.  As I have said I love the story of games the most and I fear I leaned to heavily on it and didn't focus on gameplay as much.  (Not to mention the dialogue being poorly written.) 

Wow, now I sound like I'm beating myself up over the quality of my first game! 

It was a learning experience, the next game I make will be much better for it!

P.S. I hope I haven't hijacked this thread.....

Quickly! someone say something on topic!! 

In my opinion every single game is an adventure game. (Every good one at least.)  For instance even Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 I would consider to be an adventure game.  Sure there are no puzzles to solve but it's still an adventure .  The reason why I like working on adventure games is because people will play them for their story as the biggest selling point whereas other game genres the selling point can be combat for instance. (Nearly every fighting/war game.) 

Basically my opinion is that at the base of every game there is the adventure which is created by the story, the atmosphere, the characters, the dialogue, etc,. and then there is the filler.  In point click games the filler is usually puzzles.  In RPGs it is usually the battles.  The filler to me makes the adventure that much more satisfying because the player has to suffer to a degree to get it.  Some people may enjoy the filler more than the adventure but either one of them is strengthened by the other.  If either stood alone it would either be a boring game or a video that you have to click to make move.  However if the filler is low in quality then the adventure suffers.  So, while puzzles can definitely add to the experience of playing a game, if it is a badly made puzzle or one that causes you to die a lot then it significantly takes away from the game.

I've also noticed that when a puzzle that you can die in can be done in one try, it creates a fantastic effect on the player.  For instance (MW2 again) in CoD Modern Warfare 2 there are a lot of moments where you feel that you are in control and that one false move will cause you to fail but it's actually very hard to fail in these times.  I think the best effect that you can create for a player is one that they think they are being challenged when really they aren't. (Sadly, this is hard to do in point click games.)

Any game that I play I play for the adventure of it whether it is an action packed game or an intriguing mystery.  Games are a great medium for creating feelings and effects for people, some games just lean on the filler more heavily.

Well, that was a long post, hope it didn't bore anyone!

Remembering: If someone needs help with backgrounds... 

As incredibly awesome as that would be, it would kind of defeat the purpose of doing this to work on my art.
*Sigh*

Well, my greatest weakness is time management so, I'm gonna give this a try.  Not to mention this will be a good way to force me to practice my abysmal artistic abilities. 

I do have a question though.  Does something actually have to change or can it just be that the perception that the player has of the game totally changes?

I'm pretty psyched up about the story idea I have for this so I hope that it fits the criteria, heck I'll probably make it regardless. 

Here's how I managed to beat the game:

Spoiler

I think the best trick for this game is to shoot and reload at about the same time.  Since you don't have to wait until the gun is down after firing you can shoot and reload and then shoot again at about the same time that you would be able to shoot again if you hadn't reloaded.

Also, for the final boss the easiest way to beat him without ever getting hit is to shoot and then immediately afterward start moving and then turn back and shoot again it's almost the same trick as last time but with movement instead of reloading.  It lets you constantly move away from it while still shooting.

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I feel a bit like a loser for knowing the secrets to this game.  
Oh well, that's what I get for playing it on "Death becomes me" mode.  

Nice name for the difficulties by the way.

Ah, I see what you mean now.  For some reason I thought that you meant all 4 corners of the raised ceiling should meet with the corner of the wall.    

I assume you mean that just the first corner of the ceiling should meet with the corner of the wall?

Anyway, thanks you two for pointing that out!  

Uh... but the corners of the ceiling don't match up with the edges where the walls meet!

It's supposed to be a raised ceiling like the one in the link:
http://static.royalacademy.org.uk/images/width350/reynolds-room-1095.jpg

Although it's nowhere near as grand.

Anyway this is supposed to be the entrance room to a large mansion owned by an arrogant man.

Sorry for the double post everyone!!

Here is another change to the window along with fixing the perspective, I'm pretty sure I've got it all looking right.  I also changed the plant a little bit.



I'll start working on lighting now. 

Btw. isn't Snake supposed to draw your backgrounds?

Yeah, I'm just working on my art in spare time.

I see what you mean about the perspective.

I'll work on updating it.  Hopefully I won't be as slow this time

With the moonlight from outside and the light of the chandelier it will be possible to create a fantastic atmosphere. I'm looking forward to the result.

Yeah, I'm working on getting the construction of the room done before I start attempting lighting.
Hopefully I can get a good atmosphere. 

Hmm, it's looks much cleaner than mine but I was trying to get something with several larger leaves.  I'll see what I can come up with.

Alright!  I finally made some progress with this.  

1x


2x


A few comments.

That plant is driving me insane and I'm  not sure how to make it look better.....

I made the chandelier have a white and black design which I ended up thinking was pretty cool although it was sort of an accident.

Any idea why the clock looks as bad as it does.

The hat stand is ok...

Main thing that I'm not satisfied with is the smaller objects around the room.  Not sure why I can't get them to look good.

What do you all think?


EDIT:  Here it is with the changed window

@ProgZmax
Posted while I was typing this.  Wow, those are some great tips.  I figured that the window was grossly oversized but at the same time the man who owns the house is arrogant and therefore likes big things.  But you are right that I put it there to take up space. (I also have a cool lighting idea for when I get to that...)  Although looking at the window it's the size of two doors therefore the height of about two people.  It still should probably be made a bit smaller though like you said.

@Mr. Matti
Wow, I hadn't noticed that.  I agree that that is a problem though so I've taken the stairs out for now and am redesigning them from scratch.

@Babar
Thanks for posting that link, it's given me some ideas of what to do with the ceiling as well as the wall sidings.

Also, I liked your suggestions I'll definitely be adding like a coat holder and a place for shoes to be placed, etc,.

@AtelierGames
Thanks for the suggestions, although the owner of the house's character is very arrogant and he has the house redesigned just so that it would be absolutely his so any more than one portrait would be too much for the room.  (Not to mention I'm woefully bad at drawing portraits)  I like the suggestion of using marble by the way

@Tanique
Yes, that makes sense.  Thanks for the note!

@Tuomas
I didn't actually do the edit with the wallpaper that was Atelier.  I agree though about not using designs from photoshop.  (I doubt I could find them anyway.  :)  I can't expect someone to put a ton of work into giving me a quick tip though.

Do you mean that the stairs look to thin as in both how thick it is and how wide the stairs are like from left to right?  Or just the actually thickness of the flooring on the upper level?

@Krishaw
I see what you mean.  Like I said I'll be redrawing the stairs so hopefully I can give the upper level more depth so it will be more obvious that it leads into a hallway.


I'm having difficulty redesigning the stairs and I have homework to do for college...      So I thought I'd post the redesigned floor/ wall with the stairs and 2 of the doors edited out.  

I'm redrawing the stairs from scratch because editing them is difficult and usually editing one section of the railing makes another section look off.  (Besides, I didn't do it very carefully last time.  :)

I'm very thankful for all the feedback it's helping quite a bit.  I'll post what I get for the staircase tomorrow when I get the time to finish it.  

Anyway, here's the redesigned floor.




2x

I decided to have the... wall thing be 2- 2 1/2 ft high because it looks classier.

Once again, I appreciate all feedback

Thanks for all the feedback so far, sorry I haven't posted an updated version yet.  I'm slow with paint, but i'll be working on it until it's done and should have the changes made by later tonight.

Just posting to reassure you guys that I didn't just leave and hope you'd fix it for me. 

Hey, it's been a while since I made a background and I've been working on my art. (hopefully there's improvement)   This is a grand foyer of a mansion.

1x


2x


A few things that I think may be wrong with it but am not sure about:
Too much open space.
railing looks a little bit off
No ceiling

Let me know what you all think!

Thanks in advance for any comments!  

[Removed]

-Ethan

This should work for the minus.

if (keycode == eKeyHyphen && cEgo.WalkSpeedX != 1)

I don't think there is a maximum walk speed but if you want to set it it would work the same way

I never knew that, is there a way to get what the current x and y coordinates are that the character is walking to.  If so you could add that in right after the change in speed and the pause would be hardly noticeable if it is noticeable at all.

I can't seem to find anything though.

EDIT:  Try this:

First add this into the on left mouse click section of the global script

Code: ags

if (mouse.Mode == eModeWalkto)
    {
      variable = mouse.x
      variable2 = mouse.y
    }

Then add to the original change speed script

Code: ags

function on_key_press(eKeyCode keycode) 
{
if (keycode == eKeyPlus)
  {
  cEgo.StopMoving();
  cEgo.SetWalkSpeed(cEgo.WalkSpeedX + 1, cEgo.WalkSpeedY + 1); 
  cEgo.Walk(Variable, Variable2);
  }
  if (keycode == eKeyHyphen)
  {
  cEgo.StopMoving();
  cEgo.SetWalkSpeed(cEgo.WalkSpeedX - 1,  cEgo.WalkSpeedY -1);
  cEgo.Walk(Variable,Variable2);
  }
}

As long as a mouse click caused the initial movement this should work just fine.